NFL News

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Is that a leftover April Fools meme?

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Chiefs, NFL still have tough questions to answer in Britt Reid case

Posted by Mike Florio on April 13, 2021, 6:40 AM EDT

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Monday brought some answers in the case of Britt Reid, who now faces felony DWI charges. It raises more questions, questions that for now his former employer isn’t answering.

Via Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, the Kansas City Chiefs declined comment when asked whether the team has any information regarding where Reid, a former assistant coach with the team and son of head coach Andy Reid, consumed alcohol before slamming into two cars at nearly 84 miles per hour with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.113 percent, well over the legal limit of 0.08.

An illustration contained within an excellent column from Wetzel on the topic shows the proximity of the accident scene and the team’s practice facility. Common senses suggests that Britt Reid possibly was drinking in the building before driving home, only three days before Super Bowl LV.

Writes Wetzel, “The NFL tries to cloak itself in personal responsibility and community partnership. It needs to investigate and, if needed, punish a favored franchise and the family of a famous coach as aggressively as it does a misbehaving athlete. If Roger Goodell is all about protecting the shield, then how about protecting the public from this stuff?”

In 2020, the NFL took great pride in knowing whether and to what extent individuals in every team facility were complying with all COVID-19 protocols. As the Super Bowl approached, enhanced steps were taken — with monitors from the league office reportedly dispatched to provide extra surveillance to the teams that made it to the league’s final four.

So what did the Chiefs know, what should the Chiefs have known, and when did they know it? In turn, what did the league observers know, what should they have known, and when did they know it? These are questions that will be answered within the confines of litigation aimed at securing full and complete compensation for five-year-old Ariel Young, who (per Wetzel) cannot walk or talk and is fed through a tube.

The fact that the family of Ariel Young may be looking to the Chiefs and/or the NFL for additional compensation could be the reason for the current silence. With those questions surely coming once a lawsuit is filed regarding the crash, there’s no reason (from a legal standpoint) for the team or the league to say anything that could be used against them in court.

Still, the questions will linger until they are answered. As Wetzel notes, the Chiefs and the league surely know the answers already.

Where was Britt Reid drinking? Was it in the team’s facility? Who else from the team, if anyone, knew he was drinking? Who else from the team, if anyone, was drinking with him? Who provided the alcohol?

The league has clear rules against the presence of alcohol in team facilities. Whether that leads to potential civil liability becomes a different issue, one that will be driven by how much the team knew and/or how much the team was involved in allowing alcohol to be consumed on its premises.

It’s possible the Chiefs knew absolutely nothing. It’s possible Britt Reid didn’t even drink in the facility. It’s possible that, if he did, he did it secretly and discreetly, and that no one knew or had reason to know.

It’s also possible that the knowledge and involvement swept more broadly than that. Until those questions are publicly answered, they will linger. And they should.

Someone got in a car at the Chiefs facility, drove it a short distance, and inflicted serious and permanent injuries on a five-year-old girl. The public deserves to know more about how that happened, and the public and the media should demand those answers.

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Eagles reportedly treated Doug Pederson “like a baby”

Posted by Mike Florio on April 12, 2021, 10:41 PM EDT

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Despite seismic changes in sports media, #Longreads persist. The question is whether anyone ever reads every word of any of them.

I’ll wager that far fewer than 4,312 people read all 4,312 words of a three-byline opus from TheAthletic.com regarding the disintegration of the Eagles, only three years after the team won Super Bowl LII. I wanted to. I tried to do it. And after five or seven paragraphs, I did what mostly everyone else surely did — I scrolled and skimmed for anything potentially relevant or interesting.

There were several relevant and interesting nuggets in the article. Here they are.

The Eagles reportedly treated former coach Doug Pederson like “a baby,” according to unnamed sources who claim that Pederson was beaten down by relentless second guessing. In 2019, for example, after a Thursday night win at Green Bay, Pederson was grilled by owner Jeffrey Lurie (an analytics aficionado) over the fact that Pederson hadn’t called more passes.

