Author: rb809rb

The 2025 NFL season is fully complete and the Seattle Seahawks are the last team standing. And while the fantasy football season is also over, we can still gather intel based on postseason performances for 2026. Yahoo analyst Matt Harmon shares what the two Super Bowl teams have to do to improve.

Seattle Seahawks: Nail another OC hire

The Seattle Seahawks were, in my view, the best team in the NFL for most of the 2025 season and ultimately finished that run with a Super Bowl win.

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It felt right; a season that wasn’t defined by “who had the best quarterback” but rather, who were the most well-built teams with strong fundamentals, well-designed scheme(s) — and who brought it defensively. In almost all of my conversations in San Francisco for Super Bowl week, the themes addressed and lessons learned from the year pointed us toward these Seahawks being the defining team of this past football season.

The frightening thing to consider for the entire league and certainly outfits in the NFC is that this roster will not only return largely intact, but they also enter the offseason with the sixth-most effective cap space in the NFL, per Over The Cap. Not only that, but they own all their own picks in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. Their list of upcoming free agents includes Coby Bryant, Josh Jobe, Tariq Woolen and Boye Mafe on the defensive side. Those guys all held critical roles and the first three names would take a chunk out of the secondary if they all departed. However, none of them were superstar players and Seattle has the resources to retain any of the combination that it wants.

On offense, it’s a little bit more of an interesting situation. Wide receiver Rashid Shaheed and now-Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III are the biggest names on the free agent ledger. Shaheed may wish to re-sign, but I’ve heard the team remains high on rookie Tory Horton (a sentiment I share with Seattle) and could look to save money at that position as they prepare to give Jaxon Smith-Njigba a mega-extension soon enough. Shaheed will find appealing offers in free agency, as would Walker, if he’s able to hit the open market. I do think “if” is the optimal word here.

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Considering that none of the defensive players or Shaheed rise to the level of the franchise tag, it would be all too easy for Seattle to retain Walker’s services with it. The running back tag will be valued at just over $14 million this offseason, which, in the grand scheme, is nothing for a one-year retention of Walker’s services for a team with over $73 million available in cap space. One month ago, I would have thought there was no shot Seattle would consider doing this, but now that fellow back Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL in the Divisional Round and Walker went on one of the best postseason runs we’ve seen for a player at his position in recent memory, you imagine it’ll at least think about it.

Taking absolutely nothing away from his awesome game in the Super Bowl and performance all postseason, it remains true that Walker is a tricky evaluation. He’s an electric runner with an undeniably rare combination of size and speed. Yet, he’s somewhat limited as a receiver — Walker is pristine at making big plays on checkdowns and screens, but doesn’t run routes downfield to create those coveted mismatches. It’s also difficult to get him on the field for passing downs, since he’s not reliable in protection. In many ways, he’s like a version of Derrick Henry, which is obviously a compliment but comes with caveats; he needs the right environment to be fully maximized. Henry found it in Baltimore but we’ve seen that it needed to blend his and Lamar Jackson’s rushing styles and also keep another back in the mix on passing downs.

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My guess right now is that Seattle will view itself as that right environment and even if that infuriates fantasy managers who, likely incorrectly, think K9 could have been doing what he did in the postseason all regular season, it’s probably a good thing considering it knows him best.

Speaking of the environment, we finally arrive at the biggest X-factor for the Seahawks this offseason. Klint Kubiak confirmed to NFL Network’s Stacey Dales that he is indeed taking the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coaching job, as had been widely reported last week. That will mean that Mike Macdonald will be searching for his third offensive coordinator in as many seasons on the job. So far, he’s had a major strikeout — in what was likely an arranged marriage — with Ryan Grubb, and a home run with Kubiak. Even coming down somewhere in the middle would be a nice win considering how late we are in the coaching cycle. You’d imagine that Seattle will want to stay in the same schematic family after a rousing success with Kubiak. Easier said than done, considering that this Shanahan/McVay tree has been pretty picked clean in recent years.

However, this should be a coveted job, so perhaps Seattle can pry someone loose from another team. The Seahawks have quarterback stability with Sam Darnold, an elite receiver in Smith-Njigba, an ascending offensive line, quality role players and proof of concept that with success here, you can springboard to a head coaching gig. It doesn’t get much better than that for an offensive mind.

