PHOENIX — NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith wants to get rid of the NFL scouting combine, he said Wednesday during the players association’s annual Super Bowl news conference.
Smith shared his desire to abolish the combine and instead establish regional pro days, potentially put on by the NFLPA. The response came after he was asked about NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent comparing the combine to a “slave auction” during league meetings in December.
“Think about it … the NCAA and the NFL structure a combine during what should be every football player’s what? Last semester in college,” Smith said. “Who decided that it was a good idea to take your son and have him exclusively try out for the NFL’s exclusive way of getting into the league — for the most part, unless you’re a free-agent player? You have to be invited to the combine.
“As soon as you show up, you have to waive all of your medical rights and you not only have to sit there and endure embarrassing questions. And I think that’s horrible, and I don’t wanna pooh pooh any of that, but would you want your son to spend hours inside of an MRI [machine] and then be evaluated by 32 separate team doctors who are, by the way, are only doing it for one reason? What’s the reason? To decrease your draft value.”
Smith was staunch in his support of prospects not needing to surrender their medical rights as part of the combine process.
“It’s gotta start with players and their agents understanding that the combine today has nothing to do with how fast you run, how high you jump, and how much you can lift,” Smith said.
Smith said the NFL doesn’t need a combine to evaluate the physical traits of a prospect.
“We’ve been tracking all of these players since they were in what? Grade school,” Smith said. “If I asked you right now to pull up a high school video of the top draft picks, how long would it take you to do it?”
A response of “30 seconds” was shouted.
“Right. So, we’re now in an era where we know exactly how fast these guys can run, how much they can lift, how far they can jump, do all of those things. Why do we insist on them showing up in Indianapolis? It’s not for anything physical, right? It’s for the teams to be able to engage in intrusive employment actions that don’t exist anywhere else.”
When the A’s left for Oakland, Calif., Toma joined the Royals, an expansion team. He worked for the Chiefs after they moved to Kansas City from Dallas in 1963 and readied fields for Olympic Games, soccer World Cups and N.F.L. games overseas. He was called on to repair distressed fields at Candlestick Park in San Francisco and Soldier Field in Chicago. When the New Orleans Saints played at Louisiana State University after Hurricane Katrina, Toma brought in airboats and used their large propellers to dry the paint in the end zones.
The Super Bowl, though, has been his greatest challenge because of its high visibility. At the Super Bowl for the 1990 season in Tampa, Fla., Toma and his crew planted seed to repair the field after a college bowl game. The grass started to fill in, but was then torn up by the Giants and Bills, who practiced there the day before the game. So Toma took grass from a practice field at the University of Tampa and planted and painted it overnight.
“He is the energizer bunny,” said Ed Mangan, Toma’s successor as head Super Bowl groundskeeper. “I mean, he just never stops, he is going all the time.”
At the Super Bowl for the 1978 season at the Orange Bowl in Miami, a 120-yard tarp was pulled on the field just before the halftime show. But it was rolled out unevenly, and one end protruded past the goal post. Toma asked if anyone had a knife so he could cut away a part of the tarp to make it fit. Several fans volunteered theirs.
The next season, for the Super Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., Toma and his crew had to remove 800 gallons of paint that had been applied to the field for the Rose Bowl. They dug up the end zones, the sidelines and much of midfield and planted new seed. Unfortunately, heavy rain the week before the game prevented the grass from taking hold, leaving piles of seeds in the end zones.
If you spend eight decades toiling to create perfect carpets of grass, eventually time forces you to hand the responsibility to somebody else. But that doesn’t mean you stop caring.
Just about every Sunday, as the Kansas City groundskeeper Travis Hogan watches the game from the west end zone at Arrowhead Stadium, his phone will ring, and he’ll see Toma’s name come up.
After three-plus tumultuous years and a second trade request in eight months, the Brooklyn Nets traded All-NBA forward Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns for a package that includes dynamic forward Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder and four unprotected future first-round picks, sources told ESPN on Wednesday night.
In a deal that landed in the late-night hours ahead of Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, Durant and T.J. Warren were shuttled to the Suns for a massive haul of first-round draft picks (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029) and a 2028 pick swap, sources said.
Talks had progressed and stalled, and the Suns appeared to be pivoting toward a three-way deal that might’ve landed them Atlanta‘s John Collins sometime Thursday morning, sources said. On the direction of his new owner, Mat Ishbia, general manager James Jones texted Nets GM Sean Marks sometime after 11 p.m. ET — and it wouldn’t be long until Ishbia and Nets owner Joe Tsai had cobbled together the final elements of the blockbuster trade, sources said.
The deal delivers Durant to the desert to partner with Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton — and ends the great superstar experiment in Brooklyn. Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden all arrived to conquer the NBA together, and all left on the muscle of trade requests. They played a total of 16 games together.
After shouldering a massive role in the dysfunction that ultimately deconstructed the roster, Irving was traded to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, and that started the final days and hours of Durant as a Net. The two-time Finals MVP has been sidelined by an MCL sprain in his right knee, but sources said there is optimism he will be ready to return after the All-Star break.
Durant and his business manager, Rich Kleiman, told Tsai and Marks that their preference was a deal to Phoenix, sources said. Ishbia knew of Durant’s desire to join his franchise and set out to acquire the superstar in his first official week overseeing the organization. Few franchises ever get a chance to trade for a star like Durant — something this organization hadn’t experienced since making a deal for Charles Barkley in 1992.
Ishbia’s initial hope was to keep Bridges out of the trade, but that was a non-starter for the Nets. The Suns’ offers weren’t close to the Nets’ asking price on Monday and Tuesday, and Marks kept working on possible trades to bolster the roster around Durant. The Nets pursued OG Anunoby in Toronto, and discussed possible deals for Collins and Cleveland‘s Caris LeVert, but Durant’s mood was unsettled and Brooklyn knew it had to push Phoenix to make the kind of offer it couldn’t refuse.
The Suns had been talking with Detroit about the possibility of acquiring Collins in a three-way deal with Atlanta, but Ishbia wouldn’t call it a night without making one more run at Durant.
Once the Suns were willing to move Dario Saric‘s contract out of the deal — and spare themselves surrendering second-round picks to account for his salary — the teams were on the cusp of an agreement, sources said.
Brooklyn believes it has a chance to move Crowder onto a contender before Thursday’s deadline, and with that there existed the shape of a deal that made sense to the Nets.
The Suns paid a steep price for Durant, but this is a franchise that has never won a championship and decided to take its shot with Durant, 34, who is under contract for three more years. Ishbia, once a walk-on under Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State, promised to give Suns coach Monty Williams the talent to chase a championship, and he did it with the Durant deal.
The Nets probably weren’t good enough to win a title this season — nor were they good enough to stave off another trade request from Durant. After surrendering several first-round picks to the Houston Rockets for Harden in 2021, Brooklyn has made itself whole again by acquiring picks in trades that offloaded Durant, Irving and Harden: seven tradable first-rounders over the next seven years. Brooklyn still owes Houston its first-round picks in 2024 and 2026, and the Rockets have the right to swap first-rounders in 2025 and 2027.
Brooklyn has shown itself to be a scouting and player development machine over the regime of Marks and assistant GM Jeff Peterson, and that’ll be the mantra again with Jacque Vaughn as head coach. The Nets had hoped they could get Durant to stay the course, but he wanted to go West — and wanted the Suns.
Finally on Wednesday night, Ishbia wouldn’t go to bed, and had his GM make one more run at a deal with Brooklyn. It worked. The Suns got Durant, and the NBA trade deadline was alive in the wee hours of the night.
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns pulled a midnight blockbuster on Wednesday, acquiring 13-time All-Star Kevin Durant from the Brooklyn Nets, according to multiple reports.
The outlets, citing unnamed sources, said the Suns added Durant to a starting lineup that already includes an All-Star backcourt of Chris Paul and Devin Booker, along with center Deandre Ayton.
Phoenix sent Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks and additional draft compensation to the Nets.
