The most intriguing pre-Christmas matchup is in the Las Vegas Bowl, which pits Houston against San Diego State on Dec. 17. The Cougars lost their coach. The Aztecs have running back Donnel Pumphrey.
Sports Columns
The first game of the NFL season was far better than the final game of last season. The underdog Denver Broncos beat Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers both times.
Minus stars Jon Jones and Conor McGregor, the Las Vegas wagering handle for Saturday’s UFC 200 card at T-Mobile Arena will be down an estimated $1 million or more.
With the Aug. 1 trade deadline approaching, All-Star reliever Andrew Miller is the Yankees’ most valuable commodity. The Cubs and Giants will be interested.
In the late 1970s, as Jimmy Vaccaro tells the story, there were times when ticket writers in Strip sports books would fall asleep behind the counter because there was so little action. And that was Super Bowl week.
Another day passed without a news conference on the UNLV campus to announce Rick Pitino as the new basketball coach. Instead, Dick Vitale explained why Pitino is not coming to town.
In the end, and there is no doubt this should be the end of the road for Peyton Manning, one of the NFL’s all-time greatest quarterbacks rode shotgun. Manning was simply an old-timer who went along for the ride.
At the moment Ben Roethlisberger was carted off the field with yet another injury, bettors on the Pittsburgh Steelers should have expected the worst. Roethlisberger’s health was not the concern. The point-spread cover was in critical condition.
When hired as manager, Joe Maddon was considered the ideal kindergarten cop for the Chicago Cubs. Expectations were realistic for his first year. The postseason was only a possibility. But it’s October, and already those kids are all grown up.
So far, the postseason has been all about pitching. The aces are dealing. The Los Angeles Dodgers are lucky enough to throw two of baseball’s best, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, back to back.
On one of those postcard Sundays in San Diego, Jason Day got his moment in the sun at the same time it was setting on Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Day’s win in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines is a good story, but it was overshadowed.
Aaron Rodgers is not The Most Interesting Man in the World. He’s not drinking beer and ripping off one-liners while surrounded by hot women. But Rodgers is being watched, because he is the most important player in the most interesting game of the NFL playoffs this weekend.
The opening Sunday of NFL season was an unpredictable one for bettors and sportsbooks alike.
It could have been dumb luck that brought the Cleveland Browns and Johnny Manziel together. He was there for the taking, but team after team passed him by, and eventually everything fell perfectly into place.
It was not quite a blizzard, but it was bizarre. A thick white blanket covered the field in Philadelphia, and in elements better suited for a sled dog race in Alaska, LeSean McCoy seemed to run from Anchorage to Nome.