Seattle was a good offensive ecosystem in 2025 with some extremely high moments. Its NFC Championship game and second matchup with the Rams in Week 16 were some of the best performances we saw all season. However, the Seahawks finished 14th in overall offensive EPA after being inside the top 10 in the first five weeks. Seattle never bottomed out by any means but that shows there is room for improvement, a scary reality for the rest of the league.

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The Seahawks have the team-building resources to do that but they also need to nail the offensive coordinator hire in the coming weeks.

New England Patriots: Get more talented on offense

The 2025 New England Patriots’ magical run came to an end on Sunday night as they fell to what was the best team in the league this season.

We can now officially call this a magical run to a Super Bowl, as Sunday’s loss confirmed what I’d been saying all week in San Francisco: this Patriots team is way ahead of schedule in what should be their rebuild timeline by being in that game at all. That’s a credit to the Patriots for winning on the margins and putting out a great defensive performance in the postseason to way over-perform their overall roster talent, but when they ran into a fully healthy, true Super Bowl contender, we all saw what happened.

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New England’s offensive performance in the Super Bowl loss cemented it as one of the worst units we’ve seen go on an extended postseason run in quite some time.

New England ranking 75th out of 76 teams to play three or more playoff games since 2000 in points per drive is the stat that really tells the story. Not just because it shows how inadequate its offensive performance was in the playoffs, but it demonstrates how that side of the ball was clearly carried by a strong defensive showing, along with some good breaks. Additionally, this points out just how much of an outlier the 2025 Patriots are among recent Super Bowl teams. Look at some of the other teams in the bottom 10; you’ll find just one other team since the 2020 season and only three others since 2014. We just don’t see many operations with this level of offense reach the big game, much less win it.

The Patriots were a top-five offense in EPA per play in the regular season and one of the worst we’ve ever seen in the playoffs by the same metric. Outside of maybe some nagging injuries, nothing changed about the coaching staff or the roster. The level of competition, however, did rise, and the Patriots offense sank in response.

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The playoffs are a magnifying glass; your strengths will be clearer than ever before against the best of the best but your flaws will be revealed for all to see. The Patriots have shown us for a month now that, while they enjoyed a strong overall season in Mike Vrabel’s debut, they still have many flaws.

In Drake Maye’s rookie season, he played with perhaps the 32nd-ranked offensive line and group of pass catchers. The goal in Year 2, and Vrabel’s first as head coach, was to get them from the league’s basement to closer to average. Mission accomplished. The problem is that just below average isn’t good enough to go against the best defenses in the NFL. In the Wild Card Round, they played the Chargers (sixth in EPA per play allowed in the regular season), the Texans in the Divisional (second), the Broncos in the AFC Championship (eighth) and the Seahawks in the Super Bowl (first). They got demolished.

Pass protection has been a significant issue all throughout the postseason. For me, that’s where the improvement needs to start. Wide receiver will be the subject of much of the offseason chatter, and that does need to improve, but the entire offensive ecosystem can’t take a step forward without better play up front in the run and pass game. Left tackle will take center stage, where rookie Will Campbell struggled mightily in the playoffs and gave up 14 pressures against Seattle, per Next Gen Stats. Campbell had a solid rookie season but much like the rest of the offense, his weaknesses were magnified in the biggest games. He was a historic outlier in terms of his overall frame and wingspan when it came to successful NFL tackles.

Much of the pushback to this discourse today has been centered around Campbell’s technique-based flaws letting him down in the Super Bowl, not his length. However, that’s missing the forest for the trees. When you’re not even an average physical specimen at this or any position in the NFL, you need to be absolutely perfect from a technique standpoint to thrive. That’s a lot to ask of any player, much less a rookie. Perhaps Campbell takes a big leap forward next year, or maybe you can make three positions better at one time by sliding fellow rookie Jared Wilson back to his collegiate position of center, Campbell to Wilson’s vacated left guard spot and acquiring an average starting left tackle with superior measurables and comparable technique.

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It’s probably time for Josh McDaniels, offensive line coach Doug Marrone and the overall archaic protection plan in the Patriots offense to modernize what they’re doing against some of these modern defenses. However, that should also come with an infusion of talent to increase the margin for error.

