“America’s Team” is going international for the first time in 12 years.
The Dallas Cowboys will be one of the participating teams in the NFL’s first game in Rio de Janeiro next season.
Advertisement
The date and time of the game, as well as the Cowboys’ opponent, will be announced at a later date, per a league release on Thursday night. It will be played in the Maracanã Stadium, which famously hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup final.
The NFL has already played two games in Brazil, but those took place in São Paulo at Corinthians Arena, where the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 6, 2024, and the Los Angeles Chargers bested the Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 5, 2025. Both were season openers, and both were decided by one score.
The Cowboys’ game in Rio will be their first international date since 2014, when they faced off against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
It will also mark the franchise’s 11th time playing an international game, however, nine of those matchups have arrived during the preseason, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which listed those 10 prior games as such:
2014 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars | London
2001 vs. Oakland Raiders | Mexico City (preseason)
2000 vs. Atlanta Falcons | Tokyo (preseason)
1998 vs. New England Patriots | Mexico City (preseason)
1996 vs. Kansas City Chiefs | Monterrey (preseason)
MILAN — Adrian Livelten hunched over a sewing machine last March on the eve of the men’s ski jumping competition at the Nordic World Ski Championships.
The suit technician for Norway’s national ski jumping team brazenly made alterations to suits belonging to the country’s two top contenders after those suits had already passed inspection. Livelten did this in plain view of Norway ski jumping head coach Magnus Brevik, seated in a chair halfway across the room.
Advertisement
What neither Livelten nor Brevik realized at the time was that someone was recording them in secrecy from behind a curtain, someone who intended to distribute the video far and wide the following day. The damning footage shared by the anonymous whistleblower shook the sport of ski jumping, bringing out into the open the cheating that happened behind closed doors.
When officials from the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) seized suits belonging to reigning Olympic champion Marius Lindvik and fellow Norwegian Johann André Forfang, they found rules violations that initially went unnoticed during the competition. Stiffer, non-elastic thread had been sewn into the suits to pull down the crotch area during flight, increasing the surface area and creating more aerodynamic lift in a sport where inches can be the difference between medaling and missing the podium.
Norway’s Johann Andre Forfang competes at the World Championships in January. (Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/Getty Images)
(picture alliance via Getty Images)
“Probably the most shocking part was that it was Norway because they’ve always been considered one of the more standup teams,” said Johnny Spillane, the first American to medal in the sport of Nordic combined, which consists of ski jumping and cross-country skiing. “Everyone is going to push the limits. That hasn’t changed and that probably will never change, but this was deliberately altering a suit after it had been tested in order to cheat. This was the most blatant cheating I’ve heard of.”
Advertisement
The Norway cheating scandal highlighted two irrefutable facts about the crotch-obsessed sport of ski jumping on the precipice of the 2026 Winter Olympics. There is, as Finnish coach Petter Kukkonen put it last April, “a culture of cheating” in ski jumping. And the battleground between unscrupulous teams and rule-upholding regulators is often below the belt.
Male ski jumpers must wear tight-fitting suits that are no more than 4 centimeters larger than their body measurements at any point. Most national teams seek to find every millimeter they can because a bigger, baggier suit catches more wind and provides more lift during flight than a smaller one does.
Athletes chasing that competitive advantage have resorted to trickery when having their body dimensions measured prior to a competition. The more they reduce the distance between their inseam and the floor when FIS equipment controllers record their body measurements, the lower regulators will allow the crotch of their suit to hang while airborne.
Advertisement
In November 2020, Kukkonen told Finland’s leading tabloid newspaper that athletes were stuffing dish cloths and sponges in their underwear during body measuring. In a recent appearance on the Skirious Problems podcast, Austria’s Mika Vermeulen revealed that when he competed in nordic combined earlier in his career, veterans told him before his first body measuring, “It’s very important to tape your c*** back.”
Vermeulen later described ski jumpers putting modeling clay in their underwear to lower their crotch-to-floor measurement by five centimeters.
“People used to cheat a f*** ton,” Vermeulen said.
Salacious stories like those were already pushing ski jumping out of the margins and into the mainstream entering these Olympics. Then the German tabloid Bild sparked further curiosity in January when it reported that ski jumpers have worn condom-like sleeves filled with hyaluronic acid to enlarge themselves before measurement.
