National Football League

National Football League

I've had (almost) two weeks to think about the matchups that will define Super Bowl LX. How will the Patriots try to cover Jaxon Smith-Njigba? How might the Seahawks attempt to block Milton Williams? But I've also had time to wonder whether individual matchups really do define Super Bowls. Are these big game-plan-heavy days really decided by one-on-one showdowns -- even as important as those individual players might be to their teams' success?

The New England Patriots have been able to ride a motley crew of individuals to Super Bowl LX, including a wide receiver in Kayshon Boutte who appeared to be completely left for dead by the NFL after some personal struggles at LSU. Boutte's most infamous problem was related to an unhealthy relationship with gambling on sports. This ultimately led to him seeing his pro stock fall off a cliff and struggling to get acclimated to life in the NFL after he arrived in New England.

This year's class will be revealed Thursday night at NFL Honors, even though it was selected Jan. 13 by the 50-member voting committee. Craig's 32-year wait is increasingly expected to end. A Seniors finalist, he seemingly should emerge after ESPN reported first-ballot snubs of Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft, the former New England Patriots power duo who were coach and owner finalists in the same voting quadrant.

NFL Honors will be held at the Palace of Fine Arts and air at 6 p.m. PT on NBC and NFL Network, with streaming available on Peacock. Actor Jon Hamm will host the NFL Honors, which will celebrate the league's top performances from the 2025 season and announce the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 and the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

May the best team win. And in terms of the Patriots, this is a new chapter in New England, and I'm glad everyone's embraced the Mike Vrabel regime, all the amazing players that have worked so hard to get their club to this position. We did it for 20 years. There was a little bit of a hiatus in there, but the Patriots are back and it's a very exciting time for everyone in New England.

The New England Patriots' offensive line has struggled in a major way across this playoff run. In each of their three games, they've allowed five sacks, something that happened just three times in their 17 regular-season games. Before the playoffs, they hadn't allowed five-plus sacks in a game since Week 9. While rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson have been inconsistent at best, right guard Mike Onwenu is playing his best football when it matters most.

"Every time we go out it's a must-win game," said Vrabel.

Much of the attention during Super Bowl week is usually on the star players like Drake Maye and Jaxon Smith-Njigba for good reason. But if history is any indication, some lesser-known players could have a big impact on the Super Bowl on Sunday between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. Milton Williams helped key a dominant defensive effort for the Philadelphia Eagles in a win last year over Kansas City, leading to his big free agent contract this offseason with New England.

"I think we have become a more diverse league across every platform including coaching, but we still have more work to do," Goodell said. "There's got to be more steps. We're reevaluating everything we're doing, including the accelerator program, including every aspect of our policies in our program to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow rather than yesterday. We need to be looking at that and why did we have those results this year?"

The crowd inside Gillette Stadium, as it would be for some much more important home games in January, went absolutely berserk. It was a sign of things to come for Henderson, who as the Patriots' speed compliment to running back Rhamondre Stevenson in the backfield, is uncatchable when he finds so much as a crease. He scored touchdowns on four runs of 50-plus yards this season, which is tied for the most by a rookie in NFL history.

F--- the outside,

"I can just tell you I'm all in on the Seahawks, I'm all in on this game," Kubiak said during Super Bowl Opening Night, "and whatever comes next, we'll deal with that on Monday."

I feel like he never lost it. He still had the charismatic energy and kept a smile on his face, he kept being positive. You wouldn't be able to know anything was going on with him. I appreciated everything that he showed throughout the process.

The Dolphins are weak at three of the most crucial positions in football - quarterback, edge rusher and cornerback. Where do they start building? We don't have any idea. This is the fun of watching the Dolphins' new regime of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley. This is the excitement of team construction. Usually the offseason frustrates me. It's basically an extended period of yapping. There's no football, so nothing gets settled for months.

NBC announced Monday that the network will broadcast part of its pregame show before Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks from the island that used to be a site of a maximum security federal prison. The island has turned into a popular museum where more than 1 million visitors come each year.

Slam!

The problem with hiring as it relates to race in the NFL is not the Rooney Rule. The problem is not that the Rooney Rule is ineffective. That would be like saying that the problem with cancer is that you can't fix it with an aspirin. That is not about the limitations of aspirin, that's about the problem with cancer; and the NFL has a cancer of racism when it comes to hiring people at these levels.