Category: Sports

MIAMI — The Dolphins fired defensive coordinator Josh Boyer after four seasons with the franchise, the last three as defensive coordinator, the team announced Thursday.

In addition to Boyer, the Dolphins also fired safeties coach Steve Gregory, outside linebackers coach Ty McKenzie and assistant linebackers coach Steve Ferentz.

“I am grateful for Josh’s contributions this year and throughout his tenure with the Dolphins,” coach Mike McDaniel said in a statement. “The defense made strides through the season, so coming to this decision was not easy, but ultimately I feel it is in the best long-term interests of the Miami Dolphins and the continued growth of our players and team.”

The Dolphins sustained several season-ending injuries to key starters this season, including cornerbacks Byron Jones and Nik Needham, safety Brandon Jones and defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah. To jump-start their depleted defense, they traded for Pro Bowl linebacker Bradley Chubb in November, signing him to a five-year, $110 million contract days after acquiring him.

While Miami owned the league’s fourth-best run defense, it also ranked 21st in defensive expected points added, 22nd in sacks per pass attempt, and 24th in points allowed per game and third-down percentage. A defense that ranked in the top 10 in takeaways in each of the previous two seasons struggled to create turnovers in 2022, finishing with just 14 takeaways — tied for the second fewest in the NFL.

Boyer was retained on staff after the Dolphins fired then-coach Brian Flores after the 2021 season with the hope that his unit could retain its productivity from the second half of last season, when it led the NFL in defensive EPA.

Boyer first came to Miami in 2019 under Flores. Before his arrival in South Florida, Boyer spent 12 years with the New England Patriots as a defensive assistant, defensive backs coach and cornerbacks coach.

“You learn that when something’s not broke, [you don’t fix it],” McDaniel told ESPN in February last year. “There’s also relationships with players that come into it, there’s the scheme itself, and then there’s the human relationships. There’s a good amount of time that I spent with Josh before I made that decision. All of those things contribute and then relying on the people that hired me that were in the building with him. This is not something that you just all of a sudden say, ‘Just keep him, I don’t feel like looking into stuff.’ It’s a calculated decision that’s very informed — and I think the proof is in the pudding. That’s a top-10 defense last year that I would not want to play against.

“If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

The Dolphins’ opening at defensive coordinator should be an attractive position, with players like Xavien Howard, Jevon Holland, Christian Wilkins, Jaelan Phillips and Chubb all under contract for at least next season.

EAGAN, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings fired defensive coordinator Ed Donatell on Thursday, an unsurprising decision even after winning 13 games under first-year coach Kevin O’Connell.

The team did not immediately name a replacement. In a statement, O’Connell said in part: “We will immediately begin our search to fill this critical role as we continue to build a championship standard for the Minnesota Vikings.”

Although they won the second-most regular season games in team history, the Vikings’ defense was one of the worst in franchise history. It finished the season ranked No. 28 in points allowed (25.1) and No. 31 in yards allowed (388.7). On Sunday, the New York Giants gashed the Vikings for 31 points and 431 yards, including five scoring drives of at least 75 yards and a total of 18 plays that gained 10 or more yards.

Donatell’s future had been in question since Week 14, when O’Connell said publicly that he was considering all options to improve the defense other than changing schemes entirely. When asked if he would make staff changes, or tap a new defensive playcaller, O’Connell said he wasn’t considering that option “as of right now.”

O’Connell hired Donatell in part for his connection to the 3-4 scheme popularized by longtime NFL defensive coach Vic Fangio, most recently the Denver Broncos‘ coach from 2019-21. Donatell served as Fangio’s defensive coordinator in Denver and also coached with him at previous stops with the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers.

O’Connell outlined his thought process shortly after hiring Donatell, saying: “What do you not like to play against? What’s the hardest defensive scheme to play against? What keeps you up at night as you game plan?”

But Donatell’s version of the scheme quickly proved to be predictable and often ineffective. It drew national scrutiny as early as Week 2, when ESPN analyst Troy Aikman called out the soft zone coverage the Vikings used as the Philadelphia Eagles moved the ball up and down the field in a 24-7 loss.

Donatell made clear that his core philosophy was to rely on his front four — especially linebackers Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter — to apply enough pressure to allow the rest of the defense to sit back in zone coverage. But the Vikings’ four-man rush managed a 23.9% pressure rate during the regular season, the ninth lowest in the league, and their shell zone left far too much room for easy yards.

After the defense allowed more than 400 yards for the fifth consecutive game last month against the Detroit Lions, O’Connell directed Donatell publicly and privately to make changes. Donatell did make some tweaks to their pass rush schemes, personnel usage and coverage types, but it did not lead to significant improvement.

Overall, the Vikings were in their nickel personnel group on 80.4% of snaps, the third-highest rate in the NFL, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. They were in split safeties on 50.4% of their defensive snaps, the league’s fifth-highest rate. They used zone coverage at a rate of 79.4%, the fourth highest in the league, and they blitzed at the NFL’s 12th-lowest rate (22.1%).

LANDOVER, Md. — Shortly after 10 a.m. ET at FedEx Field, Washington Commanders fan Chris Bryant did something that was once unthinkable in the NFL: He placed a bet at a sportsbook inside an NFL stadium.

“This is the first time I’ve placed any type of sports betting,” Bryant said.

The Commanders opened the NFL’s first sportsbook inside a stadium Friday, partnering with Fanatics. The Arizona Cardinals opened a sportsbook in September that sits outside the stadium. In Washington, no bets can be placed when the Commanders are playing at home.

The franchise received approval from the Maryland State Lottery & Gaming Control Commission for a sports wagering license on Aug. 17. They have a five-year license.

From that point forward, they needed to go through separate regulatory processes and also build a 5,000-square foot space within the stadium. There are eight betting windows — one of which Bryant handed over $20 for a moneyline parlay involving the Washington Capitals and Wizards at — 21 self-service betting kiosks and a full-service restaurant area that features 38 TV monitors and two LED video walls. Fanatics also operates the team store at the stadium.

Washington team president Jason Wright said opening a sportsbook at the team’s stadium became a priority shortly after he was hired in August 2020. He said he began discussions with Adrienne Jones, the speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, and with Bill Ferguson, president of the Maryland Senate.

Wright called it a “down payment on a revamped experience” at FedEx Field, a stadium that has had its share of issues over the years. Washington is looking to secure land to build another stadium but doesn’t have to leave its site until after the 2026 season. They can renew their contract to play on the land if they don’t have a new stadium yet.

“We did make a promise to be innovative and to do things for our fans that give them a unique experience that others haven’t and that’s a shift from the past,” Wright said.

Fanatics chief business officer Ari Borod called FedEx Field a “logical place to put it” because he considers it a storied franchise with a rabid fan base. Wright, who played in the NFL from 2004 to ’10, marveled at what he called the “rapid evolution” of the NFL embracing gambling, which it eschewed for decades. The NFL announced its first sportsbook partnerships in April 2021.

