This promises to a be a most unique NFL season because fans will not be in attendance at most stadiums around the league – at least for a while. If things get better with the coronavirus, that could change. Of course, if things get worse regarding COVID-19, the season might not even finish.
There are some excellent Week 1 matchups on Sunday, but without question one stands apart: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints with a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff. It’s the Bucs and NFC debut of six-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady – not to mention also the Bucs debuts of Leonard Fournette, LeSean McCoy and Rob Gronkowski.
Meanwhile, this could be the final season opener for Saints quarterback Drew Brees as he’s a possibility to retire with a TV job lined up. Brees ranks No. 1 all-time in NFL passing yards and touchdowns and Brady is second. Needless to say, both are first-ballot unanimous Hall of Famers down the road. Brady’s Bucs are 3.5-point underdogs, which is notable as Brady hadn’t been a regular-season dog with his former New England Patriots team since November 2014. Tampa Bay is 4-17 SU in its past 21 as a road dog, but none of those teams had Brady.
FanDuel on Thursday announced the expansion of its industry-leading free to play contests for the start of the upcoming football season. For the first time, FanDuel will be launching free to play Pick’em games with three NFL teams, including the Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, and Washington Football Team.
FanDuel’s expanded free to play lineup will include the following, with more games coming throughout the NFL season:
In partnership with The Ringer, FanDuel is offering The Ringer Mega Contest, a free Survivor-style contest where participants pick games against the spread each week with the goal of making it to the last 100 participants standing going into the playoffs. Players pick five teams each week to beat the spread, including one “Double Down” pick worth double the points. Players will score one point for each correct pick or two points if their “Double Down” pick is correct. Whoever finishes the regular season in the top 100 on the leaderboard makes the playoffs. Then, the top 100 will pick their way through the playoffs to claim a share of $25,000 – including $10,000 to first place. FanDuel Gridiron Pick’em is a free NFL pick’em style contest, available today on FanDuel. Players try to pick the most correct winners of all of each Sunday’s matchups and split the weekly prize pool of $5,000. Coming later this week, in addition to the FanDuel Gridiron Pick’em, FanDuel will offer three white label Pick’em games in partnership with three of its team partners, the Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, and Washington Football Team. Each week participants will answer a series of questions about the specific team’s matchups. The participants who get the most correct answers will split the $1,000 weekly payout. Plus, there will be an additional $10K prize awarded at the end of the season to the participant who gets the most correct answers during the regular season. To qualify for the promotion, eligible individuals must have an active FanDuel Sportsbook or DFS member account or sign up for one at https://sportsbook.fanduel.com or https://www.fanduel.com/join.
“Over the past several months, we’ve prioritized giving sports fans innovative games to play and new forms of entertainment,” said John Griffin, GM of Fantasy Sports, FanDuel. “With the upcoming football season right about to start, we have the most expansive selection of free to play games, giving fans more ways to win than ever before.”
FanDuel also recently announced the launch of Best Ball contests, available to enter now, and Daily Snake Drafts for NFL coming ahead of the football season.
With just six days separating us and the start of the NFL season, the moment football fans thought might not arrive appears to be here. When the league decided to call off preseason games, fans started to get a little nervous, wondering if the regular season would have to be changed like what has been seen with all other major sports leagues. Fortunately, it seems like its all systems go for the upcoming season, but the environment will be a little different than in previous years. Several teams have announced that they won’t allow fans to attend games, others have said they will start in Week 3 or beyond and others still will open their stadium doors to their fans, but will only allow a reduced capacity. This means that the action at each field is going to be unique, and the NFL is trying to balance things out. It’s going to allow fan noise to be used during games, but expects teams to follow a very tight list of rules.
According to a tweet by NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero the NFL will allow teams to use their own sound bites, but only during the presentation of players. After that, league-provided crowd noise will be provided. In all cases, the sound level can’t go higher than 70 decibels. To put things in perspective, this is about the same level as a home vacuum cleaner and much less than what is normally seen at stadiums, which can sometimes hit the triple-digit mark. Any violation could result in a fine, a suspension or a loss of a draft pick. There will also be noise available for use in game broadcasts.