The same can be said in the pass-catching corps. A group led by this version of Stefon Diggs, Kayshon Boutte and Mack Hollins is fine for the regular season but can be better. Diggs will turn 33 this year and is facing legal issues, while Hollins is a free agent who is a plus blocker and occasional splash player only. Boutte will always be a low-volume option as an almost exclusive X-receiver. The Patriots are in desperate need of a real solution on the perimeter. They have over $42 million in cap space to address this and their other issues, but may even look to the trade market to find a creative solution at X-receiver. Teams will at least be calling about names like A.J. Brown, Brian Thomas Jr. and Brandon Aiyuk. The Patriots should at least kick the tires on those options.

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Lastly, this brings us to Maye, who narrowly missed out on an MVP award this season to Matthew Stafford, mostly on the back of his efficiency metrics, only to turn in one of the least efficient playoff runs in the same metrics.

EPA is a team stat when he’s succeeding in the regular season as it’s a team stat when he’s struggling in the playoffs. With any metric like this, you have to use your eyeballs to tell how much belongs to the player and what doesn’t. However, it generally gets you in the ballpark of describing how a player performed from a black-and-white standpoint, and there’s no denying Maye contributed to the fall-off in the postseason. He made bad situations created by his surroundings worse with turnovers, held the ball too long and wasn’t as decisive against premier competition.

He’s 23 years old and not fully formed just yet. It’s funny; had his season just ended in Round 1 of the playoffs in a close loss to the Chargers, no one would be questioning Maye’s placement among the ascending young passers in the game. He’s almost being punished for playing longer.

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For me, my opinion doesn’t really shift based on the last month of play. Maye is clearly still a good quarterback but like any player at the position, he needs the ecosystem to be better around him. That will be the task of New England this offseason as they lean on stability with the coaching staff.

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Segment one is pure MLS therapy. The Cooligans rank and debate the worst Designated Player signings of all time, asking how so many big names with even bigger expectations fell flat. From Rafa Márquez’s infamous tenure to the complicated legacies of Giroud, Shaqiri, and Insigne, the guys break down why hype doesn’t always translate on the field — and what MLS should learn from these costly misfires.

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In segment two, attention shifts to England as Liverpool’s clash with Manchester City sparks controversy. Was the red card justified, or did it unfairly tilt the match? The boys react in real time to City’s statement win and zoom out to assess what it means for the Premier League title race, with Arsenal now feeling real pressure as City creep closer.

The episode wraps with a moment that raised eyebrows across the soccer world: Mauricio Pochettino telling Timothy Weah to “keep quiet” about World Cup ticket prices. The guys unpack why that comment hit a nerve, what it reveals about the relationship between players and federations, and why conversations about access and cost around the World Cup aren’t going away anytime soon.

Timestamps:

(9:00) – Revealing the worst MLS DP flops of all-time

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(27:30) – Was Liverpool’s red card justified?

(40:30) – Premier League title race heats up as Man City inch closer

(49:00) – Reacting to Pochettino telling Tim Weah to “keep quiet” about World Cup ticket prices

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

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

The NBA is investigating the Oklahoma City Thunder for sitting 10 players out due to injury for their nationally televised matchup with the San Antonio Spurs last week, according to The Athletic’s Dan Woike.

Since 2023, NBA rules dictate that teams ensure star players are available for nationally televised and in-season tournament games that presumably attract more fan interest. The league defines a “star player” as one who has been named to an All-Star or All-NBA team during the past three seasons.

The Feb. 4 Thunder-Spurs game was televised on ESPN. The players listed as out for Oklahoma City that night:

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Shai-Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain)
Chet Holmgren (low back spasms)
Alex Caruso (right adductor strain)
Jalen Williams (right hamstring strain)
Lugentz Dort (right patellofemoral joint, inflammation)
Isaiah Hartenstein (right eye, corneal abrasion)
Ajay Mitchell (abdominal strain)
Nikola Topić (surgical recovery)
Ousmane Dieng (not with team)
Thomas Sorber (right ACL, surgical recovery)

The Thunder dressed eight players in a 116-108 loss to the Spurs. Three Oklahoma City players scored 20 or more points, led by 25 from Kenrich Williams.