Advertisement
On Thursday, the eve of the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Olympics, reporters asked World Anti-Doping Agency director general Olivier Niggli about that report. Niggli said that “If anything was to come to the surface, we would look at it and see if it is doping related.”
“When I read that article, all I could do was shake my head,” USA Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined sport director Anders Johnson said. “If that is really what other people were doing previously, I can’t believe that that’s how far people have taken it.”
After Austria’s Toni Innauer won gold at the 1976 Olympics, the “Austrian effect” was born. (RDB/Getty Images)
(ullstein bild Dtl. via Getty Images)
‘You name it, people have tried it’
Cheating in ski jumping isn’t a new phenomenon. Athletes have been pushing boundaries and exploiting loopholes ever since the sport’s governing body began setting rules restricting how far they can fly.
Advertisement
In the mid-1970s, the Austrian national team unveiled suits that were highly permeable in the front but did not allow air to pass through in the back. The resulting parachute effect helped Austrian jumpers take gold and silver in the men’s large-hill event at the 1976 Winter Olympics. 17-year-old Austrian prodigy Toni Innauer set a world record the following month and then bettered it two days later.
The success of those suits inspired copycat attempts, some well-executed, others not so much. Former American ski jumper Jeff Hastings recalls an early 1980s competitor who “put a garbage bag in the back of his suit to try to get the ‘76 Austrian effect.”
“Everybody could hear him up there rustling like crazy,” Hastings said. “It wasn’t even effective but he was just trying to get a little advantage.”
Detailed rules governing the air permeability of ski jumping suits soon went into effect, but that didn’t deter athletes eager to find even the slightest competitive advantage. Retired ski jumpers have admitted to coating the back of their suits with hairspray or slathering on wood glue in an effort to reduce air flow, improve lift and fly longer.
Advertisement
“You name it, people have tried it,” Spillane said.
As the sport’s deep-pocketed superpowers stopped buying suits from third-party manufacturers and started hiring sophisticated specialists to produce them in-house, new opportunities to cheat have materialized over the past 10-15 years. Teams sought to gain an advantage by creating custom suits for athletes that exceeded their body measurement by as much as possible without resulting in a disqualification.
The ideal place to add material is where the legs converge, according to Dr. John Goff, visiting physics professor at the University of Puget Sound and author of the book “Gold Medal Physics.” The crotch area of the suit is naturally stretched wide with a jumper’s legs in a “V” position during flight. It’s also close to the body’s center of gravity, helping an athlete gain lift without sacrificing control.
“The crotch region, where the legs part, is kind of a sharp transition point,” Goff said. “If you can put some kind of material there to smooth that out, you can reduce the turbulence and increase the lift for the skier. That can have a pretty big influence on the flight.”
Advertisement
For FIS regulators seeking to prevent teams from gaining an advantage, the process starts with athletes stripping down to their underwear. Athletes must have their body dimensions measured before competitions in the presence of an FIS equipment controller, a team official and a qualified doctor or nurse.
Since 2023, those measurements have sometimes been taken with the help of a 3D body scanner. Before then, it was always a manual process. As American Nordic Combined skier and 2018 Olympian Ben Berend once detailed in a blog post, that made the crotch measurement part of this process particularly awkward.
“The process consists of standing with your feet 40 cm apart wearing nothing but underwear,” Berend wrote in 2016. “Then a metal rod is moved up as high as possible until it hits your junk. The measurement is essentially junk to floor in centimeters.”
The intrusiveness doesn’t end once the measuring process is over. Athletes also must endure what FIS described in a 2023 memo as a “visual crotch area inspection.” A supervising doctor or nurse checks the athlete “for any irregularities in the genital area” — in other words an artificial prosthesis in the athlete’s underwear that could reduce the crotch-to-floor measurement.
Advertisement
As a result of stories like the ones shared by Kukkonen and Vermeulen, the process is fraught with suspicion that national teams are finding ways to bypass the rules.
A friend recently sent Hastings a screenshot of one of the world’s top-ranked ski jumpers in mid-flight last year.
“The crotch on his suit practically came down to his knees,” Hastings said. “I’m exaggerating a little bit, but it looked like he had a diaper on.”
