ANAHEIM, Calif. — What Francis Ngannou did Saturday in defeating Ciryl Gane with his grappling would be like Usain Bolt setting a world record in the 100 meters running on his hands, or Tom Brady rushing for 250 yards to lead the Buccaneers to another Super Bowl title. Exactly no one saw that coming, though it shows the growth in Ngannou’s game and the brilliant work of coaches Eric Nicksick and Dewey Cooper that the sport’s most fearsome fighter could win a bout by grappling. He was a… Source link

It is colossally unfair to put a second-year quarterback’s name in the same sentence as the two greatest to play the game. But if you watched Joe Burrow on Saturday night, when he was sacked nine times and hit 13, yet still had the calm to stand in the pocket and deliver a 19-yard pass to put the Cincinnati Bengals in game-winning field-goal range, it was hard not to see Joe Montana and Tom Brady. The stage, the pressure, the stakes. And Burrow stepped up into the pocket and found super rookie… Source link

Tennessee Titans safety Kevin Byard was asked last week if he’d view this season as a disappointment if it didn’t end with a Super Bowl ring. Yes, he answered. “We’ve accomplished some good things,” Byard said. “But when the playoffs start, none of that stuff means anything.” He was right. It didn’t. For Saturday’s AFC divisional playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals at frenzied Nissan Stadium, the Titans were as rested and healthy as they’ve been all season. They had Source link

The Cincinnati Bengals started playing football in 1968. They had never won a road playoff game before Saturday night.  It seems impossible to go more than 50 years without one road playoff win. But the Bengals stood at 0-7 in those matchups.  Things are changing.  The Bengals, whose last playoff win before this season came in January of 1991, won their second playoff game in a week and are moving on to the AFC championship game with a 19-16 win over the Tennessee Titans, the No. 1 seed in… Source link

The spirit of instant replay reviews is plays should only be overturned if there is conclusive evidence the call on the field was wrong. NFL officials don’t often follow that.  On Saturday, it certainly wasn’t conclusive that the ground helped Titans defensive back Amani Hooker grab an interception. It was so close, you could watch the replay dozens of times and still not know. Two people could watch the replay and have differing opinions.  It was really close. But ultimately, Hooker’s play… Source link

Tyreek Hill’s pom-pom celebration has cost him. The NFL fined the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver $12,875 on Saturday after he used a cheerleader’s pom-poms to celebrate a touchdown in their wild-card win last week, according to the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. Hill scored on a 31-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes in the third quarter of Kansas City’s 42-21 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round last week. While celebrating in the end zone, Hill grabbed a Chiefs… Source link

Recruiting never stops. Less than two weeks after Georgia beat Alabama in the national championship game, both Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Alabama’s Nick Saban have continued their pursuit of prized 2023 quarterback Arch Manning by attending Manning’s basketball games. Saban was at Isidore Newman’s basketball game on Saturday along with Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding. Their attendance came just days after Smart was at a game along with Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken. NCAA… Source link

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is on the war path this offseason. Jones expressed a desire to make multiple changes within the organization after the Cowboys lost their wild-card game against the San Francisco 49ers. Even head coach Mike McCarthy might be on the chopping block. But at least one thing will stay consistent. Jones intends to keep the horrible glare at AT&T Stadium that hurt the Cowboys during their playoff loss. Jones said there are 9,999 things he needs to change before… Source link

As 2022 quickly progresses towards the end of a turbulent first month for markets, it appears that the transitory vs. persistent inflation debate, which was a hot topic for financial markets in the late summer and early fall of 2021, is coming to a close: Inflation has been more persistent than a transient and impermanent blip in an otherwise vibrant economy. The Federal Reserve described high inflation rates as transitory as recently as November, and while some analysts remain firmly seated… Source link

Netflix (NFLX) shares plunged more than 20% on Friday — its biggest decline since October 2014 — after the streaming giant reported slowing subscriber growth in the fourth quarter, amid an already crowded streaming landscape. The platform added a relatively weak 8.3 million subscribers in Q4, and forecasted a net add of only 2.5 million subscribers in the current quarter, compared to 3.98 million during the first quarter last year. But top media analysts have argued that this is not time… Source link