Author: rb809rb

After nine seasons in Buffalo, one of the longest head coaching tenures in the league ended when the Bills announced the firing of Sean McDermott. The Bills had a total meltdown in terms of ball security against Denver and McDermott was the first piece of the failure to hit the chopping block. With general manager Brandon Beane, somehow, being promoted to president of football operations, the Bills will enter a new, pressure-cooked era where the new head coach will be expected to win immediately as Beane gets to select his own head coach with his newly wielded power.

McDermott’s firing was the 10th head coach change this cycle and now with eight slots open it’s fair to wonder: How difficult is it going to be to improve upon McDermott?

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[Get more Bills news: Buffalo team feed]

The opportunity to coach Josh Allen will thrust the Bills up the board in terms of desirable landing spots for head coaching talent, but even with Allen under center, it will be difficult to replicate McDermott’s six straight seasons of making it to the divisional round and a 98-50 overall regular-season record, including only one losing season dating back to his second season in Buffalo, 2018, when Allen was a rookie. Even with a franchise quarterback, it’s hard to be a team that wins and is a threat to contend every year. Being unable to break through to the Super Bowl ultimately did McDermott in, but it is interesting to think about where this team would be if the Bills didn’t have a multitude of turnovers that were the direct fault of chaotic and sloppy play by Allen and the Bills’ players.

Firing McDermott after that particular performance was odd, but it illustrates how palpable the tension in Buffalo is right now. In a year when Patrick Mahomes, their postseason boogeyman, wasn’t able to suit up for the playoffs, not even making it to the AFC championship is a tough pill to swallow. Especially considering the Bills absolutely could have won that game if it wasn’t for their five total turnovers. The expectation here is to be in Super Bowl contention every single year — an expectation that McDermott had a large role in crafting.

The Bills would have to make a catastrophically unqualified hire to bottom out, especially considering the state of the Dolphins and Jets in the basement of the AFC East, but assuming they’ll plop back into being a perennial divisional round team that’s come a drive or two away from the Super Bowl multiple times is easier said than done.

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Having Allen on the roster is a huge boost to their chances, but the AFC is loaded right now with quarterback talent and Drake Maye has emerged as a superstar talent in Buffalo’s division. Doing a halfway shakeup by firing McDermott and keeping Beane is a risk, but perhaps Beane’s recent promotion will assuage concerns candidates have about this being a situation where they’ll be insta-fired if Year 1 doesn’t go as planned.

Beane ending up being rewarded for how this season ended while McDermott was fired is confusing to parse, but it follows the trend of other teams this offseason. Of the nine teams that fired their head coach, only two of them (Miami and Atlanta) also fired their general managers. Perhaps Beane’s upgraded job situation will allow the Bills to get over the hump, but he has as much blame as anyone to hold for the Bills’ underwhelming talent acquisition over the past few years.

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Like with John Harbaugh in Baltimore and Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, next season will be a fun case study to try and acquiesce just how much influence McDermott had over the Bills’ success over the last eight years and how much of it was a result of having an elite quarterback during a down time in the AFC East. Regardless, one thing is 100% true about this opening: you better win.

The Buffalo Bills didn’t waste any time setting social media ablaze on Monday morning by announcing the dismissal of head coach Sean McDermott after nine seasons.

For the first time in a long time, there was no Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson to worry about in the postseason. Even with those veteran quarterbacks out of the mix, McDermott and Josh Allen still failed to get the job done, being eliminated in the divisional round on Saturday by Denver, 33-30 in overtime.

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Since the news broke of McDermott’s firing, there have been plenty of opinions circulating on social media. Everyone from former players and coaches to media personalities and even current players have hit social media to voice their views on Monday’s news.

Keep in mind that the Bills have retained general manager Brandon Beane. Not only is Beane staying with the team, but he’s been promoted with the added responsibilities of president of football operations. Beane, for some, gets just as much blame as McDermott or Allen for the team’s underachieving, particularly when it comes to roster construction.

Former Bills running back LeSean “Shady” McCoy apparently feels that way, and did not hold back in his criticism.

Legendary defensive mind and former Bills head coach Wade Phillips chimed in on X as well. Phillips had a lengthy run with Buffalo from 1995 through the end of the 2000 campaign, as both defensive coordinator and head coach.

