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      How The New England Patriots' Dynasty Fell

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTrend WatchThe Fall of the House of BelichickEmpires never fall in a day. The Patriots have been quietly crumbling from within for years.The end of the Patriots’ dynasty came in Miami, on a field where they had enjoyed years of victories.Credit…Mark Brown/Getty ImagesDec. 22, 2020Just as Constantinople had shrunk to a shadow of its former glory by the time it was finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the New England Patriots were a mere shell of a once mighty dynasty when they were eliminated from the 2020 N.F.L. playoffs on Sunday.Constantinople’s nigh-impenetrable walls were guarded by a meager militia before the city fell, just as players named Damiere Byrd and Devin Asiasi now occupy positions once manned by Patriots legends like Randy Moss and Rob Gronkowski. The Ottoman conquerors were stunned to see fallow fields encroaching upon the Hagia Sophia; the Miami Dolphins were probably also shocked when the Patriots kept running off tackle and meekly settling for field goals in Sunday’s 22-12 loss. When the end came to the city, the Byzantine capital’s most precious treasures and icons had already been looted by Venice, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the late medieval period.The Patriots have missed the playoffs only twice before since 2000, so when Sunday’s defeat dropped them to 6-8 and guaranteed their first nonwinning season in 20 years, it felt natural to seek world-changing historical precedents for their tumble into mediocrity and irrelevance. And history teaches us that empires never fall in a day. The Patriots have been quietly crumbling from within for years.The N.F.L. erodes dynasties by design. The salary cap prevents teams from building perennial powerhouses. The draft punishes plutocrats and rewards serfs. The Patriots should have been torn apart by a bloated payroll and a dearth of young talent a decade ago, but Coach Bill Belichick found clever ways to leverage the team’s prestige and organizational continuity to subvert the N.F.L.’s quest for parity.Bill Belichick papered over the Patriots’ cracks for years before the bill finally came due.Credit…Cj Gunther/EPA, via ShutterstockFor many years, the Patriots identified failing prospects from other teams with the potential to succeed in their system, acquired those players at low cost, assigned them roles in which they thrived, then let them depart after a few years. Often they left as top-dollar free agents, with the Patriots acquiring supplemental draft picks from the league in exchange. They used those picks to assemble new rosters with even more role players. In a pinch, the Patriots rented the services, via trade or free agency, of a big-name veteran (Darrelle Revis, Chris Long, Brandin Cooks) eager to win a Super Bowl at Tom Brady’s side.The Patriots were able to use success to sustain success so long as they rarely made personnel mistakes, and as Brady could still single-handedly elevate the team’s offense while rallying mercenaries to his banner. But years of unproductive drafts led to a slow cycle of diminishing returns. By last season’s quick playoff exit, the Patriots’ roster had grown noticeably patchy, and Brady was showing signs of age and displeasure.Brady’s departure as a free agent was the obvious tipping point in the decline. Making matters worse, he had outlasted his would-be successors Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett and appeared unwilling to suffer the presence of any other plausible heirs apparent, leaving the Patriots without even a stopgap quarterback. Yet surely Belichick had something up his sleeve: Perhaps Jarrett Stidham, a lowly former sixth-round pick like the young Brady, was the new chosen one, or the team would purposely go 0-16 for a year and draft Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence.Instead, in late June, the Patriots grabbed Cam Newton off the free-agent discount rack. At first, it looked to be typical Belichick brilliance: The Patriots would restore Newton’s most valuable player luster and remain in contention while plotting their next move. In reality, it was a desperate move.Newton gamely kept New England respectable early in the season, but the depleted Patriots roster was weakened by multiple coronavirus positives and opt-outs, Newton lacked quality receivers to throw to, his own skills were noticeably diminished, and the Patriots’ defense buckled.Cam Newton wasn’t so much the cause of the Patriots’ problems as much as another victim of them.Credit…Elise Amendola/Associated PressDefeats at the hands of former Super Bowl conquests like