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Tag: Roger Goodell

  • Chiefs assistant Dave Toub: President Trump ‘doesn’t even know what he’s looking at’ on NFL kickoffs

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    KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub doesn’t care a whole lot about what President Donald Trump thinks of new kickoff rules that were implemented by the NFL in an attempt to make the play safer and more exciting.

    Trump became the first sitting president to attend a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter in 1978 when he attended a game between the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions earlier this month.

    Two days later, Trump appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” and torched the league’s dynamic kickoff rule, which owners voted to make permanent this year. Under the rule, the ball is kicked from the 35-yard line, but every player on the kicking team must wait at the 40 until the ball hits the ground or is touched by a returner inside the 20-yard line.

    There are also rules for if a ball does not reach the landing zone, hits the landing zone without being caught or lands in the end zone.

    “I think it’s so terrible. I think it’s so demeaning, and I think it hurts the game. It hurts the pageantry,” Trump said. “I’ve told that to (NFL Commissioner) Roger Goodell, and I don’t think it’s any safer. I mean, you still have guys crashing into each other.”

    The league has maintained the dynamic kickoff system is safer while producing more kickoff returns. And Toub, who has spent more than two decades coaching special teams in Chicago and Kansas City, didn’t hold back Thursday when he was asked what he thought of the president’s pointed criticism of the kickoff rules.

    “He doesn’t even know what he’s looking at. He has no idea what’s going on with the kickoff rule,” said the normally reserved Toub, his voice rising. “So take that for what it’s worth. And I hope he hears it.”

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  • Bad Bunny Super Bowl LX halftime show not being reconsidered, Goodell says

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    The NFL is not considering dropping Bad Bunny as its Super Bowl halftime headline performer, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday, reaffirming a decision to put the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican artist on the league’s biggest stage that led to criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump and some of his supporters.

    Goodell addressed the Bad Bunny controversy at his news conference following the annual fall owners meeting. It is the first time he has commented on the move announced in late September that garnered worldwide attention, including an increase in streams of Bad Bunny’s music, along with backlash.

    “It’s carefully thought through,” Goodell said. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism. It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”

    The 31-year-old born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio has been vocal in his opposition to Trump and his policies. He decided to do a 31-day residency in Puerto Rico, avoiding stops in the mainland U.S., citing concerns about the mass deportation of Latinos.

    He performs in Spanish and is expected to do so at the Super Bowl.

    “We’re confident it’s going to be a great show,” Goodell said, acknowledging there could be more talent added to the lineup along with Bad Bunny. “He understands the platform that he’s on, and I think it’s going to be exciting and a united moment.”

    The San Francisco 49ers are hosting the Super Bowl on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. It is unclear if Trump plans to be there, though he has made appearing in person at major sporting events a significant part of his second term in the White House.

    Trump in an interview on conservative news network Newsmax said he had “never heard of” Bad Bunny.

    “I don’t know who he is,” Trump said. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

    Goodell defended the decision on Wednesday, explaining it was made because of Bad Bunny’s immense popularity.

    “He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” Goodell said. “That’s what we try to achieve. It’s an important stage for us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value.”

    Echoing what senior VP of football operations Troy Vincent said Tuesday, Goodell said there has not been much discussion about the tush push quarterback sneak since an effort to ban it narrowly failed to pass in the spring.

    Vincent said the primary concern is how tough it is to officiate the maneuver that the Philadelphia Eagles have successfully executed so often. It was not on the formal agenda at this meeting, though owners did get an update on penalties and other football matters.

    “It’s something we will continue to monitor on all phases, just like we do every other aspect of the game,” Goodell said. “We don’t have any proposals to bring it back up. It wouldn’t surprise me if something does evolve. But it’s not something we’re really focused on during the season.”

    Asked about replay reviews and the length of time they are taking, Goodell said game times are actually down through the first seven weeks compared to last season, despite a surge in kick returns after an adjustment was made to the so-called dynamic kickoff.

    “That’s quite remarkable when you add the number of kickoffs,” Goodell said. “You’re going to get more fouls. You’re going to get different sets of fouls. You’re going to have a little bit (more) length of the game.”

