Jerry Jones meeting with the media in the bowels of a stadium, minutes after the Dallas Cowboys’ postseason exit, is becoming a yearly tradition. 

Will he employ a different coach after his latest time doing so? 

Jones wouldn’t go that far, telling a massive media scrum he didn’t yet have time to process the second-seeded Cowboys’ 48-32 embarrassment against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild-card matchup. Head coach Mike McCarthy’s job status has become a topic of discussion, especially with Bill Belichick on the market.

‘I don’t have any thoughts about the reasons why, or anything to do with the coaching, or the players,’ Jones told reporters after the game.

Jones did call the Cowboys’ loss “one of the biggest surprises” he’d ever experienced in football and that the blowout left him “floored.” 

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“I want to give Green Bay a lot of compliments and credit,” he said.

Following a 6-10 showing his first season leading Dallas, a year when Prescott suffered a season-ending leg injury in Week 5, McCarthy’s teams have notched 12-5 records for three consecutive seasons. But after Sunday’s loss, McCarthy is 1-3 in the postseason with the Cowboys.

“This seems like the most painful (loss) because we all had such great expectations and we had hopes for this team and thought that we were aligned and in great shape,” Jones said. 

Jones was asked about when he would meet with McCarthy to evaluate the season and the head coach’s future.

“There’s nothing set on that,’ Jones said, per The Athletic. ‘What I had planned to do was be with him (Monday) going over how we played today and getting ready for the coming week. That’s what was on the agenda. Tomorrow, my agenda will be to dismiss the team.”

Last week, in an interview with the Forth Worth Star Telegram, Jones said he’d evaluate McCarthy at the end of the postseason.

‘I just think his record speaks for itself. I think what he’s done, the fact that we’ve put ourselves in this position over the last three years, I think that does speak for itself,’ McCarthy told the paper. ‘And we’ve got a lot of football left.’

Little did Jones know his team would be alive for one week more.

The NFL playoff schedule for the divisional round is set, even if all the matchups aren’t.

With two more wild-card games still to be played Monday, the league on Sunday night released the setup for next weekend’s games.

The only fully matchup that has already been determined is the Saturday meeting between the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers, who stunned the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. The Detroit Lions, who beat the Los Angeles Rams for the franchise’s first postseason victory in 32 years, will on Sunday host the winner of Monday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs have also advanced and wait to learn their opponents.

Here’s a full look at the divisional-round matchups and the rest of the NFL playoff schedule.

NFL playoff schedule: Divisional round dates, times, TV info

Saturday, Jan. 20

Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens/Kansas City Chiefs, 4:30 p.m. ET (ESPN/ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes)

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Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers, 8 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Deportes)

Sunday, Jan. 21

Philadelphia Eagles/Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions, 3 p.m. ET (NBC, Peacock, Universo)

Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills or Pittsburgh at Baltimore, 6:30 p.m. ET (CBS, Paramount+)

NFL playoff schedule: Conference championship games

Sunday, Jan. 28

AFC championship, TBD, CBS

NFC championship, TBD, Fox

Super Bowl 58 date, time

Sunday, Feb. 11

AFC champion vs. NFC champion, 6:30 p.m. ET, CBS

NFL playoff schedule, scores: Wild-card round

Saturday, Jan. 13

Houston Texans 45, Cleveland Browns 14

Kansas City Chiefs 26, Miami Dolphins 7

Sunday, Jan. 14

Green Bay Packers 48, Dallas Cowboys 32

Detroit Lions 24, Los Angeles Rams 23

Monday, Jan. 15

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Moments after her Grand Slam comeback ended in a first-round loss, Naomi Osaka put her gold jacket on and walked back through the players’ tunnel where her name has a prominent place among recent Australian Open champions.

Three matches into her return from 15 months off the tour, and six months after the birth of her daughter, Shai, Osaka lost 6-4, 7-6 (2) to 16th-seeded Caroline Garcia in a tight encounter at Rod Laver Arena on Monday night.

