http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...rback-richard-sherman-let-go-problem-nfl-2017

Why Richard Sherman can't let go of Seattle's Super Bowl loss
Seth Wickersham/ESPN Senior Writer

Richard Sherman wanted to send a message to Russell Wilson. It was June 2014, and it'd been a testy day at Seahawks minicamp, with defensive players hitting the offense in a non-contact practice. On one play, Sherman had ripped off the helmet and jersey of receiver Phil Bates, igniting a brawl, the cornerback's dreadlocks flopping in the air.

Both sides cleared. Pharrell Williams' "Happy" blasted from the loudspeakers. But the defense, a ruthless and crazy and awesome bunch that less than five months earlier had delivered the franchise its first Super Bowl victory, was just getting started.

Sherman is famous for loving practice, for treating it like a game, for rarely missing it even when injured. For him, it's where a mystical bond is forged and a win on Sunday becomes an almost accidental byproduct.

And so, a few plays later, when Sherman picked off Wilson, it wasn't enough just to make a great play. He wanted to get inside Wilson's head, to remind the young Pro Bowler that despite his Super Bowl fame -- and endorsements that many on the defense felt they deserved -- Sherman still owned his ass.

According to witnesses, Sherman threw the ball back to Wilson and yelled, "You f---ing suck!"

Another fight broke out. Sherman was cussing and yelling; Wilson seemed stunned. Pete Carroll stopped practice and would later hold a series of meetings to remind the players they needed to build each other up, not tear each other down -- and that they needed to support their quarterback, further pissing off a defense that already thought the head coach went out of his way to protect him.

At the time, of course, nobody wore the scars they do now. Nobody knew the pain of losing a Super Bowl at the 1-yard line. Nobody could have predicted the strangest storyline from the 2017 offseason: Sherman, a future Hall of Famer in his prime, open to a trade, and the Seahawks open to shipping him. Tensions lurked beneath the surface, but the Seahawks were building something special, on an ascent toward a limitless future.

The next day, the Seahawks got their Super Bowl rings. Four phrases were engraved inside. The last one read: What's next?


Photo Illustration by Eddie Guy

You know what happened next. With 26 seconds left in Super Bowl XLIX, on second-and-goal from the 1, Patriots corner Malcolm Butler jumped a route like nobody had ever jumped a route on the game's biggest stage. That moment haunts the Seahawks to this day.

"If Russ had just thrown it low and away ...," one Seahawks staffer says. "If we had just executed the play, it would have been the easiest touchdown in history," says a former assistant coach.

Nothing that's happened since -- not the Seahawks twice reaching the divisional round in the playoffs before running into Cam Newton and Matt Ryan, not Wilson developing into a franchise quarterback, not the defense becoming the first since the 1950s Browns to lead the league in points allowed for four straight years -- has brought anything near closure.

If the hardest thing in football is to manage the celebrity that attends a Super Bowl win, the next-hardest thing is to forget a catastrophic Super Bowl loss. Something complicated and vital to the chemistry of a great team was broken on that interception.

According to interviews with numerous current and former Seahawks players, coaches and staffers, few have taken it harder than Richard Sherman. He has told teammates and friends that he believes the Seahawks should have won multiple Super Bowls by now. And with just one trophy and the window closing fast, he has placed responsibility for that failing on the two faces of the franchise: Wilson and Carroll.

Sherman, who like Wilson declined comment for this story, thinks Carroll hasn't held Wilson or many young Seahawks to the defense's championship standard. He's been disillusioned not only by that single play more than two years earlier but also by his coach's and quarterback's response to it.

"You got me coming off the practice field, and I'm really pissed off," Carroll says from his office overlooking Lake Washington after a May minicamp. "I worked up a lot of energy, and I'm really pissed off." He pauses. Inhales, exhales. "OK, let's have a nice conversation."

Carroll is joking, though it would have been easy to buy. It's been a tense offseason. In mid-March, word emerged that Sherman was available for a trade. Normally, a team would try to squash such a bombshell involving an iconic player beloved by fans. But general manager John Schneider later admitted the team was taking calls.

And Carroll had been unusually blunt, saying at the league meetings that many of Sherman's issues -- he seemed to go off the rails at the end of last season as his anger boiled over -- were "self-inflicted."

No trade materialized, and Sherman is now back at his usual spot at left corner. Carroll seems refreshed and energized, but this year may test the powers and limits of his coaching style. In his book, Win Forever, Carroll argues that the only way to actually win forever is to let go of failure.

Most of the teaching points are not from the hundreds of wins in an outstanding career but from moments when he's been broken. When Carroll was a quarterback at Redwood High in Larkspur, California, his coach, the late Bob Troppmann -- Coach T, Carroll calls him -- ordered him to run the ball late in the fourth quarter of a game seemingly in hand.

Carroll instead called a pass, which, you guessed it, was intercepted. To this day, he remembers Coach T's fury. More than that, he remembers that Coach T quickly believed in him again, a forgiveness that allowed Carroll to forgive himself.


Harry How/Getty Images

When in doubt -- when doubted -- Carroll always has plugged into an extremely positive mindset that borders on New Agey. One of his rules for answering questions in interviews is "no negatives," something he learned from the late Jim Valvano. The mentality has helped Carroll survive while coaching 42 of the past 43 years.

It helped him keep faith after being fired twice in the NFL. It helped him process the 2006 Rose Bowl loss to the University of Texas that denied him a third straight national title at USC. And it helped with the Butler interception. "The instant that play occurred, I knew what I was dealing with," Carroll says. "I had to get back to business as soon as possible."

It's a competitor's challenge, really. A game within a game. How quickly can Carroll flush pain? He's so good at it, so smooth, so positive, that it's easy to forget he's trying to somehow take his team back in time this season, to exchange the current mistrust for a moment when everyone still believed in one another.

Tension flared at strange times last season, blowing little issues into big ones. One day, Sherman walked into a team meeting and found rookie guard Germain Ifedi sitting at a desk. That's a no-no. Rookies sit on the floor; veterans get the desks. Sherman lorded over him, but Ifedi did what Sherman might have done as a rookie: He stayed at the desk.

Finally, Sherman broke: "Get up." Ifedi stood up and knocked over the desk, tossing it aside. The 6-foot-5, 325-pound Ifedi stared at the 6-3, 195-pound Sherman as if ready to throw down. Ifedi eventually stepped aside, but Sherman later told friends that he saw the incident as emblematic of a bigger problem.

The offense, led by Wilson, was in the midst of a season in which it would score fewer than 13 points five times, but the only players being held to the lofty standard created by the defense were the members of it.