    Goodell said he had breakfast with interim Players Association executive director David White before one of the league’s international games this season but expects any talk about a move to an 18-game regular season and other collective bargaining discussions to wait until the union chooses its long-term leader.

    The current CBA runs through the 2031 league year. White told The Associated Press last month that an 18-game season was not inevitable.

    “The negotiations will be a lot more than just simply the 18 and two (exhibition games),” Goodell said. “There are a lot of issues that we are going to raise and I’m certain that the players will raise, and that’s what it should be. That’s what collective bargaining is all about. They’re going to need time to make sure that they’re prepared, that they’re ready for the negotiations (and) they have their priorities straight, and then we can begin negotiations.”

    Goodell said work is being done to choose sites for the Super Bowl to cap the 2028 and ’29 seasons and expects an announcement on those next year.

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  • NFL fines Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for ‘inadvertent’ obscene gesture

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    The NFL has fined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for making an obscene gesture which Jones said was “inadvertent” and meant to be a thumbs up at MetLife Stadium following a game against the New York Jets on Sunday.The news was first reported by NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero on Tuesday and confirmed by the NFL to CNN Sports on Wednesday.In a video which was widely shared on social media, Jones could be seen giving a thumbs-up to the crowd from a box before raising his middle finger and pointing lower in the crowd while mouthing a few indiscernible words. The gesture occurred late in the Cowboys’ 37-22 road win over the Jets.Jones has until Friday to appeal the decision and, though neither the Cowboys nor Jones have yet formally done so, it is likely he will, according to Pelissero. The three-time Super Bowl-winning owner offered his explanation for the “unfortunate” fan interaction on Dallas radio show 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday.“I just put up the wrong show on the hand, but that was inadvertently done,” Jones said. “The intention was thumbs up.”When asked about the exchange, Jones said it occurred in front of Cowboys fans, not Jets fans, amidst the excitement after quarterback Dak Prescott threw a four-yard pass to Javonte Williams for Dallas’ final touchdown of the game.“There was a swarm of Cowboy fans out in front, not Jets fans, Cowboy fans,” Jones emphasized. “That was inadvertent on my part because that was right after we’d made our last touchdown and we were all excited about it.“There wasn’t any antagonistic issue or anything like that.”This is not the first time Jones has faced a fine from the league. He faced his first fine in 2008 for criticizing a referee and another in 2009 for violating an order from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to stop executives and owners from discussing league labor issues.

    The NFL has fined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $250,000 for making an obscene gesture which Jones said was “inadvertent” and meant to be a thumbs up at MetLife Stadium following a game against the New York Jets on Sunday.

    The news was first reported by NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero on Tuesday and confirmed by the NFL to CNN Sports on Wednesday.

    In a video which was widely shared on social media, Jones could be seen giving a thumbs-up to the crowd from a box before raising his middle finger and pointing lower in the crowd while mouthing a few indiscernible words. The gesture occurred late in the Cowboys’ 37-22 road win over the Jets.

    Jones has until Friday to appeal the decision and, though neither the Cowboys nor Jones have yet formally done so, it is likely he will, according to Pelissero.

    The three-time Super Bowl-winning owner offered his explanation for the “unfortunate” fan interaction on Dallas radio show 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday.

    “I just put up the wrong show on the hand, but that was inadvertently done,” Jones said. “The intention was thumbs up.”

    When asked about the exchange, Jones said it occurred in front of Cowboys fans, not Jets fans, amidst the excitement after quarterback Dak Prescott threw a four-yard pass to Javonte Williams for Dallas’ final touchdown of the game.

    “There was a swarm of Cowboy fans out in front, not Jets fans, Cowboy fans,” Jones emphasized. “That was inadvertent on my part because that was right after we’d made our last touchdown and we were all excited about it.

    “There wasn’t any antagonistic issue or anything like that.”

    This is not the first time Jones has faced a fine from the league. He faced his first fine in 2008 for criticizing a referee and another in 2009 for violating an order from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to stop executives and owners from discussing league labor issues.

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  • Trump Can’t Wait to Make Life Hell for the NFL Again

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    Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

    In October 2017, the owners of the 32 NFL teams, along with Commissioner Roger Goodell, various league executives, and even a few players, scrambled the jets for an emergency meeting at NFL headquarters in New York. The focus of the meeting was not CTE, or the league’s minority-hiring practices, or any of the other existential threats plaguing football at the time. It was the threat posed by President Donald Trump.