‘The competitive in me is really frustrated that I’m not winning these matches, of course,’ Osaka told a post-match news conference. ‘So I wouldn’t say, like, this comeback is how I thought because I’m delusional enough to think I could have won the tournament.’

She smiled at that point, and added: ‘I think my delusion is what allows me to win the tournaments.’

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Osaka won the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020, and the Australian title in 2019 and ’21. This was the first time she lost in the first round in Melbourne, where she made her debut in 2016.

She took time out from tennis for her own wellbeing after first-round exits at the French Open and U.S. Open in 2022. She’s not planning any more breaks for now.

‘Yeah, I think I just have to keep living day by day and training hard and playing a lot more matches,’ she said. ‘And hopefully my dreams will come true.’

The big-serving Garcia didn’t give Osaka a look at a breakpoint in the match. Most of the rallies were short − only three longer than nine shots. The bulk were less than four. Most of the service holds were comfortable − except for Osaka’s one dropped game in the first set. That was all the difference.

‘I have a lot of respect for Naomi as a person and as a player − 15 months she’s been away,’ Garcia said. ‘I’m very glad to see her back. Six months after giving birth, she’s playing quite amazing already. We have to watch out.’

Osaka was one of three past Australian Open champions who returned to play at Melbourne Park for the first time as moms, joining 2016 winner Angelique Kerber and 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki.

In the opening match on Rod Laver, U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff needed just 60 minutes to advance.

Gauff, with increased confidence in her serve thanks to some advice from Andy Roddick, began her bid for back-to-back Grand Slam singles titles with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

The 19-year-old American, who won her first major at the U.S. Open in September, said she was a little nervous to start.

‘I think I did well returning, then I found my serve toward the end (of the set),’ she said. ‘When I was nervous at 3-3, I told myself: ‘I feel good, I look good, so just have fun’. That was able to relax me a little bit’.’

Gauff dropped just one point on her serve in the second set and credited Roddick, saying ‘he’s probably one of the best servers in history.’

Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova didn’t make it past the first round, losing 6-1, 6-2 to Dayana Yastremska and struggling with a hip injury.

A third 16-year-old reached the second round, with Mirra Andreeva beating 29-year-old Bernarda Pera 7-5, 6-2 to set up a second-round match with sixth-seeded Ons Jabeur, a three-time runner-up at Grand Slams.

‘I’m really excited for this,’ Andreeva said about playing Jabeur. ‘I said many times before that, she’s the player that I was looking up to. I really like the way she plays her game and I’m sure it’s going to be a great match.’

Australia’s newest top-10 player, Alex de Minaur, advanced after a truncated night match on Rod Laver Arena. He was leading 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic 6-7 (6), 6-3, 2-0 when the big-serving Canadian retired from the match with an injury.

Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 and 2022 finalist at Melbourne Park and at last year’s U.S. Open, also advanced when his opponent retired from their match.

Medvedev had dropped the first set but was leading 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 1-0 when the 22-year-old Terence Atmane quit because of cramps.

‘When I was feeling tired in the third set, I looked up the other end and saw he was cramping,’ Medvedev said. ‘The conditions were fine but it has not been hot these seven days and then it was hot today, so you get more stressed.’

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost last year’s Australian final to Novak Djokovic, advanced with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win over Zizou Bergs.

Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open champion and three-time Grand Slam winner, was beaten 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 by Adrian Mannarino. That left 10-time winner Djokovic as the only Australian champion left in the men’s draw.

Five-time Australian Open finalist Andy Murray lost to Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 and said it might be the last time he contests the season’s first major.

Well, Sunday in the wild card round of the NFL playoffs gave us a pair of opposites.

