Monthly Archives: March 2020

The Riot Games global control center in Los Angeles

As the coronavirus crisis disrupts all businesses differently, Im finding that even the most favorably placed firms are facing significant disruption. Facebook, for instance, would at first glance be a natural winner: but while usage at Facebook is up, ad spend is down.

Riot Games is the global developer and publisher of e-sports, including the iconic League of Legends. Earlier this week, I talked with Chris Hymes, Chief Information Security Officer at Riot Games, and Ahmed Sidky, Riots Head of Business Agility. Chris leads information security and I.T. at Riot with responsibility for all of its computer security and corporate computer systems.He alsoleads the Business Continuity Working Group. We discussed how Riots headquarters in Los Angeles handled the crisis so far, including

What is the impact on Riots business strategy?

What measures did Riot take?

What surprises?

Did Riots multi-year investment in business agility help?

The Business Continuity Working Group was set up to help Riot through the specifics of the coronavirus crisis, although in a sense Riot has been laying the foundation for dealing with crises like this with its multiyear commitment to business agility.

Impact On Riots Strategy

Steve Denning: One set of questions concerns: has the crisis changed your business strategy?

Chris Hymes: When we talk about strategic impact, Riot always prioritizes our players first in every decision we make and this situation was no different. The number one priority for us was ensuring that our games stay up and operational even if it meant no new development. Overall, we just want to be there for our players during these hard times. For many of our players, our games keep them going and are the primary way they have fun with their friends.

Ahmed Sidky: This year is a critical year for us. We're launching new games. If we didn't have the right mindset in our people, this crisis would have been devastating.

Coping With Day-to-Day Disruption

Denning: Rioters used to work at the office all day, every day, and now they're home. What has the crisis meant in practical terms?

Hymes: This was a challenge that we were able to handle only because of the work and the foundations that we laid for years. One of the primary missions of the IT team for the last two years was to enable Rioters to be able to work from anywhere. We were working towards that and we were able to flip a bunch of switches when the time came. So it was two years worth of work that came together in two weeks.

In late February, I began leading the Business Continuity Working Group to develop a framework for thinking specifically about the coronavirus crisis, given the critical importance to our business to keep the online gaming experience running 24/7 everywhere in the world. Here we had to consider: how do we balance the health and safety of Rioters with continuing to deliver on our mission to players?

Very early we decided that we would follow local health authorities. If they asked us to do something, we would do it. And since we're a global company, we empowered our local office managers to make decisions for their local office.

And then we began developing a plan to get all Rioters working from home. This isnt as easy as it looks. Most of our work is done in small teams that work face-to-face in short cycles. Sending Rioters home creates massive disruption in normal work routines. There are also technology issues because we have a lot of artists, composers, engineers and others who work on very specialized equipment and require high-speed digital transmission. They can't simply go home and automatically be successful at work.

We examined which teams would have big problems and which teams could be successful on day one. And then we asked teams to send people home to understand what was involved working from home. Very quickly, over ten days, we had people reporting back on issues and we set about solving those problems.

De-risking Riots Headquarters

Hymes: This was the end of February and the first week of March. Before any government instructions in California, we set about de-risking our headquarters, which is 75% of Rioters. That meant two things. One, if an authority required sending people home, we wanted to be ready. To minimize chaos, we wanted to have a smaller percentage of our workforce to send home when the order came.

Second, we started creating social distancing for Rioters who had difficulty in working from home, like artists and composers.

We compiled a list of all the teams who could leave immediately if they needed to. Then we asked representatives of larger groups like artists or composers to explore what was involved in literally picking up all their equipment and taking it home. The security team made sure that we had the appropriate security controls on those devices. After they arrived home, we asked, could they set the equipment up? Could they connect? Could they do their work? And what didnt function? We started to work through these issues while recognizing output was going to be slower over the corporate VPN.

Surprises

One surprise: we found that a large number of Rioters didnt have a laptop. We quickly got our IT team to build as many laptops as possible and generated around 450 working laptops over two days. We then began handing them out to people in case they needed to work from home.

We knew that other Rioters wouldnt be able to work if they didn't have their desktop computer. So we began exploring the security controls we would need to put on the computers so that Rioters couldpick up their computer, their keyboard, their mouse and everything and bring it all home. We let all Rioters make the choice of what they wanted to do. They could use their laptop or take their desktop and all their equipment, even their desk chair.

Changes For Millennials

We also had challenges given that many Rioters are millennials, with little space at home. They are used to having lunch and dinner at the office in closely packed cafeteria queues. Rioters really depend on and love the community they have at the company. Many of the relationships and the community are built through those face-to-face interactions.

We're trying to figure out ways to keep everyone together and having fun. We actually had a competition for the best work from home setup with awards for the best setup, the most interesting use of a household object, the messiest, and the most zen. Everyone was posting. Even the CEO posted pictures of his work-from-home setup. These small examples help make Riot such a unique and amazing place to work.

Getting Ahead Of The Government

Hymes: Basically everyone is working from home now. Within two weeks of when we started planning, we made the call to start implementing the staged work-from-home approach where we began asking individual teams to begin working from home. By the time we opened on March 16, we had a thousand people off-campus working from home. By March 19, 92% of the campus was working at home.

The actual government order came late on March 19, but by this time, it was already implemented. We had seen the writing on the wall. Now there's a list of fewer than 50 people authorized to work at headquarters, most of them only for emergencies. There are security guards, the mailroom and a few IT people.

Denning: Are you operating at 100% effectiveness or less?

Hymes: I could answer that better in a couple weeks. Our teams are adjusting as work is continuing. This is the first full week that we'll have the entire workforce working from home. We haven't seen many issues.

