Sports briefs
Super Bowl TV ratings
The Super Bowl put a halt to a four-year decline in viewership, with an estimated 99.9 million people watching the Kansas City Chiefs come back to defeat the San Francisco 49ers in what is annually the most-watched television event of the year.
The Nielsen company said viewership rebounded slightly from the 98.5 million who watched in 2019. An exciting game that featured a fourth quarter comeback and two teams that haven’t been in the ultimate game lately most likely helped drive public interest.
Super Bowl viewership had been slowly eroding since its peak in 2015, when 114.4 million watched a thrilling finish between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.
By one measure, Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes wasn’t the biggest star on the field – not by a long shot.
Halftime show performer Jennifer Lopez led all personalities with 2.2 million interactions on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, according to Nielsen. Mahomes, the Kansas City quarterback, was the top player with 514,000 interactions.
The peak moment for social media activity came just at the end of the halftime show starring Lopez and Shakira, Nielsen said.
Fox estimated that Sunday’s game had 102 million viewers in total, when people who streamed the game through Verizon or watched on the Fox Deportes Spanish-language network are taken into account. The halftime show had 103 million viewers, Fox said.
Astros hire GM
The Houston Astros hired James Click as their new general manager Monday, taking the Tampa Bay Rays executive and putting him in charge of the scandal-ridden team a week before the start of spring training.
Click succeeds Jeff Luhnow, who along with manager AJ Hinch was suspended by Major League Baseball in the wake of a sign-stealing scam and then fired by the Astros.
The AL champion Astros hired Dusty Baker last week as manager.
Astros owner Jim Crane announced the hiring of Click, who spent the last three seasons as the Rays’ vice president of baseball operations.
Stanford QB to transfer
Quarterback K.J. Costello says he is leaving Stanford to finish his college career playing for coach Mike Leach at Mississippi State.
Costello announced his decision via social media on Monday, less than a month after Mississippi State hired Leach away from Washington State.
Leach’s teams have led the nation in passing in 10 of his 18 seasons as a head coach at Texas Tech and Washington State. Mississippi State averaged 179.5 yards passing per game this past season to rank 12th out of 14 Southeastern Conference teams.
Costello is expected to be a graduate transfer, which would enable him to play for Mississippi State in 2020.
Costello threw for 6,151 yards and 49 touchdowns with 18 interceptions while at Stanford.
In college basketball
Patrick Williams had 14 points and nine rebounds, Trent Forrest also scored 14 and No. 8 Florida State beat North Carolina 65-59 on Monday.
RaiQuan Gray had 10 second-half points as the Seminoles (9-3 ACC, 19-3) moved within a win of their best-ever start in league play. Florida State opened 10-2 in ACC play in 2011-12.
In the NBA
Jayson Tatum scored 28 points and Grant Williams drove for a key basket in the final minute, leading the Boston Celtics to a 123-115 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.
Jimmy Butler scored a season-high 38 points against his former team before getting the fourth quarter off, and the Miami Heat ran away in the second half to beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 137-106.