MOBILE, Ala. — Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham will serve as Senior Bowl head coaches.
The Senior Bowl said Wednesday that Getsy will coach the American team and Graham the National team in the Feb. 4 showcase game for senior and graduate NFL prospects.
The Bears have the top overall pick in April’s draft, and the Raiders own the No. 7 selection.
It’s the first time the Senior Bowl won’t have two full team staffs coaching the game.
NFL Football Operations has put in a “coach up” format to promote professional development for coordinators and other assistants. The head coaches and general managers from all non-playoff teams were able to nominate assistants.
The team head coaches were then chosen by a group comprised of league office executives, representatives from the general managers advisory committee and Senior Bowl officials.
“Everyone at the Senior Bowl is excited about this new coaching format since it connects our players to half the league’s teams behind the scenes during the week,” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said. “Both Luke Getsy and Patrick Graham have tremendous reputations around the league and the young men in our game will undoubtedly leave Mobile as better football players after spending the week with these excellent staffs.”
The American coordinators will be Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach Charles London (offense) and New England Patriots defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington (defense).
The National coordinators are Saints quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Ronald Curry and Steelers defensive backs coach Grady Brown.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Coco Gauff versus Emma Raducanu sounded like quite a tennis match for a new age. The Australian Open organizers clearly agreed and gave the youngsters top billing: 7 p.m. in Rod Laver Arena to open the night session Wednesday.
“I’m glad we got the prime spot,” Gauff said. “I hope we delivered.”
After a shaky, error-strewn start, their first career meeting had its moments. Above all, it had some extended, tight-to-the-baseline rallies with Raducanu throwing her body into her shots and Gauff using her speed and anticipation to chase down balls that few others could have reached.
It was high-velocity entertainment, punch against counterpunch, Raducanu’s fluidity and full-cut returns versus Gauff’s more explosive movement and powerful serve.
That Gauff prevailed, 6-3, 7-6 (4), was no big surprise, even if she had to save two set points in the second set. She, for now, is the more accomplished and consistent player. She is the one in the top 10, the one with multiple tour titles in singles and doubles, the one who has been competing regularly on the circuit since 2019.
And yet Raducanu, despite being ranked just No. 77 at the moment, has already acquired what Gauff is chasing: a Grand Slam title. At the 2021 U.S. Open, Raducanu became the first singles qualifier to win a major in what felt more like a fairy tale than a sporting event.
She did not lose a set in 10 matches in New York, becoming a global star at age 18. Gauff, who beat Venus Williams at age 15 on her way to reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2019, can relate, but only to a degree.
“I feel like she experienced it on a much bigger level than I did,” Gauff said of becoming a public figure. “But coming on tour young, it’s a different life from juniors, playing in small events, to all of a sudden people knowing your name, people expecting you to win all the time.”
The 2023 Australian Open
The year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.
It quickly became apparent that Raducanu was not going to win all the time, that she had somehow gotten into the zone very early and might not find her way back again for quite a while, if at all. She has yet to win another tour title or get past the second round in another major, and she has cycled through coaches and nagging injuries like the ankle she sprained badly less than two weeks before the start of the Australian Open.
“We just did absolutely everything we can,” Raducanu said. “We had pretty much, like, 10 days before the tournament, and Day 1, I was on crutches and doing pool rehab. To get onto the court from there has been a massive effort.”
Meanwhile, Gauff opened her season in Auckland, New Zealand, by winning the title and arrived in Melbourne with momentum.
She will face another American, Bernarda Pera, in the third round Friday and is playing doubles with Jessica Pegula, who also advanced to the third round in singles on Wednesday by defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in straight sets.
Though she broke through to reach her first Grand Slam singles final at the French Open last year, losing to No. 1 Iga Swiatek, Gauff finished the season on a downbeat: hitting the wall after her first full year on tour and losing all three of her matches at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth and losing again after crossing the Atlantic to Glasgow for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals team event.
Her forehand, traditionally her less reliable stroke, kept breaking down under duress, and shoring it up was again a point of focus for her and her team during the off-season.
Improving it and her belief in it will be critical to achieving her Grand Slam goal, and it held up well for much of the match Wednesday only to get shakier down the stretch in the second set as Raducanu targeted it repeatedly.
“I’m just happy that, I guess through the work that I did in the preseason, that it’s working out,” she said. “I know it’s one of the things that I needed to work on. I feel like it’s improving every match, every week.”
She certainly defended well off both wings Wednesday night, extending rallies and ultimately forcing Raducanu to go for too much.
“It’s difficult,” Raducanu said. “She is a great mover, great athlete — puts another ball in play, so you feel like you have to squeeze it closer to the line and then she kind of teases errors out of you that way.”
When Gauff served at 4-5 in the second set, Raducanu had command of both of the set points, dictating the patterns and terms of engagement only to miss when it came time to seal the deal.
Her backhand drop shot on the second set point would have clearly been a winner if it had crossed the net, but it hit the tape and fell back on Raducanu’s side of the court. In the tiebreaker, she lost three more key points when she was the one setting the tempo.
“I think 13 days ago if you would have told us, ‘Hey, you’re going to be in the draw and win a round,’ it would have been a massive effort for sure,” Raducanu said. “Saying that, I still think I didn’t necessarily play my best today. Although in the second set I had chances and we were pushing it, I still felt like I could have done better. But props to her.”
Raducanu and Gauff had never even practiced together, but when it was over Wednesday, the handshake gave way to a friendly embrace at the net. They are based an ocean apart: Raducanu in Britain; Gauff in Florida. But they are both bright and personable with a growing list of sponsors and commitments.
“I think that we’re going to be playing each other many times in the future as we’re both young and coming,” Raducanu said. “We’re going to be the next generation.”
Both would embrace more matches against each other. The men’s game has been awash in transcendent rivalries for decades: from Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. But the women’s game has often lacked that sort of anchor, and Ashleigh Barty’s sudden retirement last March at age 25 and while ranked No. 1 will only make it more challenging to develop.
Gauff, who is wise beyond her 18 years, is focusing on the long view after suffering from putting too much emphasis on the short term.
“For me, last year was my first full year on tour. I think last year was her first year as well,” she said of Raducanu. “I think it’s something people need to remember and be reminded of.”
She hopes people give her at 18 and Raducanu at 20 more time and room to ride the learning curve, and she acknowledged that she needed to find more joy in the process.
“I feel like I’ve been on the opposite spectrum where I forget my age,” she said. “I almost put too much pressure on myself, wanting things now, now, now. I think I’ve taken a step back. I felt like I didn’t ever want to use my age as an excuse for losing or why I’m not accomplishing things. But I think it was putting too much pressure on myself.”
England white-ball captain Jos Buttler says people should not expect “too much, too soon” from Jofra Archer with the fast bowler set for his first international appearance in nearly two years.
Archer, 27, last played for his country in a T20 international against India in March 2021 with his career stalled by back and elbow injuries since then.
The paceman took three wickets on his debut for SA20 side MI Cape Town earlier this month, in what was his first competitive outing since July 2021, and is part of the England squad for the three-match ODI series against South Africa, which starts on January 27.
England’s ODIs in South Africa – all live on Sky Sports
1st ODI (Bloemfontein) – Friday January 27 (11am)
2nd ODI (Bloemfontein) – Sunday January 29 (8am)
3rd ODI (Kimberley) – Wednesday February 1 (11am)
Friday 27th January 10:30am
Speaking to Sky Sports, Buttler said: “It is exciting to bring someone like Jofra back into the squad. I played against him in the SA20 and he was getting it down at a fair pace.
“It must have been incredibly tough for him to come back after such a long period of time. When we see him, his performance level is so high but coming back from long-term injuries, don’t expect too much from him too soon.
“It is fantastic to see him back on the pitch, doing what he loves doing, and in such a huge year for English cricket, with an Ashes series in the summer and then a [50-over] World Cup later in the year, fingers crossed Jofra will available for all those things.”
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Archer made a terrific return in the SA20, taking three wickets on his tournament debut and almost claiming a hat-trick
England are scheduled to play 13 one-day internationals before their World Cup defence in India in October and November – three in South Africa, three on March’s tour of Bangladesh and then seven across home series against New Zealand and Ireland in September.
Buttler, who captained England to the T20 World Cup title in Australia in 2022, said: “We don’t have many games before the World Cup so they are all crucial for us to try and nail down some positions and give people some confidence in role clarity.
“We have a decent idea of the squad we want to take to the World Cup but there is competition for places and people pushing and that drives people and standards. We have a lot of options and over the next six months it is up to us to nail down what that looks like.
