Category: Sports

HENDERSON, Nevada — Baltimore Ravens backup quarterback Tyler Huntley didn’t ask for an invitation to the Pro Bowl Games, and he certainly didn’t expect the jokes that were told at his expense when he was named.

But that doesn’t mean Huntley would pass on trying to make the most of his opportunity.

Ridiculed by some for his addition as a replacement for the Buffalo Bills‘ Josh Allen, Huntley shook off the jokes and enjoyed the chance to rub shoulders with the game’s best players.

“It kind of feels like I’m in a movie right now,” Huntley said Thursday night after turning in a solid performance in the precision passing portion of the skills competition. “I’m still just taking it all in.”

Huntley, who started just four games and threw two touchdowns in relief of injured Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, got the nod when a series of AFC quarterbacks were unable to participate or declined to take part. The list included Allen; Patrick Mahomes, whose Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl; the Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa, who only recently was cleared from concussion protocol; and the Cincinnati Bengals‘ Joe Burrow, whose team was eliminated Sunday in the AFC title game.

That prompted significant discussion on social media about whether Huntley belonged. But Huntley said he was able to avoid feeding into that conversation.

“I just look at my opportunities and where my life is headed,” he said. “I just appreciate everything that is going on. … I got to meet some of the legends. It’s just crazy how everything worked out.”

Among those legends: Ravens Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, who is serving as the AFC’s defensive coordinator. Lewis emerged from the locker room with his arm around Huntley and chatted with him as they made their way to the field.

Huntley finished second in the precision passing contest that requires quarterbacks to hit various targets to accumulate points. Huntley racked up 21 points, behind only Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who crushed the event and finished with 31 points.

“It felt good,” Huntley said.

Carr’s performance was rather impressive, but it could have been the home-field advantage. The event, held at the Raiders practice facility, made Carr feel at home (even though he said afterward that he still anticipates parting ways with the team in the coming weeks).

“I wanted that one so bad,” Carr said. “My goal today was to hit them all, so hopefully I’ll come back and do that at some point.”

Said AFC coach Peyton Manning: “This is his facility. I wanted him to go last. I knew he threw a lot of completions in here.”

Overall, the AFC owned the day.

Points scored in the skills competitions, which continue Sunday and will precede the flag football portion of the week, will be rolled over into Sunday and go toward determining the winning conference.

The AFC led 9-3 after winning the precision passing contest, the longest drive and the lightning round that included a series of challenges.

Been doing this since elementary school😎 https://t.co/127vtdj2kW

— marlonhumphrey.eth (@marlon_humphrey) February 3, 2023

Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer won the longest drive competition with a 320-yard tee shot earlier Thursday. Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson was second with a 316-yard drive.

The NFC’s lone victory came in dodgeball.

Still to come Sunday: The continuation of the best catch competition, the gridiron gauntlet, kick tac toe, move the chains and the three flag football games.

In the rest of Europe, the fear is a little more material. Chelsea, one executive at a major continental club said, has “destroyed the market,” a sentiment supported by Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, Spain’s top division. “The British market is doped,” he said. “It is a competition that loses billions of pounds in the last few years, financed with contributions from patrons, in this case American investors who finance at a loss.”

While all of the executives immediately understood the purpose of Chelsea’s prolonged contracts, the majority were baffled as to whether the club was bravely exploiting an inefficiency in the market or mortgaging its future. After all, lengthening contracts might reduce the immediate financial impact on Chelsea’s accounts — and therefore help the club meet European soccer’s largely theoretical cost control mechanisms — but it does not represent the team’s actual cash flow.

Chelsea still has to pay the transfer fees in the short term. It still has to commit to pay the players several million dollars more than it might have if they were on more standard-length contracts. It still has to rely on them to fulfill their undoubted potential. It still faces the risk of being encumbered with expensive, immovable assets in years to come if they do not.

Selling players, certainly, has been a little more of a challenge for Chelsea. As Eghbali was negotiating for Fernández and Boehly was making his last-ditch bid for Amrabat, one of Chelsea’s current players, Hakim Ziyech, was sitting in the offices of Paris St.-Germain, waiting for confirmation of his departure.

