Year: 2017

With Coughlin being Coughlin, Marrone already looks like a short-timer

Jaguars coach Doug Marrone is facing an unusual dynamic this season that no NFL coach has ever faced.

He’s got Tom Coughlin as his boss.

Coughlin, who built the most successful NFL expansion team ever in his first tenure with the Jaguars, is back this year in a new role.

He’s the executive vice president of football operations, but he’s not the coach.

In his first stint with the Jaguars, Coughlin also ran the show, but he was the coach. So Coughlin couldn’t second-guess himself.

Continue reading “With Coughlin being Coughlin, Marrone already looks like a short-timer”

Here’s hoping Kessler lawsuit blows up the NCAA’s corrupt system

“The NCAA’s Worst Nightmare’’ the headline on the HuffPost website blared over the weekend.

It turns out the site feels the NCAA’s nightmare is longtime sports lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, who is continuing his legal assault on the NCAA’s gameplan of making billions of dollars without paying the players more than the alleged cost of attending college.

In effect, Kessler is trying to change the system and force the colleges to give the players more compensation.

It’s likely to be a long legal fight that will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, although the NCAA has managed to all but continue the status quo despite some recent legal hits.

First, Ed O’Bannon won his lawsuit last October in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that found the NCAA was violating antitrust law. The Supreme Court let the decision stand.

Continue reading “Here’s hoping Kessler lawsuit blows up the NCAA’s corrupt system”

Age will soon catch up even with the remarkably durable Tom Brady

When Gisele Bündchen married Tom Brady eight years ago, she said he told her he planned to play 10 more years.

The problem, she said, was that as the years passed, the number never went down. As recently as 2015, he was still saying he planned to play 10 more years.

Now Brady finally seems ready to concede 10 more years may be a bit unrealistic. He seems to be talking about five more years.

Brady turned 40 Thursday, and in his first press conference of training camp Friday, he was asked about Patriots owner Bob Kraft saying he could play until his 50s.

“I don’t think I’ve ever said the 50s,’’ Brady said. “Maybe once. You know, I just love doing it. Again, I’ve never thought about not playing, at least until my mid-40s, so that’s a pretty good goal in and of itself, and then we’ll see when I get there.’’

Continue reading “Age will soon catch up even with the remarkably durable Tom Brady”

NFL’s new stance on player health is encouraging, but we’ve been fooled before

Winston Churchill is often quoted as saying something along the lines of “America eventually does the right thing after exploring all other options.’’

Scholars say there isn’t much evidence Churchill actually said it, but it is a good line — because America indeed has a history of taking a long time to get around to doing the right thing.

Now it may be time to apply that to the NFL after a remarkable Washington Post interview with Allen Sills, a Vanderbilt University neurosurgeon hired in March as the NFL’s chief medical officer.

The NFL may be finally getting around to doing the right thing on the issue of player health and safety.

Sills made some common-sense observations to the Post, but common-sense comments haven’t usually been the norm in recent years when NFL officials talked about player healthy and safety.

Continue reading “NFL’s new stance on player health is encouraging, but we’ve been fooled before”

Patriots’ Kraft should have advised his friend Trump to be wary of Putin

Patriots owner Bob Kraft apparently recently gave President Trump some tax-policy advice.

The two men have long been friends, and Trump told the Wall Street Journal that Kraft gave him the advice after a recent dinner.

“Donald, don’t worry about the rich people,’’ President Trump said Kraft told him. “Tax the rich people. You’ve got to take care of the people in the country. It was a very interesting statement. I feel the same way.’’

It remains to be seen if Trump really feels the same way.

But Kraft could have given Trump some advice on being wary when dealing with Vladimir Putin.

Continue reading “Patriots’ Kraft should have advised his friend Trump to be wary of Putin”

Already past time for Ravens to make up their minds on Kaepernick

When is the last time an NFL team issued a statement saying its owner isn’t preventing the general manager and coach from signing a player?

That’s just what the Baltimore Ravens did Wednesday.

“We are going through a process and have not made a decision,’’ the statement said. “Steve Bisciotti has not told us we cannot sign Colin Kaepernick, nor has he blocked the move. Whoever is making these claims is wrong.’’

That is just one more example that the Kaepernick story isn’t going away any time soon.

ESPN’s Dianna Russini had reported that general manager Ozzie Newsome and coach John Harbaugh support signing Kaepernick but have met resistance from Bisciotti.

Continue reading “Already past time for Ravens to make up their minds on Kaepernick”

Horrific practice underscores Bortles’ shaky status with Jaguars

Ryan Mallett of the Baltimore Ravens showed Friday that quarterbacks sometimes have a meltdown in training camp.

He threw “at least five interceptions,’’ according to reports from the Ravens’ training camp, and almost threw two more.

“Tell (offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg) to tell Mallett to throw to the guys wearing the purple (offensive) jerseys,” Terrell Suggs said.

Mallett even threw a white towel in the air after the last one.

Blake Bortles of the Jaguars matched it Saturday night in the team’s first padded practice before more than 4,000 season-ticket holders invited to practice.

Continue reading “Horrific practice underscores Bortles’ shaky status with Jaguars”

Gruden’s constant hints of coaching return now beyond tiresome

It won’t be long before Jon Gruden will have more years in the broadcast booth than he spent on NFL sidelines as a head coach.

Gruden coached 11 years in the NFL, four with the Raiders and seven with the Buccaneers. He won one Super Bowl.

Now he’s entering his ninth year as an ESPN announcer, and by 2019, his announcing career will have lasted as long as his coaching career. And then maybe even longer.

That means his coaching career is probably over. Teams aren’t likely to hire a coach who hasn’t been on the sidelines for nine years.

And the Bucs are putting him in their Ring of Honor, a sign they think his coaching days are over. But for some reason, Gruden likes to keep his name in the coaching mix. It sounds like an ego thing.

Continue reading “Gruden’s constant hints of coaching return now beyond tiresome”

Arians’ new book, like the man himself, is a breath of NFL coaching fresh air

In the new book by Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians called “The Quarterback Whisperer,’’ Arians compliments Chuck Pagano of the Indianapolis Colts while giving a not-so-positive evaluation of many of his colleagues.

‘’There are a lot of assholes in the world of coaching – backstabbing is common and a lot of guys have personal agendas – but Chuck isn’t one of them,’’ Arians wrote in the book he did with Lars Anderson. “He’s a good, decent, hard-working man who is also a hell of a coach.’’

Most coaches wouldn’t talk about their fellow coaches the way Arians did.

But then Arians isn’t most coaches. He speaks his mind.

That is why his book is interesting. He doesn’t sugarcoat things.

Continue reading “Arians’ new book, like the man himself, is a breath of NFL coaching fresh air”

Parole was reasonable, but it still feels like O.J. is conning us

You obviously know that O.J. Simpson was granted parole Thursday.

It was hard to miss.

When has a parole hearing for a robbery been televised live nationally?

Once it was announced he was paroled, the Huffington Post headline was, “The Juice is Loose’’ even though he may not be paroled before Oct. 1. The New York Times put the news on the top of its website, and the Washington Post had a picture on its first web page.

That begs the question: What is it about O.J. Simpson that still has a hold on this country?

Continue reading “Parole was reasonable, but it still feels like O.J. is conning us”