As Class of 2024 players start making the rounds in the new year, college coaches are accepting commitments in a hurry. Another big talent went off the board on Monday when the Clemson Tigers landed four-star safety Noah Dixon out of Georgia on Monday.
WHAT CLEMSON IS GETTING
Dixon is a versatile defensive piece the Tigers are adding to their class. At Troup High School (LaGrange), Dixon played up top, covered off the line, and played in the box. The four-star is a sideline-to-sideline player going against the pass and the run. If opposing ACC teams try to spread the field, Dixon can cover inside receivers and tight ends. Taking on run-heavy teams, Dixon can play strong safety working as that extra linebacker in the box.
WHY THIS IS BIG FOR CLEMSON
Clemson is always among the top recruiting teams in the country, slotted at eighth in the 2023 ahead of National Signing Day, and are on pace to replicate the success in the 2024 cycle. Five players have committed thus far, Dixon is the fourth four-star added.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
A big focus for Clemson between the 2023 and ’24 classes has been in the secondary. Six class of 2023 defensive backs were signed, which included four four-stars. The new cycle now has two in Dixon and Florida cornerback Tavoy Feagin. Co-defensive coordinators Wes Goodwin and Mickey Conn are addressing the needs with standout talents.
MELBOURNE, Australia — It felt like a full-circle occasion as Novak Djokovic celebrated on Sunday in the same city where he had been deported on a Sunday little more than a year ago.
It felt like a cycle was ending. With the Australian Open title and the No. 1 ranking back in his possession, he cried in a way that he had never cried before at Melbourne Park or perhaps at any tournament: with big, loud, body-wrenching sobs as he lay on his back in the players’ box after embracing his family and team and then dropping to the ground, overcome by it all.
When he finally returned to his feet and then to his courtside seat, he buried his face in a white towel and sobbed some more.
“I just felt this huge burden off my back with everything we’ve been through,” he said. “It was a huge relief, and a huge release as well.”
Djokovic has experienced no shortage of powerful sensations in Rod Laver Arena: the coming-of-age giddiness of winning his first Grand Slam singles title in 2008; the sweet misery of winning the longest major singles final in history in 2012 over Rafael Nadal, a 5-hour-53-minute test that left both combatants too weary to stand for the awards ceremony.
But Sunday will surely occupy a category apart. Not for the final itself — a relatively straightforward 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas — but for all that led to it and how Djokovic reacted.
“He’s keeping everything inside,” Goran Ivanisevic, his coach, said. “Sometimes you have to explode.”
Djokovic’s decision not to be vaccinated for the coronavirus has had big consequences, and returning to Australia after his forced exit on the eve of last year’s Australian Open would have been plenty to process on its own. But then came the left hamstring injury that caused Djokovic to hobble at times during the early rounds.
Ivanisevic said “97 percent” of players would have withdrawn from the tournament if they had received magnetic resonance imaging test results that looked like Djokovic’s.
“But not him; he is from outer space,” said Ivanisevic, pointing a finger to his temple. “His brain is working different.”
The 2023 Australian Open
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Djokovic, who said he would have withdrawn if this were not a Grand Slam tournament, said he did not practice on any of the off days. He followed the same template in 2021 when he won the title after tearing an abdominal muscle. This time, he also required extensive therapy.
“Look, a lot of people doubted and still doubt that I was injured,” he said, explaining that he would provide evidence at some stage. “But again, I don’t feel I need to prove anything to anyone. But it did affect me, especially in the first week. From the fourth round onwards, I felt like it was behind me.”
Then came the latest controversy sparked by his father, Srdjan, who posed for photos with flag-carrying Russian supporters inside Melbourne Park after Djokovic’s quarterfinal defeat of the Russian Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.
Djokovic explained that his father had intended to celebrate with Serbian fans as he had been doing throughout the tournament. But it was Djokovic who was left to address the incident with tournament officials and to explain it directly to the news media.
“It required an enormous mental energy really to stay present, to stay focused, to take things day by day and really see how far I can go,” Djokovic said.
But it hardly affected the bottom line. He did not lose a set in the semifinal against Tommy Paul, an unseeded American, or in the final against Tsitsipas, the shaggy-haired, 24-year-old Greek star who beat Djokovic in two of their first three matches but has now lost to him 10 times in a row.
On Sunday, Tsitsipas’s best shot, the forehand, too often cracked under Djokovic’s pressure, and sometimes it seemed as if it cracked simply at the prospect of Djokovic’s pressure. But Tsitsipas, who would have become No. 1 for the first time with a first major title, did not look quite as crestfallen as he did after losing a two-set lead to Djokovic in the 2021 French Open final.
“Paris was heartbreaking,” he said.
Instead, whether he realized it or not, he tried to take a page on Sunday night from Djokovic’s early-career playbook: when the Serb was getting beaten repeatedly by more established champions like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Despite the frustration and dejection, Djokovic came to see playing his accomplished rivals as an opportunity to get the most out of himself.
“Novak is a player that pushes you to your limits,” Tsitsipas said. “I don’t see this as a curse. I don’t see this as something, like, annoying. This is very good for the sport, to have competitors like him, to have champions like him. He’s very important for us that want to get to his point one day.”
This seems the smart approach rather than stewing in negativity. But the reality for Tsitsipas is that Djokovic won that first Grand Slam title in 2008 in Melbourne at age 20 and won four more majors before he turned 25. And however full circle it all felt in Melbourne on Sunday night, Djokovic is hardly done searching for more titles, more ways to win.
He and Nadal, who won the Australian Open in Djokovic’s absence last year, are back in a tie with 22 Grand Slam singles titles apiece. Djokovic wants the lead and as many majors as he can get before time and younger men inevitably deprive him of the opportunity.
Like Federer, whose wife Mirka’s support on the home front and on the road with their young children allowed him to compete successfully on tour into his late 30s, Djokovic’s wife, Jelena, is giving him the same flexibility with their young son and daughter. Unvaccinated for the coronavirus, he is still unable to enter the United States at this stage but said he hoped a change in policy would allow him to enter in time to play at Indian Wells, Calif., in March.
“I still have lots of motivation; let’s see how far it takes me,” he said. “I don’t know how many more years I’m going to play or how many more Slams I’m going to play. It depends on various things. It doesn’t depend only on my body.
“I think it’s extremely important for me to first have the support and love from the close ones and the ability to go and play and keep the balance with the private life. But at the same time have the mental clarity or — how should I say — aspirations to really strive to chase these trophies. Physically I can keep myself fit. Of course, 35 is not 25, even though I want to believe it is. But I still feel there is time ahead of me.”
Federer, 41, retired last September, and Nadal, 36, no doubt remains a threat when healthy but is out of action again for at least several weeks, this time with the hip injury that contributed to his losing in the second round to Mackenzie McDonald.
Ivanisevic expects Nadal back in force in the spring for the clay-court season that culminates with the French Open, which Nadal has won a mind-bending 14 times, more than any player has won any Grand Slam tournament.
