ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Josh Allen was a big fan of Aaron Rodgers while growing up in central California, and was left impressed upon discovering the latest milestone the New York Jets quarterback is approaching: 500 passing touchdowns.
“That’s a spectacular stat. Aaron’s one of the, if not the best ever to throw football,” Allen said following Bills practice on Thursday.
“He’s been an idol of mine since I was a little kid, looking up to him and wanting to be in a position like him,” he added as the Bills prepare to close their home schedule against the Jets on Sunday. “Could I envision (500 TDs)? I mean sure. But again, Year 20 I think he’s in now, it’s a lot of football. He’s seen a lot of things and he’s always evolved his game.”
With 193 passing touchdowns and counting in closing his seventh season, Allen has a long way to go to match Rodgers, who is in position to become the fifth player to reach 500.
The question, which no one — including, perhaps, even Rodgers, himself — really knows the answer to, is how many more TDs and NFL seasons the 41-year-old has left.
Allen and the five-time defending AFC East champion Bills (12-3) are one win from locking up the conference’s No. 2 seed entering the playoffs.
Meantime, Rodgers and the Jets (4-11) face numerous uncertainties following a tumultuous season in which they fell well short of expectations.
Another regime change looms after the in-season firings of coach Robert Saleh and GM Joe Douglas. And Rodgers isn’t even sure if he’ll return even if the Jets want him back.
“I’m still going to need some time mentally to get away from it and to see how I feel if I want to come back for a 21st season,” Rodgers said.
The Jets are 2-8 under interim coach Jeff Ulbrich, and will finish with six or fewer wins for the eighth time during a 14-season playoff drought which ranks as the longest active streak among North America’s four major pro sports.
Bad as it’s been, what matters to Rodgers is the Jets not showing signs of quitting.
“If I see somebody who is not doing it the right way, then I’ll say something," Rodgers said. "But the beauty is that everybody is watching. This is an audition for all of us.”
In Buffalo, the Bills are seeking to shore up an injury-depleted defense that’s given up a combined 1,357 yards, 86 first downs and allowed opponents to convert 24 of 40 third down opportunities in winning two of the past three outings. Cornerback Rasul Douglas (knee) and linebacker Matt Milano (groin) are approaching their returns.
Allen's challenge is facing a Jets defense that’s limited him to an average of 215 yards passing, with seven touchdowns and six interceptions while being sacked 16 times over their past five meetings (3-2).
“In terms of why they’ve given me fits, I don’t feel like I’ve protected the ball too well against them in the previous years,” Allen said. "Just making sure I’m being smart with the football and being decisive with my decisions and where it’s going.”
Buffalo's Rasul Douglas knows Rodgers all too well to believe the Jets quarterback is considering ending his career.
“Hell, no, they’re going to have physically take his (butt) off the field,” said Douglas, who spent two seasons with Rodgers in Green Bay. “He’s a guy who’s probably going to be playing until he’s 50.”
Rodgers and wide receiver Davante Adams have connected for 82 touchdowns, including playoffs, to tie Miami’s Dan Marino and Mark Clayton for the third most in NFL history by a quarterback-wide receiver duo.
Six of those TDs have come in the nine games since the Jets acquired Adams from Las Vegas in October. The other 76 came when the two were teammates in Green Bay for eight years.
Allen revealed he’s been playing with a broken non-throwing left hand, which he first hurt bracing himself while scoring a touchdown in a season-opening 34-28 win over Arizona.
“Yeah, it’s the left one, so it don’t really matter much,” he said.
Allen is also coming off an outing in which he briefly lost feeling in his right hand after a hit to his elbow.
“It’s good. Just a little sore,” he said.
Jets rookie left tackle Olu Fashanu (foot) was placed on injured reserve earlier this week, ending the first-round pick’s promising first NFL season. Selected 11th overall in the draft, he started the past five games after Tyron Smith (neck) went on IR.
“That guy got better and better every single week,” passing game coordinator Todd Downing said. “Heartbroken for him that it couldn’t end with a final couple of games building off of what he’s done.”
Max Mitchell and Carter Warren were competing in practice this week to be the next to protect Rodgers’ blind side.
AP Pro Football Writer Dennis Waszak Jr. contributed to this report.
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Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) passes against the New England Patriots during the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y.. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) waits for the snap of the ball during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Israeli soldiers stormed and burned a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcibly removing staff and patients on Friday, Health Ministry officials said. The Israeli military said the hospital was being used by Hamas fighters as a base, although it did not provide evidence.
In Israel, an 83-year-old woman was stabbed to death by a Palestinian from the West Bank, and police say the suspect was arrested.