Bills veteran defensive tackle Jordan Phillips also jumped on board and was not shy about what he thought about the move, using some NSFW language (since Monday is a holiday, maybe not many people are indeed at work).

Safety Damar Hamlin posted broken heart emoji in support of his now former coach.

Veteran cornerback Taron Johnson also posted his displeasure with the front office’s decision to move on from coach McDermott.

Former Bills players Shaq Lawson and Levi Wallace joined in the fun on social media as well, along with defensive tackle DaQuan Jones.

Tackle Dion Dawkins posted a heart-warming message in support of McDermott that highlights his now former coach’s leadership.

With McDermott out, the Bills’ job now becomes the top destination for coaching candidates. Whoever takes over this team will inherit an MVP quarterback in his prime, who is consistently available despite the criticism of not being able to get over the hump. The 2024 NFL MVP has started 16-plus games with 10-plus wins in each of his seven seasons as a starter.

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The Bills’ search for their next head coach began after John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski — two top coaching candidates in this cycle — had already been hired by the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons, respectively.

The starting lineups for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game were announced Monday. Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo were the top vote-getters from fans.

Dončić and Antetokounmpo also headlined the first and second fan voting returns the league released.

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Fans are responsible for 50% of the vote that selects each conference’s five starters. NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) account for the other slices of the vote.

This year’s All-Star Game will be played in Inglewood, California, at the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome on Feb. 15. For the first time in the exhibition’s soon-to-be-75-year history, there are no positional requirements for lineups.

Notably absent from the list of NBA All-Star starters this year is LeBron James, whose 21-year streak as an All-Star starter has officially come to an end.

With that in mind, here are the starting fives for the Eastern and Western Conference:

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Eastern Conference

• Giannis Antetokounmpo, F, Milwaukee Bucks

• Jalen Brunson, G, New York Knicks

• Cade Cunningham, G, Detroit Pistons

• Tyrese Maxey, G, Philadelphia 76ers

• Jaylen Brown, F, Boston Celtics

Western Conference

• Nikola Jokić, C, Denver Nuggets

• Luka Dončić, F, Los Angeles Lakers

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, G, Oklahoma City Thunder

• Stephen Curry, G, Golden State Warriors

• Victor Wembanyama, F, San Antonio Spurs

Here’s how the voting was split across players, fans and media:

Wembanyama and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards tied for the final West starting slot with a 5.75 weighted score. Wembanyama won the tiebreaker because he had 1,965,462 fan votes to Edwards’ 1,960,957.

So what’s next?

The conferences’ reserves will be selected by NBA head coaches on Feb. 1. Each conference will have seven reserves.

Previously, those seven reserves were made up of two backcourt players and three frontcourt players, plus two wild cards. Now they, too, will be picked without regard to position.

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What you need to know about the All-Star Game’s new format

This year’s All-Star Game will feature three teams: Two will consist of players from the United States, and a third will be made up of players from the rest of the world.

The process for assigning players to the two U.S. teams will be determined at a later date, according to the league.

Ideally, of the 24 total All-Star roster spots, voting will fill 16 of them with U.S. players and eight of them with international players, who, if necessary, can be American players with ties to other countries.

But if those numbers aren’t reached organically, NBA commissioner Adam Silver will pick additional All-Stars so that each group hits its mark. In that scenario, at least one team would end up with more than eight players.

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For instance, if there’s a 15-9 split among U.S. and international All-Stars, one extra U.S. player would get the commissioner’s nod, meaning that there’d be 25 total All-Stars and the international team would have nine players instead of eight.

In terms of the game itself, there will still technically be four 12-minute quarters, although each will be its own game, as each of the three teams will play twice during round-robin action. The fourth “quarter” will pit the two teams with the best records — point differential will be the post-round-robin tiebreaker if all three teams have 1-1 records — to decide a champion.

LeBron James’ All-Star starter streak has ended.

For the first time in 22 years, James did not receive enough votes to earn a starting spot on an All-Star team. James finished in eighth in the voting on Monday with just more than 1.8 million votes, one spot ahead of Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant and one spot behind Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards. Luka Dončić led the voting in the Western Conference with just more than 3.4 million votes.

