Add-on posted early Tues. AM….
Super Bowl postmortem….
I had little to say Sunday night because it was just a beatdown. But someone looking at the game stats years from now won’t understand. Seattle only outgained New England 335-331, but as we all saw, it was all about the first half and the Seahawks’ ‘D’ holding the Patriots to just 51 yards, Drake Maye being swarmed and running for his life. It was sweet revenge on the team that denied them a title 11 years ago.
I must say I was kind of surprised to hear that in being named MVP of the game, Kenneth Walker III was the first running back to win the award since Terrell Davis in 1998.
Nate Davis / USA TODAY Sports
“Apparently, when you get into a deep Super Bowl hole, like the New England Patriots did nine years ago, you need a Hall of Fame coach – oops, a Hall of Fame-adjacent coach – to make some in-game adjustments that maybe include asking your typically capable defense to make a few momentum-shifting plays.
“Apparently, when you get into a deep Super Bowl hole, like the New England Patriots did nine years ago, you need a Hall of Fame quarterback – well, let’s see what the Canton committee thinks in a few years of that guy the Pats used to have – to spark his team at large and offense specifically when there’s no more time to waste to put a needed bundle of points on the board.
“But Bay Area native and New England legend Tom Brady was merely a spectator Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, where the Patriots were embarrassed 29-13 by the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 60. (And maybe he was wise not to claim a rooting interest, given being the minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, just watched his new head coach, Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, help dismantle his former team.)
“Ex-Pats expat coach Bill Belichick, who left the organization two years ago, was nowhere to be found – perhaps helping girlfriend Jordon Hudson pick out her next outfit somewhere in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“If ever there was a reminder that the 2025 Patriots were not the 2001 Patriots – or the 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016 or 2018 Patriots – then it was Sunday, when the new edition Pats were swallowed whole by the stifling Seahawks in what was a near-historically bad Super Sunday performance.
“Belichick’s brilliance has certainly been taken for granted in recent weeks – and maybe years. And if you think he was riding Brady’s coattails all those years, go back and look at his brilliant defensive game plans in Super Bowl 25 against the heavily favored K-Gun Buffalo Bills – he was the New York Giants coordinator then – or his Super Bowl 36 master class against the heavily favored ‘Greatest Show on Turf’ St. Louis Rams. The brilliance of the two-decade dynasty Belichick and Brady lorded over certainly retains most of its luster – and maybe got some added polish with all those Super Bowl 49 replays, when they snatched victory from the jaws of the ‘Legion of Boom’ Seahawks….
“(New England) will doubtless be better next year – what with a year of experience, a valuable Super Bowl lesson, another first-round pick plus additional rookie influx, $40 million or so in projected cap space to chase a needed pass rusher like Trey Hendrickson and, who knows, maybe they try to broker a reunion with Vrabel and Philadelphia Eagles wideout A.J. Brown, who played for him with the Tennessee Titans.
“But let’s appreciate what they did and who they are despite their Super embarrassment.
“And let’s appreciate who they followed and the standard of excellence they’re chasing – and may it be appropriately immortalized by the time the next Patriots team plays in a Super Bowl.”
College Basketball…new AP Top 25 Poll (records through Sunday’s play)
- Arizona (59) 23-0
- Michigan 22-1
- Houston 21-2
- Duke 21-2
- Iowa State 21-2
- UConn 22-2
- Nebraska 21-2
- Illinois 20-4
- Kansas 18-5
- Michigan State 20-4
- North Carolina 19-4
- Gonzaga 23-2
- Purdue 19-4
- Florida 17-6
- Virginia 20-3
- Texas Tech 17-6
- St. John’s 18-5…up 5
- Saint Louis 23-1
- Vanderbilt 19-4
- Clemson 20-4
- Arkansas 17-6
- BYU 17-6
- Miami (OH) 24-0*
- Louisville 17-6
- Kentucky 17-7…welcome back…
*I went back over Miami’s schedule this year and they literally didn’t play a Power Five school in their non-conference games to open the season, thus the seeming diss on the part of writers. I’m with them.
–A few big games Monday night….17 St. John’s, hot off its huge win against UConn Friday night, barely survived, 87-82 over Xavier (12-12, 4-9) in overtime at the Garden.
Rick Pitino defeated his son, Richard, for win No. 904, sole possession of third on the all-time Division I list.
24 Louisville (18-6, 8-4) mauled North Carolina State (18-7, 9-3) at home, 118-77! Freshman star Mikel Brown Jr. had 45 points on 10 of 16 from three.
