KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Patrick Mahomes said the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl LV loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will motivate him. Not just next season or through 2022, but for the rest of his career.

"It was a bad feeling in that locker room after the game,'' Mahomes said a day after the Chiefs' 31-9 loss. "You don't want to have that feeling again.

"It's not the end of something. It's going to be another chapter where we're going to have to continue to drive to make ourselves better so we're back in that game.''

Mahomes and fiancée Brittany Matthews are expecting their first child soon. Otherwise, Mahomes said his immediate plans are to begin working on improving for next season. He threw for 4,740 yards and 38 touchdowns in the regular season but the Chiefs failed to score a touchdown against the Bucs on Sunday for the first time since he became a starter in 2018.

"I'm going to look at the film and try to find ways to get better,'' Mahomes said. "Obviously with our offense and the success that we've had, when teams see the defensive plan that (the Bucs) had and how well it worked, they're obviously going to try to do the same things. So we'll try to find ways to combat that. It's the evolution of our offense where we're going to have to do better things and be more efficient.

"That really goes with me and not always looking for the big play but just finding ways to move the ball down the field.''

Mahomes said he will work on taking what the defense gives the Chiefs rather than focusing on the big play.

"I thought I did a good job toward the end of the season of being more efficient,'' he said. "Obviously I didn't do that in the Super Bowl but I'm going to try to find ways to better myself that way. Just being more efficient, taking what's there, especially when these teams are playing such deep coverages against us.

"It's something I've got to battle with because I've got such an aggressive nature and want to have the big play. But as I watch the film and really study myself, I'll have to get better at that so I can be a better quarterback at the end of the day.''

TAMPA, Fla. -- Immediately after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Bucs quarterback Tom Brady texted an apology to Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu for several on-field verbal altercations, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

ESPN was read the contents of the text out loud.

Brady apologized to Mathieu for losing his composure in the heat of the moment, of which Mathieu said, "I've never really seen that side of him."

During the game, Brady and Mathieu sparred multiple times. At one point, Brady even chased him down and got in his face.

Brady called Mathieu the "ultimate competitor" in his apology text and said he knew he needed to match Mathieu's intensity Sunday.

Brady told Mathieu he'd watched him since his days at LSU, and he praised Mathieu for his heart, calling him an "incredible leader, champion and class act."

Brady also expressed his desire to apologize in person in the future. He said his outbursts in an emotional moment were in no way a reflection on his feelings toward Mathieu, whom he spoke of highly throughout the week leading up to the game.

Mathieu explained his side of the altercation, saying in a since-deleted tweet that Brady started the verbal spat when he called Mathieu "something I won't repeat."

"He's clearly chasing me, but I got flagged," Mathieu said in another deleted tweet.

The Chicago Bulls were hit with another injury blow after an MRI confirmed that forward Lauri Markkanen will miss two to four weeks with a sprained shoulder.

The Bulls announced the injury Monday, saying that Markkanen has a sprained right acromioclavicular joint. He injured the joint at the top of the shoulder during Saturday's victory over the Orlando Magic.

Markkanen, 23, is averaging a career-best 19.1 points and 6.1 rebounds on 51.4% shooting in his fourth season. The 7-footer missed seven games earlier in the season due to the NBA's health and safety protocols.

The Bulls also are without center Wendell Carter Jr., who is out for an extended period with a right quadriceps contusion, and forward Otto Porter Jr., who is out with a back injury.

"We've just got to pick up where we fell off. Obviously, we are missing two real big keys to our offense and certain things like that," Bulls forward Daniel Gafford said after Monday's shootaround. "But Lauri and Wendell, they're pretty good guys and they already know that stuff happens.

"Guys that are coming in behind them, we've just got to step up and take their spots for the time being until they get back and they're fully recovered."

The Cincinnati Reds signed veteran left-handed reliever Sean Doolittle to a one-year contract Monday.

Doolittle, 34, had a down year last season for the Washington Nationals during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, going 0-2 with a 5.87 ERA in 11 appearances. But he saved 75 games over the previous three seasons and was instrumental in helping the Nationals win the 2019 World Series.

After going 6-5 with a 4.05 ERA and 29 saves during the 2019 regular season, Doolittle allowed just two runs in 10 1/3 innings in the postseason and didn't allow a run in three appearances against the Houston Astros in the World Series. He saved two games during that postseason run, including in Game 1 against the Astros.

