Talk about prohibitive favorites. Here are some real odds. At the MGM Mirage casinos in Las Vegas -- that would be the Bellagio, Mirage, MGM Grand, New York New York, Mandalay Bay, TI, Luxor and on and on -- New England is an unbelievably heavy favorite to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Well, they're a prohibitive favorite everywhere but these odds are what were posted at MGM Mirage sports books as of yesterday.

The Patriots are listed at (-650) to win the Super Bowl (in Las Vegas, this is known as the "Pro Football Championship" because the NFL has forbidden mention of their trademark game by casinos). To win the AFC championship, New England is -1000. 

What's that mean?  In general terms, if you want to wager on the Patriots to win the Supe, you have to risk $650 to win $100. For the AFC title, a Patriots backer has to risk $1,000 to win $100.  Those are pretty stiff odds, my friends.

The prescient move would have been to bet on the Patriots when the Super Bowl futures line opened back in February just after the Colts beat the Bears.  Back then, you could have gotten the Patriots at 8-to-1, meaning a $10 bet would win $80.  Holy smokes, does that look like a bargain now.

So here are the 12-team odds.  The Super Bowl odds are listed first, followed by each team's odds to win its conference title.

San Diego         15/1 ... 8/1 (AFC)

Indianapolis      4/1 ... 5/2 (AFC)

New England      -650 ... -1000 (AFC)

Seattle               25/1 ... 6/1 (NFC)

Jacksonville        18/1 ... 10/1 (AFC)

Dallas                 9/2 ... -350 (NFC)

Pittsburgh          75/1 ... 35/1 (AFC)

N.Y. Giants         35/1 ... 10/1 (NFC)

Tennessee         80/1 ... 55/1 (AFC)

Washington       40/1 ... 15/1 (NFC)

Tampa Bay        35/1 ... 8/1 (NFC)

Green Bay           9/1 ... 2/1 (NFC)

Photo credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times