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Today is Monday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2026. There are 325 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 9,1986, Halley’s Comet made its closest pass by Earth at 39 million miles in its first return to the solar system since 1910. (The comet’s next appearance will be in 2061).

Also on this date:

In 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

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In 1943, the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.

In 1950, in a speech to the Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.

In 1964, the Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York on CBS. The quartet played five songs, including “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” to a crowd of screaming teenagers in person and more than 70 million viewers across the country.

In 1971, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in California’s San Fernando Valley claimed 65 lives.

In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, 69, died 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was followed by Konstantin Chernenko (chehr-NYEN’-koh), who would only be in power for 13 months before his own death in office.

In 2009, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs, telling ESPN he’d used banned substances while with the Texas Rangers for three years.

In 2020, “Parasite,” a film from South Korea, won the Academy Award for Best Picture, becoming the first non-English language film to do so.

In 2021, the Senate moved ahead with a second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, rejecting arguments that the chamber could not proceed because Trump was no longer in office. (The Senate would vote to acquit him on Feb. 13.)

Today’s birthdays:

• Artist Gerhard Richter is 94.
• Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee is 86.
• Singer-songwriter Carole King is 84.
• Actor Joe Pesci is 83.
• Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is 83.
• Author Alice Walker is 82.
• Actor Mia Farrow is 81.
• Actor Judith Light is 77.
• Golf Hall of Famer Sandy Lyle is 68.
• Writer-producer David Simon (TV: “The Wire”) is 66.
• Country singer Travis Tritt is 63.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero is 51.
• Actor Charlie Day is 50.
• Actor Zhang Ziyi is 47.
• Actor Tom Hiddleston is 45.
• Actor Michael B. Jordan is 39.
• Actor Rose Leslie is 39.
• NFL running back Saquon Barkley is 29.
• Actor Isabella Gomez is 28.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Defense won this championship.

Devon Witherspoon, Derick Hall, Byron Murphy and the rest of Mike Macdonald’s ferocious unit pummeled Drake Maye, and the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 on Sunday to win the franchise’s second Super Bowl.

Sam Darnold threw a touchdown pass to AJ Barner, Kenneth Walker III ran for 135 yards and Jason Myers set a Super Bowl record by making all five of his field-goal tries.

Walker became the first running back to win the Super Bowl MVP award since Terrell Davis 28 years ago.

Uchenna Nwosu punctuated a punishing defensive performance by snagging Maye’s pass in the air after Witherspoon hit his arm and ran it back 45 yards for a pick-6.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind feeling, bro,” Witherspoon said. “You talk about a group of guys who battle every day, who believe in each other and believe in their coach, you can’t describe this group no better. It’s just a one-of-a-kind feeling. I was just so happy to battle with these guys. We went through a lot, but we believed. All of you all doubters out there who said all that other stuff, you all don’t know what’s going on in this building. We’re one of one over here.”

Seattle’s “Dark Side” defense helped Darnold become the first quarterback in the 2018 draft class to win a Super Bowl, ahead of Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson.

“To do this with this team, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Darnold said. “So proud of our guys, our defense. I mean, I can’t say enough great things about our defense, our special teams.”

Labeled a bust, dumped by two teams and considered expendable by two others, Darnold proved his doubters wrong while helping the Seahawks go 17-3.

After leading the NFL with 20 turnovers in the regular season, Darnold didn’t have any in three playoff games. He wasn’t particularly sharp against a solid Patriots defense but protected the ball and made enough plays, finishing 19 of 38 for 202 yards.

“I know we won the Super Bowl, but we could have been a little bit better on offense, but I don’t care about that right now,” Darnold said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling, man. I’m just so happy for the guys in the locker room and the coaches that put in so much effort throughout the whole season.”

The Seahawks sacked Maye six times, including two apiece by Hall and Murphy. Hall’s strip-sack late in the third quarter set up a short field and Darnold connected with Barner on 16-yard scoring toss to make it 19-0.

Julian Love’s interception set up another field goal that made it 22-7 with 5:35 left.

The Patriots (17-4) punted on the first eight drives, excluding a kneel-down to end the first half.

“We had a really good year, one that I’m proud of,” New England coach Mike Vrabel said. “But this game wasn’t a reflection of that. We were outcoached and outplayed.”

Down 19-0, Maye and the Patriots’ offense finally got going. He hit Mack Hollins over the middle in traffic for 24 yards and then lofted a perfect 35-yard TD pass to Hollins down the left side to cut the deficit to 19-7.

Tom Brady once led Bill Belichick’s Patriots to the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, when New England rallied from a 28-3 deficit against Atlanta for a 34-28 overtime victory.

But Maye, who was runner-up to Matthew Stafford for the AP NFL MVP award in the closest race in two decades, didn’t come close. He had a chance to get it closer, but his ill-advised pass into triple coverage was picked by Love and the Patriots trailed by 15 when they got the ball back with 5:35 left.

Then came Nwosu’s touchdown, a fitting way to cap an overwhelming effort by the NFL’s stingiest defense.

“Definitely hurts. They played better than us tonight,” Maye said.

Maye’s 7-yard TD pass to Rhamondre Stevenson late in the game only made the margin smaller.

The Seahawks took a 3-0 lead on Myers’ 33-yard field goal on the game’s opening drive. Myers connected from 39 and 41 yards to extend the lead to 9-0 at halftime. He was good from 41 on Seattle’s first drive of the third quarter to make it 12-0.

 

General Daily Insight for February 09, 2026

The ripple effect is real right now! This morning, the Scorpio Moon squares the Aquarius Sun, stirring friction between intense connections and personal freedom to make our own plans. While schedules may shift unpredictably, we can combat that by focusing on less complex plans and being patient with scatter-brained peers. Our small triumphs add up to big wins, especially once the adaptable Moon opposes Uranus at 9:15 pm EST. Common ground can be found! We’d be wise to prioritize flexibility and balance.

Aries

March 21 – April 19

To figure out your life path, start slow. Everything worth doing is worth taking the time to do well. The nurturing Moon is in your 8th House of Shared Intimacy, where she opposes unpredictable Uranus in your 2nd House of Resources. A money conversation with someone close doesn’t have to be painful — not when you lay out your ideal terms with attention to fairness for both sides. Precision reduces stress and supports steady progress for everyone. Make openness your guiding star.

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

Taurus, your steadiness can guide important choices throughout the day ahead. As Luna argues from your connection zone with Uranus in your sign, you may end up caught between change and tradition. This will be particularly tough if the push to change is coming from a loved one or close colleague. Name what feels safe and consider a trial run of something that doesn’t seem too dangerous. That way, you can manage any shifts however works for you. Set flexible limits, not strict ones.

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

Your recent ideas could use some extra consideration or testing. Even the world’s best project won’t spring into existence fully formed! Daily tasks could challenge a bigger dream, so carefully refine your timing before you act. Your 6th House of To-Do Lists features the intuitive Moon squaring the dynamic Sun in your 9th House of Exploration. A travel plan or study goal could collide with a deadline, so try to break tasks into pieces and reach a checkpoint before taking any long breaks.

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

Caring encouragement helps your heart feel safe. The Moon in your 5th House of Invention is fussing over volatile Uranus in your 11th House of Networks. Plans with friends might upend a date night or interrupt your creative groove, so share your feelings early — you could benefit from proposing a schedule switch that works better for you. With gentle leadership, you can steer plans toward connection without losing the playful spark you love. Offer multiple options, so joy stays shared.

Leo

July 23 – August 22

This morning starts with a quiet gut check. The opposition between needy Luna and independent Uranus empowers your intuition. If you listen to your inner voice, your reputation could immensely benefit! Stay on your toes, because someone might demand urgent changes to work you thought was complete. This may or may not actually be your responsibility — if it is, suggest a plan that honors obligations without drama. On the other hand, if it isn’t, feel free to delegate it to someone else.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

Clarity grows when you simplify moving parts. You may need to release control over the finer details in favor of ensuring the bulk of your efforts are in tune with your long-term goals. Your 3rd House of Messages gets involved with your 9th House of Growth during today’s Moon-Uranus spat, potentially causing complications. Confirm key details before you head out, because double-checking avoids pointless detours. A confusing message could disrupt your plans, but interruptions can be minimized if you’ve already verified the facts.

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Needs and wants could currently be at odds with one another. The moody Moon and willful Sun are to blame, as they square across your excitable 5th house and your practical 2nd house. A new toy or upcoming outing might strain your budget, so price things carefully and suggest an option that fits what you value. Your diplomatic touch can turn an argument into teamwork by praising an idea’s potential, then guiding it toward a less pricey lane. Pick affordable fun to keep the peace.

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

You have the power, Scorpio! With Luna in your sign, her sparring session with unconventional Uranus in your 7th House of Connections brings your needs face-to-face with the needs of your loved ones. A close partner might suggest a sudden pivot, and your honest response works best when you state desires clearly without sharp edges. You can take charge without entirely taking over — allies should work together on big plans like this. Use the plain truth to deepen trust fast.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

Where do you most crave a break? Wherever it is, you deserve a chance to have it — at least, the Moon and Uranus think you do. That said, your craving for quiet could conflict with a task request, so some trade-offs might be necessary. For example, you could give someone a ride as long as they promise to be done at a certain time. Your spirit rebounds faster when you honor solitude and connection in equal measure. You and your teammates should benefit!

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

Practicality is practically your middle name, Capricorn. Even with the temperamental Moon and the headstrong Sun tangling your communal 11th house with your materialistic 2nd house, you can build success. Watch out for budget stresses from group endeavours — you might have to be the one who states their budget cap first. Don’t worry, because you can also find a thrifty alternative that supports the shared goal. Whatever you’re up to, you earn respect when you explain the numbers around money and time.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

Take a deep breath and look around — things probably aren’t that bad! The Sun is in your sign, empowering your plans (though things could get complicated when the Moon in your driven 10th house squares the Sun). You could feel a little too visible, especially if you’re in the middle of any major identity shifts. A sudden meeting could strain your energy, so pace yourself and state what you can deliver by a specific time. Your past, current, and future efforts are valid.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

The universe is opening doors — are you ready to enter them? Stay open as plans shift shape, because curiosity will be invaluable. The unconscious Moon moves through your 9th House of Distance, opposing undisciplined Uranus in your conversation zone. A surprise email or travel curveball could change plans, so follow a hunch and request details that make the path passable. Your compassion could be exactly what other people (and your own plans) need to succeed. Ask thoughtful questions to turn surprise into ease.

