LAS VEGAS – After Super Bowl 58, the Harlan family will stop making broadcast history. 

Veteran play-by-play voice Kevin Harlan will be on the national radio call when the Kansas City Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers. His daughter, Olivia Harlan Dekker, will serve as the sideline reporter for Sky Sports, which televises the NFL in the United Kingdom.

Together, they will be the first father-daughter combo to call and cover, respectively, a Super Bowl – repeating the history they made as the first dad-daughter in both the regular season and playoffs. 

“I started getting coached really early … I did dream of being here,” Harlan Dekker, working her first Super Bowl, told USA TODAY Sports. 

Working in conjunction with his daughter, Harlan – calling his 15th Super Bowl (14th consecutive) for Westwood One – is reminded of when he would tag along with his father, Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan, to stadiums and press boxes. 

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“A lot of it rubbed off on me,” Harlan told USA TODAY Sports, “and I assume she would say a lot of what I have done has rubbed off on her.” 

‘Roundabout’ way to call first Super Bowl

Harlan Dekker, who married former NBA player Sam Dekker in 2018, wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps from the time she was 15. She created a vision board with sideline reporters such as Lisa Salters and Tracy Wolfson plastered on it. But Harlan knew that the sports broadcasting business is a subjective one and that his daughter had seen him experience the best part of it: the stable work as a network announcer. 

“I tried to talk her out of it, quite frankly,” Harlan, 63, said. 

That didn’t stop Harlan from encouraging his daughter and telling her to look up sports broadcasting icons such as Lesley Visser.

“My dad was the type of parent who completely, not only convinced you of ‘Yes, you can do anything you want,’ but encouraged you to keep pushing – keep doing more,” Harlan Dekker, 30, said.  

Attending the University of Georgia, Harlan Dekker dove into the school’s journalism program. How seriously she took the work in college told Harlan and his wife, Ann, all they needed to know about their daughter’s professional aspirations. 

“She went in headfirst and she’s been one of the lucky ones,” Harlan said. “She’s had a wonderful and remarkable career for someone so young.” 

Of course, having Harlan as a father in the sports journalism industry has some benefits. While at Georgia, Harlan connected Harlan Dekker with Wolfson, his CBS colleague who was then calling the top Southeastern Conference game each Saturday during the fall. Harlan Dekker said she shadowed Wolfson for hours and began learning the craft of sideline reporting.  

“She stood apart from her dad,” Wolfson, who will also be roaming the sidelines Sunday as the No. 1 NFL sideline reporter for CBS now, told USA TODAY Sports. “She was so spunky and smart and had such great presence about her and (was) so interested in the job, wanting to learn. And that’s what I loved. She was just taking it all in up and down those sidelines.” 

Professional success came quickly for Harlan Dekker. She worked Atlanta Hawks games for FOX Sports South and joined ESPN as a college football reporter in 2015.

Life is not linear, she learned. Dekker’s basketball career took him overseas, and the couple bounced around from Russia to Turkey to London. Harlan Dekker would fly back to the U.S. and work college football games for the Big Ten Network in 2020 and 2021. 

“At some point, we realized this isn’t working,” Harlan Dekker said. “We had to really buy into being overseas.” 

She gave birth to the couple’s first child, son Harlan Wolf Dekker, in May 2022, and Dekker signed an extension to remain with the London Lions. Harlan Dekker thought her retirement might come before she reached 30, or that she would have to put career on pause at the bare minimum. Neither option appealed to her. 

Feeling discouraged, Harlan Dekker caught a break when the NFL UK office reached out and connected her to SkySports. Few people in London had Harlan Dekker’s resume of reporting on American football, and the outlet wanted an American voice to be part of the broadcasts. 

“The timing was there,” Harlan said. “A lot of this profession is timing.”

Her first assignment was the Baltimore Ravens playing the Tennessee Titans in London in October. She then worked both NFL games in Frankfurt, Germany, and SkySports brought her into the studio for games the network aired with remote broadcasts. 

