s888 games Lisa Simpson once said during an episode of “The Simpsons:” What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football? On Monday night, the entire Simpsons universe gets to experience it in a way not many could have imagined. The prime-time matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also take place at Springfield’s Atoms Stadium as part of “The Simpsons Funday Football” alternate broadcast. The altcast will be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and NFL+ (on mobile devices). ESPN and ABC have the main broadcast, while ESPN2 will carry the final “ManningCast” of the regular season. The replay will be available on Disney+ for 30 days. Globally, more than 145 countries will have access to either live or on replay. “We’re such huge football fans, and the Simpsons audience and the football audience, I feel, are like the same audience of just American families and football. And the Simpsons are so much a part of the DNA of the American family and culture that for us to, like, mush them together in this crazy video game, it’s so fun,” said Matt Selman, executive producer of “The Simpsons.” While the game is the focal point, the alternate broadcast, in some ways, will resemble a three-hour episode of “The Simpsons.” It starts with Homer eating too many hot dogs and having a dream while watching football. Homer joins the Cowboys in the dream while Bart teams up with the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will be sideline reporters. “That’s the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It’s just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises,” said Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN’s VP of edit and animation. This is the second year ESPN has done an alternate broadcast for an NFL game. It used the characters from “Toy Story” for last year’s Sunday morning game from London between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. “The Simpsons” has featured many sports-themed episodes during its 35 seasons. Even though “Homer at the Bat” remains the consensus favorite sports episode for many Simpsons fans, there have been football ones such as “Bart Star” and “Lisa The Greek.” There also was a Super Bowl-themed one after Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl 33 between Denver and Atlanta in 1999. Even though “The Simpsons” remains a staple on Fox’s prime-time schedule, it is part of the Disney family after their acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. All 35 seasons are on Disney+. The show’s creators have worked with ESPN and the NFL to make sure the look and sound is definitely Simpsonsesque. The theme song is a mash-up of “The Simpsons” opening and “Monday Night Football’s” iconic “Heavy Action.” There have also been pre-recorded skits and bits to use during the broadcast featuring Simpson’s legendary voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith. The telecast will be entirely animated, with the players’ movements in sync with what is happening in real-time on the field. That is done through player-tracking data enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats system and Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology. While Next Gen Stats tracks where players are on the field with a tracking chip in the shoulder pads, there is skeletal data tracking and limb tracking data — which uses 29 points per player — to get closer to the player’s movements. The other data tracking will allow Beyond Sports and Disney to add special characters to the game. For example, there might be a play where Lisa catches the ball and goes 30 yards instead of Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins. “Lisa is much smaller than the rest of the players. So, in real life, the ball would go over her head, but now, with data processing, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. So for the viewer, it still looks believable, and it all makes sense,” said Beyond Sports co-founder Nicolaas Westerhof. The other major challenge is making “The Simpsons” two-dimensional cartoon characters into 3-D simulations. Szykowny and his team worked to make that a reality over the past couple of months. “That’s a big leap of faith for them to say, hey, we trust you to make our characters 3-D and work with it. Our ESPN creative studio team has done a wonderful job,” Szykowny said. Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will be with Bart and the Bengals; while Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe join up with with Homer and the Cowboys. The broadcast will also feature ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning. ESPN’s Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will call the game from Bristol, Connecticut, and also be animated. They will wear Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield using VR technology. For Kimes, being part of the broadcast and being an animated Simpsons character is a dream come true. She is a massive fan of the show and has a framed photo of Lisa Simpson — who she said is a personal hero and icon — as part of her backdrop when she makes appearances on ESPN NFL shows from her home in Los Angeles. “I didn’t have any input, and I didn’t see anything beforehand, so I wasn’t sure if it would look like me, but it kind of does, which is very funny,” said Kimes, who drew Simpsons characters when she