The flawed Patriots face a harsh truth: only the very best teams get a Super Bowl sequel

Successful reruns are rare in the NFL. And New England showed enough holes on Sunday to suggest making it back to the big dance soon will be tough

The greatest lie a fanbase tells itself is that there is always next year.

It is the softest landing spot in sport, a comfort blanket after a crushing defeat. Next year, we’ll be healthier. Next year, we’ll fix our offensive line. Next year, we’ll add that superstar receiver and retain all our guys. Next year.

Published: February 9, 2026, 3:27 pm

Casemiro proved his doubters wrong. Now Manchester United must try to replace him

The Brazilian was often exposed by the tactics of Ten Hag and Amorim, but was always adaptable and a replacement will be expensive

“Leave the football before the football leaves you.” The meme-baiting quote from Jamie Carragher hung heavy over Casemiro for a long while, but it is testament to the Brazilian’s character and durability that he will leave Manchester United this year on his own terms, two years after those infamous words from the former Liverpool player.

In fairness to Carragher, context at the time was key. After United were hammered 4-0 by Crystal Palace in May 2024, Casemiro looked spent at the elite level, bypassed too easily in increasingly fast‑tempo matches and left for dead by Erik ten Hag’s high-risk tactics.

Published: February 9, 2026, 8:00 pm

Falcons’ Pearce allegedly hit officer and crashed into WNBA star Jackson’s car prior to arrest

• Linebacker faces five felony charges over allegations

• Rookie is said to have attempted to evade officers

Atlanta Falcons linebacker James Pearce Jr, who was detained on five felony charges on Saturday, allegedly struck a police officer while evading arrest and crashed into a vehicle driven by WNBA player Rickea Jackson, ESPN reported on Monday.

According to the criminal complaint obtained by ESPN from the Miami-Dade County state attorney’s office, the charges against Pearce include aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated stalking and aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer.

Published: February 9, 2026, 7:25 pm

Bad Bunny and jingoism lite: was this the Super Bowl where woke roared back?

The NFL appeared keen to welcome the sport’s non-Maga contingent back into the tent. But the theater and violence of capitalism was still there

Roger Federer smiling wolfishly to the crowd: a return to woke? Adam Sandler hangdog in the Levi’s Stadium stands, Jon Bon Jovi mooching on the sideline like a retired dentist on a cruise, Billie Joe Armstrong belting out American Idiot during the pre-game show under his motionless meringue of fogey-blond hair: were they a sign? A New England Patriots team who were neither favored to win nor widely reviled, then promptly repaid a grateful public by losing: was this the Super Bowl which proved that history really can move on, that America is not fated to remain hostage to the tremors and hatreds of the past? Well, yes and no.

A year after Donald Trump made American football’s showpiece all about him, Sunday’s game in Santa Clara always promised a sort of correction – a cooling of the mood, perhaps even an end to the manipulation of sport for political ends. As always the best way to gauge the success of this mission was as the gods intended: through a TV screen. Trump – saddled with historically low approval ratings, facing a massacre in this year’s midterms, and no doubt wary of risking a public appearance in the deep blue sea of the Bay Area – was absent on this occasion, and he kept the F-22 fighter jets that were scheduled to be part of the pre-game flyover away from Levi’s Stadium too. (Unspecified “operational assignments” were the reason offered for the jets’ withdrawal, which means there’s probably a low-ranking member of the Trump administration putting big money on a US military strike somewhere in Latin America as we speak.) And yet, the absent autocrat still weighed on proceedings, his curdling influence turning every moment and gesture on Sunday into a referendum on the prospects for a post-Trumpian sporting future. Could football be normal again?

Published: February 9, 2026, 2:23 pm

Emma Raducanu retires in Qatar opener after on-court blood pressure test

• Briton forced to pull out when 2-0 down in deciding set

• Qualifier Camila Osorio into Qatar Open second round

Emma Raducanu retired during the third set of her first-round match with the qualifier Camila Osorio at the Qatar Open, having tried to play on after taking a medical timeout.