Sherman, of course, is the face of a defense that stands out in the free agency era, having been assembled in a run of straight-flush drafts and unheralded free agent signings that allowed players to bond like a college crew. They were underdogs together, became great together, changed a franchise together, got paid together, won a Super Bowl together -- and lost one together.

They shared an ambition for excellence, impossible to articulate but as palpable as the hits they delivered in practice. They'd war with offenses, both opposing and their own, and often with one another.

Free agents who sign with the Seahawks are always shocked at how savage the locker room can be, a violence at odds with Carroll's laid-back persona. There was a fistfight between Seahawks receivers the night before they beat Denver in the Super Bowl, and nobody was punished.

In fact, many considered it a sign of unity that news of the fight didn't immediately get out. No matter what, by kickoff, Sherman would stand in the middle of a circle, brothers in arms, and yell, "We're all we got!" To which his teammates would reply, "We're all we need!"

The pain of the Butler interception wasn't just the pain of losing a Super Bowl. It was destiny unraveling, the defense losing its claim as greatest ever for toppling Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in consecutive years.

Never mind that the defense missed 11 tackles in that game, allowed New England to convert a third-and-14 in the fourth quarter and blew a 24-14 lead -- even after linebacker Bobby Wagner turned to safety Earl Thomas and said, "We'll be considered the best D, bro. We got to stop them now."

That failed throw at the goal line is all anyone remembers -- and it's what Sherman can't forget. He'd trash-talked his way through the game with an elbow injury, inspiring and irritating as always. He'd gotten in Julian Edelman's face and yelled, "You're all weak! We eat y'all!" In the end, though, there was a viral video of his face, jaw dropped in disbelief after the fatal play: Sherman Crying.

Sherman has always been a man of extremes, of loud arrogance and quiet desperation, who plays as if his self-worth were at stake. It's how a skinny kid from Compton who shied away from contact in youth football willed himself to Stanford and became one of the most physical corners in football history.

He's famous in the building both for being a teammate you can go to with any personal problem and for pointing fingers. "He's always looking at what other people are doing," says a former assistant coach who has had many talks with him. "He's made it personal. It's your fault we're not winning. It wears guys thin."

In the weeks and months after Ifedi was slow to give up his seat, Sherman and Carroll had a series of conversations about old wounds that seemed fresh. Sherman had exploded on coaches and teammates on the sideline after a series of blown coverages in a two-point win over the Falcons on Oct. 16.

A week later, against the Cardinals, Sherman was on the field for 99 snaps, including four on special teams. He was so exhausted and dehydrated, shivering with a fever, that he leaned on Wagner from the shower to his locker and drained two IV bags. It was a warrior effort wasted.

Before overtime, Wilson's offense had managed only five first downs and nine punts. The game ended 6-6. The offensive line was manhandled, but Carroll complimented Ifedi's play after the game, privately setting off many Seahawks defenders as an example of Carroll seeming too positive.

Carroll felt that Sherman was putting too much pressure on himself. "It was beginning to mount," Carroll says. Some in the building felt that Sherman had a point about Carroll not holding everyone to a high standard, but many assistant coaches shook their heads at the notion. "Pete is consistent," says Sherman Smith, the seven-year Seahawks running backs coach who was let go after last season. "He treats the rookies the same way Richard was treated."

Richard Sherman told some that he felt better after chatting with Carroll, but the feeling was temporary. "He was in a bad place," a Seahawks source says. It was clear that he felt the culture he helped build was being eroded, an erosion that predated the Butler play and traced back to the months after the Super Bowl win in February 2014, when the defensive players noticed Russell Wilson seemed to be the favored son.

Wilson is an extremist too. He claims to flush bad plays right away, speaking of letting go so confidently that it seems rehearsed -- and probably is, considering Wilson has been practicing news conferences since age 7. Wilson has said that he, like Carroll, made peace with the Butler interception immediately, chalking it up to the plan of a higher power.

That spring Wilson chartered a trip for the entire team to Hawaii. He later framed it to Sports Illustrated not as a therapy session but rather as a forward-looking exercise. That made no sense. After all, the story detailed the hours players spent on the trip at the edge of a cliff, rehashing the play, airing grievances. Wilson, in the vein of Carroll, doubled down by saying that he'd throw to receiver Ricardo Lockette again.

The division remained, but then again, Wilson has been a divisive figure almost from the moment he earned the starting job, long before he became the most famous and highest-paid Seahawk. It seems to go beyond the normal jealousy aimed at most star quarterbacks. Teammates privately seem to want him exposed, but ask them why, or on what grounds, and their reasons vary.

A man who vowed to live in transparency -- Wilson famously announced that he was refraining from premarital sex with his then-girlfriend, Ciara -- required guests to sign nondisclosure agreements before entering his box at Mariners games.

After the Super Bowl against Denver, team management "fell in love with Russell," in the words of a former high-level staffer; defensive players would see him in executives' offices and wonder, "Why not me?" Pettiness grew.

In 2014, Bleacher Report reported that some black teammates "think Wilson isn't black enough." Every Christmas, Wilson gives each player two first-class tickets on Alaska Airlines, one of his endorsements. "It didn't cost him anything," one Seahawk told an assistant coach last year. "Big deal."


Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports

But all the resentment was manageable -- until the 1-yard line. The Butler interception gave it a life of its own. Carroll hosts "Tell the Truth Monday" during the season, when he breaks down film. Some Seahawks joke that it should be renamed "Tell the Truth to Certain People," because Wilson seems exempt from criticism.

For as great as Wilson has played at times, for as well as he serves as the face of the franchise, for as tough as he is -- last season he played through a sprained MCL, a high ankle sprain and a strained pectoral on his throwing side -- only twice in his five years have the Seahawks finished in the top 10 in points scored.

Sherman and the defense know the difference between very good quarterbacks and great ones. They see how Wilson, only 5-11, struggles to anticipate open windows; they see the offensive staff breaking down film of the Saints' offense to figure out ways to deploy tight end Jimmy Graham, an All-Pro in New Orleans and a highly paid, ineffective red zone weapon in Seattle.

It galls the defense to hear Wilson, ever positive, stand behind a podium and insist that the offense "made some great plays" after games in which the Seahawks barely score -- and then be propped up as if he were Aaron Rodgers.

"Guys want Pete to call out Russ in front of the team," Smith says. "That's not what Pete does. Pete will single out a guy, but he does it the right way."

