ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia football transfer Rodarius “Rara” Thomas was arrested for blocking the door to a campus dorm room and causing injuries to a 17-year-old girl during an argument, a police report says.

The incident resulted in a felony charge of false imprisonment against the 20-year-old Thomas, who recently transferred to Georgia from Mississippi State.

He was one of State’s top receivers and had been projected to take a prominent role in Georgia’s offense when the team goes for its third straight national title.

Thomas also was charged with misdemeanor battery/family violence for allegedly bruising the girl’s bicep and causing abrasions to her shins, according to the police report obtained Tuesday by the Athens Banner-Herald.

The girl told campus officers she and Thomas lived together in Mississippi and in his native Alabama, and that they were planning to reside together in an Athens apartment.

Thomas was released on $1,850 bond Monday, about eight hours after being taken into custody. He denied wrongdoing in a post to his personal Facebook page.

“Y’all know I’m not that type of person,” Thomas wrote. “I know better than that my momma taught me well! I’ll never EVER put my hands on a female!!’

According to the police report, Thomas and the girl were arguing over an unidentified male she was following on social media. She said she wanted to leave, but Thomas blocked the door and told her she couldn’t. He also prevented her from making a call to her mother, the report said.

That’s when the argument became physical, she told police. Thomas grabbed her right arm, bruising her biceps, before she started scratching, kicking and hitting Thomas to get him off her.

She said Thomas pushed her and she fell “face first into the bed leaving bruises and abrasions on her shins.” When she tried to get up, he pushed her again, causing her to fall back first on the bed, causing an abrasion on the side of her left leg.

Thomas gave a different version to police, saying the girl began “choking” and hitting him and that she would not let him leave. He told police he “placed her on the bed softly while she was hitting him,” and advised her to settle down before he went to talk to a friend on the phone.

Thomas remains a member of the Georgia football program, but could face discipline that includes a suspension.

“While we are limited in what we can say about the incident, the report is disappointing and not reflective of the high standards we have for our student-athletes on and off the field,” the athletic department said in a statement released Monday.

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To Mikaela Shiffrin goes the crown, literally and figuratively. 

The 27-year-old Shiffrin broke fellow American Lindsey Vonn’s record for World Cup victories by a female Alpine skier with her 83rd win on Tuesday, in a giant slalom race in Kronplatz, Italy. The winner of this race gets a large gold crown, and Shiffrin laughed as it was placed on her head during the victory ceremony. 

‘It’s exciting. I’m happy. I’m proud. I’m thankful for the team and all the work we all do,’ Shiffrin said. ‘It’s things I’ve said so many times now. It’s all still true today as it was the first race I ever did and the first win I ever had. It’s a feeling I can’t explain.’

She will now set her sights on the all-gender record of 86 victories, set by Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark. Shiffrin could equal that mark as early as this weekend, with another giant slalom in Kronplatz on Wednesday and two slaloms in the Czech Republic this weekend. 

Shiffrin got the women’s record just over two weeks after matching it – continuing an incredible run of form that has left her towering over her peers in the sport. This was her ninth World Cup victory of the season, and her seventh win in her last 11 races.

And she did it in dominant fashion, winning both runs of the giant slalom in Kronplatz. When she crossed the finish line after the second run, Shiffrin briefly bent over before standing up and pumping her fist at the crowd.

Shiffrin finished 0.45 seconds ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami, a significant margin. The Swiss skier and Italy’s Federica Brignone, who were second and third respectively, applauded Shiffrin and then exchanged hugs with her. 

‘Everything went quiet and I just pushed as hard as I could every turn,’ Shiffrin said. ‘It was pretty amazing to come to the finish and see that I was quite fast.’

A four-time overall World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Shiffrin matched Vonn’s record with a GS win in Slovenia on Jan. 8. She was second in her first attempt at the record, a slalom in Flachau, Austria, two days later, and flirted with it over the weekend on the 2026 Olympic course in Cortina, Italy, finishing fourth in a downhill Friday and seventh in both a second downhill Saturday and a super-G on Sunday.

But Shiffrin’s best chances were always going to come this week, with two giant slalom races and another two in slalom. Of Shiffrin’s World Cup victories, 51 have come in slalom and another 17 in giant slalom.

‘Speed (events) for me, it’s like a reset in my mind. It’s a different kind of challenge. It’s a place where I know I can win but I don’t expect to win. Ever,’ Shiffrin said, referring to the races in Cortina. ‘So coming here, this, No. 83, it was almost completely out of my mind today. It’s like we’re just restarting the season. It’s kind of nice.

‘It’s very fitting that it would come in the moment when I am actually thinking about it the least and don’t expect it at all,’ she added. 

But Shiffrin served notice with her blistering first run that history was in the making. 