Between suspicious images like that one, unconfirmed gossip about which teams were cheating and the knowledge of how much difference a little extra fabric can make, Johnson admits it creates a toxic culture.
Advertisement
“If one team starts cheating, then two or three start doing it,” Johnson said. “Once you have the best nations in the world doing it, then everyone kind of has to follow suit. It just spreads like wildfire and then once it does, it’s really hard to get back.”
Marius Lindvik of Norway competes during the FIS Men’s Ski Jumping Sapporo Men’s Individual Large Hill at Okurayama Jump Stadium on January 17, 2026. (Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images)
(Kenta Harada via Getty Images)
‘Doping, just with a different needle’
The chicanery mostly occurred in secret until the anonymous whistleblower shined a spotlight on Norway’s dishonesty and turned the birthplace of ski jumping into a symbol for everything wrong with the sport. Austria, Slovenia and Poland filed formal protests against the Norwegians during the World Championships and called for their results to be annulled.
Lindvik and Forgang claimed ignorance, insisting they never would have jumped had they known their suits were rigged. When their coaches backed them, the Norwegian ski jumpers received suspensions of just three months, enabling them to return in time for the 2025-26 World Cup season and the Olympics, where the men’s competition begins Monday.
The penalty was harsher for Livelten, Brevik and Norway assistant coach Thomas Lobben, each of whom confessed to being part of the conspiracy. On Jan. 15, an independent ethics panel backed the FIS’s request for a punishment strong enough to serve as a deterrent against future cheating, suspending the trio for 18 months apiece.
“In [the panel’s] view, now is indeed the appropriate time to put down a clear marker to what is not acceptable,” the panel’s scathing ruling read.
Advertisement
For many in American ski jumping circles, the Norway cheating scandal entangled close friends. In 2022, USA Ski Jumping signed a formal partnership with the Norwegian national team for the current Olympic cycle to hold joint training camps and coaching clinics and to collaborate on sports science.
While Johnson doesn’t condone what Norway did, he also bristles at how the Norwegians have become “the scapegoat for a much broader issue within our sport.”
“There has been a lot of hypocrisy from other nations,” Johnson said. “I don’t have any personal beef with any of these teams, but it was incredibly disappointing for me to see the response from some of the nations. I think everyone needs to take a look at themselves in the mirror. No one can say they were fully clean. They can only claim they are because they didn’t get caught.”
Embarrassed by the Norway scandal, FIS has since hired new equipment control coordinators and introduced sweeping reforms for the 2025-26 season. The changes include increased use of 3D scanners for pre-event body measurements, more precisely defined rules for how suits can be cut and shaped and more training for equipment controllers who oversee pre- and post-jump inspections.
Advertisement
Harsher sanctions can now be issued for rules violations during 3D measurement or for the manipulation of a suit after it has passed inspection. Athletes disqualified for an equipment violation during a competition will receive a yellow card. A further transgression will result in a red card and suspension from the following event.
To Johnson and many others in the ski jumping community, the most notable change is one that has gone unmentioned in any FIS press release.
In the past, Johnson found that “it was much easier for FIS to discard or disqualify athletes from smaller nations because they didn’t have that political pull in the sport.” This year, highly ranked jumpers from prominent nations have been cited for equipment violations, athletes like Slovenia’s Timi Zajc, who was tied for second place at an event in Germany earlier this winter when he was disqualified for suit violation.
“This year, it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re from Austria or Slovenia or Poland or the United States,” Johnson said. “They’re enforcing the rules for everyone.”
Advertisement
As the world’s top ski jumpers prepare to showcase their talents on the Olympic stage this month, the obvious question is whether the competition will be fair. Will the threat of stricter rules and tougher punishments be enough to deter cheaters? Or will the pursuit of Olympic glory tempt some countries to try to skirt the rules?
“Going into this Olympics, I have a lot more faith and trust in the system,” Johnson said, “but I still have my reservations that teams are really going to be in compliance, that they’re not going to be trying something new.”
Amid a three-game losing streak, the Denver Nuggets have lost their fourth-leading scorer with a hamstring injury.
Peyton Watson suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain late in Wednesday’s 134-127 double-overtime loss to the New York Knicks and is expected to be sideline for an extended period of time, The Athletic’s Tony Jones reports.
