Latest news with #SI.com
NBC Sports
04-07-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Steve McNair was murdered 16 years ago today
Sixteen years ago today, a quiet Fourth of July afternoon was interrupted with the stunning news that former NFL quarterback Steve McNair had been shot and killed. McNair was only 36 at the time. The official explanation never made complete sense. Quickly solved as a murder-suicide, with McNair shot by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi, who then supposedly shot herself. The rush to close the case seemed odd. Police concluded that Kazemi shot McNair execution style, twice in the chest and twice in the head. A subsequent effort to re-open the case ultimately failed. The issue was pressed by Vincent Hill, a former Nashville police officer who aggressively pursued the theory that it was not a murder-suicide. In 2018, took a closer look at the unanswered questions in Fall of a Titan, a podcast series. 'I could make a case that things don't add up,' former Titans coach Jeff Fisher said in a 2024 Netflix documentary on the McNair murder. 'I don't want to speculate. Just let it go.' Even now, it's hard to let it go. It's hard not to wonder whether someone got away with double murder. And while that won't change the fact that McNair was killed on this day in 2009, there's a nagging sense that justice may not have been done. McNair was the NFL's co-MVP in 2003, and he led the team to the Super Bowl in 1999. The third overall pick in 1995 out of Alcorn State, McNair spent 13 seasons in the NFL — 11 with the Oilers/Titans and two with the Ravens. The Titans retired his number (9) in 2019.
NBC Sports
03-07-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Matt Rhule believes NFL experience will help in new college football landscape
The new approach to college football will make it more and more like pro football. Which, in theory, provides an advantage for college football coaches with pro football experience. Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who spent two-plus seasons as head coach of the Carolina Panthers, believes his time in the NFL will help him when it comes to shaping a college roster in an era of players getting paid. Via Shayni Matra of Rhule made his case in a recent visit to Greg McElroy's podcast, Always College Football. 'I think the biggest thing you learn when you're in the NFL is really evaluation,' Rhule said. 'Before, in college football, it was like, 'Yeah, he's a good player, let's offer him, let's take him.' You get to the NFL, they're all good players. It's just, 'Hey, what's the financial value we put on this person and put on this position?' Every year in the NFL, you go through free agency, and you see teams walking away from it with really good players because of their contract situations.' One key difference comes from the inability, under the current college system, to manipulate the available spending by carrying dollars over from one year to the next. 'The smart teams in the NFL carry money over and position themselves through the years,' Rhule said. 'But that discipline, I think, is something that's really, really unique. It's hard because you get to know the players. You want to take care of everybody.' One goal of the House settlement is to balance out the dollars. Rhule hopes that will lead to parity. We'll believe it when we see it. With the money now flowing freely, the programs that have the most will always find a way to get it to the players, directly or indirectly. Then there's the thing that you were probably thinking earlier and that probably goes without saying. But I'll say it anyway. Given that Rhule was 11-27 in 38 NFL games, does it make sense to put much stock in his NFL experience making a positive difference at Nebraska?
NBC Sports
24-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Josh Allen: MVP is an honor, but I didn't win a Super Bowl ring and that is the only goal
Bills quarterback Josh Allen was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player for the 2024 season, but he still hasn't achieved the one thing he really wants in his career. Allen says that until he has a Super Bowl ring, his résumé has a hole in it. 'You know, it is such a great honor, and I do appreciate being honored for my work,' Allen told Liam McKeone of 'But at the same time, I still didn't win a Super Bowl. Didn't win a ring, and that is the only goal. It's the only focus that I've ever had going into this league.' Allen said to the extent that the MVP matters to him, it's mostly because a quarterback isn't going to get the MVP award unless his team had a good regular season. 'The one positive, I will say, about winning an MVP means that your team is in a good position,' Allen said. 'You're making the playoffs, you're playing well and you're doing whatever you can to help your team win football games. But at the end of the day, you got to make the playoffs and then you got to win three, maybe four games. And that's what we need to do. And we're going to continue to work as hard as we can and myself included. What can we do to find a way over that hump? So that's the only goal going forward.' The Bills have had a lot of regular-season success with Allen and have made the playoffs six years in a row. But Allen has yet to lead the Bills to a Super Bowl, and that's the one accomplishment that he's focused on heading into 2025.
NBC Sports
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
Tom Brady opens Hall of Excellence in Las Vegas
There's yet another place to spend money in Sin City. Tom Brady has opened the Hall of Excellence at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, via Greg Bishop of (Technically, it's open to the public on Friday.) It's a partnership between Brady, the Tom Brady Family Collection, sportscaster Jim Gray, his wife, Frann, and the hotel. The Hall of Excellence will feature 'history's elite entertainers, with items used or worn by Elvis Presley and the Beatles; Jackie Robinson's bat from the season when he broke the color barrier; the late Kobe Bryant's McDonald's All-American gear; Billie Jean King's most iconic tennis dress; a golf ball smacked by Tiger Woods in his first Masters triumph; all of Brady's rings; worn gloves from Muhammad Ali's first bout . . . and Shohei Ohtani's bat from last season's World Series triumph.' Actor Morgan Freeman provides the main voice for the venue, with Oprah Winfrey, Brady, Jim Nantz, Bob Costas, Marv Albert, Mary Carillo, Mike Emrick, Andres Cantor, Jim Gray, and Snoop Dogg among the voices explaining various specific items. And Bishop became the official writer for the facility. Between the audio scripts, item descriptions, case inscriptions, labels for items, and a Wall of Excellence, he writes that he generated more than 660,000 words. As Brady told Bishop, '[A] certain legend who shall remain nameless called me from his own exhibit and said, 'This is better than the Hall of Fame.'' Not mentioned in the article is the price of admission. Tickets are sold based on admission every 15 minutes, at a rate of $35 each. Because excellence ain't free.
NBC Sports
12-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Isaiah Simmons joined Packers because they had the "best plan" for him
In free agency, Isaiah Simmons had one simple question for interested teams. What is your plan for me? 'To me, it seemed like Green Bay had the best plan, was most excited about me and liked me,' Simmons said, via Bill Huber of Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is asking Simmons to do only one thing — play linebacker. Simmons replaced Quay Walker, who was injured, on the first-team defense, along with linebackers Isaiah McDuffie and Edgerrin Cooper, in the offseason practices. 'I think really what I ran into most of my career is everybody wants me to do everything as opposed to letting me get really good at one thing first,' Simmons said. 'I fully believe in Haf's plan. He's letting me just lock in and learn a small portion first before we even think about expanding to anything else. That's something I really appreciate because I never really had that opportunity to really just hone in on one position. 'That's been huge for me. It's something . . . that hasn't been presented to me because my versatility, I feel like it's a little bit of a gift and a curse, where they want you to do everything but, at the end of the day, I'm still a human.' With McDuffie, Cooper and Walker all returning, it's unknown how Walker fits into the Packers' plan at the position. He also has played in the slot, at safety and at edge rusher in his career with the Cardinals and Giants. No NFL team, though, has been able to tap into Simmons' success at Clemson when he won the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker. He started only five games with the Giants the past two seasons, playing only 558 snaps on defense. 'I'm actually very grateful for New York for what they did,' Simmons said. 'They lit a fire under me, and I'm ready to go.'
