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When the Cleveland Browns and Las Vegas Raiders interview head coaches in the coming weeks, they know the most important question they must answer: How will we identify and develop a young quarterback?

When the New York Giants and Tennessee Titans interview head coaches, they, too, know the crux: First-round quarterbacks Jaxson Dart and Cam Ward need molding and development. The quarterback hopeful for each club is in the house. But how will he grow?

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Shakeup at the top of the Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals will similarly require answers on a position with major question marks in 2026 and beyond.

These answers need not all come via offensive head coaches during a hiring cycle riper with defensive candidates than offensive. And in many successful franchises, including the reigning Super Bowl champions, the head coach’s primary responsibility is not to call offensive plays.

But when teams front young quarterbacks or face questions at quarterback, the pressure to find the offensive panacea sharpens. Coaching searches often skew accordingly.

So the Baltimore Ravens hold a clear advantage.

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Because as they announced Tuesday night that 18-year head coach John Harbaugh was “relieved of his duties,” the Ravens are the lone team currently looking for a head coach that is not simultaneously searching to clarify their answer at quarterback.

Recruiting coaches while two-time MVP Lamar Jackson is under contract is a luxury.

Sure, plenty will argue that just as the Ravens become the most attractive of seven NFL openings and counting, Harbaugh immediately became the most attractive candidate when he hit the market. That doesn’t mean the decision should be baffling. With a Super Bowl-winning coach and an MVP-winning quarterback, it should not be surprising if each believes he has the answers to future success. And if those answers don’t align, a time comes for a change.

But as the Ravens look for a coach who will end their 13-year Super Bowl drought, they won’t need as strong an emphasis on developing a quarterback.

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[Get more Ravens news: Baltimore team feed]

That could allow them, should they want, to select the best overall candidate first. Their ceiling will immediately be high.

“We have so much talent on this team, and it’s just disappointing that we’re not able to be the team that’s able to execute and win games when we need to win games,” fullback Patrick Ricard said this week. “As long as we have Lamar Jackson, I feel like this team can win a Super Bowl.”

Among 7 openings, Ravens’ Jackson offers best QB by far

A minority of coaches and executives across the league will argue that a coach in the Shanahan and McVay systems may prefer a more in-structure passer to build their offense around.

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But more often, as the surprise of Harbaugh’s dismissal hit Tuesday, league voices understood the new pecking order of openings.

“The jobs this cycle all lack QBs like normal so he’s definitely the top QB and offense available for any coach,” one NFC executive told Yahoo Sports.

An AFC assistant added of Jackson: “Any scheme fits him.”

Jackson has shown that in eight seasons since the Ravens selected him with the 32nd pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. He’s earned four Pro Bowl berths, three All-Pro honors and two MVP awards while winning 76 of 107 regular-season starts.

In aggregate, Jackson has completed 64.8% of his passes for 22,608 yards and 187 passing touchdowns to 56 interceptions. His 102.2 career passer rating and 8.25 air yards per attempt currently hold the all-time career records, per Pro Football Reference.

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And those numbers don’t even include Jackson’s additional 6,522 yards and 35 touchdowns rushing.

His health has been inconsistent at times, Jackson most recently missing four games and about half of another this season with hamstring and back injuries. But while healthy, he thrived. Consider his Week 18 return from a back injury in Pittsburgh with the AFC North title on the line. While the Ravens lost on a walk-off missed field-goal attempt Sunday night, Jackson completed 11 of 18 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns.

He activated another level in the fourth quarter, with 50- and 64-yard go-ahead touchdown passes to receiver Zay Flowers. The first came despite two defenders seeming to have Jackson wrapped up. Jackson was unfazed.

“Shoot — I cut a nose guard loose, and he somehow slipped out of it and threw the ball [50] yards for a touchdown,” center Tyler Linderbaum said. “That’s the kind of ability he has. So, he’s fun to play for. [He’s an] ultra competitor, and any time that ball is snapped to him, and it’s in his hands, you know something electrifying can happen.”

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“The most electrifying player there is in this game.”

After Harbaugh’s final Ravens game, Jackson didn’t endorse him

As reports of tension between Jackson and Harbaugh built this season, Jackson was asked last Thursday if he had a good relationship with Harbaugh.

“Yes, I believe so,” he said. “I don’t know where the noise came from. I don’t know where the noise came from.”

After the Ravens’ 26-24 loss Sunday, Jackson was asked about Harbaugh again.

Did he want to see Harbaugh as his head coach next season?

“You’re asking me about next year,” Jackson said. “I’m so caught up in what just happened tonight. I can’t focus on that right now, I just told you. Like he asked me, ‘Are you stunned?’

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“I’m stunned right now, and I’m still trying to process what’s going on. I know we lost, but what the … you know?”

Sure, the emotions of the season’s sudden ending were fresh as Jackson’s Herculean fourth quarter wasn’t enough to advance to a sixth playoff berth in eight years. But Jackson was not the first player to receive a question about his coach’s future at season’s end. He would not have been the first to endorse a leader after a loss, especially one 18 years into his tenure with the organization with a Lombardi Trophy to his name and an AFC championship game berth in partnership with Jackson.

