Coast Guard calls off search for missing boaters

Football Betting Lines

03/03/2009 - Clearwater, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Coast Guard held a news conference Tuesday afternoon to announce they have suspended the search for three missing boaters, including Oakland Raiders linebacker Victor "Marquis" Cooper and Detroit Lions defensive end Corey Smith, as of 6:30 (et) Tuesday.

Also missing is William Bleakley, a former player for the University of South Florida. The fourth boater, Nick Schuyler, also a former USF player, was rescued by the Coast Guard on Monday.

Schuyler was discovered clinging to an overturned vessel 35 miles west of Tampa Bay, Florida. He said the boat was anchored before being flipped in rough seas Saturday evening. The Coast Guard had narrowed their search off the coast of Clearwater Pass based on information provided by Schuyler and discovered a unmanned life vest and cooler believed to be from the boat earlier Tuesday 16 miles southeast of where the boat capsized.

Copper's father, Bruce, and close friend, Dallas Cowboys player Tank Johnson, held an impromptu news conference after the Coast Guard's announcement stating they were not giving up hope and made a plea for help from the private sector.

"We will not give up hope that Marquis is out there fighting and trying to return. That is our attitude. At some point maybe reality will set in and we'll discover otherwise," said Bruce Cooper.

"What we're asking for is experienced aviation pilots who are interested in helping us find the remains, if not Marquis floating on the water," Johnson said. "The Coast Guard did a wonderful job but when you're looking for someone, a family member, there is a certain connection you're looking for. We feel like if we get the chance to go out there...anything can happen, stranger things have happened. We still have faith."

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, Fla., received a call around 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning saying that four boaters, Cooper, Smith, Skylar and Bleakley, did not return as scheduled from their fishing trip. The four men left Clearwater Pass about 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning in a 21-foot center console boat.

"Today's news is a sobering reminder about how truly precious and fragile life can be. We will continue to pray for a miracle, though we fully understand and respect the decision of the Coast Guard," a statement released by the Detroit Lions said. "We were thrilled yesterday with the news of Nick's rescue, and it gave all of us hope that Corey, Will and Marquis would also be found alive. While we still have that hope, we have begun to cope with the grim reality of this sad and tragic situation. We cannot adequately express our heartfelt appreciation to the Coast Guard and all the Florida authorities involved in the rescue mission. Their heroic efforts saved at least one life, and we know they did everything possible for Corey, Will and Marquis."

Smith, 29, had 30 tackles, three sacks and an interception in 12 games last season for the winless Lions. The 6-foot-2, 250-pounder had 83 tackles, 8 1/2 sacks and the pick in 62 career games with Tampa Bay, San Francisco and Detroit.

The 6-3, 215-pound Cooper had played sparingly over the past three seasons, appearing in only 13 games and recording just 10 tackles. After recording 32 tackles in 26 games with Tampa Bay from 2004-05, the 26-year-old Cooper bounced between Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Seattle and Jacksonville before settling in Oakland for the 2008 season.

Smith and Cooper were teammates on the Bucs in 2004.

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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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