Aaron Rodgers threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns to continue his mastery of the NFL’s oldest rivalry as the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears 45-30.

Gronkowski came out of retirement and signed with the Buccaneers after Brady bolted the Patriots last spring for a two-year, $50 million contract in Tampa after dominating the AFC for two decades. Brown caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Brady that put the Buccaneers ahead 21-6 at halftime after TD grabs of 8 and 17 yards by Gronkowski. In leading Tampa Bay to its first title in 18 seasons, Brady became the first player to win seven NFL championships. AdAt 43, Brady became the oldest player ever to play in a Super Bowl. It wasn't all free agents and trade acquisitions who brought Tampa its second NFL title.

Brady is shooting for his seventh ring when he leads the Buccaneers (14-5) against the reigning champion Chiefs (16-2) in Super Bowl 55 on Sunday. Brady's postseason record includes a 33-11 mark, 14 conference championship appearances and 10 trips to the Super Bowl. If the Bucs dethrone the champs, Mahomes would become the sixth quarterback Brady has beaten multiple times in the playoffs. Although he’s not showing his age, 43, Brady will be the oldest to play in a Super Bowl, displacing Colts kicker Matt Stover, who was 42 in Super Bowl 44. Unlike Warner, he wasn't going to get ahead of himself and talk about anything but the Super Bowl title in front of him.

Not long after came a seismic jolt, the helicopter crash of Kobe Bryant in the fog-shrouded California hills that reverberated across sports and across continents. Deep into the year, a bookend to Bryant, Diego Maradona died from a heart attack in Argentina weeks after brain surgery, the waves of grief rippling across soccer. The losses, of course, came against a backdrop of a pandemic, its number of fatalities rolled out daily on TV screens. Niekro won 318 games and pitched until he was 48, his knuckleball dancing and mystifying batters across the decades. Kurt Thomas in 1978 became the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world title but lost an Olympic shot in 1980 because of the boycott.

FILE - This Sept. 1972, file photo shows cornerback Herb Adderley, of the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team. Adderley played on six NFL title teams over a 12-year career with Green Bay and Dallas. I’m a Green Bay Packer,” Adderley said in the book “Distant Replay,” a memoir by former Packers teammate Jerry Kramer. He was a member of all five of Lombardi’s NFL title teams and played in the first two Super Bowls. In 2007, Adderley and two other retired players filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL Players Association, alleging nonpayment of licensing fees.