Category: American Football

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said recently that he thinks the team just scratched the surface of what it is capable of doing while going 13-3 during the 2016 season and his fellow 2016 rookie sensation has identified one area where he can do more. Running back Ezekiel Elliott led the league in rushing during his first NFL season and had the most runs of 20-plus yards of any player in the league to help him get to that spot, so it wouldn’t seem that he had problems getting to the second level or making things happen once he got there. “I just want to work on being a more dominant, second-level runner,” Elliott said, via the team’s website. “I think a couple of times last year I could’ve been more elusive when I got to the second level.

FALL RIVER, Mass. –  The Latest on defense attorneys efforts to erase Aaron Hernandez’s murder conviction in light of his death (all times local): 9 a.m. Lawyers for Aaron Hernandez have asked the judge to disregard documents included with the state’s opposition to the dismissal of his murder conviction. The defense said in a filing before Tuesday’s hearing that the documents which include the state’s death certificate and excerpts from a suicide note the former New England Patriots tight end wrote to his fiancee are irrelevant to the proceedings. The defense asked that its motion be heard at the same time the judge considers whether to erase Hernandez’s conviction. Hernandez was found hanged

FOX wanted Tony Romo to replace John Lynch on the network’s No. 2 team. Romo ended up at CBS, and Jay Cutler ended up in the spot FOX had earmarked for Romo. So which guy will do better in their post-football football employment? That’s the PFT Live question of the day for Monday. The easy answer is Romo. He got the better gig on the bigger platform with the greater opportunities to work before major audiences. Also, people don’t seem to like Cutler, based in large part on the perception that he doesn’t care. If that perception is reality, or if he separately doesn’t care whether people dislike him because they already do,  Cutler could actually be great. He’ll say things without worrying who

He’s loose. Literally. Former NFL tight end Colt Lyerla, who had a limited stint with the Packers, has escaped from custody in Oregon. Lyerla reportedly bolted through the window of a minimum-security facility, two months in to a six-month sentence. He has a string of drug and forgery arrests, and he’ll now face felony charges, if/when he’s caught. A promising talent at tight end, problems at Oregon put him in the NFL prematurely, and a knee injury ended his Packers career before it ever could begin.

Jeff Fisher is going home. Not back to California where he grew up and played college football. Not back to Chicago where he played in the NFL or Houston where he first became a head coach. Fisher, 59, is moving moving back to Nashville, the place he truly considers his home. “We spent so many years here; we just love the people and we have so many great friends here,” said Fisher, who currently is in town. “Everywhere you go people are just like, ‘Hey, welcome back.’ It’s just really cool.” While having a tire repaired earlier this week Fisher was recognized by all the employees at the shop. They were thrilled to see him and stopped working long enough to get together for a group photo. “That

The Broncos are going to sign 15 undrafted rookies soon, but they had to make room for them first. Via Cameron Wolfe of the Denver Post, the Broncos released three players to make room for all the new additions. Denver waived defensive end Iosia Iosia, wide receiver Mekale McKay and long snapper Jeff Overbaugh. Iosia spent the last week of last season on their practice squad, and he and the other two signed future contracts in January. With those moves and the addition of Jamaal Charles, the Broncos would be up to the 90-man roster limit.

The Bills have reportedly lined up another candidate for their General Manager job. John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reports that the Texans have granted director of player personnel Brian Gaine permission to interview with the team on Thursday. Gaine joined the Texans in 2014 after leaving the Dolphins when they hired Dennis Hickey as their General Manager. He’s interviewed for other G.M. openings in the last few years as well. He’s also worked for the Cowboys and the Jets. The Bills have also asked for permission to interview Panthers assistant G.M. Brandon Beane since firing Doug Whaley early this week.