Brown had just 12 Saturday against Wake Forest, 1 of 7 from beyond the arc.
But in an epic contest in Lawrence, Kansas, the No. 9 Jayhawks (19-5, 9-2) who have been on a roll after struggling earlier in the season, upset No. 1 Arizona (23-1, 10-1) 82-78, even without super frosh Darryn Peterson, who didn’t play due to flu-like symptoms.
Flory Bidunga and Melvin Council Jr. had 23 points each for Kansas, Bidunga adding 10 rebounds.
Kansas coach Bill Self said afterwards: “A lot of teams, this time of year, when you get to early February, they know where their ceiling is, and the great teams are operating pretty close to their ceiling. I don’t know where our ceiling is, and I know that we’re not close to it yet, though.”
It was the Jayhawks’ first win against the AP’s top-ranked team at Allen Fieldhouse.
College Football
—North Dakota State will join the Mountain West Conference and move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision for the 2026 season.
NDSU has been a powerhouse in the Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA), winning 10 national championships since 2011, including the 2024 title.
As part of the move up, NDSU is expected to pay over $10 million to join the Mountain West, in addition to a $5 million NCAA fee to move from FCS to FBS, which will now grow to 137 members. The Bison are currently in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, with most other sports competing in the Summit League.
Lindsey Vonn, one more look….
Nancy Armour / USA TODAY Sports
“This was always the risk Lindsey Vonn was willing to take.
“She knew skiing at these Olympics was a gamble, as likely to end in pain and disappointment as in glory and gold. But life favors the bold. Whatever her physical injuries are now, that pain and those scars will eventually fade.
“Regrets and what ifs last forever.
“Vonn’s crash in the Olympic downhill on Sunday, Feb. 8 was horrifying for its ferocity. She hooked a gate at high speed, spinning almost 360 degrees before being hurtled into the hard, packed snow. She tumbled end over end several times, and her wails of pain could be heard when she finally came to a stop.
“But there was a horrifying numbness to it, too, knowing that a story that’s captivated so many was not going to end triumphantly or even happily. Vonn had brought everyone along on her ride, giving the mere mortals among us a glimpse of what it’s like to live life with abandon. And now it was done.
“ ‘She just dared greatly and she put it all out there,’ Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, told NBC after the crash.
“ ‘She always goes 110%. There’s never anything less,’ Kildow added. ‘So I know she put her whole heart into it, and sometimes just like things happen.’
“When we’re kids, we charge at life head-first because we don’t know any better. The world is one of endless possibilities, where we really can be an astronaut or a superhero.
“Or an Olympic champion.
“For most of us, though, that fearlessness fades. Our audaciousness is tempered by consequences and repercussions. By the mundane responsibilities that come with growing up. We learn to live with good rather than dreaming of great.
“Part of her appeal has always been her refusal to give up or accept defeat. Vonn has endured injuries and heartbreaks too many to count, and she keeps coming back for more. Tell her she can’t do something, and she’ll work two, three, four times as hard. Suggest something is not a good idea, and she takes it as a challenge.
“She lives life on her terms, uninterested in someone else’s constraints.
“ ‘It’s kind of the way we operated as a family. We always wanted to do the best that we could and we had always high ambitions for ourselves,’ Vonn said last fall.
“ ‘And I think it’s also a lot easier for yourself if you reframe everything in a way that gives you the power,’ Vonn added. ‘I don’t like external pressure in the sense that I’m doing something for somebody else. I’m doing it for me, and I’m driven by my own aspirations.’
“It’s why she was on this mountain in the first place….
“Even after a crash nine days ago left her with a torn ACL, bone bruising and meniscus damage in her left knee, Vonn was undaunted.
“The easy thing would have been to head home and recuperate, accepting that maybe it wasn’t meant to be. But where’s the fun in that? Why not at least try?
“Maybe she’d succeed. Maybe she’d fail. Maybe she’d end somewhere in between.
“But she’d never have to wonder.
“ ‘I will race tomorrow in my final Olympic Downhill and while I can’t guarantee a good result, I can guarantee I will give it everything I have,’ Vonn wrote in an Instagram post the night before the race.
“ ‘But no matter what happens, I have already won.’
“Yes, Lindsey Vonn crashed. In spectacular fashion. But at least she was brave enough to take the risk, which is more than most of us can ever say.”
