VIRGINIA WATER, England – Justin Rose is scheduled to get back to work this week at the BMW PGA Championship but his return to competition might have to wait.

Rose withdrew from Wednesday’s pro-am at the European Tour’s flagship event citing a knee injury.

“Last Thursday I slipped and jarred my knee,” Rose said in a statement. “Since then I have been getting treatment on the injury and I have been working hard with Justin Buckthorp and my medical team away from the course in order to ensure I am able to play in this week’s BMW PGA Championship. I am doing everything I can to be fit to play on Thursday.”

Rose, who hasn’t played since last month’s Tour Championship, is scheduled to tee off at 7:40 a.m. ET on Thursday with Jon Rahm and Patrick Reed.

The PGA Tour Champions has entered a five-year agreement to add a new tournament in Morocco beginning in 2020, marking the first time a PGA Tour circuit will hold a sanctioned stroke-play event in Africa.

The inaugural Morocco Champions will debut Jan. 30-Feb. 1 next year at Samanah Golf Club in Marrakesh. The event, which will feature a Saturday finish, will include 66 players vying for a $2 million purse. The announcement continues a global expansion trend for the over-50 circuit, which added its first event in Japan in 2017.

"As we enter 2020, the globalization of golf is at an all-time high and it's important for us to look at opportunities to bring these legends of the game to fans around the world," said PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady. "The Morocco Champions will allow us to do just that, and we're eager to build a tremendous debut tournament."

Morocco currently hosts the Trophee Hassan II each year on the European Tour as well as an event on the Ladies' European Tour. The only other PGA Tour-sanctioned events held in Africa were both team events in South Africa, the 1996 World Cup and the 2003 Presidents Cup.

VIRGINIA WATER, England – The PGA Tour may have ended its season last month at the Tour Championship, but for the international players who split time between the United States and Europe, the year is far from over.

On Tuesday at the BMW PGA Championship, Francesco Molinari explained that he still has a third of his schedule to play before the end of the year, a list that includes stops in Italy, China, Turkey, Dubai, Hong Kong and Napa, Calif.

The Italian said he plans to return to the United States for next week’s Safeway Open out of necessity.

“One of the issues I find with the schedule and with playing two tours, obviously you don't want to start in the States in January having not played in any events,” Molinari said. “It's trying to fit one or two U.S. events between now and the end of the year.”

The challenge for Molinari is a familiar one for many of the game’s top players. This year’s condensed schedule on the PGA Tour forced many to play more than they normally would in the summer, and as Molinari has learned, the fall can be just as hectic.

“You learn as you go, really,” said Molinari, who is the defending champion this week at Wentworth. “None of us had any previous experiences on a schedule this compact and this tight. It's learning as you go and then trying to do a better job next year.”

VIRGINIA WATER, England – For Shane Lowry it feels like Groundhog Day. The best kind of Groundhog Day.

Although he returned to work last month during the PGA Tour Playoffs, this week’s event at Wentworth is his first start on the European Tour since winning The Open.

“It's kind of new again where everybody is coming up and congratulating me,” he said with a smile on Tuesday at the BMW PGA Championship. “It's kind of sunk in now. To be honest, I'm quite eager to get on with my golf and I'm looking forward to trying to achieve different goals I have the rest of the year.”

The primary goal for the Irishman is to remain atop the Race to Dubai standings and, as he’s repeatedly explained, there is the Ryder Cup.

This week’s BMW PGA Championship is the first event that will count for European Ryder Cup qualifying.

“My main goal for the start of this year, I sit at Christmas with my coach and manager, what do I want to do, and I said, ‘Lads, the one thing I want to do is play on the next Ryder Cup team,’” Lowry said. “I was maybe about 80th in the world and I needed to get myself in the situation this week. We talked about when Wentworth comes around, first qualifying event, I need to be in all the big events going forward and give myself a chance to make the team and I've done that.”

