But there is something worse:

The simultaneous ascension of Washington rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels to immediate elite status in the nation’s capital.

Two years ago, in Jan. 2023, Giants GM Joe Schoen said: “There’s a talent gap there that we need to close, and to me, it’s the NFC East.”

Now, Sunday’s upcoming all-NFC East Championship Game at Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field isn’t just a commentary on a special 2024 season for Nick Sirianni’s and Dan Quinn’s teams.

It is also, from a Giants perspective, reinforcing a frightening reality in their division:

Schoen created a monster in Philadelphia by letting Barkley’s contract negotiations become contentious before letting him walk to New York’s biggest rival in free agency:

Barkley, while playing every down with a colossal chip on his shoulder, has 2,329 total rushing yards this regular season and postseason after his 205 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday’s 28-22 Divisional Round win over the L.A. Rams.

He is only 148 yards shy of breaking Terrell Davis’ all-time record of 2,476 from 1998.

Barkley will turn just 28 years old on Feb. 9. And Eagles GM Howie Roseman’s draft picks of defensive tackle Jalen Carter, center Cam Jurgens and corner Quinyon Mitchell – plus his signing of linebacker Zack Baun – have restocked the Birds for both the present and future.

Then there is Washington. Daniels, 24, is already one of the better quarterbacks in the entire NFL as a rookie.

In December, when NFL employees were going around locker rooms polling players about the league’s top 20 talents for the annual Top 100 list, Daniels was getting some votes.

As one of the best 20 players in the NFL.

When Giants rookie Malik Nabers, Daniels’ former LSU teammate, was asked if he can replicate that success and rapport with the Daniels in the NFL with a new franchise quarterback, he put his confidence in context:

“I mean, I’m sure I can, but that kinda dude that you just mentioned, though, he’s different. He just changed his franchise around,” Nabers said of Daniels on the Giants’ Jan. 6 breakup day. “He’s a great quarterback. It helped me for sure. But I’m not sure how my steps are gonna look with another QB, consistency. I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to see.”

Daniels’ 299 passing yards and two touchdown passes in the Commanders’ 45-31 upset of the No. 1-seeded Lions in Detroit reinforced why he is more than just an exciting rookie.

Daniels, who has dual threat ability, is maturing quickly and has been playing as a passer first.

He did run 16 times for 51 yards and has the ability to change games with his legs. But his 42-yard and 38-yard downfield shots to wide receiver Dyami Brown were shots heard ’round the league.

There are not many quarterbacks who threaten every inch of the field when they take the snap and drop back. But Daniels is one of them.

His 271 combined passing and rushing yards on Saturday were the most in the first half of a playoff game since Tom Brady had 282 in the Patriots’ Super Bowl LII loss to the Eagles.

And most importantly, he now has won his first two career NFL playoff games without turning the ball over even once.

“I always believe,” Daniels said.

Certainly, Washington GM Adam Peters and Quinn will have work to do to continue reinforcing and building the roster they inherited around Daniels. But in professional football, finding the star quarterback is the most difficult part of the puzzle.

And they’ve done that.

They also look smart for drafting Michigan corner Mike Sainistril at No. 50 overall three slots after the Giants took Minnesota safety Tyler Nubin at No. 47. Sainistril snagged two interceptions of Jared Goff in Saturday’s upset.

The Giants — who missed out on coveted corners Kool-Aid McKinstry (No. 41 to the Saints) and Kamari Lassiter (No. 42 to Houston) due to Schoen’s trade of the No. 39 pick for edge rusher Brian Burns — then made a need-based pick at safety due to Xavier McKinney’s departure to Green Bay instead. Then they took Kentucky corner Dru Phillips in the third.

The Giants went 0-6 in the NFC East this season, and Schoen and Brian Daboll are 4-14-1 in division since they took over: 0-6 against the Dallas Cowboys, 1-6 against the Eagles and 3-2-1 against Washington, including 0-2 against Daniels.

The Giants were outscored 143-91 in their six division losses this season. That 0-6 record included a loss to the Eagles in which Philly rested almost all of its starters.

And now one of the Giants’ division rivals is guaranteed to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl during a year when the Giants (3-14) tied for the worst record in the entire league.

The NFC East talent gap that Schoen noted hasn’t closed. It has widened – significantly. The Giants’ ineptitude has helped create and compound the problem.

And that’s what makes co-owner John Mara’s decision to take no action on his GM or coach that much more ridiculous: he has accepted it as the Giants’ new reality for now and the foreseeable future, and crossed his fingers that something will change.

Barkley ran for a 62-yard score in the first half and stretched the lead in the fourth when he blew through a hole and ran untouched 78 yards for the touchdown. He smacked his helmet with his hand on his final snowy steps and flapped his arms once he hit the end zone.

Barkley slid into the snow — Slide, Eagles, Slide! — in the late-game celebration.

These Philly Snow Birds had cause for celebration — they will host the NFC championship game Sunday against Washington, after the Commanders upset No. 1 seed Detroit on Saturday.

