NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport floated two veterans who could compete for the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback job in 2025.
The Browns and Deshaun Watson restructured the quarterback’s contract on Friday to create cap flexibility for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, according to multiple reports. It also made it so that Watson, who signed a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract in 2022, will be back in Cleveland next season.
But whether he enters Week 1 as QB1 is still up in the air. Rapoport said Sunday there might be a competition held.
"I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s veteran competition. Aaron Rodgers, if he’s not on the Jets, would be one potential option, Kirk Cousins another," Rapoport said.
Rapoport added that Rodgers’ future with the New York Jets could hinge on whether they trade Garrett Wilson. He said that Wilson might want off the Jets if Rodgers is brought back for the 2025 season.
Rodgers’ short stint with the Jets has been nothing but tumultuous. He has 3,511 passing yards and 24 touchdown passes this year.
Cousins’ time with the Atlanta Falcons appeared to be over as well. The team replaced Cousins with Michael Penix Jr. following a narrow victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. Cousins went on a streak of zero touchdown passes and eight interceptions over the course of four games.
Cleveland will have some options at quarterback. They could choose to go the rookie quarterback route, since they will likely have a high draft pick in 2025.
Going into Week 17, the Browns are currently fourth in the draft order.
New England Patriots fans seem to have had enough of Jerod Mayo as the head coach’s first season at the helm winds down.
Reporters in Foxborough, Massachusetts, who took in the Patriots’ 40-7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night heard "Fire Mayo" chants coming from the stands at Gillette Stadium.
New England fell to 3-13 with the loss. If the Patriots lose next week, three wins would be their lowest total since they finished 2-14 in 1992. The team was 4-13 last season – the last year Bill Belichick was at the helm. Mayo took over for Belichick in January.
Mayo was asked about the chants after the game.
"You hear those things. But at the same time, they paid to sit in the seats, and we've got to play better," Mayo told reporters, via ESPN. "If we play better, we don't have to hear that stuff."
The offense has been among the heavily scrutinized issues for the Patriots.
Patriots president Jonathan Kraft appeared to get caught on camera complaining about the play-calling during the team’s loss against the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago. The offense hasn’t gotten much better since then.
Behind rookie quarterback Drake Maye, the Patriots are 30th in the league in points scored and 31st in yards gained. Mayo’s defense is 25th in points allowed and 23rd in yards allowed.
Deatrich Wise Jr., who has been with the Patriots since 2017, and Davon Godchaux each backed Mayo after the loss to the Chargers.
Wise said he thought he and his teammates should keep believing in Mayo.
"The guy's in his first season. It's not going to be golden. We didn't expect to win a Super Bowl this year. I get it, nobody wants to get beaten 40-7, but the chant is ridiculous," Godchaux added.
"Everybody plays a part in this. It isn't just Jerod Mayo. Players, coaches, front office. We just have to get better as a whole organization," he said. "I believe in this organization.
"We just had probably the best team in the NFL right now on the ropes last week [in Buffalo]. I don't believe in all that other ridiculous stuff. The guy is in his first year. It's just ridiculous."
The Lakers have agreed to trade D'Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks to the Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton, sources told ESPN.
“Why should guys have all the fun ... It’s my way of celebrating the next chapter of my life. Women deserve to buy themselves something fabulous," the model told People.
The BYU Cougars picked up a huge season-ending win over the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday night, thwarting the perfect sendoff for Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter.
The Cougars blew out the Buffaloes in the Alamo Bowl, 36-14. BYU running back L.J. Martin had two touchdowns to go with 93 rushing yards, and Sione I Moa added another score on the ground to help BYU to the win.
College football fans who tuned into the ESPN broadcast of the game got pretty upset with the spotlight being heavily on Colorado, and they made their voices heard on social media.
BYU offensive lineman Connor Pay even told the broadcasters to talk more about the team, according to broadcaster Dave Pasch.
"He walked up out there (the production meeting) yesterday and said to us, ‘Talk about BYU just a little bit, would you?’ Well, we’re talking about Connor Pay, and we’re talking about BYU now," Pasch said in the fourth quarter with the Cougars up 33-7, via Awful Announcing. "I'm sure the fans in Provo would love us to talk about BYU the whole night."
Pasch’s broadcast partner Dusty Dvoracek added that BYU "gave us plenty to talk about."
For what it’s worth, Colorado’s Sanders and Hunter are set to become first-round picks in the upcoming draft. Not to mention, Deion Sanders is the head coach of Colorado and has rebuilt the program into one of the most captivating in the nation.
Sanders said it was "tough" knowing that some of the players he’s been coaching for the last two or three years are going to be leaving his side for the next part of their journeys.
BYU finished the season 11-2, producing their third 10-win season in the last five years. They haven’t had a run like that since the mid-2000s when they won at least 10 games from 2006 to 2009 and then again in 2011.
Kalani Sitake had the team go from a meager five wins in their first season in the Big 12 Conference last year to 11 wins and a bowl appearance.
Sitake is 5-2 in bowl games since taking over the program in 2016.
Elon Musk threw his support behind Germany's far-right AfD party.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File
Elon Musk again came out in support of Germany's far-right party, Alternative for Germany.
In an op-ed in a German newspaper, Musk praised the party's stance on immigration and regulation.
Germany is holding elections in February.
Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, has reaffirmed his support for Germany's far-right party.
In an op-ed for a major German newspaper, Musk called the Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, the "last spark of hope for this country." He praised its stances on immigration and government regulation, among others.
"The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy that gives priority to integration and the preservation of German culture and security. This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalization," Musk wrote. "A nation must preserve its core values and cultural heritage to remain strong and united."
The Welt am Sonntag newspaper published the op-ed on Saturdayalongside an opposing op-ed written by Welt's editor in chief for television. The newspaper's opinion editor resigned in response, citing the publication of Musk's piece. Welt am Sonntag and Business Insider are both owned by Axel Springer SE.
Germany is holding elections in February after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence earlier this month, paving the way for snap elections. Long a fringe political party, the AfD has been gaining popularity in Germany with its anti-immigration platform.
Musk said in his opinion piece that the party "resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are being ignored by the establishment," adding that the "portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false."
He also praised the party for supporting tax cuts and economic deregulation, and he called for a more balanced energy approach that includes nuclear energy.
"As someone who has made significant investments in Germany's industrial and technological landscape, I believe I have the right to speak openly about his political orientation," Musk wrote.
After publishing the op-ed, Musk reposted a series of comments on X, his social media platform, that also praised AfD. One post accused Europe and the United States of overusing the label "far-right."
Last week, Musk called Scholz an "incompetent fool," adding that the chancellor should resign following an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg that left five people dead. Musk shared a post on X suggesting that the attack was a result of immigration. Police identified the suspect in custody as a Saudi citizen who sought political asylum in Germany.
"We have freedom of opinion — it also goes for multibillionaires, but freedom of opinion also means that you can say things that aren't right and don't contain good political advice," Scholz said in response, according to the Associated Press.
Editor's Note: Business Insider is owned by Axel Springer, which also owns the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
The author's kids (not pictured) are experiencing a different Disney World compared to his as a kid.
Handout/Getty Images
I loved going to Disney World as a kid, experiencing the freedom of the parks.
Now that I bring my kids, we feel bogged down by apps, crowds, and restrictions.
My kids don't know what they're missing, but the parks have changed so much for me.
Visiting Disney World was an annual experience of my youth. For decades, my family would spend a long October weekend at the Fort Wilderness camping resort. We'd run around the parks and skip through the numerous resorts and restaurants sprinkled throughout the Lake Buena Vista campus.
The Disney parks somehow felt futuristic and cutting-edge while also being nostalgic and magical. The trips made such an impression that I still find myself every September doing house chores with the animated "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" playing in the background or watching YouTube videos of park workers setting up the fall decorations.
So when my wife and I started taking our boys to the parks, I fell into the nostalgia trap of hoping their experiences would be just like mine. Time and economics had other plans.
A Disney trip requires too much planning now
I never appreciated the high level of planning it takes to visit a theme park until I became a parent. Ride line length and bad weather were my only concerns as a kid — with some minor concerns about food.
But as a parent, I find myself overwhelmed by the sheer number of pre-visit requirements.
When you take pride in your theme park survival knowledge, nothing will humble you faster than trying to navigate the Dos and Don'ts of visiting a Disney park in the 21st century. Visiting a park these days requires weeks of planning, constant communication with everyone traveling in your group, and downloading phone apps just to enjoy certain parts of the park.
Further complications include things like Lightning Lane passes, blackout dates, rope drops, ride reservations, and premium annual passes — all things I never had to think about that have since become standard operating procedures for park visits.
My favorite part of visiting the Magic Kingdom used to be seeing the castle once I got through the front gate. Now, it's the bar stool at the resort because it doesn't require a reservation (yet).
I wish my kids get to be more free at the parks like I was
In addition to the annual October visits, I frequently visited the parks through school field trips or group events like Grad Nite. I have memories of racing through the parks with my friends, sprinting from ride to attraction with minimal crowds to slow us down, feeling like those feral kids from "Pinocchio" before they got turned into donkeys.
The sheer volume of the Disney park crowds these days makes that notion impossible. Our boys have fewer opportunities to behave like wild, unaccompanied minors.
This reality doesn't bother me too much, especially since I get the feeling park security would be less tolerant of unaccompanied minors than when I was a kid.
Thankfully, my kids don't care
Of course, none of these differences mean anything to my kids. I have no idea how they really feel about visiting the parks, but I know they enjoy it, and I'm getting better at letting them have their own life experiences without comparing them to mine.
That's fine because those comparisons didn't matter to me as a kid, either. Historians refer to the 1970s and 1980s as Disney's Dark Age, the years when the company produced some of its darkest films and the parks were not the IP-heavy juggernauts of today. But that didn't matter to a late-stage Generation X kid who watched "Robin Hood" and "Winnie the Pooh" until the VCR ate the tapes.
Visiting the parks felt like stepping into a pocket dimension where all the lands and characters showcased by Disney could be seen and touched. The Disney I experienced was the correct Disney, just as the Disney my boys currently experience is also the correct Disney.
Plus, I can feel them rolling their eyes whenever we talk about how much the parks have changed since we were kids.
Penn State coach James Franklin says with the new landscape of NIL and the transfer portal, college football needs a commissioner and the man for that job is Nick Saban.
The Indianapolis Colts (7-8) visit the New York Giants (2-13) this Sunday in a Week 17 matchup that carries significant playoff implications for Indianapolis.
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