SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Shedeur Sanders is excited to play for new Browns coach Todd Monken.
The rookie quarterback said he felt a “connection” after meeting with Monken at the team facility after the longtime offensive coordinator was hired last week.
“I’m thankful I was able to meet Coach, that he accepted that time that I could meet with him and all I can do is work,” Sanders said Monday before practice for the Pro Bowl Games.
Monken was Baltimore’s offensive coordinator the past three seasons. Lamar Jackson was the AP NFL MVP in 2023 and first-team All-Pro in 2024 under Monken.
“It’s truly great that he was able to coach Lamar and he was able to accomplish everything that he was able to accomplish in his life and his career,” Sanders said. “I feel like we definitely have a connection just in talking to him and seeing kinda like his vibe and he has a great vibe about him.”
Despite starting just seven games for Cleveland, the fifth-round pick was selected as a replacement for the league’s flag football all-star game between the two conferences.
“Yes, I was surprised,” Sanders said. “It wasn’t like I was just sitting there expecting it. ... I’m not going to lie, a lot of the time I’m taking it day by day, having that method. ... If you would tell me that this was going to happen at the beginning of the year, I couldn’t say that that would’ve happened. It’s amazing. I’m truly thankful for it. I get to come here and be around all these great players and coaches. It’s surreal.”
Sanders was expected to be a top-five pick in the draft last year but slipped to 144th. The Browns selected quarterback Dillon Gabriel ahead of him in the third round. Sanders got an opportunity after veteran Joe Flacco was traded and Gabriel got six starts.
Sanders went 3-4, completed 56.6% of his passes for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions with a 68.1 passer rating.
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AFC quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12), of the Cleveland Browns, speaks during media availability at NFL Pro Bowl Games practice, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
AFC quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12), of the Cleveland Browns, throws a pass next to Michael Vick during an NFL Pro Bowl Games practice in San Francisco, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
STAVELY, Alberta (AP) — Three Southern Alberta Mustangs junior hockey players were killed Monday morning in a vehicle crash while heading to practice.
RCMP said it responded to the crash at an intersection with Highway 2 in Stavely — about an hour’s drive south of Calgary. JJ Wright and Cameron Casorso, both 18 and from Kamloops, British Columbia, and 17-year-old Caden Fine of Birmingham, Alabama, were killed.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in a social media post, offered condolences to the players' families and teammates.
“The whole Alberta hockey family is standing with you in sorrow and in prayer,” Smith said. “In the days ahead, I know Albertans will wrap these families and this team in love and support as they navigate a pain no one should ever have to bear.”
RCMP said the crash involved a northbound semi truck pulling gravel and a small passenger vehicle going east. The driver of the semi, a 40-year-old man from Stavely, sustained minor injuries.
The U.S. Premier Hockey League team said on Facebook that it is working closely with authorities and is asking for privacy for the players' families.
“There are no words that can adequately express the depth of our grief," the team said. "These young men were more than hockey players — they were teammates, sons, brothers, friends, and deeply loved members of our Mustangs family and the communities we call home. We are a family, and today our family is hurting.”
At the town’s arena, three white and red jerseys with the last names of the players were draped over a table, along with three upright hockey sticks.
The Kamloops Minor Hockey Association said in a statement that Casorso and Wright grew up in the B.C. organization. Casorso played from 2012 to 2025 and Wright from 2011 to 2025.
“Although their journeys began here in Kamloops, they found a second hockey family and a new bond with the Southern Alberta Mustangs,” the statement said. “These three young men were teammates and friends to many. We are grieving together, as one hockey family forever changed by the loss of these young men.”
The Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League also offered support on social media: “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who knew them,” the team said.
News of the crash evoked memories of another deadly crash involving a junior hockey team.
In April 2018, 16 people were killed and 13 injured when a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League crashed. The team had been on its way to a playoff game when a semi truck went through a stop sign and into the path of the bus at a rural intersection near Tisdale, Saskatchewan.
The mayor of Humboldt expressed condolences to the Alberta team on Facebook.
“We stand with your community as you mourn this tragic loss, and our thoughts are with all those affected,” Mayor Rob Muench said.
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Crossed hockey sticks are shown outside of the Stavely Arena in Stavely, Alberta, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (Larry MacDougal/The Canadian Press via AP)