“The elements was great, but the atmosphere was even better,” Barkley said. “Our fans were amazing. That was a close one, but that’s playoff football. And at the end of the day, we got the job done.”

The Rams kept the upset threat alive — caused in large part by two missed extra points by Philadelphia’s Jake Elliott.

Matthew Stafford, who threw for 324 yards, kept the Rams in it with a 4-yard TD pass to Colby Parkinson that made it 28-22. The Rams got the ball back with two minutes left and Stafford completed consecutive passes of 11 and 37 yards to move the ball into Eagles’ territory.

But Stafford was sacked by Jalen Carter on third down and threw an incomplete pass on fourth down to end the threat.

The Eagles are set to host the NFC championship game for the fifth time since Lincoln Financial Field opened in 2003.

Eagles defenders frolicked in the winter mess and made snow angels in the end zone to celebrate the turnovers. Some brave frigid fans went shirtless — and yes, even Santa Claus was in the house, without a report of any snowball throwing.

Stadium workers used snow blowers to clear yard lines and hash marks, while Eagles scooped and kicked away snow to clear a circle for Elliott’s field goal attempts.

Hurts threw for just 128 yards, his mobility hampered in the second half after he was fitted for a knee brace. He didn’t miss any snaps, but was easily mauled on the safety. He was sacked seven times.

Hurts suffered a concussion that cost him in two games in a loss at Washington in December. It was the Eagles’ only loss after they returned from the bye with a 2-2 record.

“It comes through Philly. That means everything for this city, this team, and we’ve got everything we want in front of us,” Hurts said.

Barkley had 118 total yards at the break, but the Rams’ defense — coming off a nine-sack effort against Minnesota — sacked Hurts three times in the half. Hurts was sacked on consecutive plays to end the first half, a total loss of 16 yards that knocked the Eagles out of field goal range.

The Eagles borrowed from the playbook used in their November win in Los Angeles when big plays — Barkley had touchdown runs of 70 and 72 yards — helped them cruise to a comfortable win.

Hurts rushed for the longest TD of his career, a 44-yarder on the fifth play of the game that sent a cold crowd still buzzing from the pregame theatrics into a frenzy. Elliott missed an extra point for the second straight playoff game.

After converting a fourth down on the drive, Stafford hit Tyler Higbee for a 4-yard TD that made it 7-6. Only six days earlier, Higbee spit up blood in the playoff win over Minnesota and was taken to the hospital with a chest injury.

Barkley scored on a 62-yard run for a 13-7 lead, but not before the 2,105-yard rusher slowed near the end zone and looked back to clown the trailing Jalen Verse. Barkley had has fifth touchdown run of 50-plus yards of the season and was the first player with three TD runs of 60-plus against one team since Baltimore’s Jamal Lewis did it against the Browns in 2003.

Verse got trolled by Barkley after the Rams rookie linebacker and Pennsylvania native said he “hates Eagles fans.” The first-round draft pick attended high school in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, which is about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Verse egged on fans during pregame warmups and relished the boos that rained him on in the light snow. Once the game started, the Eagles showed on the big screen Verse on the bench and fans booed again.

Verse winked at the camera, stamping his name on the list of Philly sports villains.

Joshua Karty kicked two field goals in the first half for the Rams.

Elliott atoned for a missed extra point with a 44-yard field goal that floated through the uprights for a 16-13 lead in the third.

Injuries

Rams: DE Braden Fiske had a knee injury.

Eagles: CB Quinyon Mitchell suffered a shoulder injury.

Up next

The Eagles host the Commanders for the right to play in the Super Bowl.

Washington defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. spoke to the Jets about their coaching vacancy. He is the 16th person to interview for the job since Robert Saleh was fired in October.

After firing Joe Douglas last November, the Jets are also seeking a new general manager. On Jan. 11, they interviewed Commander assistant general manager Lance Newmark for the role. Interviewing Whitt makes sense because if they hire Newmark, the Jets could have continuity from the front office to the playing field.

Whitt, 46, is in his first season as the Commanders’ defensive coordinator. He has been an assistant in the NFL since 2007 and has worked in various roles with the Falcons, Packers, and Browns. Before becoming the Commanders’ defensive coordinator, Whitt was the Cowboys’ pass game coordinator/secondary for three seasons (2021-23). During that time, Dallas led the NFL in interceptions.

Dan Quinn hired Whitt after he hired him as Commanders coach last year. Quinn also came from Dallas, where he was the team’s defensive coordinator for three seasons.

Whitt’s defense was instrumental to the Commanders’ success during the 2024 season. A year after the Commanders were dead last in both categories, they ranked 13th in yards (327.9) and 18th in points allowed (23.0).

That helped Washington to a 12-5 record and a sixth-seed in the NFC a year after they were one of the worst teams in the league in 2023, following a 4-13 record.

“Everybody plays together,” Whitt said in an article recently published by Tyler Dunne on GoLong. “And that’s what I’m most proud of with this unit. We run. We play hard. We hit. We’re a good tackling team. We’re a good tackling team because we’re connected to each other and you’ll see.”