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As one of the most polarizing figures in sports for over two decades, James has been the most recognizable player in the NBA during that time, and his presence in a starting lineup for every All-Star team has contributed to that reputation.

Though James finished outside the top five in Western Conference All-Star voting, he could still be named as a reserve. James has long been one of the NBA’s most popular players by many measures. In his record 23rd season as a pro, James remains a difference-maker for the Lakers, although not quite in the way many remember from his prime years.

He has averaged 22.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game so far in the 2025-26 NBA season after missing the first 14 games of the year managing sciatica.

James held a historic streak of double-digit scoring games entering the season, which dated back to 2007 — his age-22 season. That came to an end in early December after 1,297 consecutive games with 10 or more points.

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In his prime, James carried teams to the NBA Finals through sheer will and overall skill. Although those days are behind him, LeBron could always count on his popularity during All-Star voting. No matter how much criticism James received on social media, All-Star voting consistently showed that, despite the chatter and hate, fans still loved King James.

That long-standing trend, which lasted over two decades, has come to an end. Once regarded as one of the most durable players in league history, injuries have started to take a toll on James, causing him to miss more games. This season, James has appeared in 24 of the Lakers’ 41 games so far. At 41 years old, it seems that Father Time may have finally caught up to James and is pulling ahead in this race.

The Lakers are currently sitting in sixth place in the Western Conference (25-16) with a slim half-game lead over seventh-place Phoenix.

The No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers‘ undefeated season continues all the way to the most important game in college football, the College Football Playoff National Championship game. The Hoosiers have never won a championship in the history of the team; if they defeat the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes it will be a momentous first. The Hurricanes have won five national championship, in 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 2001. The game will take place at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida this Monday night. You can see what the latest predictions for the game are here.

The College Football Playoff Championship game between Indiana and Miami airs on ESPN and will stream on ESPN Unlimited starting at 7:30 p.m. ET. Here’s how to watch when it airs on Monday, Jan. 19.

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How to watch Indiana vs. Miami in the CFP Championship game:

Date: Monday, Jan. 19

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET

TV Channel: ESPN

Streaming: ESPN Unlimited, DirecTV, Fubo and more

When is the Indiana vs. Miami championship game?

You can watch coverage of this week’s Indiana vs. Miami CFP National Championship game starting at 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Jan. 19.

Where to watch the Indiana vs. Miami game without cable

You can tune in to the CFP National Championship game on ESPN. ESPN is available on streaming platforms, including DirecTV and Sling, but for the most comprehensive college football coverage, you can also watch this game and hundreds more on the ESPN app with an ESPN Unlimited subscription.

College Football Playoff National Championship game schedule:

All time Eastern

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Monday, Jan. 19
7:30 p.m. | College Football Playoff National Championship Game (Miami, Fla.) | Indiana vs. Miami | ESPN

The CFP Championship game may be one of the hottest football games of the week, and if you want to catch the action in person instead of just tuning in on TV, there are still tons of great seats available — though they’re pricey, starting around $2,900.

Find tickets with Gametime

More ways to watch the CFP Championship Game:

February 22, 2026

The divisional round is over, and now just three NFL games remain before a new Super Bowl champion is crowned. Over in the NFC, the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks will battle it out. In the AFC, the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots got the call.

As the season speeds to a close, the NFL starts to rely more on its best officiating teams. That will be no different during both the AFC and NFC championship games, as the league has assigned two of its most dependable referees to oversee the action.

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Patriots at Broncos: 3 p.m. ET, Sunday

Referee: Alex Kemp

Kemp initially joined the NFL as a field judge in 2014, but was eventually promoted to referee for the 2018 NFL season. He’s worked eight postseason assignments before, though Sunday marks the first time in his career Kemp will serve as a referee during the conference championship games.

Kemp’s crew tends to call roughly the same amount of penalties per game compared to the average crew. More of those, however, go against the home team. Home teams also won a lower percentage of games with Kemp’s crew compared to the league average, though it wasn’t a wide amount.

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While Kemp’s team tends to call roughly the same amount of penalties as other crews, he’s averaging 10 more penalty yards per game.

