AFC West

Caitlin Clark had a unique viewing experience for the Kansas City Chiefs' Divisional Round matchup against the Houston Texans on Saturday.

The Indiana Fever guard was seen in singer-songwriter Taylor Swift's suite for the matchup at Arrowhead Stadium:

Clark notably grew up as a Chiefs plan and even made an appearance on Travis Kelce's podcast, New Heights.

During her appearance on New Heights, Clark described how she has family in Kansas City and the close proximity between her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, and Kansas City fueled her passion for the team.

"I had family in Kansas City, and I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, which is only three hours from Kansas City," Clark said. "That's just the closest NFL team."

She also noted that her brother's favorite player growing up was Tony Gonzalez and that she and her family had attended at least one game a season during her childhood.

Swift has been attending Chiefs games in a private suite since the 2023 season and has been spotted with other notable attendees like friends and actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, among others/

Clark's successful rookie season saw her average 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.4 rebounds while leading the Fever to their first postseason appearance since 2016.

She will hope to build on that in 2025 but first will cheer on her favorite football team as they push for a three-peat.

Even though two of the top candidates for the Las Vegas Raiders head-coaching vacancy will be in the same building as Fox Sports' color commentator Tom Brady on Saturday, the NFL isn't adjusting any rules for a potential conflict of interest.

In an email to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said no new restrictions have been put on Brady.

"There have been no further restrictions this week," McCarthy wrote. "Tom will continue to adhere to the broadcast guidelines and also the anti-tampering and Rooney Rule policies."

Brady, who has a minority stake in the Raiders and will reportedly have a lot of influence on their coaching search, is on the call for Saturday's NFC Divisional Round playoff game between the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions.

Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn have had virtual interviews with the Raiders, per The Athletic's Tashan Reed. Candidates who are currently employed by other teams will be allowed to start having in-person interviews on Jan. 20.

Johnson, in particular, seems to be very high on the Raiders' list. Florio reported on Wednesday that Johnson came away from his virtual interview with "positive feelings" about the Raiders and Brady.

Since Brady is part of the ownership group of an NFL team while he is working as a broadcaster, league rules state that he's not allowed to attend in-person or online production meetings, and isn't allowed access to team facilities, players or coaches.

Florio noted Brady is permitted to speak to coaches and/or players on the field before the game.

Despite some questions about a potential conflict of interest for Brady, Fox Sports president of programming and production Brad Zager told The Athletic's Andrew Marchand it's "ridiculous" to worry about it.

"To me, the questioning of someone's integrity to say there is a conflict of interest is ridiculous and that's a shame," Zager said.

While it can certainly be debated if that's the case, Brady is going to be in the booth for kickoff of the Commanders-Lions game on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

The Las Vegas Raiders will interview Ron Rivera on Friday regarding the team's current head coaching vacancy, per NFL.com.

Rivera has 13 years of experience as a head coach, recently operating in the role for the Washington Commanders from 2020-23.

Las Vegas has its sights set on several candidates throughout the current hiring cycle, as NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported on Jan. 11 that the team interviewed Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and would be "willing to wait" for him to become available after the Lions' season came to a close.

As for Rivera, he ended his tenure on the Commanders with a 26-40-1 record. He was fired at the end of the 2023 season, as Washington finished last in the NFC East at 4-13.

The 63-year-old also operated as the Carolina Panthers' head coach from 2011 until the 2019 season, compiling a 76-63-1 record. The Panthers clinched four playoff berths under Rivera, making a Super Bowl 50 appearance.

Before he was a head coach, Rivera operated as a defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears from 2004-06 and the Chargers from 2008-10.

He's already interviewed with the Bears as well as the New York Jets regarding their respective head coaching openings during the current hiring cycle.

The Raiders fired head coach Antonio Pierce on Jan. 7 following a 4-13 season, as they failed to reach the playoffs for a third consecutive year. Las Vegas struggled on both sides of the ball, as its scoring defense ranked No. 26 in the NFL by allowing 25.5 points per game.

It may be difficult for Rivera to beat out Johnson for the role, as Rapoport noted on Jan. 11 that the Raiders are "said to be enamored with" the Lions offensive coordinator.

Still, he's an intriguing candidate if Las Vegas is looking for more consistency on the defensive side of the ball.

Tom Brady is working to repair the Las Vegas Raiders' lackluster reputation.

Mike Sando of The Athletic reported that, across the NFL, the perception of the Raiders is that they are a "floundering franchise" and that Brady is attempting to "bring vision and stability."

"Executives see the Raiders as a floundering franchise that pivots from one coach/philosophy to another every couple of years," Sando wrote. "They see new minority owner Tom Brady trying to bring vision and stability to the franchise. They also see Brady's credibility as a leading reason the Lions' Johnson might be considering Las Vegas after the team fired coach Antonio Pierce and first-year GM Tom Telesco."