She has been unbeatable out of the gate this season, and this race was no different as she opened up a lead of 0.20 seconds in the first section of the Erta course, which was set by her coach, Mike Day.

Shiffrin slowed a bit on the next two sections before closing strong and fast. She gave a couple small pumps of her fist as she crossed the finish line, then waited to see if her lead would hold up. It did, and Shiffrin took a 0.13 lead over Gut-Behrami into the second run.

As the last skier to go on the second run, Shiffrin said she watched Gut-Behrami’s run. And immediately wished she hadn’t. 

‘I was thinking, `Why did I watch? I can’t go that fast!” Shiffrin said, laughing.

But she got out of the gate quickly again, then flew through the course with what has become her signature aggressive elegance. She doesn’t tame the course so much as she molds her body to it, flowing from one gate to the next. 

‘I was a little wild in some spots but it felt so clean,’ Shiffrin said. ‘I thought I wouldn’t be faster, but thought I could maybe be close. Somehow I got to the finish and it was quite good.’

Historic, to be precise. 

86 is the next record in sight

Next up now is Stenmark’s record, and Shiffrin could get to 86 wins in short order. After Wednesday’s race in Kronplatz, there are slaloms Saturday and Sunday in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic.

“I definitely don’t feel like I have a deadline,” Shiffrin said in an interview provided by her publicist ahead of the Jan. 10 slalom in Flachau, Austria, her first race after tying Vonn.

“I’m not writing, taking notes on what my next goal is. That’s not why I keep going out and train,” she added. “And hopefully that means if I get to the next record, it’s not all just going to come falling down. Hopefully my motivation is not going to just stop. I really hope that I don’t feel like, `That’s it’ and I don’t want to keep going and pushing and trying.”

But there will always be something else to chase. Already, there has been talk about whether – or when — Shiffrin can get to 100 World Cup victories, a mark that once seemed unfathomable.

Vonn, who retired in 2019, told a German newspaper last month that Shiffrin ‘is the best skier that has ever lived, in my eyes.’

‘Reaching this milestone is an incredible accomplishment, one that I hope Mikaela is able to savor,” Vonn said in a statement provided by U.S. Ski and Snowboard. ‘As Americans, we have been able to produce incredible athletes, and I am excited to see who Mikaela will inspire to continue to push the limits of our sport. Congratulations on raising the bar for all skiers to come.” 

For Shiffrin, ‘the sky’s the limit,’ Vonn says

Shiffrin has been on a tear this season and, with nine World Cup wins already, is almost certain of reaching double digits for a fourth time in her career. At one point, she won five events in a row – the type of streak that is almost unheard of in the upper echelons of Alpine skiing, where events often come down to fractions of a second.

“I don’t think I can compare my shape right now to any time before,” Shiffrin said Saturday after the second downhill in Cortina. “For sure I’ve been very strong in seasons before, but right now, maybe for the first time, I’m not trying to go back to something I did before. I’m trying to just do what I need now to ski my fastest every day.

“But I’m in very good shape and then a lot of puzzle pieces fit well, for sure.”

Shiffrin’s season has been remarkable by any measure, but even more so given her struggles at the 2022 Beijing Olympics just 11 months ago.

One of Team USA’s most dynamic stars, Shiffrin arrived at the Games with hopes of competing in five events and winning perhaps as many medals. Instead, it was a disaster. She not only failed to medal, but also failed to finish three of her five individual events – an unfathomable collapse that she still couldn’t explain or understand months later.

‘(People) want some kind of answer. And I genuinely don’t have one,’ Shiffrin wrote in The Players’ Tribune of her performance in Beijing. ‘I could give you the media answer that I always give. I could put on a brave face and tell you some generic thing. But the real truth is… I don’t know.’

Upon her return from the Olympics, though, Shiffrin has returned to her usual level of dominance and zoomed past Vonn’s record. She had always been expected to break the mark, but this soon? 

Shiffrin doesn’t turn 28 until March, making her more than five years younger than Vonn was when Vonn won her last World Cup at 33. Stenmark won his 83rd World Cup race on his 30th birthday. 

With luck and good health, Shiffrin will still have dozens of World Cup events ahead of her – more records to break, and metaphorical mountains to conquer.

‘I think that Shiffrin will win more than 100,’ Stenmark told Olympics.com, ‘and it doesn’t make me sad at all.’ 

The Boston Red Sox may have filled their vacancy at shortstop … or they may have added yet another injury-prone infielder to their collection. 

The Red Sox have acquired shortstop Adalberto Mondesi from the Kansas City Royals along with a player to be named later for left-handed pitcher Josh Taylor. 