Rams at Seahawks: 6:30 p.m. ET, Sunday

Referee: Clay Martin

Like Kemp, Martin also became a referee in 2018. He spent his first three seasons in the league as an umpire. This marks the first-ever conference championship game in which Martin will serve as a referee. He’s previously held that role during both the wild-card round and divisional round of the playoffs. Martin previously served as an official at the college level before joining the NFL, per Football Zebras.

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Martin’s crew tends to call slightly fewer penalties on the home team. This season, home teams won at a 62.5 percent clip in games officiated by Martin’s team. That’s up compared to the average, which was 53.5 percent in 2025. That could bode well for the Seahawks.

Subscribe to The Kevin O’Connor Show

Kevin O’Connor is joined by Jason Timpf to check in with unhappy fan bases across the NBA. They discuss whether the criticism of Karl Anthony-Towns is fair and offer solutions to the problems in New York. Then, they break down the root of Atlanta’s issues since the Trae Young trade. Plus, what’s going on in Los Angeles and can it even be fixed?

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Next, KOC shares why Collin Murray-Boyles could be the next Draymond Green and why the Celtics-Pistons matchup is the game of the week. Who should the Pistons target before the trade deadline? KOC gives his picks! Plus, is Ja Morant’s stock rising? Do the Timberwolves need to make a trade to find success this season?

Later, Justin Boone joins to discuss why the Buffalo Bills parted ways with Sean McDermott, recap the wild NFL divisional games and preview the upcoming championship weekend.

(0:15) Jason Timpf joins

(1:23) Unhappy fan bases: New York Knicks

(9:18) Unhappy fan bases: Atlanta Hawks

(15:49) Unhappy fan bases: Los Angeles Lakers

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(25:16)  Collin Murray-Boyles = Draymond Green

(29:13) Celtics vs. Pistons preview

(41:56) Is Ja Morant’s stock rising back up?

(49:19) Do Timberwolves need to make a trade?

(1:06:23) All-Star starters announced

(1:10:26) NFL 6 Points! with Justin Boone

🖥️ Watch this full episode on the Yahoo Sports NBA YouTube channel

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family athttps://apple.co/3zEuTQj or atyahoosports.tv

The Miami Dolphins have agreed to hire former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley as their new head coach. The Dolphins announced the decision Monday night, confirming multiple reports.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Hafley will sign a five-year contract with the Dolphins. Further terms of the contract were not immediately reported.

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Hafley is Miami’s third head coach since 2021, and the reported move reunites him with the Packers’ former vice president of player personnel, Jon-Eric Sullivan, whom the Dolphins hired as general manager earlier this month.

The Dolphins fired head coach Mike McDaniel on Jan. 8 as the Dolphins’ late surge was not enough to keep McDaniel for another season. After starting this past season 1-6, the Dolphins won six of their last nine games this to finish 7-10.

Despite the club’s improvement, team owner Stephen Ross decided it was time for a change. Before being fired, McDaniel was the first Miami head coach to last four full seasons since Ross became majority owner in 2009. The team parted ways with general manager Chris Grier last October.

Hafley has served as the Packers’ defensive coordinator for the past two seasons. Before coaching with the Packers, he was the head coach at Boston College. Hafley posted a 22–26 overall record, a 12–22 ACC record, and led the Eagles to two bowl games.

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Hafley also served as Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator in 2019. He spent most of his early career as a defensive backs coach, including stints with the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rutgers, the University of Pittsburgh and the University at Albany.

[Get more Dolphins news: Miami team feed]

Sullivan’s and Hafley’s first order of business could be deciding what the future looks like for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Despite being healthy for most of the season, Tagovailoa struggled last season. His 15 interceptions were the second most in the NFL, behind only the Las Vegas Raiders’ Geno Smith. Tagovailoa was also benched for seventh-round rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers in Week 16. Ewers went 1-2 as a starter, throwing for 622 yards, 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

After the season, Tagovailoa said it would be great to get a fresh start, but the Dolphins will have a difficult time moving on from him. Tagovailoa has a $56 million salary cap hit in 2026, and on March 15, $3 million more of his 2027 salary becomes guaranteed. Cutting him outright would result in $99 million in dead money.