The Commanders upset the Buccaneers 23-20 in the NFC wild-card game. On Saturday night, they defeated the No. 1 seed Lions 45-31 to advance to the NFC Championship for the first time since 1991.

Not only does Whitt understand football’s Xs and Os, but he also knows how to communicate with his players.

“[Whitt is] good at explaining things, and if we don’t get it, he’s just going to throw it out,” Washington edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr. told the Washington Post. “He’s not going to make it rocket science.”

The Jets have had an extensive search for their next coach following a disappointing 5-12 season.

In November, Jets owner Woody Johnson hired The 33rd Team, led by ex-Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, to identify candidates and coordinate interviews.

Ron Rivera, Mike Vrabel, Rex Ryan, Matt Nagy, Aaron Glenn, Mike Locksley, Steve Spagnuolo, Darren Rizzi, Jeff Ulbrich, Vance Joseph, Arthur Smith, Bobby Slowik, Brian Flores, Jeff Hafley, and Josh McCown have all been interviewed for the Jets coaching position. Vrabel was hired as the Patriots’ coach on Jan. 12.

The Falcons hired Ulbrich as their defensive coordinator on Jan. 18.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Jared Verse expects a cold reception in frigid Philadelphia on Sunday after sharing his dislike of Eagles fans.

Verse wouldn’t back down Friday after telling the Los Angeles Times he “hates Eagles fans.” The first-round draft pick attended high school in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, which is about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Not surprisingly, Verse woke up this morning to a taste of the vitriol coming his way in the NFC divisional round game.

“I check my phone and my Twitter blowing up out of nowhere,” Verse said. “I’m like, ‘What happened?’ First thing I see, ‘I hate Eagles fans.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m done.’”

Asked if he wanted to adjust his comments, Verse said: “I just want to move on. What was said was said. That was the past. We got a game to handle.”

Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who played as a visitor in Philadelphia during six seasons with the New York Giants, believes the gregarious Verse made a mistake with his candid comments.

“Probably not the smartest thing to say when you’re coming to Philadelphia,” Barkley said. “I’m pretty sure Philly fans have seen that comment. It was already going to be loud and rocking, so it’s just only going to add to it.”

Verse made the Pro Bowl and is a strong contender for the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year award after getting 77 pressures and 4 1/2 sacks. He had seven tackles, but did not record a sack or tackle for loss in the Eagles’ 37-20 win over the Rams in Week 12.

Even in a weekend when we have Patrick Mahomes and Super Bowl quarterbacks like Matthew Stafford and the kid Jayden Daniels and last year’s hot kid C.J. Stroud — even with all that talent in these four games, the headliners are Allen and Jackson. And please remember that Mahomes might be well on his way to someday being called the best to ever play the position, which means even better than Brady.

The two of them have been the stars of this NFL season. Neither one of them has ever been better than they were across 17 regular season games and through their first postseason games. In so many ways, they are as physically talented as any of the great quarterbacks of the past. Allen plays like a young John Elway, just even bigger, running like a fast tight end when he pulls the ball down, and with all the arm strength in the world.

Lamar? Well, you know how it goes with him. He’s not the new anybody. He’s just Lamar.

Now both of them show up for a game like this, after seasons like these, with something other than their MVP candidacies in common:

They have as much to prove as they ever have in their heartbreak-kid postseason careers. Allen is still chasing his first Super Bowl appearance. Jackson, who has done everything in his dazzling career except win enough playoff games, is chasing his first Super Bowl. Allen has never been able to get past Mahomes. The Bills played the Chiefs at home one year ago and lost. Then Mahomes and the Chiefs went to Baltimore and beat the Ravens in the AFC championship game. It was still Patrick Mahomes’ ball, and both Allen and Jackson were still understudies.

But on Sunday night, in the glamour game of the entire pro football season, Allen’s team and Jackson’s team are balling against each other in Buffalo which, in so many ways, is the heartbreak capital of the entire sport because of those four straight Super Bowl losses in the early ’90s.

It’s never a one-on-one game between quarterbacks in football, of course. It’s not like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain banging against each other in the low blocks, or even Bird vs. Magic when they’d sometimes end up guarding each other. But it’s going to feel like one-on-one like that in Buffalo when it’s Allen vs. Jackson.

Who should be the MVP for the regular season? I think it should be Allen, even with the video-game numbers Jackson has put into the books. And even though the Bills can run the ball when Allen doesn’t have the ball and the game in his hands, Jackson has Derrick Henry and Allen sure does not. They’ve both had a lot with which to work, no question. Lamar has just had more this season.

They have come all the way to a moment like this and a night like this from the same draft. That would be the 2018 NFL Draft, one of the most famous in New York football history because it’s the one in which the Giants took Saquon Barkley at No. 2 and the Jets took Sam Darnold at No. 3. Allen went No. 7 to the Bills that night. The Ravens didn’t select Jackson until making him the 32nd pick.

