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It’s no surprise Notre Dame is miffed after being surprisingly left out of the College Football Playoff bracket Sunday. The school’s athletic director, Pete Bevacqua, told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger as much in the hours following the Fighting Irish’s snub, saying, “We feel like the playoff was stolen from our student-athletes.”

With the wound still fresh, Bevacqua, like many others, took aim at the lack of consistency with the weekly ranking shows and selection committee, which jumped Miami over Notre Dame at the last possible second, giving the Hurricanes a spot in the CFP.

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A day later, however, Bevacqua found a new target for his ire: the ACC. Bevacqua appeared on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Monday and claimed the ACC did “permanent damage” to its relationship with Notre Dame, declaring that it pushed for Miami to secure a spot in the CFP bracket.

“We were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports. … They have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”

Patrick then asked Bevacqua to clarify that final comment, which led to the following response from the Notre Dame athletic director:

“We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami, not by Miami, Miami has every right to do that. But it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us.”

Throughout the interview, Bevacqua made sure to express he wasn’t upset with Miami or any other ACC team. It was the conference’s alleged actions that have him angry.

ACC responds

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips issued a statement in response to Bevacqua’s comments Monday afternoon.

“The University of Notre Dame is an incredibly valued member of the ACC, and there is tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution,” Phillips’ statement reads. “With that said, when it comes to football, we have a responsibility to support and advocate for all 17 of our football-playing member institutions, and I stand behind our conference efforts to do just that leading up to the College Football Playoff Committee selections on Sunday.

“At no time was it suggested by the ACC that Notre Dame was not a worthy candidate for inclusion in the field. We are thrilled for the University of Miami while also understanding and appreciating the significant disappointment of the Notre Dame players, coaches and program.”

Notre Dame outraged over CFP exclusion

As Bevacqua also pointed out, while many different Notre Dame sports play in the ACC, Notre Dame football does not full-time. Though it does play multiple ACC football games per season.

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It remains one of the only big-name teams without an official conference. The university has faced criticism for that decision, as Notre Dame cannot play for a conference championship due to … not being in a conference. Winning a conference could have gone a long way toward Notre Dame getting into the CFP, but it wasn’t an option for the program.

Losing a conference championship might also impact a team’s ranking, though that didn’t seem to matter much following Alabama‘s loss to Georgia on Saturday in the SEC championship. Despite losing by multiple touchdowns, Alabama jumped Notre Dame to make the CFP.

Bevacqua still couldn’t understand why that was the case Monday.

Bevacqua also reiterated many of the points he expressed to Yahoo Sports on Sunday, saying he doesn’t understand how the selection committee made the decision to snub Notre Dame and claiming the university had the rug pulled out from under it.

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He also spoke about the team’s decision to decline a bowl game invite following the CFP snub, saying it came down to Notre Dame’s captains.

Despite a fantastic season, in which the team went 10-2, Notre Dame will not take part in a bowl game. It’s an unfortunate result considering Notre Dame — despite the CFP snub — remains one of the best teams in the nation.

But it’s clear the snub did damage to both the university and its players. And it might have even caused a rift between Notre Dame and the ACC, which could lead to some unpleasantness when the Fighting Irish’s other sports teams gear up for conference games.

Sorry, Florida! Tough break, Kansas! Better luck next year, North Carolina!

History suggests you’ve already been eliminated from national title contention.

Those teams are each outside the top dozen in Monday’s newly released Week 6 AP Top 25, a poll that has been a surprisingly accurate tool when predicting men’s college basketball’s eventual national champion. The past 21 national champions and 35 of the past 36 were each ranked in the top 12 in their respective season’s Week 6 AP poll.

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Since the 2003-04 season, the average Week 6 ranking of the eventual national title winner has been 4.9. As former ESPN college basketball writer John Gasaway was the first to note, no other week during the season has been a better barometer, not even the polls that come out in late February or early March.

The average preseason rank of the past 21 eventual national champions has been 10.0. The last 21 national champions have had an average ranking of 5.5 in the final AP poll before the NCAA tournament begins.

The last time a team outside the top 12 in Week 6 made a national championship run, freshman Carmelo Anthony was leading Jim Boeheim to his lone title at Syracuse. The late-blooming 2002-03 Orange didn’t enter the AP Top 25 until mid-January but caught fire during the second half of the season.

