2011 December at BetLM

NHL’s Collins on State of Classic, Potential Future Sites

PHILADELPHIA - NHL Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer John Collins praised the city of Philadel­phia, the Fly­ers and the Phillies, for help­ing the League with such a suc­cess­ful build out for the 2012 Bridge­stone NHL Win­ter Classic. “It’s been fan­tas­tic,” Collins said Sat­ur­day after­noon dur­ing an impromptu inter­view ses­sion in the press box prior to the Mol­son Cana­dian 2012 NHL Win­ter Clas­sic Alumni Game at Cit­i­zens Bank Park. “The Fly­ers, they’re great, and they have a great rela­tion­ship with the Phillies. The Phillies orga­ni­za­tion has been... 

Coach Smith Says Falcons’ Ryan Developing Into ‘elite’ QB

If Matt Ryan feels like a quar­ter­back fly­ing under the radar, those days could soon be over. Just 73 yards shy from set­ting the Fal­cons’ single-season pass­ing record (Jeff George had 4,143 in 1995), Ryan is in the midst of lead­ing Atlanta to its third play­off sea­son in four years, build­ing a 42–19 mark as a starter in the reg­u­lar season. Still, Ryan’s name is some­times over­looked in the con­ver­sa­tion around the NFL’s top quar­ter­backs, some­thing that will soon change, accord­ing to Fal­cons coach Mike Smith. “His mat­u­ra­tion process con­tin­ues... 

Hillis Wants to Stay With the Browns

Hillis wants to stay with the Browns Posted by Mike Flo­rio on Decem­ber 31, 2011, 4:36 PM EST Friday’s one-liners included a ref­er­ence to the fact that Browns run­ning back Pey­ton Hillis believes in curses, given his strug­gles (self-imposed and oth­er­wise) after land­ing on the cover of the Mad­den game. The big­ger ques­tion is whether Hillis will remain with the team in 2012, when his image surely won’t appear any­where near the front cover, the back cover, or any other pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als asso­ci­ated with the only NFL-licensed console-based video game. “I... 

Nick Saban to Penn State? Well, of Course.

The Penn State coach­ing search has offi­cially jumped the shark. In this brave new era rules by social media and mes­sage board “insid­ers,” at a time when Twit­ter not only relays the news but often cre­ates the news, in an epoch where “spec­u­la­tion” has replaced “report­ing” even in the world of jour­nal­ism, it has become far too easy for mere ‘rumor’ to be reported as ‘fact.’ And so it came to be this week that, some­how and some way, peo­ple actu­ally started to believe that Nick Saban was a legit­i­mate can­di­date to take over in Happy Val­ley.... 

Former Giants Star Don Mueller Dies

Updated Dec 31, 2011 12:27 PM ET MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. Don Mueller, a two-time All-Star whose hit helped set up Bobby Thomson’s famed home run that won the 1951 NL pen­nant play­off, has died. He was 84. The funeral home han­dling the arrange­ments said Fri­day that Mueller died Wednes­day in sub­ur­ban St. Louis. Mueller was a career .296 hit­ter in 10 years with the New York Giants and two sea­sons with the Chicago White Sox. The out­fielder led the majors with 212 hits in 1954. In the decid­ing Game 3 of the play­offs against the Brook­lyn Dodgers in 1951, Mueller had... 

Emirates Hotel Bookings Up Thanks to F1

The effects of the trav­el­ling cir­cus of F1 are felt in all sorts of ways, and today it was announced by the Emi­rates News Ser­vice that the book­ings of rooms in hotels in the Emi­rates were way up in the month of Novem­ber thanks to the For­mula 1 race in Abu Dhabi. “A raft of city-wide enter­tain­ment acti­va­tions lever­ag­ing last month’s third For­mula One Eti­had Air­ways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix helped Abu Dhabi’s hotels and hotel apart­ments post record Novem­ber hotel guest num­bers, accord­ing to fig­ures released by Abu Dhabi Tourism Author­ity (ADTA),”... 

10 Things to Know for Week 17, From NBC SportsTalk

10 things to know for Week 17, from NBC SportsTalk Posted by Mike Flo­rio on Decem­ber 31, 2011, 12:28 AM EST Friday’s edi­tion of NBC Sport­sTalk was the last ever NBC Sport­sTalk on VERSUS. As of Mon­day, VERSUS becomes NBC Sports Network. But NBC Sport­sTalk will con­tinue, and when it’s time to talk NFL on an in-season Mon­day or Fri­day, we’ll con­tinue to open the show with the patent-pending 10 things to know. Here are the 10 things to know from Friday’s farewell show on VERSUS. I held it together until Bette Midler sang. Perma­link 0 Com­ments Lat­est Sto­ries... 

Lions DC Cunningham Gushes Over Schwartz’ Focus, Intensity

This season’s NFL Coach of the Year will be lifted from a deep pool of deserv­ing can­di­dates, but in Gun­ther Cunningham’s uni­verse, this one’s in the books. The Lions defen­sive coor­di­na­tor believes the finest coach in the land resides just up the hall­way in the per­son of Jim Schwartz, the engine behind Detroit’s stir­ring turn­around in 2011. “He’s con­sis­tent and he’s tough as nails,” Cun­ning­ham told MLive.com this week. “He will NOT give in on any­thing. There are times when I see the team’s tired, I think he’s going to give them a break.... 

Oklahoma Holds Off Iowa in Insight Bowl

TEMPE, Ariz. — Okla­homa was gain­ing yards in bits instead of its usual chunks. Its defense was solid before giv­ing up a pair of touch­downs in the fourth quar­ter to lose nearly all of a 21-point lead. Then a cam­era fell from the sky. It wasn’t always pretty, but the Soon­ers grinded out a win, clos­ing out a dif­fi­cult year that included the death of a team­mate and failed national title aspirations. Blake Bell ran for his third touch­down in the clos­ing sec­onds and No. 19 Okla­homa sur­vived a late rally, not to men­tion the crash­ing cam­era, to beat Iowa 31–14... 

Reimer Finishes Whirlwind 2011 Home in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG — Tend­ing goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs can be a lonely, criticism-filled exis­tence when the fabled club has man­aged only two wins in its last seven games. Goalie — TOR RECORD: 7-3-4GAA: 3.00 | SVP: 0.899 But Leafs net­min­der James Reimer can expect to see at least a few friendly faces back in his home province of Man­i­toba when he meets his fam­ily for din­ner on Fri­day night before he heads back to the team hotel to rest up for the Leafs’ Sat­ur­day night clash with the Win­nipeg Jets at the MTS Cen­tre. Reimer has pur­chased 15 tick­ets to the game...