As several of his peers were fired on Black Monday, Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel stated that he seemed to be on solid ground.

‘It’s my understanding I’m the coach of the Miami Dolphins until told otherwise,’ McDaniel said Monday, Jan. 5, at a news conference amid a lack of a public statement from owner Stephen Ross.

That dynamic changed by Thursday, Jan. 8.

The Dolphins fired McDaniel, bringing an end to his four-year run leading the franchise. McDaniel finished with a career mark of 35-33 after a 7-10 finish in the 2025 season.

The move comes amid speculation about which team will land former Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who was fired Tuesday and immediately became the hottest candidate on the open market. But ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Dolphins have not contacted Harbaugh or made inquiries into other coaching candidates.

McDaniel, meanwhile, could become a leading offensive coordinator option for several teams if he doesn’t land another head-coaching gig.

“After careful evaluation and extensive discussions since the season ended, I have made the decision that our organization is in need of comprehensive change. I informed Mike McDaniel this morning that he has been relieved of his duties as head coach,” Ross said in a statement. “I love Mike and want to thank him for his hard work, commitment, and the energy he brought to our organization. Mike is an incredibly creative football mind whose passion for the game and his players was evident every day. I wish him and his family the best moving forward.“

McDaniel had seemed to be in hot water in the early going, with the Dolphins spiraling to a 1-6 start. After a loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9 dropped Miami to 2-7, the team parted ways with general manager Chris Grier but stuck with McDaniel.

Despite dealing top edge rusher Jaelan Phillips to the Philadelphia Eagles at the NFL trade deadline, the Dolphins went on a four-game win streak to claw closer to a .500 record. Miami would lose three of its final four games, however, with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa benched for the last three contests.

‘Coaching this team and being a part of this great franchise has been the honor of a lifetime,’ McDaniel said in a statemen. ‘When I took this job, I had a vision of a team that was bonded together and played with passion and energy on the path to winning championships. I gave everything I had for that goal. I am disappointed, especially for the fans, that we did not have better results on the field, but I am grateful for every coach, player and staff member who poured themselves into that vision alongside me.’

The Dolphins hired McDaniel in February 2022 despite the then-San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator not having landed any interviews elsewhere for other head-coaching openings. Known for a blunt yet jovial demeanor that included cracking jokes on both the sideline and in news conferences, McDaniel and his laid-back ways drew a sharp contrast with former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, whom Ross fired at the end of his third season at the helm in 2021.

But the defining trait of McDaniel’s early tenure would be speed – and the creativity with which he deployed it. In March 2022, the Dolphins gave up five draft picks to acquire Hill from the Kansas City Chiefs in a trade. As part of the deal, the team made Hill the highest-paid receiver in NFL history at the time with a four-year, $120 million deal. In fielding Hill, Jaylen Waddle and running back Raheem Mostert as weapons for Tagovailoa, the Dolphins quickly established themselves as one of the league’s most dangerous attacks.

McDaniel drew rave reviews for his play-calling acumen, and his innovative ‘cheat motion’ – as publicly coined by 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, under whom McDaniel coached at a number of stops – was widely copied by other teams in 2023. That same season, the Dolphins tied for the second-most points scored in a single game with a 70-20 rout of the Denver Broncos. Miami would finish the season with the No. 1-ranked offense in yards per game at 401.3 per game, but the organization bowed out of the playoffs in a wild-card round loss to the Chiefs.

A tight salary-cap situation prompted the Dolphins to undergo somewhat of a shift the ensuing offseason, when they lost the likes of defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, offensive guard Robert Hunt and linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel to other teams in free agency while cutting Howard and several other notable contributors.

Tagovailoa would miss six games in 2024 – four due to an early-season concussion and another two with a late hip injury – as Miami quickly dropped out of contention before putting together a midseason surge.

This is the day that Major League Baseball hates, players love, and one that can leave a lasting animosity that may not fade.

It is the MLB salary filing day, where teams and hundreds of salary arbitration-eligible players exchange salary figures for the upcoming 2026 season.

They will submit their figures throughout the day Thursday, and if the two sides can’t reach a compromise, a three-person panel will decide which salary to pick later in January, which can lead to contentious hearings.