The Raiders are coming off a 4-13 season and hold the No. 6 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The franchise has not qualified for the postseason since 2021 and the next head coach will be the sixth for the team since the 2020 season.

While the state of the franchise has been a bit dysfunctional, it is still a brand with a strong legacy, a new stadium with state-of-the-art facilities and a minority owner in Brady who has won more Super Bowl rings than any individual franchise in the NFL.

That should aid the coaching search and help the team get back to relevance on the NFL landscape.

A splashy hire like Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson would be a great start and solidifying the quarterback situation could help Las Vegas start its climb back into playoff contention.

Tom Brady's agent, Don Yee, told Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal on Thursday that his client intends to see out his 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox Sports despite his partial ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders.

"Tom has had a tremendous amount of fun working with Fox this year, and he's really excited about the future with Fox and his growth on their team," he said. "And this year was the first year of a long relationship."

Brady's dual role as a commentator and partial owner has created ample conflicts of interest, including the fact that he's on the Las Vegas coaching search committee that reportedly has targeted Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator Ben Johnson for its head-coaching vacancy. Brady, meanwhile, is broadcasting Saturday's matchup between the Lions and Washington Commanders.

Because he's a minority owner and seemingly would gain a competitive advantage by having inside access to the facilities and practices of other teams around the league during production meetings—which serve as crucial sources of information for broadcasters, providing them with key tidbits to sprinkle throughout a game—Brady isn't even allowed to enter another team's facilities. He also isn't allowed to criticize officials or players.

The result has been a spotty, at best, first season for Brady as a broadcaster, while the excellent Greg Olsen was demoted to Fox's second team. And if Brady wants to get even more involved in the ownership side of things with the Raiders, it wouldn't be shocking if he eventually abandoned the broadcast gig altogether.

For now, it appears he resigned to handle both roles. But it will remain a storyline in his post-playing career until—or if—he chooses to focus solely on one job.

Andy Reid has constructed quite the head-coaching résumé during his career, notching 273 wins (fourth in history), 26 playoff wins (second), five conference championships (tied third) and three Super Bowl titles (tied third).

And he very well could add more hardware to his illustrious career, paired with the NFL's best player in Patrick Mahomes. When all's said and done, he may be considered the G.O.A.T. of NFL head coaches. Some might argue he's already there.

"I think he's the best coach in history," an executive told The Athletic's Jeff Howe. "I really do."

That distinction is normally reserved for Bill Belichick, who has the most Super Bowl titles in history (six) among coaches and ranks third in regular-season wins (302) and first in playoff wins (31). Like Reid, Belichick had the good fortune to be paired with an elite quarterback (and arguably the greatest quarterback ever in Tom Brady).

Reid may never catch Belichick in the Super Bowl title chase, but he almost assuredly will surpass him in both playoff and regular-season wins if he continues to coach for several more years. He may even catch Don Shula's record of 328 regular-season wins, though that would require five more seasons with at least 11 wins.

Given that the Chiefs have reached that mark in 10 of Reid's 12 seasons with the team—and given the likelihood that they'll exceed 11 wins in a few of those campaigns, with Mahomes keeping them among the NFL's elite—it's a very achievable milestone if Reid is interested in coaching into his 70s.

Sean Payton believes the Denver Broncos have found their next great quarterback in rookie Bo Nix.

"I know this, he's very conscientious. ... I think it's all in front of him," Broncos coach Sean Payton said Wednesday, per ESPN's Jeff Legwold. "I've said this before, I think we've found that player that can lead us and be what we need relative to having the success that we're used to having. I think we found him."

Some questioned the Broncos' decision to take Nix, a 24-year-old player out of Oregon, with the 12th pick in the draft, but the former Heisman finalist quickly showed why Denver was so high on him.

He had a few rough performances early in the year, which is expected out of a rookie quarterback, but he finished with 3,775 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He added 430 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

Nix's 29 touchdowns were the second-most ever by a rookie, only behind Justin Herbert who had 31 in 2020.

But Nix did more than just put up good numbers, he made the Broncos a winning team.

Denver finished 10-7 and reached the playoffs, snapping an eight-year playoff drought and leading the team to 10 wins for the first time since 2015.

The season ultimately didn't end how the Brocnos wished as they lost to the Buffalo Bills 31-7, but Payton has every reason to believe Nix can eventually make Denver a Super Bowl contender.

Jim Harbaugh went to bat for his quarterback after fans criticized Justin Herbert for his performance in the Los Angeles Chargers' wild-card loss to the Houston Texans.