Gilgeous-Alexander (NBA MVP, All-NBA first team, All-Star) and Jalen Williams (All-NBA third team, All-Star) fit the “star player” definition. Holmgren was named to his first NBA All-Star team this season.

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Williams has appeared in only 24 games this season, while Hartenstein (28) and Caruso (34) have also played fewer than 35.

Additionally, sitting out so many players — including stars — against San Antonio, which currently has the NBA’s second-best record at 36-16 could be viewed as “affecting the integrity of the game,” something the league also factors into its rules regarding player absences. (Oklahoma City is 1-4 versus the Spurs in their five matchups this season and are not scheduled to play again during the regular season.)

The Thunder face possible fines if the team is deemed to have committed violations of league rules. Penalties include a $100,000 fine for a first violation, $250,000 for the second violation and an increase by $1 million for each subsequent violation.

Gilgeous-Alexander, Mitchell, Sorber and Topić are listed as out for Monday’s game versus the Los Angeles Lakers. The Thunder have announced that Gilgeous-Alexander will be sidelined through the All-Star break with his abdominal injury. He last played on Feb. 3 versus the Orlando Magic.

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Despite those injuries and absences, the Thunder still lead the NBA with a 40-13 record. They are 5-5 in their past 10 games.

MILAN — Tradition holds that when you win an Olympic medal, you get that medal draped over your neck fairly quickly — usually a few minutes later, maybe a half-hour at most. Most Olympians don’t have to wait two-and-a-half years, or circle half the globe, to finally receive their medals.

But then again, most Olympians aren’t medal-winning figure skaters competing against the Russians. You combine the inherent drama of figure skating with the corner-cutting, line-blurring and outright cheating of Russian delegations, and you get what happened with Madison Chock, Evan Bates and the rest of the 2022 Olympic figure skating team: a Winter Olympics medal ceremony in the height of the summer.

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Chock and Bates, who began their quest for individual gold on Monday, are the only repeat Olympians from a remarkable moment in Team USA figure skating history: a medal celebration at the height of the 2024 Paris Olympics to present medals to winners of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

The story revolves, as so much else has over the past few Olympic Games, around Russian doping. Chock, Bates and the rest of the 2022 American team won silver at the Beijing Games, placing second behind Russians skating under the acronym ROC (“Russian Olympic Committee”) due to past doping violations.

However, tests determined that Russian team member Kamila Valieva had taken a banned substance prior to the 2022 Games. With Valieva’s status — and, thus, that of the entire Russian team — in doubt, the IOC held off on awarding any of the medals, to the Russian athletes or to the silver medalists of the United States and the bronze medalists of Japan.

The U.S. team left Beijing without a medal of any color, and for nearly two long years, their trophy cabinets remained empty. Finally, in 2024, the International Skating Union rendered its decision: Valieva’s numbers would be stricken from Russia’s total, moving the United States into the gold-medal position and Japan into silver. (Russia, not Canada, received the bronze on a technicality, which was a north-of-the-border scandal all its own.)

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The United States had won gold after all. But the gold medals were now locked in a vault in Lausanne, Switzerland, where all unclaimed and unallocated medals reside. How would America’s skaters get their rightful medals with the appropriate level of ceremony and respect?

The solution was elegant, if not simple: The IOC awarded the medals at a special ceremony during the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024. “We got on the airplane knowing we were already going to get a gold medal, which was great,” Bates said recently. “We didn’t have to perform or compete.”

“No stress!” Chock joked.

In a sharp contrast to the austere, zero-audience, COVID-era Beijing Olympics, the Paris Games were a celebration of all things Olympics and open to all. The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee used that fundamental difference to ensure that the figure skating team got something they didn’t in 2022: a full-on family celebration.

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“The USOPC really did a phenomenal job treating all the athletes really well,” Bates said. “They brought out friends, family, coaches. Everybody was ecstatic.”

Under a brilliant blue Paris sky, the team walked into Champions Park, hands held high, smiles on every face as the national anthem played. The ceremony came just a few weeks after Chock and Bates were married. It’s safe to say they had a very good summer.