The British No 1 was looking to move swiftly on from the disappointment of losing in straight sets on Saturday against the home ­favourite Sorana Cirstea in the ­Transylvania Open final, a match she described as “very difficult emotionally and physically”.

Published: February 9, 2026, 6:27 pm

Jutta Leerdam’s ruthless brilliance leaves speed skating in awe and Jake Paul in tears

The Dutch star, who combines commercial visibility alongside elite results, won gold on Monday in front of a packed arena that included her influencer boyfriend

Jutta Leerdam delivered the defining race of her career on Monday night, roaring to Olympic gold in the women’s 1000m and setting a new Olympic record of 1min 12.31sec to lead a Dutch one-two and deliver the Netherlands’ first medals of the Games.

The 27-year-old finished 0.28sec ahead of compatriot Femke Kok, who had briefly held the Olympic record after clocking 1:12.59 earlier in the final group. Japan’s defending Olympic champion Miho Takagi took bronze in 1:13.95.

Published: February 9, 2026, 8:09 pm

Winter Olympics: Eileen Gu expresses sympathy for Hess after Trump’s ‘loser’ attack

• Freeskier was ambivalent about representing US

• Fellow athletes defend friend after president’s attack

Chloe Kim and Eileen Gu have weighed in on Donald Trump’s attack on Hunter Hess after the freeskier said he was ambivalent about representing the US during the president’s immigration crackdown.

“I think in moments like these, it is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another for all that’s going on,” said Kim, the two-time Olympic gold medalist whose parents are South Korean immigrants and who has faced racism throughout her career.

Published: February 9, 2026, 9:07 pm

Flying rumour, or ground for concern? The lengths ski jumpers go to for Olympic glory

After a national scandal involving two athletes, Norwegian fans at these Winter Games don’t enjoy becoming a punchline

Yes, it’s time to talk about the ski jumpers’ penises. Although to be honest the ski jumpers themselves would prefer it if everyone could keep the conversation to their testicles. Figuratively. “This sport,” the former Olympic champion Sven Hannawald once said, “has a lot to do with balls.”

This turns out to be more true than you might imagine, even for a sport that involves flying 100m down a mountain. As the world now knows, being well endowed is a distinct advantage for the simple key reason that when a jumper spreads their legs the crotch of their trousers stretches out into a wing, and the bigger that wing is, the further they’re likely to fly.

Published: February 9, 2026, 9:08 pm

Lindsey Vonn has ‘no regrets’ over crash as fellow skiers defend her decision to race

• American was competing with ruptured ACL

• Vonn says she has complex tibia fracture

• Father says it is time for his daughter to retire

Lindsey Vonn says she suffered a complex tibia fracture “that will require multiple surgeries to fix properly” when her Olympic hopes ended in a heavy crash.

The American crashed out early in her run during the women’s downhill competition on Sunday. Her cries of pain could be heard clearly on the television broadcast and spectators and her fellow athletes were visibly shaken as she was airlifted to hospital.

Published: February 9, 2026, 11:38 pm

Ukrainian competitor displays images of athletes killed in war on Winter Olympics helmet

• Heraskevych held up ‘No War in Ukraine’ sign in Beijing

• IOC have contacted Ukrainian officials over his protest

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych trained on Monday at the Winter Olympics in a helmet with images of compatriots killed during the war in Ukraine, delivering on a promise to use the event to keep attention on the conflict.

“Some of them were my friends,” Heraskevych, who is his country’s flag bearer, said after his training session at the Cortina sliding centre.

Published: February 9, 2026, 4:00 pm

Chelsea’s Liam Rosenior admits online mockery is affecting his family

• Head coach says he expected backlash after taking role

• ‘A lot of people in this country have been laughing at me’

Liam Rosenior has opened up on the ridicule directed at him since he became Chelsea’s head coach, saying he expected the backlash and revealing it has affected his family.

