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(CNN) The sounds recorded on one of the "black boxes" recovered from downed Germanwings Flight 9525 firms up investigators' theory that the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and then crashed the plane.

 "For God's sake, open the door!" Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer screamed as he banged on the cockpit door, pleading with the co-pilot.

 Thirteen minutes later, the plane slammed into the French Alps.

 The audio from the plane's cockpit voice recorder has not been released, but the German newspaper Bild published Sunday what it claims is a summary of the transcript from the recording.

 France's accident investigation agency, BEA, told CNN that the agency is "dismayed" by the voice recording leak to Bild.

 Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the leak could not have come from a BEA agent. She said the agency considers the report mere "voyeurism."

 According to Bild's report, Sondenheimer told co-pilot Andreas Lubitz that he didn't manage to go to the bathroom before takeoff. Lubitz tells him he can go anytime.

 Lubitz is believed to have locked the pilot of Flight 9525 out of the cockpit before putting the plane on a rapid descent into the mountains, French authorities have said.

 The flight took off 20 minutes late. After reaching cruising altitude, Sondenheimer asked Lubitz to prepare the landing.

 Once that's finished, Lubitz again tells the captain he "can go anytime."

 There is the sound of a seat being pushed backward after which the captain says, "You can take over."

 At 10:29 a.m., air traffic radar detects that the plane is starting to descend.

 Three minutes later, air traffic controllers try to contact the plane and receive no answer -- shortly after which an alarm goes off in the cockpit, warning of the "sink rate," Bild reported.

 Next comes the banging.

 Sondenheimer begs Lubitz to let him in. Passengers then begin to scream, according to the transcript obtained by Bild.

 Another three minutes pass. A loud metallic bang is heard at 7,000 meters (almost 23,000 feet).

 A minute and half later and 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) lower to the ground, an alarm says "Terrain -- pull up!"

 "Open the damn door!" the pilot says.

 It's 10:38, and the plane is at 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet). Lubitz's breathing can still be heard on the voice recorder, according to Bild's report.

 Two minutes later, investigators think they hear the plane's right wing scrape a mountaintop.

 Screams can be heard one final time.

 'Unbelievable' leak

 Cockpit recordings are some of the most sensitive and closely held parts of aviation crash investigations. They're never officially released, according to CNN aviation reporter Richard Quest.

 Quest called it "unbelievable" that the black box audio would be leaked in this manner.

 Communications between air traffic control and a plane's cockpit can be downloaded privately, but that's less common in Europe than it is in the United States.

 An edited and redacted version of the transcript is usually published in part of a final report on an incident.

 Although search teams have recovered the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder remains missing. That device could reveal crucial details about what happened during the final moments of the flight.

 What authorities know

 Jean Pierre Michel, lead investigator for the French inquiry, said on Saturday that investigators are not ruling out any scenario with respect to the crash out at this point.

 But French authorities have said that Lubitz appeared to have crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately into the Alps on Tuesday as it flew from Barcelona, Spain, toward Dusseldorf, Germany, with 150 people on board.

 Much attention has focused on Lubitz's state of mind since then, with suggestions that he may have had mental health issues.

 Lubitz, 27, passed his annual pilot recertification medical examination in summer 2014, a German aviation source told CNN.

 An official with Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, said that the exam only tests physical health, not psychological health.

 JUST WATCHED Police search Germanwings co-pilot's home for clues Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Police search Germanwings co-pilot's home for clues 00:10

 The official also said that the company was never given any indication Lubitz was depressed, and that if he went to a doctor on his own, he would have been required to self-report if deemed unfit to fly.

 A Dusseldorf clinic said he'd gone there twice, most recently on March 10, "concerning a diagnosis." But the University Clinic said it had not treated Lubitz for depression.

 The speculation about Lubitz' mental state is based on a letter found in a waste bin in his Dusseldorf apartment.

 The note, which was "slashed," said Lubitz was not able to do his job, city prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said Friday.

 The fact that investigators found "ripped, recent medical leave notes, including for the day of the offense, leads to the preliminary conclusion that the deceased kept his illness secret from his employer and his professional environment," prosecutors said.

 Germanwings corroborated that assertion, saying it had never received a sick note from Lubitz.

 Anxiety, burnout and depression

 A handful of publications, citing unnamed sources, have reported that Lubitz suffered from various psychological maladies.

 CNN has not been able to confirm these reports.

 Lubitz suffered from "generalized anxiety disorder," and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reported Sunday, citing sources close to the investigation. In 2010, Lubitz received injections of antipsychotic medication, the paper said.

 He was also prescribed a medication that influences neurotransmitters, but it's unclear when that happened, according to Le Parisien.

 The newspaper said investigators found a handful of pills in his apartment in addition to two sick notes, which forbade him from working from March 16 to March 29.

 The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported Friday that Lubitz suffered from mental illness and kept his diagnosis concealed from his employer.

 A subsequent report from the Times on Saturday, citing two officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz sought treatment before the crash for vision problems that might have put his career at risk. However, an official with Lufthansa, said that if Lubitz had vision problems, they would have been discovered during his pilot recertification medical examination.

 Authorities have not ruled out the vision problems could have been psychosomatic, according to the Times.

 Citing an unidentified senior investigator, German newspaper Die Welt said that Lubitz suffered from a severe "psychosomatic illness" and that German police seized prescription drugs that treat the condition. Lubitz suffered from a "severe subjective burnout syndrome" and from severe depression, the source told the newspaper.

 News reports also stated that antidepressants were found during the search of his apartment.

 Investigators are expected to question his relatives, friends and co-workers as they try to pin down what could have prompted the co-pilot to steer a jetliner full of people into a mountainside.

 Lubitz had a girlfriend, a teacher at a school in Dusseldorf not far from his apartment, according to German media.

 'This is a man whose life is totally broken'

 Dozens of people attended a remembrance ceremony Saturday for the victims of the crash at a church in a nearby town, Digne-les-Bains, France. Most of the people on the plane were from Germany and Spain.

 Relatives of the victims and local residents also gathered Saturday afternoon by a simple stone memorial set up near the crash site, in the village of Le Vernet. Flowers have been laid there, in the shadow of the snow-covered peaks of the French Alps.

 The mayor of one local community said he had seen Lubitz's father on Thursday evening, describing him as "a man in deep distress."

 "We get the impression that that man is bearing the whole weight of the disaster on his shoulders," Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of Prads-Haute-Bleone, said Saturday.

 "I can tell that this is a man whose life is totally broken," Bartolini said. "He had so much emotion in him." ||||| MONTABAUR, Germany (AP) — The pastor of the Lutheran church in Andreas Lubitz's hometown said Sunday that the community stands by him and his family, despite the fact that prosecutors blame the 27-year-old co-pilot for causing the plane crash that killed 150 people in southern France.

 Buses of the French gendarmerie, park and mask the homage ceremony with family members of Japanese victims in the area where the Germanwings jetliner crashed in the French Alps, in Le Vernet, France,... (Associated Press)

 Pope Francis delivers his blessing at the end of a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 29, 2015. Pope Francis has walked solemnly through St. Peter's Square in a Palm... (Associated Press)

 The German, left, and Japanese flags are deployed during an homage ceremony with family members of Japanese victims in front of a stele, a stone slab erected as a monument, set up in memory of the victims... (Associated Press)

 The German, left, and Japanese flags are deployed during an homage ceremony with family members of Japanese victims in the area where the Germanwings jetliner crashed in the French Alps, in Le Vernet,... (Associated Press)

 In this still image photo taken from video, people leave the protestant Luther church in the hometown of co-pilot Andeas Lubitz, in Montabaur, Germany, Sunday, March 29, 2015. A church service was held... (Associated Press)

 In this still image photo taken from video, Priest Michael Dietrich, from the hometown of co-pilot Andeas Lubitz talks during an interview with AP Television, in Montabaur, Germany, Sunday, March 29,... (Associated Press)

 The town of Montabaur has been rattled by the revelation that Lubitz, who first learned to fly at a nearby glider club, may have intentionally caused Tuesday's crash of Germanwings Flight 9525.

 "For us, it makes it particularly difficult that the only victim from Montabaur is suspected to have caused this tragedy, this crash — although this has not been finally confirmed, but a lot is indicating that — and we have to face this," pastor Michael Dietrich said.

 He spoke to The Associated Press after holding a church service Sunday to commemorate the crash victims and support their families.

 "The co-pilot, the family belong to our community, and we stand by this, and we embrace them and will not hide this, and want to support the family in particular," Dietrich said.

 He added that there is no direct contact with the family at the moment, but that he believes they are receiving good assistance.

 French prosecutors haven't questioned the family yet "out of decency and respect for their pain," Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said.

 Authorities are trying to understand what made Lubitz lock his fellow pilot out of the cockpit and ignore his pleas to open the door before slamming the plane into a mountain on what should have been a routine flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

 French officials refused to confirm or deny a partial transcript that German newspaper Bild am Sontag said it had obtained of the cockpit recording. The paper reported Sunday that the pilot left for the toilet shortly before 10:30 a.m. and was heard trying unsuccessfully to get into the cockpit again a few minutes later, then shouting "for God's sake open the door."

