Latest news with #Super Bowl
France 24
09-08-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Patriots unveil statue honoring iconic quarterback Tom Brady
The ceremony revealed a towering bronze image of Brady with one arm aloft in triumph, the likeness mounted on a six-sided base in a nod to his championship seasons with the Pats. The total 17-foot height marks the 17 AFC East division titles that Brady won as a starting quarterback. He went on to win a seventh Super Bowl title with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he'll be forever linked to the Patriots -- a fact that team owner Robert Kraft acknowledged when Brady was inducted into the team's Hall of fame last year. "This is quite overwhelming to me," the 48-year-old said. "I feel extremely honored, deeply grateful and, if I'm being honest, kind of old. "I'm also a little surprised, because usually they don't build statues until you're really old, like (Mike) Vrabel and (Tedy) Bruschi. Vrabel, a former Brady teammate now in his first season as head coach of the Pats, was at the ceremony. Brady, who was taken 199th overall in the 2000 draft and was the fourth-string quarterback before emerging as a superstar, poked a little fun at himself, too. "I never dreamed I'd be standing here two and a half decades later made of bronze and frozen in time," he said. "It actually feels pretty appropriate given my 40-yard dash time." Brady's statue was revealed before the Patriots' pre-season game against the Washington Commanders. It stands in the plaza outside the Patriots Hall of Fame. Across 23 seasons, three with Tampa Bay, Brady started in 333 regular season matchups and 48 playoff games -– the most of any NFL quarterback –- with 278 wins overall, another league record unlikely to be touched for years to come. The three-time NFL Most Valuable Player holds the league records for completions (7,753), pass attempts (12,050), passing yards (89,214) and touchdown passes (649). "Tom Brady's journey proves that it's not where you start, but where you finish that counts," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in remarks opening the ceremony. "Tom wasn't just the face of our franchise, he was the heartbeat. It's hard to overstate what Tom accomplished. He didn't just rewrite the record books, he practically authored a new volume. This statue ensures his legacy will be preserved for generations to come."
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Broncos roster: OL Mike McGlinchey (No. 69) is one of Bo Nix's top protectors
Broncos Wire's 90-man offseason roster series continues today with a look at eighth-year offensive lineman Mike McGlinchey, No. 69. Before the : McGlinchey (6-8, 315 pounds) was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers with the ninth overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft out of Notre Dame. Under head coach Kyle Shanahan, McGlinchey immediately started all 16 games his rookie season and was named to the Pro Football Writers Association's All-Rookie Team. In 2019, McGlinchey appeared in and started 12 regular season games and all playoff games, helping San Francisco to Super Bowl LIV. In 2020, McGlinchey was again a constant on the offensive line, starting all 16 games he played in. In 2021, McGlinchey began the year with eight starts in eight games, before suffering a quad injury that necessitated him being placed on injured reserve and shut down for the rest of the season in November. McGlinchey rebounded in 2022 starting all 17 games and three playoff games for the 49ers, helping them earn a berth in the NFC championship game. McGlinchey earned San Francisco's Ed Block Courage Award in that season as well. Broncos tenure: In 2023, McGlinchey was brought in on a five-year contract worth $87.5 million by head coach Sean Payton as part of a revamp of the offensive line to try and protect then-quarterback Russell Wilson, who had suffered through a league-worst 55 sacks in 2022. McGlinchey helped Wilson to improve, but not much in 2023, to have 45 sacks. In 2024, it was expected that the Broncos would see the same type of offensive quagmire that Wilson had brought, especially with a rookie quarterback at the helm. Instead, McGlinchey and the rest of the Broncos' offensive line helped Bo Nix only have 24 sacks last fall. McGlinchey missed nearly a month with an MCL sprain, but while he was in the lineup, McGlinchey started all 13 games he appeared in, along with Denver's playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills. Chances to make the 53-man roster: 100 percent. McGlinchey recently spoke about the offensive line's continuity, which will hopefully help Nix have an even better year in 2025. The unit also hopes to jumpstart one of the NFL's worst rushing attacks from 2024 into a more elite unit in 2025. McGlinchey is locked into the starting right tackle job, and he's a lock to make the active roster. Related: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans. This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Denver Broncos: Mike McGlinchey one of Bo Nix's top protectors
New York Times
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
PGA Tour's FedEx Cup is a joke of a playoff system with an easy fix