The memo distributed to teams yesterday reads, “NFL Films sound engineers have developed club specific audio pallets (crowd noise) for each NFL club. A trained audio engineer hired by the League office will work collaboratively with network personnel to incorporate the audio into the in-game broadcast feed. This audio will be dynamic and reactive to game situations within the game broadcasts. This broadcast audio is League-controlled; therefore, NFL Football Operations and NFL Broadcasting will monitor its use throughout the season.”
In order to try to cover all attempts to find a loophole, which certain teams have always shown a propensity for, the NFL adds that teams are not permitted to try to circumvent the rules by using any additional fan crowd noise other than what has been explained. This means, no blasting in music or sounds from the parking lot or any other area outside the confines of the stadium’s structure.
Every year, the NFL and Electronic Arts release the latest ‘Madden’ game. It’s a little like FIFA is for soccer, except for one big differential.
Madden is losing fans and getting less and less popular with every year that passes.
Released last week, NFL fans have been all over social media complaining about the repetitive cut-scenes, samey graphics and glitches that they see as pointing to slipping standards.
With ratings for the ‘Madden 21’ version of the game slumping to an all-time low of 6.0/10 on IGN, Gamespot and other sites rated it just as badly. With the game available on consoles such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well as PCs, Twitter blew up with feedback on the game, including from a very famous ‘fan’.
What began as just a simple campaign to push for a name change has blown up into something much larger. The Washington Football Team (WFT) caught enough heat for its former name, the Washington Redskins, that it changed to its current vanilla name until something more profound surfaces. Soon after, a report surfaced that the team’s leadership had engaged in long-running sexual misconduct that was allegedly unknown to its owner, Dan Snyder. While almost no one believed he couldn’t have known, he promised to investigate the issue and be more involved in the team’s operations. However, the NFL seemed to be willing to not get involved, which didn’t sit well. After catching flak for seemingly not taking the issue more seriously, the NFL is now getting involved and is going to investigate the allegations.
According to a report by the Associated Press, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has stepped in and taken over the investigation. Snyder had hired a law firm out of Washington, Wilkinson Walsh LLP, to dig into the team’s culture, and attorney Beth Wilkinson of the firm will now report directly to the NFL, instead of to the WFT. This should help to overcome concerns that any findings would be biased, since Wilkinson previously would have been responsible for investigating the man who hired her.
At least 15 former employees have come forward to confirm that they were victims of long-running sexual misconduct inside the organization, with a few specifically targeting Snyder as being involved. The NFL’s dismissive attitude forced lawyers defending the victims, Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, to contact the NFL and seek a different course of action. The attorneys, who make up part of the Katz, Marshall and Banks LLP law firm, then sent a letter to Goodell, asserting, “Our clients would gladly participate in such an NFL investigation but do not feel safe speaking to investigators hired by Mr. Snyder and do not trust the investigation that is currently underway.”
As part of the ongoing investigation, the WFT has, undoubtedly against its will, canceled non-disclosure agreements the former employees had previously signed, which will allow things to run more smoothly. The lawyers are happy with the way things are going, and said in a statement, “We are pleased and encouraged that the league is taking this matter seriously and we expect that it will take appropriate action against Daniel Snyder and the Washington Football Team upon conclusion of the investigation.”
The upcoming NFL season is going to be one of the hardest to predict in a very long time. For the average sportbettor who loved to have a flutter on American Football before 2020, the landscape has completely changed. The odds offered for all the major teams look the same, but after the chaos of the opt-out pre-season, an online NFL draft and now the return of fans to stadiums, punters don’t know where to turn for value.
The Miami Dolphins decision to allow Fins fans to come to the season opener in Florida’s Hard Rock Stadium is a controversial one and has attracted criticism from some quarters. But is it the right one? Will it help The Dolphins to success in a season few predict big things for them?
The Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons in 1972 and 1973, but since then have never won it, despite being the only team in NFL history to finish an entire season undefeated in the first of their two Super Bowl victories.
This season, Miami are welcoming 13,000 fans to the Hard Rock Stadium, using social distancing of six feet between fan groups to fill up around 20% of the stadium’s seats with home supporters. Their first game will take place on 20th September against the Buffalo Bills – who won’t have fans in attendance at Orchard Park this season – and Bills coach Sean McDermott isn’t happy that there will be fans present for his team’s visit to South Florida.
This is the time that everyone should be in full training mode – running drills with full pads, fine-tuning their offenses and defenses and even participating in preseason games. The NFL regular season is set to get underway in 17 days, but events over this past weekend are forcing many teams to scramble. Several had to call off practices completely over sudden surges in positive coronavirus tests, and any outbreak now would be devastating to the NFL’s plans to start on time. However, football fans – as well as the league – are breathing a sigh of relief, as it appears the positive test results were nothing more than false positives, and they were all traced back to one particular lab in New Jersey.
The Minnesota Vikings had 12 false positives over the weekend, the New York Jets had ten and the Chicago Bears had nine. The Cleveland Browns also had some, and became the first team to cancel its practices. The Jets then followed on Saturday, but practiced on Sunday, and the Bears shifted their practice from the morning to the afternoon after they determined that the results were nothing more than false positives. The Vikings decided to bench those who had tested positive and keep them out of Sunday’s practice. Other teams impacted include the Buffalo Bills, the Detroit Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In trying to determine why there was a sudden spike in the number of positive cases, the NFL was able to trace the problem to a single lab in New Jersey operated by BioReference. The league issued a statement about the issue, explaining, “Saturday’s daily COVID testing returned several positives tests from each of the clubs serviced by the same laboratory in New Jersey. We are working with our testing partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs work to confirm or rule out the positive tests. Clubs are taking immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA’s health and safety protocols to include contact tracing, isolation of individuals and temporarily adjusting the schedule, where appropriate. The other laboratories used for NFL testing have not had similar results.”
That’s good news and bad news for the NFL. It’s great because it could mean that there won’t be any issues as the league looks to get going on September 10. However, it is still concerning, because there needs to be definitive proof of no widespread COVID-19 appearance for the season to kick off. It also could be a financial loss to the league if it has to pay for all the tests to be retaken, instead of the lab assuming that cost.
The countdown to the 2020 NFL season, hopefully, continues on schedule, and the first game will be held on September 10 if everything goes according to plan. For that to happen, the league has put together a special committee to oversee its response to issues that may arise from the COVID-19 pandemic, calling upon the assistance of individuals intimately familiar with football, but who are no longer part of the league. Their goal is to help the NFL throughout the season as it looks to prevent any major coronavirus-caused catastrophes like those seen in MLB.
According to different sources, the NFL’s advisory committee will be working hand-in-hand with commissioner Roger Goodell to address any issue that comes up as the year progresses. The group includes former cornerback Champ Bailey, former receiver Isaac Bruce, former GM Charley Casserly, former head coach Tom Coughlin, former head coach Marvin Lewis, former safety Troy Polamalu, former GM Bill Polian and former GM Rick Smith.
Notably, the committee doesn’t include any health officials, a point that draws a little unwanted attention to the group. While all of the members of the committee have extensive football experience, the coronavirus warrants participation by at least one or two members of the health community, and the absence of these would seem to indicate that the group will often have to seek outside opinions before certain decisions can be made, which might slow down the implementation of any policies or procedures.
The idea behind the committee’s creation is to give the commissioner assistance in making decisions related to scheduling, seeding and more. However, each has a component directly linked to COVID-19 that cannot be ignored. The members selected for inclusion needed to be external to current league or team operations in order to avoid any possible appearance of conflict of interest and propel a sense of fairness across the board in all decisions the committee makes.