“[Pederson] was ridiculed and criticized for every decision,” an unnamed source told TheAthletic.com. “If you won by three, it wasn’t enough. If you lost on a last-second field goal, you’re the worst coach in history.”

Said another unnamed source, “The fact that Doug had the success he did with all the shit going on in the building, sometimes I look at our Super Bowl rings, and I’m like, ‘Holy cow, I don’t know how we did it.'”

Per the report, the undermining of Pederson began in only his second season, which ended with a Super Bowl victory. Prior to the start of the 2017 campaign, word spread through the organization of a three-hour meeting between Lurie and defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Multiple unnamed sources told TheAthletic.com that “there was a feeling around the team that Lurie was vetting an in-house replacement for Pederson in the event the Eagles got off to a slow start.”

The article points to tensions between football and analytics, a dynamic hardly unique to the Eagles. One unnamed source described the team’s analytics department to TheAthletic.com as a “clandestine, Black Ops department that doesn’t answer to anybody except the owner.”

That’s how it currently works in plenty of NFL front offices. And it’s why so many coaches have embraced analytics. If they don’t, the analytics employees tell ownership that, if the coach had done what the analytics called for, the team would have won.

Complicating matters in Philly is that owner Jeffrey Lurie is very involved in the draft preparations, and he always has been. But that’s his right, as the owner of the team, to be as involved or uninvolved as he wants. With most if not all owners finding a way to state preferences when it comes to huge decisions, it’s better if those owners actually have put in the work.

In Philadephia, enough work was put in to win a Super Bowl. That’s the good news. The bad news is that things have collapsed quickly. Chances are that the failures in Philadelphia bear plenty of fingerprints.

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Gerald McCoy: I know I can still play this game at a high level

Posted by Charean Williams on April 12, 2021, 9:42 PM EDT

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Gerald McCoy wants to keep playing, but to keep playing, the defensive tackle has to find a team to want him.

McCoy’s agent, Ben Dogra, told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that a few teams are keeping a close eye on McCoy’s rehab. Dogra doesn’t expect McCoy to get an offer until after the draft.

McCoy is rehabbing in San Diego with trainer Todd Durkin. McCoy tore his quadriceps tendon before playing a single game with the Cowboys in 2020.

“For me, I just love this game so much, it’s still fun to me,” McCoy told Stroud. “I love competing. I just know what my mindset was going into last season, and I don’t want an injury or what the NFL deems ‘age’ to be a derailment and finish like that. I know I can still be an asset to a team, whether it’s sparingly, as a starter, in the locker room, whatever it is. In training camp, a mentor to the young kids.

“I just know I have so much more to give this game, even if for a short period of time.”

McCoy, 33, played nine seasons with the Bucs and one with the Panthers. He wants one more with whoever will give him a chance.

“I understand that I’ve been injured, and I honestly believe the lack of interest in me being on a team right now is because of my injury,” McCoy said. “I haven’t played in a year and I’m 33 years old. But man, when I still tell you I can play this game at a high level, I know I can.”

McCoy made six Pro Bowls and was voted All-Pro in 2013.

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I'd watch...


XFL, CFL champions could meet

Posted by Mike Florio on April 12, 2021, 7:32 PM EDT

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The appetite for football and betting on football could open the door for even more football.

Via Michael McCarthy of FrontOfficeSports.com, the XFL and CFL champions could meet in an interleague championship game.

It’s a simple proposition. The two leagues would play their seasons, possibly with interleague games between the XFL and the CFL, with an interleague championship game capping the action. According to McCarthy, there also could be an all-star game pitting players from the two leagues.

This obviously means that the XFL would shift its calendar or the CFL would moves it calendar, or possibly a little of both. The XFL returned in 2020 as a spring league. The CFL has played during the summer months and into November.

As we’ve said time and again, a market exists for Tuesday and Wednesday night football games during traditional football season, at least until the NFL starts playing games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Which the NFL quite possibly would do if other leagues started infringing on the two nights between the end of one NFL week and the start of a new one.