Work-Life balance

Hymes: I'm more concerned about whats happening in the households. Schools are closed. I have a three-month-old at home. Many Rioters have children who are now home all day and their significant other also has to work from home.

Theres a balance to be achieved. How do you work effectively when you have kids running around the house? We have many Rioters who live in smaller apartments and theydon't have dedicated spaces like an office to work in. Work efficiency will be less for some people.

We will learn a lot over the coming weeks and get better at this. One of the things you can always expect from Rioters is continuous improvement and a desire to keep making progress.

Sidky: This is a critical time for us. During all this, weve launched Teamfight Tactics Mobile. That's a new game in the app store. A key thing is the passion that our Rioters have to serve players. Thats still there. It's there even more right now. It's how to balance work with life, literally. It's not just the tech at this point. It's life. And this is new for everyone.

Collaboration

Hymes: A key factor is Rioters passion. Thats what makes Riot extraordinary. Its not only that Rioters want to keep the games running but also helping each other. There are so many Rioters who are like, Hey, if you need this, I have it. Come get it or I'll drop it off to you. Hey, here's some best practices for working from home. It's the community that Rioters have that is keeping us together.

Within our security team, we've created weekly sessions for everyone just to hang out. Not to do work, just to talk about, Hey, how's life? What's going on? Learning the things that we would have learned in the office during lunches together.

Return To The Office

Denning: What are the longer term implications?

Hymes: Just as we did a phased approach out, we'll probably do a phased approach for return. Some will find their life, their ability to work is still much better in the office. Our composers and artists for example. There are also people who dont like working at home and we'd enable those individuals to come back sooner. We want to maintain social distancing and all the best practices society demands of us.

Thinking ahead to our e-sports competitions, we are running some of our League of Legends leagues right now without live audiences. We're enabling some professional players to have their matches remotely. Our players can watch online and we can bring them the joy of being able to see their favorite players and teams play while keeping our professional players safe. Making e-sports competitions virtual is obviously easier than football and soccer but still not trivial: there are a lot of implications and challenges from a technology perspective.

The Impact Of Riots Culture

Sidky: It all depends on the kind of workforce you have. Are the staff mission-aligned or just transactional? If work is just a job for a paycheck, youll see that become even more evident in times like these when accountability and transparency are much less. With Riot, its the years of investment we've put in to ensure that Rioters are mission-aligned and are passionate about delighting our players.

Its hard times that reveal the passion that Rioters have for the mission of creating great experiences for our players, to persevere and become resilient and figure out the way to still deliver even when there are many constraints. Thats really living our mission to be the most player focused game company in the world.:

It makes a difference whether its a transactional or mission-driven workforce. What I've seen at Rioters so far is mission-driven behavior. Its all about doing what's right for Riots players

Hymes: I agree. I have friends who work at other companies where they are looking at this like a vacation. But for Rioters, its, how do I get to do the work? How do I keep delivering on the mission? It's been inspiring to see.

Sidky: The seeds that weve been planting are really showing their fruits today because the commitment and the camaraderie Rioters have are priceless in todays environment. That's a dream that many companies aspire to. Here, its a reality. I think we're fortunate to have the workforce we have.

Is Working Virtually Better?

Denning: Is anything actually better when you work virtually?

Hymes: An immediate positive is getting time back from not having to battle Los Angeles traffic. Someone can sit down at 9am without having had to commute for more than an hour and then again going home. That's impactful for people and it's going to be difficult for them to go back to the office routine, especially if this persists for some time.

A negative is that so much business gets done through brief hallway conversations. So how do you keep that level of informal interaction and understanding for the company? Do we need to have a two-way camera on all the time? Or is it Slack messaging?

And these are some of the behaviors that we're beginning to learn. And the question ultimately is, how do those behaviors carry back to the office? What are the good practices that we will bring with us? And will life ever truly return to normal? I think it will, but it will be different.

Coronavirus cases in Italy, USA & S. Korea as of March 25

The Importance Of Business Agility

Denning: I think some Californian firms began to think about this on March 19th. Riot is in a very different situation.

Sidky: We are all learning. So I don't want to suggest Riot just flipped the switch and things are easy. This is something we talk about a lot, which is how can we have greater and greater business agility to serve our players. Agility is not a capability that you can flip a switch in a day or a week. It is a multi-year investment actually its even more of part of our identity. The interesting thing is that you may only really see it fully in action it when the going gets really tough.

It's like building muscles that you don't even know about until theyre needed. A lot of companies seem to think you can buy agility. But its not something that you go to a shop and ask for two boxes of business agility.

Its not like that. Its all about the mindset. Its the community, the relationships, the trust, the leadership, the culture, the tech, and the infrastructure, all together. All of that has been years in the making. It's wonderful moments like this where you can really see it.

I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but we know that challenges like what we're going through today will happen again in the future. I hope companies prepare for that in times of peace and calm. Its an investment because disruptions are going to be more frequent and more challenging.

And read also:

Why The U.S. Coronavirus Strategy Must Change

Leadership In The Time Of The Coronavirus

Read this article:

How Riot Games Is Tackling The Coronavirus Crisis - Forbes

On July 24, as far as the organizers of the Olympics are still concerned, thousands of athletes will march as scheduled into the national stadium in Tokyo for the opening ceremony of the biggest sporting event on the planet. The Summer Olympics.

Is this a vision of reality or just a mirage?

While the international sports calendar has been wiped almost clean by the spread of the coronavirus, the organizers of the 2020 Olympics seemingly unwilling to meddle just yet with years of planning and billions of dollars in television rights and other anticipated revenue insist the Games can go on.