GAINESVILLE — Rusty Whitt is a strength coach, soldier and story teller, a trifecta of talents he’ll use to help head coach Jon Sumrall rebuild the Florida Gators.

As if executing an Olympic lift, Whitt blends complex components into a concentrated, explosive message aimed to inspire discipline and accountability while pushing a talented group of players to strain every fiber of their being.

Whitt and Sumrall face a heavy lift in Gainesville, where the Gators have managed just one winning season in five years.

“Our job is to hone them and get them stronger and understand the professional discipline it is going to take for them to reach their potential,” Whitt told the Orlando Sentinel.

No strength coach in America can match the war stories of Whitt, the only Green Beret to hold his position in Division I football.

“I kind of carry the torch for those guys,” he said.

Few have matched Whitt’s results. He oversaw four conference champions in two seasons each at Troy and Tulane with Sumrall.

Whitt’s gift of gab is next level. The 54-year-old insightfully, entertainingly and at times harrowingly recalled experiences on the football fields of Texas and the battlefields of Iraq. He returned home forever changed and eager to shape the bodies and minds of young men.

During a 45-minute interview with the Orlando Sentinel, the Gators’ master motivator and raconteur engaged in an illuminating and riveting conversation.

Florida's new strength and conditioning coach Rusty Whitt held the same position under head coach Jon Sumrall during two seasons each at Troy and Tulane. (Edgar Thompson/Orlando Sentinel) How do you view your role?

“We’re supposed to be the culture driver. But it has to be set by the head football coach. Coach Sumrall does a really good job of establishing what he wants and aligning that message. His core values are attitude, toughness, discipline and love. You can only control one thing about your day, and that’s how you approach it — the only disability in life is a bad attitude. The attitude that we try to bring on a daily basis is very aggressive, it’s very positive. It’s just demanding.

“The toughness aspect bleeds into that — we’re going to do hard things together. Being gritty is crazy tough. Gritty teams beat tough teams.

“No football coach is going to say, ‘Hey, we’re too disciplined.’ Disciplined football teams will beat sloppy football teams. When you’re fatigued, you make more mistakes. Insert us; we got to be conditioned.

“And then, I’m going to sacrifice for my teammates. I’m going to play hard for my teammates. Protect the team. Don’t do anything stupid outside that’s going to bring you down and bring the team down. And no energy vampires. An energy vampire has bad body language, the complaining look on their face, the vocal complainer. So we enforce those pretty simple concepts daily.”

When did you decide to become a Green Beret?

“I had a partially torn ACL in college, lived on it, played on it, coached on it for seven or eight years. I was training one day with Josh McCown [quarterback at Sam Houston State], doing power cleans. I tore my ACL and cracked the femoral head. It was July 15, 2001. I had surgery a month later. Then 9/11 happened.

“I’m an invalid. I’m facing an 11-month rehab. I’m watching TV. My grandmother called me, and she goes, ‘This is your Pearl Harbor.’ My grandma was 24 years old on Dec. 7, 1941. She was one of 11. All her brothers joined the Army, Navy or Marines. I’m like, ‘Hell, you just drafted me.’ I rehabbed my leg for a year, and at the age of 32 I walked across the street to a strip mall and I joined the Army.”

What was the path from there?

“They said I was too old to go Special Forces, but I could go to Ranger Battalion. I was sent to Fort Benning, two classes behind Pat Tillman; he was out of basic and in Airborne school. I’m older than everybody. I’m older than the drill sergeants. I’m older than the company first sergeant. I’m in Airborne school, going to do five jumps, then go into the Ranger indoctrination program. I’m laying there before a jump. A 6-4, 240-pound guy walks into the hangar, the first Green Beret I ever saw in my life in person. He comes walking in with his clipboard — ‘Holy crap, who’s this superhero?’ He tells me my orders had changed: ‘Report to Fort Bragg 4 January.’

“I jump, land, am getting married in a week, drive to Atlanta for a bachelor party, am married in Nevada, see David Lee Roth at Harris Casino. I fly back to Fort Bragg, Jan. 4, 2004, and that’s when I started the Q Course [qualification course]. So, two years and two months of just complete chaos, and then I got sent to my Special Forces team in Fort Carson, Colorado.”

Florida coach Rusty Whitt's left forearm features a tattoo with the name of his 13-month daughter Lilanna. (Edgar Thompson/Orlando Sentinel) What then?

“I walk into this team room, and I’m exactly the same age as a team sergeant. When he was 18, he’s Gulf War 1. I’m playing college football. We had this weird parallel life, where he was like, ‘Where have you been the last 15 years? Welcome to the show.’

“I walk in on my team, and they were damaged. They’ve been fighting in Iraq for 250 consecutive days in a gunfight. Then I walk into that environment, this fresh fish, off the bus, and they’re like, ‘Who is this guy?’ I knew that was gonna be the most challenging thing in my life: to get acceptance from this team of guys, to accept a new guy like me at my age.

“It took a year to get absorbed into that team, where they actually trusted you and respected you. I trained for a year, and then did a nine-month tour in Iraq. I went back again, and then by that time, my clock had run out, and I elected to get out and get back into coaching.”

How would you describe your experiences in Iraq?

“Saw amazing things, saw horrible things, and it really changed my perspective on life and on the world, and how good we got it here, and how easily we can lose it, and how many people want what we have. And if we don’t have a strong military, it’d be really easy for somebody to come and take all of it.

“I saw utter desperation in Iraq. People that would lie, cheat, steal, rob, amputate for what we have. We fought against that  … what you and I would call evil. At one point, al Qaeda was offering $10,000 for a video killing a soldier. So watch your ass because every time you leave the gate, you’re getting shot at. An Iraqi policeman that you thought you could trust planted a bomb under the street the night before. It creates a paranoid mindset.

“I came back out of the service. I wouldn’t call it post traumatic stress disorder. I would call it post traumatic paranoia. But I met amazing people, did some cool stuff, no regrets. But it did set my career back about 10 years. I’m happy to be here after all that.

“About 11 friends of mine didn’t make it over there in Afghanistan or Iraq. Josh Townsend had this same tattoo [points to left arm]. He was my roommate, he died in Afghanistan and he liked Jameson Whiskey. I got a Jameson Whiskey tattoo and a Celtic knot because he was a big Irish guy.”

How can you apply your experiences with your players?

“Your coaching standards, unrelenting standards. There’s a one-mile obstacle course at Camp McCall, North Carolina, where you go for Special Forces selection. It’s called the Nasty Nick. Nick Rowe was one of the founders of the Green Berets. It has about 15 30-foot rope climbs. There’s about 30 obstacles. Every time you go through it, there’s a cadre standing there with a clipboard. You have your number taped to your leg. You got to complete this obstacle, and if you fail it, ‘Roster 054 you have failed to negotiate this obstacle properly! Do you wish to continue?’” … ” ‘Yes, sergeant!’ … ‘Try it again.’”

“If you fail, you’re out, you’re done, get on the bus, go home, go the 82nd Airborne. It is an absolute cut-and-dry standard. I made it to the Thumper, which was a 15-foot rope climb. You got to grab a bar, pull yourself over, and you got to walk across monkey bars — little one-inch pipes. Then you got to bend, grab a rope, and then hang back down and lower yourself under control. I got to the edge of the Thumper where the monkey bars were. I reached and I tried to swing and I lost my grip. I fell about 12 feet — Boom! I hit the ground.

“Air is knocked out of me. I’m ringing, singing here. ‘Roster 054, you failed negotiate this obstacle properly! Do you wish to continue?’ … ‘Roger, sergeant!’ So I’m like, this is it, one more chance. If I had failed, I wouldn’t be here right now.

“So, absolute standards you have to have to play college football at this level, to play for the Florida Gators. Absolute standards to be a Green Beret. I try to make these guys understand the similarities and standards.”

Would you give an example?

“You have to be able to run across the field and back as a cornerback in less than 14 seconds. The elite ones, the first-round draft picks, can run from the sideline to the other side, touch the right foot, sprint back in around 13.8 seconds. To play starting center for the Houston Texans, like Jake Andrews does, you got to squat 600 pounds — ass to Achilles. If you can’t, you better be a super Javon Kearse-level athlete. I have these standards in my head, and I preach them. My staff knows them, and we hold the standards.

“The other one is, everybody’s pursuing mental toughness. How do you get mentally tough? People write books about it. People go to clinics about it. The secret to mental toughness is self-confidence. I’m going to get a young man who’s 18 or 20. We’re going to do hard things sequentially enough where they can get better at them. They’re going to improve their self-confidence — that’s how you get mentally tough. You develop that level of self-confidence on a team with this level of talent and watch out. Watch out.”

What’s your grandmother’s name?

“Joyce Alva Miller. She passed away 2009. She got to see me come back from Iraq. She passed away about six months later. She had a a little American flag on her front porch. She put it up there when I joined the Army. When I got out, I went to her house, and she pulled it out and she gave up to me, ‘I’m glad you made it.’”

Your maternal or paternal grandmother?

“My mom’s mother. A fabulous woman when she was helped help raise me. My grandfather, her husband, joined the Army before World War II, mid ’30s. He was actually stationed in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and got out before the [Pearl Harbor] bombing and our involvement.

“My grandfather wanted to be a cavalryman, and they were eliminating the cavalry from the U.S. Army. When he was out of processing, he had like six months left. They said, ‘You’re going to go to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and being a prison guard until you get out of the Army.’ They gave him a 14-inch metal billy club, and they would tie in a square knot on his wrist. They said, ‘Anybody that breaks out on your watch, you serve their time.’ He kept that billy club the rest of his life. My brother has it.  Somebody who passed through when he was there was Al Capone.”

When Florida strength coach Rusty Whitt's service ended with the Green Berets, he got a tattoo on his left arm of the American seal found on the back of the dollar bill. (Edgar Thompson/Orlando Sentinel) What’s the meaning of your other tattoos?

“This is getting out of the Army. The American seal on a dollar bill [upper right arm]. This is my my tribute side [left]. My buddy taught me how to play guitar. He passed away in a car accident. Corey Stovall, I got a guitar with with wings on it [left side of abdomen].

“A book written about General Patton called, ‘A Genius for War.’ He said a pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood’ [tattooed fully along the triceps of each arm. It’s kind of cheesy, but when I was a little kid, I watched the movie ‘Patton’ with George C Scott. My dad loved it, so I got into it.”

What was your father’s influence?