Speaking with honesty and positivity, the 41-year-old was keen to stress that he will not allow the discussion around his personality, looks and coaching background to stop him from doing his job. ­Rosenior has said previously that he knows “a lot of people in this country have been laughing at me” since his ^­appointment as Enzo Maresca’s replacement last month.

Published: February 9, 2026, 10:30 pm

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Liverpool rue costly mistakes, Viktor Gyökeres builds up a head of steam and Rayan gets the hype train chugging

• Premier League top scorers: the latest standings

Arne Slot was close to landing a coup against Pep Guardiola, the coach he admires most. Then came more of the individual errors that have ruined Liverpool’s title defence. Aching weaknesses within Slot’s squad were exposed again. Dominik Szoboszlai playing Bernardo Silva onside for Manchester City’s equaliser was an error midfielders playing full-back will make. Szoboszlai’s late red card was, though, foolish. Alisson’s foul on Matheus Nunes for Erling Haaland’s decisive penalty was another rush of blood. Liverpool’s huge summer spend was motivated by their executives’ belief in buying the best individuals to unlock the Premier League’s tactical cages. City’s key individuals showed such a policy can pay off, with Silva inspirational, Gianluigi Donnarumma making the save that sparked the game’s chaotic final scenes, Marc Guéhi looking an astute defensive signing and Haaland supplying Silva’s goal. City had been unconvincing but their mentality held, allowing them to eventually profit from Hugo Ekitiké’s misses and the waning of Mohamed Salah. John Brewin

Match report: Liverpool 1-2 Manchester City

Match report: Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace

Match report: Arsenal 3-0 Sunderland

Match report: Newcastle 2-3 Brentford

Published: February 9, 2026, 8:00 am

You may not like the Liverpool red card, but it was the right call | Jonathan Wilson

Referee Craig Pawson sent off Dominik Szoboszlai by the letter of the law; the only way it should be done

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Refereeing is the most thankless of jobs. There are times when you can get a decision absolutely right and still you get criticised on all sides.

In the final seconds at Anfield on Sunday, with the Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson caught upfield, Rayan Cherki rolled the ball towards the Liverpool goal. Erling Haaland gave chase and would have gotten there to nudge the ball definitively over the line but he was pulled back by Dominik Szoboszlai, who would then have caught up with the ball to clear had he not been pulled back by Haaland. The ball crossed the line but the referee Craig Pawson, after a VAR review, gave not a goal but a free-kick for the first offence, sending Szoboszlai off for the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

Published: February 9, 2026, 3:48 pm

Middlesbrough sink Sheffield United to climb to Championship summit

Middlesbrough took over at the top of the Championship as an impressive first-half performance secure a 2-1 victory at Sheffield United.

Goals from Tommy Conway and Riley McGree during the opening 45 minutes proved to be crucial, taking Boro two points clear of Coventry at the top after a sixth successive win.

Published: February 9, 2026, 10:52 pm

Chelsea part company with head of women’s football in shock move

• Paul Green joined as assistant to Emma Hayes in 2013

• Chelsea won 19 trophies during his 13 years at club

Chelsea have announced the shock exit of their influential head of women’s football, Paul Green.

Green joined Chelsea in 2013, recruited from Doncaster Rovers Belles by Emma Hayes to be her assistant manager. In the intervening years they formed a formidable ­partnership, sharing an office throughout, with Green an architect, alongside Hayes, of an ambitious blueprint that would take the women’s team to the top of English and European football. He was particularly involved in the club’s recruitment strategy alongside Hayes, masterminding a process that would have Chelsea operating three or four transfer windows ahead.

Published: February 9, 2026, 10:27 pm

Eddie Howe insists he would quit if he did not believe he was right man for Newcastle

• Manager has ‘no doubt’ he remains best person for job

• Newcastle travel to Spurs on Tuesday in 12th place

Eddie Howe has said he would offer Newcastle his resignation if he believed he was no longer the right man to lead the club.

Howe’s team visit Tottenham on Tuesday night aiming to end the run of three successive Premier League defeats that has prompted their slide to 12th place. Victory would be their first in an away match since December but the 48-year-old manager remains confident he can navigate his fatigued side out of their slump.