Vonn’s father, Alan Kildow, told the Associated Press Monday that the world has seen the last of Vonn on the racing slopes, as long as he has a say.
“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” Kildow said. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”
Vonn then commented for the first time on Instagram:
“While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets,” Vonn said. “Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself.
“I also knew that racing was a risk. It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.”
Vonn made clear that her torn ACL had nothing to do with the crash.
“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash,” Vonn wrote. “My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.
“Unfortunately, I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.”
[I will mention some other things she said in my next ‘Week in Review.’]
We love you, Lindsey.
Next Bar Chat Sunday PM after golf.
—–
[Posted Sunday PM after the Super Bowl]
NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz: From 2000-2025, there were 24 men’s champions (2019-2020 scrapped due to Covid). Name all the schools to win multiple titles in that time. Answer below.
NFL
So after the first half of the Super Bowl, it was 9-0 Seattle, the Seahawks outgaining the Patriots 183-51! Fifty-one yards for Drake Maye and Co.
It’s not as if Seattle’s Sam Darnold was terrific, just 9 of 22, 88 yards, but he avoided the sacks and let running back Kenneth Walker III rumble for 94 yards on 14 carries. Walker, the former Wake Forest back who had 579 yards each of 2019, 2020, though the latter was in just 8 games due to the Covid season, then transferred to Michigan State and led the nation in 2021 with 1,636 yards.
After Bad Bunny’s halftime show, which I had zero problem with, Seattle drove down the field and got a fourth field goal from Myers, 12-0.
[As for the commercials, I was far from focused on them, but thought the Coinbase ad was incredibly stupid, while I loved the Dunkin’ spot with Brady, Jennifer, Ben et al, and the Sabrina Carpenter/Pringles bit.]
Drake Maye then fumbled, Seattle recovered at the New England 37, and Sam Darnold would convert it into a touchdown, AJ Barner with a 16-yard TD reception, 19-0.
But the Pats quickly came back, Maye with a scoring strike to Mack Hollins, 19-7 with 12:25 to go.
Maye, however, was picked off on a horrendous pass, and Seattle converted it into Myers’ fifth field goal, 22-7 with 5:35 to play.
And then Maye is sacked, fumbles, and Uchenna Nwosu takes it back 45 yards for a touchdown…29-7!
New England gets a touchdown, 29-13 with 2:21 to play, the over/under 45.5, and it ends 29-13!
Congrats Seahawks fans.
–The Jets hired Frank Reich as their new offensive coordinator. He takes over an offense with a big question at quarterback and in need of more weapons to help Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall, a pending free agent.
Reich has been a two-time head coach with the Colts and Panthers, 41-43-1, and he played 13 seasons at quarterback in the NFL, mostly with Buffalo.
—Matthew Stafford is the 2025 NFL MVP. In his acceptance speech, the 38-year-old confirmed he would return for the 2026 season, pleasing his coach, Sean McVay, and teammates immensely. Stafford confirmed he hadn’t told anyone in the organization prior to his speech.
Stafford beat out Drake Maye by a single first-place vote in the closest tally since 2003. His 46 touchdowns are the second-most thrown in a single season by an NFL quarterback age 37 or older. He became the third player in NFL history with at least 45 touchdown passes and fewer than 10 interceptions in a season.
–Cleveland’s Myles Garrett was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year after recording a record-breaking 23 sacks.
—Mike Vrabel was Coach of the Year.
—Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald are Hall of Famers on the first ballot; Adam Vinatieri, Luke Kuechly and Roger Craig joining them. They will be enshrined Aug. 8 in ceremonies at the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
I’ll be curious to hear Fitzgerald’s comments. He’s one of my favorite all-time players, an immensely interesting man, who if he ever wanted to, has a tremendous political future. He is a true leader. I’d vote for the guy in a heartbeat.
Fitzgerald’s career marks include 1,432 receptions and 17,492 receiving yards – totals topped only by Jerry Rice.
Luke Kuechly is a Boston College grad, while Roger Craig was one of the great two-way backs in NFL history.
But as we all know, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft have to wait another year.
–And we note the passing of Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, longtime Eagles and Redskins QB, who then became a fixture in radio and television for Washington after retiring from pro football in 1974. He was 91.
Jurgensen, who started his NFL career in 1957 with the Eagles and had his only AP first-team season in 1961 in Philly, is best known for his 11 seasons with the Redskins, where he would throw 179 of his 255 career touchdown passes, 22,585 yards out of a lifetime total of 32,224.
