Yahoo Sports AM: Bring on the playoffs

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🚨 Headlines

⛳️ Hideki makes history: The PGA Tour season officially kicked off in Hawaii, where Hideki Matsuyama (-35) won The Sentry and set the Tour’s 72-hole scoring record. He had 33 birdies, 2 eagles and 2 bogeys. Ridiculous.

🏈 Pats fire Mayo: Bill Belichick’s replacement lasted just one season in New England. The Patriots fired Jerod Mayo on Sunday after a 4-13 season. Could they have their eyes on Mike Vrabel?

🏒 USA wins it all: Teddy Stiga scored on a breakaway in OT to lift the U.S. past Finland, 4-3, in the world junior hockey championship game and give the Americans their second straight title. “Pure joy for the guys,” said coach David Carle. “I’m really proud. They’ll walk together forever.”

🏀 Raised to the rafters: The Bulls will retire Derrick Rose’s number next season, raising his No. 1 jersey to the rafters alongside Michael Jordan (No. 23), Scottie Pippen (No. 33), Jerry Sloan (No. 4) and Bob Love (No. 10).

🏒 Chasing Gretzky: With nine goals in his last six games, Alex Ovechkin is now 23 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894. What was once thought impossible is now inevitable.

🏈 Bring on the playoffs

Sunday concluded the 2024 NFL regular season, which featured one of the closest MVP races in recent memory, a host of rare statistical milestones and a historic finish last night in Detroit.

The playoffs are set: The final two postseason spots were decided on Sunday, as the Buccaneers clinched the NFC South and the Broncos finally snapped their eight-year playoff drought.

• NFC: The Lions clinched the NFC’s top seed for the first time ever with a 31-9 blowout win over the Vikings — the first season finale since 1993 in which the winner earned the No. 1 seed, and the first regular-season game in NFL history between 14-win teams.

• AFC: The path to the Super Bowl still runs through Kansas City. The Chiefs are seeking their third straight title after earning the No. 1 seed for the fourth time in seven seasons with Patrick Mahomes under center.

Title odds: The Lions are the favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy (+280 at BetMGM), followed by the Chiefs (+350), Ravens (+600), Bills (+600), Eagles (+700), Vikings (+1600), Packers (+1800), Buccaneers (+3000), Chargers (+3500), Rams (+3500), Commanders (+3500), Broncos (+8000), Texans (+8000) and Steelers (+10000).

An MVP race for the ages: For weeks, it looked like Josh Allen would run away with the award, but Lamar Jackson has not so quietly made a bid for his third MVP after leading the Ravens (12-5) to just one fewer win than Allen’s Bills (13-4).

• Jackson: Baltimore’s dual threat QB is not only the first player with at least 4,000 passing (4,172) and 900 rushing yards (915) in a season, but also the first with 40+ TD (41) and fewer than five INT (4). He added four rushing TDs and posted a career-high 119.6 passer rating.

• Allen: Buffalo’s signal-caller sat Sunday’s game, ending the year with 3,731 yards, 28 TD and 6 INT, plus 531 rushing yards and 12 scores on the ground. While Jackson has better numbers, it’s important to note that Allen sat roughly 11 quarters this season with the game (or playoff spot) already in hand.

Honorable mention: Saquon Barkley, who also rested on Sunday, became the ninth member of the 2,000 yard club; Joe Burrow led the league in passing yards (4,918) and TD (43).

Season in review:

• Rodgers’ last stand? Aaron Rodgers’ future, as both a Jet and in the NFL, is up in the air. If Sunday was his swan song it was quite a coda: He posted his first 4 TD game since 2021 and became the fifth QB in NFL history with 500 career TD passes.

• Rookie standouts: Jayden Daniels became the third rookie QB to win 12 games; Brock Bowers (112 catches) and Malik Nabers (109) both broke the previous record for receptions by a rookie; Jared Verse is the DROY favorite after earning the Rams’ only Pro Bowl spot.

• Fantasy football awards: Ja’Marr Chase’s Triple Crown (127 catches, 1,708 yards, 17 TD) earned him Yahoo Sports Fantasy MVP. Other superlatives include Bucs RB Bucky Irving as the best waiver add and Jets RB Breece Hall as the biggest bust.

