— Turns out that Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen played his last four games with a broken bone in his right foot; he is expected to be healthy for Buffalo’s spring workouts. Allen threw for 3,668 yards and 25 TD’s this year.
Buffalo scored 12-35-27-30 points in splitting their last four games, with Allen playing hurt.
— NFL Films has always done a good job with the Hard Knocks series on HBO; an interesting show for next year would be a peak inside the Hall of Fame voting, which is controversial this year because Bill Belichick didn’t get voted in.
— Philadelphia Eagles named former NFL QB Sean Mannion their new OC; he played in the NFL as recently as 2021, was an assistant with Green Bay the last two years, after playing six years in the NFL, for the Rams/Vikings.
— Speaking of which, Vikings fired their GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Friday; he had been the GM in Minnesota for four years, when the Vikings went 43-27, 0-2 in playoff games.
Last year, Minnesota went 14-3 with Darnold at QB, lost in the first round of the playoffs, and they let him walk; this year, Darnold has led Seattle to the Super Bowl, which apparently didn’t sit well with the Vikings, so now they need a new GM.
— Atlanta Falcons hired Ian Cunningham as their new general manager; he spent the last four years working with the Bears, and for five years before that, he worked in the Eagles’ front office.
— Baltimore Ravens hired 29-year old Declan Doyle as their new offensive coordinator; he’s the same age as Lamar Jackson. Doyle worked for the Bears last year, after previous jobs with the Broncos and New Orleans.
— Next week’s Super Bowl has two QBs who haven’t played in a Super Bowl, and two head coaches who haven’t coached in a Super Bowl. Last time that happened was 12 years ago, when the Harbaugh brothers coached against each other, with Joe Flacco leading the Ravens to a 34-31 win over Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers.
— Famous birthdays, January 31st
Nolan Ryan, 79
Bob Apodaca, 76
Anthony LaPaglia, 67
Kelly Lynch, 67
Rod Higgins, 66
Minnie Driver, 56
Justin Timberlake, 45
Cole Irvin, 32
Donte DiVincenzo, 29
Zach Neto, 25
Missed a birthday yesterday; Michigan State hoop coach Tom Izzo turned 71.
— Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s signed SS Jacob Wilson to a 7-year, $70M contract extension, as the teams solidifies its nucleus two years before moving to Las Vegas.
Wilson hit .311 in 125 games for the A’s last year, with an OPS of .800.
— Minnesota Twins fired Derek Falvey, the team’s president of baseball and business operations (technically, they “mutually parted ways”). Falvey had been with the Twins since he was hired to run baseball operations in 2016.
Twins have a new primary owner now, so Falvey hits the bricks; under Falvey, Minnesota made the postseason four times, and in 2023, they won their first postseason series in 21 years with a Wild Card Series win against Toronto.
— Last four years for free agent IF Luis Arraez:
2022- hit .316 for the Twins, won a batting title
2023- hit .354 for the Marlins, won a batting title
2024- hit .314 for Marlins/Padres, won his 3rd straight batting title
2025- hit .292 with a .719 OPS for the Padres
Arraez is a 28-year old free agent; no one seems to want him. Why?
Colorado seemed like a logical landing spot, but the guy who was the Jonah Hill character in Moneyball runs the Rockies now, and Arraez doesn’t walk a lot, so that seems like a no-go.
Very curious to see where he winds up.
— Milwaukee Bucks are 3-13 this season without Giannis Antetokounmpo; he is also the only player on their team who was a first round draft pick. NBA trade deadline is Thursday; lot of people expect Milwaukee to trade him to a contender.
— At age 41, Lebron James is still the 14th highest-paid player in the NBA, making $52,627,153 this season.
— Michigan 83, Michigan State 71
Wolverines led by 18 late in first half.
State led 59-57 with 6:55 left in the game.
Yaxel Lendeborg scored 26 points, grabbed 12 rebounds for Michigan.
— VCU 89, Loyola Chi 75
Loyola led 24-9 early on.
VCU’s subs outscored Loyola’s bench, 51-15
Rams have won five in row, nine of last 11 games.
— Fairfield 71, Iona 70
Stags win in New Rochelle for first time since 2007.
Fairfield had 21 offensive boards, out-rebounded Gaels 42-31.
Braden Sparks shot 5-12 on arc, scored 27 points.
— Villanova 87, Providence 73
Villanova shot 13-29 on arc, scored 1.27 ppp.
Wildcats led 45-28 at halftime.
Providence has lost seven of its last eight games.
— Grand Canyon 86, Boise State 69
Antelopes shot 58.8% inside arc, scored 1.30 ppp.
Grand Canyon is 7-3 in its first year in Mountain West.
Loss snaps Boise State’s four-game winning streak.