was a kid. “To see the actual staff turn me into one was a dream.” Even though the Bengals (4-8) and Cowboys (5-7) have struggled this season, Selman thinks both teams have personalities that appeal to “The Simpsons” universe. “We were just so lucky also that the Cowboys are sort of like a Homer Simpson-type team, American team, and Mike McCarthy might be a Homer-type guy, one might imagine,” he said. ”And then you have Joe Burrow on the other side who is a cool young, spiky-haired, blonde bad boy -- he’s like Bart. And that fits our character archetypes so perfectly. “If Homer is mad at Bart and has a hot dog dream while watching ’Monday Night Football’, and then it’s basically McCarthy versus Burrow, Homer versus Bart, and that’s the simple father versus son strangling — Homer strangling Bart dynamic that has been part of the show for 35 years. I don’t know if that would have worked as well if it was like Titans versus Jacksonville. We would have found something. We would have made it work.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

“One of the major problems we have faced in Nigeria as a filmmaking industry has been funding,” said Ini Edo, star and co-producer of Nigerian Netflix series Shanty Town . “So, the success of [ Shanty Town ] really made people in the private sector start to realize that this can actually be a commercial success, and this is a business worth investing in and...we can actually get global acceptability.” Stepping into Deadline’s Red Sea Studio in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Nollywood star said that the experience of making Shanty Town , which is now Netflix Africa’s most watched Nigerian drama on the streamer, was “pretty intense...and something, perhaps for us, that had never been done before.” The series, which was co-produced with Chichi Nworah, also stars Chidi Mokeme, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Sola Sobowale, Nancy Isime, Shaffy Bellow and Ali Nuhu and more. It follows a group of courtesans attempts to escape the grasp of a notorious kingpin, but political corruption and blood ties make freedom a near-impossible goal. It ended up sitting in the Top 10 in 8 countries, including the UK. “I think the originality of the story was a driving factor and also, we did a lot of upscaling with the technical quality of the [series],” she said. “We took very special interest in the cinematography, the sound, the scoring and it was a story that resonated a lot with the times that we filmed it. It did also touch on a lot of social vices and what we’re dealing with presently in the continent as Africans and even the world at large.” Edo continued: “The subject of the story is something that a lot of other countries could relate to because those were the ills that were happening in society at the time and are still happening. It just really shed light on the underworld as much as you’re trying to drive the original narrative of the Nigerian story.” She admits the project has caused “investors to open up some more” in the industry and said that Nigeria’s government is “taking us more seriously and has started paying attention to the industry.” Edo also talked about her latest projects, which includes upcoming Christmas comedy One Night Guests so for more on that news, check out the full interview above.

Homeland Security agent pleads not guilty to drug distribution conspiracy charge

Ancient Roman harbor wooden structures analyzed with MRI technologyNEW YORK (AP) — A judge confirmed Friday that President-elect Donald Trump won’t be sentenced this month in his hush money case, instead setting a schedule for prosecutors and his lawyers to expand on their ideas about what to do next. Amid a flurry of filings in the case since Trump’s election win this month, it had already become clear that the Nov. 26 sentencing date wouldn’t hold. Judge Juan M. Merchan’s order Friday formalized that without setting a new one. He called for more filing from both sides over the next 2 1/2 weeks about how to proceed in light of Trump’s impending return to the White House. Trump’s lawyers want the case to be dismissed outright, and immediately. They have said that it otherwise will interfere with his presidential transition and duties. Prosecutors have indicated that they’re open to putting the case on hold, perhaps as long as he’s in office, but they don’t want it to be scrapped altogether. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, has said the solution needs to balance the obligations of the presidency with “the sanctity of the jury verdict.” Bragg’s office declined to comment on Friday’s ruling. Trump spokesperson and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung hailed it as “a decisive win” for Trump. Trump, a Republican, was convicted in May of falsifying his business’ records to disguise the true nature of a chain of payments that provided $130,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels. She received it, through Trump’s then-lawyer, in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign. The payout was meant to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with the married Trump a decade earlier. He denies her claim and says he did nothing wrong.NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a judge again Friday to throw out his hush money conviction, balking at the prosecution’s suggestion of preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies. They called the idea “absurd.” The Manhattan district attorney's office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a blistering 23-page response. In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork earlier this month asking for the case to be dismissed. They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won't include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn't sentenced and his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity. Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option is overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less will interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment. It’s unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump’s request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution’s suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution’s suggestions. Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the “ongoing threat” that he’ll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. “To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these thuggish tactics,” the defense lawyers wrote. “However, the threat itself is unconstitutional.” The prosecution’s suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they argued. Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump has tabbed for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution’s novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump had died. Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to “fabricate” a solution “based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump" who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September “and a hypothetical dead defendant.” Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate in what’s already a unique case. “This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn’t “precipitously discard” the “meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers.” Prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation” during Trump’s impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury’s verdict, which came when he was out of office. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution . Other world leaders don’t enjoy the same protection. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges even as he leads that nation’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza . Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records . Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies. In their filing Friday, Trump’s lawyers citing a social media post in which Sen. John Fetterman used profane language to criticize Trump’s hush money prosecution. The Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that Trump deserved a pardon, comparing his case to that of President Joe Biden’s pardoned son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges . “Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. Trump’s hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has ended his two federal cases , which pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in all. Trump had been scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November. But following Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president’s sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office.

Special to the Gazette The City of Boston has announced a new program to support Boston homeowners in building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) on their property. This initiative, administered by the Boston Home Center (BHC), a division of the Mayor’s Office of Housing, offers a new bank loan option alongside grants and other financial assistance to help cover costs related to designing, permitting, and building an ADU. Additionally, the Planning Department is releasing an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Guidebook, an illustrated manual that will help property owners in Boston who may want to build an ADU on their property. This book is available online, and in all Boston Public Library branches. Building on the Mayor’s leadership to make Boston a home for everyone, these steps are important to increasing the City’s multigenerational housing stock, keeping families together and building wealth. “Accessory Dwelling Units are a powerful tool in our efforts to address the housing crisis in Boston,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “By creating more flexible and affordable living options, ADUs allow homeowners to maximize their property while contributing to the availability of housing in our neighborhoods. This initiative not only supports families looking to generate extra income or house loved ones but also strengthens our communities with more diverse and accessible housing choices.” Through the loan programs, the BHC provides income-eligible owners of 1-3 unit homes who plan to add an ADU with a Technical Assistant Grant of up to $7,500. This grant provides eligible homeowners with targeted funding and staff guidance throughout the pre-construction phases of researching, designing, and permitting their ADU. Additionally, homeowners can apply for an ADU Loan from the City of up to $50,000 to support construction costs. The ADU Loan carries 0% interest and is deferred, meaning there are no monthly payments. Homeowners approved for this program are paired with a BHC