It’s the second major trade in two days for the Royals, who dealt Gold Glove center fielder Michael A. Taylor to the Minnesota Twins on Monday for a pair of pitching prospects.

Mondesi, 27, is coming back from a knee injury that limited him to just 15 games last season.

Who is Adalberto Mondesi?

Mondesi is the son of former All-Star outfielder Raul Mondesi, who played 13 seasons in the majors with seven different teams – primarily with the Los Angeles Dodgers – before retiring after the 2005 season. 

The younger Mondesi made his major league debut with the Royals in the 2015 World Series, appearing as a pinch-hitter in Game 3 against the New York Mets and striking out in a 9-3 loss. 

The switch-hitter has played shortstop, second base and third base over seven seasons in Kansas City, posting a .244/.280/.408 slash line with 38 home runs and 133 stolen bases, including a major league-leading 24 in the shortened 2020 season. 

He’s also regarded as a plus defender at shortstop.

The biggest issue for Mondesi has been staying healthy. Only once in his career has he played more than 75 games in a season. And he’s coming off surgery last May for a torn ACL in his left knee, which limited him to only 15 games in 2022.

In 2021, he played just 35 games due to oblique and hamstring injuries.

Why the Red Sox need a shortstop

After allowing Xander Bogaerts to reach free agency this offseason and seeing him sign with the San Diego Padres, the Red Sox had planned to have Trevor Story move from second base to short in 2023. 

However, those plans were derailed when Story suffered an injury to his right elbow during his offseason training. He underwent an internal bracing procedure earlier this month and is expected to need four to six months to recover. 

Utilityman Enrique Hernandez appeared to be in line to become the starting shortstop after spending most of his time for the past two seasons in center field. Mondesi, as long as he’s healthy, gives the Red Sox a steady defender at short and allows Hernandez to start at second base or in the outfield, if needed. 

Why did the Royals trade Mondesi? 

His injury history likely played a role. 

Another reason is that they really didn’t need him to be an everyday player anymore. After splitting time between shortstop and third base as a rookie, prized prospect Bobby Witt Jr. is set to become the team’s everyday shortstop this season (and for the next decade-plus).

The Royals also have several other players who will battle for the second base job and veteran Hunter Dozier under contract to play third.

Kansas City adds lefty reliever Josh Taylor, 29, in the trade. Taylor appeared in 121 games for the Red Sox from 2019-21, but was limited to 12 minor-league innings last season because of back issues.

What’s the fantasy impact of the Mondesi trade? 

Mondesi would likely have been forced to share playing time this season on the rebuilding Royals. In Boston, he’ll get all the playing time he (and his body) can handle.

Although he strikes out far too much (30.2% career K rate), Mondesi does possess the combination of power and speed that fantasy managers covet. His torrid stretch in Sept. 2020 led to many fantasy titles when he hit .356, with six homers and 16 steals in the season’s final 24 games.

He’ll also be in a better hitting environment in Boston, where he can take aim at the Green Monster as a right-handed batter or use his speed to take advantage of the spacious ‘Triangle’ in right-center when hitting left-handed. (Mondesi led the AL with 10 triples in 2019.)

And then there’s the stolen base factor. The larger bases and the Red Sox’s losing Bogaerts’ run production could result in Mondesi frequently getting the green light to steal.

The uncomfortable truth: Chris Paul may be over as a serviceable guard who can provide positive value on the court for a contender.

After he was traded to the Phoenix Suns, Paul helped turn the organization into one of the best teams in the league. But he is averaging a career-low 13.4 points per game and he has struggled to stay healthy enough to remain on the floor for prolonged periods.

As such, according to league insider Marc Stein, the ‘word is’ that this has caused the Suns to ‘start assessing’ what their future looks like once he is no longer their point guard.

Yahoo’s Jake Fischer also noted that the Suns are ‘in search of backcourt improvements’ before the deadline. Meanwhile, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the front office is also reportedly willing to move a first-round pick and take on long-term salary for ‘good players’ and ‘winning’ trades.

With that in mind, here are seven of the potential trade targets that Phoenix may pursue at the deadline as they consider long-term replacements for CP3.

7. Trae Young

Let’s be honest with ourselves: Trae Young isn’t going to be traded, at least not anytime soon.

We recently detailed how the Atlanta Hawks have given increased power to 27-year-old Nick Ressler, whose father owns the franchise. Nick is reportedly close with Young, and the guard may actually feel more empowered than ever.

But at the same time, both the Suns and the Hawks are middling .500 teams and that is where neither franchise expected to be this late in the season. If the Hawks decided to shake it up, the Suns could potentially build a mildly enticing package around former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton.

6. Kyle Lowry

If the Suns are imagining a future beyond Chris Paul, who is 37 years old, I’m not entirely sure what trading for Kyle Lowry would accomplish.

