At 11:58 p.m. Las Vegas time on Tuesday, the millionth hand of legal, secure online poker was dealt at UltimatePoker.com, a company that is fully owned and operated inside the United States of America.

It took just a little more than two weeks (the site launched on April 30) to ring up that number, a sign of both the intense demand and breathtaking potential of internet gaming.Ultimate Poker's website dealt its millionth hand on Tuesday. (AP)

It also represents the latest stage in the fast-moving battle for legalized online gambling of all sorts – including, eventually, sports wagering – that offers the most significant potential change in the way Americans consume sports.

“We’re coming out of a lost decade,” said Tom Breitling, chairman of Ultimate Poker, which is mostly owned by the Nevada-based Station Casinos Inc. “We are finally bringing jobs and taxes back to America.”

That’s gambling’s forever political pitch – jobs and taxes. “Who is against jobs and taxes?” Breitling noted.

Of course, this being America and this being the confused morass of

On Wednesday, with the conclusion of the NCAA's astoundingly clueless but purposefully humiliating 10-year "disassociation" penalty, the University of Michigan is inviting former basketball star Chris Webber to give them a call and discuss if he wants to be a part of the family again. He may have to apologize first, though.

What Michigan should be doing is calling Webber and saying sorry to him. Michigan's Fab Five from left, Jimmy King, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and Ray Jackson. (AP)

This case stems from NCAA rules that Webber violated as a player from 1991-93. In short, he accepted money from a man named Ed Martin, who doled out cash and gifts to lots of young Detroit players through the years. Only some of them went to Michigan, but it was Michigan that gave Martin comp tickets and access to hotel room blocks.

I have a long-standing opposition to the NCAA rulebook (which isn't the point of this column) but like the rules or not, there is little doubt they were violated here. Michigan was punished and under the NCAA system that's fine.

The NCAA vacated the two Final

Across the last 3½ months, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly watched Manti Te'o, one of his all-time favorite players, get run over (by Alabama in the BCS title game), ripped apart (following an online girlfriend hoax) and eventually rejected (in Thursday's first round of the NFL draft).

"We've become so close, it's like your own kid going through it," Kelly told Yahoo! Sports on Friday.

So on Friday morning, after the first-round draft snub brought the latest humiliation in what felt like an endless run of embarrassment for a player who otherwise is known as hardworking, dutiful, caring and talented, Kelly decided to call Manti.

"I called to cheer him up, but he wound up cheering me up," Kelly said. "He was like, 'Coach, I'll be fine, I'll get through this.' It turns out the call was more for me than him."

The Chargers took Manti Te'o with the 38th overall pick of the draft. (AP)Friday night, with the sixth pick of the second round, the San Diego Chargers finally called Manti Te'o's name. With that, the light at the end of a long, long tunnel finally arrived.

After a calamitous six-win season when just about everything that could go wrong did, the New York Jets hired a new general manager (John Idzik from Seattle), dealt their franchise defensive star (Darrelle Revis to Tampa) and entered Thursday's first round of the draft with any number of potential moves.

That included everything from offering some offensive weapons – or protection – to embattled quarterback Mark Sanchez to rattling Sanchez's sense of security by drafting a potential replacement.

Instead the Jets went old school, or the old ways of coach Rex Ryan, and added defensive help with two first-round picks. Or, – as Idzik described ninth overall pick Dee Milliner, a cornerback out of Alabama, and 13th selection Sheldon Richardson, a defensive lineman from Missouri – the best players available.

On a team in clear rebuilding mode, talent – regardless of position – was deemed critical.

"We selected two of our top-four players on our board," Idzik told the media in New York.

Even after last month's convictions of two Steubenville High School football players for raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl, the Ohio attorney general promised to investigate whether the crime included wider community involvement or even a potential attempted coverup.

Ma'lik Richmond, left, and Trent Mays were convicted last month of raping a 16-year-old girl. (AP)"The community has to feel that justice was done and anyone who was involved was held accountable," attorney general Mike DeWine told Yahoo! Sports last month. "I felt we had to get to the bottom of this because facts were crying out, 'Who knew what and when?' "

Thursday brought the most significant proof that the investigation continues with DeWine's office executing multiple search warrants in relation to the case.

While the details were sealed under court order, investigators executed the warrants at Steubenville High School, the Steubenville Board of Education and Vestige Ltd., an electronic evidence company in the Cleveland suburb of Medina, Ohio.

[Related: Ohio attorney general wants more answers]

This comes

The unveiling of the name of the new college football playoff – it'll be called "College Football Playoff" – unleashed plenty of jokes for being so bland. BCS executive director Bill Hancock was actually asked if the name of his dog was "Dog." (Hancock told USA Today he has never had a dog.)

BCS executive director Bill Hancock, handing the national title trophy to Nick Saban, knows the power of a name. (Getty Images)It's a good name though, one that is simple and effectively conveys the product. It's perfect for the present because its genius is in what it doesn't mention.

The thing with the men who run the highest levels of college sports – and it's almost exclusively men – is that you can rarely believe their public explanations on anything. They may be telling the truth. They may not. Wholly trusting their rhetoric though is folly, like going with whatever a general manager proclaims on the eve of the NFL draft.

After all, it was less than 18 months ago when they were still promising there would never, ever, ever be a college football playoff and claiming silly things like how a return to the old bowl

The bomb ripped through the crowd gathered on a Boston sidewalk, producing a flash of light and then a haunting yellow plume of smoke which immediately blew through a row of flags.

There's today's image of terror: screams and carnage and smoke and flags.

Flags representing countries from around the world, flags lined up on Boylston Street because athletes from all these nations come every April to compete in a special race, in front of special fans, to celebrate two special things – Patriots Day and the concept of individual accomplishment, often against great odds.

Boston has never been one to back down from a fight, not at dawn on Lexington Green in 1775 and assuredly not on Monday when the annual commemoration – a race, a Sox game, a hope for a speck of spring weather – was torn apart the way too many things are these days.

[Related: Latest updates on the Boston Marathon bombings]

Senseless violence. Cowardly acts. Innocent casualties. A murdered 8-year-old. Blood

Adam Scott (L) hugs Angel Cabrera after winning 77th Masters. (Getty Images)AUGUSTA, Ga. – Drenched by rain, drained of emotion, Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera found themselves in a prolonged bear hug on the 10th green of Augusta National, the two golfers patting each other on the back, shouting into each other's ear over the roaring crowd.

Scott had just bested Cabrera on the second playoff hole of these Masters, draining a clutch 12-footer in fast approaching darkness just moments after Cabrera's 15-footer somehow stayed out.

This was more than who won or who lost, however, because someone was going to win and someone was always going to lose. This was the culmination of an epic finale to an otherwise ho-hum (by its high standards) and controversy-filled Masters; two great golfers draining long putts, making daring chips and restoring not just the roar to the Georgia Pines here, but reminding everyone of the camaraderie of competition.

When their mesmerizing duel ended Sunday, there