the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams and against long-subjugated fiefs like the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans took on apocalyptic symbolism. Belichick began appearing before the news media in hoodies that were even more tattered than usual: the emperor now a penitent in sackcloth, muttering about past accomplishments and making uncharacteristic excuses.Finally, the Dolphins, once an obedient vassal state, coached by a former Belichick subordinate, Brian Flores, and fielding a roster featuring several ex-Patriots, delivered Sunday’s almost merciful coup de grâce.Few outside the realm mourn the fall of an empire. Bills fans met their team at the airport after Saturday night’s victory over the Denver Broncos to rejoice in their first A.F.C. East title since 1995. The Dolphins, the Cleveland Browns and other franchises appear invigorated by the fact that all roads to a championship no longer lead to an impregnable fortress in the Boston exurbs. Patrick Mahomes’s Kansas City Chiefs are now the conference’s lone superpower, and they are easy to cast as lovable new heroes after Belichick and Brady’s increasingly joyless, generation-long quest to conquer all they surveyed.The collapse of an empire can lead to a dark age, but it’s just as likely to pave the way for a renaissance. Not long after Constantinople got the works, it became Istanbul and grew back into the cosmopolitan city that it remains to this day. The Patriots will also rise again, thanks in part to the same forces that helped destroy them. It will just take a few years of rebuilding and some fresh talent, ideas and philosophies.Oh, and Niccolò Machiavelli rose to prominence in Florence not that long after the fall of Constantinople. So Belichick will probably land on his feet.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      No Chiefs, Braves, Blackhawks and Seminoles. Remove Indigenous Names Now.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Race and PolicingFacts on Walter Wallace Jr. CaseFacts on Breonna Taylor CaseFacts on Daniel Prude CaseFacts on George Floyd CaseAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySPORTS OF THE TIMESIt’s 2020. Indigenous Team Names in Sports Have to Go.The Chiefs, Braves, Blackhawks and Seminoles need to follow the Cleveland baseball team in dropping their offensive names.Kansas City Chiefs fans in January, before the team banned headdresses and face paint.Credit…Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressDec. 21, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ETBefore the Kansas City Chiefs play, Rhonda LeValdo does not feel excitement and joy. She feels outrage.LeValdo, a Native American activist, has protested outside Chiefs home games since 2005. Kansas City still allows fans at the unfortunately named Arrowhead Stadium.She opposes traditions that have long been staples at Kansas City games. The horse called Warpaint prancing on the sideline. The beating drums. The battle cries filling the air as thousands of fans pantomime tomahawk chops.She wants the team to change its nickname: No more Chiefs.“Every single game brings trauma for me,” says LeValdo, who teaches communications at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. The tired customs force her to remember massacres and stolen land. Then there are the glares and taunts from fans as she and the others in her group pass by.“I worry for my life every time we go out there.”The protests seemed hopeless for years. Then came this spring, after George Floyd’s death while in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Amid the nationwide push to re-examine racial discrimination, a clamor from the public and sponsors forced Washington’s N.F.L. team to abandon its racist name.Last week, Cleveland’s baseball team decided that starting in 2022, it would no longer call itself the Indians.For the first time, LeValdo is feeling optimistic. “We’re trying to ride a wave,” she says. “Trying to keep pushing and keep holding teams accountable. The fight for justice has to be addressed with all races, which means it must include the Indigenous people of this land. We are part of this conversation, as well.”Many Native American groups have long opposed sports teams’ using Indigenous names and imagery.Credit…Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune, via Associated PressMy recent conversations with several influential Native American educators and activists revealed a shared optimism with LeValdo. They are buoyed not only by the changes in Washington and Cleveland, but also by the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos, who announced a name change, too. And by professional hockey in Sweden, where the Frolunda Indians say