Broncos fire Shanahan after team's collapse

Football Betting Lines

12/30/2008 - Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Longtime Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan was fired Tuesday, just two days after Denver missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

The Broncos held a three-game lead in the AFC West with three games to play, but Denver proceeded to drop its last three games, while the San Diego Chargers won their last three -- including a 52-21 drubbing of the Broncos in Week 17 -- to claim the division title.

"After giving this careful consideration, I have concluded that a change in our football operations is in the best interests of the Denver Broncos," said team owner Pat Bowlen. "This is certainly a difficult decision, but one that I feel must be made and which will ultimately be in the best interests of all concerned."

Shanahan had just completed his 14th season as Broncos head coach, also serving as the team's vice president of football operations. He led Denver to two Super Bowl titles -- in 1998 and 1999 -- with Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway at the helm.

"I appreciate the 21 years that Mike Shanahan has given to the organization as an assistant and head coach, and the two Super Bowl wins in that time," Bowlen added. "His contributions hold a special place in Broncos history.

The 56-year-old compiled a 138-86 record with the Broncos from 1995-2008, capturing three division titles in that span. He was 8-5 in seven postseason appearances and had lost four of his last five playoff games.

Shanahan has served in the NFL's coaching ranks since 1984, and previously was the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders from 1988-89. He had been with the Broncos two previous times, as the quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator from 1984-1987 and as the quarterbacks coach from 1989-91. He also coached with the 49ers from 1992-94 as the offensive coordinator.

He held several college coaching positions, with Oklahoma, Northern Arizona, Eastern Illinois, Minnesota and Florida from 1975-83.

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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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