Published: February 9, 2026, 11:37 am

Uproar in the Maldives as football relegation battle decided by last-day no-show

• Green Streets failed to play last game of season

• Team stayed up on goal difference, rivals relegated

There is uproar in the Dhiraagu Dhivehi Premier League, the leading football competition of the Maldives, after it was alleged one of the tropical archipelago’s leading clubs sought to escape relegation by failing to play a match.

The Premier League side Green Streets beat the drop last Thursday after not fulfilling their final league fixture of the season against New Radiant.

Published: February 9, 2026, 1:52 pm

VAR calls leave De Rossi and Spalletti fuming as Napoli prevail at the last | Nicky Bandini

VAR’s application has been a divisive topic everywhere it has been introduced. It was more of the same in Serie A

You might not be shocked to learn that Daniele De Rossi thinks football has gone soft. Since retiring and moving into management, the man with the “beware the sliding tackle” tattoo has acknowledged he sometimes misses getting to stick the boot in. But would the stick figure seen flying into an opponent on the back of his right calf even stand a chance in this era of VAR?

“I don’t know what to say any more,” lamented De Rossi after his Genoa team lost 3-2 to Napoli on Saturday. “The football we played no longer exists. We were naïve, but it seems I don’t know anything. I don’t know what sport I am coaching.”

Published: February 9, 2026, 12:20 pm

Close call for Mia Brookes in big air as Team GB endure Tragic Monday

• Snowboarder finishes fourth after going for broke

• Curlers Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds lose semi-final

As Team GB’s Mia Brookes stood at the top of a 150ft‑high ramp before her final jump of the big air competition, she had the pounding heavy metal of Pantera blasting her ears, and the smell of an Olympic medal in her nostrils.

To grab it, though, the snow­boarding sensation knew she would have to land a trick she had never attempted before on snow – and one so dangerous that she feared it would put her in hospital.

Published: February 9, 2026, 10:48 pm

Twickenham crackdown with 24 fines for ‘public urination’ after England v Wales

• RFU trying to tackle antisocial behaviour after games

• Borthwick to keep changes to minimum against Scots

Unruly spectators at Twickenham felt the force of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour at the match between England and Wales last Saturday, with Richmond council issuing 24 fixed-penalty notices for public urination, the Guardian can reveal.

The Rugby Football Union is trying to persuade local residents to ditch their opposition to proposals to increase the number of concerts held every year from three to 15. Much of the opposition centres around antisocial behaviour experienced during England matches and, as revealed by the Guardian, the RFU hosted a drop-in event for residents in an effort to convince them that their concerns were being taken seriously.

Published: February 9, 2026, 9:01 pm

Pakistan agree to play India at T20 Cricket World Cup after scrapping boycott

• Match to go ahead in Sri Lanka on Sunday

• Government made decision after negotiations

Pakistan are poised to fulfil their T20 World Cup fixture against India on Sunday, having previously been instructed by their government to boycott the game in a move that could have cost the sport millions.

The crisis was triggered by Bangladesh withdrawing from the tournament last month – their place handed to Scotland – when a request to play their matches outside India on security grounds was rejected by the International Cricket Council.

Published: February 9, 2026, 7:00 pm

Winter Olympic officials to investigate why medals keep breaking

• Athletes report medals are chipped, cracked or damaged

• ‘We are aware. We are looking into what the problem is’

They are among the most prized possessions in sport, yet embarrassingly for Olympic officials the medals in Milano Cortina keep breaking.

On Monday organisers promised to launch an investigation into why it was happening after Winter Olympic medallists, including the American downhill skiing champion Breezy Johnson, reported chipped, cracked and damaged medals.

Published: February 9, 2026, 4:48 pm

Tearful Kirsty Muir rues agonising fourth place in Winter Olympics slopestyle

• British skier breaks down after making crucial mistakes

• ‘I’m obviously a bit sad – it’s a tough place to be, fourth’

Long after the finale of this compelling women’s freeski slopestyle competition, Kirsty Muir was still struggling to process the cruellest loss of her young career.