At this time when neither the Giants nor the Jets have any idea who is going to be playing quarterback for them next season, you look back on that draft and think that not only did our teams miss out on quarterbacks who could have changed everything. They missed out on quarterbacks now clearly on their way to being all-time greats of the sport.

Maybe the Jets never had a chance at Jackson even when he became a free agent a couple of years ago. Maybe the Ravens were never going to let Jackson get away. But there was never really a conversation about bringing Jackson to Jersey. Jets owner Woody Johnson and his then-general manager Joe Douglas had already developed their man crush on Aaron Rodgers, and we know how well that has worked out.

Rodgers, at 41, is now in limbo following a 5-12 season. Jackson? He’s in Buffalo to play Allen. And one of those guys out of the ’18 draft is going to be MVP, and one of them might finally win a Super Bowl this season, or at least finally play in one.

Here is something Douglas said before Jackson had decided to stay with the Ravens and before the Jets had made their trade for Rodgers:

“First of all, Lamar Jackson is a fantastic player, but where we stand is, it would be disingenuous and negotiating in bad faith if we went down that path,” said Douglas, once a Ravens scout. “We have our plan, we have our process and we’re sticking to that. … We’re never going to operate in bad faith.”

The last part is funny, actually. Why shouldn’t the Jets be as bad at faith as they are everything else?

So Jets fans will watch Bills vs. Ravens on Sunday night. Giant fans will watch. All football fans will watch, and with tremendous interest, the final game of such an interesting playoff weekend. Again: Look at the quarterbacking talent on display in these four games:

Mahomes. Allen. Jackson. Goff. Daniels. Stafford. Hurts. Stroud.

The main event, though, at least going in, is in Buffalo. Jackson tries to go in there and get the road win that Mahomes got in the January before this one. Maybe it is time for one of them, Allen or Jackson, to punch a ticket to New Orleans; to finally go all the way. It’s not Mahomes in Allen’s way on Sunday night. It’s Jackson. It’s not Mahomes in Lamar’s way. It’s Allen.

They have both outplayed Mahomes during this regular season because they’ve out played everybody, which is saying plenty when you look at what Goff has done in Detroit and the way Daniels has resurrected a franchise and a football city like Washington, D.C.

Maybe neither one will be at his best on Sunday night. Maybe it will be the Buffalo weather that ultimately wins this game. It is still the dream matchup of the season. It would be a dream matchup in any season. As the great Vin Scully used to say in his sport: Pull up a chair.

Add history as one of its most formidable opponents. If you’re conversant in sports history, you know the NFL began as league of Midwest factory towns. One by one, Canton, Akron, Decatur and the others were abandoned until only Green Bay, and the community-owned Packers, remain as a link to those roots. The NBA, once it took flight, left cities like Fort Wayne and Syracuse. And don’t get us started on the NHL and Hartford.

Connecticut Sun enter new era in 2025 with introduction of head coach Rachid Meziane

When the Mohegan Sun brought the Orlando franchise to Connecticut in 2003, it was an ideal fit for The W. Maybe this isn’t a big market, but it is a women’s basketball hotbed. Now, as the WNBA expands, grows in popularity, seeks greater TV revenue, there is bound to be some sentiment from the league, and the players union, that it has outgrown the CT franchise and needs to move into a bigger market. Since the Sun played a game in Boston last year, a sellout at TD Garden, and made plans to play one of Caitlin Clark’s games vs. the Sun there next season, it’s natural to wonder if it’s a precursor to a removal of the franchise.

“We are here, this is where we want to be, so I wish people would put those rumors to bed,” said Beth Regan, chairwoman and justice of the Mohegan Tribal Council of Elders.

So the Sun are re-inventing themselves one more time, shuffling the front office to name former UConn star Morgan Tuck GM and hiring Rachid Meziane from France as head coach to blend EuroBasket with The W. With only three players currently under contract, the Sun, who have made the WNBA semifinals six years in a row, the finals twice, will look very different next spring, in personnel and style.

“There’s always optimism when you start a new chapter,” said Sun president Jen Rizzotti, the former UConn star. “There is no way to predict the future, but based on our success in the past and what we felt Rachid could bring our organization, adjustment wise, what our flow looks like, we felt he was the right fit for a team that’s been so close.”

The Sun have had success because coaches and GMs past and present, like Mike Thibault, Curt Miller, Stephanie White, Darius Taylor, now chief basketball strategist, and Tuck have stayed ahead of the curve in drafting and trading for players. The Sun have been modest players in the free agent market, and have had to trade their share of stars because of their desire to play in a bigger market, with more to do, more off-the-court revenue opportunities.

“We’ve been able to identify players that are interested in being part of a winning culture and maybe a little less interested in being a part of the things off the court that so many players nowadays feel are important,” Rizzotti said. “We’re looking for the blue-collar, underdog, hard-working personalities.”