Image: Jos Buttler says England ‘have a decent idea’ of the squad they want to take to this autumn’s 50-over World Cup in India
“There are challenges through scheduling and availability of players where you don’t get to build up like you did four years ago – I think we played 70 ODIs or something like that before the last World Cup but now there have been fewer games and less time together.
“That’s just the way it is, there is no reason it should affect our performance. The series in Bangladesh will be a vital one, probably the only real chance we will get to experience conditions that we might at the World Cup in India.”
England’s T20 triumph came in a year in which the red-ball side also experienced a revival under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, winning nine out of 10 Tests, including all three as they swept Pakistan away from home, after adopting an attacking brand of cricket.
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Watch highlights from the T20 World Cup final in November 2022 as England beat Pakistan by five wickets at the MCG to become dual white-ball world champions
Buttler said: “It has opened your eyes, whether you are involved in Test cricket or not, about that positive mindset and removing the handbrake which can constrain you as a cricketer at times. It definitely filters across the England teams and down into the county system as well.”
When quizzed on whether he was hoping for an Ashes recall, Buttler – who played the most recent of his 57 Tests in January 2022 – added: “I have not given [playing in The Ashes] any thought at all.
“I am very comfortable with what I’m doing at the moment. It is a great honour to be captain of the white-ball teams. I am enjoying watching the Test team from the sidelines.”
Watch the SA20 and England’s three-match one-day international series against South Africa live on Sky Sports.
Now, Brady again has options. He could return to the Bucs to make a run at his eighth Super Bowl title, sign with another team — or retire and start his career as a TV analyst.
Where should Brady want to play in 2023? What could the Bucs do at quarterback if Brady leaves? We asked our panel of ESPN NFL experts to weigh in on what’s next for the GOAT and the Bucs:
Which NFL team should go all out to sign Brady in 2023?
Jeremy Fowler, national NFL writer:Raiders. Las Vegas appears to want three things: a culture shift, an exciting player to drive interest and a quarterback who can run coach Josh McDaniels’ offense better than anyone. Brady fits on all fronts. The Raiders also need to win now. Brady can help with that, too.
Dan Graziano, national NFL writer:Dolphins. I know it sounds like they want to stick with Tua Tagovailoa, assuming he has recovered from his concussion by then. But with the players they have on offense, a little tinkering with the offensive and defensive lines would make this a win-now roster that could be a Super Bowl contender with a more reliably available quarterback.
Jenna Laine, Bucs reporter:Buccaneers. Despite the loss on Monday, the issues they’ve had this season stem from injuries to their offensive line. Getting back center Ryan Jensen, having tackles Tristan Wirfs and Donovan Smith healthy again, taking a swing at another guard in the draft and getting some more speed at wide receiver to complement Mike Evans and Chris Godwin would go a long way in getting this offense back to what it was in 2021. Tampa Bay does have questions, including: How much money can it keep pushing toward the future while still being able to re-sign linebacker Lavonte David, cornerbacks Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting and safety Mike Edwards?
Sal Paolantonio, national NFL correspondent:Jets. If Miami really is committed to bringing back Tagovailoa, that takes the Dolphins out of the Brady sweepstakes and should make the Jets contenders. If Brady is looking for a similar situation to the Bucs in 2020, it’s the Jets, who have a ready-made defense. He could remake the offense the way he wants. And he would face Bill Belichick and the Patriots twice a year. Get your popcorn ready.
Jason Reid, Andscape senior NFL writer:Raiders. With longtime starter Derek Carr headed out the door, they need to upgrade. As Jeremy mentioned above, Brady already has a relationship with McDaniels from their days together in New England. That should be the starting point for the Raiders to push for him.
Mike Tannenbaum, NFL front-office insider:Raiders. They have playmakers on offense — Davante Adams, Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow, and could re-sign Josh Jacobs — and continuity with the coach and front office. The Raiders should sign Brady and draft another quarterback; they own the No. 7 overall pick in the April draft.
Field Yates, NFL analyst:Buccaneers. Tampa Bay has adjusted its salary-cap strategy since acquiring Brady, making a series of win-now moves and pushing money into the future while maximizing this window. Can you blame the franchise? Of course not. And with Brady still playing at a level that is good enough to make the playoffs annually, the Bucs should desperately want him back.
Because Brady gets to choose his team, though, where should he want to sign?
Fowler:Buccaneers. Tampa Bay, when healthy, still has a stacked roster, including several stars on offense at Brady’s disposal. From family to football, the Tampa Bay setup is familiar. And the Bucs are most likely willing to make necessary staff or player changes to accommodate him.
Graziano:Dolphins. It’s Miami and its talented roster, for all of the reasons I listed earlier.
Laine:Buccaneers. Remember that Tampa Bay gave him 11 days off in the middle of training camp to tend to his family, with zero hesitation from coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht. That’s unprecedented for an NFL starting quarterback. The Bucs have a well-constructed locker room of unselfish players whom Brady truly enjoys playing with every day — a “family,” as quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen described it to me — and they’ve showed an unwavering commitment to him, not just as a quarterback but as a person in one of the most challenging years of his life.
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Could Brady be the perfect replacement for Tua in Miami?
Bart Scott and Dan Graziano toy with the idea of the Dolphins going after Tom Brady this offseason.
Reid:Raiders. A union in Las Vegas makes the most sense because of McDaniels’ presence. Although Brady had impressive cumulative stats this season — he finished third in the league with 4,694 pass yards — his performance didn’t always pass the eye test as the Buccaneers struggled to an 8-9 record. At this late stage of his career, another partnership with McDaniels would be his best fit to try to win another title.
Tannenbaum:Buccaneers. Their offensive line will be much better next season. They would be in a great position to run it back, win another division title and get a home playoff game or two.
Yates:49ers. From a pure football standpoint, it’s easy to see the appeal of the 49ers, who arguably have the league’s best roster and are loaded with skill players. Moreover, it’s Brady’s hometown team. There are questions about whether Brady would want to play on the West Coast (away from his children, who live on the East Coast) and about whether the 49ers would even be in the market for a quarterback, but if we’re just talking about his best chance to keep winning, San Francisco stands out.
If you were Bucs GM Jason Licht, what would be your pitch to Brady to get him to return?
Fowler: It’s about a strong, veteran roster in a familiar setting. Plus, the NFC remains weak. Let’s take advantage. Win multiple Super Bowls in a second jersey. Tampa Bay will pay him really well, too.
Graziano: You’d have to be able to convince him you’re going to make upgrades on the offensive line. Whether that means getting guys back healthy or pursuing upgrades on the market, Brady needs better protection than he had this season, or else he will walk.
Laine: Not every organization will bend over backward to accommodate even a seven-time Super Bowl winner. But when Brady has expressed a desire for the team to sign a player or tinker with things on the offense, the Bucs have been more than willing to accommodate him. At this phase in his life, it isn’t just about winning. It’s about genuinely being happy every day. Tampa Bay provides that.
Paolantonio: The Bucs’ pitch is simple: Bowles is a great coach. The roster is still loaded and will get better. They own the division, so postseason is pretty much guaranteed. There’s no state income tax in Florida, and he’d be close to his kids.
Reid: Licht should start by reminding Brady of what the future Hall of Famer has accomplished in Tampa Bay. In three seasons, Brady has led the team to a Super Bowl championship and two division titles. There’s a track record of winning. As Brady is well aware, there’s no guarantee he would enjoy similar success with another franchise.
Tannenbaum: It’s about Brady’s legacy — he doesn’t need to go anywhere else. Licht can pitch him on having a two-team career and winning multiple titles for both teams.
Yates: Licht and the Bucs have made the win-now moves Brady has wanted, to the detriment of their salary cap. What’s one more year of that? They also don’t have a great alternative if he leaves.
The Bucs still have a solid roster. Where else do they need to improve this offseason?
Fowler: Can they convince Rob Gronkowski to come back? Brady is at his best with the future Hall of Fame tight end by his side. They need to add offensive line and defensive backfield reinforcements after an injury-plagued season. And it’s probably time to move on from running back Leonard Fournette; they can replace Fournette with a younger player alongside Rachaad White.
Graziano: At some point they’re going to need to find a way to get younger on defense. That and the O-line would be my offseason priorities for Tampa Bay.
Laine: They need to get that offensive line back to health and potentially make changes at guard, depending on if Luke Goedeke can improve there or if Nick Leverett could show he’s their long-term answer. The ground game also must improve. Brady does not want to drop back and pass 50 times a game at this stage in his career. Speed at receiver will help, too. And getting as much of their secondary back as possible in free agency.
Paolantonio: Offensive line. Running back. Tight end. Get Brady more help on offense. Bowles will want a corner or two as well.