Construction Specialist who monitors progress throughout the building process. Eligible homeowners who receive an ADU Loan may also explore additional financing opportunities with participating lenders. To qualify for the program, applicants must meet specific income and asset limits. “Accessory Dwelling Units are an important part of our strategy to expand housing options in Boston,” said Sheila A. Dillon, Chief of Housing. “ADUs give homeowners a way to create additional living spaces that can serve as a source of income, provide housing for family members, and help address the city’s housing needs. By making it easier to build ADUs, we are supporting residents, increasing housing supply, and strengthening neighborhoods.” As part of this effort, the City is also piloting a new ADU Bank Loan in partnership with local banks, Leader Bank, Dedham/Southshore Bank, Needham Bank, and the Cooperative Bank. Recognizing the challenges posed by construction expenses, the Boston Home Center and the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics initiated a collaboration with Harvard’s Laboratory for Values in the Built Environment and local lending institutions to develop innovative solutions that ensure low- and moderate- income homeowners can access the unique benefits ADUs provide. This resulting loan fills a gap in the market, providing affordable financing to cover construction costs associated with building ADUs. Our research shows that homeowners need new loan products to meet the unique opportunity that rental ADUs can offer homeowners, and provide equitable access to ADU financing,” said Charu Singh, Research Associate at the Laboratory for Values in the Built Environment at Harvard GSD. “I’m proud of the groundbreaking work our group has done to equitably expand the lending toolbox, especially during this time when Boston is struggling with too few housing options and high costs.” Building on Mayor Wu’s commitment to remove barriers to building ADUs across Boston’s neighborhoods, the ADU Guidebook is designed to provide homeowners with practical guidance and inspiration for adding an ADU to their property, whether it is for additional living space, rental income, or housing family members. The ADU Guidebook features realistic, buildable designs tailored to Boston’s neighborhoods. Although the designs will still require permits and may need review by the Zoning Board of Appeal, they offer a clear starting point to help residents more easily move forward with their ADU. It will be available online and at all Boston Public Library branches. “This Guidebook is a fantastic starting point for anyone looking to add another unit to their home, and we hope it will inspire people to see ADUs as an expedient and unique way to add to our housing stock,” said Chief of Planning Kairos Shen. “I look forward to working with the community on new complementary zoning that will make the process of adding an ADU more flexible and affordable.” These initiatives align with the City’s broader zoning reform efforts to enable more housing options across Boston. By updating zoning regulations, the City aims to break down barriers and foster flexible housing solutions. ADUs not only help increase the housing stock but also offer residents opportunities to age in place, provide extra space for growing families, or generate rental income. ADUs can help residents stay in their neighborhoods, adapt their homes, and address their evolving needs. By allowing various forms of ADUs, the City aims to help homeowners fully utilize their properties, create more space, or unlock new income opportunities. Founded in 2010 as one of the first municipal innovation offices in the world, the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics serves as the City’s civic research and design team, building partnerships between internal and external agencies to pilot projects that increase the quality of life for all of Boston’s residents and visitors. The City of Boston’s Planning Department shapes growth that serves Boston’s residents and centers their needs. Our mission is to address our City’s greatest challenges: resilience, affordability, and equity, and to take real estate actions and prioritize planning, development, and urban design solutions that further these priorities. We seek to build trust with communities through transparent processes that embrace predictable growth and shape a more inclusive city for all.EPIC: Emotion recognition tech violates EU fundamental rights

What happens when 'The Simpsons' join 'Monday Night Football'? Find out during Bengals-CowboysATLANTA (AP) — The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others on Friday rejected an attempt by former Trump campaign lawyer Kenneth Chesebro to invalidate his guilty plea . Chesebro, Trump and 17 others were charged in August 2023 in a sprawling indictment that accused them of participating in a sweeping scheme to try to illegally overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy count a few months later after reaching a deal with prosecutors just before he was to go to trial. His lawyer t his month asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to invalidate the plea after McAfee in September tossed out the charge to which he had pleaded guilty. Defense attorney Manny Arora wrote that a failure to invalidate the plea would violate Chesebro's constitutional