For veteran running backs used to making a lot of money, the adjustment process surely consisted of some combination and variation of anger, denial, bargaining, depression. On Tuesday, Jamaal Charles arrived at acceptance. Via Mike Klis of 9news.com, Charles will receive a $900,000 base salary on his one-year deal with the Broncos. He’s also eligible for a $100,000 workout bonus and up to $3.75 million in per-game roster bonuses and incentives. The specific triggers to get to $3.75 million have not yet been disclosed. If Jamaal Charles performs like he once did, he deserves it. For now, it’s obvious that his desire to play football outweighed his desire to wait for a better deal, which could

Prosecutors in Massachusetts argued Monday against the dismissal of former NFL-player Aaron Hernandez’s 2015 murder conviction saying it would reward his “conscious, deliberate and voluntary” act of committing suicide. If the murder conviction is vacated, Hernandez’s estate — which is currently reported to be worth nothing — could likely get millions, USA Today Sports said. Hernandez, 27, was serving life imprisonment without parole for the 2013 murder of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd.

The Bills fired General Manager Doug Whaley today. Bills owner Terry Pegula doesn’t want to explain why. “We have certain aspects we need to get a little better in,” Pegula said, in about as generic a comment as an owner could make about the decision to fire a G.M. Via ESPN, when Pegula was asked what those “certain aspects” are, he declined to answer. “I need to keep that private,” he said. “I don’t want to discuss that publicly.” It’s been clear since shortly after new head coach Sean McDermott was hired in January that McDermott was making more decisions and Whaley was seeing his authority diminished. Pegula said in January that he thought it was insulting that people were describing the Bills

Tests showed no trace of synthetic marijuana or “K2” or any illegal drugs in Aaron Hernandez’s system at the time of his death, WCVB-TV in Boston reported.  Hernandez, the former Patriots tight end who was serving a life sentence for murder, hanged himself in his jail cell and was found dead April 19 at a Massachusetts prison. He had been acquitted on a double-murder in Boston days earlier. Newsweek had reported that an autopsy showed K2, a form of synthetic marijuana, in Hernandez’s system. Sources told the WCVB that Hernandez used his own blood to draw a pyramid image, similar to the “all-seeing eye of God” that’s on the back of US currency, on the walls of his cell.  Hernandez also wrote the

One of the biggest offstage stories on the first night of the NFL draft involved local quarterback Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz took a Cowboys fans hat off at a fan event at the Draft. Wentz explained the event to Yahoo Sports, noting that there’s no love lost between the Eagles and Cowboys.

Nearly two weeks ago, the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in a memorabilia fraud lawsuit against the Giants produced an email that arguably contains smoking-gun evidence of quarterback Eli Manning’s involvement in the scheme, with Eli asking the team’s equipment manager for two helmets that can “pass as game used.” On Wednesday, the lawyers representing the Giants and Manning released emails aimed at showing Eli was not involved. But the article from ESPN.com, which quotes an email reflecting a 2012 effort by Manning to get equipment manager Jeff Skiba to secure Manning’s primary helmet and his backup helmet, contains no emails or other specific factual information that would explain why

The reports that the Titans are willing if not eager to make a trade appear to be true. Unless they’re not. Because even Titans General Manager Jon Robinson said the odds are even that they will make a move, saying there was a “50-50” chance. “We’ve had a few calls,” Robinson said, via Jason Wolf of the Tennesseean. “I think there’s some that are just investigative, just trying to see if anything is going on around us. And we’ve had a couple a little more serious in nature about potentially moving.” The Titans pick fifth and 18th in the first round, but lack a second rounder following last year’s flurry of deals. And betting on the Titans to make a move seems safe, since Robinson has made three

Aaron Hernandez left behind three suicide notes before he took his life in a prison cell, according to a report. The former NFL star addressed notes to his fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, and their 4-year-old daughter, Avielle, the Boston Herald reported. The letters were found next to a Bible opened to John 3:16, the same verse that Hernandez had scrawled on his forehead in marker. That verse reads: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Hernandez, 27, reportedly planned his suicide for weeks and had given away most of his belongings to fellow inmates. He also covered his cell floor in soap so

Tony Romo’s still going to be working Cowboys games this year, but only two of them. With last night’s schedule release comes word that CBS will have a pair of Dallas games this year, giving the former quarterback and rookie broadcaster a chance to call games featuring his old team. According to Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News, Romo will work the Nov. 5 visit from the Chiefs to Dallas, and will be back in the booth for the Thanksgiving Day Chargers-Cowboys game with partner Jim Nantz. Considering the apparent frost between him and coach Jason Garrett over the handling of last season (when Romo wasn’t given the chance to compete with rookie Dak Prescott for the starting job when he came back from his back injury), there’s the potential for some interesting commentary, if Romo chooses to share it.

