SAN JOSE, Calif. — Four years ago, Aaron Best made the rounds. Everyone wanted to talk to the Eastern Washington head coach about one of the players he saw grow up on the campus in Cheney getting ready to play in the Super Bowl.

And when the big game came around at the end of that week in February of 2022, Best watched Cooper Kupp cap one of ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers legend Luke Kuechly earned the highest honor of his starry NFL career Thursday night, making the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026.

The announcement came Thursday night at the NFL Honors show in San Francisco. Kuechly, elected on his second attempt, will be joined in the five-man class ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Mike Vrabel’s remarkable Patriots turnaround earned him his second NFL Coach of the Year award.

New England’s head coach was recognized as the league’s best by the Associated Press during Thursday’s NFL Honors ceremony.

Vrabel, who also won Coach of the Year with the Tennessee Titans in 2021, steered the ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Mike Macdonald said it first. Nick Emmanwori backed it up a short time later.

The Seahawks firmly believe their rookie defensive back will be available for Super Bowl LX after the scare of an ankle injury in practice.

“He’s confident. Got a great plan. Fully expect him to play,” Macdonald said on Thursday morning ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Tony Dews remembers the phone call.

For him, it was a routine checkup on one of his players. He had just been hired as the Patriots’ new running backs coach, and wanted to begin laying relationship bricks on a regular March day.

For Rhamondre Stevenson, that afternoon was one of the last he ever spent with his father....Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan has issued an apology for using the N-word on a livestream earlier this week.

“Yesterday, while on live stream, I used a term I should not have,” McMillan shared on his Instagram story on Thursday. “There’s no excuse for what I said — I sincerely apologize for speaking ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Statues of Joe Montana and Dwight Clark immortalizing “The Catch” gloriously rise behind Gate A at Levi’s Stadium. Those didn’t exist when the Super Bowl debuted there a decade ago.

Across the street, over the light-rail tracks and in front of a parking garage are statues of Steve Young playing catch with a young...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — An opener in Oz.

The NFL confirmed Thursday the 49ers will match up with the Los Angeles Rams in the league’s first regular-season game in Australia.

“This is a terrific opportunity to continue to support the league in its mission to grow the game of football,” 49ers CEO Al Guido said in a statement. “We look forward ...Read more

With tens of thousand of football fans descending on Santa Clara, Calif., for Super Bowl LX on Sunday, city leaders have set aside two free speech zones near Levi’s Stadium for those who want to exercise their First Amendment rights around the game.

Here’s what you need to know:

Where are the free speech zones?

The zone to the west of ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Grey Zabel said he would have some hardware ready. A photo, too.

The Seattle Seahawks guard is locker-mates with tight end AJ Barner, who has become Seattle’s one-yard wonder this season.

Seems any time the Seahawks need to convert a third or fourth down with the ball less than three feet from the first-down marker, they...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Drake Maye did not wait long to earn a spot on the NFL's grandest stage.

In only his second season, the New England Patriots' quarterback led his team to the Super Bowl.

Now Maye, 23, will try to join four other second-year quarterbacks who won Super Bowl titles.

"I'm not too great at my history," Maye said when asked ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers legend Greg Olsen is feeling very good about his former teammate Luke Kuechly’s chances to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame Thursday.

Olsen is scheduled to fly out to California Thursday, with the idea of celebrating alongside Kuechly if the former linebacker makes the Hall of Fame on his second try.

...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — On Jan. 21, Mike Macdonald stepped to a podium at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, just as he had for the Seahawks’ previous 19 game-week news conferences. The Seahawks’ second-year coach is a man of regimented routine, repeating the same process to ensure the right result.

Only this time, a blue backdrop — ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — In the AFC championship game, Will Campbell looked more like himself.

He allowed just two pressures at Denver, after allowing four in each of the Patriots’ prior playoff wins. This week, the 22-year-old left tackle explained that was no coincidence.

Campbell said the AFC title game was the first time he’s felt fully...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Outside of wearing the same jerseys and representing the city of Seattle, Richard Sherman doesn’t see too many similarities between the current Seahawk defense and the Legion of Boom.

Sherman, the 2014 Super Bowl champion whose Seahawk tenure defined the Legion of Boom’s brash style, explained the two teams have stylistic ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The machine sits in the front corner of the Patriots’ quarterbacks room.

It cost $10,000, one coach guessed.

It has healing powers, one teammate claimed.

Everyone who has made a pilgrimage to use this square box with a clear plastic exterior, small tub on top and mechanical arms and pumps inside, comes away a true ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Giants are hiring NFL chief football administrative officer Dawn Aponte as a senior vice president of football operations and strategy.

John Harbaugh’s shakeup of the organization started with a reassignment of head athletic trainer Ronnie Barnes and the news that senior VP of football operations and strategy Kevin Abrams ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed Minnesota Vikings tight ends coach Brian Angelichio to be Mike McCarthy’s offensive coordinator and hired former Washington Commanders defensive assistant Joe Whitt Jr. as assistant head coach/secondary, the team announced Wednesday.

Angelichio, 53, was McCarthy’s tight ends coach for three...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly gets his second shot at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday night. If there’s any justice in the NFL world, he will make it.

But we already know that the Hall of Fame voters are a notoriously unpredictable lot, based on the fact that six-time Super Bowl champion coach ...Read more

MIAMI — The NFL’s Rooney Rule is well intended, and absolutely needed to encourage diversity in positions of power within a league that has admitted it has had, and still has discriminatory hiring practices despite its minority filled workforce.

However, the rule that forces NFL owners and their search committee to interview not one, but ...Read more