Manchester United smashed the British transfer record when they completed the signing of Argentina’s Angel Di Maria on this day in 2014.

The Red Devils, in a rebuilding phase following the departure of their hugely successful manager Sir Alex Ferguson the year before, paid £59.7million for the then 26-year-old.

Di Maria, brought in by the club’s new Dutch boss Louis van Gaal, arrived at United fresh from helping his old club Real Madrid seal their 10th European title the season before.

Di Maria said at the time of his signing: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining Manchester United. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Spain and there were a lot of clubs interested in me, but United is the only club that I would have left Real Madrid for.

“Lou…

Covers is throwing an entry into the Circa Million Pro Football contest for the 2021 season and Adam Chernoff has been tabbed to make the weekly picks so let’s dig right in.

Here are his five ATS picks for Week 8 of the Circa Million betting contest.

Week 7 record: 3-2Season to date: 21-14Place: T-777 / 4,086

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Cleveland Browns’ fans went from the embarrassment of always losing, to the embarrassment of failed expectations, to the embarrassment of the Deshaun Watson contract. 

Aside from being a serial creep, Watson is an elite quarterback talent when on his game, and has much more around him in terms of talent and coaching in Cleveland than he did when piggybacking Houston to the playoffs all those years.

As of this writing, Watson will serve an 11-game suspension and all the legal sparring has had the Browns’ NFL odds in flux, with futures shifting since the spring and spreads and totals now finally reflecting the situation at quarterback.

What kind of product will the Factory of Sadness be pumping out this season? We find out in our Cleveland Brow…

In a wide-open NFC, the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys will have lofty expectations this year. Saturday’s preseason matchup gives both teams a chance to fine-tune their rosters.

The Seahawks largely sat their starters against the Minnesota Vikings last Thursday in their preseason opener but still came away with a 24-13 win, led by a steady performance from Drew Lock (191 passing yards with two touchdowns and a pick). 

A similarly eye-catching quarterback outing from Will Grier (199 passing yards with two touchdown passes and an interception) kept the Cowboys afloat in Saturday’s 28-23 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now both teams have to decide whether to sprinkle in some minutes for their starters this weekend with the regular season …

MNF odds continue on with the Los Angeles Chargers facing the New York Jets at MetLife. Week 9 odds have the Bolts favored to reach .500, although that’s easier said than done against this New York defense.

I’m going to get stuck into identifying the very best Justin Herbert odds to bring you my favorite NFL picks centered around the Chargers’ field general.

Be sure to also check out our Chargers vs Jets betting preview and our favorite MNF prop picks!

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If you like betting on the first touchdown, betting on the result of the first drive pre-game might be another market that interests you. It’s a four-way market with a punt, field goal attempt, touchdown, and turnover, and everything is usually even money or better. I also believe it to be more predictive and a market that has some flaws in the pricing, as well. 

For the AFC Championship game, I’m going to go through my process and lay out the best cases for each offense’s first-drive result using the NFL odds from DraftKings and this year’s first-drive stats to reach a best bet. It’s not a massive sample size, but I feel the pricing is nearly all based on the offensive results, leaving some angles that aren’t priced in. …

Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions bounced back last week with a win, improving to 2-1 in the process. This week, they’ll host the Seattle Seahawks, who have quietly been one of the league’s best defenses.

We break down how that defense will impact the Jared Goff odds in our NFL picks and Seahawks vs. Lions predictions below. 

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We all know that companies advertising during the Super Bowl don’t expect to recoup their outlay in sales. It’s mostly about cementing your name at the top of the top, keeping your brand top of mind for any possible consumer. Still, the idea of spending $6 million for 30 seconds, one would think you’d want to put a little effort into creativity and tell us what it is your product does, and why it’s better than anything else I might get that does the same thing. Slapping one or two celebrities on camera and basically having them say, “Aren’t I charming?” isn’t really the point. It’s a dumbass arms race. So who coughed up the most for the least? Let’s run it through because there are a lot of contenders. Jesus I’ve known evangelicals have been peddling a specially s…