This offseason will be a test to find out how many of those kinds of players are still out there. “This generation’s a little bit different,” Rizzotti said, “but there are differences in what a 22-year-old feels and what a 27-year old feels, or in players who have had that (big market) experience and it wasn’t what they were looking for.”

One of the biggest bones of contention in recent years has been the Sun’s practice digs at the Mohegan Tribal Community and Government Center, which they sometimes have to share with outside events — even in preparing for playoff games. The Indiana Fever announced Thursday it will build a $78 million performance center in downtown Indianapolis, next to its arena.

The Mohegan Tribe has acknowledged the need to upgrade facilities, but there are no plans to report as of yet, said Joseph M. Soper, Tribal Government Council corresponding secretary, a key figure in Mohegan Sun’s sports and entertainment realm.

“We understand where the infrastructure needs are going,” Soper said. “Especially as the league grows and develops, it’s something we’re always continuing to explore. We’re aware. We’ve always been committed to trying to provide what is right and what the team needs to be successful.”

Connecticut Sun take step toward becoming ‘New England’s team’ with first-ever TD Garden game

The idea of playing games in Boston came from the Sun, which was the first WNBA team to turn a profit on its own in 2010. The franchise is not for sale, but is looking to expose the WNBA to fans in Boston and perhaps interest some to travel to the casino and take in a game. The game against Los Angeles drew 19,103 to TD Garden last Aug. 20.

“Yes, we are a Connecticut team, but we really are New England’s team,” Soper said. “In the past, I don’t think we would have had the financial success to do it. You could see the excitement and anticipation of where the league was going, we felt it was the right opportunity.”

It could be considered, Tribal leaders say, that selected games with the potential to draw more than the 10,000 Mohegan Sun Arena holds could be played in Hartford, once the XL Center is renovated. The Sun averaged 8,450 last season, ninth among 12 teams.

As the Sun put together a new roster for 2025, almost from scratch, Meziane will be offering free agents something different, a re-imagined Sun. “This new trend of that position-less, everyone-can-shoot, everyone has those kind of premier skills,” Tuck said. “As a player, that’s a little more enjoyable, more free-flowing, you’re reading and reacting.”

As a coach in the Euro League with France and leader of the fourth-place Belgian team in the Paris Olympics, Meziane is looking to play what some call “beautiful basketball,” and many modern players who have overseas experience could be drawn to it. This is the latest plan for a small-market franchise that, historically, is a can-do organization.

“The W has a lot of physicality,” Meziane said. “In Europe, we have less physicality, so we have to play smartly, have a high basketball IQ, move the ball, less isolations, less one-on-one. We have unselfish play in Europe. I think we can mix this, combine high-IQ basketball with physicality and this combination can make something very nice, very exciting for our fans to watch. You saw in the last Olympic games, European teams can compete with Team USA, so it’s very smart for NBA and WNBA coaches to analyze what’s happening in Europe.”

More for your Sunday Read:

Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Fascinating tale of a UConn men’s basketball walk-on; the selfless Caroline Ducharme and more

Still a way for Will?

Now that the Titans, who finished 3-14, have secured the No.1 pick in the draft, quarterback Will Levis, the Xavier-Middletown grad and 33rd overall pick in the 2023 draft, faces an uncertain future there.

Levis completed 63.1 percent of his passes for 2,091 yards, 13 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, a quarterback rating of 81.2, near the bottom of NFL regulars. He missed time with a shoulder injury and was benched for a couple of games late in the season.

“All I can do is work this offseason on those areas of my game and come back here and show them I can be a franchise quarterback,” Levis told reporters in Nashville last week. “I truly believe with the ball I put on tape, and my body of work as a whole this season, I know and people who know ball, I think, can see that I can do it. I want to be a starter, I know I have what it takes, hoping to show I can continue to be a starter in this league.”

After the last game, Levis said he wanted to “be the quarterback of this team for the rest of my career.” If he does move to a new team, Levis would have some history on his side. There are many examples, most recently Sam Darnold in Minnesota, of young quarterbacks failing with their original team, but coming into their own later on.

Sunday short takes

*UConn’s Marc Gatcomb, who joined the Islanders’ organization this season, was summoned off the ice during the morning skate with Bridgeport of the AHL and sent up to New York on an emergency basis when a flu bug hit Jean-Gabriel Pageau among others on the team.

After taking his “rookie lap” before Tuesday’s game against Ottawa, Gatcomb, 25, flipped the puck over the glass to his parents, who drove down from Massachusetts. He played 7 1/2 minutes with the fourth line, and was returned to Bridgeport, where he has nine goals and eight assists. He’s the ninth UConn player to reach the NHL.

“I thought he had a really good start. That line had some energy at the beginning,” coach Patrick Roy told reporters afterward. “I thought he did a really, really nice job. He was physical, he was good for his first game.

*With Brad Robbins off to Tulsa, UConn coach Jim Mora has an important hire to make. To get the attention of quality quarterbacks in the transfer portal, a respected QB coach is essential. Hey, would Dan Orlovsky be interested?