“My dad was in the 101st Airborne in the late ’50s, early ’60s. During the Cuban Missile Crisis my dad was camped out wearing his parachute under a wing of a C-130. They were getting ready to fly into Cuba and do a low-level jump. They had gotten called on the bird about to take off. But they had to sleep under the wings of a C-130 for two weeks. My dad had these black-and-white pictures of him in the Army all over the house. My grandfather had pictures him wearing wearing his old uniform. I’d always had this thing in the back of my mind, if football didn’t work out. That was another kind of a call that I had to join up. It took something radical, like 9-11 to push me over the edge.”

What were you like as a player at Abilene Christian?

“This is really dating myself. But August of 1989 I walked on. There was no walk-on limit in Division II – there were 75 of us. I was like the fifth-string free safety. Back then, Day One practice was helmet, jersey, shorts – we were in two-a-days. Day Two was helmet, shoulder pads, shorts. Third day was full pads. On my third day, they scrimmaged. They call it the Toilet Bowl. I went out and they put me at free safety. I was a corner and a quarterback in high school and played a little bit outside linebacker. Had no idea what free safety was. He goes, ‘Don’t let anybody throw the ball over your head.’ It’s like, ‘OK.’

“So my first scrimmage, I hit a guy on a post route back when targeting was encouraged. I targeted the dude in his sternum and knocked him out. I had a really good day just hitting guys. Ronnie Lott was my favorite player. I’m trying to be Ronnie Lott. I got a scholarship that day, and then I redshirted. My first strength coach came in 1992. I gained 15 pounds, and I got moved to SAM linebacker. But I’d had about five concussions at that point. I’m wearing this bizarre concussion cap that [Buffalo Bills safety] Mark Kelso [wore]. I had to wear a it my last year. Wanted to play beyond college — I was pretty fast. Went to a neurologist, he said, ‘You’ve had a brain bleed. We highly recommend you stop playing football.’ So I got into coaching, and here we are.”

Do you share your experiences with your players?

“I try to in small bites. Their attention spans are really short. I tell them little war stories here and there, five-minute long ones. They always have to have a message of being aware, self-reliance, being tough. I learned a lot about myself and learned about selflessness and how far our body could be pushed. I do tell my players those intimate stories because you got to be very real with these young men, to be authentic. I treat them like men. I don’t call them kids or boys or fellas. They’re young men. They appreciate being told factual, graphic stuff, because it helps them. They listen. They know reality from bs.”

Are you coaching higher-level athletes here, across the board?

“You can tell they’ve done a really good job of bringing in top-tier level, NFL-level length. Our job is to to hone them and get them stronger and and understand the professional discipline is going to take for them to reach their potential. But we have some very large guys that are so big they need bigger squat racks. We need to make wider squat racks and longer bars. We’re getting new equipment, and it’s going to be here in a few months.”

Is (edge rusher) Jayden Woods special?

“He’s elite. He’s a strong young man. We have a lot of talented players, but so does everybody else. I’m looking these guys going, ‘We got next-level guys.’ But then Georgia does and Bama does and LSU does, and we got to beat them. It’s kind of a race to improvement.

“Everybody’s in the same boat with transfers, your lack of depth here and there. It’s just wide open right now. I know the strength coach at Georgia, Scott Sinclair. We’re chasing that level of continuity because he’s been there for a while. [Head coach] Kirby Smart’s been there for a while. So we got to get continuity and stability and install confidence in these guys really quick.”

Where do you gain the edge?

“The edge is in your daily standard, and knowing it’s not going to happen overnight, and trying to instill persistence in these guys that. Just keep stacking days — and be a competitor. You just got to compete. We’re going to improve on all those aspects, but it is going to take a segment of time that some people won’t be used to. But it’s just going to take time.”

Florida strength coach Rusty Whitt has two tattoos on his right are to honor Josh Townsend, Whitt's roommate and fellow Green Beret who died Afghanistan. 'He liked Jameson Whiskey ... and a Celtic knot because he was a big Irish guy." Sumrall said he nearly fired you at Troy?

“When Chip Lindsey resigned at the conclusion to 2021 season, I was getting ready to start packing my house up because I know the writing’s on the wall. This is before I even knew who they were going to hire. Austin Stidham, our starting Academic All-American center goes, ‘Hey, you don’t worry. I got you. I’m going to go battle for you.’

“Stidham and several of his teammates — this is before the portal went crazy and we had a bunch of juniors who knew they were going to come back. Stidham goes to the AD and says, ‘If Whitt gets fired, we’re going to jump in the portal. We’re all going to transfer.’ Now, whether he would have done that, I don’t know. But I owe my career to Stidham. The AD there goes, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ He told Sumrall, ‘Hey, I really want you to consider keeping the guy that we have. The players really like what they’re doing.’”

How’d you convince him to keep you?

“He calls me from the road, and he says, ‘Tell me about yourself; tell me what this team needs; what’s missing from this team?’ I tell him, we’re pretty close, but we got to work on standards and aligning our message, blah, blah, blah. He goes, ‘Let’s meet tomorrow in my office. I’ll give you about 20 minutes.’ So I took my little hire packet, my philosophy packet — ‘the best ability is availability and so forth’ — and I go in there and we talk for two hours. He’s like, ‘I think we can make this work.’

“Best season in school history — 12-2, ranked No 19. Our defense led the nation in fewest points allowed in the fourth quarter. We beat UTSA in a Cure Bowl. In ’23, win the conference, beat App State. Have a bunch of NFL players out of  Troy. He takes the job at Tulane and brought me along, and we kept the same philosophy mentality. But I owe it to Austin Stidham.”

Sumrall said he would not be here if not for you?

“Wow. I’m going to hold him to that.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

WASHINGTON — Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday’s 132-101 victory over the Washington Wizards:

– For Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the moment at hand is one positioned between indifference and desperation.

– Sunday, he found his team facing a Washington team prioritizing lottery seeding to the degree that no one is quite sure when recent trade additions Trae Young and Anthony Davis will make their Wizards debut.

– That included the Wizards coming off a Saturday loss in Brooklyn, when just about anybody and everybody of note was held out in a loss to the Nets.

– Then, miraculously, most of those injured and ailing players suddenly were healthy for Sunday’s Wizards home game.

– Shortly after the Wizards’ Saturday loss, the Jazz were pulling leading men Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. as a lead in Orlando then turned into a loss to the Magic, a team the Heat are battling for East seeding.

– Utah needs to lose enough to guarantee one of the first eight lottery picks, or else that lottery pick is lost to Oklahoma City.

– To say all the tanking around the league isn’t leading to an uneven playing field would be a massive understatement.

– “I think the one thing that we all have to keep in mind is that there isn’t just one way to do things,” Spoelstra said remarkably diplomatically before Sunday’s game, “and it’s not on me or us to judge how other organizations are running their operations.”

– Spoelstra added, “You are free to do however you feel is the best that you think for your organization, and people will criticize it one way or another. People criticize us. We’re going to compete every single night, every night.”

– The Heat next play the Jazz on Monday night at Kaseya Center.

– So does Utah play that one for keeps, unlike Saturday night against the Magic?

– The standings, Spoelstra said, remain in his team’s control.

– “They’re free to do whatever they want,” Spoelstra said, “and I’m not hoping for other teams to beat teams so that we can get to where we want to get to. It’s up to us.”

– For the Heat, the goal remains to avoid the play-in round for a fourth consecutive season.

– “If we want to get a guaranteed playoff spot, then it’s on us,” he said. “It’s not on these teams that are playing guys or not playing guys, and we’re just hoping that they can hang on for a win. We don’t want anybody’s help. We want to handle it ourselves.”

– With Pelle Larsson sidelined, the Heat opened with Myron Gardner as the emergency starter, in an opening lineup rounded out by Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Norman Powell and Davion Mitchell.

– It was the Heat’s 18th lineup in their 54th game.

– The Wizards, opened with Justin Champagnie, Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George.

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• ASK IRA: Is lack of dynamic scorer leaving the Heat helpless with leads?
• Heat’s Keshad Johnson selected for All-Star dunk contest; Larsson doubtful vs. Wizards, Powell questionable

– There was no Young or Davis for the Wizards, who now will attempt to balance more of an immediate future while also prioritizing the upcoming draft lottery.

– With Gardner called for two fouls in the opening 1:27, Jaime Jaquez Jr. made an early entrance as Heat sixth man.

– Early minutes then followed for Kel’el Ware.

– Simone Fontecchio and Kasparas Jakucionis followed together, for nine deep.

– Jakucionis this time played ahead of Dru Smith.

– With Ware and Adebayo then paired together as Nikola Jovic sat.

– Eventually, there was time for anyone and everyone on the first night of the back-to-back set.

– The Heat are now 7-3 all-time on Super Bowl Sunday, with the Wizards 5-4 when playing the same day as the Super Bowl.

– The Wizards became the final Eastern Conference team the Heat met for the first time this season.

– That comes with the Heat already having completed their 2025-26 season series against 11 teams, including Eastern Conference rivals Chicago and New York.

– The game opened the Heat’s 13th of a league-high 17 back-to-backs this season, moving on to Monday night’s home game against the Jazz with a 9-3 record on the second nights of such sets.

WASHINGTON — Yes, another early 22-point lead, just like Friday night in Boston.

But actually nothing like that blown 22-point lead against the Celtics, considering this was against a team again prioritizing its annual race to the bottom of the standings, and therefore top of the lottery.

So little worry for the Miami Heat in this one amid the Washington Wizards’ Super Bowl Sunday indifference, as Erik Spoelstra’s team rolled to a 132-101 victory at Capital One Arena.

On a chilly afternoon, in a sparsely attended arena, the Heat got off to a somewhat shaky defensive start, recognized what they were (actually weren’t) up against, and pushed their lead into the 30s in the third period, affording needed rest ahead of Monday night’s home game against the Utah Jazz.

“We’ve shown that ability to bounce back after disappointing games,” Spoelstra said. “The approach today was very professional, pretty much throughout the rotation across the board.”

So Bam Adebayo needed for just 28 minutes, but still closing with 22 points and eight rebounds, Norman Powell lost for the afternoon in the third period due to back pain, but still with 21 points.

Andrew Wiggins also got to sit late for the Heat, after completing an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double, with Kel’el Ware allowed to play deeper into the afternoon, finishing with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

The Heat also got a career-high 22 points from rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis. who closed 6 of 6 on 3-pointers.

“I thought we did a great job with sustaining the level of effort and focus that we needed,” Powell said.

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday’s game:

1. Game flow: The Heat led 37-33 after the first period and 75-52 at halftime.

Then, as if there was any doubt where this was headed, the Heat made sure there would not be another third-period collapse, which largely has been the bane of this uneven season.

