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    N.F.L. Week 17 Predictions: Our Picks Against the Spread

    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

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    Hayden Fry, Who Made Iowa a Football Powerhouse, Dies at 90

    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

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    Marshawn Lynch Arrives to Give Seattle a Playoff Push

    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

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    Green Bay’s Win Over Minnesota Opens Up the N.F.C. Seeding Race

    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

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    What We Learned in N.F.L. Week 16

    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

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    Eagles Finish Off Cowboys, in More Ways Than One

    PHILADELPHIA — The Dallas Cowboys like to call themselves America’s Team, but these days they could also star on an episode of “The Apprentice,” with Coach Jason Garrett trying to convince the team owner Jerry Jones that he deserves to keep his job. Over and over during his 10 seasons of leading the Cowboys, Garrett […] More