Harbaugh said the criticism is unwarranted and that the coaching staff is more to blame than the quarterback.

Harbaugh told reporters:

Completely unfair. I wouldn't spend two more seconds thinking about what happened in that game. It didn't go good, and that's on me, that's my responsibility, that's my accountability. I really felt going into that tournament that we were as good as the best teams in the playoffs. Not just as good as any team, but as good as the best teams in the playoffs... We did him a disservice and didn't put him in the positions to be successful enough, but he played like a beast. … There's nobody in this entire organization who gives more blood, sweat and tears and contributes more, produces more for the entire organization than Justin Herbert.

Herbert had a strong year after his 2023 season was cut short due to an injury. He threw for 3,870 yards, 23 touchdowns and just three interceptions, adding 306 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground.

A good year from Herbert was marred by his performance in the playoffs. He threw for 242 yards and a touchdown but gave up four interceptions in the 32-12 loss. One of his interceptions was a 38-yard pick-six that gave the Texans a 20-6 lead heading into halftime.

Herbert, who just wrapped up his fifth season in the NFL, is now 0-2 in the postseason. His other loss came in 2022 when Los Angeles lost 31-30 to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the playoffs.

But Herbert's two playoff losses haven't diminished the Chargers' respect for him. Along with Harbaugh, general manager Joe Hortiz defended Herbert, pointing to several other great quarterbacks who struggled in the playoffs early in their careers.

"I hear the narrative and all that, but there's a lot of great quarterbacks in this league that may not have had the ideal start to their playoff career," Hortiz said. "Peyton Manning was 0-3 his first five years. Lamar Jackson's, it was 0-2. So if we're going to set a narrative on Justin off of two playoff games, that's absurd. What I watch this guy do, he's phenomenal, he's a phenomenal competitor, leader, playmaker. We'll roll with him. They're gonna roll me outta here before they roll him outta here, I can promise you that. He's special, and special things are ahead for him. Book it."

Herbert isn't going anywhere, as he's under contract through the 2029 season, and it seems Los Angeles has no desire to part with him. Instead, the Chargers will look to build around the star quarterback as they look to find success in Year 2 of the Harbaugh era.

As Travis Kelce prepares to help the Kansas City Chiefs begin their quest for a third straight Super Bowl starting this weekend in the NFL playoffs, he's not ready to talk about his playing future at this point.

Appearing on The Stephen A. Smith Show (starts at 25:55 mark), Kelce said he would reevaluate his football career after the postseason, while acknowledging he'll "probably tell myself how much I love" playing and be back in 2025.

Kelce has previously talked about how important being able to play football is to him, saying on the New Heights podcast (h/t Kelly Coffey-Behrens of Yahoo) in September before the start of the regular season that "it's going to be hard trying to figure out when to call it quits or not."

There have been obvious signs of decline in Kelce's physical ability now that he's in his mid-30s. His two worst seasons by yards per reception have come in the past two seasons, including a career-low 8.5 yards per catch in 2024.

Kelce's 823 receiving yards this season were his fewest since his rookie year in 2013 when he played just one game due to a knee injury.

Despite not being the disruptive force he was at his absolute peak, Kelce remains arguably the most valuable pass-catcher on the Chiefs' roster. He has led the team in targets, receptions and receiving yards in each of the past three seasons.

Whenever Kelce's career does come to an end, he will walk into the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years later. He is one of three tight ends in NFL history with at least 1,000 receptions and 12,000 yards.

The Chiefs will host the Houston Texans in the AFC Divisional Round at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday. They have advanced to the AFC Championship Game every year since the 2019 season.

Jim Harbaugh will have multiple procedures to address his health following his first season as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

ESPN's Kris Rhim reported Wednesday that Harbaugh, who previously said he would not retire because of health issues, said he will undergo a cardiac ablation and hip replacement surgery this offseason.

The hip surgery will address his significant limp that is apparent when walking.

As for the cardiac ablation, it comes after he temporarily left his team's Week 6 game against the Denver Broncos because of an atrial flutter. Rhim explained the atrial flutter is an arrhythmia that leads to the heart beating abnormally high.

Harbaugh was treated by paramedics in the locker room but returned to coach the rest of the game. He also wore a heart monitor for two weeks during the 2024 campaign.

Rhim noted it was his first flare up since the 2012 season when he was coaching the San Francisco 49ers and felt an irregular heartbeat during a game against the Chicago Bears.

This comes after Los Angeles saw its season come to an end with a 32-12 loss to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card Round on Saturday.

Despite the playoff loss, it was still a successful first season for Harbaugh as the head coach. The Chargers' 11 wins were their most since the 2018 campaign, and they also made the playoffs for just the second time since that season.