After almost 100 years to the day, the NFL finally has its first black team president. The Washington Football Team, previously known as the Washington Redskins, have tapped Jason Wright to head up its operations, hoping to usher in a new era of success for the team, as well as for NFL. It “only” took major civil unrest and an embarrassing sexual misconduct story to pave the way for change.
The 38-year-old Wright is a former NFL running back who played for several teams during his six years in the league. When he left the NFL, he returned to school, graduating with a Master of Business Administration degree in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. From there, he would become a partner of McKinsey & Company, a business management consulting firm, before being asked to join the Washington team as its president.
Wright said in a statement about his appointment, “This team, at this time, is an ideal opportunity for me. The transformation of the Washington Football Team is happening across all aspects of the organization – from football to operations to branding to culture – and will make us a truly modern and aspirational franchise.”
The team’s new president replaces Bruce Allen, who led the organization for around ten years before being fired last December. Wright will handle the business side of the house, while Ron Rivera, hired as the team’s head coach last December, will handle the football operations. Rivera has been a supporter of diversity in the workplace, and hired Jennifer King as the NFL’s first female full-time coaching intern earlier this year.
Fans of American football living in parts of Europe have something to look forward to this season. Watching NFL games live can be difficult due to lack of broadcasting options, as well as time zone differences. At least one of these is controllable and is about to change. Fans in the UK and Ireland will now have much easier access to games each week, thanks to a new agreement reached between the league and major European TV broadcaster Sky. An entire channel dedicated to nothing but the NFL is about to be launched ahead of the upcoming season.
Sports Business reports that the deal will run from the upcoming season, set to get underway on September 10, through the 2024-25 season. Sky Sports NFL will provide coverage of at least five games a week, as well as some Sunday games, all playoff contests, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl. There will also be additional programming thrown in to cover the gaps when live games aren’t being aired.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says in a statement, “This new five-year agreement and the launch of a dedicated Sky Sports NFL channel will undoubtedly continue our rapid growth in the UK and Ireland. We are excited that our expanded partnership with Sky will provide even more NFL content to our millions of UK and Irish fans.”
The NFL and Sky have had a working relationship in place for the past 25 years, but this is the first time the league is getting a dedicated channel on the network. It will give NFL greater exposure across the UK and Ireland, where it has held one or two games annually for the past several years. This upcoming season would have included four games if it hadn’t been for the COVID-19 debacle. England has consistently been seen as a worthwhile springboard for further league expansion into Europe.
A lot of bad news has come out in recent months regarding the Washington Football Team and its majority owner Dan Snyder. Believing this was possibly a setup, Snyder has now gone to court to see if he can prove this was an elaborate scheme to push him out of his ownership position.
The New York Times reports Snyder has filed for discovery in the Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, requesting documents about former employee Mary-Ellen Blair, who was an executive assistance in the front office. The legal reason for the discovery request is to support his defamation case against Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide, an Indian company, who Snyder contends published defamatory rumors about him and the team.
“We are aggressively pursuing Mary-Ellen Blair, a disgruntled former employee who is clearly in the pocket of another and complicit in this scheme to defame Mr. Snyder, in order to ensure that the full weight of the law comes down heavily on all those responsible for these heinous acts,” said Joe Tacopina, a lawyer of Snyder’s.
Snyder contends that Blair started reaching out to former employees as early as May, asking for information that could be used against him. The discovery notes Blair contacted one employee, telling them they could “probably make a lot of money” if they had dirt on Snyder.
American Football has taken many knocks in recent weeks. There was the NFL draft, which this year took place online rather than with all the pomp and ceremony we’ve come to expect. Then there was last week’s opt-out deadline which saw no fewer than 67 players pull out of the season for health-related concerns, including an incredible eight New England Patriots players.
This week, the very season of football stretching ahead of us seems under threat. With the rumoured cancellation of the CFB (college football) season, the knock-on impact could well affect the regular season in NFL, yet it looks like nothing can derail a runaway train when that train is full of money.