“What I feel Nadal and I do, what we still fight for and what still motivates us the most is winning the biggest titles in our sport and keeping up with the young guns,” Djokovic said. “I think tennis is in good hands with great characters, great personalities and great players, but we’re still not going anywhere.”
Djokovic has now joined Nadal in the double-digit club at a major tournament with his 10th Australian Open title.
It has been and remains quite a duel, elevating and at times exhausting both men. Chasing excellence is hard enough; chasing it through adversity, whatever its provenance, is harder still.
Though Djokovic, with his supreme timing and elastic movement, can make a difficult game look easy, his emotions in the aftermath on Sunday made it clear how challenging this tournament and this cycle have been. A little more than a year ago, he and Ivanisevic were at Melbourne Airport, being escorted to their plane out of the country.
Now, Djokovic is back on top Down Under.
“I would say this is probably the biggest victory of my life, considering the circumstances,” he said, the Australian Open trophy back in very familiar hands.
This was not always the plan. This was nowhere near Amanda Serrano’s goal. Throughout her division-winding, title-winning career through seven boxing weight classes, the thought never came to them.
Being undisputed in a division? Nah, it wasn’t for Serrano and her team. They were content chasing a different type of history, winning championships in seven different divisions, turning her into one of the best fighters of all-time.
Then, three years ago, the team started to think differently about how they wanted to proceed with her career.
Serrano (43-2-1, 30 KO) was tired of maneuvering through divisions and her body wasn’t getting down to flyweight or up to welterweight anymore. She wanted to stay at featherweight, where she felt comfortable. Plus, her contemporaries — Katie Taylor and Claressa Shields — were doing something intriguing: they were fighting for undisputed status.
The only time she’s been in an undisputed fight before Saturday’s main event against WBA featherweight champion Erika Cruz at the Hulu Theater was a year ago at Madison Square Garden when she was the challenger to Taylor’s undisputed lightweight titles. It became arguably the biggest fight in women’s boxing history.
“It wasn’t always a dream of ours, or the team, it wasn’t always the main goal to become undisputed champion,” Serrano said. “I was satisfied just being the WBO champion at featherweight but now, that’s the era.
“Everybody is doing it so I said, ‘You know what, I want to become part of that.’”
Serrano started collecting featherweight titles, first beating Heather Hardy for the WBO belt in 2019, then Daniela Bermudez in 2021 (WBC) and Sarah Mahfoud last year (IBF). If she beats Cruz, Serrano will add another accolade to a career full of them.
For the most part, the 34-year-old Serrano said she’s done division-hopping except for a potential rematch against Taylor, where she’d return to lightweight. If she were to win Saturday and then fight — and beat — Taylor, she said she has no plans to try and become undisputed in three divisions due to her desire to stay put for once in her career.
The initial hope for the first Taylor-Serrano fight was Serrano would be undisputed at featherweight already, but the opportunity to fight Taylor first last year was too big. So she took it. Even in a loss, it elevated Serrano’s status further.
But making sure she became undisputed before a second Taylor-Serrano fight was a priority. She’s increased her sparring in camp — going three times a week each week in her six-week camp for the first time in her 14-year pro career. She added a sports massage therapist to her team for the first time and has noticed a difference in her body and its recovery.
All this for a fight she said “means everything to me.” Not only for her, but her native Puerto Rico, which has never had an undisputed champion in the four-belt era.
“I said let’s go for it,” Serrano said after realizing Puerto Rico has never had an undisputed champion in men’s or women’s boxing. “We’ve had champions in every [men’s] division. [I am] a seven-division world champion, had [the youngest] champion ever [Wilfred Benitez, 16].
“So I wanted to give that to my island and give them an undisputed champion.”
Then, provided everything goes well Saturday, Serrano believes a rematch against Taylor awaits.
The unlikely journey of Erika Cruz
It started as a way to find discipline as a teenager. It became much, much more.
Cruz grew up around boxing — her father, Guillermo, was a pro fighter — and after she became a single mother to her son, Cesar Josue, at age 15, she said Guillermo wanted her to box as a way to create more discipline.
As a kid, Cruz viewed boxing as “a game” — she’d always been around the gym when her father trained. When she returned to the gym at age 18, she saw it differently. She felt the passion in the sport. Fifteen days after she re-entered the gym, she had her first fight. She asked her father questions about everything. He taught her all he knew. She had purpose, even if becoming a mother as a teenager wasn’t something she planned for.
“At that moment my son became the most important thing in my life and to this day he is the most important thing I have in my life,” Cruz said through a translator. “He is the engine for my life and the reason why I decided to be in boxing.
“There were times when my son needed me, but I decided to continue boxing because I saw that this way I could give my son financial stability.”
Every day, Cruz said, she is motivated by him. He boxed for a little while, then played soccer and now wants to have a weightlifting career. And she’s become a hard-working role model beyond what the WBA featherweight champion has accomplished in the ring.
Her father helped financially at first. After she won the silver medal in the 2011 Pan American Games, she received a stipend — and also got aid from the Mexican Olympic Committee. She picked up sponsorships. And in 2015, just before she turned pro, the 32-year-old started working with the Mexican National Guard doing administrative work.
The National Guard continues to work with her schedule, too, to accommodate when she has to train for fights to make it all fit. The job also gave Cruz (15-1, 3 KO) a post-boxing plan.
Cruz started taking online law school classes part-time at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Gaunajuato. She has about 18 months to go — she fits classes in between training for fights — with the goal of working as an attorney for the National Guard when she finishes. “Since I was little, I always wanted to be a police officer or a lawyer,” Cruz said. “I never thought of being a boxer and when I grew up, I realized that it was a good career to develop myself. I like it a lot and I think it is something that will help me to continue in the National Guard.”
Before she’s done boxing, she has more fights to get to — starting Saturday night against Serrano. Fighting on a platform like that in New York is what she thought of when she started boxing. It’ll be her second professional fight outside Mexico — her last came in 2021 when she beat Jelena Mrdjenovich at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York for the WBA title she currently holds. Now she’ll be returning to the United States again and on a much bigger platform for the biggest fight of her career. A win changes her life.
“It would mean that everything I’ve been through has been worth it, the sacrifices, leaving my son to be able to train,” Cruz said. “That’s what I’ve suffered the most, leaving my son for long periods of time to be able to train. It would mean that, and it would be a way to validate all the sacrifices and hard work.
“And I want to be an example for all women and show that Mexico continues to be the country that fights great battles and achieves great things in world boxing.”
It is no surprise that the young player of the tournament at a World Cup would attract interest. But that Chelsea would be willing to part with more than 10 times what Benfica paid for Enzo Fernandez barely six months ago marks an extraordinary pursuit for the young midfielder.
The backdrop of Todd Boehly’s seemingly-endless month of spending does add some context. But it still does not fully explain why the Blues would break their own all-time transfer record midway through a campaign – without anyone needing replacing – to sign a 22-year-old with half a season’s experience in Europe.