“I’ll be proud of myself in a minute,” the 21-year-old Team GB star told one reporter, through the sobs and the pain. “But I’m in a bit of a hole right now.”

Published: February 9, 2026, 2:41 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: Jutta Leerdam takes speed skating gold but GB medal wait goes on – as it happened

There were gold medals for the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Japan but Team GB were denied again

Which of these events is most terrifying? This a question that reminds me of when a teacher asked five-year-old me which hand I wanted to be caned on, and I kept saying neither – yes, a real man would’ve said either or both – except the other way around, the answer being all of them. But for the less lily-livered, there must be an answer.

The slalom section of this competition is tomorrow, which is to say the downhillers go today, then the times of the two team members are added together, with the quickest taking gold. Germany now lead, having gone faster than Switzerland.

Published: February 9, 2026, 9:19 pm

Goat review – noisy, lightning-speed basketball animation does it for the kids

A diminutive young buck aspires to compete with rhinos and horses in ‘roarball’, but this by-numbers tale is not the greatest of any time

Greatest of all time? No. Possibly not even the greatest of half-term. This loud, chaotic and unlovable animated kids’ comedy feels as though it is bordering on AI slop, algorithmically generated and instantly familiar from Zootropolis, Sing and other movies with talking animals. It is a shame, because it has a real-life inspiration: basketball star Stephen Curry, who was repeatedly told at the start of his career that he was too skinny and too small to make it as a pro. Curry is a producer here, and has a performing role. But in spite of this connection, Goat lacks heart and soul, and a sense of genuine emotions.

What it does have is some pretty decent voice acing, bringing a degree of charm to the movie. Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) is a goat who has grown up dreaming of playing professional “roarball”, a fiercer and faster version of basketball. But Will is a “small” and roar players are all “bigs” – powerful beasts such as rhinos and horses. Will’s hero and the star of his favourite team, the Thorns, is a panther called Jet (Gabrielle Union), a champ close to retirement but determined to win the league. When Will gets a shot at joining the Thorns, he is laughed at, underrated but undeterred.

Published: February 9, 2026, 5:00 pm

Winter Olympian Gus Kenworthy reveals he has received threats over anti-ICE post – video

British freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy says he has received threats in the wake of a social media post that targeted ICE, the United States immigration and customs enforcement agency, last week.

Kenworthy, who was born in Chelmsford but has lived in the US for most of his life, posted an image on his Instagram account that showed the words 'fuck ICE', apparently urinated into the snow.

The 34-year-old posted a video late on Sunday in which he said: 'The other day I posted a photo with my thoughts on ICE and that photo has since gone everywhere – and I’ve gotten a ton of messages and most of them honestly have been supportive and encouraging.

'But a lot of the messages have been awful, people telling me to kill myself, threatening me, wishing they’ll get to see me blow my knee or break my neck during my event, calling me slurs … it’s insane.'

• Freestyle skier Kenworthy says he has received threats over anti-ICE protest

Published: February 9, 2026, 11:36 am

'A surreal moment': Sam Darnold and Kenneth Walker III on Seahawks' Super Bowl victory – video

The Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 at Levi's Stadium to claim their second Super Bowl victory.

Kenneth Walker III, the engine of Seattle’s offense with 135 rushing yards on 27 carries, was named MVP. Sam Darnold completed his long redemption arc from draft-bust to champion quarterback by throwing for 202 yards and a touchdown.

'If I would tell myself as a kid right now, I wouldn’t have guessed I would have been the one to win MVP,' Walker said. 'It’s a surreal moment and it doesn’t happen without the guys in the locker room.'

'It's special,' said Darnold. 'Some people called me crazy throughout my career for believing in myself so much and having so much confidence. But it was because of my parents, because of the way that they believed in me throughout my entire career.'

• Relentless Seahawks pummel Patriots to claim their second Super Bowl title

Published: February 9, 2026, 11:09 am