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      What to Know About Covid-19 and the 2021 Super Bowl

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat to Know About Covid-19 and the Super BowlPlayers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs are being tested for the coronavirus more often, and just 25,000 fans will attend the game.Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla., will be scaled down from the usual fanfare that surrounds the N.F.L.’s marque event.Credit…Eve Edelheit for The New York TimesFeb. 2, 2021Updated 7:21 a.m. ETThe Super Bowl is unlike any other American sporting event: A football game provides the anchor for parties, fanfare, and an eye-popping TV broadcast where the commercials and halftime show are just as much of an attraction for the more than 100 million fans who will watch.But like everything else in the year since the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe, Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla., has been adapted to Covid-19 health guidelines and scaled down, despite the excitement over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers becoming the first N.F.L. team to play in the championship game in its home venue — Raymond James Stadium.While the football being played on Sunday will look largely the same as in other years, nearly everything else surrounding the Super Bowl will be different.Super Bowl LV: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay BuccaneersSunday, Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m. Eastern, CBSPlayers are being tested for Covid-19 even more.Players, coaches and members of each team’s staff have been tested for Covid-19 daily throughout the season, including on game days. Since the Buccaneers and the Chiefs qualified for the Super Bowl on Jan. 24, team personnel have been tested for coronavirus twice daily.Anyone with a confirmed positive test must stay away from their team for a minimum of 10 days. The Buccaneers and the Chiefs have not had a positive test in more than three weeks.However, two Chiefs players — receiver Demarcus Robinson and center Daniel Kilgore — came in close contact with an infected person and must isolate for at least five days, Chiefs Coach Andy Reid confirmed Monday.Since the beginning of August, about 15,000 N.F.L. players, coaches and staffers have received nearly 1 million tests, far more than any in other United States-based sports league. More than 700 players, coaches and staff members tested positive during that time.Because of concerns about exposure to the coronavirus, the Buccaneers and Chiefs have departed from the normal Super Bowl itinerary. In most years, the two opposing teams would arrive in the Super Bowl city one week in advance of the game to conduct practices and scheduled interviews with media. This year, players and coaches will do those interviews via videoconferences, as was the case throughout the 2020 regular season.To further reduce the team’s chance of infection, the Chiefs are not scheduled to arrive in Tampa until Saturday. The Buccaneers won’t have to drive far.Fewer fans will attend the Super Bowl.Super Bowls typically sell out their seating capacity, even for tickets that cost $10,000 or more. Attendance has never dipped below the 61,946 who attended Super Bowl I in Los Angeles in 1967 and has in some years topped 100,000.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      Is the Salary Cap a Myth?

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn Pro FootballIs the Salary Cap a Myth?A Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should not be fiscally possible on paper, but here we are.Important role players, like Chiefs receiver Sammy Watkins, right, signed one-year contracts made possible because quarterback Patrick Mahomes will be paid the bulk of his 10-year, $477 million contract in 2023 and beyond.Credit…Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesJan. 28, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETKansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’s listed base salary for the 2020 season is $825,000, a princely sum for ordinary folks but $85,000 less than the base salary of his teammate James Winchester, a valuable but obscure long snapper.Tom Brady’s 2020 base salary of $15 million for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is more in line with expectations for an N.F.L. quarterback, if not for a six-time Super Bowl champion and era-defining player. For example, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brady’s backup when they played for the New England Patriots, earned a base salary of $23.8 million for an injury-plagued and disappointing 2020 season for the San Francisco 49ers, while Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr had a base salary of $18.9 million for another season of his established late-model family sedan caliber play.This season’s Super Bowl matchup should not be fiscally possible on paper. The N.F.L.’s salary cap was supposed to have torn the Chiefs’ roster apart after their Super Bowl victory last season; Mahomes’s performance would command a contract that by itself had the potential to force the team into receivership. Similarly, the Buccaneers’ star-studded