This PGA Tour story starts with a celebrity golfer of some distinction, Aaron Rodgers, and the 2011 NFL season. Rodgers was the reigning Super Bowl MVP back then, and the quarterback of a Green Bay Packers team that had won 21 of its last 22 games, including 19 in a row. Rodgers was not simply a regular-season juggernaut who was about to win the first of his four league MVP awards. He was also a lights-out postseason quarterback with a 4-1 record. Advertisement But in his one and only playoff game as a defending champ — the 15-1 Packers against a New York Giants team with a 9-7 regular-season record — Rodgers didn't start with a 14-0 lead on the Lambeau Field scoreboard. The Packers had to beat the Giants fairly and squarely to reach the next round of the playoffs, and they face-planted instead. They lost, 37-20, because the visitors' defensive coordinator, Perry Fewell, had a plan to contain a superstar distributor he likened to Magic Johnson. Rodgers is 7-9 in the postseason since taking the field that day. The playoffs are supposed to make or break franchise-player legacies. They are defined by high stakes and dire consequences, and that's what makes them such compelling theater. A whole season's worth of brilliance can go up in smoke in one bad week, or on one bad night, or on one bad pass. Or on one bad putt — if the FedEx Cup actually meant something profound to the players beyond the $100 million the title sponsor pours into it. But in golf, the notion of true postseason pressure is a punch line at a cocktail party. In 2007, the first year of the FedEx Cup playoffs, Tiger Woods skipped the opening round in Westchester County, N.Y., embarrassed the tour by showing up in Manhattan days later to promote his video game, and then won the big trophy anyway by seizing the third and fourth legs of the series — the BMW and Tour Championship — along with a $10 million bonus for his retirement fund. Eighteen years later, with the playoffs reduced from four legs to three, Rory McIlroy awarded himself a 'bye' this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and advanced into the next round (the BMW Championship outside of Baltimore) because, well, he could turn that 70-man field in Memphis into a 69-man field without facing a meaningful penalty. McIlroy is No. 2 in the standings with 3,444 points, 1,362 behind Scottie Scheffler but enough points ahead of everyone else to know that he could finish near the bottom of the St. Jude field (like he did last year) and barely fall in those standings. Who's taking home the first win during the #FedExCup Playoffs? 👀@FDSportsbook | @Golfbet — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 5, 2025 Of course, most sports fans have no idea what those points mean and have no interest in doing the postseason math (quadruple points available) to determine how a player ranked 63rd can move into the top 50 to qualify for the BMW. The devoted golf fan gets it, but any unscientific survey would show that the average football-baseball-basketball-hockey fan who follows only the four majors is surprised to learn that regular-season golf points help protect the stars from early playoff knockouts. Advertisement Rodgers could have really used this system. The New England Patriots could have used it, too, in the same year the FedEx Cup playoffs began. Given a head start of a couple of field goals against the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, those 2007 Patriots would've finished as the only 19-0 team in league history. Yes, the NFL does grant first-round byes to the best team in each conference and homefield advantage to all higher seeds before landing in a neutral-site Super Bowl. But a football team has to beat the one opponent in front of it to survive. The 15-2 Detroit Lions caught no breaks in losing their first playoff game last season to the Washington Commanders, who entered the tournament at 12-5. Ditto for the 14-3 Minnesota Vikings, who lost their wild-card matchup with the 10-7 Rams. Though these are heartbreaking defeats for the higher seeds, again, that's what makes the playoffs the playoffs. Win or go home. In golf, a McIlroy or a Scheffler doesn't have to beat one particular opponent to stay alive. In fact, if the first round of the postseason was played straight up, Scheffler could finish behind 49 golfers this week and still advance to the second round. As it is, Scheffler could shoot four straight rounds in the 90s in Memphis and still show up at the BMW in first place in the standings. The #FedExCup Playoffs are here ⛳️ Tee times are live for @FedExChamp. (In partnership with @ROLEX) — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 5, 2025 So if the PGA Tour ever wants the postseason to be taken seriously, it will completely separate this three-tournament event from the regular season. No points carryovers. None. Zero. Nada. You want to make it from the first round to the second round? Finish in the top 50 that week. You want to make it from the second round to the Tour Championship in Atlanta? Finish in the top 30 that week. Advertisement It's not too much to ask. That system would create much more drama and would be much easier to follow. FedEx officials might be terrified it could cost them star power at East Lake, but it's a necessary risk to create playoff legitimacy and capitalize on a slow period on the sports calendar shaped by NFL training camps and the dog days of a baseball summer. The tour did the right thing in May when it abandoned its 'starting strokes' format for East Lake, an absurd system that actually had Scheffler show up on the first tee last year at 10-under par (as if he needed it!). Now all 30 members of the Tour Championship field have the same crack at the grand prize, the way it should've been all along. In making this change, the tour promised that 'additional enhancements' to the Tour Championship are coming. Match play would make the most sense in Atlanta (nod to The Athletic's Hugh Kellenberger), with a top 32 advancing out of the BMW, a wild Wednesday of duels to create a Thursday Sweet 16, a Friday Elite Eight, a Saturday Final Four, and a Sunday finale. Stage eight matches on each of the last four days to decide tournament placements and, more importantly, to keep as many stars as possible playing on TV in case of a low-profile title match. If you want to make