For his era, he completed an outstanding 57.1 percent of his passes, one of the finest pure passers in the annals of the game.
“I always thought the two quarterbacks with the purest passing arms were Joe Namath and Sonny Jurgensen,” said Ernie Accorsi, the former general manager of the New York Giants. “The more I thought about it, Sonny was probably the best. I don’t know if I ever saw him throw a ball that wasn’t a tight spiral. He had the purest arm I’ve ever seen.
Vince Lombardi, who coached Jurgensen in Washington for the 1969 season, told reporters that year that if he had been his quarterback in Green Bay, “we never would lost a game.”
Jurgensen was one of the most popular Washington athletes in history; known for having a good time on and off the field.
He often broke curfew in training camp and even the night before key games, only to come through with a good showing on the field.
“When I left Philadelphia,” he once said after the trade to Washington, “all the bartenders wore black armbands.”
“No. 9” had a tremendous rapport with his teammates and the fan base, but that didn’t extend to his coaches, including his last one, the defense-obsessed George Allen, who frequently benched him in favor of the less flashy Billy Kilmer. [Talk about a guy who could not throw a spiral, that was Kilmer, as us old football fans remember.]
Jurgensen also disdained the seemingly nonchalant coaching style of fellow Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham, the Redskins head coach from 1966 to 1968.
“There’s only one difference between Otto and me,” Jurgensen once said. “He likes candy bars and milkshakes and I like women and Scotch.”
Jurgensen had only one season under Vince Lombardi, 1969, when Lombardi led Washington to a 7-5-2 mark, the first winning record in 14 years. Alas, the euphoria ended when Lombardi was diagnosed with colon cancer and died in September 1970.
Jurgensen said playing under Lombardi was the greatest experience of his football life.
“He was the only coach of the nine I had who simplified the game,” Sonny said. “Every other coach had a tendency to complicate things, a lot of verbiage on how to call plays and read defenses. His system was by far the simplest and the most successful. It was fun to play the game.”
College Basketball
–In notable games Tuesday, 24 Miami (23-0, 11-0) survived yet another nailbiter, 73-71 at Buffalo (14-9, 4-7).
I said the other day that while experts and yours truly believe SMU will be a very tough out in the NCAA Tournament, they have to get there first…and Tuesday they lost another, 84-83 to North Carolina State (17-6, 8-2), the Mustangs now 15-7, 4-5.
While this isn’t notable, Rutgers is having a nightmare season (similar to Wake Forest), falling at UCLA (16-7, 8-4) 98-66, the Scarlet Knights 9-14, 2-10.
—Friday night, in a terrific college basketball game at Madison Square Garden, in front of a raucous capacity crowd, 22 St. John’s (18-5, 11-1) got its big signature win that will greatly aid in its seeding for the NCAA Tournament, 81-72 over 3 UConn (22-2, 12-1). Zuby Ejiofor had 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Red Storm.
Coach Rick Pitino tied Roy Williams for third place in Division I history with 903 career wins.
A beaming Pitino said afterwards, “We made a lot of big plays tonight, and I’m proud of our guys for not panicking one bit at any point in the game.”
I must say, UConn coach Dan Hurley, for all his success, is simply unlikable. [And you know I love Pitino, foibles and all.]
—Saturday, in a biggie in Chapel Hill, 4 Duke (21-2, 10-1) fell to 14 North Carolina (19-4, 7-3) 71-68 on a Seth Trimble 3-pointer from the corner with 0.4 seconds left on the clock. Cam Boozer had 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Blue Devils, while fellow freshman star, and top-five pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, Caleb Wilson, had 23 points on 8 of 12 shooting from the field, and a clutch 6 for 6 from the foul line.
Unfortunately, all the talk after was about the Tar Heel fans, jumping the gun, storming the court after Trimble’s three, but they had to retreat to play out the ending. Then they stormed a second time, in true asshole fashion (you can’t do this these days!), and Duke head coach Jon Scheyer in his post-game comments was not at all happy with the fan behavior, telling reporters that staff members of his were “punched in the face,” while video shows a Duke player getting hit with a water bottle.
The Duke contest was followed by another terrific game, 10 Michigan State (20-4, 10-3) taking out 5 Illinois (20-4, 11-2) in East Lansing, 85-82 in overtime.
Spartan point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. took over the game and played spectacularly down the stretch and in OT, 26 points, including 12 of 13 free throws, and 15 assists.