Before that, you have to go all the way back to Danny Manning’s 1987-88 Kansas team to find another national champion that didn’t crack the Week 6 AP top 12. Those 11-loss Jayhawks earned the nickname “Danny and the Miracles” when they went from a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament to winning the national title.

What’s so special about the Week 6 AP poll? Why has it outperformed other polls when seeking to identify the team that will soon be climbing ladders and cutting down nets?

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It’s easy to explain why the Week 6 poll is more predictive than the Week 1-5 iterations. By early December, most high-majors have played at least a few games against fellow power-conference programs. There is more data available to help separate contenders and pretenders than there previously was in November.

Take Kentucky, which began the season at No. 9 but has since tumbled out of the Top 25. The Wildcats have yet to defeat anyone with a pulse, falling to Louisville, Michigan State and North Carolina before their own fans booed them early and often in Nashville during a humiliating 94-59 loss to Gonzaga.

Conversely, top-ranked Arizona, second-ranked Michigan and fourth-ranked Iowa State have so far outperformed expectations. The Wildcats boast victories over the likes of UConn, Florida, UCLA and Auburn. The Wolverines annihilated Gonzaga by 40 points to win the prestigious Players Era tournament title in late November. The Cyclones demolished previous No. 1 Purdue on Saturday at venerable Mackey Arena.

The more vexing question is why the Week 6 poll has proven as reliable or more than AP voters’ late-season evaluations. In theory, three more months of games should provide a richer understanding of which teams are truly elite. In reality, many of the teams that prove themselves national-championship caliber in November and December never drop out of the AP top 10 the rest of the season.

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UConn’s juggernaut 2024 national title team never fell out of the AP top five after Week 6. Nor did fellow recent champions Baylor in 2021, Virginia in 2019 or Villanova in 2018. Last year’s Florida team rose to No. 9 in the AP poll by Week 6 and then essentially kept on climbing the rest of the season.

Which team this season is most likely to go from outside the top 12 this week to hoisting a championship trophy at the end of the season?

One potential threat is 19th-ranked Kansas, which is 7-3 with victories over Tennessee, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Missouri despite having projected No. 1 pick Darryn Peterson for just three games so far this season. If Peterson can stay healthy, he can carry the offense for a team that already has shown a high ceiling defensively.

Don’t discount reigning national champion Florida either. The 18th-ranked Gators returned every frontcourt rotation player and restocked their backcourt via the transfer portal. Florida lost by a single point at undefeated Duke last Tuesday despite Xaivian Lee enduring a nightmarish 1-for-10 shooting night. If the Gators can get better shooting and playmaking out of Lee, they’re still capable of contending in the SEC and nationally.

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Undefeated Vanderbilt is the highest-rated team in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings that is outside the top 12 in the latest AP poll. The Commodores, eighth in KenPom but 15th according to AP voters, have clobbered Saint Mary’s, VCU and SMU but have yet to face a fellow Top 25 team.

BetMGM lists Florida and Kansas among its dozen national title favorites. North Carolina (No. 14), Illinois (13), Arkansas (17), Vanderbilt and St. John’s (22) are not far behind.

Those bets are each at least 20-to-1 long shots. If any of them come through, it will mean defying 20-plus years of history.

Jauan Jennings thinks that Shelby Harris is leaving something out.

Jennings responded to criticism from the Cleveland Browns defensive tackle on Monday after an incident between Jennings and the Browns defense earlier this month. That came on the heels of Jennings smacking Carolina Panthers safety Tre’Von Moehrig earlier this season, too.

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“He said some things, so why he ain’t saying what he said?” Jennings said of Harris, via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner. “I do know it ain’t that bad. That’s what I do know. I’m just going to keep it to myself of what I said, but I know it wasn’t that bad and he knows that.”

Jennings walked up to Moehrig after the San Francisco 49ers’ 20-9 win over the Panthers last month and smacked him in the helmet twice. Moehrig was suspended for a single game following that incident after video surfaced of him punching Jennings in the crotch earlier in the game. Jennings was not penalized.

The next week, during the 49ers’ 26-8 win over the Browns, Jennings was spotted exchanging words with the Cleveland defense. While there was no physical incident like with Moehrig, Harris called Jennings out with some very strong words postgame.

“He’s a hoe, and I want that known. Like, I see why he got punched in the nuts,” Harris said. “He said some things that you should not say to another man, ever. But like I don’t respect it ‘cause you said that then run behind your O-line. That’s some real soft s**t. … I see exactly why they punched him in the nuts. I’m surprised nobody punched him in the jaw yet.”