they will soon have a new moniker.Activists now say it is time to increase the pressure on big-time American professional and college teams whose insolent mascots, and nicknames have too often escaped scrutiny.Agreed.The Chiefs need a makeover. Patrick Mahomes, are you listening?So, too, do baseball’s Atlanta Braves, hockey’s Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida State University Seminoles.True, there are Native Americans who say they don’t mind the caricatures and tired tropes. Like any ethnic group, Indigenous people hold a full range of views. Nor should it be surprising that a people so subjugated, brutalized and sidelined — who suffered through decades of forced assimilation — would include voices that back the status quo.But among the most important lessons of this year’s reckoning is this: Society had better start listening to those who have been shouting for years that enough is enough — and to the fresh calls for change coming from youth.Objectifying Native Americans, using them as props, failing to acknowledge their complexities, must stop. And in the sports world, that extends beyond the issue of team names and mascots.What do you know about Jim Thorpe? Were you taught his history in school?In 1951, when The Associated Press asked reporters to name the finest athlete of the 20th century’s first half, Babe Ruth came in second. The winner was Thorpe.Jim Thorpe, left, was a Native American and one of the greatest athletes in history, but a fight erupted over displaying his remains.Credit…Associated PressDid you know that Thorpe handily won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics? That in the same year, he led the football team at Carlisle, his Native American boarding school, to a 27-6 demolition of a powerhouse Army team at West Point? Were you aware of how he was a pioneer in pro football and played six seasons in major league baseball?For all his greatness, Thorpe ended up being treated the same way Native Americans have for centuries: in too many corners, his legacy is either dimly remembered, recalled simplistically, or forgotten altogether.And when he died in 1953, he became a prop.His third wife, a white woman with no ties to Thorpe’s Sac and Fox Nation, barged into a sacred burial ceremony held on his native lands in Oklahoma. Despite protests from tribal leaders and his children from previous marriages, she snatched Thorpe’s body with the help of state troopers. Then she ended up shopping his remains to the highest bidder.That is how the bones of one of the greatest athletes in history ended up where they are today: in a roadside mausoleum on the outskirts of a Pennsylvania town that renamed itself Jim Thorpe, all in a bid to attract tourists and boost the local economy.For years, Thorpe’s tribe and his sons fought to have his remains sent back to Oklahoma. The town fought back. Thorpe is their commodity. Many who live there say they are giving him admiration and respect.You don’t have to look far to find major sports teams justifying their racism by claiming the same.This summer, the Atlanta Braves released a statement saying their team “honors, supports, and values the Native American community.”Native American groups have denounced the tomahawk chop performed by Atlanta Braves fans.Credit…Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBut a name change does not appear in the works for the team. And though the club says it is considering whether to dump its ritual tomahawk chop, such a move is no sure bet.The Braves are said to have appropriated the chop and battle shouts from Florida State University, which still embraces that tradition. Florida State’s mascot is Osceola, a famed leader of the Seminole Indians who is played by a student. At football games, the mascot rides a horse to midfield and plants a burning spear in the turf.The university, by the way, claims on an official website that Osceola is not a mascot. Instead, Florida State calls its faux Native American warrior “a symbol that we respect and prize.”Ugh.The Chicago Blackhawks hold tight to the same rationalization. Since the team’s inception in the 1920s, its jerseys have featured a cartoonish image of the Native American warrior who is the team’s namesake.Like most teams that brand themselves with racist tropes, the Blackhawks have sought cover in the form of endorsements from Native American groups.The team once had a relationship with Chicago’s American Indian Center. Then an emboldened Indigenous youth group fought the connection. Its objections were backed by recent in-depth research showing a psychological toll on the Native community caused by caricatured mascots and team names.The center cut ties with the team. “Our youth said they’d had enough,” said Fawn Pochel, the center’s education director. “They represent the new guard, reimagining a future that many were taught could not exist.“New demands are going to be made.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Fight for Washington N.F.L. Team Could Tighten Snyder's Grip on It