In the first game, the young Green Bay Packers demolished the heavily favored Dallas Cowboys, renewing the narrative that ‘America’s Team’ is nothing more than a group of pretenders who wilt in the postseason. Now, franchise owner Jerry Jones faces some interesting decisions, namely, what to do with head coach Mike McCarthy. For the Packers, meanwhile, a dream season marches on. And led by Jordan Love, Green Bay looks like it could be a force in the NFC for years to come. That, though, is still down the road.

That’s because the new power in the division, the Detroit Lions, won their first playoff game in more than 30 seasons, snapping what was the longest postseason victory drought in any of the four major four domestic sports leagues. By taking down former quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams, the city of Detroit can now savor this one and look forward to another home playoff game next week at Ford Field.

Here are the winners and losers from Sunday’s wild card round games.

WINNERS

Jordan Love and the Packers youth movement

How’s this for a playoff debut for a player who made his first full season as a starter? A crisp 16-for-21 day for 272 yards, three touchdowns and a near-perfect 157.2 QB rating. Love, 25, has been one of the top quarterbacks in the entire NFL over the final month-and-a-half. He was measured and calm on the big stage, hitting his receivers in stride and firing passes into tight windows. But he was not alone in the youth movement. Receiver Romeo Doubs (23) caught all six of his targets for 151 yards and a score. Tight end Luke Musgrave (23) caught all three of his targets for 52 yards and a score. Receiver Dontayvion Wicks (22) also caught a touchdown. And on defense, first-round rookie linebacker Lukas Van Ness (22) picked up his fifth sack.

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The long-suffering city of Detroit

It was their first playoff win since 1992. It was their second since 1957. In fact, the Lions are no longer the NFL franchise with the longest postseason drought, with Detroit handing that distinction over to the Miami Dolphins, who are now at 23 seasons.

The NBC broadcast cameras showed fans in tears as the final seconds ticked off the clock. Lions fans deserve this victory. And while the Lions may have wanted a rematch with Dallas after the controversial Week 17 loss, Detroit will actually get the chance to host another postseason game thanks to the second-seeded Cowboys losing to the Packers. So gear up, Detroit, you have another one coming up, against the victor of Monday night’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Joe Barry

His defense (rightfully so) has been criticized for much of the season, but Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry deserves a ton of credit for completely unsettling Dak Prescott and the Cowboys. Barry alternated and disguised zone and man coverages during the first half, often forcing Prescott into a misread. When that was combined with modest pressure that hurried Prescott’s timing, the Packers were able to intercept Prescott twice. Much of Dallas’ production came in the second half, when the blowout was already underway. But in the first, Barry’s coverages on Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb were superb; Lamb recorded just two catches on seven targets for 18 yards. One of the passes intended for Lamb, late in the second quarter, was intercepted by Darnell Savage Jr. and returned 64 yards for a touchdown.

Aidan Hutchinson

A solid second season continued for Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, a player who may be blossoming into a star before our eyes. After receiving a Pro Bowl nomination for an 11½ -sack season with three forced fumbles, Hutchinson was a force against the Rams, generating six tackles, two sacks and five quarterback hits.

And if his spin move wasn’t already on scouting reports, it should be now.

Jaire Alexander

He was dealing with an ankle injury, but you would’ve never guessed. Alexander was the primary defender tasked to rein in Lamb, the All-Pro pass catcher. He was up to the task. Alexander was physical, especially at the line of scrimmage, to throw off the timing of the routes. And then, at the top of routes, he deftly placed his hands on opposing receivers to gain positioning and leverage.

That was evident most clearly on his key first quarter interception that gave Green Bay excellent field position and helped set up an early 14-point lead.

LOSERS

Mike McCarthy

Another promising team, another inexplicable meltdown. And now, the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones must seriously consider a coaching change. McCarthy’s postseason record dropped to 11-11 all-time, including a 1-3 mark with the Cowboys. It gets worse: two of those losses were first-round exits at home, both with Dallas favored by at least a field goal.