“I was like, ‘Man, they’re really using me, this is amazing,’ I thought I was kind of dropping in,” Harlan Dekker said.  

It culminated with Harlan Dekker receiving a phone call that left her on the verge of tears: she would be covering the Super Bowl. 

“I just feel incredibly grateful for how it’s happened – the roundabout way it’s happened,” Harlan Dekker said. 

On Saturday night in Las Vegas, the Harlan family will go out to dinner and, while they may leave their notes back at the hotel, the topic of discussion will be their respective preparations for the following day’s assignment. 

For Harlan, every moment will be cherished. 

“I mean, listen,” he said, “what parent wouldn’t want to be working with their child?” 

Unable to find a palatable deal at the NBA trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers turned to the buyout market and have reached a deal with one of the best offensive players available.

Guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who was traded from Brooklyn to Toronto and then waived by the Raptors at the trade deadline, plans to sign with the Lakers once he clears waivers, a person with direct knowledge of told USA TODAY Sports. The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly until Dinwiddie officially signs.

Why the Lakers need offensive help

With All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis averaging 24.8 and 24.7 points and three other players (D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura) averaging double figures in points, it hasn’t translated to the offense success needed in today’s high-scoring NBA.

The Lakers are in need of offensive help, even though they scored 139, including 87 in the first half and 51 in the second quarter, in a victory against New Orleans Friday. They are 20th offensively, scoring 114 points per 100 possessions.

While they are shooting a respectable 49.2% from the field, the Lakers are 29th in 3-pointers made per game (11.3), last in 3-pointers attempted per game (30.6) and 15th in 3-point percentage (36.8%).

How can Spencer Dinwiddie help the Lakers

Dinwiddie was sought after in the buyout market by multiple playoff-caliber teams, including Dallas, trying to land him. He can provide offense and 3-point shooting. Though his offensive stats are down this season at 12.6 points per game and 39.1% shooting from the field and 32% on 3-pointers, Dinwiddie averaged 17.3 points and shot 36.9% on 3-pointers last season.

On a team with James and Davis, Dinwiddie should have better opportunities. He’s also a capable playmaker who averages 6.0 assists and keeps his turnovers low.

Where are the Lakers in the Western Conference playoff race?

The Lakers are 28-26 after Friday’s victory and in ninth place in the Western Conference standings. They are in a play-in game spot right now but that’s no guarantee at just 1½ games ahead of 10th-place Utah and 11th-place Golden State. They are 3½ games behind sixth-place Sacramento.

Brittany Mahomes is making her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue debut in 2024.

The wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Brittany was a former college and professional soccer player.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought this would happen,” Mahomes told Sports Illustrated. “I’m so thankful and honored and so excited to be here with this team.”

A mother of two, the 28-year-old Mahomes has been in the spotlight even more this season, hanging with Taylor Swift in suites at Chiefs games.

Mahomes’ photoshoot took place on the beaches of San Pedro Ambergris Caye, Belize.

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“As a girl from Tyler, Texas, who only really knew sports, never in a million years did I think I’d be in (the SI Swimsuit Issue),” she said. “I’m just so grateful for this opportunity.”

“I think I align perfectly with SI Swimsuit’s vision because I am unapologetically always myself in any setting. I want women to feel empowered to always be yourself, love yourself, and feel confident in whatever you do and I think SI Swimsuit does, too,” Mahomes told SI.

“Be confident in who you are and be unapologetically yourself. People are going to love you or hate you, but finding your values and what makes you ‘you’ to be the best version of yourself is what really matters.’ 

Talk about America’s game: The combined rosters of the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, who will compete Sunday in Super Bowl 58, represent 70% of U.S. states and four countries.