“When I was playing fantasy football was still new,” Wright said. “Certainly my views changed over time because [sports betting] has become part and parcel of the culture of engaging sports, especially for younger folks and Gen Z. This is almost the primary way people engage the game. It changes the way you think about it. Some people don’t have a favorite team anymore, they have a favorite player or favorite platforms they engage. It changes the way we think about sports and the way we create fan loyalty.”

The opening comes amid uncertainty with the Washington franchise. Co-owners Dan and Tanya Snyder announced in November the team was up for sale. Multiple bids were submitted on Dec. 23, though Jeff Bezos, long rumored to be interested, has yet to place a bid, according to multiple sources.

Wright said his conversations with the Snyders have been “business as usual. No different than you heard my interactions with them in the past.” Wright said for him and coach Ron Rivera, “nothing changes. Build a healthy business, build a winning team. That’s all there is to do.”

It is the night before what would be the biggest victory of Chris Eubank Jr’s career.

He sits on a sofa in his hotel suite, arms folded, knowing better than anyone that this time tomorrow he will in all likelihood be sat in his dressing room at the Manchester Arena, preparing to fight.

He boxes Liam Smith live on Sky Sports Box Office on Saturday night and now all that’s left for him to do is wait.

“It’s now the twilight hours the night before the fight. You’ve got to relax, refuel, rehydrate, calm your mind, body and soul to get ready for war,” he said quietly.

“And that’s what really this fight will be. I think it will be a war. I think it’s going to be a savage display of boxing. And the fans are in for a hell of night.”

Although he can fight with a ferocious, perhaps impetuous, style, he needs to keep an element of that calm focus in Saturday’s contest.

“It’s a mixture of both, sometimes you’ve got to be ferocious, sometimes you’ve got to move your head, think, move, defend. But the ferocity is always there, waiting for the right time to be unleashed,” he told Sky Sports.

“It’s the type of fighter I am.”

Now the fighters have made weight, they can regroup and focus solely on their real task, the fight.

At Thursday’s press conference, on the final day of their weight cuts, tempers frayed as the public event descended into insults and derogatory language.

Eubank was the subject of homophobic taunts and Smith the subject of taunts about social class.

Smith apologised afterwards. The British Boxing Board of Control has said it will be considering the conduct of both boxers.

“I think that was mainly on his side. I was reacting to what was being said to me and I fought fire with fire, which as a fighter is what you have to do. He wanted to get personal,” Eubank said. “I took it there with him.

“He came out swinging like that as far as I remember,” Eubank continued.

“It felt like he had a lot of stuff that he had built up in his mind that he was going to say. He just waited for that chance to shoot it all out there and a lot of it came out wrong. Or maybe it didn’t?

“People didn’t appreciate it and neither did I and all I can do is apologise to the people he may have offended. And if I said anything that offended anybody, then I guess I apologise too.”

At Friday’s weigh-in, Eubank Jr took to the scales wearing a rainbow armband in an apparent signal of support for the LGBTQ+ community.

Eubank Jr later tweeted: “We don’t discriminate… we don’t alienate. We want boxing and sport as a whole, to be all inclusive.”

Both made weight on Friday and with one last staredown completed could turn away from one another. They won’t face each other again now until it’s time to step into the ring.

Eubank Jr has felt a shift in the tide of public opinion.

At the weigh-in at Manchester Central, he heard the boos for him, the cheers for Liam Smith, but he also heard his own name being cheered too.

“It was about 50-50, maybe. A couple of cheers, a sprinkle of boos. My last weigh-in and press conference it was all boos. So we’re 50 per cent better this time. Working our way up slowly,” he said with a smile.

“It’ll be interesting to see the reception on the night.”

What will win over the crowd in Manchester, though, will be the nature of the contest.

“At the end of the day, where you’re from, who you support, none of that actually matters. Whoever performs, whoever’s the better fighting man on the night, they are appreciated and they are respected,” Eubank said.

“So I have to make sure that’s me.”

Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith is on Saturday January 21, live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book it now if you are a Sky TV subscriber or a Non-Sky TV subscriber.

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals will officially be without two more of their top offensive linemen in Sunday’s AFC divisional playoff game against the Buffalo Bills.

Left tackle Jonah Williams and right guard Alex Cappa have been officially ruled out, leaving Cincinnati with three total reserves on the offensive line. Right tackle La’el Collins has been out since Week 16 with a torn ACL in his left knee.

Bengals coach Zac Taylor said the unit’s communication and level of detail was the most encouraging thing as Cincinnati prepares for Buffalo’s loud and rowdy home-field advantage.

“I thought they did a good job,” Taylor said of the group’s synergy. “I think they are ready to go and take advantage of their opportunities.”

Right guard Max Scharping and left tackle Jackson Carman have continued to work at those respective positions with Williams and Cappa out all week. Both players, who were at the team’s facilities throughout the week, were held out of practice as they recovered from their respective injuries.

When asked about their long-term prognosis, Taylor simply said both will continue to be evaluated on a weekly basis.

This will be the second game Cappa has missed since he suffered a left ankle injury in the Week 18 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Cappa was spotted using a push scooter and still had a protective boot on his left ankle earlier in the week. Williams was not using any movement aids when spotted in the locker room Wednesday after he suffered a dislocated kneecap in last weekend’s wild-card win against Baltimore, but Taylor maintained Williams’ week-to-week diagnosis.

Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said there are ways players and coaches can assist the offensive line against a Buffalo defensive line that ranked 11th in the league in pass rush win rate, an ESPN metric powered by NFL Next Gen. But when the line is required to give quarterback Joe Burrow enough time to hold the ball and make a play downfield, the pass protection must be sufficient.

“It doesn’t really change how we go about our week and how we play,” Callahan said earlier in the week. “We just know that we’ll have time and place to help guys when they need it.”

Cincinnati and Buffalo are meeting in the playoffs for the first time since the AFC Championship Game in 1989, a matchup the Bengals won. Most recently, the two teams met in the Week 17 game that was canceled after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle.

Bengals running back Joe Mixon said the energy throughout the week has been focused as Cincinnati prepares for Sunday’s game at Buffalo.

“You know what’s at stake,” Mixon said. “The game being in the playoffs speaks for itself. Everybody’s like, ‘Big game, big game.’ But this is automatically a big game. This is the playoffs. It’s win or go home.”

While Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has started making great strides in his recovery from cardiac arrest earlier this month, he still has a long way to go in his recovery, his family spokesman told ESPN on Thursday night.

In a statement, Hamlin’s longtime friend and business partner, Jordon Rooney, said: “Despite being out of the hospital, Damar still has a lengthy recovery. Damar still requires oxygen and is having his heart monitored regularly. He has visited with the team a few times but he still gets winded very easily.

“He’s upbeat and positive and ready to continue to overcome this.”