    “The problem we have is we have a president who will use [the NFL] as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America,” said Patriots owner (and past and future Trump supporter) Robert Kraft. “It’s divisive and it’s horrible.” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said, “We’ve got to be careful not to be baited by Trump … We have to find a way to not be divided.” My favorite aged-like-spoiled-milk quote from the ultimately not-so-confidential meeting came from Jaguars owner Shad Khan: “All the damage Trump’s going to do is done.” If only.

    Trump’s presidency — the first one — was a true existential crisis for the NFL, during which the league found itself in the middle of every culture-war battle, most notably Colin Kaepernick’s national-anthem protest and its aftermath. Trump went right at the NFL, imploring owners to fire “son of a bitch” players who knelt during the anthem and mocking other players for being diagnosed with concussions. The league’s television ratings, for the first time in a long time, fell during the Trump era. That became yet another culture-war talking point, with Trump claiming the league had gone too woke to survive. At one point he actually disinvited the Eagles from the White House. This all culminated in a once-historic, now mostly forgotten moment during the 2020 NFL draft — the one held virtually — in which Goodell apologized for not listening to players during the kneeling controversy and said, remarkably, “Black Lives Matter.” The moment was seen less as a sudden left turn and more as the league understanding which way the wind was blowing — Trump would lose in November, and the league would finally be rid of him.

    Goodell was right — temporarily. If there is any corporation that benefited most dramatically from President Biden’s implicit promise that life would get back to normal without Trump in office, it was the NFL. During the Biden years, the NFL boomed. In 2020, NFL revenue had fallen to $12 billion after reaching $16 billion in 2019; by 2024, it was back up to $23 billion. Its television ratings not only recovered, they exploded; only two of the top-rated 100 broadcasts in 2023 were not directly related to football. The NFL has swallowed the rest of the sports world whole, to the point that selling off a distressed asset like the NFL Network to ESPN is seen as a lifesaver for the network. Perhaps most importantly, the league has been able to stay out of the culture-war discourse in a way it never could during the Trump years, when  the league was pulled to and fro by whatever Trump and his supporters happened to be obsessed with. With Biden in office, even Tom Brady could make an election-denial joke about Trump at the White House and everyone could chuckle and go back to the business of making billions and billions of dollars.

    That age is over for the NFL, just as it is for the rest of us. The first six months of the Trump presidency, which have featured exactly one actual NFL game (a Super Bowl that Trump attended, creating its own storyline), have featured more political headaches for the league than four years of Biden or, for that matter, a near-century of every other president. Some of this has been dumb but harmless, like Trump calling owners “stupid” for not drafting Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the first round. (The Browns benched Sanders last weekend and have reportedly considered cutting him, by the way.) But mostly, Trump is treating the NFL with the same authoritarian menace as he is the rest of society. During an Oval Office press conference announcing the construction of a new stadium for the Washington Commanders, Trump made Goodell grovel in front of the cameras, all but forcing the commissioner to thank him for a Canadian trade deal (which wasn’t real) and for the “gift” of the Washington stadium (which Trump had nothing to do with). Now Trump claims that he won’t “approve” the new stadium unless the Commanders change their name back to the epithet it was until 2020.

    Trump doesn’t have the power to do that, technically. On the other hand, there are all sorts of things he doesn’t have the power to do that he has ended up doing anyway. And remember, all this friction is happening before the NFL season actually starts. Considering the league’s cultural ubiquity, Trump won’t be able to stay away once games get going.

    The football itself, which kicks off on Thursday with a marquee matchup between the Cowboys and the defending-champion Eagles, promises to be thrilling. Several historically struggling but massively popular franchises, from the Bills to the Lions to the Bengals to the Vikings to even those Commanders, are all legitimate championship contenders. The league has transitioned out of the Brady era magnificently, carried by boldfaced names like Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels, and of course Patrick Mahomes, who is the most popular player in the league and still isn’t even the most followed figure surrounding his own team. (Taylor Swift’s new album comes out on the Friday before Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the Chiefs play on Monday Night Football, helpfully, and of course there are certain upcoming nuptials you may have heard about.) These should be the league’s salad days.