Fears, whose sportsmanship has been called into question the last few games, including Saturday, was slated to be disciplined somewhat by coach Tom Izzo, who had planned to restrict Fears’ minutes as punishment, but he ended up playing 43 minutes.
8 Houston (21-2, 8-2) had a nice win at 16 BYU (17-6, 5-5) 77-66, the Cougars overcoming AJ Dybantsa’s 28 points, as BYU’s Richie Saunders was a no-show.
9 Nebraska (21-2, 10-2) beat Rutgers (9-15, 2-11) 80-68 in Piscataway.
23 Miami (OH) had an easier time of it at Marshall (15-9, 11-3) then they have had in recent games, 90-74, to move to 24-0, 10-0.
In other games…Wake Forest (11-12, 2-8) made a gutty effort to upset 24 Louisville (17-6, 7-4) in Winston-Salem but fell short, 88-80.
Down nine at the half, 43-34, the Deacs, and Juke Harris (25 points, 11 rebounds), fought back the whole second half and it was 81-80 Louisville 4:10 to play, when Wake senior Tre’Von Spillers went to the line for two foul shots and missed both! That was the game. The Deacs didn’t score the rest of the way, as Harris missed his last five shots, four that really mattered.
Watching it I was thinking, if Juke has people telling him he’s ready for the NBA, someone needs to tell him he’s not. This was a critical test. Some of the shots he missed down the stretch were pretty easy. The guy needs another year. The only problem is it could easily be somewhere else.
SMU (16-7, 5-5) rebounded from the loss to N.C. State to beat up on Pitt (9-15, 2-9) 86-67.
Sunday, 2 Michigan (22-1, 12-1) had a convincing 82-61 win at Ohio State (15-8, 7-6).
NBA
–The Knicks’ hot streak continued, whipping the Wizards 132-101 on Tuesday, and then winning their eighth straight Wednesday, 134-127 in overtime against the Nuggets (33-19) at the Garden, in just a terrific contest.
Jamal Murray, 39 points, and Nikola Jokic, 30, combining for 69, but also just 4 of 27 from three! [Denver 13 of 50 as a team.] Jalen Brunson had 42 for New York.
But then Friday night, the Knicks were in Detroit to play the first-place Pistons, New York without Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby due to minor injuries. And it showed. Brunson, clearly exhausted after the Denver game, was 4 of 20, 0 for 8 from three, and the Knicks (33-19) were blitzed, 118-80.
Despite not playing two key starters, New York has reason to be worried. The Pistons, 38-13, in their only other contest against the Knicks this season kicked their butts as well in that one, 121-90. They play great defense, especially on Brunson.
[Today’s game is covered below.]
–I have to highlight a game Thursday in Los Angeles, the Lakers (31-19) defeating the 76ers (29-22) 119-115, which was notable for two reasons. Luka Doncic went out with a hamstring issue and there were real fears it was serious, while Austin Reaves, who has missed half the season with injury, showed how important he is with 35 points in 25 minutes off the bench for L.A.
And then the Lakers could breathe a sigh of relief when the MRI on Doncic revealed a strain, and while he sat out Saturday’s 105-99 win over the Warriors, Doncic is day-to-day.
Also Saturday, the Rockets (32-19) defeated the Thunder (40-13) 112-106, as Alperen Sengun had a triple-double, 17-12-11. For OKC, SGA was out again with an abdominal strain.
–We had a number of blockbuster trades at the trading deadline, more than expected. Among them:
James Harden went to Cleveland for Darius Garland. I didn’t realize how many games Garland has been out with injury over the years, while Harden is a gamer.
Saturday night, Harden had 23 points and 8 assists in his debut with the Cavs (32-21), a 132-126 over the Kings (12-42).
Memphis star Jaren Jackson Jr. was traded to Utah for three first-round picks and more players, which was a stunner.
Anthony Davis is going from Dallas to Washington in a multi-player deal that will involve Washington’s sending back several draft picks. The Wizards have some good young talent and the veteran Davis should be a terrific influence on them.
But Davis is unlikely to play the rest of the season as he deals with a hand injury and groin strain, and according to a report is “expected to sit out the remainder of the season to fully get healthy for the 2026-27 season.” [NBA reporter Chris Haynes]
Bulls stalwart Nikola Vucevic is heading to the Celtics in exchange for Anfernee Simons. Jaden Ivey and Mike Conley Jr. landed in Chicago after a three-team deal.