Yet now, in a showdown over public safety, the organizers are facing a remarkable groundswell of criticism and pushback from their own athletes, fans and national Olympic officials, who are increasingly and unusually vocal in calling for a postponement.

One of the biggest cracks in the usual solidarity behind the Games came Friday when U.S.A. Swimming, which governs the sport in the United States and regularly produces stars at the Games like Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel, called for a postponement because of the growing obstacles to training amid practical restrictions imposed by the virus. The following day, U.S.A. Track & Field, which along with swimming has produced the most medals for the United States, also requested a delay.

Norways national Olympic committee, in a statement on Friday, became the first to clearly state a preference for the Olympics to be delayed until the global pandemic can be brought under control. The Brazilian Olympic committee on Saturday also endorsed postponing the Games until 2021.

There were signs of pressure within Japan, with a member of its Olympic committee coming out in favor of postponing the Games.

Opening the Olympics at a time when athletes could not train as much as they wanted to runs counter to the motto of athletes first, Kaori Yamaguchi, a member of the Japanese Olympic committee board who won a bronze medal in judo in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun. The Games should be postponed.

Hayley Wickenheiser, a six-time Canadian Olympian and a member of the I.O.C. Athletes Commission, has denounced the plan to go forward. I think the IOC insisting this will move ahead with such conviction is insensitive and irresponsible given the state of humanity, she wrote Tuesday on Twitter.

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said in an interview Thursday that the Games would not be canceled. And while he left open the possibility of postponing them, he said a decision did not have to be made soon.

Nobody today can tell you what the developments are tomorrow, what they are in one month, not to mention in more than four months, Bach said, justifying the wait-and-see approach.

But in reality the organizers may not have that much time, and in many ways, outside forces could be making the decision for Bach.

Japan has travel bans and strict quarantining measures imposed on visitors from scores of countries, and a recent national poll showed that a large majority of people there did not believe the Games could proceed as planned.

Broadcasters and marketers are fretting about a sports calendar already upended by cancellations and postponements involving nearly every other league and major event in the world which, among other challenges, would make it difficult for marquee athletes like N.B.A. superstars to come to Tokyo. Even NBC, the American broadcaster that has great sway with the organizers, has prepared for the possibility that the Games will be shifted to next year or farther down the road, by taking out the necessary insurance protections, though it has yet to make any major logistical preparations.

And then there is the negotiating partner that cannot be reasoned with: the Covid-19 virus itself, which has torn an uncontrollable, unpredictable path across the global map, yielding a cascade of consequences that have altered the fabric of daily life.

The modern Olympics are a multibillion-dollar, made-for-television extravaganza that serve as an investment vehicle for scores of sponsors and media partners and as a source of entertainment for millions of fans.

But the heart of the Games remains the athletes, and so it was no surprise that the calls for postponement only seemed to gain traction in recent days, as their cries and concerns grew louder and more explicit.

The outcry arrived almost simultaneously with a rash of restrictions on movement and public gatherings and a sharp rise this week in coronavirus cases in Europe and North America all of it clashing with Mr. Bachs advice that athletes should train full steam ahead, as if the Games would still occur in late July and early August.

Many found the I.O.C.s stance tone deaf. Not only have athletes in affected countries struggled to maintain their elite-level training routines, but stubbornly trying to do so might exacerbate the spread of the virus.

I recognize theyre treading a light line: Theyre conscious of the brands, theyre conscious of the impact on the Japanese economy, and theyre in a precarious position, Iaki Gmez, a member of the Canadian Olympic Athletes Commission, said of the I.O.C. But for me, I think that all has to go out the window. Were trying to contain something thats unprecedented in the last 100 years.

Some American gymnasts, who tend to be a centerpiece of the Games, are also openly calling for a postponement.

For all of those athletes in the U.S., but also globally, like in Italy and in China, who are on complete lockdowns, I think it would make it a fairer competition in Tokyo if the Olympics were postponed to give everyone the time they need to be ready, said Laurie Hernandez, a 2016 gold medal winner who has been scrambling to find a place to train since her gym in California closed its doors on Thursday night because of the states shelter-in-place order.

The president of U.S.A. Gymnastics, Li Li Leung, said Friday that the organization would survey its athletes before deciding whether to take a position on postponing the Games.

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, however, said it would continue to endorse the I.O.C.s wait-and-see approach. That decision provoked the ire of athletes, and hours later U.S.A. Swimming added its voice to those calling for postponing the Games.

Pressing forward amidst the global health crisis this summer is not the answer, Tim Hinchey, the chief executive of U.S.A. Swimming, wrote in a letter to the U.S.O.P.C.

Mr. Bach had acknowledged the day before that in some corners of the I.O.C.s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, alternative plans were being weighed.

Given that canceling the Games entirely was ruled out this week by the I.O.C., many analysts now believe that the most logical decision would be to wait a year, when it is hoped the world will have emerged from the worst of the pandemic.

That could disrupt other big events, including world championships for swimming and for track and field that are scheduled in 2021.

Whatever decision is made, Mr. Bach has repeatedly insisted that it would not be driven by financial interests. Still, I.O.C. executives have been in constant contact with leading sponsors and broadcast executives.

The I.O.C. derives roughly half of its revenues from its media partners, and about 75 percent of those come from NBC, which in 2014 agreed to pay $7.75 billion for all the U.S. media rights to the Olympics through 2032. (That is an average of $1.29 billion for each Games from 2022 to 2032, 17 percent more than the average fee of $1.1 billion the NBC committed for the 2014-2020 Games.)

Brian Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, which owns NBC, said at a conference in San Francisco this month that the company had insurance to guarantee it would incur no losses should the Games be postponed this year.

