‘D.C, say hello to the PWHL!’

Tempers flared. Hands were thrown. The words of commentator Jamie Hirsch echoed over the broadcast in a way that was somehow both tongue-in-cheek and poignant at the same time.

A record-breaking crowd of 17,228 cheered on the brawl between the New York Sirens and Montréal Victoire, with chants of ‘We want a team! We want a team!’ raining down onto the ice in the final seconds of the Sirens’ 2-1 win in the latest stop on the PWHL Takeover Tour at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Trailing by just one goal, the Victoire scrambled with urgency in front of the net as the clock winded down. Sirens goalie Kayle Osborne covered the puck, protecting it from the scrum as the final horn sounded, securing the win for New York.

Everything escalated from there.

Shoving continued even after the horn. Then more shoving. Sirens forward Kristýna Kaltounková was separated by an official before exchanging punches with Victoire defenseman Maggie Flaherty, who was bulldozed by New York forward Taylor Girard.

Several players were tossed to the ground as the referees desperately tried to restore order on the ice, and the record crowd – the largest in U.S. women’s hockey history – clearly loved every second of it.

The D.C. faithful has voiced their desire for a team. But for now at least, the PWHL turns its attention to its next tour stop: Denver on Jan. 25.

A pair of franchises were locked into the race for the No. 1 seed in the AFC all year: the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos.

It came down to Week 18 for the Broncos to clinch home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. It paid off as Denver will host New England to decide who will represent the conference in Super Bowl 60.

Both of these teams are led by second-year quarterbacks. The Patriots selected Drake Maye with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft; the Broncos took Bo Nix at No. 12 overall.

But they won’t get the chance to go head-to-head for the first time in their careers. Nix suffered a season-ending injury in the Broncos’ win over the Bills in the divisional round.

After the Patriots’ win over the Houston Texans, Maye spoke highly of Nix.

‘The news is heartbreaking for the player he is, the guy he is,’ he said. ‘Just know that, pray for Bo. I know he’s going to bounce back, he’s a great player in this league and [I] look forward to matching up with him.’

The two passers got to know each other by matching up in college. Maye’s North Carolina Tar Heels played Nix’s Oregon Ducks in the 2022 Holiday Bowl. Nix and the Ducks won 28-27 on a go-ahead touchdown with 19 seconds left.

They reunited more than a year later during the pre-draft process leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft.

‘I trained with Bo before the draft and got to know him well, him and his family and his wife,’ May said. ‘They’re just great people, great Christians… joy to be around.’

So long as Nix heals up in time for next season, they’ll have a chance to square off. The Broncos will face every team in the AFC East – including Maye’s Patriots – during the regular season.

Rapper Cardi B went to social media to share her reaction to the New England Patriots clinching a spot in the AFC championship game on Sunday, Jan. 18. 

Quarterback Drake Maye and the Patriots earned a 28-16 win over the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Cardi B, the girlfriend of Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs, took to X to share a video of her reaction to the game outcome.

“What are y’all talking about?” Cardi B shouted in the video. “Nothing. Nothing.”

Her post was a reaction to a clip of ESPN’s ‘NFL Live’ studio analysts all picking the Texans to win the game earlier in the week.

The rapper also added a caption that read: ‘THEY DIDN’T BELIEVE IN US !!! I LIKE US!!!!! WE ALL WE GOT!!!!! WE ALL WE NEED !!!! #Patsnation’

Diggs finished the game with four receptions for 50 yards and a touchdown.

It will be the first time New England has advanced to play in the conference championship game since the 2018 season. The Patriots went on to win Super Bowl 53 that season.

The agony was apparent as the reigning league MVP tearfully answered questions following the Buffalo Bills’ latest postseason heartbreaker Saturday – a 33-30 loss to the Denver Broncos. In overtime. Again.

The difference this time? Allen was more antihero than hero, valiantly fighting to save his team – while undermining it nearly as much.

“It’s extremely difficult. I feel like I let my teammates down tonight,” an emotional Allen said at his postgame news conference.

“Missed opportunities throughout the game. It’s been a long season. I hate how it ended, and it’s gonna stick with me for a long time.”

Undoubtedly.

Allen accounted for 349 yards of offense and threw for three TDs. He also turned the ball over four times – two fumbles bracketing halftime and gifting the Broncos six bonus points in a game that had no margin for error.

