Drake Maye vs. Sam Darnold. Two stingy defenses. A second-year head coach vs. a veteran coach in his second act. Super Bowl 60 is set and it’s a rematch: The New England Patriots vs. the Seattle Seahawks. The Patriots will seek their NFL-record seventh Super Bowl victory when they face the Seahawks on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Led by Maye, coach Mike Vrabel and a stifling defense, the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl for the first time since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their sixth ring together seven years ago.
SEATTLE (AP) — Sam Darnold threw for three touchdowns, the Seahawks’ “Dark Side” defense came up with a critical fourth-down stop, and Seattle advanced to the Super Bowl, beating the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 in an electrifying NFC championship game. Led by second-year coach Mike Macdonald and Darnold, the Seahawks reached the fourth Super Bowl in franchise history and first in 11 years. Seattle lost that most recent appearance to New England, and the Patriots will again be the Seahawks' opponent in two weeks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Matthew Stafford threw for 374 yards and three touchdowns for the Rams, but the Seahawks broke up his pass to the end zone on fourth-and-4 late in the fourth quarter.
DENVER (AP) — Drake Maye scored New England’s only touchdown on a 6-yard keeper, propelling the Patriots to their 12th Super Bowl with a 10-7 win over the Denver Broncos. Christian Gonzalez intercepted Jarrett Stidham at the New England 36 with 2:11 remaining and the Patriots iced their first playoff win in Denver when Maye ran for 7 yards on third-and-5 from his 41. The Patriots will face the Seattle Seahawls in the Super Bowl. In Mike Vrabel’s first season as coach, New England became the third team in the Super Bowl era to win a conference championship with 10 points or less. The Broncos finished one step shy of fulfilling Sean Payton’s preseason prediction of a trip to Super Bowl 60.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors have returned to the court after their game was postponed following the fatal shooting of a man in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was clearly and deeply moved by the situation as he expressed on behalf of the organization his heartbreak for the community’s collective fear and pain from the ongoing crackdown. The Timberwolves held a moment of silence for Alex Pretti prior to the national anthem. Warriors coach Steve Kerr also shared his sadness and said he felt a “pall that's been cast over the city.”
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Defending champion Madison Keys has been knocked out of the Australian Open by Jessica Pegula in an all-American fourth-round match. The sixth-seeded Pegula next faces another American after fourth-seeded Amanda Anisimova made it to the quarterfinals for the first time. Pegula beat her good friend and podcast co-host 6-3, 6-4. Keys was defending a major title for the first time after making her Grand Slam breakthrough here last year. Anisimova advanced 7-6, 6-4 over Wang Xinyu as the temperature started to rise at Melbourne Park.
One minute, it was Jessica Pegula eliminating Madison Keys, the defending champion at the Australian Open, from the tournament. The next minute on Monday it was Keys promising to cheer on sixth-seeded Pegula, who will face another American, fourth-seeded Amanda Anisimova, in the quarterfinals. The Grand Slam Keys won a year ago was her first, which brings some peace even in defeat. At least she has one as she turns 31 next month. Pegula, on the other hand, has yet to win one.
DENVER (AP) — Sean Payton says he'll have second thoughts about his decision to pass up an easy field goal, as well as the play he called instead. The Denver Broncos and their fans now have the entire offseason to argue over which part of that critical fourth-and-1 play was worse. Payton decided not to kick a chip-shot field goal for a 10-0 lead in good weather in the first half of Sunday’s AFC championship game against the New England Patriots. As a result, the Broncos ended up needing to make a kick once the blowing snow and wind rolled in after halftime. The decision played an integral role in Denver’s 10-7 loss.
LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler starts the new season looking every bit the player who dominated the PGA Tour a year ago. He closed with a 66 at The American Express to blow past 18-year-old Blades Brown and everyone else. Scheffler now has 20 wins on the PGA Tour to give him lifetime membership. He joins Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to have 20 wins and four majors before turning 30. Scheffler now has nine wins by at least four shots. Brown fell apart with a double bogey on the fifth hole. He shot 74 and tied for 18th.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The NBA has postponed games in Memphis and Milwaukee because of a massive winter storm that is creating dangerous travel conditions across much of the U.S. The Dallas Mavericks tried twice to fly to Milwaukee for their Sunday night game against the Bucks, but conditions didn’t allow it. A decision to postpone was announced a few hours before tipoff. Earlier Sunday, a game between the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies was postponed about three hours before tipoff. Reschedule dates were not announced. The league also changed the start times for two games on Monday.
F1 starts a new era with the public and the media excluded from its private testing session in Spain starting Monday. It’s hard to imagine a bigger contrast to last year’s lavish launch party that involved 16,000 fans and famous faces in London. F1 has an 11th team this year as Cadillac makes its debut. Only 10 will be in Spain after Williams hit delays. It’ll be hard to gauge who’s got a head start on F1’s new regulations. The second test in Bahrain next month is when the focus switches to performance.
Finals
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Final Colorado 4 Toronto 1
Final Seattle 4 New Jersey 2
Final Ottawa 7 Vegas 1
Final Pittsburgh 3 Vancouver 2
Final Florida 5 Chicago 1
Final OT Anaheim 4 Calgary 3
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Final New England 10 Denver 7
Final Seattle 31 L.A. Rams 27