This time the lead was 95-65 midway through the third quarter, as a quiet arena grew even quieter, save for a few hearty Heat fans.

Finally, with 8 minutes to play, the starters were pulled, with the likes of Jahmir Young entering the action.

2. Rotation alternations: With Pelle Larsson out with the elbow contusion sustained in Friday night’s loss in Boston and Tyler Herro away from the team with his ongoing rib issue, the Heat moved to a lineup that had Myron Gardner making his third start of the season.

The adjustments didn’t end there, with Jakucionis, who did not see action on Friday night in Boston, playing ahead of Dru Smith, and with Spoelstra pairing Adebayo and Ware as he cycled through his rotations, rather than utilizing Nikola Jovic.

“It’s what we’ve been talking about,” Spoelstra said, “that everybody really needs to wrap their mind about being an energy player.”

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• Heat lose ‘connector’ with Larsson out vs. Wizards; Johnson takes dunks to G League
• ASK IRA: Is lack of dynamic scorer leaving the Heat helpless with leads?
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3. Kasparas can: Jakucionis seized upon his opportunity, opening 3 of 3 on 3-pointers as part of the Heat’s 7-of-11 open from beyond the arc.

Those three first-period 3-pointers were more than Jakucionis had in an appearance since he had three in the Jan. 15 home loss to the Celtics.

“I just try to stay ready,” he said. “Whenever I have the opportunity, I try to embrace it and try to stay ready whenever I can.

“I made a couple of shots. I was feeling good and I just kept taking good shots instead of trying to force it. So whenever the ball came to me, I was ready.”

Jakucionis was up to 11 points by the opening stages of the second period, his first double-digit outing in his last seven appearances.

“He really competes,” Spoelstra said. “He was getting in little things, dust-ups throughout the course of the game. But it’s really just because of how hard he plays. There’s a purity to that.”

4. Double big: When Adebayo returned from his first break to play alongside Ware, it was their first minutes together since Jan. 6.

“I liked it today,” Spoelstra said. “We want to see where we can maximize our rotation as much as possible.”

Entering Sunday, Ware had played 10 or fewer minutes in three of his previous six appearances. The Heat was a +22 with the two on the court together in the first half, even if that included Adebayo facialing Ware on a dunk in the second period.

“It just felt like I had a little more help out there,” Ware said, “a little more help closer to my size, I would say.”

The duo finished a combined +41 for the afternoon.

“I mean we always got belief in our lineups, double-big, small lineups, whatever it is,” Adebayo said. “It’s good to have that kind of, I guess you’d say, time in the game together.”

About being dunked on by a teammate, Ware said, “I was going to grab the rebound …  But yeah, the unfortunate happened.”

From Adebayo’s perspective, all in good fun, “Yeah, we always joke that I never dunked on him. It just so happened that I dunked on him in the game.

“I had a free runway too.”

5. Two more chances: At 28-26, The Heat have two games remaining before their eight-day All-Star break, on Monday night at Kaseya Center against the Jazz and Wednesday night on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans, a pair of teams at the bottom of the Western Conference that stand a combined 30-77.

“Very important,” Spoelstra said of going into the break on high notes “We’ll focus on tomorrow night. But yes, it is very important for us to handle the next one professionally tomorrow night.”

WASHINGTON — It turns out All-Star Weekend will be flush with Miami Heat representation.

Sunday, guard Norman Powell secured yet another Heat slot for All-Star Weekend, when he was named as one of the eight participants in next Saturday’s 3-point contest in Los Angeles.

Sunday’s announcement came one week after Powell last Sunday was named an All-Star for the first time in his 11-season career.

The selection to the 3-point contest came while the Heat were playing the Washington Wizards on Sunday at Capital One Arena. Powell wound up leaving that game in the third quarter for the balance of the way due to the lower-back tightness that had him on the injury report earlier in the day. He closed with 21 points, including a potential preview of All-Star Saturday by shooting 5 of 10 on 3-pointers.

So for the Heat, it will be second-year center Kel’el Ware in the Rising Stars competition on Friday night, forward Keshad Johnson in the dunk contest on All-Star Saturday, Powell in the 3-point contest on All-Star Saturday, two-way player Jahmir Young in the G League All-Star Game and 3-point contest on Sunday, and then Powell in the All-Star Game.

The weekend activities bring Powell back to Intuit Dome, where he played last season with the Los Angeles Clippers, before his July trade to the Heat.

“It’s really exciting,” Powell said of the 3-point invitation. “When they asked, I instantly said yes. Just for being back at Intuit Dome, back in L.A., where my family can see me for the All-Star weekend. So I’m excited about that.”

As for leaving with the back discomfort, Powell downplayed the issue.

“I think it’s just a moment,” he said of leaving early Sunday. “I think a lot to do with being stuck on the plane for a lot of hours. And then soft beds at the hotel. We tried to make an adjustment. But they didn’t have what we needed to have, a little firmer mattress there. I always get a little back flare-up when I’m sleeping on soft mattresses.”

Powell also participated in last year’s 3-point contest during All-Star Weekend in San Francisco, a competition won by Heat guard Tyler Herro, who is unable to defend his title due to an ongoing rib issue. Powell failed to advance out of the event’s first round last year.

Powell becomes the 10th player to represent the Heat in the 3-point contest, seeking to become the Heat’s sixth champion.

Besides Herro last year, previous Heat winners of the competition were Glen Rice (1995), Jason Kapono (2007), Daequan Cook (2009) and James Jones (2011).

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• ASK IRA: Is lack of dynamic scorer leaving the Heat helpless with leads?
• Heat’s Keshad Johnson selected for All-Star dunk contest; Larsson doubtful vs. Wizards, Powell questionable

In all, Heat players previously have made 14 appearances in the 3-point contest, when counting the two appearances apiece by Jon Sundvold, Glen Rice, Daequan Cook, James Jones and Tyler Herro, and single appearances by Kapono, Mario Chalmers, Duncan Robinson and current Heat assistant coach Wayne Ellington.

Also selected to the field for the 3-point contest are Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns),  Kon Knueppel (Charlotte Hornets), Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers), Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers), Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets), Bobby Portis Jr. (Milwaukee Bucks) and Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers), even though Lillard is sidelined for the season with an Achilles tear, not playing this season.

In the two-round contest, players attempt to score as many points as possible from multiple 3-point locations within 70 seconds.  The top three scorers from the first round advance to the championship round, where the highest score determines the winner.

The 3-point contest will be the first competition on All-Star Saturday this coming Saturday in Los Angeles, followed by the Shooting Stars contest and then the dunk contest. The Heat do not have a competitor in the Shooting Stars event that features one former NBA player on each of the competing units.

The Heat begin their All-Star break after Wednesday night’s game against the Pelicans in New Orleans. They then return to action after an eight-day break with a Feb. 20 game in Atlanta against the Hawks.

WASHINGTON — There was a time when Pelle Larsson being unavailable to the Miami Heat would fall somewhere along the lines of minor inconvenience.

This no longer is that time.

Sunday, when the Heat had to go without Larsson against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena due to the elbow contusion sustained in the first half of Friday night’s loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, it meant having to go without a player who had started the previous 13 games and 32 overall this season.

From late selection out of Arizona in the second round in 2024, Larsson has emerged this season into what Erik Spoelstra often refers to as a “connector,” the type of player who makes teammates and lineups better.

“He’s that example we talk about, ‘Make us watch you and make us have to play you and make us have to move things to make sure that you’re getting out there and playing and not going a different direction,’ ” Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game. “So he’s been really a plus in whatever lineup he’s been in.

“I think that shows his versatility. And he’s pretty much cemented himself in the rotation regardless of where that is.”

The Heat said an MRI on Larsson showed no more than the elbow contusion.

Dunk perspective

Not only does this season’s dunk contest at All-Star weekend feature the field with the lowest-ever cumulative scoring average, but more perspective arrived in the Heat’s injury report for Sunday.

A day after being named to the contest, Heat second-year forward Keshad Johnson was sent to the G League Sioux Falls Skyforce for additional seasoning.

Johnson is averaging 3.1 points per game for the Heat this season, just below the composite 4.53 scoring average of the field that also includes Carter Bryant (San Antonio Spurs), Jaxson Hayes (Los Angeles Lakers) and Jase Richardson (Orlando Magic).

“The two things I really like about it is, one, I’m really excited about KJ having the opportunity to go experience the All-Star Weekend. I just think it’s awesome for young guys,” Spoelstra said, with Johnson’s competition on Saturday. “And when you’re a young player, I just think it’s great to have an opportunity to mingle with the greats of the game and just see all of it and experience all of it.

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• ASK IRA: Is lack of dynamic scorer leaving the Heat helpless with leads?
• Heat’s Keshad Johnson selected for All-Star dunk contest; Larsson doubtful vs. Wizards, Powell questionable

“The second thing would be, yes, athleticism is big time. We see it after practices, some of these dunks he does. He can take off from right inside the free-throw line. He can do a lot of trick dunks. And he’s also really starting to figure out how to weaponize that athleticism, and show it more in the game of basketball where it’s not just a dunk contest.”

When it comes to dunking, guard Jahmir Young, who is on a  two-way contract and has played with Johnson with the Heat and Skyforce, said the potential for a contest breakout is undeniable.

“He’s one of the most athletic guys in the league, whether that’s seeing it in warm-ups, or even the time that he gets in the game,” Young said. “His nickname is Showtime for a reason.”

Goldin, too

In addition to Johnson, the Heat also sent bulky 7-foot rookie center Vlad Goldin back to the G League for additional seasoning.

“Vlad, he hasn’t gotten a lot of opportunities with us, but I’m really encouraged by him,” Spoelstra said. “It forces us to look at him in a unique way. He’s a throwback big. He’s got a great motor for somebody his size.

“So if there’s some areas where he may lack in some athleticism, he makes up for it in his consistent motor, that energy. And then he’s got a really unique touch inside the paint. He can do these little flip shots, finishes. Even though he’s not elevating off the ground, he can do it with either hand.  So I like his development.”

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The urgent investigation into the apparent kidnapping of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie continued Sunday, a week after the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie was reported missing in Arizona.

Savannah Guthrie solemnly told the potential kidnappers in a social media video released Saturday that the family was prepared to pay for her safe return. Flanked by her siblings, Guthrie said “we received your message” and that: “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

An FBI spokesman said Savannah Guthrie was referring to a message that was sent to the Tucson-based television station KOLD on Friday. The station declined to share details about the message’s contents as the FBI conducted its review.