The Suns also receive forward T.J. Warren in the deal.
The 34-year-old Durant is still playing at an elite level, averaging nearly 30 points per game this season. Durant and the Suns were linked to trade rumors over the past summer, but nothing materialized until Wednesday.
The trade comes just hours after new Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia was introduced in Phoenix. The self-described basketball nut, who was a walk-on at Michigan State under Tom Izzo, didn’t waste any time shaking up the NBA.
Phoenix has never won an NBA championship. The Suns made the Finals two seasons ago, but lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games. They also played in the Finals in 1976 and 1993.
The quartet of Durant, Paul, Booker and Ayton appears to immediately turn the franchise into title contenders again.
The Suns have had several injuries this season, but played better in recent weeks. They jumped to fifth in the Western Conference with a 30-26 record. Booker (groin) and Paul (hip) have both recently returned.
Durant is currently recovering from a ligament strain in his right knee, but is expected to return soon.
When former Nets teammate Kyrie Irving heard the news, he said: “I’m just glad that he got out of there.”
The Nets recently traded Irving to the Dallas Mavericks, where he’ll pair with Luka Doncic as another top team in the Western Conference. Irving scored 24 points in his Mavs debut against the Clippers on Wednesday.
“We had a lot of conversations throughout the year of what our futures were going to look like,” Irving said. “There was still a level of uncertainty but we just cared about seeing each other be places that we can thrive. Whether that be together or whether that be apart, there has never been one moment where I’ve felt like he’s been angry at me for the decisions I’ve made or I’ve been angry at him.
“I just love the competition now that we can be in the same conference.”
___
AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
The T20 World Cup is back with England hoping to end Australia’s dominance.
Since the first edition in 2009, England have reached three finals without any success, while Australia have won five of the seven toururnament, including the last two in 2018 and 2020.
India, New Zealand and hosts South Africa will hope to lift their first World Cup title, while West Indies will harbour hopes of clinching a second after beating Australia in the 2016 showpiece.
South Africa open the tournament against Sri Lanka in Cape Town on Friday, with England playing their first match on Saturday in Paarl against West Indies, before Australia take on neighbours New Zealand at the same stadium.
Sky Sports takes a look through the contenders for this year’s World Cup…
England
England came up short in the big events last year, losing to Australia in the final of the 50-over World Cup and then suffering a semi-final exit to India at the Commonwealth Games.
The new year presents new opportunities under a new coach, after Jon Lewis took over from Lisa Keightley before the West Indies tour towards the end of the year.
Image: Sophie Eccelstone had an impressive 2022 and will be key for England in South Africa. Pic CWI Media
There is a real buzz around the young England side, with Sophie Ecclestone, Alice Capsey, Sophia Dunkley and Lauren Bell established names in the T20 format.
Ecclestone made her debut as a 17-year-old and has gone on to to become one of the best bowlers in white-ball cricket. Handy with the bat lower down the order, she will be a key player for England this year.
With the bat, England have a mix of experience and youth and will be boosted by the inclusion of Alice Capsey, who has nailed down a spot at number three and recovered from a dislocated shoulder in time for the World Cup.
The World Cup might come a bit too soon for England’s young side, but going in as underdogs might suit them. They will expect to get past the group stages as a minimum.
Squad: Heather Knight (captain), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Freya Davies, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Katherine Sciver-Brunt, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Danni Wyatt
Reserves: Issy Wong and Dani Gibson
Image: Australian won their fifth T20 World Cup in 2020
Australia
The standout favourites for the T20 World Cup once again, Australia have dominated women’s cricket in recent years.
The generational side won another World Cup last year, to add to a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and an Ashes win to cap off another successful 12 months.
Australia were unbeaten through the ODI World Cup and have shown little signs of losing their aura.
Wins throughout the year against England and India showed their continued superiority in the women’s game and with Meg Lanning back after taking an indefinite break and leg-spinner Georgia Wareham included after a lengthy injury lay off, Australia arrive in South Africa in a confident mood.
Image: India had a mixed 2022 and fell short during the Commonwealth Games
India
The runners-up at the previous T20 World Cup, India are still searching for their maiden world title.
They are in a tough group alongside England, the West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland, with an opening match against bitter rivals Pakistan on February 12 in Cape Town.
Last year was a mixed year for India’s women. They beat Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup, but lost the December home series against Australia 4-1 and were narrowly beaten by England in October’s three-match series.
India’s group match against England will have some added bite to it after the last match between the two sides ended with a controversial Mankad wicket, that led to a war of words between both camps.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The last time England played India, the match ended in controversial fashion
Harmanpreet Kaur will lead India’s side, her third successive World Cup as captain.
Smriti Mandhana has been appointed as vice-captain, after she impressed recently at the top of the order.
India welcome back Shikha Pandey after the bowler was selected in the shortest format after more than a year, while Pooka Vastrkar is included despite fitness concerns.
Kaur’s side are among the favourites and will hope to go one better than the 2020 edition of the tournament.
New Zealand are outsiders going into the World Cup in South Africa, but head coach Ben Sawyer isn’t ruling his side out.
In November 2020, Sawyer said his team have “put together a blueprint of how we want to play” and with veteran skipper Sophie Devine leading the side once again, New Zealand will believe they can spring some surprises at the World Cup.
Devine is joined in the squad by regulars Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Maddy Green and Hayley Jensen, while experienced wicketkeeper-batter Jess McFadyen could be in line for a debut after she was included as a replacement for Izzy Gaze.
Image: New Zealand had an impressive 2022, losing just three T20s
New Zealand beat England to the bronze medal during the Commonwealth Games but finished third from bottom in their World Cup group. They also won a T20 series against Bangladesh at home and against West Indies away.
Overall, New Zealand only lost three of their 14 T20 matches in 2022 and go into the World Cup in good form.
Squad: Sophie Devine (captain), Suzie Bates, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Eden Carson, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Fran Jonas, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu.
Could West Indies and South Africa break Australia’s dominance?
The West Indies aren’t the same side that reached four semi-finals and a final at previous editions of the World Cup and were dominated by England in the recent series on home soil.
South Africa’s best finishes came in 2020 and 2014, when they reached the semi-finals but will have home advantage on their side although are without regular captain Dane van Niekerk, who failed to “meet the minimum criteria for fitness”.
Both sides are capable of springing surprises and will need to be closely watched during the tournament.
The Nets have agreed to trade Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns for a package of players and first-round picks, according to a person familiar with the deal who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The deal comes just days after the Nets traded their star guard Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.
In exchange for Durant, the Nets will receive the forwards Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson and Jae Crowder, along with four first-round draft picks and the right to swap another pick. The Suns will also receive Nets forward T.J. Warren.
U.S. women’s national team forward Alex Morgan spoke out against FIFA possibly bringing on Visit Saudi — the official tourism authority for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia — as a sponsor of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the SheBelieves Cup, which the USWNT is participating in alongside Brazil, Canada and Japan, Morgan said she found the news “bizarre.”
“I think it’s bizarre that FIFA has looked to have a Visit Saudi sponsorship for the Women’s World Cup when I, myself, Alex Morgan, would not even be supported and accepted in that country,” she said. “I just don’t understand it.”
Teammate Taylor Kornieck added: “We obviously can’t control who FIFA partners with. But at the end of the day, U.S. Soccer, we believe in partnering with people who align with our values best.”
Reports about FIFA possibly bringing on Visit Saudi as a Women’s World Cup sponsor emerged almost a week ago. The move was made without consulting the footballing authorities in either of the host nations, Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand Football issued a statement to Reuters which said: “If these reports prove correct, we are shocked and disappointed to hear this as New Zealand Football haven’t been consulted by FIFA at all on this matter. As FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 co-hosts, New Zealand Football and Football Australia have jointly written to FIFA to urgently clarify the situation.”
Human rights groups have also decried the possibility of Visit Saudi being brought on board.
