SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Kansas City Chiefs will play the remainder of the season without their top two wide receivers. Their starting lineup is an injured reserve, and the Chiefs have serious problems with their offensive attack.

However, the Chiefs still have head coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a defense that provided the foundation for an additional Super Bowl championship. Well, the other 31 NFL teams are second to none.

While the successful San Francisco 49ers have aspirations to be in the class of Kansas City, that will not be happening, as was evident on Sunday afternoon with the visiting Chiefs’ 28-18 victory at Levi’s Stadium.

Before selling out a crowd of 71,309, the Chiefs (6-0) continued their dominance over the 49ers (3-4), remaining undefeated in Mahomes’ five profession starts in the series. After Week 7, there is just one undefeated team left in the NFL – it relies in Kansas City, Missouri.

“You get the best of the best and that prepares you for the playoffs. That’s the most important thing,” Mahomes said. “Whenever you play in tense moments against great NFL teams, you see where you are at. We managed to find a way to win.”

And again, once they faced the Chiefs, the 49ers didn’t do it.

Such a giant failure against the Chiefs under Mahomes has confused the 49ers – and so they don’t even try to deny it.

“Obviously we want to beat the team that has had our number since I’ve been here,” said star defensive end Nick Bosa. “We just didn’t play well enough.”

Two of Kansas City’s victories over San Francisco got here in Super Bowls LIV and LVIII, adding to the hype surrounding the matchup during the regular season. Unlike Mahomes’ previous three starts against the 49ers, when the Chiefs had to rally from double-digit deficits, they controlled the game from the second quarter: Kansas City led by as many as 16 points (28-12) in the second quarter of the fourth quarter. With the game all but decided, San Francisco scored a cosmetic touchdown with just over a minute remaining.

Even with Mahomes’ passing total of just 154 yards, no touchdown passes and two interceptions, the Chiefs offense made enough plays to set the tone for the team. One play early in the fourth quarter was emblematic of how bad things had gone for the 49ers against the Chiefs in the Mahomes era.

Quarterback Brock Purdy’s one-yard touchdown run helped the 49ers cut the Chiefs’ lead to 14-12 early in the third quarter. This was no problem for the Chiefs. Late in the quarter and into the final quarter, Mahomes led a 13-play, 79-yard touchdown drive, punctuated by a roll by 49ers safety Malik Mustafa in the end zone for the final yard on fourth down.

Typically, safeties perform higher in these matchups against quarterbacks. Certainly, each time Mahomes records highlights of his profession, this play shall be a tie-breaker.

“I didn’t actually try to lower my arm. I attempted to absorb the impact because I knew I used to be going to be right in the end zone,” said Mahomes, who also had a 33-yard run three plays earlier that was price watching. “I had enough weight on me when he fell.

“So it wasn’t like I used to be necessarily trying to seek contact. I attempted to absorb it and get to the end zone, but it surely worked out well for me.

After Mahomes’ strong play in the first minute of the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were leading 21-12. Given the way the Chiefs defense was playing, it’d as well have been a 90-point lead.

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is second to none at his job, and on Sunday, Spagnuolo was cooking as usual again.

Purdy had three interceptions and accomplished only 17 of 31 passes. Although the Chiefs only sacked Purdy once, they pressed him in the pocket when it mattered most. After Mahomes’ touchdown, the Chiefs’ advantage increased, the 49ers drove from the 30-yard line to the Chiefs’ 5-yard line.

On third-and-5, Purdy dropped back to pass and was hit by defensive end George Karlaftis as he began to throw. Safety Jaden Hicks intercepted a pass in the end zone.

Purdy said: “I definitely need to play better, just with my shots and some of my decisions. It’s quite simple.”

Attention to detail is vital in the Chiefs defense. Spagnuolo has a watch for it and “they will always focus on the details,” said Karlaftis, who was the only Chiefs sacker. “Smoothing out, making adjustments and all the things we’d like to improve (every week). I watch it, learn from it and turn out to be a greater team.

The Chiefs gained possession with 9:29 left in the game. With only 3:16 left on the game clock, wide receiver Mecole Hardman made a right-to-left move, took a pass from Mahomes and scored on an 18-yard touchdown to put the Chiefs up.