The Nationals saluted Doolittle on Twitter after the Reds announced their deal with the reliever.

A champion in so many ways.

Your impact will last longer than your tenure as a Washington National and beyond the baseball field.

Thank you, World Series champion DOOOOOOOOO.@whatwouldDOOdo // #NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/6NneDCx9Tf

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) February 8, 2021

With Doolittle, the Reds are adding a late-inning reliever after the departures of Archie Bradley, who signed with the Philadelphia Phillies as a free agent, and closer Raisel Iglesias, who was traded to the Los Angeles Angels.

In nine major league seasons, Doolittle is 23-23 with 111 saves and a 3.07 ERA in 401 appearances. He began his career with the Oakland Athletics, who traded him to Washington during the 2017 season.

The Reds also officially announced a minor league deal with utility player Dee Strange-Gordon on Monday. Strange-Gordon also received an invitation to spring training.

While the Chicago Cubs continue an internal investigation into former executive Jared Porter's misconduct with a female reporter, the team is planning on making changes to its hiring process.

Speaking publicly for the first time since Porter was fired last month as the New York Mets' general manager, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said his organization's new hiring practice will start with a more "thorough" background check on any potential employee.

"I think about the way we would like our process to be, like for a first-round draft pick," Hoyer said Monday. "And to be candid, sometimes in the hiring process, we probably rely on a handful of bosses that a person has to talk through and maybe we don't talk to enough people or a broad range of people."

Hoyer specifically mentioned talking to more women who have worked with or in proximity to the candidate. He wants to bring the kind of focus they use in the draft, where many people from the player's life have a voice in the process.

"I think when it comes to being incredibly thorough, our background checks -- trying to interview not just a person's bosses or people that you know well, but trying to dig in and interview, whether it's women that they worked with in the past (or) whether it's female reporters they've worked with," Hoyer said. "It's really important to be thorough."

Porter was a member of the Cubs front office when his misconduct took place back in 2016. Since his firing, another high-profile leader -- Angels pitching coach and former Mets manager Mickey Callaway -- also has come under scrutiny for his interactions with multiple women.

"It's my job to make sure every woman that works here, every woman that is a reporter for our team, every vendor, everyone that comes through Wrigley Field has to feel like this is a wonderful environment to work in and they have to look forward to being here," Hoyer said. "We need to get to that place as those incidents are disturbing. There's no place for them in the game, and we have to get to a place where it's not just an OK culture, but a culture where women can thrive."

Hoyer couldn't declare a timetable for the Cubs' internal investigation but said interviews were being done. One employee allegedly knew about the inappropriate behavior displayed by Porter but didn't report it up the chain of the command.

Hoyer also said he will employ his new hiring practices in the Cubs' own search for a general manager.

"That's one of the things we talked about as far as the search for the GM position," he said.

Bubba Wallace adopted a new motto as soon as the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1.

“No excuses.”

Wallace’s 2020 season was spent with Richard Petty Motorsports, the only NASCAR Cup Series team to employ the Mobile, Ala., native since his series debut in 2017. It was part success — a career-high five top-10 finishes and a 22nd-place finish in points — and part living hell.

Wallace is an outspoken individual, whether it’s about college football, his favorite metal bands or his advocacy for social change. Unafraid to take on any issues stemming from his being NASCAR’s only full-time African American driver, Wallace had to deal with a barrage of personal attacks at the race track and on social media last year, stemming from incidents of which he had no part.

He never shied away from the attention, even when it was overtly negative and it was undeserved.

Many in the NASCAR world stuck by Wallace through what was an extraordinary year by anyone’s standards. For Wallace, it was a bad year that gave way to a new beginning.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan decided last year that he wanted to jump — pun intended — back into motorsports by owning a NASCAR Cup Series team. A former motorcycle racing team owner among his many other pursuits, Jordan decided his entry into stock car racing was best suited as a partnership with longtime friend Denny Hamlin, one of NASCAR’s most successful active drivers.

Jordan wanted to make a splash. And, he wanted to do it with Bubba Wallace as his driver. Jordan, Hamlin and Wallace struck a deal last September.

Enter 23XI Racing, a team born out of the ashes of Germain Racing — at least in the sense that the team charter, many Germain team members and the Mooresville, N.C., race shop are now part of 23XI. Everything else is new.

