Sports Columns

NFL training camps will open soon. But football betting already is here. North of the border, it’s the second week of the Canadian Football League season.

In the NFL, almost everything is subject to further review, so it’s premature to declare the Denver Broncos as draft winners because they traded up to get quarterback Paxton Lynch late in the first round.

It has been more than a month since the Dallas Cowboys won a game. In the meantime, there has been no shortage of drama and discontent, and no sign of injured quarterback Tony Romo returning.

In a high-stakes poker game, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pushed their chips to the middle of the table and went all-in on Jameis Winston. But the odds are Winston will turn out to be a joker in the deck.

Once again, it appeared Jameis Winston had created a mess he could not possibly escape. And once again, the quarterback turned into a magician, stunning the crowd with his sleight of hand.

A Week 17 schedule that shaped up as potentially explosive on paper surpassed all expectations. Thirteen of the 16 games had playoff implications. From Chicago to San Diego to Dallas, it was as great as it gets.

In no way is Aaron Rodgers a clown, but when the Green Bay Packers quarterback was trotted out to meet with the media Thursday, circus music should have been playing in the background.

It’s that time when adversity sets in, hope disappears and some NFL teams get torn apart while facing the certainty of a losing year. But coach Tom Coughlin is not going to allow any of that nonsense to wreck the New York Giants, at least not yet.

Lightning strikes lit up the opening night of the college football season, and there was a threat of point-spread shenanigans after a severe weather delay chased Steve Spurrier off the field.