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.

Tom Brady tossed four touchdown passes — including two to Rob Gronkowski — as the New England Patriots pushed through injuries and a mistake-filled game for a 35-17 victory over the sliding Miami Dolphins.

Aaron Rodgers threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Devante Adams with 11 seconds left to lift the Green Bay Packers to a 35-31 NFL victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

American players will stand when the national anthem is played ahead of this week’s Presidents Cup, captain Steve Stricker has said.

The Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys sent their own defiant message to United States president Donald Trump before their game on Monday night with a new form of protest.

US president Donald Trump's criticism of American football players who kneel during the national anthem has sparked a mass increase in such protests around the NFL, as about 200 players sat, knelt or raised their fists in defiance.

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.

Myles Garrett was the first overall pick by the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Draft, while three quarterbacks were chosen in the opening 12 selections of a first round.

Pittsburgh Steelers Chairman and former US Ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney died last week aged 84.

A cousin of mine is fond of telling a story from a day in school long ago, when her class was tasked with a question to take home to their parents: what was the most memorable event in their lives?

The Atlanta Falcons are going to the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history after they thrashed the Green Bay Packers 44-21 in the NFC Championship game.

Mason Crosby's last-gasp 51-yard field goal steered the in-form Green Bay Packers into the NFC Championship game courtesy of a dramatic 34-31 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

There will be a familiar feel to the NFL playoffs next weekend: Every divisional-round game will be a rematch from the regular season, the first time that’s happened in six years.

The Pittsburgh Steelers trounced the Miami Dolphins 30-12 in the NFL wildcard play-offs.

From the wholly unlikely, like Tiger Woods winning another Major or the Lions whitewashing the All Blacks, to the eminently probable, like Usain Bolt and Leo Messi reemphasising their credentials as wonders of the sporting world, we examine who might be rewriting the record books, month by month, in 2017.

The Pittsburgh Steelers clinched their NFL play-off place with a last-gasp win over the Baltimore Ravens - but reigning champions the Denver Broncos were dumped out and embarrassed by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yes, we are needy about wanting every American president to think of us but Hillary Clinton really did reference Ireland in her very first remarks at her campaign rally in Pittsburgh.

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.

Here’s a question for you on a Monday morning. How complicit are you in your sport’s failings?

Quarterback Cam Newton threw three touchdown passes and his Carolina Panthers pummelled the Atlanta Falcons 38-0 on Sunday to earn an NFL playoff first-round bye.

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.

Few champions have returned to the field under this thick a cloud. But as the accusations and rumours and innuendo pile up, New England Patriots players insist they have shut out the noise as they begin the defence of their Super Bowl title tonight against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has upheld Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for the New England Patriots quarterback’s role in the ‘deflategate’ scandal.

American Football

There’s no knowing what 2015 will serve up but it will start with a bang tomorrow in the US.

The Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys booked their places in the play-offs after victories on Sunday while the New England Patriots earned a first round bye for the post-season.

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.

The Pittsburgh Steelers came on strong in the fourth quarter on Sunday night for a 42-21 NFL triumph over Cincinnati that blew open the AFC North division race.

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

One lawyer’s crusade could change the NFL forever, writes Michael Sokolove

Sepp Blatter assured us, in June, that one day, probably late in his reign, we’d be playing intergalactic World Cups.

Brian O’Driscoll’s latest book supposedly makes for an interesting read when digested in large chunks, but the extracts have fallen well short of Roy Keane’s on the Richter scale.

Bad news for men with beards – a new survey has found that their attractiveness may fade as facial hair becomes mainstream. Brian Canty grows a beard – and notes the impact ‘the peak beard effect’ has on the opposite sex.

Cleveland Brown’s Spencer Lanning proved himself a very good sport by joking about the full force kick in the face he received during their first game of the NFL season.

SEAGAL’S SHOW

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.