Mississippi football quarterback Trinidad Chambliss’ legal team filed a suit against the NCAA in a Mississippi court on Friday, Jan. 16 as the QB seeks an extra year of eligibility.

According to multiple reports, Chambliss and his legal team filed in the Chancery Court of Lafayette County on Jan. 16. He is being represented by Tom Mars and Mississippi attorney William Liston, according to the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The lawsuit from Chambliss comes after the NCAA’s ‘bad-father, unreasonable’ decision to deny an initial waiver for an additional year of eligibility for the 2026 college football season.

Chambliss has been asking for a medical redshirt for the 2022 season, when he was playing at Division II Ferris State. That season, Chambliss didn’t play any games as he was dealing with persistent respiratory issues that ultimately led to the removal of his tonsils.

‘I deserve (another year),’ Chambliss said Dec. 30 during a CFP media availability ahead of the Sugar Bowl. ‘I’ve only played three seasons of college football. I feel like I deserve to play four. I redshirted in 2021. That was my freshman redshirt. Then I medically redshirted in 2022. Played in 2023, 2024 and this is 2025.’

He added: ‘I had chronic tonsillitis. I also had heart palpitations and trouble breathing. My respiratory system just wasn’t the best at the time.’

‘Approval requires schools to submit medical documentation provided by a treating physician at the time of a student’s incapacitating injury or illness, which was not provided. The documents provided by Ole Miss and the student’s prior school include a physician’s note from a December 2022 visit, which stated the student-athlete was ‘doing very well’ since he was seen in August 2022,’ the NCAA wrote in its statement on Jan. 9.

‘Additionally, the student-athlete’s prior school indicated it had no documentation on medical treatment, injury reports or medical conditions involving the student-athlete during that time frame and cited ‘developmental needs and our team’s competitive circumstances’ as its reason the student-athlete did not play in the 2022-23 season. The waiver request was denied.’

After taking over in Week 2 vs. Kentucky for injured starting quarterback Austin Simmons, Chambliss helped Ole Miss to a program-best 13-2 record and a College Football Playoff semifinal appearance this past season. In 15 games at Ole Miss, Chambliss threw for 3,937 yards, 22 touchdown passes and three interceptions while rushing for an additional 527 yards and eight touchdowns. He finished eighth in Heisman Trophy voting.

He nearly sent the Rebels to the CFP national championship game, but the Rebels’ answer to Carson Beck’s 3-yard go-ahead rushing TD for Miami in the CFP Fiesta Bowl semifinal came up short. Chambliss finished 23-of-37 passing for 277 yards and a touchdown in Ole Miss’ 31-27 semifinal loss.

Should Chambliss not win his legal battle against the NCAA, he does have the option to head to the NFL, where he is expected to be one of the first handful of quarterbacks taken in the draft. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. views him as the third-ranked quarterback in the class.

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Days after the NCAA added it to its Emerging Sports for Women program, a Power 4 school is launching a varsity women’s flag football team.

Nebraska announced Friday it’s adding a women’s flag football program as its 25th varsity sport, becoming the first school from a Power 4 conference to do so. The Cornhuskers said in a statement that they plan to hire the team’s first head coach by July, and aim to begin playing games in the 2028 season — the same year the sport will make its Olympic debut at the Summer Games in Los Angeles.

“This is a banner day for Nebraska Athletics and for women’s sports,” Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen said in a statement. “Flag football is one of the nation’s fastest growing sports and has exploded in popularity at the youth, high school and collegiate level.”

With the addition of Nebraska, there are now 10 Division I NCAA schools who have announced their intentions to start a varsity women’s flag football program. The others are Mount St. Mary’s, UT Arlington, Alabama State, Cal Poly, Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island University, Mercyhurst, Mississippi Valley State, and North Alabama.

Last year, the NCAA reported at least 65 schools across all divisions planned to sponsor women’s flag football at the varsity or club level. Last spring, the Division III Atlantic East Conference was the first to play a full varsity season of the sport and host a conference tournament, with Marymount winning the championship.

