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    Mario Balotelli’s Italian Homecoming

    BRESCIA, Italy — No matter where his career has taken him, Mario Balotelli’s home has always been here, in an apartment block sandwiched between a Volvo dealership and the campus of the University of Brescia. The bottom floor is taken up by a bicycle shop, a piadina joint and an interiors showroom. Balotelli has the […] More

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    Ron Rivera, Cast Out of Carolina, Lands With the Washington Redskins

    The N.F.L. coaching carousel revolved again on Tuesday, as the Washington Redskins hired Ron Rivera, according to multiple reports. A spokesman for the team declined to comment. Rivera had been dismissed in early December by the Carolina Panthers after eight and a half seasons. During his tenure there, he took the Panthers to four playoff […] More

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    From Baugh to Brees, There Is No Slowing the N.F.L. Passing Game

    As the 2010s come to an end, there is one unmistakable N.F.L. trend: Quarterbacks are a lot more proficient than in decades past. But the funny thing is that 10 years ago an article recapping the decade could have begun with the same statement. A steady improvement of quarterback statistics has been a theme going […] More

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    Only Three N.F.L. Head Coaches Are Black. ‘It’s Embarrassing.’

    In late June, the sleepiest part of the N.F.L. calendar, several of the sport’s most prominent minority coaches and executives gathered at Morehouse College in Atlanta to try to dispel a persistent football myth: that there are not enough qualified candidates of color for the league’s coveted offensive coaching jobs. At the event, known as […] More

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    For N.F.L. Rookie, the 12th Man Is the Friend He Lost

    The New York Times Sports department is revisiting the subjects of some compelling articles from the last year or so. Here is our June report on a deadly incident that followed the N.F.L. draft. When the difficult moments come, and there have been a number of them over the past eight months, Corey Ballentine often […] More

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    The Giants Begin Another Rebuild, but Keep the Same Architect

    The Giants, a storied N.F.L. franchise that for decades prized patient, stable management, began its third overhaul in five seasons after firing Coach Pat Shurmur on Monday. While the dismissal of Shurmur, who compiled a 9-23 record in two seasons, was expected, the move nonetheless left the team in unfamiliar territory yet again as it […] More

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    Giants’ Pat Shurmur Is Out as N.F.L. Begins Coaching Purge

    Pat Shurmur of the Giants and Freddie Kitchens of the Cleveland Browns were the first coaches fired as the N.F.L. entered Black Monday, the date when the leaders of disappointing teams are traditionally sent packing. Shurmur’s firing was announced on Monday by the team. He took over the Giants for the 2018 season and led […] More

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    Top Seed to the Niners … by Inches

    SEATTLE — In the stadium where they hadn’t won in eight seasons, where their Super Bowl dream once perished, where they have been derided and dominated and disregarded for so long, the San Francisco 49ers gazed at the video screen and waited to learn whether they would be feeling like that again. Already they had […] More