Though he doesn’t sound willing to engage much further, Jennings has clearly upset quite a few people across the league in just a matter of weeks.

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Jennings has 458 receiving yards and five touchdowns so far this season, his fifth in the league. The 49ers will enter Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans with a 9-4 record, and are coming off their bye week following a three-game win streak. Though they are still in third in the NFC West standings, the 49ers are not out of the division race yet and are on pace to secure a playoff spot for the first time since their Super Bowl run during the 2023 campaign.

Desmond Bane’s decision to launch a ball at OG Anunoby is going to cost him.

The NBA fined Bane $35,000 on Monday, one day after he launched a ball at Anunoby during the Orlando Magic’s 106-100 loss to the New York Knicks. The move resulted in a small altercation at Madison Square Garden and a technical foul.

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Midway through the fourth quarter of that contest, Bane was chasing down Anunoby on a fast break. While Jalen Suggs appeared to block Anunoby at the rim, both guys went tumbling down under the basket. Bane came running up behind, grabbed the ball and launched it at Anunoby.

It wasn’t just a little toss, either. Bane, who wasn’t falling out of bounds himself, wound up and fired the ball at Anunoby’s back hard before pointing at the officials as if the ball was out on Anunoby.

Anunoby got up and shoved Bane in the chest, but the two were quickly separated. Bane was hit with a technical foul, and the game continued on.

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This marks the second such incident with Bane in as many months. Bane was ejected from the team’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks in early November after he launched a ball toward Onyeka Okongwu’s head. That one appeared far less conspicuous, but resulted in him getting ejected for both a flagrant foul and an ensuing technical.

Bane finished with 16 points on Sunday in the loss. The 27-year-old is averaging 18.3 points, 4.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game this season, his first with the Magic.

Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 30 points and nine assists in the win, which pushed them to 13-1 at home this season. Anunoby finished with 21 points and seven rebounds, and Josh Hart added 17 points and 12 rebounds.

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Suggs led the Magic with 17 points on Sunday. Paolo Banchero added 16 points, too. Orlando lost star Franz Wagner in the first quarter due to an ankle injury, which is expected to sideline him for multiple weeks.

The Magic, now 14-10, will take on the Miami Heat next on Tuesday night.

Until Monday morning, there was serious doubt as to whether Christian Pulisic would even be in uniform for AC Milan’s Serie A match at Torino. Not only did the American attacker overcome illness to pull on a kit, he came off the bench in the second half and scored twice in a 10-minute span as Milan came from behind for a 3-2 victory.

Pulisic entered in the 66th minute, scored the equalizer in the 67th, then posted the winner 10 minutes later for the visitors, who ran their Serie A unbeaten streak to 13 and claimed first place on goal differential over Napoli. The Pennsylvania native has scored seven league goals in nine appearances and nine goals across 12 matches in all competitions.

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Pulisic had missed last weekend’s home victory over Lazio with a minor leg injury before returning for a brief appearance Thursday in the Coppa Italia rematch with the Roman club.

A fever and flu-like symptoms threw his availability Monday into question, but after being cleared to play early in the day, he made an immediate impact.

According to Stats Perform, he is the third U.S. national team player this century to score multiple goals as a sub in a European top-five league (England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France). The others were Charlie Davies (Sochaux/France) in 2009 and Folarin Balogun (Monaco/France) last year.

On his first goal, Pulisic settled Alexis Saelemaekers’ left-side cross and slid a left-footed shot from eight yards into the far corner.

Ten minutes later, he glided unmarked into the heart of the penalty area as Samuele Ricci crossed from the right side. With another left-footer, Pulisic one-timed a 10-yard shot into the right corner.

In league play, he leads Milan in goals, two ahead of Rafael Leão, and is tied with three others for most assists (two).

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In his third season in Italy since leaving Chelsea, Pulisic has recorded 30 goals in 79 league appearances and 41 in 112 overall.

Pulisic’s form at Milan this season bodes well for the U.S. national team, which will reconvene in late March for friendlies against Belgium and Portugal — the last camp before the World Cup squad is finalized in May.

Pulisic was limited to 48 minutes over two friendlies in the October international window because of injuries and missed last month’s window to focus on his fitness.

With the World Cup draw — aka FIFA’s gratuitous circus — complete and the next training camp three-plus months away, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino will put most of his immediate efforts into evaluating players competing for clubs on both sides of the Atlantic.