Investigators believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will from her home just outside Tucson last weekend. DNA tests showed blood on Guthrie’s front porch was a match to her, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said.

Multiple press outlets have received alleged ransom letters during the past week. At least one letter made monetary demands and established Thursday evening and Monday evening as deadlines. Law enforcement officials declined to affirm that the letters were credible but said all tips were being investigated seriously.

The sheriff and his staff did not respond to requests for updates Sunday morning.

A FBI spokesman said Sunday that the investigation was continuing.

The disappearance of the well-known TV host’s mother has fixated Americans over the past week. Candles remained lit early Sunday near Nancy Guthrie’s home, next to a sign expressing support for the family.

The White House said President Donald Trump called and spoke with Savannah Guthrie last week. The president told reporters on Friday that there are clues in the case “that I think are very strong.”

Authorities say they have growing concerns about Nancy Guthrie’s health because she needs daily medication. She is said to have a pacemaker and has dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

The video released Saturday was the third this week that pleaded with potential kidnappers.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, DAVID B. CARUSO and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI collected ample proof that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused underage girls but found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.

Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn’t depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.

An examination of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, said another internal memo in 2019.

Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four or five” Epstein accusers claimed other men or women had sexually abused them. But, the agents said, there “was not enough evidence to federally charge these individuals.”

The AP and other media organizations are still reviewing millions of pages of documents, many of them previously confidential, that the Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and it is possible those records contain evidence overlooked by investigators.

Here are takeaways from what the documents show about the FBI investigation and why U.S. authorities ultimately decided to close it without additional charges.

Origins of the investigation

The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported that she had been molested at the millionaire’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. Then-Miami U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta struck a deal letting Epstein plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Sentenced to 18 months in jail, Epstein was free by mid-2009.

In 2018, a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea deal prompted federal prosecutors to take a fresh look at the accusations.

Epstein was arrested in July of 2019. One month later, he killed himself in his jail cell.

A year later, prosecutors charged Epstein’s longtime confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, saying she’d recruited several of his victims and sometimes joined the sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term.

Lack of evidence for coconspirators

Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the department’s latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential coconspirators. Even seemingly outlandish and incomprehensible claims, called in to tip lines, were examined.

Some allegations couldn’t be verified, investigators wrote.

In 2011 and again in 2019, investigators interviewed Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who in lawsuits and news interviews had accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous men, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew.

Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre had been sexually abused by Epstein. But other parts of her story were problematic.

Giuffre acknowledged writing a partly fictionalized memoir of her time with Epstein containing descriptions of things that didn’t take place. She had also offered shifting accounts in interviews with investigators, they wrote.

Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre had claimed were also “lent out” to powerful men told investigators they had no such experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo.

Photos and video don’t implicate others

Investigators seized a multitude of videos and photos from Epstein’s electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They found CDs, hard copy photographs and at least one videotape containing nude images of females.

No videos or photos showed Epstein victims being sexually abused, none showed any males with any of the nude females, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email for FBI officials last year.

Had they existed, the government “would have pursued any leads they generated,” Comey wrote. “We did not, however, locate any such videos.”

Investigators who scoured Epstein’s bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence that he was engaged in prostituting women to other men, prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutors weighed the possibility of charging some of Epstein’s close associates, including an assistant and business clients, but ultimately decided against it because of lack of evidence.

No client list found

Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February 2025 that Epstein’s never-before-seen “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now.” But FBI agents wrote superiors saying the client list didn’t exist.

On Dec. 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate reached out through subordinates to ask “whether our investigation to date indicates the ‘client list,’ often referred to in the media, does or does not exist,” according to an email summarizing his query.

A day later, an FBI official replied that the case agent had confirmed no client list existed.

On Feb. 19, 2025, two days before Bondi’s Fox News appearance, an FBI supervisory special agent wrote: “While media coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein case references a ‘client list,’ investigators did not locate such a list during the course of the investigation.”

___

Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.

___ The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.

Today is Sunday, Feb. 8, the 39th day of 2026. There are 326 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 8, 1949, Roman Catholic Cardinal József Mindszenty was sentenced to life in prison for his opposition to the fascist and later communist Hungarian governments; released during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he sought asylum at the U.S. Embassy when the Soviet Union invaded, living there for 15 years. Mindszenty left Hungary in 1971 and died in exile in Vienna in 1975.

Also on this date:

In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

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In 1693, a charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in the Virginia Colony.

In 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian Navy at Port Arthur (now Dalian, China), marking the start of the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America organization was incorporated by William D. Boyce, who drew inspiration from the British Boy Scout movement.

In 1924, the first U.S. execution using lethal gas took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Chinese immigrant Gee Jon was put to death for a murder conviction.

In 1936, the first NFL draft was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia.

In 1960, work began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles.

In 1968, three Black students were killed and 28 wounded as state troopers opened fire on demonstrators at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg in the aftermath of protests over a whites-only bowling alley. The event would become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

In 1971, NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock exchange, held its first trading day.

In 1993, an Iranian airliner with 132 people on board collided with an air force jet after takeoff from Tehran and exploded, leaving no survivors.

In 2013, a massive two-day snowstorm began dumping up to 3 feet (1 meter) of snow around the U.S. Northeast, causing widespread power outages and leavening several people dead. The storm struck some areas with hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding.

In 2020, a soldier angry about a land dispute went on a 16-hour shooting rampage in Thailand, killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens. Police and military personnel hunted the gunman overnight and shot him dead.

Today’s birthdays:

• Composer-conductor John Williams is 94.
• Broadcast journalist Ted Koppel is 86.
• Actor Nick Nolte is 85.
• Comedian Robert Klein is 84.
• Actor-rock musician Creed Bratton is 83.
• Actor Mary Steenburgen is 73.
• Author John Grisham is 71.
• Hockey Hall of Famer Dino Ciccarelli is 66.
• Rock singer Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe) is 65.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning is 56.
• Actor Seth Green is 52.
• Actor William Jackson Harper is 46.
• Actor-comedian Cecily Strong is 42.
• Hip-hop artist Anderson Paak is 40.
• Professional surfer Bethany Hamilton is 36.
• Actor Kathryn Newton is 29.

General Daily Insight for February 08, 2026

Surprises could rock the boat, but they shouldn’t capsize it. With romantic Venus squaring unpredictable Uranus at 4:48 am EST, our connections and money choices hit friction as new needs clash with old comfort zones. Slow down! Rushing will probably cause more problems, especially if group commitments are involved. By evening, as the emotional Moon trines expansive Jupiter, we can take a wider perspective that allows for extra generosity. Any awkwardness can be banished with honest kindness. Choose steady changes to protect real progress.

Aries

March 21 – April 19

You set the pace with clear choices. Your 11th House of Friendship hosts Venus, who squares rebellious Uranus in your 2nd House of Resources, pushing group plans against changing costs. Your energetic style prefers action, yet a measured approach lets you renegotiate a shared bill or keep the mood warm during a reconnection after many years apart. If someone pushes, state what works for you and offer a simple alternative that respects time and money. Lead gently, because fairness keeps trust growing.

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

This morning tests your patience and poise. Your 10th House of Jobs and your very own sign are the recipients of the chaotic energy from today’s Venus-Uranus square. Your comfort zone could seem basically unreachable as expectations shift. Whether the pressure is coming from an internal or external source, you can reduce stress by laying out what your specific goals are and when they need to happen. If plans change suddenly, ground yourself with that clear priority. Steady adjustments win respect without draining your energy.

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

Certain ideas likely need a little extra scaffolding before they’ll be able to stand on their own. Under this clash of Venus and Uranus, a blind spot could impact your literal plans or more metaphysical beliefs. Don’t let temporary doubts stop you from having a good time, but try to balance that with attention to any potential oversights. Think of it like this — you don’t have to answer every philosophical question, but you should know when your train leaves for your next big trip!

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

Keep today’s plan as uncomplicated as possible. Why? Well, as Luna in your affectionate 5th house trines Jupiter in your caring sign, you’ll probably appreciate some space to be in your feelings a little! This doesn’t have to be a painful time at all; in fact, it’s more likely to be full of tender happiness. You may plan a surprise for a loved one (or them for you)! You can invite even more joy by using any free time to delve into your favorite hobby.

Leo

July 23 – August 22

Agreements improve when expectations become truly specific. Certain connections could use a rebalance during this alignment of stubborn Venus and shocking Uranus across your connection zone and your business sector. Though you can handle personal or professional mixed signals, you shouldn’t have to! Be blunt about your needs to avoid future confusion. If you lead a team, model patience during frustration and be sure to comply with your own rules. That’s how you earn real respect and invite wholehearted, sustainable cooperation.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

Change doesn’t have to be shocking right now (even though today’s aspects involve Uranus). Caring Venus is squaring Uranus, pitting your practical 6th house against your far-flung 9th house. You may need to streamline your process at work if you want more time for your evening plans. If you do have to shift your schedule, do your best to be patient, but firm in the face of any complications. Preparing in advance is the best way to avoid setbacks. Small wins will steadily stack up!

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Meeting people halfway shouldn’t involve giving up your genuine needs. You might not even have to give up that much today! Money may flow freely as the intuitive Moon moves through your 2nd House of Resources, trining lucky Jupiter in your 10th House of Goals. Your cooperative nature shines when you name fair numbers and ask for what you need in conversations with authority figures. If you felt stretched recently, you deserve a break. Value yourself enough to fight for what you need.

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

Your intuition is sharp enough to cut. The tempestuous Moon is in your heady sign, trining Jupiter in your 9th House of Learning. What truths are already at the tip of your tongue? Be sure to read the room before spilling the beans, because not everyone will be ready to hear what you’ve got to say. Contrarily, others could push for information beyond what you’re comfortable sharing. In any case, let the genuine desire to learn and understand take precedence over defensiveness whenever possible.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

A lively buzz colors conversations and errands. Plans shift as the Love Goddess Venus in your 3rd House of Distraction squares radical Uranus in your 6th House of Effort, possibly prompting a schedule change. Your optimistic style helps you laugh, yet you still benefit from confirming instructions carefully and setting a realistic time to circle back. If a peer cancels, you’re capable of pivoting without losing track of the overall goal. Handling chaos with humor is the ideal way to keep moving forward.

