HAWTHORNE, Calif. — No, this is not the place where Super Bowl LVI was won by the Rams, 23-20, in another coin-flip of a football game, the only kind the NFL plays these days. That dateline would be INGLEWOOD, Calif. This is the place where, in a private airport hangar, the Rams celebrated the first [more]
Another quiet week in the NFL. An owner got accused by his former coach of trying to fix games, said coach sued the league for racism, Tom Brady retired, Washington owner Daniel Snyder was accused of pawing a former employee, Doug Pederson got a head-coaching job, a minority coach was finally hired Sunday night, WFT [more]
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A few minutes after the confetti flurried around Matthew Stafford at his new home Sunday night, and it began to sink in that he was going to the Super Bowl, he started thinking of how ridiculous and incredible this situation with the Rams has been. And how lucky he is that he [more]
In 25 hours on the greatest playoff weekend in the 102-year history of professional football, each headline, one by one, overtook the last one:BENGALS KNOCK OFF 1 SEED TO REACH FIRST AFC TITLE GAME SINCE 1988 NINERS KNOCK OFF 1 SEED ON 45-YARD FIELD GOAL AT :00 RODGERS’ FUTURE UNCERTAIN; WON’T SAY IF HE’LL STAY [more]
Saturday will be the 50th start of Jimmy Garoppolo’s San Francisco career. He will be at Lambeau Field, trying to beat the once and probably future MVP in the second weekend of the NFL playoffs.Whatever happens, it’ll be hard to beat this 49er’s 49th start for drama, for lows, for highs, for triumph, for agonizing [more]
I don’t root for outcomes. I root for stories. While watching the end of Pittsburgh-Baltimore, I thought: After the last seven days, with the gauzy Ben Roethlisberger Monday night goodbye, and Carson Wentz spitting the bit and the Colts losing a gimme to Jacksonville, and opening the playoff door for the Steelers, and the Steelers [more]
In the locker room when one of the most dramatic games of this or any NFL season had ended, Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians told his players—all except the most famous former one, Antonio Brown—how proud he was of them.“You’re either with us or against us,” Arians said after the Bucs outscored the Jets 18-0 [more]
NFL 2021, in Omicronland:Last Friday, a robotic NFL Films camera in the Indianapolis Colts quarterback room caught the unvarnished real of this NFL season. NFL Films for the first time is doing an in-season “Hard Knocks” show on HBO every Wednesday night, and this debut series is with the Colts. Last Friday, a few hours [more]
It’s crazy to top this column with this #%&@#$ virus again, but I promise it will be brief.Nobody is clicking on this column to read about this pervasive, crazy, very mild variant of Covid-19. “I swear to you I’m not sick, at all,” said one of those players who has tested positive, and who is [more]
CINCINNATI — “That was a damn playoff game out there,” said George Kittle, still fired up in his John Lennon yellow-tinted sunglasses, in the tunnel of Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday night, an hour after Niners 26, Bengals 23. Overtime.“I mean, every game’s a playoff game these days, right?” he said.We’re in the final month of [more]
With the flightiness of NFL greatness (outside of New England), one of the sport’s oxymoronish phrases is “enduring rivalries.” There is only one that truly endures at the highest level of the game, year after year. Ray Lewis comes, Hines Ward goes. Billick/Cowher out, Harbaugh/Tomlin in. It never changes. The games I’ve covered in this [more]
When the calendar turns to December, we should know the lay of the land in the NFL, right? Of course.Take last year. After 12 weeks, the Steelers were 11-0, the clear number one team in the league. Tampa Bay, on a two-game losing streak with some internal grousing about the dysfunctional offense making the rumor [more]
There was still time for the Bills to come back Sunday in sleety Orchard Park, N.Y., down 24-7 to the Colts early in the third quarter. Indianapolis had the ball, first down at the Buffalo 31, and coach Frank Reich loved this play-action call, and he called it. Incomplete. Penalty. The Colts got pushed out [more]
The key for Patrick Mahomes to be Patrick Mahomes again? To not think the sky is falling.“The last few weeks,” Mahomes said after playing like Mahomes again Sunday night in Kansas City’s 41-14 rout of the reeling Raiders, “motivated me more to come in and work and practice even better. I mean, whenever you’re not [more]
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The consolation for the Raiders after stinking up the Meadowlands on Sunday? The NFL day was filled with good teams stinking on Sunday. Buffalo not scoring a touchdown against the Jaguars. Dallas getting smoked at home by Denver. (When I say “smoked,” I mean down-by-30 smoked.) Colt McCoy slapping around the Niners [more]