The deal had been in the works for a week or so. At one point, talks had been sufficiently relaxed that Boehly had suggested P.S.G.’s owner — Qatar Sports Investments — might like to help Chelsea with its stadium project. As the minutes ticked down to the transfer deadline, though, P.S.G. officials became concerned at Chelsea’s lack of communication.

Five minutes before the deadline — at 10:55 p.m. local time — Chelsea finally sent over a document. It was the wrong one. When that was pointed out, a second soon followed. It was not signed. By the time the new error was fixed, it was too late. The deadline had passed. P.S.G. could not register the signing.

Ziyech, distraught, had to return to west London, where a raft of new teammates awaits him, including at least two who play his position. Chelsea has little need for him now. It has to pay his salary, though, for another six months.

Duke coach Kara Lawson said the teams played with a men’s basketball for the first half of a loss to Florida State on Sunday.

The 16th-ranked Blue Devils lost to the Seminoles 70-57 in Tallahassee, Florida — the team’s second Atlantic Coast Conference loss of the season.

After her team beat Pittsburgh 53-44 on Thursday, Lawson ended her news conference by speaking animatedly about Sunday’s game.

“This would never happen in a men’s game. This would never happen,” she said. “It’s embarrassing for our sport.”

The circumference of a women’s ball is about an inch smaller than a men’s ball, and it is typically 2 ounces lighter. While it might not seem like a lot, that’s a big difference.

Lawson said that throughout the first half, Duke players were “complaining about the ball.” The Blue Devils were 7-for-34 from the field in the opening 20 minutes of that game. They were 12-for-38 in the second half. Florida State made 10 of its 30 shots in the first two quarters and 14 of 31 in the second half.

“To have a game that, at the end of the season, could be the difference between a seed, between a title, my players don’t deserve that and neither do their players,” Lawson said. “It’s a complete failure. And you can figure out who the people I’m talking about that failed the sport and our players and both teams.”

Lawson said assistant coach Winston Gandy went to the scorer’s table at the half to check on the ball when he realized what the problem was. She said the game officials changed the ball to start the second half.

“We have concluded through our investigation that it was a men’s ball,” Lawson said. “The conference and Florida State is saying that it wasn’t.”

Lawson said she wanted to appeal the game but the conference wouldn’t let her.

“Let me be clear: Florida State beat us,” Lawson said. “They beat us playing with a men’s ball in the first half and a women’s ball in the second half. But I can’t say if we’d have played with a women’s ball in the first half and the second half that we would have won. But they can’t say that, either.”

Lawson said the ACC has instituted a rule change under which players have to confirm the correct ball during the captains’ meeting before the tipoff.

“It’s very frustrating that [the game] … was not treated with the utmost respect that players on both teams deserve,” she said.

This wasn’t the first time this has happened in women’s basketball. In 2017, the College of Charleston played home games and practiced with men’s balls for most of its season until the error was discovered.

Laporta logró juntar dinero con rapidez. De hecho, grandes cantidades bajo un programa en el que el Barcelona vendía activos del club —incluyendo años de derechos comerciales— a inversionistas externos. Sin embargo, en lugar de usar ese flujo de efectivo para balancear los libros contables, Laporta se embarcó en una descomunal farra de compras para traer a un montón de jugadores nuevos. Las adquisiciones dejaron a la fortuna del club dependiendo del éxito deportivo, aunado a la necesidad de todavía más fuentes nuevas de ingresos.

Los resultados han sido mixtos. El Barcelona se ubica en la cima de la liga española cuando queda la mitad de la temporada, pero una eliminación humillante —y financieramente desastrosa— de la Liga de Campeones en la fase de grupos ha planteado nuevas dudas sobre sus posibilidades financieras.

Esta semana, Javier Tebas, el presidente de La Liga, ofreció una explicación sobre por qué el Barcelona no pudo registrar a Gavi. Tebas mencionó que, desde el punto de vista de la liga, el nuevo acuerdo pondría al Barcelona en violación de los límites financieros cuando entró en vigor.