 After several more minutes in which the pilot could be heard trying to break open the door, the plane crashed into the mountainside, according to Bild am Sonntag, which didn't say how it obtained the report.

 Brice, the Marseille prosecutor said that none of the bodies recovered so far have been identified, denying German media reports that Lubitz's body had been found.

 Tests on the body of the co-pilot may provide clues on any medical treatment he was receiving. Germany prosecutors said Friday that Lubitz was hiding an illness and sick notes for the day of the crash from his employer.

 Dietrich, the pastor, said he knew Lubitz as a teenager, when he attended religious education 13 years ago, and his mother, who worked as a part-time organist in the community.

 "When I worked with her or talked to her, it was very good and very harmonious. We had good conversations," Dietrich said. "I know her and her family. This does not make sense. It is incomprehensible for me, for us, for everyone who knew her and the family."

 "From what I've heard, there were no obvious signs that there is anything in the background that could lead to this," he added.

 In Rome, Pope Francis on Sunday prayed for the victims of the plane crash, citing in particular the 16 German students returning from an exchange trip to Spain.

 Francis offered the prayer after Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square at the start of Holy Week.

 In Le Vernet, a town near the crash site, families and friends of those killed were still coming to terms with what had happened.

 "Members of the family shed tears as they went to see the site," said Ippei Yamanaka, co-worker of Japanese passenger Junichi Sato who died in the crash. "It was particularly moving to see Mr. Sato's father asking the leader of the Kempeitai (a Japanese military rescue team), with many tears in his eyes, for them to continue the search operation and for it to finish earlier even by just one day."

 "His wife says she still she cannot believe what has happened, saying that it almost feels like her husband is away on his business trip and that it still feels like he is going to return soon," Yamanaka said.

 ___

 Frank Jordans in Berlin, Philippe Sotto in Paris and Frances D'Emilio in Rome, contributed to this report. ||||| In an interview published on Sunday, Airbus chairman Tom Enders sharply criticized some television discussions about Tuesday's crash, in which an Airbus 320 came down in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

 "What we should critically examine is the mischief that some 'experts' get up to, especially in TV talk shows," Enders told the weekly Bild am Sonntag.

 "Sometimes people there speculate, fantasize and lie with no basis in fact," he said, describing many of the opinions expressed as "outrageous nonsense" that constituted "mockery of the victims."

 Referring to reports that the co-pilot of the plane appeared to have deliberately flown Germanwings flight 4U9525 into a rocky mountainside, Enders said it was important not to think that the exception was the rule.

 "One black sheep does not constitute a herd," he said, adding that the overwhelming majority of pilots were "very reliable" and "excellently" trained.

 'Meaningless explanations'

 Leading figures in the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) have also called for caution with regard to speculation on the causes of the crash.

 "We will perhaps never know exactly what happened, and we should simply not say anything," Margot Kässmann, the former council chair of the EKD, wrote in an article for the same newspaper.

 Kässmann says we may never know what happened

 She said journalists should heed the same advice and "stop giving us explanations that explain nothing."

 The current EKD council chair, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, also warned in the Sunday edition of the Berlin paper BZ against seeing the co-pilot's actions as being evidence of supernatural evil.

 "We should not attribute people's acts to some dark powers or other," he said, adding that "no one knows what abysses of the soul led to this iniquitous act."

 Case still open

 The mayor of the co-pilot's home town of Montabaur has also called on journalists to exercise restraint toward the man's parents.

 "Regardless of whether the accusations against the co-pilot are true, we sympathize with his family and ask the media to be considerate," Edmund Schaaf said, alluding to the crowds of reporters that have gathered in the town.

 German state prosecutors and police spokespeople have said there will be no official statements on the case before Monday, and a chief French investigator, General Jean-Pierre Michel, told French media on Saturday that other hypotheses on the cause of the crash must also be examined.

 "[We] have no right today to rule out other hypotheses, including mechanical hypotheses, as long as we haven't proved that the plane had no (mechanical) problem," he said.

 The European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents European pilots, said on Saturday that leaks of data from the crashed plane's voice recorder to the media - which led to the allegations that the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane - were a "serious breach of fundamental and globally accepted international accident investigation rules."

 tj/sms (dpa, Reuters, AFP, epd, dpa) ||||| Rescuers still to find plane’s flight data recorder, leading to growing calls for caution in blaming co-pilot Andreas Lubitz for deliberately downing the aircraft

 Forensic teams have identified 78 distinct DNA strands from body parts spread across the remote mountainside in the French Alps where Germanwings flight 4U9525 crashed, killing all 150 people on board.

 Rescuers are still, however, to locate the plane’s second black box — its flight data recorder — six days after the Barcelona to Düsseldorf flight crashed into a rocky ravine at 435 miles (700km) per hour.

 Between 400 and 600 body parts have been located and are currently being examined.

 “We haven’t found a single body intact,” said Patrick Touron, the deputy director of the police’s criminal research institute. Identification experts were using dental records, DNA samples from family members, fingerprints, jewellery and bits of ID card to help the process.

 The black box, which is actually orange and weighs around 10kg, was originally in a protective casing, but only the empty casing has been found.

 Captain Yves Naffrechoux, a mountain ranger, told Agence France-Presse: “If it has not been completely destroyed or pulverised, the black box will be under the rubble and debris. We must work with caution and a lot of precision. We have to look under every last bit of plane and lift every rock.”

 An access road was being built to the site to allow all-terrain vehicles to remove some of the larger parts of the plane.

 Prosecutors in France and Germany have suggested that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed the plane. They have retrieved a torn-up sicknote from his flat in Düsseldorf, which was dated for the day of the disaster. Lubitz, who is from the small German town of Montabaur, had a history of depression which he hid from his employer and colleagues, they said.

 The suicide-mass murder theory is based on the cockpit voice recorder retrieved from the crash site near the village of Le Vernet. According to Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper, the captain, Patrick Sondheimer, asked Lubitz to prepare the plane to land in Düsseldorf. Lubitz responded “laconically”. Sondheimer then left the cockpit to go to the toilet, telling his co-pilot: “You can take over.”

 There was a sound of a seat being pushed back, and the door clicking shut. According to Bild, the plane then went into a steady descent. Minutes later there is a loud knocking and the voice of the captain saying: “For God’s sake open the door.” In the final moments the screams of passengers can be heard.

 German and European pilots’ associations urged caution last week in stating the cause of the crash until the second black box was discovered and the air accident investigation brought to a conclusion.

 Jean-Pierre Michel, the head of the French investigation agency, said that some technical details of what precisely happened to the Airbus A320 aircraft were still missing. “At the moment we can’t rule out the hypothesis of a technical fault,” Michel told the French channel BFM TV.

 The German chief executive of the Airbus Group, Tom Enders, expressed his irritation on Sunday and criticised TV talkshow coverage of the disaster. “There has been speculation without facts, fantasy and lies,” Enders said. Such “outrageous nonsense” mocked the victims, he added.

 In Montabaur, where Lubitz lived part of the time with his father, mother and younger brother, prayers were said on Sunday for the victims of the crash, and for the co-pilot and his grieving family. Hundreds of worshippers packed into St Peter’s Catholic church on the town’s cobbled main street, on a morning of pouring rain.

 Many there believed that investigators had been too quick to blame Lubitz for the disaster. Candles and flowers have been left outside the church, and one note read: “We think of all victims of this tragic crash, and their families and friends, in these difficult hours.”

 The priest expressed sympathy for Lubitz’s parents whom, he said, had found themselves “at the centre of attention”, the families and friends of the victims, and the rescue workers in France.

  ||||| Andreas Lubitz, 27, was living with the unnamed 26-year-old woman in his Düsseldorf apartment up until the crash last Tuesday, Germany’s Bild newspaper and Der Spiegel magazine reported.

 She worked as a teacher at an unnamed comprehensive school in the state of North Rhine Westfalia and Bild said she had told her pupils that she was pregnant. Lubitz had also recently ordered two new cars for them.

 The woman – given the pseudonym, Sabine L, by Bild to protect her identity – visited the crash site last week, discovering on the way there that Lubitz had deliberately crashed the plane, killing himself and 149 others.

 Sabine was said to have met Lubitz when the two were school students doing holiday jobs at a hamburger restaurant. “Eventually they no longer kept their relationship a secret,” the former manager was quoted as saying.

 It is thought that Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane because he was deeply depressed and was being treated for vision problems that could have ended his flying career. Some sources suggested he was suffering from a detached retina.

 The reports came as a transcript of the last voice recordings was revealed yesterday, which reveals that Lubitz urged the pilot to go to the toilet, leaving him alone in the cockpit. Passengers can be heard screaming uncontrollably for minutes before the crash, according to details published by Bild am Sonntag.