Reid: For starters, improved health would help. Throughout the season, the Buccaneers were weakened by injuries to wide receivers, linemen and defensive backs. Most teams would take a major hit on defense if an edge rusher as gifted as Shaquil Barrett was lost for the remainder of the season. The Bucs also finished last in the league in total rushing yards (1,308) and yards per carry (3.4). Regardless of who lines up behind center for Tampa Bay next season, those numbers have to improve.
Tannenbaum: They have to get better — and healthy — along the offensive line. Could they find a new left tackle? And as many here have mentioned, I would also look to upgrade at running back and sign another pass-rusher.
Yates: It’s the offensive line, as others have noted. The group went from a strength, in prior seasons with Brady, to a liability. The entire league is starved for above-average offensive line play, but the Bucs need to think O-line all offseason.
If Brady leaves, what’s the quarterback move the Bucs should make?
Fowler: Backups Blaine Gabbert and Kyle Trask are options on low-cost contracts, so the first order of business is determining if they are starting-caliber quarterbacks. Trask was a second-round pick in 2021. If they want to go outside the organization, Derek Carr — who is likely to be traded or cut by the Raiders — could be a fit. He’s a pure pocket passer with an affinity for the deep ball — Mike Evans‘ specialty — but he’ll cost more than Gabbert or Trask.
Graziano: I’ve said this before about other teams, but I’d look into trading for Trey Lance. The 49ers might be about to win the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy at quarterback. Lance, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 draft, is still just 22. Get him healthy, pair him with the right offensive coordinator and reap the benefits of the development work the Niners did with him.
Laine: When you look at the free agency market, the Bucs’ next-best option might be Gabbert. He has been in their system for five years, as it evolved from Bruce Arians’ “No risk it, no biscuit” to more of a hybrid version of Arians’ system and what the Patriots ran with Brady. The feeling within the organization is that Gabbert could have had a much different career had he had some semblance of stability after he was picked by the Jaguars No. 10 overall in the 2011 draft. Of course, Tampa Bay might also want to explore what San Francisco does with Lance. How much would the Bucs give up considering his injuries?
Paolantonio: Trade for Carr before he hits the open market after Las Vegas releases him. He’s a tough team player who can make all the throws. His personality is perfect for this team and staff. Tampa Bay will fall in love with him.
Reid: If the Seahawks fail to re-sign Geno Smith after his breakthrough season, the Buccaneers should sprint toward him. Carr could be a viable option as well. Obviously, neither is of Brady’s caliber, but who is? The reality is they likely will take a step back at the position.
Tannenbaum: Trade for Carr and draft another one high. I would throw a lot of resources at Brady’s replacement.
Yates: The trick of this is that we don’t know exactly which veterans will actually become available this offseason, so my answer is to survey the market for every available veteran. There are nine players on the roster besides Brady who carry a cap hit of at least $10 million next season, which means this is a franchise that wants to prolong its window for contention and does not want to hand over the reins to a young, unproven signal-caller.
“It’s a beautiful city, lodged between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, with four cultures that live in harmony,” former Barca and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder and Ceuta-born Mohamed Ali Amar, better known as Nayim, told ESPN.
Ceuta, with a population of around 85,000 people and an area of just 7 square miles, has been in Spain’s possession since 1580. However, Morocco does not officially recognise it as Spanish territory. That has led to flash points — as recently as 2021, when the Moroccan government loosened border controls — but Nayim says any diplomatic tension has not spilled into city life.
“It’s an example for society,” he said. “There are big Muslim and Christian communities and smaller Hebrew and Hindu communities. It’s a city where you all live together very peacefully and enjoy the Mediterranean gastronomy.”
Large swathes of the population have Moroccan roots from bygone generations, including Nayim. The city is closer to Tangier and Rabat than Madrid and Barcelona, which led to an interesting emotional tug-of-war when Morocco met at the World Cup in Qatar and stunned the world by winning the round-of-16 tie on penalties.
“I wasn’t in the city for the game, but it evoked a lot of passion,” added Nayim, who famously scored a stunning 119th-minute winner for Real Zaragoza against Arsenal in the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final by lobbing goalkeeper David Seaman from 40 yards.
“[Morocco] proved they are not a small team and they got what they deserved. It was incredible how that [semifinal] run was experienced in Ceuta, but also across Morocco and in Spain, where there is a huge Moroccan population. They are passionate football people.
“And Ceuta is absolutely a football-crazy city. Some great players have come from there: Migueli who played for Barca [from 1973-88], Pirri spent many years at Real Madrid [1964-80] and is a legend there, Jose Bravo, the Lesmes brothers [Francisco and Rafael, the latter of whom won five European Cups with Real Madrid from 1955-60].
“So many players have played in the city. So many kids play football there. There are more and more scouts from the big [Spanish] clubs there because the structure is better and better all the time. There are youngsters now at Madrid and Villarreal. It’s a place that loves football.”
That love has not translated into results this season for the football club, which was founded in 1956 and has been part of the Spanish league system ever since. Ceuta sit bottom of Group 1 of the Primera RFEF — one of two regionalised third-tier leagues — with just two wins all season. Perhaps that is to be expected, though, when their division also features teams from as far away as Galicia, including fallen giants Deportivo La Coruna, who are a 12-hour drive away from Ceuta once you get to the Spanish mainland.
Barcelona is 13 hours away, although Xavi Hernandez’s side won’t be taking the bus. They plan to fly to Malaga, on Spain’s south coast, before taking helicopters over the Mediterranean and into Ceuta.
It should be more comfortable journey than the team representing Melilla, another Spanish enclave in north Africa, had to take to get to Madrid in 2018. Melilla had to take a ferry, a bus and an airplane as part of an 11-hour journey through the night to the capital to face Real Madrid. They travelled having already lost the first leg at home 4-0, and a 6-1 defeat at the Bernabeu was their reward for the gruelling trip.
Away from their disastrous league form, the Copa del Rey has proved a welcome distraction for Ceuta, whose president Luhay Hamido was a contestant on Spain’s Big Brother back in 2003. They have beaten second-division Ibiza and LaLiga side Elche to make it this far. They hope to add 31-time winners Barca to that list at the 6,500-capacity Estadio Alfonso Murube on Thursday and may well use Xavi’s post-draw comments as extra motivation. The coach of the Catalan side said they had been “lucky” to be paired with the smallest team left in the competition.
South Africa batter Hashim Amla has announced his retirement from all cricket at the age of 39.
Amla scored 18,672 international runs for the Proteas between 2004 and 2019, including 9,282 in 124 Tests, which is second only to Jacques Kallis (13,206) for South Africa.
The right-hander’s highest score in Test cricket was the 311 not out he amassed against England at The Kia Oval in 2012 and he remains the only South African to notch a Test triple century.
No South African has scored more than his 27 hundreds in one-day international cricket, a format in which he totalled 8,113 runs across 181 matches.
Amla was part of the Surrey side that won the LV= Insurance County Championship last season, hitting the last of his 57 first-class centuries against Northamptonshire in September.
Amla said: “I have great memories of the Oval ground and to finally leave it as a player fills me with immense gratitude for what has been.
“A sincere thank you to (director of cricket) Alec Stewart and the entire Surrey staff, players and members for their support.
“The Surrey ship runs so professionally that it would make any international player feel a sense of honour just to be involved with. I wish them all the best and many more trophies.”
Stewart: Amla is a great of the game
Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart – who recently taken a leave of absence due to his wife’s ongoing cancer treatment – said: “Everyone at Surrey County Cricket Club will be sad to see Hashim retire, but we all applaud what has been a phenomenal career. He will quite rightly go down as a great of the game,” he said.
“Hashim is a fantastic cricketer and a wonderful person. He has been an incredible resource for the team to learn from on and off the field.
“As well as posting big scores at vital moments, he has also shown his willingness to dig in and do what is needed to get his team a result in tough games.
“I can’t thank him enough for what he has done for Surrey and hold him up as an example to all young players of what a true professional looks like.”
Rivals national recruiting analysts Ryan Wright,Clint Cosgrove and Sean Williams, along with UGASports.com recruiting writer Jed May, address statements surrounding current topics to determine whether they think they are fact or fiction..
1. Defensive line is the strongest position group in the 2023 class.
David Hicks Jr. (Rivals.com)
Wright’s take. FICTION. The 2023 class is loaded on defense, and the big nasties up front are amazing, but the guys in the secondary are a much deeper group. Just looking at the current top 40 Rivals corners. All of them have a chance to be day one starters at their respective schools. The back end of the group – Robert Stafford, Ja’Keem Jackson and Braeden Marshall – are special talents. The top corners, Cormani McClain, Desmond Ricks, Javien Toviano and AJ Harris, ave all the tools to be high NFL Draft picks.
