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- Peter
These are only excerpts from this article. To read the whole thing click the link below. One slight Rams mention near the end. Does PK get in plenty of his usual butt-kissing of Tom Brady? You bet! So let's get the worst one over with.
"Tampa Bay quarterback Mike Glennon and his wife had a baby last Wednesday, which was also Tom Brady’s birthday. The Glennons named their baby Brady, born 39 years after Tom Brady was born in the Bay Area.
Dad says Brady Glennon was not named after Tom Brady, but it seems like a little bit too much of a coincidence that Brady was born on Brady day for Brady to not be named after Brady.
“Mike said he didn’t name it after Brady,” Jameis Winston reported exclusively Saturday. “But I know he was hoping that baby was born on Tom Brady’s birthday. I know that for a fact.”
PK has to insist that anyone named Brady has to be named after his mancrush...SMH
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/08/07/nfl-hall-of-fame-game-cancelled-training-camp-tour
Hall of Fame Game Debacle and the Camp Tour Rolls On
A jam-packed column begins with the NFL’s latest embarrassment—a preseason game cancellation due to unsafe field conditions. Plus notes from the road, including Carolina, Tampa, Jacksonville, Houston and more
by Peter King
HOUSTON — So much to do, so much to say, so much to cover. Starting with this: Roger Goodell will spend the 10th anniversary of being named commissioner (he got the gig in Northbrook, Ill., on Aug. 8, 2006) clunking heads together in Canton and New York today over the cancellation of the Hall of Fame Game Sunday night. The cause: poor artificial turf conditions. The upshot: a serious re-examination whether the game should be played, and if it should, where.
The MMQB’s Jenny Vrentas was at the game Sunday night, and I asked her to give us a short summary on what happened and why. We’ll get to that in a few moments. But first: It’s probably smart to play the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game—if you’re going to play it at all—54 miles north in Cleveland, on a pristine field, rather than on a glorified high school field at the Hall of Fame in Canton. It’s actually used for high school games, mostly, the rest of the year. There’s just too much at stake, even with a first preseason game with regulars barely seeing the field, to play the game on a risky surface.
Suffice it to say the debacle of Sunday night simply cannot happen. It’s am embarrassment of the highest order. Cancelling a nationally televised game, with ESPN marking the occasion with its new pre-game team and new crew in the booth, is a ringing exclamation point to those who like to pile on Goodell for his failings in office. It’s a coincidence that it comes as Goodell and the league mark the milestone. (Or don’t mark; in a league that celebrates every anniversary and birthday with PR fireworks, not a peep about Goodell’s 10-year anniversary.) Or millstone. Not sure which it is.
For now, I’ll move on with the column, checking in with:
• Carolina, where Ron Rivera continues to stand by his man.
• Atlanta, where owner Arthur Blank is standing by his boss too.
• Tampa Bay, where patience is not a virtue.
• Jacksonville, where Myles Jack has a very strong message for the NFL, and for the college players who come behind him.
• Houston, where one of the best players of the last 15 years had a surprise birthday party last night. In training camp.
And there’s the Hall of Fame speeches (nice job, Favre and DeBartolo and Dungy) … the return of Monte Kiffin … the return of “Hard Knocks,” with Jeff Fisher whacking someone in episode one … and the Nickname That Shall Not Be Named isn’t going anywhere. On with the show.
* * *
Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images
Ron Rivera is steadfast behind his quarterback, as he probably should be
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Early in the off-season, Ron Rivera was in need of some advice handling people. One person in particular. He emailed the noted former U.S. Navy admiral, William McRaven, now the chancellor at the University of Texas, and asked another very bright leader of men if he’d handled Cam Newton’s post-Super Bowl press conference mopefest the right way. You may recall that Rivera found no fault with Newton the player or post-game speaker, and even said the NFL shouldn’t subject Super Bowl-losing players to interviews the night of the game.
“Did I enable him?” Rivera asked McRaven.
No, McRaven said. The retired admiral is a believer in praising in public and criticizing in private, and he thought Rivera did the right thing by standing by his most important player. Backing Newton, McRaven felt, would show Newton his coach cared about him, and provide a good example to learn from. Essentially, the admiral felt that even in a transcendent year for the NFL MVP, a humbling game and post-game aren’t the worst things in the world to experience, because sports mirrors life. Sometime you fail. Deal with it.
Here we are, six months after the only bad day of the Panthers’ 2015 season, and Rivera still feels strongly about the events that followed the Super Bowl loss to Denver. He still thinks losing players should talk the day after the game, and not 20 to 30 minutes after the game, and he thinks the losing coach is the one who should stand up after the game as spokesman for the team.
“We want our football players to lay it on the line, to give everything in the biggest game of their lives, and then we want them a few minutes after the game to be all normal and eloquent about it? People want our guys to be gentlemen right after the biggest loss of their lives. Hey, I want my guys to be crushed.
“People look at other athletes and how they handle a big loss. Jordan Spieth’s been pointed out to me. He’s been taught to handle losses with elegance. In football, the game’s different. I’m paid to be eloquent after wins and after tough losses, and I should be the one to do that.”
That’s not going to happen, players from losing teams cocooned until the next day. I understand Rivera’s frustration, and it does often seem cold to me for a losing player after the Super Bowl often times to walk off the field and into the media interview area. Often they haven’t been spoken to by coaches yet. The league could bring winners in first, followed by players from losing teams. But the demand is too great and the game too big. The NFL MVP loses the Super Bowl, and he can’t walk into the sunset for 15 hours.
Rivera talked to others this off-season, seeking advice. One adviser: Tony LaRussa, who told him to forget last season and build his team all over again in 2016. That’s been one of Rivera’s themes with his team. Put in the work, start from scratch, and the reward—for all 53 players, including Newton—can be bigger in 2016.
* * *
Photo: Jenny Vrentas/The MMQB
An embarrassing night for the NFL
The MMQB’s Jenny Vrentas reports from the debacle of the week in Ohio...
CANTON, Ohio — The weekend that is supposed to be a celebration of football turned extremely embarrassing for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL on Sunday night. About an hour before the Hall of Fame Game between the Colts and Packers was supposed to kick off, teams were notified the preseason contest would be cancelled because of unacceptable field conditions. Thousands of fans sat in their seats, waiting through replays of the previous night’s Hall of Fame speeches, until an official announcement finally came at 8:01 p.m.
