Golden era for QBs, with great stories around NFL

wn pass reception from Brady during the first …more RELATED CONTENTView PhotoSan Francisco 49ers quarterback …NEW YORK (AP) — The two kids from Northern California burst from NFL afterthought to championship contender in eerily similar fashion a decade apart.Tom Brady and Colin Kaepernick, each playing in a conference title game this weekend, are bookends to a fortuitous moment in quarterback history....

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Chiefs player legally drunk when he killed girlfriend: autopsy

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher was legally drunk when he killed his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins and then took his own life last month, according to an autopsy released on Monday.The report showed Belcher had a blood alcohol content of .17 - more than double the .08 level that by Missouri law makes a driver drunk.Belcher, 25, killed Perkins, 22, in the...

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Fox stands by decision, Elway supports his coach

John Elway, of all people, agreed with that call.Given the ball at his 20 with 31 seconds, two timeouts and one of the best quarterbacks in the game, the Broncos coach decided to run out the clock and head to overtime.Result: Baltimore 38, Denver 35. End of season in Broncoland.Fox said he felt good about the decision when he made it Saturday, toward the end of one of the most disheartening losses...

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Rookie Henley wins by three shots at Waialae

Sony Open golf tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii January 13, 2013. REUTERS/Hugh …more (Reuters) - American Russell Henley, remarkably unflappable for a PGA Tour rookie, became the youngest ever champion at the Sony Open in Hawaii when he won his maiden title on the U.S. circuit by three shots on Sunday.Aged just 23, the fresh-faced Web.com Tour graduate displayed ice-cool nerves as he stormed home with...

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Pats' Gronkowski needs surgery on arm

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski needs surgery on his broken left arm, a person with knowledge of the injury told The Associated Press.Gronkowski was injured on the Patriots' eighth offensive play of Sunday's 41-28 victory over Houston. He previously missed five regular-season games and is done for these playoffs.The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team...

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Patriots beat Texans 41-28, Ravens up next

   View PhotoNew England Patriots running back …View PhotoNew England Patriots quarterback …FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Tom Brady is so good at this playoff thing he seems to be going for a championship every year.He gets another chance to lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl after earning his record 17th postseason victory in New England's 41-28 victory over Houston Sunday. Brady even outdid...

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NFLPA: no formal investigation into RG3 injury

WASHINGTON (AP) — The NFL players' union does not plan a formal investigation into how the Washington Redskins medical staff handled Robert Griffin III's knee injury.The NFL Players Association said Friday that they were satisfied with a report received from the Redskins detailing the procedures used by team physician James Andrews and other staff on the sidelines.Griffin had reconstructive ACL surgery...

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Cowboys hire Monte Kiffin to replace Rob Ryan

IRVING, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys have hired former Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin as the replacement for Rob Ryan.The team announced the move on its website Friday, a day after the 72-year-old Kiffin was at team headquarters to interview with coach Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones.The hiring of Kiffin means the Cowboys will switch back to the 4-3 defense after going to the...

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PREVIEW-NFL-Falcons get chance to end playoff misery

Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Atlanta Falcons earned the top seed in the National Football Conference (NFC) with a 13-3 regular season record but it is a miserable run of form in the playoffs they will try to end against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.Three times in the era of head coach Mike Smith and quarterback Matt Ryan the Falcons have impressed in the regular season but have stumbled in their first...

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Falcons get chance to end playoff misery

against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Atlanta, Georgia December 30, 2012. REUTERS/Tami …more (Reuters) - The Atlanta Falcons earned the top seed in the National Football Conference (NFC) with a 13-3 regular season record but it is a miserable run of form in the playoffs they will try to end against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.Three times in the era of head coach Mike Smith and quarterback Matt Ryan...

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Instant View: Holiday PC sales slide for first time in over five years

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Holiday season sales of personal computers fell for the first time in more than five years, according to industry tracker IDC, as Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 failed to excite buyers and many opted for tablet devices and powerful smartphones instead.Commentary:SHAW WU, ANALYST, STERNE AGEE"Things are getting really tough for Dell, which is not well-positioned in emerging markets....

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Short-sellers circle stocks as confidence wavers

LONDON (Reuters) - How durable is the Wall Street bounce following last week's U.S. budget deal? Not very, some speculators believe.Hedge funds are betting that a rally in U.S. stocks after a retreat from the "fiscal cliff" will reverse as doubts grow that politicians are ready to sacrifice party interests to keep the world's economic engine running, early data shows.On the cusp of a January 1 deadline,...