Take the money out of the equation and Fernandez’s signing looks an astute one and, looking forward to the summer and beyond, may provide a transition period ahead of Jorginho’s likely departure.
He would likely be the Italian’s natural successor in Chelsea’s midfield after the Euro 2020 winner’s up-and-down five years in west London, and could well prove an upgrade for Graham Potter’s beleaguered side.
The Blues have a major goalscoring problem. A deep-lying midfielder may not appear the obvious solution, but Fernandez’s contributions in the Primeira Liga, the Champions League and World Cup suggest otherwise. Chelsea have only scored 22 goals in the Premier League this season, just five more than bottom-side Southampton, and at least 10 fewer than anyone else in the top half.
The stats reflect the form – Chelsea have created fewer chances than relegation-threatened West Ham, and no-one who has watched them this season would say they have looked especially potent.
Fernandez’s attributes make it plainly clear why Chelsea think he can help. Still only halfway through his first season with Benfica, he has earned the second-most assists in the Primeira Liga, and created 30 chances for his team-mates – some of them particularly eye-catching, and a stunning pinpoint set-up for Goncalo Ramos against Sporting earlier this month perhaps the pick of the bunch.
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Benfica manager Roger Schmidt claims the club are powerless to keep Fernandez at the club if the player wants to leave and if clubs match the release clause in his contract
“He’s a very exciting young player,” European football expert Kevin Hatchard told Sky Sports News. “He’s someone who plays in a deep midfield role with a lovely range of passing. He’s got that mentality.”
It is that kind of playmaking potential which had Manchester City and Real Madrid interested in signing him from boyhood side River Plate last summer before he settled on Portugal.
At Real, he may have been seen as a natural replacement for 37-year-old Luka Modric, a player he has been likened to already. Anyone in his mould would be the kind of addition Chelsea would relish.
That comparison was made by Fernandez’s old youth coach Gabriel Rodriguez. “Enzo is a player with a fine touch and a really strong outlook on the whole pitch,” he told Argentine newspaper Clarin.
Boehly and Chelsea’s admiration of passing football played a part in bringing Potter to Stamford Bridge in the first place, and Fernandez’s style would complement it further.
No-one in the Portuguese top flight has made more passes than the Argentine, but if he does prove to replace Jorginho at Stamford Bridge, he will also offer something in the final third – where he tops the charts for passes too.
Should Chelsea want to play with a midfield two, he has taken responsibility without the ball at Benfica too, slotting into an anchorman role regularly as required. He has been one of the league’s top tacklers, and only 10 players across the division have won the ball back more in the middle third, even with his considerable output further up the pitch.
Primeira Liga imports have yielded some strong returns in recent years but if Potter and Boehly have taken Fernandez’s domestic dominance with a pinch of salt, the level of his performances on the European and world stage have provided strong reassurance.
He started all six of Benfica’s group games as they beat PSG and Juventus to top Champions League Group H, and was named best young player at the World Cup in December – following in Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba’s footsteps – after starting five of Argentina’s games en route to glory.
“His performances in the Champions League are a real sign of someone able to puff their chest out and play at a really high level,” said Hatchard.
“We saw the same thing at the World Cup, it didn’t faze him at all and he ended up winning the tournament with Argentina.
“So yes, there’s a big chunk of potential you’re paying for here, but also someone who’s packed a lot into a relatively short career.”
A nine-figure transfer fee would hang heavy over the head of any player, and has weighed on the Premier League’s only other £100m transfer, Jack Grealish, in his 18 months at Manchester City so far.
But if Fernandez can shake that off and continue showing why Chelsea have been willing to part with such an eye-watering sum, they will have a real player on their hands.
Sunday’s N.F.L. conference championship games forced four playoff teams to interrogate and counter their opponent’s well-documented strengths and weaknesses. Those games ended with the Philadelphia Eagles downing the 49ers, after San Francisco’s towering defense could no longer keep pace, and the Kansas City Chiefs finally batting back the Bengals for their first win over Cincinnati in four tries.
The Eagles’ balance can frustrate any defense.
The entire 2022 Philadelphia Eagles offensive campaign has been a showcase in winning games in different ways. With the explosive receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown and the big-armed quarterback Jalen Hurts, they often torched teams down the field, like they did against the Detroit Lions in Week 1 and the Tennessee Titans in Week 13. That same core attacked the Arizona Cardinals’ perimeter in Week 5.
The Eagles have the rushing attack — with the Pro Bowler Miles Sanders at running back and Hurts — to pound the ball as they did against the Green Bay Packers in Week 12.
Sunday in the N.F.C. championship, the Eagles won, 31-7, in a different kind of game against the 49ers’ top-ranked defense: slow, efficient, and mistake-free.
Philadelphia’s lone passing play of more than 20 yards was Smith’s fourth-and-3 conversion on the first drive, a play called a catch on the field but that might have been reversed had the ruling been challenged in time. Hurts struggled to connect with receivers down the field as San Francisco’s tough secondary blanketed his targets and its linebackers refused to allow any underneath throws to turn into big plays.
After punting on their next three drives, the Eagles rattled off a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that featured nine rushes. It was a display of not just their physicality up front, but the unique kinds of runs they can execute.
On Miles Sanders’s touchdown run with 1 minute 35 seconds left in the half, the Eagles pulled center Jason Kelce on a zone adjustment. Rather than have every player step the same way like a zone would traditionally be run, the Eagles asked left guard Landon Dickerson to turn back and attack the nose tackle and allow Kelce to pull out in front of him.
Philadelphia’s smothering run game was only made more valuable by winning the discipline battle: penalties and turnovers. The Eagles got seven first downs off penalties, including one on a roughing the punter call, to the 49ers’ zero. San Francisco had led the N.F.L. in turnover ratio all season, but forced no turnovers on Sunday, while Philadelphia recovered three fumbles. One of those turnovers set the Eagles up at the 49ers’ 30-yard line for a drive that ended in a touchdown three plays later.
There is, of course, the caveat that the Eagles only had to outscore a broken Brock Purdy, who injured his hand on the 49ers’ first drive, and the backup Josh Johnson. But the 49ers’ defense has been the team’s star all season and Philadelphia frustrated and wore it down with a run-first approach. In a season in which the Eagles’ offense has had a counter for every opponent, it won its toughest matchup yet with a smart, physical performance.
Patrick Mahomes’s ankle injury forced him to show patience.
It’s always Patrick Mahomes. For the past five seasons, at the end of winding journeys through the A.F.C., Mahomes has awaited an opponent in a conference championship game at Arrowhead Stadium.
This season, though, Mahomes and Kansas City hosted the rival that booted them from the playoffs last year and one that had the upper hand in their last three meetings. Facing the Joe Burrow-led Bengals, Mahomes lacked his usual mobility but picked his spots to help Kansas City get a hard-fought win over Cincinnati, 23-20.
Kansas City’s first two drives ended in field goals, with the team’s receivers hampered by injuries and draped in creative coverages. Mahomes began to test what the defense offered on Kansas City’s third drive, when he rolled out to the right, pumped to a receiver on a short route, replanted and then found tight end Travis Kelce in the end zone for a 14-yard score.
