SANTA CLARA, Calif. — No Brock Purdy. No Nick Bosa. No chance for the 49ers on Sunday in Green Bay?

“We’re missing two good players definitely but we’ll have a lot of good players out there,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan countered. “By no means do we not have a chance to win. We’ll fight our tails off. We’ll expect a real good game...Read more

CLEVELAND — Here's hoping Mike Tomlin didn't spend too much time working on that NFL Coach of the Year speech.

The feel-good vibes that have surrounded the Steelers' season — all of those correct buttons pushed and sticky situations navigated — backfired on Tomlin on Thursday night during what has become an all-too-common theme of his ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Maybe the most deflating aspect of the Steelers' last-minute loss in Cleveland was the second-stingiest defense in the NFL failing to protect another lead against one of the worst offenses in the league.

And it wasn't the first time.

Not only did the Steelers allow the Browns, the lowest-scoring team in the AFC, to top 18 points...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Baker Mayfield rubbed both arms with his hands as the story was being related, the one where his timely donation turned around the fortunes of a high school football team that lacked the necessary equipment to start the season.

It’s the nearly made-for-Hollywood script of how Space Coast High in Cocoa went from 1-8 a year ago ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — An MRI exam on Brock Purdy’s throwing shoulder has the 49ers “feeling good,” but his status is still “tenuous” to play in Sunday’s game at Green Bay, according to general manager John Lynch.

Injured at an undetermined point in Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Purdy did not throw at Wednesday’s...Read more

NEW YORK — Daniel Jones asked for his release and was granted his freedom by the Giants on Friday, four days after GM Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll shut him down for the season and humiliatingly demoted him to No. 4 on their depth chart behind Tommy DeVito, Drew Lock and Tim Boyle.

Jones went directly to co-owner John Mara to make it happen.

�...Read more

LOS ANGELES — With both teams fighting for playoff position, the Chargers' Week 16 game against their AFC West rival Denver Broncos was moved into a prime-time TV slot, the NFL announced Friday, shifting a game to "Thursday Night Football" for the first time.

The Chargers (7-3) will host the Broncos (6-5) at SoFi Stadium on Dec. 19 at 5:15 p....Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Heeerrreee’s Kelce!

Jason Kelce, the retired Eagles center turned multimedia star, is taking his talents to late-night television as the host of "They Call It Late Night," a new weekly ESPN show filmed in Philadelphia with a limited run leading up to the Super Bowl.

Emphasis on late. The show will debut at 1 a.m. on Saturday...Read more

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — On third-and-goal from the Las Vegas Raiders’ 8-yard line last week, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa showed how far he’s come in a short amount of time this season.

I’m excited about what I saw.

In fact, I think I’m finally ready to buy my ticket for the Tua bandwagon (although my admission might be denied)....Read more

LOS ANGELES — You win some, you lose some. At USC, that's the recipe for a terrible football season.

The 5-5 Trojans, who play UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night, have blown fourth-quarter leads in all five of their losses. It's a dramatic departure from the promise of two years ago, when head coach Lincoln Riley went 11-3 in his debut ...Read more

FRISCO, Texas — An offseason in which the Washington Commanders hired former Cowboys assistant Dan Quinn to be their head coach, coupled with the arrival of an elite quarterback, means one of Jerry Jones’ favorite places to sit is now a sofa of spikes.

For the first time since the early 1990s, when Jack Kent Cooke was the team owner and Joe...Read more

PITTSBURGH — I have some bad news for the five wide receivers standing in line, nervously shuffling their feet, hoping their name gets called for the Pro Football Hall of Fame: If they don't get called this year, Larry Fitzgerald is about to cut in front of them.

Fitzgerald has a great chance, one would think, to be a first-ballot selection ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes had stood inside the tight quarters of a room inside Highmark Stadium, recapping the Chiefs’ first loss of the year in generic, big-picture terms.

After a few minutes, I inquired about a specific play.

Can you walk us through the interception?

“Uh, the first one or the second one?” he responded.

...Read more

CLEVELAND — It took brooms and leaf blowers to try to clear some of the snow Thursday night at Huntington Bank Field, then the Steelers managed to blow their own comeback in the final minutes.

Maybe it wasn’t a trap game against the Browns, but if that’s the case, then the Steelers just got beat by a previously 2-8 division doormat that ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Only one thing has kept Brock Purdy out of the 49ers’ starting lineup since he seized the role two years ago: the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, which they secured early enough last year to spare Purdy and other stars from the meaningless regular-season finale.

Purdy’s status for Sunday’s game at Green Bay is growing ...Read more

Here’s a look back at Week 11’s action and fantasy advice for the week ahead:

WEEK 11 RECAP

Eagles 26, Commanders 18: Saquon Barkley has six games with at least 100 rushing yards in his first season with Philadelphia. Barkley had six such games combined his last four seasons with the Giants.

Packers 20, Bears 19: Christian Watson’s ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The FBI reportedly has been working with law enforcement agencies in Kansas City investigating burglaries last month at the homes of Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

NBC News said the FBI is trying to determine if those home break-ins, along with two incidents involving NBA players, “are connected to a ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Former Eagles running back Wendell Smallwood Jr. is facing federal charges over allegedly defrauding COVID-19 relief programs and the Internal Revenue Service in a series of schemes that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in falsely obtained payments.

Federal prosecutors in Delaware charged Smallwood late last month ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Get ready for Operation Snowball.

The Philly Specials are planning to raise enough money with the new Eagles Christmas album to give every student in the School District of Philadelphia a gift this holiday season.

All 116,000 of them.

A Philly Special Christmas Party, the third album of holiday songs to feature singing ...Read more

Los Angeles Times NFL writer Sam Farmer examines the matchups this week. Lines according to FanDuel Sportsbook (O/U = over/under). Record last week 9-5 (.643); season 107-59 (.645). Using point spreads with the scores Farmer predicted, the record against the spread last week would have been 8-5-1 (.615); season 90-74-2 (.549). Off: Bills, ...Read more