Pete Thamel commented on Twitter that, “Big Ten presidents are meeting today. All options are on the table. There’s some presidential momentum for canceling the fall football season. It’s unknown if there’s enough support to make that decision today.”
If that’s the case, then the knock-on effect should be that the NFL season is under threat. If it is, then no-one seems to be aware of it. With CFB possibly falling by the wayside, if anything, it might help scheduling towards the back-end of the season, with Saturdays having been used before in the Autumn of other seasons. That could well be a fixture again, but if so, then a new agreement will need to be brokered as current broadcasting rules mean that until December, no games can be shown on Fridays or Saturdays.
Last night should have been a great night for football fans. It should have been the night that the first preseason games were held, with the Dallas Cowboys taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Hall of Fame Game. However, the game was canceled in June because of the coronavirus, and all preseason games were subsequently erased from the schedule, as well. With the regular season expected to get underway on September 10, there are still a lot of questions that have to be answered, and many are concerned that there may not be any fall football. Longtime Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has joined that crowd and made his thoughts known last night.
When asked by a reporter if the NFL season would be able to hold a complete season, Tomlin made it clear that he’s not convinced things will turn out the way the league and football fans hope. According to Mark Kaboly of The Athletic, he responded, “I don’t know if I am extremely confident. I respect the challenges these circumstance has presented to other leagues, some of which we are witnessing. I think we are all proceeding with caution and working extremely hard not to become part of that. We have some people in leadership positions — Dr. [Allen] Sills — and others, medical professionals, who have led the charge for us globally in the NFL, and we are working out tails off to adhere to it and hoping that is enough coupled with personal decision-making that needs to be exhibited continually by our guys throughout the course of this.”
The NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) reached an agreement that allowed players to opt-out of the season because of COVID-19 without facing any repercussions. They would also be able to collect a salary for the season, and 66 players responded to the call ahead of yesterday’s 4 PM deadline. Players can still walk away, even though the deadline has past, but they won’t be eligible for any money. The New England Patriots saw the biggest loss, recording eight players who had taken the option. The Steelers saw no player opt-out, as was the case with the Atlanta Falcons and the LA Chargers.
Some fans have complained that the players are being “selfish,” an assertion that is, obviously, extremely ludicrous and shallow. Catching COVID-19 can have long-term health implications and there’s not yet enough known about it to guarantee players will be able to remain safe and virus-free. Testing positive could ultimately ruin a player’s career permanently, not to mention the fact that it could spread to other members of his team or his family. There have already been players, such as Von Miller and Kareem Jackson, who have tested positive for COVID-19, and the ease with which the virus is passed is leading many to decide it simply isn’t worth it. Both Miller and Jackson, however, will be on the field this season if it moves forward.
The NFL team formerly known as the Washington Redskins finally caved against overwhelming pressure to change its name this past July, but has yet to offer an alternative. The brass at the franchise is busy with damage control over reports of widespread sexual harassment that has already led to at least five employees, either by force or by choice, announcing their departures. However, it plans on surviving the drama and is making preparations to start the upcoming NFL season along with the rest of the teams. While the team, now simply called the Washington Football Team, may not have a viable name, at least they’ll have pretty helmets.
The team posted a video on Twitter yesterday, unveiling the new helmets as it announced “exciting news.” The individual affixing numbers to the helmet, which will use the same color scheme the team has used for decades, can’t be seen, but he’s applying “20,” which is the number worn by safety Landon Collins. Notably absent from the helmet is any type of logo, moniker, drawing or even shadow, giving the helmet the appearance of being something one would see out of a low-budget rural community college. Previously, the helmets carried the Redskins logo, with the player’s number nowhere on the protective headgear.