Kelce (seven catches for 78 yards) wasn’t his usual tackle-busting self, limited as he was by a sore back that had been spasming in Friday’s practices. The receiver Mecole Hardman, another reliable veteran, was limited after battling a groin injury all week.
That led Mahomes to rely on receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and the rookie running back Isiah Pacheco. Mahomes first found Valdes-Scantling on a chunk play on a corner route that set up the Kelce touchdown.
Coach Andy Reid and Mahomes also got Valdes-Scantling into the end zone on a seam route in the third quarter. Valdes-Scantling ran a switch-release with Skyy Moore, who ran underneath to clear space for the catch. Valdes-Scantling finished with six catches for 116 yards, exceeding his previous highs this season.
But Mahomes was just as willing to take what the Bengals presented him and not force plays that had crushed Kansas City in its previous matchups with Cincinnati. Despite catching just 13 passes during the regular season (never more than three in any game), Pacheco netted five receptions for 59 yards on Sunday.
With the score tied at 20, Kansas City started its final drive near midfield with 30 seconds left. After a 6-yard Pacheco run and an incomplete pass, Mahomes was left with a third-and-4 on the Bengals’ 47-yard line. Interior pressure forced Mahomes out of the pocket to his right. Rather than rely on his arm, Mahomes gritted out a 5-yard run to the sideline, his longest rush of the day, to keep the drive alive.
Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai drew an unnecessary roughness penalty for his overeager pursuit of Mahomes, no doubt a reflexive reaction to Mahomes’s forays of the past. The flag added another 15 yards to the run, putting Kansas City in range for a game-winning 45-yard kick by Harrison Butker.
If there were any need for it, Sunday’s championship game was another reminder of Mahomes’s playmaking. He and Kansas City are heading to a third Super Bowl in five years thanks to the quarterback having showed new poise to finally beat Cincinnati — and the instinct to know when to let loose.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s golf courses will host three tournaments this year for the breakaway league that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is underwriting, deepening the financial ties between a candidate for the White House and top officials in Riyadh.
LIV Golf, which in the past year has cast men’s professional golf into turmoil as it lured players away from the PGA Tour, said on Monday that it would travel to Trump courses in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia during this year’s 14-stop season. Neither the league nor the Trump Organization announced the terms of their arrangement, but the schedule shows the Saudi-backed start-up will remain allied with, and beneficial to, one of its foremost defenders and political patrons as he seeks a return to power.
Part of LIV’s scheduling approach, executives say, hinges on the relative scarcity of elite courses that can challenge players such as Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith — and the abundance of them in a Trump portfolio that is more accessible than many others to the new circuit. In a court filing last week, LIV Golf complained anew that the PGA Tour had warned “golfers, other tours, vendors, broadcasters, sponsors and virtually any other third parties” against doing business with the rebel league.
But Trump, whose courses hosted two LIV Golf events in 2022, has expressed no public misgivings about his company’s ties to the league, which has drawn attention to Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses and prompted accusations that the country was turning to sports to repair its reputation. A confidential McKinsey & Company analysis presented to Saudi officials in 2021 suggested there were significant obstacles to success and underscored the limited financial potential for one of the world’s largest wealth funds.
Long before Monday’s announcement, the Trump family was closely entangled with the wealth fund, which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman oversees and the PGA Tour is now trying to draw directly into its legal fight against LIV.
A Guide to the LIV Golf Series
Card 1 of 7
A new series. The debut of the Saudi-financed LIV Golf series in 2022 resurfaced longstanding questions about athletes’ moral obligations and their desire to compete and earn money. Here’s what to know:
What is LIV Golf? The series is a breakaway professional golf circuit bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Its organizers hope to position it as a player-power-focused alternative to the PGA Tour, which has been the highest level of pro golf for nearly a century.
Why is the new series controversial? The event has created sparks within golf for upending the traditions and strictures of how the game is played. It has also become a lightning rod for human rights campaigners who accuse Saudi Arabia of using sports to launder its reputation.
What is attracting the players? The LIV Golf events are the richest tournaments in golf history. The first tournament’s total purse was $25 million, and the winner’s share was $4 million. The last-place finisher at each event was guaranteed $120,000. That is on top of the appearance fees and nine-figure signing-on payouts some players have accepted.
Formally known as the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund has agreed to invest $2 billion in a firm controlled by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. In addition to the tournaments that LIV staged last year at Trump properties in Florida and New Jersey, the wealth fund was the “presenting partner” for a women’s golf series that held an October event at a Trump course in the Bronx.
The Trump Organization did not respond to questions on Monday about the financial terms of its arrangement with LIV Golf, which declined to comment. Instead, Eric Trump, one of the former president’s sons and an executive vice president of his family’s business, said in a statement that the company was “honored to be hosting” the league.
“What LIV Golf accomplished in their first season was truly remarkable and we are excited to raise the bar even higher together in 2023,” he added.
Beyond financial considerations, Donald Trump’s enthusiastic embrace of LIV Golf can be partly traced to his episodic clashes with the game’s establishment. The PGA Tour, which LIV is trying to challenge for supremacy in the men’s professional game, said during the 2016 presidential campaign that it was ending its long connection to a Trump club near Miami. (The tour commissioner, Tim Finchem, denied at the time that the decision was “a political exercise” and instead characterized it as “fundamentally a sponsorship issue.”)
After the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the P.G.A. of America, which is separate from the tour, abandoned its plans to host the 2022 P.G.A. Championship at a Trump property in New Jersey. And the R&A, which organizes the British Open, has essentially refused to return its championship tournament to Turnberry, a glimmering Scottish course that Trump now owns.
So it came as little surprise when Trump, who as president publicly resisted the conclusion of American intelligence agencies that the crown prince had authorized the killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, closely aligned himself and his business with LIV in its debut season.
In an interview with The New York Times at LIV’s team championship event in October, the former president said he had no second thoughts about hosting the series’ tournaments. Pressed on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, Trump, who that day had described Saudi officials as “good people with unlimited money,” replied: “We have human rights issues in this country, too. We have human rights issues here as much as anybody.”
Trump’s business ties to the Middle East reach beyond LIV and the wealth fund. In November, he reached a deal with a Saudi real estate company that is planning a $4 billion project in Oman, including a Trump-branded hotel and golf course. The government of Oman owns the land where the complex is expected to be built, and it is collaborating with Dar Al Arkan, the Saudi firm that signed the contract with the former president.
The full schedule, released on Monday after a run of scattered announcements and leaks, begins in late February in Mexico at the El Camaleón course at Mayakoba. The league will hold eight events in the United States, including tournaments at Trump courses in New Jersey and near Miami and Washington. Its schedule also includes a return to Centurion Golf Club, the property near London where LIV played its first tournament last year, and a debut at Real Club Valderrama, the Spanish course that hosted the Ryder Cup in 1997.
The season’s final tournament, days after the competition at the Trump-controlled property in Doral, Fla., will be in Saudi Arabia.