At this point, in fact, pushing ahead with the Olympics this summer could cause scheduling conflicts for NBC.

The network televises the N.H.L. and Englands Premier League, both of which are on hiatus but intend to finish their seasons. Their rescheduled games may ultimately conflict with the Olympics, which NBC shows on several channels through its parent company, NBCUniversal.

In a statement, NBC promised to continue to do the best we can to be prepared to stand behind any decision made by the I.O.C., the Japanese government and the world health officials with whom they are working regarding the 2020 Olympics.

Every media agreement is different, but Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports and a former media consultant to the I.O.C., said many deals are set up so that the broadcaster partners do not have to pay the bulk of the fees for each Olympics until just before the Games actually begin. That means the I.O.C. would have to wait for its money in the event of a postponement.

Pilson said the idea of staging the Olympics with just athletes and no spectators effectively making it a global television event would not solve the central problem of how many people are required simply to run the Games. NBC alone is expected to take roughly 2,000 people to Japan. In addition, the Olympics typically require more than 50,000 workers, support staff and volunteers.

Delaying to October doesnt really work, because you dont really know how much better things will be then, Mr. Pilson said. That brings you back to the idea that postponing for a year is probably the best solution.

Michael Lynch, the former director of global sponsorship marketing for Visa who now consults with Olympic sponsors, said the uncertainty surrounding the Games had put companies that spent $100 million or more to partner with the I.O.C. in a bind at a difficult moment for all businesses. All have advertising, promotions, retail engagements, hospitality and other events planned for Tokyo during the Games. All typically spend one to three dollars supporting those efforts for every dollar they devoted to buying Olympic sponsorship rights.

How do you invite people to the Games at this time? Mr. Lynch said.

While Mr. Bach said the I.O.C. had no cash-flow issues, there are other entities that rely on payments from the Olympics to finance their operations, including the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The U.S.O.P.C. has a revenue-sharing arrangement with the I.O.C. that gives it about 12 percent of the fees from NBC and roughly 20 percent of the I.O.C.s sponsorship revenue.

The broadcast payments alone, which totaled $169 million from the Summer Games in 2016 and $121 million from the Winter Games in 2018, account for about half of the U.S.O.P.C.s revenues. Because the payment is not made until after the Games have occurred, a delay could cause a serious financial shortfall for the organization.

Even if the I.O.C. does decide that the Olympics should be postponed, it must find some harmony with the wants and needs of the host nation.

It was four years ago, at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, that Japan assumed control of the Summer Olympics spotlight. That night, Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan, emerged from a green drainpipe dressed as Super Mario, the popular video game character. For the normally staid politician, the appearance signaled in colorful terms the depth of his commitment to what could be the defining project of his legacy.

Since being awarded the Games in 2013, Japan has invested tens of billions of dollars as the partner of the I.O.C. Navigating the current crisis, then, has become a test of pride for the countrys government and its Olympic committee officials, and in the current predicament over possible postponement, they hold many of the cards.

Until recently, their public statements reflected a show-must-go-on mentality, but within the last two weeks, cracks have started to appear.

On March 10, Haruyuki Takahashi, a member of the local organizing committee, suggested that a delay of one or two years would be the most prudent option if the Olympics could not be held as planned. Though he was forced to apologize, a shift seemed to have begun.

Mr. Abe, in a video conference call Monday with the leaders of the Group of 7 countries, said, I want to hold the Olympics and Paralympics perfectly, as proof that the human race will conquer the new coronavirus, and I gained support for that from the G-7 leaders.

The fact the prime minister did not specifically mention holding the Games in 2020 signaled to some that he was starting to accept the idea of a delay.

Speaking in Parliament two days later, Mr. Abes deputy, Taro Aso, who is also the finance minister, referred to prior Olympics that were disrupted by world events, including the 1940 Games, which were canceled because of World War II, and the 1980 Moscow Olympics, boycotted by 65 nations including the United States and Japan.

This time, it doesnt make sense if others cannot attend from other countries, even if Japan alone will become all right, Mr. Aso said.

As the prime minister said, its desirable to hold the Olympics in an environment where everyone feels safe and happy, Mr. Aso added. But thats not something Japan alone can decide.

Close watchers of the government said that a decision most likely had not yet been made, but that Mr. Abe was signaling a willingness to consider options.

His recent comment to the Group of 7 is a strategic ambiguity, said Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat now teaching at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. In these cases, what is not said is the most important.

Even though the Olympic flame arrived in Japan from Greece on Friday, the Japanese public already seemed farther along in accepting a postponement than the government. In a poll released Monday by Kyodo News, a Japanese news service, close to 70 percent of respondents said they did not expect the Tokyo Games to go on as scheduled.

Amid all this, the hunger for the Olympics remains strong.

Mr. Abe and Mr. Bach have both alluded to the fact that the Games could have the power to bring people together and help the world heal after the horrors of the pandemic.

Tokyo could end up staging the greatest Olympics ever, Michael Payne, a longtime former marketing director at the I.O.C., said. It would be the celebration of the world having come through this very difficult time.

But the almost impossible task, now, is somehow ensuring that such a celebration would not be premature.

Juliet Macur, Makiko Inoue and Ben Dooley contributed reporting.

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An Olympic Showdown: The Rising Clamor to Postpone the Tokyo Summer Games - The New York Times

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

With the sports world on hiatus amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN is gearing up to show a multitude of classic Monday Night Football games in the coming weeks.

The network will air five games over the next five Mondays at 8 p.m. ET each week, giving football fans a way to pass the time while stuck self-isolating due to the coronavirus.