Like members of Hamlin’s family, Rooney has been at the defensive back’s bedside both in hospitals and at Hamlin’s home since the cardiac arrest occurred in a game against the Bengals on Jan. 2 in Cincinnati.

His statement came one day after Bills coach Sean McDermott told reporters Hamlin had been at the team facility “almost daily,” visiting his teammates and coaches Tuesday and Wednesday.

“It’s limited, just overall,” McDermott said of what Hamlin has been doing. “But he comes in and really just started really today or yesterday and just trying to get back to a little bit of a routine and just get himself acclimated again and taking it one step, one baby step at a time here.”

Hamlin has not been participating in team meetings but is “dipping his toe back in here and, you know, getting on the road to just getting back to himself,” McDermott said.

Hamlin did not attend the team’s home win over the Miami Dolphins to start the playoffs, but he was watching remotely. The 24-year-old first visited the team Saturday at its walk-through before the game, with his parents, Mario and Nina, and his brother, Damir.

Earlier Thursday, Bengals receiver Tee Higgins said he hoped to see Hamlin at some point this weekend, when the Bengals visit the Bills for Sunday’s AFC divisional round game. Higgins was being tackled by Hamlin on the play nearly three weeks ago when the Bills safety was injured.

“I’m pretty sure we’re just going to chop it up, laughs and giggles and just be happy to see him,” Higgins said.

Higgins was in communication with Hamlin’s family in the days following the Week 17 game that was ultimately canceled following the injury. He said he hasn’t yet spoken to Hamlin.

ESPN’s Ben Baby and Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.

ARIZONA

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ARIZONA STATE

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CALIFORNIA

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COLORADO

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OREGON

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OREGON STATE

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STANFORD

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UCLA

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USC

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UTAH

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WASHINGTON

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WASHINGTON STATE

Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall says a lack of female coaches in the game is a “big problem”, describing it as “the most under-tapped resource in professional football”.

Eidevall’s side travel to Brighton on Sunday, live on Sky Sports from 8.30pm, who last month brought in Jens Scheuer as their new boss as a replacement for Hope Powell.

That left the number of clubs in the Women’s Super League with female managers at four out of 12.

When that was put to Eidevall on Friday at his pre-match press conference and he was asked how to try to get more female coaches into the game and coaching in the WSL, he said: “I think the question is wrong – it’s not the WSL.

“The problem is that you see, in all the technical staff in all the professional clubs on the men’s side, how many female technical staff do you have in the game?

“It’s incredible when you see in all other parts of society. You can have female Prime Ministers, you can have female presidents. But you can’t have a female coach coaching in the Premier League for some reason? Why?

“I think it has to be the most under-tapped resource that is in professional football, female coaches. There is no reason why you can’t be female and be a top coach.

“So you’re absolutely right with the numbers, that it’s a big problem that there are not more female coaches, but that’s not the WSL in isolation – that’s the whole game.

“I can’t get my head around how that is possible, that still now nothing happens, and that people are very content that nothing is happening.”

Eidevall hopeful on striker in January

The Arsenal manager remains hopeful that the club can add a striker before the end of the January transfer window.

When asked about a potential acquisition, Eidevall responded: “I hope so.”

“I used the word ‘prolific’ goal scorer [for a January signing] and that is still my plan. A consequence of having Viv [Miedema] and Beth [Mead] injured for the rest of the season is that we have lost a lot of our historical scoring contributions.

“Of course, we can work on ways where we can find that internally but my idea is still that we need to find someone external to help us with that.”

Arsenal have already had a busy month. Sabrina D’Angelo, Victoria Pelova and Kathrine Kuhl have arrived at the club, while Giovana Queiroz returned from her loan spell at Everton.

Discussing the teenage forward, Eidevall said: “Gio is a really, really talented player. She is very explosive and good on the ball. I think she can hurt any defence that she can play against.

“What she needs to start games for us is to get consistency in training and to build game minutes. That is what we tried to achieve by loaning her to Everton.

“To be completely honest, I hoped that was going to be the case that when she returned to Arsenal she would be ready to practice fully and to be a 90 minute player with that experience.

“But because our situation changed and maybe how things were at Everton, that is not the case here now. I see all the potential in Gio but maybe we need to be patient and take good decisions.

“I think that will require a little bit of time and big commitment from the staff and the player to get that right.”

In terms of outgoings, club legend Jordan Nobbs departed from Aston Villa a few weeks ago and, on Wednesday, Mana Iwabuchi joined Tottenham on loan for the remainder of the season.

Discussing the Japan international’s departure, Eidevall added: “Mana needed to be in an environment when she needed to play more and, of course, with a player like Mana there are a lot of interested clubs.

“Then it is not really my business to decide which club we make the transfer to, that is the player’s decision and the club that do that work.”

Four-star Coppell (Texas) defensive back Braxton Myers inked as one of the highest-rated members of Lane Kiffin’s 2023 recruiting haul at Ole Miss. Myers was selected to play in the All-American Bowl earlier this month before enrolling in Oxford.

Myers initially committed to play for Lincoln Riley at USC in the Pac-12 before switching his commitment to Ole Miss in September. While the opportunity to play in Los Angeles at a prestigious program like the Trojans intrigued him, the Texas native couldn’t pass on playing in the SEC for the Rebels.

“Really just the SEC,” Myers told Rivals.com about what led to him flipping from USC to Ole Miss. “I feel like the SEC will get me where I want to be in life. I have goals – like getting to the NFL – and I feel like the SEC can do that for me.”

The defender out of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is well-aware of the success that the Southeastern Conference has had in churning out defensive talent year-in and year-out. That obviously grabbed his attention in his recruitment and ultimately led to a key out-of-state win for Kiffin and company.

Beyond playing in the SEC, Myers developed important relationships with the Ole Miss staff. Cornerbacks coach Sam Carter played a significant role in landing the Texas prospect, as did some family connections to the region.

“Ever since coach Carter came from Arkansas to Ole Miss, he’s been recruiting me. We have a tight connection,” Myers said. “They were still recruiting me when I was committed to USC. I visited in the summer and really liked it. It was like home for me and my family is from Mississippi. I feel like (Oxford) is the No. 1 college town in America.”

Myers is not the only All-American recruit that the Rebels signed in December. Rivals100 prospects such as linebacker Suntarine Perkins and wide receiver Ayden Williams represented Ole Miss in the UA All-American Game. He’s excited to play with that kind of talent in the SEC West.

“We’re going to do big things,” Myers said.

Braxton Myers is ranked as a four-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting cycle by Rivals. The Texas recruit is the No. 63 player in the Lone Star State and the No. 43 cornerback.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Cam Shelton banked in a go-ahead runner with 13 seconds left and Loyola Marymount snapped No. 6 Gonzaga‘s 76-game home winning streak with a 68-67 victory Thursday night.

The home streak for the Bulldogs (16-4, 5-1 West Coast Conference) had been the eighth longest in Division I history. It included a Nov. 20 win over Kentucky in a neutral-site game at Spokane Arena, which the NCAA considered a home game for Gonzaga.

