Mickey Togs

Tom Brady is hanging up his cleats — for good.

In an emotional message posted on Instagram, the 45-year-old quarterback confirmed that he is ending his prolific NFL career after 23 seasons, the final three of which were spent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This comes one year after he was rushed into retirement by news leaks and then changed his mind 40 days later.

“Hey guys I’ll get to the point right away. I’m retiring. For good,” Brady said in a 53-second social-media selfie video filmed on a beach. “I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning I figured I’d just press record and let you guys know first.”

Brady, 45, was about to be a free agent for the second time in his career. Established as the Greatest of All-Time after 20 seasons with the Patriots, Brady signed with the Buccaneers from a limited field of suitors in 2020 and immediately made everyone else pay by winning his seventh Super Bowl.

Kyrie Irving is in the final season of his contract with the Brooklyn Nets, and there is a real lack of clarity about his future. Irving, through his agent, has apparently made clear what his preference would be.

Irving’s agent Shetellia Irving said the guard wants a contract extension with the Nets, but so far the team has not set up any talks about a possible deal.

“Kyrie staying with the Nets? I have reached out to the Nets regarding this,” she said.

 “We have had no significant conversations. The desire is to make Brooklyn home, with the right type of extension, which means the ball is in the Nets’ court to communicate now if their desire is the same.”

Irving had sought a new contract last offseason, but the two sides were unable to agree on a new deal. The Nets may have some reservations, and some reports suggest that the Nets are undecided on Irving.

The New York Yankees have reached an agreement on a new, multi-year contract with first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Anthony Rizzo truly enjoyed being a Yankee, and getting $20 million a year to stay — $17 million each of the next two years, plus a $6 million buyout on a 2025 option will keep him in the Bronx.

Rizzo, who was acquired by the Yankees from the Chicago Cubs prior to the 2021 trade deadline, was one of the team’s most consistent hitters during the postseason, leading all players with eight RBIs and a .432 on base percentage, as well as finishing second behind only Harrison Bader with eight total hits and two home runs, which tied Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Rizzo had previously signed a two-year, $32 million deal with the Yankees last offseason, which included an opt out after the first year, allowing him to test free agency this offseason.

The Parkland, Florida native hit a career best 32 home runs — a feat he accomplished three times (2014, 2016, 2017) with the Cubs — and 75 RBIs in 130 games.

Taco Bell welcomes back the Grilled Cheese Burrito in three varieties, including Seasoned Beef, Double Steak and Spicy Double Steak.

The classic Grilled Cheese Burrito features seasoned beef, nacho cheese sauce, seasoned rice, fiesta strips, creamy chipotle sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, and three-cheese blend wrapped inside a warm flour tortilla, with even more three-cheese blend grilled on the  top.

The Double Steak Grilled Cheese Burrito comes with a double portion of marinated grilled steak, nacho cheese sauce, seasoned rice, fiesta strips, creamy chipotle sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, and three-cheese blend wrapped inside a warm flour tortilla, with even more three-cheese blend grilled on the top.

The Spicy Double Steak Grilled Cheese Burrito includes a double portion of marinated grilled steak, plus nacho cheese sauce, seasoned rice, fiesta strips, creamy chipotle sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, and three-cheese blend wrapped inside a warm flour tortilla, with even more three-cheese blend and jalapeños grilled on the top.

The classic Grilled Cheese Burrito carries a suggested price of $4.29, while both double steak varieties carry a suggested price of $6.79 each, though prices may vary by location.

There is clearly no fear from the Mets owner of the “Steve Cohen Tax.”

After reaching a stunning 12-year, $315 million contract agreement with star shortstop Carlos Correa, the Mets are fast approaching an unheard-of total payroll expense of $500 million. 

Yes, half a billion dollars — a very doable outlay for a man worth a reported $17 billion.

As things stand, after the Mets finalize salaries for arbitration-eligible players, they are estimated to have a $381.21 million payroll before taxes. 