lineup of Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Ndamukong Suh, Antonio Brown and Jason Pierre-Paul — each a market-setter at his position at some point in his career — should be so prohibitively expensive as to force the team to fill the lower half of its roster with temps and interns.The fact that the Chiefs and the Buccaneers kept their rosters intact appears to support the popular theory that the salary cap is a myth, a fiction used by franchises as an excuse to cut unwanted veterans, pinch pennies and fall short of expectations. The cap is in fact very real, but its arcane rules about bonuses, incentives and proration make N.F.L. cap management more like sorcery than an art or a science. And the voodoo economics the Chiefs and the Buccaneers are dabbling in could someday come with a steep price.Mahomes, as you may recall, signed a reported 10-year, $477 million contract extension in July. It was the sort of contract that would force a mortgage lender to accept a plea bargain — full of deferred bonuses, staggered guarantees and balloon payments designed to forestall Mahomes’s biggest paydays until 2023 and beyond. As a result, his 2020 compensation (base salary plus bonuses) counted for just $5.34 million against the salary cap, which allowed the Chiefs to re-sign important players like the Pro Bowl defensive tackle Chris Jones despite little apparent maneuvering room in their theoretical budget. Even Mahomes’s future compensation will come mostly in the form of bonuses instead of salary, allowing for further feats of accounting magical realism.Mahomes can afford to wait on his $40-plus million paydays because he is in high demand as an advertising pitchman, and successful quarterbacks are all but guaranteed long, lucrative careers. Brady is also a brand unto himself (and, as the spouse of an international celebrity, Gisele Bündchen, he brings in his household’s second income), but he has taken the opposite approach throughout his career by accepting short contracts full of guaranteed money. Lesser quarterbacks earn more than Brady in any given year, but he is always near the top of the N.F.L.’s wage earners and rarely more than a year away from another renegotiation and raise.Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is always near the top of the N.F.L.’s highest paid players in part because of the strength of his brand.Credit…Scott Eisen/Getty ImagesThe Brady and Mahomes situations illustrate that salary cap alchemy typically boils down to compensating the superstar quarterback first, then fitting the rest of the budget around him. With a relatively affordable Brady in the fold, the Buccaneers could extend one-year offers to Brown, Gronkowski and Suh, veterans willing to sign for less than their market value to join forces with Brady and pursue a championship.Similarly, important role players like Sammy Watkins and Bashaud Breeland, who re-signed with the Chiefs, and Le’Veon Bell, who signed as a free agent, were given one-year contracts made possible because Mahomes is being paid in tomorrow bucks. The appeal of a likely Super Bowl run couldn’t have hurt, either.Even the cleverest cap model can backfire if a team cannot use success to sustain success. The Saints used reverse mortgage “die broke” tactics to pay Drew Brees through many years of Super Bowl near misses. With Brees’s retirement imminent, the Saints are so deep in deferred cap debt (an estimated $112 million) that they may be forced to pad their 2021 roster with season-ticket holders. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams overpaid quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Jared Goff (plus other top veterans) after trips to the Super Bowl in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Eagles are now facing an existential crisis, while the Rams are subsisting on the cap equivalent of maxed-out credit cards.After the Super Bowl, a long list of in-house free agents (including starters like Lavonte David, Shaquil Barrett and Chris Godwin, plus the aforementioned mercenaries) will be vying for the Buccaneers’ very limited cap space while Brady, who turns 44 in August, prepares to once again plays chess with his own mortality. Even with all of their finagling, the Chiefs will enter the off-season an estimated $18 million over the cap, meaning that next season’s Chiefs probably won’t be as good as this season’s Chiefs. Both teams in this Super Bowl needed to get there to justify their efforts to stay one step ahead of the collection agency.There is much more to “salary cap-enomics” than finding innovative ways to squeeze a Mahomes or a Brady into a budget — from extending in-house contracts before valued veterans reach free agency to avoiding spending sprees at positions like running back, where talent is plentiful and replaceable. Mostly, however, there’s no mystery to cap management, just the question of whether a team chooses to pay for its Super Bowl run today, tomorrow or by tacking almost a half-billion dollars onto the back end. Age and deferred debt eventually catch up to everyone. Even Tom Brady. Someday. Probably.All cap data comes from OverTheCap.com.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Could Tampa Bay Be the New Titletown?

