Matthew Stafford lost his season to a neck injury, but the Los Angeles Rams quarterback is adamant his NFL career is not done.
Having led the Rams to Super Bowl LVI glory in his first year in LA, Stafford's second season has not gone to plan.
The former Detroit Lions QB underwent elbow surgery in the offseason and did not look the same player as the 2022 campaign began.
In nine games with Stafford under center, the Rams were 3-6, with the QB throwing only 10 touchdown passes and eight interceptions for a passer rating of 87.4 – his worst since 2014.
Stafford had averaged 287.4 yards per game in 2021 but only topped that mark in one game this year.
A spinal cord contusion then cut Stafford's season short in Week 11, prompting concerns around the 34-year-old's long-term future.
But in an appearance on his wife Kelly's The Morning After podcast, Stafford responded flatly to a question asking if he would retire: "No."
Stafford signed a four-year, $160million extension with the Rams in March, and the team are confident he can avoid surgery ahead of a 2023 return.
Coach Sean McVay said earlier this month: "He'll be good. To my knowledge, there's nothing like that [surgery] that's going to be required or necessary.
"And it will be great for Matthew to have a healthy offseason and do a lot of the things that I think he'll feel good about being able to do."
Erik ten Hag has told his Manchester United stars to "live the high standards" it will take to carry the club back to the top of English football.
The United manager has the bulk of his squad back together after the World Cup interval and will embark on the next stage of rigging up a group capable of challenging for titles.
Former Ajax coach Ten Hag says his players must not "get too satisfied" with their progress, which he nonetheless feels has been significant since a difficult start to his reign.
United will be back in action on Wednesday when they host Burnley, leaders of the Championship, at the EFL Cup last-16 stage.
Their first Premier League game after the resumption comes on December 27 when they tackle Nottingham Forest.
Ten Hag said: "Satisfaction makes you lazy. So don't get too satisfied with yourself as a team. Give every day the best.
"Only when you set those high standards and keep the high standards – it's up to me to control that and give that example, clear. But the players and staff at Manchester United have to live the high standards, and then it's possible to compete with the best clubs in the Premier League and achieve our goals.
"Where we were at the start of the season, we were just not good enough. I knew it when I stepped in that we would have days like that, that we would have defeats."
United lost their opening two Premier League games of the campaign to Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford, but they have recovered strongly to win eight of their next 12 in the competition to rise to fifth place, three points off the top four with a game in hand.
They were last champions of England in 2012-13 and have not won a major trophy since landing the EFL Cup and Europa League in the 2016-17 season.
Ten Hag, who spoke to the Manchester Evening News and national newspapers during a training break in Spain, said it was obvious he was taking on "a difficult project".
"Manchester United was not in the circumstances that you would expect of them, and I think now we're in the right direction, but we're far away from where we need to be," he said.
United have lost three of their last four home games in the EFL Cup, as many as they had in their previous 36 at Old Trafford, and Ten Hag will be wary of the threat Burnley pose.
The Dutchman is confident United can keep building in the coming weeks and months, but bringing everyone back into tune with how he wants to play is another challenge. Many have been away with their national teams, playing and being coached in contrasting ways to his methods.
"Players come back and they have been playing six weeks in a different environment and different style of play," said Ten Hag, "and then they have to get back to our style and system and our rules and principles, and it's a team sport. So, all 11 have to be on the same page."
Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia has agreed to the record $4billion purchase of the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury from owner Robert Sarver.
Ishbia and Sarver announced the deal, which ends the latter's tumultuous tenure as owner, in respective statements on Tuesday. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the staggering figure, pointing to the deal being expected to be finalised in the near future.
Sarver had announced in September that would sell both franchises, having been fined by the NBA the maximum $10million with a one-year suspension following an independent investigation that found he "engaged in conduct that clearly violated common workplace standards".
The deal, that will see Ishbia buy the majority stake of both franchises, exceeds the previous NBA record of $2.35billion when Joe Tsai bought the Brooklyn Nets in 2019.
United Wholesale Mortgage president and CEO Ishbia has been pursuing ownership of NBA and NFL teams in recent times.
"I am extremely excited to be the next governor of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury," Ishbia said in a statement. "Both teams have an incredibly dynamic fan base and I have loved experiencing the energy of the Valley over the last few months."
Sarver's tenure at the Suns dated back to 2004, with Ishbia's acquisition including all of his interest along with a portion of minority partners.