Lowry was also awarded lifetime membership on the European Tour following his victory at Royal Portrush.

Serie A club Cagliari again escaped sanctions over racist behaviour by their fans, as the league's disciplinary tribunal decided on Tuesday not to take action over monkey noises aimed at Inter Milan's Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku.

The tribunal said in a statement on Tuesday that "in terms of dimension and real perception," the chants could not be considered discriminatory under the league's disciplinary code.

"The tribunal has decided not to apply sanctions to Cagliari," it said, referring to the incidents in the match on Sept 1.

Cagliari were, however, fined €5,000 ($5,530) after their fans threw plastic bottles onto the field in a 3-1 win at Parma on Sunday.

Against Inter, monkey noises could be heard from the Cagliari supporters as Lukaku stepped up to take a penalty which he converted to give his side a 2-1 win.

Lukaku said at the time that he had been a victim of racism and Cagliari called the fans' behaviour shameful.

The tribunal said in a statement that public security officials had informed it of "chants, animal noises and jeering" toward Lukaku. It added, however, that "these were not interpreted by the stewards nor federation delegates as discriminatory."

The tribunal used similar arguments last season when it declined to sanction Cagliari after racist insults were aimed at Moise Kean, who was playing for Juventus at the time.

In 2017, Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari, playing for Pescara at the time, walked off the pitch, also complaining of racist abuse at Cagliari's ground. Serie A took no action against Cagliari, saying only around 10 fans were involved.

The tribunal made no mention of the racist insults which media reports said were aimed at AC Milan's Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessie during a 1-0 win at Verona on Sunday.

Verona said that their fans jeered the referee, but denied racism.

Italian football has been blighted by racism over the last decade. In one incident in 2013, AC Milan walked off the pitch during a friendly against a lower division side in protest at racist chanting.

In 2014, Carlo Tavecchio was elected head of the Italian Football federation (FIGC) weeks after making a comment about a fictitious African player he named Opti Poba "eating bananas".

The FIGC cleared him of wrongdoing, but he was barred from holding any position with world soccer's governing body FIFA for six months.

Exactly a year ago Wednesday, on Sept. 18, 2018, Ansu Fati couldn't get a game with kids his own age. It was the UEFA Youth League, Barcelona in their soon-to-be-demolished Mini Estadi, against PSV Eindhoven.

Today, he has become the youngest footballer to score for the senior team in the Camp Nou. He has somehow managed to vault over Joao Felix to become the "it kid" of world football, and it'll be not only a surprise but also a disappointment to romantics everywhere if he doesn't get game time against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Football, not to mention Ansu, is truly a remarkable phenomenon, a dream maker in the way that boxing once was.

Three hundred sixty-four days ago, it was a 10-minute cameo for a precocious then-15-year-old. On Saturday, during the 5-2 defeat of Valencia, it was announced by the Spain national team coach that Ansu is being persuaded to commit to a future with La Roja, having lived in the country long enough to qualify as naturalised.

It's last weekend's goal and assist against Los Che that are on most people's lips. But I swear, you can take your pick of the standout moments since three weeks ago, when with 12 minutes left against Real Betis, Ernesto Valverde opted to ignore the claims of Samuel Umtiti, Ivan Rakitic and Arthur on the Barca bench and introduce Ansu to what is -- now -- an adoring world.

Please take note: Valverde didn't put Ansu on because there was nobody else deserving of the remaining time against an already crushed Betis. Nor because there was a striker crisis. Carles Perez had done extremely well, and Antoine Griezmann was strutting around his new, and tinsel-strewn, stage. Nobody -- and I mean nobody -- would have complained had 16-year-old Ansu been left to remember a special day when he was called up to the first-team squad but left with nothing but memories -- rather than minutes.

Valverde put him on because he's exceptional.

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Immediately, Ansu gave notice as to why Manchester United, at the head of a long queue, devoted significant man hours and were ready to invest huge financial resources in trying to prise the striker from Barcelona's academy last June. Quite frankly, there was a stage in the spring of 2019 when United would have been forgiven for thinking they were going to get their man. Excuse me: their boy.

