– Bear of a bet: Dreams of a $1.63 million payoff were dashed Sunday for two baccarat dealers at a Las Vegas hotel casino. And the Bears were to blame.
”We were in it to win and we didn`t show,” dealer Sean Rowland said after the Miami Dolphins beat the Bears 16-13 in overtime. ”That`s life. I think I`ll borrow $10 from mom next year and do it again.”
Rowland and fellow dealer Patty Harris had picked 11 straight NFL winners to parlay an $80 pool into $103,107. They plunked down the $103,107 Saturday night on the Bears, who were 7 1/2-point favorites over the Dolphins. The Bears had to win by eight for Harris, Rowland and the six other dealers in their group to win the bet.
– Barry`s big day: Barry Sanders easily won the battle of former Heisman Trophy winners in Minneapolis. His 220 yards rushing against the Vikings broke Detroit`s single-game rushing record of 198 yards, set in 1950 by Bob Hoernschemeyer. Sanders leads the NFC in rushing and touchdowns (14). Minnesota`s Herschel Walker? Like Sanders a former Heisman winner, he rushed nine times for just 30 yards and one TD.
– Instant survey: The majority of NFL owners believe the instant replay makes officials on the field more indecisive, yet they do not favor making officiating a full-time job, an ”NFL Today” survey said. In response to the question, ”Does the instant replay make on-field officials indecisive?” 15 owners answered yes, nine no and four told CBS they were undecided.
– Extra points: There were 13,389 no-shows for the Packers-Colts game in Milwaukee`s County Stadium, where game-time temperature was 29 degrees with a wind chill of 5.
Jim Breech of the Bengals kicked two extra points in a 38-14 loss to the Raiders to extend his NFL consecutive-game scoring string to 177 games.
Steve Jordan caught three passes, making him the Minnesota Vikings` all-time leading receiver, with 401 catches. He passed Ahmad Rashad (400) and became the 74th NFL player and ninth tight end with at least 400 receptions.
– They said it: Linebacker Matt Millen, after Washington`s loss to Dallas ended the Redskins` (11-1) hopes of equaling the Dolphins` unbeaten (14-0)
regular season in 1972: ”I`m sure (Miami coach) Don Shula is a happy man.”
– Milestones: The Redskins` Art Monk, who caught two passes for 22 yards, has at least one catch in 128 regular-season games. That`s the third-best streak in NFL history, and Monk trails only Steve Largent (177 games) and Ozzie Newsome (150). . . . Detroit kicker Eddie Murray scored 10 points to move past Don Cockroft into 14th place in NFL history with 1,085. . . . With 50 pass attempts, Chiefs QB Steve DeBerg moved past Ken Anderson into 11th place on the NFL`s all-time list. DeBerg has thrown 4,512 passes in his career. He needs 17 more completions to pass Jim Hart (2,593 completions) and move into seventh on the all-time list. . . . Seattle QB Dave Krieg`s two fumbles gave him a share of the NFL career fumble record of 106 set by QB Dan Fouts at San Diego from 1973 through 1987.
– Key injuries: Cowboys QB Troy Aikman (sprained knee); Giants QB Jeff Hostetler (broken bone in back), LB Lawrence Taylor (strained knee ligament), CB Mark Collins (rib), OT Doug Riesenberg (leg); Chiefs CB Albert Lewis
(knee); Chargers QB John Friesz (ankle); Broncos LB Mike Croel (ankle), WR Mark Jackson (possible broken wrist).