“It would be quite the irony for Saudi’s tourism body to sponsor the largest celebration of women’s sport in the world when you consider that, as a woman in Saudi Arabia, you can’t even have a job without the permission of your male guardian,” Amnesty International campaigner Nikita White said in a statement.
Morgan hit out at the fact that Saudi Arabia’s women’s national team isn’t even ranked by FIFA due to the fact that it hasn’t played enough games, and that the Saudis’ support for the women’s game would be better served by investing in that team.
“I really hope that FIFA does the right thing,” she said. “I mean, pretty much everyone has spoken out against [the proposed sponsorship] because morally it just doesn’t make sense.”
Morgan also voiced support for teammate Becky Sauerbrunn, who wrote an op-ed earlier this week opposing legislation in Missouri that would restrict transgender girls from taking part in girls’ sports.
Sauerbrunn described the proposed bill as “hateful” for “targeting transgender athletes here in Missouri.”
“Everyone should have the ability to play sport,” Morgan said. “And the fact that it’s being taken into politics so big is really sad. And I think it’s at the cost of trans kids’ life. It’s really sad and I feel like what Becky said was great.
“For this team, we’ve always been very vocal with where we stand and I think we’ll continue to do that. But looking at these games in Florida and Texas, respectively, we’re going to need to continue to step it up and have internal discussions as well with the team because we’re not ones to shy away from hard conversation or taking a stand for what’s right.”
PHOENIX — Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was named the NFLPA Alan Page Community Award winner Wednesday for his work raising more than $9 million for his Chasing M’s Foundation in the days after he collapsed on the field during a Jan. 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hamlin took the stage with his parents during a news conference at the Phoenix Convention Center to accept the trophy that accompanied the award.
“Giving back to my community has always been a big part of who I am,” Hamlin said. “I’m thankful to my father, who’s right here behind me. Growing up, just watching him do community days in our community, and I just always was waiting on my time when it came.”
For winning the award, Hamlin’s foundation received a $100,000 donation.
“He is not only an individual who has overcome a tremendous amount, he’s not only a person who reminds us just how dangerous this game is, but also the spirit, the love, the joy, the fraternity of people who play this game,” said Demaurice Smith, NFLPA executive director.
The millions in donations went to the GoFundMe for Hamlin’s Chasing M’s Foundation, which initially had a goal of $2,500 that he set in December 2020 for a toy drive in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, while he was still at the University of Pittsburgh.
Hamlin was dressed in a red suit, with a white dress shirt underneath with an open collar, and white sneakers. He walked to the podium followed by his parents, Mario and Nina, as a video of Alan Page congratulating Hamlin played in the background.
“One of my favorite quotes: It’s a blessing to be a blessing,” Hamlin said. “With that being said, I plan to never take this position for granted and always have an urgent approach in making a difference in the community where I come from and also communities across the world.”
Hamlin went into cardiac arrest in the first quarter of the Bills’ Week 17 game at Cincinnati. The game was postponed and ultimately canceled. Hamlin stayed at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for almost a week after the medical emergency. He then flew back to Buffalo, New York, and spent about two days at Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute before being discharged Jan. 11.
During an appearance Wednesday on SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio program “Heart to Heart,” NFL Players Association Medical Director Thom Mayer was asked if Hamlin would ever play again.
Dr. Mayer replied, “I don’t want to get into HIPAA issues, but I guarantee you that Damar Hamlin will play professional football again.”
Smith, responding to Mayer’s comment, said in a statement to multiple outlets, “Damar’s recovery has been remarkable but any decision about his football future will be made by Damar and his family. Obviously, any decision and message about his return to football will come from him on his own time.”
ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.
BOSTON — With three of Boston’s regular starters out — and Jaylen Brown soon to join them — Malcolm Brogdon and Derrick White scored 19 points apiece to lead the Celtics to a 106-99 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.
Jayson Tatum had 12 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for Boston, which won for the fourth time in five games to add to the NBA’s best record (39-16). The 76ers (34-19) are second in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference, having lost both matchups with the Celtics this season.
Joel Embiid scored 28 points and James Harden added 26 points and 11 assists for the Sixers, who lost their second game in a row. They had won nine of their previous 11.
Marcus Smart, Robert Williams III and Al Horford all missed the game with injuries. Blake Griffin got the start and hit five 3-pointers for a season-high 15 points, and Grant Williams scored 15 points and added eight rebounds.
The Celtics led 98-87 midway through the fourth quarter before Matisse Thybulle and Harden hit back-to-back 3-pointers to key an 8-0 run.
With about three minutes left and Boston inbounding the ball with 0.5 seconds on the shot clock, White found Luke Kornet for the alley-oop, then White hit a 3-pointer the next time down as the Celtics pulled away.
BROWN OUT
Brown, who missed the previous game with a non-COVID illness, left the game after colliding with Tatum under the basket when they were both going for an offensive rebound.
Brown appeared to take Tatum’s elbow in the left side of his head. He went to the floor and was slow to get up; when he did, he went straight to the locker room, rubbing his left eye and temple.
The team announced at the start of the third quarter that he had a facial contusion and would not return.
TIP-INS
The Celtics were without Al Horford (swollen right knee), Robert Williams III (sprained left ankle) and Marcus Smart (sprained right ankle). The No. 9 Duke women’s basketball team attended the game, a night before they are scheduled to play Boston College. Duke coach Kara Lawson spent 2020 as a Celtics assistant. … Griffin’s season-highs had been three 3-pointers made and 13 points. … Embiid picked up a technical foul in the second quarter.
UP NEXT
76ers: Host the Knicks on Friday.
Celtics: Host Charlotte on Friday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Microsoft is in talks to buy Activision Blizzard, in a deal reportedly worth over £55bn; Activision produces popular titles including Call of Duty; the game developer is also one of the largest in the esports market.
By Amar Mehta
Last Updated: 08/02/23 11:28pm
Call of Duty is Activision’s marquee title
Microsoft’s attempt to buy Activision Blizzard has hit a snag after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the $68.7bn (£56.7bn) deal could impact UK gamers.
The UK competition regulator published its provisional findings after a five-month investigation into the deal and said the merger could result in higher prices, fewer choices or less innovation for gamers.
The CMA said it could make Microsoft stronger and stifle competition, harming the rivalry between its hallmark console, the Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation.
Activision produces a number of video games, including Call of Duty, and opponents to the merger raised concerns from rivals, claiming it could see their access to the popular franchise restricted – something Microsoft has denied.
The CMA said it found that buying one of the world’s most well-known and biggest game publishers would reinforce Microsoft’s position in the market and subsequently reduce the competition that Microsoft would otherwise face.
The video game developer also makes popular esports games and is one of the biggest names in the market.
The California-headquartered company boasts the Skylanders, Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk games as its titles.
Microsoft committed to ‘100 per cent equal access’
The competition watchdog said it has written to the parties involved with a notice of possible remedies for addressing its provisional concerns, and has asked for a response by February 22, ahead of the publication of the CMA’s full report on April 26.
Martin Coleman, chair of the independent panel of experts conducting the investigation into the deal, said: “It’s been estimated that there are around 45m gamers in the UK, and people in the UK spend more on gaming than any other form of entertainment including music, movies, TV and books.
“Strong competition between Xbox and PlayStation has defined the console gaming market over the last 20 years. Exciting new developments in cloud gaming are giving gamers even more choice.”
In response, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Rima Alaily, said: “We are committed to offering effective and easily enforceable solutions that address the CMA’s concerns.
“Our commitment to grant long-term 100 per cent equal access to Call Of Duty to Sony, Nintendo, Steam and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market.
“Seventy-five per cent of respondents to the CMA’s public consultation agree that this deal is good for competition in UK gaming.”
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Brothers Jason and Travis Kelce didn’t know if this whole podcast thing was a good idea at first.
They had been rolling around the thought of launching “New Heights” for a couple of years, but had reservations. What if it’s a distraction? What if it’s viewed as something that’s taking away from the team or our preparation? And the big one: What if the season goes poorly? How bad of a look would that be?
