MIAMI — The last time the world saw Nathaniel Hackett on the main stage he ran a troublesome offense for the New York Jets, which was one of the league’s bottom-dwellers.

And that was after being run out of Denver, where he didn’t even finish his one-year tenure as the Broncos’ head coach.

The son of former University of Pittsburgh and...Read more

DENVER — Last one left, turn out the lights.

Over the past two weeks, the Broncos have lost five coaches. Coach Sean Payton fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, receivers coach Keary Colbert and cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch, and senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael and secondary coach Jim Leonhard are headed to Buffalo with ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — There were vivid flashback moments within this culminating football season, strange but still eidetic sports memories I'm only now coming to understand, having to do with kiddie soccer.

You heard me.

My wife and I are standing on the sidelines of some suburban greenscape, in some previous century when one of the boys was playing...Read more

LAS VEGAS — After all these weeks, after all the interviews and gossip about who it might be, the Las Vegas Raiders might have themselves a coach. Might be who they wanted all along.

It could also work out to be the perfect choice.

Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is apparently it — he can’t sign a deal or be officially ...Read more

They say it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good.

That’s nonsense. It is always better to be lucky than good.

And on Sunday, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch got lucky. Again.

Raheem Morris is coming back to the Bay to be Shanahan’s defensive coordinator. It is a home-run hire, one that provides an immediate upgrade to the 49ers’ ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Paul George’s tenure with the 76ers was finally starting to pay dividends ... until it wasn’t.

Finally healthy, the nine-time All-Star was beginning to flourish in his role as the third member of the Sixers’ Big Three.

While the other members of the trio — Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey — provided the bulk of the ...Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Two decades ago, when Kyle Shanahan broke into the NFL coaching ranks, he was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive assistant who would crash the team’s defensive meetings to learn that side of the ball. Also in those discussions was Raheem Morris, the assistant defensive backs coach.

That Shanahan-Morris connection would ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Raiders plan to hire Klint Kubiak as their next head coach, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has confirmed.

Kubiak is not allowed to sign a deal, nor can he be officially announced, until after the Super Bowl as he still plans to call plays for the Seattle offense against the New England Patriots next Sunday in Santa ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay goes through it nearly every year.

The Rams have a successful season and other NFL teams raid his coaching staff.

Mike LaFleur, the Rams' offensive coordinator for the last three seasons, is the latest to parlay his time with McVay into an NFL head coaching opportunity.

The Arizona Cardinals ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Super Bowl LX is about a week away, and 20 years ago the Steelers were about to win Super Bowl XL.

Back then, they had a blueprint other NFL teams were trying to emulate. But two decades later, the script is flipped on more than just the roman numerals to denote the game.

The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots have the ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Ravens could have played it safe. After hiring new coach Jesse Minter, Baltimore could have prioritized experience and proven play-calling at offensive coordinator. The Ravens could have dipped back into their coaching candidate pool and found their next offensive leader.

They did not.

Instead, they hired Declan Doyle, a ...Read more

DENVER — The Denver Broncos are losing yet another coach to a coordinator posting in Buffalo.

Denver secondary coach Jim Leonhard is leaving to be the Bills’ defensive coordinator under new head coach Joe Brady, a source confirmed to The Denver Post Saturday morning.

Leonhard has spent the past two seasons coaching Denver’s defensive ...Read more

Kayshon Boutte is studying how to attack the vaunted Seahawks defense in the Super Bowl, but the Patriots receiver says he also has big aspirations for the offseason after he documented how he overcame a gambling addiction.

Boutte says he has his eyes on creating a foundation focused on helping people who are battling gambling addiction, a ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Sean Mannion, the Eagles’ new offensive coordinator, is 33 years old, has been a coach — not just an NFL coach, but a coach of any kind — for only two years, and reportedly will call plays next season even though he has never called plays before. If it sounds like the Eagles have entered uncharted territory here, if it ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Drake Maye has become a Super Bowl quarterback at age 23, and there’s no way anybody in his immediate family is going to miss the moment.

At least that’s the plan.

Mark Maye, father to Drake and his three older brothers, said Wednesday in a telephone interview that the family is all planning on being there Feb. 8 when ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Rams came close to advancing to the Super Bowl for the third time under coach Sean McVay. But a team that was arguably the best in the NFL 12 weeks into the season ultimately lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game.

After the defeat, McVay was emotional about his team.

"It's as special of a group that, top...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eric Bieniemy is back in the Chiefs’ facility, and the habitual turns of phrases are back along with him. The “grind,” as he says. The “chopping wood.” The “good, the bad, the ugly and the indifferent.”

E.B., as even he put it in his introduction to Kansas City on Wednesday afternoon, is still E.B.

Or his re-...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The fashionable thing to do in the wake of Bill Belichick’s apparent snub for the Pro Football Hall of Fame is to blame the process, blame the by-laws set forth by the people in Canton, Ohio, for the way candidates are elected.

Right after that is the groundswell of opinion that the 50 members of the selection committee should ...Read more

SEATTLE — Everybody has a Jaxon Smith-Njigba story.

They all just sound the same.

Because this man is a traveling magician, wowing audiences from Texas to Ohio to Seattle with the same repeatable routine. His repertoire does not include superhuman size or speed, which makes the reveal even more mystifying. Though his measurables seem ...Read more

SEATTLE — Just about anybody, anywhere could have told you what some of the prominent Super Bowl storylines would be.

A rematch between the Seahawks and the Patriots 11 years after one of the most heartbreaking moments in Seattle sports history. A quarterback showdown between journeyman-turned-star Sam Darnold and second-year sensation Drake ...Read more