your postseason feel as big as a major in the middle of training camp holdouts, you do something like that. You also make sure the most popular golfer in a post-Tiger world doesn't mock the whole endeavor. McIlroy isn't chiefly to blame here; it's the flawed system. Rory used it to his advantage, passed on a course (TPC Southwind) that doesn't suit his game, and preserved his chance to win the whole thing for a fourth time. Meanwhile, by bailing on Memphis, McIlroy snubbed FedEx — a tour partner for four decades — in its headquarters hometown right after he collected $10 million in bonus money for his regular-season play. How do you think FedEx officials felt about that one? Advertisement For $100 million, they purchased the right to have a loud voice in the room on changes to come. Peter Malnati, player director on the tour's policy board, told Golfweek that he is 'very concerned' about McIlroy's move and that 'there is stuff in the works' to prevent future absences. As there should be. The PGA Tour lost too many big names to LIV Golf to lose an attraction like McIlroy. The tour's new CEO, Brian Rolapp, spent many years as an NFL executive working mega-media deals for its postseason product. He should know that a playoff round becomes a joke without real-time consequences, and without the participation of all the stars eligible to compete in it. It's simple: If the PGA Tour wants the FedEx Cup to matter, don't let the players mail it in. (Photo of Rory McIlroy: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
New York Times
23-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Belichick fever strong at North Carolina as school announces all 2025 tickets are sold
Bill Belichick is still more than a month away from making his collegiate coaching debut at North Carolina, but the hype around the eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach has already reached a fever pitch. The school announced Wednesday morning that all tickets for 2025, including season and single-game, have been sold. Advertisement 'The July announcement marks the earliest that all tickets for the season have ever been sold out in program history,' the release said. The Tar Heels also sold out season tickets in 2019 and 2021 under Mack Brown — the seasons before and after the COVID-19 pandemic — and averaged 50,000-plus fans in 2019 and 2023, but saw a dip in attendance last season as Brown struggled and eventually was fired. Per UNC had an average attendance of 50,095 in 2023, which fell nearly 5 percent to 47,686 in 2024. Brown went 6-6 in his final season and coached his final game against rival NC State. Belichick, despite never coaching in college before, was named UNC's coach on Dec. 11. There has been skepticism about whether his skills from the NFL will translate to the college level, and questions arose when the Tar Heels hosted a lackluster public practice to close out the spring period to little fanfare. His personal relationship with girlfriend Jordon Hudson has also been a news topic. But since a viral interview with CBS in April, Hudson and Belichick have seemingly stayed out of the spotlight, and Belichick has continued to build out his roster. He found his quarterback in South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez, who finished third in the Sun Belt with 232.6 passing yards per game a season ago. Belichick has added 40-plus transfers in total and has made it clear that the Tar Heels will practice and operate like an NFL team. UNC opens its season on Labor Day night against TCU in what will be an early litmus test for Belichick. The Tar Heels also host ACC favorite Clemson in early October, but the schedule is otherwise favorable for Belichick to make a run in Year 1. Kickoff for the TCU game is set for 8 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rookie OT Aireontae Ersery compared to former Texans Pro Bowl star
Houston Texans rookie offensive tackle Aireontae Ersery could be the next breakout star in the AFC South. He'll need to be one of the better linemen in H-Town if the Texans plan on competing for a Super Bowl title this fall behind Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud. The second-round pick was drafted higher than any offensive tackle since 2019, when the Texans used a first-round pick on Tytus Howard. Houston liked him so much that there were rumors that the Texans were willing to move up into the top 40 to select him right after Jayden Higgins. FOX Sports NFL Draft analyst Rob Rang compared the Minnesota All-American to another great Texans offensive tackle who became a Pro Bowl talent, and it's not Laremy Tunsil. Instead, Ersey could be the next Duane Brown. "In the 23-year history of the Houston Texans, Brown is the only offensive tackle selected by the club to ever make a Pro Bowl," Rang wrote. "I'm dating myself with this evaluation, but I remember Brown as a highly athletic but very raw blocker and a surprising first-round selection out of Virginia Tech. Ersery slipped to the second round but offers a similar blend of size and agility. I think he's going to become a rock up front for Houston. " Brown, a first-round pick out of Virginia Tech, was considered the top offensive tackle for several seasons during his prime with the Texans. He carried on that success when traded to the Seattle Seahawks, earning an All-Pro nod in 2018. The hope for Houston is that the rookie can be the best of both worlds as a great pass protector and run blocker for the Texans. The team had a Pro Bowl talent on the blind side for six years with Tunsil, and Ersey could carry on his own path as the franchise's longtime homegrown talent at left tackle in H-Town. This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Aireontae Ersery compared to former Texans Pro Bowl OT Duane Brown