The issue was a botched paint job on the field turf. The turf at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton has been criticized in the past, with former Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham suffering what would be a career-ending ACL injury in last year’s Hall of Fame game. Suisham led the charge this offseason on this issue, which helped result in the creation of a joint committee between the NFL and NFLPA to monitor field conditions, including at non-traditional venues like Canton.
But the turf at the stadium last night was new, installed earlier this this summer with the surface used in the Superdome for the 2016 Sugar Bowl. About 20,000 fans sat on top of the playing surface during last night’s enshrinement ceremony. The cover on the field didn’t come off until Sunday morning, and the issue arose when areas of the turf were painted, including the Hall of Fame logo at midfield.
One club official who was on the field pre-game, inspecting the turf, said afterward: “There wasn't one person on the field once we got out there who said we should try to play. Even if there was, the players would have called the union and gotten it called off ... I am dumbfounded that they didn't have the field right.”
Things looked bad less than two hours prior to kickoff when both teams’ head coaches, general managers, owners and medical staffs were conferencing at midfield. Looking up close, there were clumps of congealed red, white and blue paint that were rock-hard, an obvious safety concern. Workers were spraying around the logo and driving tractors back and forth, in an apparent attempt to break up these clumps. Later, they were shoveling up piles of loose turf pellets into trash cans. It was an ugly scene.
“The turf is definitely hard,” Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix said, pushing his foot against the field surface after the game had been called off. “They did a great job putting safety first. But it’s an opportunity missed for the young guys, not just to get experience but to do it in front of 32 teams.”
The NFL made the right decision in the name of player safety. But as Colts owner Jim Irsay railed in an interview with ESPN, whose Monday Night Football crew was on site to broadcast the game, “this shouldn’t happen.”
“First of all, I’m glad that the field safety protocol was followed and the game was canceled,” NFLPA president Eric Winston wrote in a text message. “Shaun Suisham led on this key issue this offseason and the protocol has become vital already this season. Second of all, the HoF game for, at least, the second year in a row has a surface that is unacceptable.”
There are plenty of players and coaches who would like to see the game scrapped. That probably won’t happen, but you can bet they’ll talk about switching venues.
* * *
The voice that counts
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — I begin a question to Falcons owner Arthur Blank: “As a member of the Compensation Committee …”
“The chair,” he says.
Today being the 10-year anniversary of the day Blank and the league’s other 31 owners voted for Goodell to succeed Paul Tagliabue, I thought I’d ask one of the men most responsible for Goodell’s power and influence and salary how he’s doing. I saw Blank last week, and so obviously his comments were made before the Hall of Fame debacle Sunday night.
Before I sat down with Blank, I got a tour of his office, filled with photos nostalgic and current with people from around the league. There’s a note from Goodell, from 2011. It ends with: “I will work tirelessly to make you proud of me,” Goodell wrote. The relationship between the two men, clearly, is more than commissioner/owner. If the current climate, in which Goodell is probably the most disliked man in American sports, is wearing on Blank and concerning to him, he doesn’t voice it.
“I give him a lot of good grades—a lot of great grades,” Blank said, sitting on a couch in his office. “There should be more recognition of the great things he’s done for the game in his 10 years. My hope is he brings his passion and intelligence to the job for years into the future.”
Then Blank said: “But it’s a hard job. Very hard.”
Under Goodell, the league has increased revenues from $6 billion in 2006 to a projected $14 billion this year, a 133 percent increase in a decade. Blank bought his franchise for $545 million in 2002; if he sold it today with the Falcons’ new stadium set to open in 2017, he’d likely fetch at least $2 billion for it. “From a business perspective, we’ve done phenomenally well in the last 10 years,” Blank said. “The valuations of teams are growing at rates that no one expected. We’ve adjusted well in a changing world. Roger does care deeply about the important issues, like player health and safety.”
But the universal public animosity? “I don’t know about the ‘universal’ part,” Blank said. “Roger, in my opinion, comes across the best when he’s not scripted, when he’s answering from the heart.”
The Compensation Committee approved paying Goodell $111 million in pay and benefits from 2013 to 2015, and I get no indication from owners when I speak to them about a rumbling for change. It’s just hard to imaging Goodell lasting another 10 if public opinion doesn’t take a turn for the better.
* * *
Photo: Gary McCullough/AP
Myles Jack hasn’t had any issues at camp with the knee that caused him to drop out of the draft’s first round in April.
Myles Jack is back, and he’s got a message
JACKSONVILLE — There was something heartening about seeing number 44 in white turning and sprinting to chase a play Friday night in a Jaguar scrimmage at Everbank Field, or making the defensive play call and lining up his mates. Myles Jack was playing full-speed football again. Jack’s the former UCLA linebacker, still only 21, who sat much of his last college season after knee surgery, whose stock fell from top-five prospect to pick 36 in the NFL draft. Now he’s tried to put that behind him. (He hasn’t). And he wants his story to be a cautionary tale for future Myles Jacks.
“Please put this in all caps,” Jack told me Friday.
(LIKE THIS?)
“I want to tell all the guys coming out in the draft next year, and future years: If there’s any questions about you, answer them IMMEDIATELY. Nip it in the bud. If you have to be arrogant, if you have to be rude, whatever. Get your point across. If there’s any questions—and that’s probably my biggest mistake, because I’m not an outspoken person on like Twitter or Instagram if a rumor comes out—don't be quiet. Not to say anything bad about my agent but don’t let your agent handle it. Just do it yourself, get out there, you know what I mean, and, fight, you know fight for yourself because, looking back if there was one thing I could do, with all the microfracture, I wish I would have just jumped out and clarified it.”
Two days before the draft, Jack told Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post that “down the line, possibly, potentially,” he could have microfracture knee surgery. Microfracture is a riskier surgery than ACL surgery and involves creating small cracks in the bones of the knee to spur cartilage growth. Even mentioning it would scare an NFL team. Teams were already cautious about Jack, coming off surgery. The microfracture addition made it worse.