En comentarios reportados por los medios informativos españoles esta semana, Tebas expresó: “El tema de no inscribir a Gavi viene como consecuencia de que es una inscripción que tiene efecto la temporada que viene”, dijo al referirse al registro. Mencionó que el déficit del presupuesto del Barcelona para la temporada siguiente sería de más de 200 millones de euros —más de 217 millones de dólares— con base en proyecciones de ingresos actuales, así que “no parece oportuno”.

Con la negativa categórica de la liga española a relajar las regulaciones para permitir que el Barcelona registre a más jugadores, la junta directiva del club llevó su alegato a la corte local.

En los documentos presentados el viernes pasado, el club afirmó que el no poder firmar a Gavi con su contrato nuevo —el cual aceptó en septiembre— para el cierre de la ventana de transferencias de enero “implicaría la libertad de este y, por tanto, un perjuicio muy grande e irreparable para el FC Barcelona”.

Si el fallo se mantiene, las regulaciones fiscales de LaLiga que tienen décadas y han sido establecidas con aportes de los clubes en un esfuerzo para reducir la volatilidad, terminarían por ser imposibles de aplicar y los equipos podrían brincarse las regulaciones al desafiarlas en cortes civiles. En gran medida, el Barcelona ha estado aislado por no poder permanecer dentro del límite de gasto designado, el cual es calculado como un porcentaje de los ingresos de cada equipo de sus operaciones futbolísticas.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For more than five years — through injuries, trade attempts and much more — the San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo have always found their way back to each other.

But as San Francisco heads into yet another offseason filled with quarterback uncertainty, coach Kyle Shanahan made it clear Wednesday that Garoppolo and the Niners are finally going to go their separate ways.

Asked whether there was any scenario in which he could see Garoppolo returning to San Francisco in 2023, Shanahan did not mince words.

“No, I don’t see any scenario of that,” Shanahan said.

Unlike last year, when Garoppolo was still under contract and the Niners attempted to trade him, they have no such agency this time around. Garoppolo is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March, and the 49ers cannot use a tag to retain his rights.

Shanahan and the Niners therefore will move forward with Brock Purdy and Trey Lance as their two quarterbacks under contract, something Shanahan said Wednesday that he would be content with going into next season.

The first order of business for Purdy is getting the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow taken care of. Purdy had further imaging done on the elbow Tuesday afternoon and although no decision has been made yet on whether he will have a reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) or repair (InternalBrace procedure), general manager John Lynch indicated that things were trending in the direction of the latter.

A repair would be good news because it would mean a shorter recovery for Purdy that could have him back on the field near the start of training camp at the end of July or early August.

“The positive bit of news is that it seems to be consistent that the right approach is that one that takes about that six-month point,” Lynch said. “Now everybody will also say you never know until you get in there. Every surgeon will tell you that on every surgery. You always like getting in to see exactly … . They’re continuing to work through that process, but we seem encouraged by the prognosis that that’s kind of where it’s at.”

If Purdy opts for the surgical repair augmented with an InternalBrace to help reinforce the ligament as it heals, he could actually begin his rehab as soon as three months after the procedure with full clearance at the six-month mark.

“That was the coolest thing for me to hear about that,” Shanahan said. “Once three months is over, they start the rehab, just building the arm back slowly, and by six months it’s filled back.”

Lance said Tuesday that he should be out of the walking boot for his surgically repaired right ankle by the end of this week, with the chance to be cleared in time for organized team activities in May.

Shanahan indicated Wednesday that that timeline is possible, although Lance might not do as much in the parts of the offseason program before OTAs start.

“It sounds like it’ll be pretty close around Phase 1, Phase 2,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully we’ll go to ease him into drill work and things like that and by OTAs he will be able to go.”

As for how the quarterback situation will shake out, Shanahan said Wednesday that he hasn’t given it much thought yet, noting that there’s not much to discuss right now because only Lance figures to be available for any on-field work before training camp.

Shanahan did acknowledge that the Niners will need to add another quarterback in some way, but he didn’t sound as if he and the 49ers will go hunting for a big name at the position.

