Raphael Stevens

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    The N.F.L. Playoff Picture, Explained

    Curious about your favorite team’s playoff positioning, or which ones are looking like safe bets for a high seed? The Upshot’s N.F.L. Simulator offers some clues. More

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    How Trump Lost Sports as a Political Strategy

    After George Floyd’s death, many athletes and sports leagues pushed back more forcefully against the president’s demand for standing during the national anthem, and he shifted away from the issue. More

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    Greg Clarke, England’s F.A. Chief, Quits After Disastrous Testimony

    LONDON — By the time England’s top soccer official apologized for referring to Black players as “colored,” it was probably too late.The official, Greg Clarke, had already told the British parliamentary committee on sports about how South Asians’ filling up the IT department of England’s soccer federation qualified as a diversity problem. But even that was only one part of a disastrous day of fumbling testimony in which he also called being gay a “life choice” and explained away a lack of female goalkeepers by saying he had been told girls “don’t like the ball kicked at them hard.”Then Kevin Brennan, a member of the committee on sports, asked Clarke, the chairman of the English Football Association, if he would like to withdraw the use of the term “colored people,” which he had used when discussing representation in soccer. Clarke, 63, promptly did.“If I said it, I deeply apologize for it,” Clarke said, before confusingly explaining that he had done so because he had worked for many years in the United States where “I was required to use the term ‘people of color.’”“Sometimes I trip over my words and I apologize,” he added.Before the hearing had ended, a chorus of shock, anger and frustration on social media over Clarke’s testimony had grown to include prominent commentators and anti-discrimination campaigners. One member of Parliament labeled his comments “abhorrent.” Within hours, Clarke’s words had cost him his job.In a statement announcing his resignation later on Tuesday, Clarke said he had been thinking about leaving his post even before his unfortunate choice of words at Tuesday’s hearing.“My unacceptable words in front of Parliament were a disservice to our game and to those who watch, play, referee and administer it,” he said in comments published on the Football Association’s website. “This has crystallized my resolve to move on.”He added, “I am deeply saddened that I have offended those diverse communities in football that I and others worked so hard to include.”Clarke is also Britain’s representative on FIFA’s governing council, where he is a vice president, and a member of the executive committee of UEFA, European soccer’s governing body. It is expected that he will leave those posts — willingly or not — too.That Clarke has been forced out of his job because of offensive comments, particularly his language around race, was not entirely surprising. He was forced to issue an apology after an appearance before the same committee in 2017 when he described institutionalized racism as “fluff.” But his testimony on Tuesday was remarkable for the breadth of groups that he managed to offend.Trying to answer a question about diversity in British soccer, Clarke tried to explain that the issues were nuanced, but did so using an outdated stereotype that has long been viewed as a racist trope in Britain and beyond.“If you go to the IT Department of the F.A., there’s a lot more South Asians than there are Afro-Caribbeans,” he told the lawmakers. “They have different career interests.”Clarke also seemed to suggest that homosexuality was a lifestyle choice and then referred to an anecdote he said he had heard from a coach who told him schoolgirls did not like playing goalkeeper because they “just don’t like having the ball kicked at them hard.”Clarke, who addressed the committee via a video link from his home, had been called to discuss the state of soccer in the country amid ongoing concerns about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic and plans to overhaul the professional leagues.Sanjay Bhandari, the chief executive of Kick It Out, an organization set up to tackle racism in British soccer, expressed his disbelief and issued a sharp rebuke shortly before Clarke announced he would step down.“His use of outdated language to describe Black and Asian people as ‘colored’ is from decades ago and should remain consigned to the dustbin of history,” Bhandari said.Clarke’s comments came less than two months after his counterpart in France, Noël Le Graët, created an outcry there by declaring racism “did not exist” in French soccer. While Le Graët remained in his post, former players and antiracism campaigners were quick to condemn him.For the English soccer federation, Clarke’s departure will sting. The federation has tried in recent years to show it has made great strides in promoting diversity, and on Monday it released the latest update on its three-year equality, diversity and inclusion strategy that it calls “Pursuit of Progress.”David Bernstein, a previous F.A. chairman forced from office, said he believed Clarke’s comments were “symptomatic of an organization that has just been too slow to reform.”The Football Association said it had named Peter McCormick, a lawyer who sits on its board, as the interim chairman while it begins the process to identify Clarke’s successor. His successor will know to speak more carefully. More