Flag football is the first varsity sport Nebraska has added since 2013, when it began its beach volleyball program. Five other Big Ten schools have, or plan to start, club teams for women’s flag football.

One of the institutions pushing the growth of flag football is the NFL, with all 32 of its teams supporting youth and college programs within their markets. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations, called Nebraska “pioneers” for adding the sport and said in a statement it “marks a groundbreaking moment for collegiate athletics.”

The Eastern College Athletic Conference announced it will launch a women’s flag football league as well with a $1 million investment from the New York Jets through the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation. The league will begin play next month.

Women’s flag football is a spring sport and Nebraska says it will play 12 to 24 games in a season. The Cornhuskers are hoping to have 15 players on the roster by this fall, then increase the roster size to 20 to 25 players by the time they start playing games in 2028. Nebraska said it’s possible the team will play some unofficial games in 2027.

Last spring, as part of its Husker Games, Nebraska fielded a team against NAIA Midland University in an exhibition. Following that game, Dannen alluded to the possibility of the Cornhuskers adding the sport.

“Eventually we’re going to have another women’s sport here at Nebraska from a Title IX standpoint, and I think women’s flag football is one of those sports that — I wanted to see it live myself. And we had a lot of fans come and watch it,” Dannen said on the Husker Radio Network. “I think it’s something we should all keep a close eye on with women’s flag football.”

Before legislation is considered for women’s flag football to reach NCAA championship status, the sport has to be sponsored at the varsity level by at least 40 schools. Those teams would also have to meet minimums in games played and player participation before the sport sees the launch of its own NCAA Tournament.

According to the National Sporting Goods Association, flag football was the sport that grew the most at the youth level in 2024, with participation increasing by 21%. Flag football is now offered at a high school level in 38 states.

After 19 seasons, Mike Tomlin has stepped down as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tomlin made the decision to leave himself, rather than being fired by the organization.
He leaves with a record of 201 wins, eight division titles, and one Super Bowl victory.
Tomlin may take a break from coaching and potentially pursue a career in broadcasting.

Here’s to the Terrible Towel-waving fans at Acrisure Stadium who chanted for the firing of Mike Tomlin as Pittsburgh Steelers coach: You’ve got your wish. Sort of. He’s gone.

In the end, though, the mob wanting Tomlin’s head on a platter didn’t fully get their wish.

That’s because Tomlin fired himself.

He came to the storied franchise in 2007 with so much dignity as an under-the-radar rising star. He left with his dignity fully intact.

That is important, too, in assessing the journey for Tomlin, who stepped down as the NFL’s longest-tenured coach on Jan. 13. In a league with such a shabby track record for hiring Black coaches, he also became a symbol of just what can be achieved with equal opportunity, a walking example of the merits of the Rooney Rule, named for the man, late Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who hired him.

Regardless of race, dignity is hardly guaranteed in Tomlin’s intense, high-stakes profession – especially now, with the ‘absolute joke’ of an environment fueled by so many social media experts, as Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers called it – where coaches so often get kicked to the curb like yesterday’s trash.

No, Tomlin didn’t want to go out matching a dubious NFL record with seven consecutive playoff losses. If the last one, a thorough beatdown from the Houston Texans on Jan. 12, pushed him over the edge then so be it.

He still lasted 19 years and won 201 games. Never had a losing season and collected eight division titles. He won a Super Bowl and lost a Super Bowl.

And despite the fact it has been nearly a decade since the proud franchise (which displays six Lombardi Trophies in the lobby at team headquarters) last won a playoff game, Tomlin still could have returned in 2026 to try again. Now that’s some dignity.

Mike Tomlin decides it’s time – on his time

As Art Rooney II, the Steelers owner, explained it, he expected his Jan. 13 meeting with Tomlin to be another in a series of end-of-the-season sessions that began setting the course for the offseason. Like clockwork, habit and stability would suggest.

In other words, Tomlin, 53, wasn’t pushed out or asked to resign for the purpose of appearances. He was empowered to reach his own conclusion.

It’s time.