“Luckily, that hasn’t happened,” Jason said.
The opposite has happened. The season couldn’t have gone better for either one of them. The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles both went 14-3, earned the No. 1 seed in their respective conferences, and advanced to Super Bowl LVII (6:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Fox) — or the “Kelce Bowl,” as some are calling it.
“My mom can’t lose,” Travis said. “It’s going to be an amazing feeling playing against him … You won’t see me talking too much trash because of how much respect and how much I love my brother. But it’s definitely going to be an emotional game.”
Normally, Jason and Travis would go months without speaking to each other in-season because they’re both caught up in their own day-to-day responsibilities. “New Heights” made them talk to each other every week, adding to the special feel of this season.
The viewing public, meanwhile, has gotten a taste of the brothers’ larger-than-life personalities. We’ve learned about their next-level sibling rivalry growing up, where one-on-one basketball games morphed into fisticuffs. We’ve also heard about their contrasting sense of style — more specifically, that Travis has one, and Jason doesn’t.
And it has shown, for all their differences, they head into the biggest game of their lives — of their family’s lives — on the same plane.
“When you get to a certain point being brothers, it becomes more of a pure relationship,” Jason said. “I’m no longer telling him what to do or showing him the ropes or trying to offer guidance as an older brother, now it’s more as just a friend.”
“We get to genuinely just enjoy each other’s personalities and who we are as individuals,” he added. “And I think that makes it fun.” — Tim McManus
ANDY REID IS in a unique position when it comes to the Kelce brothers. He coached Jason for two seasons with the Eagles and has coached Travis for the past 10 with the Chiefs. Reid was head coach when the Eagles drafted Jason in the sixth round of the 2011 draft and was a big reason why the Chiefs took Travis in the third round of the 2013 draft.
“I have invested time in both those two, so I feel like I am part of the family,” Reid said.
Because he coached Jason, the older of the Kelce brothers by two years, Reid built a relationship with Travis even before he reached the NFL. Travis would be an occasional visitor to the Eagles’ practice facility while in college at the University of Cincinnati.
Reid took in a game between Cincinnati and Temple in the fall of 2012, when Travis was a redshirt senior. That’s when he decided he wanted the tight end to play for him. Reid was fired by the Eagles after a 4-12 season and joined the Chiefs in January 2013.
“I thought watching him at Cincinnati that this kid had a chance to be something special,” Reid said. “I remember he was a bigger guy but so smooth. He had that swagger. I remember thinking, ‘This guy would be great in the offense that we run.’”
Reid said it’s easy for him to see the similarities between the Kelces that make them brothers.
“They’re both, at heart, very competitive and compassionate,” Reid said. “They care and they care about people and they care about their game, their trade.
“[There is] a good relationship between the two of them. I think Travis has grown up a lot. I think Jason came in probably more mature, big brother, and Travis was a little more immature, but he has really grown.” — Adam Teicher
ALEX QUINTANA PAUSED and laughed as he considered the question.
For as many similarities that obviously exist between the Kelce brothers, what are some of the biggest differences?
“Well,” the Cleveland Heights barber said, “Jason never cut school to get a haircut.”
Quintana met the Kelces as middle schoolers on a lacrosse team his brother coached and offered to cut their hair. While Jason made the trip into Quintana’s shop every couple of months, the barber remembers Travis charming the high school security guard and slipping out during school hours to get a fresh cut every couple of weeks, most often before football games. Sometimes, Travis nearly collided with his coach during those midday excursions.
“He’d come in and I’d be like, ‘Travis, your haircut isn’t for a couple hours,’” Quintana remembered. “And he’s like, ‘Oh, it’s game day, so we get out half a day.’ I’d say, ‘Hey, you know, Coach is coming by in about half an hour because he’s getting a haircut?’”
Suddenly, Travis would have to get back to class, reappearing in Quintana’s chair a couple of hours later. It was the kind of dance that kept Quintana laughing and marveling at the difference between the brothers.
“Jason is just much more introspective,” Quintana said. “His eyes look into you. He’s a thinker. He’s always in deep thoughts. He doesn’t talk just to talk. … Travis, on the other hand, he’s looking how he can make you laugh. His eyes are just kind of always in a smile mode. He’s a little bit of a goofball.”
Neither brother paid for their haircuts out of pocket, and instead, their dad, Ed, came in every couple of months to pay their running tab.
Even after the pair graduated and moved on to Cincinnati and later the NFL, they kept in touch with Quintana and visited the barbershop, now expanded to Quintana’s Barber and Dream Spa with a bonus covert speakeasy, on trips back home.
While Quintana will be at the Super Bowl in Arizona, he and his wife helped organize efforts to distribute thousands of green, red and yellow bulbs to the area for another “Light Up the Heights” campaign, encouraging people and businesses in the community to turn on their porch lights Sunday night to show support for the Kelces.
“We’re going to be able to see this suburb from space,” Quintana said. “Whatever jersey they’re wearing, we’re Kelce fans.
“… You never know who your client is going to become. Never in a million years would we have been able to say that’s what the Kelces were going to do.” — Brooke Pryor
play
0:59
Donna Kelce brings Jason and Travis some cookies during interview
While doing their Super Bowl interview, Jason and Travis Kelce’s mother stops by with some cookies for them.
TONY PIKE IS still waiting for a thank-you note from Travis Kelce.
If not for him, Pike said, Travis might not have discovered his true calling as a tight end.
Pike was a redshirt junior quarterback for the Cincinnati Bearcats when Travis arrived on campus in 2008 as an otherworldly athletic prospect. Kerry Coombs, a longtime Cincinnati assistant, remembers being alerted to the younger Kelce by the school’s basketball staff after they spotted him at an AAU event on campus.
“They pulled him up to play against the UC players,” Coombs said. “They were like, you gotta look at this kid. And so we did, and we offered him. It had nothing to do with him being Jason’s brother. We didn’t think he’d be a quarterback, although we recruited him as such.
“He was such a special athlete. That fearless nature, being on the court with the college team and having no hesitance going out there and banging around and playing and ‘Give me the ball and get out of my way.’ Just one of those personalities.”
After taking a redshirt year, Travis competed with Pike for the starting quarterback job in 2009, and Pike won.
“I’ve never really received a thank you from Travis for beating him out at quarterback, so he had to move the tight end,” said Pike, who was the incumbent in the 2009 competition. “Now he is the best tight end to play.”
The coaching staff, led by Brian Kelly, still wanted to utilize Travis’ versatility, so they found packages for him as a Wildcat quarterback, starting his transition away from a full-time signal-caller to a Swiss Army knife offensive option. After a yearlong suspension for a violation of team rules in 2010, Travis rejoined the Bearcats’ program as a tight end under coach Butch Jones. More than a decade later, he’s the gold standard at the position.
And maybe, Pike joked, that’s because he beat out Kelce for the quarterback job more than a decade ago.
“At this point it’s all I got to hold on to,” Pike said. “I’m going to hold onto that, and I’m going to hitch my wagon to know that once Travis moved to that tight end position, I could have played a small role for him.” — Pryor
COOMBS WATCHED AS a helmet flew into the bleachers during a Bearcats practice.
Jason was livid, and everyone was going to know about it.
“He had a temperament about him that was no nonsense,” Coombs said. “I remember vividly him getting really pissed off at another guy on the offensive side of the ball and ripping his helmet off and throwing it, I think, into the 43rd row of the bleachers.
“I’d never seen anybody throw a helmet as far as Jason. And he was just a guy, nobody was going to cross him. He was in charge, and when he spoke, everybody got quiet. There were a lot of dominant personalities on that team, but Jason was one of the most dominant kids that you met right from the outset, and you felt him.”
Though Coombs was never either brother’s position coach, he developed a tight bond with Travis and Jason. Opposites in their approach to practice, the Kelce brothers shared a magnetic quality that endeared them to coaches and teammates.
Travis arrived on campus during Jason’s redshirt junior season in 2008, and the team quickly got a taste of the Kelce brotherhood.