Add the safeties into the conversation, and the debate is over. Caleb Downs and Tony Mitchell, who will be paired at Alabama, will give opposing SEC receivers nightmares. Peyton Bowen, Derek Williams, Sylvester Smith and Joenel Aguero are difference makers. The D-linemen in this group are great, but so are the D-backs and they are a much deeper group.
Cosgrove’s take: FACT. There are a number of exceptionally strong positions like quarterback, defensive back and offensive line in the 2023 class but none is as strong as the defensive line when looking at the group from top to bottom. There are currently five, five-star players on the defensive front in David Hicks Jr., Keon Keeley, Samuel M’Pemba, Damon Wilson and Matayo Uiagalelei and each is a special talent with high NFL upside.
The talent at the position doesn’t stop there, and after strong performances by a number of additional defensive linemen at the recent all-star events chances are that we aren’t finished with five-star players at the position. Current four-stars Jordan Hall, Peter Woods, Adepoju Adebawore and Yhonzae Pierre are just a few of the players who proved worthy of an extra star after recent evaluations, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least two of them crack the list. Whether it be the large group of four- and five-star players at the position or three-stars with tremendous upside, I see the defensive linemen taking the cake as the strongest position in the 2023 class.
*****
2. Georgia signed the best linebacker group in the 2023 class.
Troy Boyles (Rivals.com)
Wright’s take: FICTION. Right behind Georgia in the 2023 Rivals’ team rankings was Texas. Like the Bulldogs, the Longhorns had an outstanding class all the way around, but a big piece of the haul was the five linebackers signed. Texas signed four four-stars and one five-star, Anthony Hill.
Texas got the top-rated inside backer in the country in Hill, and he will be paired with S’Maje Burrell. The outside backers are also nasty, with the sixth- and seventh-rated prospects in Tausili Akana and Derion Gullette. Not to be overlooked, Liona Lefau out of Hawaii is a four-star ready to make some noise in Austin.
May’s take: FACT: The inside linebackers are the heart and soul of Georgia’s defense. The Bulldogs attacked that group and added a trio of Rivals250 players at the position in the 2023 class. In fact, Troy Bowles, Raylen Wilson and CJ Allen all currently rank within the top 200 players in the country. No other school signed more than one inside linebacker in the Rivals250. It’s an easy argument to say Georgia signed the best group at that position in the 2023 cycle.
Williams’ take: FACT. New Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has been doing work since being hired in late November. In the 2023 class, he flipped Rivals250 talents Sylvester Smith, Keldric Faulk and Kayin Lee to round out an impressive December signing period that has the Tigers sitting at 16th overall in team rankings. Auburn has also addressed big needs via the transfer portal, most notably along the offensive and defensive lines. So far, they’ve landed Dillon Wade (Tulsa), Gunner Britton (Western Kentucky) and Avery Jones (East Carolina). Expect all three of those players to compete for starting spots along the offensive line. Same can be said along the defensive line, with the additions of Mosiah Nasil-Kite (Maryland), Lawrence Johnson (Purdue) and Justin Rogers (Kentucky). The Tigers are loading up, adding depth and attempting to Freeze-out the SEC competition.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Taylor Townsend is getting very good at moving on.
It is happening more and more these days in tennis tournaments, including this year’s Australian Open, where she will play her second-round match Thursday after destroying Diane Parry, a promising French 20-year-old, in every possible way Tuesday. And she has moved on from the body-shaming and benching by the United States Tennis Association a decade ago, when she was just 16 years old.
Townsend, a 26-year-old mother of a toddler, delivered a thorough and merciless beating to Parry during a 67-minute, 6-1, 6-1 rout. Her powerful serve topped out at 116 miles per hour, and her lacing backhand painted the lines; Parry never figured out how to handle Townsend’s whipping forehand and could not reach the precise volleys. The win was her first in the main singles draw of a Grand Slam tournament in three years, and the first since Townsend, ranked 135th in the world, became a mother in March 2021.
“Taylor is a top-20 player who right now is not in the top 20,” John Williams, Townsend’s coach, said moments after she finished off Parry with her seventh ace. “If you’re that kind of player, you should do top-20 things, like she did today.”
Townsend has been the best of the best before, on the junior level. But then she — and her still-developing teenage body — became an early flash point in the debate about what top athletes are supposed to look like, and how much coaches should push their own definitions of fitness on young women.
In 2012, Townsend, a star of the U.S.T.A.’s then four-year-old development program, was the No. 1 junior player in the world. That January, she was the girls’ singles champion at the Australian Open. In July 2012, she won the girls’ doubles title at Wimbledon with Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.
But just weeks later, as The Wall Street Journal revealed, after a loss in the first round of qualifying at a lower-tier professional event in Canada, coaches at the U.S.T.A. decided the 16-year-old Townsend needed to work on her fitness. They requested her to pull out of the national girls championships and sent her back to their training center in Boca Raton, Fla.
They turned her down that August when she asked for a wild-card entry into the main draw of the U.S. Open, a spot she could have earned had she won the national girls title. They refused to cover her expenses to play in the U.S. Open girls tournament. She paid her own way, made the quarterfinals of the singles tournament and won the doubles.
Flash forward a decade, to last September. Townsend is standing at midcourt in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open, accepting the runner-up trophy in the women’s doubles tournament with her partner, her fellow American Caty McNally.
The master of ceremonies for the trophy presentation is Patrick McEnroe. Ten years ago, he was the general manager of the U.S.T.A.’s player development program, the guy who sent Townsend back to Boca Raton.
The 2023 Australian Open
The year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.
“I’ve put in the work, I’ve earned my way to be here, and I think everyone sees that,” Townsend said that day, wearing a body suit without a sponsor name in sight that has become her signature outfit of choice. “And I’m going to continue to put my head down and grind, and this is going to motivate me to go even harder. So watch out for 2023.”
Townsend said Tuesday that, until it was pointed out to her, she was not aware of the moment’s awkwardness, her steely stare while on the podium and the seeming chill between her and McEnroe. What she said in that trophy presentation was about making one thing clear to herself and anyone listening.
“I’m coming,” she said, sitting on a couch in a lounge above a steamy Melbourne Park after her first-round win. “Everything that I’m working for, all of the goals and everything that I’m doing, is slowly aligning, and I don’t know when it will happen, but I’m coming, and you know to be ready and to be on the lookout because I know inside of myself what I can do and I know, that you don’t know the timing. I believe that things will happen.”
In a text message from Connecticut, where he is working as part of ESPN’s television coverage of the Australian Open, McEnroe said all he had ever wanted for Townsend was success at the highest level. Asked whether his perspective on the fitness issue had changed, McEnroe said:
“I could not be happier to see Taylor back on the courts, and continuing to do well. I have always, and will always, continue to wish her nothing but the best on and off the court.” That, he said, has always been his perspective on the issue.
Every tennis journey is unique. The sport can seem like a conveyor belt of prodigies who survive the gantlet of development programs and academies followed by years of dues-paying and ropes-learning in the hinterlands, and finally the promised land of the pro tours and the Grand Slam tournaments. Each one has its own bends and twists, setbacks and injuries.
Townsend’s, though, is as different as they come. A childhood in Chicago; the pinnacle of junior tennis and the birth of her pro career as a teen in Florida, despite the body-shaming; then several years of struggling to figure out what kind of player she was during the first part of her career; a mother at 24; a stint as a television analyst during her maternity leave; a rise to the top echelon of doubles; and now a slow and steady re-emergence as a singles player. Her goal, she said, is to be better than she was before she left the sport to have her baby.
She is getting closer. Last year, Townsend won two tournaments at the International Tennis Federation level, the sport’s third tier. She also made the round of 16 at the Silicon Valley Classic.
Williams said Townsend has achieved “clarity” in the last year about who she is on the court. She is an all-court player with a big serve and a powerful forehand that can be especially dangerous since it comes off her left hand and punishes right-handed backhands when she fires it across the court.
“The quality of her ball was hard to control,” Parry said Tuesday.
Townsend was scheduled to play Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia in the second round on Thursday.
As a top doubles player — she and the American Asia Muhammad are seeded 12th in Melbourne — Townsend can come forward when she needs to, as well. In every match, she wants to be the one to dictate the play.
“She got away from that for a little while,” said Williams, who first worked with Townsend in 2009.
Townsend represented the United States at the Billie Jean King Cup last year, enjoying the full embrace of the U.S.T.A. The organization has offered her and Williams whatever resources it can provide to assist in her continuing evolution.
Kathy Rinaldi, the national coach for women’s tennis at the U.S.T.A., calls or texts Townsend after all her matches. She has noticed Ola Malmqvist, the organization’s director of coaching, watching her play. Townsend said she has no hard feelings. She wanted to take control of her narrative the same way she tries to take control of matches, to make it mean what she wanted it to mean, and she did.