Advertisement
Watson, 23, was having a breakout season for the Nuggets, averaging 14.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2 assists per game. He was also shooting 42% on 180 3-point attempts.
The news on the fourth-year guard adds to the Nuggets’ injury woes. Aaron Gordon will be sidelined for at least four to six weeks after reaggravating a strained right hamstring that has limited him to 20 games this season. Watson had replaced Gordon in the starting lineup and was averaging 21.4 points since the beginning of January.
In addition to Gordon and Watson, MVP runner-up Nikola Jokić missed 17 games with a bone bruise in his left knee. Christian Braun has appeared in only 16 games due to an ankle injury. And Jonas Valanciunas missed nearly a month with a calf strain.
Advertisement
“It’s deflating when you keep seeing people go down around you when you’re trying to build towards something,” Nuggets coach David Adelman told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps following Wednesday’s game.
Despite the injuries and losing six of its past 10 games, Denver currently holds the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference with a 33-19 record going into Saturday’s road matchup with the Chicago Bulls.
“I thought I was going to be a proud owner of the Browns but it wasn’t able to happen because I wasn’t able to take my name off of my product,” Woodson said. “It’s what made the product. It’s how I started so I wasn’t able to do that.”
Woodson ultimately opted to keep the brands rather than join the Browns, who released a short statement to FOS:
“We respect the decision by Charles and wish him well.”
Woodson never played for the Browns in his career, but he's an Ohio native who reportedly hit it off with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam in 2024. With no NFL team to help manage, Woodson will continue his post-retirement life as an NFL broadcaster and aspiring alcohol mogul.
Detroit Tigers All-Star Javier Báez has been ruled ineligible to play for Puerto Rico in the 2026 World Baseball Classic after testing positive for marijuana during the 2023 tournament, The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen reports.
Under World Baseball Softball Confederation rules, anyone testing positive for marijuana in its events is ineligible for two years. Báez tested positive in 2023, which made him ineligible to play in WBSC events from April 26, 2024, to April 26, 2026. The 2026 WBC, to be played March 5-17, takes place during that period.
Advertisement
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have been working in tandem to restore Báez’s eligibility for the 2026 tournament. But the WBSC isn’t willing to make an exception on its drug policy, according to Stavenhagen.
Báez being ruled ineligible is another setback for Puerto Rico, which has had difficulty assembling a roster for the 2026 WBC due to multiple players being denied insurance coverage because of previous injuries.
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor had coverage denied due to two surgeries on his right elbow over the past three years. Others unable to get insurance for the tournament include Houston Astros third baseman Carlos Correa, who was left off Puerto Rico’s WBC roster, which was announced Thursday.
Advertisement
With so many players unavailable, Puerto Rico reportedly considered withdrawing from the WBC.
Báez’s positive marijuana test will not result in any penalty from MLB. The league has allowed marijuana use since 2020.
The 12-year MLB veteran, 33, had a resurgent season for the Tigers in 2025, playing shortstop and center field. He was named a starter for the American League All-Star team and finished with a .257/.282/.398 slash line, 17 doubles, 12 home runs and 57 RBI.
Báez played for Puerto Rico in the 2017 and 2023 editions of the WBC. He has a Puerto Rican flag tattooed on one of his arms.
Eli Manning has once again missed out on making it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
The longtime former New York Giants quarterback fell short of making the cut into the Hall of Fame again this year, marking his second straight time falling short as one of the 15 modern-era finalists.
Manning is generally expected to eventually earn his way into the Hall of Fame, though the topic is often debated and there are plenty who think he shouldn’t. He currently ranks 11th in both career passing yards and career passing touchdowns in league history, and he won two Super Bowls during his 16 seasons with the Giants. The four-time Pro Bowler was the 2016 Walter Payton Man of the Year, too.
Manning finished with a 117-117 overall record with the Giants, however, and he was eventually replaced by then-rookie Daniel Jones during his final season with the franchise in 2019. Manning also led the NFL in interceptions three times.
Despite the areas where he may have struggled, history is on Manning’s side. He is one of six players with multiple Super Bowl MVP awards to his name. Of that group, three were first-ballot inductees. The other two, longtime New England Patriots star Tom Brady and current Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, are expected to be first-ballot entries once they are eligible.