Shelton scored 27 points to lead the Lions (14-7, 4-3), who hadn’t won in Spokane since 1991 and had lost 25 straight to the Zags.

“For us, it’s another sign that our program is moving in the right direction, and that’s the biggest thing,” Loyola Marymount coach Stan Johnson said. “Not too many people are going to come up here and win, so I think it just stands and validates the guys we have in the locker room and all the things we’ve been trying to accomplish.”

Gonzaga had won 83 straight games against unranked opponents with 46 of those coming at home.

“The home streak is over,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “It was going to end sometime and it ended in a tough, hard-fought battle. Our guys battled back and had a shot to keep it going. … I don’t think anybody is going to touch that [streak] for quite some time.”

The Bulldogs’ streak of 36 straight wins in the month of January also ended. They had won 11 straight overall since losing to Baylor on Dec. 2.

Jalin Anderson added 15 points and Keli Leaupepe had 11 for the Lions. Loyola Marymount led by as many as nine in the second half and held off Gonzaga’s late run.

LMU led 66-59 with 2:55 left after Shelton’s 3-pointer, but the Zags scored the next eight points to take a 67-66 lead on Drew Timme‘s free throw with 41 seconds left. With the shot clock running down, Shelton converted a runner from just outside the lane to give the Lions the lead, and Timme’s last attempt at a winner was partly blocked by Leaupepe.

Shelton’s savvy play was crucial for the Lions in the closing minutes.

“Cam’s had a really tremendous year thus far and I thought he put pressure on them getting in the paint,” Johnson said. “I thought he made some good decisions finding his guys and I thought he had great poise, and that’s what you want from a veteran point guard.”

Timme led the Zags with 17 points. Nolan Hickman chipped in 12 points and six assists for the Zags, who were coming off a 115-75 win over Portland on Saturday.

Gonzaga struggled from the field, shooting 44.4% overall and going 4-of-14 (28.6%) from 3-point range and 15-of-23 (65.2%) from the free throw line.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For first time since the Super Bowl began in 1967, Detroit News reporter Jerry Green won’t cover the game. He is the only reporter to attend every Super Bowl, and his streak will end at 56 in a row.

Green, 94, told the News his declining health led to his decision to end the streak. He is in a wheelchair and on oxygen.

Asked what it will be like to watch the game on TV: “It’s something I’ve never done. I don’t know. … I’ve always believed if you’re going to cover a game, you’ve got to be there.”

In recent years, the NFL helped accommodate Green, offering a credentials to a family member to help physically support him.

“Jerry Green is part of the very fabric of the Super Bowl,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a statement to The Detroit News. “A Super Bowl legend, he is the last writer to cover all 56 games thus far. From the humble beginnings of this championship game to today, Jerry has chronicled the NFL’s story every step of the way. We will miss seeing him in Arizona, but we will always be grateful for his outstanding writing in bringing the stories of our game, teams, and players to millions of fans for more than half a century.”

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1. Georgia should feel optimistic about landing No. 1 tight end Duce Robinson.

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2. Following his performance at All-American Bowl, Dante Moore has a case for being No. 1 in the 2023 class.

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3. Texas A&M signed three five-star defensive linemen in its 2022 class. David Hicks Jr., a 2023 Aggies signee, is better than all three of them.

Rebecca Welch becomes the first woman appointed to referee a men’s Championship match as she prepares to takes charge of Birmingham versus Preston on Saturday.

Welch, from Washington in Tyne and Wear, already holds the honour of being the first woman to referee an English Football League match when she led the team of officials for the League Two match between Harrogate and Port Vale in April 2021.

Last year, she became the first woman to referee an FA Cup third-round tie, also at Birmingham, as Blues lost 1-0 to Plymouth on January 8.

Welch, however, is not the first woman to referee in the Championship. Back in 2010, Amy Fearn took charge of the final 20 minutes of Coventry’s contest with Nottingham Forest in the second tier following a calf injury to the appointed referee, Tony Bates.

The 39-year-old Welch refereed games at the Women’s European Championships over the summer and also officiated games in the Women’s Champions League and World Cup qualifiers.

Welch became a qualified referee in 2010 and continued her day job as an administrator in the NHS until two years’ ago.

PHILADELPHIA — Running back Miles Sanders was mic’d up for the Philadelphia Eagles‘ first game against the New York Giants on Dec. 11 — a playoff preview, as it turns out — and leaned into the assignment by hamming it up.

“On that play if you hear me yelling like Bobby Boucher [from ‘The Waterboy’],” he told Jalen Hurts pregame, “just know that’s me.”

“That play” was a designed quarterback run up the gut in the third quarter that called for the 5-foot-11, 211-pound Sanders to act as the lead back and block 6-foot-2, 249-pound linebacker Azeez Ojulari at the point of attack. Sanders broke into a primal scream the moment the ball was snapped, charged into the hole and popped Ojulari so hard he lost his footing and was easily pushed to the ground, allowing Hurts to scoot through for a 13-yard gain.

“I went in there like ‘The Waterboy!’” Sanders said with a laugh on the sidelines afterward, in the midst of a career day (144 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns) that powered a 48-22 Eagles win. “I said ’51! Errrerrerrr!’”

It wasn’t hard to connect how life, to some measure, was imitating art — or whatever you want to call the Adam Sandler film.

Teammates and coaches have noted how Sanders is running angry this year — one of the keys to unlocking his full potential. He finished the regular season with the fifth-most rushing yards (1,269) and with the fourth-most rushing touchdowns (11) in the NFL, obliterating career highs en route to his first Pro Bowl nod. He is out for the “respect I finally deserve.”

There is a well of fuel for the Pennsylvania born-and-raised Sanders to draw from. The deepest waters flow back to his childhood in Pittsburgh, where he watched his mother, Marlene, toil and sacrifice to raise three children on her own. He committed to football, hoping to one day make life better for her and his family. There is the deceit he felt upon arrival at Penn State University, according to those who know him best, where he was forced to take a backseat to this weekend’s counterpart, Saquon Barkley. There is the lack of recognition from peers at his position after injuries and circumstance prevented him from meeting early expectations. And there is the absence of a second contract with the Eagles with his rookie deal set to expire at season’s end.

That fuel will power Sanders on Saturday when the Eagles host Barkley and the Giants in the NFC divisional playoff round (8:15 p.m. ET, Fox).

“We try to ignore all the stuff that’s being said about us, but we hear it, we see it. I just tuck it in. And I think about it all friggin’ day,” Sanders told ESPN. “Especially when I’m training, I’m thinking like, ‘OK, I really don’t have no respect out here. Why don’t people respect me?’ Stuff like that going through my head. I just wanted to earn a lot of respect. And the only way I knew how to do that was work, work, work.”

SANDERS WAS A five-star recruit coming out of high school in Churchill, Pennsylvania.