Wilson's determined self-belief in the face of crisis is as unbreakable as Sherman's and Carroll's. It helped him transcend his physical limitations, the death of his father, coaches who didn't believe in him -- and the loss to the Patriots. But the more Wilson spins obvious locker room strife into unrelenting positivity, the worse it seems to become.

"A lot of guys, not just on defense but on offense, want Russell to fit into a mold that's not him," Smith says. "Why is everyone allowed to be themselves but Russell?" Wilson and Sherman are neither friends nor enemies, people who know them well say. They simply coexist -- until they don't.

In Week 15 against the Rams last season, Wilson was almost intercepted at the LA 1-yard line. Sherman unloaded on Carroll on the sideline. Carroll tried to calm him down. It didn't work. In the locker room afterward, Sherman heatedly talked to Carroll. "Yeah, I was letting [Carroll] know," he later told reporters. "We've seen how that goes."

Carroll followed up with a few meetings with Sherman. The coach believed that many intense, high-profile matchups had taken a toll. "He was keyed up, competing his ass off," Carroll says. Sherman apologized to Carroll but publicly said he had no regrets. When questioned about it, he threatened to pull a reporter's press credential.

Sherman was asked how he would react if an offensive player jumped on a defensive coach. "If we had something like zero blitz in the Super Bowl and got bombed for a touchdown to lose, then I'm sure [it would] be understandable," he said.

It was unbelievable: Less than three weeks before the playoffs, Sherman was bringing up the Butler interception. Some players felt that if Carroll had just once stood before the team and apologized for not ramming Marshawn Lynch into New England's front from the 1-yard line -- a front that had stuffed him on short yardage twice earlier -- they would have had closure.

But Carroll never apologized. And won't. By calling a pass, he wanted to maximize his scoring chances and preserve his last timeout. Bill Belichick has backed the rationale more than Carroll's own team.

Carroll tried to rally the team before the playoffs, but Sherman dismissed the effort as a routine "kumbaya" meeting. Even some of Sherman's defensive teammates privately felt he had crossed a line. At Wilson's next news conference, he opened with a canned shot at Sherman: "Don't make me take y'all's credentials, all right?"

Three months later, after a second straight loss in the divisional round and increased chatter that an almost immortal team might be near the end of its run, the Seahawks and Sherman began to wonder whether a fresh start elsewhere would be best for both sides.

Carroll isn't one to sweat personnel drama. He staked his return to the NFL on the idea of coaching within his own personality, and it would be a betrayal of his life's work if his players weren't allowed to behave within theirs, even when it comes back to bite him. But at the heart of Carroll's program is a tacit promise: He will help players become their best selves, and in becoming their best selves, the team will become its best self.

Nobody knows how Sherman fits into that now. In Carroll's office in May, a conversation about Sherman and how to let go detours to a conversation that the coach had last year at Seattle University. He was with psychologist Angela Duckworth, author of Grit and a consultant to the Seahawks, discussing how he tries to "instill a mechanism of resilience" by persuading players to believe that they have the natural wiring to "allow them to maintain hope."


Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

When he was at USC, Carroll said, he would visit kids in South Central LA. The kids would explain that they had only two life options: death or jail. At first, Carroll didn't get it. Who gives up so easily? Then he started to meet with them one-on-one, "in essence coaching them," Carroll says. They were quick to fall back into despair when faced with a setback, but if Carroll showed that he cared, they seemed to rebound.

Sherman and Carroll go back to Sherman's junior year at Manuel Dominguez High in Compton. Carroll saw a great defensive back in Sherman and recruited him hard to USC, but Sherman, as strong-willed as he was gifted, saw in himself a great wide receiver and chose the more academically prestigious Stanford.

Something about Sherman always stuck with Carroll. "A big-thinking guy," Carroll says. In 2011, when Carroll was in the NFL and Sherman was desperate to get there, the coach personally scouted him, leading to a fifth-round selection.

Sherman struggled early as a rookie and then took off, showing the skill set that Carroll had proudly spotted in its infancy. He backed Sherman when he became a national debate topic for screaming into Erin Andrews' mic about receiver Michael Crabtree. "We've been through a lot together," Carroll says. "I've invested in him."

As Carroll speaks, he sounds as he always does in the face of conflict: sincere -- and a little too rosy. When the Seahawks' huge comeback against the Panthers fell short in the 2015 playoffs, Carroll told the team, "We had a lot of momentum, and if we had one more minute, we'd be going to the next round." But sunny-side-up talk gets under the skin of some defensive players. They are running out of minutes.

This offseason Sherman and Carroll held several private conversations. Sherman had told friends that he allowed himself to imagine playing for the Cowboys, maybe the Patriots, hoping Lynch would come out of retirement and join him in New England. But unless bad teams like the Bills or Browns gave up two first-round picks, he wasn't going anywhere.

By the draft, both sides were tired of the drama. The conversations turned into Sherman asking, "How do we get back to playing at the highest level?" It's a new team this year: The coaching staff is younger, and Carroll has pledged to get back to running the ball more, to returning the offense to the version that won it all four seasons ago.

The night before reporting for offseason workouts, Sherman sent a few tweets that ended with an affirmation that couldn't have been said better by Carroll: "Honestly a lot of times nightmares come before the dream."

Carroll seemed to have done it again, flipping despair into hope. People in the building wondered how Sherman would respond to a hit to his pride, returning to Seattle after he had set the stage to be shipped. But he went about his job as if nothing had happened. All business.

He's tutoring the young defensive backs, drafted to carry on his legacy. Maybe Sherman needed to dream of playing elsewhere to realize how good he has it. Or maybe it's all just believable now in spring but breakable come autumn, after the inevitable incomplete throw at the goal line.

It never quite goes away, that enduring love between teammates. It's still in Sherman, buried under the rage. In the Super Bowl XLVIII win over the Broncos, Sherman left the game after hurting his ankle. When the team ran onto the field under confetti, Sherman was on crutches, left behind.

Two men noticed. From the stage, during the crowning achievement of his life, Carroll made a point to spot Sherman and pump his fist, no words needed. Then a player fought through the crowd, walking away from the stage, to see him. It was Wilson.

"You straight?" Wilson asked.

"I hope I didn't break it," Sherman said.

"Love you, man."

"Appreciate you."

They hugged and shook hands and their eyes locked. Sherman held his look for an extra beat, the way teammates do. Wilson then left to raise the trophy. Sherman watched the celebration from the field through tears, back when everything he got and everything he needed were one.

What Current Starting NFL QBs could NOT be successful with a Quality O-Line, Quality Receivers, and a Quality RB?

I know that some would be more successful than others based on their skill set, but who do you think Couldn't be a "Franchise QB" Under those conditions?