McCarthy is continually outclassed in big games. He took over play-calling duties in the offseason, and the Cowboys came out of the locker room flat and sluggish. It wasn’t until Dallas was in a 27-point hole with two minutes left in the first half that McCarthy began calling a no-huddle offense. McCarthy also has been incapable of adjusting at halftime. Per ESPN, he now dropped to 2-22 since 2020 when the Cowboys have been trailing by at least 14 points.

The Rams in the red zone

This was the difference in the game. The Rams moved the ball at will, churning out 425 yards of total offense and outgaining Detroit by 91 yards. Stafford, playing against his old team, threw for 367 yards. But, when the Rams marched into the red zone, they repeatedly left points on the field. Los Angeles failed to convert any of its three trips inside the 20 and, as a result, kicked three field goals that were each under 30 yards. The Lions, by comparison, turned all three of their red-zone attempts into touchdowns.

Dak Prescott

This is the occasional problem with the playoffs: A career season can disintegrate with just a single game. And for Prescott, the narrative that he underperforms in the playoffs will continue. The Cowboys dropped to 2-5 in postseason games Prescott has started. In those seven games, he has thrown seven interceptions. Thus, the offseason conversation will be on this failure and the looming contract talks rather than his second-team All-Pro selection.

And, if Jones does opt to fire McCarthy, that could only mean more problems for Prescott, at least in the short term. Since McCarthy took over for Kellen Moore last offseason, that would mean Prescott would be playing for his third different offensive coordinator in as many seasons.

Is the window closing for the Rams?

This, more than anything, should be considered a hold. Because the Rams do have an infusion of young talent that it can ride to success. But the team also must answer difficult questions on key veterans and succession plans. Stafford turns 36 next month and has taken significant punishment over the years. The Rams must protect him but also figure out his eventual replacement. All-world defensive tackle Aaron Donald recorded another first-team All-Pro season — his eighth — but he will be 33 in May. Even receiver Cooper Kupp, who is just two years removed from one of the most prolific seasons in NFL history, looked every bit of 30 and has seen his production decline steadily over the past couple of years.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Watching the Green Bay Packers eviscerate the Dallas Cowboys in a road playoff game Sunday, it was hard not to think back to the 1995 season and another young quarterback leading the Packers to a huge playoff win, at San Francisco.

Those who have been around long enough remember Brett Favre, who’d just won his first NFL MVP, wheeling and dealing in the Packers’ dominating divisional-round win over the 49ers that was a breakout victory for the ‘90s Packers. Favre was in total command that day, leading his team to a convincing win.

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“America’s Team” as Bill Belichick’s team?

Could you have imagined such a thought just a week ago? Can you really wrap your head around such a notion even now – despite what happened to the Dallas Cowboys in their 48-32 implosion against the Green Bay Packers in Sunday’s wild-card meltdown at AT&T Stadium?

Regardless, prepare yourself for a wave of supposition that’s going to be as unrelenting as the Arctic blast consuming the country.

It had already started when Dallas went into the locker room down 27-7, if not well beforehand.

“If (head coach) Mike McCarthy doesn’t have a magical comeback?” said former All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski on Fox’s halftime show. “Hey, this might be his last game as a Dallas Cowboy.”

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Gronk, who played nine seasons for the New England Patriots and won three Super Bowl rings with them, stopped short of invoking Belichick’s name three days after the legendary coach and franchise he led to dynastic glory mutually parted after 24 years. Yet such speculation had already sparked Thursday, when it was quite clear Belichick was embarking on free agency, not retirement.

“I look forward to coming back here,” he said at his departure conference in Foxborough, Mass., without taking questions.

“But, at this time, we’re going to move on. I look forward, am excited for the future.”

Meanwhile, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones must assess his present and recent past before charting a path forward.

“This seems like the most painful (loss) because we all had such great expectations, and we had hopes for this team and thought that we were aligned and in great shape,” Jones said after getting whacked by the Pack with little further insight into his future plans.

McCarthy has led Dallas to three consecutive 12-5 regular seasons, including a pair of NFC East crowns, high cotton in almost any NFL city.