[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]

So, naturally, we had to rank them.

Final Score: Minnesota 30, Green Bay 23

Location: Mall of America Field | Minneapolis, Minnesota

ESPN Air Date: April 13

It was a historic Monday Night for Brett Favre, and an unusual one for Green Bay Packers fans everywhere.

The legendary Packers quarterback led the Minnesota Vikings to a 30-23 win against his former team, which officially made him the first quarterback in NFL history to secure a win against all 32 teams in the league.

I dont know how to explain it, Favre said after the game, via the Associated Press. I felt right, but I guess I never thought Id be in that situation.

Favre finished the night with 271 yards and three touchdowns in the win. While his replacement in Green Bay recorded a career night too Aaron Rodgers threw for 384 yards and two touchdowns, including a 33-yard heave to Jordy Nelson with 3:49 left in the game he was sacked eight times and couldnt quite complete the comeback.

Favre and the Vikings won 10 of their first 11 games that season, his only with the franchise, en route to the NFC Championship, where they eventually fell to the New Orleans Saints in overtime.

Final Score: Indianapolis 40, New England 21

Location: Gillette Stadium | Foxborough, Massachusetts

ESPN Air Date: April 20

Peyton Manning struggled early on in his career against the New England Patriots in Foxborough, mounting an early 0-7 record at Gillette Stadium.

Finally, though, the future Hall of Famer got his win.

Manning led the Indianapolis Colts to a dominant 40-21 win against Tom Brady and the Patriots in this Monday Night Football blowout behind 321 yards and three touchdowns through the air.

The New England defense had no answer for Marvin Harrison or Reggie Wayne, either, as the two Colts wide receivers posted 120-yard games and had three touchdowns on 18 receptions between the two of them. Running back Edgerrin James racked up 104-yards on 34 carries in the rout, too, preserving Indianapolis undefeated record through eight games that season.

Final Score: New Orleans 23, Atlanta 6

Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdone | New Orleans, Lousiana

ESPN Air Date: April 6

The game would have been a remarkable one for New Orleans Saints fans regardless of the outcome.

It was the first home game at the Superdome since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city the year before.

The way the Saints dominated the Atlanta Falcons, however, made it that much better.

New Orleans cruised to a 23-3 win against Atlanta in this Monday Night Football contest behind an impressive defensive showing. The Saints held Falcons quarterback Michael Vick to just 57 yards on six carries and limited him to just 137 yards through the air on 12 passes.

The Saints grabbed the lead on the very first drive, too, after forcing a Falcons three-and-out. Steve Gleason expertly blocked the Atlanta punt and sent the ball back into the end zone, where they picked it up and grabbed an instant 7-0 lead.

Final Score: Dallas 25, Buffalo 24

Location: Ralph Wilson Stadium | Buffalo, New York

ESPN Air Date: April 27

By all accounts, the Dallas Cowboys should have lost this Monday Night Football contest in 2007.

The Buffalo Bills had built up an impressive 24-13 lead over the Cowboys after three quarters at Ralph Wilson Stadium, and capitalized on five interceptions from Dallas quarterback Tony Romo who opened the night by throwing a pick-6 on his very first pass attempt of the game.

Yet it was the final few minutes of the game that turned it into a Monday Night Football classic.

Dallas mounted a massive 12-play, 85-yard drive and capped it with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Crayton to bring them within two points with just 20 seconds left on the clock. Romo attempted to find Terrell Owens for a two-point conversion, however the Bills swatted the ball away to maintain the lead.

The Cowboys then recovered an incredible onside kick to get the ball back, setting up a 53-yard field goal from Nick Folk to seal the 25-24 win.

Final Score: Los Angeles 54, Kansas City 51

Location: LA Coliseum | Los Angeles, California

ESPN Air Date: March 30

It was the highest-scoring game in Monday Night Football history.

Naturally, it went down as an instant classic.

The Los Angeles Rams beat the Kansas City Chiefs 54-51 at the LA Coliseum, which marked the first Monday Night Football game in the city since 1985 after the game was relocated there from Mexico City.

Rams quarterback Jared Goff racked up 413 yards four touchdowns, including a 40-yard touchdown pass to Gerald Everett with just 1:49 left to play, which set up the eventual three-point win.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes posted a career-high 478 yards and six touchdowns that night, but threw a pair of interceptions in the final 90 seconds.

In total, the game boasted 14 touchdowns, 56 first downs and 105 total points 59 of which came in the second half.

It was a whirlwind, Rams coach Sean McVay said after the game, via the Associated Press. I feel like I might need a couple of beverages to relax tonight, but it was great. This is what you love so much about the game.

More from Yahoo Sports:

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ESPN is showing classic MNF games amid coronavirus hiatus. Here are our top 5 - msnNOW

TOKYO A week ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, were promoting the Summer Olympics in Tokyo as the balm the world needed to show victory over the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, the virus won out.

Bach and Abe bowed to a groundswell of resistance from athletes, from sports federations, from national Olympic committees, from health experts and formally postponed the Games, which had been scheduled to begin in late July, until 2021.

The decision brought both a sense of relief and impending chaos to international sports.

Abe broke the news after a phone call with Bach, when complaints that the I.O.C. was not moving quickly enough to adjust to the coronavirus pandemic became too loud to ignore.

The decision which organizers in Japan resisted the longest, according to people involved with the process became all but inevitable after the national Olympic committee in Canada announced on Sunday that it was withdrawing from the Games, and Australias committee told its athletes that it was not possible to train under the widespread restrictions in place to control the virus. Brazil and Germany, too, called for postponing the Games. And the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, after initially declining to take a stand, joined the fray Monday night, urging the I.O.C. to postpone.