    But few institutions know better than the NFL how Trump can mess with success, how he can wildly throw wrenches into your best-laid plans, how once you’re in his crosshairs, there’s no place to hide. The NFL is the most powerful sports institution in the world. It has been growing like a weed for half a decade now. But Goodell’s job just got a thousand times harder, thanks to the impudent, relentless whims of a madman. Then again, whose job hasn’t?


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    Will Leitch

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  • NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell On CBS & Netflix Deals, Sunday Ticket Verdict – Sun Valley

    NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell On CBS & Netflix Deals, Sunday Ticket Verdict – Sun Valley

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    NFL chief Roger Goodell indicated today a Paramount-Skydance merger may not impact football on CBS, although he didn’t commit, and that matches on Netflix may expand beyond the streamer’s recent pact for Christmas Day games. In an interview with CNBC from Sun Valley, the Commissioner also opined on the Sunday Ticket verdict, and said the League may allow private equity to own up to 10% of a team.

    “CBS has been a great partner for us back to 1956. I think they’ve been extraordinary great up to the Super Bowl this past year, where we had record ratings — over 200 million people watching,” he said.

    “We’re obviously paying close attention to the process. We know Skydance. They’ve done a terrific job with our relationship. So we’ll look at the structure of the deal. We’ll see how it impacts us. We’ll see how it impacts our business. And we’ll make the best decision for the NFL at that point.”

    Skydance just agreed to acquired CBS owner Paramount in a deal that will close next year.

    A change in ownership allows the NFL to renegotiate. David Ellison’s company in 2022 inked a deal with the NFL and NFL Films to create a global multi-sports production studio under Skydance Sports.

    And he told the network that the Netflix deal, a Christmas day double header, made sense for the NFL as it attempts to reach an international audience. “Netflix has close to 300 million subscribers on a global basis, which was really attractive for us in being able to reach that global fan. As you know, international is a huge initiative of ours. And I think they want to really make this an event like Christmas Day. And we think that’s important, just like Thanksgiving.”

    Asked it that meant more games would be coming to the streamer, he said “Maybe … we believe that the game is going to be incredibly popular globally, we just have to bring more games.”

    He noted that over 85% of NFL games are on free broadcast television and when they’re not  the league has committed to making it free to air in the local markets of the two. “So I think we’re going where the fans are.”

    The NFL was just handed a loss and assesed a massive $4.7 billion in damages in a lawsuit by fans over the NFL Sunday Ticket o DirecTV, its previous partner for years.

    Goodell said “we obviously disagree with the jury verdict. And we are committed, obviously, to following the legal process. It’s a long process. We’re aware of that. But we feel very strongly about our position, our policies, particularly on media, that we make our sport available to the broadest possible audience. Sunday Ticket is just a complimentary product. So we’re committed to following the litigation, all the way, and making sure that we get this right.”

    On ownership policies, he said the League is leaning towards a allowing private equity investments of up to 10%.

    “We’ve been very deliberate on this, just looking at our ownership policies in general. And as sports evolve, we want to make sure that our policies reflect that we created a committee last September that looked at all aspects of our policies, including debt, and including private equity. We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest. And we believe that this could make sense for us in a limited fashion, probably no more than 10% of the team. But that would be something that we think could complement our ownership and support our ownership policies. So we think we’re moving in a very positive direction. And hopefully, we’ll have something by the end of the year.”

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  • A Super Bowl Holiday? – Philadelphia Sports Nation

    A Super Bowl Holiday? – Philadelphia Sports Nation

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    Super Bowl Hangover? The NFL has You Covered.
    If you are lucky in your lifetime, you’ll see your NFL Team play in a Super Bowl. If you are fortunate, you’ll see them win it.

    If you are nearly overcome with the emotions of the mere mention of that thought, Roger Goodell and the NFL are here to help. This week, Goodell floated the idea that eliminating one prepreseasonL game combined with an eighteen-week NFL regular season schedule would allow the Super Bowl to be scheduled on President’s week, thus creating a long holiday weekend for many.