From starters to members of their practice squads to those on injured reserve, the two rosters feature 158 players from 35 states. Neither team’s locker room is filled solely with players east or west of the Mississippi River. But the map below suggests a bit of an East Coast bias for the Chiefs and West Coast for the 49ers.

Consider California’s representation. It has 17 players — the most of any state – across the two rosters. The 49ers’ roster, though, includes 14 of those players — also the most for either team in one state.

On the other side of the country, nine players from Georgia populate the Chiefs’ roster. Florida is a close second with eight.

Mapping the hometowns of every Super Bowl 58 teams’ players

Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them.

A closer look at players’ hometown connections

Beyond common states, several players share local geographic connections whether they grew up in the San Francisco area or Kanas City, or just hail from a single U.S. city.

San Francisco: The 49ers’ Aaron Banks, Corey Luciano, Jack Tonges and Jason Verrett are from the Bay Area. Luciano said Thursday at a media availability that he started watching football at 13 and became a 49ers fan. Conversely, Banks is part of a line of 49er fans: “My dad was born into it. I did not have a choice at all.” 

Defensive tackle Matt Dickerson is the only Chiefs player from the Bay Area. He also grew up a 49ers fan. “I went to Candlestick (Park) since I was a little kid,” he said Thursday. “I wouldn’t want to be playing any other team.”

Kansas City is represented by a rookie from each team. The Chiefs’ Felix Anudike-Uzomah attended Kansas State while the 49ers Ronnie Bell played for Michigan. Bell said his family cheers on the Chiefs, but he grew up more of a Ravens fan because of safety Ed Reed.

Detroit boasts six players, the most of any city. Mobile, Alabama, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, can each claim three players between the two Super Bowl rosters.

Which schools are the most represented on the team’s rosters

The University of Oklahoma has the most players of any school on a Super Bowl 58 team’s roster with six players. Clemson, Florida and Georgia each have five players while Michigan, Texas Christian, Southern California and Middle Tennessee State each have four.

The two rosters are loaded with young players: 88 have no more than three years of experience. Only 58 players have at least seven years of experience. The 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams is the most experienced at 14 years in the NFL.

A woman suffered non-life threatening Friday during the second round of the 2024 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale after falling from the grandstands on the par-3 16th hole.

The PGA Tour released a statement after play concluded Friday night about the incident, which Golf Channel’s Kira Dixon shared following tournament coverage.

Tournament organizers didn’t give a specific location where the incident occurred at the 16th hole.

“Today at the WM Phoenix Open, a fan sustained non-life-threatening injuries after a fall at the 16th hole,” the statement read. “Scottsdale fire and bike team paramedics reacted quickly at the scene to give the injured fan immediate medical attention and then provided safe transport to a local medical center for further evaluation.

“The WM Phoenix Open works closely with local law enforcement, fire and medical organizations and the PGA Tour to strategically place emergency units throughout tournament grounds to promptly address health and safety situations.

“We will provide additional details if or when appropriate our of respect for medical privacy.”

In December of 2017, Chip Kelly was the hottest name on the college football coaching market — and what a market it was. 

Florida wanted him. 

Tennessee made an offer. 

Nebraska checked in. 

Arizona State was intrigued. 

But Kelly, fresh off head coaching stints with two different NFL teams, wanted UCLA for his much-anticipated return to college football. He wanted the city life of Los Angeles. He wanted the challenge of turning a perennial underachiever into a contender. He wanted to do something befitting the iconoclastic and quirky personality he had cultivated at every stop from small colleges in New England to the big-time at Oregon.

Nobody else in the profession would have picked UCLA among the array of options he had at his disposal six years ago. Kelly did. 

And now he leaves it pretty much as he found it: A sad-sack, aimless mess of a football program that may need years to recover from the damage that has been done.

How badly did Kelly want out of UCLA by the end? For the last few weeks, his representatives had floated his name for pretty much every offensive coordinator job in the NFL. As it turned out, the team that rescued him came not just in the college ranks but in the conference UCLA will be joining next year.