But it was the interception when the game had entered a sudden death phase – Denver punted on the first possession of OT – that undid the Bills. And maybe receiver Brandin Cooks got outmuscled for a slightly underthrown ball that flipped the momentum. Maybe Cooks even caught it … but Denver corner Ja’Quan McMillian wound up with it. Regardless, Allen must bear his share of the blame at a point when a field goal wins the game.

Remarkably, he’d entered Saturday without a turnover in his six previous postseason appearances, a record among NFL quarterbacks.

“Can’t win with five turnovers,” said Allen, noting the team total (running back James Cook’s second-quarter fumble also led to a Denver TD).

“You shoot yourself in the foot like that, you don’t deserve to win football games.”

But does Allen deserve this?

He’s now wading deeper into waters no athlete wants to drown in. The best golfer to never win a major. The best player to never win a ring − Dan Marino, Karl Malone, Ken Griffey Jr. Locally in Western New York, Allen is replicating the quarterbacking success of Hall of Famer Jim Kelly … less the Super Bowl setbacks.

Allen atoned for his fumbles Saturday – one occurring when he carelessly ran with the ball exposed while (over)aggressively trying to get the Bills into field-goal range at the end of the first half, the other on a strip-sack. Yet he brought Buffalo all the way back from a 20-10 halftime deficit. He nearly did more than that but missed wide-open tight end Dawson Knox on his final throw of regulation – a better pass almost certainly leading Knox into the end zone in the final ticks and sending the Bills back to the AFC championship game.

Instead, Buffalo heads home into the throes of what will figuratively be a long, cold winter.

‘We’re thankful for him,’ said Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins, fighting back tears of his own in the locker room following the game. ‘He (didn’t) let us down.’

Said Buffalo coach Sean McDermott: ‘It’s not on (Allen). We had opportunities, all of us. And I’m extremely proud of him. He’s a tremendous person, tremendous leader, tremendous quarterback.’

Yet the loss to Denver rendered Allen 0-3 in overtime playoff games (and 0-7 overall). If you don’t recall the come-from-ahead loss to the Houston Texans six years ago in his postseason debut, then you certainly remember the 42-36 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022, when Buffalo couldn’t protect a lead after scoring the go-ahead field goal with 13 seconds to go in regulation − not that it was Allen’s fault.

That doesn’t even account for the pair of AFC championship game losses at Arrowhead. Or the three-point loss to the Chiefs in the divisional round at Buffalo two years ago, when Bills kicker Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard field goal inside two minutes that might have sent that game into OT.

Matters have reached a point where Allen’s legacy is beginning to hang in the balance. He’s won eight playoff games. Great. They’re also the most ever by a quarterback who hasn’t claimed a conference championship.

Hall of Famers like John Elway, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre all had to endure significant postseason tribulations before their Lombardi breakthroughs. More recently, so too did Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford.

But Marino? Kelly? Dan Fouts? Warren Moon? Cam Newton? Philip Rivers? Matt Ryan? Fran Tarkenton? All of them are Hall of Famers or likely will be soon. None were ever Super Bowl champions, ‘merely’ legendary passers so often subject to the kind of January misery Allen has too often experienced.

Allen runs the risks of being a modern-day Marino. Ask around for opinions on who the greatest passer in NFL history is, and you’ll get a fair amount of votes for Marino – his accurate, high-powered arm maybe boasting the quickest release the game has ever seen. It allowed him to shatter passing records and earned him an MVP award in 1984, when the second-year QB carried the Miami Dolphins to Super Bowl 19 – where they were routed by Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers.

And just to clarify, ‘greatest passer’ is not to be conflated with GOAT.

Marino never got back to the Super Sunday stage. It might not have mattered given his prime was spent at a time when the NFC – Montana’s Niners, Favre’s Green Bay Packers, Troy Aikman’s Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants and Washington conspired to keep the Lombardi Trophy in the NFC between the 1984 and ’96 seasons.

Is Allen ticketed for a similar fate? He’s not Michael Vick, but Allen does have a case of his own as the greatest dual-threat quarterback in league history – a guy who carried his team to five straight AFC East crowns, only to be blocked by Patrick Mahomes and/or unfortunate luck. Allen won’t be named MVP in back-to-back seasons – not this year anyway – but perhaps no team in the league is currently more reliant on one singular player than the Bills are on him.

But Buffalo doesn’t appear financially positioned to get that additional superstar to put Allen and the rest of this roster over the top – the way Terrell Davis did for Elway’s Broncos or Reggie White did for Favre’s Packers. Worse, the Bills could be headed into a fallow period – young Drake Maye and the New England Patriots resurrected in 2025, already formidable enough to reclaim the divisional throne … similar to the way Kelly’s Bills relegated Marino’s imbalanced Dolphins to afterthoughts for a chunk of the 1990s.

