Still to be resolved: a much more contentious issue.What to do, if anything, about players who kneel during the national anthem?”We recognize with our visibility and the interest itself that it’s taken a life of its own,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday.”We ask the world, `Don’t turn your head. Look at us. Wait a minute. Look at the NFL. Look at everything we’re doing.’ And then when we have some issues
we’ve got to work through, we realize we’ve asked you to look.”Let’s do as good as we can do.”At their annual spring meeting, league owners welcomed David Tepper to their ranks by signing off on his record $2.2 billion deal to purchase the Panthers
from disgraced team founder Jerry Richardson, who abruptly decided to sell after
the NFL began investigating alleged sexual and racial misconduct in the
workplace.During a brief news conference in which he took only a handful of questions, Tepper immediately made a bit of news by seeming to imply he would be willing to
listen to offers for a new stadium from other cities in North and South
Carolina. The team has made no secret of its desire to replace 22-year-old Bank
of America Stadium, and its lease runs only through the upcoming season.”What’s the name of the team? Carolina Panthers. It’s going to be the Carolina Panthers,” Tepper said. ”And that means this team has to have some kind
of presence in the Carolinas and last time I saw Devin Funchess Jersey , how many are there? That’s right, there’s two of them.”But Tepper, a hedge fund owner who is worth a reported $11 billion, also reiterated several times that the largest city in the Carolinas is the ”logical
place for this team.””As far as a new stadium, you’re asking me too much and the only thing I have a market on now is lack of knowledge,” he said. ”I’ll learn a lot more in the
future.”Tepper’s purchase was the first order of business at the luxury hotel in Atlanta’s tony Buckhead neighborhood.That was the easy part.As a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tepper was already familiar to the league’s owners and his approval was a mere formality. The vote was
unanimous.Anthem protests are a much thornier issue.”We certainly want to make and will make a thought-out, deliberate decision,” said Jones, who has made it clear he opposes kneeling during the anthem and was
one of the few people to speak with reporters in the hotel lobby after the
meeting broke up. ”Whatever we do, let’s put the focus on what the NFL’s about
and that’s playing football.”The owners began discussing the issue – which has reached all the way to the White House – and will talk more before wrapping up their meetings
Wednesday.Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016, a quiet but powerful protest against police
brutality and racial inequities in the justice system.Other players took up the cause Charles Tapper Jersey , and the gesture carried on during the 2017 season even after Kaepernick left the 49ers and failed to land a job with another
team.President Trump turned the anthem protests into a campaign issue , saying the NFL should fire any player who takes a knee during ”The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The NFL hasn’t gone that far, but Kaepernick has yet to land another job and one
of his former teammates and fellow protesters, safety Eric Reid, is also out of
work.Both have filed collusion grievances against the NFL .”I think there’s certainly resolve and I can assure the issue is getting the very best of every owner and the very best look at all our constituencies with
an eye first and foremost to our fans. That’s No. 1,” Jones said.”We know our fans want us to zero in on football, and they don’t want to think about or think that we’re thinking about anything other than
football.”The NFL was reportedly considering whether to assess a 15-yard penalty against any player who takes a knee or conducts any other protest during the
anthem.Another possible option would be to change up the pregame routine, keeping teams in their respective locker rooms until after the anthem has played.That is the protocol long followed by college football, preventing anthem protests from being carried out in its stadiums.The new kickoff rules are aimed at making the high-speed play a bit safer and perhaps more exciting.Players on the kickoff team can’t get a running start, while eight of the return team’s 11 players must start out in a 15-yard zone near midfield, forcing
them to run down the field alongside the coverage players. That will make the
play more like a punt and should improve safety.Wedge blocks – two blockers teaming up on the same player – will also be banned. In addition, any kick that hits the ground in the end zone will be an
automatic touchback.The new rules will be re-evaluated in 2019 to determine their effectiveness Sam Hubbard Jersey , but the league doesn’t want to eliminate kickoffs altogether.”It’s part of the game,” said Atlanta Falcons President and CEO Rich McKay, head of the league’s competition committee. ”If we can make plays more
competitive and safer, we should do it.”In another attempt to improve safety, any player who initiates contact with his
Jameis Winston is still the “starting quarterback” for the Buccaneers, but they know he’s going to miss the first three games of the regular season because
of his suspension.So when he took the field Thursday night against the Dolphins, he was out there with a bunch of second- and third-stringers. He played well, completing
11-of-13 passes for 102 yards.“I was happy to play football,” Winston said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “Like I said, it was a privilege. I’ve been working with everybody this training camp so that prepared me.”Ryan Fitzpatrick started the game, as he will the first three of the regular season Teez Tabor Jersey , and third quarterback Ryan Griffin finished the game with a late drive which led to a game-winning field goal.The three of them combined to go 37-of-47 for 336 yards and a touchdown, with a 103.5 passer rating in the first game with new offensive coordinator Todd
Monken calling the plays.“Start with that,” coach Dirk Koetter said. “I mean, Ryan Griffin I thought was outstanding. Twenty out of 26 and playing with the third group primarily. I
thought Ryan did a really good job. But I also thought Fitz and Jameis did fine.
They took us right down and scored, both guys. From a quarterback standpoint, I
don’t think we missed too many. We didn’t turn it over at quarterback, so
pleased with all three of those guys.”Fitzpatrick completed his first six passes of the night, the kind of early sharpness he’ll need to carry into the regular season for the Bucs to
survive. Zhaire Smith Jersey
