Sports
NFL’s Christmas games lose major star power as key quarterbacks sidelined with injuries
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On paper, Netflix had great divisional matchups on Christmas Day for Week 17 when the season began.
Of course, the NFL season never goes as planned, and the three matchups scheduled for the holiday are not what anyone had planned.
The reason? Star quarterbacks won’t be playing in each game.
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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott walks off the field after the team’s NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
Christmas Day’s first kickoff will be an NFC East battle between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders, with both teams already eliminated from playoff contention.
And while Dak Prescott and company are looking to finish the season strong, the Commanders shut down Jayden Daniels, their second-year quarterback who led them to the NFC Championship Game in his rookie season just a year ago, after reaggravating his elbow injury.
In fact, the Commanders won’t even see Marcus Mariota, Daniels’ backup who has had to start eight games this season, as he’s dealing with an injury as well. It will be veteran Josh Johnson making the start in Landover, Maryland, on Christmas Day for a 4-11 Commanders squad that hoped to at least make the playoffs after a fantastic finish in 2024.
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“When you do circle those matchups, that’s exactly what you’re thinking: This is going to be cool. How it’s all laid out — division games right here at the end between two games of Philadelphia with a Dallas game in between,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said.
“Playing these division games, they still mean a lot.”
Unfortunately for both squads, it will only be for bragging rights.

Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders looks on from the sidelines after leaving the game during the second half against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on Dec. 7, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images)
In the 4:30 p.m. ET slate, the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings, a storied NFC North rivalry, the home team in Minneapolis will be without its own second-year signal caller — J.J. McCarthy.
McCarthy suffered an injury in the win over the New York Giants last week, and it will be Max Brosmer having to start again for Kevin O’Connell’s group.
The Minnesota product’s first career start didn’t work out too well in Seattle, as the Seahawks had their way on defense against Brosmer. Perhaps a home crowd will do him and the Vikings’ offense better, but the Lions at least still have something to play for.
Detroit heads into this game following a tough loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, where a game-winning touchdown was called back after Amon-Ra St. Brown was penalized for offensive pass interference, negating Jared Goff flying into the end zone after a pitch-back from the star receiver.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes chews his mouth guard during warmups before an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024 in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann, File)
The Lions need to win their remaining two games, while also needing the Green Bay Packers to lose their last two games to secure the final NFC wild card spot.
Finally, and perhaps the biggest disappointment for Netflix, is the Kansas City Chiefs not having Patrick Mahomes on the field this holiday season.
Mahomes suffered a torn ACL, which he quickly had surgery to repair, following a loss that knocked them out of playoff contention two weeks ago. The Chiefs were hoping that his backup, Gardner Minshew, could finish out the season, but he tore his ACL last week in a loss to the Tennessee Titans.
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That leaves USF alum Chris Oladokun, who filled in for Minshew last week, starting against Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos — a 12-3 squad who already clinched their playoff berth. Denver will still be playing hard, as they’re competing for the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC, which would ensure home games throughout the playoffs.
These games were supposed to be potential division/playoff clinching matchups, but the NFL and its fanbase will be hoping these games are not as lopsided as some believe they could turn out to be.
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Scotland became the first team to score the most runs in the World Cup 2026 – SUCH TV
Scotland scored 207 runs against Italy in the seventh match of the ICC T20 World Cup
Scotland has set a target of 208 runs for Italy to win, Scotland has become the first team to score more than 200 runs in the T20 World Cup.
George Munsey stood out for Scotland by scoring 84 runs, George Munsey’s innings included 13 fours and 2 sixes.
Brendan McMullen scored 41 runs off 19 balls with the help of 4 sixes, Thomas, JJ Smits, Grant Stewart and Hasan took one wicket each for Italy.
Scotland scored 207 runs for the loss of four wickets in the stipulated twenty overs and gave Italy a target of 208 runs.
Sports
Lindsey Vonn crashes at Olympics, has surgery on broken leg
Lindsey Vonn‘s defiant bid to win the Winter Olympic downhill at the age of 41, on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left knee, ended Sunday in a frightening crash that left her with a broken leg and saw her taken to safety by a rescue helicopter for the second time in nine days.
Vonn lost control within seconds of leaving the start house, clipping a gate with her right shoulder and pinwheeling down the slope before ending up awkwardly on her back, her skis crisscrossed below her and her screams ringing out soon after medical personnel arrived.
She was treated for long, anguished minutes as a hush fell over the crowd waiting far below at the finish line. Vonn was strapped to a gurney and flown away, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. As medical staff attended to Vonn, she could be heard crying out.
Vonn was taken to a clinic in Cortina then transferred to a larger hospital in Treviso, a two-hour drive to the south. She was being “treated by a multidisciplinary team” and “underwent an orthopedic operation to stabilize a fracture reported in her left leg,” the Ca’ Foncello hospital said in a statement.
The U.S. ski team said in an earlier statement that Vonn was “in stable condition and in good hands with a team of American and Italian physicians.”
“She’ll be OK, but it’s going to be a bit of a process,” said Anouk Patty, chief of sport for U.S. Ski and Snowboard. “This sport’s brutal, and people need to remember when they’re watching [that] these athletes are throwing themselves down a mountain and going really, really fast.”
Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for the team.
“I don’t claim to know what she’s going through, but I do know what it is to be here, to be fighting for the Olympics and to have this course burn you and to watch those dreams die,” said Johnson, whose own injury in Cortina in 2022 ruined her hopes of skiing in the Beijing Olympics. “I can’t imagine the pain that she’s going through, and it’s not the physical pain — we can deal with physical pain — but the emotional pain is something else.”
Johnson added that Vonn’s coach told her: “Lindsey was cheering for me from the helicopter.”
Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the Games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”
Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course where she holds a record 12 World Cup titles.
Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course. Fellow American star Mikaela Shiffrin posted a broken heart emoji on social media.
“It’s like the man in the arena, she dared greatly,” Vonn’s sister, Karin Kildow, told NBC. “She put it all out there. She always goes 110 percent, there’s never anything less, so I know she put her whole heart into it. Sometimes things happen. It’s a very dangerous sport.”
All eyes had been on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She had returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision given her age, but she also had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee. Many wondered how she would fare as she sought a gold medal to join the one she won in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
The four-time overall World Cup champion stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.
Still, no one counted her out even then. She has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she had planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.
Cortina has had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofane course had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downhill training runs over the past three days before the awful crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.
“This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”
The drama was of a different sort this time. Not since perhaps Hermann Maier‘s cartwheeling crash at the 1998 Nagano Games had there been such a high-profile and spectacular fall in Alpine skiing at the Olympics.
“Dear Lindsey, we’re all thinking of you. You are an incredible inspiration, and will always be an Olympic champion,” International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry said.
News of the crash spread quickly, including to the fan zone down the mountain in Cortina.
“It’s such a huge loss and bummer,” Megan Gunyou of the U.S. said. “I feel like hearing her story and just like the redemption of her first fall and like fighting to come back to the Olympics this year, I mean, I feel so sad for her.”
Dan Wilton of Vancouver, Canada, watched the race from the stands.
“It was frightening,” he said. “Really, your heart goes out for such a champion who is coming to the end of her career. Everyone wanted a successful finish.”
ESPN’s Alyssa Roenigk and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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