The New York Giants have secured their offensive coordinator under John Harbaugh, and Matt Nagy has found his play-calling opportunity.

The Giants are hiring Nagy, who had been the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, for the same position, ESPN reported Tuesday.

New York had been in search of someone to orchestrate the offense after Todd Monken, who held the same title under Harbaugh for the last three years with the Baltimore Ravens, landed the Cleveland Browns’ head-coaching position.

Nagy, 47, had been the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for the last three seasons. His contract expired in January, and Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he and Nagy came to an understanding that the former Chicago Bears coach would pursue opportunities elsewhere, either as a head coach or a play-caller.

Kansas City hired Eric Bieniemy, the team’s offensive coordinator from 2018-22, as Nagy’s replacement.

‘Matt and I have a great relationship,’ Reid said of Nagy. ‘Before the season even started here, I knew that he wanted an opportunity to have his own show. … All the things I’ve said about him I still feel about him.

‘He deserves to have a head-coaching job. If not, it gives him an opportunity to go out and do his thing. I mean, somebody is missing a gem here. That’s how I feel. I would love to see him get picked up and going.’

Nagy interviewed with the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans for their head-coaching vacancies but didn’t land any of the top jobs. He also spoke with the Philadelphia Eagles about their offensive coordinator opening, but the team hired Sean Mannion for the position.

In New York, Nagy will take over an offense seeking a breakthrough in quarterback Jaxson Dart’s second season. The Giants ranked 13th in total offense last year and 17th in scoring despite wide receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo coming back from season-ending injuries.

Like Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft won’t be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year.

The New England Patriots owner did not receive the necessary minimum 40 of 50 possible votes to be selected to the 2026 class, ESPN reported Tuesday.

Kraft had been the contributor finalist, while Belichick had been the coaching finalist. Anywhere from 1-to-3 candidates will be selected among a pool of five coach, contributor and senior player finalists. Roger Craig, Ken Anderson and L.C. Greenwood are the senior finalists.

Meanwhile, 3 to 5 of the 15 modern-era finalists – which include Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald, among others – are to be selected.

Belichick was revealed last week to have not made the cut, with Kraft coming out in support of his former coach.

‘Whatever perceptions may exist about any personal differences between Bill and me, I strongly believe Bill Belichick’s record and body of work speak for themselves,’ Kraft said in a statement.

Kraft, 84, purchased the Patriots in 1994, saving the organization from potential relocation and steering it to one of the most successful runs in league history. After Belichick’s hire in January 2000, the franchise went on to win six Super Bowls, tying it with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most of any team.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2026 class will be unveiled Thursday night at the NFL Honors ceremony in San Francisco.

The Duke women’s basketball team, which had been ranked as high as No. 6 this season, returned to the USA TODAY Sports women’s college basketball coaches’ poll at No. 22. The Blue Devils are on a 13-game win streak after starting the season 3-6.

Duke will get a big test this week, traveling to No. 6 Louisville on Thursday. The Cardinals moved into the No. 6 spot this week, their highest ranking after beginning the season at No. 22.

The top five in the women’s poll remained unchanged with undefeated UConn a unanimous No. 1 followed by UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and LSU. Vanderbilt slid from No. 6 to No. 8 after losses to South Carolina and Ole Miss. Iowa also slid two spots from No. 8 to No. 10 after losses at USC and UCLA.

Princeton took the biggest tumble of the week, falling five spots after a close loss to Columbia. Georgia fell out of the rankings after a loss to No. 23 Alabama.

‘It is too expensive,’ the USMNT forward told French outlet Le Dauphiné. ‘Football should still be enjoyed by everyone. It is the most popular sport. This World Cup will be good, but it will be more of a show.’

For Pochettino, Weah’s comments were an unnecessary distraction from on-field matters.

‘First of all, I think players need to talk on the pitch, playing football, not outside of the (pitch),’ Pochettino said. ‘It is not [Weah’s] duty to evaluate the price of the ticket. And then also my duty is to prepare the team, the U.S. men’s national team, in the best way to perform.

‘We are not politicians. We are sport people that only we can talk about our job. And I think if FIFA does something or takes some decision, they know why, and it is their responsibility to explain why. But it’s not up to us to provide our opinion.’

Pochettino’s comments didn’t go down well with Gomez and his fellow ESPN analyst, former Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Shaka Hislop.

