Lucky 13: The Crusaders beat the Chiefs 16-12 to win the Super Rugby title for the 13th time
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The Crusaders won the Super Rugby title for the 13th time by edging the Chiefs 16-12 on Saturday for their 32nd straight win in home playoffs.
The Hamilton-based Chiefs lost in the final for the third straight year and for the second time to the Crusaders by a margin of five points or less.
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Matt Vautour: NFL Players in Olympics is a terrible idea and awful football
The Olympics are great. Football is great. Football in the Olympics? It's going to be awful. On Tuesday, the NFL made the news official: the league will allow its players to participate in Flag Football in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Advertisement All of this is a terrible idea. For lots of reasons. 1. Flag football is a terrible spectator sport —Flag football is a terrific gym class or recreational activity. It's a great way to introduce younger kids to football skills before they're ready for the tackle variety. It's one step beyond Olympic Ultimate Frisbee. But it's not a good sport to watch. It wasn't interesting at the Pro Bowl and will be even less so at the Olympics. It eliminates all the things Americans love about football: the grit, the rugged physicality, the urgency to make a throw before getting it. The bravery of going across the middle. Advertisement This would be guys in shorts playing 5-on-5. It's middle school recess on steroids. 2. Games involving Team USA won't be competitive and games without the Americans will be really low-level — This would be bad even if it was a tournament with several elite teams, but it isn't. The United States is the only country that really plays football seriously. There are other countries that dabble, but not even at a level that would be competitive in college. Four percent of the players in the NFL in 2024 were born outside the United States and none of them played quarterback. Other than the league's attention-addicted owners, who benefits from the Americans winning 77-0? Advertisement This is not going to grow the NFL globally. It's not like these fledgling federations will leave the Olympics motivated to build up and get on the medal stand in Australia in 2032. Flag football is going to be dropped as an Olympic sport as soon as the torch is extinguished in Los Angeles. Football works as a spectator sport in three ways. High school games on Friday nights. College football on Saturdays and NFL games at any time and in any place. Every attempt to create summer football, spring football, minor league football, European football and god knows what else has been a failure because it's all substandard, gimmicky, mediocre football. The same will be true for Olympic flag football. Advertisement 3. Somebody is going to get hurt — Without line play and true blocking, extra yards are gained by planting and cutting. How are teams going to feel when Amon-Ra St. Brown sprains an ankle or Justin Jefferson tears his Achilles in the middle of an 84-6 win over Austria. It's nice that these NFL players have Olympic dreams, but these would be among the least impressive gold medals in history. RIP Norm Peterson Watching the Chevy Chase movie Fletch, the scenes on the beach are off-putting because when the drug-dealing vagrant Fat Sam, played by George Wendt, comes on the screen, it's impossible not to think 'NORRRM!' Advertisement Wendt, a well-loved TV, movie and theater actor, was forever Norm, the one-line shooting, beer-guzzling, Vera-avoiding, lovable chump at the end of the bar at Cheers. The character was beloved in Boston because he was one of us. Even when Wednt would visit Saturday Night Live to do a 'Da Bears' sketch, he was basically playing Chicago Norm. The best part about the finale of Cheers is that there was no climactic finale. Even though there were no more episodes, we're left to believe that Norm and Cliff are still sitting in those familiar stools for eternity. On Tuesday, Wendt/Norm died at home at age 76. Whatever comes next, hopefully, there was a comfortable stool and a cold beer waiting for him. Real Jeopardy! Clue Sports clues from actual editions of America's favorite quiz show. 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Rafael Devers happiest he's been 'in a long time,' ducks questions about Red Sox past
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