“I know we have two starters on our team right now that I believe we can win with,” Shanahan said. “So when you have that situation, you’re not that eager to go looking around.”

Among the other takeaways from Shanahan and Lynch at Wednesday’s end-of-season news conference:

• Despite persistent rumors that he could be leaving for television or another job, Lynch said he intends to remain in his role in San Francisco. “I plan on being here,” Lynch said. “I really do. I’m committed to doing this and I’m having a great time doing it and committed to finding a way to get a little bit better.”

• When left tackle Trent Williams, 34, spoke Tuesday, he didn’t definitively close the door on retiring this offseason. But Shanahan believes that was more the result of Williams being tired at the end of a long season than a realistic chance he could actually call it quits. “I didn’t read his words as that’s a big thing for him,” Shanahan said. “I know Trent loves football. I know it’s very hard at his age, but in any situation, to do what you do for that long and come up short. But I’d be surprised if Trent retired in a few weeks.”

• On a looming contract extension for defensive end Nick Bosa, Lynch indicated it will play out similar to the way things did with players such as linebacker Fred Warner, receiver Deebo Samuel and tight end George Kittle, meaning a deal might not get done until closer to the start of training camp. “I think we have a real good track record,” Lynch said. “You looked the last five years … of getting our players done. But it takes time, it takes patience, it takes persistence, and we’ll have that on our side.”

Bobby Beathard, who spent more than three decades as an NFL executive, has died at the age of 86.

His death on Monday was from complications from Alzheimer’s disease at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, his son Casey told The Washington Post.

A 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee as a contributor, Beathard was a personnel executive for five teams in his career, including Super Bowl champions in Miami and Washington. He was part of 10 division winners and four Super Bowl winners overall, including the 1972 Dolphins team that finished undefeated.

His greatest success occurred in Washington, where he served as general manager from 1978 to 1988. Beathard hired coach Joe Gibbs in 1981 and drafted Hall of Famers Art Monk, Russ Grimm and Darrell Green. Washington won the Super Bowl in 1982 and 1987.

“Bobby was a man of extraordinary class and integrity and was the architect behind the greatest teams in this organization’s history. He cared deeply about everyone he worked with and always put the team first. Bobby is rightfully enshrined in both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Washington Ring of Fame and will go down as one of the greatest executives in NFL history,” the Commanders said in a statement. “We send our heartfelt condolences to his wife Christine, children Kurt, Casey, Jeff and Jaime along with the entire Beathard family. Bobby’s impact on our franchise and community will never be forgotten.”

After leaving Washington, Beathard served as general manager for the Chargers from 1990 to 1999. Though Beathard was criticized for picking draft bust quarterback Ryan Leaf with the No. 2 overall selection in 1998 and trading away first-round picks, he helped turn the Chargers around. In his third season as general manager, the Chargers won their first division title since 1981. They made the franchise’s only Super Bowl appearance during the 1994 season, losing to the San Francisco 49ers.

“Bobby was one of the best judges of football talent in NFL history. For most, that alone would be enough. For Bobby Beathard, it doesn’t nearly do the man justice,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement. “Bobby was who we all aspire to be — a friendly, caring, giving, thoughtful human being who brought people from all walks of life together. He was the best GM in football; but he was also the guy sitting on his surfboard in the ocean that you caught waves with, jogged trails alongside and chatted up in the check-out line of the local market. He was the guy you felt like you’d known your entire life, even if it wasn’t but for five minutes at the gas station. He was just a regular guy who happened to be anything but.

“Bobby was, in fact, exceptional. He was one-of-a-kind. And he will be incredibly missed. On behalf of my family and the Chargers organization, we want to extend our deepest condolences to his wife, Christine, and the entire Beathard family on the loss of one of the best to ever do it, be it football or life.”

Beathard served as director of player personnel for Miami’s Super Bowl-winning teams in 1972 and 1973. He also worked for Kansas City and Atlanta before joining Miami.

He retired from football in 2000, and he is a member of the Ring of Fame for both the Commanders and Chargers.