‘It’s the U.S. men’s national team, the country, whats it’s supposed to represent, land of the free, home of the brave. Except right now [Pochettino] is saying, ‘You don’t get the free speech,” Gomez said on Futbol Americas.

‘And he’s equating [Weah’s comments] to a political statement, which it is not. Timothy Weah expressed what many global citizens today have been expressing, that this World Cup has turned corporate, that … it is no longer the game of the people. It’s the game of the rich. Thousands of dollars for single gameday tickets to the World Cup.

‘And here is one of the few players on your team with World Cup experience — that has scored a goal in a World Cup — voicing their opinion how they’d like their people, their fans in general, people of all races, colors, to enjoy the game — and you’re saying, ‘Shut up and dribble.”

Hislop ehoed Gomez’s words, calling Pochettino ‘tone deaf’ for his remarks.

‘It couldn’t be more tone deaf,’ Hislop said. ‘This is harkening back to 60 or 70 years ago. It’s beyond belief that in 2026 we have somebody like Mauricio Pochettino, given the position he holds in this country with its history of activism, of athlete activism, in this moment making this statement.’

Pochettino made similar comments last year when the USMNT was facing Panama while U.S. President Donald Trump was openly discussing his desire to take back the Panama Canal.

‘I think it’s big mistake if we talk about politics because I think people are not waiting us to talk in this way,’ the coach said.

‘That doesn’t mean that I am not strong and I have my values and my vision about the situation, but I think being respectful and being a very clear and a strong guy is … to say nothing and to be focused only to help players who perform and try to win.’

MILAN — Despite suffering a devastating injury ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, the emotions haven’t hit Lindsey Vonn.

The decorated Alpine ski racer still plans to compete in her fifth (and final) Olympic Games, even after tearing the ACL in her left knee in a downhill crash on Jan. 30. At a news conference on Tuesday, she shared her initial thoughts when the injury happened, when she learned the diagnosis — and a startling revelation.

‘I had a feeling it was bad,’ Vonn said. ‘I held out hope until I saw the MRI in front of me.

‘But I haven’t cried,’ she added.

Vonn explained she’s been able to keep it together because she has been determined to execute her plan of finishing off her Olympic career on her terms, rather than letting the emotions get the best of her.

‘Normally in the past, there’s always a moment where you break down and you realize the severity of things and that your dreams are slipping through your fingers,’ she said. ‘I didn’t have that this time. I’m not letting this slip through my fingers. I’m gonna do it, end of story. So I’m not letting myself go down that path. I’m not crying. My head is high, I’m standing tall, and I’m gonna do my best, and whatever the result is, that’s what it is. But never say I didn’t try.’

Vonn said she isn’t in pain and her knee isn’t swollen after she went skiing on Tuesday. She said her and her medical team are taking things day by day, that if her knee is stable and she feels strong, she’ll compete as planned. Downhill training begins Thursday with the event on Sunday. After that, she will decide on competing in the team combined and super-G.

The latest NFL head coach hiring cycle saw only one person of color hired and zero Black coaches.
Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged the lack of progress despite league initiatives like the Rooney Rule.
Brian Flores, who is suing the NFL for alleged racial discrimination, was again passed over for a head coaching position.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Well, it sure felt like a quasi-holiday on Feb. 2 when Roger Goodell kicked off Super Bowl 60 week with his annual State of the NFL press conference.

You know the event – Groundhog Day. How fitting.

The NFL commissioner saw his shadow again when it came to the lack of diversity with the latest hiring cycle for head coaches. With 10 openings to be filled – the most since the 11 in 2000 – just one person of color was hired. Black coaches were shut out again, for the fifth time since 2023.

Goodell might feel like he’s stuck in a movie with Bill Murray, because the questions – and criticism – about the NFL’s head coaching hires keep coming back year after year.

Last year, just one Black head coach was hired among seven vacancies when Aaron Glenn landed the New York Jets job. This time, the Tennessee Titans hire of Robert Saleh, a Lebanese-American, was the only person of color to land a top job.

Never mind all that Goodell has done from his perch to promote more diverse results, including programs, initiatives, staunch support for the Rooney Rule and sermons from the pulpit. The past two cycles, Black coaches are 1-for-17 in landing the top jobs in a league where roughly 70% of the players are Black.

If he’s not in a movie, you could suspect the commissioner is resigned to the notion that whatever he tries, it won’t work.