    In short, the NFL PrePreseasonhedule is in a ton of trouble.

    Three NFL teams in the modern era haven’t yet been to a Super Bowl — The Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions, and Houston Texans. The Lions were one onside kick away from making the list only two.

    It had been 25 years since the Eagles first played the Patriots in 2005 and lost 27–24 in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXXIX. I remember fearing that I’d never see it again. I was two years old when the Eagles played the Raiders in the Super Bowl in 1981. My Dad would forever describe that particular game as one that Philly should have won. The Eagles and Raiders played earlier in the year, right before Thanksgiving, and the Eagles narrowly won 10–7.

    When I attended a Super Bowl Party in 2005, I remember the excitement early in the day, with one question looming.

    Do you have to work tomorrow?

     PHOTO: —

    Already earlier in the week, Philadelphia and New England area businesses were taxed with workers trying to take the day off in the event that the euphoric feeling of a World Championship had overtaken your soul, making it nearly impossible to function at work the following day.

    I still remember the excitement on my Dad’s face in 2018 when the Eagles won it all. I thought to myself, better enjoy this one, not sure it will happen again. And crap, I have to work tomorrow.
    Dedicated in loving memory of my father Thomas J. Leibrandt — author, historian, Eagles fan, and a true Philadelphian.

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  • NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell opens up about league’s growing popularity, Taylor Swift’s impact

    NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell opens up about league’s growing popularity, Taylor Swift’s impact

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    We all know Thanksgiving is about turkey, family and football, and the National Football League is working hard to satisfy the nation’s appetite for the latter. A busy NFL lineup is slated for the next few days — with three games on Thanksgiving day, the first-ever game on Black Friday and a full set of match-ups on Sunday. 

    “I think people want more football, but I think it’s all calculated,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who spoke exclusively with “CBS Mornings” ahead of the games.

    “These are calculated, strategic, and they’re intentional to give people bigger events, more events, and to gather around football,” Goodell said. “That’s why it goes so well with Thanksgiving. It’s people coming together.”   

    Overall, ratings and revenue are up for the league, which is seeing rising popularity thanks in part to an unusual source off the field: Pop star Taylor Swift, who recently took her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce public. Swift has attended some of Kelce’s recent games, even sitting with his family, and fans have been eager to spot her in attendance.

    Goodell said Swift is an “unbelievable artist,” and that Kelce is an “unbelievable player.” 

    “Listen, they’re happy. They seem to be enjoying their relationship. That’s great in and of itself. But it has connected more fans of Taylor’s and more fans of the NFL in some ways,” Goodell said. “To see that they have a connection, now they have a connection to our game and to Taylor…I think it’s great for the league to have that kind of attention. So we welcome it.” 

    The attention comes ahead of a major event for the league: the Super Bowl, which will be held in Las Vegas early next year and broadcast on CBS. It also comes as the league is likely to expand to a new overseas market in 2024, Goodell said.

    “We’re going to expand our regular season games series next year. We’ll play in a new market next year, either Spain or Brazil,” Goodell said. 

    Another hot topic for the NFL is player safety.

    “I don’t think our game has ever been more physical, faster, strong. Our players are more athletic than they’ve ever been. What we want to do is take the techniques out that are leading directly to injuries,” Goodell said. 

    One thing that Goodell said is of paramount importance is making sure parents know what they’re doing to improve the league’s safety, so that young football players can play safely. 

    “What we want parents to know is what we’ve done to make the game safer, the techniques we’re taking out, how we’re coaching the game, how we’re using our platform to make all of sports safer,” Goodell said. “I think those are the positive things. There’s been tremendous transformation that I think is incredibly positive, whether it’s in equipment, or whether it’s in rules, whether it’s in techniques and coaching, whether it’s in the research that we’re bringing back…That is something that we’re incredibly proud of, and we’re going to continue to do that.” 

    Goodell said he hopes at the end of his career he’s remembered for everything that he’s done for the NFL and the effort he’s made to leave the sport in a better place. 

    “I came to this as an intern in the NFL. I love it more than I did when I came in,” Goodell said. “I just, I believe it has so many positive attributes. You see how it brings communities together. I think we’ve made the game better for our players, our clubs, our partners and for the fans, most importantly. I think we see that in the numbers. And that’s what drives us every day to continue to try to get better.” 