Almost any.

Yet his Cowboys have also experienced three gut-wrenching playoff ousters, two to the San Francisco 49ers and one to the San Francisco 49ers Midwest – the Packers’ wrenching of Dallas’ guts closer to a complete evisceration. McCarthy’s team didn’t look ready to play – not the first time it’s happened in postseason to his Cowboys and antithetical to Belichick’s Patriots – a primary consideration when it comes to weighing whether he’s back for a fifth season in the Metroplex.

Jones, 81, is now 28 years removed from his most recent Super Bowl appearance. Same goes for the Cowboys’ last berth in an NFC championship game. Prior to Sunday, he could at least cling to the narrative of progress after Dallas reached the divisional round a year ago before falling to the Niners. But that all evaporated when his team – which had been riding a 16-game winning streak at home in Jerry World – was steamrolled by a Packers team featuring the youngest roster in the league and a quarterback, Jordan Love, making his first-ever postseason start.

Conversely? Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, coming off perhaps his finest season – including second-team All-Pro recognition and a league-best 36 TD passes – saw his playoff record shrink to 2-5. Adding insult to insults, Dallas become the first team to lose to a seventh-seeded opponent since the postseason field expanded in 2020.

The “Cowboy Way”? Apparently, sadly for them.

Now Jones must gauge his options. A dozen regular-season wins a year are nice, but it’s far less than he and his multitudinous fan base expect. And, though he tried to subsequently walk it back, even Jones was hedging on McCarthy in Week 18 even as the Cowboys donned their division title caps and t-shirts.

“I think of what he’s done and that we’ve put ourselves in this position over these last three years, I think that does speak for itself. We’ve got a lot of football left and no small part thanks to Mike,” Jones said following a 38-10 thrashing of the Washington Commanders.

‘We’ll see how each game goes.”

Now we have.

‘What I had planned to do was be with (McCarthy) tomorrow going over how we played today and getting ready for the coming week,’ Jones said Sunday per The Athletic. ‘That’s what was on the agenda. Tomorrow, my agenda will be to dismiss the team.”

But while league observers, analysts, reporters, X/Twitter and just about everyone else are connecting the lines from the Lone Star State to the lone head coach with six Lombardi Trophies on his résumé – eight if you count Belichick’s two rings while running the New York Giants legendary defense in 1986 and 1990 – let’s pause for a hot minute and remember that any hypothetical Jones-Belichick marriage would most definitely have to be a mutual arrangement. Maybe even a one-sided one.

In this moment, assuming he’s ready to pivot from McCarthy, it might seem like Jones needs Belichick. That doesn’t necessarily mean BB needs Jones.

Belichick, 71, clearly wants to continue coaching, and that will require a new locale to compile the 15 additional wins he needs to surpass Hall of Famer Don Shula’s all-time record (347). It also means a destination where he could get that seventh Super Bowl victory, allowing him to pull even again with Tom Brady … at the very least. And that might mean the Cowboys, who could offer the GDP of a small country as financial enticement. It might also mean the Atlanta Falcons. Or the Los Angeles Chargers. Or the Seattle Seahawks. Or another surprise job that might come open (Philadelphia Eagles, anyone?). Perhaps Belichick even takes a year off to recharge, reset, re-evaluate and wait for a situation more to his liking.

But, sure, Dallas is theoretically a highly attractive post. There’s a very good, if definitely not elite, quarterback in place with Prescott. All-Pro wideout CeeDee Lamb is among the best at his position, even if that was hardly apparent Sunday. Pass rusher Micah Parsons might be the league’s most-feared defender. DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs, assuming he comes back completely from a torn ACL, may form the league’s top cornerback tandem in 2024.

But isn’t Belichick sure to have significant misgivings?