In announcing the decision, Abe said that he had asked Bach for a one-year delay and that Bach had agreed 100 percent.

It was an extraordinary turnabout: The Olympics have been canceled only because of world wars, in 1916, 1940 and 1944, and have carried on even in the tense climate after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 17 people died after the quarters of the Israeli team were stormed by Palestinian terrorists.

Bach said the situation had become untenable in recent days as the World Health Organization described the acceleration of the virus in Africa to Olympic leaders. That forced the I.O.C. to shift its focus from whether Japan could be safe at the start of the Games to what was immediately happening in various other countries.

We had growing confidence in the developments in Japan, Bach said in a conference call with journalists. In 4 months, these safe conditions could be offered. Then we had this big wave coming from the rest of the world.

As the virus spread, Bach said, athletes began voicing concerns about risking their health to continue training. It became clear that the pandemic was rocking the nerves of the athletes, and its also not a situation we have ever been in, he said.

Bach said that finalizing the details of a new schedule and negotiating adjustments in the global sports calendar with leaders of international federations, who were caught off guard by the speed of the decision, would take time.

There are a lot of pieces of a huge and very difficult jigsaw puzzle, he said.

Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo organizing committee, said that the scope and the dates of the Games in 2021 were uncertain, but that it was clear that they could not be held anytime in 2020.

I am disappointed, Mori said. But to be on course with a certain direction is a sigh of relief.

The postponement could result in adjusting the dates to avoid the hottest weeks of the summer in Tokyo, a concern Olympic organizers faced before the pandemic.

The I.O.C. considered other alternatives, like holding the Games without fans in arenas or delays of varying lengths from just a few months to all the way to 2022. The committees leaders never seriously considered fully canceling the Games or taking them away from Tokyo, but executives with the local organizing committee were caught by surprise at how quickly things had changed from Sundays declaration by the I.O.C. that it would make a decision on rescheduling the Games within four weeks.

Bach had been emphasizing that life was returning to normal in Japan, which has not been hit as hard by the virus as China, Italy, Spain and the United States. On Sunday in Sendai, in Northern Japan, about 50,000 went to a welcoming ceremony to view the Olympic flame, and people in Tokyo have been taking the subways and dining in restaurants, a stark contrast to life in coronavirus hot spots closer to the I.O.C. headquarters in Switzerland.

This call was arranged hastily, said Toshiro Muto, chief executive of Tokyo 2020, the local organizing committee, referring to the conference call between Abe and Bach on Tuesday evening in Tokyo.

Abe started his day discussing the Olympics with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada. He finished with a hearing on the economic impact of the coronavirus, then returned to his official residence for his call with Mr. Bach. Shortly before the call, leaders of the Games in Tokyo, including Mori, the Tokyo governor, Yuriko Koike, and Seiko Hashimoto, Japans Olympics minister, arrived at the residence to join him.

Muto said the decision would cause countless complications. Thousands of tickets have been sold to people in Japan and abroad, who may no longer be able to use them. Japan has already invested at least $10 billion in the Games after beating out Madrid and Istanbul to win the rights to host, and the delay will undoubtedly increase costs. Leases on many of the competition venues and contracts with employees will have to be extended.

When it comes to who is going to pay for it, that is what we are going to discuss going forward, Muto said.

This delay came after numerous other postponements or cancellations of sports in Japan and around the world, and after many governments urged people to limit their physical interactions.

The decision quickly gained the support of national Olympic committees from around the world. In a statement, Andy Anson, the chief executive of the British Olympic Association, said a postponement was the only decision his organization could support. It would have been unthinkable for us to continue to prepare for an Olympic Games at a time the nation, and the world no less, is enduring great hardship, Anson said.

Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which did not support a postponement until Monday night, said in a letter to Team U.S.A. athletes, who had become increasingly frustrated by her lack of action, that taking a step back from competition to care for our communities and each other is the right thing to do.

The signal that the decision was certain came earlier Monday, when Australia announced that it would not be able to send a team to Tokyo. John Coates, the leader of Australias Olympic organization and an I.O.C. member, is a close ally of Bachs and leads the I.O.C.s coordination commission for the Tokyo Games.

At a time when Japans economy is already stumbling, the delay of the Olympics could deal a serious blow. In a report early this month, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. projected that a cancellation of the Games would erase 1.4 percent of Japans economic output.

One of the trickiest aspects of moving the Games is handling the broadcast rights that drive significant revenue for the International Olympic Committee. Nearly three-quarters of I.O.C. revenue comes from broadcast rights, and about half of those fees are paid by the American broadcaster NBC. Broadcast partners and other Olympic partners may seek a reduction in their fees if there are substantial changes to when the Olympics are staged or if organizers reduce the number of sports.

The complications will ripple beyond the Games themselves. The international governing bodies for track and field and swimming, for example, planned to hold world championships in 2021 and will have to work with their athletes and host cities to possibly reschedule those events.

The Summer Olympics attract more than 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries, and the I.O.C. prides itself on being more than a competition, representing values such as unity and peace, bringing the world together every two years in sports and friendship.

The coronavirus initially broke out in China in December but has quickly spread across Asia, Europe and North America, and many health experts have been concerned that bringing together people from disparate parts of the globe especially athletes who live closely in a village might ignite an additional outbreak.

The Olympic torch relay through Japan was scheduled to start Thursday. The flame will now stay in Fukushima, site of the nuclear meltdown triggered by an earthquake and tsunami nine years ago.