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.Will the Harden Trade Work Out?The N.B.A. Wanted HerAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCould Tampa Bay Be the New Titletown?The success of the Buccaneers, Lightning and Rays — pro sports punch lines turned finals contestants — is a run that rivals past glory years in Boston, New York or Los Angeles.Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans waved flags and cheered as they watched their team win the N.F.C. championship game against the Green Bay Packers at a bar in St. Petersburg, Fla.Credit…Eve Edelheit for The New York TimesJan. 26, 2021, 9:31 a.m. ETTwenty-six straight losses in football. Acres of empty seats at Tropicana Field. A court order to seize the local N.H.L. team’s skates and other equipment if needed to pay a debt. Let’s just say Tampa Bay had not earned a reputation as a hub of professional sports excellence.Until now. In a purple patch to rival the best of them in Boston, New York or Los Angeles, Tampa’s three top-level men’s pro teams have all made their league’s finals over the last five months. The amazing run was capped on Sunday by Tom Brady leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a victory over the Green Bay Packers, clinching the first home stadium Super Bowl.Tampa Bay as Titletown? It just might be so.Tom Brady transformed the Buccaneers.Tom Brady helped lead the Buccaneers to an upset of the top-seeded Packers Sunday. Tampa Bay won three straight road playoff games to earn a Super Bowl berth.Credit…Dylan Buell/Getty ImagesThe Buccaneers became a symbol for futility in the N.F.L. when they debuted in 1976 and lost 26 straight games over two seasons before their first win. “I couldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” said Richard Wood, a linebacker on those teams. Even a run to the N.F.C. championship game in the 1979 season couldn’t shake the impression for most fans that “Buccaneers” was synonymous with “futility.”And the team lived up to that reputation for some time, posting three 2-14 seasons in the mid-1980s. Since the Buccaneers’ only Super Bowl title, after the 2002 season, they have put up a two-win season (2014), a three-win season (2009) and three four-win seasons (2006, 2011, 2013). The Bucs had gone 12 seasons without a trip to the playoffs until the franchise ended that drought this year.When Brady, 43, decided to play quarterback for the team after 20 seasons in New England some assumed it would be a sinecure in the sun. Not at all. Tight end Rob Gronkowski came out of retirement to join his old teammate, and the Buccaneers also added running back Leonard Fournette to a loaded offense. A young defense looked consistently good. The signs were there for a better season.But an 11-5 regular season? Three road playoff wins, including upsets of the second-seeded New Orleans Saints and the top-seeded Green Bay Packers? A trip to the Super Bowl? Few saw that coming.The Rays had a small budget and few fans, but claimed a World Series spot.The Tampa Bay Rays upset the Houston Astros in a seven-game American League Championship Series in 2020.Credit…Orlando Ramirez/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Tampa Bay Rays started their first Major League Baseball season in 1998 as the Devil Rays. They promptly posted 10 straight seasons of 70 or fewer wins, notably finishing with a 55-106 record in 2002 that plumbed the depths of ineptitude for a modern professional sports team.Failure and the Rays seemed to go hand in hand, especially because the team’s average attendance at Tropicana Field nearly always ranked at the bottom of the league — even when the team performed well — providing bad optics for fans tuning in on TV. And the Rays worked with a much smaller budget than the behemoths of the game, making sustained contention difficult.The team emerged from its doldrums to earn an unlikely World Series trip in 2008 (their first season as merely the Rays), losing to the Phillies in five games, and it’s been pretty good in the years since.Still, the signs did not point to a return to the World Series in 2020. The Rays were 0-4 in playoff series in the 11 years between World Series appearances.But Tampa Bay beat the Yankees in the 2020 division series, then eliminated the defending American League champion Houston Astros in the A.L.C.S. As World Series underdogs again last October, they took the Dodgers to six games before falling just short of the big prize. Brandon Lowe hit 14 homers in the abbreviated 60-game season and reliever Nick Anderson had an 0.55 ERA in 19 appearances, but the team got this close to the championship mostly without stars, and continued to have one of the five lowest payrolls in the league.The Lightning put their skates and pucks to good use.Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov kissed the Stanley Cup following Tampa Bay’s finals-clinching win over the Dallas Stars. He led all players in playoff points.Credit…Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesThe Tampa Bay Lightning started slowly when it began N.H.L. play in the 1992-93 season, and hit rock bottom from 1997 to 2000 when they couldn’t manage 20 wins in an 82-game schedule even once. Financial losses and debt piled up, leading to a court order in 1998 allowing seizure of the team’s sticks, pucks, nets, uniforms and skates if the team couldn’t meet its debts. (The team paid up.)But in more recent times, the Lightning have been carrying the banner for Tampa sports, with a Stanley Cup win in 2004, and a finals loss in 2015.In the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, most figured the Lightning as a contender, and they delivered, tying for the third-highest points percentage with a 43-21-6 record and ripping through playoff series against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Boston Bruins, Islanders and finally, in September, the Stanley Cup finals against the Dallas Stars. Tampa Bay lost just six games over the four playoff series. Brayden Point led all playoff scorers with 14 goals, and defenseman Victor Hedman won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason’s most valuable player.Now comes a hometown Super Bowl.The Buccaneers will become the first N.F.L. team to play in a Super Bowl at their home stadium when Tampa Bay hosts the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 7.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesThe recent success of some of the area’s pro teams, which each began as expansion-era punch lines, has raised the question: Who’s next?While Tampa has been mentioned as a possible expansion city for both the N.B.A. and M.L.S., other cities seem to be ahead in the queue.Because of coronavirus concerns in Canada, the Toronto Raptors of the N.B.A. began the 2020-21 season playing its home games in Tampa. Given the area’s current sports magic, it may be too soon to dismiss the possibility of them making a championship run.Tampa Bay’s current enchanted run of sporting success will culminate on Feb. 7 at Raymond James Stadium, when the Buccaneers will become the first N.F.L. franchise to play in a Super Bowl in its home venue. And when The Weeknd takes the stage at halftime, he’ll be performing, improbably, in what is now the sports capital of the country.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      NFL Playoffs: What We Learned From the Conference Championship

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat We Learned From the N.F.L.’s Conference ChampionshipsThe Chiefs will try to defend their Super Bowl title against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers — who are playing at home.Patrick Mahomes is headed back to the Super Bowl. The 25-year-old has a chance to be the first quarterback to win the game in back-to-back years since Tom Brady did it after the 2003 and 2004 seasons.Credit…Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesPublished More

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      How Tom Brady and the Buccaneers beat the Packers for a Super Bowl berth.

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyNFL Live: Mahomes’ Masterful Performance Extends Chiefs Lead Over BillsHow Tom Brady and the Buccaneers beat the Packers for a Super Bowl berth.Jan. 24, 2021, 6:26 p.m. ETJan. 24, 2021, 6:26 p.m. ETAfter the game, Coach Bruce Arians was asked what Tom Brady had brought with him to Tampa Bay. “The belief he gave everybody in the organization that this could be done,” he said. “It only took one man.”Credit…Matt Ludtke/Associated PressIn March, seeking a rewarding second chapter to a glittering career, Tom Brady signed a $50 million free-agent contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after 20 seasons and six Super Bowl victories as quarterback for the New England Patriots. The hope in Tampa was that Brady’s megawatt celebrity and proven talent could sprinkle a little stardust on a middling N.F.L. franchise and perhaps vault it to the league’s upper echelon.On Sunday, Brady and the Buccaneers got their wishes. And maybe more.In a stirring, tense duel between two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Brady and the Buccaneers held off a late charge by Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers for a 31-26 upset victory in the N.F.C. championship game in Green Bay, Wis. The Buccaneers will become the first N.F.L. team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium, on Feb. 7.After the game, when Coach Bruce Arians was asked what Brady had brought with him to Tampa Bay, he said: “The belief he gave everybody in the organization that this could be done. It only took one man.”Brady, in a postgame interview, tried to deflect credit for the victory, but said: “Who would have even thought a home Super Bowl for us? But we did it.”Addressing Buccaneers fans, Arians shouted: “We’re coming home, and we’re coming home to win.”Tampa Bay, which has won three successive postseason games on the road this month, took an 11-point halftime lead on two Brady touchdown passes. The Packers, the top seed