Awful NFL Teams Killing Sports Books

The Steelers' back-door cover against the Vikings notwithstanding, the glut of truly awful NFL teams is wreaking havoc for Las Vegas bookmakers. And Sunday was the latest, worst example of that.

''I can't remember an NFL season with this many bad teams,'' Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay, who has been in the business for 22 years, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Matt Youmans. "No doubt, it was the worst day ever for the books.

''We can't attract money on these poor teams. We keep losing on the same teams. They are not even close to covering.''

One more reason to fire Eric Mangini.

Youmans points out that the Bucs, Rams and Browns are a combined 1-20 straight up and 6-15 against the spread this season. And Sunday none of them covered despite point spreads of +15.5, +14 and +9, respectively. The Chiefs, another outfit striving for mediocrity, were five-point home underdogs against the Chargers. They lost by 30. And the Raiders, six-point home underdogs to the Jets, lost by 38.

Kornegay continued, violins playing in the background: ''These are things you don't hear in a sports book: What's that (betting) number on the Rams? Hey, I love the Buccaneers.'' And according to Youmans more than 90 percent of the straight bets made at the Hilton on the Colts-Rams game were on the Colts.

So either the lines will remain around the two-touchdown mark and bettors will continue to take the favorites, or we'll start seeing lines in the 20s and 30s, just like lopsided college affairs. Or higher. The other option: build a time machine and get one of those sports almanacs, Back to the Future II style.