Marlene, who immigrated from Jamaica to the U.S. when she was 16, signed up Miles and his brothers Brian and Kobe for football to keep them occupied in the late afternoon while she worked as a property manager for the Allegheny County Housing Authority — a job she still holds.

“I used to see my mom struggle a lot and didn’t really talk to my dad as much. I kind of realized all the stuff she was doing by herself,” Sanders said. “Once I got a chance to really play, I noticed that I could go to school for free. And I just knew that was my chance to make life easier for her.

“So it was all about just trying to do what can I do to get my mom in a better situation. Because I just sat there and watched it — being a kid, you can’t really do nothing, you don’t really know what’s going on. But you know that means hurt when you see tears falling down your parent’s face.”

Sanders had 24 scholarship offers, Marlene said, and was excited about joining good friend Damar Hamlin and other area standouts at Pitt.

But the prospects of a larger platform were alluring, as was Penn State‘s sales pitch.

“They come in your house and they tell you what you want to hear,” Marlene said, “They pull out their little books and show you, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be a two-man punch’ — that’s basically what we were told at the time — ‘it’s going to be you and Saquon.’”

Sanders became the first commit of the 2016 class. Barkley, though, tore it up as a freshman in 2015, racking up over 1,200 scrimmage yards with eight touchdowns. Sanders received just 56 carries total over his first two seasons. It wasn’t until Barkley left for the NFL that Sanders got any meaningful backfield work.

“He came out of some of the games the first two years and was like, ‘I don’t want to be here. They lied to me,’” Marlene said. “I told him, ‘We’re here now, we’re not the type that just jumps from one place to another. Let’s just regroup, and I will be there every single game.’”

With money tight, Marlene stayed true to her word. She’d drive from Pittsburgh to State College and back all in the same day to avoid lodging costs. If the Nittany Lions were playing in, say, Iowa, she’d make the 10-hour trek.

During Sanders’ three years in college, Marlene said she put 138,000 miles on her Kia. There was added significance, then, when Sanders bought a new Lexus for Marlene less than a month after being drafted by Philadelphia.

“You deserve the world, momma,” he wrote on Instagram.

Sanders was actually going for something bigger — he wanted to buy Marlene a new house, she said, but she held him off. That will come when he secures a new contract this offseason.

During their time at Penn State, Barkley and Sanders would occasionally room together and remain close today, though their competitiveness in college was undeniable. Barkley recalled a September 2017 game against Temple when a direct shot to the knee on the first play of the game forced him to the sideline temporarily.

“[The other Penn State backs] were so excited — not because I was hurt but because they were going to get their opportunity. It was Miles Sanders, Mark Allen, Allen Robinson. And I remember just looking there like, ‘Oh, these motherf—ers. These motherf—ers,’” Barkley said. “They were excited because it was their chance, they get a chance to go out there and make a play. They held it down.”

Those competitive pistons still appeared to be firing last week when Barkley was asked about how things shook out for Sanders early on.

“Was Miles Sanders lied to? No, I don’t think he was lied to,” Barkley said with a smile. “Did Miles Sanders come to college and play behind a freshman All-American the year before, and thinking he was going to get more snaps than he’s supposed to? That’s the real question. No, I applaud Miles because I think he handled it amazing.”

By the end of his second season, Sanders had only touched the ball 64 times. Making matters worse, the running backs coach who recruited him, Charles Huff, exited the same time Barkley did, taking a job with Mississippi State.

“With my running backs coach gone, I thought my opportunity was gone, literally, because I just felt like I didn’t get a fair chance based on how things went out,” Sanders said. “I just took it upon myself to just say, ‘F’ this and just go ball out. So that’s exactly what I did.”

With Barkley out of the picture, Sanders rushed 220 times for 1,274 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior, leading to him being picked 53rd overall by the Eagles in the 2019 NFL draft.

“The timing just wasn’t right but he was a heck of a back,” Barkley said. “Do I think, looking back on it, could Penn State have used both of us? Yeah, but I think our careers are playing out really well.”

CRAIG WILLIAMS WAS Sanders’ first football coach, coming into his life when Sanders was 7 years old, and remains his mentor and father figure. A 20-year military vet, he has been putting Sanders through the same type of grueling offseason workouts for years.

There were only two notable changes this past offseason. First was location: They moved it from Miami to Rice University in Houston. The soul food in Houston fit Sanders’ Jamaican-inspired tastes well, helping him to keep his weight up. The second was a shift in mentality, to prove not to others but himself that he was a dominant running back.

“And by showing me, you all are going to see that I am a top running back in the NFL if — and this is what we wavered at — if given the opportunity,” Sanders said.

Various injuries over his first three seasons limited Sanders’ production. But volume has also had something to do with it: Sanders has averaged just 13 carries per game over his career. For perspective, he has 510 fewer rushes than Derrick Henry since 2019 despite playing in two more games than Henry over that span.

Like his days at Penn State, patience has proven to be a virtue. And questions have crept in at times, Marlene said, about whether the team has properly backed up their words with actions.

“The media would say something and then [coach Nick] Sirianni would come out and say, ‘No, Miles is our guy.’ But then on Sunday, you give him less than 10 reps,” she said. “And he’s looking at it like, ‘Well, are they lying to me or not?”

Sanders, 25, has been eligible for a new contract for about a year, but with the regular season over and free agency looming, there are no signs that anything is close.

“This year, he and Coach Craig talked and he was like, ‘Just remember that you’re out here to perform. If you’re not performing for the Eagles, you’re performing for someone else. So you have to get that in your head, this is not just for the Eagles, you are putting on your show for all 32 teams. At some point, if they don’t want to pay you what you deserve, somebody else will,’” Marlene said.

Sanders has at least one more showcase game for the Eagles and the rest of the NFL, and it comes against his former backfield mate, Barkley. This is Sanders’ third playoff appearance and he doesn’t yet have a win to show for it. Changing that is clearly the top priority.

After the playoffs, focus will shift to a contract. And while the business side will factor in heavily, Sanders remains hopeful that the lifelong dream of sending his mother off happily into retirement will come while playing for the team that drafted him.

“I love Philly. Just bring me back. I hope they bring me back,” Sanders said. “I love you [general manager] Howie [Roseman]. I hope you love me too.”

Additional reporting by Jordan Raanan.

THE MOST IMPORTANT detail of the day that Josh Allen knew — he just knew — he was going to be an NFL superstar is the location of the field where it happened.

Allen was 17 years old at the time, getting ready for his senior year at Firebaugh High by attending a camp at his hometown college, Fresno State. Josh, now in his fifth season as the Buffalo Bills quarterback, famously had zero interest from FBS schools during his high school career. Not “very little” interest. Zero interest, even from Fresno State. He hoped this camp would change that.