He’s known Jones for decades and surely sees a deft businessman similar to his longtime boss in New England, Robert Kraft. And, like the Patriots, the Cowboys are very much a high-profile family venture. But Jones is completely hands-on in a way Kraft never really has been. The constant radio appearances. The frequent postgame meetings with reporters, win or lose. The heavy involvement with player acquisition, whether it’s free agency or the draft. Belichick knows his NFL mentor, Bill Parcells, chafed under Jones and only lasted four years with nary a postseason win.

Then there’s the culture of being “America’s Team,” which carries what’s almost certainly the brightest spotlight in American team sports. This is an organization that wants to be in the headlines. Wants to be on “Hard Knocks.” Wants its players featured in national commercials. Parsons is now a podcaster. And the talent is here to (almost) justify all the attention and expectations.

Belichick? He basically wants one voice beyond the pre-programmed message hardwired into the locker room. And one focus – between the lines.

Speaking of which, the Cowboys can’t run the ball, especially not when they need to. They play break-but-don’t-bend defense. Good as Prescott was in 2023 – and has been for stretches of his career – he can’t win the big one and has too often made glaring mistakes in the biggest games.

‘It feels like you’re there putting on a performance as a player instead of being a football player. It feels like so theatrical, and that’s what I think gets lost in all of this,’ said Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan on Fox’s postgame show.

‘Let the players play football. They’re football players, not Broadway performers.’

“Do Your Job?” Not so much. And instilling those three words that Belichick and his teams have lived by for nearly a quarter-century is hardly something that happens overnight – and that might be especially true in North Texas given the litany of distractions that have historically swirled around the Cowboys.

So, regardless of where Jones lands, that could mean this isn’t the job for Belichick.

***

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

Joe Mauer’s greatness was truncated, his optimal outcome as a ballplayer very much unrealized. His end was not tragic – not due to an insidious disease or transportation catastrophe – but instead unfortunate, leaving behind only partially unanswered questions rather than what-ifs.

Concussions drove Mauer from baseball, first taking him away from home plate and ending his catching career in 2013, and then nudging him into retirement altogether in 2018. Oh, Mauer very much fulfilled the golden boy status that accompanied him into pro ball: The No. 1 pick of the hometown Minnesota Twins in 2001, signed away from the opportunity to play quarterback for Florida State to instead become the face of his beloved team.

Missions accomplished: Mauer won an MVP award, earned six All-Star Game selections and captured three batting titles while leading the Twins to four playoff berths.

Yet the Twins could never escape the divisional series – nor their constant tormentors, the New York Yankees – and Mauer’s extensive accomplishments left a feeling of unfinished business, even after 15 seasons.

Still, even if he said goodbye to the game at 35, there’s an excellent case for Mauer to earn election to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

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 The case for Joe Mauer

Regardless of position, Mauer was one of the best pure hitters and finest on-base artists of his era. He gave a preview of coming attractions in his first full season, posting a .294/.372/.411 line, setting the stage for leading the majors in hitting the next season. That .347 average in 2006 included 181 hits in just 140 games; his .429 on-base percentage and .936 OPS produced a 144 adjusted OPS, a harbinger that Mauer was headed toward elite hitter status in a PED testing era that was just two years old.

Mauer reached his apex at 26 years old in 2009, again leading the majors with a .365 average and .444 OBP and this time crushing 28 home runs to lead the AL in slugging (.587), OPS (1.031) and adjusted OPS (171). And in perhaps his greatest feat, Mauer overcame whatever biases might exist against a catcher from a team in the upper Midwest to outpoint the Yankees’ Mark Teixeira and win his only MVP award.

There are 19 catchers in the Hall of Fame, and Mauer’s offensive metrics stack up very favorably against those inducted in the past 40 years.

Mauer’s .827 career OPS and 124 adjusted OPS hardly takes a back seat to Johnny Bench’s .817 and 126 marks. Same with Pudge Rodriguez, who finished with a .798 OPS and 106 mark, and, like Mauer, one MVP award. Gary Carter checks in at .773/115.