right to due process. McAfee's order denying that request said the motion was procedurally defective "in more ways than one.” He ultimately said he lacks jurisdiction to grant the request and therefore dismissed it. He noted that while Chesebro's filing challenges the validity of the indictment, he “already submitted a plea in response to this indictment — one of guilt.” While Chesebro did raise a pretrial challenge prior to his plea, he did not make the argument that ultimately caused the judge to throw out that charge. Arora had also argued in his filing that his request could be considered a “motion in arrest of judgment." But McAfee said that, technically, no judgment has been rendered against Chesebro because he was sentenced under Georgia's First Offender Act, which “defers further proceedings while the charge remains pending for the duration of the sentence.” Under that law, if Chesebro completes his probation without violating the terms or committing another crime, his record will be wiped clean. The request is also too late, McAfee wrote, because a motion in arrest of judgment must be filed during the term when a judgment is entered. Arora said that he had addressed McAfee's concerns in his motion but that the judge still found that he could not grant the request. He said he will file a habeas corpus motion, a civil proceeding used to challenge a conviction, and expects to get Chesebro's plea invalidated that way. Prosecutors have said Chesebro was part of a plot to have a group of 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate falsely saying that Trump had won Georgia and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. He pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents related to the the filing of that document with the federal court in Atlanta. Chesebro was one of four people to plead guilty in the case in the months following the indictment. The rest have pleaded not guilty. The case against Trump and the remaining defendants is mostly on hold pending a pretrial appeal of an order allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case despite what defense attorneys say is a conflict of interest. Even if the appeals court rules in Willis’ favor, the fate of the case against Trump is unclear since he is set to be sworn in again as president next month. Kate Brumback, The Associated Press

Romania far-right candidate urges voters to turn up for scrapped election( MENAFN - GetNews) The Seoul Metropolitan government will host the media art event Winter Festa: 2024 SEOULLIGHT GWANGHWAMUN, under this year's theme,“Luminous Axis,” from December 13, 2024, to January 5, 2025, throughout the Gwanghwamun area. This event will feature a media façade show on an international scale, accompanied by luminous axis sculptures by renowned artists displayed throughout Gwanghwamun Square, as well as various interactive content, all set spectacularly against the stunning backdrop of Gwanghwamun. Together, these elements will provide audiences with a captivating media art experience that harmoniously blends light, art, and technology. Seating areas will be arranged to enhance audience immersion, and various interactive events, such as Wish Light 2025, will be held. Additionally, it will feature various attractions, including a collaborative exhibition with Netflix hit series Squid Game Season 2, as well as a vibrant New Year Countdown. The main exhibition of the Gwanghwamun Media Façade will feature the signature media façade,“Luminous Symphony: The Symphony of Light,” David Hartono's“A Shining Journey,” David Hugonot Petit's“Suprême Ultime (Past - Present – Future),” Javier Cañal Sanchez's“ELEMENTAL SYMPHONY,” Yim Tae Kyu's“erehwon,” and five additional artworks selected through an open call. Video Link: Additionally, a new artwork by actor Ha Jung-woo will be showcased at the Yukjo Plaza Lighting Axis Cube, while media art pieces selected through a student contest will be projected onto the exterior wall of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts' Atelier Gwanghwa. Visitors can also experience a variety of lighting installations, including citizen participation message videos at Haechi Plaza and media art content at the State Council Site-Historic Heritage Plaza. A variety of attractions and events will take place throughout Gwanghwamun Square, culminating in a New Year Countdown to welcome 2025, which will kick off at 11:30 PM on December 31. 2024 SEOULLIGHT GWANGHWAMUN, running from December 13, 2024, to January 5, 2025, will operate daily from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. For more details about the event, please visit the official website at MENAFN13122024003238003268ID1108991890 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Same iconic statue, very different race. With two-way star Travis Hunter of Colorado and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty leading the field, these certainly aren't your typical Heisman Trophy contenders. Sure, veteran quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel from top-ranked Oregon and Cam Ward of No. 15 Miami are finalists for college football's most prestigious award as well, but the 90th annual ceremony coming up Saturday night at Lincoln Center in New York City offers a fresh flavor this year. To start with, none of the four are from the powerhouse Southeastern Conference, which