“It was hard to describe how wonderful it was,” Bates said. “It really was magical.”

“It was also a reunion with our teammates, most of which we hadn’t seen in two years since Beijing,” Chock added. “So it was really fun to be reunited with them and share that Olympic spirit again.”

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The photos from the ceremony radiate joy, as the American and Japanese teams stand before the Eiffel Tower with their medals won in Beijing. The Russian skaters did not show up to receive their bronze medals.

“After a two-and-a-half-year wait, it was as good as it could have possibly been,” Bates said. “And it was just a wonderful way to close off that chapter.”

Now, the duo are on to their next chapter in Milan. They’ve already won another team gold to accompany their Beijing medal — and this one didn’t require any waiting.

For all their team hardware, though, Chock and Bates have not yet won an individual medal. This is their fourth consecutive Olympics together — Bates also competed in Vancouver as part of another pair — but to date, they haven’t ascended the podium as individuals.

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That streak could well end later this week. They finished the free skate portion of the ice dance event in second place, their score of 89.72 just behind the French team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron’s 90.18.

“We felt really strong, we felt like it was even better than a team event,” Chock said afterward. “It’s the feeling of accomplishment when you did your best on ice, and the rest isn’t necessarily all up to us, so we’re really proud of how we skated and proud of how we controlled what we could.”

Chock and Bates will return to the ice on Wednesday with hopes of adding a third gold medal to their collection … and hopes that it won’t take very long to hold it in their hands.

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Can Seattle make another run at a Super Bowl? Yahoo Sports’ Andrew Siciliano talks about that possibility with former Seahawks RB and Super Bowl champion Robert Turbin on today’s episode. Later, Ben Fawkes joins the show to break down the big game from the New England Patriots’ side of the ball before closing the show out with their “One More Thing”.

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(1:30) – Robert Turbin on the Seahawks’ Super Bowl LX victory

(22:45) – Super Bowl LX reactions: What’s next for Patriots?

(51:30) – Falcons’ James Pearce Jr. arrested

(58:20) – One More Thing

🖥️ 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

Charles Bediako’s second run with Alabama is over.

A Tuscaloosa judge denied Bediako’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed him to keep playing for the Crimson Tide on Monday, according to AL.com’s Nick Kelly. So his season is now over.

“Common sense won a round today,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement. “The court saw this for what it is: an attempt by professionals to pivot back to college and crowd out the next generation of students. College sports are for students, not for people who already walked away to go pro and now want to hit the ‘undo’ button at the expense of a teenager’s dream. While we’re glad the court upheld the rules our members actually want, one win doesn’t fix the national mess of state laws. It’s time for Congress to stop watching from the sidelines and help us provide some actual stability.”

Earlier this year, Bediako filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in order to return to Alabama, where he last played during the 2022-23 campaign. Bediako entered the NBA Draft in 2023, but he was not selected. The 7-footer played spent the last few seasons in the G League, and he even appeared in six games for the Motor City Cruise this season.

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Bediako was granted a temporary restraining order in January that allowed him to take the court again with the Crimson Tide after the NCAA initially denied the school’s request to reinstate his eligibility. He made his official return a few days later and finished with 13 points and three rebounds in a loss to Tennessee. Bediako has played in five total games for Alabama, most recently on Saturday in their win over Auburn. Alabama finished 3-2 in those games.

But Monday’s ruling, which came after a hearing on Friday, overruled the temporary restraining order Bediako was granted. The judge who originally granted the temporary restraining order, James H. Roberts, was removed from the case after revelations that he was an active donor to Alabama athletics. So Alabama will now have to play the rest of the season without Bediako.

Bediako wasn’t the first professional player trying to make his way back into the college basketball ranks. Baylor signed former NBA Draft pick James Nnaji in December, which drew pretty strong condemnation from coaches and others. Nnaji was the first former draft pick to be cleared to play at the college level, though he never actually played in an NBA game and was instead with FC Barcelona since 2020. A pair of other G League players, Thierry Darlan and London Johnson, are set to play at Santa Clara and Louisville, respectively, next season.

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While Alabama is an SEC school, the league’s commissioner argued against granting Bediako eligibility in an affidavit filed last week. Upholding NCAA rules inconsistently, commissioner Greg Sankey said, “fuels disruption in college sports.”