That didn’t happen. On Day 1 of the two-day camp, Allen was electric as he led tiny Firebaugh on a surprising romp to the championship game of a 7-on-7 tournament. The team won its first two games, then ran into Bakersfield Christian, alma mater of then-Fresno State QB Derek Carr. Carr was there that day, and Firebaugh coach Bill Magnusson asked him to swing by their team tent, set up by Allen’s dad, Joel, to keep the players out of a horrific heat that had some parents’ sandals melting to the turf.

Carr was a California A-lister at that time. His brother, David, had been the No. 1 pick in the 2002 NFL draft, and now Derek was a star at Fresno, a year from getting drafted himself. He posed for pictures with the unknown Firebaugh squad, and when he got introduced to Allen, the school’s starting quarterback, Carr said, “Take it easy on my old school out there, OK?”

Allen smiled, then went out and single-handedly tore up Bakersfield Christian. Carr saw him on the sideline afterward and said, “Hey, I thought I told you to take it easy on my guys?”

Allen didn’t even blink. “I did take it easy,” he said, and he and Carr both got a good chuckle out of that.

Firebaugh eventually lost in the championship game, but Allen had created some momentum for himself heading into Day 2 of the camp for skill position players. Or so he thought.

When the 25 or so prep quarterbacks showed up the next day, they gathered between Fresno’s main practice field and a smaller side field. The Fresno State coaches ran through the list of which quarterbacks would go where. When they got to the end of the list for the primary field, all of the best quarterbacks had been picked — and Allen wasn’t one of them.

“Everybody else, head over there,” one coach barked, pointing to the small field. The Firebaugh crew couldn’t believe it: Allen was on the “everybody else” list.

The blue-chip kids went over to the big field and started throwing long balls to receivers in front of most of the coaching staff. A bewildered Allen wandered over with the second-tier kids to their small patch of turf, which was only big enough to throw swing passes and 10-yard routes.

“I’m better than these guys,” Allen said to Magnusson, who nodded and walked over to the coach who had read off the list.

“Can you talk to somebody and get my kid up with the other guys?” Magnusson said. “That’s where he belongs.”

Without even looking up, the coach said, “He’s fine right there,” and Allen spent the next two hours throwing dump-offs in front of no one who mattered. That is when he knew that someday he would play on the biggest sports fields possible, and he’d be fine right there.

“I was extremely mad,” Allen said in 2017. “I really wanted to be on that field with the guys that they thought were the better guys. I couldn’t even focus on playing football in that moment.”

Allen’s remarkable rise — from the farm country of Firebaugh, California, with no FBS offers in 2014, to potential NFL MVP eight years later — is one of the biggest, most surprising stories in modern football history. But that story exists only because of lots and lots of small stories. ESPN interviewed over a dozen of Allen’s friends, family members and coaches to get 16 vignettes about the making of Josh Allen.

THE ALLEN BROTHERS, Josh and Jason, were often the two best athletes at every sport they took on — baseball, basketball, football, swimming. They were one year apart and battled each other all day every day. Jason was one year younger but usually was bigger, and he pushed Josh hard. Sometimes literally.

Their skirmishes became legendary. Firebaugh basketball players would head to the locker room after practice sometimes, and then someone would come in and say, “Josh and Jason are going at it again.” Then everybody would head back to the court and watch them duke it out.

In one epic scuffle during a basketball practice, push turned to shove, which turned to punch. The two brothers got progressively more physical with each other, and eventually Josh threw the ball at Jason, who charged at him and took a swing. The punch connected with Josh, resulting in a black eye, and teammates hustled Josh off the court before it escalated.

Josh was so irritated that he left the court, hopped in his car and left his brother behind to find his own way home. A coach called Joel to let him know what happened, and when Jason got home after catching a ride from a teammate, their dad called them to the kitchen table.

“I had to sit them both down and do my fatherly duties,” Joel says. “Within a few days of that incident, they were chummy again. But iron sharpens iron, right? That helped Josh become the competitor that he is today.”

WHEN HIS SONS were in elementary school, Joel would drive them to pee wee football games a half hour away. One day, Joel introduced a strange concept: He would pretend a game had just concluded and conduct an interview of Josh. Josh didn’t understand the point at first, but Joel explained to him that he was going to be a great quarterback someday and have to do lots of interviews. Josh was 7 years old, but Joel saw a future No. 7 draft pick sitting in the back seat.

So he started asking Josh questions on the way to and from games. He even spoke into a pretend microphone as he drove the car. It was goofy at first, but Josh rolled with it for a while.

“Josh, heck of a game today. What do you have to say about your coaches? Any thoughts on the game today?” Joel would ask. Then he’d hand the fake mic into the back seat.

Josh would take it from his dad and say, “First of all, I want to thank my line for doing a great job today,” and Joel would nod in approval as Josh talked about “the team effort” and “good playcalling.”

They did this on every drive for a long time, until finally one day Josh stopped talking in the middle of a sentence and handed the imaginary microphone back to the front seat. “That’s enough, Dad,” he said. “I know how to do interviews now.”

THE ALLEN FARM was basically Firebaugh’s Six Flags. Allen’s parents, Joel and Lavonne, ran a 2,000-acre farm that grew cotton, wheat and cantaloupes to make a living, and they did make a good living. Then they poured whatever money they could into creating a house that was any kid’s dream: batting cages, two mini golf holes, basketball hoops, a trampoline, swimming pool, hot tub and plenty of room to run.

That made it a perfect place for sleepovers, parties, campouts — and pranks. So many pranks. Joel loves a good joke, and his affinity has been handed down to Josh. One time, when Josh’s entire Little League team was camping out at the farm, Joel told the boys there’d been rumors of a body spotted somewhere on the land. The boys immediately grabbed flashlights and began to scour the property. Joel had had a friend strategically lie in an irrigation ditch and sure enough, the boys stumbled upon the body … which stood up and began chasing the kids. They screamed and ran, and nobody outran Josh that day.

But Josh and his dad both share a severe allergy to being pranked. So by the time they pulled their family masterpiece a year or two later, Josh had insisted that he no longer be on the wrong side of a prank. He wanted to be a co-conspirator, and Joel welcomed him with open arms.

And so one summer day about 15 years ago, when Josh was 11 or 12, the Allens had a party where 100 parents and kids came to the house. As guests arrived, Joel had begun planting seeds that he’d heard a gorilla had escaped from the circus that was in town 30 miles away. It was the kind of story that bloomed better back then, pre-iPhone, and as the day progressed, Joel dropped one or two gentle updates, concern sprawled across his face.

“I’m hearing he was spotted about 10 miles away,” he’d say under his breath to the adults to avoid scaring the kids.

Josh had that part of the party already taken care of, anyway. Gorilla buzz had seeped into the younger crowd, and Josh kept salting the mines to a few of the chattier kids. He mentioned a few times that he was trying to figure out what he’d do if the gorilla somehow showed up at the Allen farm. “How would you fight off a gorilla?” he asked, and all the boys shook their heads. Each of the kids seemed to start trying to come up with their own game plan.