“After the story came out,” Jack said, “[NFL Network’s] Ian Rapoport tagged along and he has a bajillion followers so that just went haywire and everybody’s like, ‘Oh you need surgery now!’ And y’all seen me do pro day and I’ve done everything that’s been asked of me? I did a 40-inch vertical [jump], and people with bad knees aren’t doing that.”
Jack is settling in Jacksonville, where it’s all football on a very young team. He seems happy enough, and he ran around Friday night with verve, still in the process of getting to know his new mates. But he won’t forget the mega-draft-drop.
“In hindsight,’’ he said, “it’s always gonna be a permanent scar. It’s something I’m gonna have to live with but landing here, I mean, that’s a perfect situation.”
* * *
Six camps, six interesting names
Continuing my section of roster-scanning the teams I saw in the past week for interesting old faces in new places:
Baltimore: Benjamin Watson, tight end. Watched him in one practice. So who knows what it all means. But watching that one practice, last Monday night in the Ravens stadium, made me think I’d draft Watson as a tight end if I were trying to win a fantasy league. I mean, not as the best tight end, but as a top-five tight end. Healthy, he’ll catch 70 balls.
Washington: David Bruton Jr., safety/special teams. After a valuable run in Denver that culminated with a key role on the Broncos’ Super Bowl special teams, Bruton and his mountain bike (he’s as avid a biker as there is in the NFL) are in Richmond for training camp, trying to help Ben Kotwica’s kicking game. Really good signing. Bruton’s a great chemistry guy and valuable player.
Atlanta: Matt Simms, quarterback. I must say I’ve never seen four consecutive Matts on any roster in NFL history. (And really, isn’t that what we all look for?) Here we go, by jersey number: 2. Matt Ryan, QB; 3. Matt Bryant, kicker; 4. Matt Simms, QB; 5. Matt Bosher, punter. I just wish Matt Schaub were 6 instead of 8. Simms needs to beat out Sean Renfree, the former Duke passer, for the third QB here.
Carolina: Mike Scifres, punter. After 100 years in San Diego and coming off left knee surgery, Scifres hasn’t had a great camp so far. He’s battling a rookie named Swayze Waters, and Ron Rivera kept open the possibility last week he could bring in another punter for competition. So we’ll see.
Jacksonville: Monte Kiffin, defensive assistant. After his sojourn to USC to coach with son Lane, Kiffin is back in the NFL as an extra set of eyes for coach Gus Bradley. Good to see him on the sidelines Friday night, eying Jalen Ramsey in press coverage during the Jaguar scrimmage. “I didn’t coach last year,” Kiffin told me. “You know, I’m 76 years old. I love football. You can only take so many long walks.”
Tampa Bay: Chris Conte, safety. Perhaps a 2013 Bears reunion in the Bucs starting backfield? Major Wright’s already here, having come from Chicago in 2014, and the lanky Conte left the Bears after starting 13 games there last year. They still have time left—Conte’s 27, Wright 28. And Conte’s catching the coaches’ eyes. “Conte really covers like a corner,” said coach Dirk Koetter on Saturday. “He’s not built like a corner, but if you watch him on one-on-one drills he can cover wideouts, so we’re really pleased with that.”
Houston: Devon Still, defensive tackle. Still and his daughter Leah were an inspirational story in Cincinnati, with Leah beating cancer when her dad played for the Bengals. And here he is trying to prolong his NFL career. For now, Still is spelling the great J.J. Watt on the Houston defensive line, and if he has a good August, he’s expected to make the team as depth on a solid group.
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Hall of Fame Quotes of the Week
I
“I overheard my father talking to the three other coaches, and I heard him—and I assume I didn't play as well the previous week only because of what he said, and he said, ‘I can assure you one thing about my son, he will play better. He will redeem himself. I know my son. He has it in him.’ And I never let him know that I heard that. I never said that to anyone else.
But I thought to myself: That’s a pretty good compliment, you know? My chest kind of swelled up. And, again, I never told anyone. But I never forgot that statement and that comment that he made to those other coaches. And I want you to know, Dad, I spent the rest of my career trying to redeem myself. I hope I succeeded.”
—Brett Favre, the first Hall of Famer in memory to make his speech without a script, recalling the last game of his high school career.
II
“I could be the only inductee of this great Hall who did not make his high school football team.”
—Eddie DeBartolo
III
“Who would have ever thought that a young man from Kiln, Miss., whose father ran the wishbone, would hold every passing record in NFL history at one time? Pretty doggone amazing if you ask me.”
—Favre
IV
“I’m not the 10th Steelers from the Super Bowl XIII team to be enshrined. But you could have won a lot of money in ’78 if you bet that I’d be one of those 10. I remember making a tackle my rookie year, and Dwight White asking in the huddle, ‘What’s your name again?’”
—Tony Dungy
V
“Imagine the jitters I felt as a 30-year-old kid walking into the first owners meeting, hearing the roll called out by the legendary Pete Rozelle—Halas, Mara, Rooney, Hunt, Davis. I remember thinking: What the hell am I doing here?”
—DeBartolo
VI
“It was the third round of the 1979 draft, and I remember standing outside our makeshift office in Redwood City, California. Bill Walsh came out and said, ‘There is this kid from Notre Dame on the board. Should we take a shot with him in the third round?’ Having graduated from South Bend I said, how can you go wrong with somebody from Notre Dame?
So we drafted Joe Montana, and he came out the next day. I looked at him and almost fell over. He was a kid. He had a big Fu Manchu mustache. He looked like he weighed about 170 pounds. He was listed at 6-2, and he didn't look an inch past 6-foot. I said: Oh, dear God. It turns out that was just his secret identity, because when he got on the football field, Joe Montana turned into superman.”
—DeBartolo
Kevin Greene
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Nine Things I Think I Think
1. I think I’ve got six random thoughts after nearly two weeks on the road at camps:
a. Washington won’t be changing its nickname anytime soon. When I was in camp, talking to club president Bruce Allen the other day, a visitor to camp approached me and said he really liked my stand on the team name, how I proposed a couple of years ago that the name should be “Americans” or “Warriors” instead of “Redskins,” and the team could honor the military at every home game. (I cannot take credit for the idea, by the way.) So I was a bit stunned that this fellow didn’t recognize Allen, who has led the drive to never, ever, ever change the name. At one point, Allen said in no uncertain terms that the name would not be changed.
b. Jameis Winston is ripped. He’s lost only eight pounds (he weighs 231 now), but the change in his body is noticeable. He hired a trainer and is eating smart—and not at all hours of the day—after getting a body wakeup call seeing his peers at the Pro Bowl.
c. Watched some training-camp tape of Dante Fowler, the pass-rusher Jacksonville drafted third overall last year, then lost for the season in his first practice with a torn ACL. Actually, watched with Jags GM Dave Caldwell. Two impressive things: His lateral quickness and quickness around the edge seem unaffected by his surgery; he’s Von Miller-quick.