In one sense, the postseason results fueled the case for change. Tomlin had a hard time living up to his motto, “The standard is the standard.” Ask John Harbaugh. The inability to win big again was key to Harbaugh’s firing a week earlier after 18 seasons as Baltimore Ravens coach, which made him the NFL’s second-longest tenured coach. Good for Harbaugh, a class act, that he quickly landed with a fresh start as New York Giants coach.

In Tomlin’s case, it got worse after Ben Roethlisberger retired following the 2021 campaign, as the Steelers cycled through mediocre quarterbacking from the likes of Mason Rudolph, Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. That matched the uninspiring input during that span from offensive coordinators Matt Canada and Arthur Smith. And the defense hasn’t been a consistent, championship-level unit, either.

When Rodgers arrived in June, he brought fresh hope – even when considering the aging quarterback was gearing up for a 21st season – that perhaps he could provide the missing piece for the equation. He and Tomlin seemingly made a perfect match as two monumental figures desperately seeking to recapture championship glory.

Well, we’ve seen how that worked out. Rodgers never produced as few points in a playoff game as was the case on Monday night. And the Steelers never suffered a worse home playoff loss. Ouch.

Now the Steelers – with three coaches since 1969 – can move on with a search to find the next Tomlin, Bill Cowher or Chuck Noll. The franchise’s tradition for allowing patience in sticking with its coach undoubtedly adds to the appeal for those seeking to land the job.

Yet it’s also time in another sense for Tomlin.

Tomlin will return to coaching when he wants to. Until then…

Time to reenergize. It was significant that Rooney maintained during his Jan. 14 press briefing that Tomlin’s decision to bolt wasn’t as much a football-related move as it was a family-related decision. Rooney also insisted that Tomlin, still contractually tied to the Steelers, isn’t looking to coach again any time soon.

Of course, Tomlin’s the only one who can fully explain his reason for walking away.

Yet I’m wondering whether the toll of his job – the pressure and tremendous leadership responsibilities were enveloped by what might have seemed like 167-hour work weeks – took enough of a toll. If burnout was a factor, Tomlin would be far from the first coach to feel that weight. If he decides to coach again in the future, the time to recharge his battery will be golden. Ask Sean Payton. In three seasons since his one-year, post-New Orleans hiatus, Payton has turned the Denver Broncos into the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.

Sure, Tomlin is a football savant and like pretty much everyone in the coaching circle at his level, a workaholic who loved the nitty-gritty elements of the job. He’s also a man, a husband, father of three, son and then some.

After 19 years on his last job, and more years climbing the ladder to land that opportunity, nobody can knock his hustle. Tomlin has surely earned a break.

After all, if he indeed decides to coach again Tomlin – who took five of his last six teams to the playoffs – would be at least as hot as Harbaugh.

But there’s no rush. In the meantime, speculation that the gregarious Tomlin will land with a network has ramped up in a hurry. He’d bring presence, wisdom, witty one-liners and classic metaphors such as “two dogs, one bone.” We’ll see. There will be no shortage of potential suitors. Payton spent all of one year working for Fox Sports, while Cowher, Jimmy Johnson and Tony Dungy are Hall of Famers who opted for extended TV runs.

Knowing Tomlin, to some degree, I doubt that noise from the outside drove him away. The heat has always been part of the deal. And Tomlin, for everything that comes with his knack for relating to people as individuals, has long struck me as possessing such a sharp perception for assessing the bigger picture – not just in a football sense, but also from a real-world perspective. That’s one reason I’d suspect criticism from passionate fans probably rolled off his back.

As for the encore, well, it can wait.

Tomlin has earned the right to rearrange football amid the priorities of life. It’s time.

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

The New York Rangers, less than two years removed from being the league’s best regular-season team, are calling for a ‘retool.’

General manager Chris Drury sent out a message to fans on Jan. 16 with the struggling Rangers sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference.

‘With our position in the standings and injuries to key players this season, we must be honest and realistic about our situation,’ he wrote. ‘We are not going to stand pat – a shift will give us the ability to be smart and opportunistic as we retool the team. This will not be a rebuild. This will be a retool built around our core players and prospects.

