Kansas City is the first team ever to win 10 of its first 13 games by seven points or fewer. These aren’t the Kansas City Chiefs you’re used to. Entering this weekend, the two-time defending champion Chiefs are 12-1, in first place in the AFC, and they are probably still many people’s pick to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. That’s the normal part. The not-so-normal part? Kansas City is winning almost every game by the skin of its teeth. The Chiefs’ wins are by such small margins that their point differential of plus-56 is closer to that of the worst team in the NFL (the Carolina Panthers) than the best (the Detroit Lions). That’s the story of Kansas City this season. The Chiefs are feared — they’ve won three Super Bowls in five years, they have one of the game’s winningest coaches, and Patrick Mahomes, 29, could retire today and still be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. At the same time, Kansas City seems more vulnerable than ever. Mahomes is posting the worst passer rating and yards-per-game average of his career. Instead of an offensive juggernaut that can rack up points in a hurry, the Chiefs are a defense-first team

The six-time Super Bowl winner will have responsibilities he never had at the NFL level. 0 Bill Belichick is a college football coach. That is a sentence that is factually accurate, as Belichick has been hired as North Carolina’s new head man in a stunning move made official Wednesday. Belichick, 72, who worked in the NFL in some capacity from 1975 through 2023 and won six Super Bowls as the head coach of the New England Patriots, has never coached in college football. He did spend some time around the sport this fall with his son Stephen, who was the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington, but he’ll learn a lot more about the differences between college and pro football soon enough. And though there’s a narrative surrounding Belichick’s shocking move that implies that it’s a step back from coaching in the NFL, it’s really not true. College football isn’t the junior varsity version of the sport. It’s actually harder.  College football is more complicated than its professional counterpart in some significant ways, as coaches report to university presidents and boards of trustees in addition to athletic department officials. They are expected to wine, dine and dazzle donors. They travel all

The 18-year-old prodigy won the $2.5 million battle with reigning champion Ding Liren of China. Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest world chess champion Thursday when he beat champion Ding Liren in the final match of the World Chess Championship in Singapore. The 18-year-old phenom, who goes by Gukesh, won the $2.5 million battle, sealing a 7.5-6.5 victory in a dramatic Game 14 of classical chess. Gukesh, who at age 12 became the second-youngest grandmaster in history, represents a new wave of Indian talent after Viswanathan Anand of India broke Russia’s grip on the game with his title win in 2007. Gukesh has called Anand his “inspiration and a role model.” Thursday’s decisive match came after a tense battle that left the two players tied going into the game’s final classical match. Gukesh left Ding gasping Wednesday in Game 13, with Ding admitting in the postmatch news conference that he almost gave up, but he survived the bashing and ended the game in a draw that tied the two players at 6.5 points. “It’s fitting that the match goes to the last game, because we’ve both showed a lot of fighting spirit and played some very entertaining chess,” Gukesh said at a postmatch news

“I hunt it. I kill it. I skin ’em. Cook ’em. Eat ’em. All that,” the star NFL wide receiver said on the “St. Brown Podcast.” Carolina Panthers rookie sensation Xavier Legette is going viral after he revealed his hottest food take — that he likes raccoon and even ate one for Thanksgiving. On the “St. Brown Podcast” released Tuesday, Legette told fellow NFL wide receiver brothers Amon-Ra and Equanimeous St. Brown that he eats raccoon, leaving the two speechless for a moment before they asked Legette to clarify his statement. In his thick South Carolina accent, Legette spelled it out for the podcast hosts. “Like a raccoon you see in the trash can,” he said. “I hunt it. I kill it. I skin ’em. Cook ’em. Eat ’em. All that.” He even confirmed that the last time he ate one was on Thanksgiving. Asked what raccoon tastes like, Legette said the critter has its own taste. “Everybody tries to stay stuff tastes like chicken,” he said. “But raccoon got its own taste.” Legette said that if the podcast hosts went to his hometown, Mullins, South Carolina, they’d all like to eat it, too. He also told them that in addition

The former New England Patriots boss, who has 302 wins in the NFL, said the college game is evolving to look more like the pros every day. Newly hired University of North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick insisted Thursday he’s sold on the college game and not looking for a steppingstone back to pro ball. The University of North Carolina stunned much of the football world this week by hiring Belichick, whose all-time great NFL résumé stands in stark contrast to an empty syllabus of college experience. “I didn’t come here to leave,” Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl-champion coach, told reporters in Chapel Hill. “I’m here to do the best I can for the University of North Carolina and the program.” elichick’s contract is for five years, pending approval by the university’s Board of Trustees and Board of Governors. “We’ve been playing football at Carolina since 1888, and I suspect that in those 136 years, there are few days that have been as auspicious as this one,” UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts said. Roberts sat at a table with Belichick and athletic director Bubba Cunningham, wearing a suit jacket with its sleeves cut off, mimicking Belichick’s sideline fashion. “I’ve said many times that we want