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I.O.C. and Japan Agree to Postpone Tokyo Olympics - The New York Times

What I'm Hearing: USA TODAY Sports' Christine Brennan spoke with IOC member Dick Pound, who said the 2020 Tokyo Games would be postponed due to the coronavirus. USA TODAY

Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA TODAY Sports on Monday afternoon that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided, Pound said in a phone interview. The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.

Pound, a Canadian who has been one of the most influential members of the IOC for decades, said the games will likely be moved to 2021, with the details to be worked out in the next four weeks. He said he expects the IOC to announce its next steps soon.

WHAT WE KNOW: Latest on the 2020 Olympics, next steps

HERCULEAN EFFORT: What will it take to postpone the Olympics? A lot.

It will come in stages, said Pound, 78,the longest-serving IOC member. We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.

Neither the IOC nor the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee had announced a decision to postpone as of Monday afternoon.

A woman wearing a face mask poses for a photograph next to the Olympic rings in Tokyo, Japan.(Photo: Carl Court, Getty Images)

When informed of Pound's comments and asked for an IOC response, spokesmanMark Adams said, "It is the right of every IOC member to interpret the decision of the IOC executive board which was announced (Sunday)."

In that announcement Sunday, IOC president Thomas Bach indicated, for the first time, that postponing the Tokyo Games would be a possibility.

In a letter to the athlete community, he wrote that the IOC would begin exploring alternate ways to stage the games, including postponement, and plan to reach a decision within the next four weeks. He emphasized that the IOC has ruled out canceling the games, a stance that was reiterated by key Japanese officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday.

CORONAVIRUS & SPORTS:Get the latest news and information right in your inbox. Sign up here.

WARNING: Health experts warn holding 2020 Summer Games too soon risks spreading coronavirus more

Representatives of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee did not immediately reply to an email from USA TODAY Sports seeking a response to Pound's comments.

The Olympics would be the latest and, by far, most significant sporting event to date to fall victim to the coronavirus, which was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December. Also known as COVID-19, the diseaserapidly spread throughout China and across the world in subsequent months, infecting hundreds of thousands of people and causing major disruptions to daily life in numerous countries.

The spread of the coronavirus also has interrupted Olympic qualification procedures and severely affected training regimens, prompting athletes and sports governing bodies around the world to call for the games' postponement.

"I would have real moral objections, if the situation was the same as it was today, to competing, swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian told USA TODAY Sports on Friday.

Pressure mounted over the weekend as World Athletics, the international federation that oversees track and field, publicly called for the games to be postponed. The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees then took matters to another level Sunday night by announcing they will not send a delegation of athletes to the Tokyo Games unless they were postponed.

Within the next 12 hours, Australia's Olympic Committee released a similar but more ambiguous statement, explaining that its executive board had agreed that "an Australian team could not be assembled in the changing circumstances at home and abroad." And the German Olympic Committee joined its counterparts in Brazil and Norway, among other countries, in publicly urging the IOC to postpone the games.

The decision to postpone, when finalized and announced by the IOC, will mark a significant milestone. It would the first time the Olympics have been suspended, though the gameshave been canceled in times of war.

The 1916 Summer Games were canceled because of World War I, as were the Summer and Winter Games in 1940 and 1944 because ofWorld War II. Boycotts also caused serious complications for the games in 1976, 1980 and 1984. But in each case, the event itself went on as scheduled.

"Ive had so many calls with athletes who have been in tears trying to train for their ultimate dream but not wanting to jeopardize their health," American hurdler Lolo Jones wrote on Twitter after Pound's comments. "This was the right thing to do.May the world heal."

Contributing: Nancy Armour and Tom Schad

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IOC member says 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be postponed because of coronavirus pandemic - USA TODAY

Chief among the many threats posed by the novel coronavirus COVID-19 now sweeping the nation like a 2010 Justin Bieber bop is that of prolonged exposure, specifically to children. As working parents become working-from-home parents, and schools prepare to evacuate themselves forcefully, a considerable number of caregivers are wondering what life will look like under quarantine. The answer? Probably like one of those Family Circus cartoons where Bobby bounces off the walls and furniture and off-puttingly evangelical overtones.

All the $10-dollar, black market double-ply wont absorb that kind of energy. What is needed cannot be looted from the grocery or hoarded via Amazon Prime. What is needed is a distraction. Fortunately, distractions are free.

For young children, the best distractions are invariably games and the best games are invariably lightly structured exercises in channeling aggression, creativity, or metabolized carbohydrates. The key for parents is having a portfolio of game options that dont represent massive time or resource commitments. Simple games serve a simple purpose: They kill time. Amid the discussion or mortality rates and viral mutation, the only desirous death is the death of five-minute increments. Heres how to murder them en masse.

The Copycat Game

Think of this as a no-losers version of Follow the Leader designed to improve toddlers motor skills while wearing them out.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Realistic Time It Will Entertain a Child: 15-20 minutes

What is your biggest fear related to the coronavirus pandemic?

Given mortality rates, I'm scared my parents will die.

Given what we don't know, I'm scared my kids will get sick.

Given the economic situation, I'm scared of the financial damage.

Given the news, I'm scared I'll continue to be cooped up with family.

Thanks for the feedback!

How to Set Up: Setup is as simple as clearing out a section of a room so everyone can move freely about and/or explore the studio space around 10 square feet should do. Carpeted or grassy surfaces work best, especially if you plan on going crazy and doing movements that require rolling around on the ground. If you use objects like chairs, set yours directly across from your childs, leaving at least three feet between.

How to Play: As the name suggests, all youre doing is engaging in an activity or motion, literally anything, and trying to get your little one to follow along. To get things started, I throw out a challenge: Do you want to play The Copycat Game? I bet you cant do what daddy does .Start with simple movements marching, touching your toes, etc. and work your way up to more complex gestures. Then do jumping jacks and push-ups. Thats healthy for everyone. Depending on the age of the child, you can also take turns being the leader.