And as the moment for selecting next summer’s squad inches closer, Pochettino is drawing from an American coach — who decades ago faced long odds in a different international sporting arena — in composing his 26-man roster.

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“I was watching ‘Miracle’ and I listened from the coach when he said, ‘We don’t need the best players; we need the right players to make a team a strong team,’” Pochettino said, echoing the message of Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, about assembling the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, which won the gold medal.

“Good and right,” Pochettino added, “are completely different.”

A first-time national team coach, Pochettino has a finite player pool. This isn’t Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain, where talent is purchased to fit a coach’s needs. With a national team, what Pochettino sees is what he gets. And from what he has, he must make the most of it through, not just talent, but chemistry.

Things have come together nicely in recent months and, with a five-game unbeaten streak against World Cup-bound teams, confidence and optimism is swelling. Now comes Pochettino’s time to narrow focus and think about which players, regardless of club affiliation and past accomplishments, are right for the World Cup campaign.

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With Major League Soccer entering the offseason and Mexico’s Liga MX nearing its winter pause, Pochettino will, for the time being, concentrate exclusively on his European-based players in league play and continental competitions.

On Friday night, after attending the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Pochettino flew to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Saturday’s MLS Cup. He watched one serious World Cup roster hopeful (Sebastian Berhalter) and two fringe candidates (Brian White and Tristan Blackmon) from the Vancouver Whitecaps lose to Inter Miami, which was loaded with Pochettino’s Argentine compatriots. White assisted on the equalizer early in the second half.

With the season over, the three Whitecaps and at least a dozen other MLS players in the U.S. player pool will not return to competitive play until February. Some will start early in the month for the CONCACAF Champions Cup and others will debut late in the month for the start of the 2026 regular season.

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Either way, they will need to hit the ground running to make an impression before Pochettino selects his training camp roster for the Belgium and Portugal friendlies in late March in Atlanta — the last get-together before he selects his World Cup squad in late May.

In Europe over the weekend …

Injuries sidelined forward Folarin Balogun (Monaco), midfielder-defender Tanner Tessmann (Olympique Lyonnais) and midfielders Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough) and Johnny Cardoso (Atletico Madrid).

Antonee Robinson, who hasn’t played for the U.S. team in more than a year, continues his recovery from a knee ailment that has kept him off Fulham’s gameday squad for two months.

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England

Leeds midfielder Brendan Aaronson was involved in a wild one against Liverpool, entering in the 65th minute and assisting on Anton Stach’s 75th-minute goal to cap a two-goal comeback. After the visitors went back ahead in the 80th, Leeds tied it again deep in stoppage time.

Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams served a yellow-card suspension and missed a 0-0 draw with Chelsea. Center back Chris Richards went the distance as fourth-place Crystal Palace won at Fulham, 2-1.

Striker Haji Wright returned from a three-game injury absence, entering in the 75th minute of front-running Coventry City’s 3-0 loss at Ipswich Town, a result that ended a five-game winning streak.

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Striker Josh Sargent ended a 15-game scoring rut for club and country, tallying on a diving header in the 11th minute of Norwich City’s 3-2 loss at Watford. It was the sixth league goal for Norwich, which sits second to last in the 24-team league. Forward Patrick Agyemang played 90 minutes in Derby County’s 3-1 loss to Leicester City.

Italy

Having recovered from a minor leg injury that forced him to miss last weekend’s Serie A match, Christian Pulisic was “dead in bed” over the weekend with a fever and flu-like symptoms. Fortunately, he was cleared to join his AC Milan teammates for Monday’s match at Torino. With Milan down 2-1, Pulisic entered the match in the 66th minute, found the equalizer in the 67th, and netted the winner 10 minutes later.

Midfielder Weston McKennie (90 minutes) provided a fine assist on Juventus’ second-half equalizer, but Napoli prevailed, 2-1.

Yunus Musah was left on the bench for Atalanta’s 3-1 loss at Hellas Verona.

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Netherlands

In his second consecutive start, Ricardo Pepi scored again and logged 90 minutes for first-place PSV Eindhoven during a 2-0 victory at Heerenveen. A substitute most of the season, Pepi (five league goals) is bolstering his prospects of becoming one of Pochettino’s top three strikers along with Balogun and Wright.

