Tag: Roger Goodell

Commanders possible stadium site and F-16 fighter jets are involved?

Politics getting in the way of Commanders’ potential new stadium.

Sam Fortier of The Washington Post broke in his Tuesday story that Maryland is asking for the city of Washington to give Maryland one of its Air National Guard Squadrons.

If the city met their request, Maryland would not oppose the upcoming vote of a bill that the city needs to pass regarding federally owned land.

Are F-16 fighter Jets being negotiated to prevent an NFL team from leaving Maryland and returning to the District of Columbia?

Is this a prime example of what is wrong with American elected officials today?

The District of Columbia wants a bill to pass, making it more possible for the Commanders to return to the city.

If passed, the plans could go forward, the site could be redeveloped and a new stadium could be built on the very hallowed grounds of RFK Stadium where the Redskins won five NFC championships and three Super Bowls.

Enter the state of Maryland, saying this would be an unfair advantage for the District in regaining the team from Maryland. The Commanders presently play in Landover at Northwest Stadium.

Are there some powerful politicians in Maryland considering lowering protections designed to prevent attacks on our nation’s capital? And all for the sake of attempting to keep an NFL team in your state?

Would city officials actually consider the Commanders worth losing some of their protection?

How in the world did we get to where elected officials today would propose such in negotiations?

Fortier reports that Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer (NY), is involved in the deal. Also reported by Fortier was that Schumer had already met with Commanders owner Josh Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Whenever I am surprised by the actions of those we elect to be wise leaders for us, I am reminded of wise words of wisdom from Thomas Sowell.

“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.”  Thomas Sowell

Commanders suspend VP for disparaging comments on players, fans and Roger Goodell

Commanders suspend VP of content over disparaging comments made about players, fans and Roger Goodell.

The Washington Commanders suspended vice president of content Rael Enteen on Wednesday after a video emerged of Enteen making disparaging comments about NFL fans, commissioner Roger Goodell, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Washington players.

The comments from Enteen were made to an undercover reporter from the O’Keefe Media Group.

The Commanders released the following statement:

“The language used in the video runs counter to our values at the Commanders organization,” a spokesperson said in the statement. “We have suspended the employee pending an investigation and will reserve further comment at this time.”

In the video, Enteen said the following, as transcribed by ESPN.

He told the undercover reporter that, “over 50% of our roster is white religious, and God says, ‘F— the gays.’ Their interpretation. I don’t buy any of that. Another big chunk is low-income African Americans that comes from a community that is inherently very homophobic.”

Enteen said players are “dumb as hell” and referenced them getting hit in the head too many times.

He said the following about Goodell and Jones:

Enteen also said, “I don’t think the commissioner of the NFL hates gay people, hates black people. Jerry Jones, who really runs the NFL, I think he hates gay people, black people.”

Enteen then said it was his job to sell hope and mentioned the incident at the former FedExField in 2021 when some pipes burst. The Commanders, at the time, denied it was sewage pipes, even though fans said they smelled sewage. Enteen said he tweeted out that it was just water and commented: “That……..is state-run media.”

Enteen was hired in September 2020 and was one of former team president Jason Wright’s hires.

Watch: Raiders QB Gardner Minshew makes hilarious cameo in ‘ManningCast: The Musical’ promo

The all-star ‘ManningCast: The Musical’ promo features an appearance by Gardner Minshew

Peyton Manning and Eli Manning are back with another season of Manningcast. The show goes along with Monday Night Football and features the Peyton and Eli talking ball along with weekly special guests.

And to kick things off, they put out a promo which features plenty of star power as the the two brothers cobble together ‘Manningcast: The Musical. From Kevin Hart to Roger Goodell with plenty of other celebrity and NFL appearances as well.

It even features Raiders QB Gardner Minshew as part of one of the numbers. Minshew is actually one of the few active NFL players to appear in the promo. His ‘number’ is alongside Bucs QB Baker Mayfield.

Here it is; Manningcast: The Musical (Minshew appears around the 4;30 mark)

Others to appear in the promo include the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Snoop Dogg, Jim and John Harbaugh, Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Jason Kelce, Chad Johnson, Bill Burr, Paris Hilton, The Backstreet Boys, Michael Buble, Bill Belichick, and Robert Downey Jr.

 

Report: NFLPA wants larger rosters for switch to 18-game season

The NFL wants to expand to an 18-game season, and NFL players are reportedly willing to accept it by expanding teams’ rosters:

It feels like it’s only a matter of time until the NFL expands its regular season again, having already made the switch from 16 games to 17. League commissioner Roger Goodell has already begun campaigning for it in public, suggesting the preseason could be trimmed down to just two exhibition games while adding another week to the regular season.

But it would take some concessions to convince the NFL players association to agree to this. NBC Sports’ Mike Florio reports that the NFLPA would ask for expanded rosters to accommodate another regular season game, going from 53 roster spots to 55 with 50 players active on game days as opposed to 48.

Florio adds that “greater freedom for teams to make practice-squad elevations” would be another priority. Right now teams are allowed to bring up two players from their practice squad each week, but only three times during the regular season. Expanding the regular season would add to the workload so it makes sense to have more players available on game days.

Whenever the season expands again (and there’s enough support, it seems, to make that a case of when rather than if) we’ll experience some big changes. Adding a second bye week has also been floated as a possibility. How teams build their rosters may change. But for now, all we do is parse through what’s being told to reporters and speculate. The season can’t expand until the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2030, so there’s plenty of time to find a solution that makes both sides happy.

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Steelers S DeShon Elliott on an 18-game regular season: ‘They don’t pay us enough’

Most players would only support an 18-game season if they were paied more.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has made it clear he would prefer if the league played 18 regular season games and only play two preseason games. He considers that a zero sum swap that would benefit the NFL. And by benefit, he of course means it would make the league a lot of money.

But how do players feel about the idea of playing another meaningful game? The NFL just expanded from 16 to 17 regular season games in 2021 and now just three years later we are talking about adding another. The NFL expanded the regular season from 14 to 16 way back in 1978 and the league was fine with it for decades.

ESPN polled a variety of players around the NFL including Pittsburgh Steelers safeties Damontae Kazee and DeShon Elliott. The two had very different responses to the idea of an 18-game regular season.

“Whatever the league gives you, man, you just got to adjust to it,” Kazee. “I got to this point in my life, I’m an old head now, about to be 31. You just got to adjust to everything and go on from there. … Them giving us 18 games, I mean, I wouldn’t complain about it.”

Elliott adamantly disagreed. They don’t pay us enough,” Elliott said.

Money is exactly what it’s all about. There’s no way you could justify paying players the same but subbing out a meaningless preseason game with a regular season replacement. Plus there would have to be serious logistical changes including the potential of a second bye week for all 32 teams.

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Report: Jerry Jones, Roger Goodell scheduled to testify in Sunday Ticket lawsuit

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys owner and NFL commissioner are among those taking the stand in a $7B lawsuit that could change how football fans watch games.

Jerry Jones is scheduled to testify in court this week, possibly as early as Monday.

The Cowboys owner’s appearance on the stand in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles is part of a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit brought against the NFL regarding the pricing of the popular Sunday Ticket package, which airs out-of-market games for fans who subscribe to the service, with plans currently starting at $349 per year.

League Commissioner Roger Goodell was also scheduled to testify on Monday. NFL Chief Media and Business Officer Brian Rolapp has already appeared, per the Sports Business Journal, and a deposition from Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been played for the jury in the case.

Jones is said to be on the schedule for early this week.

Plaintiffs in the case, which dates back to 2015, have claimed that by forcing Sunday Ticket customers to purchase (previously through DirecTV; now through YouTube TV) an entire NFL season’s worth of games, the league is in violation of antitrust laws. They are seeking $7 billion in damages in the class-action suit.

The NFL has denied any wrongdoing.

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Customers for years have asked that they be allowed to purchase one team’s schedule of games or subscribe on a week-to-week or even game-by-game basis for a lower price point. Some, including ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio on Monday’s edition of the Pat McAfee Show, have suggested that the league has purposely kept the Sunday Ticket price inflated (ensuring a smaller overall number of customers) to help drive viewers instead to local affiliates of CBS and Fox, their major network partners.

Florio says that evidence already introduced in the case “supports the notion that the league preferred fewer subscribers at a high price, and that the league did not want (for example) ESPN to offer the package for $70 per year or to make a per-team option available.”

“However this plays out,” Florio told McAfee, “it could force the NFL to really change the way the games are made available to consumers, and that’s a win for all of us.”

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Roger Goodell bizarrely cited player safety as a reason to cut the preseason in an 18-game schedule

Roger Goodell should realize fans are smarter than this

At this point, it would be foolish to ignore reality.

If the NFL wants something — more Christmas games, an entire winter/spring news cycle around the annual draft, a silly schedule release primetime “event” — it will get it. The league practically prints money and has ingrained itself into American culture so much that it could likely literally do whatever it wants, whenever it wants.

But that doesn’t mean commissioner Roger Goodell has to patronize NFL players or fans to an excessive degree.

During the NFL’s spring meetings in Nashville, Goodell discussed a number of issues facing the league, but he centered on a potential 18-game regular-season schedule. He talked about the NFL supposedly trying to make the game safer and used that fact to float the idea of further reducing preseason exhibitions in the name of adding an 18th game.

Uh, what?

It’s worth noting that the NFL likely won’t try expanding the regular-season schedule until the current collective bargaining agreement expires in March 2030 unless the players union is game. Until then, most of this conversation is moot and fruitless and it just serves as pointless posturing. Which, to be clear, is because the NFL will absolutely expand the regular season schedule the first moment it has a chance to.

It’s just … gonna take a while.

For Goodell to pretend like the league has virtuous motivation to make everyone happy is almost insulting. You can’t justify an 18-game schedule by offering to cut down the preseason in the name of player safety when most starters barely play preseason games anyway.

As anyone who follows the NFL closely knows, it’s a virtual guarantee the league will seize any and every opportunity to grow. You need not hold your breath to watch this avaricious football titan squeeze out every last penny of broadcasting profits.

To act like the NFL does anything for more than money is just disingenuous.  It would be nice if Goodell could stop pretending fans and players don’t know this, too. Especially when he’s talking making the game safer.

Roger Goodell: 18-game season would be tied to preseason reduction

Goodell says there are no active discussions on that front…

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell just held a press conference with the media. Among the subjects that were covered were the issues that Tom Brady’s pending minority ownership of the Raiders raises regarding his access to teams as he works as a Fox analyst. Goodell also said that tampering probes into the Falcons and the Eagles were ongoing. We can also apparently look forward to private equity ruining the NFL at some point in the near future.

For now, the biggest takeaway was Goodell’s comments on the potential changes to the length of the regular season schedule. Three years ago the league moved from a 16-game schedule to 17 games and another push to 18 games has been anticipated ever since. Goodell says there are no active discussions on that front, but going to 18 regular season games would come with a reduction of the preseason schedule, likely from three to two games.

This makes sense and nobody is really in position to complain except retired players who will see their 16-game records being artificially broken more and more often. As far as the NFL is concerned that’s a small price to pay for all the extra revenue that another regular season week would bring in, though.

We may never see it, but it’s not crazy to think some day there may be a 20-game regular season, with no preseason games at all. The simple reasoning is there’s too much money on the table not to expand the regular season as much as possible – and on the flip side there’s the risk that exhibition games pose to that revenue in the form of preseason injuries.

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Here’s the Eagles’ complete 2024 regular-season schedule

Here’s the Eagles’ complete 2024 regular-season schedule with dates and times

The wait is finally over. The NFL has unveiled the Eagles’ complete 2024 regular-season schedule, which will see Philadelphia play five games in prime time.

The regular-season opener against the Green Bay Packers in São Paulo, Brazil, is now just 114 days away.

Here’s the TEAM’s complete 2024 schedule:

Week Date Opponent Time (ET)
1 September 6 vs. Packers 8:15 PM* Tickets
2 September 16 vs. Falcons 8:15 PM* Tickets
3 September 22 @ Saints 1 PM Tickets
4 September 29 @ Buccaneers 1 PM Tickets
5 October 6 Bye Week Tickets
6 October 13 vs. Browns 1 PM Tickets
7 October 20 @ Giants 1 PM Tickets
8 October 27 @ Bengals 4:25 PM Tickets
9 November 3 vs. Jaguars 8:20 PM* Tickets
10 November 10 @ Cowboys 4:25 PM Tickets
11 November 14: vs. Commanders 8:15 PM* Tickets
12 November 24 @ Rams 8:20 PM* Tickets
13 December 1 @ Ravens 4:25 PM Tickets
14 December 8 vs. Panthers 1 PM Tickets
15 December 15 vs. Steelers 4:25 PM Tickets
16 December 22 @ Commanders 1 PM Tickets
17 December 29 vs. Cowboys 4:25 PM Tickets
18 January 4 or 5 vs. Giants TBD Tickets

*prime-time game

NFL wins appeal in Nevada Supreme court, sending Jon Gruden suit to arbitration

NFL wins appeal in Nevada Supreme court, sending Jon Gruden suit to arbitration

The Raiders are on their third head coach since Jon Gruden was forced to resign after several past offensive emails were made public. And yet his lawsuits involving the way in which his head coaching career came to an untimely end are still happening.

The lastest, as ESPN is reporting is a 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel on the Nevada Supreme court which sends Gruden’s case back to NFL arbitration. Thus reversing a previous ruling from a lower court which said the case could go forward.

Arbitration means the NFL controls the process and there will be no public discovery. NFL has been fighting hard to keep this in place.

The lawsuit accuses Roger Goodell and the NFL of intentionally leaking several offensive emails to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times that led to Gruden’s ousting. Something the NFL staunchly denies.

It was shortly after his firing in October of 2021 that Gruden filed the suit. Putting the timeline at two and a half years and counting. And this ruling is a blow for Gruden especially after thinking this one might actually force the case into the public eye or the NFL to settle to avoid the spectacle of it.