While Wins Against Replacement remains perhaps most imperfect in evaluating catchers, it’s both an indictment of Mauer’s somewhat shortened career but also his all-around excellence. While Mike Piazza’s offensive prowess (427 home runs, .922 OPS, 143 adjusted) dwarf Mauer’s, his 59.5 career WAR isn’t far ahead of Mauer’s 55.2. Yogi Berra also had 59.5 WAR – though 10 World Series titles and three MVPs buff out his legacy nicely.

Bench (75.1), Carter (70.1) and Pudges Rodriguez (68.7) and Carlton Fisk (68.4) all enjoy significant career WAR advantages over Mauer, but Carter and Fisk did not win an MVP award.

In short, there are plenty of avenues to make Mauer’s case for Cooperstown.

The case against

Everyone loves the longball, right? By that measure, Mauer’s relatively paltry 124 home runs are easily dwarfed by his predecessors. Bench won a pair of MVPs on his way to slugging 389 home runs. Fisk lasted 24 seasons and hit 376 home runs. Rodriguez hit 311 home runs and even stole 127 bases.

Dreams of accruing such gaudy counting stats as a catcher ended in August 2013 when Mauer took a foul tip off the mask, landed on the seven-day concussion list – and missed the rest of that season.

When he returned in 2014, it was as a first baseman, and though he was just 31, his offensive production diminished. Though Mauer maintained a .359 OBP over his last five seasons, he was barely a league average hitter and with a high of 11 home runs in that stretch.

The risk of a major concussion forced Mauer to stop catching; after he suffered a concussion diving for a ball in 2018, it marked the end of his career.

Realistic outlook

Mauer will be a Hall of Famer – perhaps first ballot, likely within his first five years of eligibility. He’s received 83% of publicly revealed votes on Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker, which projects him to land right on the 75% line needed for induction when all ballots are tallied.

Mauer’s case will age well, particularly as his offensive output and WAR accrual is weighed against Yadier Molina, a likely Hall of Fame catcher who will be eligible four years from now.

Yet perhaps the best metric isn’t a catcher but rather another Twin Cities legend – Kirby Puckett, the great outfielder whose career ended at 35 due to an eye condition. Puckett did not have the counting stats an MVP-less outfielder might lean on – just 2,304 hits and 207 homers – but earned election on the first ballot, perhaps in part due to forces beyond his control.

Mauer did even more – and should receive similar due.

Messi earned the honor of Men’s Player of the Year award during The Best FIFA Football Awards show in London on Monday, adding to his accolades after a crazy run at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Messi beat out his former Paris Saint Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City standout Erling Haaland for the award.

The trio was also considered for the Ballon d’Or, which Messi won for the eighth time in October.

Messi was not in London for the ceremony, remaining with Inter Miami to prepare for the club’s worldwide preseason tour, which begins in El Salvador on Friday.

Messi won the award for the third time (2019, 2022 and 2023) since its 2016 inception. Cristiano Ronaldo won in 2016 and 2017, Luka Modric won in 2018 and Robert Lewandowski won in 2020 and 2021.

FIFA’s criteria for the award spanned from Dec. 19, 2022 to Aug. 20, 2023.

Although the World Cup was won on Dec. 18, Messi’s lasting impression since winning the elusive championship likely influenced voters.

Messi helped Argentina win the World Cup for the first time since 1986 and achieved redemption after losing to Germany in the 2014 final.

Messi won the Golden Ball – given to the best player at the World Cup – becoming the only player to win the award twice in tournament history. He scored seven goals, one shy of Mbappe, the Golden Boot winner.

During the final, Messi scored two goals plus another in the penalty round to help Argentina beat France 3-3 (4-2 in penalty kicks), despite a hat trick from Mbappe that forced extra time.

Messi also became the first player in World Cup history to score in the group stage, the Round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal and the final at a single tournament.

After Messi’s World Cup run, Messi had 21 goals and 20 assists for PSG, while scoring 11 goals in 14 games and helping Inter Miami win the Leagues Cup title last summer.