“We’re seeing people succeed who look totally different than the normal, from all industries, from athletics, sports, entertainment, acting, everything,” she said. “The fact that I could be a part of that and to live it and just to be an example for people, that’s the biggest thing for me.”
Logan Sargeant is the first American driver in Formula 1 since 2015 as he replaces Nicholas Latifi at Wiliams; there are three races in the United States in the 2023 Formula 1 calendar as the sport heads to Miami, Las Vegas and Austin
By Megan Wellens
Last Updated: 17/01/23 5:00pm
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Logan Sargeant says it is a dream come true to join the Williams team and begin his Formula One journey
Logan Sargeant says it is a dream come true to join the Williams team and begin his Formula One journey
Entering the F1 paddock comes with an immense amount of pressure for any driver, none more so than Williams’ newest star Logan Sargeant.
Sargeant, 21, was revealed as the replacement for Nicholas Latifi at last year’s USA Grand Prix and as the only American in a sport that is taking off in the United States, he knows all eyes will be on him as he takes the next step in his career, his focus already switching to proving himself on motorsport’s biggest stage.
“Obviously it is super special to be the first American driver in a while,” said Sargeant.
“With three Grand Prixs [in America], that is going to be fun. Miami is just on my doorstep so I am really looking forward to that one.
“It is maybe a little bit of extra pressure, but, at the end of the day, I put a lot of pressure on myself and the expectations are high.
“We just need to get the job done.”
As he teams up with Alex Albon at Williams, Sargeant becomes the first American driver in the sport since Alexander Rossi in 2015, the last American to win a race being Mario Andretti back in 1978.
The pressure will be mounting as the season draws closer, but Sargeant has always made sure to remember he is living out his dream for a team who have supported him for so long.
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Sargeant finished fifth in the final F2 feature race of 2022 to secure his super licence
Sargeant finished fifth in the final F2 feature race of 2022 to secure his super licence
“It is definitely a dream come true. I feel like 16 years of hard work, the weight was lifted off my shoulders that we made it here,” he added.
“Then you immediately think, now the real work starts trying to keep my place in Formula 1 going forward.
“The stars definitely have to align and you have to be in the right place at the right time.
“Williams has supported me so much since the end of last year and they gave me so much confidence throughout the year that this seat was up for grabs if I did my job.
“Going into that last round, I needed to get my super licence and the pressure was on to maximise the weekend and we did.
“I am just looking forward to doing my best for them in the future.”
Williams team principal James Vowles denies Mercedes control rival F1 team
Newly-appointed Williams team principal James Vowles insists the team will not become a “mini-Mercedes” following his move from the Silver Arrows.
Williams announced on Friday that Vowles will take over as team principal on February 20 ahead of the new season, ending his 13-year run with Mercedes.
James Vowles (L) with Lewis Hamilton
Vowles, who departs his position as strategy director, provides a further link between the two teams, who are already tied by Mercedes having supplied Williams with engines since 2014.
Meanwhile, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is a former owner and director of the British team, and Silver Arrows driver George Russell spent three years at Williams before partnering Hamilton for the first time last season.
“I wouldn’t consider it a mini-Mercedes,” Vowles said on Friday. “Williams is an incredibly independent team in its own right, which has formed its own history, its own heritage.
Vowles had been at Mercedes since the team’s inception in 2010
“Williams is an entirely independent organisation, and furthermore, it’s one that my success is subject and dependent on me doing a good job there, and that has to be independent of Mercedes.
“It doesn’t mean that Mercedes and ourselves won’t have collaboration in some form or another, there was collaboration before I joined, but I have to do what is best for Williams from here onwards.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal bowed his head during changeovers and rested his elbows on his knees, the very picture of resignation.
What was already a poor start to 2023, following a year marred by all manner of health issues, reached a low point at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The defending champion and No. 1 seed at Melbourne Park, Nadal injured his left hip and lost to Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in the second round, abruptly ending his bid for a record-extending 23rd Grand Slam trophy.
“It’s a tough moment. It’s a tough day,” Nadal said. “I can’t say that I am not destroyed mentally at this moment, because I would be lying.”
The 35-year-old Spanish player pulled up awkwardly at the end of a point late in the second set against the 65th-ranked McDonald.
Nadal was visited by a trainer on the sideline then left the court for a medical timeout. Up in the stands, his wife wiped away tears. Nadal returned to play but was physically compromised and not his usual indefatigable self, saying afterward he could not hit his backhand properly and could not run much, either.
But Nadal added that, as the reigning champion of the tournament, he did not want to leave the court via a midmatch retirement.
He said the hip had been bothering him for a couple of days but that it was never as bad as it became on Wednesday. Nadal was not exactly sure of the nature of the injury, saying he will have medical tests to determine whether it has to do with a muscle, a joint or cartilage.
“He’s an incredible champion. He’s never going to give up, regardless of the situation, so even closing it out against a top guy like that is always tough,” said McDonald, a 27-year-old American player who won NCAA championships in singles and doubles for UCLA in 2016. “I kept focusing on myself in the end and got through.”
This is Nadal’s earliest exit at any Grand Slam tournament since bowing out in the first round in Melbourne in 2016 against No. 45 Fernando Verdasco. That also made Verdasco the lowest-ranked player to defeat Nadal in Australia — until, of course, McDonald on Wednesday.
McDonald has never been past the fourth round at a major tournament. In his lone previous matchup against Nadal, at the 2020 French Open, McDonald won a total of just four games in a lopsided loss.
“He kicked my butt,” McDonald recalled Wednesday.
A year ago, Nadal won the Australian Open for the second time to earn his 21st major championship, and he then raised his total to 22 — the most for a man — at Roland Garros.
He is currently ranked No. 2, but Nadal was the top seed at Melbourne Park because No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz is sitting out the Australian Open with a bad leg.
Nadal’s body has betrayed him quite a bit recently.
He needed pain-killing injections for his left foot on the way to winning the French Open in June, pulled out of Wimbledon in July before the semifinals because of a torn abdominal muscle and also dealt with a problem with rib cartilage in 2022.
Nadal’s exit drains the tournament of yet more star power. In addition to his absence and that of Alcaraz, 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios pulled out because his left knee needs arthroscopic surgery, four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka is off the tour while she is pregnant, two-time major champ Simona Halep is serving a provisional doping ban and Venus Williams is hurt.
That is all on top of this: The 2023 edition of the Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tournament since Serena Williams and Roger Federer announced their retirements.
Nadal arrived in Melbourne with an 0-2 record this season, making him 1-6 dating to September, when he lost to Frances Tiafoe in the fourth round of the US Open.
Even during a first-round victory on Monday, a four-setter against a cramping Jack Draper, Nadal never quite seemed to be at his chase-every-ball, put-every-high-spin-shot-on-target best. He looked, somehow, his age.
The same was the case from the outset against McDonald.
“I’m really happy with how I started that match. I thought I was playing really well, serving great, returning well too,” McDonald said. “So I was really taking it to him.”
That is true. From the get-go, McDonald was on, and Nadal was off.
The first game served as something of a harbinger: McDonald broke for a 1-0 lead thanks a trio of unforced errors by Nadal — two off his feared lefty forehand side.
Out of sorts, Nadal got into a back-and-forth with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic during breaks in action about whether she was starting the between-points serve clock too quickly for his liking.
Soon, McDonald was up a set. Then he went up a break right away in the second.
After one point in that set, Nadal showed real signs of trouble. He squatted behind the baseline and placed his racket down on the court. Then he went over and leaned on a sign, prompting Veljovic to ask whether Nadal was OK.
Nadal watched a couple of serves off McDonald’s racket fly past him then was checked on by the trainer. While the match would proceed, it essentially was over right then and there.
MELBOURNE, Australia — For nearly two decades, American men have been all but helpless against Rafael Nadal, especially at Grand Slam tournaments.
Now, seemingly, they have his number.
Down one set and on the ropes against Mackenzie McDonald in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday, Nadal pulled up lame while chasing down a shot in the eighth game of the second set. His eyes, filled with concern, immediately turned to his coaches seated courtside at Rod Laver Arena. He then crouched in the corner to catch his breath, returning moments later to continue the game.
He could do nothing more than watch two aces blaze by, bringing him to the brink of going down two-sets-to-love against McDonald, a 27-year-old American who has never cracked the Top 40 in the world rankings. McDonald had played the match of his life for nearly two sets, then did what he needed to do to prevail over an ailing legend.
The injury came after McDonald, a former U.C.L.A. Bruin, had spent more than 90 minutes pasting the lines with his shots when he needed to most. Nadal, the No. 1 seed, called for a trainer on the court, left to receive medical treatment for what appeared to be an injury to his midsection, near his right hip, then returned and played on.