    Nate Burleson


    Nate Burleson

    Nate Burleson is a co-host of “CBS Mornings.”

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  • NFL Introduces Touching Flyover Tribute For All Veterans Of Domestic Violence

    NFL Introduces Touching Flyover Tribute For All Veterans Of Domestic Violence

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    NEW YORK—As part of an effort to take a more public approach to addressing an issue that has plagued the league in recent years, the NFL introduced touching flyover tributes this week for all veterans of domestic violence. “We know that our fans and the rest of the NFL community look to us for leadership, and we believe these flyovers are the best way to honor the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, adding that the league was pleased with the half-dozen spectacles in which supersonic jets flew over stadiums while planes with banners reading “The NFL Stands with Rape Victims and Rapists” circled in the air. “Many of our players have been involved in domestic disputes that have led to violence, and we believe we should honor that. Many of these families have dealt with domestic violence over and over again, and they deserve some recognition after their years of service to a part of the league that we hold near and dear to our hearts.” The NFL added that it would also begin airing commercials during games featuring former players, as well as victims of sexual assault, speaking out against and also for domestic violence.

    Onion Sports’ NFL Week 14 Picks

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  • NFL balances emotions, tight schedule after Hamlin shock

    NFL balances emotions, tight schedule after Hamlin shock

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    The NFL pushed ahead Tuesday with a difficult balancing act, navigating players’ emotions after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin’s shocking cardiac arrest with a tight playoff schedule and emphasizing Hamlin’s health was its main focus.

    The league informed the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals that their game, suspended Monday night, would not be resumed this week while the Week 18 schedule remained unchanged, for now.

    No decision regarding the possible resumption of the pivotal Bills-Bengals game has been made. The game was suspended in the first quarter when Hamlin suffered the cardiac arrest after making a tackle.

    The 24-year-old Hamlin remained in critical condition a day after the Bills said his heart stopped following the seemingly routine play. Hamlin tackled Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, who led with his shoulder, then briefly got up before collapsing.

    Medical staff restored his heartbeat during frantic moments on the field before he was loaded into an ambulance. Players from both teams were crying and praying during an emotional scene in front of a national television audience.

    “Damar experienced cardiac arrest and was promptly resuscitated by on-site club physicians and independent medical personnel, all of whom are highly trained in implementing the plans for medical emergencies,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter sent to all teams, and obtained by The Associated Press. “Damar was stabilized and transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, a Level One trauma center, where he remains in the ICU.”

    Goodell informed the clubs that Dr. Nyaka NiiLampti had sent each team’s clinician and head of player engagement information about mental health and support resources available to players and staff.

    “Additional resources including on-site services can be available for any club that wishes this assistance,” Goodell said.

    Goodell told teams they would be promptly advised of any changes to this weekend’s schedule.

    Several teams canceled media availability, including the New England Patriots. They are scheduled to face the Bills on Sunday.

    The Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars practiced ahead of their game to determine the AFC South champion on Saturday night.

    “Oh, I don’t have no hesitation,” Titans two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said about playing. “But me personally, it’s one of them things when you get shook up.”

    Simmons said his 15-year-old cousin, Jason “JJ” Hatcher, died Dec. 18 from a heart issue during a practice. The teen, who was a sophomore at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas, is the son of former 10-year NFL veteran defensive end Jason Hatcher, who spent the last eight seasons of his career with the Dallas Cowboys.

    Simmons received a call informing him of his cousin’s death before the Titans played a late afternoon game in Los Angeles, a 17-14 loss to the Chargers.

    “We just can’t take this game for granted because you never know,” Simmons said. “Sometimes we just get sidetracked. … But the real reason why we play this game and sometimes we forget that, … we’re playing for each other. We’re playing for our family. And most of all, just playing for ourselves because it’s all we’ve been knowing all our whole life.”

    “And I’m sure that young man, it’s all he knew his whole life,” Simmons said of Hamlin. “You just never know when your last night may be. So there’s just one thing you just can’t take for granted. And I’m praying for him and his family.”

    Titans coach Mike Vrabel and Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said they hadn’t had any discussions with the league about postponing this week’s games.

