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From The Associated Press

Mario Williams dominates as Texans blow out Broncos

HOUSTON—Mario Williams dragged down Jay Cutler for the third time, jumped up and sashayed like a hula dancer.

Last year's No. 1 pick had a career-high 3? sacks to lead the Houston Texans to a 31-13 victory over the Denver Broncos on Thursday night.

With its seventh of the season, Houston tied the franchise record for victories.

Texans (7-7) fans yelled "overrated" when Williams was picked, but chanted his name Thursday as he posed Superman-like with his hands on his hips for several seconds after he took Cutler down for the second time.

Williams performance made him Houston's career sack leader with 17?. He's had a sack in a team-record five straight games and has 13 for the season and nine in the last five games.

His sack of Cutler forced a fourth down and the Broncos went for it, but the pass fell short, giving Houston the ball.

Ron Dayne, who didn't start because of a sore ankle, scored on a 6-yard run on the ensuing drive to push Houston's lead to 17-6. The Texans all seemed amped up for the their first prime time game since 2005 and their first game with the roof open this season.

The normally subdued Dayne, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1999, celebrated his touchdown by striking the Heisman pose.

The Broncos got their second straight big game from receiver Brandon Marshall, who finished with 11 receptions for 107 yards.

Michael Vick asked judge for ‘second chance’

RICHMOND, Va.—Michael Vick declared “I am not the bad person or beast I’ve been made out to be” and asked for leniency in a letter to the federal judge who sentenced him to 23 months in prison for a dogfighting conspiracy.

Vick made his handwritten plea from jail as he awaited Monday’s sentencing by Judge Henry E. Hudson. His five-page letter and several others from Vick supporters, including baseball great Hank Aaron and former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, were released by the U.S. District Court in Richmond on Thursday.

“I take full responsibility for my actions and am ashamed that my actions hurt animals and allowed animals to be hurt and killed,” Vick wrote. “Your Honor, I just ask for a second chance.”

The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback’s appeal wasn’t enough to overcome Hudson’s finding that Vick lied at various times about his hands-on role in helping kill pit bulls and about his marijuana use, which was detected by a drug screening. Hudson cited those lapses in giving Vick a longer sentence than two fellow defendants, who previously were sentenced to 18 months and 21 months.

Vick said he’s an animal lover but that he grew up in a culture where dogfighting went unpunished while people were arrested for guns or drugs. His mother, Brenda Boddie, also alluded to Vick’s upbringing in a rough area of Newport News in her letter to the judge.

“Michael could have easily followed the wrong crowd but he chose to make something out of himself and he got his family out of the projects,” she wrote. “Michael has had a lot on his shoulders since he was around 14 yrs old, working hard to get where he wanted to be.”

Vick said he now knows his actions were wrong.

Petrino leaves behind bitter team

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga.—Arthur Blank looked at the sign on the wall, the one that Bobby Petrino put up in the team meeting room after he was hired to coach the Atlanta Falcons.

It lists the traits Petrino wanted out of his players, wrapping up with a most telling word:

Finish.

“I don’t think quitting after 13 games is equal to the word ‘Finish,’” Blank said, not even bothering to hide his sarcasm.

The owner of the Falcons wasn’t the only one who felt betrayed after Petrino skipped town with three games left in his first season as an NFL head coach.

The guys who were playing for Petrino less than 48 hours earlier arrived at the Falcons’ suburban training complex Wednesday to find an 86-word farewell from their ex-leader, who bailed on a 3-10 season to take the coaching job at Arkansas.

That was it. No face-to-face meeting. No phone calls. Just a short letter that had all the warmth of a credit-card solicitation.

“I feel like I’ve been sleeping with the enemy,” safety Lawyer Milloy griped.

The Falcons watched Petrino on television the previous day, yukking it up at a giddy, late-night news conference in Arkansas, then unloaded on him for the way he abandoned the team. Words like “quitter” and “coward” flowed easily off everyone’s lips, from outspoken players such as DeAngelo Hall to the mild-mannered ones like Warrick Dunn.

While the aloof Petrino made few friends in the locker room—and there was actually a sense of relief he was gone—no one expected him to leave before the season was done. All he left behind was that letter.

Rodriguez finalizes $275M deal with Yankees

NEW YORK—Alex Rodriguez set another record for baseball’s highest contract, finalizing his $275 million, 10-year agreement with the New York Yankees on Thursday.

Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said New York would not negotiate further with Rodriguez because his decision eliminated the $21.3 million subsidy the Yankees were to receive from Texas from 2008-10, a figure negotiated at the time of the trade.

But Rodriguez then approached the Yankees through a managing director at Goldman Sachs and negotiated his new deal in early November without agent Scott Boras.

“It seemed like the whole thing was a roller-coaster. It was very emotional,” Rodriguez said on a conference call. “All along, I knew I wanted to be a Yankee.”

Rodriguez said opting out was “a mistake that was handled extremely poorly.”

“It was a huge debacle,” he said, calling the timing “distasteful and very inappropriate.”

Tiger plays rust-free until the final hole

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.—Tiger Woods went 10 weeks and four days without hitting a golf shot that mattered, and it hardly showed Thursday in the Target World Challenge when he struck just about everything where he was aiming.

Until he got to the final hole.

Woods pulled his approach into the hazard on the 18th hole to finish with a double bogey for a 3-under 69, leaving him in a pack of players one shot behind Jim Furyk in the final tournament of the year.

“It’s frustrating the way it ended, no doubt, because it was a good round of golf,” Woods said.

The only regrets were failing to birdie two par 5s on the back nine at Sherwood Country Club because of poor pitches, and making a mess of the final hole. Otherwise, he figures his first competitive round since Sunday at the Presidents Cup could have been a 65 without too much stress.

But that’s true for many of the 16 players invited to this year-end bonanza.