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    Jets Fall to New Low, 0-9, With Loss to Patriots

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Joe Flacco and the rest of the Jets could feel it.Their first victory of a brutal season was there for the taking. They had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter against a struggling New England Patriots team and all the momentum.But just like that, they blew it. And for the first time in franchise history, the Jets are 0-9 after an agonizing 30-27 defeat Monday night.“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” wide receiver Jamison Crowder said. “That was a tough loss right there. That was a game we should’ve won.”Instead, they found a way to lose.Again.“It hurts,” Coach Adam Gase said. “I thought guys battled. They gave everything they had. We had a few mistakes that really cost us — cost us the game.”Maybe none more than the one by Flacco, who was having a terrific night up until that point while starting for injured Sam Darnold.After Nick Folk’s 29-yard field goal with 6:04 left cut the Patriots’ deficit to 27-20, Flacco tried to put the game away. He launched a deep pass downfield for Denzel Mims, but J.C. Jackson intercepted the ill-advised throw.The Patriots took advantage and marched down the field to tie it on Cam Newton’s 1-yard touchdown run.“I’ve been rattling it around in my head and I don’t think I would have made a different decision in the moment,” Flacco said of the play. “But, obviously, I wish I had that one back.”The Jets went three-and-out for the first time all game on its next drive, giving the Patriots the ball back with 47 seconds left.And that set up Folk’s winning 51-yard field goal as time expired, sending the Jets into their bye-week break in disbelief and searching for answers.“We just need to regroup,” Crowder said, “and learn how to finish the ballgame.”They started this one well, which was definite progress for an offense that ranks last in the N.F.L. in nearly every major statistical category.Flacco, playing with Darnold out due to a shoulder injury, threw touchdown passes to Breshad Perriman and Crowder in the first half. Sergio Castillo, in for injured Sam Ficken, kicked field goals of 35 and 50 yards to give the Jets a 20-10 halftime lead.Even after Rex Burkhead’s 1-yard touchdown run made it a three-point game in the third quarter, the Jets answered right back. Flacco connected with Perriman, his teammate in Baltimore from 2015-17, for a 15-yard TD that again made it a 10-point game with 30 seconds left in the period.But the Jets just couldn’t seal it in the end.“They played their (butts) off,” Gase said. “We’re not finding ways to win.”That will probably cost Gase his job at the end of this season. The heat on him has been turned way up with each loss, but it appears unlikely the Jets will make a coaching change during the bye week.But it still won’t be a comfortable week for the coach, who dropped to 7-18 with the Jets after being hired with great expectations — particularly on offense. That hasn’t panned out at all.Darnold’s future is still unclear, and it’s unknown if he’ll be healthy enough to play in the Jets’ next game at Los Angeles against the Chargers on Nov. 22. This season was supposed to be all about Darnold taking the next step in becoming a franchise quarterback in his third season.Instead, he could end up following Gase out the door.The Jets currently hold the No. 1 pick in the N.F.L. draft next April, a position that actually would have been put in jeopardy with a win Monday night. While frustrated fans dream about potentially landing Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Jets coaches and players just want to walk off the field winners at some point.“There are challenges every single week and right now we’re 0-9, so we’re dealing with a lot of those right now,” Flacco said. “And this is just going to be something that adds to it. I think we’ve done a really good job during the week throughout all of this of keeping our heads up and taking it one day at a time.“It’s going to be the job of the coaches and a few guys on this team to make sure we still have that mind-set going forward, as tough as that might be.” More