Beathard was the grandfather of quarterback C.J. Beathard, who entered the NFL with the 49ers in 2017 and played for the Jacksonville Jaguars last season.

North Carolina coach Mack Brown has agreed to a one-year contract extension that keeps him with the Tar Heels through the 2027 season, the school announced Thursday.

The financial terms remain the same from the extension he received a year ago, which included a new salary of $5 million per season.

Brown, who led North Carolina to an appearance in the ACC championship game in 2022, is 30-22 in four years since returning to coach the Tar Heels for a second stint.

Brown has coached North Carolina to bowl appearances in all four seasons.

With quarterback Drake Maye returning for 2023, expectations will once again be high for North Carolina.

“Mack has reenergized our program in so many ways — from the team camaraderie in the locker room, to the engaged fan base in the stands, to this season’s Coastal Division Championship and nine-win finish,” UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. “We know that under his leadership, our student-athletes will continue to succeed on the field and in the classroom while giving back to the community. We appreciate all he and Sally have done to help build a positive culture around Carolina football.”

Jacob Oden, the nation’s No.132 player in the 2024 class, is staying home to play for Michigan in college. The Harper Woods (Mich.) star released a top five of Michigan, Michigan State, Tennessee, Penn State and Iowa on Dec. 27 prior to announcing his commitment to the Wolverines this evening.

Oden’s decision ultimately came down to the relationships he’s developed with the Michigan staff over the years – a trait he stressed as being of most importance when making a college decision and something he highlighted when detailing why the Wolverines made his top five.

“I mean, it’s a family environment,” Oden said. “They treat me like one of them and I’m really close with the coaches up there. Especially coach (Steve) Clinkscale.”

Oden becomes Michigan’s the sixth 2024 commit and is currently the highest rated member of a 2024 Wolverine recruiting class that currently ranks No. 8 overall.

Oden combines a great frame with a high level of athleticism and will provide plenty of versatility to Michigan’s secondary unit. With the size of a safety and the coverage skills of a corner, he can play just about anywhere in the defensive backfield and will also be an asset to Michigan’s special team units throughout his tenure in Ann Arbor.

The 2024 defensive back has great feet, is efficient out of his breaks, has a high motor, is a willing tackler, and as the son of a football coach he has a great understanding of the game as well. Oden’s father, a former Wolverine football player himself, is the head coach at Harper Woods and the young defensive back’s pledge should only improve the recruiting pipeline between Michigan and the school that produces division one talent on a yearly basis.

The versatile defensive back is currently the fifth rated recruit in Michigan and any time you can keep a player of his caliber home is a big win in and of itself. Oden is only scratching the surface of how good he will eventually be and has every tool to be a big time player in the Big Ten and beyond.

He scored 16 points in the first half. But even as the Lakers built a big lead in the third quarter, Abdul-Jabbar resisted forcing shots and consistently passed out of traps. A 12-footer along the baseline gave him 18 points for the game. By the start of the fourth quarter, the game was so out of reach that Frank Layden, the coach of the Jazz, began removing his key players to preserve them for the playoffs.

But Abdul-Jabbar was so close to the record that he re-entered the game, and he tied Chamberlain when James Worthy passed to him for a dunk. The next assist needed to belong to Johnson, and when Johnson passed out of trouble to Bob McAdoo, one of the Lakers’ reserves, his teammates shouted at McAdoo to pass it back to Johnson.

“Magic almost ran up and grabbed it,” Scott said, laughing at the memory.

Bob Hansen, a first-year guard for the Jazz that season, was guarding Johnson and made the unconventional decision to give him a little space to make an entry pass to Abdul-Jabbar on the right block.

“Didn’t want to really get in the way of history,” Hansen said.

Hansen’s teammates had other ideas. Eaton and Green tried to double-team the 7-2 Abdul-Jabbar, but he took one dribble, pivoted to his right, then spun to his left to rise for a sky hook over Eaton, who had been dreading such a moment. Chick Hearn, the longtime play-by-play announcer for the Lakers, rejoiced when the ball splashed through the hoop.