As dusk settled in, the crowd was hanging outside when everybody suddenly heard a racket and … there was the gorilla, roaring through the party. Kids ran. Parents ran faster. Even Josh and Joel ran, barely able to stifle their laughs.

But they stayed committed to the bit. Eventually they were laughing so hard they could hardly breathe, and by then, everybody had slowed down to a walk as one of Joel’s nephews took off his gorilla head 50 feet away.

“That wasn’t cool, man,” one dad snarled at Joel.

But Mad Dad wasn’t as committed to his bit, and pretty soon everybody was laughing with the Allens.

JOSH LOVES HIS sleep. He never slept through anything, mind you. But if basketball practice started at 8 a.m., Josh was rolling in at 7:59 because he wanted every possible second of shut-eye.

It got to the point that he drafted a wakeup buddy. During football season, he’d play a game Friday night and have to be at the school by 9 a.m. the next day to watch film with the coaches. So he started enlisting one of his best friends, receiver Jordan Martinez, to stay over on Friday nights to hang out, play video games — and rough him up the next morning.

Martinez would start at 8 a.m. by saying, “Josh, let’s go, time to get up.”

Then at 8:10, he’d double the decibel level to, “Hey, get up, we gotta go!” He would usually get only a grumble out of Josh.

At 8:15, he would start shaking Josh. “I’m up,” Josh would say, before immediately falling asleep again.

By 8:20 or so, Martinez went to his second-to-last resort, right before pouring water on Josh: He’d start hitting Josh with pillows. He always began with some gentle body shots, but as the clock crept toward 8:30, he’d start teeing off on Josh’s head.

Josh always sat up around that time and said, “OK, OK, stop, I’m up.” Then they’d make a mad dash to eat something, get dressed and make the 15-minute drive to school. Coaches would shake their heads and look at the clock when it hit 8:59, because they knew their star QB and receiver were screeching to a halt in the parking lot.

IN 1976, JOSH’S grandfather, Buzz, donated land to build what would become Firebaugh High School. Before that, kids from Firebaugh had to attend Dos Palos High, which was a good 15 miles away. Naturally, when the schools split, an intense rivalry was born between the two, with Dos Palos dominating for years.

When Buzz died in 2014, Firebaugh played Dos Palos three months later on what would have been his birthday. The week of the game, Josh pulled his dad aside. “I’m going to give you the greatest gift ever,” he said. “We’re going to beat Dos Palos.”

Joel appreciated the confidence … but come on? Dos Palos? Josh’s Firebaugh team had gotten thumped 42-6 the year before.

But Josh came through. He threw for 356 yards and four touchdowns, and Firebaugh won 52-28. After the game, Joel cried on the field. He tried not to. He tried to rub his eyes and purse his lips and avoid the tears. But he couldn’t stop it.

“I’m a big baby,” Joel says. “And I couldn’t hold it in that day.”

---

TOWARD THE END of Josh’s senior year, Firebaugh got some new footballs delivered to the high school. The league, West Sierra, gave new balls to schools down the stretch of every season. And at a small rural school like Firebaugh, the new balls were treated like gold bars.

That’s why coaches alerted assistant coach/school security officer Brady Jenkins that one new ball had gone missing. He started poking around to locate the thief and found Josh with a lump under his sweatshirt.

“Josh, do you have one of the new footballs under there?” Jenkins asked.

“No,” Josh said, but then he smiled and lifted up his shirt. He did indeed have one of the balls under there. He’d taken it out of the box and was just walking around with it, spinning it in his hands.

“You stole one of the new balls?” Jenkins asked.

“I didn’t steal it,” Josh said. “I borrowed it.”

Jenkins was still scowling, so Josh explained that he only wanted to get comfortable with the brand-new ball, maybe break it in a little bit. He handed the ball back to Jenkins, who shook his head and went back to his office. He threw the ball in the corner of his office and made a mental note to return it later.

Fast-forward to after the Bills took Josh with the No. 7 pick in the 2018 draft. Jenkins heard the former Firebaugh star was going to stop by the high school to see the coaching staff and say hello to some students. Jenkins was still working as the security officer but had added a second gig — he’d been elected mayor of Firebaugh.

When he heard Josh was coming, Jenkins decided he wanted to try to get an autograph from his former star. And he had the perfect item: that football Josh had under his shirt from four years earlier. Jenkins had forgotten to return it the day he confiscated it. Then a week went by, then a month, then years.

On the day Josh came back to the school, the Firebaugh mayor handed him the ball to sign and told him it was the same one from years earlier.

As Josh signed it, he got that smart-aleck look in his eye, the same one he had the day of the fake gorilla attack and when he ribbed Derek Carr years earlier.

“I didn’t steal it,” Jenkins said, and Josh interrupted him.

“Let me guess,” he said. “You borrowed it.”

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DOWN THE STRETCH of his high school career, Josh just couldn’t get any eyeballs or attention from college recruiters. So he went to nearby Reedley Junior College. Early on in his one season there, Josh posted a Hudl highlight for college recruiters. Then he typed up a simple email that he sent to 1,000 college coaches. Yes, 1,000. He hit head coaches, offensive coordinators, QB coaches, anybody he could find.

The note said:

Hello coach, my name is Josh Allen and I am a quarterback at Reedley JC out of California. I stand at 6’5″ 210 pounds and am a full qualifier, and feel like I would be a great fit in your offensive scheme! Please have a look at my Hudl.

Please get back to me at any convenience!

Thank you

The number of calls he got back? Exactly zero out of 1,000.

---

ERNIE RODRIGUEZ FIRST met Josh during the quarterback’s senior year of high school.

Rodriguez told one of Reedley’s defensive coaches, Aaron Wilkins, that he was going to check out someone at Firebaugh.

“Who?” Wilkins asked. Wilkins has known Josh since 2006, when he began dating Josh’s cousin, who is now Wilkins’ wife, and also has coached him in a variety of sports, including during Allen’s sophomore year at Firebaugh High School.

“Josh Allen,” Rodriguez said.

“All right, get in the car. Let’s go,” Wilkins said.

Rodriguez, the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, didn’t realize how close the two are, but after watching him once, Rodriguez and Wilkins made the trip about every week to watch him play.

“But Firebaugh wasn’t a town that athletes really came out of,” said Rodriguez.

After Josh committed to Reedley, he made the 30- to 35-minute drive out to Fresno, California, as he wanted to get a jump on learning the offense. So he and Rodriguez met a couple of times privately, working on footwork and the basics of the offense.

While Josh showed the same goofy, infectious personality during his time at Reedley, “when it was time for business, it was on,” Rodriguez said. “It was [a] crazy switch. To go from this very jovial type of guy that you want to be around to when he said, ‘Hey, let’s strap ’em up,’ it was on.”

Even at Reedley, Josh did not have the opportunity to start right away. He bugged Rodriguez, asking when he’d get his opportunity. Waiting for his chance humbled him some after a high school career as a starter, which Rodriguez thinks matures people a bit better and faster.