“They made me a better coach,” Coombs said. “They made me a better man. They challenged me. That doesn’t happen very often with players that you coach and that’s how I feel about them.”
It was Jason, along with Coombs, who were Travis’ strongest advocates to get him reinstated after a year-long suspension for violating team rules at Cincinnati.
“[Jason] understood that Travis made some bad decisions and that it wasn’t anything that he hurt someone else, he was hurting himself more than anyone else,” Donna Kelce said. “And he knew that one bad act isn’t the measure of who [Travis] was as a human being. He was a very loving individual, he was very loyal to his friends, he helped individuals as much as he could, he liked to help out the community, he did whatever he needed to do. But sometimes kids make bad decisions, that’s all there is to it, and you have to learn from them.”
With Jason and Coombs lobbying to coach Butch Jones on Travis’ behalf, he got reinstated and excelled at tight end for two seasons before being picked by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 draft.
While they’re each other’s biggest supporters, they’re also each other’s biggest antagonists.
A walk-on linebacker-turned-offensive lineman, Jason attacked every practice with the kind ferocity that can only come from a lifetime of having to prove yourself. Travis, meanwhile, carried his happy-go-lucky persona onto the field, practicing with the casual arrogance of a naturally gifted athlete.
“Jason was wired in a way that when practice started, it was time to work,” Pike said. “And Travis was always that goofy demeanor.”
Their different approaches sometimes led to brotherly blowups. Jason often wanted Travis to settle down and get serious, while Travis enjoyed getting under his older brother’s skin.
“Don’t be surprised if he [tries] it on Sunday,” Coombs said with a laugh. “Because if he thinks that’s going to help him win, he’s going to find a way to do whatever. He loves his brother now, but he wants to win that game. If he can needle him, he’s probably going to find a way to do it.” — Pryor
TRAVIS KNOWS BETTER than anyone that Jason’s temperament can turn on a dime.
He saw that up close as kids, most notably when he finally got the better of Jason while playing basketball in high school. Jason was angry he couldn’t stop Travis’ hook shot, Travis threw the basketball at him, and when the pair went inside the house, Jason punched Travis in the face. Travis drove Jason to the ground so hard a casserole dish bounced off the stovetop and shattered on the ground.
“They’re tangled up, so I just grabbed them together, and just go down, and they fall down on top of me. I screamed, ‘Oh my god, my back!’” their father, Ed, said. “There was nothing wrong with me, it just hit me: What a great idea. Let’s change the whole dynamic here. And so now everybody’s worried about Dad.”
Other stories from Jason’s time with the Eagles that speak to his temper, like the time right tackle Lane Johnson hid his helmet during a walk-through. A fired-up Jason saw the look on Johnson’s face and knew he was behind it, so he ran over to him and tried to kick him in the crotch but missed and hit him in the kneecap instead. Jason hurt his foot in the process and had to leave practice to get an MRI.
Teammates say Jason sees the game at a level that most of his peers can’t match.
“When we’re going through the script and you see all the pictures of how the routes are drawn and the O-line responsibilities, for us, it’s a picture. For Kelce, he sees it like it’s a five-second clip. He can see everything just off something like that, like the picture’s moving,” Mailata said. “It’s a beautiful mind.”
But it has also led to his frustrations boiling over when the details don’t look right.
“I’ve seen him get mad and knock over a big-ass bowl of chalk in the weight room. The whole f—ing weight room was just a white cloud,” Johnson said. “He’s done that a few times. He just gets super mad in walkthroughs or any type of meetings where something isn’t done right or the game plan feels like it’s not right, he gets very frustrated.” — McManus
play
0:37
Jason Kelce inspires Jordan Mailata so much … he’s his screensaver
Jordan Mailata shows how much Jason Kelce means to him and shares that Kelce’s photo is his screensaver on his phone.
JASON HAS A little Santa Claus to him — a comparison that would be even more spot-on if Santa had a hankering for beer instead of milk and cookies.
His interests in giving and swilling came together one night in 2019 at a fundraiser for the Eagles Autism Challenge. A group of players descended on a pub in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken. The place was packed. The main attraction was the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with Jason in a chug-off for any patron willing to pony up a donation.
For Jason, it was win at all costs — for a good cause, of course.
“I just remember Kelce taking everybody’s money, man,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said. “I’m behind [the bar] with him watching him do this. As he’s talking to the person he’s making serious eye contact but he’s peeling the can opening back with his thumb, so he made the mouth bigger. He’s just talking the whole time. It was like breathing to him, that’s how easy it was, he just ripped that [beer] open.
“Then he’d cut the guy off and he was like, ‘All right, Let’s do this.’ One second, crushed it. Next dude, same thing. Nobody could beat him that night. I just remember thinking, Kelce, you’re a GOAT. You really are the GOAT. And he’s just like, ‘Hey, if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. We’re trying to raise some money here.’”
The giving spirit hits Kelce around the holidays, as evidenced by the “Philly Special Christmas” album he helped spearhead that has raised over $1 million for Philadelphia-area charities. His fellow offensive linemen feel Jason’s generosity as well, though it’s decorated in humor.
“Usually every Christmas he’ll give a s—ty gift, or what’s perceived as a s—ty gift, and he’ll hide like five or 10 grand in there. He’s done that multiple times,” Donna Kelce said. “There’s been times where he has a box full of shirts and stuff, it doesn’t look like much in there, a bunch of bulls—, and he’ll hide money in there.
“I think he really cherishes his team. You can’t help but feel like a family in an NFL situation, especially with the Eagles and the Chiefs, and it’s like your brothers and your sisters — you’re with them all day long throughout the season, you travel with them, you eat with them, you toil with them, you practice with them. It means a lot to him.” — McManus
A team source confirmed Williamson will not be available for the Pelicans’ next three games — home against Cleveland on Friday, at Oklahoma City on Monday and at the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 15. The source also said Williamson would not participate in the All-Star Game on Feb. 19 in Salt Lake City.
Williamson was voted in as a starter for the game despite having only played in 29 games this season.
Williamson hurt his hamstring on Jan. 2 against the Philadelphia 76ers in the third quarter. He has not played since. In those 29 games, Williamson is averaging 26 points, seven rebounds and 4.6 assists while shooting 60.8% from the floor.
The Pelicans lost 13 of their next 16 games as soon as Williamson went out — a chunk of that without Brandon Ingram as well — before rebounding to win their past three games.
When Williamson has played, the Pelicans are 17-12, but without him, they are 12-15. Ingram returned on Jan. 25 from a two-month absence from a left big toe contusion that held him out.
When asked if the team could see their opening night starting five in the next three games, Pelicans coach Willie Green on Wednesday said, “No, not before All-Star break. We’re probably not going to see our starting five, the starting five we opened the season with. No.”
Williamson, Ingram and guard CJ McCollum have played together in just 10 games this season for a combined 172 minutes. When they’ve been on the court, the Pelicans have scored 120.4 points per 100 possessions and given up just 104.4 points per 100 possessions.
However, the team will have to wait to see them all together once again.
“It can be difficult at times,” Green said of not having his intended starting group together for a long stretch. “But that’s the nature of the NBA. We’re not the only team that has dealt with this. Shuffling lineups and making adjustments is a part of what makes it fun, what makes it unique. Other guys are getting opportunities to get that experience. I believe I’ll help us going down the stretch.”
LOS ANGELES — Joe Burwick, a 40-year-old accountant, was standing outside Crypto.com Arena several hours before Tuesday night’s Los Angeles Lakers game and wearing a LeBron James jersey. He made the impulsive decision just days before to fly from Buffalo to attend the game. His ticket cost $1,000.
Standing inches from a statue of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Burwick said he had to be there “to see the king break the record.”
Not because he cares about the Lakers per se. But because he’s a LeBron guy. He used to be a Michael Jordan guy. But he’s a LeBron guy now — in his words, “a reformed Jordanite.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Burwick said. “I’m 40 years old, and the chances of this being broken before I die are slim to none.”