Israel said it intercepted a missile fired by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, hours after a wave of deadly Israeli warplanes bombed key infrastructure in Yemen — including an airport where the World Health Organization’s director-general was about to board a flight.
The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea corridor — attacks they say won't stop until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed over 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage by Palestinian militants. Around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, although only two-thirds are believed to still be alive.
Here’s the latest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops stormed and set fire to one of the last hospitals operating in the northernmost part of Gaza on Friday, forcing many of the staff and patients out of the facility, the territory’s health ministry said.
The Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops, according to staff. Israel says it is waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods.
Israel’s military said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and fighters in the area of the hospital, without providing details. It repeated claims that Hamas fighters were operating inside Kamal Adwan , though it provided no evidence.
Hospital officials have denied the accusations.
The Health Ministry said troops forced medical personnel and patients to assemble in the hospital yard and remove their clothes amid the winter temperatures. They were led out of the hospital, some to an unknown location, while some patients were sent to the nearby Indonesian hospital, which was knocked out of operation after an Israeli raid earlier this week.
The ministry said troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan, including the hospital’s lab and surgery department. It said 25 patients and 60 health workers remained in the hospital out of 75 patients and 180 staff who had been there. The ministry’s account could not be independently confirmed, and attempts to contact hospital staff were unsuccessful.
Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the north Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and levelled large parts of the districts.
Last week, the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders accused Israel of systematically attacking Gaza’s healthcare system and restricting essential humanitarian assistance.
DAMASCUS—Dozens of relatives of missing Syrians gathered Friday in Damascus to demand answers about the fate of their loved ones, as many Syrians have been missing for years, some disappearing after being detained by the now-toppled government of Bashar Assad.
The gathering comes nearly three weeks after insurgents freed dozens of people from Syrian prisons following the fall of Assad’s government. Since then, no additional detainees have been found, leaving thousands of families still in anguish over the fate of their missing relatives.
Relatives have been traveling across Syria in search of information.
“We accept nothing less than knowing all details related to what happened to them,” said Wafa Mustafa, whose father, Ali Mustafa, has been missing for over a decade.
“Who is responsible for their detention? Who tortured them? If they were killed, who killed them? Where were they buried?” Mustafa said, speaking at the gathering held at Al-Hijaz Station in Damascus.
In 2023, the United Nations established an independent body to investigate the fate of more than 130,000 people missing during the Syrian conflict.
Marah Allawi, whose son Huzaifa was detained in 2012 at the age of 18, said she saw “how they tortured young men, how they put them in cages and tortured them.”
She called on the international community to act. “I call on the whole world to know where our sons are.”
SANAA, Yemen -- The international airport in Yemen’s capital Sanaa and the Red Sea port of Hodeida resumed operations Friday, a day after being struck by Israeli missiles, Yemeni officials said.
Deputy Transport Minister Yahya al-Sayani told a press conference that the Israeli airstrikes at Sanaa International Airport hit the control tower, navigation systems and the departures terminal. He said flights resumed on Friday as scheduled.
The strikes Thursday afternoon at the airport and the Hodeida seaport killed six people and wounded 40 others, according to the Health Ministry. The airport’s director, Khaled al-Shaif, said travelers were in the airport at the time of the strike.
Israel said its strikes targeted the infrastructure of Yemen’s Houthi rebels in retaliation for repeated volleys of missiles fired by the rebels toward central Israel in recent days.
The strikes on the airport came as the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was preparing to board a plane nearby. Ghebreyesus said Friday on X that a U.N. colleague wounded in the strike underwent surgery and was in stable condition, but has not yet been evacuated from Yemen.
BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes carried three airstrikes deep into eastern Lebanon on Friday for the second time since a ceasefire ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel a month ago, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said.
No casualties were reported in the strikes on the Bekaa Valley town of Qousaya and the target remained unclear. The Israeli military said its air force struck “infrastructure used to smuggle weapons via Syria” to Hezbollah near the Janta crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, about 9 kilometers (5 miles) north of Qousaya. Israel accused Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 of overseeing smuggling operations from Iran through Syria, adding that it had killed the unit’s commander in early October.
Since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27, the Israeli army has conducted near-daily operations in southern Lebanon, including shootings, house demolitions, excavations, tank shelling and airstrikes. These actions have killed at least 27 people, wounded more than 30 and destroyed residential buildings, including a mosque.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, said it has observed “concerning actions” by Israeli forces, including the destruction of homes and road closures.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army accused Israeli troops of breaching the ceasefire by encroaching into southern Lebanon. Israeli bulldozers erected dirt barricades to block roads in Wadi Al-Hujayr.