 Over the course of the transcript, Lubitz can be heard telling Captain Patrick Sondheimer that he is ready to take over “any time”.

 As Capt Sondheimer orders Lubitz to prepare the plane for landing in Düsseldorf, Lubitz appears to give clues about what he is about to do, responding with “hopefully” and “let’s wait and see”. He then tells Capt Sondheimer: “You can go now”.

 Two minutes later, the Captain says, “you can take over now” and the sound of a cockpit seat sliding backwards is followed by the clicking of the cockpit door.

 Shortly after, Lubitz puts the aircraft into descent mode. Air traffic controllers can then be heard trying to contact the plane and the automatic “sink rate” alarm starts sounding.

 Seconds later, there is thudding on the cockpit door. Capt Sondheimer can be heard shouting, “For God’s sake open the door!” Behind him, passengers can be heard screaming. Among the last sounds appear to be attempts by Capt Sondheimer to break down the door with the aircraft’s emergency axe, as he shouts: “Open the goddam door.” But to no avail. Shortly after, the plane’s wing is heard scraping the side of a mountain. French officials have refused to confirm or deny the transcript. |||||Summary:

– Investigators carrying out the grim task of recovering wreckage and human remains from the Germanwings crash say they have not found an intact body—or the flight data recorder. To aid the search, an access road is being built to the remote site in the French Alps, where forensic teams have so far recovered DNA belonging to 78 of the 150 people killed, the Guardian reports. Investigators say that so far, only the empty protective casing of the black box has been found. In other developments: Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is believed to have deliberately crashed the plane, but with the failure to find the flight's second black box, some in the aviation world are saying it is too early to rule out other causes. Airbus chairman Tom Enders slammed TV coverage of the crash in an interview published yesterday, Deutsche Welle reports. "Sometimes people there speculate, fantasize, and lie with no basis in fact," he said, calling some of the reporting "outrageous nonsense" that was a "mockery of the victims." The cockpit voice recorder was recovered soon after the crash, and German newspaper Bild has published what it says is a leaked transcript. Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer (also spelled Sonderheimer or Sondheimer, depending on the source) can be heard pleading for Lubitz to let him back in the cabin, shouting, "Open the goddamn door!" as passengers scream minutes before impact, according to the transcript. A spokeswoman for France's accident investigation agency tells CNN that investigators are "dismayed" by the leak. Over the weekend, there were reports that Lubitz suffered from a psychomatic illness that may have been linked to a vision problem. German newspapers, including Bild, also reported that Lubitz's girlfriend, a teacher, was pregnant and the couple had planned to marry, according to the Independent. In Lubitz's hometown of Montabaur, the local Lutheran pastor tells the AP that despite mounting evidence that Lubitz caused the crash, he was still part of the community and the church is standing by his family. He says Lubitz's mother is a part-time organist for the church and he knew the co-pilot as a teenager. "This does not make sense. It is incomprehensible for me, for us, for everyone who knew her and the family," he says.


– The New England Patriots overcame a 21-point deficit today with 49 unanswered points to rock the Buffalo Bills 49-21, the AP reports. The win earned the Pats home-field advantage and the AFC's top seed. Tom Brady threw for 338 yards and finished with the second-most passing yards in NFL history, 5,235—behind only Drew Brees, who threw for 5,486 this year with the New Orleans Saints. More NFL action, from USA Today: The Miami Dolphins knocked the New York Jets out of playoff contention with a 19-17 win, burying coach Rex Ryan's pledge to win the Super Bowl this year. The Jets reached the AFC championship game each of the past two years. The Atlanta Falcons scored a team-record 42 first-half points against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and cruised to a 45-24 victory, securing the No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs. The San Diego Chargers ended the Oakland Raiders' playoff hopes with a 38-26 victory. The Raiders' 8-year playoff drought continues. The Baltimore Ravens clinched the No. 2 seed in the AFC and a first-round bye by holding off the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-16. Backup quarterback Matt Flynn set Green Bay Packer records with 480 yards passing and 6 touchdowns, out-dueling Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford in a 45-41 victory. Stafford threw for 520 yards and 5 touchdowns. The Houston Texans botched a 2-point conversion and saw their rally fall short against the Tennessee Titans in a 23-22 loss. The New Orleans Saints set several club and NFL records in a 45-17 rout of the Carolina Panthers. Drew Brees threw for 389 yards and 5 touchdowns. The San Francisco 49ers locked up the NFC's No. 2 seed and a first-round bye with a 34-27 victory over the St. Louis Rams. Michael Vick tossed three TDs as the Philadelphia Eagles thrashed the Washington Redskins, 34-10, in a fourth straight victory. The Indianapolis Colts secured the top 2012 NFL draft pick by losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 19-13. Hello quarterback controversy? Maybe so, if the Colts draft Andrew Luck, USA Today reports. Click here for more NFL updates.

Expand this summary.

JACKSONVILLE -- Peyton Manning had just watched his Colts finish the season with worst record in the NFL, securing the No. 1 pick in the draft next April, falling 19-13 to an almost equally futile Jacksonville club.

 What was he talking about in the Indianapolis locker room at EverBank Field late Sunday afternoon?

 Next year's Super Bowl -- which Manning pointed out is in New Orleans.

 Seriously? You bet.

 The certain NFL Hall of Famer underwent a pair of neck operations this year which left Indianapolis without its heart, if not its soul.

 "I know how boring it is for me to talk about rehab, I can't imagine how boring it is for you all to write about rehab information,'' Manning said. "It's just not very exciting. So I look forward to when we all can get passed that but unfortunately we're still in the process.''

 What a process the next few months could be. Manning, who turns 36 before the next NFL Draft, has thrown for almost 55,000 yards and it one touchdown shy of 400 scoring throws. But this year, he didn't throw a pass. He was the highest paid cheerleader in pro sports, making $26 million. He stands to collect another $28 million in March, if the Colts keep him. And owner Jim Irsay said Sunday for the second time in the last few weeks, if Manning is healthy he will be in Indianapolis.

 But that's where it gets juicy. What about that top pick the Colts now own? Where Indy turns with it could change the face of the entire draft next spring with dozens of future pros waiting and wondering. One decision will determine another among the clubs with top selections.

 Right now, it looks like Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck will be a Colt. And he said a few weeks ago at the Home Depot College Football Awards Show that he wouldn't speculate his draft status but would be thrilled to play with Peyton if it came to that.

 But who wouldn't play with Manning? On Saturday, he stood on the Colts' sideline and shouted encouragement the entire contest.

 "He's a team guy, he's a true professional and I wouldn't expect anything less of him,'' said long-time center Jeff Saturday, who has snapped the ball to Manning for 13 years. "He's a Colt all the way and has done a lot of things to help this football team and he's in it whether he's on the field or having to watch.''

 Once a Super Bowl contender, it's a team that is in transition, however. There's little doubt if Luck joins Indianapolis, the clock starts ticking on Manning's final throws as a Colt.

 "We'll see how it all shakes out,'' said Saturday, who is actually pondering retirement. "Obviously none of us in this room are in control. Mr. Irsay is going to handle all that and you just kind of put it in his hands and trust the organization and the direction it decides to move. Whoever is here, we'll keep playing and suiting up and doing our best to keep winning.''

 There's also questions about Indy coach Jim Caldwell's future.

 "We'll see what happens,'' Caldwell said, with a team meeting today back home.

 Saturday added, "Listen, you only have control as a player when you win. Once you stop winning all the power gets taken out of your hands. Tough season man, you've just got to trust the organization and what they want to do.''

 Does he think there's a chance Manning could have played his final game in Indianapolis as well?

 "I don't even want to speculate,'' Saturday said. "Obviously for what Peyton has done for this organization, this team, I've got too much respect for him as a man to try to speculate on what's going to happen with him. Whatever happens he'll do the best that's for his family.''

 Frustration was obvious on Manning's face in the visiting team's dressing room.

 "It certainly has been a different season, first one not being out there, being a part of it. It was hard not being out there with my teammates I've never taken for granted being healthy and being able to play,'' he said. "I will say that. I don't think I've ever shorted myself any opportunity to play and to practice. That's how everybody should play, that way, so I have always played that way. So I haven't enjoyed watching the team lose guys and guys struggle. … It hasn't been a whole lot of fun for anybody.''

 Does he ponder sharing the spotlight with Luck? That would be a little strange. Luck once attending the Manning family's passing camp in New Orleans. Peyton's dad, Archie, and Andrew's father, Oliver, were teammates in the NFL.

 "That's something I haven't thought a whole lot about, the draft is four months away,'' Manning claimed. "The Colts are going to do what they have to do. The draft is something that the personnel department will address and they'll deal with that as they see fit. As far as can I co-exist with anybody, I've been able to co-exist with any player I've ever played with. I've always been a good teammate that way. To speculate who we're going to draft and all that, that's more for other people to do, not necessarily the players.''

 Right now, Manning says, he's got to get healthy. Then he'll take things from there. If anything, Luck is insurance should Manning never make it back from the neck problems.