LIV’s format, built around 54-hole tournaments with shotgun starts and no cuts, has repeatedly drawn the ire of some of the PGA Tour’s remaining stars, who have sometimes complained that defectors like Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka are playing a watered-down game.
There has been other turmoil, though. LIV’s ambitions to recruit the world’s top 12 players, a pivotal goal, appear to have stalled, and some of its top executives have left in recent weeks. Litigation against the PGA Tour has been acrimonious, and the two sides have clashed over the extent of Saudi influence in LIV’s day-to-day work.
LIV Golf has insisted that its “stakeholders take a long-term approach to our business model” and that it was “confident that over the next few seasons, the remaining pieces of our business model will come to fruition as planned.”
On Monday, not long before the scheduled rollout, LIV nearly secured a win on the golf course: Patrick Reed lost to Rory McIlroy, one of LIV’s greatest antagonists, by a stroke at the weather-delayed Dubai Desert Classic.
As soon as the N.F.L.’s conference championship games ended on Sunday night, bookmakers around the world announced their Super Bowl lines. Most installed the Kansas City Chiefs as the favorite over the Philadelphia Eagles, by about a point.
Gamblers disagreed. They thought the sports books had it wrong, and they pounced. Almost immediately, money began pouring in on Philadelphia, and pretty soon the line was on the move. Within an hour, the Eagles were the Super Bowl favorites. By Monday they were favored by 2 to 2.5 points.
What happened? And why did so many early bettors like Philadelphia?
The initial line should not have been a huge surprise. Most computer rankings have Kansas City a point or two better than Philadelphia. Oddsmakers who offered so-called look-ahead lines last week had suggested Kansas City — if it advanced — would be the Super Bowl favorite, by as much as 2.5 points.
But “the market flat-out disagreed,” said Brandon DuBreuil, the head of content at Covers, a sports betting information site.
The gamblers who bet early tend to be well respected, and are known as “sharp money.” When they all seem to like one team, bookmakers scramble to change the line.
And why did these sharp bettors all like Philadelphia? One key reason was injuries. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been dealing with an ankle sprain, and one of his favorite targets, tight end Travis Kelce, had been listed as questionable for the conference championship with back spasms. And even as the Chiefs won the game, 23-20, over the Cincinnati Bengals, they lost several wide receivers.
All those injuries will mean some uncertainty about the Kansas City offense before the Super Bowl, which will be played Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz. Another, perhaps more important, factor is how good Philadelphia looked.
While it is necessary to qualify the Eagles’ 31-7 win because the San Francisco 49ers were effectively left without a quarterback for most of the game, and while 2.5 points doesn’t sound like a huge spread in a title game, the revised line translates into a perceived advantage for the Eagles.
To bet on the money line — a straightforward wager on who will win the game — Philadelphia backers must bet $130 to win $100, while Kansas City supporters bet $100 to win $110. This translates into Philadelphia being given a 54 percent chance of winning the game against Kansas City’s 46 percent chance.
No opinion on the point spread? There are a lot of other ways to bet.
Depending on where you look, the over-under on the game is around 49.5, so bookmakers are looking for more scoring than in the A.F.C. (43 points) or N.F.C. (38 points) championship games, or indeed more than in any of the divisional round games (which produced a combined 31, 37, 45 and 47 points).
If you are impatient, you can bet over-under for the first half (24) or even the first quarter (10).
What’s next for the betting line? While there might be a little more movement, the major action is probably over. “I doubt the line will flip again, but it could creep down,” DuBreuil said, perhaps settling at something closer to Philadelphia by 1 or 1.5 points. The biggest moves of any line, he said, happen early.
Unless there is disastrous news, that is. If, say, it were announced that Mahomes would miss the game, a 7-point swing would not be a surprise, DuBreuil said. In that case, the Eagles might enter the game as much as a 10-point favorite.
The Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) will take on the Kansas City Chiefs (14-3) in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The game opened as a pick ’em, but then the line moved to the Eagles as 2-point favorites within an hour of posting, with the opening total at 49.5 at Caesars Sportsbook.
Here is everything you need to know about how to bet the game, our favorite props, tips and plays as well as the most notable bets ahead of the big game.
This page will be continually updated with news, features and everything else you need leading up to Super Bowl Sunday.
Oddsmakers initially made Super Bowl LVII a toss-up, but the Philadelphia Eagles emerged as the betting favorites over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. David Purdum details the line movement on Sunday night.
Betting analysts Doug Kezirian, Tyler Fulghum and Erin Dolan give their initial thoughts on the opening line and movement as well as how bettors should approach early action on the Super Bowl.
Some of the traditional National Signing Day luster has worn off over the past few years thanks to the Early Signing Period. But there are a few big-time prospects that haven’t made their decisions just yet. Expect more drama, hat ceremonies, commitment videos, televised announcements and some major underclassmen commitments for the late signing day on Wednesday.
Here’s our guide on when and how to watch announcements from the nation’s top prospects (all times Eastern) on Wednesday.
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Rory McIlroy suffered two nightmares on the 18th at the Emirates Golf Club in last year’s final round and this year’s third round. But he was able to just avoid the lake again in Monday’s final round to claim the 2023 Dubai Desert Classic.
Warren Greatrex has excellent chances at both Hereford and Plumpton this afternoon, live on Sky Sports Racing.
3.00 Hereford – Bill Baxter on hat-trick bid
Warren Greatrex’s Bill Baxter looks to have a big chance to land the hat-trick in the feature Hereford Motor Group Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase (3:00).
James Bowen remains in the saddle after guiding the seven-year-old to victory in his last two starts, although he has been raised 8lb for his previous success.
He faces six rivals, including Venetia Williams’ consistent but frustrating Franco d’Aunou on chasing debut, as well as Super Six for Nigel Twiston-Davies who has disappointed of late.
3.50 Plumpton – Art Of Illusion could keep up good run
If Greatrex doesn’t manage a Hereford winner, he could grab one at Plumpton with Art Of Illusion in the Tysers Handicap Chase (3:50).
He’s another who won last time and has been raised 6lb, although that is countered by the 7lb claim of young rider Dylan Kitts.
Karen Jewell’s Ualrightharry is the other previous winner in the field, over course and distance, and has Marc Goldstein back in the saddle here.
7.00 Wolverhampton – Gifted Gold to find more improvement?
The talkSPORT Download The App EBF Fillies’ Handicap (7:00) could be at the mercy of Karl Burke’s Gifted Gold on handicap debut, who will be looking to make it three wins from four starts.
She’s been handed a mark of 82, which could prove on the low side given her only defeat came in the Group Three Oh So Sharp last year.
Charlie Johnston’s Wadacre Grace isn’t hiding anything from the handicapper, having finished second on her last five starts and a victory surely can’t be far away for the consistent four-year-old.
Watch all the action from Hereford, Plumpton and Wolverhampton live on Sky Sports Racing on Monday January 30.
