Rob Gronkowski really is retired, at least for this season. The former New England Patriots tight end had dangled the possibility of returning to the N.F.L. almost as soon as he announced his retirement in March, a month after he helped the Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII. Despite a long […] More
PARIS — Megan Rapinoe won the Ballon d’Or as soccer’s women’s player of the year after leading the United States to the World Cup title in July. Rapinoe scored six goals in the tournament, earning the Golden Boot as the top scorer and the Golden Ball as the top player. Lucy Bronze of England finished […] More
It would be hard to draw up a weirder Sunday than one in which the Miami Dolphins, the Washington Redskins and the Cincinnati Bengals all won, while the New England Patriots and the San Francisco 49ers lost. The surprising victories by the league’s lesser teams provided plenty of entertainment, but Week 13 was all about […] More
BALTIMORE — The most difficult task in sports right now is not a single act — hitting a swerving baseball, saving a penalty kick, returning a supersonic serve — but rather a collective undertaking. It is containing the juggernaut that is the Baltimore Ravens’ propulsive offense, operated with unholy efficiency by quarterback Lamar Jackson, whose […] More
PITTSBURGH — There were no helmets hurled as weapons, no suspensions and no penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct on Sunday when the Steelers and Browns played, just a pedestrian matchup of perplexing teams hanging on to playoff hopes. Two weeks after one of the uglier on-field fights in recent years, there were no snafus as the […] More
CINCINNATI — Andy Dalton returned from his three-week exile on Sunday and got a long-awaited win for the coach who benched him, throwing a touchdown pass in a 22-6 victory over the Jets that ended the longest losing streak in Cincinnati Bengals history. “He had a chip on his shoulder all week,” running back Joe […] More
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Green Bay Packers had everything they needed to bounce back from a dismal West Coach performance: Lambeau Field weather on the road, a struggling young opponent and, of course, Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers threw four touchdown passes in the snow and the Packers (9-3) rebounded from an embarrassing 29-point loss to […] More
Get Rory Smith’s weekly newsletter on world soccer in your inbox every Friday. It’s free! Sign up here at nytimes.com/rory. It is 5,500 miles, more or less, from Rome to Baku and back. That’s as the crow flies, though a cursory search suggests that crows fly substantially straighter than most major international airlines. They tend […] More
