Sports
‘Nearly flawless’ Michael Penix Jr. helps re-energize Falcons’ playoff push
ATLANTA — Michael Penix Jr. looked like an NFL veteran in his first professional start but not as much as he sounded like one when he took the podium after the game.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was at a local Costco shopping Tuesday night when head coach Raheem Morris informed him he would be making his first NFL start. After leading the Falcons to a 34-7 win over the New York Giants in that start, Penix was asked if he’d be celebrating the win at Costco on Sunday night.
“No, hopefully, something fancier,” Penix said. “Costco is great, though. Costco, hit me up.”
If the Falcons (8-7) keep playing like they did Sunday, Penix may get a sponsorship offer from the company, which would mean he replaced Kirk Cousins to become Atlanta’s Kirkland quarterback and pitch Costco’s signature line of products.
“Could not be more pleased with how the team responded, really rallied behind a young man,” Morris said. “He went out and played nearly flawless football and helped us get a win.”
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Tampa Bay’s loss to Dallas on Sunday night put the Falcons back in the driver’s seat in the NFC South. If they win their final two games, at Washington and home against Carolina, they will host a playoff game.
The Falcons’ 27-point margin of victory was their second largest since the 2016 Super Bowl season, and they have now topped seven wins in a season for the first time since the 10-win 2017 season. The Giants (2-13) lost their 10th straight, the longest losing streak in franchise history.
“You do feel (nerves), but once I hit the field it goes away,” Penix said. “It’s the game I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old. It’s at a higher level, but it’s the same game.”
The Falcons drafted Penix eighth in April intending to let him understudy behind Cousins for a year or longer, but Cousins’ most recent five games convinced them to accelerate that timeline.
“The plan came a little bit sooner, but the kid was ready,” Morris said. “We had a lot of time to develop him, and the kid did a great job himself of getting ready where the moment wasn’t too big.”
Cousins swallowed the sting of being benched less than a year after signing a four-year, $180 million contract to mentor Penix throughout the week, Penix said. In the tunnel before the pair jogged out for warmups, Cousins said his weekly prayer and patted Penix on the back, gently pushing him to jog out in front of him.
“Kirk has been great all week, just being there for me and anything I need help with. He’s a great leader, great teammate,” Penix said. “Coming off the sidelines, he was asking me what I saw, and he continued to encourage me throughout the whole game.”
And, with a pat on the back from Kirk Cousins, here comes Michael Penix Jr. for the Atlanta Falcons. pic.twitter.com/xisQiO0SyR
— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) December 22, 2024
Penix finished 18-for-27 for 202 yards and one interception on a ball that bounced out of the hands of tight end Kyle Pitts near the goal line. The quarterback was victimized by three drops, including on his first throw of the game. Drops of his passes weren’t rare during his early practices because of his strong arm, but Penix has made big strides in throwing a more catchable ball, said wide receiver Darnell Mooney, who led the Falcons with five catches for 82 yards and then told reporters they might not want to stand too close to him in the locker room because he was feeling under the weather.
“When he first got here, he was (too excited) to throw the ball and everybody was dropping the ball everywhere,” Mooney said. “Now he’s just chilling, and he’s got some touch to him.”
Sunday’s drops didn’t rattle Penix, running back Bijan Robinson said.
“After the Kyle play, he was like, ‘We’re good,’” Robinson said. “A lot of guys would have put their heads down, but he was like, ‘We’re good, we’ll get it right back the next drive,’ and that’s what he did.”
Robinson carried the ball 22 times for 94 yards and is fourth in the league in rushing (1,196 yards). He ran for two touchdowns but was upset he didn’t get a receiving score because he was tripped up short of the goal line on a swing pass. Robinson returned to the huddle and apologized to Penix for not getting him his first NFL passing touchdown.
“I told him, ‘It’s all good, man. We won the football game,’” Penix said. “That just shows the person he is, not just him but everybody on this team, the character. He talked about getting me my first touchdown, but it’ll come. The biggest thing we want to do each and every week is win. We did that.”
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Atlanta’s defense had nothing to apologize for after returning two interceptions for touchdowns in the same game for the first time since 1983. Jessie Bates III jumped in front of a Drew Lock pass and returned it 55 yards in the second quarter, and then celebrated with Deion Sanders’ “Prime Time” dance. He said his inspiration was the throwback red helmets Atlanta wore Sunday.
“Something about these red helmets,” Bates said.
In the third quarter, defensive lineman Matthew Judon recorded the first interception and first touchdown of his nine-year career when he found himself holding a pass batted by Zach Harrison and rumbled 27 yards into the end zone.
“I just looked up and it fell right there. All glory to God,” said Judon, who became the first Falcon since Kroy Biermann in 2011 to have a pick six and a sack in the same game. “I am really grateful. I kept thanking Zach the whole time in (the locker room) until he left.”
The Falcons also recorded three sacks, one of which resulted in a fumble recovered by Arnold Ebiketie.
Penix, though, was the story of the day. Simply by providing a stabilizing element at the position, he gave the Falcons hope for their playoff push. His coaches and teammates said they never really doubted that the 24-year-old would.
