"[You'll see] influencers as a complementary part of the program to get your commercial messaging out into the world," said Nick Miaritis, VaynerMedia's chief client officer. "It used to be Good Morning America would premiere the ad, and that would get you the exposure. Fewer and fewer people are tuning into that."
The country has just been introduced to a diversity-hostile administration, which has practically squashed any zeal toward diversity, equity, or inclusion that corporate America once seemingly held. As the NFL's leadership team explores talent considerations for next year's performance in the midst of this cultural backdrop, someone recommends Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican-born megastar whose songs are performed almost entirely in Spanish, and, surprisingly, the league acquiesces.
Here are the latest updates: Dallas Cowboys Kansas City Chiefs New York Jets Haener, 26, was offered a futures deal by the Saints, per Jeff Duncan of The Times Picayune, but sought a better opportunity instead. Kansas City may present one. The Chiefs only have one quarterback - Chris Oladokun - under contract for the 2026 season other than Patrick Mahomes, who will spend the next several months working his back from a torn ACL. Mahomes is unlikely to be ready for Week 1, so
The Seahawks and NBA's Portland Trail Blazers have been owned by the Paul G. Allen Trust since the former owner and Microsoft co-founder died of cancer in 2018. Jody Allen, his sister, took control of the teams and as the chair of the trust with a directive from her brother to eventually sell them and donate the proceeds to charitable efforts.
When an NFL team hires a new head coach, there is inevitable optimism for the fanbase; even when the new guy is initially disliked, one fiery opening press conference or a few quotes is usually enough to turn at least some fans around. In reality, though, that pessimism is sometimes warranted. After all, the league usually sees at least one head coach hiring per year that doesn't make it to a second season.
It appears that ads from companies like Polymarket or Kalshi will not air during the upcoming Super Bowl. According to the NFL, the league placed prediction market commercials under its "prohibited categories" for Super Bowl advertising on February 8. As reported by Front Office Sports, prediction markets now sit under the same category as tobacco, pornography, firearms, "and other controversial subjects."
Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets are taking a gamble with their defense, as they have hired Brian Duker as their defensive coordinator on Wednesday. The 36-year-old Duker, who spent the previous two seasons as the Miami Dolphins' pass game coordinator and secondary coach, worked under Glenn, then the defensive coordinator, while with the Detroit Lions. During our time in Detroit, Brian consistently demonstrated a high football acumen and an aggressive approach to defense, an official statement from Glenn read.
Somehow, Shedeur Sanders actually got named to the Pro Bowl.... He started 7 games where the Browns went 3-4, averaged less than 200 yards passing per game, threw for 10 interceptions and 7 touchdowns and his QBR was a solid 18.9! I mean come on guys, what are we doing here? There is nothing you can do to justify trying to make the case for Sanders to make the Pro Bowl.
Please, no. Please, can we have football still be football and not tinkered with until it is some algorithm-based product designed to maximize flashiness for the attention-deficit crowd? Can football, for all its brute violence, remain a thinking person's game, where strategy and decisions and variables and a million little things still matter, including snow or wind or rain or sunshine or calm or, who really cares?
Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh recap NFL conference championship weekend, where the Patriots braved a blizzard better than the Broncos, and Sam Darnold proved that resurrected quarterbacks really can win it all. Later, they get into Trinity Rodman's three-year NWSL deal that keeps her in D.C., but has caught the ire of the players' union. The panel wraps with a breakdown of the Mets' busy offseason and whether they can actually come out on top in 2026.
On Dabble, you can play pick'em style contests where you can add between 2 and 12 picks to a play. The more picks you add, the more you can win. You need to get all the picks right to win. Check out the payout structure below. Getting 2 picks correct wins 3x while getting 12 picks correct wins 1000x. You are picking based on player stat categories. For example, you might pick Matthew Stafford to have more than 255.5 passing yards or for Kyren Williams to have less than 77.5 rushing yards.
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The New England Patriots pulled off what seemed impossible at the beginning of the season: winning the AFC East. The Bills have had a grip on the division since Tom Brady's departure after the 2019 season, and while Miami has come close, it has never been able to claim the title during New England's half-decade hiatus. Making the playoffs for Josh Allen and company hasn't been an issue.
The two most productive wideouts in football, the Rams' Puka Nacua and the Seahawks' Jaxon Smith-Njigba, are competing for a trip to the Super Bowl this weekend in the NFC Championship Game. Both of those teams made significant receiver additions in free agency this past offseason, as the Rams signed Davante Adams and the Seahawks went for former Rams wideout Cooper Kupp.
Mayfield appeared to be angered after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter posted that Stefanski said Mayfield and another Browns quarterback, Deshaun Watson, had failed in Cleveland. Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage, Mayfield posted on social media on Tuesday. Can't wait to see you twice a year, Coach. The Browns drafted Mayfield, a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma, first overall in 2018.
The 2026 head coaching carousel has now seen 10 vacancies open, as the Bills have fired Sean McDermott. HC firings generally lead to coordinator changes, and several other teams have proceeded with OC or DC moves to start their offseasons. Here are the current OC and DC searches transpiring. As the remaining HC searches conclude, more coordinator searches will be added to this list.
Young quarterbacks put some career highlights on their reel, and we even came pretty close to having three class of 2024 quarterbacks among the four starters in the conference championship games next weekend. Of course, we ended up with only one, as Bo Nix suffered a season-ending broken ankle late in the overtime win over the Bills, while Caleb Williams came up just short after an overtime interception helped the Rams pull out a victory in Chicago. The only quarterback from the 2024 draft class
Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams survived an incredible throw by Caleb Williams that forced overtime, beating the Chicago Bears 20-17 on Sunday night to advance to the NFC championship game. Harrison Mevis kicked a 42-yard field goal in OT after Kam Curl intercepted a deep pass by Williams on the Bears' first possession of the extra period. Stafford completed a 16-yard pass to Puka Nacua to get the Rams into field-goal range and set up Mevis, known as the Thiccer Kicker, for the game-ending kick.
The low-frequency electromagnetic waves produced by a power plant neighboring Levi's Stadium are apparently to blame for the 49ers' injury woes, a recent viral social media thread alleges. There is, in fact, some basis to the idea that electromagnetic waves can affect the human body, explained Dr. Nirav Pandya. As a sports orthopedic surgeon at UC San Francisco, he has used them before. To help treat injuries, ranging from rotator cuff tears to bone fractures.
Someone looking to understand America might do well to study the nation's embrace of football. N.F.L. games regularly outperform anything else on television, and, in 2025, some hundred and twenty-seven million viewers tuned in to the Super Bowl - more than ever before. As this year's championship approaches, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz are joined by their fellow New Yorker writer Louisa Thomas to unpack the sport's allure, which has persisted despite increasingly dire evidence of the danger it poses to players' health.
