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Conference championships set with familiar faces, new arrivals

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are back in the AFC championship game for a sixth straight season and probably taking Taylor Swift with them along with Travis Kelce’s older, shirtless brother. Dan Campbell has the Detroit Lions one win away from the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance after securing a spot in the NFC title game on the three-year anniversary of his teeth-kicking, kneecap-biting introductory news conference. The Chiefs and Lions advanced with tough, down-to-the-wire victories on Sunday. Both teams moved on to face the No. 1 seed in their conference: ...

O’Brien will return to PSU — with Bucks

Some Penn State related notes while the NFL takes center stage: There is no offseason in college football anymore with personnel movement 12 months a year. One of those moves happened Thursday night when news broke that former Nittany Lion head coach Bill O’Brien would be returning to Beaver Stadium next season — as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator. After the NCAA sanctions in 2012, when he went 8-4, was the national coach of the year and posted a two-year record of 15-9 before leaving for the Houston Texans, O’Brien should be credited with saving the Penn State program. ...

Hot Stove season brings plenty of excitement

Notes and observations from Major League Baseball as a very interesting Hot Stove offseason heats up: The 2023-24 offseason is shaping up as one of the most intriguing in quite awhile, for numerous reasons. The Dodgers broke the bank, spending over a billion dollars in total so far and signing the plum of this year’s free-agent market, pitcher-designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, to a 10-year, $700 million contract in December. Even though Ohtani had arm surgery and won’t be pitching this season, his acquisition is the coup of the offseason and was followed shortly thereafter by ...

Frye’s work good enough to earn top coaching award

In addition to leading his u-16 FC814 girls Team Energy to a championship in the Great Lakes Conference National Classic League, winning the PAWest u-15 girls state championship, and being a finalist in the national President’s Cup Tournament, coach Marc Frye was recently chosen by the PAWest Soccer Association as the Classic Girls Coach of the Year. He will receive the honor at its annual banquet on Feb. 3. “This is a team award as much as an individual award,’’ Frye said. “Without the success of the girls’ efforts you don’t get this award. The girls had to win the ...

Rudel: How about Franklin for commissioner?

James Franklin thinks college football needs a commissioner, and I think James Franklin would be perfect. I’m serious. I know this will be taken as a disguised way to move on from him as the Nittany Lions’ coach, but it’s not. In terms of confidence in him leading the program to a national championship, there’s no question his big-game performances have frustrated the fan base, but also know this: Penn State could do a lot worse and, in many ways, Franklin would be difficult to replace. Franklin has provided excellent recruiting, his team has represented itself well in the ...

Tiger, Nike was partnership for a lifetime, until it wasn’t

KAPALUA, Hawaii — The red shirt on Sunday came to identify Tiger Woods. So did the swoosh. Woods and Nike were partners from the time he stepped to a podium at the Greater Milwaukee Open in August 1996, a 20-year-old fresh off his unprecedented third straight U.S. Amateur title. With a swoosh on his striped shirt, he gazed at the room and said, “I guess, hello world, huh?” It all sounded so innocent until Nike launched its “Hello, World” campaign a few days later. That wasn’t put together overnight, but so what? It worked. Just about everything did when it came to ...