• Atlanta have failed to find replacement for Matt Ryan
• 35-year-old Cousins will get reported $100m guaranteed

The Atlanta Falcons moved to complement their array of offensive weapons with a proven starting quarterback by agreeing a four-year deal with Kirk Cousins on Monday. Cousins’s agent, Mike McCartney, confirmed the move on social media on Monday. ESPN reports the deal is worth $180m, with $100m guaranteed.

The Falcons have stockpiled talent on offense for a number of years, including tight end Kyle Pitts, running back Bijan Robinson and wide receiver Drake London, who are all top 10 draft picks. But they have yet to find a competent replacement for Matt Ryan, who left the team at the end of the 2021 season. While Cousins is in the upper-half of NFL quarterbacks he is 35 and coming off a torn achilles that ended his season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2023. Cousins had a 103.8 passer rating in eight games for the Vikings until the injury, the third-best in the league, while the Falcons struggled with Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke at quarterback. Falcons owner Arthur Blank called his quarterback room “deficient” last season, and few fans would have disagreed.

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• Denver said last week that they will release quarterback
• 35-year-old will compete with Kenny Pickett for No 1 role
• Tampa Bay agree three-year deal with Baker Mayfield

Russell Wilson is heading to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback has agreed to sign a one-year deal with the Steelers, a person familiar with the details told the Associated Press on Sunday night.

The AP source said Wilson will receive the veteran’s minimum of $1.21m while the Denver Broncos pay the remainder of his $39m salary.

Wilson posted his intentions on X, saying: “Year 13. Grateful. Steelers.”

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The pop star was a focal point during the NFL’s biggest night, getting to enjoy a happy ending with her victorious boyfriend

Taylor Swift, firmly in her WAG era, ended weeks of speculation over her Super Bowl attendance on Sunday night. She successfully managed to jet from a Tokyo arena show to Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, play in the Super Bowl.

In typical Swift style, the appearance was a tightly choreographed affair that reportedly involved two private jets (one on standby, just in case) to ensure that she arrived in Sin City in time. When Swift hit Allegiant Stadium, the entourage included Blake Lively, Ice Spice and Kelce’s sister-in-law Kylie.

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From the stands to the stage, the Las Vegas Super Bowl draws some of America’s biggest names, with R&B star Usher going shirtless, in-line skating and bringing out Alicia Keys, Ludacris, will.i.am and Lil Jon for a career-spanning setlist in his half-time show

• Super Bowl: Usher’s half-time show, the ads, Taylor Swift and everything but the football – as it happened

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Cake depicts Swift wearing a sweatshirt of the Kansas City Chiefs – her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team

A baker who has created a lifesize Taylor Swift cake for Sunday’s Super Bowl said it was the “perfect opportunity” to finally get around to making it.

The cake sculpture by Lara Mason, from Walsall in the West Midlands, has racked up more than 3m views on TikTok.

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The Super Bowl is a celebration of the NFL and its hold on the national zeitgeist, but recent lawsuits could loosen its grip

A month before the NFL’s Las Vegas Super Bowl, a different sort of high-stakes football contest unfolded in the Supreme Court of Nevada. That’s where the league was called to defend itself in a lawsuit from Jon Gruden – the disgraced NFL coach who stepped down from the Raiders after being exposed for sending racist, sexist and homophobic emails for nearly a decade while in the employ of ESPN. The revelation cost Gruden more than half the balance of his $100m Raiders contract, the league’s highest coaching salary at the time, and it’s long been the coach’s contention that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell conspired to make him a pariah in the sport.

The Super Bowl is as much a celebration of the NFL as it is a stamp of its hold on the national zeitgeist and expanding influence abroad. (On Friday the league announced it will play its first ever regular-season game in Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.) But a flurry of recent lawsuits threaten to pierce the league’s aura of invincibility. Doubtless for some, the litigation is evidence of a successful enterprise (from Microsoft to Trump Inc), part and parcel of a larger money game. On top of that, the NFL product has proven effective in distracting fans from alleged transgressions. Before they realize what hit them, the league’s nuclear-grade legal team has either swept the matter under the rug or worn down the opposition. It’s a playbook that’s carried the league for more than 50 years. And yet one can’t help but wonder if this Goliath isn’t a stone’s throw away from buckling.

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Smart-thinking merch sellers have created fashion’s latest collection: apparel for NFL fans brought to the game by Taylor Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce

After American football team the Kansas City Chiefs knocked out the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 to reach the Super Bowl, Alessandra Madrid began shopping for an outfit. Not that Madrid is a fan of the Chiefs, or the San Francisco 49ers, who they face on Sunday. The 32-year-old didn’t check out the official NFL gear for her upcoming Super Bowl shindig. Instead, she went on the hunt for clothes inspired by her favourite artist: Taylor Swift. Ever since Swift began dating the Chiefs’ star tight end Travis Kelce, Swifties have been showing up for the team.

Madrid visited TikTok and Etsy and, after swiping past “Swiftie Super Bowl” and “In My Super Bowl Era” merchandise, she opted for a $46 (£36) red sweatshirt with “Swiftie” stretched across the front and Kelce’s name and jersey number, 87, on the back. “I wanted something a little bit more long-lasting, just in case they don’t win,” Madrid confesses.

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Harrison Butker, who will kick for the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, has said soccer helped him in American football. He is far from alone in the NFL

On Sunday in Las Vegas, Harrison Butker will suit up alongside Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Co in Super Bowl LVIII and attempt to claim a third championship in five years for the Kansas City Chiefs.

And if the 28-year-old kicker is as accurate in this Super Bowl as he was in his previous three – in which he has made a combined five out of six field goals, including the game-winner in last year’s edition – his success, he believes, will in part be due to his past as a high-school soccer standout.

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