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sports Saturday 15 January 2022
Hot rivalries spice NFL’s wild-card weekend

By BARRY WILNER son, indicating a short play-
AP Pro Football Writer off stay. Like one game.
Not only do NFL fans get UPSET SPECIAL: PATRIOTS,
three night games to savor 19-16
during wild-card weekend, No. 12 Las Vegas (plus 5
but they also can revel in 1/2) at No. 7 Cincinnati,
the rivalries. Saturday
AFC East foes New England Are we the only ones won-
and Buffalo, who split victo- dering why the Raiders are
ries on the road during the playing in the first game of
season. NFC West oppo- the weekend? After such a
nents Arizona and the Los physically and emotionally
Angeles Rams, who also exhausting path into the
went 1-1 against each oth- postseason culminating
er. Plus San Francisco and with that wild Sunday night
Dallas rekindling one of the overtime victory against
great postseason series of the Chargers? Now travel-
bygone days, particularly ing east and into the cold
in the 1980s and '90s. weather?
"I'm damn fired up, man," BENGALS, 26-17
Cowboys defensive coordi- No. 13 Philadelphia (plus 8
nator Dan Quinn said. "Are 1/2) at No. 2 Tampa Bay,
you kidding me? The early Sunday
'90s Dallas-Niners, some of Associated Press Philly went 0-6 against play-
the championship games, built more in its image, But the Niners are more ite at home. Sounds about off teams, yet made its way
for me, coming up and and San Francisco most powerful in the trenches. right. into the playoffs. The 2022
watching those ones, I can definitely isn't. Dallas has The 49ers, ranked 10th in COWBOYS, 23-20 season looks very promising
hear (John) Madden and some big-time playmakers the AP Pro32, needed a No. 14 Pittsburgh (plus 12 for the Eagles. Sunday does
(Pat) Summerall talking it on defense who will need brilliant rally and overtime 1/2) at No. 3 Kansas City, not.
through. My first Dallas and to clamp down on All-Pro against the Rams — talk Sunday BUCCANEERS, 30-20
Niner playoff game, I'm Deebo Samuel, George about archrivals — just to Even Ben Roethlisberger No. 9 Arizona (plus 3) at No.
pretty fired up to do it man. Kittle and a solid rushing at- make the playoff field. The admits the Steelers are 14th 6 Los Angeles Rams, Mon-
It's exciting." tack. If All-Pro cornerback No. 5 Cowboys cruised out of 14 playoff teams. The day night
It's also a difficult matchup Trevon Diggs can work his through the NFC East, but Chiefs might be the best. The most mystifying of the
to handicap. The Cowboys magic with an interception have endured enough in- BEST BET: CHIEFS, 31-15 six contests. If the Cardinals
are the more dynamic side, and DeMarcus Lawrence consistency to make you No. 11 New England (plus can put pressure on Mat-
and the 49ers are the more can get pressure on Jimmy wonder about their staying 4) at No. 8 Buffalo, Saturday thew Stafford, they could
physical group. Dallas pre- Garoppolo, the Cowboys power. There's something unreli- pull it off.
fers to face opponents could be in business. Dallas is a 3 1/2-point favor- able about the Bills this sea- RAMS, 20-19q

In vaccination battles, pro athletes

become proxy players

By ANDREW DALTON It's a cultural issue, not a regarding sports."
AP Entertainment Writer question of numbers. The Their centrality is not nec-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The vast majority of players in essarily because they are
pandemic-era saga of ten- professional sports organi- exceptional, but because
nis star Novak Djokovic in zations are vaccinated — they serve as avatars for all
Australia this week is but more than the U.S. popula- of us.
one of many: Pro athletes tion at large — and tacitly "They are all different in-
who have refused to be or explicitly accept the evi- dividuals. They have dif-
vaccinated have been put dence of their safety and ferent approaches," says
at center court in a larger efficacy. But the handful of Dan Lebowitz, executive
contest — as famous faces high-profile objectors rep- director of the Center for Associated Press
who are becoming proxy resent a new front in what the Study of Sport in Soci-
players in the accelerating one expert calls the "over- ety at Northeastern Univer-
worldwide cultural battles sized role of sports" in soci- sity. "Athletes," he says, "are pervious to all the informa- tural issues — things about
over COVID jabs. ety's conversations. no different than really the tion that's coming at them which people tend to pick
The NBA's Kyrie Irving "We look to sports to give us whole of humanity." around the world, or imper- a side and stick to it no
missed the first months of an answer or clarify issues And in that sense, they are vious to the divisions that matter what.
the Brooklyn Nets' season in the larger culture," says subject to the same infor- we have." Mark Harvey, a professor
before making a partial re- Robert T. Hayashi, an asso- mation and misinformation While figures like Irving, at the University of Saint
turn. The NFL's Aaron Rodg- ciate professor of American — the same receptiveness Rodgers and Djokovic are Mary in Kansas and author
ers went from revered vet- studies at Amherst College or stubbornness — as the at the center of the con- of "Celebrity Influence: Poli-
eran to polarizing figure. in Massachusetts whose rest of the population. versation, they may not tics, Persuasion, and Issue-
And we're still not finished specialties include the his- "We live in a world where actually be driving it. CO- based Advocacy," says
with the diplomatic stand- tory of sports. "Many times, we've moved really far VID vaccines, in their brief these are the topics on
off and fallout over Djokov- the most detailed conver- away from a central set of existence, have been fast- which famous people may
ic's exemption to play in sations we see arising in the facts," Lebowitz says. "None tracked into an elite group actually have the least
the Australian Open. culture and the media are of these athletes are im- of divisive political and cul- sway. q