That being said, if the Suns really wanted to pursue a floor general with an impressive resume, there are few in the NBA who could bring the leadership and experience that Lowry would provide.

5. Mike Conley

Mike Conley of the Utah Jazz will turn 36 years old before next season begins, so like Lowry, he wouldn’t exactly bring any of the coveted youth that Phoenix may want in a long-term replacement for Chris Paul.

Conley, however, is one of the most well-respected teammates in the NBA and could potentially bring stability into a locker room that has struggled to find consistency this season.

Even though there are reportedly several interested suitors for Conley, like the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers, it is unclear if the Jazz would actually be willing to move their most stabilizing force.

4. D’Angelo Russell

According to Yahoo’s Jake Fischer, Minnesota’s D’Angelo Russell is “definitely” a name mentioned in trade chatter and it has been since the offseason.

The former No. 2 overall pick and 2019 NBA All-Star guard is in the final year of an expiring contract.

If the Timberwolves have no plans to keep him beyond this season, the Suns could potentially pry him away using mostly draft capital and salary cap filler considering the market “does not appear to be particularly hot” for Russell at the moment.

Phoenix star Devin Booker has called Russell his “favorite player” and he was reportedly unhappy the organization did not try to sign the former Ohio State standout in 2020. But according to Duane Rankin, the front office had concerns about how Russell would influence Booker off the court.

3. Terry Rozier

The Suns reportedly pursued Terry Rozier in 2019 and he nearly signed there before the Boston Celtics arranged a sign-and-trade with the Charlotte Hornets. Now, NBA insider Marc Stein mentioned Rozier is once again a potential target for the Suns. The Hornets are expected to listen to suitors for Rozier, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Rozier is quietly averaging a career-high 21.4 points per game while also recording a personal-best 5.2 assists per game.

However, this has also been his least efficient campaign since joining the Hornets. His shot chart indicates that he has been either average or below average relative to his position from virtually every zone of the floor.

Rozier is still owed $24.9 million average annual value over each of the next three seasons, so he would eat into Phoenix’s expenditures fairly quickly.

2. Immanuel Quickley

It didn’t take fans long to notice that Suns coach Monty Williams was quick to praise Immanuel Quickley of the New York Knicks. Williams compared Quickley to Jamal Crawford because both can “get it going” in so many ways. According to Marc Stein, Quickley is a potential trade target for Phoenix.

Quickley deserves serious attention for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. His plus-minus is currently near the best among all bench players and the Knicks outscore opponents by an additional 10.4 points per 100 possessions when he is on the floor relative to when is not, which is one of the best marks in all of the NBA.

While the Knicks were “willingly calling” about Quickley earlier this season, they are reportedly becoming “increasingly reluctant” to move him. Per HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto, Phoenix would have to beat offers from the Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, and others.

1. Fred VanVleet

Perhaps the best overall fit for the Suns is Fred VanVleet of the Toronto Raptors, an NBA champion who got his first All-Star nod last season. He is one of the rumored targets for the Suns, per Marc Stein.

It’s unclear how much Phoenix would have to surrender to land his services. But the Suns and Orlando Magic were recently mentioned as potential suitors in free agency for VanVleet, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Perhaps the Suns and Raptors could be at the center of a mega-deal at the deadline involving some of the big-name players who could reportedly be on the move, including some combination of VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Deandre Ayton, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, and perhaps even Paul.

Donald Trump has declared himself a winner … again.

Trump announced on his social media platform on Tuesday that he won the Senior Club Championship at Trump International Golf Club in unincorporated West Palm Beach last weekend, despite not playing the first round of the tournament.

Members arrived the second day surprised to see Trump with a five-point lead, according to the Daily Mail. But Trump never played the first round as he was attending a funeral in North Carolina of ardent supporter Lynette Hardaway, known by the moniker “Diamond” of the conservative political commentary duo Diamond and Silk.

Trump told tournament organizers he played a strong round on the course Thursday, two days before the tournament started, and decided that would count as his Saturday score for the club championship. That score was five points better than any competitor posted during Saturday’s first round.

Trump called it a ‘great honor’ to have won ‘on of the best courses in the Country, in Palm Beach County,’ in his post on Truth Social.

“Competed against many fine golfers and was hitting the ball long and straight,’ he wrote. ‘The reason that I announce this on fabulous TRUTH is that, in a very real way, it serves as a physical exam, only MUCH tougher. You need strength and stamina to WIN, & I have strength & stamina – most others don’t. You also need strength & stamina to GOVERN!”

Trump’s Thursday round gave him a score of 40 using the Stableford method, five better than Saturday’s best round, according to the Daily Mail. The Stableford method awards one point for bogey, two for par, three for a birdie and so on.