Back to that in a second.

When he came on against Betis, Ansu played startlingly: young but patently mature; slight, as a 16-year old should be, but tough enough to hold off grown men as they jostled and pressed him; possessed with really sharp acceleration and lovely technical skills but smart enough to pass or trot back to cover when the rules of La Masia training said he should; also confident enough to produce a little bundle of dribbles, one-v-one jousts and one sizzling shot that nearly brought him a goal.

He didn't just know the rules. He knew what he was capable of, and he felt at home instantly. That's for the privileged of talent and mentality. It looked like football's version of Freaky Friday -- a 28-year-old in an adolescent's body.

What Ansu didn't look like was the last 16-year-old to make such a head-turning impact on world football when he burst into the first team: Wayne Rooney. Or even the physically much more powerful Kylian Mbappe.

I recently listened to Rooney admitting that if he hadn't spent his life, by the tender age of 16, around boxing -- training, understanding what constitutes real toughness, learning to hit and be hit -- then "I'd never have been able to cope with being promoted to Everton's first team so young." Rooney went on to do pretty well, if you consider 16 major trophies, including the Champions League, and becoming England's all-time leading scorer notable achievements.

But Ansu hasn't had that Golden Gloves life; no sweaty gym, no jumping rope, no gum-shields and sparring. He has had La Masia, which is a funny old part of the Ansu story -- such as it is so far.

I was at the ceremony in October 2011 when Barca's new Oriol Tort Masia was opened -- an €11 million investment where talented kids could be accommodated, schooled, fed, kept safe, developed and, generally, taught "the Barca way." Recently, against a background of even this new, advanced and very promising facility producing precisely zero footballers for the first team in the subsequent eight years, a very long, exhaustively detailed and pretty critical report was published in the Catalan media. The reliable Xavi Torres, in the newspaper ARA, painted a pretty desolate picture: space meant for talented sports kids converted into offices; emotional well-being training courses flopping; elite kids, with home bases too far away to travel to Barcelona training, left in hotels because La Masia's rooms (accommodations for just more than 40 footballers instead of the planned 83 when the facility opened) were often occupied by young players who'd been loaned out to lower-grade local teams or who were substitute material in the Barcelona youth system. Not elite.

Anyway, you get the picture.

However, it was the very existence of La Masia -- a residence that would be safe, paid for and educational and that bore the world-famous stamp of the Barca academy -- that persuaded Ansu's dad, when the family were ready to leave their original Spanish home of Sevilla, to move to the Camp Nou and not the Santiago Bernabeu.

"Madrid offered more money. They offered a house for the family, everything, but when I went to Valdebebas, they didn't have a residence for their young players, and Barcelona did. So when Albert Puig [now an assistant at New York City FC] persuaded me that they had a better project we chose Barca," Ansu's father, Bori, told Cope Radio.

Real Madrid offered higher rewards, but it was the availability of a well-renowned residence that won the day for the Fati family. When that facility opened, Pep Guardiola said, "If there's one thing that can never stop at Barca, it's the Cantera [youth system]." His words echo from then to now as the club discovers that, potentially, it has a new Cantera super talent on its hands.

Please go back and watch Ansu's moments in the first team, if you will. He makes decisions in exactly the same way as people such as Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Sergio Busquets, Sergi Roberto, Cesc Fabregas and Lionel Messi were taught to in years gone by. Also, go check the moment in training while both Messi and Luis Suarez are injured when Ansu scores with a midair, back-heel volley. Valverde is watching, and you can almost hear his jaw drop and his brain think: "I'm the luckiest coach in the universe. This kid's getting more game time against Osasuna!"

Whatever has gone awry in the La Masia system, residence and football education, enough has gone right with Ansu's development that what we are witnessing is not simply an astonishing, all-time freak of footballing nature. So-called Barca DNA has been drilled into him.

