Pack covers despite stilted line

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1997 | 11:20 a.m.

Even after winning consecutive games and covering each time, the Green Bay Packers are still an abysmal 3-9-1 against the Las Vegas point spread this season. And it doesn't take a physics major -- or a sports-book director -- to know why.

Simply put, the Packers are a popular team with the NFL betting masses and, as a result, the lines for their games are inflated. For instance, they opened as a --3 favorite for their Monday night game at Minnesota and were bet to a --3 1/2 even though every trend and every bit of background information supposedly vital to predicting the outcome of the game indicated the Vikings should have been favored.

Of course Green Bay won 27-11, yet consider the Packers' pregame plight: they were 0-5 in Minnesota under coach Mike Holmgren; they were 7-20 in their last 27 road games on artificial turf; they were missing two fortress-like defensive linemen; the Vikings were 14-7 straight up and 15-6 against the spread in the month of December since 1992; and a victory was more vital to the Vikings, coming off consecutive losses, than it was to the Pack, coming off a nice win over Dallas last week.

Nonetheless the Packers won and covered easily, all but dominating the Vikings. For once, the fans' infatuation with Green Bay paid off.

For bettors, here are the real numbers through the first 14 weeks -- 13 games -- of the National Football League season, the numbers of each team against the point spread:

Kansas City Chiefs, 8-3-2

Tennessee Oilers, 9-4

San Francisco 49ers, 8-5

Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 8-5

Denver Broncos, 8-5

Minnesota Vikings, 8-5

Miami Dolphins, 7-4-2

Jacksonville Jaguars, 7-5-1

Detroit Lions, 7-5-1

Pittsburgh Steelers, 7-5-1

Arizona Cardinals, 7-6

New York Jets, 7-6

Washington Redskins, 7-6

Baltimore Ravens, 7-6

Atlanta Falcons, 6-4-3

New York Giants, 6-6-1

San Diego Chargers, 6-7

Seattle Seahawks, 6-7

Buffalo Bills, 6-7

Carolina Panthers, 5-6-2

Philadelphia Eagles, 5-7-1

Indianapolis Colts, 5-7-1

New Orleans Saints, 5-7-1

Oakland Raiders, 5-8

Chicago Bears, 5-8

New England Patriots, 5-8

Cincinnati Bengals, 5-8

St. Louis Rams, 4-8-1

Dallas Cowboys, 3-8-2

Green Bay Packers, 3-9-1

The NFL rule that a player must spend three years on a college campus before he can be drafted is apt to be challenged next year, and that's one the NFL loses in court. ... A case it recently won, vs. the St. Louis Rams over the $29 million the league made the Rams pay to relocate from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995, had an interesting subtlety to it. While NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue at one time implied that the $29 million might be given to charity, in actuality it was distributed among the league's lowest-revenue-producing teams. Among those teams is the New York Jets, who are owned by one of the world's richest men, Leon Hess. ... NFL officiating has never been worse. ... The line is off the board because the game is being played in Las Vegas, but the out-of-town line on Saturday's WAC football championship game at Boyd Stadium is Colorado State --10 (vs. New Mexico).

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The Sacramento Kings are off to a 5-11 start and if they fail to reach the .500 mark by the end of the season it will be 15 consecutive years with a losing record. In fact, the Kings have never had a winning record since the club moved to Sacramento from Kansas City. ... Golfer Lee Trevino turned 58 Monday but that's an ominous sign for those on the Senior Tour. Only two players 58 or older -- Bob Charles and Jimmy Powell -- have won more than once in the history of the tour. ... Prairie View completed its football season winless and with 77 consecutive losses, dating from Oct. 31, 1989. During that futile stretch the team has been outscored 3,316 to 584. ... Fifty of the 145 starters in the NBA this season didn't start for the same team last year. That's a 34 percent turnover. ... On this date in 1847: Deacon White, who would go on to become the first player to ever bat in a professional baseball game, was born.