 There's a really good chance Indy will undergo huge changes anyway, with a host of veterans on their way out. It's a team, Manning confesses, that just got older with time.

 "we all want to do certain things but that doesn't mean you're going to get to do it. I want to play in the Masters but it's not going to happen,'' he said. "It's part of it is the expression that's used a lot but that's just the truth. We'll see how it all works out.

 "The priority for me is getting healthy. I've got to get healthy for me, I've got to get healthy for the team. I'm under contract with the Colts. That's my job is to get healthy for them. It's been hard not being able to help this year on the field. I've learned when you're not playing there's really not a whole lot you can do to help. I've tried to be here, encourage guys, I've tried to give an idea here or there but the best way for me to have helped all the years was by playing.

 I want to get back to be able to play on the field, that's where my priority is at this point.''

 Despite the nightmare year, Manning still found a little humor in his situation. Last spring, because of the NFL lockout, he couldn't use the team's facilities.

 "Not being able to rehab at our facility this offseason was tough,'' Manning said. "You go to a place (somewhere else), you are rehabbing, the last next to you is getting her bunions worked on, asking if she should draft (Dallas) Clark for her fantasy team. It's kind of hard to rehab and deal with that.''

 On Sunday, Luck and Manning were about as far apart as possible. Andrew was getting ready for the Fiesta Bowl tonight in Arizona while Peyton was shaking his head in disgust at another failed scoring drive.

 How will it all work out, the debate will rage. Should the Colts dump Manning for the future with Luck. Could the two exist together for a few years while Luck matures. Or will Indianapolis trade the pick to rebuild around its star.

 Old vs. new. The past vs. the future. It's an old obstacle, one that must be debated from time to time in every athletic arena and business.

 But now the main question that really heats the argument has been answered. The Colts lost Sunday. Now Indianapolis has to figure out how to win the biggest question in all of sports, the one that can turn a franchise for decades, the one they made with Manning 14 years ago that paid off huge … which way now? ||||| Tom Brady led the New England Patriots back from a three-touchdown deficit as they scored 49 straight points and clinched home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs with a 49-21 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

 New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez celebrates a long gain to near the goal line, which set up a touchdown, against the Buffalo Bills in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Foxborough,... (Associated Press)

 New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez (81) tries to break free of Buffalo Bills linebacker Chris Kelsay (90) during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday Jan.... (Associated Press)

 New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, right, hugs Buffalo Bills linebacker Kirk Morrison after an NFL football game in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012. The Patriots won 49-21 to clinch home-field... (Associated Press)

 New England Patriots' Devin McCourty (32) and Kyle Arrington (24) break up a pass to Buffalo Bills wide receiver Ruvell Martin (82) during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Foxborough, Mass.,... (Associated Press)

 New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez (81) steps into the end zone for a touchdown during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday Jan.... (Associated Press)

 New England Patriots defensive end Mark Anderson (95) breaks free from Buffalo Bills tackle Chris Hairston (75) and sacks quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (14) during the second quarter of an NFL football... (Associated Press)

 Brady finished the regular season with the second most yards passing in NFL history, 5,235, after throwing for 338. Drew Brees, who last week broke Dan Marino's record of 5,084 with the Miami Dolphins in 1984, added 389 Sunday for the New Orleans Saints and ended with 5,486.

 The Patriots (13-3) finished the season with eight straight wins. But for the second straight game, they fell behind early. They beat the Miami Dolphins 27-24 after trailing 17-0 at halftime then rallied after the Bills (6-10) scored touchdowns on their first three possessions, drawing boos from the home fans.

 ___

 SAINTS 45, PANTHERS 17

 At New Orleans, _ Drew Brees threw for 389 yards and five touchdowns as New Orleans set a slew of NFL and club records.

 The NFL single-season records set by the Saints (13-3), who head into the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak, included offensive yards with 7,474, team yards passing with 5,347 and first downs with 416.

 Brees, who was 28 of 35, finished with a record 468 completions this season, breaking Peyton Manning's 2010 mark of 450. He finished the season completing 71.6 percent of his passes, breaking his own 2009 NFL record 70.6 completion percentage.

 Tight end Jimmy Graham had 97 yards receiving, finishing with an NFL record 1,310 for a tight end.

 The Panthers finished 6-10.

 ___

 JAGUARS 19, COLTS 13

 At Jacksonville, Maurice Jones-Drew ran for a season-high 169 yards, clinching the NFL rushing title and breaking Fred Taylor's single-season franchise record in the Jaguars' victory.

 The Jaguars (5-11) became the first AFC South opponent to sweep Indianapolis (2-14) since 2002 and gave outgoing owner Wayne Weaver a victory in his final game.

 The Colts may have been the big winners, though. Indianapolis locked up the top pick in April's NFL draft, setting the stage to select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.

 Indy would have dropped to the No. 2 spot in the draft with a victory in Jacksonville. Instead, owner Jim Irsay will have the choice to draft Luck and give the team a young quarterback to join four-time MVP Peyton Manning.

 ___

 TITANS 23, TEXANS 22

 At Houston, Matt Hasselbeck threw two touchdown passes as the Titans kept alive their playoff hopes.

 The Titans (9-7) have their first winning record since 2008 in Mike Munchak's first season, but their postseason fate depended on the outcome of later games in Cincinnati, Oakland and Denver. Tennessee got some early help when the Jets lost in Miami.

 Houston (10-6) will head into its first postseason on a three-game losing streak. The Texans were locked into the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs and coach Gary Kubiak played mostly reserves in the second half.

 Rookie starter T.J. Yates left the game after one series with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Jake Delhomme. Kubiak said Yates could have returned if necessary.

 The Texans pulled within a point late in the game on a 5-yard TD pass by Delhomme, but failed on a 2-point conversion that would have won it.

 ____

 DOLPHINS 19, JETS 17

 At Miami, Mark Sanchez threw three interceptions and the Jets were eliminated from the AFC wild-card playoff race.

 Each turnover led to a field goal, and the Jets gave up six third-down conversions during the Dolphins' 21-play, 94-yard drive for their only touchdown.

 The Jets (8-8) came into the game needing a win along with losses by three other teams to reach the playoffs. Instead, they finished the season with three consecutive defeats, a big step backward for a team that reached the AFC title game each of the past two years.

 The Dolphins (6-10) completed their third consecutive losing season, their longest such stretch since the 1960s.

 ___

 PACKERS 45, LIONS 41

 At Green Bay, backup quarterback Matt Flynn threw a touchdown pass to Jermichael Finley with 1:10 left to finish off his record-setting day of 480 yards and six TD passes.

 With Aaron Rodgers resting for the playoffs, Flynn set club single-game records for yards passing and touchdowns. It was an ideal afternoon for the Packers (15-1) who got to rest their starting quarterback and several other big-name players without losing momentum.

 Flynn barely got the Packers past Matthew Stafford, who threw for 520 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions. Playoff-bound Detroit (10-6), has lost 21 straight road games to the Packers, including the postseason.

 ___

 BEARS 17, VIKINGS 13

 At Minneapolis, Charles Tillman's interception return in the second quarter gave Chicago (8-8) the lead, allowing the Bears to stop their five-game losing streak despite 3 1/2 sacks by Jared Allen.

 Allen finished the season with 22 sacks, behind Michael Strahan's NFL mark of 22 1/2 for the Giants in 2001.

 Joe Webb relieved Christian Ponder at quarterback for the Vikings (3-13) for the third time in the last month, but the scrambling Webb wasn't able to keep the Vikings from matching the worst record in franchise history.

 ___

 EAGLES 34, REDSKINS 10

 At Philadelphia, Michael Vick threw three touchdown passes, including a 62-yarder to DeSean Jackson, as the Eagles closed the season with four straight wins.

 The Eagles (8-8) are hoping to carry the momentum from their strong finish into next season. But they can't be satisfied after entering the year with Super Bowl aspirations.

 It's the first time since 2007 that Philadelphia didn't qualify for the postseason and just the fourth time in coach Andy Reid's 13 seasons. The Eagles set a franchise record for total yards on offense with 6,386.

 The Redskins (5-11) finished in last place in the NFC East for a franchise-worst fourth straight year. It was Mike Shanahan's worst full season in 18 years as a coach.

 ___

 49ERS 34, RAMS 27

 At St. Louis, Michael Crabtree caught two touchdown passes, one from kicker David Akers on a perfectly executed trick play, as San Francisco wrapped up the No. 2 playoff seed in the NFC and a first-round bye.

 Crabtree and Vernon Davis had big days for a team short of pass catchers and Tarell Brown had a pair of interceptions that led to touchdowns as the 49ers (13-3) beat the Rams (2-14) for the second time the last five games. ||||| Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens had never felt so appreciative of an NFL officiating crew as they did on Thursday. |||||


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– Let it be said that Tom Hardy is a man of his word. A 2016 Esquire UK profile opened with an anecdote about how he had to add a fresh tattoo to his tattoo-heavy body because of a bet he made and lost with Leonardo DiCaprio. His Revenant co-star thought Hardy would walk away with an Oscar nomination, Hardy disagreed, to his eventual peril. He got the nom, lost the bet, and had to get a tattoo of DiCaprio's design. And as MTV News reports, there's now photo proof that he did. In the Esquire interview, Hardy hinted at the eventual inking, saying, "He wrote, in this really sh--ty handwriting: 'Leo knows everything.' Ha! I was like, 'OK, I'll get it done, but you have to write it properly.'" But, he added, "I haven't got it yet because it sucks." That's apparently changed, as evidenced by a photo posted to Instagram of Hardy posing with a photographer in San Francisco. On Hardy's right bicep you can make out the words "Leo knows all."

At some point in the not too distant future, Tom Hardy needs to book himself in for a new tattoo. The 39-year-old British actor has already got quite a few, as the markings protruding from his T-shirt — and the many topless shots that exist of him on the internet — attest. He's had the London skyline, a Chinese dragon, his wife's name (and his ex-wife's initials), a Madonna and child and a Buddha with an AK47. This latest one though, he's dragging his heels about. "I haven't got it yet," he says cheerily, taking a deep lungful from his electronic cigarette, "because it sucks."

 Hardy had a wager with Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he starred in last year's The Revenant, a story of betrayal and vengeance among 19th-century fur trappers. DiCaprio predicted that Hardy would get an Oscar nomination for his supporting role as a feral frontiersman who leaves DiCaprio's character for dead after the latter is mauled by a grizzly bear. Hardy bet a tattoo of the winner's choosing that he wouldn't. Hardy lost. Hardy recreates DiCaprio's design on a Post-it note for me. "He wrote, in this really shitty handwriting: 'Leo knows everything.' Ha! I was like, 'OK, I'll get it done, but you have to write it properly.'"

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 And he probably will. Hardy's body art is very much a statement of his commitment: to his lovers, to his family, to himself. Also, to his agent. He has her name, Lindy King, tattooed on the inside of his arm, which he said he would do if she ever got him into Hollywood. Thanks to gigs like The Revenant, in which Hardy brought a magnetic savagery to every scene; or 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road, which saw him knock the stuffing back into the moth-eaten action movie franchise; or playing Bane in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises and thereby creating an instantly iconic super-villain who was as terrifying as he was kinky — she most certainly did.

 But Hardy is both in Hollywood and not in Hollywood. He's matinee-idol handsome, with plump lips, smouldering eyes and those much-papped pecs, but he resists playing the pretty, heroic roles his physiognomy was made for. He prefers to play gangsters, villains and psychopaths. And he's very, very good at it. He has an innate, undeniable charisma on screen that puts him at the top of every director's wish list — all right, as we'll get on to, perhaps not all of them — but often forgoes behemoth movies in favour of smaller, weirder films in which he can experiment, cut loose. He is steadfastly tightlipped about his personal life, but refreshingly candid about his profession. His friendship is something to be treasured; his enmity is something to be feared.

 Also, have you seen the pictures that go with this article? They were Hardy's idea. All of them, from the makeup to the location, to the outfits, to the gun and fruit props. Amazing, right? But also, WTF? Tom Hardy is not your average actor, not your average movie star. In fact, he's not your average man.

 He started out averagely enough but quickly demonstrated a reluctance to stay so. Tom Hardy was born on 15 September 1977, the only child of Edward (aka "Chips"), an advertising executive and sometime comedy writer, and Anne, an artist. He was raised in East Sheen, a pleasant suburb of west London. He went to nice private schools, where, he told me when we met once before, he "wasn't the best student". Drama was a passing interest, though it was encouraged by Chips and Anne because, as he said, "from a very privileged position I was underachieving and my desperate parents were like, 'Fucking hell, we've got to find something for Tom to do.'"

 Then things got worse. Underachieving turned into serious misbehaving — including getting caught with a friend in a stolen Mercedes-Benz with a firearm — which eventually spiralled into a debilitating drink and drug addiction. "Inside I wanted it to stop," he told me when I interviewed him last time for the cover of the May 2015 issue of Esquire, "but if you get caught out you keep putting your hand in the fire because you're a bad dog and that's what's expected of you. And it's just a waste. Such a waste. I know plenty of people who were born with a nice silver spoon or whatever — very dead. And died painfully, and unnecessarily."

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 He did find his way to the Drama Centre in London and got his first professional gigs in Steven Spielberg's WWII drama Band of Brothers and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, both of which came out in 2001. But even with such a high-calibre start, he was in serious danger of losing it. He once admitted, "I would have sold my mother for a rock of crack," and has described the moment he woke up lying in a pool of blood and vomit on London's Old Compton Street with a crack pipe in his hand. He's also told a story of the time he was supposed to meet director John Woo in Hollywood but instead found himself passed out in a bed in downtown LA alongside a naked man he didn't know with a gun and cat (whom he didn't know either).

 Eventually, he says, reality bit. "There were systematically, constantly, things that were put across my path where it was, 'Tom, you need to wake up because there are more important things to do. And you keep on doing stuff that's nonsense, and you of all people have been born with opportunities.' So I had words with myself about the reality of wanking about when there's such a lot to be getting on with." He's been sober since 2003, though the impulses are still there. In Canada, he told me about "Arthur", the orangutan who is the metaphorical manifestation of his destructive urges, which he likens to Winston Churchill's "black dog" of depression. Always present, never to be ignored.

 There's an idea that actors should come to roles as blank slates, so that your knowledge of their real lives doesn't detract from the role they're playing, but with Hardy it feels that his experiences add another layer to his performances. It's why he was so captivating as a homeless drug addict in the 2007 BBC adaptation of Stuart: A Life Backwards, so terrifying as Britain's most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson in 2008's surreal biopic Bronson, so convincing as both Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Brian Helgeland's Legend, the 2015 film about east London's most feared mobsters (though they did love their mum). He doesn't have to channel the time his pet goldfish died in order to play characters who have been brutalised or broken; he can play men who stare into the existential abyss because he has stared into it himself. He's got a unique perspective. Or as he told a fellow addiction survivor in a video for The Prince's Trust charity, "I'm an addict and an alcoholic so I have my ups and downs. My head is a bit wonky."

 It's early November when we meet in a postproduction house in Soho, central London, and Hardy has a deadline. He needs to finalise the edit on the third episode of Taboo, an eight-part BBC drama which he created with his father, and which he both stars in and is executively producing. Taboo is set in 1814, and Hardy plays James Delaney, an adventurer who returns home from 10 years in the Congo to discover that his recently dead father has bequeathed him an unusual inheritance, which is of interest to both the British and American governments and the East India Company. But, of course, given that it's come from the brain of Hardy, Taboo is not your average costume drama.

 However, on that front you're going to have to take my word for it. Before we sit down in an edit suite to watch the episode, I have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. "You can write what you think," says Hardy, "just not why you think it." So we sit there side by side on a black leather sofa as an editor called Serkan plays back the episode on a large screen, Hardy scribbling continuously on an A4 pad and working his way through a stack of four (yes, four) pizzas and a bottle of Diet Coke; me making notes in my own notebook, mostly about the pizzas.

 What I can tell you is that Taboo is seedy, gritty, knotty and complex. There are twists and subversions — even perversions — of character tropes that make most period dramas look like an episode of Peppa Pig. It was conceived in some ways, says Hardy, to be an "anti-Downton", and despite having lush production values that make London, where it is mostly set, look dank and grubby and decadent and sumptuous all at the same time, and boasting a cast of period drama stalwarts including Jonathan Pryce and Tom Hollander, Taboo goes to places that other shows of that genre don't. Let's just say, the title of the show is no accident.

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 When it finishes, we move to the kitchen area of the production house, which is off a windowless corridor of closed doors, next to each of which is a sign identifying the programme being edited inside: Poldark, Endeavour, Fortitude. Our conversation is occasionally interrupted by vitamin-D-starved TV types popping in to make cups of coffee, as well as some loud male and female groans repeating over and over from an edit suite across the hall (fighting or schtupping? "Sounds like a bit of both," says Hardy).

 Hardy seems fairly relaxed, given that he's under a reasonable amount of pressure. His production company, Hardy Son and Baker, which he runs with a producing partner, Dean Baker, has to send the finished series to the BBC and the American broadcaster, FX, by Christmas so that it can air in January. "And I've just handed in 14 pages of notes on episode three," he points out, without much evident contrition. I ask him how he feels watching the episode back. "I know every line, and I know where everything is in every scene, and I know where most candles are," he says. "So yeah, I'm never happy."

 Hardy had the idea for the show when he was playing Bill Sikes in a 2007 BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist, and conceived the character originally as "a Sherlock Holmes-type detective, a bit more physical as well as smart, but who has that hyper-vigilance; a spiritual, hybrid shaman-cum-cannibal-serial-killer-type thing". He spent the next nine years going through many different iterations of the idea trying to get it made; and now he has. As Dean Baker puts it, who lets me into the edit suite before Hardy arrives: "It's very much Tom's baby."

 Black wool hat, £145; black denim jeans, £480,both by Gucci. Necklace, trunks, watch, Hardy's own.

 To make matters more complicated, Hardy also had an actual baby at the end of October, with his wife, the actress Charlotte Riley, whom he met on a 2009 ITV adaptation of Wuthering Heights. (He also has an eight-year-old son, Louis, with his ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed.) Three weeks later, he started shooting Taboo, and during those months of production he says he was getting between four and six hours of sleep a night, waking up between 12 and two with "the little one" (he lets slip the baby's gender, though he asks me not to print it; he never tells me "its" name) and then getting up for work again at 4.30 or 5.30. The sleep deprivation, he says, was a killer: "If anyone else did that to you you'd have them up at the Hague for war crimes."

 Now he's nearly finished on Taboo, he plans to book some time off as he's officially "pantsed". To be fair, he doesn't look too shabby. In dark jeans and trainers and a The Wolf of Wall Street T-shirt, with a neat-but-not-too-neat beard and short back and sides, he is handsome and looks positively fresh. Which is not exactly how I remembered him.

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 When I interviewed Hardy before, it was in Calgary, where he was already several months into shooting The Revenant, which was being filmed in the foothills of the Rockies. (The production would later relocate to Argentina in search of snow.) He was living in a rented house with some friends who were also in the film, apparently whiling away his downtime playing computer games and boxing. He looked hunched, smaller than his 5ft 9in, with a wiry beard and sensible, outdoorsy clothing. He could almost have passed for a local. We were supposed to go to a shooting range; we ended up going to a paint-your-own-pottery shop in a retail park on the outskirts of town. His suggestion.

 It was only upon seeing what he did in The Revenant — his character John Fitzgerald is wild, amoral and animalistic and yet somehow still sympathetic and human, a balance that Hardy is a master at striking — and then meeting him again in London that I understand quite how much the role must have been absorbing him (and why dabbing glaze on a mug might have made a pleasant change from the day job). Though he resists the pompous terms that surround the craft of acting, calling it "just face-pulling at the end of the day", you can't help but feel there's a bit of Method in his madness, whether it's intentional or not.

 In Calgary, he was having a little contretemps with the director, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu over "some sexy stuff" Iñárritu wanted his character Fitzgerald to do, which Hardy was resisting. "It's just fucking nauseating having to listen to it every day. Going, 'Yeah yeah yeah; love it, love it, love it; but no.'" A little later, when he was calmer, he added, "He's a scallywag, and I'll end up doing it to please him, and there'll be no Oscar at the end of it for me…. Ha ha ha! There might be for him." (He was, on both counts, correct.) Later, photos will emerge of Hardy wearing a T-shirt of his own design featuring a picture of Fitzgerald putting Iñárritu in a choke-hold.

 In London, he admits he's only just recovering. "Because it's a good two years away it feels… There are still echoes of exhaustion from it, but I think it's a beautiful film," he says. "I want to watch it again now because I have got a really healthy distance. It's always the way, when people say, 'It was a really tough time in my life when I was in it,' in hindsight it's a very fond memory. At the time it was aarararaghgh" — he makes a noise like a fatally wounded buffalo — "never ending! The Forevernant. It went on forever and it was confusing. The Forever-and-evernant! It was never-ending, confusion, chaos, none of us were in any form of control, we were being controlled, you know? And that was frustrating and stressful."

 It's worth noting how unusual that statement is. Not least because it gives you a glimpse into how he speaks — how his synapses fire off at a mile a minute and you have to grab on to the subject and object of the sentence, if you can find them, and then just hang on for the ride — but because it's so frank. Though he will add, "I love Alejandro", it was very clear that there were large periods during the making of that film that he did not. Unlike so many — maybe all — actors at his level, there's none of that game-faced, media-trained blandness from Hardy. And thank God for that.

 It's why stories seep out from productions he's been involved with of spats between him and directors or fellow cast members. About how he told a journalist he was "ready to punch" Nicholas Winding Refn, his director in Bronson. Or the reports, from both sides, that he'd had a fist-fight with Shia LaBeouf, his co-star in the bootlegging drama Lawless (Hardy said LaBeouf, somewhat implausibly, "knocked me out sparko"). Or how he had run-ins with both his co-star Charlize Theron and director George Miller on the set of 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road; he publicly apologised to the latter at the film's Cannes Film Festival press conference.

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 But you don't hire Tom Hardy if you don't want Tom Hardy, and for the most part, he'll make it worth your while. It's the friction that creates the spark. "If I come in as an actor," he says on the sofa outside the edit suite in London, "I check the fragilities and the breaking points for the whole piece and the team, because that's what I get paid to do. So if I don't do that, then I'm not doing you a service or me a service, because that's what we came to do. If someone says, 'No Tom, I don't want you to do that, I just want you to come down the middle in a bat suit,' — not the Batman suit, I mean literally, in a bat suit — then you know what? I probably won't do that film."

 Hardy obviously inspires loyalty in those directors who know how to handle him. On the subject of Batman suits, Christopher Nolan is clearly one such employer, having cast Hardy first in 2010's Inception, as louche dream-cracker Eames, and then in the career-rocketing role of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, whose costume included a restrictive respirator that proved Hardy could eye-act with the best of them. He has recently finished shooting a few days in an unspecified role in Nolan's Dunkirk, a drama based around the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops from the coast of northern France, which is due to come out in summer 2017 and which, like all Nolan productions, is largely shrouded in secrecy until then (though pictures that leak online appear to show Hardy in the guise of a Spitfire pilot).

 Nolan is a director whose approach stands up to Hardy's scrutiny. "He's a great on-set leader," he says, "as well as a fucking brilliant film-maker and a visionary. I do have thoughts, but the thing about him is that he can contain them — they don't shock him. And he doesn't want to miss a trick, so if you've got something he'll want to use it. He'll soon tell you, 'That's enough now, thanks,' which is great. Because then you know your boundaries."

 (Another director who seems more than happy to see Tom Hardy is Daniel Espinosa, the Swedish director of Child 44, a 2015 crime thriller in which Hardy starred as a Soviet soldier on the trail of an infanticidal maniac. Espinosa is in the postproduction house editing something of his own and during our interview he bounds in to say hi, sporting what must be a newly grown ponytail, as Hardy's first reaction upon seeing him is to cry out, "Yo! You look like a girl!" before hugging him warmly.)

 It's not surprising to hear Hardy describing the usefulness of boundaries. He is a person for whom structure is clearly essential — not surprisingly then, he shows a keen interest in the military and has lots of soldier friends — as he seems to possess an internal drive towards flux, maybe even chaos. His mood, as some reporters have discovered, can change with the wrong question, and you won't necessarily be able to predict which one it will be and why. Interviewing him, you feel like you could ask him anything, but you also have to be prepared for any response: it's a definite don't-give-it-if-you-can't-take-it deal.

 Tan gabardine trench coat, £1,840; dark red mohair-wool suit, £1,600; Grey silk tie, £140; sky blue/white cotton shirt, £345; brown leather belt, £220, all by Gucci

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 My experiences with him have only been good ones — he's friendly, entertaining and funny — but you still feel you have to be on your toes. At one point I bring up his accent, which often meanders from well-spoken London public school boy (which he is), to London rude boy (which he isn't, though like many London public school boys he probably learned the art of camouflage). At our second meeting, unlike our first, he seems to have acquired a northern twang, saying things like "loovely" and "fuhn". I ask him, innocently enough, if he's rehearsing something set in the north of England. He replies, with a flicker of annoyance, that his wife is from Middlesbrough and his mum is from Yorkshire and it's probably that. Right you are, Tom. I beat a hasty retreat.

 On the face of it, it might look like Hardy is starting to toe the Hollywood line. With the release of Mad Max: Fury Road he became a bona fide box office star — as well as garnering critical acclaim, it grossed close to $400m worldwide — and with The Revenant he got his first Academy Award nomination. When DiCaprio won the Oscar for best actor, the first person he thanked in his acceptance speech was Hardy, whom he called "my brother in this endeavour". Hardy was in the audience, too, with Charlotte, to watch Mark Rylance beat him to the award for best supporting actor. On the TV coverage, Rylance appeared to say something to Hardy as he walked up to the stage; I ask Hardy if he remembers what it was. "I think he said, 'Fucking amateur.' Hur hur! Or, 'This is how it's done.' Hur! I can't remember. But it was just amazing to be there."

 The year before, he had watched the ceremony on TV in Calgary with his friends while, for reasons best known to themselves, prancing about in ladies' clothing. Then suddenly he was there in his dickie bow, being praised by DiCaprio and applauded by the establishment. "I don't think I ever expected to be welcomed to one of those events," he says. "I always felt like a bit of a naughty boy, and I always thought part of me would be like, 'Nah'. And then actually I was like, 'Oh yeah! I'll have a sniff of that.'"

 The whole Oscars experience was made even more surreal by the fact it was the Hardys' first trip away from their new baby. "Obviously there's that pull and we were both jetlagged and nervous, but fuck me, if you're going to leave home and do anything we really ought to do this," he says. "I've got a photo of us in our outfits underneath the 88th Academy Awards logo, and that's a piece of history, isn't it? That's mum and dad in their heyday. They were there. Wicked." [When a reporter approached Hardy while he waited outside the Dolby Theater, he explained, with perfect Enlightened Dad poise, that he was waiting for Charlotte to finish breast-pumping in the bathroom.]

 Whether he likes it or not, Tom Hardy is now a major movie star. So what should his next career move be? A romantic comedy? A superhero flick? Somehow you can't quite see him in tights and a cape (unless the Elton John biopic he's been signed onto for ages finally gets off the ground — and wouldn't that be something?). With his artistic singularity and his mercurial temper and his mutating accent and his scattergun syntax and his monstrous pizza consumption, he's just too wonderfully, blessedly odd. Even if he does have a nice jawline, sticking him in the Batsuit would be a wasted opportunity.

 And sure enough, one of the projects that is looming at the start of next year is Fonzo, from director Josh Trank, in which Hardy will play — wait for it — an ageing and syphilitic Al Capone. Yes, it's another baddie, and another gangster for that matter, but that hasn't escaped his notice, either. There's clearly something in his psyche that is lured to the darker side of the human experience, perhaps because he's been there himself.

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 "There's a part of me that wants to do different stuff," he says, "but there's a part of me that goes: do you know what? I want to carry on playing gangsters because every time you go a little bit deeper in that study. Why switch it up and be rice-paper thin? 'Oh, he's good because he's doing a musical now!' You know what I mean? It's like, 'Look at me! I'm trying to please people!'"

 Or as he put it to me more bluntly in Calgary, "I enjoy the nuttery in my work. So that's probably why when somebody goes, 'Do you want to play another loony?' I go, 'Yeah, I would actually, yeah.'"

 There's also supposed to be another Mad Max film, though he's hazy on the timings, plus McCullin, a feature film about the war photographer Don McCullin that Hardy Son and Baker will produce and he will star in. The experience of working on his own stuff should, says Hardy, give him a certain catharsis when returning to his bread-and-butter work as an actor for hire. "That energy that I had is just misdirected on other people's shows," he says. "As long as I've got an outlet elsewhere then I'm happy to go and fit bathrooms. If someone's built their own house and they want me to come and fit a bathroom, just tell me what you want and I'll come and do it."

 Maybe. But part of you hopes he won't. Part of you hopes he'll reimagine your bathroom so it's not at all what you were expecting. Or maybe he'll take a sledgehammer to your bathroom and build you a kitchen instead. Or a jungle gym. Or a fucking submarine.

 Because you don't hire Tom Hardy if you don't want Tom Hardy. And who wouldn't?

 Styling by Nicole Schneider.

 Taboo is on BBC1 from 7 January. ||||| Getty Images

 Tom Hardy recently added to his extensive tattoo collection, courtesy of Leonardo DiCaprio.

 While filming 2016’s The Revenant together, the actors made a super high-stakes bet. Leo was convinced that Hardy’s performance would earn him an Oscar nomination, and Hardy humbly disagreed. As we know now, DiCaprio was correct, and Hardy kept his end of the bargain by getting a tattoo of his oh-so-wise costar’s choosing. Yep, seriously.

 Originally, as Hardy told Esquire UK in an interview, the art design wasn’t particularly to his liking.

 “He wrote, in this really shitty handwriting: ‘Leo knows everything,’” Hardy said. “Ha! I was like, ‘OK, I’ll get it done, but you have to write it properly.’”

 And Hardy eventually came through. A photographer in San Francisco recently posted a selfie with the actor, and you can clearly see the words “Leo knows all” peeking out from under his T-shirt, on his right bicep.

 Last year, Hardy told Vanity Fair about the unfairness of the bet, saying, “Fucker. He would never get a tattoo if he lost that bet! It was just one-way. I’m covered in shit tattoos anyway, so it doesn’t make any difference to me. If I got a big bold ‘Leo’ right across my thigh or across my face. It’s just that, isn’t it? You bet a tattoo, you lose. That’s what happens.”

 Yes, Hardy. Yes, it is. And while it isn’t the world’s most glamorous ink, there are certainly worse things than being a successful actor with a dumb tattoo designed by a fellow movie star that symbolizes your Academy Award nomination. Worse things, indeed. |||||


Summarize this article:

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 Learn more about Subscriber Plus. ||||| Convicted killer Carey Dean Moore will be executed by lethal injection Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln. It is…

 The state of Nebraska executed Carey Dean Moore on Tuesday at the State Penitentiary.

 Execution timeline

 10:19 a.m. — Four media witnesses arrive in execution chamber viewing room. Execution chamber is soundproof.

 10:24 — Curtain is lifted showing Moore is on a table, his body covered by a white sheet and his arm out and connected to the IV tube, which comes out of the wall. Behind the wall is the IV team. Director Scott Frakes and acting Warden Robert Madsen are at the foot of the table Moore is on. The first of four drugs, diazepam, 37 cc, is started.

 10:25 — Moore appears to speak to his witnesses, his brother, niece, a friend and a spiritual adviser. His witnesses are separated from the media witnesses by a partition.

 10:26 — A saline cleanse runs through the tube to Moore. He closes his eyes. He turns his head to look up at the ceiling, then looks at his witnesses again. He closes his eyes. His lips part slightly.

 10:27 — He begins to breathe more visibly.

 10:29 — Warden Madsen does a consciousness check, flicking Moore’s eyelids, lifting them and shining a pen light into them. He then steps back.

 10:30 — Fentanyl is delivered through the IV tube, 46 cc. Moore appears to cough and his diaphragm and abdomen move up and down rapidly, heaving.

 10:31 — Saline runs through the IV tube. Moore’s chest stops moving and he goes still. His face gradually turns red and then a shade of purple.

 10:32 — Cisatracurium besylate, 15 cc, is administered through the IV tube, followed by saline.

 10:33 — Potassium chloride, 120 cc, is delivered.

 10:36 — Saline runs through the IV tube.

 10:38 — Moore’s eyelids crack open slightly.

 10:39 — Frakes speaks into his radio and nine seconds later the curtain is lowered to the media witness room.

 10:47 — Moore is pronounced dead by Lancaster County Coroner Pat Condon, out of sight of witnesses.

 10:53 — The curtain goes up again and shows Moore, his body covered with a sheet except for his face.

 Moore’s body is later remanded to the custody of the Nebraska State Patrol for an autopsy. |||||

– The Aug. 14 execution of Carey Dean Moore in Nebraska garnered national attention because authorities used a heretofore untested cocktail of four drugs to end the life of the convicted killer. But now, another aspect of the execution is attracting attention: the fact that authorities at Nebraska State Penitentiary closed curtains for some 14 minutes, preventing observers from seeing the execution from start to finish. According to observers, about 15 minutes after authorities began to administer the drugs to Moore via IV, Corrections Director Scott Frakes—in the same room as Moore—spoke into his radio and the curtains closed the Lincoln Journal Star reports. Some say closing the curtains "hindered transparency" because observers—and, by proxy, other states looking for new execution methods—were not able to see the full effect of the drug combination. "Speculation cannot help but be rife, state Sen. Ernie Chambers, a death penalty opponent, wrote to Frakes days after the arrest, saying that witness reports of the events before the curtains closed "only tantalized." Those reports include accounts of Moore's face turning red, and then purple, the Omaha World-Herald reports, as well as Moore taking rapid, heaving breaths and coughing, per the Journal Star. However, a corrections spokeswoman says the curtain closing wasn't unplanned, telling the Journal Star that it "is consistent with past practice. Frakes says the execution was performed with "respect for the process and dignity for all involved," per the World-Herald.


Something’s going on between Adele and the people at Pepsi Co. and the NFL.

 Over the weekend, news broke that Adele turned down an offer to perform at the next Super Bowl Halftime Show because she can’t dance and “it’s not about the music.”

 RELATED: Adele brings a fan up on stage — and it happens to be a Grammy nominated artist

 At a concert in Los Angeles, Adele told the crowd that she was approached with an offer to do the show and she turned it down.

 “I’d like to tell you I’m not doing the Super Bowl. I mean, come on,” she said. “That show is not about music, and I don’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I did say no.”

 Adele talking about not doing the Super Bowl Halftime show during her show. She's the best 😂 pic.twitter.com/aNkE7SgJZr — Music News & Facts (@Musicnews_feed) August 14, 2016

 In a joint statement, the NFL and Pepsi responded to Adele’s claim that she turned them down.

 “The NFL and Pepsi are big fans of Adele. We have had conversations with several artists about the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. However, we have not at this point extended a formal offer to Adele or anyone else. We are focused on putting together a fantastic show for Houston and we look forward to revealing that in good time.”

 The 2017 Super Bowl will take place on February 5 at Houston’s NRG Stadium.

 We guess we will have to wait and see who will take the stage during the Halftime Show.

 (H/T: Billboard) ||||| It appears as though Adele won’t be performing at the 2017 Super Bowl after all. The British singer shut down the tabloid rumors during her tour stop in Los Angeles on Saturday (Aug. 13)

 Is Adele Performing at the 2017 Super Bowl Halftime Show?

 “First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl,” Adele told the Staples Center crowd. “I mean, come on, that show is not about music. And I don’t really -- I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I said no.”

 Earlier this month, British tabloid newspaper The Sun, reported that the National Football League was eyeing Adele for next year's halftime performance. “There is nobody bigger in the world than Adele right now and organizers are doing absolutely everything they can to try to persuade her to sign up,” an NFL source allegedly told The Sun.

 Last October, the reclusive singer released her comeback hit "Hello." She is currently on her sold-out world tour in support of her third studio effort 25, which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 to date. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Those tabloid rumors that Super Bowl LI viewers would get a "hello" from Adele at halftime appear to have been unfounded. That according to the singer herself, who on Saturday told concertgoers at LA's Staples Center that she's not doing the Super Bowl. Her explanation as reported by Billboard is pretty great: "I mean, come on, that show is not about music. And I don’t really—I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I said no." Pepsi and the NFL, however, had a different take on how discussions have gone down.


– One of the first public reactions to Hosni Mubarak's non-resignation doesn't bode well for what happens next: “Egypt will explode," wrote Nobel laureate and pro-democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei on Twitter, reports the Los Angeles Times. "The Army must save the country now. I call on the Egyptian army to immediately interfere to rescue Egypt. The credibility of the army is on the line." In Tahrir Square, protesters are seething and calling for bigger demonstrations tomorrow, notes the Wall Street Journal.

Expand this summary.

CAIRO—Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak handed power to his vice president but retained his title, a half-measure that confused observers, angered opposition leaders and provoked an uproar from hundreds of thousands of protesters massed in the center of the country's capital.

 Charles Levinson has the latest from Cairo where protesters are reacting to President Mubarak's decision to remain in power. John Bussey and Robert Danin look at what's next for Egypt and U.S. relations with that country.

 Hosni Mubarak surprised many when he announced late today he would not step down as Egypt's President until elections in September. Tamer El-Ghobashy has reaction from Cairo's Tahrir Square. John Bussey and Jerry Seib have analysis of the situation.

 The move sets up another conflict with the opposition movement, which has called on supporters to gather for a huge protest Friday. Expectations that the president would resign had built through the day, and the immediate reaction to the speech was anger, with protesters chanting "Leave, leave."

 An Army officer using a loudspeaker tried to calm protesters. "Let's save our energy for tomorrow," a man screamed to the crowd. "Go home and sleep, because tomorrow will be the day of judgment."

 The defiant tone taken by Mr. Mubarak—and widespread confusion about the meaning of his speech—left the Obama administration scrambling to devise its next steps in a crisis that appears out of its control.

 After Mr. Mubarak's speech, President Barack Obama, in a statement from the White House, said "The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient."

 Mr. Obama called on the Egyptian government "to move swiftly to explain the changes that have been made."

 Mr. Mubarak's speech left the White House with a sense of "disbelief," a U.S. official said.

 Egyptian officials said Mr. Mubarak gave the U.S. much of what Vice President Joe Biden requested earlier in the week: the delegation of presidential powers to the vice president, Omar Suleiman.

 But Mr. Suleiman, who delivered a televised address after Mr. Mubarak, enraged protesters by refusing to distance himself from the president, even as he gestured toward the legitimacy of the protesters' demands.

 The reaction casts a shadow over hopes by the U.S. and other traditional Egyptian allies that Mr. Suleiman would become a figure who is able to orchestrate a smooth transition from Mr. Mubarak to a more open electoral process in September.

 The White House is now squeezed between Arab and Israeli allies, who have complained loudly that Mr. Obama was pushing Mr. Mubarak too hard to step down, and lawmakers who accuse the White House of not pushing hard enough. Now, the White House finds itself largely a bystander.

 "This is really bad," a senior U.S. official said after Mr. Mubarak's address. "We need to push harder—if not, the protests will get violent."

 Mr. Mubarak's language and refusal to yield to what he called the intervention of foreigners—a reference that appeared directed primarily at the U.S.—left protesters furious and the situation in Cairo precarious.

 The anger welling among protesters placed the country's army in a tight position in its quest to keep the nation stable and secure.

 Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, after Mr. Mubarak's address, told CNN that the president and Mr. Suleiman were "twins" and that "neither are acceptable to the people."

 In a earlier post on Twitter, Mr. ElBaradei wrote: "Egypt will explode. Army must save the country now."

 Mr. Mubarak's speech continued a pattern of making concessions short of what protesters have been demanding. "I've seen fit to delegate presidential powers to the vice president, as according to the constitution," Mr. Mubarak said in his speech.

 But he said he was "adamant to continue to shoulder my responsibility to protect the constitution and safeguard the interests of the people." He vowed that he would remain in the country and said he was addressing the youth in Tahrir as "the president of the republic."

 Israeli analysts remain concerned about possible new threats to the country's security amid unrest in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. Special correspondent Martin Himel reports from Tel Aviv.

 Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Sameh Shoukry told CNN that Mr. Mubarak had passed all powers of the presidency to Mr. Suleiman, except for three: to amend the constitution, dissolve parliament—stacked with supporters of Mr. Mubarak—and fire the cabinet.

 Those powers now belong to no one, Mr. Shoukry said, insisting that Mr. Suleiman was now the "de facto" president.

 That interpretation wasn't immediately clear from the speech, however, and its nuances appeared lost, or irrelevant, to opposition leaders and protesters waiting to hear the president say he was quitting.

 Instead, the president's comments brought a deflating end to a day of rumors and contradictions.

 Hossam Badrawy, secretary general of the ruling National Democratic Party, had said early in the day that he told Mr. Mubarak that the president needs to step down for the good of the country, and said he believed the president would go.

 Egypt's powerful military signaled it was moving to take control of the country. State television showed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces meeting—conspicuously without Mr. Mubarak present.

 The armed forces "have started taking necessary measures to protect the nation and support the legitimate demands of the citizens," an army spokesman said on state television.

 The meeting and statement that followed appeared to represent a break from the military's previous posture as a neutral party providing security.

 Those developments drew what was possibly the biggest crowd yet to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of protests that began Jan. 25.

 Western officials, senior Egyptian government officials, and opposition leaders appeared to believe it was likely that Mr. Mubarak would announce he was stepping down and that the military would take over.

 WSJ's Tamer El-Ghobashy reports from the streets of Cairo on demonstrations expanded beyond Tahrir Square, and that government workers are striking in opposition to president Mubarak refusing to step down.

 Google Inc. executive and Egyptian protest leader Wael Ghonim said in his Twitter account: "Revolution 2.0: Mission Accomplished."

 Question marks hang over what transpired inside the regime's corridors of power between early evening in Cairo, when signs pointed to Mr. Mubarak's stepping aside, and 10:50 p.m., when the president gave his televised address. A person familiar with Egypt's power centers said a possible wild card in Mr. Mubarak's decision could be the presidential Republican Guard, the opaque force that is responsible for the president's personal security.

 When Mr. Mubarak's face appeared on a makeshift television screen made from a large sheet in one corner of the square, the crowd suddenly hushed for what many thought would be a momentous event: the resignation of their president for 29 years.

 The crowd formed clusters, around people with radios and cellphones. People listened impatiently, and expressed frustration at the wordiness of his speech. As the end of the speech neared, a groan was audible in the masses. Some began chanting "resign" only to be told to shut up by those still listening.

 As it became increasing clear Mr. Mubarak wasn't resigning, many in the crowd began to hiss.

 "I don't like what I'm hearing," said Mohamed Mustafa, 49 years old, huddling with four others around a small radio.

 Once it was over, people joined in a massive chant of, "Resign means leave, obviously you don't understand!"

 Soldiers who had abandoned their posts outside ran back to the edges of the square and eventually to their positions near tanks.

 "This will make people go mad," said Sherif Oman, a 24-year-old engineer. "He will regret this speech tomorrow. He is insulting us with this speech."

 After a period of spirited chanting, the stunned crowd made its slow exodus from Tahrir Square. Some protesters marched on the nearby state television building; most appeared to opt for home.

 Some protesters meanwhile began to chant, "Tomorrow we go to the palace!"

 —Matt Bradley, Sam Dagher and Christopher Rhoads contributed to this article.

 Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com, Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com and Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com ||||| Mohamed ElBaradei, who has emerged as a leader of the opposition movement against President Hosni Mubarak, posted comments online within the last hour warning that the country has become volatile.

 “Egypt will explode," ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and retired diplomat, posted on Twitter. "Army must save the country now."

 In statements posted earlier in the day, ElBaradei vowed continued protests and complained of violence by Mubarak's government. |||||