M.A. Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
It was reported by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne earlier this month that Stewart wanted to meet with the Storm, Liberty, Minnesota Lynx and Washington Mystics. Stewart narrowing her choices down was first reported by Winsidr.
Free agents can officially sign with teams starting Wednesday. Two-time WNBA champion Candace Parker already has announced she is leaving the Chicago Sky for the Las Vegas Aces.
Stewart, a two-time WNBA champion who was the Storm’s No. 1 draft pick in 2016, is the most high-profile free agent. Now 28, she was the league’s MVP in 2018 and is facing free agency in her peak years. She has averaged 20.3 points and 8.6 rebounds in her six-season WNBA career, having missed the 2019 season with an Achilles injury.
It’s been thought all along that the Liberty were the biggest threat to lure Stewart away from Seattle, where she won championships in 2018 and 2020. Stewart is from Syracuse, New York, and played collegiately at UConn, where she won four NCAA titles.
There also has been speculation that Stewart’s decision could be tied to that of Chicago guard Courtney Vandersloot, if both wanted to play on the same team.
Stewart has played alongside point guard Sue Bird during her WNBA career, but Bird retired after last season. Vandersloot is one of the league’s premier point guards, leading the WNBA in assists per game for six seasons, including from 2017 to 2021.
FRISCO, Texas — Kellen Moore will no longer be the offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, ending a four-year run that saw the offense rank inside the top 10 three times.
In a statement Sunday night, Dallas coach Mike McCarthy said the Cowboys and Moore reached a “mutual decision to part ways” following the end-of-season review process and additional discussion.
Upon accepting Dallas’ head-coaching job in 2020, McCarthy felt it was important to keep Moore in place as a benefit to Dak Prescott, since Moore had just completed his first season as the team’s offensive coordinator, one in which the Cowboys boasted the top-ranked offense in terms of yards per game; Prescott also threw for 4,902 yards in 2019.
It is possible that McCarthy will take over playcalling responsibilities, but no decisions have been made, sources told ESPN.
With Prescott coming back from a dislocated and fractured right ankle in 2020, the Cowboys had the top-ranked offense in yards and points per game in 2021. In 2022, the Cowboys ranked fourth in points per game and 11th in yards despite Prescott missing five games with a fractured thumb.
“I want to thank Kellen for his deep commitment, hard work and dedication that were a core part of his time with the Cowboys,” McCarthy’s statement read. “The production of our offense and his mentorship of Dak were at the center of Kellen’s impact, and we are grateful for his tenure and leadership.”
The last Cowboys coach to call plays was Jason Garrett in 2012. Following that season, owner and general manager Jerry Jones wanted Garrett to give up those duties and focus on the full team. Bill Callahan called plays in 2013, followed by Scott Linehan from 2014 to 2018, before Moore took over.
Last week Moore, who had one year left on his contract, interviewed for the Carolina Panthers head-coaching vacancy that eventually went to Frank Reich. A source said the Los Angeles Chargers recently requested permission to speak to Moore about their offensive coordinator opening.
Last year, Moore was a finalist for the Miami Dolphins job that went to Mike McDaniel. In 2020, Moore pulled himself out of the running for the job at Boise State, his alma mater.
Cowboys quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, whose contract is up, will also not return.
“Doug is the consummate professional and brought a level of football insight, enthusiasm and focus to work every day that helped everyone he worked with during his time here with the Cowboys perform at a higher level,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy served as the Packers’ playcaller for most of his 13-year tenure in Green Bay. He gave up those duties for a spell in 2015, but resumed calling plays and vowed to do so for the rest of his time as the Packers’ coach, making his decision to keep Moore as the playcaller in 2020 a surprising one.
In Green Bay, McCarthy coached Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, with whom interceptions rarely were an issue. After having 29 passes intercepted in 2005, Favre cut his interceptions back to 18 and 15 in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Rodgers became the starter in 2008 and never had more than 13 in a season, topping double digits just twice (2008, 2010).
Prescott tied for the NFL lead in interceptions in 2022 with 15, despite missing the five games. However, just one season earlier, he established a team record with 37 touchdown passes and just 10 interceptions.
Brian Schottenheimer, who served as a Dallas consultant in 2022, could be a coordinator candidate.
After the Cowboys’ divisional round loss to the San Francisco 49ers, McCarthy informed six coaches they would not be back: assistant head coach Rob Davis, senior defensive assistant George Edwards, running backs coach Skip Peete, offensive line coach Joe Philbin, quality control coach Kyle Valero and assistant defensive line coach Leon Lett.
The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will meet next month in Super Bowl LVII, a game that will pit Andy Reid against his former team and that will feature two Black starting quarterbacks for the first time in Super Bowl history.
This will be Patrick Mahomes’s third Super Bowl appearance in his five seasons as Kansas City’s starter, while Jalen Hurts has led the Eagles to the Super Bowl in his second full season as the starting quarterback.
The teams will play on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz., and both quarterbacks will need to use the time before the game to recover from lingering injuries.
Mahomes sprained his right ankle on Jan. 21 in Kansas City’s divisional-round win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. While he passed for 326 yards in Sunday’s 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the A.F.C. championship, and he nimbly scrambled for a first down on the play that set up the game-winning field goal, Mahomes was clearly playing through pain and limped at times throughout the game.
Hurts, a right-handed quarterback, sprained his throwing shoulder in December and missed two regular-season games. He returned for the Eagles’ regular-season finale and both their postseason games but has said his shoulder is not 100 percent healthy.
Each team entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed in its respective conference, but they advanced to the Super Bowl under very different circumstances.
The Eagles were in control for most of their 31-7 win against the San Francisco 49ers, after both the starter Brock Purdy and his backup Josh Johnson — the team’s third and fourth quarterbacks this season — were injured.
Kansas City’s game against the Bengals, on the other hand, came down to the final seconds. On the final drive, a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty was called against the Bengals on Mahomes’s 5-yard scramble for a first down, which put Kansas City in position to kick a 45-yard game-winning field goal with three seconds left.
The Super Bowl matchup between Kansas City and Philadelphia should pit a pass-heavy juggernaut against the ground-bound Eagles. Mahomes led the league in passing this season, accruing more than 5,000 yards in the air during the regular season. Against the 49ers, both Hurts and the Eagles set records for rushing touchdowns this season: 15 for Hurts and 39 for the team.
The last time Kansas City and Philadelphia played each other, in October 2021, Mahomes threw five touchdown passes in a 42-30 victory.
Beyond the quarterbacks, a major story line over the next two weeks will be Reid facing the team he led for 14 years. In the early 2000s, Reid took the Eagles to four straight N.F.C. championship games, and one Super Bowl appearance, a loss to the New England Patriots, before the team decided not to bring him back for the 2013 season.
Like Kansas City, the Eagles have also recently been to the Super Bowl. But while there are a handful of veteran players still on the roster from the team that won in the 2017 season, the Eagles are returning to the big game with a different head coach, Nick Sirianni, and a different quarterback, Hurts.
The Kelce brothers — Jason, the Philadelphia center, and Travis, the Kansas City tight end — will become the first set of brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl.