    Aaron Rodgers, the reigning two-time NFL MVP, said he was “shook up.”

    “Your mortality just comes right face to face. One of your brothers in the fraternity of the NFL is fighting for his life right now,” the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback said on his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on YouTube and SiriusXM.

    “I’ve been part of a few games where they’ve carted guys off and we’ve had players with neck injuries. It shakes you to the core. That’s injuries where they’re awake and alert, and many of them give thumbs up or what not, and it still shakes you. It’s like 10-, sometimes 15-minute delays on the field and, ‘All right, go back out and play,’ even though your buddy might not ever play again and we’re hoping he can walk. It’s a weird feeling.”

    “In this situation, this is unprecedented, definitely in my time. … I’ve never seen something where a player had to be given CPR on the field and supposedly didn’t have a pulse.” Rodgers said. “I thought, ‘There’s no way. They’re going to go back in the locker room and then come out and play. What? That can’t happen.’”

    The NFL disputed a television report that both teams were told to resume play after a five-minute warmup. “It never crossed our mind to talk about warming up to resume play,” league executive Troy Vincent said.

    The Kansas City Chiefs practiced Tuesday for their Saturday afternoon game against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Chiefs (13-3) are battling with the Bills (12-3) and Bengals (11-4) for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

    Thus, the outcome of the Bills-Bengals game has major playoff implications. The Bills entered the game in the top spot while the Bengals had a chance to clinch the AFC North with a victory and also were in the mix for the No. 1 seed along with Kansas City.

    The Bengals led 7-3 in the first quarter when the game was stopped. The NFL is scheduled to begin playoffs on Jan. 14. The No. 1 seed in each conference gets a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

    It’s uncertain how the league will handle seedings if the Bills-Bengals game isn’t concluded. The NFL could push the start of the playoffs back one week and eliminate the extra week in between the conference championship games and Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl Games are scheduled for Feb. 5.

    NFL teams changed their avatars on Twitter to a blue Bills background with Hamlin’s No. 3 and the words: “Pray for Damar.”

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    AP Pro Football Writers Teresa Walker and Mark Long and AP Sports Writers John Wawrow and Steve Megargee contributed to this report.

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    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL

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  • Hall of Fame NFL official Art McNally dies at age 97

    Hall of Fame NFL official Art McNally dies at age 97

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    Art McNally, the first on-field official inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was 97.

    His son, Tom McNally, said Monday that his father died of natural causes at a hospital in Newtown, Pennsylvania, near his longtime home.

    McNally died less than five months after getting inducted into the Hall of Fame following more than a half-century working as an on-field official, the head of officiating for the NFL and an adviser to the league who is credited with modernizing the practice of how games are officiated.

    “Art McNally was an extraordinary man, the epitome of integrity and class,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement Monday. “Throughout his distinguished officiating career, he earned the eternal respect of the entire community. Fittingly, he was the first game official enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. But more importantly, he was a Hall of Fame person in absolutely every way.”

    While baseball, basketball and hockey had inducted several officials into their Halls of Fame, McNally was the first to receive the honor in the NFL back in August.

    There couldn’t have been a more appropriate choice for the honor than McNally, whose fingerprints are all over how games are officiated even today.

    After a nine-year career on the field, McNally overhauled the department when he took it over in 1968 and remained involved until retiring in 2015.

    “Art McNally was a quiet, honest man of integrity,” Hall of Fame President Jim Porter said in a statement. “To see Art’s decades of service recognized with his enshrinement as part of the Class of 2022 was a special moment for the Hall. His legacy as a strong leader who helped usher in the advanced training of officials and the technology necessary to keep up with a faster and more complicated game will be preserved forever in Canton.”

    McNally got his start in officiating in an informal way when he called games while serving in the Marines in World War II. He went on to call more than 3,000 games in , basketball and baseball, chronicling them all in books he kept, according to son-in-law Brian O’Hara.

    Before shifting to the NFL league office in 1968, McNally would often officiate high school, college and professional games on the same weekend.

    “He was natural at it,” O’Hara said this past summer. “From being a teacher and being kind of like a rule follower his life because he followed the rules. … The biggest thing was he enjoyed making it fair. That’s all he wanted to do was to be fair and to get it right. I guess that’s the things he enjoyed about officiating.”