What a great move by Boston.
The Knicks made what could be a critical move in acquiring guard Jose Alvarado, 27, a Bronx native who played at Christ the King high school in Queens. He is known as a terrific defender and ballhandler, and this was a clutch acquisition as the same day we learned guard Miles McBride could be out for a lengthy time after having surprise surgery for a sports hernia.
Alvarado should be an instant Garden favorite.
And right before the deadline passed, the Warriors agreed to trade Jonathna Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta for Kristaps Porzingis, ending a tense saga between Golden State and Kuminga.
Neither Giannis Antetokounmpo nor Ja Morant was traded.
So then today up in Boston, the Knicks took on the Celtics, and New York rebounded quickly from the Detroit debacle, beating the Celts 111-89, Jalen Brunson with 31 and new acquisition Jose Alvarado contributing 12 points in 25 minutes, a +13, which is the key. And 20-year-old Frenchman Mohammed Diawara was terrific, contributing 10 points on 4 of 4 shooting from the field for the Knickerbockers. The kid has talent, and management knows it.
New York is now tied with Boston for second in the East, both at 34-19.
–The other day I was pointing out rookie Kon Knueppel’s proficiency from three, and then after he had played in Game No. 50 of his career, he sat atop a list for most threes (166) in a player’s first 50 games.
Like it’s Knueppel at 166, and the next most is Duncan Robinson at 123! Goodness gracious.
MLB
–The Tigers way overpaid for Framber Valdez, the two-time All-Star and World Series-winning left-hander with the Astros. He agreed to a three-year, $115 million contract, an average annual value – $38.3 million – that is the highest ever given to a lefty free agent.
Valdez, 32, is 81-52, 3.36 ERA for his career.
But Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner, was in arbitration, seeking $32 million, while the Tigers came in at $19 million! The guy just won two Cy Youngs!
Of course, Skubal got the $32 million. He deserves it. Detroit now has to trade the looming free agent to try to get something for him because they won’t be giving him the long-term Skubal will be seeking.
I mean you probably could have signed Skubal for three years, $120 million with the money you are giving Valdez.
Then again, if Detroit gets off to a good start behind their 1-2 punch, they’ll have to go for the World Series and not trade Skubal, at least by my way of thinking.
–Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emanuel Clase has been indicted for allegedly throwing suspicious pitches that benefited bettors in at least 48 MLB games. Federal prosecutors expanded the scope of the alleged pitch-rigging beyond the nine games first disclosed. Clase has pleaded not guilty while remaining on leave from the team.
Clase and teammate Luis L. Ortiz were placed on leave in July due to an ongoing MLB investigation into gambling. By Aug. 1, both players had their lockers cleared out of the Guardians’ clubhouse.
–We note the passing of Terrance Gore, 34, a two-time World Series champion (Kansas City, Atlanta) who was a pinch-running specialist, swiping 43 bases in 52 attempts (another 5 of 6 in the playoffs).
Teams headed for the playoffs would call him up late in a season to ensure his eligibility for the postseason. It was a luxury for a roster, but he could also play the outfield and went 16 for 74 at the plate, .216.
Much of his time was spent with the Royals, who issued a statement saying the organization was “devastated.” He was known to be a terrific teammate.
His wife shared a statement on social media that said the former outfielder died during “what was supposed to have been a simple procedure.”
“Our hearts are shattered, my babies are shattered,” she wrote. “Our whole family is lost. This was so unexpected.”
RIP, Terrance Gore.
Golf Balls
–In the first round of the WM Phoenix Open, all eyes were on Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka and they disappointed; Scheffler a 73, +2, and Koepka a 75, +4, both on the wrong side of the cut line.
Scheffler bounced back with a 65 to comfortably make the cut at -4, but Koepka, while improving with a 69, was at +2, three off the cut line.
And after two rounds….
Ryo Hisatune -11
Hideki Matsuyama -10
The 23-year-old Hisatune was T2 at the Farmers last weekend. We’ve seen he’s for real.
So Scottie was 7 back. What would crazy Saturday bring at the WM, one of the best tournaments for television viewers all year, especially with its Super Bowl weekend time slot.
After 54 holes we thus had the following….
Matsuyama -13
Hisatsune -12
Nicolai Hojgaard -12
Maverick McNealy -12
Si Woo Kim -12
Scheffler, T16, -8
It should be a crazy Sunday….
