Matthew Stafford and Jake Delhomme, two National Football League quarterbacks whose teams are not going to the playoffs, ended their seasons early on Thursday.
The Detroit Lions placed Stafford on injured reserve ahead of minor right knee surgery while the Carolina Panthers put Delhomme on injured reserve because of a broken finger on his throwing hand.
The Lions are 2-12, the NFL’s second-worst mark to one-win St Louis, while Carolina are 6-8.
PHOTO: AFP
Stafford was benched after a physical exam showed he would not be fit to play in time for the team’s last regular-season game next Sunday against Chicago.
“We anticipate a minor surgery just to clean out some irritants and debris,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. “He has had on and off swelling. It’s been stuff he’s been able to play through, but it’s also something we knew we needed to address after the season.”
Stafford, the top selection in this year’s NFL Draft, completed 201-of-377 passes for 2,267 yards and 13 touchdowns. He threw five touchdown passes against Cleveland to match a 72-year-old NFL one-game record and set an NFL rookie record with 422 yards passing against the Browns.
Stafford guided the Lions past Washington 19-14 in September to snap Detroit’s 19-game losing streak, the second-longest in league history.
Delhomme’s injury, suffered in a loss to the New York Jets last month, sidelined him for the past four weeks. The decision to bench him drew a final close to the worst season of his career.
“We thought he might be further along as far as his finger,” Carolina coach John Fox said. “We kind of looked at it this week as far as gripping the ball, throwing the ball and it wasn’t up to speed.”
Delhomme, 34, received a five-year deal worth more than US$25 million before the season but threw 18 interceptions and only eight touchdowns in 11 games this season, making his future with the Panthers uncertain.
BOOT TO FACE: Wilfried Singo said that his actions were not intentional, ‘but I was able to see afterwards that’ the ’keeper had a significant face injury Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday came from behind to extend their unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 season with a 4-2 win away against AS Monaco, but lost goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to a gruesome facial injury. The bloodied Italy international was left requiring 10 staples after sustaining lacerations to the right side of his face when he was caught by the studs of Monaco defender Wilfried Singo. “I don’t know if the referee was badly positioned, but VAR [video assistant referee] needed to intervene, you have to protect the players,” PSG captain Marquinhos said. “To not give a red in a situation like
India’s chess star Gukesh Dommaraju returned to a hero’s welcome in his home city yesterday after becoming the youngest world champion aged only 18. Hundreds of fans crowded the arrivals area of Chennai International Airport, cheering alongside banks of television cameras as Gukesh made his way out of the airport after victory in taking the World Chess Championship title. “It means a lot to bring back the trophy to India,” Gukesh told reporters, with garlands of flowers draped around his neck, brandishing the glittering trophy in his hand. “I can see the support and what it means to India, I
Zach LaVine on Thursday scored a season-high 36 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 117-108 upset victory against defending NBA champions the Boston Celtics, while LeBron James once again made history. LaVine went 11-of-19 from the floor and made six three-pointers while adding six rebounds and four assists for the Bulls, who improved to 13-15 for the season. “We’re a good team,” LaVine said. “We’re competitive and we’re a resilient group.” Ayo Dosunmu contributed 17 points for the Bulls, while Nikola Vucevic had 16 points and 14 rebounds for Chicago. The Bulls outscored Boston 35-22 in the fourth quarter to rally past
Brimin Kipkorir of Kenya and Amid Fozya Jemal of Ethiopia won the men’s and the women’s categories, respectively, in the annual Taipei Marathon yesterday, which drew about 28,000 participants. Kipkorir finished the 42.2km run in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 41 seconds, which was about 2.5 minutes off the event’s record of 2:09:18 set by his countryman Paul Lonyongata in 2020. Meanwhile, Jemal — who also won the New Taipei Wan Jin Shi Marathon in March — finished with a first-place time of 2:32:47, about seven minutes behind the race’s women’s record of 2:25:55. For winning the race, Kipkorir and
RSS