The Washington Redskins announced Friday that they will undergo a "thorough review" of the team's name.A source familiar with discussions between the team and NFL told Mark Maske of the Washington Post that a name change is likely, and it "potentially" could take place prior to the 2020 season.The review announcement comes one day after FedEx - which owns the naming rights to the franchise's stadium - asked the team to create a new nickname, and Nike removed all Redskins gear from its website."This process allows the team to take into account not only the proud tradition and history of the franchise, but also input from our alumni, the organization, sponsors, the National Football League, and the local community it is proud to represent on and off the field," owner Dan Snyder said in a statement.Washington head coach Ron Rivera said, "This is an issue of personal importance to me and I look forward to working closely with Dan Snyder to make sure we continue the mission of honoring and supporting Native Americans and our military."Nike's website won't feature the team's merchandise until the nickname is changed, a source told The Athletic's Rhiannon Walker. Nike reportedly anticipates the change will happen soon because of the time needed to make and distribute new jerseys.Commissioner Roger Goodell stood by Washington's decision.
The NFL Players Association is still opposed to preseason games, and on Thursday voted that the proper number of August contests amid the COVID-19 pandemic was zero, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reports.The vote was unanimous, a source told Dan Graziano of ESPN.The league is reportedly planning to trim the 2020 preseason from four games to two and, according to Garafolo's sources, believes it has the right to set the length of the preseason per the collective bargaining agreement.However, the new CBA gives the union increased rights regarding health and safety, and the NFLPA believes it is permitted to comment on whether games are being held in the players' best interest.A potential training-camp schedule suggested by the union that doesn't include a preseason is currently being discussed in league circles.
theScore's Mike Alessandrini is assembling all-decade lineups and ranking all 32 teams based on those rosters. Contributions from 2010 to 2019 were taken into account, with player selections based on peak production, longevity, and overall impact. Those who spent only one season with a club didn't qualify.We close our series by ranking every club's roster.AFC
theScore's Mike Alessandrini is assembling all-decade lineups and ranking all 32 teams based on those rosters. Contributions from 2010 to 2019 were taken into account, with player selections based on peak production, longevity, and overall impact. Those who spent only one season with a club didn't qualify.Our series continues with a look at the NFC West.AFC (June 22-25)
theScore's Mike Alessandrini is assembling all-decade lineups and ranking all 32 teams based on those rosters. Contributions from 2010 to 2019 were taken into account, with player selections based on peak production, longevity, and overall impact. Those who spent only one season with a club didn't qualify.Our series continues in the NFC South.AFC (June 22-25)
FedEx has asked the Washington Redskins to find a new nickname."We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name," read a statement from the company, according to ABC 7 News.FedEx, which owns the naming rights to the franchise's stadium, was one of three sponsors to receive a letter signed by 87 investment firms and shareholders asking them to cut ties with the Redskins unless they change their nickname. The other companies are Nike and PepsiCo.Nike, which supplies Washington's uniforms and equipment, removed all Redskins gear from its website Thursday, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. It has also entirely omitted the franchise from its vertical drop-down menu for NFL team apparel.FedEx gained Washington's stadium naming rights in 1999. It runs through 2025.Frederick Smith, the founder of FedEx, is a Redskins minority owner.
theScore's Mike Alessandrini is assembling all-decade lineups and ranking all 32 teams based on those rosters. Contributions from 2010 to 2019 were taken into account, with player selections based on peak production, longevity, and overall impact. Those who spent only one season with a club didn't qualify.Our series continues with a look at the NFC North.AFC (June 22-25)
theScore is counting down the 100 best fictional characters in sports movie history, with a new post every weekday until July 3.100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51
The NFL is trimming the 2020 preseason from four games to two games, a source told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.Preseason Week 1 and Week 4 are being scrapped, Florio adds.But the National Football League Players Association has not yet approved the change, sources told NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, who adds some members of NFLPA leadership are questioning whether there should be any preseason games at all.Teams will apparently now report to training camp in the last week of July and their two preseason games are scheduled to take place between Aug. 20-30.Those contests will be adjusted so each team has one home game and one road game, Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal reports.