I wonder, in light of what we are seeing from this ambidextrous, confident, centre-of-attention kid -- who, it would seem, is being firmly tucked under the arm of the Messi family when it comes to evolving his career -- what is going through the minds of people such as Xavi Simons, Eric Garcia and Take Kubo.

Let's start with the wonderful Japanese talent. Their ages differ slightly, but he and Ansu formed an absolutely jaw-dropping attack partnership for Barcelona's youth teams before the FIFA ban meant Kubo was repatriated. Eventually, though some believe Barcelona's now-sacked general manager Pep Segura could have worked harder to re-sign Kubo, the bewitching forward chose to move to Real Madrid when reentering Spanish football. He's now on loan at Mallorca and having to work hard to get game time.

Garcia, too, played some matches with the emerging Ansu, who's nearly three years his junior (Garcia will be 20 in January). But when faced with temptation from Manchester City, Garcia chose in January 2018 to move to the Etihad Campus. Admittedly, now that Aymeric Laporte will miss the next six months with a knee injury, the Catalan might get more opportunities, but he has just three senior appearances for Guardiola's first team -- the same number as Ansu has for Barcelona.

Then there's Simons. A tad younger than the striker who now has two goals and an assist in the whirlwind time since his debut three weeks ago, the Dutch kid with the Sideshow Bob hair, the massive social media profile and the super-agent Mino Raiola must be wondering: "Should I really have bust out of Barca and headed for Paris Saint-Germain if Ansu is already getting this kind of opportunity?"

Perhaps all three of these young bucks will thrive and Ansu will find the road forward rocky. You never know. But it's not hype to state that, currently, we are watching an outright phenomenon.

There are no guarantees that he will enjoy 16 or 17 years of the quality and achievement that whiz kid forebears of his type -- Rooney, Messi, Raul, Ronaldo or even the ascendant Mbappe -- have racked up. However, the safer bet -- taking into account who this kid is, how he plays, what he's been taught, the family behind him and the influence of wise heads such as Messi, Busquets and Gerard Pique -- is that he probably will.

And that's not hype. That's appreciation of someone who has already made history. Football, the greatest sport ever invented, will just keep on doing this to us. Thank heavens.

Stuart Broad has described himself as a "reinvented cricketer with more to offer" after enjoying his most-successful Ashes with the ball. In the absence of the injured James Anderson, Broad led the line superbly for England, with his dominance over David Warner providing a snapshot of his summer renaissance.

In all, Broad picked up 23 wickets during the five Tests, two shy of equalling his best series haul (against India in 2011). His proficiency at bowling round-the-wicket to left-handers was a notable feature - helping him to remove Warner seven times in 10 innings - and he also kept his pace high while pursuing a fuller, more attacking length.

Having only played in half of England's winter Tests, in Sri Lanka and West Indies, there had been a sense that Broad was no longer an automatic pick - despite sitting second only to Anderson on England's wicket-taking list. However, bowling off a shortened run-up, worked on in consultation with Richard Hadlee, and with a focus on making batsmen play more, he has restated his worth.

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"I've been very pleased with how it has gone this summer," he said. "I've gone from being talked about as a diminishing cricketer being eased out to a reinvented cricketer with more to offer. At 33 years old that is a good place to be.

"All the hard work has been worth it. Fate allowed me to have the time during the winter to work on things. In Sri Lanka I didn't play too much and I was able to work on a new run up and stuff like my attacking intent, which has paid dividends. I've not been as attacking in my areas, and making batsmen play as much as I have for many years."

His method to Warner was the culmination of his early season with Nottinghamshire, where the coach, Peter Moores, and team analyst, Kunal Manek, passed on data about the "leave percentage" of batsmen facing Broad. Resolving that this was too high, he focused on attacking the stumps more - combined with his ability to move the ball away from left-handers, it left Warner caught betwixt and between, falling lbw or bowled four times, and caught behind or in the slips three.

