data-mm-id=”_y3v9bxg25″>The Minnesota Vikings are the NFL's most surprising team three weeks into the 2024 NFL season. They sit atop the NFC North with a 3-0 record and have scored the second-most points in the league behind a revitalized Sam Darnold, who has thrown an NFL-best eight touchdown passes.Execution on the field is only part of the blueprint for football success. Teams need a lot of luck along the way as well, especially when it comes to injuries.RELATED: Antonio Pierce shares harsh critique of players after Raiders' upset lossOn Monday, the Vikings were fortunate to discover that Darnold's knee injury in Sunday's 34-7 victory against the Houston Texans isn't serious. An MRI revealed that the quarterback only has a knee bruise and is expected to not miss any time.#Vikings QB Sam Darnold’s MRI revealed a knee bruise and no structural damage, per source. pic.twitter.com/CdWuEuNlwR— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 23, 2024Minnesota and Darnold were popular topics for sports talk shows on Monday. "The Pat McAfee Show" gave them their flowers during its weekly visit with Bill Belichick, who's been ubiquitous this season in his new role of NFL analyst.Belichick provided insight about the Vikings' new identity as a team to beat and new challenge as the NFC North leader."I don't think anybody's looking past Minnesota, not that they were before, but I don't think anybody's looking past them now," Belichick said. "And probably their opponents coming up in the future are saying, 'Hey, this is how we measure our program, how do we (measure) right now against one of the top two or three teams in the league."That's when the New England Patriots coaching legend couldn't resist taking a shot at one of his former AFC East rivals — the New York Jets, who drafted Darnold third overall in 2018 but traded him to the Carolina Panthers just three years later."Everybody has liked Darnold, except the Jets," Belichick said. "The people at Carolina that I talked to, they really liked him. He was at the Rams, not for very long, and they liked him, and I think they wanted to re-sign him (but) he was looking for more of an opportunity than play behind (Matthew) Stafford. I know that Kevin (O'Connell) and some of the coaches at Minnesota, they really like this guy too."So it seemed like the only people who didn't like Darnold were at the Jets.""Right now the Vikings are one of the top two or three teams in the league..Everybody has liked Sam Darnold except for the Jets" ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/Q6OadTmjwl— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 23, 2024Belichick sought another NFL head coaching position after parting ways with the Patriots in January. He interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons before they hired Raheem Morris. Surely, a football franchise could still gain from the six-time Super Bowl champion's wealth of wisdom.Until he gets that next coaching gig, NFL fans will continue to benefit from Belichick thriving in media and speaking his mind.MORE TOP STORIES FROM THE BIG LEADNFL: Should the “two-high” safety formation be banned?WNBA x MLB: Phillies invite Caitlin Clark to broadcast boothGOLF: There’s now a Ryder Cup path for LIV playersSPORTS MEDIA: Candidates to replace Woj as ESPN’s NBA Insider
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Celtic have won the Scottish Premiership for the third consecutive season after a dominant 5-0 win at Kilmarnock on Wednesday.
Rangers beat Dundee United 5-2 on Tuesday to make Celtic wait an extra day to secure another league title, but the Hoops brushed aside Kilmarnock with little fuss.
Adam Idah, Daizen Maeda and James Forrest scored in a dominant first half, with Matt O Riley helping himself to a brace after the interval to cap a memorable display.
Celtic now have an unassailable six-point lead over their Old Firm rivals with one game to play, and they will celebrate their latest crown at home to St Mirren on Saturday.
2021/22
2022/23
2023/24 are crowned Champions of Scotland AGAIN!
Three-In-A-Row for Glasgow s Green White Congratulation…
Pep Guardiola admitted that Ederson came close to leaving Manchester City in the transfer window but stayed because a fee could not be agreed.
The Brazilian was linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League in the off-season, with both Al-Nassr and Al-Ittihad both reportedly interested in his signature.
Since joining the club in June 2017, Ederson has kept 113 clean sheets in 257 Premier League appearances, more than any other goalkeeper in the competition since his debut.
He has won 15 major trophies with City, including six Premier Leagues, two FA Cups and a Champions League title, as well as the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.
Ederson has played in all seven of City s Premier League matches so far this season, keeping just one clean sheet and conceding…
And with that, the Euro 2024 group stages conclude on yet another dramatic day of action across Germany.
Turkiye, Georgia, Romania, Belgium and Slovakia were the final teams to secure their place in the knockout stages of the tournament.
Here, we unpack the best of Wednesday s social media clips from the football at the European Championship.