in the conference, stormed back, trimming the deficit to 5 points late in the third quarter. But Brady, who will be making his 10th Super Bowl appearance, led fifth-seeded Tampa Bay to a pivotal fourth-quarter field goal, and the Packers failed to score a touchdown on a crucial, late possession despite a first-and-goal at the Buccaneers’ 8-yard line.The Buccaneers will play the winner of Sunday night’s A.F.C. championship game, between the Buffalo Bills and the host Kansas City Chiefs, in the Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. Brady, 43, will become just the fourth quarterback to lead two franchises to the Super Bowl. It was also done by Kurt Warner, Peyton Manning and Craig Morton.For Rodgers, who won the Super Bowl at the end of the 2010 season, Sunday’s loss was his fourth in a conference championship game.With both teams depleted by injuries — the Packers were without running back Aaron Jones and Tampa Bay was missing both starting safeties — Green Bay charged back from an 18-point deficit with two third-quarter touchdown passes by Rodgers, who completed 33 of 48 passes for 346 yards. The Packers, assisted by a penalty for a helmet-to-helmet hit near the goal line, cut the Tampa Bay lead to 5 points after a 2-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Davante Adams. Green Bay attempted 2-point conversion was unsuccessful, and it trailed Tampa Bay, 28-23.The Packers’ rally was greatly assisted by three interceptions thrown in the second half by Brady, who completed 20 of 36 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns. But only one of those interceptions led to a Packers touchdown. More significant was Green Bay’s last possession, when Rodgers led his team to the Tampa Bay 8-yard line with the chance to tie the game with a touchdown and a successful 2-point conversion. Rodgers instead threw three successive incompletions — the last two directed at Adams — and Green Bay settled for a field goal rather than trying for the end zone again on fourth down with slightly more than two minutes remaining.That decision proved consequential since the Packers never possessed the football again.After the game, Rodgers called his future with the team “uncertain.” The Packers traded up to select quarterback Jordan Love from Utah State in the first round of the 2020 N.F.L. draft, which led to some friction between Rodgers and the franchise.“There’s a lot of unknowns going into this off-season now,” Rodgers said Sunday. “I’m just going to have to take some time away for sure and clear my head and just kind of see what’s going on with everything. But it’s pretty tough right now, especially thinking about the guys that may or may not be here next year. There’s always change. That’s the only constant in this business.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tom Brady Is Back in the Super Bowl, Because of Course He Is

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyon pro footballTom Brady Is Back in the Super Bowl, Because of Course He IsAt 43, Brady will be playing in his 10th Super Bowl, proving that he can still compete at the highest level after reinventing himself at Tampa Bay.Ten months after signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tom Brady has led them to their first Super Bowl appearance since 2002.Credit…Dylan Buell/Getty ImagesJan. 24, 2021, 9:16 p.m. ETTom Brady changed coaches. He changed conferences. He changed cities. He changed climates. In his tornado of an off-season, he also celebrated a birthday. In August, he turned 43.At that age, N.F.L. players are playing golf or reconnecting with their families or pursuing business ventures.What they are not doing is playing in the N.F.L. They are not choosing to sign with downtrodden franchises or shredding defenses or winning three consecutive playoff games on the road.They are not quarterbacking teams to the Super Bowl.Except when they do.Except when Tom Brady does it.After his Tampa Bay Buccaneers escaped Lambeau Field with a 31-26 victory on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, just one game remains in this bizarre, disjointed curiosity of a season, and Brady will be playing in it. Of course he will. Not only that, but it will be played on Feb. 7 in his home stadium (against either Kansas City or Buffalo).He signed with Tampa Bay in March, bolting the most successful N.F.L. organization of the modern era for one of the least, for the challenge as much as a change. The challenge was this: that, untethered from New England and Bill Belichick, he could learn new teammates, master a new offense, acclimate to a new region and produce at an elite level, a level he demanded of himself.In defying the aging process, Brady advanced to his 10th Super Bowl. He emboldened a franchise that, until he arrived, had won as many playoff games over its 44 seasons (six) as he had Super Bowl rings, all while delivering perhaps the most staggering statistical season of his career: Only Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson threw for more yards than Brady, and only the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers threw for more touchdowns.