I have been watching the Super bowl for nearly twenty years, but today’s Super bowl is unique in so many ways; six talented players of Nigerian descent are taking part in this tournament.

It feels good to know that Chido Awuzie’s father hails from my hometown, Mbaise, in Imo State, Nigeria. His uncle Tony Uwakwe was the President of the Mbaise Association of New York.

 Never in the history of the Super Bowl did we see six players of Nigerian descent in both team roosters; the presence of these talented players makes it hard for me to put my money where my mouth is. 

 The Bengals parades five Nigerian-American players:-

1 Chidobe Awuzie

2. C.J. Uzomah 3. Joseph Ossai 4. Hakeem Adeniji

5. Larry Ogunjobi

6 Ogbonnia Okoronkwo Plays for the Rams of LA.

Overall, however today’s game goes, these talented players will make history—I will be blogging live. Join me

Houston-Texas. Israel Mobolaji Temitayo Odunayo Oluwafemi Owolabi Adesanya; born in Lagos, Nigeria, defeated Robert Whittaker at the UFC 271 in Houston, Texas. Sports pundits now believe his reign of dominance has just began. He is unstoppable. The 32-year-old Adesanya, alias ‘The Last Stylebender’ is a mixed martial artist, kickboxer, and former boxer with multiple championships in all three disciplines.

It was a unanimous decision in the main event of UFC 271 to defend his middleweight title and push his record over his rival to a perfect 2-0.  The two fought for 25 minutes and a unanimous decision was awarded to Adesanya, as he scored 48–47, 48–47, and 49–46 on the three judges’ scorecards.

During the post-match press briefing, Robert Whittaker, who lost for the second time to Isreal said –“I thought I did enough, I thought I did enough,” Whittaker told MMA Junkie at the post-fight press conference. “Breaking it down, I think I lost the first round. I put myself together and I beat him to every punch. I got takedowns. I thought I did enough.

“But it is what it is. That’s how work goes in the office. I’m going to go back evolve some more, get better, and fine tune the things that I’ve been working on, and come back a better man. Honestly, though, Izzy was my biggest obstacle, my biggest hurdle. He beat me in a good fashion the first time. I’ve been working and angling myself to evolve and to get better and I’ve done that. You can see it in this fight how far I’ve come. To the point that I think I beat him.

So, I’m excited. I’m excited for the future. The ceiling is nowhere in sight. There is no ceiling for me.”

 Adesanya and Whittaker are the two best 185-pound fighters in the world. Although the gap between them may have narrowed slightly since UFC 243, the gulf between Whittaker and whoever qualifies as No. 3 on any given day has only widened.

 A very big congratulation to a fellow Naija man.

NEW YORK( TNC)-Colin Kaepernick’s girlfriend, Nessa Diab, chastised the NFL on Friday for listing the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback as “retired” on the league’s official website.

Diab also tagged commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFLPA on Twitter for “lying” about Kaepernick’s status.

The league’s website changed the “retired” tag to “UFA,” undrafted free agent, later Friday.

Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016 when he was 29. He completed 59.2 percent of his passes that season for the 49ers, tallying 2,241 yards with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions in 12 games. He quarterbacked the 49ers to the Super Bowl after the 2012 season, where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens, 34-31.

Kaepernick hasn’t found a job since opting for free agency in 2016 as attention around the quarterback shifted from his football status to his protests against social injustice and police brutality.

Mr. Amaju Pinnick, the President of the Nigerian Football Federation, has explained that the $500,000 operational fund from football’s governing body FIFA for 2019 and 2020 is neither a relief fund nor palliative.

Pinnick said in a long thread on Twitter that the NFF would follow the rules of disbursing them as FIFA’s vigorous auditing processes is still be in effect.

“As part of our efforts to remain transparent with financial dealings and because I’ve seen a few enquiries about FIFA’s release of funds to member associations, I feel it’s my duty to update on how things stand. Every year, there are statutory allocations that federations receive from FIFA, for the smooth running of football in different federations. However, these funds come with statutory specific areas of obligations. In other words, if FIFA gives you money for youth development, you cannot use that money for anything else,” Pinnick wrote on Twitter.

“What FIFA has done now, though, is to release funds that were meant to be released later in the year, earlier. This is part of FIFA’s plans to help ease hardships that this novel coronavirus has and will cause. It is not palliative, as some have speculated.

“It merely means the different federations are, in a manner of speaking, getting July’s allowances in May. Why? Because world football governing body recognises how much the economic and football landscape has changed and is making concerted efforts to mitigate the effects.

“Under normal circumstances, federations would have received these monies only after stringent financial regulations had been met. But these are difficult times and the normally stringent processes have been partially relaxed to enable football federations struggling, to meet up their financial obligations.

“Therefore, the release of these funds is to enable football federations around the world continue their operational obligations to staff and other third parties.”

The NFF boss added, “Even though these funds are going to be released early, all federations will still be required to follow the rules of spending them. FIFA hasn’t waived those rules. If a federation gets its allocation, it is expected to spend them on agreed parameters. FIFA’s vigorous auditing processes will still be in effect.

“Hopefully, these trying times will be behind us soon, and we can all get on with our lives. Let me quickly stress here that any decision taken about football in Nigeria will be taken in line with the directives of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Federal Ministry of Health.

“It is pertinent to note that every fund received by the federation goes through a stringent financial process of checks and balances before the funds are spent. Any monies received by the federation from FIFA, CAF or sponsors, are reported to the Honourable Minister of Sports with a detailed cover letter from these sources about spending regulations and requirements. So, aside FIFA auditing our accounts, the federation’s own external auditors usually go through these same accounts.”