David Baker, the executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has always been clear about his mission: to celebrate the exploits of players and coaches on the field and the N.F.L. executives who helped build the league. The rest of it — the messy private lives, the criminal activity, the treatment of players […] More
In years to come, this might be the week this age of sports came to be known as the “asterisk era.” During a decade that brought eye-in-the-sky cameras, rogue chemists, executives with malleable morals and Soviet-era spy craft, those two-fisted disrupters — science and technology — have given cheaters seemingly limitless tools to secure victory […] More
In the video announcing his retirement on Tuesday, Luke Kuechly thanked his Carolina Panthers teammates and coaches, his parents and his two brothers, his girlfriend and all the fans who supported him as he became the best middle linebacker in the N.F.L. Left out of his speech were two men who almost certainly influenced his […] More
The summer before last, Barcelona made the sort of business decision that few — if any — outside the relatively niche world of sports merchandising would have noticed. Since 2001, Barcelona’s merchandising operation had been subcontracted out to Nike, the team’s jersey sponsor. Through a subsidiary company, Nike ran three official Barcelona stores and 15 […] More
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Late in the Kansas City Chiefs’ demolition of the Houston Texans on Sunday, the team posted a note on the video screen at Arrowhead Stadium telling fans that thanks to the Chiefs’ 51-point outburst, all the fireworks shot off after each score were gone. “Chiefs fans, we are sorry to report, […] More
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Late in the Chiefs’ demolition of the Houston Texans on Sunday, the team posted a note on the video screen at Arrowhead Stadium telling fans that thanks to Kansas City’s 51-point outburst, all the fireworks used to celebrate scores were gone. “Chiefs fans, we are sorry to report, but due to […] More
A week after three road teams advanced in the wild-card round, three home teams took care of business in the divisional round. The weekend featured one of the biggest upsets in recent memory — Tennessee’s 28-12 stunner over Baltimore — but otherwise stuck to the expected script. That is not to say it was boring, […] More
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers, the Packers quarterback, turned 36 last month, which has led him to speak openly of his inevitable athletic mortality. It has been nearly a decade since Rodgers and the Packers won a Super Bowl to ratify the 2010 season. Before Sunday’s 28-23, heart-in-the-throat playoff victory over the Seattle Seahawks, […] More