Chair Hat Toss

Think of this as an indoor version of horseshoes. As simple as it is, though, its remarkably entertaining past-time that teaches kids to throw.

Prep Time: 1 Minute

Realistic Time It Will Entertain a Child: 10-15 minutes

How to Set Up: Turn over a kitchen chair so that its legs stick up. Find a hat baseball is best but winter and cowboy work.

How To Play: Try to throw the hat onto the legs of the chair. Thats it. Want to complicate it a bit? Give each leg a point value. Now were learning about counting (but mostly just throwing a hat around). If kids are super into it, have them make DIY rings out of rope or cardboard.

Balloon Tennis

Think of this as a way to play organized sports without taking the time to actually organize yourself or your home in any meaningful way.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Realistic Time It Will Entertain a Child: 30-60 minutes

How To Set Up: Get two chairs and prop them up roughly 10 feet apart. Tie a strong between them. Inflate a balloon. Hand out fly swatters.

How To Play: Its tennis. The only real difference is that there needs to be a clear rule about how many times a player is allowed to hit the balloon while its on his or her side of the net. Two works for coordinated kids, but three is probably the best bet. If kids are struggling, a game of family doubles will do the trick. Also, tennis scoring makes absolutely no sense so skip it.

The Spider Game

Think of this as a way to chase kids without actually, you know, standing up. Its basically a classic cat and mouse game except that the cat is very tired and doesnt want to move in other words, a realistic cat and mouse game. . Its designed to help you tire out kids who have a lot of extra energy without moving from a seated position.

Prep Time: None

Realistic Time It Will Entertain a Child: 20 minutes

How To Set Up: Find a blanket, ideally something sized for a crib or a stroller. Kitchen napkins or even rags work as well.

How to Play: The player who is designated as the Spider (thats you) holds the blanket like a toreador. The other player (thats the child) runs in a designated path around the Spider who tries to catch them by throwing the blanket, their spider silk. If it touches the child, they are considered caught and the game begins again. For kids, this is a game of boundary testing. Miss a few times and theyll start moving closer. Thats when you get em.

The Pillow Game

Think of this as a fun after-bath game that expands creatively on the concept of charades while also getting the kid dry.

Prep Time: 0

Realistic Time It Will Entertain a Child: 3 minutes (a bit longer if youre good)

How To Set Up: Wrap your child in a towel. Have them lay on their stomach and put your head (gently) on their back.

How To Play: After a fleeting moment of peace, your pillow will likely start to move. At this point, you will wonder aloud why the pillow is wiggling and ask what it might be if its not a pillow. From there, the kid has to act like an animal stuck in a towel, while you guess what they are by feel. (Safety note: Youre gonna get bonked if you dont secure their arms.)

The Camouflage Game

Think of this as hide-and-go-seek for indoor kids or kick the can family edition. This is not ideal for those living in small apartments but is otherwise well suited to multi-child families.

Prep Time: None

Realistic Time It Will Entertain a Child: Forever, which is a curse in its own way.

How To Set Up: Designate a Counting Zone. Stand in it.

How to Play: Count down from 20 out loud while the other players run off and hide within eyeshot. When you hit zero try to find the hidden players without moving and call them out. If you cant find all of them, call 15! and put your hands out. The hidden players must run-up, high five you, then squirrel themselves away again. Repeat for 10 and 5 until everyone is found. Dont play around furniture with sharp edges.

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The Best Indoor Games for Quarantined Kids and Families - Fatherly

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons has become a major hit in the UK.

Nintendo's critically acclaimed sequel has sold more copies in its first week on sale than the launch sales of all previous Animal Crossing games combined, including the spin-offs. The launch is 3.5 times bigger than the last game in the series, 2013's Animal Crossing: New Leaf on Nintendo 3DS, which was the previous biggest launch for the series. It is also the biggest single game launch on Nintendo Switch since the console came out, although if you combine the sales of Pokmon Sword and Shield together, those games enjoyed a bigger first week.

This only factors in physical sales, it does not include digital download numbers, which may have been higher than usual considering the concerns around the COVID-19 virus that has seen the UK Government recommend that citizens stay indoors. Nintendo does not share digital download data externally.

It's no surprise to learn that Nintendo's game was No.1 in the boxed charts this week, comfortably ahead of Doom: Eternal, which debuts at No.2. Doom: Eternal's physical launch sales are roughly a third smaller than its predecessor, but the drop may not be quite so significant if we factor in digital sales. Unfortunately, Bethesda also doesn't share digital download figures, so we won't know how the game really performed.

It's been a major week for boxed game sales overall, with more than 475,000 physical games sold over the last seven days. That's more than three times the previous week's numbers. Of course, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom: Eternal played a big part in that, but game sales have surged across the board. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at No.3 enjoyed a 282% sales jump, FIFA 20 at No.4 posted a 326% increase, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe at No.5 achieved a rise of 100%... and the list goes on. In fact, only three games across the entire Top 40 dropped in sales week-on-week -- Pokmon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX fell 24% in sales, Two Point Hospital slipped 8%, and Nioh 2, which was No.1 last week, fell 55% in sales. All three of those games are relatively recent releases.

According to retailers, that has been a jump in demand for games as consumers prepare to stay at home to slow the spread of COVID-19. We will get a wider view of the market when the download data comes in later in the week.

Here is the GfK Top Ten for the week ending March 21st

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons smashes sales records in the UK - GamesIndustry.biz