Trump, the Palm Beach resident and former president who played more golf while in office than any other president, made a hole-in-one on the course in April, a feat verified by Hall of Fame golfer Ernie Els, who was part of Trump’s foursome that day. Trump used a 5-iron on the 181-yard seventh hole.

In October, Trump played in the pro-am before LIV Golf’s season finale at his course in Doral.

‘I hit it straight, I hit good drives, I hit good irons,’ he said that day.

PHILADELPHIA – The NFL’s version of the Final Four is set, the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers advancing to Championship Sunday.

With the Lombardi Trophy two wins away, the players can almost taste Super Bowl immortality.

“Every team comes into the year trying to accomplish the same thing,’ Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said following Saturday night’s 38-7 beatdown of the New York Giants.

‘When you climb that mountain it gets harder and more treacherous.’

And yet the pinnacle is in sight.

Bet on the Big Game: Super Bowl 57 stats, odds and more

Here are five storylines that will be closely monitored and examined all week and well after kickoff this Sunday:

Patrick Mahomes’ ankle

If the speculation isn’t already at a fever pitch, then its thermometer is at least redlining after the presumptive league MVP suffered a high ankle sprain Saturday afternoon – a diagnosis confirmed 24 hours later amid Mahomes’ vow that he’ll be ready to go against the Bengals. But get ready for a week of, ‘Did he practice?’ ‘Didn’t he?’ ‘Was he limited?’ ‘Did he look comfortable putting weight on the leg during the open portion of practice?’ ‘Is he rehabbing at the facility 24 hours a day?’

Former Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo, who will be calling the Bengals-Chiefs game this weekend, already jumpstarted the theorizing by openly wondering if Mahomes can actually play.

‘When I did it, I wasn’t able to actually play the next week. In other words, you can’t walk. You can play the day of,’ Romo said Sunday on CBS’ broadcast of the Bengals-Buffalo Bills contest. ‘He’s gonna go ahead and like tape it up. He’s gonna go out there and adrenaline’s gonna kick in – he’s gonna be fine. The next day – he’s not gonna be able to do anything. He’s gonna almost be on crutches on Wednesday.

‘For those of you thinking it’s 100% that he plays, it’s gonna take a lot. Will he play? I think yes. He’s Patrick Mahomes. He’s young. You have the ability to get healthier faster. But at the same time, I just don’t know if he’s going to be able to be Patrick Mahomes. I can tell you right now – he’s not going to have the same athleticism that he had throughout most of the year.’

And we’re off.

Super Bowl’s first rookie quarterback?

That could be the Niners’ Brock Purdy. Sunday was the least impressive of his seven late-season starts, and the first in which the final pick of the 2022 draft – yes, ‘Mr. Irrelevant,’ if you hadn’t heard – didn’t throw a touchdown pass. Yet it was also devoid of turnovers and perfectly sufficient to overcome a scary Cowboys defense that was surely the best Purdy has played as a professional. 

Now he’s tasked with taking down the top-seeded Eagles on the road as he prepares to become just the fifth rookie QB to start a conference championship game, joining Shaun King, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez – who all lost.

It’s not unheard of for a quarterback to win a ring in his second season, something Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Big Ben and Russell Wilson managed. But Purdy is looking to explore uncharted territory, and that would begin with a victory at Lincoln Financial Field against what’s going to be the best team he’s ever faced.

49ers and Eagles: Mirror images?

These teams met most recently last season, the Niners winning a defensive slugfest in Philadelphia 17-11 in what was Hurts’ sixth NFL start. (Purdy’s Iowa State Cyclones demolished UNLV the day before.) Now, three years after Hurts’ Oklahoma Sooners survived Purdy’s Cyclones 42-41 in a Big 12 track meet, these quarterbacks will face off on a much more even NFL playing field. And while the playing styles of Hurts, 24, and Purdy, 23, are dissimilar – the duo will be the youngest QBs, in terms of combined age, to start in the championship round – their teams have much in common.

They combined to produce 14 Pro Bowlers and 12 All-Pros (first- or second-team) during the 2022 season. The success of each is largely rooted in the trenches, Eagles RT Lane Johnson, Eagles C Jason Kelce and 49ers LT Trent Williams widely recognized as the premier players at their respective positions, the latter two on a Hall of Fame fast track. But these clubs also roll deep on their defensive lines. The Niners feature league sack leader and likely NFL Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa. The Eagles’ 70 regular-season sacks nearly toppled the league record, but they were the first team to feature four players with at least 10 sacks apiece – and Haason Reddick, Javon Hargrave, Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham each had a minimum of 11, Reddick’s 16 trailing only Bosa’s 18½ league-wide. And behind both D-lines, an exceptional group of playmakers – the Niners’ linebacking corps arguably the NFL’s best, the Eagles’ featuring what’s probably the league’s top group of corners.

