
Zak Keefer
National Features Writer at The Athletic
Senior writer @TheAthletic, adjunct professor @IUMediaSchool.
Articles
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1 week ago |
nytimes.com | Zak Keefer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The rings sat in little white boxes stacked on folding tables a few steps from the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice fields. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think they were passing out sandwiches to the players on their way out of the building. There were over 100 of them, each a glistening gold, labeled by name for anyone who was a part of last season’s team. Players. Coaches. Trainers. Staffers. But this time there was no ceremony, no real celebration.
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1 week ago |
nytimes.com | Zak Keefer
At some point, they stopped being the plucky underdog on some Cinderella run that was just happy to be here. At some point, as they dusted a two-time MVP in the first round, needed just five games to send the conference’s top seed home in the second, then worked over the New York Knicks in six to win the Eastern Conference, they started to look like something else — a contender. At some point, they started to see it, long before everyone else: they were deep enough, gritty enough and good enough.
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1 week ago |
nytimes.com | Zak Keefer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After it was over, he sat and steamed. He let the disappointment soak in. He listened to music, including his girlfriend’s. (You’ve heard of her.) He weighed, however briefly, a future without football. Losing a Super Bowl is one thing, but losing a Super Bowl like that? Travis Kelce needed some time. He needed some space. More than anything, he needed to decide if he was willing to pour himself into everything it would take to climb all the way back.
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1 week ago |
nytimes.com | Zak Keefer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andy Reid likes to point out that his star quarterback doesn’t merely pay attention to the NFL Draft each spring but studies it intently, scouring the class of college prospects so he can identity a handful of players whom he believes might one day help the Kansas City Chiefs win another world championship. Mahomes, his coach believes, pores through enough film to put his own draft board together.
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2 weeks ago |
nytimes.com | Zak Keefer
INDIANAPOLIS - It was right there. A win that would've given them a stranglehold on the series. A win that would've been - to this point, at least - the most consequential in franchise history. A win that would've pushed them to the precipice of a title.
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RT @JoriEpstein: Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett on Aaron Rodgers joining the AFC North: “Good opportunity to put him in the graveyard.” h…

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NEW POD: Rodgers finally signs, but is this marriage doomed? Plus Chubb to Texans, Jaire Alexander released, the return of FLASHPOINT FOCUS on the Colts with @zkeefer, and MORE! 📺https://t.co/tEAdFI6Gcm 🎧https://t.co/66WRKHWT98 🎧https://t.co/ManheUVEo3 https://t.co/yivaLTvbJz