Month: July 2024

The Las Vegas Raiders are holding training camp outside of Los Angeles this year.

That seemed to be a routine announcement, but it was not.

By training in Costa Mesa, which is about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, the Raiders are infringing on the territorial rights of the Rams and Chargers. Those clubs have the rights for 75 miles around Los Angeles.

So the Raiders can’t advertise they are training close to Los Angeles and can’t invite fans or the Los Angeles media to their practices. Only members of the Las Vegas media that make the trip can attend.

The Raiders played in Los Angeles for 13 years and still have a big fanbase there, so the Rams and Chargers don’t want the Raiders building on that fan base and are enforcing that obscure rule.

Coach Antonio Pierce wanted the Raiders to train away from Las Vegas as a bonding experience. But the Raiders aren’t getting any promotional benefits, so it will be interesting if they keep training there in the future.

The Cowboys have been training in California for years, but since they were doing that before the Rams moved back to Los Angeles and the Chargers moved from San Diego, they are grandfathered in. 

Meanwhile, this year will be like a secret camp for the Raiders since they aren’t allowed to promote the fact they are in Costa Mesa.

Raider owner Mark Davis didn’t protest.

“The Chargers and the Rams have the ability to to block us from (promoting),” Davis told ESPN. “That’s fine.”

No word on whether a Los Angeles media outlet could hire a Las Vegas writer to report on the camp for them. Or whether Los Angeles or the Los Angeles media even cares.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh doesn’t mind putting a lot of pressure on his quarterback, Lamar Jackson.

He recently said Jackson can be the GOAT.

“The vision that we have together is Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League,” Harbaugh said.

Wow. That is quite a goal.

“That’s the vision,” Harbaugh said. “It’s going to happen by Lamar, his work ethic and his brilliant talent, by all of us pouring into that effort, together as a team, teamwork, and by the Grace of God and God’s goodwill.l That is how it is going to happen. And I believe it like we’ve already seen it.”

They’ve seen it in the regular season because Jackson has won two regular season MVP titles including last year. 

Still, Harbaugh has heard the critics who question Jackson’s 2-4 playoff record and that he is more of a runner than a passer.

“Lamar’s a guy, all his life, who’s been answering these same questions,” Harbaugh said.

“He’s got a growth mindset,” Harbaugh said. “He’s going to get better and better no doubt.”

Now Jackson has to prove he can be as good as Harbaugh thinks he can be. 

Last year, the Ravens lost to the Chiefs in the AFC title game by a 17-10 margin. This year, they open the season against the Chiefs, who are going for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl win, on Thursday night Sept. 5 in prime time.

The opener will be a big test for the Ravens and Jackson and for what Harbaugh thinks of Jackson.

The NFL 18-game regular season schedule train seems to have left the station. Now it seems to be a matter of time before it reaches its destination.

Commissioner Roger Goodell has been talking about it in the offseason and he usually gets what he wants.

He said in May they want to keep making the game safer and said they have to make an agreement with the Players Association.

And Stephen Jones, the son of Cowboy owner Jerry Jones and a member of the competition committee, recently said an 18-game schedule is inevitable and that the players will go for it because it means more money for them.

The players should oppose the idea because more games and means more chance of injuries and increases the chances of a player getting CTE after they retire. 

But since they are likely to agree to it, they should make a lot of demands. Joe Burrow has already suggested an 18-game schedule include a second bye. But they should get a lot more than that, starting with a bigger share of the percentage. Starting with at least 50-50, if not more. They are taking the injury risk.

This will be the first big test for new NFLPA director Lloyd Howell. The NFLPA has a history of caving because they don’t want to give up paychecks.

But Howell must convince the owners they have to pay more for labor peace.

When a business is hit with a $14.1 billion antitrust verdict, it is usually big news.

But it got little notice when a lawsuit filed on behalf of subscribers to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket were awarded $4.7 billion in damages that are trebled to $14.1 billion because of the antitrust violation. Commercial subscribers were awarded $96 million.

The crux of the case was that the NFL was overcharging for the service to protect the Fox and CBS Sunday packages. In effect, the NFL was selling the rights to the games twice and kept the price high so Fox and CBS didn’t lose too many viewers.

The NFL made a deal last year with YouTube to sell the package of all the games for $349 million. ESPN offered to sell customers one team a year for $70, but the NFL rejected that idea. They also did not want to sell single-game packages.

The NFL still has three shots at an appeal to the presiding judge, the circuit court and eventually the Supreme Court.

If it could lose all the appeals, the NFL teams could have to pay $440 million each, which is a big number even for the NFL.

If they lose the appeals on the first two levels, they still may have a good chance to get it overturned by the conservative Supreme Court.

The NFL already has an antitrust exemption to sell league-wide packages and when the Supreme Court declined to hear the case the first time, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that if each team had to negotiate individual contracts it could mean “substantial tension” with antitrust principles.

On the other hand, if the NFL loses the appeals, the owners will be unhappy. Whether commissioner Roger Goodell would get some flak if they have to pay $440 million remains to be seen.

Although it may have gone back to Mark Twain, Harry Truman popularized the phrase that there are three kinds of lies – lies, damn lies and statistics.

A fourth category could be NFL quarterback contracts.

Quarterbacks are getting big contracts these days, but they always aren’t what they seem.

The five-year contract extension that Trevor Lawrence signed for $275 million raised a few eyebrows because he suffered four injuries last year and lost his last five starts after an 8-3 beginning. The Jaguars’ only victory the last six weeks came when they beat Carolina with C.J. Beathard at quarterback. It showed the Jaguars still have confidence in him that he will become an elite quarterback.

At first glance, it tied the $275 million deal that Joe Burrow got for a five-year extension for the best deal.

But at a closer look the deal wasn’t as good as the one Burrow signed. Burrow got $219 million in guaranteed money while Lawrence got $142 million in guaranteed money, although injury guarantees bring it up to $200 million.

On top of that, former Green Bay executive Andrew Brandt did a breakdown on the cash Lawrence is getting and it is generally at the bottom of the recent quarterback contracts.

First year: Lawrence gets $39 million while Jared Goff got $80.6 million, Lamar Jackson $50 million, Kirk Cousins $62 million, Daniel Jones $46 million and Burrow $45 million.

Second year: Lawrence gets $76 million the first two years. Jackson and Burrow get $111 million, Goff $98 million, Deshaun Watson $92 million and Cousins $90 million.

Third year: Lawrence gets $114 over first three years. Jackson gets $115 million, Goff $153, Burrow $146 million, Jones $160 million and Herbert $157 million.

Fourth year: Lawrence gets $155 million over the first four years. Jackson $207 million, Golf $193 million, Burrow $181 million Jones $160 million, and Herbert $157 million.

Lawrence still got a good deal  considered considering he was coming off a disappointing third season, but both sides decided to make it look better than it really is by adding two non-guaranteed years at the end worth almost $104 million. There is no guarantee Lawrence will ever see that money.

Now it will be interesting to see what kind of contracts quarterbacks like Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love and Dak Prescott get going forward.

Whatever they get, ignore the overall figure. Check the guarantees and the year-by-year cash figure to determine how good their deals are.