Hurts and Purdy are both highly mobile, though Purdy uses his legs to extend plays from the pocket – which Hurts can obviously do, though he also set sail for 760 yards and 13 TDs on the ground. Oh, and the weapons at their disposal. The backfields are headlined by San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey and Philadelphia’s Miles Sanders but expect plenty of others to get carries. The Eagles’ A.J. Brown and Niners’ Deebo Samuel are listed as wide receivers but are hybrids who are among the most punishing runners in the league with the ball in their hands, Samuel a significant component of the 49ers’ run game. And WR2s Brandon Aiyuk (49ers) and DeVonta Smith (Eagles) and TEs Dallas Goedert (Eagles) and George Kittle (49ers) can all feast in their own rights, but especially so if too much defensive attention is focused on Brown and Samuel.

These teams, each in pursuit of a 16th win on the season, almost seem like cousins or long-lost siblings. But there will be no warm and fuzzy family reunion Sunday.

Will Joe Burrow remain perfect against K.C.?

Sunday will mark the fourth meeting between the Bengals and Chiefs in the past 13 months. Cincinnati has won the previous three, including last year’s AFC championship game at Arrowhead Stadium, the margin of victory three points in every one.

The narrative will entail Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow – his lone postseason loss in six starts occurred (barely) in Super Bowl 56 – being the only quarterback to win his first three starts against Mahomes. Give Burrow the credit he’s due as he’s been generally stellar in those matchups, including a 446-yard, four-TD passing effort in the first one. It’s not like Mahomes has been awful against the Bengals, but he hasn’t thrown for 300 yards against them since Andy Dalton was their quarterback. And Mahomes was uncharacteristically terrible – by his own admission – in the second half and overtime of last year’s championship game, throwing a pair of interceptions after halftime as K.C. squandered a 21-3 lead.

And yet the Bengals have been the beneficiaries of some atypical fortune in those games – the Mahomes turnovers, a fourth-down K.C. penalty that forgave some bizarre play calls by Cincy HC Zac Taylor in the first meeting and a pivotal (and rare) fourth-quarter fumble by Chiefs All-Pro TE Travis Kelce in Week 13, Kansas City’s last defeat.

To some degree, maybe the Bengals are renting space in K.C.’s collective headspace – and the Chiefs are definitely aware of the score. But if Mahomes is a reasonable facsimile of himself Sunday, it’s perfectly rational to expect a different result. After all, Tipico does favor K.C. … by one point … at home.

Kansas City Eagles?

We’ve also reached the point of the NFL season when it’s fun to project Super Bowl matchups. The Chiefs and 49ers could tee it up for the second time in three years. The Niners and Bengals could join the Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers as the only franchises to meet thrice on Super Sunday. The Bengals and Eagles … well, they shared LBs Bill Bergey and Dhani Jones back in the day?

But nothing is going to feed the Super Bowl hype machine like a pairing of the Chiefs and Eagles. Soup to nuts, they were probably the best teams in the league this season, their No. 1 conference seedings testament to that. Hurts might well have been the MVP front-runner, had he not hurt his shoulder last month and been overtaken by Mahomes. 

But that’s nothing.

Andy Reid trying to win his second Super Bowl with the Chiefs … against the team he coached for 14 seasons and rose to prominence with – nearly leading Philadelphia to its first Lombardi Trophy in 2004 before falling just short in Super Bowl 39? The podcasting, media-savvy Kelce brothers each seeking their second ring?

If it’s storylines you like – and thanks for reading this far – Kansas City-Philadelphia will deliver plenty, right down to barbecue vs. cheesesteaks … not that there’s any rooting interest here.

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.

‘We are going to the Super Bowl!’

Back in 1989, Dana Carvey exclaimed those seven words to then-fellow Saturday Night Live cast member Jon Lovitz over the phone, and the rest was Super Bowl commercial history.

American Express’ fast-paced spot featuring the two funnymen (and whole lot of late-80s flare) became the first commercial to win the USA TODAY Ad Meter ratings, holding off two Pepsi ads to take the crown.

Since then, the leading tracker of public opinion on Super Bowl ads has been a significant part of advertising’s biggest stage, the proverbial water cooler where commercial fans could come and have their views about the big game lineup heard – from the frogs and dogs to office linebackers and a daringly helpful Melissa McCarthy. To a fussy Betty White, who simply needed a snack, and the nearly 2,000 other commercials that have gone live after a break in the action.

Now, some three and a half decades later, we arrive on the doorstep of Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Arizona, which means the first national commercial block after the coin toss is not too far behind.

So without further ado, welcome to the 35th USA TODAY Ad Meter!