The last two Super Bowls played in the Phoenix area were two of the most thrilling games in recent history: the Giants’ win against the previously undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and the Patriots’ victory against the Seattle Seahawks off Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception in Super Bowl XLIX.
Through thick and thin with the only N.B.A. team he has known, Lillard, the Portland Trail Blazers’ luminescent point guard, has always possessed a remarkable calm. Still, he is not above letting defeats get to him, as he showed after a recent meltdown loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I’m confused why y’all asking me these questions right now,” Lillard said in a news conference after his team coughed up a 25-point halftime lead. A reporter had asked Lillard about the state of his listing team. I followed up by asking how much more patience he had.
Lillard’s voice sharpened, sending tension cracking through the room. It felt like his eyes were beaming lasers right through me.
“The struggles that we’ve had are obvious,” he said, adding that he had been “transparent” about how Portland could improve.
He continued, calling the queries a “weak move” and indicating that he thought he was being baited into criticizing the makeup of his team as the league’s trade deadline loomed. “Y’all putting me in a position to, you know, answer questions that I don’t think is cool,” he said.
Later, I had another interaction with Lillard, a brief moment of reconciliation that revealed his character. I’ll get to that later. First, let’s focus on all that is swirling, once again, around Portland’s star.
Lillard is the N.B.A.’s most interesting outlier.
“He’s one of a kind,” said Chauncey Billups, who spent nearly two decades playing in the N.B.A. and is now the Blazers’ second-year head coach.
Billups wasn’t merely speaking about talent. Lillard is the rare basketball star who prizes loyalty to his city and team above all — even if that means waiting and waiting, and waiting some more, for his team to become a championship contender.
“We understand how lucky we are to have him,” Billups said. “Everyone in this city, and on this team, wants to win for Dame.”
Problem is, the Blazers are the basketball equivalent of a sturdy Honda Accord. For almost all of Lillard’s 11 seasons in the N.B.A., Portland has been a middling operation: good — sometimes very good — but never great.
It defies the norm for Lillard to remain on a team that seems stuck in neutral, while never demanding a trade or opting to leave.
Six times, the 32-year-old has been named an All-Star, and six times he has been chosen for an All-N.B.A. team. He was voted onto the league’s 75th-anniversary team, meant to honor the 75 best players in league history. He won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as a member of the U.S. men’s national team. Cat quick, graceful, brimming with the kind of bold brio that is a hallmark of his native Oakland, Calif., Lillard recently passed Clyde Drexler to become Portland’s leading career scorer.
And yet during Lillard’s tenure in Portland, the Blazers have made the Western Conference finals only once. The current Blazers are talented — and one of the league’s youngest teams. Billups is learning on the job. If this team is to become a true contender in the loaded Western Conference, it may not be until Lillard is on the downslope.
Can we be OK with that?
The past week offered us a window into Lillard’s world. A week ago Sunday: the 121-112 meltdown defeat by the Lakers.
Portland’s postgame locker room felt like a morgue. In the concourse at Moda Center, the Blazers’ saucer-shaped arena, fans let loose, dishing details to me about the team’s legacy of losing. On a Facebook page for Blazers fans, the reviews were unsparing: “Lillard needs to go for his career to have any chance before it’s too late. This team is DONE!!”
The next day, the Blazers thumped the San Antonio Spurs, 147-127. Lillard had 37 points and 12 assists.
Then came Wednesday. Peak Lillard. One for the books. In the Blazers’ 134-124 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz, he scored 60 points, making an eye-popping 72 percent of his shots.
The remarkable thing was how easy it seemed. Lillard, averaging 30 points a game for the season, never once looked forced against the Jazz. He played what he described later as an “honest game,” always making the right pass, moving the ball to the right spots, pulling up to shoot at exactly the right time. When Jazz players swarmed him, he looked like a buzzing hornet at a summer barbecue that everyone wants to stomp but nobody can catch.
Brilliant? You bet. According to ESPN, after taking into account combined marksmanship on shot attempts and free throws, it was the most efficient 60-point game in league history. Informed of this, Lillard was shocked, and all smiles.
“The most efficient 60-point game ever, for real?” he said. “That’s crazy.”
On Saturday, Lillard continued his torrid pace and again hit his season scoring average, but the injury-depleted Blazers fell meekly to the Toronto Raptors. He is doing all he can, to no avail. The Blazers sit at just 23 wins and 26 losses, mired in mediocrity, 12th out of 15 teams in the West.
Like many, I’ve often thought that Lillard’s prime years were being wasted and that Portland should do right by him and find a way to move him to a contending team. He’s nearing his mid-30s — years when hardwood courts become quicksand for shifty point guards — and a new breed of young stars is wreaking havoc across the N.B.A.
Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokic and plenty of other 20-something talents are leavening the league with their skill and something close to Lillard’s preternatural confidence.
N.B.A. life is only going to get more difficult for Lillard.
But I’m willing to reconsider the desire to see him leave Portland. To follow the common line of thinking, after all, is to place winning above all else. Sadly, that’s the reasoning that has helped fuel the whipsaw superstar shuffle currently coursing through the N.B.A. LeBron James from Cleveland to Miami, back to Cleveland and then to Los Angeles. James Harden from Houston to Brooklyn to Philadelphia. Example after example. I understand the “win above all else,” “grass is greener everywhere but here” sentiment — and I question it.
Winning is important, no doubt. But isn’t there more to sports than victory?
More than any other N.B.A. star of his caliber, Lillard embodies the notion that the journey — the often painful path toward getting better — is the thing. It takes guts and patience and the ability to go against the grain. He has that. It also takes a certain kind of awareness that shows itself with deft passes and clutch shots and even in how players handle life off the court. Indeed, he seems to have that, too.
Remember how Lillard bristled at my question after the loss to Los Angeles? By chance, I found myself next to him in an arena hallway later.
He stopped me, shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye. He said he was sorry for his scolding reaction. The look on his face showed genuine sincerity.
“I didn’t mean any personal disrespect,” he said.
What stars would do that? Not many. “Sorry” isn’t usually in the playbook. But not many are like Damian Lillard.
The matchup for the biggest sports betting day of the year is finally set. The Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) will meet the Kansas City Chiefs (14-3)in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 at State Farm Stadium in Phoenix. The game opened as a pick ’em — but then moved to the Eagles as 1.5-point favorites within 30 minutes of posting — with the opening total set at 49.5 at Caesars Sportsbook.
Betting analysts Doug Kezirian,Tyler Fulghum and Erin Dolan give their initial thoughts on the opening line and movement as well as how bettors should approach early action on the Super Bowl.
Kezirian: I think Philly eventually closes as the favorite. The Eagles have the league’s most underrated defense, as it ranks second in efficiency and is healthy. Jalen Hurts was banged up but should be much sharper with the extra week of rest. Patrick Mahomes will also be healthier, but his injured right ankle still might be fragile. In the end, the Eagles are better in the trenches and have fewer defensive breakdowns, which almost cost the Chiefs against Cincinnati. It would not surprise me if Mahomes wins it. He’s that special. But this kind of feels like the matchup a few years ago when Kansas City lost to Tampa Bay, and the professional money backed the Bucs.
