Suns fire Hornacek as coach
Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek was fired Monday morning.
The team named assistant Earl Watson as interim head coach later Monday.
The Suns have lost 19 of their past 21 games and arrived home Sunday with a 14-35 record. That mark is tied for the NBA’s fourth-worst record. The Suns are on pace for the worst season since the inaugural season of the franchise, when the team was 16-66 (.195).
Hornacek received an ultimatum on Dec. 28 when two assistant coaches were fired. When the slide continued throughout the month of January, Suns general manager Ryan McDonough, hired in the same 2013 offseason as Hornacek, pulled the plug following Sunday’s loss at Dallas.
Hornacek, 52, was hired in May 2013, returning to the team with whom he spent his first six professional seasons as a player. In two-plus seasons as head coach of the Suns, Hornacek’s teams compiled a 101-112 record, including a 14-35 mark this season.
Ex-Giants standout Tuck announces retirement
Two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Justin Tuck announced his retirement from the NFL on Monday.
Tuck, 32, played 11 NFL seasons — nine with the New York Giants and two with the Oakland Raiders. He won two Super Bowl rings with New York.
Tuck made the announcement in a Facebook post.
“After months of praying and careful consideration, I have decided to retire from the game of football,” Tuck wrote. “I’ve had 11 great years and honestly I leave with very few regrets.”
Tuck played just five games for the Raiders in 2015 due to a torn pectoral muscle.
He had 66.5 career sacks and had 10 or more in a season on four occasions. Tuck added 5.5 postseason sacks.
Yankees’ Bird will miss 2016 season
New York Yankees first baseman Greg Bird will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery on Tuesday, the team announced on Monday.
The procedure is to repair a torn labrum in Bird’s right shoulder. He originally suffered a shoulder injury last May when he was playing for Double-A Trenton and spent a month on the disabled list.
Bird, 23, played in 46 games for the Yankees and batted .261 with 11 homers and 31 RBIs.
The left-handed hitting Bird is viewed as New York’s first baseman of the future and played regularly late in the 2015 season after Mark Teixeira suffered a season-ending leg injury.
Pro Bowl ratings continue to decline
The Pro Bowl ratings continue to decline despite the NFL revising the format and trying to get more fans interested in the game held a week before the Super Bowl.
According to Austin Karp of the Sports Business Journal, the Pro Bowl drew a 5.0 overnight rating on ESPN — likely the lowest ever.
Sunday night’s game was down sharply from ESPN’s 5.6 rating in 2015 and NBC’s 6.7 in 2014.
Seven different Team Irvin players caught touchdown passes, and their teammates intercepted six passes in a 49-27 win over Team Rice on Sunday at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.
Team Irvin quarterback Russell Wilson threw three touchdown passes, and Teddy Bridgewater and Jameis Winston each threw two scoring passes, much to the delight of captain and vocal supporter Michael Irvin.