Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
NFL left tackle Greg Robinson was arrested this week after he was found with marijuana on him at a border patrol checkpoint in Texas.
NFL left tackle Greg Robinson was arrested this week after he was found with marijuana on him at a border patrol checkpoint in Texas.
The NFL Players Association is going to conditionally vote on a 17-game regular season schedule, part of the proposed CBA in 2021.
The NFL Player’s Association has agreed to convene after the Super Bowl to conditionally vote for or against a 17-game regular season schedule, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter.
This new schedule, if approved, likely wouldn’t take place until 2021 when the new CBA goes into place. Talks between the owners and the NFLPA have been contentious for months now, and while many players do not want an added game to the schedule, a source told ESPN the players may choose to “accept the one thing they hate, a 17-game season, in exchange for 10 or more things they want.”
If the players reject the proposal, it could put into plan a potential work stoppage in 2021, as the window to get a deal done before the owners table the proposal until after the 2020 season is closing.
Almost all of the players dislike the idea of a 17-game schedule for health reasons, and many of the most outspoken players are former Seahawks, including Richard Sherman and Russell Okung.
The new CBA proposal also includes the potential for an added playoff game as well as nearly eliminating punishment for players who test positive for marijuana, following in the footsteps of the MLB.
[lawrence-related id=55716]
Also, the Cowboys will keep terminology for Dak Prescott, Jamal Adams may stay with the Jets, and the Raiders’ move may impact NFL policy.
Say, say, say… Super Bowl Week means lots of talk leading up to the big game. And even though they’re not playing on Sunday, the Cowboys have been a hot topic among the media in Miami.
Jason Witten says he still wants to play, even if it’s not in Dallas. Dak Prescott will be saying many of the same things in the huddle in 2020. One of this year’s Super Bowl quarterbacks had great things to say about Tony Romo back when he entered the league. Jamal Adams says he’s planning on staying with the Jets. The Cowboys’ new secondary coach says he wants “ballhawks.” And an unlikely supporter is the latest to say that Drew Pearson’s exclusion from Canton is “a shame.”
Here’s what they all had to say, in this edition of News and Notes.
The 37-year-old tight end looked to many fans as if he had lost more than a few steps last season, but Jason Witten may not be quite ready to hang up his cleats and retire a second time. In fact, he sounds like someone gearing up for yet another season in pursuit of a Super Bowl… but will it be as a Dallas Cowboy?
“We’ll see how it plays out, but yeah, I’m putting myself in position to go play and evaluating what that looks like,” Witten is quoted as saying. “I hope so [it’s with the Cowboys]. But I realize I’m a free agent, too, in March. Any time a new staff comes together, I’ve played a long time, so I realize that may mean somewhere else, too. That’s just part of the business. I’ll continue to communicate and see where it unfolds.”
The future Hall of Famer says he’s had a good visit with new Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy and has been “in constant communication” with Jerry and Stephen Jones in the Dallas front office. But Witten’s longstanding relationship with new Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett bears monitoring and has already fueled speculation of a possible move to New York.
–TB
With so many changes on tap for 2020, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is relieved that one thing that will reportedly stay the same is the vocabulary he uses when calling plays in the huddle.
“It’s huge,” Prescott told Jori Epstein in Miami. “That’s big. I mean, that’s one of the biggest things when you talk about a quarterback, when you talk about leading an offense. Because if the terminology stays the same, that lessens that learning curve, that gap of, ‘I’ve got to learn that before I can teach it.’ Well, now I know that, so I can go straight to teaching.”
Click the link for more of what Prescott said, including his thoughts on what his teammates think of all the talk regrading his contract status with the team.
–TB
Could Dallas strike gold with the 17th pick in the upcoming draft? It’s happened before. Of the four previous times the club has made the selection in that spot, two of the players chosen have gone on to find themselves enshrined in Canton. Not a bad ratio.
Granted, Emmitt Smith and Mel Renfro leave pretty big shoes for an incoming rookie to fill. But the other two 17th-overall picks in club history were no slouches, either, as team staff writer Nick Eatman points out.
–TB
No self-respecting Cowboys fan is rooting for the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. But maybe you’re looking for extra incentive to be an honorary Chiefs fan for the day, like WFAA’s Mark Lane was.
Well. I found my guy.
"Growing up in Texas, I was a big Dallas Cowboys, and my dad was a big Cowboys fan. I watched Romo every week of the season for his whole career. He's a great QB, a guy who has a ton of comeback victories." — Patrick Mahomeshttps://t.co/yMEIp63tml
— Mark Lane (@therealmarklane) January 31, 2020
In the 2017 Dallas Morning News piece Lane links to, quarterback Patrick Mahomes detailed his Cowboys fandom as a youngster growing up in Texas. Not yet selected by Kansas City at the time of the article, Mahomes was flattered by pre-draft comparisons likening him to Cowboys gunslinger Tony Romo.