If you’d like to have your opinion on this year’s Super Bowl commercials heard, you can register to be an Ad Meter panelist beginning Thursday, Jan. 26.

Until then, here are a few Super Bowl commercial and Ad Meter updates as we get ready to kick things off.

Record prices haven’t affected demand

The cost for a spot in the Super Bowl 57 ad lineup is said to be in the $7-plus-million range,  a record-high price tag that tops 2022’s $6.5 million for a 30-second commercial. But the hefty sum has not kept brands from jumping into the national spotlight, with FOX’s inventory reportedly 95% filled. (Interestingly, FOX sold out in late November for the 2020 Super Bowl.)

Who’s in, who’s out?

Car brands have been the headliners of Super Bowl 57 skippers, including Toyota, BMW, Nissan, and GM. Coca-Cola joins that list again, along with Taco Bell and Meta.

On the other side, we’ve seen Ad Meter alums Avocados from Mexico create some campaign buzz, as well as Hellmann’s, Doritos (with Jack Harlow), Rakuten, Downy, and Pringles, which is featuring a mystery celeb – the brand’s first star since Bill Hader in 2018.

A-list trend to continue

In the past few years, brands have increasingly unveiled Super Bowl spots that have featured Hollywood’s elite or iconic athletes, a who’s-who filled names such as Peyton Manning, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alex Morgan, Anna Kendrick, Jim Carrey, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd.

And the early teasers in 2023 point to a steady rise in that trend.

Bryan Cranston returns to the Ad Meter lineup, teaming up with a familiar face in Aaron Paul for PopCorners. Michelob Ultra is back with a ‘Caddyshacks’ worth of talent, featuring Tony Romo, Serena Williams and Brian Cox, to name a few. And more is undoubtedly in the works, too.

New to the game

FanDuel is set for a national spot in Super Bowl 57, starring another well-known athlete in Rob Gronkowski (and a $10 million giveaway). In addition, Rémy Cointreau and Crown Royal will have ads, as will PopCorners, as mentioned earlier. Pepsi Zero Sugar will make an appearance, and so will the Christian campaign ‘He Gets Us.’

A battle is … brewing … sort of

Molson Coors is back in the game after a 30-year hiatus created by the alcohol exclusivity held by Anheuser-Busch. While that should make an intriguing head-to-head matchup with AB InBev’s lineup, it’s also been noted that the winningest Ad Meter brand of all time has cut down on the amount of air time.

Apple replaces Pepsi at halftime

Apple inked a $250 million deal with the NFL, a multiyear sponsorship that includes this year’s halftime show.

Super Bowl ad coverage with Adweek

YouTube’s AdBlitz is back!

Another great partnership that has elevated the Ad Meter ratings, YouTube is back for Super Bowl 57, which includes the brand’s exclusive big-game commercial platform, AdBlitz.

Looking ahead: Rate it again!

There’s so much to come leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, but it’s also worth looking ahead to the following week. Besides the announcement of the 2023 Ad Meter winner on Monday, Feb. 13, fans will have a chance to keep the commercial fun going with the Replay Ratings, which will take top ads (excluding the overall winner) in several categories like most comedic and heartwarming/inspirational.

Note: You must be a registered panelist to participate and cast your superlative votes.

That’s all for now. We’ll see you back here on Thursday, Jan. 26 for registration and the launch of 2023 Ad Meter!

Veteran Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona has been known to zip around the city on an electric scooter before and after games.

That beloved scooter is now missing.

The team confirmed the theft to multiple media outlets, including ABC News 5 in Cleveland. Cleveland Police spokesperson Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said the scooter was stolen between 9:30 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday. According to Cleveland.com, Ciaccia said Francona, who still had the key, noticed it missing Saturday morning before Guards Fest, the team’s fan festival.

It’s not uncommon to see Francona, 63, on board his scooter on game days, high-fiving and stopping to chat with fans. It has become such a common occurrence that the team even held a bobblehead giveaway in 2015 that featured Francona on the scooter.

Francona is entering his 23rd season as a big-league manager, and 11th year in Cleveland, where he’s won a franchise record 845 games. He won two World Series championships with the Boston Red Sox, helping the team break an 86-year title drought in 2004.

A stunning come-from-behind win during a college women’s relay race is a powerful reminder to never give up.

When University of Michigan runner Sophie Isom took a fall during the first leg of the 4×400 relay race at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational in Ann Arbor on Jan. 21, it looked like the team was in for a disappointing loss.

But she and her Wolverine teammates wouldn’t let that happen.

After Isom got back on her feet and handed over the baton, Aurora Rynda, Savannah Sutherland and Ziyah Holman made up close to 30 seconds in lost time to win the awe-inspiring race — and the team title. What’s more, the group finished a full eight seconds ahead of the second-place team, Ohio State.