And on one bullrush against backup tackle Josh Wells, Fowler—giving up 54 pounds to the tackle—punch-rushed with a shot to Wells’ sternum and Wells went backpedaling fast, to keep his balance. The perception with Fowler is so focused on speed and quickness as a rusher, but it’s not just that. Tackles are going to have to respect his power.
d. One of the quarterbacks Albert Breer notes in his video story about Tom House is Matt Ryan. I asked Ryan about what House and fellow QB tutor Adam Dedeaux did. Seems Ryan worked on one of the weaknesses in his game: throwing efficiently, consistently, to his left. “Get your feet underneath you,’’ Ryan said. “Make every throw the same. I worked very hard on that. I think it helped. You want to make the defense defend all 53 yards of the field, and not just one side, obviously.’’
e. Early candidate for breakout defensive player this year: Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry. He’s moving from the 3-4 to a 4-3 rush end under new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. In the old defense, he had 13 sacks in the past two years. “I have a long way to go, but I’ll die trying,” Curry told me. “What I’m better at this year is with my technique—my feet, my first step. I consider myself a core part of this defense, and this year, when our defense is mentioned, I want my name to come up, and not at the end of the conversation.”
f. Three early standouts for the Patriots in camp: Wideouts Aaron Dobson (who, prior to this season, had been unreliable, with just 53 catches in three seasons) and practice-squadder Chris Harper, who, according to Bill Belichick, “has probably made as much progress as any of our players in the last calendar year.” Dobson’s just more mature this year, perhaps realizing year four was his last straw in Foxboro … and guard-tackle Joe Thuney, the rookie third-round pick from North Carolina State.
On our visit to Foxboro, Thuney got high grades for toughness, versatility and shutting his mouth. Watch returning offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia get Thuney ready to play meaningful downs by Week 1. That’s what the Patriots do: get young linemen ready to play, then play seven or eight multiple series per game to see what combinations are smart.
2. I think the Pro Football Hall of Fame has this challenge on its hands, and it’s a daunting, and perhaps impossible, one: to make the weekend gauzy and warm and fuzzy and nostalgic, all in one. When baseball inducts its players, you invariably read stories headlined thusly: “Reflections on a weekend with the baseball gods.” (Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe, July 25.) In fairness, Shaughnessy was honored this year for long and meritorious writing on baseball. But the point is, those stories and feelings are common around the baseball Hall’s inductions.
Is it the media, celebrating the history of baseball more than football? Is it the fact that so many media members who cover baseball have had such a love affair with the game for so long? Or is the fact that media folk covering football can’t find the same way to celebrate the history of the game when so many former players have long-term health problems?
3. I think the one camp scene that just looked different to The MMQB Team was in Spartanburg, summer home of the Panthers. We saw the seventh of 14 practices slated for Wofford College, the camp home of the team for 21 years. Halfway through camp, the Panthers set an all-time attendance record (79,804). “We’ve done a lot of beautification and modernization here,” said team president Danny Morrison, “but the key, obviously, is a successful team with players the fans like.”
4. I think this video of a Spartanburg High linebacker and a Panthers linebacker—mentee and mentor from the day the two squads practiced side by side—is one I’ll remember for a while. The kid was so honored to be with his idol.
5. I think it’s probably smart to play the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game—if you’re going to play it at all—54 miles north in Cleveland, with a pristine field, rather than on a glorified high school field at the Hall of Fame in Canton. There’s just too much at stake, even with a first preseason game with regulars barely seeing the field, to play the game on a risky field.
6. I think this is the underrated matchup of Week 1: Former Falcons coach Mike Smith and former Matt Ryan tutor Dirk Koetter—now the defensive coordinator and head coach of division rival Tampa Bay, respectively—at Atlanta, where coach Dan Quinn is very noticeably dismantling Smith’s read-and-react defense and replacing it with a voracious one.
7. I think this is the early line on Tom Brady’s attitude in camp: No sadness, no anger (except at defenders on the field), no frustration from the suspension that he shows anyone, and, I’ve heard, hard to tell any difference between this year and a normal (non-suspension) year. As someone who knows Brady told me over the weekend: “He’s doing what he’s always doing: trying to massacre the defense at every practice. That’s how he feels he gets better.”
One other interesting note on Brady, from our visit to camp nine days ago: Devin McCourty said Brady, who turned 39 last Wednesday, “reminds me of Benjamin Button. He does not age. I can honestly say there is no difference that I see from Tom now and when I got here [in 2010].”
8. I think I’m ready for the Rams edition of Hard Knocks, which debuts Tuesday on HBO. I have not seen any early clips—though I did ask—but I can tell you these factoids: It’s the first Hard Knocks featuring a west coast team and the first time they’ve had the No. 1 overall pick from that year’s draft (Jared Goff). Look for a lot of coach Jeff Fisher and for NFL Films to try to blend in plenty of Hollywood glamour.
9. I think there are three injuries of early camp that hurt teams the most: Chicago center Hroniss Grasu (torn ACL, according to the Chicago Sun-Times), which takes Jay Cutler’s impressive young security blanket away; Detroit tight end Eric Ebron, who may hve suffered an Achilles injury in a team scrimmage Saturday; and (this will cause an eyebrow or two to raise) CFL transplant wide receiver Eric Rogers, who tore his ACL in a non-contact kickoff drill the other day in 49er camp.
No one knows Rogers, but the Niners had plans for him, and had to outbid several teams last winter to sign him. That team needs big contributors on an offense lacking them. But if Ebron is lost, that would put the top three Detroit tight ends out, at least for now, with Brandon Pettigrew (on the temporary NFL PUP list) still rehabbing from knee surgery. And without Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford was going to need a breakout season from Ebron, the underperforming 10th pick in the 2014 draft. If Ebron is lost, the pressure on Stafford multiplies.