‘We will target players that bring tenacity, skill, speed and a winning pedigree with a focus on obtaining young players, draft picks and cap space to allow us flexibility moving forward. That may mean saying goodbye to players that have brought us and our fans great moments over the years. These players represented the Rangers with pride and class and will always be a part of our family.’

The Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy and reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2023-24. They missed the playoffs last season, leading to a coaching change to Mike Sullivan.

But fortunes haven’t changed. They have lost five in a row, starting in a game in which star goaltender Igor Shesterkin was hurt. In the four games since, they have given up 27 goals. Defenseman Adam Fox is also out with an injury.

Rangers’ salary cap situation

According to puckpedia.com, the Rangers have a little more than $3,000 in cap space available.

Artemi Panarin is in the final year of his contract and would fetch prospects and picks if dealt. He has an $11.6 million cap hit and a full no-movement clause that the Rangers would need to get him to waive. The Athletic reported that Panarin was told his contract wouldn’t be extended.

Many of their other veterans are locked in long-term, including Fox and Vincent Trocheck (2029), J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad (2030) and Shesterkin (2033).

‘You will begin to see some of our plans come to light in the coming weeks and months,’ Drury wrote.

The NHL trade deadline is at 3 p.m. ET on March 6.

When it comes to the Los Angeles Dodgers, nothing’s shocking. Yet their usual ritual come wintertime somehow manages to leave the baseball world agape.

It becomes a little blurry, Mookie Betts giving way to Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani, which begets an entrance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, triggering the arrival of Blake Snell and then, say, a hood ornament or two picked up along the way, like Teoscar Hernandez or Tyler Glasnow or Edwin Diaz.

Nine wintertime acquisitions since 2020, collectively guaranteed $1.56 billion in salary, all playing massive roles in back-to-back World Series titles.

This time, sated and spent, they’d surely back away from the trough, right?

Well, fool us 10 times, shame on us.

This is a deal that should reverberate for years. Let’s break down the most shocking elements of this California earthquake:

Kyle Tucker: Short on years, big on salary

Tucker celebrates his 29th birthday Jan. 17 – happy birthday, Kyle! – which puts him in an interesting bucket, age-wise, for an elite bat reaching free agency. He’s not Harper-Machado-Soto young, nor is he Alonso-Bregman-Schwarber old.

Still, your first big bite at free agency is usually your best. Tucker’s age and resume – four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger, 27.3 WAR – would seem to spare him the draft-pick compensation anvil that dragged down the Alonsos and Bregmans in securing a long-term deal a year ago.

And while Tucker has opt-out clauses after seasons two and three, there’s also significant unknowns on the horizon.

Labor trouble could wipe out part of the 2027 season. Tucker will turn 31 before the 2029 season, which would be his first year on the market after an opt-out, and he’d be hitting the market at 32, going on 33, if he plays out all four years of this deal.

Additionally, shin and finger injuries, respectively, limited Tucker to 78 and 136 games the past two seasons. It might have seemed prudent to accept a structure that guaranteed Tucker well north of $300 million over, say, a decade, never again having to worry about free agency.

But Tucker has been betting on himself for a long time.

He resisted extension overtures dating back early in his career with the Houston Astros. Owner Jim Crane, averse to giving out massive deals to retain his own players in free agency, got ahead of it by dealing Tucker to the Cubs.

Tucker responded with 22 homers, 25 steals, an .841 OPS and a 2025 playoff berth for Wrigleyville. We gather he’ll be just fine on his next deal.

Yet the short-term, massive AAV deals have been bandied about for years, with Bryce Harper, for one, presented with a similar structure from the Dodgers in 2019. It’s just surprising to see someone jump on it.

Steve Cohen’s Mets: Outbid

Goodness, that would have been some corner outfield: Juan Soto and his $765 million deal in right field, and Tucker’s $50 million annual salary in left. Or vice versa. Whatever. The Mets would have kicked ass.

Alas, bottomless-pocketed owner Steve Cohen could not add the biggest free agent pelt to his wall two years in a row.