Watch how these remarkable runners come back from last place in the video above to win the relay as a team.

If you can believe it, it’s not the first time one of these runners has made an extraordinary comeback like this.

In that race, her relay team was in last place until she took the baton in the final leg. She brought the team into first place and maintained it for a victory.

There’s a reason the announcers referred to Holman as a ‘closer!’

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It’s not often that Dolphins general manager Chris Grier pushes back with the force he used when asked if Tua Tagovailoa’s history with concussions doesn’t place him at a higher risk of suffering additional concussions.

Of all the issues confronting the Dolphins, it’s difficult to find one more critical not only to their future, but Tagovailoa’s. So any conclusions by Grier, the Dolphins’ medical team and Tagovailoa’s doctors must be reached with the gravity they deserve.

Don’t experts believe Tagovailoa is placing himself at increased risk by continuing to play?

“That is not a true statement,” Grier said.

Grier’s stance is supported not just by team and union doctors Tagovailoa has seen, but independent experts on concussions who have not treated the quarterback. Dr. Joseph Maroon said just because a football player has suffered a concussion, it doesn’t automatically place him at a greater risk of another.

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Maroon is a neurological consultant for the Pittsburgh Steelers and a clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He’s also a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, which on its website cites the University of Pittsburgh’s Brain Trauma Research Center in saying, “The risk of concussion in football is three to six times higher in players who have had a previous concussion.”

But there are many gray areas in the subject of concussions and for Maroon, this is one of them.

“My caveat: If the brain is not fully recovered, there’s a higher incidence,” he said.

That caveat is critical. The Dolphins’ season just ended, so Tagovailoa could go as long as September without being subjected to contact again.

“Given all offseason with no more contact, the odds are very, very positive that he would be returning next year,” Maroon said, adding he would not have any added concern for Tagovailoa’s well-being.

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Maroon and Dr. Gillian Hotz, director of the University of Miami’s UHealth Concussion Program, stress the importance of giving the brain time to heal before returning to play. Tagovailoa suffered his most recent concussion on Christmas against Green Bay, after which coach Mike McDaniel repeatedly said decisions on when Tagovailoa could ramp up activity were solely up to doctors.

“They’re the experts in those fields and when they tell us that he’s ready to play … then we’ll press forward,” McDaniel said at his end-of-season news conference.

By then, Tagovailoa had sat out the Dolphins’ final three games, including a wild-card loss to Buffalo.

McDaniel and Grier say Tagovailoa will continue to be their franchise quarterback.

“I don’t think he’s any more prone than anyone else,” Grier said.

Chris Nowinski also on board in concussion assessment

Boynton Beach’s Chris Nowinski agreed. Nowinski is co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and questioned to ESPN whether Tagovailoa’s issues this past season may have been the result of rushing him back on the field — not durability. Writing on the CLF website, Nowinski said it’s unfair to say Tagovailoa is concussion-prone.

“A cluster of concussions, or even long-term symptoms, does not prevent a successful return or long career,” Nowinski wrote.

That’s not to suggest there’s no limit on the number of concussions a player can suffer before a doctor says it’s time to hang it up.

“I’ve advised many athletes to give up hockey as well as football,” Maroon said.

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Before reaching that point, Maroon looks for lingering symptoms, issues with cognition and abnormalities on scans. He uses a before-and-after snapshot of an athlete’s cognitive skills, which is possible via the ImPACT test, which Maroon helped devise in the 1990s with doctors Mark Lovell and Michael Collins.

Taking about 20 minutes, ImPACT measures skills such as brain speed and ability to process information. It has been administered 23 million times, in all levels of competition. The ‘before’ baseline is established in preseason. Following a concussion, the test is repeated to help determine when to clear an athlete.

Tagovailoa became a national focal point when he was injured Sept. 25 vs. the Buffalo Bills. He returned to that game, with the Dolphins saying he’d suffered a back injury rather than a concussion. Four days later, during a prime-time game against Cincinnati, Tagovailoa suffered a concussion requiring a trip to the hospital.

The Dolphins’ problems were multiplied the following week when his replacement, Teddy Bridgewater, was judged to have stumbled by the NFL’s spotter high above. It disqualified Bridgewater from the game.

Here, too, might soon be another tool to take subjectivity out of the equation. Maroon sees potential for a mouthguard developed by Prevent Biometrics that measures the G-force of hits. Those statistics would be accessible to spotters via transmitter after every play. If experts agree on a maximum level of G-force before a concussion occurs, it could remove uncertainty from cases such as Bridgewater’s. The mouthguards are in use in rugby overseas.

“I think something like this is coming (to the NFL),” Maroon said.