He struggled to move and chase after balls with the abandon that has always been the hallmark of his game. He could barely generate power from his backhand. He somehow stayed even with McDonald through the first 10 games of the second set, hobbling around, taking wild cuts to try to end points quickly. But McDonald put just enough shots out of Nadal’s reach to break his serve in the 11th, then clinched the match 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 when Nadal netted one last backhand return.
When it was over, Nadal left to a rousing ovation, taking an extra few moments too turn and wave to the crowd.
For Nadal, the defending Australian Open champion, the loss was the latest in a string of defeats that have plagued him as he has battled injuries and a wounded psyche recently. He also has had to adjust to fatherhood after the birth of his first child, a son, in October.
Nadal had lost six of his previous seven matches coming into the tournament, with several of those coming against a younger generation of players. Once they would have been awed playing against a nearly unbeatable opponent. Now, they walk onto the court knowing that Nadal, whose 36-year-old body is banged up from playing an incredibly physical style over his career, is as vulnerable as he has been at any point in his career.
The American success against Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, started in September at the U.S. Open, when Frances Tiafoe, 24, knocked him out in the fourth round. Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz beat Nadal later in the fall in other tournaments, when the Spaniard was trying to return late in the season from an abdominal injury.
The 2023 Australian Open
The year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament runs from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 in Melbourne.
Wednesday, it was McDonald’s turn, in a scene that was eerily familiar of last year’s Wimbledon quarterfinals, when Nadal tore an abdominal muscle while playing Fritz. On that day he somehow prevailed in five sets, even as his coaches and relatives urged him to quit. Those fights didn’t materialize Wednesday. His wife, sister, father and coaches sat mostly silent, letting the match reach its inevitable end.
All afternoon McDonald stood on the baseline and beat Nadal at his own game, meeting Nadal’s power and topspin with his own, curling forehands just above the net and sending Nadal chasing the ball from corner to corner. When Nadal hit harder, so did MacDonald. He broke Nadal’s serve early in the first and second set and kept Nadal under pressure all day, then remained steady as Nadal played through the pain.
The defeat marked Nadal’s earliest exit from a Grand Slam tournament since he lost in the first round of the Australian Open seven years ago.
McDonald caught a break from the inclement weather that has plagued the tournament since Tuesday, drenching Melbourne with rain. The rain on Wednesday had forced the closure of the roof, which the players say slows down the pace of the ball. Throughout the match, Nadal struggled to hit through the back of the court, his ball slowing just enough to allow McDonald to catch up to it and take his best rips.
Nadal has experienced all the highs and lows of the sport during the last 18 months. He missed most of the second half of 2021 because of a series of injuries, then ventured to Melbourne a year ago, just seven weeks after being on crutches. With his foot chronically injured, he thought then it might be his last opportunity to play in Australia.
He quickly returned to form and won the final in Melbourne after being two sets down against Daniil Medvedev of Russia. For the first time in 13 years, he was the Australian Open champion.
At the French Open, he received injections to numb the pain in his foot before every match. Nevertheless, he rolled to his 14th title, but left on crutches.
He entered Wimbledon, his first official match on grass in three years, without playing a warm-up tournament. He won all five matches he played but had to withdraw before the semifinals because of the torn abdominal.
He played just one hardcourt match before the U.S. Open and lost to Tiafoe in four sets in the fourth round. Tiafoe was the first American-born player to beat Nadal at a Grand Slam since Nadal was a teenager.
In late September, Nadal partnered with Roger Federer in the Swiss champion’s final competitive match. Nadal tried to get healthy for two late-season indoor tournaments, neither of which went well.
Nadal arrived in Australia in December to play for Spain in the inaugural United Cup, a rare competition with both men and women. He lost both of his matches, extending one of the roughest stretches of his career.
Nadal will likely take a break to get healthy again, then turn his focus to the spring clay-court season and the French Open, a tournament he has won 14 times and has been the most special for him. All that success will mean nothing, though, if Nadal can’t maintain his health, something that only gets harder as athletes age.
Ultimately, that may be the one opponent that proves too tough, even for Nadal.
The quarterback sneak is football’s simplest play. So simple, in fact, that N.F.L. coaches have long underestimated its value.
The sneak is currently enjoying a surge in popularity. N.F.L. teams sent their quarterbacks plunging into the heart of the line of scrimmage in short-yardage situations 291 times during the regular season. That figure is up from 243 sneaks in 2021, 170 in 2020 and 133 in 2019. Teams attempted just and 73 sneaks in 2016, the first year that Sports Info Solutions began tracking the plays separately.
Even accounting for the expansion from 16 to 17 regular season games in 2021, that’s a 275 percent increase in the use of the tactic over the past seven years. Fourth-down conversion attempts were much rarer before 2016, and the quarterback sneak is most popular on fourth-and-inches, so it’s probable that 2022 saw a record number of sneaks.
Coaches are calling the play more because it works: Quarterback sneaks resulted in first downs or touchdowns on 82.8 percent of attempts in 2022 and have succeeded at a 78.7 rate since 2016. Standard rushing plays on fourth-and-1 succeeded just 62.5 percent of the time in 2022, passing plays just 57.5 percent of the time.
The sneak is so effective in short-yardage situations that it prompts an obvious question: Why do coaches call anything else?
Defenders are at a severe disadvantage on sneaks. Before he was an ESPN analyst, Anthony “Booger” McFarland was an N.F.L. nose tackle, the defender who lines up directly across from the center and quarterback. His assignment when expecting a sneak was to dive at his opponents’ legs and “make a pile” of bodies that the quarterback needed to go over, around or through.
But offensive linemen knew when the ball would be snapped and could therefore move first, an alert quarterback could shuffle left or right to avoid trouble and success was usually less than 36 inches away.
“The quarterback can almost trip and fall forward to get the first down,” McFarland said.
The already-effective quarterback sneak changed strategically this year, thanks mostly to the Philadelphia Eagles, who executed 33 sneaks for 29 first downs or touchdowns, both figures the highest on record. Taking advantage of a long-ignored 2006 rule change that allows players to push their teammates forward, the Eagles typically surround Jalen Hurts in short-yardage situations with three compatriots tasked with shoving their quarterback through the pile like a battering ram.
The Eagles’ sneak looks more like a playground rumble than a modern N.F.L. play, but it represents an evolution in how offensive coaches approach the tactic.
“Before, teams wanted to make it look like every other play,” said Mitchell Schwartz, a former All-Pro offensive lineman. “You didn’t want to tip your hand.”
In other words, the sneak was supposed to be sneaky, preventing the defense from cramming as many defenders as possible in front of the quarterback’s face before the snap.
Now, teams like the Eagles practically announce over the stadium loudspeakers that they are planning a sneak and dare the opponent to stop it. The play still works, in part because defensive make-a-pile strategies may be an advantage for theoffense.
“If defenders go low, the offensive line can go over the top, and it becomes like a springboard for the quarterback to get shoved over the pile,” Schwartz said.
The sneak was on full display during wild-card weekend. Daniel Jones picked up two key first downs to extend fourth-quarter drives in the Giants’ 31-24 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Brock Purdy sneaked for a touchdown on a go-ahead drive in the San Francisco 49ers’ 41-23 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
On the downside, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley fumbled while leaping into the pile on a goal-line sneak, and Cincinnati Bengals defender Sam Hubbard returned it 98 yards for what became the game-winning touchdown in a 24-17 final. The Ravens have a knack for such catastrophes, however, and Coach John Harbaugh said after the game that the play was designed as an Eagles-style push but was executed improperly.
Defenses have yet to come up with an effective countermeasure against the sneak, yet some coaches remain reluctant to use the play. Routine handoffs remain more than twice as common as quarterback sneaks (694 attempts to 291 in 2022) when the offense needs only one yard, despite the large disparity in success rate. That’s perhaps a justifiable decision with a bruiser like Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry in the backfield or if “one yard” is closer to four feet than two, but it’s still not the optimal choice in most circumstances.
Some coaches may be understandably wary of injury on a play that turns the quarterback into an applied-physics experiment. Patrick Mahomes injured his knee on a sneak in 2019 and has not run one since. Kansas City sometimes compensates by slipping a burly tight end behind the center to dive into the pile instead of Mahomes.
Other teams insert backup quarterbacks like Jacoby Brissett (Cleveland Browns) or gadget-specialist Taysom Hill (New Orleans Saints) to run the sneak. Again, the element of surprise does not seem to matter much.
Injury concerns alone cannot explain all the alternatives that coaches deploy when they need to gain only one yard. For example, quarterbacks often align in shotgun formation in short-yardage situations, placing them several yards away from their goal. Designed shotgun running plays succeeded just 65.1 percent of the time in short-yardage situations in 2022, yet 235 of them were attempted.
