One weekend away from championship Sunday. After a fairly entertaining super wild-card weekend featuring two tripleheaders on Saturday and Sunday, a little bit of NFL playoff normalcy returns this weekend, with four matchups spread across two days. In the NFC, the Rams and their vicious D hopes to shut down the No. 1 seeded Packers at Lambeau Field. The Rams […]

Covers the Big 12 Joined ESPN.com in 2011 Graduate of Washington & Lee University BEREA, Ohio — Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said he’s on track to rejoin his team Thursday after missing Cleveland’s playoff victory Sunday night over the Steelers with COVID-19. “I don’t plan on doing that again,” said Stefanski, who watched the game from his basement, isolated from […]

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense will be closer to full strength for their Divisional Round matchup against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night. Linebacker Devin White and defensive lineman Steve McLendon were activated from the reserve/COVID list on Monday, the team announced. Both White and McLendon have missed the Bucs’ last two games while on the list, including this […]

President Donald Trump will present one of the nation’s highest civilian honours to Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots. The presentation of the presidential medal of freedom is expected Thursday, a White House official confirmed on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. Trump and Belichick have known each other for […]

Alabama and Ohio State have both reached the College Football Playoff in very different ways. The Crimson Tide navigated 10 games in the Southeastern Conference before winning their conference title games. There were some minor hiccups along the way with coach Nick Saban testing positive and a close call against Florida. An easy win against Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl […]

PITTSBURGH — Maybe the Cleveland Browns ought to give JuJu Smith-Schuster a game ball.  After all, the brash Pittsburgh Steelers receiver now has a place in Browns lore for contributing the perfect bulletin board material to accompany the monumental upset that took place on Sunday night at Heinz Field.  “The Browns is the Browns,” Smith-Schuster said as the matchup loomed, dismissing the AFC North rival as an afterthought. No, […]

As dominant as Alabama has been under Nick Saban for the last 14 seasons, the advent of game-changing quarterbacks has only been a recent development in his Crimson-hued dynasty. Before Saban adapted the modern college football offense with offensive coordinators Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian, his teams relied on slow tempo, a strong running game and an absolute chokehold on […]

The 32 things we learned from the 2020 NFL season's wild-card weekend: 1. The league billed its first postseason opening with consecutive tripleheaders "Super Wild Card Weekend." "Redemption Road" or "Football Exorcism" would have worked just as well. 1a. The Cleveland Browns won their first playoff game in 26 years. 1b. The Buffalo Bills won their first playoff game in 25 years. […]

The Cleveland Browns vented 18-years of pent-up playoff misery as they clinched their first postseason victory since 1994 with a stunning 48-37 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers to set up a Divisional Round matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs.  A staggering opening saw Karl Joseph recover a botched snap in the end zone on the first play of the game […]

Six teams learned their first-round position in the 2021 NFL Draft during wild-card weekend. Those teams all lost in the opening round of the expanded postseason. With 14 teams — seven from each conference — now making the playoffs, the wild-card loser with the worst record holds the 19th overall pick in the draft rather than the previous No. 21 selection. In 2021, […]