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFight for Washington N.F.L. Team May Tighten Owner’s Grip on ItWashington’s owner, Daniel Snyder, is working to buy out three minority partners, including one he has accused of running a smear campaign against him.The Washington Football Team majority owner Daniel Snyder could expand his stake in the team.Credit…Brad Mills/USA Today Sports, via ReutersKen Belson and Dec. 19, 2020, 8:37 p.m. ETBy the end of this summer, Daniel Snyder, the majority owner of the N.F.L.’s Washington Football Team, was facing fire from many sides. Fans had long blamed him for the team’s abysmal performance. Now civil rights groups were criticizing Snyder for waiting so long to jettison a team name and logo that they considered racist, and women’s activists were aghast after news media reports detailed a culture of sexual harassment in the team’s front office.In a normal corporate setting, any one of these troubles might have led to a leader’s ouster. Instead, Snyder, a member of the N.F.L.’s cozy club of billionaire owners, may emerge from months of crisis with an even tighter hold on one of the most lucrative franchises in the league. Snyder is in talks to buy out three of his partners, and the sale price may be 40 percent less than they were asking in June.According to three people familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak publicly about it, Snyder would pay up to $900 million for the 40 percent of the club owned by the three partners: Frederick W. Smith, the chairman of FedEx; the financier Robert Rothman; and Dwight Schar, a real estate developer. The deal must be approved by the league.Representatives for Snyder and the partners’ banker declined to comment on the talks. The N.F.L. did not respond to a request seeking comment.The deal, if completed and approved, would end one of the more nasty and tangled ownership battles in the league in years, a bitter divorce that has included accusations of bad faith, malfeasance and mudslinging in a league that prefers such infighting be kept behind closed doors.Sales of shares in N.F.L. teams are normally cloaked in secrecy, with information tightly guarded by the principals and their lawyers and bankers. The boardroom battle in Washington, though, spilled into courts from California to Virginia and even New Delhi before finally landing in the lap of an arbitrator appointed by the N.F.L. to sort out the mess.The court papers in the various lawsuits that have been filed offer an unusual look at an eight-month dispute that has included the use of burner phones, profane text messages, accusations of leaks of credible and fabricated information to the news media, and threats of extortion, according to transcripts of phone calls, text messages and emails found in court filings and other documents reviewed by The New York Times.The fight over the team began in the spring, when the limited partners accused Snyder of mismanagement of the team he has owned since 1999, including improperly throwing them off the board, making financial transactions without their approval and trying to block the sale of their shares to outside investors.Snyder claims, in court filings, that Schar, in retribution, schemed to leak to the news media negative information about Snyder’s personal life and operation of the team in the hope that it would be damaging enough to compel him to sell it. The sale of the entire team — not only Snyder’s share but also the stakes owned by Schar, Smith and Rothman — would significantly inflate the value of the nonvoting shares the three minority partners have been trying to sell since this spring.A lawyer for Schar did not respond to a request for comment.The team, 6-7 but on track for a playoff spot, has been playing better this season under a new coach. It is at the top of its chaotic division with three games left in the regular season.Yet Snyder has been trailed by controversy, including accusations from cheerleaders that they were sexually harassed and intimidated on the job by well-heeled supporters and team employees, and the allegations of widespread sexual harassment in the team’s front office that remain under investigation by the league.But, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations, N.F.L. owners believe Schar crossed a line in seeking to publicly malign Snyder. Even so, kicking out an owner or part owner is seen as a rare, last resort, and so they are pushing for a settlement in which Snyder would buy out the partners.Under the plan representatives for the partners are working out, Schar’s proceeds would be reduced by millions of dollars as a penalty for trying to publicly undermine Snyder, according to three people aware of the potential penalties. Even then, he will walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars.“The most important thing for the league is its image,” said Upton Bell, a longtime team executive and the son of the former N.F.L. commissioner Bert Bell, speaking generally about ownership disputes. “They want to make it look like it’s Disney World when it’s not. It’s business, it’s not a moral universe.”The fight, at heart, is over money.The limited partners grew disenchanted in May when, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic that was threatening the coming N.F.L. season, Snyder halted the payment of annual dividends to Schar, Rothman, Smith and other limited partners. He did not explain the decision, but it was consistent with similar steps taken by other owners.In a letter reviewed by The Times, Schar’s representative then asked Snyder for the team’s financial records for the past two years, including cost-cutting measures. In early June, Snyder was told that Schar and Rothman had joined Smith, who had been trying to sell his shares for about a year, in putting their stakes on the market. This created a 40 percent block that Rothman argued in a letter to Snyder’s banker was worth $1.5 billion, based on the team’s total valuation.Angered that his longtime partners were shopping their shares, Snyder threw them off the board of the team’s holding company in June. The partners asked the N.F.L. to settle the dispute, claiming that Snyder failed to hold board meetings and did not get proper approval for financial transactions. The league appointed an arbitrator to the case at the end of June.Amid the crossfire of letters between lawyers, Snyder asserted that Schar began a long-shot smear campaign designed to embarrass him and force him to sell the entire team. Snyder has long insisted that he intends to leave his controlling share to his children.Dwight Schar, a limited partner in the team, could be bought out.  Credit…George Gojkovich/Getty ImagesKey to the scheme, court filings show, was Mary Ellen Blair. She was an executive assistant to him until 2017 who, at the behest of Schar, helped pass negative information about Snyder to the news media. Between July and October, Blair and Schar spoke 157 times on the phone, for a combined 11.6 hours, according to phone records obtained by Snyder’s lawyers and filed in court.During that same period, Blair dialed or received 123 calls from telephone numbers associated with The Washington Post, according to court filings. There were text messages, too, Snyder said. “Call me ASAP Mr Schar just called me great news for u call me ASAP please,” she wrote in one of several texts to a journalist at The Post who contributed to a blockbuster article in which 15 female former team employees revealed rampant, longstanding harassment of women employees. (“The idea is to force Snyder to sell,” Blair texted to a friend.)The Post article in July did not directly connect Snyder to the harassment claims. But he hired a Washington-based law firm, Wilkinson Walsh, to look into the allegations. The N.F.L. took over the investigation, which is continuing.“While I was unaware of these allegations until they surfaced in the media, I take full responsibility for the culture of our organization,” Snyder said in a statement after a second article by The Washington Post linked to him to two allegations of harassment, both of which he denied.As the substantiated reporting got people talking on social media, less reputable outlets tried to capitalize on online interest in Snyder. The day The Post published its first report of chaos in the front office, a website owned by an Indian company, Media Arts Entertainment WorldWide, published two items about Snyder. One falsely linked him to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Representatives for Media Arts Entertainment admitted they had relied on sources including a Reddit post, and removed the two items from their website. But Snyder sued the publication for defamation in August in India. (The case is ongoing.)Snyder used the suit filed in New Delhi to search for ties to Schar. His lawyers filed a string of discovery motions in federal court in the United States and obtained Blair’s phone records and text messages, which showed her communications with Schar and his daughter, Tracy, who, records show, made or received 44 calls to or from Blair. The records also showed that Tracy Schar bought Blair a burner phone to escape detection. When Snyder’s lawyers confronted Blair about her phone records late this fall, she gave a sworn declaration that has been reviewed by The Times. In it, she said she and Dwight Schar discussed an allegation that Snyder had sexually harassed a former female team employee in 2009.