"Tampa Bay quarterback Mike Glennon and his wife had a baby last Wednesday, which was also Tom Brady’s birthday. The Glennons named their baby Brady, born 39 years after Tom Brady was born in the Bay Area.
Dad says Brady Glennon was not named after Tom Brady, but it seems like a little bit too much of a coincidence that Brady was born on Brady day for Brady to not be named after Brady.
“Mike said he didn’t name it after Brady,” Jameis Winston reported exclusively Saturday. “But I know he was hoping that baby was born on Tom Brady’s birthday. I know that for a fact.”
PK has to insist that anyone named Brady has to be named after his mancrush...SMH
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/08/07/nfl-hall-of-fame-game-cancelled-training-camp-tour
Hall of Fame Game Debacle and the Camp Tour Rolls On
A jam-packed column begins with the NFL’s latest embarrassment—a preseason game cancellation due to unsafe field conditions. Plus notes from the road, including Carolina, Tampa, Jacksonville, Houston and more
by Peter King
HOUSTON — So much to do, so much to say, so much to cover. Starting with this: Roger Goodell will spend the 10th anniversary of being named commissioner (he got the gig in Northbrook, Ill., on Aug. 8, 2006) clunking heads together in Canton and New York today over the cancellation of the Hall of Fame Game Sunday night. The cause: poor artificial turf conditions. The upshot: a serious re-examination whether the game should be played, and if it should, where.
The MMQB’s Jenny Vrentas was at the game Sunday night, and I asked her to give us a short summary on what happened and why. We’ll get to that in a few moments. But first: It’s probably smart to play the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game—if you’re going to play it at all—54 miles north in Cleveland, on a pristine field, rather than on a glorified high school field at the Hall of Fame in Canton. It’s actually used for high school games, mostly, the rest of the year. There’s just too much at stake, even with a first preseason game with regulars barely seeing the field, to play the game on a risky surface.
Suffice it to say the debacle of Sunday night simply cannot happen. It’s am embarrassment of the highest order. Cancelling a nationally televised game, with ESPN marking the occasion with its new pre-game team and new crew in the booth, is a ringing exclamation point to those who like to pile on Goodell for his failings in office. It’s a coincidence that it comes as Goodell and the league mark the milestone. (Or don’t mark; in a league that celebrates every anniversary and birthday with PR fireworks, not a peep about Goodell’s 10-year anniversary.) Or millstone. Not sure which it is.
For now, I’ll move on with the column, checking in with:
• Carolina, where Ron Rivera continues to stand by his man.
• Atlanta, where owner Arthur Blank is standing by his boss too.
• Tampa Bay, where patience is not a virtue.
• Jacksonville, where Myles Jack has a very strong message for the NFL, and for the college players who come behind him.
• Houston, where one of the best players of the last 15 years had a surprise birthday party last night. In training camp.
And there’s the Hall of Fame speeches (nice job, Favre and DeBartolo and Dungy) … the return of Monte Kiffin … the return of “Hard Knocks,” with Jeff Fisher whacking someone in episode one … and the Nickname That Shall Not Be Named isn’t going anywhere. On with the show.
* * *
Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images
Ron Rivera is steadfast behind his quarterback, as he probably should be
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Early in the off-season, Ron Rivera was in need of some advice handling people. One person in particular. He emailed the noted former U.S. Navy admiral, William McRaven, now the chancellor at the University of Texas, and asked another very bright leader of men if he’d handled Cam Newton’s post-Super Bowl press conference mopefest the right way. You may recall that Rivera found no fault with Newton the player or post-game speaker, and even said the NFL shouldn’t subject Super Bowl-losing players to interviews the night of the game.
“Did I enable him?” Rivera asked McRaven.
No, McRaven said. The retired admiral is a believer in praising in public and criticizing in private, and he thought Rivera did the right thing by standing by his most important player. Backing Newton, McRaven felt, would show Newton his coach cared about him, and provide a good example to learn from. Essentially, the admiral felt that even in a transcendent year for the NFL MVP, a humbling game and post-game aren’t the worst things in the world to experience, because sports mirrors life. Sometime you fail. Deal with it.
Here we are, six months after the only bad day of the Panthers’ 2015 season, and Rivera still feels strongly about the events that followed the Super Bowl loss to Denver. He still thinks losing players should talk the day after the game, and not 20 to 30 minutes after the game, and he thinks the losing coach is the one who should stand up after the game as spokesman for the team.
“We want our football players to lay it on the line, to give everything in the biggest game of their lives, and then we want them a few minutes after the game to be all normal and eloquent about it? People want our guys to be gentlemen right after the biggest loss of their lives. Hey, I want my guys to be crushed.
“People look at other athletes and how they handle a big loss. Jordan Spieth’s been pointed out to me. He’s been taught to handle losses with elegance. In football, the game’s different. I’m paid to be eloquent after wins and after tough losses, and I should be the one to do that.”
That’s not going to happen, players from losing teams cocooned until the next day. I understand Rivera’s frustration, and it does often seem cold to me for a losing player after the Super Bowl often times to walk off the field and into the media interview area. Often they haven’t been spoken to by coaches yet. The league could bring winners in first, followed by players from losing teams. But the demand is too great and the game too big. The NFL MVP loses the Super Bowl, and he can’t walk into the sunset for 15 hours.
Rivera talked to others this off-season, seeking advice. One adviser: Tony LaRussa, who told him to forget last season and build his team all over again in 2016. That’s been one of Rivera’s themes with his team. Put in the work, start from scratch, and the reward—for all 53 players, including Newton—can be bigger in 2016.
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Photo: Jenny Vrentas/The MMQB
An embarrassing night for the NFL
The MMQB’s Jenny Vrentas reports from the debacle of the week in Ohio...
CANTON, Ohio — The weekend that is supposed to be a celebration of football turned extremely embarrassing for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL on Sunday night. About an hour before the Hall of Fame Game between the Colts and Packers was supposed to kick off, teams were notified the preseason contest would be cancelled because of unacceptable field conditions. Thousands of fans sat in their seats, waiting through replays of the previous night’s Hall of Fame speeches, until an official announcement finally came at 8:01 p.m.