MLB is hoping this is the swan song for the entire salary arbitration system with the collective bargaining agreement expiring on Dec. 1, 2026. MLB tried to eradicate salary arbitration during the last collective bargaining negotiations and replace it with a performance model, saying it would help avoid strained relationships.

The idea was steadfastly rejected by the players union, which instead bargained for a higher minimum wage and a $50 million pre-arbitration bonus pool for pre-arbitration eligible players.

Skubal, who earned $10.15 million last season while winning his second consecutive Cy Young award, could double his salary with agent Scott Boras establishing an arbitration benchmark for pitchers. Spotrac projects that Skubal could earn $22.5 million while MLBTradeRumors predicts $17.8 million.

Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants was the last arbitration-eligible pitcher to win consecutive Cy Young awards in 2008-2009, and he signed a two-year, $23 million contract to avoid arbitration.

All-Star outfielder Juan Soto received the largest one-year contract for an arbitration-eligible position player in 2024 with a $31 million deal by the New York Yankees. Shohei Ohtani’s $30 million deal in 2023 from the Los Angeles Angels is the second-largest pre-arbitration deal.

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s $28.5 million contract was the largest by an arbitration-eligible player a year ago, which he spun off into a 14-year, $500 million contract extension.

While MLB is expected during the next labor negotiations to again try to replace salary arbitration with a performance-based algorithm, the union surely will oppose it, with one veteran agent calling it the “balance of revenues and compensation.’’

Certainly, no one has benefited more from salary arbitration than Soto earning a major-league record $79.6 million in his four arbitration years before signing a 15-year, $765 million contract after the 2024 season with the New York Mets.

Ten players are projected to earn contracts Thursday of at least $10 million, per MLBTradeRumors, led by Seattle Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena. That’s a slight increase over the eight players who received at least $10 million at last year’s salary arbitration deadline.

It will be a day filled with intrigue, suspense, negotiations, and we will be left with a whole lot of rich fellas, and yes, angry owners who resent the entire salary arbitration process.

Follow Nightengale on X: @BNightengale

An earlier version of this story misidentified the highest-paid arbitration-eligible pitcher in MLB history.

Jimmie Johnson hasn’t competed in NASCAR full-time since retiring after the 2020 season, but the seven-time Cup Series champion has been picking a few races a year to compete in.

The 50-year-old – who is tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for the most Cup championships in the sport’s history – will run in a couple of NASCAR’s more high-profile races in 2026.

For the fourth consecutive season, Johnson will compete in the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s signature season-opening race. Johnson enters the race using the Open Exemption Provisional, which NASCAR grants to ‘accomplished, world-class drivers.’ Last season, four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves used the provisional to make his NASCAR debut.

The winner of 83 Cup Series races in his long career, Johnson had his best finish in a NASCAR competition since his retirement from full-time racing in last year’s Daytona 500, coming in third. He has two wins at the iconic asphalt superspeedway, taking the checkered flag in 2006 and 2013.

Johnson will race for the team he owns, Legacy Motor Club, which also features Cup Series drivers John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones. He’ll drive the No. 84 Toyota with a blue and yellow paint-scheme with a Carvana sponsor plastered across the hood.

That won’t be the only time fans will see Johnson in a 2026 race. The native of southern California will also compete in the Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series races in San Diego, on the road course for Naval Base Coronado.

‘Growing up just miles from San Diego, I dreamed about racing here in a NASCAR vehicle someday, but I never thought it would be possible. I just came to the realization that there would be no way NASCAR could race in that city – as there would be nowhere to put a track,’ Johnson said in a statement. ‘So, it’s just mind-blowing to me that NASCAR made this a reality.’

Johnson made it official in November that he would be driving in the Cup Series race in San Diego, but announced this week that he would be adding the Truck Series competition to his schedule as well. It’ll be just the second time in his motorsports career that he’s competed in the Truck Series, last doing so in 2008 at Bristol for a team that was owned by Hall of Fame NFL wide receiver Randy Moss. Johnson led 29 laps in that race before crashing out and finishing 34th.

In the 16-turn, 3.4-mile street circuit along the waterfront in San Diego, Johnson will be driving for Tricon Garage. The team has four Truck Series drivers racing in Toyotas, including 2025 champion Cory Heim. Toni Breidinger – another California native who was the only woman to compete in one of NASCAR’s top three touring circuits full-time last year – also races for Tricon.