Fulghum: I want the Eagles and the over. Mahomes will have a couple weeks to get his ankle right. Hopefully a few of the Chiefs’ injured playmakers will heal up. On the other side, Hurts and the Eagles should be able to move the ball efficiently no matter how they choose to attack. Plus, Nick Sirianni continues to employ aggressive decision-making tactics that maximize win probability and increase scoring opportunities.
Dolan: Not entirely surprised that the Eagles and Chiefs opened as a pick ’em and moved toward the Eagles.
This will end up being a money-line bet for me. Either way, I believe the total will continue to climb given both offenses can put up a ton of points. It went up half a point to 50 immediately. Get ready to place those anytime touchdown scorers! This will be a good one.
Previously a college football writer for The Dallas Morning News
University of North Texas graduate
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Almost a year to the day after the Cincinnati Bengals sent the Kansas City Chiefs home in overtime of last season’s AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs got their revenge. Playing through a high ankle sprain, quarterback Patrick Mahomes snapped Joe Burrow and the Bengals’ streak of three straight wins over Kansas City.
Harrison Butker sent the Chiefs to the Super Bowl with a 45-yard field goal to win 23-20 Sunday night. It is the Chiefs’ third Super Bowl berth in four seasons. They’ll face Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Mahomes had a message for Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton, who nicknamed the Chiefs’ home stadium “Burrowhead” after the Bengals’ divisional-round win over the Buffalo Bills.
“We showed this place is Arrowhead, it’s not ‘Burrowhead’ out here,” Mahomes said after the win.
Kansas City Chiefs
Mahomes added another significant chapter to his legacy on Sunday night at Arrowhead Stadium.
One week after suffering a high ankle sprain and hobbling around in the second half of the divisional round playoff win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mahomes guided the Chiefs into the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons. The Chiefs will play the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII after their win in the AFC Championship Game.
The Chiefs won on Harrison Butker’s 45-yard field goal with three seconds remaining. Mahomes completed 1-of-2 passes for 6 yards on the drive and scrambled for 9 yards leading to the field goal. He finished 29-of-43 for 326 yards and two touchdowns.
Not buying Valdes-Scantling’s breakout performance:Marquez Valdes-Scantling made some big catches for the Chiefs and finished with six receptions and 116 yards and a touchdown. He had similar games for the Chiefs this season but not enough of them. Most often, he’s just not going to be a high volume receiver for the Chiefs but one who delivers the occasional big play.
Promising trend: The Chiefs have reason to feel good about what they accomplished on defense. They pressured Burrow for much of the game and wound up with five sacks. They had two interceptions, something they managed just once in their three games against Burrow and the Bengals. They also made Cincinnati kick field goals twice while in the red zone.
Under-the-radar stats that matters: The Chiefs by the end of the game were playing without four of their top six wide receivers because of injuries or illness. JuJu Smith-Schuster (knee), Mecole Hardman (pelvis) and Kadarius Toney (ankle) were injured during the game. Justin Watson (illness) did not suit up. That left them with Valdes-Scantling, rookie Skyy Moore and a player called up from the practice squad on Saturday. — Teicher
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Ja’Marr Chase’s gutsy catch on 4th down sets up Bengals’ TD
Ja’Marr Chase makes an unreal grab on fourth-and-6 that sets up Samaje Perine for a short Bengals touchdown.
Cincinnati Bengals
The streaks had to end eventually.
The Chiefs finally bested the Bengals in a 23-20 win in the AFC championship game. The Bengals couldn’t make it four straight wins over their conference rivals and finished the season on a loss after winning 10 straight games.
It was another classic game between the teams that came down to the end and featured big momentum swings. Cincinnati came close to another comeback win, but ultimately couldn’t keep Mahomes and Kansas City from ending their winning stretch in an enthralling series.
Buying Higgins’ breakout performance: Don’t sleep on Tee Higgins as a top receiving option. When the Bengals needed a completion in critical times on Sunday, Higgins was there. That was evident in the third quarter, when he went up and caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from Burrow to tie the game at 13. He used his frame and ball skills to snag a jump ball that Burrow weighted well down the sideline. Cincinnati will have to make several contract decisions on key players in upcoming offseasons. Higgins is eligible for an extension this year and showed why he is worthy of being paid like a top receiver.
Biggest hole in the gameplan: Cincinnati struggled to keep Mahomes contained even though he was dealing with a sprained ankle. The Kansas City quarterback completed his first six passes outside of the pocket for 69 yards and a touchdown, per NFL Next Gen Stats. And when Mahomes had time to throw, he made the Bengals pay. Through three quarters, he was 13-of-19 passing for 198 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He finished 29 of 43 for 326 yards and two touchdowns.
QB breakdown: Burrow had a mixed bag against Kansas City. He struggled early, with the biggest flub a first-half turnover on a throw to Higgins. But Burrow also had key plays in which he was able to move the offense and trusted his receivers in tight spots. That happened when Burrow found Higgins on a 27-yard touchdown pass on a third down in the third quarter and again when Ja’Marr Chase caught a 35-yard pass on fourth-and-6 when he was double-covered down the middle.
Describe the game in two words: Another classic. Cincinnati and Kansas City delivered in the fourth installment of this series in two seasons and produced another thriller in the AFC Championship Game. — Baby
Credit…Jay Biggerstaff/USA Today Sports, via Reuters
This is the second straight year Kansas City has met Cincinnati in the A.F.C. championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. Last year, the Bengals earned a trip to the Super Bowl with a 27-24 overtime victory. They were down by 11 points at halftime, but held the Chiefs to only 3 points for the rest of the game. The Bengals won on a 31-yard walk-off field goal by Evan McPherson.
In Week 13, the Bengals hosted Kansas City and were ahead 14-10 at halftime. The Kansas City offense scored twice in the third quarter, but again sputtered late in the game, allowing Cincinnati to mount another successful comeback. With a fumble by Travis Kelce and a touchdown on the very next possession, the Bengals retook the lead.
Kansas City kicker Harrison Butker had the chance to tie the game with 3:24 left. His 55-yard field goal attempt was wide right.
Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy anticipates a down to the wire finish. While the Bengals defense has just 33 sacks, including in the playoffs, ranking 29th in the N.F.L., they do pressure quarterbacks into hasty decisions. The Bengals have allowed the lowest completion percentage (58.1) and passer rating (79.9) in the N.F.L. this season, including in the playoffs.
“This defense, these guys do a great job of just finishing. It starts up front, you look at those two defensive ends, they get after it,” Bieniemy said. “Those guys are relentless. If you want to beat this team, you’ve got to out-effort them. You’ve got to out-strain them. You’ve got to be playing to the echo of the last whistle. So that’s the type of game this is going to be. Put your hand in the dirt, knuckle up, 60-minute dogfight.”
