Ten-man Bolton battles back to earn draw

Soccer Betting Lines

08/29/2010 - Bolton, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Goals from Kevin Davies and Robbie Blake in the final 20 minutes helped 10-man Bolton come back from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with Birmingham at the Reebok Stadium on Sunday.

Birmingham's Roger Johnson put his team in front just four minutes into the game, and he was involved in the sending off of Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen, who slapped Johnson after the two were tangled up in a challenge.

A goal from Craig Gardner early in the second half appeared to put the game out of reach, but Davies scored from the penalty spot and Blake curled home a brilliant free kick in the 81st minute to level the match.

Both teams entered the match with four points from their first two games, but it was Birmingham who enjoyed a great start as Cameron Jerome flicked a pass into the path of Johnson, who slid in and scored from six yards.

Jaaskelainen then picked up a red card in the 36th minute for his slap to the face of Johnson, and Birmingham went two goals up in the 50th minute when Jerome, who looked to be slightly offside, headed the ball back across the face of goal for Gardner to poke past substitute goalkeeper Adam Bogdan.

An eventful day continued for Johnson as he gave away a penalty kick for fouling Davies inside the box, allowing the Bolton man to convert his spot kick and pull the Trotters to within a goal.

The rally was complete 10 minutes later as Bolton's Gary Cahill was fouled near the top of the penalty area by Barry Ferguson, setting up a free kick for Blake that he curled past goalkeeper Ben Foster.

Sunderland stunned Manchester City, 1-0, with a stoppage-time penalty kick from Darren Bent, Liverpool claimed its first win of the season as Fernando Torres scored in the second half of a 1-0 win against West Bromwich and Aston Villa kept Everton winless in a 1-0 win for the Villains courtesy of Luke Young's first-half goal.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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