“I respectfully ask the Court to uphold the NCAA eligibility rules challenged in this case, which are essential to the integrity of college sports, to the educational mission they serve, and to the opportunities they provide for current and future student-athletes,” Sankey wrote in the four-page affidavit.

Bediako, Alabama coach Nate Oats said last week, will remain on scholarship even if he can’t continue playing.

“Charles has done nothing wrong,” Oats said in January, via The Athletic. “I will stand by our guys every single time, no matter what the outside says when they’ve done nothing wrong, and Charles has done everything right.”

Alabama holds a 16-7 record entering Wednesday’s contest at Ole Miss. The Crimson Tide are in fifth in the SEC standings with eight games left in the regular season. Their NCAA tournament status will be evaluated by the roster that is available on selection Sunday.

“We are disappointed in today’s court ruling denying the injuction for Charles Bediako,” Alabama said in a statement. “While we understand the concern around competitive and developmental implications of former professional athletes participating in college, it is important to acknowledge reality.

“The NCAA has granted eligibility to over 100 current men’s basketball players with prior professional experience in the G League or overseas. Granting eligibility to some former professionals and not to others is what creates the havoc we are currently in and why consistency from decision-makers is so desperately needed.”

There were no new medals for Team USA on Monday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

But there was plenty of high-stakes competition that sets up U.S. athletes in medal position with gold at stake in multiple events. USA women’s hockey continued to cruise in group play ahead of a showdown with Canada.

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Lindsey Vonn, meanwhile, released her first public statement since her devastating crash in the alpine downhill competition. She has “no regrets” from competing on a torn ACL and doesn’t believe the injury contributed to her crash.

And ahead of the men’s short program Tuesday, Ilia Malinin’s cat is joining in on USA’s gold medal in team figure skating.

Here are the top five stories of the day from Monday:

Chock and Bates in silver-medal position after rhythm dance

Madison Chock and Evan Bates’ pursuit of their first Olympic medal in pairs competition is off to a strong start. But they’re not quite where they want to be in their quest for Olympic gold.

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Chock and Bates skated a strong program Monday. But a technical deduction on a pattern step placed them in second place, just behind the first-place French duo of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron.

Beaudry and Cizeron posted a score of 90.18, less than half a point ahead of Chock and Bates’ score of 89.72. Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier leave Monday’s rhythm dance in third place with a score of 86.18.

The scores carry over to Wednesday’s free dance and will be combined with the free dance totals to determine medal winners. Since the scores carry over from the rhythm dance instead of the placement, the French and U.S. skating pairs are locked in what amounts to a virtual tie in what’s expected to be a two-way battle for the gold medal.

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Chock and Bates have team gold medals from this year’s competition and from 2022 in Beijing. But they’re still in search of their first Olympic medal in pairs competition after finishing in fourth place in Beijing.

They enter the Milan Cortina Games as the gold medal favorites after securing three consecutive world championships. But they’ll have their work cut out for them against Beaudry and Cizeron.

Five teams, including USA’s Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik (6th place, 83.53 points) are within five points of the third-place Canadian pair in what’s expected to be a competitive race for the bronze medal.

Lindsey Vonn’s first statement since crash, surgery

Lindsey Vonn made her first public statement Monday since her devastating injury crash in the alpine downhill competition on Sunday, declaring that she has “no regrets.”

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In an Instagram post, Vonn wrote that her ACL tear didn’t factor into the crash or her injury, which she described as a “complex tibia fracture.”

Vonn explained that her crash and injury were strictly the result of her right arm hooking into a gate and a sending her flying through the air off balance at a high rate of speed — not because of her previous ACL injury.

“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”

Vonn, 41, added that she sustained a “complex tibia fracture” that “will require multiple surgeries to fix properly. She did not address her future in the sport.

USA Curling is medal-bound

USA Curling is guaranteed a medal. The only question at this point is what color it will be.

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USA’s mixed doubles team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin exceeded expectations just by advancing to the knockout round thanks to a 6-3 record in round-robin play. When they got to Monday’s medal-round semifinal, they faced their stiffest test yet — a matchup against the reigning Olympic champion Italian tandem of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner playing in front of a friendly home crowd.

The Italians put the Americans to the test. But Thiesse and Dropkin prevailed in dramatic fashion with a final shot that secured a 9-8 win.

Thiesse had the final throw with USA trailing 8-7 and needing two points to win and advance to the gold-medal match. She delivered a perfect throw that Dropkin guided into place to knock out Italy’s scoring stone and secure two points for the win.

With the win, USA advances to face Sweden at 12:05 p.m. ET on Tuesday with the gold medal on the line. The loser of Tuesday’s match will secure silver.

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Italy advanced to face Great Britain in the bronze-medal match Tuesday at 8:05 a.m. ET.

U.S. women blitz Switzerland ahead of Canada showdown

The U.S. women continue to cruise in ice hockey group play and are now 3-0 following a 5-0 blowout over Switzerland on Monday. Up next — a showdown with Canada.

Hilary Knight didn’t score and remains tied with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King for the most goals scored by a U.S. player in Olympic competition with 14. But there was little to find fault with in a game in which Alex Carpenter, Haley Winn, Joy Dunne, Hannah Bilka and Caroline Harvey found the back of the net. Gwyneth Philips, meanwhile, made 20 saves in a shutout in her first start in goal at the Olympics.

USA has now outscored its Olympic competition, 15-1 in wins over Switzerland, Finland and Czechia. USA leads Group A with 9 points and a plus-14 goal differential.

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Canada is 2-0 with a 9-1 goal differential in wins over Switzerland and Czechia. And it promises to provide a considerably stiffer test in Tuesday’s showdown (2:10 p.m. ET) that’s widely expected to be a preview of the gold-medal game.

USA misses speed skating podium as Netherlands goes 1-2

U.S. speed skaters Brittany Bowe and Erin Jackson entered Monday’s 1,000-meter competition each with an outside shot of making the podium. They didn’t get there.

The Netherlands’ Jutta Leerdam set an Olympic record with a time of 1:12.31 to secure the gold medal and was joined on the podium by her teammate and silver medalist Femke Kok. Japan’s Miho Takagi, the reigning gold medalist in the event, took bronze.

Jackson left her skate with the fastest time, but was surpassed by five others en route to a sixth-place finish. Bowe, the world-record holder in the event, was in podium position ahead of the final race. But Leerdam’s and Takagi’s medal-securing skates knocked her into fourth place.

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Bowe, 37, set the world record in the event with a time of 1:11.61 in 2019 at the ISU World Cup in Salt Lake City in 2019, and it still stands. She won bronze at the Beijing Games. This is her last Olympics. She plans to retire after the Games. She’ll also compete in the 1,500 meters (Feb. 20) and the women’s team pursuit (Feb. 14, 17).

Jackson is a 500-meter specialist who began training for the 1,000 meters after Beijing. She’ll seek to repeat her 500-meter gold medal performance from Beijing on Feb. 15.

Team USA medals

Team USA did not add to its medal count on Tuesday. Through three days of competition, USA’s medal count stands at two golds: Breezy Johnson’s in the alpine downhill competition and the team figure skating competition that concluded Sunday.

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Host Italy leads the way with nine total medals, while Norway and Switzerland are tied for the lead with three golds each.

Highlight of the day

There was nothing at stake for Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud for her final run at Monday’s slopestyle final.

Her first two runs secured her second straight gold medal on top of her gold medal from Beijing. So her third run was a true victory lap. She ran it in style while adorned with the Swiss flag.

One more thing

Meet Mysti.

This is Ilia Malinin’s cat joining in on the celebration after Malinin clinched for Team USA in the team figure skating competition Sunday night.

Malinin’s hoping to bring home another gold for Mysti in the men’s competition that starts Tuesday with the short program.

Klint Kubiak just won the Super Bowl.

He isn’t going to Disney World. He’s going to Las Vegas.

NFL Network interviewed the Seahawks offensive coordinator in the aftermath of Seattle’s dominant 29-13 win over the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl Sunday night. In the interview, he confirmed the worst-kept secret in football — that he’s leaving Seattle to take over as the next head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

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Kubiak didn’t volunteer the information when asked an open-ended question. But when pressed, he spilled the beans.