The gravitational pull of James, the N.B.A.’s biggest star, was on full display Tuesday, when he broke the N.B.A. career scoring record once held by Abdul-Jabbar. The record was thought for decades to be unbeatable. It turned an otherwise ho-hum regular-season game between the 12th- and 13th-place teams in the Western Conference into a spectacle comparable to the N.B.A. finals.
There were so many reporters who requested media credentials that news conferences were moved to a more cavernous room. Celebrities such as the actor Denzel Washington and the musicians Jay-Z and Bad Bunny milled around courtside.
In the N.B.A., some stars mean more to fans than the multibillion-dollar franchises, even the Lakers. Fandom in basketball, more so than any other American sport, can be ephemeral — supporters follow players from team to team like Phish fans follow the band during summer tours. While basketball does not rival football in popularity in the United States, its stars, like James and Jordan before him, loom the largest in American culture.
Yes, basketball is a team sport. When James takes the floor, he has four teammates there with him. But it was James’s name on the proverbial marquee that enticed some fans from all over the world to spend exorbitant sums of money just to be in his orbit. They included Maciej Paprocki, a 32-year-old chemist who flew in from Poland with his fiancée to be in attendance. He stood over an arena tunnel holding a cardboard sign that said, “We Flew 6000 Miles To See King Ascend The Throne.” Like Burwick, Paprocki didn’t grow up as a fan of any N.B.A. team. He grew up as “a LeBron fan.”
“LeBron changed my life through basketball,” Paprocki said. “He showed me the importance of hard work, perseverance and determination. Because of him, I started playing basketball.”
Poland was close compared to where Karey Takchi, a 40-year-old disc jockey and horticulturalist, flew from that morning: Sydney, Australia. He was wearing an Abdul-Jabbar jersey, having long idolized him because his grandfather was named Kareem. Takchi, a Kareem guy, said the decision to come was a “coin flip,” but being a longtime James fan pushed him to board a plane.
“For every little obstacle I’ve hit, I just think to myself: I know that he hasn’t had the hardest life or the easiest life, but I just know that he’s had a lot of opportunities to go left or right. And I know that guy has just constantly just led the path as far as just staying in the middle,” Takchi said.
Ana Carolina, 43, came from Brazil, with her husband, Heleno, 46, and young son, Leo. Ana Carolina is the basketball fan in the couple, and a vacation to Los Angeles happened to line up with a Lakers game that had a record on the line. They purchased tickets in advance and realized how close James was to the record only days before. It was an incredible stroke of luck, Ana Carolina said.
“As I followed the news, I was aware that he was very near to get the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar mark. It was not so clear that it could be this week,” she said.
Her favorite teams are the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks, because, she said, she’s a Giannis Antetokounmpo fan.
“I like him so much,” Carolina said.
For a franchise like the Lakers, star power — by design — has been an engine of success. For decades, dating back to the Showtime Lakers, the franchise has benefited from marketing star power in a way very few professional sports organizations have.
In the 1980s, the N.B.A. experienced a resurgence by capitalizing on the Showtime Lakers’ rivalry with the Boston Celtics. Then, many basketball fans had to pick between being a MagicJohnson person or a Larry Bird person. And then in the 2000s, Kobe Bryant became the face of the N.B.A., and soon enough Jordan people became Kobe people. Even now, Lakers fans are weighing whether they are Kobe people or LeBron people.
Patrick Concepcion, a 42-year-old graphic designer, was standing outside the arena on Tuesday afternoon with his 7-year-old son, Theo Magic. Theo’s middle name is indeed a tribute to Johnson, because Concepcion grew up as a Magic guy. They drove from the San Francisco Bay Area to attend the game after purchasing tickets three days beforehand and paying about $250 for each.
“I was 8 years old when Kareem retired and set the mark, and then he’s about to turn 8 and LeBron’s passing him,” Concepcion said, pointing toward Theo. “So it was like the perfect full-circle moment for us as father and son.”
Theo, asked what he liked about James, struggled to come up with an answer.
“I don’t know,” he paused and giggled. “All-around like Kobe.”
“Are you more of a Kobe guy or a LeBron guy?” he was asked.
Theo perked up. His answer was firm. There was no hesitation.
“Kobe.”
As it is for the Concepcions, sports can be a generational inheritance. Around game time, tickets on the resale market in the arena’s lower level were going for more than $1,000, a fact that was not lost on Jay Anderson, a 68-year-old anesthesiologist and season-ticket holder, who attended the game with his daughter, McKenna Anderson, a 38-year-old physical therapist. His fandom has long been more location based. He grew up in New York City, where he was a Knicks fan. After 30 years in Los Angeles, the Lakers now have his allegiance. He didn’t consider selling his ticket, which cost $175, though.
“It’s the only time I get to be with my daughter, which is worth a thousand dollars,” Jay Anderson said.
When James passed Abdul-Jabbar, he did so with a fadeaway jumper in the third quarter. The game stopped to celebrate the achievement, as James physically enveloped many of the people closest to him and those by his side throughout his entire life, including his family, friends, teammates and business associates. Thousands of strangers in the arena — people James will never meet or interact with — embraced him just as intensely from a distance, having been alongside him for the journey across multiple franchises, whether James knew it or not.
“I write ‘The Man in the Arena’ on my shoe every single night from Theodore Roosevelt,” James told reporters afterward. “And tonight, I actually felt like I was like sitting on top of the arena tonight when that shot went in and the roar from the crowd. But I’m not sure if I would be able to feel that feeling again.”
The next morning, Burwick, the accountant from Buffalo, reflected on seeing the record break. His father, Michael, a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, died about a year and a half ago. He never got to see the Bills in any Super Bowl in person. For Burwick, his father’s missing out was significant enough motivation for him not to skip a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
“It was a lot of money, but to be able to have that experience and share it with him, even though he has no idea who I am, was worth the money because the memory will stick with me forever,” Burwick said.
He added: “I’m not going to regret the money that was spent. I would have regretted missing it.”
PHOENIX — Chris Jones claims to have very little memory of a relatively benign game in 2017, when the Kansas City Chiefs welcomed the Philadelphia Eagles to Arrowhead Stadium for the second game of the regular season.
Jason Kelce remembers it quite well.
The veteran Philadelphia center spent the afternoon lining up alongside Isaac Seumalo, who Jones proceeded to whip from start to finish. Then a relatively unknown second-year defensive tackle, Jones piled up three sacks that day.
“(Seumalo) played a guy early on that nobody knew about then that was, you know, the best defensive tackle in the NFL,” Kelce recalled. “I mean, I sure remember going into that game and we didn’t really talk much about Chris, to be honest with you. We didn’t have much of a plan for him because we thought it wasn’t going to be much of a big deal.
“And man,” Kelce said, “Isaac had a hard outing.”
You can bet the Eagles will have a better plan for dealing with Jones in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
In five-plus years since that game in Kansas City, the affable pass rusher has grown to rival the Rams’ Aaron Donald as just what Kelce said: the NFL’s best defensive tackle. He’s gone to the past four Pro Bowls, was voted second-team All-Pro three times and, this year, earned first-team honors along with being a finalist for AP Defensive Player of the Year.
He will learn whether he takes home that hardware at the NFL Honors on Thursday night.
“He’s so good, man. He makes it so hard on you,” said Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who was sacked twice by Jones in the AFC title game. “He’s so big and strong. Physical. He really understands what you’re trying to do to him up front.”
In truth, nobody has quite figured out what to do with him.
Jones had 15 1/2 sacks this season, despite facing constant double teams, matching the 2018 season for the best of his career. He trailed only the 49ers’ Nick Bosa, the Browns’ Myles Garrett and the Eagles’ Haason Reddick for the NFL lead.
Jones also was a big reason why the Chiefs, one of the league’s worst at rushing the passer last season, suddenly became one of the best. They had 55 sacks in the regular season to trail only their Super Bowl opponent for the league lead.
