College football returns this week and that’s a big deal for bettors as the preseason preparation is done and now is the time to try and reap the rewards. With one more NFL-less Sunday to endure, it’s like back-to-back weeks of Christmas for sports bettors.

As I said in last week’s column, sports betting has a language all its own, filled with words and terms that have different meanings in everyday life. Before you can make bets, you have to know what these words mean. It’s not rocket science, but it’s something that you have to grow accustomed to. It’s certainly easier with the increase in offshore sports books where just a few clicks will make a wager for you. That being said, it’s still important to be able to talk the talk before you walk the walk.

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A stunning collapse in the ALCS; a disappointing sweep in the NBA Finals; a 10-win team missing the NFL Playoffs by a tiebreaker; and TWO embarrassing blowout losses to Florida in NCAA National Championship Games! To most fan bases, this would sound like one of the most disastrous calendar years on record. For Cleveland, it just might have been our finest hour. This was 2007, and yes, it feels a lot longer ago than that.

Obviously, a truly demoralizing sports climate like the one in which we currently find ourselves will result in a little of that "don't know what you got til it's gone" sort of hindsight. But there's something extra crushing about realizing just how recent this collective Cleveland sports slide has been.

The first time I conducted a revisitation of the 2007 sports calendar was in the immediate aftermath of "The Decision" back in 2010. In the two years since, the Browns, Indians, Cavs, and Buckeyes have only managed to float further from the shores of relevance-- reinforcing just how special their simultaneous excellence actually was a mere five years ago.

Compared to the euphoria of the Jacobs Field magic in 1995 or the rise of the Dawg Pound a decade earlier, 2007 seemed rather tame as we stood in the midst of it. Pessimistic outlooks have always been the norm around here, of course, so even as all of our beleaguered franchises seemed to be synchronizing their respective rebuilding processes into actual on-field success, the reaction from the fans was on a bit of a delay—like a satellite feed from the Middle East. Why, for example, should we have put our faith in a Cleveland Browns team that went 4-12 in 2006 when the same incompetent personnel was still in charge in 2007? And why would there be any reason to take an Indians team seriously when Eric Wedge’s club had fallen apart down the stretch in 2005 and stumbled to a 78-84 mark in ’06? At the Q, a not-yet-villainous LeBron James had become the focal point of the local sports universe, but even the most obnoxious of pipe-dreaming "witnesses" would have had a hard time believing a starting line-up with guys named "Sasha," "Boobie," and "Drew Gooden" could find its way to a championship. Down in Columbus, the Buckeyes were obvious title contenders, but that’s the case every year. No one was impressed. After all, it wasn't like Coach Tressel's job was ever going to be in jeopardy.

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I’ve got a plan to save over 30,000 lives a year. Guaranteed. 30,000 people that would otherwise die in 2013 will be saved under my plan, and it is foolproof. Is there any reason not to implement it?

The humanitarian inside you should say “no, if you can actually guarantee 30,000 lives be saved, then why shouldn’t we implement it?” But the real you is thinking “okay, what’s the catch”. The catch is that we would need to outlaw driving any sort of motor vehicle in order to achieve these gains. If nobody had a car on the road, nobody dies, and 30,000 lives are spared.

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As I pen this, I’m currently stuck in the Denver airport in the middle of a four hour layover, trying to get home and trying to keep my sanity.

The easy approach to travel is to get mindblowingly drunk whenever you leave your home, in order that the excruciating boredom and stress of it all doesn’t kill you. I’m not sure if there are other approaches or not, because I almost exclusively take this one. It doesn’t help matters that my other jobs necessitate that I take people out drinking as a part of my job duties – that aspect of my jobs makes them more tolerable to be sure, and allows me to bond with my customers and friends. Couple that with early wakeups, late nights, poor oxygen levels on the plane, cramped spaces, the inevitable poor hygiene or gastrointestinal distress of a fellow traveler, and constant stress, and it is no wonder my energy levels are lower than the Indians’ team batting average, and overall motivation, by the end of the week.

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