Hall of Fame debates are a staple of sports arguments - whether a player's amassed the credentials to be honored among the best in their sport is prime fodder for discussion over a beer. We're spotlighting a collection of players who we believe either deserve the distinction but haven't yet been inducted, or don't quite measure up but had a great impact on their franchise or sport.If ever there was a player whose career achievements prove that Hall of Fame selections are often nothing more than silly popularity contests, it's Ken Riley.Riley spent 15 seasons in the NFL, all as a defensive back, all with the Cincinnati Bengals. This wasn't the era of the Bungles, either: Riley's tenure included five playoff appearances and a trip to Super Bowl XVI. He retired in 1983 with 65 career interceptions - fourth-most in league history at the time. Thirty-seven years have since passed, and Riley's now tied for fifth all time in picks. Yet he's never been so much as a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, let alone an inductee. All for unspoken reasons that are baked into the selection process, which has far less to do with merit than one might think."I think that the reason why he did not get more consideration for the PFHOF is that he was not a self-promoter," pro football historian Ken Crippen told me via email. "You need to have your name in front of the voters constantly if you want consideration."Visibility and lobbying are a bigger part of the Pro Football Hall's procedures than one might think. Modern-era candidates are eligible for up to 25 years after their retirements, and beyond that there's a backlog of senior candidates, of which only one or two can be considered finalists in a given year. This can make it difficult for a player like Riley to get recognized, despite his obvious credentials."He was really smart, and had great quickness," Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts told me. "Any ball that wasn't obviously on target, or was a little bit late, his quickness would always show up at that point. I think a lot of Ken Riley."Hall of Fame wideout Charlie Joiner, who teamed with Riley on the Bengals and later played against him as a member of the San Diego Chargers, said Riley rarely dropped passes he was able to get his hands on. He also said Riley especially excelled at redirecting out of his backpedal to break on the ball."That's why he had so many interceptions," Joiner told me.Football's only recently entered a quantitative era in which individual performances can be more closely scrutinized at every position. During Riley's time, it wasn't possible to gauge how he played against a particular pass-catcher or quarterback, or to determine how frequently quarterbacks threw in his direction (or away from him), or how well he played in man versus zone coverages, or how often he lined up in the slot or outside. Interceptions, however, are a traditional stat, and the Hall has long prized them as barometers for induction - but only to a point.Riley's 65 picks rank second all time among cornerbacks, trailing only Dick "Night Train" Lane's 68. And of those in the top 10 all time at any position with 62 or more interceptions, only Riley, Charles Woodson, Darren Sharper, and Dave Brown are not in the Hall. Woodson won't be eligible until next year, and Sharper's name will likely never be called because he's currently in prison after pleading guilty four years ago to multiple rape charges. That leaves Riley and Brown, and Riley finished his career with three more interceptions than Brown."He compares favorably with anyone that I've coached," former longtime NFL defensive coach Dick LeBeau told me. "The statistics don't lie, and his are all on the table."LeBeau can relate to Riley's struggle to get his due. He coached the Bengals' defensive backs from 1980-83, during Riley's final four seasons. But he's best known for having been the Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive coordinator from 1995-96 and again from 2004-14. During those two stints, Pittsburgh made four Super Bowls and won two titles. That's relevant because LeBeau was also a cornerback for the Detroit Lions who finally went into the Hall as a player in 2010 - nearly 40 years after he retired with 62 career picks, which is tied for third among corners, and 10th among all defensive backs."I think the fact that the Steeler defense was so good kept my name current, no doubt," LeBeau said. Bruce Bennett / Getty ImagesRiley had no such direct avenue to recognition. After his retirement, he spent two years as an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers before taking over as head coach at Florida A&M, his alma mater. He later served as FAMU's athletic director before finishing his professional career as the dean of students at a Florida high school. He remained out of the limelight, and he liked it that way."This is my personality," Riley told The New York Times' Samuel G. Freedman back in 2013. "It’s the way I was brought up - parents, grandparents, everybody. Let your work speak for itself and be humble."Riley grew up in Bartow, Florida, where he attended a segregated high school. He was a quarterback and a Rhodes Scholar candidate at Florida A&M. He never played defense until he reached the NFL, until after the Bengals picked him in the sixth round of the 1969 draft. Cincinnati selected quarterback Greg Cook fifth overall that year, and head coach and team founder Paul Brown had no intention of allowing Riley to compete with Cook.At the time, and for years afterward, it was common for NFL teams to insist that Black quarterbacks switch positions, owing to a longstanding prejudice that they were