by Joe Flacco leads the Browns to the Super Bowl
In the year of the backup quarterback, Flacco’s repeat performance has been a real surprise. Just when it looked like the 38-year-old father of five might have been cooked, he got off the couch to win five of six starts and lead Cleveland to its second playoff berth in 21 years.
Throughout the University of Delaware, the product has looked as elite as in his heyday in Baltimore, where a devastating defense prepared him to reign bombs on the field. With the formula very similar in Cleveland, what’s stopping the former Super Bowl MVP from winning it all again with the Browns?
Consider: Cleveland has already beaten Baltimore, San Francisco and Jacksonville this season and has enough muscle on both sides of the ball to push Kansas City and Miami as well. The Browns were already high on the list of teams no one wanted to play while DeShaun Watson’s other backups were filling in. But with Flacco under center, they are now a serious title contender. Alabama
Gabby Douglas will win Olympic gold (again)
As Simone Biles spectacularly reestablished her dominance this year, another significant gymnastics comeback was quietly in the works. Douglas, the pioneering 2012 Olympic all-around champion, announced this year that she would return in 2024 having not competed since her painful Olympic experience in 2016. Starting over from scratch after an eight-year break from a sport as technical as gymnastics is surprisingly difficult, there will be no margin for error since it returns in an Olympic year and the depth of the US team means that simply making the Olympics is several times more difficult than winning a team medal, where the US will be a great favorite. . Still, Douglas, who turned 28 on Sunday, is a champion, a generational talent in her own right and she knows exactly what it takes to make a team. In 2024 she, she with Biles, she will do it again. T.C.
The Saudis get into the NFL business
The continuous invasion of Public Investment Funds in sport continues at a good pace. So far, sovereign wealth funds have focused most of their attention on European football, boxing and golf. Next on the agenda: The four major US professional sports leagues. Last year, the Qatar Investment Authority became the first Middle Eastern group to dip its toe in the water, buying a 5% stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment for $200 million, the ownership group of the NHL’s Washington Capitals, the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the WNBA’s Washington Wizards. Mystics. The biggest question: Can an investment fund buy its way into the NFL’s old boys’ club? Buying a part of Sundays is complicated. Transactions in the boardrooms of America’s top league tend to have less to do with money and more to do with secret scheming: The league has had only one foreign owner, Shahid Khan, a Pakistan-born company, who is a citizen. naturalized American, who bought the Jaguars in 2012. But how much would it cost Saudi Arabia’s PIF to avoid the typical pats on the back? 8 billion dollars? 10 billion dollars? Both the Saints and Seahawks could be available in the next 12 months, and an ownership group headed by a traditional face (white, old, male, purveyor of a legacy brand) in partnership with a sovereign wealth fund seems inevitable. boss
At least one MLB team will threaten to move cities
In November, Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the A’s move from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2028, a bitter end to arduous negotiations between A’s owners and the city of Oakland. The city’s lease with the A’s home stadium was set to expire in 2024, and owner John Fisher negotiated a deal with Las Vegas that guaranteed more public financing for a new stadium than Oakland was willing to offer. Expect other owners to follow Fisher’s playbook. The Chicago White Sox’s guaranteed rate field lease expires in 2029, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf was seen leaving a meeting with Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell in December. The Milwaukee Brewers were rumored to be looking for a new home before the Wisconsin state legislature passed a $500 million bill to publicly fund their stadium renovations (the city is expected to sign a new contract soon 30-year lease with the equipment).
The stakes are clear: With cities like Nashville and Charlotte expressing interest in hosting Major League Baseball teams (MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated he would like to see a team in Nashville), it is expected that owners demand more public financing from cities for their stadium. Leases close to expiration. IS
Dallas Cowboys hire Bill Belichick
The Hoodie will be the head coach of the Cowboys to begin the 2024 season. The future Hall of Fame coach, who will turn 72 in April, has failed to find success since Tom Brady left New England and will be fired after what has surely been his worst season on the sidelines. Another disappointing finish for Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys will have Jerry Jones looking to make a move. Jones, whose weakness for flashy hires is well-documented, will look to hire from his friend Bill Parcells’ coaching tree and take the hoodie. A six-time Super Bowl champion as a head coach, Belichick will inherit a proven quarterback and a talented roster that can help him catch up to Don Shula and become the league’s all-time winningest coach. Netherlands
Hikaru Nakumura wins world chess championship
Nakamura enters 2024 ranked third in the world and having booked his spot in April’s eight-man candidates tournament to determine the challenger to Ding Liren’s world title in the fall. Ding has made limited appearances due to unspecified health issues since he won the crown vacated by Magnus Carlsen, meaning April’s double round-robin in Toronto may prove harder to win than the world championship match. per se. It says here that Nakamura, at 36 years old and Carlsen having abdicated, is ready for his moment. The five-time US champion, whose primary career is as a streamer with millions of followers, will become the second US champion in the 138-year history of world title matchplay and the first since Bobby Fischer, kicking off a chess boom in America that makes the Queen’s Gambit effect seem quaint. BAG
The NBA will see (another) first-time champion
Yes, the National Basketball Association is a blue blood league. There’s a reason the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics each have 17 championships each over the league’s 77-year history, accounting for roughly half of the NBA’s total Finals wins. Other teams like San Antonio, Golden State, Miami, Philadelphia and Chicago also have multiple rings. But more recently, parody has become a reality in the NBA. Denver won its first Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2023 and we believe this year the league will crown another first-time winner. That means teams like those mentioned above will have to stand on the sidelines as the confetti falls on a new champion. So who could it be? The best bets are Oklahoma City or Minnesota, who are currently atop the Western Conference. But don’t look now: Los Angeles Scissors He could enter the fold with the newly arrived James Harden as the leading man and the recently recovered (knock on wood) Kawhi Leonard and Paul George running on the wings. Yes, anyone can win and we believe they will be a first-time team again in 2024. JU