Germany eyeing Denmark task
Julian Nagelsmann s side now know their opponents for the knockout stages of Euro 2024 following the conclusion of Group C on Tuesday.
The hosts will travel to Dortmund this Saturday to play Denmark at the Westfalenstadion for a place in the quarter-finals.
Having had two extra days of rest compared to their opponents, Germany will be hopeful of continuing their impressi…
World football body FIFA on Friday said it was confident that the global credit crunch would not hit the 2010 or 2014 World Cups, revealing football s world body had concluded a 650 million dollar (514.6 million euro) insurance package to cover the events.
To ensure the 2010 (South African) and 2014 (Brazilian) World Cups are a success were natural disasters or other acts to occur we have insured the events, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said at an executive committee meeting in Zurich.
Secretary General Jerome Valcke said the insurance was protection against any event which might force either a postponement or moving a tournament to another country.
But he added this was standard practice and insisted that there is nothing to indicate any lack of trust in the …
Leonardo Bonucci described Italy s Euro 2020 semi-final win against Spain as the toughest game of his career and urged his team-mates to complete the job by lifting the trophy.
The Azzurri beat Spain 4-2 on penalties in a gripping contest at Wembley on Tuesday that finished 1-1 at the end of extra time.
Alvaro Morata was introduced from the bench to cancel out Federico Chiesa s brilliant opener 10 minutes from time, but the striker s miss proved crucial in the shoot-out.
Jorginho was left to roll in the winning spot-kick as Italy booked their third final appearance in the competition since last going all the way in 1968.
That remains the four-time world champions only continental triumph and veteran defender Bonucci is eager to put an end to that 53-year …
Ukraine Euro 2012 tournament director Markiyan Lubkivskyi said he was pleased to prove doubters wrong with a huge influx of foreign visitors.
Several allegations were levelled at the country before and during the tournament including racial vilification and increased prices, all of which Lubkivskyi said had proved to be misconceptions.
Before the tournament there were rumours and scare stories about Ukraine but I always thought it was simple to combat that, Lubkivskyi said.
I always believed we should concentrate on hosting the tournament in the right way and if we were good people and very friendly then we could show the world it wasn t true.
Ukraine has enjoyed nearly one million visitors during the tournament and Lubkivskyi said the healthy figures…
Spread bettors addressing Group E will have noted it offers a wide range of footballing styles with the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and Cameroon all battling for qualification. The Dutch are favourites on the Group E Index (25pts to the winner, 10pts to runner-up and 5pts to third-place), currently with a spread of 16.5-18pts.
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Buyers of the Dutch Group E index will have noted that Holland comfortably qualified for South Africa 2010 with a flawless record. They won all eight of their qualification matches, bagging 17 goals in the process and conceding only two.
Spread sellers of their tournament win index at 30 will however be aware of the side s disappointing record at major tournaments and quick to point to the inconsistent results from E…
Roberto Mancini has expressed regret about Italy s failure to secure automatic World Cup qualification and warned the Azzurri must forget about their Euro 2020 success ahead of the playoffs.
Italy, who missed out on the 2018 World Cup, have undergone a transformative period under former Inter and Manchester City manager Mancini. That culminated in them triumphing at Euro 2020 – their first European Championship title since 1968.
The Azzurri embarked on a world-record 37-game unbeaten run, which ended at the hands of Spain in the Nations League semi-finals in October, but their World Cup prospects hang in the balance.
Italy finished runners-up to Switzerland in Group C, as did Portugal to Serbia in Group A. The pair were then drawn on the same play-off path,…
Bayern Munich boss Jupp Heynckes plans to stop Paris Saint-Germain and Neymar in much the same way as they contained Barcelona and Lionel Messi in 2013.
The Bundesliga champions destroyed Barca in the Champions League semi-finals four years ago, winning 4-0 at the Allianz Arena before claiming a 3-0 victory at Camp Nou en route to winning the trophy.
Heynckes returned to Bayern shortly after PSG beat them 3-0 in October, with that defeat spelling the end of Carlo Ancelotti s time in charge.
The 72-year-old is hoping his side produce a far better performance on Tuesday and says defending as a team will be critical to containing PSG s attacking trio of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani.
It s only possible collectively, he told a news conference. I k…
The AFC South’s two competitive teams will wrap up their season series on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium, as the division-leading Tennessee Titans visit the Indianapolis Colts.
Tennessee has effectively shaken off early-season struggles and, with two consecutive impressive wins in its pocket, takes a 5-2 record on the road against a feisty 3-4 Indy team.
Here are our free NFL betting picks and predictions for Titans vs. Colts on October 31.
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