Emmitt's odds, Romo and Jessica Simpson?, more

                    

	Is Tony Romo Jessica Simpson's new man? Getty Images
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Sitting in Emmitt Smith's dressing room almost two months ago, when he first began his run to the finals of Dancing with the Stars, I could tell the NFL's rushing leader wasn't going to get eliminated anytime soon.

"Before the show started I practiced three hours a day for five weeks," he told me as he stretched out. "I compared it to preseason, where I was training for a month and preparing for that first game."

While I expected Smith to outlast the likes of Jerry Springer and Tucker Carlson, it is somewhat surprising to see Smith, after receiving a couple of perfect scores in the samba and mambo on Tuesday, heading into the season finale as the favorite to win the competition. In fact, he's the odds-on favorite to take home the prize according to the Internet's largest sports betting site.

"We initially saw support for Emmitt Smith begin to swell in the last week when we received several $300 maximum limit bets on the former Super Bowl winner," said Simon Noble of PinnacleSports.com. "Although customers weren't backing him nearly as much as when betting opened, Lopez remained our favorite to win Dancing with the Stars until recently, mainly because of his superior dancing skills. While he may not have the better moves of the two finalists, Emmitt Smith certainly has the charisma to win over America's vote and add the dancing crown to his three Super Bowl rings."

• It didn't take long for Tony Romo to live up to the comparisons to Tom Brady. Not necessarily on the field, but in the rumor mill. After recently mentioning that he was single and had a thing for Jessica Simpson, rumors abound last week that Romo's people (yes, he has "people" now) were contacted by Simpson's people about a possible meeting or, dare we say, date. When Terrell Owens was asked on his radio show about the possibility of his quarterback dating Simpson, Owens joked, "Maybe we can double date and I can go out with Ashlee."

• The day after Denise Richards infamously threw a laptop over the balcony of the River Rock Casino in Canada after a confrontation with a photographer, Pamela Anderson was far kinder to Scott Ackles, the vice president of operation for the CFL's British Columbia Lions, when they spoke at the hotel. Anderson, who is co-starring in the film Blonder and Blonder with Richards, was the grand marshall of last year's Grey Cup Parade in Vancouver and requested some Lions gear for her sons on the eve of B.C.'s Western Final game against Saskatchewan. Not only did Ackles personally deliver the gear but he invited Anderson and her sons to watch the game (won by the Lions 45-18) in owner David Braley's suite. Anderson accepted and was spotted cheering on the Lions while downing Molsons in the suite last Sunday.