“The new king of scoring has ascended his throne,” Hearn said on the broadcast as Abdul-Jabbar’s teammates embraced him. “This man has accomplished something that I don’t believe — and I mean this sincerely — I don’t think this will ever happen again.”

As reporters, photographers and dignitaries swarmed Abdul-Jabbar, Hansen waded through the mass of humanity with the ball in his hands. He found Abdul-Jabbar near midcourt.

“I said: ‘Here you go, big fella, here’s the ball. Do you want the ball?’ He was like: ‘Yeah! Thanks, little man,’” said Hansen, who is 6-6. “And he patted me on the head.”

After opening at pick ’em, the Philadelphia Eagles are now small favorites over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. It is on track to be one of the tightest Super Bowl lines in the history of the game. It would mark the first time Patrick Mahomes is a postseason underdog in his career.

Let’s dive into the history and trends.

Chiefs’ and Eagles’ futures history

• The Chiefs were +650 to win the Super Bowl when odds were first released last February, but they fell to 11-1 entering the season, the longest odds they were at any point this season. When the regular season ended, the Chiefs were +340 favorites.

• The Chiefs are tracking to become the first team to enter the playoffs as the outright Super Bowl favorite and then be an underdog in the Super Bowl since 2004. That year, the Eagles entered the playoffs as +500 favorites before losing in Super Bowl XXXIX as seven-point underdogs against the New England Patriots.

• Meanwhile, the Eagles were 40-1 when odds opened, and they were as long as 50-1 prior to the A.J. Brown trade. They were 25-1 when the season started. That would make them the biggest preseason long shots to win the Super Bowl since 2017, the only other time the Eagles won the Super Bowl (40-1 preseason).

Season results

• The Chiefs are 8-11 ATS this season. They are the sixth team to reach the Super Bowl with a losing ATS record. Four of the previous five lost the Super Bowl.

• The Chiefs’ 11 ATS losses are the most ever by a team entering the Super Bowl and their 8-11 ATS record is the second-worst percentage entering the game. Only the 1997 Packers (6-9-3 ATS) were worse. That Packers team lost to the Denver Broncos as 11-point favorites in Super Bowl XXXII. Despite the poor ATS record, the Chiefs have gone 5-0 outright and ATS against NFC teams this season.

• The Chiefs also had the highest average over/under in the NFL this season at 49.8. Unders were 11-8 in Chiefs games, compared to overs going 10-9 in Eagles games.

• As for the Eagles, they enter the Super Bowl at 10-9 ATS after covering back-to-back playoff games. The Eagles are 9-3 ATS this season in Jalen Hurts starts when favored by 8 points or less.

Everything you need to know to bet Super Bowl LVII

Rare underdog role for Mahomes

• For the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era, the Chiefs are likely underdogs in a playoff game. Last week, the Chiefs were underdogs early in the week against the Cincinnati Bengals but closed as favorites.

• Mahomes’ 13 playoff starts without being an underdog is the longest streak by any quarterback to begin his career in the Super Bowl era. It’s also one shy of Peyton Manning’s record in that span. It also would snap the Chiefs’ 15-game streak of being postseason favorites, which is the longest streak by any team in that span.

• It would be just the 10th time in Patrick Mahomes’ career that he has been an underdog and the first time in the playoffs. No quarterback in the Super Bowl era has made more starts to begin his career before his 10th career game as an underdog (94th career start).

• Mahomes has also been very successful as an underdog. He is 6-3 outright as an underdog, tied with Jimmy Garoppolo (14-7) for the best outright winning percentage as an underdog in the Super Bowl era (min. 8 starts).

• He is also 7-1-1 ATS as an underdog, which is the best ATS record by any QB as an underdog (min. 8 starts). The only ATS loss came the last time he was an underdog — Week 6 against the Buffalo Bills.

Super Bowl history

• Through 56 Super Bowls, favorites and underdogs are an even 27-27-2 ATS in the Super Bowl. However, underdogs have had the upper hand recently, going 8-7 outright and 10-5 ATS in the past 15 Super Bowls.