Right back Sergiño Dest made his seventh straight 90-minute appearance for PSV, which, at 13-1-1, has won nine straight in the league and is unbeaten in 14 in a row overall.

France

Center back Mark McKenzie remains a fixture for Toulouse, going the distance in a 1-0 victory over Strasbourg, while Tim Weah went 90 in third-place Olympique Marseille’s 1-0 defeat at Lille.

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Germany

Coming off an impressive showing at U.S. camp in November, Gio Reyna made his second consecutive Bundesliga start for Mönchengladbach in a 1-0 victory at Mainz. Teammate Joe Scally, a right back, played 90 minutes.

In a match featuring Americans on either side, defender Noahkai Banks (90 minutes) and Augsburg got the better of midfielder Malik Tillman (81) and Bayer Leverkusen, 2-0. Midfielder James Sands went 73 minutes in St. Pauli’s 1-1 draw at Köln, while in the second division, left wing back John Tolkin was replaced at halftime of Holstein Keil’s 1-1 draw at Braunschweig.

Others

In Scotland, center back Auston Trusty logged another 90 in Celtic’s 2-1 loss to Hearts, spoiling Wilfried Nancy’s coaching debut following his departure from the Columbus Crew. … Club América winger Alex Zendejas is on break between Liga MX’s split seasons.

A battered Kansas City Chiefs offensive line took another big hit Sunday night.

On the first play from scrimmage against the Houston Texans, starting left tackle Wanya Morris went down with a knee injury. Morris clutched his left knee after falling on a run play. He remained down on the field in obvious pain as his teammates watched on in concern. He eventually limped off the field with the aid of two athletic trainers, unable to put weight on his left leg.

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He didn’t return to the game, and the Chiefs fell 20-10 in a costly loss.

On Monday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Morris will be out the rest of the season with a knee injury.

Morris is not Kansas City’s regular starting left tackle. A third-year pro selected by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft, he was making his first start of the season Sunday night.

Regular starter and rookie first-round draft pick Josh Simmons was placed on injured reserve last week with a wrist injury that required surgery. He’ll be sidelined at a minimum of four of Kansas City’s final five regular-season games, Sunday’s included. The Chiefs also took the field without veteran right tackle Jawaan Taylor (triceps/knee) and Pro Bowl right guard Trey Smith (ankle), who were both inactive for Sunday’s game.

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Rookie Esa Pole, who had previously never played an NFL snap and wasn’t listed on Kansas City’s online depth chart prior to Sunday’s game, took Morris’ place at left tackle protecting Patrick Mahomes’ blind side.

Pole initially joined the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent this offseason, then joined the New York Jets when he didn’t make Kansas City’s 53-man roster. The Jets released Pole in October, and the Chiefs re-signed him when Simmons went on injured reserve.

Suddenly, Pole was charged with protecting Mahomes’ blind side as the Chiefs fight to make the playoffs.

Brooks Koepka’s time with LIV Golf may be coming to an end.

Koepka, according to Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter, may not play in the upcoming LIV season despite being under contract through the 2026 campaign. Koepka was one of the biggest names to make the jump from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf when it launched in 2022, though he’s yet to sign a new deal with the Saudi Arabian-backed venture.

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LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil was asked about Koepka’s future, and declined to say much.

“I know you’re not going to want to hear this one, just the individual players, and this goes back to our policy, we’re just going to run it through,” O’Neil said. “So, we haven’t made any announcements on players, but he is signed for 2026.”

If he were not to play the 2026 LIV season, Koepka would start the clock on his potential return to the PGA Tour. Former LIV Golf players have to wait a full year after their last LIV Golf competition in order to return to the Tour. If he does not play on the LIV tour this season, Koepka could conceivably return to the PGA Tour sometime around August 2026.

Other big LIV Golf names have recently either struck new deals with LIV Golf or are engaged in contract talks. Dustin Johnson reportedly signed a new deal earlier this fall, and Bryson DeChambeau said earlier this summer that he hopes to reach a new deal soon. His current contract, which is reportedly worth more than $100 million, ends after the 2026 season, too.

Koepka criticized LIV Golf pretty openly last season. Ahead of LIV Golf Miami in April, he said bluntly that he had “hoped it would have been a little bit further along.” A month before that, Koepka was asked about rumors that he was looking to leave the league. Fred Couples said that Koepka told him he wanted back on the PGA Tour, and he didn’t exactly shut that down.

