To quote The Godfather, as he often did in his six years on VSiN, Michael Lombardi got an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Michael is leaving the network to join his friend Bill Belichick at the University of North Carolina.
Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots, agreed on Wednesday to become Tar Heels’ head coach. Michael will be the football program’s general manager, an increasingly essential position in the new college football era of the transfer portal and NIL deals.
“I’m excited to join Coach Belichick at North Carolina,” Lombardi said. “Although leaving my VSIN family will be hard, I’m excited to return to helping build a winning program. I’m forever thankful for all the great people at VSIN, especially Bill Adee and the Musburger family.”
Was I surprised when he called me? Not entirely. Given the network of coaches and front-office executives he maintained even after moving to the media side, plus his competitive nature, I always thought there was a chance he might give football one more title run.
And on The Lombardi Line last week, he was extremely articulate in laying out Belichick’s thinking in moving to the college game instead of pursuing the record as the winningest coach in NFL history. >>Watch the segment.
Michael will be at Belichick’s press conference today in Chapel Hill, but we expect him back on Friday for his show before he starts to wind down with VSiN and focus on his new job.
College Football Playoff Guide, plus win $5,000 in our contest
The VSiN College Football Playoff Guide is out with 27 pages of previews, picks and predictions on the 12-team CFP. Plus Brent Musburger and Steve Makinen pick a side and total for every bowl game. Download the PDF here.
In conjunction with the guide, we also are announcing the free-to-play Road to Jansanity Contest with a grand prize of $5,000. >>Read the contest rules.
NFC West must-win spot
We turn to Dave Tuley for his take on tonight’s Rams-49ers game (8:15 ET, Amazon):
We get a Thursday nighter with both needs in a must-win spot to stay in the NFC playoff hunt, with the Rams (7-6) trailing the Seahawks in the NFC West race and the Commanders in the wild card chase by a game and the 49ers (6-7) two games back.
The Rams pulled a 27-24 upset in the first meeting way back in Week 3, so it’s tempting to take them with the points again here, but the number (49ers -2.5 or -3, depending on the book) is a little too short for me.
Instead, let’s kick off our “Tuley’s Teaser Portfolio” by moving the spread on the Rams through the key numbers of 3 and 7 to +8.5 or +9. We’ll use it as the first leg of 2-team, 6-point teasers to the Sunday games in the “teaser zone”: Dolphins +8.5 or +9 at the Texans, Cowboys +8.5 or +9 at the Panthers, Bills +8 at the Lions and Seahawks +8.5 or +9 vs. the Packers.
>>Tuley’s Takes on every game.
Zach Cohen has his preview with his side and prop bet.
Other TNF resources
>Check later this morning for Josh Appelbaum‘s NFL Sharp Report.
>Matchup page: ATS records and advanced stats.
>DraftKings/Circa Betting Splits
>Prop Analyzer: And tune in today for VSiN’s human prop analyzer, John Hansen, host of Prop Points (2-3 p.m. ET).
>NFL picks page (for VSiN Pro subscribers).
Everything we do on Week 15 is posted here.
Today in college basketball
Greg Peterson has posted his Best Bets for today’s menu.
>Adam Burke’s top plays will be up later today.
Quick Hits
NBA: Zach Cohen will post his Best Bets later this morning.
NHL: Look for Jonathan Davis‘ picks by mid-day on our NHL page.
This is The VSiN Daily newsletter for Thursday, December 12. Sign up for this free email and get picks and insights delivered to your in-box every morning.