“He wasn’t scared to pull the trigger,” Mahomes then said of the just-retired Romo on the Fox Sports 1 show Undisputed. “He wasn’t scared to make any throw on the football field. So just to get compared to him is awesome.”
–TB
Bob Sturm kicks off his NFL draft work by taking a look at the position the Cowboys have ignored perhaps more than any other as of late: safety. In 2019, Dallas found themselves in the enviable position of being able to choose from Juan Thornhill, Nasir Adderley, and Taylor Rapp. They chose none of those players. Perhaps the new coaching staff has a different philosophy?
Sturm looks into five different safeties that will likely be gone by Day 2 of the draft. The head of the class is Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons, who lined up everywhere and, prior to his final college season, played safety.
–TT
The sequel to Cowboy Nation’s favorite fantasy tale from last season may be getting the plug pulled while still in preproduction. After a long and public courtship that ultimately went nowhere in 2019, Dallas and Jets safety Jamal Adams may be on the outs once and for all.
Adams has taken to Twitter to reveal that he and the Jets have had “small discussions” about an extension that would keep him with Gang Green. The All-Pro safety went on to say that he “fully expect[s] to be extended this offseason” and that he wants to remain in New York.
Of course, a lot can happen between “small discussions” and actually spilling ink on a Jets contract, so drama-loving Cowboys fans may choose to keep their popcorn at the ready and hoping for a plot twist.
–TB
The Cowboys ranked last in the league in interceptions last season. That’s going to change, if new secondary coach Maurice Linguist has anything to say about it. The Texas A&M hire plans to spend 2020 working mainly with the Dallas safeties, while another new staffer, former Green Bay Packer Al Harris (who had 21 picks over his NFL career), will focus on the team’s cornerbacks.
Linguist, in a video interview posted on the Cowboys’ website, says he wants “ballhawks” at the safety position. In a single answer about what he’s looking for, the 35-year-old Dallas native also used words like “attacking,” “disruptive,” and “aggressive.” All are phrases that may be unfamiliar to Cowboys fans when it comes to discussions of their defensive backs’ recent play.
–TB
Defensive end Randy Gregory remains on indefinite suspension after his latest violation of the league’s substance abuse policy in February 2019. In April, the Cowboys extended the former second-round-pick’s contract through the 2020 season- mainly because they believe in his football potential, but also partly because they know the tide is turning when it comes to how society and the law view marijuana usage.
Reid Hanson lays out a theory- also citing ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio- that the league will perhaps have to change its view on the subject as well. The catalyst may well be the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas. Nevada state law prohibits companies from refusing to hire an employee based on a failed drug test. That law appears to now apply to the Raiders… and could eventually force the league to allow the other 31 teams to follow suit.
With the CBA currently being negotiated and reports concessions will be made in the testing and discipline areas (in exchange for a 17th game), things may be moving on multiple fronts that will allow NFL players to exist without marijuana testing or punishments.
–TB
Joe Theismann is about the last guy one would expect to heap praise on a member of the Dallas Cowboys. But the Redskins legend said this week that he considers it “a shame Drew Pearson’s not in the Hall of Fame.”
That’s saying something, considering the Cowboys wideout torched Washington for 1,312 yards and seven touchdowns over his 21 career meetings with the Redskins. Most of those games featured Theismann at the helm throughout the mid- to late-1970s and early ’80s.
“He’s the only member of the All-Decade team that’s not in the Hall of Fame, which really is a travesty, ” Theismann continued. “It makes you look at the Hall of Fame and start to wonder why. Why and how can something like that happen?”
But Theismann’s support of Pearson runs deeper than even their storied NFL rivalry. Many fans may not realize that the two were actually high school teammates.
–TB
[vertical-gallery id=637870][lawrence-newsletter]
K.J. Wright, who is the Seattle Seahawks NFL players association rep, believes the league should reconsider their policy on marijuana.
The NFL handed down an indefinite suspension to Seattle Seahawks receiver Josh Gordon on Monday, effectively ending his tenure in Seattle and jeopardizing his NFL career.
It was the sixth drug related suspension of Gordon’s career.
Gordon’s latest suspension, and the news that the MLB plans to stop testing for marijuana next season, has many folks clamoring for a similar rule change in the NFL.
“I think they need to look way more into it,” Seahawks linebacker and player rep K.J. Wright told the Seattle Times. “I think the old mentality of marijuana that it is just terrible for you and does bad stuff for you, I think they definitely need to look into it. I don’t know why that is still a rule and why that is the case.”