And it was…Scheffler finished -15 after a 64…but Michael Thorbjornsen, looking for win No. 1, was on fire and on top after 15 at -17, only to butcher the short par-3 stadium 16th…bogey.
Matsuyama birdied 15 to take the lead at -17.
Chris Gotterup finishes -16 with five birdies his last six holes!
Thor bogeys 17…-15, and Matsuyama pars 17…so one-shot lead heading to 18.
We need Hideki to just par it to end the event so we can move on to the Super Bowl.
But he pulls his drive into the church pew bunkers! Nooo!
And then he hits the edge of the bunker on his approach! Just 122 away, 108 from the front. He didn’t clear it! Eegads….
And then it’s a mediocre third, leaving him with a 24-foot putt to win it and avoid a playoff! This is a guy who was 5-0 coming in with a 54-hole lead.
He misses the putt badly and needs to make a two-footer to head to extra holes.
He does, and it’s a playoff. S—!
But what an opportunity now for Gotterup, the under-the-radar budding star!
And on the first playoff hole, No. 18, Hideki puts it in the water! Unbelievable. This is one of the world’s great players who has choked on a huge stage, a tournament he has won twice before.
Gotterup, in the fairway and long…Hideki with a great third to keep him in the game, and then Gotterup drains a long birdie for win No. 4! Wow. Four wins last three years. Just 26, and he’s a Rutgers, Jersey Boy. I’d put a lot of coin on him to win a major this year.
And what a likable champion…and what an amazing choke job by a great golfer as well.
—LIV Golf got its long-awaited present from the Official World Golf Ranking, though it was ultimately disappointing.
LIV will now see its events accredited with the top 10 players and ties in the field each week receiving points, but LIV decried the lack of points being given throughout its field, although the projected 23 to the winner this week for a tournament in Riyadh is more than the winner of the DP World Tour event in Qatar will receive.
The consolation for LIV is that with a high level of success, such as Joaquinn Niemann’s five wins last year, a player can make a move in OWGR. Last year, had a similar level of points been in play, LIV would have had around six or seven players finish inside of the top 50 in the OWGR – instead of just Bryson DeChambeau Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Reed, who has since left LIV.
Meanwhile, DeChambeau isn’t happy about the move from 54 to 72 holes, which was made to get world ranking points.
“It’s definitely changed away from what we had initially been told it was going to be,” DeChambeau told Today’s Golfer. “I’ve got a contract for this year, and we’ll go through it there and see what happens after that.”
Leave, Bryson, Leave!
Speaking of Patrick Reed, he won on the DP World Tour today at the Qatar Masters, his second win in three weeks, the other a loss in a playoff. Wow! The guy has now qualified for all four majors, is obviously at the top of the DP World Tour Race to Dubai, where the top 10 receive PGA Tour cards at the end of the year, which was the way he wanted to come back to the tour, and he’s projected to jump into the top 20 of the World Ranking for the first time since 2021.
I’m not a fan of Reed, that’s for sure, but I said just the other day it’s always fun to have a villain and you have to give him a ton of credit for what he’s doing.
–Back to the PGA Tour, they have a problem. One of the moves this year was to reduce the ‘full-field’ events number of players early in the season due to the lack of sunshine. There used to always be 144 or 156 players, but that was often difficult for completing the first two rounds on time before the cut.
So like this week’s field was limited to 123 players, which meant some “fully exempt” players were unable to get into the field.
Dylan Wu, “fully exempt” after qualifying for his card in Q-School, didn’t make the field, but more worrisome, three PGA Tour U grads – Luke Clanton, David Ford and Gordon Sargent – didn’t get in either. These are the very players LIV can pick off!
Will Zalatoris is impacted because the “full major medicals” category is back of the bus of the exemption categories, Zalatoris clearly a top-100 player who missed most of last season with injury.
Winter Olympics
—Swiss racer Franjo von Allmen captured the Olympic downhill Saturday to win the first gold medal at the Milan Cortina Games.
Von Allmen beat Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni, who finished with the silver medal, while Franzoni’s teammate, the 36-year-old Dominik Paris, got the bronze, knocking superstar Marco Odermatt off the podium.
–And then Sunday morning, I was up to watch the women’s downhill and Lindsey Vonn, who was skiing 13th.
But first, No. 6 out of the gate, was American Breezy Johnson and she had a terrific run, best of the first six.
Vonn then goes and as you all know, crashed out horrifically less than twenty seconds into her run. It was awful, very sad. But, geezuz, watching her being helicoptered off the mountain was scary, too.