The issue was a botched paint job on the field turf. The turf at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton has been criticized in the past, with former Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham suffering what would be a career-ending ACL injury in last year’s Hall of Fame game. Suisham led the charge this offseason on this issue, which helped result in the creation of a joint committee between the NFL and NFLPA to monitor field conditions, including at non-traditional venues like Canton.
But the turf at the stadium last night was new, installed earlier this this summer with the surface used in the Superdome for the 2016 Sugar Bowl. About 20,000 fans sat on top of the playing surface during last night’s enshrinement ceremony. The cover on the field didn’t come off until Sunday morning, and the issue arose when areas of the turf were painted, including the Hall of Fame logo at midfield.
One club official who was on the field pre-game, inspecting the turf, said afterward: “There wasn't one person on the field once we got out there who said we should try to play. Even if there was, the players would have called the union and gotten it called off ... I am dumbfounded that they didn't have the field right.”
Things looked bad less than two hours prior to kickoff when both teams’ head coaches, general managers, owners and medical staffs were conferencing at midfield. Looking up close, there were clumps of congealed red, white and blue paint that were rock-hard, an obvious safety concern. Workers were spraying around the logo and driving tractors back and forth, in an apparent attempt to break up these clumps. Later, they were shoveling up piles of loose turf pellets into trash cans. It was an ugly scene.
“The turf is definitely hard,” Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix said, pushing his foot against the field surface after the game had been called off. “They did a great job putting safety first. But it’s an opportunity missed for the young guys, not just to get experience but to do it in front of 32 teams.”
The NFL made the right decision in the name of player safety. But as Colts owner Jim Irsay railed in an interview with ESPN, whose Monday Night Football crew was on site to broadcast the game, “this shouldn’t happen.”
“First of all, I’m glad that the field safety protocol was followed and the game was canceled,” NFLPA president Eric Winston wrote in a text message. “Shaun Suisham led on this key issue this offseason and the protocol has become vital already this season. Second of all, the HoF game for, at least, the second year in a row has a surface that is unacceptable.”
There are plenty of players and coaches who would like to see the game scrapped. That probably won’t happen, but you can bet they’ll talk about switching venues.
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The voice that counts
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — I begin a question to Falcons owner Arthur Blank: “As a member of the Compensation Committee …”
“The chair,” he says.
Today being the 10-year anniversary of the day Blank and the league’s other 31 owners voted for Goodell to succeed Paul Tagliabue, I thought I’d ask one of the men most responsible for Goodell’s power and influence and salary how he’s doing. I saw Blank last week, and so obviously his comments were made before the Hall of Fame debacle Sunday night.
Before I sat down with Blank, I got a tour of his office, filled with photos nostalgic and current with people from around the league. There’s a note from Goodell, from 2011. It ends with: “I will work tirelessly to make you proud of me,” Goodell wrote. The relationship between the two men, clearly, is more than commissioner/owner. If the current climate, in which Goodell is probably the most disliked man in American sports, is wearing on Blank and concerning to him, he doesn’t voice it.
“I give him a lot of good grades—a lot of great grades,” Blank said, sitting on a couch in his office. “There should be more recognition of the great things he’s done for the game in his 10 years. My hope is he brings his passion and intelligence to the job for years into the future.”
Then Blank said: “But it’s a hard job. Very hard.”
Under Goodell, the league has increased revenues from $6 billion in 2006 to a projected $14 billion this year, a 133 percent increase in a decade. Blank bought his franchise for $545 million in 2002; if he sold it today with the Falcons’ new stadium set to open in 2017, he’d likely fetch at least $2 billion for it. “From a business perspective, we’ve done phenomenally well in the last 10 years,” Blank said. “The valuations of teams are growing at rates that no one expected. We’ve adjusted well in a changing world. Roger does care deeply about the important issues, like player health and safety.”
But the universal public animosity? “I don’t know about the ‘universal’ part,” Blank said. “Roger, in my opinion, comes across the best when he’s not scripted, when he’s answering from the heart.”
The Compensation Committee approved paying Goodell $111 million in pay and benefits from 2013 to 2015, and I get no indication from owners when I speak to them about a rumbling for change. It’s just hard to imaging Goodell lasting another 10 if public opinion doesn’t take a turn for the better.
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Photo: Gary McCullough/AP
Myles Jack hasn’t had any issues at camp with the knee that caused him to drop out of the draft’s first round in April.
Myles Jack is back, and he’s got a message
JACKSONVILLE — There was something heartening about seeing number 44 in white turning and sprinting to chase a play Friday night in a Jaguar scrimmage at Everbank Field, or making the defensive play call and lining up his mates. Myles Jack was playing full-speed football again. Jack’s the former UCLA linebacker, still only 21, who sat much of his last college season after knee surgery, whose stock fell from top-five prospect to pick 36 in the NFL draft. Now he’s tried to put that behind him. (He hasn’t). And he wants his story to be a cautionary tale for future Myles Jacks.
“Please put this in all caps,” Jack told me Friday.
(LIKE THIS?)
“I want to tell all the guys coming out in the draft next year, and future years: If there’s any questions about you, answer them IMMEDIATELY. Nip it in the bud. If you have to be arrogant, if you have to be rude, whatever. Get your point across. If there’s any questions—and that’s probably my biggest mistake, because I’m not an outspoken person on like Twitter or Instagram if a rumor comes out—don't be quiet. Not to say anything bad about my agent but don’t let your agent handle it. Just do it yourself, get out there, you know what I mean, and, fight, you know fight for yourself because, looking back if there was one thing I could do, with all the microfracture, I wish I would have just jumped out and clarified it.”
Two days before the draft, Jack told Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post that “down the line, possibly, potentially,” he could have microfracture knee surgery. Microfracture is a riskier surgery than ACL surgery and involves creating small cracks in the bones of the knee to spur cartilage growth. Even mentioning it would scare an NFL team. Teams were already cautious about Jack, coming off surgery. The microfracture addition made it worse.
“After the story came out,” Jack said, “[NFL Network’s] Ian Rapoport tagged along and he has a bajillion followers so that just went haywire and everybody’s like, ‘Oh you need surgery now!’ And y’all seen me do pro day and I’ve done everything that’s been asked of me? I did a 40-inch vertical [jump], and people with bad knees aren’t doing that.”