“For me, I don’t think about what it means,” Brady said after Sunday’s game. “I do think about what it means for everyone else.”Even so, on some level, Brady must understand the magnitude of his accomplishments.How until these playoffs, he had never taken the long path to the Super Bowl, qualifying as a wild card and beginning his playoff quest on the road, where he had played in all of three games across the nine other postseasons that culminated in a Super Bowl berth.How with off-season workouts and preseason games canceled because of the pandemic, he still managed to transform a team that hadn’t won a playoff game since its Super Bowl-winning season of 2002 — that had finished last in the N.F.C. South in seven of the past nine seasons — and lead it to three consecutive playoff victories, all against division champions.N.F.L. PlayoffsLive UpdatesUpdated Jan. 24, 2021, 9:14 p.m. ETThe Chiefs are getting creative to beat the Bills defense.Patrick Mahomes has things under control through the first half.Edwards-Helaire’s run makes it three touchdowns on as many Chiefs’ possessions.How he himself overcame a disappointing 2019 season in New England, undermined by a diminishing stockpile of talent around him, to average 333.3 passing yards per game over the final quarter of this season, with 12 touchdowns and one interception.How he went from throwing an interception on the final play of his last season with the Patriots to helping the Buccaneers become the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium.“It’s hard to envision this as a goal, but at the same time, it’s a week-to-week league,” said Brady, who will become the fourth quarterback to start a Super Bowl for more than one franchise, joining Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Craig Morton. “We’re at 7-5 seven games ago, not feeling great. We felt like we needed to find our rhythm. Played four great games down the stretch the last quarter of the season. After that, it was just all bonus. And we just had to go play well.”As a team, the Buccaneers did play well on Sunday, and their comprehensive effort validated Brady’s decision to sign with them. He saw a team with elite receivers, an ascending young defense and a bevy of offensive coaches primed to maximize his final seasons. Instead of throwing to N’Keal Harry and Phillip Dorsett, Brady zipped balls this season to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, and to Antonio Brown, whom Tampa Bay added in October.The game on Sunday unfolded early as if following a rough draft of the teams’ Week 6 matchup, when Tampa Bay sacked Rodgers five times, coaxed two turnovers and coasted to a 38-10 victory. But then Brady, after connecting on the last of his three touchdowns, threw interceptions on three consecutive drives, all in the second half, as Green Bay tried to overcome an 18-point deficit.Backed by a defense that again sacked Rodgers five times and that twice held Green Bay’s league-best red zone offense without a touchdown when it had first-and-goal, Tampa Bay allowed just 6 points off Brady’s turnovers.When Brady signed with Tampa Bay, Rodgers figured they would meet in the playoffs, as if preordained. Brady fled the A.F.C. at a pivot point in the league’s quarterbacking evolution, just as Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson seemed primed to lord over the conference. He went to an N.F.C. ruled by two aging stars, Drew Brees and Rodgers, and Brady, older than both, beat them both in the playoffs. In one season in the conference, Brady already has as many N.F.C. titles as Rodgers and Brees.With the exception of his first appearance, every other time Brady reached the Super Bowl with New England — that is to say, the next eight times — he did so as a member of a dynasty: In 18 seasons as the Patriots’ starter, he played in 13 conference championship games. The Buccaneers do not have that sheen, or at least they didn’t.“He’s probably the biggest reason we are where we are,” receiver Scotty Miller said.Now the Buccaneers are in the Super Bowl, an exotic place for them but an altogether familiar one for the man who would probably be retired right now if he weren’t Tom Brady.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Retirement in Florida? Tom Brady’s Next Move Might Be to the Super Bowl