The Falcons reorganized the “Mamba” periods they have used in practice this year where the starters from each side face off in competitive situations to give Penix some looks he hadn’t seen enough of, but other than that didn’t change their routine at all, Morris said.
“I think the guy is just a grown adult that came in with a high level of football experience,” the coach said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the young man. It was fun to watch.”
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
Sports
Packers’ head-coaching situation thrust into spotlight after playoff loss
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The Green Bay Packers’ playoff exit on Saturday immediately put added focus on what the organization will do with head coach Matt LaFleur.
The NFL coaching cycle has been the wildest in recent memory, with veteran coaches like John Harbaugh and Pete Carroll being shown the door. Packers fans seemingly put LaFleur on the hot seat following their crushing defeat to the Chicago Bears.
Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur reacts during the wild-card playoff game against the Bears Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
ESPN’s Adam Schefter said Sunday that the Packers will have a major decision to make.
“The Green Bay Packers and their new president, Ed Policy, have a significant decision to make here in the coming days – and that is whether to extend Matt LaFleur’s contract. He’s currently got one year remaining, or to move on from him,” Schefter said. “If they moved on from him, he would automatically go near the top of coaches available and shakeup this current head-coaching cycle yet again.”
Schefter added that Harbaugh could be one of the names that would interest the Packers’ organization.
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Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur talks after the playoff game, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
“Notice how we said this belongs to the Packers’ president, Ed Policy. Well, the Packers’ former president from the back in the day was a man by the name of Bob Harlan,” Schefter explained. “Bob Harlan’s son, Brian Harlan, represents John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh is a Midwestern guy, who has a home in the Upper Peninsula, and a lot of people around the league have been wondering if the Packers decide to go in a different direction, if all of a sudden the Green Bay Packers might fall to the top of John Harbaugh’s list as the top available choice for him.
“This has been a wild, crazy coaching cycle, and we may be just scratching the surface.”
Green Bay Packers’ Matthew Golden celebrates his touchdown against the Bears Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
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Green Bay finished 9-7-1 this season. LaFleur is 76-40-1 as the Packers’ head coach with a 3-6 record in the playoffs.
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Sports
Crossroads students begin push to make pickleball a varsity sport
For brothers Boone and Ford Casady, pickleball is more than just a game, it is a passion. The 16-year-old twins are among the top junior players on the planet, but more important to them than trophies and medals is a desire to spread the fastest-growing sport in America to high schools and colleges.
Their vision, combined with the persistence of fellow Crossroads sophomores Samantha Leeds and Hannah Carey, has birthed the L.A. High School Pickleball League, the first of its kind in California. The first match will be Jan. 24 at the Santa Monica Pickleball Center.
Teams from Crossroads, Brentwood, Windward, Palisades, Notre Dame and Santa Monica Pacifica Christian will participate, and possibly several more.
Matches will be biweekly with all schools competing at the same shared location. The match format is loosely based on high school tennis with three doubles lines, one singles line and “friendlies” — ensuring that beginners, alternates and developing players all get playing time. The season culminates with semifinals and a league championship.
“My brother and I grew up playing competitive tennis and baseball,” Boone said. “We’d been playing tennis since we were about 3 and in eighth grade we moved to Barcelona to train at the Emilio Sánchez Academy for tennis. We were first introduced to pickleball earlier while we were in Mexico playing with friends and we immediately fell in love with it. We entered our first tournament in Palm Springs and realized we’d found something special.
“We noticed that so many juniors were training and competing individually but there wasn’t a school-based structure like you have in other varsity sports. We decided to change that. We wanted girls to be involved from the start — it was important to us that the league be coed and inclusive to reflect how competitive girls pickleball already is. We’re also co-founders of the Crossroads Pickleball Club along with Samantha and Hannah and we’re working to grow participation on campus and across L.A.”
The four founders of the L.A. High School Pickleball League play mixed doubles.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Unlike most youth sports initiatives, the league was not created by adults or administrators, it was built entirely by students. Over the last two years they have coordinated with the Southern Section for recognition and guidance, worked with Crossroads administrators to establish pickleball as a school-sanctioned varsity sport, organized early intramural and inter-school tournaments, built communication networks among local high schools and helped other schools begin turning their club teams into varsity programs.
“In high school sports, students usually join a system that already exists,” Leeds said. “With pickleball, we had to build the system ourselves.”
Boone defeated Ford to earn the No. 1 seed at the 2024 Junior PPA National Championships, but they met again for the gold medal and this time Ford won. They also took the gold in doubles and finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the country in the 14s division.
At the 2025 Junior PPA National Championships, the brothers took silver and bronze in the Boys U16 singles and partnered for silver in doubles. They were also presented the Community Assist Award to acknowledge their initiative in starting the Los Angeles High School Pickleball League. They are straight-A students and play shortstop and third base on the varsity baseball team.
So far, their toughest competition in pickleball has been each other.
“Boone and I practice together all the time and we play against each other constantly,” Ford said. “Boone knows the part of my game to attack and I know what to do against him so we always have great matches. No matter who wins, we hug it out at the end.”