"I had an added responsibility to try and get their big players out and that's why I did a lot of planning on David Warner and how I might get him out before the series started," he said. "I had to go fuller at him, I had to try and hit his stumps and I had to try and forget about his outside edge.

"The edges would come but only if I bowled in the right areas consistently rather than searching for the edge of his bat. I never dreamt that I would have the success against him that I've had.

"I won't say it is a totally successful summer because we would have really liked to win the series, but it is probably the right result" Stuart Broad

"Of course that is just in this series. If we put our numbers together over the course of our careers and how much we have played against each other I think they would be quite even. He has outdone me in many a series, but this time it went my way and I think it perhaps shows that sometimes planning does work."

Before the series, Broad had taken Warner's wicket five times in 18 Tests; that figure now stands at 12, making the Australia opener the man he has dismissed most often.

The numbers for Australia were stark. Warner finished the series with an average of 9.50, with the opening partnership averaging even less at 8.50. Marcus Harris was dismissed three times in six innings by Broad, while Cameron Bancroft also fell to him once before being dropped.

"We talk about setting the tone with the new ball and I felt that this has been my best summer for a long time in terms of doing that with the new ball," Broad said. "I felt a responsibility to lead that first 10 overs and I've had great energy running in. I felt like the mindset of trying to hit the stumps has really paid off.

"I don't think we could have dreamt of keeping Australia's opening pairs quite so quiet throughout the series so we can class that as a good win for us. We do a lot of planning and preparation to go into these series and our new ball bowling has been a success."

Although Broad described himself as "distraught" at England's failure to win a home Ashes series for the first time since 2001, he suggested that a draw was a fair result and a fitting way to end the summer. He praised Steven Smith for playing "out of his skin" in his first series since returning from a ball-tampering ban - likening his response to that of Ben Stokes, England's man of the summer, who has used adversity to lift his own game to new levels.

"It was really important we got a positive result in this game to make sure that Australia didn't go home with a win," he said. "A World Cup win and a drawn series in the Ashes is a memorable summer. I won't say it is a totally successful summer because we would have really liked to win the series, but if we sit down in a week's time without the emotion, it is probably the right result.

"I think both teams are so similar in the way they go about their business. They had one batsman who has been a 15 out of 10 and we've not had that which has been a huge difference.

"Of course I'm distraught not to be lifting the urn at the Oval and I can't remember having a feeling like this before because usually at The Oval we are lifting a trophy. It is certainly the first Ashes series where I've not been spraying champagne at the end which is a weird feeling.

"It is a fair result. Steve Smith has played out of his skin. It has taken 24 days to finally get him to tuck one round the corner to leg slip. [Chris] Woakes got him with a straight one that was hitting the middle of middle and that was just about the first on he'd missed. Why had he not missed one before? He's been so good and everything has worked for him.

"Stokesy has had a summer where all his hardship has paid him back and Steve Smith the same, all his hardship has paid him back."

Jofra Archer says that his first taste of Test cricket this summer has whet his appetite for future engagements, after his haul of 22 wickets at 20.27 helped to secure a 2-2 draw in his maiden series against Australia.

Speaking in the wake of England's 135-run win in the fifth Test at The Oval, Archer said that it was too soon for him to take full stock of a whirlwind first season of international cricket, but he admitted that, on balance, his personal highlight would have to be England's World Cup victory at Lord's in July.

However, Archer's displays throughout his four Ashes Tests - which featured six-wicket hauls in each of England's wins at Headingley and The Oval, as well as a series of searingly quick spells, not least to Steven Smith at Lord's - have made him an automatic pick for future engagements.

"I need a few weeks to actually sit back and reflect on what's happened, but from the moment I pulled an England shirt on it's been amazing, from the first game to Sunday," he said.

