What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, unless you happen to find the love of your life.
Brett Bielema was living the bachelor life when things suddenly changed for the University of Wisconsin football coach a few years ago while playing blackjack at the Wynn in Las Vegas.
You could say his cards turned up love.
"She was in Vegas with her best friend, who actually was the maid of honor in our wedding," Bielema told SiriusXM Radio's College Sports National channel (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). "And (we) just kind of hit it off from there. Everything kept moving forward and I really have been winning ever since."
Talk about bucking the odds, that woman –- Jennifer Hielsberg –- became Jennifer Bielema after getting married to the Badgers' coach in March. She could be the most important recruit in Wisconsin history.
The 27-year-old bride said geography helped her 42-year-old future husband's pick-up line in Sin City.
"I was with my best friend and her boyfriend at the time. He kind of came up in small talk conversation. 'Where you from? What brings you to Vegas?' When he said he was from Wisconsin, that kind of perked my interest," Jen Bielema told WISC-TV Channel3000.com.
Although Jennifer is from Florida, she says she visited the Badger state often growing up, spending many of her summers in Oshkosh, where her family is from.
By the way, Brett Bielema kept a rather important part of his life a secret from his future bride.
"I didn't even know he played football or that he coached or anything until probably about four months after we met in Vegas. We kind of hit it off and he never really expressed what he did as a profession," Jennifer says.
So it's safe to say she wasn't much of a college football fan before meeting the love of her life.
Aside from keeping secrets, coach Bielema is also a hidden romantic.
"He's so romantic, everything is so genuine with him. He's such a sensitive emotional guy that a lot of people don't see," She said.
In any event, the Wisconsin football coach used a few sports cliches to explain his feelings on marriage.
"In football terms, I outkicked my coverage a hundred times over," Bielema said about his bride. "She is the best south Florida recruit ever. She is out of Tampa. I had to go out of state to get her."
"We are nine weeks and two days into it," Bielema said. "It’s all good."
-- Follow Ben Maller on Twitter @BenMaller.
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