The XFL and CFL also could eventually merge. In 2020, the XFL had eight seasons. In 2019, the CFL played its most recent season with nine teams. A combined XFL-CFL could also launch teams in places like Mexico, Germany, and other European countries.

In the 1990s, the CFL expanded into the U.S., a short-lived experiment that put teams in places like Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Shreveport.

Vince McMahon re-launched the XFL after a 19-year gap between XFL 1.0 and XFL 2.0. The resurrected league died again during the pandemic, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson buying the carcass and now trying to bring it back to life, again.

As more and more states legalize sports betting and as more and more people look for sports on which to bet, a combined XFL and CFL could work.

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Bengals claim Thaddeus Moss off waivers

Posted by Myles Simmons on April 12, 2021, 4:26 PM EDT

USA TODAY Sports

Joe Burrow is about to be reunited with one of his targets from his final season at LSU.

Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the Bengals claimed tight end Thaddeus Moss off waivers. Washington cut Moss — the son of Hall of Famer Randy Moss — late last week.

Moss spent his rookie season on injured reserve after signing with Washington as an undrafted free agent out of LSU. During his final collegiate season, Moss caught 47 passes for 570 yards with four touchdowns, as LSU won a national championship. Now Moss will have a chance to catch passes from Burrow once again.

Cincinnati adds Moss to a group of tight ends that includes Drew Sample, C.J. Uzomah, Mason Schreck, and Mitchell Wilcox.

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Miami's draft pick haul from trading Tunsil would me mine...


Cardinals’ trade for DeAndre Hopkins wins best sports transaction of the year

Posted by Charean Williams on April 12, 2021, 2:58 PM EDT

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Since 2013, the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference annually has given the Alpha Award for the best transaction in sports. An NFL transaction never had won the award for “Best Sports Transaction of the Year” until this year.

The Cardinals’ acquisition of All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins was deemed the best transaction of the year in all of sports as voted upon by the Sloan Sports Conference Board of Directors.

The Cardinals acquired Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round in exchange for running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick.

It could end up ranking as one of the most lopsided deals in NFL history.

In his first season with the Cardinals, Hopkins earned his fifth Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors and established a single-season franchise record with 115 receptions. He tied for second in the NFL in both catches and 100-yard games (seven) while his 1,407 receiving yards ranked third in the league.

Hopkins’ game-winning touchdown catch in the closing seconds against Buffalo – the “Hail Murray” play – was selected as the 2020 Bridgestone Clutch Performance Play of the Year at NFL Honors in February.

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The XFL and CFL also could eventually merge. In 2020, the XFL had eight seasons. In 2019, the CFL played its most recent season with nine teams. A combined XFL-CFL could also launch teams in places like Mexico, Germany, and other European countries.

I think they meant 8 teams. And yes I would watch too. I liked XFL 2.0 and was sad that it died.

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Is that a leftover April Fools meme?

Dunno, just saw it on a Lions group on FB and put it here.

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Tunsil was traded in 2019.

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Okay. Thanks

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Pittsburgh man says he’ll file assault charges against Aaron Donald

Posted by Josh Alper on April 14, 2021, 10:59 AM EDT

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It appears Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald will be facing an assault charge in Pittsburgh.

Lawyer Todd Hollis told KDKA that he is filing an assault charge against Donald on behalf of his client De Vincent Spriggs. Hollis said he will file those charges at Pittsburgh Police Zone 3.

According to Hollis, Spriggs was allegedly assaulted early last Sunday between 3 and 4 a.m. He also provided a picture that shows Spriggs with his right eye swollen shut, but there aren’t other details about the alleged incident.

Donald grew up in Pittsburgh and attended the University of Pittsburgh before being drafted by the Rams with the 13th overall pick in the 2014 draft.

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Charles Woodson thinks Aaron Rodgers will indeed end his career “in another place”

Posted by Mike Florio on April 14, 2021, 6:23 AM EDT

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It’s one thing for a hack like me to say it. It’s quite another for a former Packers player and incoming Pro Football Hall of Famer to say it.