Advertisement
The Hall of Fame is controlled by Canton’s selection committee, which is made up of a 50-person panel of media members all selected by the Hall’s board of directors and appointed to two-year terms. Each team’s media contingent gets a representative, as does the Pro Football Writers of America organization. The last 17 spots are then filled by at-large contributors. It takes at least 80% approval to get in.
Manning isn’t the only notable NFL figure who didn’t make the cut for the Hall of Fame this year. Longtime Patriots head coach Bill Belichick fell short of his bid to become a first-ballot entrant. Belichick was reportedly “puzzled” and “disappointed” by the decision during his first year of eligibility. He reportedly asked associates, “Six Super Bowls isn’t enough?” and “What does a guy have to do?” after learning of the news, which set the NFL world into a firestorm on social media.
But Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald were the definitions of first-ballot Hall of Famers.
Advertisement
The Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2026 was announced Thursday night during the NFL Honors show. The class included one of the best quarterbacks and one of the best wide receivers in league history:
QB Drew Brees
Brees checked every box to be on a short list of greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
Brees made 13 Pro Bowls, he’s second to Tom Brady in many career passing lists, including most yards (80,358) and passing touchdowns (571). He led the NFL in passing seven times, and had five 5,000-yard seasons and another 4,952-yard season. Brees led the NFL in completion percentage six times. He also helped the Saints to their only Super Bowl title at the end of the 2009 season.
Advertisement
“What an elite club we’re part of,” Brees said shortly after the Hall of Fame class was announced. “Still pretty surreal, I’d say.”
WR Larry Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald was the third pick of the 2004 NFL Draft and over the next 17 seasons, he was everything the Arizona Cardinals could ask for.
Fitzgerald was an 11-time Pro Bowler, finished second all-time to Jerry Rice with 1,432 receptions and 17,492 yards and sixth with 121 receiving touchdowns. He was also the Walter Payton Man of the Year winner in 2016. Fitzgerald was the total package at receiver, but was legendary for his excellent hands. Fitzgerald rarely had a drop in his 272 career games, including playoffs. That included a trip to and memorable touchdown in Super Bowl XLIII.
LB Luke Kuechly
The only argument against Kuechly was his longevity as concussions cut his career short. Over his eight seasons with the Carolina Panthers, he was among the best defensive players in football. He was first-team All-Pro five times, won Defensive Rookie of the Year and in his second season he was Defensive Player of the Year. His all-around ability at linebacker made him one of the best players of his era.
Advertisement
“The reason we’re here is we had great teams, great teammates and great coaches who highlighted what we did really well,” Kuechly said after the announcement.
K Adam Vinatieri
Vinatieri had some of the most memorable kicks in NFL history, including two walk-off field goals to win Super Bowls, and now he’s the rare kicker in the Hall of Fame.
Vinatieri, who set records for field goals made and attempted and points scored, with 2,673 over his 24 seasons with the Patriots and Colts, was voted into the Hall of Fame. He joins Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen as the only primary placekickers in the Hall.
Advertisement
RB Roger Craig
Craig was ahead of his time as a dual-threat running back. He was the first to have 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in a season, doing so for the 1985 San Francisco 49ers. That came a year after Craig helped the 49ers win Super Bowl XIX. He scored three touchdowns in that game. Craig played 11 seasons, eight with the 49ers, one with the Raiders and his final two with the Vikings. Craig was one of three seniors finalists for the Hall of Fame this season.
SAN FRANCISCO — When the New England Patriots hired Mike Vrabel last offseason, it was considered one of the best hires of the cycle. He had a track record of being a very effective head coach in the NFL.
But nobody expected a turnaround like the Patriots had.
Advertisement
Vrabel led New England to a stunning 14-3 record after they were 4-13 the season before, and he will be coaching in Super Bowl LX. That’s why Vrabel wasn’t on hand at NFL Honors to pick up his second NFL Coach of the Year award.
“It’s an honor to be recognized among the great coaches of our league,” Vrabel said in a video message he pretaped before the show. “Ultimately my name goes on this award, but this name belongs to a building, it belongs to a staff, and ultimately belongs to the men in the locker room who believed when they couldn’t always see it, and bought in when it wasn’t always easy.”