not capable of playing the position. Years later, Brown's son, Mike, who remains the Bengals' owner and team president, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Riley "couldn't play quarterback in the NFL. He probably thinks today he could, but he really had no chance there and my dad immediately moved him over to cornerback."The Enquirer reported that Riley laughed when he was told what Mike Brown said. "I think I could have played if given an opportunity, but the guy that we drafted that year was great - and that was Greg Cook," Riley told the paper. "He was just super." Cook was indeed a hotshot prospect, but his career was ultimately short-circuited by injuries.Despite his production, Riley had a difficult time getting recognition even during his playing days. He led the league in interceptions three times, but he never made the Pro Bowl and only once was chosen as an All-Pro - in 1983, his final season, when he intercepted eight passes at the age of 36. Meanwhile, another Bengals cornerback, Lemar Parrish, who was taken in the seventh round in 1970 and finished his career with 47 picks, went to eight Pro Bowls. LeBeau chalked this up to Parrish having been one of the league's most prominent punt returners."The punt returners, they're splash playmakers, and maybe Kenny overall suffers a little bit because of that," LeBeau said. Bruce Bennett / Getty ImagesPro Bowl and All-Pro selections do help bolster a player's Hall credentials, even though they're highly subjective honors that also frequently don't go to deserving candidates. As a result, Pro Football Reference's Hall of Fame monitor tool doesn't think highly of Riley's Hall qualifications. Yet for all his humility, Riley recognized this incongruity, as he once explained to Crippen for a story in the National Football Post:
Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones may opt for a holdout this season.Jones, who was franchise tagged in March but has failed to ink a long-term extension during the offseason, threatened Tuesday on Twitter that it's possible he "won't play" without a new deal.
The Comeback Player of the Year race has taken a dramatic turn with more than two months remaining before the scheduled start of the NFL season.Quarterback Cam Newton shot up the oddsboard after signing with the Patriots on Sunday. With the move, his price shortened from +800 to the +300 favorite, unseating fellow QB Ben Roethlisberger in a volatile field.The upside is enormous if Newton can wrestle the job away from second-year signal-caller Jarrett Stidham and post respectable numbers in the Patriots' offense. Before his injury-plagued 2019 campaign, the former MVP had averaged a combined 4,070 yards and 31.3 touchdowns over the previous four years and had started at least 14 games in each of his first eight NFL seasons with the Panthers.He also checks every box. In the award's 22-year history, 12 winners have been quarterbacks, and eight of the last 11 winners were rewarded for coming back from injury or health issues. Eleven of the last 12 to claim the accolade were offensive players, too.If his production is strong, the narrative will be, too. Replacing Tom Brady and preserving the Patriots' 11-year playoff streak - the longest in the NFL - would make him a shoo-in for the award, which sounds like nice value at +300. Yet his candidacy faces two key questions: Is he healthy? And will he start?If the answer to either of those isn't a definitive yes, then you're likely throwing your money away. With such short odds in a market that often rewards the unpredictable, there's simply too much risk betting Newton.Instead, here are the full odds for the award with a few value plays worth considering:PLAYERODDSCam Newton+300Ben Roethlisberger+400Field+400A.J. Green+800Matthew Stafford+800Nick Foles+1000Teddy Bridgewater+1200Todd Gurley+1200James Conner+1500David Johnson+1600Andy Dalton+2000Antonio Brown+2000J.J. Watt+2000JuJu Smith-Schuster+2500Odell Beckham Jr.+2500Baker Mayfield+3000Derrius Guice+3000Jerick McKinnon+3000Myles Garrett+3000Kerryon Johnson+3500DeSean Jackson+4000Lamar Miller+4000Alex Smith+5000Joe Flacco+5000Josh Gordon+5000Mitchell Trubisky+5000Alshon Jeffery+6000David Njoku+6000T.Y. Hilton+6000Jordan Reed+7000O.J. Howard+8000Andrew Luck+10000Devin Funchess+10000Stephen Gostkowski+10000Josh Rosen+12500Field (+400)The listed betting options are plentiful, but they don't include Rob Gronkowski, who's easily among the favorites for this award. If he can produce even half of his usual stat line with the Buccaneers, he's an easy narrative winner for this award.At +400, Gronkowski wouldn't be worth it alone, but getting the rest of the field as well? This award can be a tricky one to predict, so any bet that includes a favorite and a cast of unknown candidates is a valuable one.David Johnson (+1600)Anybody who's seen this clip of Johnson from 2019 knows he has a lot to come back from:
theScore's Mike Alessandrini is assembling all-decade lineups and ranking all 32 teams based on those rosters. Contributions from 2010 to 2019 were taken into account, with player selections based on peak production, longevity, and overall impact. Those who spent only one season with a club didn't qualify.Our series continues with a look at the NFC East.AFC (June 22-25)
Now that Cam Newton has joined the New England Patriots, attention has shifted to one of his workout partners: Odell Beckham Jr.Newton tweeted footage of a training session with Beckham on June 13, just over two weeks before it was reported that the Patriots had signed the free-agent quarterback. But on Monday, Beckham threw cold water on the idea that the pair could unite in New England.