As a secondary discussion, what would Brady, Manning, Marino, etc. Done with last year's Rams? I am talking same OL, Scheme, Coaching, Receivers, etc.

We finally got a better grade than Cardinals and Seahags, but even with the 49ers?

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/pag...les-rams-san-francisco-49ers-seattle-seahawks

Hell I will take a B- any day even if it was on my school report card. They are finally showing us some love @ ESPN...

http://www.lex18.com/story/35509345/now-we-know-why-jon-toth-wasnt-drafted

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I saw this posted on reddit and thought it interesting. We see so much smack talked about Fisher and Snead for their draft picks that I really was intrigued by this and wanted to post it because I know it'll spark some discussion.

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According to his stats only 6 teams have retained a higher percentage of draft picks from 2011 through 2016. We also hear so much about how the Patriot's and Packers draft so well and we should be more like them. Yeah the Patriots are almost 7% points behind us the Packers are also behind us.

Thoughts?

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"OK Jared, lesson number one. I want you to forget everything you were taught last year."

Rams still in wait-and-see mode with CB Trumaine Johnson
6:00 AM CT
Alden GonzalezESPN Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- If the Los Angeles Rams and standout cornerback Trumaine Johnson are going to sit down and revisit talks for a contract extension, it'll wait until around the middle of June. The Rams want to finish with organized team activities, which run through June 8, or the entire offseason program, which concludes June 15, to see just how good of a fit Johnson is for a Wade Phillips defense that utilizes a lot of man coverage.

The Rams communicated that to Johnson about a month ago, and he understands.

"But so far, so good, man," Johnson said Monday, the start of the Rams' OTAs. "I like it. I like it here. I like the defense. I'm trying to pick Wade Phillips' brain every day. He's won a Super Bowl, he's been to the playoffs. You're talking about a Hall of Fame coach. So it's cool right now, man. Just being around my teammates also, that I've been around a couple of years now, it's been fun."

Johnson is playing under his second consecutive franchise tag, which will pay him $16.74 million in 2017, and can replace that with a long-term deal at any point until July 15.

Aaron Donald, the game's best interior pass-rusher, who was absent from OTAs on Monday while his representatives engage in contract negotiations that Rams general manager Les Snead deemed "serious." Donald is still two seasons away from free agency -- without even including the ability to franchise him -- but seeks higher compensation for 2017 and 2018, for obvious reasons.

The Rams, Snead said Monday, are "very hopeful" that they can get a deal done with Donald.

But what about all those other defensive players who are a year away from free agency?

The list includes Johnson, inside linebacker Alec Ogletree, slot corner and free safety Lamarcus Joyner, strong safety Maurice Alexander, outside corner E.J. Gaines and backup safety Cody Davis. The Rams at least have the financial wiggle room. They're set up to have about $43 million in cap space in 2018, which currently stands as the fifth-most in the NFL.

"When you have a 53-man roster, you have to be able to juggle a few balls in the air," Snead said Monday. "It's not just one person. It's a team. All of those variables we have to work through, and that's what we're trying to do right now."

Asked about Johnson, who was shopped earlier this offseason, Snead reiterated that the organization wants to "get through OTAs, make sure it's a fit on all sides, and then we'll not take a summer vacation to see if we can figure something out." Donald might require being compensated as the game's highest-paid defensive player. But Johnson won't come cheap, either. A good comparison might have come in early April with the Falcons' Desmond Trufant, who signed a five-year deal that is worth about $69 million and guarantees him close to $42 million.

"Overall, you always want a long-term deal," Johnson said. "But right now, my focus is here, with these OTAs. We have until July 15, so I’m going to let my agent handle the business side and I’m just going to handle the football side."

Johnson, a third-round pick in 2012, intercepted 15 passes in his first four seasons, tied for the fourth-most in the NFL during that time. Last year, he replaced the departed Janoris Jenkins as the primary corner and intercepted only one pass in 14 games, but was ranked 25th among 111 qualified corners by Pro Football Focus. The Rams have since signed Kayvon Webster, who will compete with Gaines for the starting job on the outside, and Nickell Robey-Coleman, another option in the slot.

But Johnson is by far their best and most accomplished at the position.

"My whole thing is, man, I'm just glad I'm playing football," he said. "If it was about the money for me, I would've left somewhere else to get bigger money. I love football, I love my teammates."

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angele...in-wait-and-see-mode-with-cb-trumaine-johnson

Cleary there's a woman fattening him up. Dude looks like he's puttin on some pounds!

In his recent one on one with Dani he mentioned that, plus the fact they're making it competitive out there. Now, I know it's a small thing to get excited about, but F it I'm pumped!

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/05/23/nfl-will-have-medical-evaluation-tent-on-sidelines/

NFL will have medical evaluation tent on sidelines
Posted by Mike Florio on May 23, 2017



On a day when the NFL would have been wise to borrow college football’s overtime procedures, pro football is instead adopting something else from the amateur game.

Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters at the conclusion of the ownership meeting in Chicago that the league will use a medical tent on the sidelines in 2017. The University of Alabama first employed the device in 2015, aimed at preventing fans or media from seeing physical examinations that otherwise would in plain view of opponents, media, and fans. Other programs began to adopt the device in 2016.

While useful for the evaluation of various physical ailments without taking him to the locker room, it may not be an appropriate substitute for a locker-room concussion evaluation, which benefits from the player being removed from the noise and the elements of the playing area, possibly with a chance to remove his shoulder pads and relax a bit, allowing for a meaningful assessment of his cognitive abilities.

The tent will inject a high degree of secrecy to the medical evaluation process, putting the media and fans at the mercy of the accuracy of the in-game updates by hiding what sideline reporters or binocular-equipped journalists in the press box otherwise would be able to observe in plain view.

While some teams may still do basic evaluations and manipulations in the open, it makes plenty of sense to use and device available to keep prying eyes from nothing anything more than the bare minimum about a given player’s health.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/05/23/rams-greatest-show-on-turf-mike-martz-dick-vermeil

Ben Baskin
Tuesday May 23rd, 2017
Sometimes a catalyzing event occurs, one so extreme that it disrupts the natural order, compelling a species to change. Those are the anomalies, the aberrations, the hurricanes and tornados, extreme mutations, phenomena that upend the system. In those instances the evolution is rapid, sudden and without warning. In biology, they call it the punctuated equilibrium theory. In football, we called it the Greatest Show on Turf.