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Despite their challenges, running back De’Von Achane and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle give Sullivan, Hafley, and whoever starts at quarterback for the Dolphins a lot to work with in 2026.

A New York Knicks skid reached what fans can only hope is its nadir Monday in a blowout loss to the hapless Dallas Mavericks at home.

This once again — and repeatedly — led to boos from the crowd at Madison Square Garden. And, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, it prompted team captain Jalen Brunson to call a players only meeting after the loss.

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Per the report, Brunson emphasized in the meeting that Knicks players need to look to themselves rather than coach Mike Brown and his staff to fix the problems that have resulted in a 2-9 slump in their last 11 games on the heels of winning the NBA Cup in mid-December.

The slump has led to frustration in the locker and among a vocal Knicks fan base.

On Monday, boos started to rain from the MSG stands in the second quarter after the Mavericks built a 49-31 lead. The Knicks previously heard boos from the home crowd in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s 106-99 loss to the Phoenix Suns.

The Knicks did not respond well to Monday’s boos. The Mavericks remained in control of the game en route to a 114-97 win to improve to 18-26, good for 12th place in the West.

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The slump for the Knicks has dropped them from a 23-9 start to 25-18. That’s good enough for third place in the East.

But the Knicks are now closer in the standings to the 11th-place Milwaukee Bucks (18-24) than they are to the first-place Detroit Pistons (31-10). And they ended Monday 1.5 games behind the much-loathed Boston Celtics (26-16).

Jalen Brunson: ‘I’d be booing us too’

Brunson and fellow All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns both heard the boos — obviously. And they understand.

Brunson finished Monday with 22 points and six assists. But he struggled from the field in a 9-of-22 shooting effort. He was asked about the boos at his locker room postgame.

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“I’d be booing us too,” Brunson said. “Straight up.”

Towns posted the best effort by a Knick with 22 points and 18 rebounds, but he committed a team-high five turnovers and five fouls. And he’s posted a few duds of his own during the slump, including a six-point, one-rebound effort in a 121-90 loss to the Pistons on Jan. 5.

Like Brunson, he understands the boos. And he put himself in the perspective of a fan paying to attend Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee.

“You come, you spend, what $140 bucks to represent your favorite player with a jersey?” Towns said. “And you come to MLK Day here at the Garden and tickets are twice, three times the price?

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“And to come here and spend your hard-earned money, money that you’ve saved up to bring your family to this game and for us to come here and obviously, not only [not] win — which is disappointing — but not really have a chance. I’d be disappointed, too.

“The fans who spend their hard-earned money, they give us so much love and motivation to go out there. They expect the results. And so do we. The fans are doing their part. And we’ve got to do our part.”

If there’s any solace for frustrated Knicks fans, it’s that those are the exact kind of responses you want to hear from star players who just got booed off their home court for another poor showing.

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But that won’t stop the boos. Only winning will.

Nate Tice & Matt Harmon react to the latest NFL coaching hire news before determining what went wrong for playoff losers and what each team can do to get further next season. The duo start with their thoughts on the latest coaching hires, including the Miami Dolphins hiring Jeff Hafley, the Tennessee Titans getting Robert Saleh, the Detroit Lions hiring OC Drew Petzing and the Kansas City Chiefs hiring OC Eric Bieniemy.

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Next, Nate & Matt deep dive on the four Divisional Round losers, determining what direction each team needs to take to retool and get even closer to a Super Bowl next season. The duo cover the post-Sean McDermott Buffalo Bills and their need to nail the next coaching hire, the Chicago Bears and how they can fix their defense, the Houston Texans and next steps to fix C.J. Stroud and the San Francisco 49ers, who are entering a sketchier offseason than you may realize.

(5:00) – Titans hire Robert Saleh

(14:10) – Dolphins hire Jeff Hafley

(20:30) – Key OC hires: Petzing to Lions & Bieniemy to Chiefs

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(41:00) – Bills deep dive

(1:00:45) – Bears deep dive

(1:06:45) – Texans deep dive

(1:20:15) – 49ers deep dive

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at Yahoo Sports Podcasts