Category Sports News

The NFL’s 2025 season has provided the most wide-open race for the Super Bowl in years.

Now just the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks remain and they will meet on Sunday to decide the NFL champions.

It is a title New England have held six times but this is their first Super Bowl since 2019 and the departure of legendary quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick.

A revitalised Patriots team have come from nowhere to reach Super Bowl 60 in California and secure a record-extending 12th appearance in the NFL showpiece.

The Seahawks have reached their fourth Super Bowl, and their first since 2015, when the Patriots denied them back-to-back championships.

Now a Briton could become the first overseas coach to win arguably the biggest game in world sport having helped turn Seattle back into title contenders.

Brady and head coach Belichick led New England to nine Super Bowls between 2002 and 2019, winning six.

That tied the record for most Super Bowl wins with the Pittsburgh Steelers so the Patriots will go clear if they win at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara.

Last season, New England finished with a 4-13 record under Jerod Mayo, who was replaced by another coach who won the Super Bowl as a player with the Patriots, Mike Vrabel.

The ex-Tennessee Titans coach rebuilt the Patriots’ roster and they improved to 14-3. That 10-win swing is tied for the biggest turnaround from one season to the next – and the Patriots are the first of those teams to reach the Super Bowl.

New England’s Drake Maye grew up in North Carolina and attended the previous Super Bowl held at Levi’s Stadium 10 years ago.

A 13-year-old Maye and his father watched the Carolina Panthers lose to Denver. Now he returns to Santa Clara as one of the top candidates for this season’s Most Valuable Player award.

Maye is the ninth second-year quarterback to reach the Super Bowl and aims to become the first to win it since Russell Wilson with Seattle in 2014. At 23, he will also be the second youngest QB to start a Super Bowl after Dan Marino in 1985.

Like Maye, Seattle’s current quarterback Sam Darnold was also the third overall pick when he was drafted in 2018 but his NFL journey has become a redemption story.

After struggling with the New York Jets, then Carolina, Darnold spent the 2023 season as the San Francisco 49ers’ back-up, before being thrust into the starters’ job at Minnesota.

New England, Seattle and Denver shared the regular season’s best record of 14-3, but despite their history and having an MVP contender at quarterback, the Patriots are Super Bowl underdogs for the first time since Brady won his first in 2002.

Seattle are strong favourites with the bookmakers having emerged from the ultra-competitive NFC West division to clinch the NFC’s top seed, before beating divisional rivals San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams again in the play-offs.

Darnold has formed a devastating connection with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who led the league for receiving yards, and Seattle’s defence allowed the fewest points (17.2 per game).

The team which claimed the Seahawks’ one Super Bowl win in 2014 was renowned for its Legion of Boom defence.

Puerto Rican pop star Bad Bunny will be the first solo male Latin artist to perform the half-time show and is expected to be the first to perform their set entirely in Spanish.

The 31-year-old was Spotify’s most streamed artist in four of the past six years. He is also an actor, has hosted Saturday Night Live and been a WWE 24/7 champion.

American rock band Green Day, who hail from the San Francisco Bay Area, will play an opening ceremony to help usher Super Bowl MVPs onto the field.

Both they and Bad Bunny have been critics of US president Donald Trump and his administration, with the singer saying he avoided the US on his current world tour because of concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would conduct raids on fans at his concerts.

Trump became the first sitting president to attend America’s biggest game last year when he watched the Philadelphia Eagles prevent a Kansas City Chiefs three-peat in New Orleans.

Trump told the New York Post that he will not be attending this year, though, as the game at the home of the San Francisco 49ers is “just too far away”.

Asked about the Super Bowl performers, Trump added: “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred.”

Turning Point USA, which was co-founded by late Trump ally Charlie Kirk, says it will be holding an alternative half-time show but is yet to confirm details.

There is also confusion over whether ICE agents will be deployed around the Super Bowl, with government and local officials giving conflicting information.

Super Bowl 60 will kick-off on Sunday at 23:30 GMT and be broadcast live on Channel 5, Sky Sports and DAZN.

You can listen to live radio coverage on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds and follow live text coverage via the BBC Sport website and app.

The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will compete for the Super Bowl title on 8 February (23:30 GMT).

Seventeen Scottish athletes, across four different sports, will be part of Team GB’s 53-strong delegation for this month’s Winter Olympics in Italy.

Some will go as medal favourites. Others with dreams of stepping on to the podium. And a few will measure success in a different way.

The action starts on Wednesday when the mixed curling team take to the ice in Cortina for their opener against Norway (18:05 GMT) live on the BBC Sport website & app and the BBC iPlayer.