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Jackson did not choose that.

By Tuesday night, Harbaugh was out. The Ravens thanked Harbaugh for a “tremendous” 18 years and the Super Bowl title.

Harbaugh issued his own statement, curiously including a smiley-face emoji as he said goodbye with “disappointment certainly, but more with GRATITUDE & APPRECIATION.”

The Ravens’ coaching search, as team owner Steve Bisciotti said in a statement, begins. Their ability to move quickly on top defensive candidates including the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jesse Minter, Los Angeles Rams’ Chris Shula and Houston Texans’ Matt Burke could prove to be an asset.

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“That’s a dream backfield to have Lamar and Derrick [Henry] and to play with those guys,” Ricard said. “I feel like, as long as they’re here, this team has a shot — no matter who else is playing.”

ESPN’s streaming service is divided into two tiers: the ESPN unlimited package and the ESPN select package. 

For $29.99, the ESPN unlimited package includes access to all of ESPN’s linear networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNews and ESPN Deportes, plus access to programming on ABC, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN+ and ACCNX. That means fans will get coverage of more than 47,000 live events each year, on-demand replays, original programming and more. 

Right now, for a limited time, you can bundle ESPN unlimited with Disney+ and Hulu and pay $29.99/month for 12 months — that’s like getting those other services free for a year! Even if you’re a current subscriber to Disney+, Hulu or even the bundle, you can still upgrade to this great deal. 

Not interested in a bundle? ESPN select (the service formerly known as ESPN+) is still also an option. For $11.99/month, you can tune in and get exclusive access to events like select NCAA football games, F1 driver cams, simulcasts of certain sports that air on other channels and PPV access to UFC fights. 

KeShawn Murphy thought he had hit a ridiculous deep buzzer-beater to lift Auburn past Texas A&M on Tuesday night.

He was just barely too late.

Murphy, with Auburn down by two points, caught an inbounds pass with 0.6 seconds left on the clock, turned and fired from just inside half court. His shot was perfect, and sparked a massive celebration at Neville Arena. The shot looked like it was one of the first truly great buzzer-beaters of the college basketball season, several months before March even hit.

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Unfortunately for Murphy and the Tigers, a review from the officials determined that the release was a little too late. Murphy didn’t get the shot off in time, and the points were called off. That gave the Aggies the 90-88 road win, and left them celebrating in front of a stunned arena.

“I don’t have a clear understanding still,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl said, via WSFA12’s Rosie Langello-Hodgens. “I still gotta gather more information and get an understanding as to what their determination was. … Just from the angles that I saw, it looked like the ball was out of his hands on the red light, on the scoreboard that we were looking at. But I would imagine that they had a different angle they were looking at to determine the ball wasn’t out of his hands.”

Pearl had a conversation with the SEC after the game, and he was seen meeting with athletic director John Cohen and officials on the court well after speaking with reporters.

Texas A&M (12-3) rallied from a 16-point hole to grab the win over Auburn, a victory that lifted the Aggies to 2-0 in SEC play. Pop Isaacs led the way with 21 points off the bench after he shot 7-of-12 from the field, and Jacari Lane added 17 points and seven rebounds. The Aggies have won five straight entering Saturday’s game with Oklahoma.

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Keyshawn Hall led Auburn with 32 points and 12 rebounds in the loss, and Kevin Overton finished with 16 points. Murphy had eight points and eight rebounds.

The Tigers have lost four of their last six, and fell to 9-6 on the season, which is the first under Pearl, who took over for his father, longtime coach Bruce Pearl, this past offseason. They’ll head into Saturday’s game with No. 15 Arkansas without an SEC win looking to avoid what would be the program’s first three-game losing skid since 2023.

When it comes to popularity, the NFL is king. The sport draws more viewers than the other big four North American sports … and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.

This season the NFL posted its best regular-season average viewership numbers since 1989, per the Sports Business Journal. An average of 18.7 million viewers watched NFL games in 2025. That’s the second-best figure on record since the metric started being tracked in 1988. Only the 1989 season, which averaged 19 million viewers, finished ahead of 2025.

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The jump from 2024 to 2025 was significant. Average viewership rose from 17.5 million fans in 2024 to 18.7 million fans in 2025, a 7% jump. Those 2025 figures were helped by a new ratings measurement called Big Data + Panel. The measurement — which Nielson got approved in January of 2025 — combines data acquired from various cable providers and streaming services and combines it with Nielson’s usual panel system — where the company uses a smaller group of individuals to represent a larger group of people.

NFL coverage was up across the board on every network and streaming service that carried games in 2025. CBS, NBC and Prime Video saw record-setting season averages, per SBJ. Fox had its best season since 2015 and ESPN has its second-best season ever, with 2023 being higher.

Despite the team’s struggles, the Kansas City Chiefs were once again the most-watched team in the NFL. That shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise considering the Chiefs’ game against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving set a regular-season record for the most-watched NFL game. Over 57 million viewers tuned in to watch the contest, which the Cowboys won 31-28.

Fans who watched the NFL in 2025 were treated to an unusual season, in which elite quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson all failed to make the playoffs. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills were the one exception to that list.