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and Cases13,000 Approaches to TeachingVaccine InformationTimelineAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyRetirement in Florida? Tom Brady’s Next Move Might Be to the Super BowlThe inglorious interception at the end of his career in New England seems a distant memory as he leads the Buccaneers into the N.F.C. championship game on Sunday.Florida man, 43, vows to play in the N.F.L. until he is 45.Credit…Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesJan. 22, 2021Updated 4:59 p.m. ETOne year ago, Tom Brady’s last pass as a New England Patriot was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, the final mortifying act of a bitter first-round playoff loss.Brady, 42 at the time, had endured an erratic season, his 20th in the N.F.L., and with that performance slump came incessant conjecture about whether he would, or should, retire.Less than a minute into a news conference after the Patriots postseason exit, Brady, a six-time Super Bowl champion, was asked if he was going to quit football.Brady paused, with a faint look of exasperation.“I would say it’s pretty unlikely,” he finally said.Now, he is a game away from another Super Bowl appearance. He will lead his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, into the N.F.C. championship against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.For Brady, win or lose, his 14th appearance in a conference title game will serve as the most defiant answer to those who wondered if — or secretly hoped — he would walk away from pro football forever, leaving a substantial void in the game itself.The N.F.L. finds itself at an inflection point with aging stars at quarterback like Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees in their final years as emerging young stars like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson put their stamp on the position with multifaceted talents.But Brady is perhaps the most polarizing of the elders because of his longstanding ties to the Patriots, who have been heavily fined and punished with lost draft picks for various violations of league rules for nearly 15 years. Then there was Brady’s showcased role in the contretemps known as Deflategate, when the search for the cause of underinflated footballs in a 2015 playoff game resulted in a four-game suspension for Brady.For now, Brady is not going away. Often called the greatest quarterback in history, and a fixture of the N.F.L. playoffs this century in a Patriots uniform, he will appear on televisions screens Sunday in the pewter and red colors of the Buccaneers. Fans may have to adjust to that scene for a while, because Brady has for years indicated that he plans to play until he is 45. And who is going to stop him?“I’m definitely older,” Brady said this month after helping Tampa Bay win its first playoff game in 18 years. “But I’m hanging in there.”Brady, who won 30 postseason games with the Patriots, is also clearly relishing a period of vindication, since the second chapter of his career would seem to prove that past successes were not solely the result of his partnership with New England’s coach, Bill Belichick, or the influence of the noted “Patriot Way.”After the Buccaneers’ divisional round playoff victory over the New Orleans Saints last weekend, Tampa Bay Coach Bruce Arians was asked if he could tell that Brady was savoring a different kind of career milestone — a momentous playoff victory detached from the Patriots.“Yeah, you could tell,” Arians responded with a smile. “The emotions were really good — good moments on the field, in the locker room.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      NFL Playoff Predictions: Our Picks in the Conference Championships

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyN.F.L. Playoff Predictions: Our Picks in the Conference ChampionshipsWith a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, Tom Brady leads Tampa Bay into Green Bay while Josh Allen and the Bills take on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.The conference championship games have M.V.P. candidates on each team: Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills.Credit…Clockwise from top left: Brynn Anderson/Associated Press; Jeffrey Phelps/Associated Press; Jamie Squire/Getty Images; Jeffrey T. Barnes/Associated PressJan. 21, 2021Updated 9:42 a.m. ETA complicated and stressful N.F.L. season is nearing its conclusion, with four star-studded teams facing off on Sunday with a Super Bowl appearance on the line. Each of the remaining teams has a Most Valuable Player Award candidate at quarterback, stars at wide receiver and defenses that can make big plays. The questions for this weekend include which of the N.F.C.’s celebrated quarterbacks will make his return to the Super Bowl and whether the upstart Buffalo Bills can knock off the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.Here is a look at the conference championship games. Unlike in the regular season, the picks in the playoffs are not made against the spread to emphasize which teams we believe will win.Playoff record: 8-8N.F.C. Championship GameTampa Bay has numerous receiving options, but Mike Evans, at 6 feet 5 inches, is a dominant force in the red zone.Credit…Brynn Anderson/Associated PressDavante Adams of the Green Bay Packers had a career year, with 1,374 yards receiving and 18 touchdowns.Credit…Jeff Hanisch/USA Today Sports, via ReutersTampa Bay Buccaneers at Green Bay Packers, 3:05 p.m. Sunday, FoxLine: Packers -3 | Total: 51More than a hundred players will suit up for this game, but the spotlight will fall on two of them: Tom Brady of