“It’s been perfect for him, I know it’s kind of like a harsh thing to say,” Wilkins said, “but it’s been the perfect thing for him that he’s always had to earn everything.”

Josh put in extra time and effort to learn the playbook and stayed after practice to ask questions, in addition to watching extra film.

“I’m like, ‘Be patient, be patient, be patient,’” Rodriguez said. “And when I said it’s yours, that’s when he took full control of the offense, and I mean, like I said, he took full control of the team.”

---

IT’S BEEN REPORTED over the years that Wyoming got Josh’s email to college recruiters and responded. Not exactly true, according to Joel. He says Wyoming coaches came to town to look at one of Allen’s teammates at Reedley and his juco coaches said, “Make sure you check out our quarterback, too.”

Allen had had an incredible freshman growth spurt, tacking on 2 inches and about 30 pounds to his frame. He had the same rocket arm but was now built more like a running back than a quarterback — and he ran like one, too.

Within a few weeks, Wyoming coach Craig Bohl was at the Allen farm. Josh and his parents were across the table from Bohl when he said to Joel and Lavonne, “Your son is going to be the face of our program for the next four years.”

The Allens all made eye contact. Josh and Lavonne had ear-to-ear smiles, and Joel began to yawn. Except it was a fake yawn. He was just doing everything he could to somehow stifle the water works, but a few seconds later, the tears started rolling. “Like I said, I’m a big baby,” he says.

And his big baby finally had achieved his dream — a scholarship from an FBS school.

---

ON JAN. 4, 2015, Joel brought Jason and a few other Firebaugh kids to help Allen move out of his Reedley dorm room. The crew arrived and went into the dorm, but Allen wasn’t there. So they put the Cowboys-Lions playoff game on the TV and waited.

A few minutes later, the door swung open and Allen had to duck his head to walk into the room. His friends couldn’t believe this was the same person. Some of them hadn’t seen him in person in six months, only watching Allen on local TV broadcasts of Reedley games.

He stood so much taller, literally and figuratively, after a college diet and work in the weight room.

“I just kept thinking, ‘What the heck happened to Josh?’” says old friend River Bruce. “He was so much bigger, and that was the most confident I’d ever seen him. It’s not like he wasn’t a confident guy before. But something had changed. That version of him knew where he was going and what he was going to do.”

---

CAMERON COFFMAN TRANSFERRED to Wyoming from Indiana looking for an opportunity to start. After sitting out a year, 2015 was his year to be the Cowboys’ starting quarterback for his final collegiate season.

Around Christmas time, Allen joined the team from Reedley. Coffman was getting a group together to throw passes and invited Allen to join.

“After seeing him throw for about five or 10 minutes, I just remember how impressed I was, just about his physical talent,” Coffman said.

One of his first thoughts?

“Oh shoot, I’m here to start my senior year and this guy is going to come in and beat me out.”

---

IN 2015, FORMER Wyoming strength and conditioning coach Andrew Strop had the team’s quarterbacks over to his house, and they were watching the Masters.

While they were sitting around eating, Allen and Coffman started trash-talking about their golf games. Allen said he could beat everyone there at golf.

“No, no way,” the group responded.

Strop suggested they arrange that week to play and see who the best golfer of the group was. But that wasn’t soon enough.

“No, let’s go right now,” Allen said.

So they went out and played golf. Did Allen end up winning?

“No, of course he didn’t win,” Strop said. “I think he developed faster as a football player than he did as a golfer.”

---

VIDEO GAMES WERE a constant presence for the Wyoming football team, with Allen the most competitive of the group. As one former teammate said of Allen’s gaming, “It’s just [as] important to him as anything else in life.”

When Allen and now-Philadelphia Eagles safety Marcus Epps would play against each other, they would go at it, with Epps beating Allen at NCAA Football and Madden often.

Allen would be quick to fight over video games, and he’d sit up in his chair and — similar to when he’s on the football field — lock in at crunch time.

Allen’s skill set on the gaming consoles is up for debate, depending on whom you ask. Some say he excelled at certain games, while former Wyoming wide receiver James Price said, “He would kind of get his anger out on the field because he took a lot of L’s on the video games.”

---

ONE THING ABOUT Josh that’s seldom discussed in western New York is that he used to be a New England Patriots fan. It’s not hard to find photos of him in a Tom Brady jersey on the internet.

His college teammates knew it, too.

On Sept. 3, 2016, Wyoming beat Northern Illinois 40-34 in three overtimes. Josh won the game on a 7-yard touchdown scramble, eluding multiple defenders.

After the game, at around 4 a.m., Josh and some of his teammates and roommates were sitting on the couch in their apartment watching ESPN. The highlights of the game they had won were on the screen.

“Dude, you should think about entering [the NFL] this year, and then maybe you can be an undrafted free agent to one of these teams,” one of his teammates said.

The idea of Allen being a top NFL prospect wasn’t a thing yet.

“Can we finagle a way that you can be Tom Brady’s backup?” a teammate said. “Like, how sick would that be?”

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ONE DAY DURING a fall camp practice at Wyoming in 2016, the specialists were standing to the side when an incomplete pass landed near them.

Typically in that situation, a player would hand the ball over to an equipment manager, who would return it to the offense.

Josh, however, had another idea.

“Throw it to me! Throw it to me, Cooper,” Josh shouted to kicker Cooper Rothe. “Here! Here!”

Rothe, a freshman, thought, “Well, if the quarterback wants the ball, I’m going to give him the ball.” So he threw the ball to Josh with what Rothe refers to as “probably the best pass of my whole life.”

But instead of catching the ball, Josh turned away and let it hit him in the back of the helmet. In mock frustration, Josh turned around and threw his hands up.

“Cooper, what the heck are you doing!” Josh shouted.

All the coaches started screaming at the kicker, telling him to take a lap.

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BEFORE PLAYING IN the 2017 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Wyoming and Central Michigan faced off in a bowling alley. The starting offenses and defenses for both teams would bowl, and then they would see who had the highest combined scores at the end.

Josh had missed the final two regular-season games with a sprained right shoulder and was the last person to bowl. Wyoming needed a strike or it would lose the game. Things had gotten chippy between the two teams throughout the game, so the tension was rising.

No pressure.

Josh stood up, took the ball, threw it and didn’t even watch to see how many pins he hit. Instead, he turned around and walked off, of course hitting a perfect strike.

His teammates went wild celebrating. He brought a level of confidence, swagger back to the team.

The coaches picked up on it the next day at practice, noticing the team looked completely different.

The Cowboys went on to win 37-14, with Josh throwing three touchdown passes and being named MVP.

Up on the stage after the game, accepting his MVP trophy, Josh was asked, “What’s next for you?”

His teammates yelled, “Do it! Do it!”

After a pause and with a smile, Josh said, “I will be declaring for the 2018 NFL draft.”