When it was reported two days ago Cohen offered Tucker a $50 million salary, it seemed the Mets had the market cornered on a short-term deal. Perhaps they’d lose out to, say, the Toronto Blue Jays if the Jays came forth with the more “conventional” package in excess of $300 million over many years.

Instead, the Mets’ best-and-final offer came in at four years, $220 million, according to the New York Post, their offer bumped to $55 million yet not quite enough to catch the Dodgers at the tape.

Seems Cohen had a ceiling with Tucker, whereas he clearly was going to go as high as necessary with Soto. Ah, well. Now club president David Stearns will have to deftly pivot, the roster now looking very much incomplete as we enter the home stretch of the offseason.

Dodgers veterans: Underpaid

Inflation’s tough, man.

While Tucker did not dislodge Ohtani from baseball’s highest annual salary – Ohtani’s $70 million over 10 years still reigns supreme – he’ll certainly take home a lot more pay, sooner, than the game’s greatest player ever and four-time MVP.

Famously, Ohtani deferred $680 million of his $700 million package, the better to position the Dodgers for free agent strikes like this one. He’s bringing home just $2 million a year, while Tucker’s deal defers $30 million, only slightly dinging the present value.

Mookie Betts? He’s pulling in an average of $31 million a year. Freddie Freeman? A mere $27 million per – and expiring after 2027.

Oh, they won’t be digging for change anytime soon. But perhaps Tucker might be compelled to pick up the check for the lads every so often.

The game: Not dead!

Yeah, those rumblings of a salary cap and ruminations that the Dodgers are Ruining Baseball were really a deterrent, eh?

Yes, the Tucker situation certainly isn’t ideal when it comes to spreading the talent around. At the same time, consider his finalists: The Dodgers, Mets and probably the Blue Jays. Big-market clubs, sure, but also well-run and motivated to win.

The Tucker investment was nothing that the Giants, Phillies, Yankees, Braves, Nationals, Red Sox, Angels, Mariners, Rangers, Cubs – even Tucker’s old Astros – couldn’t handle at various points in their competitive arcs. Destinations are created, not simply forged by opening a checkbook once in a while.

Tucker wanted to be a Dodger, just like Ohtani and Yamamoto, who turned down identical deals elsewhere. Just like Rōki Sasaki, who could’ve procured a larger signing bonus somewhere else.

Sure, this all doesn’t go down any easier for some lower-revenue clubs (there’s no such thing as a small market in the big leagues, see). At the same time, some franchises are born on third base. Sometimes you’re Arsenal, other times you’re Wolverhampton.

It doesn’t make your division any less winnable, your ticket to the playoffs any less valid. And when teams like the Dodgers are good, so, too, are the industry revenues borne of high attendance, record global ratings – and the revenue sharing that comes with that.

The long wintertime staring contest between J.T. Realmuto and the Philadelphia Phillies is finally over.

Realmuto, the three-time All-Star catcher and highly respected handler of the Phillies’ pitching staff, agreed to terms on a three-year, $45 million contract Jan. 16, according to a person with direct knowledge of the agreement.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal, first reported by The Athletic, has not yet been finalized.

Realmuto turns 35 in March and while he has been worth between 2.5 and 6.5 WAR in the six full seasons since the Phillies acquired him in 2019, his advancing age gave the club some pause entering the offseason. Multiple reports indicated the club preferred a two-year term and while both desired a reunion, the team scheduled a Zoom meeting with free agent infielder Bo Bichette on Jan. 12.

Acquiring Bichette would have all but ensured Realmuto’s exit, but Bichette reached agreement with the New York Mets earlier in the day, and Realmuto’s agreement with the Phillies – which includes incentives worth up to $5 million per season – came together shortly thereafter.

Realmuto was acquired from Miami before the 2019 season and led the major leagues in games caught in 2022, 2023 and 2025. Despite that workload he has largely produced well above league average offensively, with his finest season coming in 2022, when he hit 22 homers with an .870 OPS and a 130 adjusted OPS.

But that mark dwindled to 91 this past season when he hit a career-low 12 homers in 133 games.