Dick Vermeil got his first NFL coaching job in 1969, hired by Marv Levy to be a special teams coach with the Los Angeles Rams. Roman Gabriel, the Rams quarterback that season, threw for 2,549 yards and completed 54.4% of his passes—good enough to be named NFL MVP. Thirty seasons later Vermeil returned to the Rams, this time to be the head coach of a very different team, in a new city, with a very different MVP under center.

“I saw the evolution,” Vermeil says. “It was slow. Every year teams threw a little more, scoring went up a little more. When you have 32 teams, they don’t all transcend to a new philosophy at the same time.”

But the 1999 Rams transcended. For decades the NFL had been slowly inching towards putting a greater emphasis on the passing game, with incremental changes coming every year. But then along came the Rams. And they blew the whole damn thing up.

In the three decades between 1969 and ’98 the average quarterback rating in the NFL rose 6.7 points, passing totals increased 27.5 yards per game and completion percentage grew 4.0%. In the seasons since 1999, when those Rams upended and redefined the NFL’s status quo, QB rating has risen 11.0 points, passing output 36.5 yards, and completion percentage 6.4%—nearly double the increase, in roughly half the time.


The Rams were the tornado, the anomaly that compelled a sudden and rapid evolution of football. They were the catalyzing event that disrupted the equipoise of the NFL, a punctuated equilibrium of pigskin.

“At the time, we knew we were doing something special,” Rams receiver Torry Holt says. “But we didn’t know we were revolutionizing the game.”

Last season, the Atlanta Falcons scored 540 offensive points, which tied the Rams for seventh most in NFL history. The Falcons’ offense, led by Kyle Shanahan, was as close to a direct descendent of the 1999 St. Louis team as we’ve seen. Aaron Rodgers leading the NFL in fantasy points? Thank the Rams. Record books that have been razed and rewritten? Blame the Rams. Running backs who now need to run routes and catch passes as part of their job description; tight ends who now are no longer glorified blockers, but athletic freaks and dynamic pass catchers; receivers who now are no longer just big and tall and asked to run one route, but small and shifty and running every route in the book? Rams, Rams, Rams.

“The more and more I sit back and think about it,” Holt says, “I think, damn maybe we were ahead of our time.”

But, as is the case with all innovators, the Rams were not without their detractors. Like the mutants in X-Men, they were seen as unnatural, abnormal, freaks going against the world’s accepted norms. During the 1999 season, Mike Silver summed up the sentiment of the time by writing, in a Sports Illustrated magazine story, that the St. Louis offense “seems to violate all the tenets of traditional football.” Both the players and the coaches could hear the cries from stodgy commentators who felt they were desecrating the game of football.

“You cannot imagine how blistering the critics were, it was like we defamed the pope” offensive coordinator Mike Martz says. “Now it’s celebrated.”

Martz could hear the Rams own fans screaming from the stands, imploring him to run the ball more. Now the Patriots are hailed as geniuses when Tom Brady throws 20 consecutive passes. Now the Saints are lauded for their diverse offensive scheme. Now coordinators study the ’99 Rams play-calling, their route concepts, their system. Now the ’99 Rams are emulated.

“The more and more I sit back and think about it,” Holt says, “I think, damn maybe we were ahead of our time.”

As a high schooler in the late 1960s, Martz frequently sat in the bleachers at San Diego Stadium, where he would watch, spellbound, as Don Coryell’s Aztecs dismantled opponent after opponent with a high-powered offensive attack that was nearly impossible to stop. What struck Martz was how different it was.

Martz remembers marveling at how several of Coryell’s opponents would agree to play with a running clock in the second half of games, to spare themselves more embarrassment. He yearned to play for Coryell’s teams, but four years later he found himself suiting up against them as a tight end for Fresno State. Yet, as his playing career morphed into a coaching career, he remained transfixed by Coryell’s vision for what football could be.

“It all began with Don, to be honest with you,” Martz says. “We just expanded upon what Don did.”

The so-called “Air Coryell” system is a vertical offensive attack, one that eschewed the traditional pro set formation (one running back, one fullback, one tight end, two wide receivers) by putting multiple receivers on the field at once and spreading them out wide. It emphasized the passing game, forced defenses to defend the entire field, and, above all else, was exciting as hell to watch.

Coryell later went on to coach the Chargers, his coaching tree branching off to include Ernie Zampese, Joe Gibbs, Norv Turner, Al Saunders, and eventually Martz, his most renegade disciple. Martz studied Gibbs, coached with Zampese and with Saunders, and served under Turner, borrowing from each to eventually form his own version of the offense.

But while the seed had been planted decades earlier, the breakthrough moment came with a joke cracked in a cramped meeting room in Ashburn, Va., circa 1998. Turner, then the Redskins head coach, sat beside Martz, his offensive coordinator, dissecting film and debating ways to make their football team more competitive. They realized that their offense typically faced about eight third downs a game, yet they prepared dozens of designed “third down plays” every week.

Turner remarked that the third-down plays Martz was drawing up were some of his favorites, but he lamented that they were being wasted. He quipped that maybe they should run their third-down plays on first down, to pass when NFL dogma dictated that coaches should run.

“We both just laughed,” Martz says. “Then the next year I leave for the Rams and we started making it up as we went.”

Martz built upon the philosophy, expanded it, tweaked it, evolved it— making it fit his players and his vision. Never before had the system approached the level of success that Vermeil, Martz and the Rams achieved with it, largely because never before had the system seen the level or breadth of talent that the Rams possessed.

“Let’s be honest,” Warner says, “we had a collection of talent that was ridiculous.”

It is a misnomer that Vermeil had to be dragged to compliance to allow Martz to install his offense, that he was a begrudging witness to the revolution. Vermeil took over the Rams in 1997 and in his first two seasons won nine games and lost 23. But amid the losses, he had been slowly restocking his offensive arsenal. When he took inventory of his vast menagerie of talent in the offseason prior to the ’99 season, he realized he could no longer be a ground-and-pound coach.

The best coaches adapt to their roster. So he hired Martz and set him free.

“When I brought [Martz] here I promised him I’d let him do it,” Vermeil says. “I told him: this is your baby. All I’ll do is support you.”

While the 1999 team shocked the football world with their sudden arrival—a nine-win increase over the previous season, a record-setting offense and a Super Bowl win—Vermeil had really been assembling the pieces to make the system hum for a while. For his first move as head coach, Vermeil traded four picks to acquire the New York Jets first overall pick in the 1997 draft, widely considered a weak draft. Vermeil used the selection on Orlando Pace, who went on to become one of the best left tackles in league history and the unsung fulcrum of the Rams machine.