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

Excellence is attainable with a great team (and a little self-control). With Venus reaching from your resourceful 2nd house to square Uranus in your playful 5th house, you may be tempted to challenge your budget. Your disciplined nature can keep the fun alive while you set a cap that protects savings for everyone and supports peace of mind. If someone pressures for more, that’s their problem. Still, if you want, you could offer a playful alternative that fits their ideas and everyone’s wallets.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

A fresh wave of inspiration could wash over you at any moment. Independent Venus occupies your innovative sign, where she squares awakening Uranus (your sign’s ruling planet) in your 4th House of Foundations, stirring tension between personal expression and domestic responsibilities. Your independent streak wants space, yet you gain more by explaining your plans and honoring someone’s comfort while keeping your style intact. Be aware that as your identity shifts, your domicile may follow suit. Own your vibe respectfully to strengthen home harmony.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

Figure things out when it’s quiet in order to act when it’s loud. Tender feelings may feel wounded by pointed news as Venus in your spiritual 12th house pokes Uranus in your talkative 3rd house. Do your best to steel yourself and ask for a moment to adjust if necessary — you can reply to any inquiries in your own time. If a sibling or neighbor texts in a rush (outside of a legitimate emergency), you shouldn’t have to drop everything for their sake.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Brad Arnold, the lead singer of the Grammy-nominated rock band 3 Doors Down, died Saturday, months after he announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer. He was 47.

The band said in a statement that Arnold “passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, in his sleep after his courageous battle with cancer.”

3 Doors Down formed in Mississippi in 1995 and four years later received a Grammy nomination for the breakout hit “Kryptonite.” Arnold wrote the song in math class when he was 15 years old, according to the band statement.

Their debut album, “The Better Life,” sold over 6 million copies. A second Grammy nomination came in 2003, for the song “When I’m Gone.”

The band said Arnold “helped redefine mainstream rock music, blending post-grunge accessibility with emotionally direct songwriting and lyrical themes that resonated with everyday listeners.”

3 Doors Down released six albums, most recently “Us And The Night” in 2016. Singles included “Loser,” “Duck and Run” and “Be Like That,” which appeared on the soundtrack for the 2001 film “American Pie 2.”

While promoting their 5th album, “Time of My Life,” Arnold said he considered himself lucky to have carved out a career in the music business.

“If you do something as long as we’ve done it, you can’t help but get better at it, you know?” Arnold told The Associated Press in 2011.

In 2017, 3 Doors Down performed at the first inauguration concert of President Donald Trump.

Arnold announced his cancer diagnosis last May, saying clear cell renal carcinoma had metastasized to his lungs. The band was forced to cancel a summer tour.

“His music reverberated far beyond the stage, creating moments of connection, joy, faith, and shared experiences that will live on long after the stages he performed on,” the band said.

BOSTON (AP) — Malik Reneau had 23 points, Shelton Henderson and Tre Donaldson scored big buckets down the stretch, and Miami defeated Boston College 74-68 on Saturday.

Miami led 50-40 with about 12 minutes left in the game, but the Hurricanes managed only seven points in the next 6 1/2 minutes. Donald Hand Jr.’s jumper gave the Eagles a 58-57 lead with 5 1/2 minutes remaining for the Eagles’ only lead since it was 10-9.

Henderson’s layup put the Hurricanes back ahead 20 seconds later and Donaldson scored nine points in the final 4 1/2 minutes to wrap up the win.

Henderson scored 19 points and Donaldson had 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Miami (18-5, 7-3 ACC).

Hand, who made four 3-pointers, scored 20 points before fouling out with under three minutes remaining. Boden Kapke had 18 points and 11 rebounds and Fred Payne scored 11 points for Boston College (9-14, 2-8).

Reneau scored 13 of Miami’s first 24 points and the Hurricanes led 24-19 with about seven minutes to go in the first half. The lead reached 29-19 before Payne scored six straight points to kick-start a BC rally and the Eagles got within 34-33 at the half.

Boston College was whistled for 31 fouls to 11 for Miami. At the free-throw line, the Hurricanes made only 13 of their 25 attempts and the Eagles made 7 of 10.

• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• Kamikaze Fireflies perform at the Annual Florida Renaissance Festival at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Washing Well Wenches perform at the Annual Florida Renaissance Festival at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• Lady Ettie at the Annual Florida Renaissance Festival at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Adrian Empire Steel Combat perform at the Annual Florida Renaissance Festival at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Adrian Empire Steel Combat perform at the Annual Florida Renaissance Festival at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Washing Well Wenches perform at the Annual Florida Renaissance Festival at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
• The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Show Caption1 of 16The Annual Florida Renaissance Festival kicked off at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The festival continues on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, February 7th – March 29th of 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)ExpandThe Florida Renaissance Festival returned to Quiet Waters Park on Saturday for its 34th annual season, beginning an eight-week run in Deerfield Beach. The opening “Gamemasters Unite” weekend featured the Royal Court of King Robert Rivera alongside jousting by the Hanlon-Lees Action Theater, falconry displays, and live musical performances. View photos of the costumed crowds, artisan vendors, and 16th-century themed entertainment as the festival kicks off its 2026 calendar.

By MATT BROWN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump received rare blowback from Republican lawmakers over a video posted to social media that included a racist image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, depicted as primates.

Since Trump’s return to the White House, Republican lawmakers have treaded carefully when disagreeing with the president, often communicating their concerns in private for fear of suffering his wrath.

But the swift calls to remove the post, which also echoed false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, represented a rare moment of bipartisan backlash to Trump’s actions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Multiple GOP members of the Senate and House joined their Democratic colleagues in voicing disgust and criticism at the post and urged the president to remove it.

Trump declined to apologize, saying he did not see the racist portion of the video when he passed it on to staff.

How Republican lawmakers reacted

South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator and chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, criticized the image and urged the president to remove it.

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Scott wrote on social media.

Other Republican senators echoed the sentiment.

“Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this,” Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, wrote on social media. “The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called the image “appalling.” Roger Wicker, the senior senator from Mississippi, denounced it as “totally unacceptable.”

“The president should take it down and apologize,” Wicker wrote.

Sen. John Curtis of Utah called Trump’s post “blatantly racist and inexcusable. It should never have been posted or left published for so long.”

In the House, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York called Trump’s post “wrong and incredibly offensive—whether intentional or a mistake—and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered.” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a frequent Trump critic, quipped on social media about the White House’s shifting explanations for the video’s origin and deletion.

Praise for the post being removed

More Republicans lodged their objections to the post after the video was taken down.

“This content was rightfully removed, should have never been posted to begin with, and is not who we are as a nation,” wrote Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican.

Rep. John James, a Michigan Republican running for governor, said he was “glad to see that trash has been taken down.” James, one of four Black Republicans in the House, said he was “shocked and appalled by that post” but defended Trump’s character.

“I know the President. He is not racist,” said James, who campaigned for Trump in Black communities during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Still, some of Trump’s closest allies defended him. Laura Loomer, a far right activist and media personality, called on her social media followers to highlight any Republican lawmakers “attacking Trump today with false accusations of racism.”

“I am compiling a list of every single GOP Senator who attacked President Trump today, and I am printing it out and giving it to President Trump ahead of the @NRSC Winter Meeting in Palm Beach, Florida this weekend,” wrote Loomer, who has influenced administration policy and threatened retribution against GOP lawmakers in the past.

A shifting White House narrative

Trump has been a longtime critic of the Obamas. Before entering politics, he earned fame among conservatives as a champion of the “birther” conspiracy theory that falsely claimed that President Obama was not born in the U.S.

White House officials made multiple shifting statements about how the animated video, which has circulated among conservatives online for months, came to be posted by the president’s account.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at first said the post, which appears to be AI-generated, depicted Trump as “King of the Jungle” and the Obamas and other Democrats as characters from “The Lion King.” But the Disney animated classic does not include any characters depicted as apes, and is set in an African savanna not a jungle.

White House officials later said that the video was erroneously posted by a staffer.

“I liked the beginning. I saw it and just passed it on, and I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. Asked if he condemned the racist parts of the video, Trump said, “Of course I do.”

Democrats rally to former first couple

Supporters of the Obamas also took to social media not only to condemn the president’s post, but also to celebrate the former first couple.

“We should ALL be outraged,” Pete Souza, the former chief White House photographer during the Obama White House, posted to social media. “I will not post a screenshot of the video here. Instead, I thought it best to respond with a few of my photographs of Barack and Michelle.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., posted images of the Obamas and praised their “brilliance, elegance, and beauty.”

“I want Americans, particularly our young people, to know that the vast majority of our country supports and uplifts you despite the filth spewing from the Oval Office,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote to the Obamas on social media.

There’s a way to peddle hope for the Miami Dolphins fan to live vicariously through another Super Bowl. But, come on, if you think I’m going to be a street pusher for an organization that’s only proven the past two decades it has no idea which way is up — excuse me, do you think I’m stupid? (Wrong answers only.)

I’ve stood on the elevator as it’s taken everyone down, and down lower, through team owner Steve Ross’ tenure with (long breath) Joe Philbin, Bullygate, White-Powder-Snorting Videogate, Tank-for-Tua, Tampering-for-Tom Brady, Brian Flores’ lawsuit, Star-Players-Late-for-Practice-Gate and, always, No-Playoff-Win-in-25-Years-Gate.

Remember when the talk was wasting Dan Marino’s career? What about my career?

So, there’s the surgeon general’s warning label to this column. Because here’s the thing about this Super Sunday. It really does show the way out for the Dolphins, if it comes with this latest regime.

That’s because the stars going into Super Sunday aren’t the quarterbacks since neither Seattle’s Sam Darnold nor New England’s Drake Maye have the developed pedigree.

Nor are the stars the coaches, though both the Seahawks’ second-year coach Mike Macdonald and Mike Vrabel in his first with the Patriots have shown their swaggering talent.

The primary stars of this Super Bowl are the builders. They’re the two behind-the-curtain general managers who thrived in the unromantic existence of the clammy-palmed draft room and the dice-rolling proposition of free agency to build cusp-of-championship rosters.

Seattle’s John Schneider and New England’s Eliot Wolf rose up from young nobodies to graduate from Green Bay Packers University, too. Just like new Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. All three also were together for several years on different career timelines to learn in a sound organization.

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There’s the lifeline, if you want to grab it.

“The Packer Way is at the core of everything I learned about football,” Schneider has said.

“The Packer Way to me is just sort of draft and develop, extend your core performers from within, and it’s about honesty, respect and treating people the right way,” Wolf once said. “It’s about people and developing people.”

Those are words, just words. But look at them in practice. Seattle drafted 20 starters or significant contributors over the past four years. That includes All-Pro players, first-round receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and fifth-round cornerback Devon Witherspoon.