“Schar knew I would take that information about that employee’s sexual harassment claim to the Washington Post, and Schar was encouraging me to share the information with the Washington Post,” Blair said in the declaration.It is unclear if she shared the information. A spokeswoman for The Post declined to comment.Two investigations conducted in 2009, one by the team and another by an outside law firm hired by the team, said they were unable to substantiate the woman’s claim that Snyder had accosted her in April 2009 on a flight to Washington from Las Vegas. The team fired the woman because it said she lied to the team’s lawyers.To avoid any potential negative publicity if the woman sued Snyder, the team paid her a financial settlement and five people, including Snyder and the accuser, signed nondisclosure agreements, according to a person with knowledge of the arrangement who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.A spokesman for Snyder declined to discuss the settlement.Even so, Schar tried to use the settlement against Snyder. In late July, he called Norman Chirite, one of Snyder’s lawyers, and said that “the story was out” about the 2009 settlement and its public disclosure is “going to kill Dan,” according to Chirite, who gave a signed declaration that was reviewed by The Times.Schar said Snyder would have a “horrible existence” when the settlement was made public. “Dan should just sell the team,” Chirite recalled Schar’s saying. “He won’t have a choice.”Now, the reverse may happen: Snyder will not only keep the team, but possibly tighten his grip on it.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      N.F.L. Union Delays Cuts in Disability Payments to Ex-Players

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyDisabled Former N.F.L. Players Get a Reprieve on Benefit CutsA reduction of disability payments, scheduled to start next month, has been delayed for three years, the players union announced.Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter is the president of the N.F.L. Players Association. He had promised a re-examination of the plan to cut benefits.Credit…David Richard/Associated PressPublished More

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      Bills Beat the Steelers, Surging as a Rival Sinks

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBills 26, Steelers 15Bills Beat the Steelers, Surging as a Rival SinksBuffalo can clinch the A.F.C. East title on Saturday. Pittsburgh fell behind Kansas City in the race for the top seed in the playoffs.Stefon Diggs had 10 catches for 130 yards, including this 19-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.Credit…Matt Durisko/Associated PressDec. 14, 2020, 8:49 a.m. ETAfter the interception that cemented Buffalo’s standing among the N.F.L. elite, the Bills’ defense assembled and jogged the remaining length of the field together, toward the end zone and the cameras and oceans of blue seats. It was midway through the fourth quarter Sunday on a night at Bills Stadium that begged for fans, dancing in the aisles to “Shout” and swilling their Labatts and celebrating a victory that reverberated far beyond western New York.Buoyed by a defensive touchdown just before halftime and two scores immediately after the break, the Bills toppled the Pittsburgh Steelers, 26-15, with the outcome evoking a pebble skimming across a pond.One wave fanned out from the home locker room, where a most dangerous team continued to gain confidence as it approaches a prize that has eluded it since before its cherished quarterback, Josh Allen, was born: With a two-game lead over Miami, the Bills (10-3), who have the franchise’s best record through 13 games since 1991, could clinch their first A.F.C. East title in 25 years as soon as next week.Another ripple registered throughout the Steelers (11-2), who only a week ago were unbeaten — imperfect but unbeaten. Pittsburgh has lost two straight, and if Buffalo is soaring as the playoffs draw near, then the Steelers are flailing, as if grasping for a light switch in the dark, struggling without an explosive offense.But the biggest ripple of all jostled the A.F.C. landscape, where the Steelers dropped behind the Kansas City Chiefs (12-1), who won in Miami, in the race for the top seed in the playoffs. Even if the Bills’ playoff positioning itself didn’t change, they reasserted their place within that hierarchy.As the N.F.L. has evolved, the best teams are those with dynamic passing offenses and defenses that can slow down the aerial game just enough. Sitting on Ben Roethlisberger’s short throws and blitzing him off the edge, the Bills hounded him into his worst game of the season.