If the Bruins didn’t have a full picture of what they’ll be up against in the Big Ten, it will be shown in stark relief when Kelly is on the sidelines at Ohio State calling plays for his protégé Ryan Day. 

It would be one thing if UCLA had fired Kelly and his next career move was taking a step back and being a coordinator for a little while. But to do it on his own volition? Willfully going a rung down the career ladder while jumping to a team in the same conference? 

Yikes, UCLA. 

Ironically, Kelly outlasted most of his peers who changed jobs in the 2017-18 coaching cycle. Florida fired Dan Mullen a couple years ago. Tennessee’s eventual choice of Jeremy Pruitt was a misadventure of epic proportions both on the field and within the NCAA rulebook. Scott Frost experienced one of the most disastrous homecomings in the history of the sport at Nebraska. Arizona State brought Herm Edwards out of the television booth, which was at least good for a few laughs. 

Kelly at UCLA? It was ultimately too boring. The spread, up-tempo offense that had spurred Oregon to a 46-7 record during his reign in Eugene was no longer novel or effective. Kelly didn’t show much interest in recruiting the top prospects from Southern California. 

In 2021, Kelly’s fourth year at UCLA, he finally put a winning product on the field. But 8-4, 9-4 and 8-5 records — while never seriously contending for a Pac-12 title — didn’t do much to excite UCLA’s fan base. As attendance dwindled last season, it looked like Kelly might get fired. Much of that talk ended in November when he beat USC, 38-20.

It’s unclear whether the UCLA’s administration and boosters still believed in Kelly, didn’t have a better option in mind or simply didn’t want to pay the relatively small $8.5 million buyout it would have owed him during the height of coaching change season. 

In retrospect, that was a major mistake. 

Because now, Kelly’s departure means hiring a coach in the middle of February, and the transfer portal opening up for the next month will give other programs free reign to poach from the Bruins’ roster. Neither of those things are ideal — particularly right now when the spring semester has already started and player movement has almost come to a halt. 

And any candidate for UCLA should have some serious questions about why Kelly, who had four years and more than $24 million left on his contract, would take a pay cut to go be a college coordinator. 

Is the roster really that bad? Does UCLA just not care that much about competing at the highest level in football? Is the school’s NIL program so lackluster that it’s impossible to recruit?

While it’s fair to say that Kelly was a massive disappointment on the field and that UCLA probably should have fired him two months ago, it’s also quite a slap in the face to watch him walk out the door for a college coordinator job. When UCLA has a head coach opening, it is supposed to be looking at assistants from places like Ohio State, not the other way around. 

Kelly no longer has the same cachet he once had, but he’s still a significant presence in the sport and a well-respected offensive mind. There are probably dozens of reasons it didn’t work out at UCLA — some of them Kelly’s fault and some belonging to a school that has always been resource-poor compared to its rivals. 

But for decades and decades, it always felt like someone could harness what UCLA does have — the sunshine, the glitz of Hollywood, the fertile recruiting ground in Southern California — and make a big push toward the top of the sport. 

Six years ago, it seemed like Kelly was the best chance UCLA ever had to break that cycle. Instead, as cash-strapped UCLA moves into the rich new neighborhood of the Big Ten, Kelly’s departure shows just how difficult it will be to fit in. 

Head coach Deion Sanders has been making his grand plan clear at Colorado: He wants to build a launching pad to the NFL for his players.

And now he has the coaching staff to show for it.

On Friday, Sanders formally announced the changes he’s made to his football staff for his second season in Boulder, including with his top coaches on offense and defense, both of whom now have significant NFL pedigrees.

Colorado confirmed the hires for the first time Friday, though they were reported previously in the news media. The new employees fill Sanders’ staff of 10 full-time assistant coaches, the most allowed under NCAA rules.