“He opens up a lot of opportunities for a lot of those guys inside, especially when he’s causing so much attention to come his way,” said Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark, who has 2 1/2 sacks in this postseason. “We speak on it and harp on it a lot with the interior guys, you know, like, ‘Is Chris getting double-teamed?’”
That’s usually the best approach; Jones seems to end up near the quarterback anyway.
“He’s a game-wrecking-type force up front,” Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said. “You have to be aware of where he lines up. He lines up at end, up the shade and the three (technique). He’s an extremely disruptive player, so you do everything you can to minimize him, but he’s going to have one at some point.”
The task for the Eagles — and what the Bengals failed to do — is limit Jones to just one big play.
“He’s a fantastic player,” Callahan said, “and he’s not fun to have to get ready for.”
He’s fun to have in the locker room, though. Jones is among the most light-hearted Chiefs, constantly trying to get guys to smile. He once showed up at practice shortly before Christmas in an ugly sweater with a stitched picture of Jesus carrying the label “Birthday Boy.” His own smile seems to stretch from one end of the room to the other.
On the field, though, that good-natured goof suddenly becomes a colossus.
All of that explains why the Chiefs lavished on the 28-year-old Jones an $80 million, four-year deal a couple of years ago, which included a $1.25 million bonus when Jones hit 10 sacks this season. His salary cap hit is tops among defensive tackles, edging Donald and DeForest Buckner, yet somehow seems like a bargain given his production. And with one year left on the contract after Sunday, there’s a good chance the Chiefs will begin talking about an extension soon.
If they haven’t started those discussions already.
In the meantime, Jones will try to capture a second Super Bowl ring when the Chiefs take on the Eagles on Sunday. He knows that much of their success will depend on whether he can pressure Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts, whose uncanny ability to shred defenses with his arm and legs make him difficult to defend.
“Every week is a challenge for me, especially when you’re playing in the Super Bowl. It’s the best of the best,” Jones said Wednesday. “So we’re very fortunate. We’re excited about it. Jason Kelce and that amazing offensive line — we got to see what type of pressure we can bring against it.”
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
THE STORYLINE
Over the summer, four-star tight end Martavious Collins started leaning toward Alabama. The Rome, Ga., standout knew all about the Crimson Tide’s success, their development of players for the NFL and so much more. Collins was eating it all up.
So in July, Collins announced his commitment to Alabama and he looked locked in. But less than a week after signing day for the 2023 class, Collins has now backed off his pledge to Alabama and reopened his recruitment.
With more than 20 offers, the four-star tight end should have plenty of options to consider moving forward but it doesn’t look like Alabama will be the pick when Collins comes to another choice down the road.
*****
LOCAL REACTION
Alabama cleaned up in the state of Georgia in the 2023 class, adding Caleb Downs, Justice Haynes and Dylan Lonergan. It also got off to a very early start to the 2024 class in Georgia with a commitment from Martavious Collins from Rome.
Collins is an early Rivals250 prospect, but given the amount of time before signing day, and the new offensive staff heading into Tuscaloosa, this one isn’t going to make-or-break the 2024 class. – Russell Johnson, TideIllustrated.com
Sting Factor: 5
*****
NATIONAL REACTION
Collins is a talented player but he has not been a stat machine during his high school years and there are many other talented tight ends that Alabama will pursue to fill this spot and possibly even upgrade if the Crimson Tide get the right player.
Alabama went to the portal for tight end CJ Dippre and then it’s after Trey’Dez Green, Kylan Fox, Jaden Reddell and many others that could be a significant boost to the Tide’s 2024 class. Losing Collins, especially this early, shouldn’t keep coach NickSaban up at night. I suspect it won’t. – Adam Gorney, Rivals national recruiting director
{{ timeAgo(‘2023-02-08 14:11:53 -0600’) }} football Edit
Adam Gorney
• Rivals.com
National Recruiting Director
FONTANA, Calif. – Jamari Howard committed to Michigan State in September and loves a lot about the Spartans so that’s why it has stuck so far.But many other programs are making a run at the three-s…
You must be a member to read the full article. Subscribe now for instant access to all premium content.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall dropped into the Kansas City Chiefs’ media availability to play a hilarious prank on quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The 27-year-old was not impressed!
It’s becoming difficult to keep track of all the records Mikaela Shiffrin is breaking.
She finished second in her race on Wednesday, capturing a silver medal at the Alpine world championships in France in the super-G, which is probably her fourth best of the five Alpine disciplines.
No matter. Another day, another mountain, another race, and some more records for Shiffrin, the 27-year-old American who has been making headlines on the slopes since she was in her early teens.
“I’ve kind of accomplished every wish I’ve ever had in terms of world championships and medals,” Shiffrin said over the weekend, before the racing started.
With her silver medal Wednesday, Shiffrin’s success at the biggest skiing meet outside the Olympics is moving into rarefied territory.
The world championships are a biennial Olympic-style ski meet, and skiers covet its medals as much as anything in the sport short of Olympic hardware.
The whole purpose of the world championships, she said, is to ski as hard as possible and to “go for gold.” She added, “At the end of the day, you hope it’s good enough to win a medal.”
With Shiffrin, it usually is.
So what exactly happened Wednesday?
Shiffrin finished second in the second women’s race on the schedule at the Alpine world championships in Méribel, France.
Shiffrin is usually pretty effusive when she wins a ski race, but never more so than when she reaches the podium in super-G, a speed event that has significantly more twists and turns than the downhill and allows her to bring her talents as a technical skier who specializes in slalom racing to steeper terrain.
When Shiffrin gets onto the podium on super-G, she generally describes about how fun it was to ski the racecourse, and Wednesday was no different.
“I’m so happy with my run, and emotional, because I don’t really feel like I should be winning a medal in super-G right now,” she said after the race. “There are so many women so strong and so fast. There was one moment where I thought I lost everything, but then I could keep it rolling until the finish.”
Indeed, Shiffrin was ahead of the eventual winner, Marta Bassino of Italy, at the second split, but had to battle through the tough, more technical, second part of the course. She finished 11-hundredths of a second behind Bassino.
The silver medal was Shiffrin’s 12th career medal at the world championships. She is the first woman in the modern era to accumulate that many individual world championship medals. She won her first a decade ago in Austria when she was 17. It was her 12th medal in just 15 starts at the world championships.
How does this play into her pursuit of other records?
In January, Shiffrin broke Lindsey Vonn’s record for the most World Cup wins by a female skier, capturing her 83rd victory on Alpine skiing’s top circuit. Then she won two more races in quick succession, putting her one short of Ingemar Stenmark’s overall record.
But the skiing calendar put the pursuit of Stenmark on hold until March. For the next two weeks, Shiffrin and other top skiers are competing in the world championships.
World championship races are separate from the World Cup races, which are the regular tour stops that take place throughout the winter across North America, Europe and sometimes Asia. The World Cup determines the best overall skier across all events and the best skier in each discipline. Winners receive crystal globes. Shiffrin has a lot of those — 13 so far, with more on the way at the end of this season.
“It’s been such an insane, amazing season,” she said Monday, when things were not so amazing.
How are the world championships going so far?
Shiffrin got off to a rough start. In the first event, the Alpine combined, which includes one run of super-G followed by one run of slalom, Shiffrin appeared to be headed for a come-from-behind win at the bottom of the slalom hill.
Shiffrin had skied the sixth-fastest super-G run, but that left her 96-hundredths of a second behind the leader, Federica Brignone of Italy, forcing her to ski aggressively during a high-risk, high-reward slalom. She made up time at each split, and the computer simulations projected her taking a lead by as much as three-10ths of a second.
But as she tried to navigate over a rough patch of snow about five gates from the finish, Shiffrin lost her balance and ended up straddling one of the next gates. That disqualified her from the competition. She said Wednesday that she learned in the combined that she was going to have to ski aggressively from the start in the super-G if she wanted to have a chance at the podium.
The bobble had echoes of the series of slips and skids during the Beijing Olympics last year, when Shiffrin failed to finish three individual events and was far off the podium in two others.