Vrabel was also the 2021 NFL Coach of the Year when he was leading the Tennessee Titans. Liam Coen of the Jacksonville Jaguars finished second, Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks finished third and Ben Johnson of the Chicago Bears finished fourth according to AP. Vrabel had 19 first place votes. Coen had 16.
The rest of the annual awards from the NFL Honors show will be updated as they’re announced on Thursday night:
Advertisement
Defensive Player of the Year: Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett
It took Garrett a little while to break through and win an NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.
Now he has two.
Garrett, who won DPOY two years ago, won the league’s top defensive prize again. Garrett’s award was presented by Michael Strahan, who said Garrett won unanimously. Will Anderson Jr. of the Houston Texans finished second according to Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press.
“Based on the season I had, I was hoping it was unanimous,” Garrett said backstage after being presented his award. “I think I did enough to earn it.”
Garrett, the Cleveland Browns’ star defensive end, was an easy pick. He set an NFL record with 23 sacks this season. He has 125.5 sacks in his nine NFL season and just turned 30 years old, meaning he could enter the top-five all-time list in career sacks (Chris Doleman is fifth with 150.5) within the next two seasons.
Advertisement
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Carolina Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan
McMillan, the eighth pick of last year’s NFL Draft, had a consistent, productive season for a Panthers team that won the NFC South. McMillan had 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns. McMillan beat out Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson, Saints QB Tyler Shough, Giants QB Jaxson Dart and Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka, who were the other finalists.
“To me the most humbling part of this is I know I could have never done this by myself,” McMillan said as he was presented the award. “I’m just so grateful and so blessed.”
McMillan got 41 of 50 first-place votes, easily outpacing Shough who finished second and had five first-place votes according to the AP.
Advertisement
Protector of the Year: Chicago Bears G Joe Thuney
This is a new award to recognize offensive linemen, and the first winner of it was Thuney, the versatile guard who was in his first season with the Bears after four stellar seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. Thuney has been in the NFL for 10 seasons, and he has been a Pro Bowler each of the past four seasons.
“I wanted to perform well to the guy next to me,” Thuney said after he was presented his award. “Just a lot of fun to go out there and play, and I credit my teammates for how I played.”
Thuney said it was pleased there is an award that recognizes the best offensive lineman in the NFL.
Advertisement
“It’s long overdue,” Thuney said.
Comeback Player of the Year: San Francisco 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey
McCaffrey played just four games during the 2024 season due to injuries. He came back strong, playing in all 17 games for the San Francisco 49ers and gaining 2,126 yards from scrimmage with 17 touchdowns with a huge workload all season. He had 311 carries and 102 receptions, which was impressive coming off an injury-marred season.
“This is a huge honor,” McCaffrey said as he was presented the award. “I’m so blessed to have the biggest support system on the planet.”
McCaffrey got 31 of 50 first-place votes according to AP. Detroit Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson, who got nine first-place votes, finished second.
Advertisement
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Cleveland Browns LB Carson Schwesinger
Schwesinger was a second-round pick but he was the standout among the defensive players in the rookie class. Schwesinger had 157 tackles in 16 games, while adding 2.5 sacks and two interceptions. His all-around game allowed him to beat out Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori for the award.
Offensive Player of the Year: Seattle Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Smith-Njigba had a huge breakout in his third season, leading the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards. For his big season he was awarded the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year. Smith-Njigba wasn’t on hand to accept his award at NFL Honors because he’s preparing for Super Bowl LX.
Advertisement
It was a close vote, with Smith-Njigba getting just 14 first-place votes. He barely beat Christian McCaffrey, who had 12 first-place votes. Puka Nacua, in third place, had eight first-place votes.
Smith-Njigba is the fourth receiver to win OPOY since 2019, and breaks a streak of two running backs winning the award (Christian McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley).
NFL MVP: Rams QB Matthew Stafford
Stafford won an exceptionally close vote, barely beating out Drake Maye of the New England Patriots. Stafford had 366 points, with 24 first-place votes. Maye had 361 points, with 23 first-place votes. It’s Stafford’s first NFL MVP award at the end of his 17th NFL season.
Advertisement
Walter Payton Man of the Year: Washington Commanders LB Bobby Wagner
Wagner, a 14-year veteran with the Seahawks, Rams and Commanders, was given the prestigious honor for his work on and off the field. Wagner was awarded for his community service work, which includes being an advocate for mental health and social justice reform according to the Commanders’ site.