“We have two new coordinators that are wonderful, that combined I believe they have over 35 years of NFL experience, because I wanted pros,” Sanders told USA TODAY Sports this week at the Super Bowl site in Las Vegas. “It’s like a navigational system. You can’t tell me where to go unless you’ve been there.”

Who will run Deion Sanders’ defense at Colorado?

Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, reached into the NFL to hire his new defensive coordinator, Robert Livingston, who recently finished his eighth season as the defensive backs coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. Livingston also previously worked as a Bengals scout and now replaces Charles Kelly, who left in December to become the co-defensive coordinator at Auburn, his alma mater.

Kelly spent one season under Sanders at Colorado, when the Buffaloes finished 4-8 and ranked 127th out of 130 major college teams nationally in total defense (453.3 yards allowed per game). Because he broke his contract before it expired in January 2026, Kelly owed CU $212,500, as confirmed by the university to USA TODAY Sports.

Livingston, a safeties specialist and former safety at William & Mary, will inherit a defense that is stocked with talent in the secondary, including the nation’s No. 1 cornerback recruits for 2022 and 2023 – Travis Hunter and Cormani McClain.

Sanders’ son, Shilo, is returning for his final college year at safety after leading the team with 70 tackles in 2023.

The Buffs also fortified other positions on defense through the transfer portal, where they brought in six defensive linemen, including BJ Green from Arizona State, Quency Wiggins from LSU and Anquin Barnes from Alabama. Colorado’s transfer class of 24 players for 2024 currently ranks No. 2 in the nation, according to Rivals.com.

Who will run Colorado’s offense?

As expected, former Cleveland Browns and New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur was named offensive coordinator after being promoted to Sanders’ coaching staff near the end of last season. Shurmur replaces Sean Lewis, who left to become head coach at San Diego State.

Shurmur originally joined Sanders’ program last summer as an analyst making $50,000 per year and then replaced Lewis as the team’s play-caller in their final four games of 2023, all losses.

Who else is new to Deion Sanders’ staff?

Former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Phil Loadholt is the new offensive line coach after the previous coach, Bill O’Boyle, left to follow Lewis to San Diego State and then took a similar job at Northwestern. Loadholt previously worked as an analyst behind the scenes at Oklahoma and now takes over a unit that allowed the second-most quarterback sacks in the nation last year (56) but has been fortified with the addition of several new players, including Jordan Seaton, the nation’s No. 1 offensive line recruit, according to 247Sports.

Sanders also hired former NFL receiver Jason Phillips to coach wide receivers after he previously served as an assistant coach at Jackson State, Utah State and several other schools. Phillips fills an opening that had been created when last year’s tight ends coach, Tim Brewster, left to take a job with the Charlotte 49ers. According to his employment agreement with the Buffs, Brewster owes CU $100,000 for breaking his contract early, as confirmed by the university to USA TODAY Sports.

Sanders filled another opening on his defensive staff by promoting Vincent Dancy from defensive analyst to outside linebackers coach. The opening was created when last year’s defensive ends coach, Nick Williams, took an assistant coach job at Syracuse. Last year’s wide receiver coach at Colorado, Brett Bartolone, also is moving over to coach tight ends after the departure of Brewster.  

What about Warren Sapp?

Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp is not on the staff even though Sanders previously said he would be. Sapp this week told online sports site DNVR that he was coming to Boulder in March and would become a graduate assistant at Colorado, though this hasn’t been confirmed by the university. Being hired in this role would require him to be enrolled in graduate-level coursework at Colorado and might quiet concerns about hiring him on Sanders’ full-time staff of 10 assistants. Sapp, 51, has little coaching experience and a history of incidents that had raised eyebrows among domestic violence survivor organizations.

It’s an entry-level coaching job with historically low compensation and can last no longer than three years for each person hired for it. Teams are allowed four graduate student coaches under NCAA rules.

Spring practice for the Buffaloes starts March 18. Sanders opens his second season in Boulder at home against North Dakota State on Aug. 31.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com