‘Racing in San Diego means everything to me – it’s home,’ Johnson said. ‘Getting behind the wheel of a Truck Series entry has been on my mind for a while. The competition is incredible, and doing it at a historic street race on a Navy base in my hometown? That’s special.’

Johnson hasn’t won a NASCAR race since taking the checkered flag at Dover in 2017.

Entering the Olympics in peak form can mean the difference between a successful and disappointing tournament.

With a little more than a month remaining before the puck drops in Italy, there are a handful of standouts on the United States’ men’s hockey team who are acquitting themselves confidently and with swagger in the NHL so far this season.

As always with these top-five lists, a few in-form players were excluded, not unlike the team’s final roster, which didn’t have the highest-scoring U.S.-born scorer so far this season, Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson.

Let’s take a look at which five take the plaudits.

Top 5 Team USA players having the best NHL seasons so far

5. Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes

It hasn’t been a conventional season for Quinn Hughes, who was dealt from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild in a blockbuster trade that reverberated across the NHL.

While it hasn’t been an overly showy start to the season, Hughes is still scoring at a 0.92 points-per-game clip. He has the third-shortest Norris Trophy odds, trailing USA teammate Zach Werenski and Canada’s Cale Makar.

4. Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin

Dylan Larkin’s influence in Hockeytown has propelled the Detroit Red Wings to the top three of the Atlantic Division. His club’s success is compelling enough to include him on the list while excluding Kyle Connor, whose Winnipeg Jets are last in the NHL. 

Larkin’s goal-scoring exploits are the other primary reason, with the captain netting 22 times, tied for 12th with three players heading into Thursday’s action.

3. Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman

While Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck is expected to start between the pipes, Jeremy Swayman has given coach Mike Sullivan reason for pause, if only momentarily. 

Swayman has the 13th-best goals saved above expected, which takes into account the quality of shots a goaltender faces, and is an outsider in the Vezina Trophy conversation. His .902 save percentage and 2.91 goals-against average are more impressive when you consider that the Bruins allow the second-most expected goals, according to moneypuck.com.

2. Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski

Zach Werenski has been shot out of a cannon recently, scoring 12 points in a six-game stretch from Dec. 16 to Jan. 6. After being sidelined for four games with a right-ankle injury during that stint, he notched five points in three games upon returning to the lineup.

The 28-year-old has 45 points (16 goals, 29 assists) in 38 games. Werenski is three points behind Makar, the league leader among defensemen, but has the most points per game (1.18). 

1. Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy

Matt Boldy has the third-most points among Americans, trailing Connor by one and Robertson by four.

Boldy also has the third-most goals (26) in the NHL, trailing only runaway Rocket Richard Trophy favorite Nathan MacKinnon (35) and Connor McDavid (28). Boldy is second on the Wild in points, one behind Kirill Kaprizov. 

Eighteen of his 26 goals have come at even strength. That’s tied for the fourth-most with three others – Brad Marchand, Morgan Geekie and Tage Thompson.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers once again are on the hunt for a new offensive coordinator.

On Thursday, the team fired Josh Grizzard after the assistant coach’s lone season in the role, according to multiple reports. Tampa Bay now will search for their fifth different offensive coordinator in five years.

Grizzard, who had previously served as the team’s pass game coordinator, took over an attack that had earned head-coaching jobs for his predecessors, Liam Coen (Jacksonville Jaguars) and Dave Canales (Carolina Panthers) after just one season. But after a hot initial start, an injury-riddled attack floundered down the stretch and finished ranked 21st in total offense.

Tampa Bay’s four-year reign atop the NFC South came to an end Sunday, when the Atlanta Falcons’ win over the New Orleans Saints created a three-way tie for first that conferred the division crown to the Carolina Panthers.

Before his own return was cemented Wednesday, Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles alluded to potential staff changes.

‘We’ll evaluate that in the next coming days, seeing exactly what needs to be changed,’ Bowles said in a Monday news conference. ‘Schematically, I know I need to make some changes depending on the players that we have coming back. Coaching-wise, we need to make some changes as a whole as far as what we’re doing on the field and how we’re teaching guys certain things.’

