I understand the point spread is to try to get an even amount of betting on both sides, but explain to me why sometimes it's + and sometimes it's -

"bozz_2006" wrote:

This flu is no damn joke and it is starting to scare me! I live in the Chicago suburbs and a HS (St. Charles East) has 925 students out....700 yesterday and 225 today added on out sick.

The school has 2,000+ kids and they closed the school for the week. Back on topic, I thought the Packers were going to win anyways but now I expect an even better showing from them.

I am also nervous that the Packers will get the sickness and that will eff a lot of things up for the Vikings game.

"AKamp74" wrote:

Mangini is hoping his players recover in time for Sunday's game, but if they aren't healthy, the NFL has roster provisions to protect teams overwhelmed by swine flu. League spokesman Greg Aiello said all teams received a memo from commissioner Roger Goodell on Oct. 2.

It states: "If a club has at least six players unable to participate as the result of confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu, it can receive roster exemptions for those players and promote players from its own practice squad to replace them. A club can receive a max of 8 such exemptions. They must be medically confirmed cases of swine flu. This procedure does not apply to any other type of flu or illness. There is a deadline for promoting practice squad players pursuant to these procedures at four hours prior to kickoff."

I wonder if an NFL game has ever been cancelled/ postponed due to the fact that a team can't field , well, a "team".

"yooperfan" wrote:

Emergencies -- Policy
The National Football League requires all League personnel, including game officials, League office employees, players, coaches, and other club employees to use best effort to see that each game -- preseason, regular season, and postseason -- is played to its conclusion. The League recognizes, however, that emergencies may arise that make a games completion impossible or inadvisable. Such circumstances may include, but are not limited to, severely inclement weather, natural or manmade disaster, power failure, and spectator interference. Games should be suspended, cancelled, postponed, or terminated when circumstances exist such that comencement or continuation of play would pose a threat to the safety of participants or spectators.

Authority of Commissioners Office

1. Authority to cancel, postpone, or terminate games is vested only in the Commissioner and the League President (other League office representatives and referees may suspend play temporarily; see point No. 3 under this section and point No. 1 under "Authority of Referee" below). The following definitions apply:

Cancel . To cancel a game is to nullify it either before or after it begins and to make no provision for rescheduling it or for including its score or other performance statistics in League records.

Postpone . To postpone a game is (a) to defer its starting time to a later date, or (b) to suspend it after play has begun and to make provision to resume at a later date with all scores and other performance statistics up to the point of postponement added to those achieved in the resumed portion of the game.

Terminate . To terminate a game is to end it short of a full 60 minutes of play, to record it officially as a completed game, and to make no provision to resume it at a later date. The Commissioner or League President may terminate a game in an emergency if, in his opinion, it is reasonable to project that its resumption (a) would not change its ultimate result or (b) would not adversely affect any other interteam competitive issue.

Forfeit . The Commissioner, (except in cases of disciplinary action; see last section on "Removing Team from Field"), League President, and their representatives, including referees, are not authorized unilaterally to declare forfeits. A forfeit occurs only when a game is not played because of the failure or refusal of one team to participate. In that event, the other team, if ready and willing to play, is the winner by a score of 2-0.

CLEVELAND, Ohio Cleveland coach Eric Mangini hopes to have most of his starters available for Sunday's National Football League game against Green Bay despite a flu outbreak that has affected a dozen players.

Mangini said Thursday that two of the 12 players who were sent home from practice on Wednesday with flu-like symptoms were diagnosed with influenza A, of which the H1N1 virus is a sub-type.

Mangini said he was working on the "presumption" that the players with influenza A have swine flu, but said he didn't know if any of the other cases were.

However, he said that the team was speaking with the NFL about whether they were eligible to make use of special roster rules designed to help teams hit by swine flu.

If a team has a minimum of six players with confirmed cases of H1N1, the league will allow the team to use practice squad players in games.

"We're going through the process of talking to the league and documenting different things to see where we are with that," Mangini said. "We want to be sure what we're able to do and not able to do."

Mangini said dealing with the outbreak was a first in his experience.

"This is new ground for me," he said. "I checked the (coaching) manual - nothing. But like anything else, you've got to adjust."

The main thing, Mangini said, was to try to contain the outbreak.

"As far as a timetable for the rest of the group coming back, I'm not totally sure yet, but we're going to keep being cautious with this to make sure we don't go into the weekend and put the group that hasn't had it in a position where they could get it."