But owing to his status as a social …

But owing to his status as a social media cult hero for the league’s most popular franchise, he’s gotten a boost among fan voting. And, yes, he gets a kick out of it. “Obviously I enjoy it. I love fans, and the fact that I have fans is an amazing thing in general,” he said. “But yeah, kind of ready for it to move along, give the guys who deserve it their attention and getting back to regular games.”

Candlestick Chronicles: Raheem Mostert sends 49ers to Super Bowl LIV

The 49ers are, somehow, going back to the Super Bowl.

The 49ers dominated the Green Bay Packers 37-20 en route to their seventh Super Bowl appearance.

Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee and Kyle Madson discuss the 49ers’ win and how Raheem Mostert wound up carrying them on offense. They also get into the Super Bowl LIV matchup with the Chiefs, and Chris tells a postgame locker room story about George Kittle’s shirtless Jimmy Garoppolo shirt.  The guys also take a deep dive on the 49ers’ season and how they got from a disaster 2017 season to the Super Bowl.

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UFC president Dana White is hyping Tom Brady to the Raiders

“Come on man. If that dude isn’t playing for Boston he’s playing here.”

There’s one influential Las Vegas-native who has begun hyping the possibility of Tom Brady joining the Raiders (who were recently minted Las Vegas’ team).

UFC president Dana White went out of his way to talk about Brady’s free agency prospects this weekend in a post-fight press conference at UFC 246. Brady, after all, was spotted chatting with Raiders owner Mark Davis during the event. White seemed playfully frustrated that no one asked him about the moment.

“I thought you guys were going to ask me ‘Hey, Tom Brady was here. Davis was here. I saw them talking. What’s going on?’” White joked on Saturday night. “Are you guys (expletive) Las Vegans or what? Come on man. If that dude isn’t playing for Boston he’s playing here. I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m talking about. But year, he liked the fight.”

Even White admitted he doesn’t have the inside scoop. He and Brady were hanging out (as documented by ESPN), but it’s clear the New England Patriots quarterback is providing zero hints on where he might land, if he decides to enter free agency in March.

In the meantime, the Raiders have flexibility to commit or abandon quarterback Derek Carr. And while general manager Mike Mayock said Carr improved in his second season under coach Jon Gruden, Mayock was non-committal to his quarterback.

“As far as what the future holds, I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told you last year. About every position. And that is, my job is to evaluate every position and try and make us better,” Mayock told Vic Tafur of TheAthletic.com. “And if I can, I will, and if I can’t, I won’t. And that holds true at every position.”

So there is a chance, however small it may be.

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Ex-Giants coach Tom Coughlin wants to remain involved with NFL

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin wants to remain involved in the NFL at some level and is just waiting for a call.

Former New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin may not be employed by any NFL team at the moment, but that is just a temporary situation as he’s itching to get back into the fray.

Not that any NFL team is ringing him up these days, but if they did, the 73-year-old two-time Super Bowl winner would be more than ready to accept their offer.

“I love the game,” Coughlin said recently in a CBS Sports Radio interview. “I love the people involved in the game, and to continue to be involved in some capacity would be a very good thing for me. I need to be active, I need to be busy, I want to be busy. The routine is very good for me. It’s been that way for a lot of years, and we’ll just see what prevails.”

After 12 years at the helm of the Giants, Coughlin had a career record of 170-150 as a head coach — 102-90 with Big Blue. After leaving the Giants, Tom worked for the NFL as an advisor to football operations before reuniting with the Jacksonville Jaguars as their EVP of operations.

Coughlin was let go by the Jaguars in December after the Jags lost a grievance by the NFLPA, which found them in violation of the CBA. Owner Shad Khan was going to relieve Coughlin from his post after the season but decided to act on December 18.

The last time Coughlin was without a team — or a job — was in 2003 after the Jaguars fired him and before the Giants signed him. He was seen at the NFL Combine that year sitting in the stands with his trusty stopwatch clocking the participants as if he were still running a franchise.

A reporter asked Coughlin why he was there because he had no team.

“I know,” he said. “But I will.”

This time around could be different. Coughlin’s ways are seen to be old school and his age is working against him, although that is discriminatory.

Could he return to the Giants in some advisory role? Maybe, but don’t count on it.