Then there are empty-backfield passes and jet-sweep handoffs to tiny receivers running parallel to the line of scrimmage. From a statistical standpoint, none of these wrinkles are as effective as the simple snap-and-dive sneak. Yet play callers still follow their muses.
The Eagles eschew such over-engineering, so the Giants defense can count on Hurts’s lining up under center surrounded by his closest friends when the Eagles face fourth-and-short in their divisional-round playoff matchup on Saturday. That does not mean, however, that the Giants should not brace for a burst of creativity.
“The Eagles have been showing us this all year long,” McFarland said. “At some time in the playoffs, they’re going to do that, then have a play-action pass off it.
And when that happens?
“It’ll be a wide-open touchdown,” McFarland said. “I guarantee it.”
TAMPA, Fla. — As Dak Prescott jogged off the Raymond James Stadium field Monday, there was no great exuberant cheer by the quarterback. He simply waved to the Dallas Cowboys fans crowding the tunnel to the locker room and casually tossed his hat into the stands.
Prescott was acting like what he just accomplished in the Cowboys’ 31-14 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was no big deal.
Except it was a big deal.
Eight days earlier against the Washington Commanders, Prescott had what might have been the worst game of his career. He completed just 14 of 37 passes for 128 yards in a 26-6 loss. He was intercepted for the seventh straight game and had a pick-six for the third time in four games.
On Monday, Prescott had a game for the ages.
He threw for 305 yards, completing 25 of 33 passes with four touchdown passes and, perhaps more importantly, he was not intercepted. He also ran for a touchdown.
“I got away from the way I play this game,” Prescott said of his Week 18 performance. “I got greedy, tried to just force some throws, tried to take the big ones — and that’s not who I’ve been throughout my career; taking what they give me, waiting on the big shot. I think it was uncharacteristic. … But I wiped that clean and I knew what this game meant. I knew how important it was for us.”
How good was he against the Buccaneers?
“I mean, as good as I’ve seen,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “That’s for sure.”
How good was Prescott? He joined Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach as the only Cowboys quarterbacks with four touchdown passes in a playoff game. Like Prescott, Aikman’s also came without an interception in his Super Bowl XXVII performance against the Buffalo Bills. Staubach’s came in the 1975 NFC Championship Game against the Los Angeles Rams.
“I can doubt with the best of them, and Dak didn’t in terms of his play when it counted. And we ought to all build from a really — I would say this without exaggeration: that was a great performance,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “That’s how you lift at that position. That’s how you help create a championship team right there. Because it was all against him … and had a great player on the other side of the ball at his position [Tom Brady] and came out there and played at that particular level.”
Prescott outplayed Brady, who threw for 351 yards but needed 66 pass attempts and 35 completions to get there. Brady had two touchdown passes but was intercepted in the second quarter.
Coming off that interception, Prescott directed the Cowboys on a 15-play, 80-yard touchdown drive. He completed all five of his passes to a different player: RB Ezekiel Elliott (9 yards), WR Michael Gallup (4 yards), RB Tony Pollard (5 yards), WR T.Y. Hilton (14 yards), TE Jake Ferguson (34 yards).
He ended the drive with a 1-yard bootleg that upped the Cowboys’ lead to 12-0.
“He was unreal,” All-Pro right guard Zack Martin said. “I mean like every time we gave him enough time, he was making plays … No surprise. Obviously, being the quarterback here, he gets talked about more than anyone, but the guy just keeps coming back, you know?”
Prescott set a Cowboys postseason record with 11 straight completions after missing on his first three passes of the game. He is the fifth player with four touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown in NFL postseason history and the first since Matt Ryan in the 2016 NFC Championship Game. By the way, McCarthy saw Rodgers do the same in the 2009 wild-card round.
Prescott became the second player in NFL postseason history with four touchdown passes and a rushing score while completing 75% of his passes in a game, joining Peyton Manning (2004 wild-card round against the Denver Broncos).
His 96.5 Total QBR was the third highest by a starting quarterback in a wild-card game since 2006.
“Dak showed that he’s a warrior,” wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said. “He’s a baller, and he came out slinging it. I feel like it was a statement game for him.”
DETROIT — After experiencing the first winning season in the Motor City since 2017, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has informed the team that he’ll return for the 2023 season, a league source confirmed to ESPN’s David Newton on Tuesday night.
Johnson had received serious interest for multiple head-coaching vacancies after the Lions’ offense ranked fifth in the league in points scored (26.6 per game) during his first full season as its coordinator.
He had interviewed for the top jobs with the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts, both teams previously announced, and he was scheduled to meet with the Carolina Panthers on Wednesday in Charlotte.
Johnson, 36, opted to stay in Detroit because he believes the Lions are on the cusp of building something special, and he didn’t want to leave one year into the job, the source told Newton.
Ahead of the season finale, Johnson refused to comment on how he would approach any head-coaching opportunities in the offseason.
“We’re looking to beat the Packers,” Johnson said during a Jan. 5 practice. “Yeah. Not talking about that.”
Lions coach Dan Campbell often has lauded Johnson for his creative playcalling ability and overall rapport with the team. Campbell said he views him as a potential head coach in the league but that he didn’t want to lose him from his staff, either.
“He would be worthy of that. I think a ton of Ben,” Campbell said earlier this month. “I’ve said it before: I just think he’s extremely bright. He’s creative, he’s organized, he’s a great communicator. I mean he’s got it, and I would do anything I can to help him. That’s the bottom line. Of course, I don’t want to lose him, but I’m not going to hold him back, either. I would help him any way I can help him.”
Prior to being named Detroit’s offensive coordinator, Johnson spent three seasons in the Lions organization as the tight ends coach and offensive quality control coach.
Johnson is the second Carolina candidate to cancel an interview. The other was Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo, who decided to remain with New England.
The Panthers also decided not to move forward with San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans because of logistics, a source told Newton.
The Panthers already have interviewed former Lions coach Jim Caldwell, former Colts coach Frank Reich, interim Panthers coach Steve Wilks and Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen. The Panthers are scheduled to meet with former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton on Friday in New York City.
NFL Network was the first to report the news that Johnson is returning to the Lions.
Rosi Mittermaier, a West German Alpine skier who won two gold medals and one silver at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and went on to become a hugely popular figure back home, died Jan. 4 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. She was 72.
Her family said that she died after a severe illness, the German news agency DPA reported.
Mittermaier nearly achieved the unprecedented feat of winning three women’s Alpine skiing events at a single Olympics. She won the slalom and the downhill, but Kathy Kreiner, an 18-year-old Canadian, bested her by 0.12 seconds in the giant slalom.
Americans could take pride in Dorothy Hamill’s figure-skating gold medal that year, but Mittermaier emerged as the star of the Games.
“Now, suddenly, she was famous,” Sports Illustrated wrote. “Flowers were strewn across the bed in her hotel room. Soldiers guarded the stairway. From time to time she would step out onto the balcony and favor the crowds with a dimpled smile and friendly wave.”
The Associated Press said that she “wore her omnipresent smile when she took off her goggles.”
Mittermaier also clinched the Alpine Ski World Cup later that season as she earned the nickname Gold-Rosi.
“Rosi Mittermaier was a very charming and credible ambassador of sport, who always approached people openly and in a humble way,” Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, said in a statement a day after her death. “She inspired all of us with her warmth and her smile. For all these reasons, and not only because of her two Olympic gold medals, she will always be remembered as Gold-Rosi by all of us.”
Her triumphs were hardly expected. Though she had won 16 German national ski titles, Mittermaier had never captured a major downhill race in her 10 years of World Cup competition and had not earned a medal at the two previous Winter Olympics.
But she downplayed the importance of Olympic medals. She believed they were far less important than winning a World Cup title after a full season, viewing that as a symbol of excellence and consistency over a period of several months. She also said that the key to success in skiing was in having fun with it.
“One should not take ski racing too seriously,” she said. “I have had some very bad results in my career from doing just that.”
Mittermaier retired from international Alpine skiing in May 1976 at age 25. She would remain a popular figure. She recalled in a 2020 interview with the DPA that her letter carrier struggled to deliver 27,000 pieces of fan mail to her parents’ home one month.
She was named West Germany’s Sportswoman of the Year in 1976, received the country’s Order of Merit in 2005 and was inducted into the German Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
Rosa Anna Katharina Mittermaier was born in Munich on Aug. 5, 1950. A twin sister died at birth. When she was young, her parents, Rosa and Heinrich Mittermaier, moved the family to the village of Reit im Winkl in Bavaria. Her father, a certified ski instructor, became her first trainer.