has produced four of the past five Heisman winners — two each from Alabama and LSU. Jeanty, who played his home games for a Group of Five team on that peculiar blue turf in Idaho more than 2,100 miles from Manhattan, is the first running back even invited to the Heisman party since 2017. After leading the country with 2,497 yards rushing and 29 touchdowns, he joined quarterback Kellen Moore (2010) as the only Boise State players to be named a finalist. “The running back position has been overlooked for a while now," said Jeanty, who plans to enter the 2025 NFL draft. "There's been a lot of great running backs before me that should have been here in New York, so to kind of carry on the legacy of the running back position I think is great. ... I feel as if I'm representing the whole position.” With the votes already in, all four finalists spent Friday conducting interviews and sightseeing in the Big Apple. They were given custom, commemorative watches to mark their achievement. “I'm not a watch guy, but I like it,” said Hunter, flashing a smile. The players also took photos beneath the massive billboards in Times Square and later posed with the famous Heisman Trophy, handed out since 1935 to the nation's most outstanding performer. Hunter, the heavy favorite, made sure not to touch it yet. A dominant player on both offense and defense who rarely comes off the field, the wide receiver/cornerback is a throwback to generations gone by and the first full-time, true two-way star in decades. On offense, he had 92 catches for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns this season to help the 20th-ranked Buffaloes (9-3) earn their first bowl bid in four years. On defense, he made four interceptions, broke up 11 passes and forced a critical fumble that secured an overtime victory against Baylor. Hunter played 688 defensive snaps and 672 more on offense — the only Power Four conference player with 30-plus snaps on both sides of the ball, according to Colorado research. Call him college football’s answer to baseball unicorn Shohei Ohtani. “I think I laid the ground for more people to come in and go two ways,” Hunter said. “It starts with your mindset. If you believe you can do it, then you'll be able to do it. And also, I do a lot of treatment. I keep up with my body. I get a lot of recovery.” Hunter is Colorado's first Heisman finalist in 30 years. The junior from Suwanee, Georgia, followed flashy coach Deion Sanders from Jackson State, an HBCU that plays in the lower level FCS, to the Rocky Mountains and has already racked up a staggering combination of accolades this week, including The Associated Press player of the year. Hunter also won the Walter Camp Award as national player of the year, along with the Chuck Bednarik Award as the top defensive player and the Biletnikoff Award for best wide receiver. “It just goes to show that I did what I had to do,” Hunter said. Next, he'd like to polish off his impressive hardware collection by becoming the second Heisman Trophy recipient in Buffaloes history, after late running back Rashaan Salaam in 1994. “I worked so hard for this moment, so securing the Heisman definitely would set my legacy in college football,” Hunter said. “Being here now is like a dream come true.” Jeanty carried No. 8 Boise State (12-1) to a Mountain West Conference championship that landed the Broncos the third seed in this year's College Football Playoff. They have a first-round bye before facing the SMU-Penn State winner in the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal on New Year’s Eve. The 5-foot-9, 215-pound junior from Jacksonville, Florida, won the Maxwell Award as college football’s top player and the Doak Walker Award for best running back. Jeanty has five touchdown runs of at least 70 yards and has rushed for the fourth-most yards in a season in FBS history — topping the total of 115 teams this year. He needs 132 yards to break the FBS record set by Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State in 1988. In a pass-happy era, however, Jeanty is trying to become the first running back to win the Heisman Trophy since Derrick Henry for Alabama nine years ago. In fact, quarterbacks have snagged the prize all but four times this century. Gabriel, an Oklahoma transfer, led Oregon (13-0) to a Big Ten title in its first season in the league and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. The steady senior from Hawaii passed for 3,558 yards and 28 touchdowns with six interceptions. His 73.2% completion rate ranks second in the nation, and he's attempting to join quarterback Marcus Mariota (2014) as Ducks players to win the Heisman Trophy. “I think all the memories start to roll back in your mind,” Gabriel said. Ward threw for 4,123 yards and led the nation with a school-record 36 touchdown passes for the high-scoring Hurricanes (10-2) after transferring from Washington State. The senior from West Columbia, Texas, won the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Year award and is looking to join QBs Vinny Testaverde (1986) and Gino Torretta (1992) as Miami players to go home with the Heisman. “I just think there's a recklessness that you have to play with at the quarterback position,” Ward said. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballLive coverage: SpaceX to launch 4 Astranis MicroGEO satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral