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Katten Advises CleanSpark on $650 Million Convertible Senior Notes OfferingWild give up 2025 first-round pick to get defenseman David Jiricek from Columbus Blue Jackets
The Nepal Police is investigating numerous cases, raising significant concerns about the integrity and accountability of lawmakers entrusted with the responsibilities of legislation and governance. According to the Nepal Police database, 37 people’s representatives are in custody for further investigation into their alleged involvement in various crimes. These individuals include two federal parliament members, one provincial minister, one mayor, one rural municipality chairperson, one vice-chairperson, and several ward chairpersons. Many are allegedly involved in cooperative scams. Additionally, three face charges of attempted murder, one for abduction, two for acts of discrimination, and one for child sexual abuse. MPs Under Police Investigation and in Custody Several Members of Parliament (MPs), responsible for making laws, are currently in police custody for violating the law, while some are still under investigation. For example, Deepak Manange, an MP from the Gandaki Provincial Assembly, is in jail following a Supreme Court verdict that found him guilty of attempting to murder Milan Gurung. Investigations into cooperative scams are ongoing against Rabi Lamichhane, President of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, following a recommendation by the Parliamentary Committee. Additionally, an investigation into money laundering is underway. Meanwhile, Congress MP Dhanraj Gurung was interrogated by a team from the Central Bureau of Investigation regarding the Miteri Cooperative scam for five hours on November 13. An investigation into Rastriya Prajatantra Party MP Geeta Basnet regarding the cooperative scam is also ongoing, with a case registered against her in Nawalparasi. MP Top Bahadur Rayamajhi has been remanded to custody for trial in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee case and was suspended from his position as an MP after being remanded. Recently, following the recommendation for an investigation into money laundering against Rabi Lamichhane, discussions have arisen regarding whether he will be suspended from his position as an MP. Parliamentarians from the Rastriya Swatantra Party have urged Speaker Devraj Ghimire not to suspend him. On Monday, Rastriya Swatantra Party MPs Santosh Pariyar, Sobita Gautam, and Ganesh Parajuli met Speaker Ghimire at Singha Durbar and requested him not to suspend Lamichhane, citing the precedent of MP Tek Bahadur Gurung. "We have requested the Speaker not to suspend him, providing the precedent of MP Tek Bahadur Gurung," said Ganesh Parajuli. The Speaker informed them that he is seeking legal consultation on the matter. What Was the Case of MP Tek Bahadur Gurung? Gurung was elected as a Member of Parliament from Manang in the general election held on December 4 last year. At the time of his candidacy, a corruption case was already under consideration against him. During his tenure as the State Minister for Labour and Employment, Gurung faced allegations of corruption related to renting land at Kathmandu Funpark, which led to a case being filed against him at the Special Court. Following a letter from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Gurung was suspended by the Parliament Secretariat on December 12, 2022. In the case, the Special Court found him guilty and imposed a fine of NPR 1,21,84,000. After the verdict, Gurung filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking the revocation of his suspension. The Supreme Court, while hearing his case, determined that the letter from the CIAA and the subsequent suspension notice issued by the Parliament Secretariat were flawed. Consequently, the Supreme Court overturned the suspension through an order of remand. What Are the Provisions of the Money Laundering Act and Parliamentary Regulation? Section 27 of the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act states: “A person holding any position in an organized institution established under prevailing law, or a government employee, or any public servant, shall be considered suspended during the period of detention under this Act, and until the completion of the case filed under Section 22, such person will remain suspended.” This section mentions automatic suspension, which applies to MPs as well, meaning it does not require a letter from the police or notice from the Speaker. However, parliamentary regulations provide a slightly different arrangement. According to Section 248(3), suspension does not occur automatically upon the filing of a case. Suspension only takes effect when an MP is detained and remanded for trial. In accordance with parliamentary regulations, UML MP Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, who was arrested in the Fake Bhutanese refugee case, was suspended by the Speaker only after the court remanded him to custody for trial. Constitutional expert Bhimarjun Acharya stated that in the case of an MP's suspension, the provisions outlined in the Regulation of the Federal Parliament must be followed. "The suspension procedure mentioned in the Money Laundering Prevention Act will not be applicable to parliamentarians. Parliamentarians will be suspended following the provisions in the Regulation of the Federal Parliament," he said. In Lamichhane's case, the court's decision will be crucial. If the court decides to remand him for trial in custody, he will be suspended as an MP. If the investigation proceeds with bail, the question remains whether he will be permitted to continue functioning as an MP.
If the world wasn't already put on notice, Raiders' Brock Bowers did it vs. Chiefs by breaking several records againA lively Melbourne Derby and Douglas Costa’s excellent individual performance on Friday highlighted another action-packed weekend of football action. Here are your A-League Round 9 talking points. Reds snatch draw from the jaws of victory There had been signs of Sydney FC marquee Douglas Costa’s class since his arrival down under, but he hadn’t managed to take over a game the way he did in Friday night’s action-packed 3-3 stalemate at Coopers Stadium. Costa scored two goals and set up Jordan Courtney-Perkins’ injury time equaliser in a dominant display, something Ufuk Talay and Sky Blues fans will be hoping becomes more common as the ex-Bayern Munich winger settles into life in the A-League. But Sydney should not have been in a position to take anything from the game after Adelaide led 3-1 late in the game. Carl Veart is known for showing emotion on the touchline and he was apoplectic after his side conceded two soft goals to throw away two points that could be quite important in a potential premiership tilt. Stefan Mauk copped a spray for his reaction to being substituted and I’m sure the berating continued in the dressing room. The Reds maintained their undefeated run, however, and are still in a stronger position at this point of the season than many would have predicted before the 2024-25 campaign kicked off. More Football Lively derby provides another spark The A-League tends to get a lot of negative press in mainstream media outlets but to give credit to the APL, the early season derbies from Victoria to NSW to the North Island of New Zealand have provided a much-needed shot in the arm for the competition. The front-loading will inevitably lead to a drop in crowds and TV numbers as casual fans drop off with winter codes’ pre-seasons beginning but for now, let’s enjoy the sugar hit. It was an unusual week of preparation for Victory with Patrick Kisnorbo’s sudden departure to pursue an overseas opportunity catching Vuck fans, players and management completely by surprise. In today’s media environment I’m surprised the news did not leak before an official announcement on Wednesday. Despite the pre-game disruption and going behind to a cracking Yonatan Cohen strike in the first half, Victory rallied to earn a point with captain Roderick Miranda finishing from close range after young City goalkeeper Patrick Beach made another unfortunate error. It may not have been three points for Aurelio Vidmar’s side but after the humiliation they suffered in the first derby, I think it was an encouraging result. Mathew Leckie of Melbourne City celebrates after scoring a goal during the A-League Men round 24 match between Melbourne City and Perth Glory at AAMI Park, on April 14, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images) Keep in mind this squad is missing plenty of quality with international-level players Mat Leckie and Marco Tilio nursing injuries, and Andrew Nabbout will not play again this season after an ACL injury. Pressure mounts on winless Zadkovich After defeat in the ‘spoon bowl’ against Perth Glory, Brisbane are alone on the bottom of the A-League ladder with a dreadful 0-2-6 record. David Williams’ volley was the difference in a fairly dire contest that even diehards of both clubs probably struggled through. Even in the context of off-field uncertainty and lack of investment in the playing squad, Roar’s record needs to be condemned. There’s no acceptable reason for such disparity between any side and the rest of the competition in a salary cap system. But you have to feel for the Roar fans, more than 6000 of whom turned up at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday. That figure was only a few hundred short of what Western Sydney, ostensibly one of the league’s bigger clubs, managed to attract 24 hours later for their well-earned win over Wellington. For David Zdrilic and Perth, it’s a sweet victory, their first of the season. For their sake, hopefully it can be a turning point in the campaign that’s unlikely to see finals football return to the west, but bettering last season’s 12th-placed finish would at least be progress. Roar editor Christy Doran made the trip to Seattle with VisitSeattle.org, diving into the city’s electric sports vibe, outdoor adventures, and renowned food scene. Click here for his latest adventure in the Emerald City. Champions’ sputtering title defence continues after Bulls stalemate It looked like Central Coast’s double defence was back on track after a 2-1 win over glamour club Sydney FC, but Mark Jackson’s side followed that performance with a horror showing against Adelaide five days later, and struggled to break down Macarthur, having to settle for a point at Campbelltown Stadium. Goal scoring has been a weakness for the Mariners and as alluded to by the Paramount commentators during Sunday’s game, Jackson, like any other manager, would love to bring in some reinforcements in January to bolster his forward stocks. Whether the resources are there, and what the market looks like, are two more potential obstacles. Tommy Uskok’s blatant red card in the dying minutes was pretty much the end of Macarthur’s ambition to grab the extra two points. Thinking back to the Brisbane game, that’s four points that have gone begging, at home, when the Bulls were in control and should have better managed the final stages. The fallout from the betting scandal is perhaps still affecting the squad, but it seems improving their killer instinct is what Mile Sterjovski needs to work on in southwest Sydney.
Trump calls meeting with Trudeau 'productive' after tariff threat
While appearing on MSNBC on Saturday, former Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan called for a "rebranding" of his party which he says is "toxic in so many places." After Vice President Kamala Harris lost this year's election to President-elect Donald Trump , the Democrats have been in a reflection period, with some scrutinizing what the party has become and how it led to the Democratic presidential nominee's loss. In a post-election statement , Senator Bernie Sanders , an independent from Vermont, "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them." Tim Ryan, who represented Ohio's 17th district from 2003 to 2013 and then its 13th district from 2013 to 2023, told the hosts of MSNBC's The Weekend on Saturday morning, that Democrats failed to bring in working-class Americans by boasting about how the Biden-Harris administration supported them with legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, which put nearly $53 billion in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and research. He then called for a "complete reboot" of the party, asking to go back to the President Bill Clinton era of Democratic politics. "You start with a complete reset. We need a rebrand. I think you and I have been talking about this since 2016," said Ryan, who left his House seat to run a failed Senate campaign against now-Vice President-elect JD Vance , to host Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). In 2016, Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton , former Secretary of State and wife to Bill Clinton, lost to Trump, a Republican New York real estate businessman who just came onto the political scene. "Our brand is toxic in so many places, and it is like, 'you are a Democrat?' That's the stuff we get in Ohio. We need a complete reboot. We need a complete reboot with the DNC . We need a complete rebranding," Ryan continued. "People want to trust us. They don't want to go to Donald Trump. I'm telling you, the middle-of-the-road people, they're holding their nose to vote for him, but we did not give them enough, like, we are reindustrializing, we are talking about American competitiveness." There has been division among Democrats on how to handle the cryptocurrency industry with some seeing it as innovative and others viewing it as a source of scams. Ryan continued: "We are moderate on things like natural gas in western PA which ended up being a big issue that we can't be for natural gas displacing coal. We are in a big fight with the crypto industry. What are we doing? Why are we in a fight with crypto right now? We've got to get back to the bread-and-butter policies." Newsweek reached out to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via email for comment and We The People, an American unity group founded by Ryan, via email for comment from Ryan on Saturday afternoon. Ryan talked about the Democratic party getting back to the idea that it is the party of the middle class. "White, Black, brown, gay, straight, man, woman, North, South. If you're a working-class person, the Democratic party is for you," he said. "We have to lead with the economy. We have to lead with growth...It is about getting back to—it is the Bill Clinton campaign," Ryan said. Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992 focused on domestic policy, specifically, increasing jobs and economic growth. Democratic political strategist James Carville, who rose to national prominence working on the 1992 Clinton campaign famously said, "It's the economy, stupid." On a recent episode of his podcast Politics War Room, Carville also criticized the Democratic party , telling his co-host Al Hunt, a renowned journalist, "The damage that the 2024 campaign has done—the damage that this decade has done to a Democratic brand is almost unfathomable."INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jarvis Walker's 20 points helped IU Indianapolis defeat Trinity Christian 106-49 on Saturday. Walker shot 7 for 12, including 6 for 10 from beyond the arc for the Jaguars (4-5). Paul Zilinskas shot 5 for 9, including 4 for 7 from beyond the arc to add 15 points. DeSean Goode had 14 points and shot 4 of 5 from the field and 5 for 5 from the line. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street at the start of a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% Monday. Several big technology companies helped support the gains, including chip companies Nvidia and Broadcom. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1%. Honda’s U.S.-listed shares rose sharply after the company said it was in talks about a combination with Nissan in a deal that could also include Mitsubishi Motors. Eli Lilly rose after announcing that regulators approved Zepbound as the first prescription medicine for adults with sleep apnea. Treasury yields rose in the bond market. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. Major stock indexes rose on Wall Street in afternoon trading Monday, after a choppy start to a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from an early slide to gain 29 points, or 0.1% as of 3:40 p.m. Eastern time. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.8%. Gains in technology and communications stocks helped outweigh losses in consumer goods companies and elsewhere in the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, rose 3.3%. Broadcom climbed 5.5% to also help support the broader market. Walmart fell 2% and PepsiCo slid 1.2%. Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Nissan said they are talking about combining in a deal that might also include Mitsubishi Motors. U.S.-listed shares in Honda jumped 13.4%, while Nissan slipped 0.2%. Eli Lilly rose 3.5% after announcing that regulators approved Zepbound as the first and only prescription medicine for adults with sleep apnea. Department store Nordstrom fell 1.6% after it agreed to be taken private by Nordstrom family members and a Mexican retail group in a $6.25 billion deal. The Conference Board said that consumer confidence slipped in December. Its consumer confidence index fell back to 104.7 from 112.8 in November. Wall Street was expecting a reading of 113.8. The unexpectedly weak consumer confidence update follows several generally strong economic reports last week. One report showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The latest report on unemployment benefit applications showed that the job market remains solid. A report on Friday said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than economists expected. Worries about inflation edging higher again had been weighing on Wall Street and the Fed. The central bank just delivered its third cut to interest rates this year, but inflation has been hovering stubbornly above its target of 2%. It has signaled that it could deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than it earlier anticipated because of concerns over inflation. Expectations for more interest rate cuts have helped drive a roughly 25% gain for the S&P 500 in 2024. That drive included 57 all-time highs this year. Inflation concerns have added to uncertainties heading into 2025, which include the labor market's path ahead and shifting economic policies under an incoming President Donald Trump. "Put simply, much of the strong market performance prior to last week was driven by expectations that a best-case scenario was the base case for 2025," said Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.59% from 4.53% late Friday. European markets were mostly lower, while markets in Asia gained ground. Wall Street has several other economic reports to look forward to this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. will release its November report for sales of newly constructed homes. A weekly update on unemployment benefits is expected on Thursday. Markets in the U.S. will close at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday for Christmas Eve and will remain closed on Wednesday for Christmas. Damian J. Troise And Alex Veiga, The Associated Press(Bloomberg) — Simon Harris’s Fine Gael party and coalition partner Fianna Fail look set to return to government after the Irish election, but the prime minister could face a battle to keep his post after his popular support appeared to drop. With counting still ongoing, early tallies and the official exit poll showed little to separate the two main incumbent parties and the opposition Sinn Fein. With no party having enough support to govern alone, the status quo will likely remain after both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail ruled out a deal with Sinn Fein. Though the overall outcome looks increasingly clear, it’s far from certain Harris will emerge with the upper hand in what could be difficult negotiations with Fianna Fail. Micheal Martin’s party trailed in the official exit poll, but early results suggest it could emerge with the most first-preference votes — the simplest guage of popular support — putting him in a better position in talks. “It’s far too hard to call at this stage as to who will come out as the largest party,” Harris told RTE on Saturday. “What is clear is that Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein will be tightly bunched when it comes to final seats.” Martin predicted his Fianna Fail would outperform the exit poll, telling reporters there’s a “route to a very strong finish” for his party. But he cautioned that electoral fragmentation meant forming a government would be “challenging.” To be sure, the picture could change as counting takes in second-choice and subsequent preferences to determine final makeup of the Dail or parliament. A tight race is far from what Harris envisaged when he called the vote early — it wasn’t due to be held until March — to try to capitalize on Fine Gael’s surge in support since he became Taoiseach in April. The media dubbed it the “Harris hop” and the 38-year-old made his campaign slogan “new energy” — despite being a former health minister and established government figure. A giveaway budget and what appeared to be a slump in support for Sinn Fein made it seem the optimal time to seek a new mandate. But Harris’s campaign was beset with slip-ups, starting with Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary using a Fine Gael event to make a jibe about teachers serving in government. The worst, though, was a viral video of Harris walking away from a disability care worker and dismissing her view that the government wasn’t doing enough. He later apologized. “Fine Gael may be a little bit disappointed that they didn’t make more gains,” said Lisa Keenan, political science assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin, though she added that given the campaign gaffes, Harris is also likely to be somewhat relieved. “We’ve seen a stabilization there.” From a commanding poll lead as late as September, Fine Gael appears to have slipped back into a three-party scramble to win the popular vote. It’s a key moment. Whoever forms the next government will enjoy a budget surplus and soaring tax receipts from US firms including Apple Inc. operating there. What to do with Ireland’s billions has been a key focus of the election, with parties competing on spending ideas — even as the re-election of Donald Trump in the US and his threat of trade tariffs injected a sense of caution. Worryingly for Harris, the exit poll also showed the premier trailing his two main rivals on the question of who should be next Taoiseach. Only 27% said they want the Fine Gael leader leading the country, while 35% said they would like Fianna Fail’s Martin, and 34% preferred Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald. McDonald’s strength comes from her support among young people, and that gels with the exit poll showing housing and homelessness were the biggest issues for voters, followed by the cost of living. Data published on election day showed homelessness in Ireland reached a record figure of almost 15,000. Sinn Fein’s steady rise has shaken up Irish politics since McDonald took over from Gerry Adams as president in 2018, becoming its first leader unconnected to the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. Its left-leaning agenda appealed to voters struggling with a housing shortage and rising inflation. While its support is well below the start of the year, when Sinn Fein appeared on course to form a government, the exit poll and early counting shows McDonald has established Sinn Fein as an electoral force. That has major implications for Irish politics. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael led every government since the state was formed 100 years ago, and while that looks set to continue, Sinn Fein’s emergence changes the dynamic. Still, without the option of a coalition with Fine Gael or Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein has no clear route to power. That means the focus in the coming days and likely weeks will be on Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and the arrangement they come to. Early tallies suggest Fianna Fail will improve on its performance in 2020, when the party that was in power during the 2008 financial crash re-entered government for the first time in almost a decade. It’s possible that it wins several more seats than Fine Gael, which would give it considerable bargaining power in coalition talks and potentially restoring Martin, who served as prime minister for almost two years as part of the job share agreement between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael last time, as Taoiseach. Any deal between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail would not be the end of the story. Even combining their support, the two parties are likely to fall short of the 88 seats needed for a majority in the 174-seat parliament. The third coalition partner last time, the Green Party, face losses — not unusual for minor parties and also reflecting trends for green parties across Europe. Tallies suggest it could lose the majority of its 12 seats. But other smaller parties are expected to make gains. The Social Democrats, whose leader Holly Cairns gave birth on election day, could pick up seats. Labour are also optimistic. Though vote counting began at 9 a.m. on Saturday, a fuller picture is not expected until Sunday. Then the negotiations will begin. (Updates with Harris comment in fourth paragraph.)Drop in Boxing Day footfall ‘signals return to declining pre-pandemic levels’
Aaron Rodgers Hasn't Had Conversation With Jets Owner Woody Johnson About His Future
Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open an investigation into Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife on suspicion of harassing political opponents and witnesses in the Prime Minister’s corruption trial. The Israeli Justice Ministry made the announcement in a message late on Thursday, saying the investigation would focus on the findings of a recent report by the Uvda investigative programme into Sara Netanyahu. The programme uncovered a trove of WhatsApp messages in which Mrs Netanyahu appears to instruct a former aide to organise protests against political opponents and to intimidate Hadas Klein, a key witness in the trial. The announcement did not mention Mrs Netanyahu by name and the Justice Ministry declined further comment. Earlier on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu blasted the Uvda report as “lies”. It is the latest in a long line of legal troubles for the Netanyahus, highlighted by the PM’s ongoing corruption trial. Mr Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of cases alleging he exchanged favours with powerful media moguls and wealthy associates. He denies the charges and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” by overzealous prosecutors, police and the media.NoneORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — In losing Sunday’s battle with the Buffalo Bills, perhaps the best team in football, Jerod Mayo won the war. Best I can tell, he’s staying put. For 2025, and maybe beyond. To his angry fan base and incredulous pockets of the New England Patriots’ media corps, remember Mayo’s future doesn’t hinge on winning this season. It’s not about what you want, or what I think. It’s about the Krafts, who hand-picked Mayo to succeed Bill Belichick four and a half years before he actually did, believing in him, and finding reasons to maintain that belief. In the eyes of someone who wants to believe, Sunday supplied enough reason. The Patriots led at halftime, then lost by three as 14-point underdogs. They became the first team since mid-October to hold the Bills under 30 points. Drake Maye outplayed the next MVP of the league for most of the game and took another step toward his destiny as a franchise quarterback, If that sounds like a low bar, that’s because it is. Such is life in Year 1 of a rebuild, a multi-year process ownership has committed to seeing through to the end with their organizational pillars now in place: Mayo, Maye and de facto GM Eliot Wolf. As frustrating as this 3-12 campaign has been, there are always nuggets of optimism amid the rubble of a losing season; particularly if you want to find them. The Krafts do, and so does Maye, who loves his head coach, by the way; calling questions about Mayo’s job security “BS.” “We’ve got his back,” Maye said post-game. Maye’s voice matters. Certainly more than any number of fans or media members. Ever since media-fueled speculation that Mayo could get canned at the end of his first season began rising, the caveat has always been the same: if, a Gillette Stadium-sized “if,” the Patriots bomb atomically down the stretch, ownership could pull the plug on Mayo. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport became the latest to join that chorus Sunday with this pregame report: “The Krafts want to keep Jerod Mayo,” he said. “They believe he is the leader for the organization for the future, and they knew it would be a multi-year process to get this thing right. Now if things go off the rails, if they really start to struggle and he loses the locker room the last couple games of the season, we’ve seen this thing turn. “But as of now, the Patriots believe Jerod Mayo is their leader for the future.” Well, Mayo hasn’t lost the locker room. That’s a fact. To a man, both in public and from those I’ve spoken to in private, Patriots players believe in their head coach. Mayo might be a players’ coach, yes, in the best and worst senses. But the Patriots were a few plays away Sunday from pulling off their largest upset since Super Bowl XXXVI. “I think we’re building something good,” Maye said. The Patriots also played their best half of football this season against their toughest opponent yet. Another fact. Now, to the frustrated, I am with you. To the shocked, I understand. But to the trigger-happy, lay down your arms. Mayo, by all accounts, is returning in 2025. Alex Van Pelt, however, is another story. In the same vein that the Krafts could have viewed Sunday’s performance as a reason to save Mayo — despite his pathetic punt at midfield, down 10 with just eight and a half minutes left — they could have convinced themselves their offensive coordinator is the real problem. After all, team president Jonathan Kraft was visibly exasperated over Van Pelt’s play-calling during the Pats’ loss at Arizona a week earlier. Four days later, Van Pelt told reporters he had yet to hear from his boss. Well, that time may be coming. Trailing by three in the fourth quarter Sunday, Van Pelt called a pass that resulted in an unnecessary lateral and game-winning touchdown for Buffalo. His offense later operated like it was taking a Sunday drive with the game on the line, using up 3:16 of the final 4:19 en route to its final touchdown. Van Pelt, finally, weaponized Maye’s legs in critical situations, something that arguably should have been done weeks ago. Not to mention, Van Pelt’s top running back can’t stop fumbling, and the offensive line remains a hot mess. Call him Alex Van Fall Guy. Because Van Pelt’s offense, for the first time in a while, under-performed relative to Mayo’s defense. On merit, he deserves to stay; a case that’s harder to make for defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington. But it’s not about merit this season. It’s not about what you want. It’s not about what I think. It’s about the Krafts; what they see, what they want, what they believe. Even in defeat. ____ Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