The Buccaneers are also parting ways with quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

Senior offensive consultant Tom Moore, who has coached in the NFL for 46 years, also told the Tampa Bay Times he is retiring.

The first big NBA trade domino has fallen.

A little less than a month before the Feb. 5 trade deadline, Trae Young, a four-time All-Star, was traded by the Hawks to the Wizards in a somewhat rare intra-divisional, player-for-player deal. In return, Washington is sending guard CJ McCollum and forward Corey Kispert to Atlanta, a person with direct knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports.

The person spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose details of the trade.

Given that the Wizards are second-to-last in the East, and given that the Hawks are ninth, this trade might not initially appear to alter the fates of either franchise. But there are implications that should have ripple effects on both franchises in the years to come.

Here are the winners and losers of the Trae Young trade:

WINNERS

Hawks defense (though not by much)

It’s a pretty damning stat: in the 10 games that Trae Young has played this season, the Hawks were 2-8; in the 28 games without him, they went 16-12. Though Atlanta has faced other injuries this season, there was a clear issue with lineups that included Young and it was on defense.

Of all the qualifying players through Wednesday, Jan. 7, Young ranked third to last — or 493rd in individual defensive rating, with a mark of 126.2. It would be notable, except that McCollum, the centerpiece in the trade, isn’t all that far behind, at 464th, with a defensive rating of 120.4.

Trae Young

He’s still only 27, has a polished offensive game and now has more leverage and agency toward his future. Young, per Spotrac.com, is in the final season of his contract, though he has a player option for next year. Should he exercise that option, he’ll be set to make north of $94 million over these two seasons. Should he decline it, he’ll pocket $46.4 million for this year and then will have the chance to hit the open market this summer, where he’ll draw considerable interest and, therefore, another lucrative payday.

In any case, he gets to go to his preferred destination, one with an intriguing young core with second-year players Alexandre Sarr, Kyshawn George, rookie Tre Johnson and third-year defensive specialist Bilal Coulibaly.

Atlanta salary cap flexibility

The Hawks have a nice young core, led by potential All-Star Jalen Johnson (24), Nickeil Alexander-Walker (27), Dyson Daniels (22) and Zaccharie Risacher (20). Now, with Young off the books, the most expensive player on the roster is center Kristaps Porziņģis, who makes $30.7 million. Yet, Porziņģis is on an expiring deal, as is McCollum (also $30.7 million in 2025-26), which gives the Hawks massive wiggle room to try to entice a free agent available in the offseason. Though, practically speaking, the Hawks might be better served to save that cap space for 2027.

Jalen Johnson

This signals that the Hawks are fully investing in Johnson as the face of the franchise. Averaging 23.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game, Johnson is a solid bet to make his first All-Star game. And with Young’s usage gone, Johnson should find the ball in his hands much more.

The New York Knicks (let us explain)

The Wizards started the season 1-15 and are currently second-to-last in the East. Washington, however, has won five of its last seven games and has shown some improvement in recent weeks. Adding Young, presumably, should improve the roster.

This is good news for New York, which would receive Washington’s 2026 first-round draft pick as long as it ends up No. 9 or lower. The more Washington wins, the more the Knicks do, too.

LOSERS

Wizards defense

They already ranked second-to-last in the NBA, allowing 121.6 points per 100 possessions. With Young getting extended minutes, that figure might actually get worse. It also puts incredible pressure on Bilal Coulibaly and Alexandre Sarr as the main defensive stoppers in the starting lineup.

The Hawks can’t land draft capital

In the NBA economy, nothing is greater than a stash of draft capital. Teams love to hoard picks so they can package them in a deal for better players. It can be the difference between landing a star (or valuable role player) at the deadline versus missing out.

That Atlanta was unable to land a draft pick in this deal, and that it happened a little less than a month before the deadline, indicates how poor the trade market was for Young.

The guard logjam in Washington

With this deal, the Wizards now have Young, Kyshawn George, Tre Johnson and Bub Carrington in the guard rotation. Young and Carrington are the two that are most natural with the ball in their hands, while George and Johnson have played solidly at the two-guard spot. The odd man out here, presumably, is Carrington, who may see his minutes drop, especially because George and Johnson have found their roles off the ball.

This will certainly be something for coach Brian Keefe to sort through in the coming months.