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With all those quarterbacks faltering, the year was defined by young players stepping into the spotlight. New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye became an MVP candidate, Chicago Bears second-year passer Caleb Williams led a number of late-game drives to push his team forward, Bo Nix came up big to lead the Denver Broncos to the top seed in the AFC and Trevor Lawrence blossomed under new Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen.

With the regular season in the books, it’s now up to the playoffs to try and set new viewership records. The NFL could have a chance at that in the wild-card round, as it features some excellent matchups, including a heated rivalry game between the Bears and Green Bay Packers.

Miami is two wins away from its first national title since the 2001 college football season. Ole Miss is two wins away from its first national title since 1960.

Which team will be one step away after winning the Fiesta Bowl?

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[More CFP: Peach Bowl players to watch, key to game]

Fiesta Bowl: No. 6 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 Miami

How these teams got here

Ole Miss (13-1): The Rebels were 6.5-point underdogs to a Georgia team that had won the first game between the teams. The Bulldogs won the regular-season matchup 43-35 in Athens. In that game, Ole Miss faded in the fourth quarter as Georgia’s defense took over. On New Year’s night, Ole Miss took over in the second half and it was Georgia that faded down the stretch. The Rebels outscored the Bulldogs 20-10 in the fourth quarter in a 39-34 win.

Miami (12-2): The Hurricanes pulled the biggest upset in College Football Playoff history when they beat No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl. Miami was a 9.5-point underdog at kickoff and you have to go way past the CFP to find the last time a larger underdog beat a team in a postseason game with national title implications. That game? The national title game after the 2002 season, when Ohio State stunned Miami as a double-digit underdog.

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Miami beat Ohio State by keeping the Buckeyes’ offense and offensive line in check. As Ohio State was unable to push Miami around up front, the Hurricanes took advantage.

How the QBs stack up

A Georgia win would have pitted Miami QB Carson Beck against his former team. Crazily enough, there may be a little less pressure on Beck with Ole Miss as the opponent.

Beck has thrown just one interception across Miami’s last six games. That came in a 38-7 win over Pitt in the final week of the season. That convincing win was a reason why Miami jumped ahead of Notre Dame and into the College Football Playoff in the final rankings.

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Beck’s stats in the postseason have not been spectacular in the slightest. But given the margins that Miami has been playing with, he hasn’t made a key mistake. That’s probably more important. Against Texas A&M, Beck was 14-of-20 passing for 103 yards and a TD. Against Ohio State, he was 19-of-26 passing for 138 yards and a TD. Can he find success down the field against the Ole Miss defense? Or will it be more of the same short passing game?

Trinidad Chambliss has been the breakout star of the postseason, especially after his performance in the Sugar Bowl. After throwing for 282 yards and totaling three touchdowns in the Rebels’ first-round win over Tulane, Chambliss was 30-of-46 for 362 yards and two scores against Georgia.

And it wasn’t just the numbers that Chambliss put up — it was the way he did it. Chambliss’ improvisation was imperative in the second half of the game as Ole Miss mounted its comeback. He repeatedly got away from Georgia defenders to make plays while moving outside the pocket. Can Miami’s defensive line crash the pocket enough to prevent Chambliss from making magic again?

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Players to watch

Ole Miss WR Harrison Wallace III: The Penn State transfer picked a fine time for his first 100-yard game of the season since Week 2. Wallace had nine catches for 156 yards and Ole Miss’ final touchdown of the game in the Sugar Bowl. It was Wallace’s best performance of the season and his first 100-yard game with Chambliss as the team’s starting quarterback.

Wallace had five catches for 130 yards against Georgia State and four catches for 117 yards against Kentucky, but backup Austin Simmons started both of those games. Simmons was injured in that Kentucky win and Chambliss took over.

The two have forged a connection — Wallace had four games with at least five catches with Chambliss as the primary QB — but he hadn’t been as prolific as he was on Jan. 1. Can he continue that?

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Miami WR CJ Daniels: Daniels was the team’s leading receiver in the Cotton Bowl with five catches for 49 yards. With Mark Fletcher powering a physical run game that’s beaten up both Texas A&M and Ohio State and defenses wanting to take away star freshman WR Malachi Toney, the opening is there for Daniels to take advantage.

Daniels has 42 catches for 469 yards and seven scores despite missing three games due to injury in November. Since returning against Pitt, he has just nine total catches for 128 yards and a TD, but the Miami offense needs more than Fletcher and Toney to make plays. Ohio State limited Toney to just 16 yards on five catches on New Year’s Eve.

Key to the game

This matchup is going to be all about the Miami defense again. The Hurricanes held Texas A&M to 326 yards on 75 plays in the first round of the playoff and sacked Marcel Reed seven times. In the Cotton Bowl, Miami held the Buckeyes to 332 yards on 59 plays while sacking Ohio State’s Julian Sayin five times.

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Oh, Miami got a massive pick-6 from Keionte Scott in the second quarter too. Scott’s interception flipped the game and after Ohio State cut the Miami lead to three early in the fourth quarter, Ohio State ran nine offensive plays the rest of the way for a grand total of six yards.