“If I don’t play good enough football, then I need to hang it up,” said Roethlisberger, who went 21 of 37 for 187 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. “I still feel like I can do enough things to help this team win football games, and I’ll do everything I can to get us back on track.”Ed Oliver and the Bills defense harassed Ben Roethlisberger into his worst game of the season.Credit…Jeffrey T. Barnes/Associated PressA Pittsburgh defense, meantime, that embellished its bona fides the previous six games against the likes of Garrett Gilbert and Jake Luton and Robert Griffin III was on Sunday exposed by an unfamiliar phenomenon: a formidable passing attack. Missing three starters, including cornerback Joe Haden, the Steelers managed to contain Allen and his cadre of explosive receivers for one half but not two.In that first half, Stefon Diggs caught three passes, and after the Bills took a 9-7 lead just before the break on a 51-yard interception return by Taron Johnson — their first defensive touchdown of the season — they spent halftime sorting out how to unlock an offense that had gained only 102 yards.They did that in two ways, Allen said.One: “I started completing it to the right guys.”Two: “We started throwing it to Stef.”Allen completed his first 11 passes after halftime, a stretch of brilliance that included touchdowns to Diggs and the rookie Gabriel Davis, neither of whom were on the Bills last season.As the Bills sought to mold Allen’s bountiful physical talent into a trustworthy N.F.L. quarterback, they surrounded him with what could be the deepest and most reliable receiving corps in the league. Heading that group is Diggs, who in his first season with Buffalo after being acquired in a trade from Minnesota has caught 100 passes — tying the franchise’s single-season record. Six of those catches on Sunday (for 83 of his 130 receiving yards) came on the two third-quarter scoring drives that capped a string of 23 consecutive points.“Diggs is so special that as I see him play, I just want to rip off my captain’s ‘C’ and throw it on his chest,” offensive tackle Dion Dawkins said.Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes as the Bills moved within a game of clinching their first A.F.C. East title since 1995.Credit…Bryan M. Bennett/Getty ImagesBefore Sunday, the last time Diggs scored was in Week 10 at Arizona, a late go-ahead touchdown that would only be eclipsed by Kyler Murray’s game-winning Hail Mary. The Bills had won three in a row before that loss, and they have won three in a row since, overcoming the stage fright that doomed them in earlier defeats against two other A.F.C. contenders, Tennessee and Kansas City.The Steelers may not live in their fears, as their coach, Mike Tomlin, likes to say, but they have now laid bare their shortcomings three times in 12 days. After playing what he called “junior varsity” football in a close win over Baltimore, and producing “catastrophic” results on short-yardage failures in a loss to Washington, the Steelers’ performance Sunday was not an aberration or an anomaly but evidence of a trend.Asked if there was enough time before next week’s game against Cincinnati to fix an offense that regained center Maurkice Pouncey and running back James Conner but still averaged 2.8 yards on 17 carries, Tomlin replied with one word: Yes. If he is wrong, Pittsburgh might be wise to start monitoring the Browns, who, if they beat Baltimore on Monday night, would inch within a game of the Steelers in the A.F.C. North. The teams will meet in Week 17 in Cleveland.That division might be unsettled, but the A.F.C. East is not. Long the domain of the New England Patriots, it soon shall belong to the Buffalo Bills, who, week after week in this bizarre season, are making their fans wish they were there to see this ascent for themselves.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Russell Wilson Throws Four Touchdowns in Three Quarters in Win Over the Jets

