LOS ANGELES — Late in the mess that was the Los Angeles Rams' final game of the season, Sean McVay was seen frustratingly burying his face in his play card.

That couldn't hide the truth.

The Rams' 31-27 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in the NFC championship game must be draped on the deflated shoulders of the Rams' resident genius.

...Read more

SEATTLE — Sam Darnold will accept your apologies now.

Maybe you, a loyal 12, never doubted Darnold — whose career was once discarded like a penny flipped into a fountain. Maybe, despite the demotions and public implosions, you continued to believe. Maybe, even during Darnold’s dramatic descent — five deflating seasons with the New York ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Chargers hired former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as their new offensive coordinator Monday as they look to maximize quarterback Justin Herbert's talents in the wake of another one-and-done playoff exit.

Fired by the Dolphins on Jan. 8 after a 7-10 season, McDaniel went 35-33 over four seasons in ...Read more

MIAMI — Failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

There are countless instances where it served as a catalyst for future greatness.

Steven Spielberg, who is known as one of the world’s greatest filmmakers, was rejected from film school three times.

Persistent failure led to monumental success for the Wright brothers, who tested and crashed...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers completed a little chore called hiring a new coach Saturday, something the Rooneys generally get around to when needed, roughly every 15 to 23 years.

Among all the statistics in every corner of the NFL datascape, all the next generation metrics and lost generation fossils of conventional football wisdom, ...Read more

SEATTLE — Now that the Los Angeles Rams’ season is over, they will begin deciding when to offer extensions to key players such as receiver Puka Nacua, defensive lineman Kobie Turner, edge rusher Byron Young and offensive lineman Steve Avila.

But there are much more pressing contracts to consider. Like the one for the most important person ...Read more

DENVER — You snow it. I snow it. Anybody outside the chowder belt snows it, too. Bo Nix doesn’t just beat the Patriots Sunday. He beats them by two touchdowns.

Tell me with a straight face that Nix fumbles the ball away in a panic, the way Jarrett Stidham did, to set up the Patriots’ only TD of the day.

Tell me with a palm on The Good ...Read more

SEATTLE — Maybe next year.

Maybe the opportunity to host the Super Bowl is now the necessary element for the Los Angeles Rams to play in it.

On Sunday their season came to an end with a 31-27 defeat by the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game before 68,773 at Lumen Field.

Matthew Stafford passed for three touchdowns, but for the ...Read more

DENVER — Initial thoughts from the Denver Broncos’ 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship at Empower Field:

— That fourth-and-1 call … : Hindsight makes geniuses of us all, but man, you’d hope Sean Payton would like that fourth-and-inches at the New England 14 back. With Broncos quarterback Bo Nix behind center,...Read more

DENVER — Ten years ago — the last time the Super Bowl was held in San Francisco — New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was a fan in the stands, cheering on his hometown Carolina Panthers.

Now, Maye and the Patriots are Super Bowl-bound with the championship game back in the Bay Area.

“It’s full circle,” Maye said Sunday ...Read more

DENVER — At the beginning, all Mike Vrabel wanted was to take advantage of bad football.

To galvanize the New England Patriots.

To give a proud fanbase hope once again after years of defeat and disappointment.

Then, as Vrabel worked from his opening press conference, taking the Patriots by the hand through the early stages of a rebuild and ...Read more

DENVER — The New England Patriots are heading to the Super Bowl after outlasting the Denver Broncos in a freezing, snowy, blustering defensive showdown.

This wasn’t a rock fight. It was an ice fight.

With the Patriots leading 10-7 with 4:46 left in the game, the Broncos sent out kicker Will Lutz to attempt a 45-yard field goal through snow...Read more

BALTIMORE — Former Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh cut his NFL teeth as a longtime special teams coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles. So it should hardly come as a surprise that one of his first moves since being introduced as the Giants coach last week zeroed in on a familiar face from Baltimore for the same role with New York.

...Read more

It’s a shame Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross quit reading newspapers out of “frustration,” as he said this past week, over reading about his losing team. My business needs every available subscriber these days. Maybe we could send him coffee with the paper to start up again?

Ross could be selective in his chosen articles, too. He could, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rams receiver Davante Adams knows what it's like to come close.

The 12th-year pro played in four NFC championship games with the Green Bay Packers.

And lost every time.

"It feels almost like a mythical thing to me at this point," he said of reaching the Super Bowl. "You do everything you can to get there and it's been so hard ...Read more

RENTON, Wash. — It can feel silly, picking at the performances of someone in the top 10 in the world at what they do. A Pro Bowl quarterback playing for a conference championship should have pundits permanently on mute.

But this is sports. This is entertainment provided by world-class athletes with eight and nine-figure contracts living out ...Read more

President Donald Trump said he would not attend Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, citing travel issues and criticizing the scheduled Super Bowl performances of outspoken anti-Trump artists Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican pop star, and Green Day, the rebellious East Bay rock group.

In an interview with the New York Post published on ...Read more

Bobby Slowik, who came to the Miami Dolphins last season as the senior pass game coordinator, will be named as their new offensive coordinator, a league source has confirmed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. ESPN was the first to report Slowik’s promotion.

Slowik served as the Houston Texans’ offensive coordinator for the two seasons (2023...Read more