The Giants consistently have said that the supposed smoking-gun email implicating quarterback Eli Manning in memorabilia fraud was taken out of context and does not show that he actually wanted to dupe purchasers of game-used helmets with helmets not actually used in a game. According to ESPN.com, lawyers representing the Giants and Manning have claimed in a court filing that the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in that case deliberately omitted “relevant evidence” to create the impression that Manning was complicit in a scheme to defraud. The claims were made in a formal request to ask the presiding judge to uphold an agreement that information regarded as confidential would not be disclosed publicly. The Giants’ lawyers also contend that the plaintiffs “cherry-picked” the email that seems to show Eli’s involvement, in order to make him look bad publicly.

NFL Senior Director of Broadcasting Mike North talks about the biggest challenges in making the NFL schedule and how they decide which teams get primetime games.

The Giants released a statement through their law firm last week saying that an email released by the attorney for the plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing Manning of passing along memorabilia fraudulently described as game-used was “taken out of context.” Manning responded to the accusations himself on Thursday. The quarterback said that his track record speaks for itself and said that he was angry that people have “turned” on him because of the allegations leveled in the suit. “I have never done what I’ve been accused of doing,” Manning said, via Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. “I’m more angry than anything. I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m still being attacked.” The Giants, their equipment manager and

Jose Baez, the attorney for Aaron Hernandez, said Hernandez’s family wants his brain donated to Boston University for a study on the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, more commonly known as CTE. The issue, Baez said, is there is now a battle over Hernandez’s brain.

If Owa Odighizuwa really did need time “to get away from the game,” two weeks was apparently enough. The Giants defensive end, who appeared to be hinting about retirement back on April 3, was among the players in attendance for the first day of the Giants offseason workout program on Tuesday morning. And while that doesn’t clear up the mystery of what the 25-year-old was tweeting about, it at least means that he’s intent on continuing his NFL career. That wasn’t clear at all back on April 3 when Odighizuwa stunned everyone – including Giants management and several of his own teammates – by tweeting what appeared to be a farewell statement. He wrote “At the point and time I believe it’s in my

New Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams hasn’t even started coaching his players, but they already know what they’re getting themselves into. Browns cornerback Joe Haden said that just from meeting Williams, he already sees the intensity that Williams is famous — some would say infamous — for. “His energy’s crazy,” Haden said, via Cleveland.com. “He definitely brings a different attitude. He’s very, very vocal, in your face and I feel like we definitely need that.” Haden said Williams is going to call out the Browns’ defensive leaders, and that’s a good thing. “We need somebody that’s going to keep everybody accountable,” Haden said. “Me, [linebacker Chris] Kirksey, [linebacker Jamie]

The Giants began the 2017 season by reliving their last, worst moment from the 2016 season. As they gathered Tuesday for the start of the voluntary offseason workout program, Ben McAdoo made sure his team did not forget the bitterness of a 38-13 playoff loss to the Packers in Green Bay. “He actually showed us a video of the locker room, the speech that he gave us in the locker room after that game,’’ receiver Sterling Shepard said Tuesday night. “He definitely still wants that to be an image in our head, showing us that. We got to kind of put that in the rearview and move on from it, too. It’s a balance. You kind of want to keep it in your head, but keep it in the back.’’ Late last month at the

The woman who accused former 49ers defensive lineman Ray McDonald of raping her has refused to testify against him, and as a result the charge has been dropped. The San Jose Mercury News reports that the women sued McDonald and received a settlement of more than $100,000. The woman accused McDonald of raping her at his house on December 15, 2014. The 49ers cut him shortly after. He was later signed by the Bears but released after he was arrested and accused of domestic violence and child endangerment. McDonald, who was accused of domestic violence three times in his NFL career, has not played in an NFL game since the 49ers released him.