"Mat is the right leader to build on franchise legacies of winning and community support and shepherd the Suns and Mercury into the next era," Sarver said in his statement.
Jalen Brunson savoured a savaging of the Golden State Warriors and insisted the New York Knicks are only getting started after their winning streak reached eight games.
Recruited in July from the Dallas Mavericks, Brunson is averaging a career-best 20.8 points and 6.2 assists with the Knicks, and his numbers against the Warriors were in keeping with that strong form, posting 21 points and five assists.
His latest impressive display came in a 132-94 drubbing of last season's NBA champions, who were without Stephen Curry for a third successive game due to a shoulder injury and lost for the 15th time in 18 road outings this term.
Brunson told TNT: "This is great. We want to keep stacking wins, keep getting better. We've got a lot more to do, a lot more to prove.
"This is only the beginning for us, we've got to keep going. I'm learning as I'm going, my team-mates trust me, the coaching staff trusts me, I trust them. We're growing every day, we're getting better every day.
"We've got to keep fighting and can't be complacent."
The Knicks have shot up to sixth in the Eastern Conference by turning a 10-13 record into an 18-13 standing, putting them in playoffs contention for now.
With six players in double figures for points, led by Immanuel Quickley's 22-point haul that included five three-pointers from six attempts, the Knicks won by their biggest margin in the last two seasons.
They have the longest current winning streak in the NBA, but Brunson is taking nothing for granted at this stage. The Knicks have had just one top-10 finish in the Eastern Conference in the last eight seasons, and this campaign remains in its early stages.
Asked what else the Knicks have left to work on, Brunson said: "Everything. We can't be complacent at all, we've just got to keep grinding, staying focused.
"This is only game 31, and we've got to have our eyes on the prize."
The New York Knicks extended their winning run to eight games to shoot into playoffs contention while they compounded the Golden State Warriors' road woes with a 132-94 rout on Tuesday.
The reigning champions, missing 2022 NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry for a third straight game with a shoulder injury, slumped to 3-15 on the road this season, sitting 15-17 overall.
Offseason Knicks addition Jalen Brunson scored 21 points with five assists, while Immanuel Quickley top scored off the bench with 22 points. Julius Randle had 15 points with 12 rebounds and five assists.
The Knicks, who never trailed in the blowout win, had six players reach double-digit scores, with the 38-point triumph their largest margin of victory in the last two seasons.
The victory also means the Knicks boast the longest active win streak in the NBA, having conceded an NBA-best 97.8 points per game during the streak.
The Knicks, who had not beaten the Warriors at home for almost a decade, hit 11 triples in the first half, finishing the game with 17-of-40 three-point shooting, led by Quickley with five.
Jordan Poole scored a team-high 26 points for the Curry-less Warriors, who had James Wiseman play 22 minutes, scoring four points with three rebounds.
The Knicks improved to 18-13 overall to sit sixth in the Eastern Conference.
Markkanen shoots Jazz past Pistons
Seven-foot Finnish power forward Lauri Markkanen scored a career-high nine three-pointers in his 38-point haul as the Utah Jazz won 126-111 over the Detroit Pistons.
Jordan Clarkson had 12 points within 1:51 of gametime but it was Markkanen who stole the show, matching his career-high points output.
The game was the Jazz's third in four evenings, with Malik Beasley adding 17 points off the bench while Clarkson finished with 21. Jarred Vanderbilt had 18 points with 13 rebounds.
Nuggets take over in the west
The Denver Nuggets moved into top spot in the Western Conference with a 105-91 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies led by another Nikola Jokic triple-double.
The back-to-back NBA MVP recorded his sixth triple-double of the season, putting on a brilliant passing display, with 13 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists.
The Nuggets (19-11) defense kept the Grizzlies to 44.4 per cent shooting and only 19.2 per cent from beyond the arc, with Ja Morant top scoring for Memphis with 35 points along with 10 assists.
Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has been placed on injured reserve, ending his season due to a right ankle injury.
Taylor suffered the injury on the Colts’ first possession of the game on a 13-yard reception in Saturday's 39-36 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Last season's NFL leading rusher's campaign is over as players must a minimum of four games on injured reserve, with the 4-9-1 Colts out of playoffs contention.
Taylor has battled ankle soreness all this year and has missed three games this season due to ankle issues.