*Former UConn men’s basketball teammates Jalen Adams and Brendan Adams (no relation) are pro teammates this season with Hapoel Holon of the Israeli Basketball Premier League.

*With Dodger Stadium undergoing renovations, it looks like the UConn-Vanderbilt baseball game scheduled to be played there March 2 will be moved to UCLA.

*Only baseball produces one-of-a-kind characters like Bob Uecker, the backup catcher who made a career out of putting himself down to lift the rest of us up. “A Braves scout came to my house and said they wanted to sign me for $20,000. My Dad said, ‘I’m sorry, but we don’t have that kind of money.'” Uecker died Thursday at 90, a long life, so well-lived.

Coach K says Big East, ACC should consider forming ‘mega-conference’

Last word

Mike Krzyzewski proposed an ACC-Big East merger or alliance this week and I listened with great interest, as I have proposed such an idea in this space before. Coach K has it right. Sure, it would be the best of all possible worlds for UConn, basically the original Big East re-assembled, plus Duke, UNC, et al. But it would also be good for the ACC, with UConn adding value in multiple sports. Rick Pitino was also talking about mega-conferences for basketball at Big East Media Day in October, and endorsed Coach K’s idea. So how does this sound? The Big East schools play their tournament at Madison Square Garden, the ACC at Barclays, can alternate years on that, and the two winners meet on Saturday.

As Vrabel said Monday in his introductory press conference to become the Patriots’ 16th head coach, those past championships will not give his team an advantage on the field, but they are a reminder of how hard they need to work and what they need to do to be successful.

Vrabel’s former players on the Titans joke that Vrabel will regularly remind his players of his 14 seasons in the NFL. Those banners from Super Bowl XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX are evidence that Vrabel was a pretty damn good football player who played on teams that knew how to win.

“I think it’s a great reminder of what it takes to win and the type of people that you have to have in the organization, the selflessness, the work and the sacrifice that you have to make,” Vrabel said.

The Patriots have now gone six seasons without a playoff win. They’ve only made the postseason twice in that span and lost both games — once to Vrabel’s Titans in Tom Brady’s last game with the Patriots.

Robert Kraft has tasted success that most owners can only dream of, and it’s clearly his goal to reach that plateau once again. And Kraft believes that Vrabel is the right man to bring the Patriots back to contention.

“In the interview process, Mike showed us that he had a very deep understanding of our current team, and most importantly, he had a clear and focused strategy of how to get us back to the championship way that is not only so important to all of us, but also something that I think our fan base really deserves and expects,” Kraft said Monday.

Vrabel is realistic in his goals. The Patriots have finished the last two seasons 4-13. They might have the worst roster in the NFL, and even with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and $130 million in salary cap space, it will likely take more than one offseason to make them a playoff contender.

So, for now, he wants the team to be able to take advantage of other teams’ mistakes, and that’s something they struggled to do at times under Jerod Mayo in 2024.

“We just want to be good enough to take advantage of bad football. That’s where we’re going to start,” Vrabel said. “That’s what I’ve tried to tell all the players is right now I don’t know if we’re good enough to take advantage of bad football. I’m unsure. Like we’re undefeated right now, but if we can just work towards taking advantage of bad football … and not being the ones that make the mistakes, and focusing on the little things and the details and helping them do their job better, that’s a great place to start.”

Eventually, however, Vrabel aspires to coach a team that’s good enough to “win the AFC East, to host home playoff games, and to compete for championships.”

“And what the timeline is, just like we say with injuries, like we’re not going to put a timeline on an injury, and we’re certainly not going to put a timeline on what those will be,” Vrabel continued. “But that’s going to be the expectations, and we’re going to work like crazy, we’re going to compete like crazy, we’re going to give the players a plan, and they’re going to form an identity on the field in the way that we’re going to play and play for each other that they’re going to be proud of.”

Identity is another thing the Patriots lacked in 2024. They wanted to be able to run the football, stop the run and cover kicks, but it never quite came together the way Mayo envisioned it. And he never communicated his goals well enough to members of his staff.

Vrabel wants his team’s culture to be unselfish and defined by the leaders on the team. He preached that he plants to “remove entitlement” from the team and “demand effort and finish.”

“One thing I realized about culture is you can find out what your culture looks like when your family, your business, or your team is at its low point,” Vrabel said. “It’s not when you’re winning Super Bowls. It’s not when you’re 7-1 or 10-1, then everybody’s waving towels and everybody’s happy and they’re excited to come to work. But when you get hit in the mouth or you’re down or the chips are against you, then you can take a snapshot of what your company or your team looks like, and then you’ll find out what kind of culture you have.

“But that culture is going to be built on winning, a competitive spirit throughout our roster and throughout our players and throughout our coaches and our staff and the ability to put the team first and care about somebody other than yourself.”

The Patriots are currently at their low point. They haven’t had four straight losing seasons in over 30 years.

Vrabel has yet to assemble a staff, and his roster currently has more question marks than answers. But Vrabel has the experience to set a clear vision for his team and a plan to return the team to prominence.