“It took a couple of years,” Vermeil says, “but the whole process eventually came to fruition.”



Peter Read Miller
The process started by retaining Isaac Bruce, a second round pick for the Rams in 1994. It involved the prescient and serendipitous signing of Kurt Warner in ’98, a grocer at the local Hy-Vee in Cedar Falls, Iowa just four years prior, as third-string quarterback. That preceded the unheralded drafting of speedy Az-Zahir Hakim in the fourth round of the ’98 draft, and the free agent pick up of crafty veteran Ricky Proehl that same year. It was officially set in motion with the heist of Marshall Faulk, in a trade from the Colts as a result of a contract dispute; and it culminated with the selection of Torry Holt with the sixth pick in ‘99.


“Let’s be honest,” Warner says, “we had a collection of talent that was ridiculous.”

It was also a collection of talent that all possessed a rare quality, an ineffable quality, a borderline cliché quality, that allowed the Coryell system to operate at a level of efficiency and efficacy that had never before been seen: high football IQ. It enabled Martz, a football savant and audacious innovator, to have full confidence in the system, allowing it to reach its full potential. Martz is the first to admit that coaches always look smarter when they have great players at their disposal.

“Once we realized how in depth and smart [Martz] was,” Holt says, “and he realized that we were equally the same, that helped with the creativity of the play calling. I think some coordinators have those kind of plays in mind, but it’s another thing to have the confidence in the players to call those plays. I think that’s what allowed us to be different.”

In that era of the NFL, defense dominated football. The “zone dog” blitz concept, popularized by Buddy Ryan, had been regularly giving offenses fits, and in an attempt to combat it, teams were forced to keep their running backs and tight ends in to block, oftentimes sending only two receivers out on pass patterns. As a result, offenses had become entirely predictable.

Martz did away with that. Completely. He’d empty his backfield, split Faulk out wide with four receivers, daring the defense to blitz. It was also the perfect system for Faulk— a gifted pass catcher, and skilled route runner— who racked up 1,048 receiving yards that year, the most for a running back in NFL history.

“It was the antithesis at the time of the way the game was being played,” Martz says. “We just said, if you can cover everybody God bless you, but I bet you can’t.”


The Rams passed a whole lot, and by using the pass to set up the run, Martz reversed the common thinking at the time. But contrary to how history remembers them, the Rams were more than happy to run the ball once they attained a comfortable lead. Faulk finished the season with 1,381 yards, a career high and good for fifth in the league. In the second half of games the Rams had the sixth-largest proportion of rush plays in the NFL, and they had the largest ratio of runs in the fourth quarter.

“I like running the football,” Martz says, “but I like running the football well.”



John Biever

The Rams did end up using their third-down plays on first down, just like Turner had joked, passing on a league-leading 59% of such downs. And those plays proved to be wildly successful, netting them 7.6 yards per attempt—11% more than the rest of the NFL averaged on attempts that year on all downs. They scored touchdowns on 7.4% of those first down passes, nearly twice the league average across all pass attempts.

The system proved to be an ideal fit for Warner, who took over as starter after Trent Green was injured in the team’s third preseason game. “I came from arena football,” Warner says, “so I had a different mentality than a lot of people. I expected to score every time I touched the ball.”

Martz also, in football parlance, did a lot of “formationing” and personnel changes— something he says he “kind of stole” from studying Gibbs’ Redskins squads. That means that the Rams would often run the same play out of several different formations, with a variety of personnel on the field. They purposefully toyed with defenses, sending players in motion, sometimes changing their formation three times before the snap.

“Half the time defenses were so misaligned and had people in the wrong places, they couldn’t get lined up at the snap of the ball,” Martz says. “They just hadn’t seen any of that before.”

The system was ideal for the St. Louis receivers— which had four dynamic and well-rounded pass-catchers, able to run every route in the route tree, utilize double moves, and spread the field in a way that had also never before been seen. Their playbook was filled with 30-yard throws—dig routes that broke 25 yards down the field with the quarterback taking a seven-step drop. (Hence why Pace, the left tackle, and the entire offensive line was so imperative to the offense’s success, sometimes needing to bide the quarterback three or four seconds in the pocket for the play to develop.)


“That was unheard of,” Holt says, repeating a common refrain. “The league had never seen anything like that before.”

Or as Bruce puts it: “It was like when Muhammad Ali first came on the scene.”

The NFL simply didn’t know how to react. Holt remembers watching defenders cycle through different pairs of cleats pre-game, in a futile attempt to find the right footing that might allow them to stymie the Rams attack. Bruce remembers receivers on other teams longing to play in St. Louis, asking him to put in a good word. Warner remembers opponents approaching him and remarking that their offense resembled a video game, both unfair and unstoppable.

But once the NFL saw what could be accomplished—two Super Bowl trips in three years with an offensive salvo of excitement and a subsequent surge in fan interest—they were hooked. After the Rams ended up narrowly losing to the Patriots in the 2001 Super Bowl—after a three-year stretch in which they scored 1,659 points, an NFL record—the league began making changes that favored offenses.

They adjusted rules (and made it a point of emphasis to strictly enforce existing ones) that provided receivers with more space and freedom at the line of scrimmage, more safety across the middle of the field, and more leeway in pass interference calls. This coincided with separate rule changes that made the quarterback a walking “Do Not Touch” sign. It was if the league was setting up artificial parameters so that other teams could replicate what the Rams achieved.

“I think the National Football League fell in love with that part of the game and wanted to see more of it because of the reaction of the fans,” Holt says. “They took what we were doing and tried to transition the game and make things easier for offenses.”




L.G. Patterson/AP

In 1999, Warner’s 109.2 passer rating ranked as the second-best all time. Now, it has fallen to 13th. His 65.1% competition percentage was the third best mark in league history. Now, it’s fallen all the way to 74th, surpassed by three other seasons by Warner himself. At the time, the Rams 32.9 points per game was the second highest total ever. Now, it ranks ninth. Actually, of the top 20 highest scoring teams in NFL history, 17 are either teams that came after the Rams three-year run or those Rams teams themselves.

“There’s times we do say, oh man what would we do if we were in this league,” Warner admits. “But at the same time we take great pride in the fact that we were able to accomplish all we did before those rules were made.”

Vermeil mentions how that offense will “soon have five Hall of Fame” players, projecting the imminent inductions of Bruce and Holt to join Warner, Faulk and Pace. Many have surmised that the two receivers have only been snubbed by the Hall for this long because of how good those Rams teams were, claiming that their success was merely a result of the conditions on the team they played for.

