Lines Move Wildly Following Judge's Decision to Vacate "Deflategate" Ruling
Published on September 9th, 2015 2:47 am ESTLate last week, a judge vacated the NFL's four game suspension of New England Patriots QB Tom Brady. The rescinding of the suspension, which came about as a result of the "Deflategate" investigation, had a dramatic impact on the Week 1 line for the Steelers/Patriots game, as well as the overall Super Bowl odds.
In case you forgot, the New England Patriots are the defending Super Bowl champions. Tom Brady is one of the greatest QBs of all time, and the fact that he will no longer be suspended for the first four games of the regular season greatly improves the Patriots' chances of winning in February.
The Patriots are opening their season at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football. Following the announcement of Brady's suspension being rescinded, the Patriots immediately became 6 1/2 point favourites to beat the Steelers on Thursday night. In addition, the news also added 2 1/2 points to the game's total (from 48.5 to 51 flat).
In addition, the news, as mentioned, also greatly improved the Patriots odds of winning the Super Bowl.
Prior to the announcement, the Patriots were 12/1 to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Following the news, the Patriots immediately became 9/1 favourites to win. Now, the Patriots are going to have some issues this year, as they lost a couple of key defensive pieces. That being said, having Brady as their QB for the full season will certainly improve their odds of winning.
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One last point - prior to the suspension being terminated, Tom Brady was 40/1 to lead the NFL in regular season passing yards. Following the ruling, this number dropped to 15/1.
It will be interesting to see how Tom Brady does this year. There is a contingent of people out there who believe that Tom Brady is going to be set on lighting the league on fire this year as a way of flipping the middle finger to the NFL.
Regardless of what you believe, one thing is for certain - Tom Brady's participation in Thursday night's game against the Steelers makes the game infinitely more interesting.