Taylor entered Week 15 ranked 11th in the league with 861 rushing yards in 10 games. His 86.1 rushing yards per game this season ranks fourth in the NFL.
Carlos Correa’s megadeal with the San Francisco Giants is not a done deal just yet apparently.
The Giants postponed a press conference on Tuesday to introduce the star shortstop over a medical issue that arose during Correa’s physical, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Correa and the Giants agreed last week to a 13-year, $350 million contract with a physical pending before the deal became official. One source told The Associated Press that the news conference was put on hold because the sides were awaiting results of testing, while a second person said a medical issue arose during Correa’s physical.
Correa, 28, has dealt with durability issues during his eight-year career, playing at least 150 games in a season just once.
He has made seven trips to the injured list since 2015, with a torn ligament in his thumb, lower back soreness and a fractured rib. Correa, however, played 58 games in the shortened 60-game season in 2020, followed by 148 contests in 2021 and 136 last season.
It remains to be seen whether the team simply wants to conduct further tests or if there is evidence of something that could lead to the deal being called off or even restructured.
Correa hit .291 with 22 homers and 64 RBIs last season for the Minnesota Twins after spending his first seven seasons with the Houston Astros.
He has a .279 career average with 155 home runs and 553 RBIs and has excelled in the postseason, batting .272 with 18 homers and 59 RBIs in 79 games.
Correa signed a $105.3 million, three-year deal with the Twins in March but opted out after one year and became a free agent again.
His deal with the Giants would be the fourth largest in baseball history in terms of total money. Only Mike Trout ($426.5 million, 12 years), Mookie Betts ($365 million, 12 years) and Aaron Judge ($360 million, nine years) have bigger contracts.
The Giants made a run at signing Judge and have been desperate to add a marquee player to a team that went 81-81 last season, a year after winning a franchise-record 107 games and the NL West.
Reigning NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry will plot out a timeline for his return from a left shoulder injury in the new year.
Curry suffered a shoulder subluxation in last Wednesday's 125-119 loss to the Indiana Pacers, with initial reports stating he would miss a "few weeks".
The 34-year-old point guard has avoided surgery and is hopeful of plotting out his return soon.
"This is an interesting one just because I haven’t had an injury like this on the shoulder, so it's a wait and see approach," Curry said on the Warriors' bench during NBA on TNT's coverage of the game with the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
"I'm still in the early healing process, so I'm nowhere near picking up a basketball yet. It'll be a few weeks.
"Maybe we'll get to the new year and I'll start to key in on a timeline from there."
The Warriors are 15-16 overall, sitting 11th in the Western Conference, coming into Tuesday's road game. Golden State have a 3-14 road record this season.
The reigning champions have won two of their past seven games, including managing one win from the two games since Curry's injury.
Curry is leading the NBA this season in three-pointers made, with 5.0 per game. The four-time NBA champion is averaging 30.0 points shooting at 50 per cent with 6.6 rebounds and 6.8 assists this season.
Richarlison will undergo an MRI scan to determine the severity of the hamstring injury he sustained at the World Cup, Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte has revealed.
Richarlison scored three times in Brazil's run to the last eight in Qatar – including a brace in their group-stage opener against Serbia – after recovering from a calf injury ahead of the World Cup.
However, the Spurs attacker was forced off with a hamstring issue in Brazil's quarter-final clash with Croatia, with the Selecao going on to lose a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw.
Spurs resume their Premier League campaign against Brentford on Monday, and while Ben Davies and Rodrigo Bentancur have returned from the World Cup in good condition, Conte faces an anxious wait on Richarlison's fitness.
"Ben Davies is okay and started to work with us last week. He has recovered," Conte told the club's website on Tuesday.
"Rodrigo has started to work. I think that he's going to be good for the game against Aston Villa [on January 1].
"For Richy, tomorrow he's going to have an MRI to know very well the importance of the injury. After tomorrow, we will see very well the time he needs to recover."
Spurs have spent much of this season battling injuries to key attackers, but Conte's side still entered the World Cup break fourth in the Premier League table, three points behind second-placed Manchester City.
The chances of Odell Beckham Jr. signing for the Dallas Cowboys are "diminishing", according to owner Jerry Jones.
Beckham has been a free agent since leaving the Los Angeles Rams, with whom he tore his anterior cruciate ligament during the team's Super Bowl triumph last season.
The Cowboys have been closely linked to a move to sign the wide receiver, with Beckham undergoing a physical with the team earlier this month.