After her skiing career, Mittermaier joined International Management Group, a well-known sports and entertainment agency run by Mark McCormack, joining the celebrated athletes Jean-Claude Killy, Jackie Stewart and Bjorn Borg. In her three years with the agency, Mittermaier designed winter sports clothing and made international appearances for ski products.
She was a commentator for major sports events on German television and created a foundation to aid children with rheumatism.
Her husband, Christian Neureuther, won six World Cup slalom races. Their son, Felix Neureuther, was also a World Cup ski racer, and their daughter, Ameli, worked as a fashion designer. Mittermaier’s sisters Evi and Heidi were Alpine skiers. (Information on survivors was not immediately available.)
Mittermaier didn’t express disappointment at failing to sweep the Alpine skiing events.
“It would be very unfitting if I was not satisfied with two gold medals and a silver,” she told The A.P.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Titans are hiring Ran Carthon, the San Francisco 49ers director of player personnel, as their new general manager, sources told ESPN’s Dianna Russini and Jeff Darlington on Tuesday.
Carthon interviewed for the job on Friday with a panel of Titans executives, including controlling owner Amy Adams-Strunk. He brings 15 years of experience to the Titans.
During his tenure in San Francisco, Carthon served as the director of pro personnel for five seasons with the 49ers before being elevated to director of player personnel two seasons ago. The 49ers went to the Super Bowl and played in two NFC Championship Games over that span.
Carthon, 41, joined the 49ers after spending five seasons (2012 to 2016) as the director of pro personnel with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams. Carthon also spent four seasons (2008 to 2011) as a pro scout with the Atlanta Falcons. He broke into the league as an undrafted rookie with the Indianapolis Colts in 2004 and played with the club through the 2006 campaign.
The 49ers will receive compensatory third-round selections in the next two drafts as part of Rooney Rule incentives for teams to develop minority head coach and GM candidates.
The Titans fired general manager Jon Robinson in November citing disappointment with the general direction of the roster as a reason, Carthon will be tasked with turning things around for a Titans team that finished the season on a seven-game losing streak, leading to a 7-10 record.
Carthon is the son of two-time Super Bowl champ and former New York Giants running back Maurice Carthon, who also spent time as an NFL offensive coordinator.
Carthon’s hiring comes a day after Titans director of player personnel Monti Ossenfort was hired as the Arizona Cardinals‘ new general manager. Ossenfort also interviewed for the Titans’ GM job.
Jaden Rashada was expected to arrive in Gainesville following the Under Armour All-America Game but unlike Florida’s other early enrollees, that never happened.
A couple weeks later and the four-star quarterback from Pittsburg, Calif., has now asked out of his letter of intent from the Gators, according to two reports, and it’s expected there won’t be a holdup in acquiescing to that demand.
This could all revolve around significant wrangling over an altered NIL deal, which shines a light on the murky world of name, image and likeness and how it’s being instituted in the recruiting process with basically no guidelines from the NCAA or the federal government.
When Rashada sat down with Rivals.com for an extensive talk at the Under Armour Game, the four-star quarterback gave no indication of problems with the Gators, from himself or his legal representation, and acted like he was preparing to be at Florida within days.
Talking about the recruiting process, which saw him flip from Miami to Florida, Rashada had pointed words about his experience and gave advice for other quarterbacks who are going through it as well.
That flip as the Hurricanes lost out on a four-star QB and the decision of five-star Cormani McClain to commit to Miami over the Gators, although he has not yet signed and is now serious about Colorado as well, could have sparked a bidding war between dueling collectives.
“It’s like a rollercoaster but it’s definitely a blessing because it’s something you get once in your life,” Rashada said of the recruiting process. “To all the recruits out there, it will be crazy at first but once you find home and you get ready to enroll things will get back to normal.
“You have to go with your heart. You have to break down the things you want out of your college career. I’ll tell you right now, no school is going to have everything you’re looking for.”
When asked specifically about Florida, the Northern California quarterback was complimentary of the coaching staff and explained why it was a big reason he chose the Gators over the Hurricanes and others.
“I’ll start with the coaches, just how real they were with me,” Rashada said. “Never lied to me, never was mad at me, they just kept a level plane. On top of that was how detailed they were with things and specifically how detailed they were recruiting me. They had a game plan for me and that’s pretty important if the school has something planned for you.”
Instead, that plan has been scrapped as Rashada has asked out of his letter of intent because of what’s understood as a dispute over NIL dollars.
The Rashada situation is in the spotlight now but it’s hardly the first one to be bandied about when it comes to payments to players, other collectives getting involved to flip recruits and vying for players with contractual agreements and the nebulous world of what used to be completely illegal by NCAA standards now not only legal but publicized by people in the industry.
As for Florida’s quarterback situation in the 2023 class, it has been a rocky road. Rashada’s drama aside, the Gators also parted ways with three-star quarterback Marcus Stokes after a video was released of him using a racial slur while singing lyrics from a rap song.
The Gators have received a commitment in the transfer portal from former Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz, who’s ranked as the No. 82 prospect in the Rivals portal rankings. With Rashada expected to be out, it is more than possible that Florida targets another quarterback in this class and it’s not incredible to think he would come from the portal as well.
First things first, Rodgers must decide whether he wants to play a 19th NFL season. He said Tuesday that he hasn’t reached that decision yet, a little more than a week after the Packers ended their season with an 8-9 record.
But if his plans don’t intersect with what the Packers want, then he can’t say for certain that he would never play for another team. In an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” that lasted more than an hour, Rodgers said he still thinks he can play at a high level, whether it’s for the Packers or another team.
“I think I can win MVP again in the right situation,” Rodgers said. “Right situation, is that Green Bay or is that somewhere else? I’m not sure. But I don’t think you should shut down any opportunity. Like I said during the season, that’s got to be both sides actually wanting to work together moving forward, and I think there’s more conversations to be had.”
Publicly, Packers coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst have expressed an interest in having Rodgers back. Last week, Gutekunst reiterated that the three-year, $150 million contract they gave to Rodgers last March was a commitment that “wasn’t certainly for this year.”
Rodgers took several days last week to meet with Gutekunst, LaFleur and other Packers staff members before he left Green Bay and returned to California for the offseason. While Rodgers said he “had all the conversations I wanted to have,” he did not indicate whether the Packers told him whether they planned to reload or rebuild.
“I think no player wants to be part of any type of rebuild; I said that years ago,” Rodgers said. “Reloads are a lot of fun because you feel like you’re close, you’re only a couple guys away. This game is about relationships, it’s about the players you play with and count on even if they don’t maybe show up huge in the stat book.”
“There’s a lot of interesting names that we’ll see if there’s desire to re-sign certain guys that are glue guys in the locker room, [and that] will be an interesting conversation to be had,” Rodgers said. “Take all that away, I still need to mentally get to a point where I feel 100 percent locked in and ready to play a 19th season. And if I do, then we’ll rock and roll and figure that out. If I don’t, then we’ll go into the jungles for a while.”
“I still need to mentally get to a point where I feel 100% locked in and ready to play a 19th season. And if I do, then we’ll rock and roll and figure that out. If I don’t, then we’ll go into the jungles for a while.”
Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers, 39, is coming off one of his worst seasons. He had almost as many interceptions (12) as he did in the previous three seasons combined (13). After back-to-back MVP seasons, Rodgers threw for the fewest yards (3,695) in any season in which he played at least 15 games. He did not have a single 300-yard passing game. Since taking over as a starter, he had never before had a season with fewer than three 300-plus yard games. He also dealt with a broken thumb and injuries to his ribs and a knee during the season.
The Packers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They lost 20-16 to the Detroit Lions in the regular-season finale when a win would’ve gotten Green Bay into the postseason. Had the Packers been eliminated before the finale, they might have considered shutting down Rodgers to give third-year backup Jordan Love an extended look.
“If they want to go younger and think Jordan’s ready to go, then that might be the way they want to go,” Rodgers said. “And if that’s the case and I still want to play, then there’s only one option, right? And that’s to play somewhere else. If it’s not and they are like, ‘No, no, no, we still want you to play,’ and this and that, then it’d have to be the right situation with the roster that looks like we can win it all because there’s no point in coming back if you don’t think you can win it all.”
Rodgers gave no timeline for a decision on whether he will play in 2023. He said that he planned to make another appearance on McAfee’s show next Tuesday but that he won’t have any update on his status for the upcoming season then.
“They’re not pressing for any type of specific answer, and I’m not mentally or emotionally at that point to give one,” Rodgers said. “If I’m asked about it, I’ll respond in honesty. But this is not going to be something where I’m going to respond to a bunch of inquiries about, ‘What are you thinking this week?’ Or ‘What are you thinking next week?’ It’s get away from it mentally and emotionally, and then physically as your body starts to come back after a few weeks of TLC, then I think you’re in a better frame of mind to contemplate your future.”