In the opinion of his team-mate Ben Stokes, Archer's consistent displays make him precisely the sort of spearhead that England will need when they travel to Australia in two years' time in a bid to win back the urn in the 2020-21 Ashes.

"He is no doubt the sort of guy who can help get those Ashes back when we go Down Under," said Stokes. "He's got experience in that part of the world already with the Big Bash and has done pretty well, so he'll feel comfortable going there and performing. When you can bowl 90 miles per hour plus and with the control that he's got then he is going to be a huge threat anywhere in the world."

Asked how the Ashes had compared to his prior expectations of Test cricket, Archer said: "I don't know! I've never played another Test series, so I don't know how the next one will feel … I actually didn't know when the next one was! For me, I take every game like it's a final, an Ashes. It's the same approach, nothing changes.

"I'm still taking it all in. It's my first Test series either way, but if all Test cricket is like this it's going to be very exciting."

Archer, who was born in Barbados but held a British passport, only became available to play for England in March, after the ECB last year changed their residency qualification period from seven years to three.

He made his ODI debut against Pakistan in May, earning himself a late World Cup call-up with consistently hostile displays, and went on to claim 20 wickets at 23.05 in England's triumphant World Cup campaign.

That tournament, of course, culminated in Archer's nerveless Super Over to seal the final at Lord's against New Zealand, and the memories of that achievement still stood out as the dust began to settle on the summer.

"I guess [it has to be] the World Cup," Archer said, when asked to pick his highlight. "But Test cricket and one-day are two different feelings and both of them are very special. I'm over the moon to level the series, and make sure they didn't win it. I can't put it into words, both are very special to me."

One of the highlights of England's Ashes campaign was the threat that Archer and Stuart Broad posed in tandem with the new ball, not least to Australia's left-handers from round the wicket. Between them they accounted for the dangerous David Warner in each of his ten innings - seven for Broad, three for Archer - as he managed a meagre 95 runs in the five Tests.

"It's been good, having pressure from both ends," said Archer. "We bowl similarly, it's pretty intense, the battle to get the left-handers out! It's great, even the other guys who have bowled. It doesn't really matter who opens, everyone has the same goal, everyone just wants to win."

Broad, who claimed 23 wickets in the series, praised Archer's impact and the speed with which he learned the ropes in Test cricket. However, he also warned that expectations should be dampened for future contests, not least because the demands on Archer to lead the line in all formats of the game would be tough.

"He's got incredible attributes," said Broad. "He's got great control and great natural pace. His next challenge is that it won't always be as easy as this. He won't always take wickets as regularly.

"He had one average day at Old Trafford [in the fourth Test] and then all of a sudden he started getting some criticism, so it is important that we don't expect him to be 10 out of 10 every day, because that is physically impossible as a fast bowler. That is why we don't average 10 with the ball.

"He's going to be one of these guys who picks things up very quickly and learns quickly. He's determined and he's going to have a huge amount of success.

"Ten years ago I would have said that he would take 400 Test wickets. Now I'm not sure if he's going to play enough Test cricket to reach those numbers because he is going to be playing all formats.

"He's exciting to play with and some spells have been as fierce as I've been on a field with, but he'll need some managing.

"I don't think we can expect him to be as good as he has been this series every time he plays and bowl as much as he has done every time he plays, but he's a real asset for English cricket."

Ben Stokes has hit out at The Sun newspaper for the "heartless" and "immoral" decision to publish a front-page article about a family tragedy that occurred in New Zealand before he was born.

In a statement on Twitter, Stokes said the story concerned "events in the private lives of my family, going back more than 31 years" adding that it contained "serious inaccuracies which has compounded the damage caused".

"The decision to publish these details has grave and lifelong consequences for my mum in particular," Stokes said. "To use my name as an excuse to shatter the privacy and private lives of - in particular - my parents is utterly disgusting.

"It is hard to find words that adequately describe such low and despicable behaviour, disguised as journalism. I cannot conceive of anything more immoral, heartless or contemptuous to the feelings and circumstances of my family."