However, it was reported the Cowboys had concerns over Beckham's recovery from his injury, and the team signed former Indianapolis Colt T.Y. Hilton last week to add veteran depth to their receiving core.
Hilton was inactive as the Cowboys clinched a place in the postseason with three games to go, despite a shock loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
With just three games left of the regular season, Jones feels the chances of Beckham joining the team are getting lower by the day.
"As of this morning we don't have anything," Jones told 105.3 The Fan.
"The reality is though that time is moving on down the road relative to playing in the playoffs and so every day diminishes our chances of going forward."
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has refused to rule out quarterback Jalen Hurts from playing in Saturday's blockbuster with the Dallas Cowboys despite a sprained right shoulder.
Hurts injured his throwing shoulder late in the third quarter of the Eagles' 25-20 win over the Chicago Bears but was able to finish the game.
Sirianni said the team will prepare Hurts and backup QB Gardner Minshew to play against the Cowboys. He also declined to put any timeline on Hurts' injury.
"I don't put anything past Jalen Hurts, as far as his mental and physical toughness, so there's a chance he could play this week," Sirianni told reporters.
"He is one of the toughest guys I know, and he heals fast — he's a freak. His body is not like, pardon me, yours or mine."
Hurts has been pivotal to the Eagles' sensational 13-1 season and is one of the leading candidates for league MVP with career highs of 3,472 passing yards, 22 passing touchdowns and 13 rushing TDs. The 24-year-old also ranks fourth in the NFL in quarterback rating (104.6).
Sirianni said Hurts' availability was about the injury healing, rather than pain tolerance.
"He’s an unbelievable competitor, [has] unbelievable toughness, which is why every time there's a question about Jalen, the first thing that you get, regardless of how he’s playing or whatnot, is about his leadership ability and his toughness both mentally and physically," he said.
"So, it'll be more about the healing with Jalen than it will be about the pain, because he can play through anything."
Either way, Sirianni was bullish in 26-year-old Minshew's ability to cover Hurts, should be deemed unavailable.
Minshew spent two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars before moving to the Eagles in 2021, where he has had limited opportunities, playing only seven times, with only two starts.
"He's what you want out of your backup quarterback, to be ready with limited reps," he said.
"Now, we're able to do things differently here, then I think in most places I've been — we take a lot of time, we have a lot of developmental reps."
Saturday's game sees the Eagles take on the 10-4 Cowboys, who allowed a season-high 40 points against the Jaguars in Week 15.
Cowboys QB Dak Prescott is also under some pressure, having thrown two interceptions in the overtime loss to the Jags.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have agreed to fight each other in early 2023 without either man taking any bouts in the interim, according to promoter Bob Arum.
There has been plenty of talk of a unification battle between WBC heavyweight champion Fury and Usyk – holder of the WBA-Super, IBF, WBO and IBO belts – since the latter beat Anthony Joshua for a second time in August.
Having made a U-turn on his decision to retire earlier this year, Fury beat Derek Chisora in a trilogy fight this month.
Plans for the 'Gypsy King' to meet Usyk next appeared to have been jeopardised when the Ukrainian was ordered to defend his WBA belt against mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois.
Frank Warren – who represents both Fury and Dubois – has insisted the huge unification bout will take place first and Arum claims there should not be long to wait for that fight.
"The two fighters have agreed to fight each other next," Arum told Sky Sports.
"With Fury and Usyk we're dealing with two adults, not a lot of back and forth. Usyk is a good friend of mine, he's very intelligent and Tyson is Superman, both as an athlete and as an intellect.
"So they want the fight. Both of them want the fight and so there'll be very little, if any, messing around. We'll be able to make that happen. I'm very, very confident.
"As I said, the fighters have both agreed to fight each other next without any interim fights. We'll have it all sorted out, I hope maybe by the end of the year."
Arum remains uncertain over the likely venue for the fight, though he described the prospect of being held at Wembley as "wonderful".
"Now the question is what's the date, and what's the site?" Arum said. "But that fight is definitely going to happen and it will happen in the first four months of next year.
"We are balancing a couple of significant offers from the Middle East, and also there's the possibility of doing the fight in the UK at Wembley with a massive 95,000 crowd in attendance.
"Fighters have a relatively short life and money is important, so if the money which has been proposed to us is real, that has to be taken into consideration.
"To go back to Wembley and do a fight before 95,000 people for me really stirs up the blood. It would be crazy. It would just be wonderful."
