1/14/25 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Tuesday
14 January 2025 Sports
From Wayne Mausser
On Monday the Packers cleared out their lockers in preparation for the offseason.
The Packers season ended Sunday in Philadelphia as the Eagles won 22-10 in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs. Now the questions begin as to who might not be with Green Bay next season.
Jairre Alexander said he didn’t know his future. He missed 10 games each of the last 2 seasons. In 2023, Alexander missed a combined 9 games due to back and shoulder injuries, then was received a suspension from the team for a game for his actions during a coin toss before a game against the Panthers.
This season, he once again dealt with multiple different injuries. First, it was a quad/groin injury that kept him out of the Week 4 game vs. the Vikings and then he injured his knee in Week 8 against the Jaguars. Alexander returned briefly in Week 11 against the Bears, but re-aggravated the injury and never appeared in another game all year. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur announced Alexander would undergo season-ending surgery on Jan. 1.
Fellow cornerback Keisean Nixon shifted from playing primarily in the slot to defending more on the outside. Nixon responded with 1 INT and 7 passes defended in the regular season. Nixon earned All-Pro honors as a kick returner in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In those seasons, Nixon returned 35 and 30 kicks, respectively.
This season, with the new NFL kickoff rules in place, Nixon returned just 18 kicks and was unable to return one for a touchdown. Across the league, there were 7 total kick return touchdowns in the 2024 season, compared to 4 in 2023 and 6 in 2022.
Also, the Packers loss in Philadelphia began with a fumble on a Nixon kick return, which the Eagles recovered and promptly took a 7-0 lead. With the chance of an increased defensive role looming, Nixon expressed a desire to focus on that side of the ball going forward.
“I don’t know, I’m kinda over it,” Nixon said on Monday. “I don’t really wanna do it no more. There’s gonna be talks with the coaching staff and stuff like that, but I think it’s over with for me … I wanna be CB1 so CB1’s not doing kick returns. That’s just what it is … I’m just happy that I found an organization that really loves me and cares for me. I’m exciting to just play outside corner for a whole year and know I’m gonna play outside corner, you know? That’s just really what it is. I’m just focused on playing corner and locking up every team’s number one next year.”
The NFC Wild Card weekend ended Monday night for the Vikings in Las Vegas as the Rams dominated 27-9. LA’s Matthew Stafford was 10 of 27 for 209 yards and two touchdowns as the Rams defense held Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold in check. He completed 25 of 40 passes for 245 yards, a touchdown and an interception and was under pressure much of the night. His future in Minnesota is up the questionable as his contract is up and the Vikings may want to move on to someone else.
The Vikings end their season with consecutive losses and finished 14-4 overall.
The Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs continue this weekend.
(Sat.)
AFC- Houston is at Kansas City
NFC -Commanders at the Lions
(Sun.)
NFC- Rams at the Eagles
AFC -Ravens at Bills
Mike McCarthy is not returning as coach of the Dallas Cowboys, who are going on three decades since their last Super Bowl title, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because a decision hasn’t been announced. They said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and McCarthy agreed to part ways.
The coach’s contract expired following a 7-10 season. Dallas was 12-5 each of the three years before that, but still hasn’t been past the divisional round of the NFC playoffs since its last Super Bowl at the end of the 1995 season.
McCarthy’s contract expired Jan. 8 and the Cowboys have an exclusive negotiation window through Tuesday, but the parties have decided to split ahead of the deadline.
At least one other NFL team asked during that time about talking to the 61-year-old coach who won a Super Bowl with Green Bay.
Next season will be the 30th for the Cowboys since winning the last of their five Super Bowl titles during the 1995 season. They haven’t even been past the divisional round of the NFC playoffs since then.
Before taking the Dallas job after a full season out of coaching, McCarthy was with the Packers for 13 seasons and had a 125-77-2 record from 2006-18. He was 10-8 in the playoffs and led Green Bay to a Super Bowl title won at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Cowboys, 14 years ago.
There were also three other NFC championship games for McCarthy in Green Bay, and that is what Jones envisioned — and more — when he hired the coach in 2020 after Jason Garrett never got that far in his 10 years.
Dallas played the final nine games this season without franchise quarterback Dak Prescott because of a torn hamstring. Top receiver CeeDee Lamb, seven-time Pro Bowl guard Zack Martin, cornerback Trevon Diggs and rushing defending DeMarcus Lawrence also finished the season on injured reserve.
Only 12 NFL coaches have more career regular-season wins than McCarthy’s 174, which is still far behind Don Shula’s record 328. The only active coaches with more wins than McCarthy are Andy Reid (302 wins over 29 seasons) and Mike Tomlin (183 wins in 18 seasons).
In the NBA Tuesday the Bucks host the Kings.
In Big Ten basketball tonight #24 Wisconsin hosts Ohio State, as Wisconsin is back in the Top 25 AP College Basketball Rankings.
In girls basketball Monday night Ripon beat Wautoma 75 to 24. The Tigers had three players in double figures as Bryn Carlson and Emma Resop each scored 16 points and Adalin Nodolph had 15. The Hornets were led by Madalyn Meyer, who scored 12.
The Ripon JV’s also won their game over Wautoma.
(Tues) Boys
Winneconne at Laconia
Lomira at Wautoma
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