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Markets rise as Alcoa sees stronger demand

LONDON (AP) — World stock markets rose Wednesday after the fourth-quarter earnings season got off to a positive start in the U.S. with aluminum giant Alcoa forecasting higher demand for 2013.Sales of aluminum have been hurt by the weak global economy, but Alcoa predicted a 7 percent increase in demand this year, slightly better than the 6 percent increase in 2012. Because Alcoa supplies so many key...

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Timeline: Geithner's stormy tenure at Treasury nears end

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama will nominate White House chief of staff Jack Lew on Thursday to succeed Timothy Geithner as U.S. Treasury secretary, according to a source familiar with the matter.Geithner, the longest-serving member of Obama's economic team, had a stormy tenure at Treasury, where he was at the center of the fight against the 2007-2009 financial crisis and deep recession.Here...

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Business leaders warn UK PM against leaving EU

LONDON (AP) — Top business executives have warned U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron that he could damage Britain's economy if he seeks to renegotiate the terms of its membership in the 27-country European Union.In a letter published in the Financial Times on Wednesday, Virgin Group's Richard Branson, London Stock Exchange head Chris Gibson-Smith and eight other business leaders challenged Cameron's...

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Texas school can force teenagers to wear locator chip: judge

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A public school district in Texas can require students to wear locator chips when they are on school property, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday in a case raising technology-driven privacy concerns among liberal and conservative groups alike.U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia said the San Antonio Northside School District had the right to expel sophomore Andrea Hernandez, 15,...

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US sees Iran behind hostage photos of ex-FBI agent

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years after a hostage video and photographs of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson raised the possibility that the missing American was being held by terrorists, U.S. officials now see the government of Iran behind the images, intelligence officials told The Associated Press.Levinson, a private investigator, disappeared in 2007 on the Iranian island of Kish. The Iranian government...

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Debt ceiling no place for stand on spending: Nasdaq's Greifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. borrowing limit should not be used as leverage by members of Congress to force the Obama administration to cut spending as there will be other opportunities to make a stand, said Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX Group.The debt ceiling, which could be hit as early as mid-February, has been dragged into a high-stakes fiscal battle snarling Washington, with...

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Google executive chairman arrives in North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Google's chairman wants a firsthand look at North Korea's economy and social media landscape during his private visit Monday to the communist nation, his delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the trip.Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of one of the world's biggest Internet companies, is the highest-profile U.S. executive to visit North Korea...

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Softer liquidity rules lift Europe's banks

LONDON (Reuters) - French and German bank shares rose on Monday after regulators softened draft rules aimed at preventing a Lehman Brothers-style collapse that critics said threatened to delay a European economic recovery.Global regulators on Sunday gave banks four more years and greater flexibility to improve their funding positions, due to fears that an earlier plan for new liquidity rules would...

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Egypt talking to IMF again about crucial loan

 Doubts are emerging about the Egyptian government's ability to implement painful austerity measures linked to the International Monetary Fund's critical $4.8 billion loan that could stop an economic collapse.A top IMF official began talks in Cairo Monday, the latest in the drawn-out negotiations for the loan. The government is confident that the loan would not only cover part of its huge deficit,...

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Northern Irish militants seen hijacking flag protests

Pro-British militant groups are instigating riots that have rocked the Northern Irish capital Belfast in the past month, a police officers' representative said on Sunday as officers came under attack again.The violence stems from protests over the removal of the British flag over Belfast City Hall. It has been among the province's worst since a 1998 peace accord ended 30 years of conflict in which...

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Britain's coalition leaders seek to regain voters' trust

LONDON (Reuters) - The leaders of Britain's fractious coalition pledged on Monday to cap the cost of long-term care for the elderly and to improve state pensions in an effort to re-engage with electors midway into their five-year government.Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his Liberal Democrat deputy, Nick Clegg, have seen popular support fall away as voters suffer squeezed incomes and...

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Egypt Copts mark Christmas with fear of future

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's minority Christians were celebrating their first Christmas after the election of an Islamist president and a new pope — and following adoption of a constitution many argue has an Islamist slant.Christians gathered in Cairo's main cathedral Sunday for Midnight Mass on the eve of Orthodox Christmas led by their new pope. Pope Tawadros II was elected in November to replace longtime...

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"Fiscal cliff" deal a budget help or hindrance? Yes, says CBO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - So does Congress' landmark deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" by canceling tax hikes on most Americans increase or decrease long-term U.S. budget deficits?The answer is a definitive "yes," the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday. It all depends on the comparison. And by the way, it also helps - and hurts - the economy.As it said earlier this week in its official budget...

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