Jack is settling in Jacksonville, where it’s all football on a very young team. He seems happy enough, and he ran around Friday night with verve, still in the process of getting to know his new mates. But he won’t forget the mega-draft-drop.
“In hindsight,’’ he said, “it’s always gonna be a permanent scar. It’s something I’m gonna have to live with but landing here, I mean, that’s a perfect situation.”
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Six camps, six interesting names
Continuing my section of roster-scanning the teams I saw in the past week for interesting old faces in new places:
Baltimore: Benjamin Watson, tight end. Watched him in one practice. So who knows what it all means. But watching that one practice, last Monday night in the Ravens stadium, made me think I’d draft Watson as a tight end if I were trying to win a fantasy league. I mean, not as the best tight end, but as a top-five tight end. Healthy, he’ll catch 70 balls.
Washington: David Bruton Jr., safety/special teams. After a valuable run in Denver that culminated with a key role on the Broncos’ Super Bowl special teams, Bruton and his mountain bike (he’s as avid a biker as there is in the NFL) are in Richmond for training camp, trying to help Ben Kotwica’s kicking game. Really good signing. Bruton’s a great chemistry guy and valuable player.
Atlanta: Matt Simms, quarterback. I must say I’ve never seen four consecutive Matts on any roster in NFL history. (And really, isn’t that what we all look for?) Here we go, by jersey number: 2. Matt Ryan, QB; 3. Matt Bryant, kicker; 4. Matt Simms, QB; 5. Matt Bosher, punter. I just wish Matt Schaub were 6 instead of 8. Simms needs to beat out Sean Renfree, the former Duke passer, for the third QB here.
Carolina: Mike Scifres, punter. After 100 years in San Diego and coming off left knee surgery, Scifres hasn’t had a great camp so far. He’s battling a rookie named Swayze Waters, and Ron Rivera kept open the possibility last week he could bring in another punter for competition. So we’ll see.
Jacksonville: Monte Kiffin, defensive assistant. After his sojourn to USC to coach with son Lane, Kiffin is back in the NFL as an extra set of eyes for coach Gus Bradley. Good to see him on the sidelines Friday night, eying Jalen Ramsey in press coverage during the Jaguar scrimmage. “I didn’t coach last year,” Kiffin told me. “You know, I’m 76 years old. I love football. You can only take so many long walks.”
Tampa Bay: Chris Conte, safety. Perhaps a 2013 Bears reunion in the Bucs starting backfield? Major Wright’s already here, having come from Chicago in 2014, and the lanky Conte left the Bears after starting 13 games there last year. They still have time left—Conte’s 27, Wright 28. And Conte’s catching the coaches’ eyes. “Conte really covers like a corner,” said coach Dirk Koetter on Saturday. “He’s not built like a corner, but if you watch him on one-on-one drills he can cover wideouts, so we’re really pleased with that.”
Houston: Devon Still, defensive tackle. Still and his daughter Leah were an inspirational story in Cincinnati, with Leah beating cancer when her dad played for the Bengals. And here he is trying to prolong his NFL career. For now, Still is spelling the great J.J. Watt on the Houston defensive line, and if he has a good August, he’s expected to make the team as depth on a solid group.
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Hall of Fame Quotes of the Week
I
“I overheard my father talking to the three other coaches, and I heard him—and I assume I didn't play as well the previous week only because of what he said, and he said, ‘I can assure you one thing about my son, he will play better. He will redeem himself. I know my son. He has it in him.’ And I never let him know that I heard that. I never said that to anyone else.
But I thought to myself: That’s a pretty good compliment, you know? My chest kind of swelled up. And, again, I never told anyone. But I never forgot that statement and that comment that he made to those other coaches. And I want you to know, Dad, I spent the rest of my career trying to redeem myself. I hope I succeeded.”
—Brett Favre, the first Hall of Famer in memory to make his speech without a script, recalling the last game of his high school career.
II
“I could be the only inductee of this great Hall who did not make his high school football team.”
—Eddie DeBartolo
III
“Who would have ever thought that a young man from Kiln, Miss., whose father ran the wishbone, would hold every passing record in NFL history at one time? Pretty doggone amazing if you ask me.”
—Favre
IV
“I’m not the 10th Steelers from the Super Bowl XIII team to be enshrined. But you could have won a lot of money in ’78 if you bet that I’d be one of those 10. I remember making a tackle my rookie year, and Dwight White asking in the huddle, ‘What’s your name again?’”
—Tony Dungy
V
“Imagine the jitters I felt as a 30-year-old kid walking into the first owners meeting, hearing the roll called out by the legendary Pete Rozelle—Halas, Mara, Rooney, Hunt, Davis. I remember thinking: What the hell am I doing here?”
—DeBartolo
VI
“It was the third round of the 1979 draft, and I remember standing outside our makeshift office in Redwood City, California. Bill Walsh came out and said, ‘There is this kid from Notre Dame on the board. Should we take a shot with him in the third round?’ Having graduated from South Bend I said, how can you go wrong with somebody from Notre Dame?
So we drafted Joe Montana, and he came out the next day. I looked at him and almost fell over. He was a kid. He had a big Fu Manchu mustache. He looked like he weighed about 170 pounds. He was listed at 6-2, and he didn't look an inch past 6-foot. I said: Oh, dear God. It turns out that was just his secret identity, because when he got on the football field, Joe Montana turned into superman.”
—DeBartolo
Kevin Greene
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Nine Things I Think I Think
1. I think I’ve got six random thoughts after nearly two weeks on the road at camps:
a. Washington won’t be changing its nickname anytime soon. When I was in camp, talking to club president Bruce Allen the other day, a visitor to camp approached me and said he really liked my stand on the team name, how I proposed a couple of years ago that the name should be “Americans” or “Warriors” instead of “Redskins,” and the team could honor the military at every home game. (I cannot take credit for the idea, by the way.) So I was a bit stunned that this fellow didn’t recognize Allen, who has led the drive to never, ever, ever change the name. At one point, Allen said in no uncertain terms that the name would not be changed.
b. Jameis Winston is ripped. He’s lost only eight pounds (he weighs 231 now), but the change in his body is noticeable. He hired a trainer and is eating smart—and not at all hours of the day—after getting a body wakeup call seeing his peers at the Pro Bowl.
c. Watched some training-camp tape of Dante Fowler, the pass-rusher Jacksonville drafted third overall last year, then lost for the season in his first practice with a torn ACL. Actually, watched with Jags GM Dave Caldwell. Two impressive things: His lateral quickness and quickness around the edge seem unaffected by his surgery; he’s Von Miller-quick.