“I didn’t think I was going to win this award. I almost didn’t come,” Wagner said as he accepted the award. “I’m glad I did.”
SAN FRANCISCO — It took a long time for Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford to win his first NFL MVP award. And when he did win, he barely won it.
Stafford won his first NFL MVP award, which was announced at the annual NFL Honors show Thursday, narrowly edging New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. Stafford led the NFL with 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns. Winning an MVP puts him even closer to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Advertisement
Stafford barely won the award. He had 366 points, with 24 first-place votes according to Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. Maye was right behind with 361 points, and 23 first-place votes. The NFL has gone to a points system for its awards voting, with first-place votes worth 10 points, second-place votes worth five, third-place votes worth three, fourth-place votes worth two and fifth-place votes worth one. Had one Stafford voter selected Maye as MVP and put Stafford second, it would have been a split award. Two voters gave Josh Allen a first-place vote, one gave Justin Herbert a first-place vote, and a change from any of those three voters to Maye would have changed the outcome. (Sam Monson of The 33rd Team claimed on X he voted for Herbert.)
Stafford also ended any speculation he might retire this season. As he wrapped up his acceptance speech, Stafford said, “I’ll see you guys next year … hopefully, I won’t be at this event and we’ll be getting ready for another game at SoFi [Stadium].”
Rams head coach Sean McVay and running back Kyren Williams celebrated Stafford’s announcement.
Stafford won in the closest MVP vote since 2003, when Peyton Manning and Steve McNair were co-winners of the award.
It’s a long time coming for Stafford, and his case is a rare one among MVPs.
Advertisement
To find the best comparison to Stafford winning his first NFL MVP award at age 37, we probably need to go back to before Super Bowl I. In 1963, Y.A. Tittle finally got his first MVP award from the Associated Press. He was already on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but before his age-37 season he hadn’t won the most prestigious MVP award. Tittle set the NFL record with 36 touchdown passes and got the trophy that had eluded him.
Stafford’s MVP case is rare, considering we need to go back more than 60 years for the proper comparison. Stafford has been consistently good since he was drafted first overall in the 2009 draft, amassing more than 64,000 passing yards and 400 touchdowns. But he had never been recognized as the best quarterback in the NFL until this season.
Stafford isn’t the oldest quarterback to win MVP. That’s Tom Brady. Stafford, Tittle and Rich Gannon are the oldest first-time MVPs, all at age 37. Gannon’s case is different, as he didn’t get a chance to be a full-time starter until he joined the Raiders late in his career. Stafford has always been a preferred starter since he was the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions, and a good one.
Advertisement
Stafford just hadn’t been recognized as the best, until he was on the back nine of his career.
Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams won his first MVP award in his 17th NFL season. (Photo by Kara Durrette/Getty Images)
(Kara Durrette via Getty Images)
Matthew Stafford fought through back injury
In August, the Rams weren’t worried about Stafford winning NFL MVP. They just wanted him to be on the field.
Stafford’s back injury was the biggest topic in the NFL for about a month. He missed practice from the start of training camp until mid-August. For weeks, every update about his health sounded ominous. At Stafford’s age, beginning the season on the field was not a sure thing.
“We’re trying to get our hands around this as well, so I don’t really have much more information other than think we’re trying some different things that are hopefully going to be in alignment with getting him back out on the field,” McVay said on Aug. 14, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.
Advertisement
And from that uneasy beginning to the season, Stafford played the best ball of his 17-year career.
From Week 4 to Week 11, Stafford opened up his lead in the MVP race by playing nearly perfect football. Over eight games, he threw for 25 touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating was 118.9. He ended up throwing 28 straight touchdowns without an interception, an NFL record.
Stafford had a couple of subpar performances in losses late in the season but it didn’t matter. He had already built a huge lead, which he needed in the end.
Stafford bucks recent MVP history
Stafford is a bit of an anomaly in recent history. He’s the first quarterback whose team didn’t win its division to take home MVP since 2008. His individual brilliance was enough to overcome the fact that the Rams finished behind the Seattle Seahawks for the NFC West championship.