Andy Murray has conceded he is just one major injury from being forced to retire, though the three-time grand slam winner remains keen to play on.
Murray underwent two hip surgeries in 2018 and 2019, causing him to spend much of the last four years on the sidelines.
However, Murray returned to the top 50 of the world rankings after making two tour-level finals in 2022, while his run to the third round of the US Open represented his joint-best grand slam campaign since Wimbledon 2017.
The two-time Wimbledon champion saw rival Roger Federer retire from the sport in September after struggling with a knee injury, and while he acknowledges fitness concerns could force his hand, Murray is not yet looking to follow suit.
"If my body is in good shape and I'm still able to compete consistently, I'll keep playing," Murray said.
"But I can't look so far in advance with the age I'm at and with the issues I've had. If I was to have a big injury, I probably wouldn't try to come back from that."
Murray has been training with coach Ivan Lendl in a bid to ensure he enters next month's Australian Open in peak condition, having missed three of the last five editions of the tournament.
"I spent three weeks in Florida, getting my body right and getting some work done on my game and it went really well," he said.
"I'm certainly in better shape than I was. A lot of work was done in the gym, trying to build up my endurance and my stamina a bit and I'm hoping that's going to help me next year.
"I wasn't happy with how last season went – certainly the last six months or so from a physical perspective – but my ranking still went from 125 to 50 in a year.
"I'm hoping that this year, with the work I've done, things will continue to improve and I'll still be motivated to get out there and compete."
The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Milwaukee Bucks have each contended for and won titles in the past 10 years, but they have very rarely both been good at the same time.
LeBron James led the Cavaliers to four straight NBA Finals between 2014-15 and 2017-18 as they enjoyed an epic rivalry with the Golden State Warriors.
But Cleveland were tied for the second-worst record in the league the following year, with James in Los Angeles, as Central Division rivals Milwaukee came to prominence with the NBA's best record in Giannis Antetokounmpo's first MVP year.
The Bucks have since had control of the division and again lead the Eastern Conference through 30 games at 22-8.
Yet now there is a challenge from the Cavs, who are a competitive 21-11 and have won four straight games ahead of hosting the Bucks on Wednesday.
Having already shown real signs of progress last year in reaching the play-in tournament, Cleveland have kicked on again after a trade for Donovan Mitchell that they hope will turn them into a serious player in the East.
So far, that looks to be the case, with Mitchell's career-high 29.3 points per game leading the team – and ranking eighth in the NBA – while he has produced in big games against the Boston Celtics.
The Cavs are 2-0 against the second-placed Celtics this season; however, they are 0-2 against the Bucks, who will be intent on batting away their division rivals ahead of Christmas.
PIVOTAL PERFORMERS
Cleveland Cavaliers – Jarrett Allen
The Cavaliers will hope the physicality of Allen can be the missing piece against the Bucks. He has played only 12 minutes against Milwaukee so far this season, absent for the first game and withdrawn injured in the second having scored only a single point.
Since returning from that hip injury earlier this month, Allen has averaged 14.9 points and 9.3 rebounds, with 26 rebounds across his past two outings.
Milwaukee Bucks – Giannis Antetokounmpo
Nobody likes playing against Antetokounmpo, but only against the Brooklyn Nets and the Utah Jazz has he averaged more points per game across his career than against the Cavaliers.
Although the Cavs have spoken of Evan Mobley having the potential to become a player in the Giannis mould, neither he nor his team-mates have a fix for the 'Greek Freak' when he is in form – as he was in scoring 38 points in their last meeting.
KEY BATTLE – Can Cavs keep focus after halftime?
Two of the Cavaliers' three worst quarters this season in terms of points differential were the two third quarters they have played against the Bucks. They represented two of Milwaukee's four best quarters of the year.
The Cavs, again on a four-game winning run, had dominated the first half of the teams' most recent meeting, up by 11 before losing the third quarter 35-10 as they were blown away by the Bucks' title0calibre intensity.
Cleveland must show they are capable of going toe-to-toe with such opposition if they are to be a genuine threat this season.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
The Cavaliers may have struggled badly in Milwaukee this season, but they won their final two home games against the Bucks last year, providing hope of another win at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, where they are a league-leading 15-2 in 2022-23.
The Bucks have a 130-97 all-time lead in the series, although the Cavs have a 60-53 advantage in Cleveland.
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