New England’s roster isn’t as draft-developed considering Wolf’s tenure started in 2024. But two rookies start on the offensive line. Four rookies start in all and two more contribute on a Super Bowl team. Imagine that, rookies impacting right away?

Wolf’s defining pick of Maye in 2024 set up everything good about this team’s future, too. So, Maye was the last quarterback standing. So was Marino in 1983. Sometimes fortune smiles at you like that.

The quarterback philosophy is central to the Packer Way. It can be seen by Schneider’s previous Super Bowl teams in 2013 and 2014. He threw darts at the board with three quarterbacks to build that champion: an unproven Charlie Whitehurst, Green Bay free agent Matt Flynn and third-round pick Russell Wilson.

A quarterback competition? That’s been a no-no inside the Dolphins. But Wilson came out the winner, then a Super Bowl champion. But the other side of that is the Green Bay Way moves on from aging quarterbacks before they’re done to go with rising young ones — Brett Favre was dumped for Aaron Rodgers, Rodgers for Jordan Love.

Schneider traded Wilson to Denver rather than paying high money, picked up a good-not-great Geno Smith and then dumped Smith for Darnold. Voila.

Don’t oversell this Green Bay Way as only draft-and-develop, though. New England and Seattle set things up to have beaucoup salary-cap space before this season. New England spent the most in the league at $365 million ($198M guaranteed). Seattle spent a third-most $243 million ($131 guaranteed.)

That’s a big chunk of how New England rebuilt its defense and Seattle sprinkled stars on top its roster. But they spent smartly as opposed to … well, you know. They also traded smartly. Schneider, for instance, traded fourth- and fifth-round picks for Seattle receiver Rashid Shaheed. Think Buffalo wonders why it didn’t get Josh Allen help like that?

Schneider’s background is he pestered then-Green Bay GM Ron Wolf with enough letters and phone calls that Wolf finally let gave him a menial job. Eliot Wolf is Ron’s son, went to draft combines since age 10 and then started in the Packers front office learning a decade after Schneider in 2004.

Sullivan had just quit his real-life job to start at the bottom inside the Packers then, too. His dad, Jerry, was a long-time NFL coach. So he grew up inside the game like Wolf. He also grew up inside a winning Packers organization like these Super Bowl GMs.

Since Ron Wolf took over in 1991, the Packers have 25 playoff appearances in 35 seasons, including nine NFC Championship games and two Super Bowl wins (and one loss). They aren’t perfect. Why did Bill Belichick’s New England organization win six Super Bowls with Brady (and played in nine) while the Packers won one each with Rodgers and Favre?

Still, the Packer Way is the sub-story of Super Sunday. It drops some crumbs for what Sullivan will attempt with the Dolphins. That’s all the further I’m going with the idea. You want to inject hope? That’s on you. The past two decades demand some proof before going further.

WASHINGTON — Even amid an uneven season, the Miami Heat will have participants on each day of All-Star Weekend next weekend in Los Angeles.

Saturday, seldom-used forward Keshad Johnson was named to the four-player field for the dunk contest next Saturday night.

That comes in the wake of Heat forward Norman Powell last Sunday being named to the All-Star Game for the first time in his 11-season career. That game will be next Sunday.

Previously, second-year center Kel’el Ware was named to the Rising Stars competition for first-and second-year players, which will be contested on Friday night.

Additionally, Heat two-way player Jahmir Young will be participating in the G League Next Up Game and G League 3-Point Contest next Sunday during NBA All-Star Weekend.

While Johnson has been limited in his playing time with the Heat this season, including being sent for seasoning to the G League to play with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, he has produced several dramatic dunks during mop-up duty.

Signed to a two-way contract after going undrafted out of Arizona in 2024, Johnson has since been upgraded to a standard contract.

Johnson, 24, becomes the fifth Heat player over the franchise’s 38 seasons to participate in the dunk contest, joining Jaime Jaquez Jr. (2024), 2020 winner Derrick Jones Jr., two-time winner Harold Miner (1995 and ‘93 ) and Billy Thompson (1990).

Johnson will be joined in the dunk contest by three fellow first-time participants: Carter Bryant (San Antonio Spurs), Jaxson Hayes (Los Angeles Lakers) and Jase Richardson (Orlando Magic).

The AT&T Slam Dunk will feature a two-round format, with judges scoring each dunk. In the first round, all four players will attempt two dunks, and the combined score will determine the top two who advance to the final round.  Each finalist will then attempt two additional dunks, with the higher combined score determining the champion.

Johnson has appeared in 21 Heat games this season, all in reserve, averaging 3.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 7.6 minutes while shooting .404 from the field, .304 on 3-pointers and .765 from the line. Nine of his 23 baskets this season have been dunks. His nine dunks rank sixth on the Heat roster.

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In two games on G League assignment, Johnson averaged 22.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 3.0 steals and 2.5 blocks.

The Heat will not have a participant in the All-Star Weekend 3-point contest, with defending champion Tyler Herro currently sidelined with a rib injury, away from the team during this two-game trip that opened with Friday night’s loss to the Boston Celtics and concludes Sunday against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.

The Heat begin their All-Star break after Wednesday night’s game against the Pelicans in New Orleans. They then return to action after an eight-day break with a Feb. 20 game in Atlanta against the Hawks.

Injury report

Heat forward Pelle Larsson is listed as doubtful for Sunday at Washington due to the elbow contusion sustained in Friday night’s loss in Boston, keeping him out for that second half.

Powell is listed as questionable with the sprained right hand that kept him out for most of Friday night’s third quarter.

Bam Adebayo is listed as probable with hip tightness.

Tyler Herro (ribs) is not on trip.

WASHINGTON — The juxtaposition could not be any clearer the next two games for the Miami Heat.

On one hand, you have Erik Spoelstra and his now-perennial play-in team living in the moment, even if the moment has the Heat at 27-26 and coming off a disastrous Friday night loss to the Boston Celtics at the start of this two-game trip, when even a 22-point lead was not good enough.

On the other hand, you have a pair of upcoming opponents who have left little doubt about their need to lose as a means of creating hope.

Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena, it will be against the Washington Wizards and their annual race to the bottom, with the Wizards having sat out Trae Young since since his Jan. 9 trade arrival from the Atlanta Hawks, and now with word that prime trade-deadline acquisition Anthony Davis will not suit up for them this season.

Then Monday night at Kaseya Center, the opponent will be the Utah Jazz, a team that even while making the forward-thinking acquisition of Jaren Jackson Jr. at Thursday’s NBA trade deadline is well aware it only keeps its June lottery pick by closing with one of the league’s eight worst records.

Losing by winning.

As an NBA way of life.

And then there are the Heat, who also possess their own draft pick this June, with no strings attached, positioned to gain a lottery seed either through losing now or being eliminated in the play-in round.

Their approach? Full steam ahead, even while having won consecutive games only once since Jan. 1.

So in Friday night’s loss in Boston, when a case could have been made for youth in the wake of inaction at Thursday’s trade deadline … no minutes for rookie Kasparas Jakucionis, a mere 9:32 for 2024 first-round pick Kel’el Ware and 6:22 for 22-year-old Nikola Jovic.

To Spoelstra the approach remains that youth will be served when deserved, and even then not at the cost of one more victory, even amid the seemingly inescapable reality of a fourth consecutive trip to the play-in round.

“We’re not going to prioritize something over winning,” Spoelstra said ahead of Friday night’s loss, a game when 30-year-old Simone Fontecchio played 19:28, despite closing 0 for 5 from the field, with just two points, a game when Andrew Wiggins, who turns 31 in two weeks, played 38:22, albeit with 26 points. “Winning is going to be the bottom line. Take it or leave it, like it or not. That’s what the Miami Heat is about. We’re competing to win.”

To their credit, such an approach did have the Heat positioned for the victory had point guard Davion Mitchell made an open 3-point attempt from the left corner with 2.7 seconds to play in what instead was a 98-96 loss that had both teams scoreless in the final 1:31.

To Spoelstra, the gifting of minutes to youth would send the wrong message. In support of his approach, Jovic managed to finish a Heat-worst -14 in his Friday night minutes, with the Heat also outscored in Ware’s limited time.

“You have to earn your minutes,” Spoelstra said of his rotation approach. “We’re not gifting minutes to anyone. We have more young players playing in the rotation than we’ve had in a long time, and that’s this balance that I’m embracing.”

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All, Spoelstra said, also with an eye for the future, but not with an eye on the race for the bottom being favored at the moment by the Wizards and Jazz.

“Develop these players, infuse them with confidence, but also hold them accountable to our standard,” Spoelstra continued of what he considers a workable approach. “The standard is not going to change, and we feel that players improve the quickest when there’s an accountability to winning, when they’re not just empty minutes that are being gifted to someone.”

And when the youth produces in such moments, Spoelstra said it is all the more gratifying.

“It’s art, not necessarily science,” he said of the approach. “But our young guys are getting a lot better. And they’re playing and contributing. And it’s exciting.

“We want our fan base excited about this young group. And we want our team excited about the youthful exuberance that they’re bringing our locker room. And there’s a big upside.”

CHICAGO — The other day the author Sara Levine asked me to meet her at a dog beach in Evanston. I didn’t have a hard time finding her. She said she would be wearing an orange cap and she was. The problem — and here is where I felt as though I slipped suddenly into a Sara Levine novel — was that the beach was padlocked and Levine arrived without her dog. Also, at the very moment we met, Northwestern University’s Emergency Notification System began to boom out a test, which sounds like a tornado siren with the addition of a deep male voice imploring you to stay calm, no emergency is occurring.

In a Sara Levine novel — and so far, she’s only written two in 25 years — the heroine would likely take that as a sign, like some kind of cosmic irony that an emergency was definitely occurring.

Levine suggested we meet at a dog beach because “The Hitch,” her new novel — her first since “Treasure Island!!!,” Levine’s beloved 2012 cult classic — centers on a dog attack in Evanston that leaves a corgi dead and a 6-year-old boy certain he’s possessed by the dead dog’s soul. But like “Treasure Island!!!,” it’s also funny and unhinged and so relatable you wonder if Levine, who chairs the writing department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has been slowly making a case for the lost art of the literary comedy novel.