Men: Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell (alternate)

Women: Rebecca Morrison, Sophie Jackson, Jennifer Dodds, Sophie Sinclair, Fay Henderson (alternate)

Mixed: Mouat and Dodds

In Beijing four years ago, curling was the only sport to return to Britain with medals. Eve Muirhead’s rink took women’s gold and Mouat’s men claimed silver.

Muirhead is no longer playing – instead, she will lead the overall GB team as chef du mission – but her Bejing team-mate Dodds is.

“Jen and the kids” is how the women’s rink this time label themselves and, while their inexperience means they are not among the favourites, they could find themselves in contention for a podium place if things go their way.

Edinburgh duo Dodds and Mouat will be fancied in the mixed, though, having lost the bronze-medal match last time.

Lewis Gibson: Ice Dance

Anastasia Vaipan-Law: Pairs

Irvine native Gibson and partner Lilah Fear have raised hopes they can end Team GB’s three-decade wait for an Olympic figure skating podium place after claiming medals at four consecutive European Championships.

At last month’s staging, the ‘Disco Brits’ took bronze after performing to a Scottish-themed medley – tartan costumes and all.

Vaipan-Law and partner Luke Digby missed out on a European medal of their own after the Scot fell during a throw in the free skate.

Kirsty Muir: Slopestyle & big air

Chris McCormick: Slopestyle & big air

Kirsty Muir was just 17 when she finished fifth in the Big Air event in Beijing and is in fine form as she approaches her second Games.

The Aberdonian won freeski slopestyle gold at the X Games last week and took silver in the big air event. What chance a medal in Livigno?

Glasgow’s McCormick, meanwhile, will make his Winters debut after missing out on a place at Beijing by the narrowest of margins.

Andrew Musgrave: event tbc

James Clugnet: event tbc

Anna Pryce: event tbc

Musgrave, 35, will make his fifth Games appearance in Italy in what is likely to be a final chance to claim an Olympic medal.

The 35-year-old, who grew up in Aberdeenshire but relocated to Norway 17 years ago, was seventh in the skiathlon in 2018 – still Team GB’s best result in the sport.

The Six Nations is the most eagerly anticipated rugby competition in the northern hemisphere each year.

Fans this season, though, will have their wait reduced by 24 hours with the competition unusually starting on a Thursday evening when Ireland are the visitors to Paris to take on France (20:10 GMT).

Friday night fixtures have become the norm in the championship – dating back to France’s hosting of Wales in February 2009 – but this year’s Thursday start is because of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

While a first in the Six Nations era, the Stade de France fixture is not the only time a game in the championship has been staged on a Thursday.

The last time, back when the competition was the Five Nations, came in 1948 and Irish fans hoping for a good omen will note that was the year their side went on to win the first of their four Grand Slams.

Back then, it was again Ireland against France in Paris that was staged on a Thursday, although at that stage the competition began in January and the game was held on New Year’s Day.

While a February start and mid-March finish for the competition is now well established, that window has only been the norm since 2005. Prior to that, January starts and April finishes were both common.

Ireland have played on a Thursday more recently than 1948 however, beating Russia 35-0 in Kobe during the 2019 World Cup.

France, where second-tier Pro D2 fixtures are regularly staged on the day for television purposes, twice played on a Thursday at their own World Cup in 2023, beating Uruguay 27-12 and Namibia 96-0 in the pool stages.

Ireland lock James Ryan feels a quick start away to France in the Six Nations opener is “unbelievably important” for the visitors.

Andy Farrell’s side will begin their 2026 campaign at the Stade de France on Thursday (20:10 GMT) in a game brought forward to avoid a clash with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday.

While Ireland beat France in Marseille two years ago, and won at the Stade de France against Scotland and South Africa during the 2023 World Cup, they have not beat Les Bleus at the venue since 2018.

“I think a big start is definitely unbelievably important for us,” said Ryan.

“They get the tails up and the crowd get behind them and they’re into their flow, so a fast start for us is always important but particularly so this weekend.

“I think going away from home over in Paris, you’ve got to start well.”

The Leinster lock, who has 76 caps for Ireland having made his debut in 2017, is expecting the set-piece to be an important battle ground in the game.

“The line-out drive and the scrum is a huge part of their DNA, it’s probably something that gives them a lot of belief,” he added.

“So it’s a big challenge for us as well up front in terms of the set-piece. We’re unbelievably excited about that too.”

Should Farrell choose to hand a debut, most likely from the bench, to Munster’s Edwin Edogbo, Ireland’s effort at the set-piece would be boosted by the uncapped 23-year-old’s 127kg frame.

Edogbo missed nearly two years with Achilles injuries but has impressed for his province this season to earn an Ireland call.