It’s exactly what Wallace wanted. It’s also the boost his career needed after three years of being an underdog driver for Petty, a living legend who Wallace immensely respects but whose team, respectfully, doesn’t have Jordan’s budget.

“It’s definitely a breath of fresh air, having the opportunity I have in front of me,” Wallace said in a mid-December conversation with media. “Every day (since last season ended) I’ve been thinking about this opportunity.”

Wallace can boast of an accomplished crew chief in Mike Wheeler, who’ll call the shots for a No. 23 Toyota Camry receiving technical support from Joe Gibbs Racing, the championship-winning organization that has employed Hamlin for more than 15 years. High-profile sponsors, including McDonald’s, Dr. Pepper, Columbia Sportswear, DoorDash and Root Insurance, have signed on to support Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota.

Hopes are high.

“It’s really exciting to have the Class A partners we’re going to have,” Hamlin said. “This allows our team to run like a business and it helps us work to see how we can grow with the partners we have. We weren’t counting on any of the relationships that are currently with us. To be honest, they really stepped up in many ways. It’s a testament to the hard work people behind the scenes have been doing. This is a great step for us.”

23XI Racing will have all eyes on it as the season progresses.The team is expected to be competitive, naturally, because Jordan and Hamlin have legacies to uphold and Wallace is working hard to cultivate his own legacy.

“I want to compete for wins and show the true talents that I have and that this team has,” Wallace said. “This is the big break we’ve been waiting for in my camp. It’s a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, for sure. I’m beyond excited.”

So is Hamlin, whose hands-on approach as co-owner meant he had to be involved in everything from meeting with potential sponsors to deciding team shirt designs.

“Big teams, like we hope this one will be, get announced what, a year in advance? This one came about (last) September,” Hamlin said. “We had to make a checklist of what we needed to do to get a car on the race track. I’m working every day on this and as Steve (Lauletta, a team executive) will say, I’m part of most every decision that gets made.

“When building a race team, I can’t emphasize enough that this is from the ground up. I’m looking at catalogues for what the team’s going to wear, the shirts, the sweaters and team polos. There are decisions for everything. I wake up every morning and look forward to the emails I’ve got to respond to. This is truly a ground-up race team and we’re making huge strides.”

Click below to continue reading.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – David Gilliland Racing announced Monday that Black’s Tire and Auto Service will partner with veteran driver and team co-owner David Gilliland for the upcoming season opening NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Gilliland will pilot the No. 17 Black’s Tire and Auto Service Ford F-150 at the 2.5-mile superspeedway on Friday, Feb. 12. Gilliland and Black’s Tire and Auto Service have a long-standing relationship throughout Gilliland’s racing career.

The California native competed in seven Truck Series events in 2015 for Black’s Tire and Auto Service owner Ricky Benton’s team. In 2018, he was behind the wheel of Benton’s NASCAR Cup Series’ owner debut, piloting the No. 92 Ford to a 14th-place finish in that year’s running of the Daytona 500.

In 2020, Black’s Tire and Auto Service served as a primary sponsor for Gilliland’s son, Todd Gilliland. The younger Gilliland piloted a Ford F-150 for Front Row Motorsports.

“Ricky Benton and everyone at Black’s Tire and Auto Service have been like family to me over the years,” said Gilliland. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to get the behind the wheel again in a truck and to represent Ricky’s company. Getting to drive a truck that I own is neat, and I hope this is just one of several races I get to participate in this year.”

In 2019, Gilliland made two starts in the Truck Series for DGR-Crosley. He started second at Daytona in February but ended up with a 13th-place finish after being involved in an accident at lap 100. Gilliland’s second start of the season was at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in March, where he earned a 12th-place result.

“David has been a part of the Black’s Tire family for a long time,” said Benton. “We couldn’t be happier to support what he is building at DGR. They have fast trucks and an exciting lineup of drivers and we look forward to joining David and the No. 17 team in victory lane in 2021.”

The No. 17 Ford F-150 is slated to run a part-time schedule during the Truck Series season.

CHICO, Calif. – With the uncertainty of COVID-19 crowd restrictions imposed by Napa County health officials and support from the Vermeil Family, Hunt Promotions has decided to move the 13th Louie Vermeil Classic from Calistoga Speedway to Silver Dollar Speedway this year.

The two-day event featuring traditional sprint cars is scheduled during the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day Weekend in September.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to host the Louie Vermeil Classic at Calistoga Speedway in 2020 due to this awful pandemic,” said promoter Tommy Hunt.  “We knew that the prospect of hosting this year’s event in September at Calistoga were slim to none.  So collectively we decided to make a tough choice and move the race to Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico with help from track manager Dennis Gage and the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds.”

All involved hope this is just a temporary move. The City of Calistoga’s effort to purchase the Napa County Fairgrounds, including the speedway, has been stalled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials from Hunt Promotions are optimistic to have the race moved back to Calistoga Speedway in 2022.

Hunt Promotions is dedicated to host all the events at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds that made this a marque event for racing fans who traveled to the Napa Valley in years past.  The Calistoga Speedway Hall of Fame dinner is scheduled for Friday night, Sept. 3. The popular beer and wine gathering for the fans is also a top priority along with live music that is played each day.

On Sept. 4-5, the popular AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series will hit the track at Silver Dollar Speedway. Joining them will be the NARC King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series.

The race honors the legacy of Louie Vermeil, a co-founder of the Northern Auto Racing Club, who was a leader of sprint car racing not only at the Calistoga Speedway but throughout Northern California for multiple decades.

Justin Thomas didn’t leave TPC Scottsdale on Sunday with a victory. His closing 1-over 72 left him six back of Phoenix Open winner Brooks Koepka.

But it didn’t matter; Thomas’ mind and heart were elsewhere.

Early Sunday morning, Paul Thomas, Justin’s 89-year-old grandfather and father of Justin’s dad, Mike, passed away. While Justin did not speak to reporters immediately after his round, he wore his emotions on his sleeve throughout the day. After making par on the par-4 18^th, a hole after he drained a 50-footer for eagle, Mike Thomas put his arm around his son as they walked to scoring.

A day later Justin found some words, posting a small yet heartfelt tribute to his late grandfather on Instagram.

“Heaven got a good one yesterday,” Justin wrote. “Wish you were still here to tell me how many putts I missed on days like yesterday! Nobody’s voice would make me happier when I would hear it over the phone. Will love and miss you, G Pa.”

Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Paul Thomas left school at age 17 to pursue a career as a golf professional. Though he failed to find success as a touring professional in the mid-1950s, Paul moved back to Cincinnati, where he grew up, to put down roots as a teaching pro. He played in two PGA Championships, in 1960 and ’61, and one U.S. Open, at Oakmont in 1962.

He spent the majority of his teaching career at Zanesville Country Club in Ohio, where he worked for 26 years. He still competed occasionally, making three career cuts in the U.S. Senior Open.

In his later years, he was his grandson’s biggest fan and watched as Justin became a major champion, in 2017 at the PGA, and reached No. 1 in the world. Paul was on hand to witness Justin’s win at the 2018 WGC-Bridgestone, one of Justin’s now 14 worldwide wins as a pro.

Argentina's first division club Godoy Cruz have said the death of their Uruguay striker Santiago "Morro" Garcia was "motivated by personal problems."

Garcia, 30, was found dead in his home in Mendoza by police on Saturday.

The player had missed training sessions on Thursday and Friday.

"We have been silent until now out of respect for the person who was our top scorer and for his family, until they were duly noted," a club statement said.

"We are obliged, in the face of the news and posts on social networks, to communicate, as it emerges from some media outlets and as his entourage knows, that his drastic decision was motivated by personal problems that he had had for a long time, totally unrelated to the relationship with this institution. However, we await the completion of the case so that the authorities explain this unfortunate act."

Garcia, who had been on the books of Argentina's top division club Godoy Cruz since 2016, was looking for another club with his deal expiring in June.

He had been sidelined with COVID-19 last month.

The club stated that at "all times" the club had helped their "beloved Morro" during his personal struggles but added: "Unfortunately, no one could avoid this drastic decision."

Club Godoy announced they were retiring the player's No. 18 jersey while the club cancelled all events at the weekend as they mourned the death of the former Nacional player.

"Nothing will be enough to thank you for all that you gave Godoy Cruz," the club said. "The [number] 18 is yours, will be eternal with you. Thank you for everything MORRO!"

South America's football governing body, CONMEBOL, expressed their sadness over the former Uruguay Under-20 player's passing.