And on one bullrush against backup tackle Josh Wells, Fowler—giving up 54 pounds to the tackle—punch-rushed with a shot to Wells’ sternum and Wells went backpedaling fast, to keep his balance. The perception with Fowler is so focused on speed and quickness as a rusher, but it’s not just that. Tackles are going to have to respect his power.
d. One of the quarterbacks Albert Breer notes in his video story about Tom House is Matt Ryan. I asked Ryan about what House and fellow QB tutor Adam Dedeaux did. Seems Ryan worked on one of the weaknesses in his game: throwing efficiently, consistently, to his left. “Get your feet underneath you,’’ Ryan said. “Make every throw the same. I worked very hard on that. I think it helped. You want to make the defense defend all 53 yards of the field, and not just one side, obviously.’’
e. Early candidate for breakout defensive player this year: Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry. He’s moving from the 3-4 to a 4-3 rush end under new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. In the old defense, he had 13 sacks in the past two years. “I have a long way to go, but I’ll die trying,” Curry told me. “What I’m better at this year is with my technique—my feet, my first step. I consider myself a core part of this defense, and this year, when our defense is mentioned, I want my name to come up, and not at the end of the conversation.”
f. Three early standouts for the Patriots in camp: Wideouts Aaron Dobson (who, prior to this season, had been unreliable, with just 53 catches in three seasons) and practice-squadder Chris Harper, who, according to Bill Belichick, “has probably made as much progress as any of our players in the last calendar year.” Dobson’s just more mature this year, perhaps realizing year four was his last straw in Foxboro … and guard-tackle Joe Thuney, the rookie third-round pick from North Carolina State.
On our visit to Foxboro, Thuney got high grades for toughness, versatility and shutting his mouth. Watch returning offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia get Thuney ready to play meaningful downs by Week 1. That’s what the Patriots do: get young linemen ready to play, then play seven or eight multiple series per game to see what combinations are smart.
2. I think the Pro Football Hall of Fame has this challenge on its hands, and it’s a daunting, and perhaps impossible, one: to make the weekend gauzy and warm and fuzzy and nostalgic, all in one. When baseball inducts its players, you invariably read stories headlined thusly: “Reflections on a weekend with the baseball gods.” (Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe, July 25.) In fairness, Shaughnessy was honored this year for long and meritorious writing on baseball. But the point is, those stories and feelings are common around the baseball Hall’s inductions.
Is it the media, celebrating the history of baseball more than football? Is it the fact that so many media members who cover baseball have had such a love affair with the game for so long? Or is the fact that media folk covering football can’t find the same way to celebrate the history of the game when so many former players have long-term health problems?
3. I think the one camp scene that just looked different to The MMQB Team was in Spartanburg, summer home of the Panthers. We saw the seventh of 14 practices slated for Wofford College, the camp home of the team for 21 years. Halfway through camp, the Panthers set an all-time attendance record (79,804). “We’ve done a lot of beautification and modernization here,” said team president Danny Morrison, “but the key, obviously, is a successful team with players the fans like.”
4. I think this video of a Spartanburg High linebacker and a Panthers linebacker—mentee and mentor from the day the two squads practiced side by side—is one I’ll remember for a while. The kid was so honored to be with his idol.
5. I think it’s probably smart to play the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game—if you’re going to play it at all—54 miles north in Cleveland, with a pristine field, rather than on a glorified high school field at the Hall of Fame in Canton. There’s just too much at stake, even with a first preseason game with regulars barely seeing the field, to play the game on a risky field.
6. I think this is the underrated matchup of Week 1: Former Falcons coach Mike Smith and former Matt Ryan tutor Dirk Koetter—now the defensive coordinator and head coach of division rival Tampa Bay, respectively—at Atlanta, where coach Dan Quinn is very noticeably dismantling Smith’s read-and-react defense and replacing it with a voracious one.
7. I think this is the early line on Tom Brady’s attitude in camp: No sadness, no anger (except at defenders on the field), no frustration from the suspension that he shows anyone, and, I’ve heard, hard to tell any difference between this year and a normal (non-suspension) year. As someone who knows Brady told me over the weekend: “He’s doing what he’s always doing: trying to massacre the defense at every practice. That’s how he feels he gets better.”
One other interesting note on Brady, from our visit to camp nine days ago: Devin McCourty said Brady, who turned 39 last Wednesday, “reminds me of Benjamin Button. He does not age. I can honestly say there is no difference that I see from Tom now and when I got here [in 2010].”
8. I think I’m ready for the Rams edition of Hard Knocks, which debuts Tuesday on HBO. I have not seen any early clips—though I did ask—but I can tell you these factoids: It’s the first Hard Knocks featuring a west coast team and the first time they’ve had the No. 1 overall pick from that year’s draft (Jared Goff). Look for a lot of coach Jeff Fisher and for NFL Films to try to blend in plenty of Hollywood glamour.
9. I think there are three injuries of early camp that hurt teams the most: Chicago center Hroniss Grasu (torn ACL, according to the Chicago Sun-Times), which takes Jay Cutler’s impressive young security blanket away; Detroit tight end Eric Ebron, who may hve suffered an Achilles injury in a team scrimmage Saturday; and (this will cause an eyebrow or two to raise) CFL transplant wide receiver Eric Rogers, who tore his ACL in a non-contact kickoff drill the other day in 49er camp.
No one knows Rogers, but the Niners had plans for him, and had to outbid several teams last winter to sign him. That team needs big contributors on an offense lacking them. But if Ebron is lost, that would put the top three Detroit tight ends out, at least for now, with Brandon Pettigrew (on the temporary NFL PUP list) still rehabbing from knee surgery. And without Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford was going to need a breakout season from Ebron, the underperforming 10th pick in the 2014 draft. If Ebron is lost, the pressure on Stafford multiplies.