the Buccaneers and Aaron Rodgers of the Packers. It isn’t unusual for quarterbacks to command most of the attention, but this matchup goes beyond that.Brady, with more career touchdown passes and more Super Bowl wins than any other player, had a terrific 2020 season, throwing 40 touchdown passes and ending Tampa Bay’s long postseason drought. Rodgers, a two-time winner of the Most Valuable Player Award and one-time winner of the Super Bowl, had perhaps the best season of his career, throwing 48 touchdown passes while leading the N.F.C.’s top team.The quarterbacks have combined to start 551 games, including in the postseason. But largely as a result of playing in different conferences for most of their careers, they have faced off as starters just three times. Two came in Brady’s time with the New England Patriots, with Brady beating the Packers in 2018 and Rodgers beating the Patriots in 2014. They faced each other in Week 6 of this season, with the Buccaneers winning, 38-10. It was the Packers’ lowest scoring game of the year.Brady, 43, has a career edge in accomplishments. Rodgers, who is six years younger, has a physical edge. After a few quiet seasons, by his standards, Rodgers in 2020 used wide receivers Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling to shred defenses as the Packers led the N.F.L. in scoring and finished fifth in total yardage. Brady’s statistics were also impressive, but he is more physically limited than he was in the past, frequently relying on talented receivers like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown and tight end Rob Gronkowski to turn short passes into long gains.In a more neutral environment, Tampa Bay could have counted on its young defense to shift the balance in the Buccaneers’ favor by pressuring Rodgers. In that scenario, the team would rely on Brady to put up points against a good defense that is not nearly as explosive. But in Green Bay, with snow showers in the forecast and a game-time temperature expected to be around 30 degrees, a team from Florida — even one with a New England icon at quarterback — will be out of its element.The Packers fought hard to secure home field advantage throughout the N.F.C. playoffs, and this game should reward them for that effort, ending the Buccaneers’ attempt to be the first team to appear in a Super Bowl in its home stadium. Pick: PackersA.F.C. Championship GameStefon Diggs was acquired by Buffalo in an off-season trade. He responded with the best season of his career.Credit…Rich Barnes/USA Today Sports, via ReutersTravis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs set an N.F.L. record with 1,416 yards receiving as a tight end.Credit…Reed Hoffmann/Associated PressBuffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs, 6:40 p.m. Sunday, CBSLine: Chiefs -3 | Total: 53.5The Chiefs’ pursuit of a second straight Super Bowl victory hit its first real speed bump last weekend when Patrick Mahomes had his neck twisted by a defender as he was dragged to the turf, putting him in the N.F.L.’s concussion protocol and forcing him out of Kansas City’s 22-17 win over the Cleveland Browns. The Chiefs iced that victory with key plays by the backup quarterback, Chad Henne, but Mahomes’s absence was palpable in a game Kansas City was expected to win in a blowout.Mahomes has practiced lightly this week while working to be cleared, but there is little fear he will miss the game. As a result, the A.F.C. will get a strength-against-strength matchup between the conference’s best teams of the regular season.The Bills had an offensive renaissance this season thanks to the development of quarterback Josh Allen and the arrival of wide receiver Stefon Diggs. They led Buffalo to the second most points in the league and its first division title since 1995. While the defense took a major step backward from a brilliant 2019 season, a strong performance last weekend against the Baltimore Ravens proved the unit could be great when needed.Buffalo might have to play a perfect game to compete with Kansas City. The Chiefs stormed back to win last season’s Super Bowl behind Mahomes’s brilliance, and lost only two games in the 2020 season — one a meaningless Week 17 game in which Mahomes and other starters were rested. The Chiefs will be at their best if running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire returns from a Week 16 hip injury, but the offense has plenty of options without him, including wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce.The Chiefs are the clear favorites, particularly at home, but Buffalo should not be counted out. If its defense can play the way it did in the divisional round and Allen can avoid mistakes, the Bills can turn this into quite a fight. But the most likely result is a Kansas City victory, which would give the Chiefs the chance to be the first team since the Patriots in the 2003 and 2004 seasons to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Pick: Chiefs.All times are Eastern.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More