That idea rankles Martz. He points out that the game is about, has always been about, players. Not systems, not coaches. And for a few years there, he had a collection of offensive talent that was rare and fleeting.

“We had a three-year run that I don’t know if anyone will ever be able to duplicate,” Martz says. “I don’t think the league will ever see anything like that again.”

That’s because they were the first. Anything that comes after is merely a facsimile, one that will never be able to match the radical innovation that shocked our systems and changed a sport. No matter how many rule changes are made, no matter how much the NFL tries, there will forever be only one Greatest Show on Turf.

To many links to post them so you can look it up. This happened last night at a Ariana Grande concert held at the Manchester Arena!!! Wtf!!! A suicide bomber killed at least 22 and injured 59 as I have read so far. That includes an 18 year old woman and an 8 year old girl who have been identified so far. ISIS has claimed responsibility on this and say more is to come. This sickens me badly. Young girls can't even go out without this kind of threat. It's sickening. I hope all our UK Rams families are ok, and prayers to the victims and families affected by this. This is wrong on so many levels. Just don't understand these people. Sad day yet again.

*Just read injury count up to 120 and names of those missing has grown. Bomber identified as Salmen Abedi, 22, born in Manchester and grew up in Libyan community. He is from Al-Abedi family. One of the the biggest tribes in East Libya. There is a lot more info about him and the people who were near him. Just to much to post.

The time has finally come to pay Aaron Donald what he rightfully deserves

The first day of Rams OTAs is in the books, but the fact the Rams were on the field all together for the first time including all of the rookies wasn't the big headline however. It actually was the Rams elite interior defensive lineman Aaron Donald who was a no-show at OTAs.

Donald appears to be holding out of OTAs with an impending contract negotiation under way. The Rams picked up Donald's fifth-year option, but it appears as though Donald has no interest in playing under that, and wants to be signed long-term. Can you really blame the player that was passed on by 12 teams including the one that picked him in the first round because of his undersized label? Donald was passed on for the likes of Jadeveon Clowney, Blake Bortles, Greg Robinson, Anthony Barr, Khalil Mack, Eric Ebron and Odell Beckham Jr. Donald has proven everyone who passed up on him wrong and now it's time for him to receive that contract extension that is ever-so-rewarding for a transcendent player like Donald.

When asked about why Donald missed OTAs, Sean McVay said it was an internal and non-injury related matter. Les Snead finally came out and told us all just what we speculated originally as soon as we heard the news. Donald and the Rams were in serious contract negotiations. It remains to be seen how long the Rams versus Donald saga goes on til, but he did mention them being in 'serious' discussions.

Some fans and analysts have actually pitched the idea of trading Aaron Donald, but that is just incomprehensible for me to even pay much attention to. Donald, in my honest opinion, could retire as the greatest defensive lineman of all time. He just is unblock-able, he has a nonstop motor, passion, love for the game and he is an excellent character on and off the field. Any team would be lucky to call Donald their face of the franchise and the lucky team happens to be the Rams.

It may or may not be fair to say, but this team needs to get a deal done with Donald because they haven't been able to do that in the past with the majority of their better players, most notably: Janoris Jenkins, Rodney McLeod and Trumaine Johnson. It doesn't matter now what has happened in the past, all that matters is that the Rams give Donald his contract as soon as possible.


The Rams drafted Aaron Donald with their second of two picks in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft. Ever since then Donald has been a godsend for a struggling franchise. Donald has accumulated 164 tackles, 28 sacks and four forced fumbles at defensive tackle. He has picked up accolades such as Defensive Rookie of the Year, three Pro Bowls and was even named two first-team All-Pro. All while playing on a four-year, 10.13 million dollar rookie contract. The Rams have definitely received their bang for their buck and now it is time to pay back Donald.

It's important to first realize Donald has not missed an NFL game yet, he averages more than a half of a sack per game, two and a half solo tackles per game, almost three stops per game and and three quarterback pressures a game. Spotrac puts his market value at 6 years. $109,903,154 million which averages out at $18,317,192 annually. Now take a look at how Donald stacks up against top notch peers.


Aaron Donald
Games Played %: 100%
Sacks per Game: 0.59
Solo Tackles per Game: 2.5
Stops per Game: 2.81
QB Pressures per Game: 2.94
Average Rating: 96.05

Elite Positional Averages
Games Played %: 96.88%
Sacks per Game: 0.48
Solo Tackles per Game: 2.23
Stops per Game: 2.14
QB Pressures per Game: 2.31
Average Rating: 88.61

Obviously, these numbers shouldn't surprise anyone who has seen Donald in action. According to Spotrac, Donald is projected to become the second highest paid defensive lineman in all of football only behind Ndamukong Suh. Now, in my honest and humble opinion, I think Spotrac is going to be wrong. Aaron Donald will sign a contract in some capacity that will make him the highest paid defensive lineman in the NFL.

What are your thoughts Rams fans? Do you think Donald should be the high paid player at his position? Let us know!

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he Rams began Phase III of their offseason program on Monday with their first organized team activity practice. Here are five takeaways from the first session of OTAs.

1) Aaron Donald absent

The biggest story from Monday was the absence of All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald. General manager Les Snead confirmed following practice that it’s a contract-related issue with Donald, and that the club was aware he would not be in attendance at OTAs.

[MORE: Snead, McVay discuss Donald’s absence from OTAs]

There have been discussions between the Rams and Donald’s representation, which Snead said have reached the serious stages.

“These things — it’s a process,” Snead said. “We like Aaron, there’s no doubt. He’s a really good player. We want him to be a Ram. That’s our goal. I think his goal is to be a Ram, and that’s what we’re working toward.”

“I’m very hopeful that this thing will get done,” Snead added.

2) Goff picking up offense well

While second-year quarterback Jared Goff is learning a new offense head coach Sean McVay, he said he’s picking up this scheme well.

“It’s a way different offense. But personally, from my brief experience with it, I’ve had a quicker time learning it — an easier time learning it,” Goff said. “I don’t know whether that’s scheme or the way it’s taught or what not. But I’ve enjoyed spending time with the coaches and picking it up pretty quickly.”

[MORE: Goff exhibiting quality leadership during offseason program]

Offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur recently praised Goff for being a quick study.

“He’s really grasped the offense surprisingly fast, especially for a new guy,” offensive coordinator LaFleur said at rookie minicamp earlier this month. “When you get a new guy in an offense, there is a transition period with that, but he’s done a nice job at picking it up at a surprisingly quick pace.”

3) Goff has added weight

Last year, Goff came in sporting 215 pounds on his 6-foot-4 frame. Now, he’s added some weight as he begins OTAs in Year 2.