• Playoff droughts: While the Broncos are finally back in the playoffs, the same can’t be said for the Jets (14 years), Falcons (seven) or Panthers (seven), who now own the NFL’s longest active droughts.

• Race to the bottom: The Titans (3-13) clinched the No. 1 draft pick with their worst season since 2015. The Browns, Giants, Patriots and Jaguars round out of the top five.

Plus… Plenty of players earned some extra cash this weekend after hitting their contract incentives, including Mike Evans ($3M for 1,000 yards), Geno Smith ($6M for reaching career highs in passing yards and completion rate, and winning 10 games) and Zach Ertz ($750,000 for getting to 60 catches, 600 yards and 6 TD, all of which he reached on Sunday).

🏀 Wemby at 100 games: What are we witnessing?

Victor Wembanyama played his 100th NBA game on Friday and turned 21 on Saturday, providing a perfect opportunity for our NBA experts to take stock of the young phenom’s career and explore his ultimate ceiling.

1. Score from 0 to 100: What grade would you give Wembanyama at the 100-game mark?

99. Like the greats, he’s exceeded great expectations. At 7-foot-5 — don’t give me that 7-foot-3 nonsense — Wemby warps the game in ways we’ve never seen at his age. If he’s this good at 21, I shudder to think what he’ll be at 31. A playoff visit with this roster will bump this up to a 100.

— Tom Haberstroh

2. What has been his most impressive feat so far?

It is not just that Wembanyama is the leading candidate for DPOY. He is the best defensive player in the league by a wide margin. The numbers back it up. His length changes the shape of the floor. We can reasonably assume he will submit the greatest defensive season ever at some point in the near future, and then keep topping it for the remainder of the decade.

— Ben Rohrbach

3. True or false: He’s already a top-10 player in the NBA.

True. We’re no longer in a world where we can assume Steph, KD and LeBron are automatically installed in the top 10. Perhaps they live on the back end, but the transition is here. Big Slim might be a top-five player, knocking on the Jokić/SGA/Luka door because he affects the game in so many profound ways.

— Vincent Goodwill

4. What is Wemby’s ultimate ceiling in the NBA?

The Kareem comparison is one I’ve liked for a while, even if their playing styles differ significantly. The overall imprint on a game is similar, only with Wembanyama being able to stretch the floor, and thus incorporate himself into the new age NBA. The greats are always evaluated on winning, and we’re seeing a player here who could win multiple championships, multiple MVPs and lock down DPOY for a decade. We can’t shy away from it: His ultimate ceiling is GOAT territory.

— Morten Stig Jensen

🤯 Consider this… Wembanyama had more points in his first 100 NBA games than LeBron James, more threes than Steph Curry, more rebounds than Anthony Davis and more blocks than Shaquille O’Neal.

📸 Pics du jour

Washington, D.C. — Magic Johnson was one of 19 people to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Saturday in a ceremony at the White House. Among the other recipients: Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi and Orioles owner David Rubenstein.

Chicago, Illinois — Wrigley Field turned into an ice rink for this weekend’s “Frozen Confines” event, which saw thousands of fans brave frigid temperatures to catch a pair of Big Ten hockey doubleheaders at the iconic ballpark.

Sydney, Australia — The U.S. defeated Poland on Sunday to win the third annual United Cup. Coco Gauff began the day in style with a 6-4, 6-4 win over world No. 2 Iga Świątek before Taylor Fritz beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) to clinch the title.

London, England — Luke Littler, the most famous 17-year-old in Britain, is also now the youngest world champion in the history of darts. He knocked off three-time champ Michael van Gerwen on Friday to hoist the trophy and take home a $620,000 check.

🌊 Is this the biggest wave ever surfed?

On Christmas Eve, American surfer Alessandro Slebir rode a wave at Mavericks Beach in Half Moon Bay, California, that was estimated to be 108 feet tall, which would be a world record.

Biggest wave ever? If confirmed, Slebir would break the current Guinness World Record of 86 feet, set by German surfer Sebastian Steudtner in Nazaré, Portugal, in 2020. But officially verifying the wave’s height is no easy task.

