But in reality, it does. Gone are four teams that offered little excitement in terms of options to play. Here are four very good teams — Arizona, Carolina, Denver and New England — to give you a lot more to think about. Here’s sifting through all that to give you some play-or-not-play advice in what’s now Week 19: Playoff fantasy football rankings:Quarterbacks | Running backs | Wide receivers | Tight ends | Defenses | Kickers...

That would be Redskins counterpart Kirk Cousins, who had another monster passing game (41 of 53, 449 yards, three TDs, 120.7 rating). The performance capped a week full of big plays for Cousins, who ripped the Packers’ pass defense Sunday in a similar way (21 of 30, 375 yards, three TDs, 145.8 rating) in a victory. MORE: Midseason awards ballot Cousins has done plenty this season to prove he needs to go from well-compensated franchise-tagged QB to getting filthy lucre over the long term, but the most compelling evidence for Washington officials to stop messing around and lock up him, stat, is Prescott....

Competitors will navigate the desert with cars, motorcycles, trucks and quads, in one of the toughest and most demanding motor competitions on the planet. Throughout 14 stages, the riders will fight against the Saudi Arabian conditions, terrain and their own machinery to be crowned winners of the Dakar. MORE: Dakar Rally 2023: Schedule, location, how to watch Below are the participants for the 2023 edition of the Dakar Rally (main categories)....

It seems his girlfriend is also getting in on the act. MORE: Johnson closing in on Earnhardt records | Dover Winners & Losers Waltrip, the three-time Cup champion and popular Fox Sports announcer, was delighted by her purchase, though not his picture. These gloves won @TalladegaSuperS and were worn all of May. Proceeds go to the @OIFoundation #OIAwareness #DTGGloves http://t.co/pVM93sPV2R

That certainly doesn’t mean he’s invincible. But maybe it makes him feel a little more comfortable driving a car with a Superman paint scheme. MORE: Earnhardt leaves Newman at airport | Kahne done with Kyle Busch | WATCH: Junior rocks a mullet Earnhardt debuted the Superman scheme (part of a Hendrick Motorsports deal with DC Comics) a few weeks ago at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The car was fast but he developed a significant vibration on his way to a 19th-place finish....

NASCAR’s most popular driver had the power go out in his car as the field came to the green flag. Junior made his warmup laps just fine from his 20th starting position but was forced to pit before entering Turn 1 because of the problem. MORE: Junior meets Peyton Manning | High groove is Bristol’s highway After a pit pass-through to correct the problem, Earnhardt was back on the track but was being scored two laps down....

Earnhardt turned a lap of 138.723 mph around the 1-mile track with a different car than the one he raced last week at Daytona. He also had a different voice in his ear as spotter TJ Majors is home with an intestinal problem and he had former Cup champion Bill Elliott as his spotter. Elliott won NASCAR's Most Popular Driver award a record 16 times while Earnhardt has the longest streak in winning the award 11 times....

Earnhardt had a worst finish of second at Talladega last season — certainly nothing that would deter him from facing the track many view with a healthy amount of trepidation. MORE: 10 things to know about Talladega | Talladega gets wild — on and off the track In fact, Earnhardt’s success at the track extends well beyond last season, where he won the spring 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup race before finishing second in the fall....

Earnhardt stormed to second on the final restart in overtime in the Sprint Cup Series showdown at Atlanta Motor Speedway. MORE: Atlanta race photos | Jimmie Johnson wins, ties Dale Earnhardt mark He and his Hendrick Motorsports team worked on his car throughout the race, sat in fifth on the final restart and then moved smoothly through the leaders to take his final position. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Getty Images)...

The National Guard extended its contract with Earnhardt and Hendrick through 2014. It will be the primary sponsor for 20 Sprint Cup races next season. Earnhardt will have five races sponsored by PepsiCo, meaning he has 13 open events for 2014. Earnhardt has not won a race since June of 2012 but returned to the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the third straight season. He currently is sixth in the Sprint Cup standings after finishing second last week at Talladega....

The Braves signed Dallas Keuchel, the team announced Friday. The deal is for one-year and $13 million, according to Yahoo Sports. The Yankees and Cardinals were also rumored to be serious suitors for the 2015 American League Cy Young winner, who had remained unsigned since entering free agency last fall. Pitching is a key concern for the defending NL East champions as they try to chase down the Phillies. While the bullpen has seemed a more acute need — hence many fans’ desire for a reunion with Kimbrel — Braves starters actually have a slightly worse collective ERA than their relievers (4....

MLS Wrap: RBNY reaping academy rewards Round 14 set up a fantastic race to the finish, with five teams now secure in the knowledge they’re headed ot the playoffs. Toluca, Tijuana, Chivas, Monterrey and America will be playing beyond the final three weeks of the season. Let’s take a look at some other lessons we learned from Round 14 of the Clausura… Damm must start for Tigres when ready By halftime of Tigres’ match with Pumas, the home side should’ve been leading 3-0, maybe more....

Even though his grandfather, a newspaper publisher was one of the richest men in Indiana, Danny Quayle didn’t grow up surrounded by wealth. For a time, the family lived in a small house in Huntington; he attended public school all the way through 12th grade. He was an excellent golfer, but only an average student. In 1988, George Bush surprised the country when he named Quayle, by then a U....

Due out in September through Rodale Kids, Wild Symphony tells the story of a mouse conductor who’s looking to staff up his orchestra with other animals. As kids move through the story and admire the work of illustrator Susan Batori, they can also listen along to original musical accompaniments via a smartphone app. Though he’s world-famous as a writer, Brown actually wrote and recorded an album of children’s music—called Musica Animalia—back in the late ’80s, before his books were a fixture on shelves everywhere....

“Over by the dancing camels,” said Neel Lattimore, deputy press secretary to Hillary Rodham Clinton. The dancing camels were next to the dancing horses, and just after the six troupes of Punjabi dancers, and just before the Pakistani orchestra playing third-rate, 20-year-old disco music … and also just before the rose-petal altar, which stood in the center of a courtyard where an open-air dinner for 500 was to be laid on by the governor of Punjab-and the camels were dancing in the midst of thousands upon thousands of small, pungent oil lamps, lining the walks and walls of the ancient Muslim fort at Lahore, casting fairy-tale shadows from golden baubles of light....

You know, to apologize for their little spat on national TV Thursday night. And I wonder if maybe Danica, having cooled down and thought things over, sent Denny a note. Something like this: “Dear Denny, I hope we can still be friends. I still like you. Do you still like me? Please check Yes or No.” The dramatic spat between Patrick and Hamlin on pit road at Daytona International Speedway was among the most bizarre driver confrontations in years, and certainly the most entertaining....

Patrick, in her second full season of Sprint Cup racing, had previously posted a career-best of eighth in the 2013 Daytona 500. That came on a historic day when she was the first female driver to start on the pole for a Cup race — in just her 11th career start. It took 46 more starts for her just to finish in the top 10 again, and it came Saturday in the 5-Hour Energy 400, where she started ninth and ran in the top 10 most of the race....