“I’ve probably put on five to 10 pounds,” Goff said. “I feel good. I feel strong. I feel like this is the best shape I’ve been in in a long time. But that’s kind of been every year. Every year I’ve kind of gotten bigger and stronger and I’m still growing. I don’t think I’m growing in height, as much as I’m getting a little bit wider.”

4) Woods developing chemistry with Goff

The Rams brought in free agent wide receiver Robert Woods to be a reliable target for Goff, and so far the two are doing well to get on the same page.

“We’ve been connecting,” Woods said. “The biggest thing is we’re talking in the meetings, and we’re coming out here and seeing it on the field. We’re seeing how the defense plays, and the biggest thing is we’re coming out here and executing what we’ve talked about.”

Woods brought up one play in particular from Monday, where conversations between the two paid off.

“Just coming out here when we work, he listens. We’re out here communicating,” Woods said. “The same pass we completed today, we had the same look a few weeks ago. And this time, he threw it and it was a perfect pass. He just puts the ball in perfect position for the receivers to make plays.”

5) What about a third quarterback?

Right now, the Rams have two quarterbacks on their roster in Goff and backup Sean Mannion. Teams typically carry three if not four quarterbacks during the offseason, but right now head coach Sean McVay appeared content with where the Rams are.

“I think something we’ve got to do a good job of monitoring the pitch count with Jared and with Sean Mannion, just making sure we’re not wearing them out,” McVay said. “I think we will look into [adding another quarterback] at some point. When that happens is in the offseason or for training camp — we’re kind of evaluating that right now. The way that we’ve got it set up with going two OTAs, then kind of a phase one day and then that last OTA for the week, we feel good about those two right now and we’ve got a couple of coaches that can throw it around if necessary as well.”

View: http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/5-Takeaways-from-Day-1-of-OTAs/3ca82a9e-677f-4c92-b801-527e0dbea7ad

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19444913/pro-football-hall-famer-cortez-kennedy-dies-age-48

Seahawks icon and Hall of Famer Cortez Kennedy dead at 48
ESPN.com news services



Cortez Kennedy, an icon with the Seattle Seahawks who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012, has died at age 48, the Orlando Police Department said Tuesday.

Orlando police confirmed to ESPN that they are investigating the former defensive tackle's death but said "there is nothing suspicious to report" at this time.

Kennedy died alone, according to police.

Kennedy was a force inside, both as a run stopper and in threatening quarterbacks. The 1992 Defensive Player of the Year made eight Pro Bowls, had 58 sacks -- an unusually high total for a tackle -- and spent his entire 11-season career with Seattle, starting 153 out of 167 games.

Named to the Associated Press 1990s All-Decade team, Kennedy was credited with 448 tackles, six forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries and three interceptions during his NFL career.

"Tez was the heart and soul of the Seahawks through the 1990s and endeared himself to 12s all across the Pacific Northwest as a player who played with a selfless and relentless approach to the game," the team said in a statement.

"Tez was an NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Pro Football Hall of Famer, and Seahawks ambassador, but more than his on-field accomplishments, he was a loyal son, father, teammate and friend to many, possessing a larger-than-life personality and an infectious laugh. ... We are proud to have been represented by such a special person."

Kennedy retired in 2000, was named to the Seahawks Ring of Honor and had his No. 96 retired by the team.

"Cortez will be remembered not only for all his great achievements on the football field but how he handled himself off the field," Pro Football Hall of Fame CEO David Baker said in a statement. "He epitomized the many great values this game teaches which serves as inspiration to millions of fans."

The third overall pick in the 1990 NFL draft was an All-America honoree at the University of Miami and was on the Hurricanes' 1989 national championship team. Kennedy also was inducted into the Miami Hurricanes Ring of Honor and the university's Hall of Fame.

Jimmy Johnson, who coached Kennedy at Miami, said he was "shocked" by Kennedy's death.

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Even though he last played for the Seahawks in 2000, he remained a significant part of the organization. He was a mainstay around the team during training camp and would occasionally roll through the locker room during the regular season grabbing a few minutes with anyone -- players, coaches, media -- up for a chat.

Seahawks players past and present expressed their condolences on social media.

Kennedy also spent the past several years as an informal consultant with the New Orleans Saints because of his close relationship with general manager Mickey Loomis, dating back to their days together with the Seahawks

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/05/23/tampa-to-host-2021-super-bowl-l-a-moves-to-2022/

Tampa to host 2021 Super Bowl, L.A. moves to 2022
Posted by Josh Alper on May 23, 2017

The delay in the opening of the new stadium for the Chargers and Rams in Los Angeles will lead to a delay in the Super Bowl’s return to Los Angeles.

NFL owners voted unanimously on Tuesday to move Super Bowl LV in February 2021 from Los Angeles to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Los Angeles will now host the Super Bowl a year later.

The two teams in Los Angeles announced last week that construction delays related to heavy rains in the Los Angeles area would require the opening of the stadium to be pushed back to 2020. The NFL has a rule stating that stadiums must be open for at least two seasons before they can host a Super Bowl, which required Los Angeles to seek a waiver that the league’s owners opted not to grant.

Tampa was the runner-up in bidding for Super Bowl LV. Raymond James Stadium has been undergoing major renovations over the last couple of years so the stadium will look much different from the last time it hosted the big game in 2008.

Any thoughts on this?

Thinking they're maximizing snaps for each. Sounds like McVay's practices are much more organized (from Farr) than Fisher and there could be something to maximizing their reps while still getting work the receivers need...

Additionally, guess it gives them an extra spot to keep looking at a depth guy.

Report: Owners vote to abolish 75-man roster cuts
Posted by Darin Gantt on May 23, 2017, 11:58 AM EDT
Getty Images
There are about to be more bodies available for those all-important fourth preseason games.

According to Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com, owners have just voted to abolish the roster cuts to 75.

Those cuts, a step between the 90-man offseason roster and the 53-man regular season roster, came between the third and fourth exhibition games.

And since most teams won’t use starters in the final tune-up, that left a handful of players to play the majority of the most meaningless of the meaningless games. That gives the guys on the fringe one more game of tape to show prospective employers.

It will also make the week before the start of the regular season rather more chaotic.

Now, 1,184 players will enter the workforce at the same moment, creating a land rush for waiver claims and practice squad signings in the days leading up to the opener.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/category/rumor-mill/

Rejoice! NFL reportedly set to allow group celebrations after TDs.
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/rejoice-nfl-reportedly-set-allow-group-celebrations-tds-154612384.html