user: News: UPDATE (11:20 p.m. ET): Notable quotes from Colts news conference announcing extensions for coach Chuck Pagano and GM Randy Grigson:

Owner Jim Irsay on Pagano continuing to work with Grigson: "They're going forward together. Chuck made a point of that unsolicited alone in my office. I had no problem with that. These are our guys. These guys are ready. There's been a lot reported, a lot written. I know what the reality is and this is definitely what's best for the Indianapolis Colts going forward. I'm sure of that."

Pagano: "I've had a lot of great days in my life, but none better today. ... I'm grateful and thankful to Mr. Irsay and his family. Words can't describe how I feel right now. I owe it to Jim for believing in me."

Linebacker D'Qwell Jackson (quote from before news conference, told to ESPN's Josina Anderson): "The players are thrilled that Coach got an extension. ... I'm just overcome with joy that a guy like himself, that we love and want to play for, a guy that stands for family, faith and football, got another shot. Regardless of everything that happened during the season and all the injuries we had, that isn't where we finish. I am super excited that he got another four years.''

-- The Associated Press contributed to the above information

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UPDATE (Monday, 11 p.m. ET): NFL on FOX Insider Mike Garafolo reports that Colts owner Jim Irsay confirms that both coach Chuck Pagano and GM Ryan Grigson received four-year contract extensions on Monday night.

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UPDATE (Monday, 10:50 p.m. ET): In officially announcing their new extension with coach Chuck Pagano, the Colts did not include any comments from owner Jim Irsay or GM Ryan Grigson, but the statement's intro made it clear why the club is sticking with the embattled coach despite the most disappointing season in his four-year tenure:

Pagano has achieved a 41-23 record over his four seasons (2012-15) in Indianapolis. His .641 winning percentage ranks fourth among active head coaches in the NFL. Pagano’s 41 wins over the last four seasons are the fifth-most in the league. He led Indianapolis to three consecutive 11-win seasons from 2012-14 as he became only the second head coach in NFL history to earn 11 wins in each of his first three seasons with a team. Pagano also became the third head coach in Colts history to reach the playoffs in each of his first three years. Under his guidance, the Colts set an NFL record in 2015 with 16 consecutive wins within their division dating back to 2012. Pagano posted consecutive 6-0 records in the AFC South division in 2013 and 2014 and has sent 10 Colts to the Pro Bowl.

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UPDATE (Monday, 10:30 p.m. ET): NFL on FOX Insiders Mike Garafolo and Peter Schrager have both confirmed through sources that Chuck Pagano's extension with the Colts is for four years.

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When it came to Black Monday, few places were expected to be as dark as Indianapolis. Instead, Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium came with a surprise -- and sunny -- ending.

Chuck Pagano and the Colts are extending their partnership, rather than ending it.

The move is a rather stunning one as it was presumed by most pundits and insiders that Pagano would be let go after the Colts stumbled to an 8-8 record and missed the playoffs for the first time in Pagano’s four seasons. It is also widely believed that Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson do not see eye-to-eye on many fronts.

But one thing working in Pagano’s favor when it came to evaluating this season’s failures was health. Franchise quarterback Andrew Luck missed nine games -- including the final seven of the season.

Title: Indianapolis Colts agree to contract extension with coach Chuck Pagano, a stunning move since most believed he would be let go of following disappointing 8-8 season | FOX Sports


News: George Harrison: just how vital to the Beatles was he?

Martin Scorsese has made a three-and-a-half-hour documentary about George Harrison, which will be in selected cinemas in the UK for one night only tomorrow (Tuesday 4th) before being released on DVD on Friday.

Being a Beatle obsessive, I absolutely loved it, though it might be hard going for the less partisan. I watched a preview a couple of weeks ago in a cinema, and I had some sympathy for the well-known radio DJ and his partner who slipped out about two hours in, after the Beatles broke up. This very long documentary is a bit like Harrison’s career. It all goes downhill after 1970.

Given that this is a lovingly crafted film about a major pop-cultural figure of our times by one of the great directors of modern cinema, it is hardly surprising that reviews have generally been good. However, the many critics who have commented to the effect that Scorsese’s achievement is to show that Harrison was the most interesting Beatle, the creative equal of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, are being overly kind, perhaps swept away by the warmth with which the film evokes Harrison’s winning personality. It’s a lovely, intimate portrait of a fascinating man of contradictions, caught between his higher spiritual aspirations and a more earthy side, between peace and love and sex and drugs.

It’s a good documentary about a man, but less so about the music, perhaps because there just isn’t enough of it to sustain three and a half hours.

In the early days of The Beatles, Harrison was known as the Quiet One, and even in his own documentary he remains oddly insubstantial for a long time, overwhelmed by the massive talents and personalities on either side. There is a master’s touch to the way Scorsese brings together Beatles photographs and footage with interesting new voice overs and interviews, but try as he might to focus on his subject, it is the creative force and personalities of Lennon and McCartney who really hold our attention. In footage of the Fab Four, it is John and Paul who are always driving the show, defining the style, making the groundbreaking music, pushing the cultural edge. For the first hour or more, it is like a documentary without a centre, where your eye and mind is always drifting to the more interesting scenes on the side. It only really comes into focus as Harrison himself comes into creative focus, and his spiritual interests start to become central to the Beatles’ story.

Harrison was a hugely talented musician, collaborating, complementing and eventually competing with two of the greatest songwriters in the history of popular music, so it was perhaps hardly surprising that he developed as a brilliant songwriter in his own right. But creatively, Harrison really only flourished for a very brief period, between his discovery of Indian music around 1967 and his first outburst after the break up of the Beatles, when years of frustrated hoarding of material led to his fantastic 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. This is, inevitably, the most fascinating part of the documentary. But even after the all-star Bangladesh concert in 1971, there’s still 20 years and an hour and a half of film to go before Harrison’s death in 2001, and not a lot of really great music to fill it with. Scorsese turns his attention to Harrison’s movie production, his involvement in jokey superstar side-project The Travelling Wilburys, his gardening, his spiritual life, and the attempt on his life in 1999. It is lovely stuff, and you get a real sense of the man. But The Beatles are the reason we care at all about Harrison, and when they leave the story, they take the centre of the film with them. Even in a documentary in which he gets star billing, Harrison comes across as a better sideman than a frontman.

Title:

assistant: George Harrison: the Quiet Beatle or the Boring One?