Hardman, who also returned a punt 55 yards, enjoys playing at Levi’s Stadium. When the teams met here in Week 7 of the 2022-2023 season, Hardman scored three touchdowns (two rushing, one receiving). Hardman also caught an extra time pass in last season’s Super Bowl, giving the Chiefs their third Super Bowl championship in five seasons.

“I think it’s one of those things that happens,” Hardman replied when asked about his success against the 49ers.

The 49ers defense performed poorly against the Chiefs’ running game on Sunday. The Chiefs rushed for 184 yards (for a mean of 4.7 yards per carry). Running back Kareem Hunt threw for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

“They know how to win in a lot of different ways,” Bosa said. “We were hoping for more opportunities to get him (Mahomes) in the second half. To do this, however, you must stop running. We didn’t do that.”

Once again, against a team that dominated them, the 49ers simply didn’t perform well enough. After five straight losses to the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, the 49ers appear no closer to solving their long-running nightmare.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — I’m not a fan of the players or the teams. However, I’m a fan of historical moments. An incredible historic moment took place Sunday night on the Barclays Center in Brooklyn when the New York Liberty, one among the unique WNBA teams, won their first WNBA championship.

Led by Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, Liberty defeated the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in extra time. If any fan base deserved to win a championship, Liberty fans did it. Liberty has reached the WNBA Finals five times and has never won. Their fans have watched, waited and followed this band for 27 years, first at Madison Squares Garden.

When Knicks owner James Dolan put the team up on the market and sent Liberty to Westchester, Liberty fans followed him. The Liberty played in Newark, and in 2004 they even took the stage at Radio City Music Hall. Ultimately, the Liberty was purchased by the owners of the Brooklyn Nets, Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai. When it became clear on Sunday that the long-awaited championship moment had finally arrived, the Barclays Center erupted in muted joy from fans who had been waiting for a championship moment for nearly three many years.

For those that could have had their first taste of WNBA basketball – college refugees who were dropped at the league by Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese – the Liberty-Lynx Finals could have been a revelation. For longtime WNBA fans, these Finals simply underlined what they already knew: The women on this league are incredibly talented, passionate and committed to a cause — improving women’s basketball and ladies typically.

With the exception of the second match, which Liberty won after losing, every final match ended with a possession victory. In the primary game, Minnesota overcame an 18-point deficit and defeated Liberty 95-93 in extra time. In Game 3, Liberty needed a 3-pointer by Sabrina Ionescu to secure an 80-77 victory. The Lynx won Game 4 82-80 after two last-second fouls by Bridget Carleton. This marked the start of the historic drama that unfolded on Sunday.

Sunday’s victory capped a historic season not just for Liberty, but in addition for a league that has been screaming for attention in a competitive sports market that an excessive amount of ignores or marginalizes women. Just like there are men who won’t ever vote for a presidential candidate, no matter her qualifications, there are also men who is not going to listen to the WNBA. Fortunately, the league continues to thrive without them.

Despite the NFL, college football and hockey seasons being in full swing, despite the Major League Baseball playoffs being underway, the voice of the WNBA has finally been heard.

• ESPN estimated viewership increased 170% to 1.2 million per game.
• WNBA teams sold 400,000 tickets in a single month.
• 21 matches attracted over 1 million viewers each. In eighteen of those games, the Indiana Fever and Clark were their No. 1 draft pick.

There’s little question that Clark and fellow Chicago Sky rookie Reese played significant roles within the league’s historic leap forward this season, but they were under no circumstances saviors. The WNBA might have fresh leadership soon, but with so many great players, it doesn’t need saviors.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert made a mistake last month when, at the peak of the debates surrounding Clark and her initiation into the league, she was asked during a television interview about racism and misogyny directed on the WNBA’s predominantly black players. Engelbert said: “There is no more apathy. Everyone cares. If you remember, it’s kind of of a moment of that bird magic, in the event you remember 1979, when these two rookies got here back from an enormous college rivalry, one white, one black. And so now we have this moment with these two.

“But one thing I know about sports: you need competition. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch important matches between rivals. They don’t want everyone to be nice to each other.”