“You guys know I’m going to Las Vegas, I’m fired up about it,” Kubiak said. … “Hell yeah, I’m going. Of course I’m going.”

So Kubiak’s fired up, and justifiably so.

First and foremost, he just won the Super Bowl. Perhaps less exciting, he’s going to Las Vegas to take over as head coach of one of the worst teams in football. Don’t expect him back here next season.

But it’s a head coaching job in the NFL, and that’s more than enough reason for excitement for a 38-year old fresh off a Super Bowl win.

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The news has been known for a week. Kubiak and the Raiders reportedly reached agreement on a deal on Feb. 1. But since Kubiak was the offensive coordinator of a team preparing to play in the Super Bowl, neither he nor the Raiders could confirm their partnership.

The team confirmed the hiring on Tuesday night. The two sides, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, reached a five-year deal.

And while the Raiders are coming off a 3-14 campaign that was tied for the NFL’s worst last season, there’s reason for excitement for Kubiak and Raiders fans. There’s a decent chance that Heisman Trophy winner and national champion Fernando Mendoza will play quarterback for the Raiders next season.

Freestyle skiing might just be one of the Winter Games’ most thrilling events. The sport comprises aerials, moguls, cross-country, halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air competitions, where flips, spins, and acrobatics showcase individual competitors’ skills and artistry on the slopes. This year, Team USA is sending 32 freestyle skiers to the Milan Cortina Games to compete, and events will run from Feb. 7 through Feb. 22.

Here’s a complete schedule of all Team USA Freestyle Skiing events at this year’s games, along with a rundown of who is competing. While every event will stream on Peacock, you can also find most on USA and NBC too. (To see specific air times, check out the official NBC Olympics broadcast schedule, and toggle your search to “TV Only.”).

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If you want to learn even more about every event at this year’s Winter Games, here’s a guide to everything you need to know about the Milan Cortina Games.

How to watch freestyle skiing at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Dates: Feb. 7 – 21

Location: Livigno Snow Park.

TV channels: USA, NBC

Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, and more

Where can I stream freestyle skiing at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Where to watch freestyle skiing on TV:

Team USA men’s and women’s freestyle skiing coverage will be split between NBC and USA. (To see specific air times, check out the official NBC Olympics broadcast schedule, and toggle your search to “TV Only.”). You can stream these channels on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV and more.

Tight end David Njoku said his goodbyes to the Cleveland Browns and their fans in a social media post on Monday as he approaches free agency in March.

“Cleveland, first off I love you,” Njoku wrote in an Instagram post. “These 9 years have been a beautiful journey. I’m so grateful for all the memories we shared together.”

“Thank you to The Haslams, Andrew Berry and the whole browns organization for everything!!” he added. “All my teammates I shared the battle with I’m so grateful for you guys. The time for me to find a new home has come and all I can think of is just the gratefulness in my heart. The city of Cleveland will forever be home❤️ #ChiefOut“

Njoku, who will turn 30 before next season, has played his entire NFL career with the Browns to this point. He was Cleveland’s first-round pick in 2017 (No. 29 overall) out of Miami. But the team only had two winning seasons during his tenure.

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In nine seasons with the Browns, Njoku appeared in 118 games, starting 88. During his career, he’s compiled 384 receptions for 4,062 yards and 34 touchdowns. His best season was in 2023 with 81 catches for 862 yards and 6 TDs, and he was named to the Pro Bowl. With his catch total and touchdowns, Njoku ranks second in team history for tight ends behind Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome.

Njoku’s contract will void on March 12, making him a free agent. Amid rumors that he could be dealt at the trade deadline in November, he said publicly that he wanted to stay with the Browns.

However, with Cleveland firing head coach Kevin Stefanski and bringing in Todd Monken to replace him, it’s possible that either Njoku doesn’t want to go through another Browns rebuilding project or he was told that his role will change.

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Njoku wasn’t the Browns’ most productive tight end this past season. Rookie Harold Fannin led Cleveland with 72 receptions for 731 yards and 6 TDs. Njoku was far behind with 33 catches for 293 yards and 4 scores. He played in 12 games, suffering a knee injury in Week 14. That could also affect his availability and production in 2026.