From the Los Angeles Times:

For all of their ferocity, big waves are among the most ephemeral phenomena in all of sports — they’re almost impossible to precisely rank. Once a year, a “conclave of [experts]” get together in a closed room and study photos and videos submitted by surfers from around the world in an effort to determine who rode the biggest wave captured on film.

Submissions can come from anywhere, but the most common spots are Half Moon Bay, home to the mighty break known as Mavericks; the North Shore of Maui, home to a crushing wave known as Jaws; and Nazaré, where an underwater canyon funnels huge winter swells directly onto shore in an otherwise nondescript fishing village.

How do you reliably measure a wave? It took 18 months to finalize Steudtner’s wave height, and Slebir’s ride will undergo a similarly meticulous process that includes a detailed measurement of both Slebir (height when crouched down, etc) and the wave itself. Where, exactly, does the flat water in front of the wave end and the upward slope begin?

The last word: Slebir doesn’t seem too concerned with records or fame. “For me, I’m happy to have ridden the biggest wave of my life,” said the 23-year-old, who grew up about an hour south of Mavericks. “I’ll let other people decide what size it was.”

✍️ Extra points

🇺🇸 America loves football: The NFL accounted for 72 of the 100 most-watched U.S. TV broadcasts of 2024, per Sportico. That’s down from 93 last year, but is right in line with the 71 spots the league claimed during the last presidential election year (2020).

🤑 Pickleball pays: The average pay of the ~60 women in the top two pickleball leagues (which have since merged) was $260,000 in 2024, per CNBC. That’s more than double the average NWSL salary and would be the highest salary in the WNBA.

🎓 Realignment ridiculousness: Northern Illinois is set to move to the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member in 2026. That’s right: A school outside Chicago will soon be in the same league as a school in Hawaii. 10-hour flight!

🏈 GIF of the weekend: Bryce “Steph Curry” Young was feeling himself on Sunday. I believe this is what the youths call “aura.”

💔 Miss you, Stu: Saturday marked 10 years since Stuart Scott passed away. His voice will forever be synonymous with peak ESPN, when we often learned outcomes of games via “SportsCenter” highlights. Here’s his call of Kobe’s 81-point night. Both gone way too soon…

🔗 Mystery link: Watch this (just trust me)

📺 Watchlist: FCS title game

No. 1 Montana State and No. 3 North Dakota State face off tonight (7pm ET, ESPN) in Frisco, Texas, for the FCS national championship.*

Head-to-head: The third-seeded Bison are seeking their record 10th FCS national championship (all since 2011), while the top-seeded Bobcats are seeking their second — and first since 1984.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Suns at 76ers (7pm, NBA); Heat at Kings (10pm, NBA)

• 🏀 NCAAM: Wisconsin at Rutgers (7pm, FS1); TCU at No. 14 Houston (9pm, ESPN2)

• 🏒 NHL: Capitals at Sabres (7pm, NHL)

• ⚽️ EPL: Wolves vs. Nottingham Forest (3pm, USA)

*Revenge game: NDSU has knocked Montana State out of the playoffs four times in the past six years, including beating them in the 2022 title game. Can the Bobcats get revenge and claim their first title in 40 years, or will we see another Bison coronation?

🏈 CFP trivia

Four teams remain in the College Football Playoff: No. 5 Texas, No. 6 Penn State, No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 8 Ohio State.

Question: Rank those programs by most national championships in the Poll Era (1936-present).

Answer at the bottom.

🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Top 13 plays of the weekend

1. 🏈 How did he catch this?!

2. 🏀 Off the glass!

3. 🏀 Circus shot of the year

4. 🏒 Filthy finish by Knies

5. 🏈 Quentin hauls it in

6. 🏒 Through the legs!

7. 🥍 Incredible goal

8. 🏈 Bears to the house!

9. 🏀 Scoop shot finish

10. 🏀 Lobos at the buzzer

11. 🏈 Big man INT!

12. 🏈 Ja’Marr is incredible

13. 🏀 DeMar goes reverse

Watch all 13.

Trivia answer: Notre Dame (8), Ohio State (6), Texas (4), Penn State (2)

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