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    Soccer Is a Habit. But Habits Can Be Broken.

    Enjoying this newsletter? Forward it to a friend, or 10, and tell them to sign up at nytimes.com/rory. By Something I heard, a few months ago, has been on my mind this week. It was something that I think I knew, deep down, but had never quite put into words. It was not so much […] More

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    Tom Brady Becomes a Tampa Bay Buccaneer

    Tom Brady, the only N.F.L. quarterback to win six Super Bowls, is headed to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After telling the New England Patriots, the only club he has played for in his 20-year career, that he would not return to the team this week, Brady posted to Instagram a picture of his signing a […] More

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    The 48 Hours When Liverpool’s Title Run Screeched to a Halt

    LIVERPOOL, England — For once, there was no big finale to Jürgen Klopp’s speech. Liverpool’s coach stood in the canteen at Melwood, the club’s training facility, with his players and the club’s staff gathered in front of him. All boundaries had blurred. Star players sat next to interns, all wondering the same thing: What now? […] More

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    Saints Coach Sean Payton Is N.F.L.’s First Known Coronavirus Case

    New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton is the first known member of the N.F.L. community to test positive for the coronavirus. Payton told ESPN on Thursday that his symptoms started on Sunday — the day after he attended the Rebel Stakes, a thoroughbred horse race at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. He said he […] More

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    European Soccer’s Leaders Plot a Speedy Return, With or Without Fans

    In Italy, soccer stopped as fans of Lazio, a club based in Rome, were dreaming that their two-decade wait for a league title might be ending, buoyed by an unbeaten run that started in September. In England, Liverpool was on course to end its 30-year championship drought with an all-but-insurmountable 25-point lead. But these teams, […] More

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    Boston Offers Bouquets to Tom Brady and Disdain to the Patriots

    Rick Field, the founder of Rick’s Picks pickles and a lifelong New England Patriots fan, vividly remembers the moment that changed his favorite team’s destiny. On Sept. 23, 2001, he gathered with friends in front of a TV to watch a Patriots home game against the Jets. Drew Bledsoe, the Patriots’ beloved quarterback at the […] More

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    Tom Brady in Tampa Bay? It’s Not as Weird as It Sounds

    The Tampa Bay Buccaneers played one night game last season, on a Thursday in Week 2. That looks like it’s going to change. The limit for prime-time appearances per team is six, but with Tom Brady poised to join the Buccaneers’ pirate ship — maybe they’ll let him control the animated parrot resting on its […] More

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    In Pausing Their Sport, Soccer’s Leaders Put Everyone on the Clock

    MANCHESTER, England — Power, it turned out, was the problem: Who had it, who wanted it, who would get to keep it. Remove that, and present those who scrapped and bickered and threatened to paralyze soccer over it with something they could not barter or bully, and suddenly all the hard, red lines turned a […] More