The Lebanese army later on Thursday said that following intervention by the ceasefire supervision committee, Israeli forces withdrew, and Lebanese soldiers removed the barriers to reopen the road in the area.
The U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which ended the 14-month war, demands that Hezbollah and Israeli forces withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, allowing Lebanese troops to gradually deploy south of the Litani River.
JERUSALEM — Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a missile toward Israel early Friday, hours after Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on Yemen’s main airport.
The Israeli military said the Houthi missile was intercepted by air defenses before it entered Israeli territory. Air raid sirens were set off in several areas in central Israel.
A day earlier, a wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s main airport outside the capital, Sanaa, killing three people and wounding dozens of others, according to the U.N.
The strikes hit just as the World Health Organization’s director-general was about to board a flight at the airport. Israel said it attacked infrastructure used bv the Houthis.
For several days this past week, Houthi launches have set off air raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor, saying their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Last week, Israeli jets bombed Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people. The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.
TEL AVIV — A Palestinian from the West Bank stabbed to death an 83-year-old woman in Israel on Friday, police said.
The attack took place in the town of Herzliya on the Mediterranean coast outside Tel Aviv. Police said the attacker was arrested.
A medic with Israel’s emergency services, Kobi Avriel, said first responders found the woman unconscious on the sidewalk outside a nursing home with stabbing wounds. The Tel Aviv Ichilov Medical Center said she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Israel has experienced an increase in attacks amid a surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the military’s nearly 15-month-old war in Gaza.
UNITED NATIONS – An estimated 730,000 people living in tents in camps for the displaced in northwest Syria are experiencing dire conditions this winter including from flooding, the U.N. humanitarian office said.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said Thursday that more than 200 family tents in camps in Idlib and northern Aleppo were damaged by flooding from heavy rainfall on Dec. 23.
“Since the start of 2024, flooding and strong winds have damaged more than 8,800 family tents – including nearly 2,000 that were fully destroyed – across 260 camps," OCHA said.
On another issue, OCHA quoted a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain, that since Dec. 8 -– when Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted --- episodes involving explosive ordnance have killed more than 70 civilians including a dozen children and five women, with scores more injured.
OCHA said mine experts have identified 109 new minefields across Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Latakia since Nov. 26. So far, it said experts have destroyed more than 850 individual items of explosive ordnance.
Elsewhere, OCHA said Israeli forces on Wednesday reportedly wounded six civilians when they opened fire in Al-Suweisah town in Quneitra province, which includes the Golan Heights. It said residents were ordered to evacuate and Israeli forces imposed a curfew.
A Palestinian child hanging cloths on a rope outside tents made locally from pieces of cloth and nylon, in a camp for internally displaced Palestinians at the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian girls watch the funeral of Zein Atatrah, 18, as they stand on the steps of their house, in the West Bank town of Ya'bad Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Zein Atatrah, 18, wrapped with a Hamas flag, during his funeral in the West Bank town of Ya'bad Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Mourners cry while they take the last look at the body of Palestinian Zein Atatrah, 18, during his funeral in the West Bank town of Ya'bad, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Syrians hold a copy of the Quran next to a Christian cross during a demonstration in support of unity among minorities and the ousting of the Bashar Assad government in Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Members of the armed forces and former rebels, who overthrew Bashar Assad's government and now serve in the new Syrian government, pray before a military parade in downtown Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Members of the new armed forces, former rebels who overthrew Bashar Assad's government and now serve in the new Syrian government, stand in formation as they prepare for a military parade in downtown Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Wafaa Mustafa, center, holds a picture of her missing father during a demonstration in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 2024. The protesters demand accountability for members of Bashar Assad's government and military responsible for the detention, torture, or disappearance of their loved ones. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Children play on the sand in a camp for internally displaced Palestinians at the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian Tamim Marouf, 6, sits inside his family's tent alongside his sister Hala, 10, and his brother Malek, 4, at a camp for internally displaced Palestinians on the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Smoke rises from the area around the International Airport following an airstrike, as seen from Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. The Israeli military reported targeting infrastructure used by the Houthis at the Sanaa International Airport, as well as ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif, and Ras Qantib, along with power stations.(AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Workers walk past broken glass in Sana'a International Airport following Thursday's Israeli airstrikes on Yemen, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. The Israeli military reported targeting infrastructure used by the Houthis at the Sanaa International Airport, as well as ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif, and Ras Qantib, along with power stations Thursday Dec. 26..(AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
A man looks at the damage in the control tower of Sana'a International Airport following Thursday's Israeli airstrikes on Yemen, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. The Israeli military reported targeting infrastructure used by the Houthis at the Sanaa International Airport, as well as ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif, and Ras Qantib, along with power stations Thursday Dec. 26..(AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