“You know me too well to say I’m resigned to something where I think we need to continue to make progress,” Goodell said the first time the topic was broached during his 45-minute session at the San Jose Convention Center. “I believe that. I believe diversity is good for us.”

“We still have work to do,” he added. “There’s got to be more steps, so we’re re-evaluating everything we’re doing, including our accelerator program, to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow, rather than yesterday So, we need to be looking at that to say, ‘OK, why did we have the results this year?’ ”

Now haven’t we heard this before.

NFL owners keep hiring coaches who look like them. Goodell keeps taking the heat

No, the commissioner doesn’t make the hires. That’s on the individual teams and team owners. Yet Goodell’s big-money gig comes with the distinct feature of taking the heat on this matter for NFL owners. Like it or not, he’s the face of the league’s response – even though the onus is always on the owners.

In any event, Goodell is at least consistent with his messaging – even amid a sticky political climate where the Trump administration has waged war on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts – that maintains they’ll keep trying because there’s more work to do.

Still, it may be more than a coincidence that in the first hiring cycle since the NFL punted (or scrapped) its accelerator program, which was designed to improve prospects for minority coaching and front office candidates – the key features including exposure to team owners and workshop sessions – zero Black head coaches were hired.

Why did the NFL scrap (or punt) the accelerator program? It reeked of a political dance.

Now that the results are in, Goodell insists there was no correlation between the results of zero Black coaching hires and zero accelerator programs since May.

“No,” Goodell said, “but I think long term, it’s something that we want to continue and figure out how do we use that to make sure that people understand that the level of talent is out there, the extraordinary talent is out there and how to give them the opportunities to continue their careers.”

The league has stated that it intends to eventually bring back the accelerator in a reimagined form. Yet I’d suspect that it will be a challenge to avoid anti-DEI pushback if the program isn’t expanded beyond minorities and women. We’ll see.

Brian Flores, Eric Bieniemy personify NFL’s lingering diversity issues

In the meantime, other indicators underscore the challenge for advancing Black coaches to the top posts. When Eric Bieniemy returned to the Kansas City Chiefs last month, he snapped a string that saw more than 30 offensive coordinator jobs filled by White candidates.

Most head coaching jobs are filled by offensive coordinators – although Bieniemy was a notable exception to that pattern despite his Super Bowl success with the Chiefs.

It’s also worth nothing that neither of the head coaches for the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots meeting in Super Bowl 60 – Mike Macdonald and Mike Vrabel – were hot offensive coordinators. They both have defensive backgrounds.

Speaking of such, arguably the most attractive Black head coaching candidate during the most recent cycle came from the defensive side, too. But Brian Flores, the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator, was passed over again.

Flores seemingly has three strikes against him: One, he’s Black. Two, he has a defensive background. And three, he’s suing the NFL on the grounds of systemic racism, alleging that three teams – the Houston Texans, Denver Broncos and New York Giants – conducted sham interviews with him to comply with the Rooney Rule as he pursued a job after being fired by the Miami Dolphins.

It’s not hard to imagine that Flores’ pending legal action might have been a factor in his being passed over, despite landing interviews with the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.

The class action suit, filed four years ago, still doesn’t have a trial date. It has stalled in the legal system, with the league petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling and force Flores into arbitration – where Goodell could potentially rule on the dispute.

Goodell wouldn’t delve deeply into the matter on Feb. 2, which was not surprising given the legal ramifications. Yet he doubled down on the “responsibility,” as he put it, for him to maintain the power to settle arbitration cases.

“It is part of the commissioner’s role, has been and continues to be, and is an important element in giving resolution to issues so that we can move forward without unnecessary litigation,” Goodell said. “So, beyond that, it’s all left up to the lawyers to go from there.”

Still, the optics of Flores’ case could strike to the heart of frustration for Black coaches: Something’s just not right.

Goodell pushed back on a question about the perception of Rooney Rule interviews, yet the tone of the question came from the same place as Flores’ suit.

“I think the rule has been seen as a positive by our clubs by giving them an opportunity to look at a diverse set of candidates,” Goodell said. “They make the choice, ultimately, but I think it’s shown them the value of looking at talent where you might not know what you may not see … Teams are trying to get the coach they think they can win with.”

As Goodell noted, there were 10 openings for current cycle, the inference being that more openings are coming in time.

Left unsaid, though, was the prospect of another Groundhog Day.

 Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell