Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce says he is considering retirement from the NFL, but is yet to decide on his future.
The 35-year-old struggled as the Chiefs were resoundingly beaten 40-22 by the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl at the weekend.
Kelce, who is dating pop star Taylor Swift, is contracted to the Chiefs for the 2025 season but the American says he will delay any decision until he is certain he knows what he wants to do.
“I know everybody wants to know whether I’m playing next year and, right now, I’m just kicking everything down the road,” Kelce told the New Heights podcast, which he co-hosts with his brother Jason.
“I’m kicking every can I can down the road. I’m not making any crazy decisions.
“I’ve been fortunate over the past five, six years I’ve played more football than anybody.
The Eagles denied Kelce’s team the chance to clinch a ‘three-peat’, with the Chiefs having won the previous two Super Bowls.
Kelce, a third-round draft pick in 2013, has been with the Chiefs since 2013. He has won the Super Bowl three times and has the most postseason receptions of any player in NFL history.
“I think I owe it to my team-mates that if I do come back, it’s going to be a whole-hearted decision. Not half-assing it,” said Kelce.
Jamie George and Ellis Genge have played together for England 57 times.
As hooker and loose-head prop, they pack down together.
They stand alongside each other when the anthems are sung.
They even work together on the board of a players’ union, representing the England team in their discussions with the Rugby Football Union and commercial partners.
The routes they have taken to this point are markedly different though.
George’s parents were teachers. He grew up living on site at Haileybury, a private school in Hertfordshire.
“I was very lucky,” he says. “My back garden was Haileybury College, an absolutely beautiful school with acres of playing fields.
“I don’t think it could have been a better environment to grow up in when I inevitably became a professional rugby player.”
It wasn’t inevitable that Genge would become a professional rugby player. The teachers at John Cabot Academy – his state secondary school in Bristol – encouraged his rugby. But it wasn’t Haileybury.
There weren’t former Test players as coaches, or strength and conditioning staff, or an extensive fixture list against other rugby-focused schools.
Most of all, there wasn’t the time.
“The rugby programme isn’t well put together compared to private schools – it might be 30 minutes on a Tuesday as part of PE,” he says.
St Joseph’s College
In 2019, social mobility think tank the Sutton Trust analysed the background of Genge, George and their England team-mates.
It found that 44% of the England team had, like George, been to fee-paying schools, with the same proportion in the state sector and the rest educated overseas.
Little has changed since. If anything, the trend has become more pronounced.
Of the 23-strong squad picked to face France last weekend, 13 attended private schools.
Only 7% of children in England are educated privately, but all budding Georges and Genges, on either side of the divide, know the differences that come with fees.
You can see it most starkly every October in Ipswich.
For 39 years, St Joseph’s College, an independent school on the outskirts of the town, has organised a rugby festival.
Over those years, it has grown in prestige.
Future England internationals Marcus Smith, Zach Mercer, Jonathan Joseph and Lewis Ludlam are among those to have won the player of the tournament award. Chris Robshaw, Mako Vunipola, Mike Tindall and Christian Wade have also trod the turf.
Streamed online, played in front of hundreds of spectators, it is now perhaps the most sought-after date in the schoolboy rugby calendar.
Back in 1986, the invitees for the inaugural event came from both the state and private sectors. Increasingly that has become untenable.
This year, Royal Grammar School High Wycombe was the only state school among the 16 competing for the showpiece under-18 title.
“It is not intentional, it almost organically happens that way because of the resources these schools have,” says St Joseph’s director of sport, Fred Wenham, who must ensure a competitive card for the festival.
It is obvious as soon as the teams step off the bus.
The vast majority of head coaches who arrive at the festival are recently retired professional players. St Joseph’s have recruited Northampton stalwart Mike Haywood to their own staff.
St Joseph’s College
Perhaps most importantly, there is a huge cultural weight placed on rugby.
St Joseph’s first team are presented with their festival shirts at a special assembly before singing, some in tears, to the rest of the school.
“It really is as close as you can get to a professional experience or lifestyle, without actually being paid for it,” says Wenham.
The RFU has a network of rugby managers to try to embed the game in state schools.
Sixteen of the best compete in the ACE (Academy, Colleges and Education) League. England internationals George Martin, Joe Heyes and Harry Randall all rose up through that route.
But, those institutions are thinly spread and tight on resources.
Private schools, where fees can exceed £50,000 a year, will always have more to invest.
They are not entirely closed shops, however. You can attend, even if you can’t pay.
Because top rugby-playing private schools don’t just spend on facilities, they also invest in talent, offering highly sought-after scholarships and bursaries which can dramatically reduce fees.
So, while England captain Maro Itoje finished his education at Harrow, bumping up the team’s percentage of private-school attendees, he arrived there at 16 on a scholarship from St Georges, a state school in Hertfordshire.
Ollie Lawrence and Tom and Ben Curry similarly finished their education in the private sector, after being awarded scholarships.
St Joseph’s recent success story is Emmanuel Iyogun, who now plays for Northampton and has represented England A. He arrived on a scholarship from Woodlands School, a state school in Essex.
England international Anthony Watson and his former club and country team-mate Beno Obano, who went to Dulwich College on a scholarship at 16, valued such schemes so highly they set up their own, funding Harlan Hines’ switch from a state school in south-east London to Marlborough College in 2022.
A large proportion of England’s elite players may emerge out of private schools, but their talent wasn’t necessarily born in them.
There may be fewer scholarships on offer in the future though.
Since January, VAT has been payable on school fees.
The move, which the government predicts will raise billions for state schools, has put pressure on private school’s registers and balance sheets alike.
Various figures in the industry have predicted that scholarships may have to be squeezed.
As headmaster of Mount Kelly School, a private school in Devon, Guy Ayling is already making difficult decisions around awards for pupils.
“Bursaries and scholarships have a cost attached,” he says. “That is the bottom line. They are costs like food, utilities and teacher salaries, and it is therefore something we have to consider.
“It is the way of the world moving forward; there is potentially going to be less money in the system and when there is less money in the system, you don’t spend as much, including on helping families with financial assistance.”
Fewer scholarships would mean more kids in George Paul’s position.
The 23-year-old grew up in Peterborough. He played at Wisbech rugby club, but as he and his ambitions grew in the game, he wanted more rugby than his school would provide.
He had a scholarship offer at Wisbech Grammar, a nearby independent school, but with family finances and siblings to consider he didn’t take it up.
George Paul
He moved to Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge, who play in the AOC league, a college-specific league a level below the ACE division.
“It is that struggle for state school kids, every one of them will tell you the same story,” he says.
“When we played private schools, it was a motivation. The dressing room would be a very powerful place before those games.
“But you would also realise how well drilled they are because they have three or four sessions a week, compared to us having maybe one on Tuesday before playing on Wednesday.
“They would have multiple coaches, we would have one.
“I know what it is like to turn up at trials at Leicester or Northampton or Scotland-qualified events in random Canterbury kit from SportsDirect when other kids are in full top-to-toe private school branded tracksuits with logos, sponsors and the rest.
“They will be in their cliques, they might know the selectors, because they also work at their school. Every state school kid will tell you how daunting that is.
“Some people say ‘that is what they pay for’, and to a degree that is true.
“But I don’t think there should be that consistency in inequality and lack of opportunity for state school kids that puts them at a disparity when it comes to pushing on in life.”
Paul went on to study at Hartpury, playing high-level university rugby, before turning semi-professional in Scotland with Boroughmuir Bears until the Super Six Series they competed in was disbanded last summer.
Alongside playing, Paul launched Advice Academy, an initiative which worked in state schools in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and elsewhere to give their pupils the standard of coaching and analysis that is commonplace in the private sector.
He is now establishing a high-performance community academy in Peterborough which gives talented young state-school players elite-level training and careers advice on a more regular, consistent basis.
It will be free to those for whom cost would be a barrier to attending.
Paul is dealing with issues that Don Barrell has spent decades wrestling with.
Getty
His job was to find and develop talent. There was an easy way to do that, by visiting the schools with a track record of bringing through elite players. It was one Barrell didn’t want to rely on.
“When I ran the academy at Saracens, I worked really hard to go to spaces which weren’t easy,” he says.
“If you look at the talent system – you don’t have to try that hard to see kids in establishments that play rugby.”
Genge was an unwitting beneficiary of the draw big rugby schools exert on scouts.
A Hartpury coach had taken the obvious option one afternoon, watching Collegiate School, then called Colston’s, in a pre-season friendly.
Genge, motivated by a desire to prove himself against Bristol’s private school players, turned out for the unheralded opposition and ran amok.
That chance encounter led to Genge winning a scholarship which enabled him to live at Hartpury College, finally getting the same “back garden” view and rugby immersion as George.
By his own admission, Genge’s catching and passing were behind his peers when he arrived at Hartpury.
Barrell says that isn’t surprising. Or, necessarily, a problem.
“Rugby has a huge advantage in that it is a later-developing sport,” he says.
“There is a real myth in rugby – no-one can look at a 15 or 16-year-old and tell you they are going to be an England player. It is impossible.
“If someone says they have got that prediction right, they have probably said it about 500 kids!
“You have time.”
He says any assessment of rugby talent should come with context.
“You need to ask how long a youngster has been playing rugby, how many hours they have trained for, where they are in their physical and cognitive development, what their access to sport is like and what level of parental support they get.
“When you stack up those things – all of which can have an impact on perception – you can make better decisions.
“That is the reality in any world. Anytime someone turns up for some kind of assessment, all your biases start. The easiest thing is to go for is the polished figure.”
One thing that is hardest to measure is mental strength.
Barrell was at the RFU when then England head coach Eddie Jones gave an unguarded interview to a Sunday newspaper, claiming that private schools didn’t develop on-pitch initiative and resilience.
“If you have only been in a system where you get to 15, you have a bit of rugby ability and then go to Harrow, then for two years you do nothing but play rugby and everything’s done for you… you have this closeted life,” said Jones.
“When things go wrong on the field who’s going to lead because these blokes have never had experience of it?”
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The RFU responded quickly, publicly reminding Jones of the “valued role” private schools play in developing talent.
Barrell, who points out that state school players outnumber those from private schools in England’s pathway system before scholarship switches even things up around 16, is cautious about such generalisations.
He cites Saracens and England back row Ben Earl, who attended private school and whose parents are in well-paid executive jobs.
“I worked with Ben a lot as a kid,” he says. “He is fortunate and he would recognise it, but he is also one of the hardest working, toughest, most competitive people you will ever meet.”
However, Barrell’s new position, as chief executive of Greenhouse Sports, a charity which delivers sports in some of the most disadvantaged schools in the country, has also opened his eyes.
“If your point of difference is having overcome some really tough things at a point where everyone else was having it given to them, those psychosocial attributes are really important,” he says.
“Some of the kids I work with now have that in bucketloads.
“I have seen kids overcome stuff that others, in a nice school having a fish and chip Friday, would baulk at.
“How do we change the system to accommodate kids who bring that?”
Genge, who has his own charity working with disadvantaged youth in his native Bristol, agrees.
For all the coaching and facilities he didn’t have, he says his upbringing gave him something vital.
“It probably geared me up in terms of attrition and challenge” he explains.
“My character definitely wouldn’t be the same if I hadn’t gone through what I went through. You wouldn’t get that if you went through some of those [private] schools.
“But what do you favour, the character of the man or someone who can pass off both hands at 16? There is good out of both.”
If English rugby is short of the former, it could start looking in less familiar settings.
“There are thousands out there like me,” says Genge of the state system’s untapped talent.
United States President Donald Trump has ordered the Treasury to stop minting new pennies, reviving an old debate about the value of the one cent coin.
The penny, Trump argued in a post on his Truth Social platform on February 9, is “wasteful” because the cost to make it far exceeds its currency value.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he wrote.
Why the push to retire the coin?
Despite being worth only one cent, each penny costs nearly four cents to produce, according to the US Mint. That’s due to the cost of the raw material – mostly zinc – and the moulding process.
Some 3.2 billion pennies were minted in 2024, meaning a production cost of $12.8bn.
Centuries of inflation have also made the penny, first minted in 1793, virtually obsolete. It has become so insignificant that it’s no longer even practical for the cheapest retail items—such as a gumball or a single piece of candy.
“People don’t want them. They don’t use them,” Larry Jackson, a 65-year-old coin dealer in Atlanta told the Reuters news agency. “They sock them away in cans and drawers and jars … Even a 30-pound bag won’t fetch you $50.”
In addition, the use of the penny tends to clog up retail transactions. If cashiers can skip counting pennies, they’d save 2.5 seconds per check-out, according to a 2006 study by the National Association of Convenience Stores.
An employee rings up sales at a cash register at a Walmart in Los Angeles on Black Friday, on November 29, 2013 [Robyn Beck/AFP]
Is there an argument to keep it?
Yes. Some penny advocates contend that the currency helps keep prices in check.
Businesses, they argue, will be more likely to round off prices upwards than downwards without the penny. That could have a marginal inflationary impact.
Additionally, they argue, pennies serve as a valuable source of funding for charities: Each individual contribution might be tiny, but it all adds up.
Others point out that scrapping the coin may force the government to churn out more nickels, an even bigger financial burden. Worth five cents, the nickel costs 13 cents apiece to produce.
Ultimately, however, most economists say losing the penny would have a negligible effect on consumers. That’s because the vast majority of transactions are already cashless.
“I think at some point in history cancelling the penny would have been a bigger deal, but now people don’t even carry them in their pockets,” said economist Sean Snaith. “They’re largely not in circulation.”
Have other countries tried scrapping the penny?
Yes, countries like Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands have all phased out their smallest-denomination coins.
When Canada stopped minting the penny in 2013, it saved an estimated $11m annually, according to the Canadian government. Many retailers began rounding cash purchases to the nearest five-cent mark, while the government collected and recycled the pennies for their copper and zinc content.
US lawmakers have long advocated for similar measures. Starting in 1989, the late Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe started a decades-long bid to eliminate the penny, introducing several failed bills to scrap it. “The penny has been a nuisance for years,” he said back in 2006.
Is it legal for Trump to stop penny production on his own?
It’s unclear.
Congress, which oversees the US Mint’s operations, would likely need to pass a law to permanently retire the coin. But some legal experts say Trump could simply direct the treasury secretary to stop producing them.
Legal scholar Laurence H Tribe pointed out that the secretary has the authority to mint coins in whatever amounts deemed necessary – potentially zero for the penny.
“Unlike a lot of what the new administration [of President Trump] has been doing pursuant to the flood of executive orders since January 20, this action seems to me entirely lawful and fully constitutional,” said Tribe.
Robert Triest, an economist professor at Northeastern University, says “the process of discontinuing the penny in the US is a little unclear”.
“It would likely require an act of Congress, but the secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” Triest was quoted by Northeastern Global News as saying in a January news article. Phasing out the penny, he added, would raise questions about how to round cash transactions and the use of people’s existing collections of pennies.
Scores of children caught up in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been subjected to sexual violence including rape by armed men, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The targeting of children has soared to unprecedented levels in recent weeks, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned on Thursday, making an urgent appeal for the violence to stop as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels expand their footprint, clashing with Congolese forces and their allied militias.
“In North and South Kivu provinces, we are receiving horrific reports of grave violations against children by parties to the conflict, including rape and other forms of sexual violence at levels surpassing anything we have seen in recent years,” Russell said in a statement.
Sharing the stories of some survivors, she said: “One mother recounted to our staff how her six daughters, the youngest just 12 years old, were systematically raped by armed men while searching for food.”
UNICEF’s accusation came as the conflict in the mineral-rich region shows no signs of abating, as M23, which captured North Kivu’s capital Goma last month, pushes further south. Thousands have been killed and tens of thousands more displaced, the UN has said.
The agency’s partners in the region reported that the number of rape cases treated across 42 health facilities jumped five-fold in one week from January 27 to February 2, Russell said.
“Of those treated, 30 percent were children. The true figures are likely much higher because so many survivors are reluctant to come forward.”
Russell added that she was “deeply alarmed by the intensifying violence”, particularly the effects on children and families.
People who were displaced by the fighting between M23 rebels and government soldiers leave their camp following an instruction by M23 rebels in Goma [Moses Sawasawa/AP]
‘All parties’ committed violence
Lianne Gutcher, UNICEF’s communication chief in DRC, told The Associated Press news agency that of the total 572 rape cases reported, 170 were children.
“It is suspected that all parties to the conflict committed sexual violence,” Gutcher said.
Partner agencies are now running out of the drugs used to reduce the risk of HIV infection after the sexual assaults, Russell said.
As fighting intensifies, hundreds of children have been separated from their fleeing families, exposing them to heightened risks of violence, she added.
In just the past two weeks, more than 1,100 unaccompanied children have been identified in the two Kivu provinces, according to UNICEF.
As the rebel offensive widens, recruitment of youth by all groups is likely to accelerate, with reports of children as young as 12 being enlisted or coerced to join the fighting.
“Parties to the conflict must immediately cease and prevent grave rights violations against children,” Russell said.
M23, which UN experts say is backed by Rwanda, in recent months has swiftly seized tracts of territory in eastern DRC after again taking up arms in late 2022, in a country plagued by numerous conflicts for decades.
Date: Saturday, 15 February Venue: Co-op Live, Manchester
Jack Catterall is the best active fighter in Britain who has not won a world title, and it would be a massive injustice if he never does.
He has shown he is good enough and can be dominant at the top level. When he is good, he is brilliant.
At 31, he is still young and fresh enough to reach that goal. But with every passing month and year, you become slower, older and more jaded.
It is not just about the hard fights, but the training and mental stimulation. The politics and things out of the ring suck away at you, take their toll and take away your aspirations.
Catterall – who faces Arnold Barboza Jr in Manchester on Saturday – should have become undisputed light-welterweight champion in 2022 against Josh Taylor.
Even though Taylor is one of my favourite fighters in recent memory, the ‘Tartan Tornado’ lost that fight, despite the judges scoring it otherwise.
What information do we collect from this quiz?
Catterall proved me wrong & Calzaghe comparisons
I was not always convinced Catterall would reach the heights of boxing. I was unsure about his drive and desire, and that uncertainty was because of his personality.
He is charismatic and a good-looking kid, but he is not an outrageous headline grabber and would not really put himself out there.
He reminded me a little bit of Joe Calzaghe, who was reluctant to do any sponsorship events unless he knew somebody there. In fact, I once got a sponsored car from Joe not going to places and me going instead.
But Catterall has proved me wrong and my assessment may have been a little bit disrespectful. Just because he is a nice guy does not mean he is not tough. He has shown he is one of the toughest fighters out there and is willing to go to war.
In his performances in the two fights with Taylor, for example, he boxed like his normal self but with more ambition.
When he outpointed Regis Prograis in October, Catterall put his foot on the gas when he had the opportunity in a mature, experienced and skilled performance.
The problem is that because Catterall is such a thinking fighter, he can sometimes be overcautious and let himself down.
As a coach, you have to be happy because he does not take unnecessary risks, but sometimes as a fan you want more.
‘Being world champion stays with you forever’
Getty Images
Barboza Jr is a good fighter and if he gets an opportunity to slow you down then he could be a hard night’s work, but I think Catterall’s movement, jab and patience will frustrate him.
WBO champion Teofimo Lopez has been ordered to fight the winner – who will be the governing body’s ‘interim’ champion – within 180 days. If Lopez decides to move up the divisions, either Catterall or Barboza could then be upgraded to replace him.
Nobody would begrudge Catterall if he was elevated to world champion, but it is ludicrous and stupid. It spoils it for the fighters, who dream of hearing the words “and the new”.
Either just make this a final eliminator or make it for the vacant title and strip Lopez if he does not plan to stay in the division.
However, I do believe Catterall will become a world champion one way or another. The WBC champion Albert Puella is a good but beatable fighter and Catterall would fancy his chances. As he would against Jose Valenzuela, who holds the WBA belt.
When you get to my age and reflect on your career, you look at whether you ticked every box. To be financially secure and to win a world title are the two main boxes.
I won a world title in 1997 – back when I had hair – but even now when I go back home, people still shout out “hi champ”. Without the world title I would just be Barry Jones who used to box.
Florence Pugh made the emotional admission that she ‘wasn’t supposed to live’ after receiving a bleak health diagnosis, and admitted the heartbreaking words her parents received from doctors.
The Oppenheimer and Midsommar actress is the first celebrity to feature in No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski. The upcoming series, executive produced by Gordon Ramsay, combines cooking with genealogy as famous faces learn about their ancestors via the medium of food accompanied by Queer Eye star Antoni.
The series synopsis reads: “From Italy, Germany and the UK to Senegal, South Korea and Borneo, Antoni takes celebs on epic journeys to explore their ancestral and culinary roots.”
Antoni Porowski took Florence into London to retrace the steps of her ancestors ( National Geographic/Chris Raphael)
In the first episode titled ‘Florence Pugh’s English Odyssey’, the pair traversed the star’s childhood home of Oxford, before journeying to Yorkshire, Whitby and London as they followed in the footsteps of Florence’s ancestors. It was during the London leg of their UK tour that the star made a frank confession about her childhood.
Antoni had previously informed Florence that her great, great, great grandparents on her father Clint’s side had a daughter named Florence Pugh, something that left the star stunned as her family had no idea there had been another in their lineage. However, as they walked through St Pancras Gardens, Antoni informed Florence that the girl had died at a very young age.
“Because of the air quality and the pollution here, quality of life was really tough,” Antoni began. “Little Florence, unfortunately just shy of her fifth birthday, passed away. Most probably from tuberculosis, that was the case with most children in those times.”
It emerged the star wasn’t the first Florence Pugh in her family ( National Geographic/Chris Raphael)
“Oh no. Woah,” Florence responded, visibly upset by the revelation. She then admitted a strange coincidence between the pair.
“Ok… so this is also just very strange because I had many struggles growing up with my breathing and constantly being ill and going in and out of hospital,” she explained. “I wasn’t supposed to live. When I was born they told my parents that it wasn’t going to happen and just enjoy your time while you have it.”
Alongside Pugh, other stars featured on the six-part series include actor Henry Golding, musician and actress Awkwafina and the Emmy-nominated Issa Rae. All episodes will be available to stream on Disney+ from February 24, while National Geographic Channel will broadcast episode one on February 26 at 10pm.
Speaking about the series, Antoni shared: “It’s a beautiful adventure to discover our past through the great connector that is food. I’m honoured to go on this journey of self-discovery with new and old friends alongside National Geographic as we learn together about the ways different cultures celebrate food and experience their traditions.”
All episodes of No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski are available to stream on Disney+ from February 24. The first episode will also be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel at 10pm on February 26.
