LOS ANGELES — Whew.

The best nearly went bust.

The heavy favorites nearly collapsed under their own weight.

The Los Angeles Rams were nearly toppled by the runts, barely surviving what should have been a blowout, profusely sweating through a wild-card playoff game that should have been a breeze, and now you wonder.

If their first step ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears will be down two starters for the remainder of the postseason.

Linebacker T.J. Edwards and left tackle Ozzy Trapilo are likely both done for the remainder of the postseason, coach Ben Johnson said after Saturday’s comeback victory against the Green Bay Packers.

Johnson said Edwards suffered a left fibula ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers will head into the offseason with uncertainty surrounding their left tackle position.

Ickey Ekwonu sustained a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee during Saturday’s wild-card round loss to the Los Angeles Rams, according to head coach Dave Canales Sunday. Ekwonu was injured during the second ...Read more

CHICAGO — No one tells you the side effects when you’re growing up a Chicago sports fan.

It’s something you just have to experience on your own, the nausea, the headaches, the loss of appetite and the overeating, the anger and depression, the utter feeling of helplessness and the occasional bouts of euphoria that make it all worthwhile.

...Read more

PITTSBURGH — In Pittsburgh, maybe in any NFL locale, it doesn't take much for opinions to shift and change, to blow in the wind like a weathervane atop a downtown skyscraper.

But when it comes to this city, the monolith is Steelers football. While it's easy to call the 2025 regular season a roller coaster ride, it's really been more like ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Raiders mobbed kicker Daniel Carlson after his game-winner split the uprights in last Sunday’s season finale in Las Vegas, to the point of knocking him to the ground.

But really? It should have been the team on the other sideline celebrating with him.

The kick won the Raiders a game, but it also booted the Chiefs up ...Read more

Well, the Miami Dolphins did it. They really did it. They started their latest rebuild under owner Steve Ross — Makeover V? VI? — and gave everyone hope this time could be different.

That’s because it’s actually begun differently. Properly. Ross simultaneously cleaned out the coaching and the personnel offices for once. Every previous ...Read more

CHICAGO — Jordan Love dropped the snap, and chaos ensued. The Green Bay Packers quarterback picked up the football and waited for what felt like an eternity as he looked for an open target.

He found none. Love’s last pass fell incomplete with the clock at zero.

Somehow, some way, the Chicago Bears did it again.

Coach Ben Johnson’s Bears...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At Bank of America Stadium on Saturday, Puka Nacua was pure money.

Not only did he score back-to-back touchdowns in the first half, but the All-Pro Rams receiver saved the game in the fourth quarter by denying Carolina an interception.

Puka became PBU-ka.

That’s shorthand for Pass Breakup, and Nacua executed that ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — I’s become fashionable to pile on first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. He’s the target of local and national self-styled experts, none of whom, you might note, works for an NFL or college team.

Certainly, no matter how close his friendship with Nick Sirianni, Patullo won’t survive next week if the offense again...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There’s a reason Matthew Stafford is the favorite to win his first NFL most valuable player award.

The Rams quarterback, a 17-year pro, produced his finest statistical season, leading the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes.

But Stafford is mainly known for engineering comebacks.

And he did it again Saturday when ...Read more

NEW YORK — There are eight head coach openings in the NFL.

You read that correctly.

Indeed, a quarter of the NFL teams seek a new head coach after this year’s Black Monday — the dark day after the regular season on which typically a few teams fire their head coaches — bled all the way into Thursday.

John Harbaugh, Mike McDaniel and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and receiver Puka Nacua were named first-team All-Pro on Saturday.

Stafford, a 17th-year pro, passed for a league-leading 46 touchdowns and 4,707 yards to make All-Pro for the first time.

Stafford, 37, led the Rams to a 12-5 record and No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs. The Rams play the Carolina ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The last time the Steelers played a home playoff game with fans in the building, it did not go well.

They fell behind the Jacksonville Jaguars, 28-7, in the second quarter on that January day in 2017 and lost 45-42. Blake Bortles ate them alive.

Ben Roethlisberger unbelievably threw for 469 yards and five touchdowns — ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — So, let me get this straight:

The offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks coach did a lousy job in Tampa Bay in 2025.

But not the guy in charge.

The defensive line coach, the cornerbacks coach and the special teams coach were also complicit in the disappointing season.

But not the guy in charge.

Apparently, around here, ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — From the “Do it, Kels!” ad-lib in the 13-second game against Buffalo, to their mic’d up bit against the Texans in 2020 (“There’s nothing telling you I was going to do that, and the ball was in the air before I did it”), to watching them riff off each other in about any setting, the synergy between Travis Kelce ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — You likely know that former Panthers star tight end Greg Olsen will be in the broadcast booth Saturday, calling the Carolina-L.A. Rams playoff game in Charlotte for Fox Sports.

You might know that Olsen’s partner, Joe Davis, will be up there calling the play-by-play as well.

What you might not know that, in some of the ...Read more

NEW YORK — This year’s NFL playoffs feature a quarterback whose rocket throwing arm and elite improvisation abilities make him a human highlight reel.

There’s another whose precision passing and command of the pocket helped him lead the AFC in passing yards by a wide margin.

And then there’s the QB who was considered more of a question...Read more

CHICAGO — Chicago Bears special teams player Jonathan Owens probably won’t have his favorite photographer on the sideline for Saturday’s wild-card game against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field — at least as a shutterbug.

His wife, 11-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles, was credentialed as a sideline photographer when the Bears ...Read more

The Miami Dolphins’ next general manager is Jon-Eric Sullivan of the Green Bay Packers.

The Dolphins went through a quick search to find the franchise’s next GM. On Friday the team was working to finalize a deal with Sullivan, according to a league source, five days after he and a slew of others were originally revealed as the candidates ...Read more