That vision will be complete when he’s able to add a seventh banner to the south end zone of Gillette Stadium. It starts with the Patriots being better than the bad teams.

If your lights go out, you call an electrician.

If your football team breaks down and the lights go out on its culture, identity and ability to punch above its weight, you call a coach like Mike Vrabel.

Well, the Patriots did. Vrabel answered.

And lucky for them, he’s coming home.

Vrabel is now the 16th head coach in franchise history and the right coach at the right time for a team wandering the NFL wilderness. The Patriots have lost 52 of 85 games since Vrabel’s Titans knocked out Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in their last game together in January 2020. That night, Vrabel out-coached Belichick, and Tennessee out-toughed the Pats for a 20-13 Wild Card win.

If the Patriots ever plan to resemble their dynasty-era selves again, Vrabel is the man for the job.

Not because of the player he once was, but the coach he’s become.

Over his six years in Tennessee, Vrabel never fielded an elite roster nor an elite quarterback, yet reached an AFC Championship Game one year and clinched the AFC’s No. 1 seed in another season. His Titans won a higher percentage of games as an underdog than every other head coach in the NFL except two. Vrabel finished with a winning record. All hallmarks of great coaching.

Sometime next year or the season after, Drake Maye will become the best quarterback Vrabel has coached. Together, they will form one of the best coach-quarterback combinations in the league, both in 2025 and beyond. This is the fastest, surest way for losing franchises to U-turn back to contention.

Hell, pending their moves in free agency, the Pats may push for a Wild Card spot as soon as next season. Imagine that if had they kept Jerod Mayo. Impossible.

The Patriots rushed to fire Mayo so they could hire Vrabel, make no mistake. Flouting the Rooney Rule in the days after was not just bad optically, but a poor business decision; eschewing an opportunity to pick the brains of great coaches around the league and learn about themselves as a franchise to simply get their guy. The Patriots are not so well-run they can pass on any chance to illuminate their blind spots and/or steal from the organizations that have passed them by.

But the bottom line is, Vrabel was both their guy and the best candidate on the market. You can’t do better than the best.

Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson may pay off one day as a head coach. He’s a well-regarded strategist, play-caller and motivator. But Vrabel is a winning ticket now; someone who has lived the difference between working as a coordinator and head coach — akin to the difference between a high school teacher and principal — and thrived. The Patriots are cashing him in.

To those concerned Vrabel is some kind of Belichick knock-off, the latest in a line of failures from Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, you don’t know him as well as you thought you did. Vrabel was his own man in New England as a player. He clapped back at Belichick, sometimes interrupted him in meetings and cracked jokes at his expense.

More to the point, Vrabel never coached under Belichick. He hasn’t worked in Foxboro in 15 years. In that time, he developed his own network and identity, moving from Ohio State to the Texans, Titans and Browns. Vrabel collected invaluable experience that would have served Mayo, also his own man, had Mayo ever flown the New England nest.

He didn’t. He failed, undone by a poorly reinforced culture, bad fundamentals and poor accountability from the top down. That won’t be Vrabel.

And he might fail. But Vrabel was destined to coach, according to a few people who know him well, and will arrive in New England a better head coach than he was in Tennessee. Since the Titans fired him, Vrabel spent the past year scouting for the Browns’ front office, then helping coach their tight ends and later moved into the offensive line.

Calling Vrabel a defensive coach belies facts like that. It belies who he really is; a coach players love, even as he’s cursing them out and jumping into practice drills trying to kick their ass.

As Rodney Harrison once said of his former teammate and fellow Patriots Hall of Famer: “(Vrabel) is one of the best —holes I know.”

A year ago, I called Mayo’s hire a “worthy gamble;” an educated guess that proved wrong. Dead wrong.

But there is no guessing here. In hiring Vrabel, the Patriots instantly raised their floor for the near future, and their championship potential for years to come.

Of course, there are no guarantees in the NFL.

But underneath his helmet and now a headset, Vrabel is who he’s always been: a winner.

Now a winner, welcomed home.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes, James Cook scored on a 5-yard run and finished with 120 yards rushing, and the Buffalo Bills leaned on a balanced offensive attack in a 31-7 win over the Denver Broncos in a wild-card playoff game on Sunday.

The Bills methodically wore down the Broncos by scoring on six of their first seven drives in building a 31-7 lead in a game where they finished with a 23-minute edge in time of possession.

And Buffalo didn’t flinch after rookie Bo Nix capped Denver’s five-play game-opening drive with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Troy Franklin.

With Buffalo leading 13-7, Allen broke the game open with a 24-yard touchdown pass to sliding running back Ty Johnson in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-1 with 3:06 left in the third quarter.

“I’ve been saying it all year long that Ty Johnson’s the best third down back in football,” Allen said. “The things that he’s able to do for us, the way we communicate, him in the pass game, blocking and running the ball. He does it all. I’m so happy for him, so proud of him. He made a heck of a play. It was fourth down, no point in holding it and taking a sack there. They played man (coverage) and I just gave him a chance.”