The 2023 Mets are set to be charged $108.789 million in luxury tax, including $79.389 million on the fourth tax level — the “Steve Cohen Tax.”

That takes the Mets to just shy of $490 million in total payroll expense. And, the way things are going, Cohen may not be done trying to improve his 101-win team that was eliminated by the Padres in the wild-card round.

The previous highest payroll ever for luxury-tax purposes was the  2015 Dodgers at $341,486,133; their pre-tax payroll was $297,918,661. It’s possible the 2022 Dodgers or Mets top that as the figures for this year are not done yet.

WFAN squarely defeated ESPN New York in the latest ratings book as major changes loom at the latter radio station. 

In the afternoon matchup that has been the most hotly contested between the two networks for the last several years, WFAN’s “Carton & Roberts” with Craig Carton and Evan Roberts ranked second in the market with a 7.5 share in men 25-54 — the demographic to which sports talk radio listeners are marketed to advertisers — while ESPN’s “The Michael Kay Show” with Kay, Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg ranked 14th with a 2.9 share. These ratings are from 3-6:30 p.m., when the two shows overlap. 

WFAN’s “Boomer & Gio” with Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti finished tops in the market with a 9.7 share in morning drive from 6-10 a.m., while ESPN New York’s combination of “DiPietro and Rothenberg” with Rick DiPietro and Dave Rothenberg and “Keyshawn, JWill and Max” with Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams and Max Kellerman finished No. 15 with a 2.5 share. 

The Philadelphia Eagles have played 16 games this season with Jalen Hurts starting at quarterback. They’ve won 15 of them.

It seems like the NFL world forgot how good the Eagles were. The Eagles have been great since Week 1, but there were other shiny toys to pay attention to late in the season. As the playoffs approached, you didn’t hear much at all about the Eagles. 

Saturday night was a reminder that the Eagles were the best team in the regular season and could be in the playoffs too. At halftime, the Eagles were up 28 points on the New York Giants, and they went on to win 38-7.

Four of the Eagles’ first five drives were 75, 52, 63 and 72 yards, and all four ended with touchdowns. Hurts threw touchdown passes to Dallas Goedert and Smith. Boston Scott, who is on a heater against the Giants, scored the Eagles’ third touchdown. He has scored a touchdown in all nine career games against New York. Hurts ran in for a touchdown inside  the two-minute warning and if there was even a little bit of doubt about who was moving on to the NFC championship game, that evaporated.

Charlotte Flair won the Women’s title on WWE Friday Night SmackDown.

After Ronda Rousey defeated Raquel Rodriguez to retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship, Charlotte walked out to the ring with new music and a new look. 

Charlotte then challenged Rousey for the title and Rousey accepted, despite the objections from Shayna Baszler. Rousey took a boot to the face and then Rousey kicked out of the pin attempt.

Flair then hit the spear and she pinned Rousey to win the title. Then she went into the crowd to celebrate her 14th title win in WWE.

The New York Giants upset the Minnesota Vikings 31-24 in the Wild Card round of the 2023 NFL playoffs and will advance to play the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional round.

This was the Giants’ first playoff victory since they won the 2011 Super Bowl, ending a drought of more than 10 years.

The Vikings were 11-0 in one-score games during the regular season. The Giants were 8-3-1 in such games. Thus, no surprise  that the teams were tied 24-24 with 12:34 to play.

The Giants got a 2-yard touchdown run by Saquon Barkley to take a 31-24 lead with 7:47 to play. They sealed the victory when Xavier McKinney tackled Minnesota’s T.J. Hockenson short of the first down on a desperation fourth-and-8 with 1:44 to play and the Vikings out of timeouts.

QB Daniel Jones was nothing short of brilliant in his first career playoff game, finishing 24 of 35 for 301 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also was the Giants’ leading rusher with 78 yards on 17 carries. Saquon Barkley was explosive, racking up 109 total yards and two touchdowns despite getting just nine carries.