Bironas boots record eight FGs as Titans hold off furious Texans rally

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10/21/2007 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rod Bironas' NFL record eighth field goal of the game -- a 29-yarder as time expired -- gave the Tennessee Titans a wild 38-36 win over the Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium.

Trailing 32-7 heading into the fourth quarter, the Texans offense, dormant for the entire game, exploded for a team-record 29 points in the fourth quarter and took a 36-35 lead on backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels' 53-yard touchdown to Andre Davis with 57 seconds remaining in the game.

However, Kerry Collins, playing in place of Vince Young, quickly went to work for the Titans, throwing to Roydell Williams for a 17-yard completion to the Tennessee 37-yard line.

Two incompletions later, Collins again hooked up with Williams, this time for a long 46-yard reception to the Houston 17-yard line. After a six-yard LenDale White run, Tennessee called a timeout and Bironas was good on his record-setting field goal.

Bironas hit on field goals of 52, 25, 21, 30, and 28 yards and two from 29 yards out to break the previous record shared by Jim Bakken, Rich Karlis, Billy Cundiff and Chris Boniol.

Collins completed 25-of-42 passes for 280 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and White rushed for 104 yards and a score for the Titans (4-2).

Rookie tailback Chris Henry added 57 yards and his first career score for Tennessee, while Williams ended with five catches for 124 yards.

Houston quarterback Matt Schaub hurt his left ankle in the first quarter, returned after a brief absence and then left the game for a good after a vicious hit from Titans defensive end Albert Haynesworth in the second quarter.

Rosenfels threw for 290 yards and four touchdowns for the Texans (3-4), but finished with four turnovers - three interceptions and a fumble.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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