NFL: Colts, Skins kickoff the 2008 season

The Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio between the Washington Redskins and Indianapolis Colts is the start of another exciting NFL season.

Online Sports Betting at Sportsbook

With the regular season right around the corner, the NFL Futures Odds at Sportsbook.com are getting lots of attention. Bet on the Division, Conference and Super Bowl Winners, Week 1 matchups and the biggest Games of the Year.

This may only be a pre-season game, but the betting public is happy to have the NFL back and Sportsbook.com is right on top of the situation opening Washington as six-point chalk. The Total has been set at a relatively low 31 ½ points. Kickoff is 8 pm ET on NBC.

If you want to point at one factor for the Colts’ underdog status and the low Over/Under, it’s Peyton Manning. Manning is a surefire future Hall of Famer and one day he’ll be back to this game as an inductee. For now though, he’s still recovering from his July 14th knee surgery, leaving the starting quarterback duties to veteran Jim Sorgi.

Sorgi is a solid backup who enjoys playing pre-season games as it’s really the only time he gets to put down the clipboard. One player who he won’t be throwing to Sunday night is receiver Marvin Harrison. He missed most of last season with a knee injury, and although probably healthy enough to play, team physicians are not clearing him yet.

Two key defensive players that won’t play for the Colts are defensive end Dwight Freeney and safety Bob Sanders.

Colts’ coach Tony Dungy led his team to the Super Bowl two years ago, finally getting the monkey off his back as well as Manning’s. Last season, they went 13-3 in the regular season, but went back to their losing ways in the playoffs with an opening home loss to San Diego.

Dungy’s history suggests that he’s not very interested in winning these pre-season games, as the Colts are just 2-11 the last three years.

Washington has a new coach in Jim Zorn as he takes over for the legendary Joe Gibbs. The Skins went 9-7 last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs at Seattle.

Zorn, a former Seahawks quarterback, has never been a head coach in the NFL, instead spending the last seven years as Seattle’s quarterback coach. Ironically, Zorn’s success this year could hinge on his ability to groom third-year signal caller Jason Campbell.

According to Friday’s Washington Post, Campbell is expected to play just a couple of series in this game, along with most of the other starters. One of the guys who will definitely not play is running back Clinton Portis.

The Redskins are 3-9 in their last three years in the pre-season, but that was under Gibbs. It appears that Zorn will not be pushing his starters too much in this contest, but his motivation for a win is still higher than Dungy’s, and that’s why you see the almost touchdown spread.