On Buffalo’s next possession, Allen completed a 55-yard pass to Curtis Samuel on the first snap of the fourth quarter.

The five-time defending AFC East champion Bills advanced to the divisional round for a fifth straight postseason, and will face the third-seeded Baltimore Ravens next weekend.

The Ravens, coming off a 28-14 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday, routed Buffalo 35-10 at Baltimore in Week 4 this season. The outing will mark the second playoff meeting between Allen and Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson after Buffalo defeated the Ravens 17-3 in the 2020 divisional round.

“Well, they got after us earlier this year,” Allen said of facing the Ravens again. “So we’ve got a lot of film to watch. It’s a great team. It’s a great quarterback, obviously with Lamar and what he’s able to do. He’s one of the most dynamic, if not the most dynamic, quarterback in the league. He’s so fun to watch. But I’ll be watching their defense this week, so that’s our focus.”

Cook became Buffalo’s first player to top 100 yards rushing in a playoff game since Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas had 158 yards rushing in a 1995 wild-card playoff win over Miami.

Allen finished 20 of 26 for 272 yards and increased his playoff total to 23 passing touchdowns, breaking the franchise record of 21 held by Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.

The seventh-seeded Broncos were outclassed in their first playoff appearance since their Super Bowl-winning season in 2015.

Nix finished 13 of 22 for 144 yards in an outing where Denver punted four times and turned the ball over on downs twice.

And the Broncos attacking defense was kept at bay by an Allen-led attack that was more than content in gaining small chunks of yards on lengthy time-consuming drives.

The Broncos, who had an NFL-leading 63 sacks this seasons, sacked Allen just twice in an game where the Bills punted once.

Allen had what appeared to be the thumbnail on his throwing hand peeled back in the fourth quarter. He stayed the game to complete the drive, ending with Tyler Bass hitting a 34-yard field goal before giving way to backup Mitchell Trubisky.

“Oh, it’s good. I’ve just got a little blood there. It’s fine. We’re fine,” Allen said of his thumb.

Trailing 7-3, Cook scored the go-ahead touchdown 2:03 into the second quarter to cap a 13-play, 81-yard drive. All three of Buffalo’s first-half possessions featured 11 or more offensive snaps.

The Broncos had little response in a first half that ended with Denver trailing 10-7 after Wil Lutz banked a 50-yard field-goal attempt off the right upright as time expired. The miss was Lutz’s first since Week 10 when his 35-yard attempt was blocked by the Chiefs to preserve Kansas City’s 16-14 win.

Lutz had since converted 41 consecutive attempts — 13 field goal and 28 extra points.

Including the playoffs, Buffalo improved to 13-1 at home since a 24-22 loss to Denver on Nov. 13, 2023. The only loss came to Kansas City in the last year’s division playoff round. Buffalo is 16-5 all time at home in the postseason.

The Broncos dropped to 2-7 in the wild-card round, with all seven losses on the road.

Injuries

Broncos: Backup linebacker Jonah Elliss did not return after hurting his shoulder in the first half.

Bills: CB Taron Johnson returned after being examined for a head injury in the first half. … Rookie RB Ray Davis did not return after being examined for a head injury in the third quarter. Davis was attempting to catch a pass when blindsided by safety Brandon Jones in a helmet-to-helmet hit in the third quarter. Jones was penalized for unnecessary roughness.

Up next

Broncos: offseason.

Bills: Host the Ravens next weekend in a matchup of two quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2018 draft.

The team announced the hiring Sunday morning. It comes a week after Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired Jerod Mayo after the team’s season finale victory over the Buffalo Bills to finish 4-13 in his lone season as coach.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, former Houston Texans offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton and Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson also interviewed for the job.

But Vrabel, a fan favorite during eight seasons as a player in New England where he was a member of its first three Super Bowl winners and an inductee into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2023, was the preferred candidate because of his long association with the franchise and coaching success during his six seasons in Tennessee.

In hiring the 49-year-old Vrabel, Kraft is turning to another former Patriots defensive standout who, like Mayo, built a reputation as a coach for his ability to relate to players.

But Mayo, who served as assistant under former longtime Patriots coach Bill Belichick, was a first-time head coach and struggled to get results from a young roster led by rookie quarterback Drake Maye. In explaining Mayo’s dismissal Kraft said while he thought he’d identified the successor to Belichick, that in hindsight he now believes Mayo wasn’t quite ready to be an NFL head coach.

In Vrabel’s case, however, he arrives with a head coaching resume burnished by a 56-48 overall record in Tennessee from 2018 to 2023. That includes a 2-3 record in the playoffs and AFC championship game appearance in 2019 as part of a run of three straight postseason berths.

Vrabel served in a consultant role with Cleveland this season, but his contract expired, allowing him to speak with other teams. He also was interviewed by the New York Jets.

The lure of New England won out and now he will look to rebuild the franchise he’s been associated with most during his NFL career.