Indeed, Levine’s characters are so queasily recognizable, this wasn’t even the first time in recent months that I felt as if I had stepped unwittingly into a Sara Levine story. By some twist of completely off-the-wall fate, the same week I was reading an early copy of “The Hitch,” I was bitten several times by a dog. Seriously. It was bonkers. I was walking through a restaurant patio on the North Shore and a dog launched itself onto my calf like I was sirloin. My first thought: Why me? I felt like that guy in a movie who hasn’t yet become a werewolf but all of the neighborhood dogs know he’s a werewolf and start barking. And yet, it wasn’t even the dog attack that reminded me of Levine — it was the way diners glared at me, as if I interrupted their burgers. I felt a weird shame.

When I told Levine this — and that I was not that excited to hang out at a dog beach anyway, considering — she told me about the attack in Evanston that led to “The Hitch.”

“So I was walking my dog by (Evanston Township High School) and he’s a little goldendoodle and this dog — no leash, but with a pink collar — suddenly appears in the alley. It’s a pit bull. I’m not anti-pit bull and I don’t mean to stereotype. She’s a little pit, but pits do have strong jaws and she attacks my dog. This was 2020. I have these horrible voice memos with my dog wailing. Anyway, now I’m in a crisis, and what am I doing to do? I’m terrible in a crisis. I also don’t want to hurt the other dog. If I let my dog off the leash he might get hit by car, so I’m frozen there, and I’m also trying to separate them, but I’m also thinking I can’t kick this dog — even with what’s happening in front of me, I couldn’t do it. The house on the corner has a Newfoundland standing in the yard, and the woman at the house sees me. She tells me to run for her car, but it’s actually a truck with a flatbed. She grabs a shovel and starts swinging at the dog, and my legs at this point are jelly but we make it into the flatbed and the pitbull is just launching itself at us, just like Cujo. My first thought was, Did I make this happen? I had started writing about a dog, so: Did I bring this on? That’s nutty, but it’s how you feel at times when things happen.”

Sara Levine’s new novel “The Hitch.” (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Levine’s novels feel right for early 2026, for this gray period when we’re all expected to reassess our lives, make changes and emerge in the spring with clearer heads. The way certain works of fiction can do, her books could double as perverse self-help, starring heroines who go out of their ways to show how not to conduct your life. Her writing voice, sardonic, breezy, chimes with Joy Williams and Donald Barthelme, but it’s hard not to hear “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and even “The Office” — that nexus where unraveling people lacking self-awareness stumble across empathy.

The heroine of “Treasure Island!!!” — a 25-year old clerk of a “pet library” — reads Robert Louis Stevenson’s legendary adventure and quickly reassess her narrow timid life, deciding there and then to live by a credo culled from Stevenson: Boldness, Resolution, Independence, Horn-blowing. But by the end, she kills a parrot and is so obsessed with “Treasure Island,” family and friends stage an intervention between her and the novel. The heroine of “The Hitch” could be related, if only tangentially: Her name is Rose Cutler and she is an Evanston yogurt company CEO (as well as “antiracist, secular Jewish feminist eco-warrior”). Rose is also perilously up her own keister. She does not want children (“not for one atom-spitting second”) but she is never so shy with opinions about the way her brother and sister-in-law raise their own kid. When they go on vacation, Rose jumps at the chance to play aunt for a week — which is when the dog attack occurs, her nephew decides (cheerfully) the dog’s soul leapt bodies, and worse.

Rose is a micromanager, and lousy in a crisis. It spoils nothing to say the closest she gets to enlightenment is a brief ah-ha: “Sometimes my mind gets active as a prairie dog and I build elaborate tunnels underground, room after room of judgement and justification.”

The writer Roxane Gay — who once included Levine’s work in an essay on unlikeable women characters (“Not Here to Make Friends”) — said that just after she landed her own imprint (Roxane Gay Books) at Grove Atlantic, she sought out Levine and asked what she was working on: “It had been some time since ‘Treasure Island!!!’ and Sara did not disappoint. The writing voice I fell in love with was still there, but she had grown, and though this Rose character was older, you’re reminded that sometimes we don’t really outgrow our lesser selves — that sometimes we just learn to live with them, you know?”

Levine told Gay that not every reader is a fan of unlikeable woman characters. She told Gay about the (smallish) subset of Goodreads reviewers who describe her women as “utterly unlikeable” and “irredeemable.” Gay told me, “I don’t know why writers are so willing to expose themselves to Goodreads. Some people have a parasocial relationship with book characters, and it meets a puritanical streak where people decide they don’t like a character who is a ‘bad person,’ forgetting flawed people exist. Rose is convinced she knows the right way to do things and her ethics are in the right place — bless her heart.”

Levine’s sweet spot is what literary scholars have long called “unreliable narration” — she even taught a class at Brown University (where she got her Ph.D. in English) on the topic. Levine said: “My father’s a psychiatrist and he tells me we’re all unreliable narrators. But in a novel, it means there’s a deficit of comprehension from the character telling the story and that deficit is part of the story. But when I hear from people who hated ‘Treasure Island!!!,’ often they think I’m the narrator. My feelings get hurt. But maybe they don’t understand that gap. It took me a long time to realize it.

“Or maybe ‘unreliable’ is the wrong term for this. Should I just refer to my characters as ‘difficult women’? No, maybe not — I was at a party recently and told someone I write about ‘difficult women’ and this person said, ‘OK, wait, what do you mean by difficult …?’”

Sara Levine sits in home writing space on Jan. 9, 2026, in Evanston. Levine is the chair of the writing department at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a novelist whose new book, “The Hitch,” follows her 2011 novel Treasure Island. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Horror novelist Paul Tremblay — whom Levine consulted to get a sense of how to handle the possession part of “The Hitch” — is a big fan of Levine, and included “Treasure Island!!!” on his ballot for the New York Times poll of the best books of the 21st century. Part of that appreciation, he said, is “how she is reviving an old tradition of first-person a-hole narrators. Think of ‘Confederacy of Dunces,’ or the novels of Sam Lipsyte, except publishers don’t like books by women who go there. Readers are getting more literal, I think. It can feel like a risk to just include any moral uncertainty in a novel now. I hear this especially from younger readers, who want to know what the moral is, and the thing is we are not writing to bestow morals but explain what it means to be human, which can be dark and uncomfortable — all words I would use to describe Sara’s books.”

You could also argue the long afterlife of “Treasure Island!!” — a perpetual word-of-mouth bookseller favorite, handed down to friends who can relate to spiraling exhaustion — is a mirror of contemporary America. Or at least indie culture: Rose Byrne is likely to grab an Oscar nomination soon for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” as a stressed mother who makes a series of bad decisions; she’d slide neatly into Levine’s books. Levine is one of your favorite literary writers’ best-kept secrets: Blurbs for “The Hitch” came from Elizabeth Gilbert, Rumaan Alam, Adam Levin and Chicagoan Michael Zapata, who told me: “Blurbs can be blurby, but the one I wrote was truly sincere.” “Treasure Island!!!,” which has yet to be adapted to TV or film (but probably will be one day), has already been developed (and dropped) by Natalie Portman and James Franco.

Levine sounds almost naive about the depth of this love.

She told me another established screenwriter got pretty far with “Treasure Island!!!” but then appeared to bail and never signed their contract; Levine never heard from the woman again. One day, during a class at SAIC, she projected an email exchange between her and the writer as an illustration of professional etiquette. “I had to explain how she opted out of the project, and as students do, one took out his phone and googled the woman’s name and a minute later replied, ‘Oh, Sara, no — that woman had died. That’s probably why she never got back to you.’”

Sounds like a Sara Levine story, I said.

“It does?” she asked.

Sara Levine sifts through a box of drawings from 2012 that she created in the early stages of writing her novel “The Hinge” at her home on Jan. 9, 2026, in Evanston. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

To be frank, the biggest disappointment about Sara Levine is that she’s not nuts. I anticipated erratic and flighty and I got calm and rational. James McManus, author of the poker memoir “Positively Fifth Street,” who taught alongside Levine for 25 years, said: “She is as sane and responsible an adult as they come. In fact, (SAIC) wanted her to move into even more active leadership roles, but that can be a time suck, creatively.”

She has long gray hair and large cartoon eyes and comes across as naturally funny. She said people do expect her to be a wacko. “Someone introduced me at a party recently as ‘one of the most sane people’ at the Art Institute, or maybe it was ‘the least insane.’”

Levine, who is 55, grew up outside Cleveland and wrote a couple of plays that were produced when she was still a teenager (one professionally, for a Cleveland theater group). She went to Northwestern for theater only to find her way to creative writing. She then bounced from Brown to the University of Iowa to SAIC, which she joined in 2000. She describes herself as “ornery” that entire time. She threatened to drop out of Brown, refused to start a novel, moved to Iowa to teach non-fiction, only to decide, “‘I don’t want to live here, I don’t want to teach this my whole life’ — it was like looking into my coffin.”

She found she was more interested in “‘hysterical’ voices, the more obstreperous personalities of fiction.” “Treasure Island!!!,” which she began to see if she could write a novel after years of short stories and nonfiction academia, took a decade, but she found that she was more ambitious than she knew. She also learned she had a knack for describing everyday suburbia with cutting precision: “The Hitch” is filled with Evanston parents who over-schedule kids so much you wonder if they “can’t sit still in a room” with children. Doctor’s offices offer “six televisions playing six different channels.” Vast expanses of Illinois contain “a strip of road that featured an abandoned movie theatre, a discount shoe store, and a cemetery bordered by a six-foot high metal fence capped with snow,” as well as a hospital “founded in affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church and rooted in the belief that all persons were created in the image of God, a hospital that had not in the past five years received higher than a two-star Yelp review.”

Sara Levine sits in her home writing space with her dog Lenny on Jan. 9, 2026, in Evanston. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

After “Treasure Island!!!,” she wrote a big sprawling novel titled “Leave It,” a more lyrical and somber kaleidoscope of Evanston characters; she didn’t want to follow one “difficult woman” with a second. She gave it to her agent, but then soon after, she pulled it back and shelved it.

“I was worried I was reinforcing the ‘hysterical’ woman thing, so I wrote something else, but that something else? Other people do that book well. So I have this narrow track. Twyla Tharp talks about knowing your own creative DNA, and that helped me. I’ve always had teachers who said you need to keep growing, you’ve got to keep pushing, that there is a natural aesthetic restlessness where you should never repeat yourself. I really bought into that. But what if it’s helpful to focus on one form and go very deep into only that? Look at Monet, who spent a lifetime painting haystacks …”

“‘Compares self to Monet,’” I interrupted, joking, pretending to jot that in my notebook.

“Oh, and also Nabokov!” she said, laughing. “And of course Jane Austen! Write that down.”

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com