This was a game between two of the sport’s best. It stood to reason that everyone wanted to see it happen.

Bill Belichick is universally recognised as one of the best coaches — if not the best coach — in NFL history, and he owns the Super Bowl titles to prove it. That doesn’t mean he — or his entire New England Patriots staff — is infallible.

The NFL season begins tonight as the defending Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, host the Atlanta Falcons, writes Jack Anderson.

Kirk Cousins drove the Washington Redskins 70 yards and Rob Kelley's one-yard touchdown run with less than a minute remaining on the clock earned them a 17-14 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

President Donald Trump has accused the NFL of showing "total disrespect" for the United States by not forcing players to stand during the national anthem.

Fire officials have said they are finally getting the upper hand against the wildfires that have devastated California wine country and other parts of the state over the past week, and thousands of people got the all-clear to return home.

Hertha Berlin players took a knee in solidarity with American sports stars ahead of their Bundesliga game against Schalke on Saturday.

President Donald Trump has ahain tweeted that NFL players should remain standing out of respect for the nation and its flag.

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.

Jim Gavin sits more or less motionless when giving interviews. The few movements are slow and every bit as refined as the crisp shirt and suit but the man is slippery as an eel when the tape rolls.

Romelu Lukaku could not turn down the chance to join Manchester United after hearing Jose Mourinho’s plan to “rebuild the club”.

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.

Brendan O’Brien reveals how Donald Trump could affect sport in the US over the next four years.

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.

As Donald Trump’s election as US president continues to reverberate around the sporting world, United States soccer captain Michael Bradley admits the crucial World Cup qualifier against Mexico tomorrow night now carries added significance.

Larry Ryan breaks down the Rob Hennelly episode...

The Carolina Panthers’ poor start to the season continued as they crashed to a third defeat in four matches after going down 48-33 to the Atlanta Falcons.

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.

You know the drill. The music cranks up, you shake off the rust from your joints and you climb to your feet.

High profile coaching casualties followed quick on the heels of the final day of the NFL’s regular season as the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Jets parted ways with their coaches yesterday.

The Philadelphia Eagles’ play-off ambitions suffered a near-fatal blow with a surprise 27-24 loss to the Washington Redskins on Saturday.

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.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick said he has been fined $10,000 (€7,927) by the NFL for the pink "Beats by Dre" brand name headphones he wore around his neck after Sunday’s game.

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.

IT’S hard to avoid this repeated hand wringing about the NFL and its inability to stay opaque in our overwhelmingly transparent era of journalism.

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.

The most highly anticipated Super Bowl in recent memory somehow also managed to be the biggest disappointment.

New York takes all the credit, talking a big game and laying on the hottest Super Bowl bashes.

It’s almost impossible to recall past controversies without wondering how much the Twitter prism would have stirred things up even more.

It’s rare that the two best teams in the NFL make it through to the Super Bowl.

All eyes will be on Denver tomorrow as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady face each other for the 15th time.

I know how galling this all must be, hearing about the big North American freeze and the tremors of polar madness it’s firing across the ocean to stir things up around your way.

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.

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.

Tipperary native Brian Lonergan fulfilled a long-standing ambition when his tricolour appeared on live TV during Sunday’s NFL clash between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks at Candlestick Park.