Ten minutes is a long time. Earthquakes come and go. Games are won and lost. Fortunes are earned and, just as quickly, they vanish. A lifetime's worth of experiences and emotions can happen in 600 seconds. Which is why the NFL's announcement Thursday that the late-Sunday start times will be pushed back 10 minutes, from a 4:15 p.m. ET kickoff to 4:25, is such a gift for fans -- and a boon for bettors and bookmakers.
In fact, if you ask bookmakers, which I did, they are -- shocker -- convinced that this is one more example of the NFL's catering to the gambling community that it outwardly despises and would like to see permanently destroyed (at least until it can figure out how to monetize the whole thing). As one big-time sports-book boss told me, "You think they are pushing back the start times because people really wanted to see more kickoffs? Everyone knows that is the most exciting part of the game."