‘Is the (Bills’) window closing?’ asked NFL Network analyst and former league fullback Michael Robinson. ‘They’ve been in this situation so many times.’

This seemed like it was supposed to be Allen’s year. And Buffalo’s. They didn’t need to go through Mahomes and the Chiefs in these playoffs nor Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. Not even Lamar Jackson or the Baltimore Ravens. Aaron Rodgers notwithstanding, Allen was supposed to be the OG this time, his Mafia poised to rule the NFL block.

But not now. Mr. Brightside will have to hope there’s a yet-to-be revealed bright side to the adversity he’s enduring now.

“I love my teammates, and I’m extremely sorry and I’m disappointed in how this ended,” Allen said Saturday.

Let’s just how hope there’s a better ending awaiting him somewhere in the future.

Deja vu?

A day ago, the Denver Broncos were able to celebrate advancing to the AFC championship game courtesy of a controversial interception from Ja’Quan McMillan. One day later, the Chicago Bears thought they were able to recreate that play in the fourth quarter.

Unlike the AFC divisional round game, the ruling on the field was that Adams completed the process of the catch and was down by contract, nullifying the interception.

It was a bang-bang play, but unlike Brandin Cooks, Adams wasn’t falling to the ground at the time of the catch.

NBC’s rules expert, and former NFL referee, Terry McAulay said that Adams clearly completed the process of the catch. He added that the receiver had the ball long enough to complete the third act, also known as a football move, after getting two feet down.

Since Adams’ knee was down after the football move, that was enough for him to be down by contact, something that didn’t come into play with the Cooks situation on Jan. 17.

The Rams were able to take advantage of the ruling in their favor, scoring a touchdown with Kyren Williams just a few plays later to take a 17-10 lead over the Bears.

Nick Foles sees some similarities between the 2025 Denver Broncos and a championship situation he found himself in some years ago.

It’s been a wild 24 hours for the Broncos after their overtime win over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round. Denver managed to win its first playoff game since Super Bowl 50, but it came at a price, and a hefty one at that.

Bo Nix suffered a season-ending injury in overtime, meaning it will be Jarrett Stidham making the start against the New England Patriots with a trip to Super Bowl 60 on the line. The backup will be making just his fifth NFL start since being drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

However, Foles has been in this spot before and has faith in the or the Broncos’ ability – or the Patriots’ historical inability – to find a way to win on Jan. 25.

‘Note for the Broncos and their fans: I know it has been an emotional 24 hours,’ Foles said in a post on X. ‘I feel for Bo and the team, and I’m sending prayers for a strong recovery.

‘A positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs in championship-type games.’

Foles famously took over for the injured Carson Wentz on the road to Super Bowl 52, where the Philadelphia Eagles met the Patriots.

It was Foles that got the best of Tom Brady and the Patriots, 41-33, to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl.

The quarterback was far from a passenger in the game, completing 28-of-43 pass attempts for 373 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Of course, he also hauled in a touchdown on the famous ‘Philly Special’ play en route to being named Super Bowl MVP.

Foles did have a lot more starting experience compared to what Stidham does headed into the AFC championship game, but perhaps the former Eagle gave Broncos fans another reason for optimism.

The Army-Navy Game is a staple of the college football calendar, a standalone event at the end of the regular season in which two of the sport’s biggest rivals face off against one another in a nationally televised matchup.

If one particularly powerful person has their way, it will remain that way.

In a post on Truth Social, a social media app he owns, President Donald Trump said that he plans to sign an executive order that would grant the Army-Navy Game an exclusive four-hour television window that would prevent any other “commercial postseason games” to be played alongside it.

Trump’s post came as proposals for an expanded College Football Playoff field have been discussed, some of which would infringe on what has become the Army-Navy game’s customary date on the second Saturday of December. One such plan for a 24-team playoff would push Army vs. Navy up one week, to the first Saturday in December (which for years has been conference championship weekend).

Trump has been a regular visitor to the Army-Navy Game, having attended it six times as either the president or president-elect, including each of the past two years. At his first trip to the game, as president-elect in 2016, he drew attention for saying in an interview with CBS that ‘I don’t know if it’s necessarily the best football’ when talking about the rivalry.

The American Conference, of which Navy and Army are both football members, released a statement on Sunday, Jan. 18 thanking Trump for ‘protecting’ the game.

