It took more than four quarters, but the Minnesota Vikings stunned the New Orleans Saints with a 26-20 wild-card play-off victory on Sunday.

When the eerie Foxborough fog lifted, it became clear that New England’s reign atop the NFL was ending.

The Dallas Cowboys looked set to snatch a last-gasp win at the Minnesota Vikings but were unable to close out the game.

The Green Bay Packers had the ball in field goal range, on the cusp of breaking a fourth-quarter tie, when Patriots lineman Lawrence Guy knocked the ball out of Aaron Jones’ grasp.

Young quarterbacks have always had a tough time winning in Gillette Stadium during the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady era.

Buffalo Bills corner back Vontae Davis retired at half-time in Sunday’s defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers before admitting: “Reality hit me hard.”

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl in search of a sixth title and will face a Philadelphia Eagles team looking for their first Lombardi Trophy.

Who’d be a sports administrator, wonders Michael Moynihan

Sensational!

Tom Brady piloted Super Bowl champions New England to the winning touchdown with 56 seconds left on Sunday as the Patriots clinched the AFC East with a gut-wrenching 27-24 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Georgia Dome, the stadium in Atlanta that hosted 1996 Olympic events and which was the venue for two Super Bowls, has been reduced to rubble in an implosion.

Rookie kicker Younghoe Koo missed a last-gasp field goal for the second successive game as the Los Angeles Chargers lost their home opener 19-17 to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

In the end, I suppose we’ll all be happy if the result is a repeat, writes Liam Mackey.

Welcome to 2017. Already it’s better than last year simply because it’s not 2016, even if some of you are probably still a little fragile this morning.

The Minnesota Vikings continued their perfect start to the NFL season last night with a 24-10 victory over the New York Giants.

Aaron Rodgers has two NFL MVP awards and one Super Bowl ring, and he’s in his ninth season as the starter for Green Bay. Sam Bradford was never on a winning team over his first six years in the league. He had 15 days to learn Minnesota’s offence, then lost his Hall of Fame calibre running back to injury in the third quarter.

A curse or simply not good enough? Whatever your point of view, there’s no denying Mayo’s place in the pantheon of greatest bridesmaids. John Fogarty selects a disappointing dozen of the worst performing final teams in the history of sport...

Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo did not miss a beat as he stepped in for the suspended Tom Brady in his first NFL start and led the New England Patriots to a 23-21 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Tom Brady threw for two fourth-quarter touchdowns and notched a career rushing first, leading New England to a 30-23 win over the New York Jets that kept the Patriots unbeaten this NFL season.

Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin has been sacked in the aftermath of their Wembley loss to AFC East rivals the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon.

The Dallas Cowboys blew a 21-0 lead before rallying to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-27 and move to 10-4, one game ahead of Philadelphia at the top of the NFC East standings.

Andrew Luck enjoyed a landmark day as the Indianapolis Colts beat the Washington Redskins 49-27 on Sunday.

US federal agents conducted surprise inspections of National Football League team doctors and trainers on Sunday as part of an ongoing probe into painkiller drug abuse, the US media reported on Sunday.

Tom Brady won the battle of the marquee quarterbacks over Peyton Manning, while the Arizona Cardinals knocked off the Dallas Cowboys to claim the NFC’s best record.

Menelik Watson admits he can scarcely believe that his journey has taken him from Longsight in Manchester to one of the NFL’s most storied franchises.

Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer became the latest NFL player this week to be sidelined by his team due to off-field legal issues.

Minnesota Vikings have announced that running back Adrian Peterson has been suspended indefinitely from all team activities amid his child abuse case.

Minnesota Vikings have announced that running back Adrian Peterson has been suspended indefinitely from all team activities amid his child abuse case.

An embattled NFL, reeling from off-field brutality issues, received more bad news with numerous injuries to key players in the second week of an already tumultuous campaign.

This has been the NFL’s worst week.

American football player Adrian Peterson has been indicted in Texas on a charge of child abuse after using a branch to discipline his son.

Baltimore Ravens have released running back Ray Rice hours after a shocking video surfaced showing the NFL star punching his then-fiancee.

The NFL play-off picture was completed on Sunday with a dramatic final series of regular season games delivering big results for the Green Bay Packers, the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Diego Chargers.

The NFL couldn’t have scripted it much better heading into the last week of the regular season.

Conor McGregor’s up-and-down year in MMA made him Ireland’s most googled sports personality, edging out Gareth Bale and the worldwide clicks leader, Oscar Pistorius.

The Green Bay Packers needed their biggest comeback in history on Sunday to somehow keep their play-off hopes alive ahead of the long-awaited return of Aaron Rodgers from injury.

In the small hours of Monday morning, just south of a bitterly cold Boston, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots finally overcame the Denver Broncos in an instant NFL classic that provided almost everything.

After a rip-roaring start to the season, the Kansas City Chiefs finally fell to their first defeat in the NFL this year, losing an absorbing clash by ten points at the home of Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos on Sunday.

Even weary fans of the Dallas Cowboys could not have imagined how they would succumb to their nightmare defeat by the Detroit Lions when apparently in control of their NFC clash in Motown on Sunday.

The New England Patriots claimed their 10th consecutive NFL season-opening win when Stephen Gostkowski hit a 35-yard field goal with five seconds left to beat the Buffalo Bills 23-21.