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Seahawks QB Russell Wilson ranks No. 14 in NFL player sales

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson ranks No. 14 in sales of all officially licensed NFL player-identified merchandise through November 2019.

The NFLPA recently updated its “Top Player Sales list,” which provides a verified ranking of all officially licensed, NFL player-identified merchandise sold online and in traditional retail outlets.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has moved into first place after sales calculated through November 30. Patriots signal-caller Tom Brady has finished in the top spot for the last two years and currently sits at No. 2.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson made the cut into the top 15, landing at No. 14. Here’s a look a who else made the list.

NFLPA’s Top 15 among all officially licensed product sold:

1.   Patrick Mahomes II, QB, Kansas City

2.   Tom Brady, QB, New England

3.   Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas

4.   Baker Mayfield, QB, Cleveland

5.   Odell Beckham Jr., WR, Cleveland

6.   Khalil Mack, LB, Chicago

7.   Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay

8.   Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas

9.   Saquon Barkley, RB, New York Giants

10. JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, Pittsburgh

11. Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans

12. Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore

13. Carson Wentz, QB, Philadelphia

14. Russell Wilson, QB, Seattle

15. Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, San Francisco

The current Top 50 can be found here.

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Luguentz Dort holds James Harden to historically bad shooting night

In his first career start, Dort held Harden to 9-of-29 shooting as Harden tied his own record for most 3-point misses (16) in a single game.

Lu Dort might have just earned himself a contract.

In his first career start on Monday night, the two-way player frustrated James Harden from start to finish.

While at first glance, it might look as if The Beard had his way with the Thunder rookie, a closer look at the box score reveals that Harden needed 29 shots from the field to get to 29 points. He made just 9 of his 29 attempts, going a paltry 1-of-17 from beyond the arc. Per Stat Muse, that tied his own record for most missed three-point attempts in a single game.

The only place Harden excelled on Monday was at the free-throw line, hitting 10-of-13.

Dort drew the start in place of Terrance Ferguson, who missed the game due to personal reasons.

According to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman, Billy Donovan told reporters after the game that he though Dort did “an unbelievable job” in a career-high 32 minutes.

“He played a lot of minutes, really worked hard on Harden. You’re not going to be perfect on him all the time, but I thought the effort that he gave for the 30-plus minutes that he was on the floor was huge for us.”

Dort scored eight points, but much like Ferguson in that role was needed much more for his defensive presence than his offensive prowess.

As noted by Mussatto, Dort drew a game-changing charge against Harden that helped shift the momentum in the Thunder’s favor late in the second half.

Oklahoma City overcame a 16-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to come back to get the win, 112-107.

Dolphins’ Brian Flores goes on the record regarding coaching change

Miami Dolphins’ head coach Brian Flores went on the record to discuss the team’s offensive coordinator change.

The Miami Dolphins’ coaching staff has undergone a pretty drastic makeover this offseason. Out are assistant head coach Jim Caldwell, offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea, offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo and others — including defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. The replacement coaches are, by and large, secured, giving Miami a chance to stabilize their staff with fresh faces before the team opens up mini-camps and organized team activities in April.

The biggest lingering question? Why did the Dolphins decide to make such aggressive changes to the offensive coaching staff? Weren’t the issues simply a matter of bad personnel?

We now have some contest on the matter courtesy of Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald recently published a story highlighting Flores’ motivations for the changes — and the context given by Coach Flores is interesting, to say the least.

“I have a lot of respect for (former offensive coordinator) Chad (O’Shea),” said Flores via Beasley. “I think he’s a very, very good coach. At the end of the day, I feel like for the future of this team, my vision for us offensively, I feel like it’s a move we have to make…From a vision standpoint, as far as how we’re going to run the football and throw the football. How we’re going to go about meetings and practices and walk-throughs I felt like we needed to do something a little differently than we had in the past.”

Let’s call this “creative differences”. And given how Flores was able to energize the Dolphins this season, he’s earned the right to run his operation however he’d like — even if that comes at the cost of continuity. Furthermore, Flores’ decision to onboard Chan Gailey and several of Gailey’s assistant coaches from his prior stop in New York indicate that continuity is still important — just not continuing to operate under the same status quo this team was exposed to offensively in 2019.

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