Reactions to the changes have been mixed. Some haven’t been afraid to show their opinion of fashionable by supporting the changes, while others recognize that they leave something to be desired. One Twitter user, Dominic Lucente, pointed out, “Looks like a college football helmet but that seems appropriate. You have been playing like a college football team going on many years now.” In the past decade, the former Redskins only had winning seasons twice. Another tweeter aptly summed things up, responding to the team’s announcement by saying, “I don’t think you know what ‘exciting’ means.”
The regular NFL season is expected to get underway on September 10, providing the coronavirus doesn’t force the league to make any last-minute changes. It has already had to scrap the All-Star Game and the preseason games, but everything else seems to, at least for the time being, remain on schedule. If it does, this could be a great fall for sports fans everywhere.
The latest scandal to hit the NFL comes at the worst possible time. With over 50 players having taken the league up on the ‘Opt-Out’ option, preferring the $350,000 and their family’s guaranteed health over running the risk of catching COVID-19, new rules have come into place to coincide with the deadline for pre-season opt-outs being confirmed as this coming Thursday.
Just the other day, an incredible eighth New England Patriot was confirmed among the latest raft of opt-outs, with Matt LaCosse choosing to give the 2020 NFL season a miss. The NFL had to act and they have done, confirming exactly what will happen to anyone else who decides to opt out, and when.
With a busy page on the NFL’s official site now dedicated to what has been a largely chaotic start to training camps up and down the United States of America, the NFL announced that issues have been resolved and they’ve finally got a procedure in place, along with fines for players who opt out without good reason. With over 50 opt-outs already, this smacks a little of a nightclub putting together a new set of rules for bouncers at nine the next morning after the dancefloor was empty at midnight.
The deadline for pre-season opt-outs is Thursday August 6th at 4pm Eastern Time, with players informed of the cut-off on Monday night. This deadline coincides with the drug-testing window opening on Friday Aguust 7th, with
With the new NFL season just weeks away, the New England Patriots have lost an eighth player to the opting out fever that has swept through American Football.
In an era dominated by the global Coronavirus pandemic, the clash between players, officials and the U.S. Government over preparations for NFL to return has spilled over into the NFL pre-season. This weekend, New England Patriots tight end Matt LaCosse became the eighth player of the New England Patriots to opt out of the forthcoming NFL season.
While not perhaps as headline-grabbing as other withdrawals, 27-year-old LaCosse will be a big miss for the Patriots, following as he does in the walk-out footsteps of Dont’a Hightower, Marcus Cannon, Patrick Chung, Brandon Bolden, Marqise Lee, Dan Vitale and Najee Toran.
LaCosse’s absence has been put down to Coronavirus reasons, with his wife Jessica, due to deliver a baby boy in the upcoming NFL season. It would appear that LaCosse is simply not happy to risk anything for his family’s health, and why should he? In 2019, LaCosse started 8 of the 11 games, and while he had an ankle injury to contend with, he still finished the season with 13 recpetions for 132 yards. He even made a touchdown, one more than he’ll be able to make in 2020 thanks to as the players see it, broken promises in terms of testing and health protocols.
Last year, coming off an incredible 2018-2019 performance, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was number four in the top 100 football players of the NFL, according to an annual list prepared by the NFL Network. Given that he led the Chiefs to its first Super Bowl victory in 50 years this year when the team beat the San Francisco 49ers, virtually everyone expected him to shoot up on the list four spots to take first place. However, NFL players, those who vote on the NFL Network’s rankings, had something else in mind and Mahomes will stay right where he is for another year.
24-year-old Mahomes is ranked, again, as the fourth-best football player in the NFL, according to the final results of the poll. It certainly came as a surprise to many – and possibly to the Super Bowl MVP himself – and anyone who had taken the QB with a sportsbook just lost out big time. Not being listed in first place seems completely illogical, given all of Mahomes accomplishments in recent years.
Those accomplishments paid off for the third-year Chiefs QB. In addition to all the awards and honors – NFL MVP (2018), NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2018), NFL passing touchdowns leader (2018,) Super MVP (2020) – he has received, his contract with his team was just renewed for ten years. To top it off, it was renewed two years before his current contract expires and is worth as much as $503 million, making him one of the most valuable players ever in any sport.