“I’ve got a contract obligation out here to fulfill, and then we’ll see what happens,” Koepka said at LIV Golf Singapore. “I don’t know where I’m going, so I don’t know how everybody else does.”

If Koepka does indeed skip the LIV Golf season and ride out his contract in 2026, his immediate playing options would be rather limited. He is still eligible to play in all four of the major championships, something he earned due to his win at the PGA Championship in 2023. Koepka is also a DP World Tour member, so he could go compete on the European circuit.

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If and when he does return to the PGA Tour, he would also likely face disciplinary action of some kind.

Koepka has won nine times on the PGA Tour in his career. He missed the cut at three of the four major championships last season, and finished T12 at the U.S. Open. That marked his only top-15 finish at a major championship since he won at Oak Hill Country Club in 2023. Koepka, who previously held the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings, currently sits at No. 245 in the world.

Koepka has won five times individually with LIV Golf. He’s the captain for Smash GC. The 2026 season will start in Saudi Arabia in February.

The New England Patriots–Baltimore Ravens game was flexed to Sunday Night Football in Week 16, while the Cincinnati Bengals–Miami Dolphins game will move to the early window, the NFL announced.

The Patriots lead the AFC at 11-2 and are on a 10-game winning streak. The Ravens are 6-7 and were on a five-game winning streak before their Thanksgiving loss to the Bengals. After Sunday’s loss to the Steelers, the Ravens have dropped two straight games against divisional opponents.

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Sunday night’s matchup will have playoff and seeding implications for both teams and will feature a quarterback battle between New England’s Drake Maye and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson. Maye has thrown for 3,412 yards, 23 touchdowns and six interceptions in his second season. He has emerged as one of the favorites to win MVP.

Jackson has won the MVP award twice and was the runner-up last season, but he is having a down season while dealing with multiple injuries. He’s thrown for 2,060 yards, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. He has also run for 307 yards, which is on pace for a career low.

The Bengals are 4-9 and the Dolphins are 6-7. Both teams face nearly impossible odds of making the playoffs.

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Charvarius Ward has entered concussion protocol for a third time this season, just weeks after he said his second concussion made him consider quitting football.

Colts head coach Shane Steichen announced the news Monday. Per the Colts, Ward reported concussion symptoms after Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars and remained in protocol as of Monday. It’s not clear when or how he sustained the injury that placed him in protocol. Ward did not speak with reporters Monday.

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Steichen didn’t offer much detail regarding his injury, but said this when asked if he was concerned about Ward’s repeated concussions:

“Yeah, I think it’s always concerning when you have that many concussions,” Steichen said. “He’s in the protocol, like I said. We’ll work through it with him and we’ll go from there.”

Ward’s previous concussion sidelined him for 5 games

That concern is exacerbated considering Ward said Nov. 21 his second concussion of the season was a “real-deal traumatic injury.”

Ward first sustained a concussion this season in Week 1 against the Dolphins. He described that injury as one that felt like “a little migraine.” He missed Week 2 against the Broncos before returning for a Week 3 game against the Titans.

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Ward sustained his second concussion of the season in pregame warmups ahead of Week 6 when teammate Drew Ogletree collided with him during a drill without pads or helmets. That concussion knocked Ward out cold.

Ward missed five games with the brain injury.

He described ahead of his Week 12 return a harrowing experience that included vomiting and dizziness that prompted him to consider quitting football.

“The one I had a second time, I was throwing up, getting dizzy,” Ward said Nov. 21. “I was getting dizzy for like a month. That was like a real-deal traumatic injury. A lot of emotions.”

Ward went on to talk about the inadvertent collision with Ogletree, a 260-pound tight end who outweighs him by more than 60 pounds.

“It’s crazy,” Ward continued. “One moment I’m going for the ball. The next moment I’m knocked out and laying on my back and being carted off the field in a wheelchair. …

“It was crazy. It definitely scared me, man. I was knocked out. I’ve never been knocked out. I had a black eye and everything. I was kind of doubting if I was gonna play football again. It was that scary. ‘Cause I was thinking of my life outside of football too. It was crazy.”

Ward, 29, is an eighth-year NFL veteran playing his first season with the Colts. He’s been a full-time starter since his second NFL season with the Chiefs and made a Pro Bowl and was named All-Pro in 2023 while playing for the 49ers.

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The severity of his latest concussion isn’t clear, nor is his timeline to return to the field. And considering his past concussion experiences and comments, it’s fair to wonder about his football future.