Appearing Monday with Zach Gelb of CBS Sports Radio, Charles Woodson acknowledged that things eventually could get “nasty” between quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

“I think it’s one of those situations where, you know, there’s all this talk swirling around between him and Green Bay,” Woodson said. “And I think it could be one of those situations where it gets nasty at some point, somehow in the back and forth between the Packers and Aaron’s agents and then before you know it somehow the thing gets blown up. I mean, I certainly hope that doesn’t happen, but you know where there’s smoke there’s fire.”

Woodson also realized that it’s not uncommon for a great player to leave. He believes that Rodgers, like other great players before him, eventually will end up elsewhere.

“You think about over the years the great players that have played most of their careers in one place and then gone on to play somewhere else. Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, myself — I left twice,” Woodson said. “At some point, the team is gonna start looking to the future.”

Woodson, referring to the decision in 2020 to use a first-round pick on quarterback Jordan Love, said that “it is looking to the future.”

“I know that [Rodgers] had to be thinking, ‘Bring me somebody in here that’s gonna help me immediately, you know not somebody that has to sit behind me for the next two or three years or whatever it is. So I think he ends up ending his career in another place,” Woodson said.

The question is when. And the Packers, by not restructuring Rodgers’ contract, retain the ability to make a decision on Rodgers one year at a time. A significant restructuring or an extension to a deal that pays him the same annual amount as Jared Goff and Carson Wentz would tie Rodgers to the team for at least two more seasons.

The Packers didn’t squander their chance to use last year’s first-round pick and fourth-round pick (they packaged both to move up and get Love) on players who could have helped the Packers get to and win Super Bowl LV for a player they intend to sit for three years and then flip to another team, Jimmy Garoppolo style. They made the move with an eye toward moving on, at some point.

If anything, the fact that they opted to abandon the annual mantra from every NFL team (“our goal is to win the Super Bowl“) for a player who did nothing to help that cause in 2020 and who ostensibly will eventually take the baton from Rodgers the same way he took it from Brett Favre could make them more determined to prove that they did the right thing. They do that by at some point giving the starting job to Jordan Love.

As explained earlier this week on PFT Live, that’s the core of the current contractual conundrum. The Packers want to be able to decide in 2022 between Rodgers and Love and then again in 2023, if they choose Rodgers based on the next season. Rodgers wants something more than a year-to-year arrangement.

Until he gets one, anything he says that characterizes his future as a “beautiful mystery” or whatever is accurate. The Packers want the power to pick Love over Rodgers after the 2021 season. If they don’t change Rodgers’ contract, it will be easier to make that choice, if they choose to do so.

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Cardinals give James Conner a one-year, $1.75 million contract

Posted by Mike Florio on April 13, 2021, 9:23 PM EDT

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The market for veteran tailbacks isn’t what it used to be. Then again, it’s never really been all that great.

The Cardinals gave running back James Conner a one-year, $1.75 million contract, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. The deal includes a $500,000 signing bonus, and the entirety of the deal is fully guaranteed.

Presumably, he would have accepted a similar contract to stay in Pittsburgh, where he played college football and the first four years of his NFL career. Apparently, the Steelers didn’t make a comparable offer.

The one-year contract follows the four-year, $3.242 million slotted deal that Conner signed as a third-round rookie in 2017.

That puts him just south of $5 million for the first five years of his career. While not shabby money, it dispels the notion that all pro football players are rolling in dough. Conner is at the lower end of the salary structure, despite playing one of the most physically demanding positions in the sport. And given the time it took to get his one-year deal for 2021, it’s likely he’ll be trying to get the same kind of contract a year from now.

This isn’t to knock Conner’s pay or his ability or effort. It is what it is. Dollar for dollar, however, Conner has more than earned what he’s gotten. He’s been banged up, beaten up, tossed around. And he’s not getting the kind of money in his mid-20s that will carry him for the next 60 or 70 years.

UPDATE 5:55 a.m. 4/14/21: The initial version of this post, based on Schefter’s initial tweet, said that it was a $1.25 million deal. Schefter has issued a correction, making it $1.75 million.