NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Fitting right in with his new team

 

It probably earned him a promotion.

 

lol

 

Should be starting soon.

 

Team driver at least.

 

Jury orders Rams to pay Reggie Bush $12.5 million for knee injury

Reggie Bush won his lawsuit against the Rams, with a St. Louis jury ordering the NFL team to pay the former running back $12.5 million, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Bush sued the Rams and owners and operators of the Edward Jones Dome after injuring his left knee in a 2015 game at the stadium, the team’s last in St. Louis before moving to Los Angeles.

The presiding judge dismissed the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority and the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission from the lawsuit last week.

The jury found the Rams 100 percent liable for Bush’s injury and ordered the team to pay $4.95 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages.

Bush claimed he slipped on a “concrete ring of death” as he was pushed out of bounds in a November 1, 2015, game against the Rams, ending his season.

Bush, now 33, played for the 49ers at the time. He played 13 games for Buffalo in 2016 but had only 12 carries.

“Reggie lost his ability to do what he loved, and to bargain for a contract that he worked his entire life for,” Bush’s lawyer Tim Cronin said during closing statements. “These players get chewed up. They only have so many chances.”

Rams attorney Dan Allmayer said the injury was caused by “pre-existing issues.” (PFT)

 

Zack Martin: 6 years, $84 million, $40 million in guarantees.

https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-co...5-42-DB-BB-C9-FC-CD180613_144307DallasCowboys

 

Wow. Payday. The standard for lineman is increasing.

 

The standard for all positions is going up very fast

 

Saints signing veteran running back Terrance West

Terrance West's workout Wednesday with the New Orleans Saints had positive results.

The Saints are signing West to a deal, according to a source informed of the situation.

The addition of West should immediately bolster a Saints running back group that will begin the regular season without Mark Ingram, who will serve a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances.

 

Christian Hackenberg visiting the Patriots

 

NFLPA hires multiple law firms to explore new anthem policy



Three weeks ago, the NFL changed its anthem policy without input from or discussion with the NFL Players Association. And the NFLPA is preparing for a potential legal fight over the change.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFLPA has retained multiple law firms to research the options for fighting the new policy, which mandates all players in the playing area to stand for the anthem, and which requires any player who would protest the anthem to remain in the locker room.

One potential challenge would come in the form of a “non-injury grievance” under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The deadline for filing the grievance would come in late July, and the argument would be that the NFL failed to engage in good-faith bargaining with the union before taking away a right that the NFL had previously given to the players, and that the NFL had confirmed on multiple occasions.

The league gave players the right to protest in 2009, via a poorly-drafted policy that requires the players to be present on the sideline for the anthem but that makes standing optional. In 2016, the NFL confirmed that players are not required to stand after Colin Kaepernick was first spotted sitting during the anthem. In 2017, the NFL once again told players that they would have the right to protest, after the President said that he’d like to see an NFL owner respond to an anthem protest by saying, “Get that son of a bitch off the field, he’s fired!”

Other forms of litigation are possible, including an action based on both the U.S. and various state constitutions premised on First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.

However it plays out, the NFL’s effort to placate the President and his base backfired badly, and it has put the NFL in line for a fight with the union that the NFL possibly will lose. (PFT)

 

The National Anthem policy isn’t negotiable.

 

Yes it is.

 

Texans sign Benardrick McKinney to five-year, $50 million extension

Linebacker Benardrick McKinney has agreed to a five-year, $50 million extension with the Texans, John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reports. The deal includes $21 million guaranteed.

“Bernardrick plays a key role in our defense and has been highly productive, but more importantly he is a core player who has developed into a team leader within our program,” Texans General Manager Brian Gaine said, via a press release from the team. “We are excited to have him a part of our long term future here at the Texans.”


The Texans were expected to sign McKinney to an extension before Jadeveon Clowney. McKinney had one year left on his deal and was due to make $1.16 million in base salary in 2018.

Houston drafted McKinney with the 43rd overall pick in 2015 out of Mississippi State. McKinney, 25, has made 282 tackles, nine sacks, 25 tackles for loss 21 quarterback hits and two forced fumbles in 46 regular-season games.

McKinney logged a team-leading 95 tackles last season, along with three sacks, eight quarterback hits and a single-season career-best 10 tackles for loss, while starting all 16 games in 2017.

 

Report: Raiders wary a suspension could be coming for Martavis Bryant



In acquiring Martavis Bryant in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers in April, Oakland General Manager Reggie McKenzie said the Raiders felt “good about giving Martavis an opportunity.”

It appears as though that good feeling may have left the building.

According to Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Raiders are wary that a new suspension for the talented, but troubled, receiver may be imminent.

The team declined to comment on the matter to Gehlken but affirmed they are awaiting word from the NFL about a potential violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy.

Bryant was suspended for the entirety of the 2016 season due to repeated violations of the substance-abuse policy. He was conditionally reinstated last year and played in 15 games for Pittsburgh with eight starts. He caught 50 passes for 603 yards and three touchdowns before being traded to the Raiders in exchange for a third-round pick.

A failed test isn’t the only way Bryant could run afoul of the league policy. Missed tests could trigger another suspension as well. (PFT)

 

The Color Rush uniforms are (generally) dead, but the Bears are opting for a rush of color in their alternate jersey.

Yes, the blaze orange hunting jerseys are back.

The team last wore the jerseys in 2011. They also used them in 2005 through 2009.

For 2018, the orange jerseys will be worn during the Week 6 game at Dolphins and for the Week 11 home game against the Vikings.

The Bears unveiled the new orange jerseys on Friday. And, yes, they’re available for purchase.

 

Mike Pereira: Calling the new helmet rule inside the tackle box will be almost impossible

Former NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira is skeptical about the league’s new rule against lowering the helmet to initiate contact.

Pereira said this morning on PFT Live that although NFL Network canceled his appearance this week, he visited the league office and spoke with the current head of officiating, Al Riveron, and told Riveron that the officials are given an impossible task if they’re supposed to determine which of two linemen who collide head-first at the line of scrimmage initiated the contact.

“Even though the NFL Network didn’t let me come on their show, I did visit their office and get the chance to speak with Al Riveron,” Pereira said. “I talked about how I felt it was going to be tough to officiate consistently. . . . Especially because they are pretty adamant that the rule is going to pertain to and be officiated in the tackle box, which I think is almost impossible.”

Pereira said he wishes the NFL would focus on hits using the helmet involving ball carriers, tacklers, quarterbacks and receivers, rather than down linemen.

“In open space is where the rule needed to be officiated. Not in the tackle box,” Pereira said.

However, there’s a silver lining to what Pereira is saying: He thinks calling the penalty is going to be so difficult that officials simply aren’t going to flag it very often, and instead the new rule will be enforced by fines from the league office, rather than penalties on the field.

“I still get a sense that we’re overhyping this change. We’re just not going to see the number of penalties that people are talking about,” Pereira said. “I think you’re going to see more fines than flags.”

Pereira believes the officials will call the new penalty a lot in the preseason, but that once the games count for real, they’ll leave their flags in their pockets except on the most flagrant of hits. Which means this rule change might not be quite as big a deal as people think it is.

 

I think the above diagnosis is spot on. And that has always been the problem - the majority of head contact happens, routinely, inside the tackle box. How you're supposed to do anything about it without fundamentally changing the game... I don't know. The refs shouldn't be responsible for this - that is, indeed, an impossible task.