Does Ole Miss need to get out to a fast start to have a chance and also force Miami to play from behind? The first quarter of the Cotton Bowl was scoreless and there were no points in the first half in College Station. Miami moved the ball well against A&M, but settled for (missed) field goals too often. The Hurricanes may need more than two offensive touchdowns to win this game.

With the NBA trade deadline less than a month away, several names are floating around as potential targets, as is tradition.

One player who has been attached to trade rumors for almost a year is Anthony Davis, the former NBA champion and one of the best two-way big men in the league.

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You’d think most teams would love to acquire him in a major blockbuster deal, however the situation is far more complicated than that, to the point where teams should stay away. Far, far away.

Let’s get into it.

Lack of availability

Since getting sent to the Dallas Mavericks just under a year ago in a surprising trade that involved Luka Dončić, Davis has played just 28 games for the franchise and has dealt with numerous injuries along the way.

If this was just a recent development and the former All-Star had historically had good health, it’d be easy to disregard this as a minor blip.

However, Davis’ relationship with injuries is a long one, to the point where it’s impossible to ignore if you’re a team with interest in his services.

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After a surprising 76-game campaign in 2023-24, it became clear how much of an outlier that season was. He played just 51 games the following year, and in the previous seasons, he logged 56, 40 and 36 appearances, respectively.

Despite being an enormously talented player who is averaging 24 points and 10.7 rebounds per game for his career, the point of acquiring him becomes moot if he doesn’t play.

Major financial commitment

If Davis were on a contract that made it more tolerable for a team to acquire him and live with the idea that he was going to miss half a season every year, that’d be one thing.

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But the reality is far different.

Davis has two additional years left on his deal after the conclusion of this season worth a total of $121.2 million in future salary commitment.

(That’s not including the $54.1 million he’s earning this year, which represents 35% of the salary cap.)

It’s franchise-altering to add that type of money to your books for an NBA team.

In fact, the only way to justify it would be to immediately launch yourself into championship contention as a direct result of the acquisition, but given the aforementioned availability issue, that seems like a bit of a stretch.

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It would be irresponsible for any franchise to take on that enormous amount of money with the attached injury history.

Age is catching up

Adding another layer of concern is the fact Davis turns 33 in March and is looking less springy than he has in the past.

This signals the launch of what is an inevitability: a decline, which obviously will only sharpen more drastically as he ages.

An Anthony Davis who is slowly going through the process of becoming the athlete formerly known as Anthony Davis just isn’t an asset. If his production drops off, what then is the logic in relinquishing assets to acquire his services and years of big money to your cap sheet?

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A player who is approaching his mid-30s is also difficult to build around, as the timeline is moved up. A franchise has to win immediately and won’t have years to set up something around Davis, even if he were a pillar of health.

So what does it all mean?

Davis remains a highly impactful basketball player who — when healthy — adds a ridiculous two-way presence to any rotation.

It’s just all too risky.

All teams should look at the Mavericks and think, “As long as you have that problem on your hands, that’s one less team to worry about.”

That sounds harsh, but it’s true. Davis, as a human being, isn’t a problem. But the contractual obligation is. The lack of availability is. The physical decline is. The overall risk attached to his acquisition is.

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There simply isn’t any logical reason to trade for Davis, unless you’re a franchise that doesn’t care about being competitive and exclusively wishes to make big headlines, with the idea of getting people into the stadium on the rare nights he’s available, perhaps through the perspective of selling his arrival as the return of the prodigal son coming home.

“Frooooooooom Chicago …”

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🚨 Headlines

🏈 Harbaugh out in Baltimore: The Ravens fired head coach John Harbaugh on Tuesday, ending an 18-season tenure that included 12 playoff appearances and one Super Bowl win (2013). The franchise stalwart coached the Ravens for more than half of their 30-year existence.

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🏀 All-Star voting update: Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetekounmpo remain their conference’s top vote-getters for next month’s NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Voting ends on Jan. 14, with starters announced five days later.

⛳️ WTGL coming soon: Following the success of TGL, whose second season began last week, LPGA golfers are getting a league of their own. Women’s TGL is set to debut next winter at the same custom-built stadium in Florida where the men play.

🏁 NASCAR commish resigns: Steve Phelps, who was named NASCAR’s first commissioner less than a year ago, has resigned amid backlash over a series of inflammatory texts he sent that were revealed during a recently-settled lawsuit.

🎾 Record purse in Melbourne: The Australian Open, which begins in less than two weeks, announced a record $74.9 million prize purse for this year’s tournament, including $2.8 million each for the men’s and women’s singles champions.

🏒 The NHL’s best team has a problem

The best team in the NHL has one glaring weakness — and it could end up costing them a chance at history.

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Alone at the top: The Avalanche were expected to be good this season, but no team is ever expected to be this good.

• Their 31-3-7 record at the halfway mark was the best since the NHL moved to an 82-game schedule in 1995-96.

• They’re the fourth team in NHL history to record multiple 10-game winning streaks in a season, and they currently have six more wins (and 11 more points) than any other team.

• They score the most goals (3.95 per game) and allow the fewest (2.21), and the second-best team in each category (3.45 and 2.63) isn’t even close.

Yes, but: For all their success, there’s one area where the Avs struggle mightily: the power play. They’ve scored just 23 goals in 143 man-up opportunities, good for a 16.1% success rate that ranks 26th out of 32 teams — an extreme outlier for a first-place squad with championship aspirations.

Consider this: Colorado is on pace to become just the fifth team to win 60 or more games in a season. Here’s where the other four ranked in power play percentage:

• 2022-23 Bruins: 22.2% (12th)

• 2018-19 Lightning: 28.2% (1st)

• 1995-96 Red Wings: 21.3% (2nd)

• 1976-77 Canadiens: 24.89% (2nd)

Again, the Avalanche rank 26th. It’s hard to fathom such an otherwise dominant team struggling to this degree in man-up situations, especially when that unit typically features arguably the best player (MVP favorite Nathan MacKinnon) and defenseman (Norris Trophy favorite Cale Makar) in the league.

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• And if they don’t find a fix, it will likely derail their shot at the regular-season wins record (65), and could hinder them in the playoffs when man-up situations often define a series.

Bottom line: The Avalanche have spent most of the season looking like one of the best teams of the century. But remove a player from the opposing team, and suddenly they look surprisingly bad.

💯 Big numbers

🥇 1 month

Tuesday marked exactly one month until the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics in the northern Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, where roughly 3,000 athletes from over 90 countries will compete for glory.

Athletes by country: The USA leads the way with 154 athletes, followed by Italy (151), Canada (117), Germany (103), France (99), Switzerland (95), Czech Republic (91), Sweden (91), Finland (78) and Norway (51).

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🏒 -7.34 GSAx

Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom was awful in Tuesday’s 9-0 loss to the Islanders, allowing nine goals on just 24 shots on net. In fact, his performance was the single worst in NHL history by goals saved above expected (-7.34 GSAx), which calculates the difference between goals allowed (9) and expected goals allowed (1.66).

GSAx, explained: Goals saved above expected measures how many more (or fewer) goals a goalie allowed compared to an average goalie facing the same quality and quantity of shots. In layman’s terms, Markstrom surrendered roughly 7 more goals than an average goalie would have.

⚾️ 21 of 50

21 of our top 50 MLB free agents remain unsigned despite spring training being just six weeks away. “The key word is methodical,” said one agent of the slow-moving market. “I just don’t see any urgency.”

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Who’s still available? OF Kyle Tucker (1), 3B Alex Bregman (2), SS Bo Bichette (4), OF Cody Bellinger (7), LHP Framber Valdez (8) and LHP Ranger Suárez (9) are all in our top 10 and remain unsigned. Others include RHP Zac Gallen (12), C J.T. Realmuto (23), 3B Eugenio Suárez (24) and RHP Justin Verlander (48).

🏀 6 undefeated teams

Six men’s college basketball teams are still undefeated, which is almost unheard of this late in the season. In fact, that’s the same number of unbeatens through nine weeks as in the last five seasons combined.

One is not like the others: Five of those teams are ranked power conference programs (No. 1 Arizona, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Iowa State, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 11 Vanderbilt). The sixth is Miami (Ohio), a mid-major that hasn’t been ranked since 1999 and hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament in two decades.

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🏈 25 straight losses

Colts QB Riley Leonard continued a truly astonishing streak with last week’s loss to the Texans, as former Notre Dame QBs have now lost 25 consecutive NFL starts over the past 14 seasons. The last one to get a win? Chiefs QB Brady Quinn in Week 13 of the 2012 season.

The full list: Quinn lost four straight games to end his career in 2012, Jimmy Clausen lost the final four starts of his career across the 2014 and 2015 seasons with the Bears and Panthers, DeShone Kizer went 0-15 for the Browns in 2017 and Ian Book lost his only start for the Saints in 2021.

⚽️ 4 points

A few Premier League teams at the top of the table stand out above the rest, but the middle class is as jumbled as ever with just four points separating fifth-place Chelsea from 14th-place Crystal Palace as the second half of the season gets underway.

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Fun fact: It took just 20 weeks for the Premier League to complete a “circle of parity,” indicative of a league in which almost any team can beat any opponent on any given matchday.

🏈 The legend of Trinidad Chambliss

Trinidad Chambliss has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past year, going from a D-II backup in Michigan to a playoff hero in the Deep South. Will his legendary story continue for another season at Ole Miss?

From Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger:

A couple miles off campus, across the street from a Super Walmart and adjacent to a Chili’s, there exists a Planet Fitness that served as the primary workout space for a newly added transfer football player for the Ole Miss Rebels.

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For a couple weeks in May, few if anyone recognized the former Division II quarterback from Ferris State as he swiped a fob for access to the Planet Fitness franchise’s Oxford location, where, every day, he lifted weights and performed conditioning work with the general public of this college town.

In a little-known fact, Trinidad Chambliss wasn’t ruled academically eligible at Ole Miss until well into the summer. “I couldn’t even work out with the team,” Chambliss told Yahoo Sports in an interview earlier this fall from the team’s football facility. “There was a point over the summer where they thought I had to go back to Ferris State.”

The anecdote is yet another interesting piece in one of the most fascinating stories in the recent history of the sport. It’s a made-for-TV spectacle, a story with all the hallmarks for a Netflix documentary.

But a few days before Chambliss leads his streaking Ole Miss Rebels into a College Football Playoff semifinal against the Miami Hurricanes, the quarterback’s tale is overshadowed by its latest chapter: It is not clear whether his story will continue in college beyond this month.

Lording over Chambliss — and perhaps the entire college football quarterback transfer market — is a decision from the NCAA to grant him a sixth season of eligibility next year. Three days into the 15-day transfer portal, the association has not ruled.

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Chambliss — his legal representation, parents, agent and current school, too — is left in limbo while preparing for the biggest game of his life. “The unknown is uncomfortable,” says Trent Chambliss, the quarterback’s father.

While a half-dozen elite quarterback transfers make their future decisions and sign multi-million dollar contracts with a new school or their current program, Trinidad Chambliss is twisting in the winds of uncertainty, unable to officially strike a new deal.

That didn’t stop him overnight Sunday from agreeing to a new contract with the Rebels contingent on having the waiver granted, according to those with knowledge of the situation. The agreement sets up potential legal action if his waiver is not granted. Millions of dollars are now on the line.

Keep reading.

🏀 NBA power rankings

The NBA championship picture is increasingly becoming a landscape, rather than a portrait of the mighty Thunder.

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• Biggest risers: Clippers (up 5), Celtics (up 4), Warriors (up 4), Bulls (up 4), Bucks (up 4), Wizards (up 4).

• Biggest fallers: Nuggets (down 6), Mavericks (down 5), Knicks (down 4), Grizzlies (down 4) Nets (down 4).

Dive in: This week’s power rankings

📺 Watchlist: Wednesday, Jan. 7

🏀 NBA on ESPN

Four teams firmly in the playoff picture take the court tonight as the second-place Celtics host the fourth-place Nuggets (7pm ET) and the second-place Spurs host the third-place Lakers (9:30pm).

Red-hot C’s: Since getting off to a slow 5-7 start, Boston has gone 18-5 behind MVP candidate Jaylen Brown, who’s averaging a career-high 29.6 points.

🏒 NHL on TNT

The Capitals host the Stars (7pm) in a heavyweight matchup, then it’s Blues at Blackhawks (9:30pm) in the nightcap.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 3 Iowa State at Baylor (8pm, Peacock); No. 13 Alabama at No. 11 Vanderbilt (9pm, ESPN2); Kansas State at No. 1 Arizona (9pm, FS1) … Iowa State, Vanderbilt and Arizona remain undefeated.

• 🏀 NCAAW: St. John’s at No. 1 UConn (7:30pm, truTV) … The Huskies (15-0) have won 31 straight games dating back to last season.

• ⚽️ Premier League: Crystal Palace vs. Aston Villa (2:30pm, Peacock); Manchester City vs. Brighton (2:30pm, Peacock) … Villa and City are tied for second, six points behind Arsenal.

Today’s full slate.

🏈 NFL trivia

John Harbaugh was the NFL’s second-longest-tenured head coach (18 seasons) before he was fired Tuesday.

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Question: Who is the only active NFL head coach who has been in his job longer?

Answer at the bottom.

🏀 Highlight of the night

There are things Victor Wembanyama can do that no one else in the NBA can do. Or maybe no one else on Earth.

Exhibit A: See above. Did he just scissor kick basketballs stuck in a 10-foot basket? While nursing a bad knee? Yes. Yes, he did.

Consider this: The Guinness Book of World Records lists the highest unassisted martial arts kick (male) at 9 feet, 8 inches. Watch that GIF again… It certainly looks like Wemby’s foot gets within four inches of the rim, right? And he was only goofing off.

Trivia answer: Mike Tomlin (Steelers)

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You know the feeling. You’ve been sitting in traffic for what feels like an eternity, plodding along, always in the wrong lane. But then, miraculously, the traffic breaks up, and you have a free and clear open road ahead of you. What else is there to do but floor it?

You, in this scenario, are Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, and the open road is this year’s postseason. No Lamar Jackson. No Joe Burrow. And, most significantly, no Patrick Mahomes waiting to wreck yet another Bills season.

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As the AP noted earlier this week, outside of Aaron Rodgers’ 11 playoff wins, no AFC quarterback has anywhere close to Allen’s seven postseason victories. CJ Stroud has two, Trevor Lawrence has one, and no one else in the conference even has one. Quarterback wins aren’t the most reliable metric — Rodgers does not exactly have the best odds to win the AFC — but they attest to a quarterback’s ability to survive and thrive under postseason pressure.

[Get more Bills news: Buffalo team feed]

So yes, the road would seem to be clear for Buffalo … were it not for that retooled, reworked road rocket in an all-too-familiar red-white-and-blue paint scheme streaking up on the outside.

Six years after Tom Brady and Bill Belichick relinquished their hold on the AFC East, five years after Buffalo began stacking division titles again, and in the same season that the hated Chiefs finally played themselves out of the postseason … here come those damn New England Patriots again. There aren’t enough tables in Buffalo to cushion Bills fans’ agony.

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Buffalo surrendered the AFC East title to Mike Vrabel, Drake Maye and the resurgent Patriots in 2025 after holding it the past five seasons. This isn’t an inconsequential shift; losing their annual home-field advantage means Buffalo can’t freeze out visitors for at least one postseason game. The Bills’ Super Bowl window has been closing for years, but now here come the Patriots, trying to pound that window shut with both hands.

But if the Bills are looking for hope, first off, they don’t need to look any farther than Week 15. In their crucial road rematch with New England, down 21-0 midway through the second quarter and 24-7 at halftime, the Bills rallied with three straight touchdowns and then traded punches en route to a 35-31 victory. It wasn’t enough to reclaim the division, but it was enough to make a serious statement.

Allen believed that the message coming out of that game was, “We’re not out of it. We’re going to continue to fight, one play at a time. No matter what the score is, if it’s in the third quarter, it’s in the fourth quarter,” he said after the victory. “Whatever it is, if we’ve got a chance and we’ve got the ball, we feel like we like our chances. That’s that.”

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He’s right; the Bills have made a habit of posting second-half comebacks to win. They set the tone back in the very first game of the season, rallying from 15 points down to Baltimore in the final four minutes of the game to win. In Week 14, Buffalo posted another flurry of fourth-quarter touchdowns — three in under five minutes — to flip a 10-point deficit to Cincinnati into a victory. And now that Foxborough win looms large in both teams’ minds.

Plus, there’s the theory of battle testing. Allen and the Bills have been here before — many times before, but let’s not belabor that point — while this is the first playoff journey for Vrabel, Maye and the rest of the Patriots as a unit.

And  if you believe in the validity of regular-season tuneups, Buffalo had to face the they-were-good-at-the-time Ravens and Chiefs, while the Patriots drew the Raiders, Browns and Giants. (Both teams fattened up on the lower half of their division and the mostly easy pickings of the NFC South.)

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A potential Bills-Patriots postseason matchup wouldn’t happen until the AFC title game; Buffalo would face Denver next round if both teams win. But if the cards fell that way, it would be one hell of a game.

Both offensively and defensively, the Bills and Patriots finished the season with near-identical top-of-the-league numbers. New England averaged 379.4 yards of offense and 28.8 points per game; Buffalo averaged 376.3 yards and 28.3 points. On defense, Buffalo allowed 293.1 yards and 21.2 points, while New England allowed more yards, 295.2, but fewer points at 18.8.

Last season, after yet another playoff loss to the Chiefs — an AFC championship that was tied with less than four minutes remaining — Allen meditated on what went wrong once again. “You got to not just knock,” he said. “You got to kick the door down, and we didn’t do that.”

Belichick and Brady are gone, but Vrabel and Maye will be around for a long time to come. The time is now for Buffalo to kick the door down, regardless of who’s standing on the other side.

When Cleveland Browns kicker Andre Szmyt made a 49-yard field goal with no time remaining to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-18 on Sunday afternoon, there were plenty of bettors with Bengals money-line wagers who were hurt by the result.

But it’s highly unlikely that anyone had as much on the line as Pete Tarsiewicz, who picked the Bengals as his Week 18 selection in Circa Sports’ $18.7 million NFL Survivor pool. As one of the six remaining entries, the game-winning kick cost him a chance at $3.12 million.

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The contest requires entrants to pick one NFL team each week of the season to simply win its game outright — and no team can be used more than once. Circa’s contest is unique in that it breaks out Thanksgiving and Christmas as separate weeks, so 20 correct selections are required to “survive” and make it all 18 weeks of the regular season.

This year, six entries (including Tarsiewicz’s) were still alive heading into Sunday’s games, meaning each one had an implied value of roughly $3.12 million. The $18.7 million prize pool — the largest prize pool in legal sports betting history — gets split by however many entires make it the full 20 weeks.

Tarsiewicz, a 30-something-year old married man with children living on the East Coast, was a former professional poker player and has made his primary income from daily fantasy sports and sports betting.

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This was only the second year he had entered Circa’s contest after hearing about it from a friend, and last year he flew out to Las Vegas for 24 hours to sign up. One of the multiple entries that he (and his two partners) had last season ended up making it all the way to the final week — only to select the Atlanta Falcons, and see them lose 44-38 to the Carolina Panthers in overtime as 8-point favorites.

“When I look at last year, I just have to laugh,” Tarsiewicz told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. “We didn’t know what the hell we were doing. Our strategy changed multiple times as the contest went on. We weren’t happy that we had to take the Falcons because everyone who had them available was going to be on them.”

Tarsiewicz said he hedged on the Panthers money line before the Week 18 game last year, and added another $10,000-$20,000 on Carolina +500 at halftime after the Falcons scored a touchdown late in the first half to go up 24-17 and offer better odds on some more Panthers ML exposure.

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Tarsiewicz watched the game from the comfort of his home and described his strategy going into the game as, “I had a certain amount I wanted to hedge but didn’t want to do all before the game. It sucked to lose, but I mean I was pretty well hedged there.”

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In all, 18 entries were competing for the $14.26 million prize last year, and Tarsiewicz’s was one of eight entries that went down with the Falcons. Two more lost with the Packers, resulting in eight winners of $1.78 million each.

Ahead of this season’s contest, Tarsiewicz removed one partner, replaced him with another one and had a similar result — a perfect 19-0 run in the contest, heading into the final week.

“Obviously, it’s super lucky to get the end,” he said. “But we felt more confident about strategy this year than last year.”

Two entries had selected the Minnesota Vikings (vs. the Packers), one had Atlanta Falcons (vs. the Saints), one had the Jacksonville Jaguars (vs. the Titans) and the other had the New England Patriots (vs. the Jets).

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The Vikings and Jaguars were relatively stress-free victories, while the Falcons held on for a 19-17 win over the short-handed Saints. That meant there were already four of the remaining six entries through in the early window (with the Patriots, who would later beat the Dolphins, remaining in the late window).

Much like last year, Tarsiewicz watched from the comfort of his home, but this time hedged the full amount he wanted on the Browns ML before the game. He was tempted to add more on the other side (Bengals ML) during the game, seeing how much Cincinnati was dominating everywhere except on the scoreboard, but decided against it since he had some much riding on a Bengals win already.

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He watched the game on Red Zone, but didn’t even catch the whole game, as he admitted that “once I decided I wasn’t going to hedge anymore, I was like, ‘I don’t really care about watching this game anymore.’ I used to sweat games pretty hard from my DFS days, but those days are behind me.”

He was also interrupted in the middle of the game by one of his daughters crying and so he spent some time with her. After he saw the final field goal go through the uprights, he told Yahoo Sports that his emotions were mixed.

“The result is the result,” Tarsiewicz told Yahoo Sports stoically. “I’m pretty disappointed that I don’t get the big check and get the ceremony and all that, but we hedged enough that financially it’s fine. To do it twice with my entry is hilarious to me, to go 19-1 back-to-back years, so you have feel a certain type of way. But once the decision has been made [on the pick], I’m OK with the result.”

Don’t feel too bad for Tarsiewicz, as he still came away with a nice payday and admits the pain of losing in the Circa Survivor content was mitigated by winning $1 million in the season-long Fantasy Football Players Championship.

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He spent the rest of Sunday night with his family, and when Yahoo Sports spoke with him on Tuesday, he seemed to be at peace with the situation. He plans on entering the Circa Survivor contest again next year — and hopefully getting that coveted blazer, along with a little more cash for going 20-0.

“We can’t be too upset with the result. Just no checks [this year].”

Days after the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 18 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, star tight end Travis Kelce remains undecided about his future. Kelce addressed his playing status on the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast, stressing he will take some time to see how he feels this offseason before making a decision.

Kelce, 36, said he still has “a lot of love” for football, but will see how his body responds now that he has some time to rest.

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His full comments:

“You know, I’ve talked to a few people in the facility already, having the exit meetings and everything. They know where I stand, at least right now. There’s a lot of love for the game that’s still there, and I don’t know if I’ll ever lose that.

“I don’t know. It’s a tough thing to navigate, but at the same time, if my body can heal up and rest up and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18-, 20-, 21-week run, I would do it in a heartbeat.

“I think right now it’s just finding that answer and seeing how the body feels after this game and kinda when it all settles down.”

[More on the Chiefs: Kansas City team feed]

Kelce’s brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, then asked Travis about some comments made by Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones, who said after Week 18 that he expects Travis to return for another year.

When asked about Kelce following Sunday’s game, Jones said, “He’ll be back next year.”

Kelce laughed off that quote, saying, “That’s why we love Chris. He’s very optimistic.” Kelce then very quickly transitioned from that topic, not wanting to address it anymore.

In many ways, Kelce experienced a bounce-back season in 2025. After a down year in 2024, Kelce hauled in 76 passes for 851 yards and 5 touchdowns this season. While those figures were down compared to his prime, Kelce had a higher yards per reception, more receiving yards and more receiving touchdowns compared to 2024.

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While that offered some proof Kelce can still play, it’s unclear if he’ll want to return for another year, especially with Patrick Mahomes looking at some missed time at the start of the 2026 NFL season. Mahomes tore his ACL in December, and will spend the entire offseason rehabbing from the injury. The team has not put a timeline on Mahomes’ return.

If Mahomes misses time next season, Kelce would open the year catching passes from Chiefs backups. That didn’t lead to a lot of success in Week 18, as Kelce hauled in just three catches for 12 yards in the contest. That was essentially how things went for Kelce once Mahomes got hurt. After Mahomes was lost for the season, Kelce failed to score a touchdown the rest of the way.

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In addition to his overall health, Kelce will have to take that into consideration when debating whether he wants to run it back for another season. The 36-year-old has already secured his place in Canton and has three Super Bowl rings, so there’s not much left for him to accomplish in the NFL.

If he does come back for another season, it will be because Kelce still loves the game. That’s a pretty good place to be, all things considered.