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.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is unlikely to do WrestleMania this year. He has told friends that he does not feel like he can get in ring shape by that time.

But a pitch has been made to Stone Cold Steve Austin to wrestle Roman Reigns in the main event. The offer made to Austin was reportedly for “enormous” money. 

The money that is being offered to Austin is apparently more than what was offered to him last year. Last Summer, Austin was approached with a deal that was “not as appealing from a financial standpoint.” There’s no word on if Austin has or plans to accept the new offer.

The plans for the top WrestleMania matches were for Roman Reigns to wrestle against The Rock in the second night. The first night would have featured Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre or Cody Rhodes. There’s no word on if those matches are still planned. 

For the first time ever, Burger King is offering a plant-based version of their iconic Original Chicken Sandwich with the introduction of the new Impossible Original Chick’n Sandwich at select locations.

Previously, Burger King and Impossible Foods teamed up for the introduction of the plant-based Impossible Whopper in 2019 and testing of Impossible Nuggets made from plants in 2021.

WWE is looking towards the future with its biggest event of the year, WrestleMania 39, on April 1 and 2, 2023, in Los Angeles, CA, with the tagline, ‘WrestleMania Goes Hollywood.’

Without a single match announced, WWE has sold nearly 100,000 tickets for the show. SoFi Stadium has a maximum capacity of over 100,000 seats, but the stage set and other production areas will take up some of those seats. 

The venue is currently configured for 51,146 fans for each night of Mania. According to WrestleTix, which tracks ticket data, the show is nearly sold out. 

WWE is looking to load up WrestleMania 39. They want to bring in celebrities and several top names. Steve Austin is reportedly open to listening to offers for WrestleMania 39 following his successful return at WrestleMania 38. WWE is still hoping to have The Rock come in for a match with Roman Reigns.

So much for the Jalen Hurts shoulder injury affecting the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs. 

Hurts became just the second Eagles player with two pass touchdowns and one rush touchdown in a playoff game, joining Donovan McNabb on that exclusive list as the Eagles cruised to a 38-7 victory over the New York Giants in a playoff matchup that was never close.

The Eagles are heading to their seventh NFC Championship Game since the start of the 2001 season, and their second in five years. Hurts finished 16 of 24 for 254 yards with two touchdowns (112.2 rating) and had nine carries for 34 yards and a touchdown — all in a first half in which the Eagles took a 28-0 lead and cruised to victory.

The Giants will go home for the offseason on a bittersweet note: they weren’t even supposed to make it to the playoffs, so they can take pride in that; yet lots of improvements await, with Daniel Jones still unsigned at  QB and both sides of the ball requiring multiple upgrades. The Eagles, meanwhile, will advance to their second NFC Championship Game in five years.

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.

The Rangers needed a goal. They got one with less than a moment to spare — and then added another.

K’Andre Miller’s snap shot from the top of the circle beat Stars goalie Jake Oettinger with just 0.9 seconds left in regulation to send the Rangers to overtime. Just 1:16 of game time later, in the 3-on-3 extra session, Adam Fox deftly potted a backhander past Oettinger amid chaos in front of the Dallas goal, sealing a stunning 2-1 victory for the Blueshirts at The Garden on Thursday night.

Oettinger held the Rangers at bay for 59 minutes and 59 seconds, turning away 29 shots, almost making Tyler Seguin’s power play tally at 17:53 of the first period stand.

Instead, blueliners Miller and Fox played the heroes, adding a win to Igor Shesterkin’s ledger as the goalie made 24 saves.

Even people who don’t want to be photographed still wind up with their images captured thanks to the satellites in space that get footage for Google Earth. The pictures are tied together to make the app’s impressive, interactive 3D map. Plenty of strange things around the planet can be found on it, but recently, something seemingly not from Earth was spotted in an unlikely place on Google Earth – an alien the back seat of a car.

Crystal Patterson was using the app to see where a garage sale would be taking place in Mapleton, Maine, and as she navigated to the address, she noticed something very peculiar in a car driving in the area. It seemed like the driver was naked, so she zoomed in on it to understand what exactly was going on, but it actually only made the scene more confusing. There was an extra-terrestrial being getting driven around in the PT Cruiser.