It is unclear if Gordon’s latest suspension involves marijuana use or not, but he has been connected to marijuana previously.
Wright called the MLB’s decision “a step in the right direction”, and he believes the NFL will eventually start taking steps to change their outdated policy.
“I think so, because at the end of the day, the whole PED thing is getting a competitive advantage,” Wright continued. “Like, we know some things give you a competitive advantage and I don’t think marijuana gives you an advantage. … At the end of the day, what it’s all about is making things fair and competitive.”
The Seahawks will host the Cardinals on Sunday, without Josh Gordon, at 1:25 p.m. PT.
[lawrence-related id=53303]
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association announced on Thursday that, starting in 2020, players will be tested for opioids, and will not be punished for using marijuana.
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association announced on Thursday that, starting in 2020, players will be tested for opioids, and will not be punished for using marijuana.
The defensive tackle was pulled over for speeding when officers found ‘too much marijuana,’ according to officers heard in the video.
News that defensive tackle Antwaun Woods was arrested in Frisco while the team prepped to play the Bears was a disappointment to Cowboys fans. Now, police body camera footage has been released showing Woods’s arrest.
The 26-year-old was stopped December 3 after being clocked doing 77 mph in a 60-mph zone. Woods was charged with possession of between two and four ounces of marijuana as well as tampering with evidence after he had apparently attempted to dispose of some of the weed by stuffing it into an open water bottle during the traffic stop.
On Tuesday morning, TMZ shared video of the arrest taken via an officer’s body camera.
In the two-minute clip, the officer can be heard explaining to Woods, “All right, so listen. You’ve got too much marijuana, okay? So just place your hands behind your back; you’ll be placed under arrest.”
Woods asks to make a phone call and is informed that he’ll have to wait until he is brought to jail. Later in the video, the lineman in his second year with Dallas appears to plead his case with the arresting officer as he is led to the back seat of a police cruiser.
“C’mon, bro. Are you serious?” Woods asks.
“I have no choice,” the officer responds. “I have no option. You’ve got a lot of marijuana. I can’t do anything about that.”
According to TMZ, police found “two glass Mason jars and a small gold cylinder full of weed in his 2016 Cadillac Escalade,” plus other pieces of drug paraphernalia.
Woods had been battling a knee injury and had already been ruled out of the team’s Week 14 away game. He had been scheduled to travel to Chicago the next day with his teammates until news of the arrest broke. Coach Jason Garrett informed Woods that he would remain behind.
Before being placed in the police vehicle, Woods again requests to “please make one call.”
Again, he is denied. “We can’t, until we get to jail. It’s policy.”
“I know somebody that…” Woods starts to say before trailing off. The 6-foot-1, 310-pounder has a hard time squeezing into the backseat just before the video of the incident ends.
“I just left my wife and kids at the house, bro,” Woods says finally, asking the officer to call them.
Woods’s possession charge is considered a misdemeanor, per TMZ. The tampering charge, however, is a third-degree felony.
Tigers are and will continue to be without starting linebacker Michael Divinity because the junior has been and will remain ineligible.
LSU is the best college football team in the country, sitting atop the USA Today Amway Coaches Poll, the AP Poll, and the College Football Playoff rankings. But the Tigers are and will continue to be without starting linebacker Michael Divinity because the junior has been and will remain ineligible.
The Monday before LSU visited Alabama, Tigers (10-0, 6-0 SEC) head coach Ed Orgeron announced that Divinity had left the team “for personal reasons.” On the SEC conference call Wednesday in Week 12, Orgeron confirmed that the athlete was simply not allowed to play by athletic department rules.
“He is unable to play, and it will be a while until he’s able to play. He will not be eligible,” Orgeron said.
Ineligibility can stem from academic issues and from team rules violations, such as multiple positive drug tests. USA Today confirmed with multiple sources that Divinity tested positive for a fourth time for marijuana just before the Nov. 4 announcement that he would not play versus the Crimson Tide (9-1, 6-1 SEC).
According to LSU’s Athletic Department Assistance Program’s Substance Abuse Policy, a fourth failed drug test warrants “a suspension from 50% of countable contests,” including postseason games.
Orgeron said Wednesday that the only game that there is even a chance that Divinity returns for would be the National Championship Jan. 13.
“If there’d be a championship game, maybe he may be eligible for that,” Orgeron said. “Up until then, Mike will not be eligible to play.”
Tigers are and will continue to be without starting linebacker Michael Divinity because the junior has been and will remain ineligible.
Tigers are and will continue to be without starting linebacker Michael Divinity because the junior has been and will remain ineligible.