‘This game is a natural treasure, where the true commitment of our future leaders is on display,’ American commissioner Tim Pernetti said in the statement. ‘As college athletics continues to modernize in an uncharted landscape, the support of our leaders in Washington is crucial.’

It’s unclear what sort of legal standing such a measure would have, if the 79-year-old Trump follows through on his promise.

Since being inaugurated for his second term in Jan. 2025, Trump has issued executive orders far more liberally than his predecessors in the first years of their terms. Trump signed 225 executive orders last year, significantly more than the 77 Joe Biden signed in 2021, the 55 Trump signed in 2017 and the 40 Barack Obama signed in 2009.

Houston Texans’ linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair has been fined $11,593 for wearing eye black with the message ‘Stop the Genocide’ written across during last weekend’s wild card matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers, ESPN reported.

Per ESPN, the message violated the NFL’s uniform and equipment rules by writing the message.

Al-Shaair’s message was referencing Israel’s policies in Gaza, a cause he has supported vehemently for years through the NFL’s ‘My Cause, My Cleats’ program.

Earlier this season, he mentioned, ‘If my platform can bring even a little hope to families in Palestine, then that is what I want to use it for.’

Al-Shaair’s Texans are slated to play the New England Patriots in the Divisional Round on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 3 p.m. ET.

Al-Shaair’s off-field work

Al-Shaair is the Houston Texans’ 2025 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nominee. His involvement in the Houston community, helping underprivileged, homeless youths as well as single mothers has not gone unnoticed.

The original announcement listing Al-Shaair as the team’s nominee did not mention his pro-Palestinian activism, but anyone who is familiar with Al-Shaair or his charity work knows that pro-Palestinian activism is one of the causes he takes most seriously.

When do the Texans play next?

The Texans’ Divisional Round matchup is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Fans can watch the game on ESPN, or stream the game with Fubo, Sling TV, or NFL+.

Stream Texans vs. Patriots with a Fubo subscription

The Tennessee Titans were the first team to make a change at head coach during the 2025 NFL season after firing Brian Callahan following a 1-5 start. For much of the season, the team and its fan base have been looking forward to the offseason.

Tennessee won two of its last five games and will have a top-five pick in the upcoming draft once again. Callahan’s firing did not affect general manager Mike Borgonzi, who remains with the team for a second season.

The question now is who Borgonzi and No. 1 overall quarterback Cam Ward will work with as head coach. Per multiple reports, the franchise has narrowed its search down to three candidates: Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh.

The team is scheduled to meet with all three candidates over the next 48 hours, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, starting with Nagy tomorrow morning. Saleh will be interviewed again in the afternoon and Hafley on Tuesday.

Tennessee Titans head coaching candidates

Matt Nagy

Nagy is one of two candidates for the position with previous head coaching experience. He spent four years as the head coach of the Chicago Bears from 2018 through 2021. He went 34-31 in that time and 0-2 in his two playoff appearances in 2018 and 2020.

He’s spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator with Kansas City. In that time, the Chiefs finished 15th in scoring in 2023 and 2024 and 21st in 2025.

Borgonzi and Nagy are familiar with each other due to their time in Kansas City. They overlapped there from 2013 to 2017 and 2023 to 2024.

Robert Saleh

Saleh also has head coaching experience with four years at that position with the New York Jets from 2021 to 2024. He was fired after Week 5 of the 2024 season with a 20-36 record in his time in New York.

Saleh specializes on defense and his units in New York played well on that side of the ball. He oversaw a top-five defense there in 2022 as the Jets finished the year fourth in yards and points allowed per game.

They took a slight step back in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the Jets defense finished third in yards allowed but 12th in points allowed. Similarly, New York’s defense was third in yards allowed and 20th in points allowed in 2024.

He returned to San Francisco in 2025 where he’d been the defensive coordinator from 2017 to 2020. That unit finished 13th in points allowed in 2025 despite losing multiple key players to injury.

Jeff Hafley

Hafley is the only first-time head coach of the trio. He spent time with three NFL teams (Tampa Bay, Cleveland, San Francisco) as a defensive backs coach before heading to the college ranks. He spent a year at Ohio State before taking the head coaching job at Boston College.

Hafley spent four years with Boston College before coming to the Packers in 2024. The team improved on defense with him in the building. Green Bay went from 10th in points allowed in 2023 to sixth in 2024. The Packers went from 17th in yards allowed to fifth.

Green Bay didn’t fare as well on that side of the ball even after trading for Micah Parsons. They were still a top-12 unit in points and yards allowed.