Get ready for your season with theScore's 2020 Fantasy Football Draft Kit and subscribe to push notifications in the NFL Fantasy News section.theScore's Justin Boone was the winner of FantasyPros' Most Accurate Expert Competition in 2019, marking the seventh time he's placed in the top 10.Follow the links below to see his updated 2020 rankings.Half PPR
Just when it looked like the AFC East was finally up for grabs, the New England Patriots replaced Tom Brady by making an experienced, accomplished quarterback appear out of thin air. The Pats also pulled this off in the middle of the damn summer, a few weeks before training camps are scheduled to open (maybe). Even by Bill Belichick's beguiling standards, signing Cam Newton qualifies as a pretty deft maneuver.Newton had been available for any team to sign since March. But he's taken a pounding in recent years and is coming off a serious foot injury that kept him sidelined for nearly all of 2019. Teams have been unable to give him a medical evaluation because of the coronavirus pandemic, and even his deal with New England is reportedly contingent on whether he can still pass a physical.But by signing him, the Patriots did something that fits with how they've operated across Belichick's two decades in charge: They found value in a veteran player other teams either didn't want or couldn't find the right place for. The only difference is that New England has long done this without having to worry about its quarterback. But by adding Newton, they've worked the same angles by gaming the salary cap and the compensatory draft-pick system to shore up the most important spot on the roster.The rough terms of Newton's deal drive home the point:
While he's pleased Cam Newton is no longer a free agent, Richard Sherman expressed his frustration regarding the money on the quarterback's new deal.The San Francisco 49ers cornerback called Newton's contract with the New England Patriots "ridiculous," as the former MVP agreed to less money than a handful of backups.
Welcome to theScore Fantasy Football Podcast, hosted by Justin Boone.Find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Anchor.In this episode, Boone discusses the fantasy impact of Cam Newton signing with the New England Patriots.
Tom Brady's successor in New England is Cam Newton.Yes, Cam Newton.The Patriots' reported blockbuster signing tore like wildfire through the football world on Sunday night, setting Twitter ablaze.It was almost enough to obscure the fact that, mere moments after news of Newton's new home broke, we learned the NFL dropped the hammer on New England for improperly filming the Cincinnati Bengals' sideline in December 2019. The Patriots were fined $1.1 million and stripped of their 2021 third-round pick, among other indignities.The double shot of Sunday night news sent social media into fits of disbelief, profane outbursts (many from fans of the other AFC East teams), and, of course, many jokes were told. Here are the best reactions to the dual bombshells:
Colin Kaepernick's teenage years will be the subject of an upcoming scripted series from Netflix.The six-part series, titled "Colin in Black & White," will be narrated and executive produced by the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, according to Dominic Patten of Deadline.The show will follow Kaepernick's early life as a Black child adopted by a white family, placing an emphasis on the influences and circumstances that made him the activist he is today.Ava DuVernay, who created, co-wrote, and directed the acclaimed Netflix series, "When They See Us," will also serve as executive producer on "Colin in Black & White.""Too often we see race and Black stories portrayed through a white lens," Kaepernick said in a statement. "We seek to give new perspective to the differing realities that Black people face. We explore the racial conflicts I faced as an adopted Black man in a white community, during my high school years. It's an honor to bring these stories to life in collaboration with Ava for the world to see."
theScore is counting down the 100 best fictional characters in sports movie history, with a new post every weekday until July 3.100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51
theScore's Mike Alessandrini is assembling all-decade lineups and ranking all 32 teams based on those rosters. Contributions from 2010 to 2019 were taken into account, with player selections based on peak production, longevity, and overall impact. Those who spent only one season with a club did not qualify.Our series continues in the AFC West.AFC (June 22-25)