“He’s hit the ground running really well in here and he’s a serious athlete,” said Ryan.

Chelsea have gone from winning everything domestically without losing a game to falling 12 points adrift of the Women’s Super League leaders – all within the space of nine months.

The dominant force in England for almost a decade, Chelsea were attempting to clinch a seventh WSL title this season but now find themselves in a battle to retain a qualification spot for next season’s Women’s Champions League.

The drop off? Unimaginable. Their most recent 5-1 defeat by Manchester City on Sunday? A humiliation.

The obvious sign that things are not as harmonious is the results.

Last season, Chelsea dropped just six points. A shock defeat by Everton, a surprising draw with Liverpool, and now back-to-back losses – for the first time in 11 years – to their rivals Arsenal and Manchester City, means they have already thrown away 15 points by 1 February in this campaign.

But Chelsea’s problems felt bigger on Sunday when, for perhaps the first time in her tenure, manager Sonia Bompastor dropped subtle hints of internal frustration.

She repeatedly highlighted the squad’s lack of depth, insisting it was not what it was last season, and touched on how that limited her ability to switch things up tactically, or to rotate players to keep them fresh.

Pressed on whether she had wanted more from their summer recruitment, Bompastor smiled and simply said: “Without making too many comments on that, I would have liked to have been in a better place from the last transfer window.”

Of their five signings from the summer, only Ellie Carpenter and Alyssa Thompson are starters. They broke their club record fee to bring in Thompson for almost £1m, and spent money on Carpenter too, but Bompastor wanted more.

Injuries to key players such as Mayra Ramirez, Nathalie Bjorn and Lauren James, have harmed them in defence and up front in patches this season.

And with the January transfer window closing on Tuesday and no incomings yet, Bompastor is clearly aggrieved.

WSL leaders Manchester City made a statement signing in American midfielder Sam Coffey in this window, while Arsenal are already lining up huge pre-contract agreements for Spain full-back Ona Batlle and England international Georgia Stanway to arrive in the summer.

“A lot of people talk about Chelsea being an example of having depth in the squad and of having players with different profiles they can bring into the game. Right now, I don’t think we are in that place,” said Bompastor on Sunday.

“I’m not saying that explains everything, but being in that position probably doesn’t help. As a manager I will always [accept responsibility for] the results of this team so I need to focus also on what the solutions are for me to be in a much better place.

While Bompastor’s frustrations may carry some weight, there are also concerning trends in their performances.

A squad still packed full of talent and experience has looked bereft of ideas and lacking ruthlessness.

The ‘mentality monsters’ of recent seasons are no longer perceived to be invincible as they look more vulnerable defensively and less clinical up front.

According to Opta, they are underperforming their expected goals tally by more than any other team (24 scored from 29 expected) and in their 2-0 defeat by Arsenal, they had 18 shots but only one on target.

This is the first WSL campaign in which Chelsea have recorded one or fewer shots on target in multiple games (also against Liverpool in their 1-1 draw).

They had 70% possession in the opening 15 minutes of the second half against Manchester City on Sunday – but their opponents scored twice in that period.

And that 5-1 defeat was the joint-biggest they have suffered in the WSL, placing them the furthest from the top of the table they have been since the final day of the 2018-19 season.

“It was two top teams playing against each other and one was efficient and the other was not. I’m not putting everything on the players, but we made too many mistakes and we need to solve that,” said Bompastor on Sunday.

“I always reflect on my own decisions and my tactics. I’m always hard on myself. We played the game against Arsenal with a back three. This game, we changed the system to a back four and tried something different with different players.

“As much as you always want to explain things in football, sometimes it doesn’t work. When it’s like this, it’s tough for sure.

“You need to find the solutions, stay strong, and make sure we work on the basics. We need to get back to a level where we are producing more.”

It was a rare sight to see Chelsea’s players look so dejected and they appeared to fall apart in a second half at Etihad Stadium in which City toyed with them.

Bompastor said she was not concerned, but with fans increasingly questioning her tactics and the players looking short of confidence, does she remain convinced she is the right person for the job?

“In the club, if people think I’m not the right person to stay in this job, then I’ll be happy to go if they think that’s the right thing. But I will never give up,” she said.

“In football, I know sometimes it happens and you can be in this situation. I will always fight but the institution at Chelsea is a lot more important than myself.”

It seems absurd to question a manager who led the club to an unbeaten domestic treble in her debut season but such are the high expectations at Chelsea.

With a place in the Women’s League Cup final already booked, a Women’s Champions League quarter-final on the horizon and their Women’s FA Cup campaign still on course, it is not yet a crisis at Chelsea.