Shiffrin knew the questions would be coming.
“I was thinking I was going to go through the mixed zone and everyone is going to ask if this is Beijing again,” she said, but that was the price she knew she might have to pay for the “full-gas skiing” that taking the lead was going to require.
“I’m not afraid of the consequences,” she said.
What’s next?
The downhill is scheduled for Saturday but Shiffrin has a love-sort-of-hate relationship with the event and won’t race. She has three first-place finishes in her career in World Cup downhill races, but she has never won a medal in the Olympics or the world championships in the event.
Next week brings the slalom and giant slalom races, the events that Shiffrin dominates. Fifty-two of her 85 World Cup victories have come in slalom, with giant slalom accounting for another 19 wins. Shiffrin said that until that slip on Monday she was feeling very good about her slalom skiing. It was aggressive and fearless, and the only thing she did not do was cross the finish line.
What else deserves attention?
The men’s downhill, scheduled for Sunday, usually has plenty of fireworks. The favorite is Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, who happens to also be Shiffrin’s boyfriend.
Even though they have the same job, Kilde and Shiffrin don’t see each other all that much because the men and women rarely race on the same mountain at the same time. Usually that changes with the world championships, but this year the women are in Méribel and the men are in Courchevel, about 35 minutes away. Shiffrin said that skiing’s first couple got in a little quality time before the world championships but that racing was their focus for the next two weeks.
Kilde’s biggest competition could come from Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. Odermatt is third in the season rankings in downhill but first in super-G and third in giant slalom.
Information from The Associated Press is included in this article.
The next major rankings update following the 2022 season is on the horizon for the 2024 class, and big decisions are left to be made regarding the top prospects in the region. Here are the five toughest questions we will face in the East Region.
Who will challenge Jadyn Davis and Michael Van Buren at the top of the East quarterback rankings?
Ryan Puglisi
Five-star Jadyn Davis still looks like the top-ranked quarterback in the region, followed by Michael Van Buren. Davis and Van Buren posted impressive junior campaigns and seem to have secured their hold on the top two spots in the East quarterback rankings, but there are a couple other prospects who could challenge them down the road.
Connecticut natives Dante Reno, a South Carolina commit, and Ryan Puglisi, a Georgia commit, have some really impressive traits and we’re eager to see their development this spring. Their junior seasons had plenty of high points, but there were some low points as well.
A couple other names that the national audience may not be too familiar with are Samaj Jones and Khristian Martin. Jones plays for powerhouse St. Joe’s Prep in Philadelphia and, ironically, he has a similar style to Jalen Hurts. He has a big arm, impressive downfield passing abilities and knows when to use his legs to pick up chunks of yards or just buy time.
Martin is a big quarterback who knows how to deliver the ball on time and throws a very accurate deep ball. They have a chance to really raise their stock in the eyes of college coaches once they see them throw in person in the spring.
*****
Will Jordan Seaton remain the top-ranked offensive lineman in the Rivals250?
Jordan Seaton
There isn’t an offensive lineman ranked higher than Jordan Seaton in the Rivals250, but that could change in this rankings update. Currently listed as a guard, Seaton has a versatile skill set that could allow him to play tackle or guard at the next level.
In the East, Kam Pringle, Guerby Lambert and Peter Jones have really high-end abilities that could help them make a move toward the top of the rankings. Seaton, however, had an outstanding junior season and continues to improve physically, making it more likely that he’ll see early playing time once he reaches the college level.
For the moment, it would seem unlikely that Seaton gets unseated by any offensive lineman at the top of the rankings, but the spring camp season could rock the boat.
*****
Can Dylan Stewart push for his fifth star?
Dylan Stewart had an outstanding junior season and really showed off his versatile skill set by rushing the quarterback from the outside, displaying improved strength as a run defender on the edge and even playing off-the-ball linebacker on the interior of the defense.
His elite size, strength and speed could make it difficult to see how he could end up anything less than a five-star. Stewart doesn’t play amazing competition in Washington D.C., but there are a few games in which he did play Power Five offensive linemen, and he was able to really show how advanced his skill set has become.
Watching him throughout the season, it’s clear that he is one of the best defensive linemen in this class, but is it only a matter of time before he lands among the five-stars? We’ll have to see how this rankings update goes before we enter the spring camp season.
*****
Which defensive ends should come next after Stewart?
Jacob Smith (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)
With Stewart setting the pace for defensive linemen in the East, it could be easy to look past some of the other really talented prospects, but there are a few other defensive linemen that deserve recognition and will end up highly ranked prospects.
At weakside defensive end, Jacob Smith, Mylachi Williams and Obinna Onwuka look like potential impact players at the college level. Smith has been on the scene for a long time and had a really impressive offer sheet coming into the season. Williams has continued to pick up major offers over the last few weeks, with his most recent Power Five offer coming from Notre Dame. Onwuka gained valuable experience playing on the same defensive line as Desmond Umeozulu last season, and his high-end abilities have garnered him plenty of college offers at this point.
At strongside defensive end, two names have risen to the top. Darien Mayo out of Good Counsel High School in Maryland has really impressive size and has become one of the more technically sound defensive ends in the region. In Connecticut, Benedict Umeh has garnered a lot of attention for his explosive play along the defensive front and it will be interesting to see how his evaluation changes throughout the spring.
In North Carolina, Amaris Williams has gotten a lot of attention because of his versatile skill set. He can play all over the defensive front, including at linebacker, and can even be seen taking handoffs as a running back or catching passes as a tight end on his junior film. Many college coaches can’t wait to get a better look at him during the spring.
Jerod Smith, like his brother, Jacob, has been a well-known prospect for a long time and his continued physical development has been a major talking point. Deshon Dodson out of Philadelphia and DD Holmes out of Washington D.C., have also been on the radar for a long time and continue to see serious college interest.
A new and intriguing name for college coaches to track is Devon Baxter out of Gwynn Park High School in Maryland. At 6-foot-7, 230-pounds, Baxter’s junior film shows him making plays against the run and the pass from his defensive end position, but he also lines up as a tight end and receiver, showing off his impressive athleticism for his size.
*****
Where are the high-end offensive skill players in the East region?
Jonathan Paylor (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)
The highest-profile non-quarterback offensive skill players in the East thus far have been running back Quinton Martinand receivers Tyseer Denmark and Jonathan Paylor. These players have a chance to remain some of the highest-ranked prospects in the class but, at this point, it doesn’t seem like there are many other players who could challenge their positions near the top of the rankings.
Running backs Dilin Jones and DeJuan Williams have proven to be very solid prospects so far. There are a handful of receivers who look more like middle-of-the-pack four-star prospects, and tight end Jack Larsen (a four-star committed to Notre Dame) is very solid but his ceiling is limited.
Will there be another offensive skill position prospect who elevates himself throughout the spring?
Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin will not fill his role as an NFL Network analyst ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl after a woman issued a complaint about his conduct during a hotel encounter in Glendale, Arizona.
NFL Media said Irvin “will not a part of NFL Network’s Super Bowl LVII week coverage” without specifying the details of the woman’s complaint over an incident that allegedly happened Sunday.
Irvin denied any wrongdoing to told The Dallas Morning News, saying his interaction with the woman took place in the hotel lobby and lasted less than a minute.
“Honestly, I’m a bit baffled with it all,” Irvin said. “This all happened in a 45-second conversation in the lobby. When I got back after going out … I came into the lobby and I talked to somebody. I talked to this girl. I don’t know her, and I talked to her for about 45 seconds. We shook hands. Then, I left. … That’s all I know.”
Irvin also told 105.3 The Fan on Wednesday morning that he did not remember the interaction with the woman after having “a few drinks.”
A Glendale Police spokesperson told the Morning News that they had no knowledge of any incident involving Irvin.
Irvin, who won three Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, has served as an NFL Network analyst since 2009. He made regular appearances on ESPN’s “First Take” during the NFL season, including on Monday’s show.