Advertisement
Maye, whose Patriots won the AFC East, had a great case. He led the NFL by completing 72% of his passes and also led the NFL at 8.9 yards per attempt, which is an impressive combination. Maye had a fantastic second NFL season, but when Stafford got 31 votes for the first-team All-Pro quarterback and Maye got 18 (the same group of 50 votes for MVP and the All-Pro teams) it was a strong sign that Stafford would be the MVP front-runner.
Stafford already had a Super Bowl ring, is in the top 10 all time in passing yards and touchdowns and had plenty of accolades. No matter when Stafford decides to retire, he’ll do so with at least one MVP award as well. Though it was a very close call.
Thursday saw the arrival of all 20 rosters set to compete in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. As expected, the United States was the most star-studded, with a handful of other teams possessing the talent usually needed to make a deep run.
Team USA is the strong favorite to shake off its dramatic loss to the Japan, at +110 with BetMGM, followed by Japan (+325) and the Dominican Republic (+350). The next-closest country to that trio is Venezuela at +1400.
Advertisement
Per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, the rosters collectively feature a record 78 players who have been named to an MLB All-Star team, with 36 of them making the cut last year. Naturally, many of those are on the tournament’s top teams; the U.S., the D.R. and Venezuela collectively account for 50 of those players.
The stars will be out at the 2026 World Baseball Classic, but with some absences. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
(Mitchell Leff via Getty Images)
Here’s every single All-Star currently slated to play when the WBC begins March 5. Obviously, the term All-Star doesn’t quite mean a player is currently a star. Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Tarik Skubal are on this list, yes, but so is 44-year-old Alexei Ramírez, who made the All-Star Game once in 2014 and is still playing in the Cuban leagues.
Pitchers: David Bednar (New York Yankees), Matthew Boyd (Chicago Cubs), Clay Holmes (New York Mets), Clayton Kershaw (retired), Mason Miller (San Diego Padres), Joe Ryan (Minnesota Twins), Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh Pirates), Tarik Skubal (Detroit Tigers), Michael Wacha (Kansas City Royals), Logan Webb (San Francisco Giants)
Infielders: Alex Bregman (Chicago Cubs), Paul Goldschmidt (free agent), Bryce Harper (Philadelphia Phillies), Gunnar Henderson (Gunnar Henderson), Cal Raleigh (Seattle Mariners), Will Smith (Los Angeles Dodgers), Bobby Witt Jr. (Kansas City Royals)
Outfielders: Byron Buxton (Minnesota Twins), Roman Anthony (Boston Red Sox), Pete Crow-Armstrong (Chicago Cubs), Aaron Judge (New York Yankees)
Pitchers: Sandy Alcantara (Miami Marlins), Camilo Doval (New York Yankees), Carlos Estévez (Kansas City Royals), Cristopher Sánchez (Philadelphia Phillies), Luis Severino (Athletics), Gregory Soto (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Infielders: Junior Caminero (Tampa Bay Rays), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays), Manny Machado (San Diego Padres), Ketel Marte (Arizona Diamondbacks), Jeremy Peña (Houston Astros), Geraldo Perdomo (Arizona Diamondbacks), Carlos Santana (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Outfielders: Julio Rodríguez (Seattle Mariners), Juan Soto (New York Mets), Fernando Tatis Jr. (San Diego Padres)
Advertisement
Venezuela (12)
Pitchers: Pablo López (Minnesota Twins), Germán Márquez (free agent), Ranger Suárez (Boston Red Sox)
Infielders: Luis Arráez (San Francisco Giants), William Contreras (Milwaukee Brewers), Willson Contreras (Boston Red Sox), Maikel Garcia (Kansas City Royals), Andrés Giménez (Toronto Blue Jays), Salvador Perez (Kansas City Royals), Eugenio Suárez (Cincinnati Reds), Gleyber Torres (Detroit Tigers)
Outfielder: Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atlanta Braves)
Puerto Rico (6)
Pitchers: Edwin Díaz (Los Angeles Dodgers), Jorge López (free agent), Seth Lugo (Kansas City Royals)
Infielder: Nolan Arenado (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Advertisement
Outfielders: Willi Castro (Colorado Rockies), Heliot Ramos (San Francisco Giants)
The two players who decided the previous tournament, former teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, also won’t be filling the same roles. Ohtani will be hitting only this year in the WBC, and Trout isn’t on the U.S. roster.
