Joe Flacco leads the Browns to the Super Bowl

In the year of the backup quarterback, Flacco’s encore performance has been a genuine surprise. Just when it seemed as if the 38-year-old father of five might’ve been cooked, he came off the couch to win five of six starts and rally Cleveland to their second playoff berth in 21 years.

Throughout the University of Delaware product has looked as elite as in his heyday in Baltimore, where devastating defense set him up to reign bombs downfield. With the formula much the same in Cleveland, what’s stopping the former Super Bowl MVP from winning it all again with the Browns?

Consider: Cleveland have already beaten Baltimore, San Francisco and Jacksonville this season and have enough muscle on both sides of the ball to push around up-and-down Kansas City and Miami, too. The Browns were already high on the list of teams no one wanted to play while DeShaun Watson’s other backups were filling in. But with Flacco under center, they’re a serious title contender now. AL

Gabby Douglas will win Olympic gold (again)

As Simone Biles spectacularly re-established her dominance this year, another significant gymnastics comeback was quietly in the works. Douglas, the trailblazing 2012 Olympic all-around champion announced this year that she would return in 2024 having not competed since her own painful Olympic experience in 2016. Starting again from scratch after an eight-year layoff in such a technical sport like gymnastics is astoundingly difficult, there will be no margin for error since she is returning in an Olympic year and the depth of the US team means that merely making it to the Olympics is several times more difficult than actually winning a team medal, where USA will be heavy favorites. Still, Douglas, who turned 28 on Sunday, is a champion, a generational talent in her own right and she knows exactly what it takes to make a team. In 2024, alongside Biles, she will do it again. TC

The Saudis get in the NFL business

The continued encroachment of Public Investment Funds into sports continues apace. So far, Sovereign Wealth Funds have turned the bulk of their attention to European soccer, boxing and golf. Next up on the docket: the four major US pro sports leagues. Last year, the Qatar Investment Authority became the first Middle Eastern group to dip its toes in the water, buying a 5% stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment for $200m, the ownership group of the NHL’s Washington Capitals, NBA’s Washington Wizards and WNBA’s Washington Mystics. The biggest lingering question: Can an investment fund buy its way into the NFL’s old boys club? Buying up a portion of Sundays is tricky. Boardroom transactions in America’s most prominent league typically have less to do with money and more to do with backroom scheming – the league has only ever had one foreign owner, Shahid Khan, a Pakastani-born business, who is a naturalized US citizen, who bought the Jags in 2012. But how much would it take for Saudi Arabia’s PIF to bypass the typical backroom backslapping? $8bn? $10bn? The Saints and Seahawks could both be available in the next 12 months, and an ownership group headed up by a traditional face (white, old, male, purveyor of a legacy brand) in partnership with a sovereign wealth fund feels like an inevitability. OC

At least one MLB team will threaten to move cities

In November, Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas in 2028, a bitter end to arduous negotiations between A’s ownership and the city of Oakland. The city’s lease with the A’s home stadium was set to expire in 2024, and owner John Fisher negotiated a deal with Las Vegas that guaranteed more public funding for a new stadium than Oakland was willing to offer. Expect other owners to follow Fisher’s playbook. The Chicago White Sox lease with Guaranteed Rate field expires in 2029, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf was spotted leaving a meeting with Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell in December. The Milwaukee Brewers were rumored to be looking for a new home before the Wisconsin state legislature passed a $500m bill to publicly fund renovations to their home ballpark (the city is expected to sign a new 30-year lease with the team soon).

The stakes are clear: with cities like Nashville and Charlotte expressing interest in hosting Major League Baseball teams (MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated he’d like to see a team in Nashville), expect owners to demand more public funding from cities as their stadium leases near expiration. GB

The Dallas Cowboys hire Bill Belichick

The Hoodie will be the head coach of the Cowboys to start the 2024 season. The future Hall of Fame coach, who turns 72 in April, hasn’t been able to find success since Tom Brady departed New England and will be let go after what’s surely been his worst season on the sidelines. Another disappointing finish for Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys will have Jerry Jones looking to make a move. Jones, whose weakness for splashy hires is well-documented, will look to hire from his buddy Bill Parcells’ coaching tree and snag the Hoodie. Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl champion as a head coach, will inherit a proven quarterback and a talented roster that can help him catch Don Shula and become the league’s all-time winningest coach. NL

Hikaru Nakumura wins the world chess championship

Nakamura enters 2024 ranked third in the world and having booked his place in April’s eight-man candidates tournament to determine the challenger to Ding Liren’s world title in the fall. Ding has made limited appearances due to unspecified health issues since winning the crown vacated by Magnus Carlsen, meaning April’s double round-robin gauntlet in Toronto may prove tougher to win than the world championship match itself. It says here that Nakamura, at 36 and with Carlsen having abdicated, is ready for his moment. The five-time US champion, whose main career is as a streamer with millions of followers, will become the second ever American champion in the 138-year history of world title matchplay and first since Bobby Fischer, kicking off a stateside chess boom that will make The Queen’s Gambit effect seem quaint. BAG

The NBA will see (another) first-time champion

Yes, the National Basketball Association is a league of bluebloods. There’s a reason the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics each boast 17 championships apiece over the league’s 77-year history, marking about half of the total NBA finals wins. Other teams like San Antonio, Golden State, Miami, Philly and Chicago hold multiple rings, too. But more recently, parody has become something of a reality in the NBA. Denver won their first Larry O’Brien trophy in 2023 and we think this year the league will crown yet another first-time winner. That means teams like those listed above will have to sit on the sidelines as the confetti falls on a new champ. So, who might that be? Best bets are either Oklahoma City or Minnesota, which are currently atop the Western Conference. But don’t look now – the LA Clippers could get into the fold with newcomer James Harden running point and the freshly heathy (knock on wood) Kawhi Leonard and Paul George running the wings. Yes, it’s anyone’s to win and we think it will be a first-time team once again in 2024. JU