One of the most interesting parts of any football season has to be the prop bets that can have money thrown on them.

Here are a few prop bets for fans at footballbettingcenter.com: The over/under on the number of players who will be suspended for eight or more games stands at 5.5. There are 3-to-1 odds the Washington Redskins announce a name change before the Super Bowl. Aaron Rodgers is 5-1 odds to win the MVP while J.J. Watt is 15-1 odds. Watt is a heavy favorite, 2-3 odds, to win Defensive Player of the Year. Seattle safety Earl Thomas is 15/1 odds to win the same award.

The New York Jets, Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers are the favorites to have the most players arrested at 12-1 odds. Don’t laugh Houston fans, the Texans and Kansas City Chiefs are both at 15-1.

I would assume Watt himself has very low odds of being arrested at any point this year. Can you imagine being the cop in Houston who throws him in the slammer for a petty reason? …

I surely hope everyone who has HBO is watching “Hard Knocks” as the popular show follows the Houston Texans through training camp. The stars of the show are both Watt and coach Bill O’Brien. Watt is the obvious leader of the entire team while O’Brien has brought in a no-nonsense mentality with him from his days in New England.

“Hard Knocks” is not for small children whose parents want to keep away from curse words as players and coaches alike seem to drop the F-bomb at least once every 10 minutes, usually way more often than that. …

There is an outstanding piece on Wade Phillips written by Paul Klee on gazette.com. The story centers around Phillips’ time here in Texas and mentions a certain man by the name Cornel Thompson, head coach of the West Orange-Stark Mustangs.

So what is the connection? Thompson replaced Phillips as defensive coach at Stark High School in 1973. Check out the story because it is interesting how Klee notes Thompson still runs the same defense Phillips ran in his days in Orange.

Can you guess who Wade credits for coming up with the style of defense he still uses today? Bum Phillips. It has worked out quite well for the Mustangs, who continue to be one of the state’s most storied high school programs and it worked for Phillips who is one of the NFL’s brightest defensive minds. …

Two interesting notes now sent to me by my coworker Dave Rogers. First, recently fired Illinois coach Tim Beckman has local ties in the fact he went to Forest Park in Beaumont when his dad, Dave Beckman, was an assistant coach at Lamar University under Larry Kennan in 1979-1980. Dave Beckman later moved on to work in the front office for the Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers. …

A win against a Port Arthur ISD school has been a long time coming for Beaumont Ozen coach David Suggs. He was hired from Willowridge to be the Lincoln High School coach before the 2001 season, and that same year Dean Colbert was hired to be the Thomas Jefferson coach after serving as Suggs’ offensive coordinator.

Word around town was Suggs and Colbert were going to reunite the next year at the newly consolidated Memorial High, resuming their Willowridge roles with Suggs as the first Titans’ head coach. But before PAISD would make it official, Suggs took the Beaumont Central job, leaving Colbert to be Memorial’s first football leader. …

Let me end like I always do and that is by thanking you, the readers. Sports editor I.C. Murrell and I are both very pleased to bring you the day’s sports news and it is only going to get better.

Over the past few weeks I have started to notice more phone calls and emails start to come in to our department. Now some of course are concerned if something was left out of the pages but it shows you care about The News sports section. We do too and we want each day to bring you the best section you can get in Southeast Texas. The newspaper industry has changed over the last 10 years.

The News sports section has changed in the last year alone with the departures of Bob West and Tom Halliburton. These two are hands down two of the absolute best sports minds this area and state has ever seen.

There have been changes already made and there are possibly going to be more down the road but trust this: We have your best interest at heart and we will not make a change just to be lazy or try to get out of work early. We appreciate you sticking with us and we welcome all phone calls, visits and emails. We cannot do it without you and never would we want to. Have a great Sunday and I’ll speak with you next week.

Gabriel Pruett can be reached at 721-2436 or by email at gabe.pruett@panews.com. Twitter: @PaNewsGabe