TAMPA
http://www.buccaneerslockerroom.com/authentic-noah-spence-jersey , Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will open training camp with Jason
Pierre-Paul on the active/non-football injury list.The 10th-year pro suffered a
neck fracture in a single-car crash near his home in South Florida on May 2 and
his status for the upcoming season remains uncertain.The Bucs said Wednesday
that Pierre-Paul, who had 12½ sacks last year after being obtained from the New
York Giants in an offseason trade, will count toward the 90-player roster limit
in training camp and be eligible to be activated any time before the squad is
trimmed to 53.Pierre-Paul, who was not cited in the crash, is coming of the most
productive season he’s had since suffering a serious hand injury in a July 4
fireworks in 2015. He was the first Tampa Bay player to have 10 or more sacks
since Simeon Rice in 2005.Veterans report to training camp on Thursday. Practice
begins Friday. Sam Mullet sat at a table during a lunch break at the NFL combine
in Indianapolis, where she was attending the Women’s Careers In Football Forum
conducted by the league.In walked Roger Goodell, who sat down at Mullet’s table
and began chatting with several women, including Mullet, a high school offensive
coordinator at tiny Bear Lake High School in Michigan.Talk about
networking.That, the 23-year-old Mullet says, was a highlight but hardly the
only one during the symposium attended by 40 women hoping to make careers in the
sport in such areas as coaching, scouting, operations and management.“It was a
very personable experience,” Mullet says. “When I first walked in, we’re in this
fancy hotel, I am in the city by myself, it can be kind of intimidating. But we
walked into the lunch area and Roger Goodell sat at the table and talked to us
and asked what are we doing in our careers and how can he help us. He set the
tone and was interested in what football could do for us.”The forum, now in its
third year, is designed for “putting high-potential candidates in a room with
those who can give them their first opportunities in professional football,”
according to Samantha Rapoport, the league’s senior director of football
development. Attendees such as Mullet heard from and met with general managers
Dave Gettleman (Giants)
Womens Noah Spence Jersey , Chris Ballard (Colts) and Les Snead (Rams); coaches Ron Rivera (Panthers), Sean McDermott (Bills), Bruce Arians
(Buccaneers), and John Harbaugh (Ravens); and several prominent female
executives in the league, including Dawn Aponte, the NFL’s chief football
administrator, andDarcie Glazer Kassewitz, president of the Buccaneers’
foundation.“We’ve seen from the first two years of the forum what has come into
fruition is they meet candidates they would not always have the chance to meet,”
Rapoport adds. “The need, we have found and something the clubs know, is that
women are vastly under-represented in operations positions.“The two key
objectives are to educate and to connect, with connecting most important.
Creating this opportunity for them to meet and interview, it not only benefits
the participants but serves to open the eyes of our club executives to people
who want to work in the NFL.”One of the people who does work in the league,
Rivera, always has brought a progressive eye to diversity. He’s a regular
participant in such initiatives and has been impressed by how much this forum
has grown.“I just think the quality of the candidates — we are starting to see
more and more qualified people trying to get into the NFL, and it is even better
to see more women showing an interest,” Rivera says. “It is happening at all
different levels and areas and I think it is needed.“You see some women from
high school and college, and some who have already done internship programs in
the NFL. … They have gone through the program and been vetted and shown the
desire and know somewhat what it takes to succeed. Because of that, there is no
hesitation to hire them.”Mullet certainly hopes she fits that description. One
of the few female coordinators at any high school — Bear Lake plays eight-man
football, which makes her job more challenging — she’s eager to see what else
she can do in coaching.“I would like to end up as an offensive coordinator in
the NFL,” she notes. “I got this chance to make contacts
Ronald Jones II Jersey White , and to look for an entry-level position and I want to be staying involved in the game of football. I would go anywhere:
college, the NFL, anywhere. I would like to see football at the next level and
see things from all sides.”Olivia Mitchell, who also attended the Indy forum,
has experienced the college level as assistant director of football operations
at Notre Dame, which in some ways is like working for a pro team. Her duties
include planning travel and accommodations for the Fighting Irish: “We always
say we do everything we can so the coaches and players can focus only on the
game,” Mitchell said.Mitchell, 25, wondered if her current responsibilities mesh
with what operations people in the NFL do. At the forum, she discovered that the
challenges often are similar and transferable.“My initial reaction when I
accepted the invitation and saw the attendees and the level of excellence the
forum presented with the people attending,” Mitchell says, “I felt I was amongst
my peers and surrounded by people who really were going places. To have women
who want to be football coaches, which is not something I see every day in my
job, and be around people who want to break those barriers, I really found it
amazing.”Rapoport envisions a day when such symposiums aren’t necessary, a day
when diversity initiatives have met their goals, be it “for women or people of
color or anyone who will have the same opportunities in football.”“It is a
long-term proposition,” she adds. “We’re not patting ourselves on the back. The
results of this forum and our clubs being involved in this effort, we’ll likely
not see those results for five, 10 or 15 years perhaps. But we are planting the
seed and we’ve seen a culture change in a small matter of time.“Our goal is to
normalize the presence of women in football.”
