One thing that most football fans know about Giants quarterback Eli Manning: He is good at winning Super Bowls against the Patriots. One thing that most fans do not know about him: He is just as good at pranks, big and small. A receiver removes his gloves to discover his hands are dyed blue. An […] More
With one more round of games before the playoffs begin, motivation varies wildly. There are teams fighting for better playoff positioning, others simply fighting for a playoff spot and some at the lower end that are probably playing for their coach’s job. With many teams resting their starters, Week 17 tends to have some surprising […] More
LEICESTER, England — Even now, Liverpool’s fans will not sing that song. Not after Jürgen Klopp’s team swept aside Leicester City, currently its closest rival in the Premier League title race. Not after a 4-0 win, and not after the most imperious performance it has produced this season, which is no light compliment given that […] More
The New York Times Sports department is revisiting the subjects of some compelling articles from the last year or so. Here is our November 2018 report on a college football player’s battle with depression. His smile was back, but now it had a 14-karat flash. As he sat across from me at a Los Angeles […] More
Hayden Fry, a hall of fame football coach who revived the University of Iowa’s flagging program, leading the team to three Big Ten championships and three Rose Bowls during his 20-year career there, died on Dec. 17. He was 90. His family announced his death in a statement but did not say where he died. […] More
In the days before the Super Bowl in 2015, Marshawn Lynch taunted the media — and the N.F.L., which requires all players to speak to reporters before the championship game — by proclaiming, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.” It was peak Lynch: Defiant, funny, original. He got away with it, too, because […] More
MINNEAPOLIS — Mike Zimmer does know how to smile. Laugh, too. His players on the Minnesota Vikings have seen it and heard it, and they understand that his gruff countenance and pipe-wrench bluntness belie a warm regard for their welfare. Late Monday night, Zimmer stepped behind a lectern inside U.S. Bank Stadium looking as if […] More
It was hard for Sunday to live up to Saturday’s thrilling action, but another huge Baltimore victory, an enormous upset in Seattle, multiple games that went to overtime, a change at the top of the N.F.C. East standings, and a major receiving record being broken gave the second day of Week 16 a massive impact. […] More