• Last season, the Cincinnati Bengals lost but covered the 4.5-point spread against the Los Angeles Rams.

• The past four Super Bowls went under the total. Unders are 28-26-1 all-time in the Super Bowl (excluding Super Bowl I).

• The line opened pick’em at Caesars Sportsbook before quickly moving to the Eagles favored 16 minutes later. There has never been a Super Bowl that closed pick’em. This would be the ninth Super Bowl to close with a line under a field goal and the fifth to close under two. The closest Super Bowl spread is one (Patriots vs. Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX and Bengals vs. 49ers in Super Bowl XVI).

Rounds of unders

• The 2022 NFL postseason started with all five games on Saturday and Sunday of Super Wild Card Weekend going over the total. However, since then, all seven playoff games have gone under the total, including all four divisional round games and both conference championships.

• The Eagles’ past six playoff games went under the total. Four straight Eagles’ games this season have gone under the total, while three straight Chiefs games have gone under the total.

Super Bowl MVP history

• Jalen Hurts is the +125 favorite to win Super Bowl MVP, followed closely by Patrick Mahomes at +130. This is the first time both starting quarterbacks have had odds of +150 or shorter to win Super Bowl MVP in the past 15 seasons. The only other time both quarterbacks entered with odds shorter than +200 was in 2020 (Patrick Mahomes: -105, Tom Brady: +190).

• Hurts seeks to be just the fifth favorite to win Super Bowl MVP in the past 15 seasons. The most recent betting favorites to win Super Bowl MVP are Patrick Mahomes (2019). Tom Brady (2014, 2016) and Aaron Rodgers (2010) also accomplished the feat recently.

• Meanwhile, Mahomes has the shortest odds of any player on the underdog team in the last 20 Super Bowls. He is the third player on the underdog team in the past 20 seasons to be +200 or shorter to win Super Bowl MVP. The previous two both won Super Bowl MVP (2020 Tom Brady was +190, 2011 Eli Manning was +200).

• Travis Kelce (10-1) has the shortest Super Bowl MVP odds by any tight end since 2014 (Rob Gronkowski: 8-1). Last year, Cooper Kupp won the Super Bowl MVP at 6-1, the shortest odds of any non-quarterback in the game.

Notable props (as of Jan. 31)

• Patrick Mahomes’ passing yards prop is 285.5. His average prop has been 294.4, while his average pass yards per game is 303.7. He has gone over his passing prop in 12 of 19 games.

• His prop in Week 18 was 324.5, the highest for any player in any game this season, while it was 311.5 in the divisional round against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Following his ankle injury, his prop closed at 282.5 in the AFC Championship Game.

• This is the first time all season Mahomes’ passing touchdowns prop sits at 1.5 (juiced -224 to the over). It had been 2.5 in every game this season. He went under that mark in five of his past six games.

• Mahomes’ interception odds of -131 are also his second-shortest odds this season (-133 in Week 13 at Bengals).

• Jalen Hurts’ prop is at 245.5, slightly higher than his season average of 237.5 (average YPG: 233.9). In the NFC Championship Game, his prop closed at 251.5, his highest mark all season. However, he finished with a season-low 121 passing yards.

• Hurts’ current completions (21.5) and attempts (32.5) props are tied for his highest all season.

• Miles Sanders’ rushing props have been a roller coaster over the last few weeks. In Week 17, his prop was 77.5 yards, tied for his highest mark all season. By the NFC Championship Game, it slipped to 50.5, tying a season low. It has rebounded a little bit this week, jumping up seven yards to 57.5.

• Travis Kelce has the highest receiving prop in the game at 76.5. He has gone over his receptions and receiving yards props in both playoff games.

• A.J. Brown’s prop is set at 71.5 receiving yards for a third straight game after posting a total of 50 yards in his two playoff games combined. He had gone over his prop in his past four regular-season games.

• DeVonta Smith has also gone under his receiving yards prop in both playoff games. He went over his prop in his final six regular-season games.

Odds from Caesars Sportsbook. Historic futures odds from SportsOddsHistory.com