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySeahawks 40, Jets 3Russell Wilson Throws Four Touchdowns in Three Quarters in Win Over the JetsThe Seahawks rebounded from a loss to the Giants last week, while the Jets’ losing streak reached a franchise record 13 games.Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf had six catches for 61 yards and a touchdown, which he celebrated with one of the TV cameras.Credit…Ted S. Warren/Associated PressDec. 13, 2020Updated 8:51 p.m. ETSEATTLE (AP) — Russell Wilson threw four touchdowns passes to give him a new career-high with 36 for the season before resting in the fourth quarter, leading the Seattle Seahawks to a 40-3 rout of the Jets on Sunday.Seattle (9-4) rebounded exactly as it had hoped after its surprisingly poor offensive performance last week in a loss to the Giants. They stayed even with the Los Angeles Rams (9-4), who beat the Patriots (6-7) on Thursday, on top of the N.F.C. West.Wilson threw touchdowns to Freddie Swain and DK Metcalf in the first half and added touchdown tosses to Will Dissly and David Moore in the third quarter. It was his fifth game this season with at least four touchdown passes. His previous career high in touchdown passes came in 2018.Metcalf commandeered a TV broadcast camera as part of his celebration after catching a 5-yard scoring pass in the second quarter, his 10th of the season.Wilson finished 21 of 27 for 206 yards and checked out late in the third quarter, giving way to the former Jets quarterback Geno Smith for his first action since joining Seattle last season. Wilson’s only mistake was a forced throw in the first half that the Jets’ Marcus Maye caught for a terrific juggling interception.Wilson had played every snap of the previous 49 games for Seattle. The last time he wasn’t under center was Week 15 of 2017 when Seattle lost 42-7 to the Rams. It was also a rare blowout for Seattle. The Seahawks had just one win by more than 14 points in the past two seasons. “We took on the challenge, kept our heads down to just stay focused on what we need to do and our execution,” Wilson said. “It was a great day today.”For the Jets, it was another miserable day in their forgettable season. Days after firing defensive coordinator Gregg Williams after a collapse at the end of last week’s loss to Las Vegas, the Jets (0-13) showed little resistance on defense and little excitement on offense as they lost their 13th consecutive game, a franchise record.And even when the Jets had chances to score, kicker Sergio Castillo struggled. After converting a 45-yard attempt on the Jets’ opening drive, Castillo missed attempts of 37, 41 and 43 yards in the first half. Quarterback Sam Darnold was 14 of 26 for 132 yards.“This one got away from us very quickly and when you have chances against a team like this, you’ve got to take advantage of them or this is what the outcome’s going to be,” Jets Coach Adam Gase said.In just about the only bright spot for the Jets, they extended their streak of scoring on their opening drive to seven straight games, the longest active streak in the N.F.L. and the longest in franchise history.The Jets became the ninth team since the A.F.L.-N.F.L. merger to start a season with 13 straight losses. Three of those teams had winless seasons.“Losing’s not fun. We’ve just got to be better,” Darnold said.Seattle’s Jamal Adams, the former Jets safety, set a record for most sacks by a defensive back in a single season, breaking the previous mark of eight by Adrian Wilson in 2005. He had been credited with a sack after forcing Darnold to run out of bounds for a loss in the second quarter, giving him 8 1/2 for the season.“I’m trying to shatter it, to be real with you,” Adams said. “This is just a start.”Adams spent a significant amount of time postgame in a receiving line of hugs and handshakes with his former Jets teammates and coaches, including Gase.“Seeing so many guys, it just brings back a lot of memories because I do miss those guys,” Adams said. “This is bigger than football. It goes back to just relationships.”The Jets will be back on the West Coast next Sunday to face the Rams.Seahawks will make the last of its East Coast trips next week, traveling to play Washington (6-7) on Sunday.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Steelers’ Defeat Was a Comeback Wrapped in a Comeback for Alex Smith

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySteelers’ Defeat Was a Comeback Wrapped in a Comeback for Alex SmithThe Washington team with no name (but many scandals) pulled off a massive upset of the unbeaten Steelers behind its persevering quarterback.Washington quarterback Alex Smith scrambled away from Steelers defensive end Cameron Heyward on Monday.Credit…Charles Leclaire/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBy More

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      Steelers Lose First Game of 2020 to Washington

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySteelers Lose First Game of 2020 to WashingtonPittsburgh had been the N.F.L.’s final unbeaten team at 11-0 before losing at home to a sub-.500 Washington team.Washington quarterback Alex Smith threw for 296 yards and a touchdown in a 23-17 win over Pittsburgh, giving the Steelers their first loss of the season.Credit…Keith Srakocic/Associated PressBy More