The siblings played in their first pro event of the year Saturday — the Masters Tournament in Palm Springs.
Leeds and Carey were introduced to pickleball in eighth grade.
“I remember leaving PE after playing pickleball, heading to soccer practice and honestly feeling kind of bored,” Leeds recalled. “All I wanted to do was keep playing pickleball.”
“Samantha and I got randomly paired to do pickleball in PE,” said Carey, who lost her home in the Palisades fire. “Most kids would sit out, look bored, or try to skip but as the pickleball nets went up our peers were engaged, exhilarated and connecting over their love of pickleball. So Samantha and I started making petitions to create a league.”
The girls, then 13, had a meeting with Anthony Locke, head of school at Crossroads, and made a pitch deck. Using her skills as a filmmaker Leeds created a short sizzle video to help show what pickleball could look like as a real school sport.
“We were told that forming school-based teams and leagues is a necessary first step towards eventual CIF recognition,” she said. “I created a Varsity Team Starter Kit, outlining the steps we used to establish pickleball as a school-sanctioned varsity sport. Leaders at other schools are actively using it to establish their own teams.”
Added Carey: “We connected with Boone and Ford, which was such an honor considering their talent and passion for the sport. We decided to join forces and use our resources together to further our process of creating a league.”
The inaugural season runs from January to March but beginning in the 2026-27 school year the plan is to move to the traditional winter sports window, November through January.
“Pickleball has the potential to become a true varsity sport at both the high school and college levels,” Boone said. “We’re so excited to help push it forward.”
Sports
US figure skating power couple makes history with record breaking seventh national championship
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U.S. figure skating stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates made history on Saturday with their record-setting seventh U.S. Figure Skating title in their final competition before the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The three-time reigning world champions, performing a flamenco-style dance to a version of the Rolling Stones hit “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi Western show “Westworld,” produced a season-best free skate and finished with 228.87 points.
“The feeling that we got from the audience today was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,” Chock said.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates of United States perform during ISU World Figure Skating Championships – Boston, at TD Garden, on March 28, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Jurij Kodrun – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images)
They’ll be the heavy favorites to win gold next month in Italy.
“I felt so much love and joy,” Chock continued, “and I’m so grateful for this moment.”
U.S. Figure Skating will announce its selections on Sunday.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were second with 213.65 points and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were third with 206.95, making those two pairs the likely choices to join Chock and Bates on the American squad for the upcoming Winter Games.
The men’s medals also were to be decided on Saturday, though two-time world champion Ilia Malinin had built such a lead after his short program that the self-styled “Quad God” would have to stumble mightily to miss out on a fourth consecutive title.
The U.S. also has qualified the maximum of three men’s spots for the Winter Games, and competition is tight between second-place Tomoko Hiwatashi, fan favorite Jason Brown, Andrew Torgashev and Maxim Naumov to round out the nationals podium.
The last time Chock and Bates competed in the Olympics in 2022 in Beijing, they watched their gold initially go to an opponent who was later disqualified for doping violations.
Chock and Bates initially had to settle for team silver with their American teammates on the podium at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Team Russia and Kamila Valieva, who was 15 at the time, stood above them with their gold medals.
It wasn’t until the end of January 2024, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found Valieva guilty of an anti-doping rule violation, when Chock, Bates and the U.S. were declared the rightful 2022 gold medalists.
UN URGES COUNTRIES TO HONOR TRUCE DURING WINTER OLYMPICS, NOT DENY VISAS TO ANY NATION’S ATHLETES
Madison Chock and Evan Bates compete in championship ice dance at the U.S. figure skating championships Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned substance, during an anti-doping test at the Russian Figure Skating Championships in December 2021. She was suspended for four years and stripped of all competitive results since that date.
Chock and Bates spoke about what their message to Valieva would be today during an interview at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee media summit in October.
“It’s hard to, I think, imagine what a 15-year-old has gone through and under that kind of situation,” Bates said. “And I know how stressful it is, being an elite athlete as an adult, as a 36-year-old. And I think that grace should be given to humans across the board. And we can never really know the full situation, at least from our point of view. … I genuinely don’t know what I would say to her.”
Chock added, “I would just wish her well like as I would. I think life is short. And, at the end of the day, we’re all human just going through our own human experience together. And regardless of what someone has or hasn’t done and how it has affected you, I think it’s important to remember we’re humans as a collective, and we’re all here for this, our one moment on earth, at the same time. And I just wish people to have healthy, happy lives, full of people that love them.”
Chock and Bates had to wait more than two years after the initial Olympics to get their rightful gold medals, and they were finally presented with them during a ceremony at the Paris Olympics last summer.
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Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the USA perform in the Gala Exhibition during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final Nagoya at IG Arena on December 07, 2025 in Nagoya, Japan. (Atsushi Tomura – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images)
Chock, Bates and teammates Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou were given a specialized gold medal ceremony to receive the medals in front of more than 13,000 fans.
Chock and Bates became the first ice dancers to win three consecutive world championships in nearly three decades in March when they defeated Canadian rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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