In the end, however, Breezy Johnson got the gold (Germany’s Emma Aicher took silver, Italy’s Sofia Goggia the bronze).
If this is the end for Vonn…and I’m not saying it is…but she would leave with 84 World Cup wins, second to Mikaela Shiffrin, four times overall World Cup season winner.
She’s been on the podium in every downhill race so far this season, winning two of them.
What compounds the hurt is that Cortina was Vonn’s favorite spot, having won here 12 times. Prior to today, Vonn had said: “Cortina has always been a place that’s been so special to me. I just have a lot of amazing memories, so it wasn’t really a leap for me to say I want to come back and compete in these Olympics.”
Later Sunday, the US Ski & Snowboard Team issued a statement that Vonn “sustained an injury but is in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”
We then learned she had surgery for a fracture in her left leg.
As for Johnson, the 30-year-old has been on the World Cup circuit, on and off, since 2016. She has never won a World Cup race, but had eight podium finishes in the downhill.
She was, however, winner of the gold at the 2025 World Championships at Saalbach. This was hardly a fluke win.
—Team USA captured the gold medal in the team event in figure skating, owing to Ilia Malinin’s winning performance in the free skate, breaking a tie with Japan, Italy the bronze.
This coming week is Malinin’s opportunity to mint money if he captures gold in the men’s singles.
Premier League
Saturday, Manchester United beat Tottenham 2-0; Aston Villa drew with Bournemouth 1-1; Arsenal whipped Sunderland 3-0; and Chelsea defeated the Wolves 3-1.
Then today, in a dramatic ending, Erling Haaland scored on a PK in the 93rd minute, Manchester City defeating Liverpool on the road, 2-1.
Table…25 of 38 played, points….
Arsenal 25 – 56
Man City 25 – 50
Aston Villa 25 – 47
Man U 25 – 44
Chelsea 25 – 43
Liverpool 25 – 39
Stuff
–The New York Rangers traded star winger Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings for a conditional third-round draft pick and prospect Liam Greentree, Panarin then signing a contract extension with the Kings for two years at an annual $11 million average value.
It has been a lost season for Rangers fans, and president and general manager Chris Drury in a letter to us explained the team is entering a “retool.” Panarin was a pending unrestricted free agent. He was informed right before the deal that the team would not offer him an extension.
Greentree is having a terrific season in the minors (OHL) and the Rangers said he will finish the season there and not be promoted.
But Panarin was a damn good Ranger, with 607 points in 482 games in New York. He’s actually the franchise leader in points per game (1.26). In 2023-24, he had one of the greatest individual seasons in Rangers history, scoring 49 goals and 120 points.
The NHL is on a 3-week break for the Olympics.
—We note the passing of the Washington Post sports department, part of the massive move this week on behalf of owner Jeff Bezos to downsize the paper.
So bye to a sports section that brought us (and Bar Chat readers) the likes of Thomas Boswell, Christine Brennan, John Feinsteain, Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, and more recently Sally Jenkins.
This really sucks. Bezos was placed in the December file for year end hardware. Ditto American snowboarder Hunter Hess, for his comments on his country at a presser.
—A wolf arrived in Los Angeles County on Saturday morning, marking the first time the predator has been documented in the area in at least a century, according to state wildlife officials.
This is cool.
—Avalanches in Europe claim an average of 100 lives every year, according to the European Avalanche Warning Services. So far this season, the death toll has climbed to 60. [Irish Times]
Top 3 songs for the week 2/10/79: #1 “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” (Rod Stewart) #2 “Y.M.C.A.” (Village People) #3 “Le Freak” (Chic)…and…#4 “A Little More Love” (Olivia Newton-John) #5 “Fire” (Pointer Sisters) 6 “Every 1’s A Winner” (Hot Chocolate) #7 “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor) #8 “September” (Earth, Wind & Fire…attempts to save the week…) #9 “Too Much Heaven” (Bee Gees) #10 “Lotta Love” (Nicolette Larson…not an awful tune…but a C- week…my spring semester of junior year at Wake Forest, attempting to stay above the Mendoza Line, and this music didn’t help….)
NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz Answer: Multiple championships during the period 2000-2025….
UConn 5
Florida 3
North Carolina 3
Duke 3
Kansas 2
Villanova 2
The other six titles were won by Baylor, Virginia, Louisville, Kentucky, Syracuse and Maryland.
Brief Add-on up top by noon, Tuesday.