    McNally’s biggest impact came in how the NFL evaluated and trained officials in a system that is still mostly in place today.

    Under his watch, the NFL standardized how officials worked a game in their positioning and what calls they made to bring more consistency to the sport.

    He used all-22 game film to teach the officials and grade their performance, using the film to teach as well as evaluate officials. He utilized weekly training videos and rules quizzes to help improve the officiating across the league.

    “That was brand new,” Dean Blandino, one of McNally’s successors as the NFL’s head of officiating, said before McNally’s induction.

    “That was kind of cutting edge. People weren’t doing it. Art came in and understood that this was something that was needed and laid that foundation and that foundation is still what we stand on today in the officiating world. Every league in every sport at every level has an evaluation system and that all goes back to Art.”

    McNally also helped implement the NFL’s first use of instant replay in the 1980s and got his first chance to work a Super Bowl as a replay official following the 1986 season.

    That version of replay was abolished in 1991, but McNally provided guidance to his successors when replay returned in 1999, as he was steadfast in his belief that the league should use any tool to help officials make the correct calls.

    “You just want to get it right,” former NFL referee Ed Hochuli said this summer. “Art was the definition of that. If you look up the definition of integrity in the dictionary and there’s a picture of Art.”

    McNally is survived by his wife, Sharon, his children Marybeth, Tom and Michael, and his grandchildren.

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    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL

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  • Washington Commanders, owner Dan Snyder, NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell sued for

    Washington Commanders, owner Dan Snyder, NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell sued for

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    The attorney general for the District of Columbia says his office is filing a civil consumer protection lawsuit against the Washington Commanders, owner Dan Snyder, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell.

    Attorney General Karl Racine announced the civil complaint at a news conference Thursday, saying Snyder, Goodell, the team and league colluded to deceive D.C. residents about an investigation into the organization’s workplace culture.

    “For years, the team and its owner have caused very real and very serious harm and then lied about it to dodge accountability,” Racine said, adding Goodell and the NFL misled the public. “They did all of this to hide the truth, protect their images and let the profits continue to roll.”

    Racine said the team and league violated D.C. consumers’ rights based on what they knew about the organization’s workplace misconduct, alleging Snyder lied about his knowledge of the situation.

    Four posters flanked Racine during his announcement, outlining some of the history of the team’s rebranding efforts that included references to D.C. and its flag and the history of the NFL’s investigation into the organization’s workplace culture.

    “Dan Snyder assured fans that he would fully cooperate with the investigation and the results could be trusted,” one of the posters read. “That was a lie: He repeatedly attempted to interfere, and the fans could not trust results that were never made public. Because Snyder had a veto.”

    The findings of Beth Wilkinson’s investigation were not released in July 2021 when the league fined the team $10 million for having a toxic workplace culture. The final poster read: “Fans’ outrage intensified when it became clear that Snyder lied to them: There would be no transparency and no reckoning. That impacted consumer spending decisions.”

    Lawyers Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 former team employees, said the civil complaint “is further evidence of what we’ve long known: that both the Commanders and the NFL have engaged in deception and lies designed to conceal the team’s decades of sexual harassment and abuse, which has impacted not only the victims of that abuse, but also consumers in the District of Columbia.”

    They added, “The filing of this complaint also marks an important step in validating the experiences of the brave women and men who came forward and in achieving, for the first time, a level of transparency into the scope of the misconduct.”

    The team is being investigated on several fronts, including by the attorneys general of D.C. and Virginia, Congress and the league. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy last week said former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White’s review on behalf of the league is ongoing and there is no timetable for when it will be completed.

    “We will issue subpoenas,” Racine said. “We will seek testimony under oath.”

    Racine took a shot at Snyder’s virtual deposition with the U.S House Committee for Oversight and Reform by saying depositions are “not likely to occur on a yacht but in a conference room in the District of Columbia.”

    Messages sent to the team and league office seeking comment were not immediately returned.

    The Snyders announced last week they hired Bank of America Securities to look into selling part or all of the team. A team spokesperson said they were “exploring all options” in regards to the organization that Forbes values at $5.6 billion.

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