Despite his long list of accomplishments, Mahomes wasn’t even the top-ranked QB on the list. He finished behind Russell Wilson, the QB for the Seattle Seahawks, at number two and Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson at number one. The number three spot went to Aaron Donald, a defensive tackle for the LA Rams.
At the end of last week, the NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) agreed to a number of rules directed toward dealing with the upcoming season and any possible fallout from the coronavirus. Among the options approved was the ability of a player to decide to sit out the season without any major ramifications, while still being eligible to receive a salary, albeit potentially only a fraction of the normal salary. So far, in just a matter of days, a number of players have gone for the deal, and more might be coming.
According to the new rules, a player who opts out for valid medical reasons is entitled to a salary of $350,000 while still eligible for an accrued season. If a player opts out simply because he doesn’t feel comfortable playing under the COVID-19 cloud, he will only be entitled to a salary of $150,000. That salary, however, is considered an advance on their existing contract, which means it will be removed from future paychecks.
So far, players haven’t been shy about stepping up and taking the package. Kansas City Chiefs right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was one of the first, followed by Baltimore Ravens wide receiver De’Anthony Thomas, Seattle Seahawks guard Chance Warmack and Dallas Cowboys cornerback Maurice Canady, according to a report by Forbes. Next up, New England Patriots linemen Najee Toran and Marcus Cannon followed suit. The latest player to step away, and also another Pats player, is running back Danny Vitale.
All of those players have decided to voluntarily step away, but another has been given a pass because he’s considered a “high-risk” player. Caleb Brantley, a defensive end for the Washington football team (formerly known as the Redskins), was approved to sit out and will be able to collect the $350,000 salary.
Jamal Adams was on the fence for a move for a very long time. Pundits didn’t know if he would move or not, let alone fans, or even the club themselves.
Finally, after much speculation, Adams has indeed made the switch from New York Jets to the Seattle Seahawks.
The Defensive Back, who has one of the best records in the division with 75 tackles in 2019, along with 6.5 sacks, made his second Pro Bowl and All-Pro first team in the last season he enjoyed with the Jets.
Adams has been traded – pending successful completion of the requisite physical checks – for safety option Bradley McDougald, a 1st Round and 3rd Round pick in 2021 as well as a 2022 1st Round pick too. Quite a deal – for both sides. While The Jets have looked to the next season, the Seahawks are hoping that Adams can make them the NFL team to beat in 2020.
If everything goes according to plan, the NFL will start its regular season on September 10. There are still some questions that have to be answered before that can happen, though, as many football players have voiced their concerns over the league’s lack of response to the coronavirus pandemic. Should everything come together, DraftKings is ready to drum up interest in football gambling and is putting a lot of money on the line. It is going to offer a Pick’em contest with $1 million to be taken home by the winner.
The 2020 Pro Football Pick’em National Championship was announced last week and expects to have a prize pool of at least $2 million. Entries cost $1,500 and the competition will cover the first 16 weeks of the season. After paying up, players select five games against the spread in 14 of the 16 weeks, and the winner will be the individual who makes the most correct selections. At that point, the big winner takes home $1 million and the top 50 finishers will be in the money, as well. Anyone who enters will get $100 for getting five out of five picks correct.
The good news, since the upcoming season is still in limbo, is that the five picks don’t have to be submitted immediately. Since the league is allowing players to opt-out of the season, this could alter team performances, and contest participants will be able to make their selections as the season moves forward. The only caveat is that picks for Sunday and Monday games need to be submitted before 10 AM Eastern Time.
All of the details can be found in a video uploaded to Twitter by DraftKings last week. Because of the uncertainty regarding the season, the contest will be valid as long as at least 12 weeks of football are played. The good news is that the contest is completely online, which means participants won’t have to make a trip to a casino to enter. However, there is a little bit of bad news, as well. As it stands right now, the contest is only open to New Jersey residents.