Stokes has hit the headlines for all the right reasons this summer, thanks to his starring role in both England's World Cup win against New Zealand at Lord's in July, and his stunning unbeaten 135 in the third Ashes Test at Headingley, a performance that was hailed as one of the greatest innings of all time as England squared the series with a one-wicket win.

"I am aware that my public profile brings with it consequences for me that I accept entirely," he said. "But I will not allow my public profile to be used as an excuse to invade the rights of my parents, my wife, my children or other family members. They are entitled to a private life of their own.

"For more than three decades, my family has worked hard to deal with the private trauma inevitably associated with these events and has taken great care to keep private what were deeply personal and traumatic events."

Stokes' statement has been retweeted more 25,000 times, including by his Test captain Joe Root, who urged his followers to "please take the time to read this and respect it", and the Manchester United striker, Marcus Rashford, who stated that Stokes had been "huge for sport this summer. He and his family deserve better."

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, also joined in the condemnation on behalf of English cricket.

"We, like the wider sporting world, are disgusted and appalled at the actions taken in revealing the tragic events from Ben's past," he said. "We are saddened that an intrusion of this magnitude was deemed necessary in order to sell newspapers or secure clicks.

"Ben's exploits this summer have cemented his place in cricket's history - we are sure the whole sport, and the country, stands behind him in support.''

In a statement, The Sun insisted the paper had the "utmost sympathy" for Stokes and his mother, but said that they had received the co-operation of a family member in compiling the story.

"The tragedy is also a matter of public record and was the subject of extensive front-page publicity in New Zealand at the time," the newspaper added.

According to the betting market, there hasn't been this large of a gap between the best and worst teams in the NFL since 1987, a strike season featuring games with starters against replacement players.

The New England Patriots are 22.5-point favorites over the New York Jets, and the Dallas Cowboys are 21.5-point favorites over the Miami Dolphins at the majority of sportsbooks.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, it's the first time there has been a week with multiple 20-point spreads in 32 years. In Week 5 of the 1987 season, the Dallas Cowboys were favored by 21 over the Philadelphia Eagles, and the San Francisco 49ers were 23-point favorites at the Atlanta Falcons.

San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana and 11 teammates crossed the picket line the previous week and played against the Falcons. The 49ers had 14 veterans, while the Falcons only had three, according to The New York Times.

Neither the 49ers nor the Cowboys covered the spread that week.

In the NFL, three-touchdown favorites are rare. Only 35 times has a team been favored by 21 points or more since 1966. There are two this week. The last time that happened in a non-strike year was 1977.

Teams favored by 21 or more are 35-0 straight-up but only 11-22-2 against the spread.

Oddsmakers have been struggling to gauge just how bad the perception of the Dolphins and Jets really is, and, on the flip, just how good the Patriots are. Last week, New England opened as a 14.5-point favorite over Miami. The line grew to as high Patriots -20 at some books. New England won 43-0.

"I have a feeling that people are going to keep betting against [the Dolphins]," Ed Salmons, a 30-year oddsmaker and vice president of risk for the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, told ESPN. "It's not going to stop. I mean, what can you do? There's nothing you can do. You just make high numbers."

Ahead of Monday night's game against the Cleveland Browns, the Jets were listed as 18-point underdogs to the Browns. The Jets lost 23-3 and saw quarterback Trevor Siemian suffer a season-ending ankle injury. Siemian was starting in place of Sam Darnold, who is battling mononucleosis. Luke Falk, signed off the Jets' practice squad last week, replaced Siemian against the Browns and is likely to start this week against the Patriots.

The Dolphins are 20,000-1 to win the Super Bowl at the Westgate SuperBook. No one has bet on them at that price, but last week there were 12 bets on Miami to win the Super Bowl at 10,000-1 odds.

Caesars Sportsbook reported taking Super Bowl bets on the Dolphins and Jets as recently as yesterday.