By Tim Furious

The Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders have been so pitiful over the past few years that we’ve forgotten that they have one of the best rivalries in sports. The 2010 NFL betting season has been a corner turner for both teams, and now this weekend’s tilt between the two finally as some consequences for the AFC West.

That’s why Kenyon Rasheed has found nobody better than former Kansas City Chief, Willie Roaf to discuss the rebirth of the rivalry. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Roaf, he is an 11-time Pro Bowler after being selected eighth overall in the 1993 NFL Draft. He played for 9 years with the New Orleans Saints before closing out his career with three more seasons as a member of the Chiefs. In a word – he was “Nasty”.

http://video.betus.com/inside-the-lines/nfl-betting-pick-week-9-itl-e82.html

It’s not easy for any of us to digest the idea of the Oakland Raiders being any good. They haven’t had a winning record since they went to the Super Bowl and were crushed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003. They’ve been committed to sucking more than they’ve been committed to excellence.

Things have been different this season. Look at Oakland’s last five games: they throttled Seattle at home, Denver on the road, lost to the woeful Niners, beat the San Diego Chargers and gave the Houston Texans a run for their money. You could easily say that they’re a solid pick against mid-card teams, and a decent pick at home against top-tier teams in NFL betting.

But where does Kansas City fall in to? We’d like to establish them as one of the best teams in the league at 5-2 SU, but nobody’s completely convinced…yet. That’s why they enter Raider Nation as road dogs this weekend.

Still, it’s impossible to imagine the Raiders stringing together their first three-game winning streak in eight seasons. Or is it?

As 11-time Pro Bowler Willie Roaf points out, if the Raiders win this game against Kansas City they’re earn a share of the AFC West. However, there’s always the case of when Al Davis will intervene to screw things up. Right now, he’s been forced to play Jason Campbell during the club’s past two victories, and Roaf suggests that keeping J-Cam in there to pick up more reps is a good thing for the team.

Damon from BetCenter steps in to slap you in the face with some very gnarly trends as well. He notes that Kansas City has won on the road in Oakland 75-percent of the time against the spread. Does that mean he makes the Chiefs his pick this weekend?

To see where Willie, Kenyon and Damon put their picks you’ll have to watch the video and I’ll have more coverage on this game later in the week as well! Like it or not, this rivalry is back and that’s a damn good thing for the AFC West and its fans.