The rarely stagnant accounting balance sheet that is the NFL gambling line will each week reveal a few "You could knock me over with a feather" numbers. As in "You could knock me over with a feather if you told me a month ago that the Jets would be laying 2/5 to Miami in the Jersey swamps.” But hey with a banged up school of fish flying north, the number makes some sense.

I’m also a bit surprised to see the Giants spotting one-point on the road to the Vikings. For the latter, let’s just say that number shows the power of Sunday and Monday Night Football.

On what is the NFL's center stage, these prime time affairs get all of our attention. No dial switching to catch more than one game, and the fact that Sunday and Monday games are shown in every city can put us all on equal footing when it comes to what happened on the field. 

Jumping into your mind for a second, I bet (what a nice word to occasionally slip into this column) you're thinking, "He's going to tell us he's making a bet on the Giants. After all, they looked real good beating the Jags and the Vikings sucked in Tampa Bay.”

And while the easy to lay number with the Giants has me considering such, I, like you, watched the debacle from chilly New Jersey. And like one of the bookmakers of my past was fond of saying, "I wouldn't bet them with Chinese money." That feeling of the dearly departed Joe pretty much sums up how I feel about laying money on the Giants.

The message here is that to win at this game you can never bet bad numbers. While I may have entertained the Giants taking 3, when it shot to the Giants laying a small number, I knew I had to throw that game out of the mix.

Here’s the rub and the lesson: On paper this idea of passing games when the good number passes you by sounds simple.  But in truth, it kills most gamblers. We’re stubborn by nature and often driven by a herd mentality, meaning that many gamblers feel if they aren't down on a "hot side," they're missing something.

Like I’ve said before, they play the National Anthem every day. Translated, this means, action’s just around the corner, so be patient, a good game is always waiting for you.

And speaking of smart gambling, sportingbetusa.com offers 5-% juice all day Friday. Anytime you can reduce the dreaded vig on your plays, you increase your chances of winning. It’s the real deal and one that you should use to your advantage.

Good luck

Nick Rizzo