Engelbert later posted a press release on social media explaining her position. “To be clear, there is absolutely no place for hate or racism in the WNBA or anywhere else.” But Englebert made point: Polarization attracts attention. She was unsuitable to say that, unlike the NBA within the Nineteen Seventies, the WNBA didn’t need a savior. The league needs consistency, perseverance and continuous development. It needs competitive finals just like the one we just saw.

Most of the coverage of the WNBA was concerning the cheerleaders and support. I’m guilty of this too. The WNBA is a league, but it surely is also a movement, a crusade. This made the league clean up; this is what separates the WNBA from other major leagues. The WNBA champions empowerment and social justice while rebuking misogyny. During a conversation last summer on the Paris Olympics, Nadia Rawlinson, co-owner of Chicago Sky, said, “Eighty percent of the people on the court are African American. A large number of these people identify as LGBTQIA. The league is about equality, access, opportunity, fighting for justice, getting a seat at the table.”

In 2021, players campaigned against Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler, who has been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump in his bid to retain his Senate seat. She lost. WNBA players have long advocated for LGBTQ rights. They dedicated the 2020 season within the Say Her Name campaign for Breonna Taylor. WNBA players have grow to be a respected political force. A yr later, Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner was detained in Russia. Her arrest highlighted how WNBA players are forced to compete overseas to complement their income.

I’m undecided how long the WNBA’s activist imperative will last. It may grow to be a victim of its own popularity and expansion. The league will add one team next season and two more in 2026.

The WNBA has made another U-turn, but there are still more twists and turns to barter and mountains to climb. According to for a report within the New York Postthe league could lose $40 million this season. The Post’s report also found that NBA players receive about 50% of the NBA’s basketball revenue in comparison with 10% for the WNBA. Sports economist David Berri told the New York Post: “NBA men have never been as underpaid as WNBA women are today.” This may change in the following 20 years.

But within the here and now, the WNBA took another significant step forward this season, culminating in a historic moment for the Liberty. As a lover of historical moments, I felt lucky to have the opportunity to experience this.

When the weather begins to chill down and the leaves start to vary color in Minneapolis for much of the past decade, it normally means two things: Fall has arrived, and with it the WNBA Finals.

“It’s the final season,” Minnesota Lynx assistant coach Rebekkah Brunson said. “You know, the more energizing the air gets. We at all times have this sense this time of 12 months.

From 2011 to 2017, the Lynx participated in six WNBA Finals, hosting games at the Target Center. They won 4 championships during this era, and Brunson was an element of all 4.

On Wednesday, Minneapolis returned as host to the final WNBA series for the first time in seven years, and the Lynx were in the process of defining a brand new era for the franchise. For fans accustomed to seeing championship rings, this 12 months’s team begins with the Ground Zero Championship. Only Lynx forward Myisha Hines-Allen has won a championship, doing so with the Washington Mystics in 2019.

Minnesota’s coaching staff, nonetheless, is a very different story. The championship pedigree of the Lynx coaching staff is unlike any other in the WNBA. Between them, they participated in as many as 16 WNBA championships.

Brunson won five championships as a player, the first with the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005 and the rest with the Lynx. Associate head coach Katie Smith won two games as a player for the Detroit Shock. Her Shock teammate Elaine Powell, also an assistant with Minnesota, won three championships as a player in Detroit. Head coach Cheryl Reeve has been involved in six championships – 4 as head coach of the Lynx and two as an assistant with Detroit.

“It’s very important because they know exactly what to say. They were here.” Lynx guard Kayla McBride said before Game 2 of the Finals in New York. “You can be distracted by a lot of different things, a lot of different narratives, but they keep the same narrative because that’s what they know.”

As the Lynx attempt to bounce back from a 2-1 loss to Liberty, they’ll lean on the lessons learned from an experienced staff as they struggle to make them their first league title since 2017.

“They know what it takes to win,” McBride said.

As someone who has played on quite a few championship teams, Brunson knows when a gaggle has that factor and might go the distance. She said the Lynx coaching staff immediately saw that think about this 12 months’s team.

Brunson is grateful for constructing a Minnesota team whose synergy each on and off the field has contributed to what she believes is winning team chemistry.

“We knew at the beginning of this season that we had an amazing culture and didn’t have many gaps in the squad… We had all the necessary skills,” Brunson said. “But the factor is the way they took care of each other. It was visible after they weren’t on the field. You could see it in the amount of time they spent together outside of basketball, how they interacted and the way they played for every other. In my experience, this is exactly what you would like.

“At first you could possibly tell that they had something special about them. If they adopted our strategy and played in addition to they might, they might play until the end of the season because of the chemistry between them.

With a lot experience winning titles on the Minnesota bench, Lynx players were quick to ask for guidance and knowledge on what it takes to win. For McBride, it’s Smith – who, along with her two WNBA titles, also won two American Basketball League championships.

“I always talk to Katie before games,” McBride said. “We watch our pregame film and she always says the right things, it keeps me focused on what’s important and the most important thing is the most important thing.”

Although Natisha Hiedeman competed in her first finals in Minnesota, she is no stranger to competing for a championship. Hiedeman was a member of the 2019 and 2022 Connecticut Sun teams together with current teammate Courtney Williams, who also appeared in the Finals. Hiedeman has played in 46 playoff games in his profession, rating fourth all-time amongst players who’ve yet to win a WNBA Finals.

Brunson called Hiedeman “the questioner” in the Lynx lineup during these Finals.

“She’s one of the players I think I’m most excited about,” Brunson said. “When she played at Connecticut, she was in the playoffs. And I believe it is very interesting because they didn’t win, right? So she desires to know what that extra thing is that might help her recover from the hump.

“She asked how it felt, what it was like and, you know, what the arena was like. What did we tell each other? What things did we say to help each other be our best selves? She is one of the more interesting players and has already been in the finals.”

Brunson knows that stories and advice from the coaching staff can only take a team thus far. Ultimately, nothing beats the experience of actually competing for a WNBA championship.

“It’s not just about strategy. We know that and we will give it to them. But when you get to the finals, it really depends on how it feels,” Brunson said. “No one can tell you what it will feel like. You have to really be in it and feel it in those moments.”

However, there are lessons that Brunson draws from her own experiences in previous finals that she hopes to pass on to the current Lynx team, hoping they do not repeat her past mistakes.

In 2012, a 12 months after winning the first WNBA title in franchise history, the Lynx met Tamika Catchings’ Indiana Fever in the finals with a probability to repeat. Indiana stripped Minnesota of back-to-back titles, defeating the Lynx in 4 games. It’s a series that has stuck with Brunson and whose lessons she uses in her coaching today.

“I always come back to that series and the physicality of it,” Brunson said. I take advantage of this since it is one thing you’ll be able to control as a player. You cannot control taking all the shots. You cannot control every bounce, but you’ll be able to at all times control the energy with which you play. Dealing with the physicality of the final series. I at all times say this is the series where we actually got beat up physically. I take advantage of it as a reminder after I leave the show and feel like I’ve beaten you, like they’ve taken it away from you, right? So make sure that you do not feel like that at the end.

While being in the Target Center brings back many exciting Finals memories for Brunson – some of which now hang as banners in the arena rafters – what she was most enthusiastic about straight away was that her Lynx players had created their very own Finals moment in Minnesota. Play in front of a sold-out crowd (Game 3 hosted the largest crowd in Target Center history with 19,521 fans) and bask in the admiration of fans who longed to return to fall basketball.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been here,” Brunson said. They have never experienced anything like this of their profession and I know the way special it feels.

Many Lynx players will enter their fourth game on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), having only made three previous profession Finals appearances. But Brunson said that is the beauty of the show – the ability to learn over time. Brunson and the Minnesota coaching staff did what they might to ease the learning curve, doing what they might to assist the Lynx create their very own championship memories.

The Lynx will attempt to stave off Friday’s elimination and force a fifth game, which can happen on Sunday in Brooklyn. The last time a team went down 2-1 and won the championship was in 2017. The team that did it? Lynx. This can be Brunson’s fifth and final WNBA title.

“We try to tell them everything we have. The advantage of having coaches who have been there before is that they might listen to you a little more,” Brunson joked. “Just a little more.”