Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com gets the names of the Covid-19 committee the Commissioner has recruited for advice:

The names are now known as to the members of the outside advisory committee that will assist Commissioner Roger Goodell on issues relating to COVID-19, throughout the 2020 season.

They are, per a source with knowledge of the situation, former NFL cornerback Champ Bailey, former NFL receiver Isaac Bruce, former NFL G.M. Charley Casserly, former NFL head coach Tom Coughlin, former NFL head coach Marvin Lewis, former NFL safety Troy Polamalu, former NFL G.M. Bill Polian, and former NFL G.M. Rick Smith.

The league decided to compile a committee of former executives, coaches, and players not currently connected to the NFL, in order to avoid the obvious conflicts of interest that would apply to members of the Competition Committee, who currently are affiliated with teams that will be affected, directly or indirectly, by the decisions the Commissioner may have to make.

As explained during a Wednesday conference call with reporters by NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent, the committee will advise Goodell on matters relating to whether games should proceed, and also on issues regarding playoff seeding if some teams play fewer than 16 games in 2020, due to the pandemic.

It’s unclear whether objective standards will apply to the decisions that will be made, or whether each case will be assessed based on its own facts and circumstances. Regardless, it will be critical to create a sense of consistency and fairness for all teams in all situations.

Finally, the fact that the eight members of the committee aren’t currently connected to teams doesn’t mean they won’t have their own biases and prejudices, based on past affiliations and/or current friends or enemies. Here’s hoping that, in the end, decisions will be made regardless of who or which team they may help or hurt and that in every instance the best interests of the game will drive the outcome.

Presumably, there is another group somewhere of medical experts, although as we have seen there is no medical consensus on quite a few issues relating to the virus.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

Optimism about well-traveled TE JIMMY GRAHAM from Bears camp.  Jeff Dickerson ofESPN.com:

Chicago Bears tight end Jimmy Graham heard the critics.

Once among the league’s elite pass-catching tight ends, Graham, 33, was released by the Green Bay Packers on March 12 after he caught just 38 passes for 447 yards in the 2019 regular season — his worst production since his rookie year of 2010.

Chicago’s decision to sign Graham to a free-agent deal that included $9 million and a no-trade clause was mostly met with skepticism.

“I have a lot to prove,” Graham said Thursday during a Zoom call with Chicago media. “I mean, I have a big chip on my shoulder to do as best as I can with this new opportunity. I’m extremely blessed to be here with such a young group of guys that are so hungry. I know you guys aren’t in this locker room, but you can feel the buzz. You can feel the buzz in this building. There’s no excuses. No one is looking around and saying we got to do this, we got to do that. This organization has done a great job to keep us all healthy, to hold us all accountable. And to make sure that on these off days, we’re accountable.

“To me, this might be the most special time because I want to retire here, and this is where I want to end it. There’s only one way to end it. Hopefully, that’s winning that final game.”

A third-round pick of the New Orleans Saints in the 2010 NFL draft, Graham developed into one of the game’s most feared pass-catching tight ends, earning a trip to the Pro Bowl in just his second season with 99 receptions, 1,310 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. He was named to five Pro Bowls over stints with New Orleans (2010 to 2014) and Seattle Seahawks (2015 to 2017) before agreeing to a free-agent deal with Green Bay in 2018.

Graham was the centerpiece of the Bears’ offseason overhaul at tight end. After having arguably the worst group of tight ends in the league last year, Chicago added Graham and fellow veteran Demetrius Harris in free agency and drafted Notre Dame rookie Cole Kmet in the second round.

In three padded practices, Graham has been a standout performer at camp. The 6-foot-7 tight end has been victorious in almost every matchup against defensive backs in 1-on-1 red zone drills, where Graham’s trademark has been to fire the football high in the air whenever he beats a cornerback or safety for a touchdown.

The veteran even got into a brief scuffle and exchanged punches with safety Deon Bush on Tuesday when Bush tackled Graham during a full team period. Coach Matt Nagy faulted Bush for the incident, but lauded Graham’s energy at practice, which at times is infectious.

“That’s energy. … That’s the swagger that we need on offense,” Nagy said. “We need that energy. That guy that has that fire, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Jimmy’s an experienced vet. He’s been through a lot. I think the guys on our team, not just our offense, are respecting that and liking that.”

NFC EAST

DALLAS

T La’EL COLLINS suffered minor injuries in a car accident on his way to practice on Thursday.  So the Cowboys are even further under-staffed at OT at the moment.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Practicing without your top offensive tackles is rarely seen as a positive, but Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is trying to find the bright side of the team’s current situation.

Left tackle Tyron Smith left Thursday’s practice with a hamstring issue, right tackle La’el Collins remained out of team drills after a minor car accident and swing tackle Cam Erving has not practiced yet in training camp. That left more work for Wyatt Miller and Brandon Knight and it’s provided plenty of chances for pass rushers to flood the pocket.

Those rushers can’t hit Prescott, but the quarterback said he thinks having to react to them will be a positive for him and that adapting to the absences will be a positive for the entire team.

“It’s making me move my feet, and I think it’s all going to benefit us in the long run, and the young guys getting reps, making them better players and even myself, moving within the pocket and still getting the ball out on time. . . . The game happens so much from outside of the pocket that I think it’s great for us to be able to know where we’re all going to go when that happens. It’s all going to benefit us in the long run,” Prescott said, via Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News.

There may be some upside to practicing in less than ideal situations, but everyone in Dallas will likely feel a bit better about things once Prescott’s usual blockers are back in place.

– – –

EDGE ALDON SMITH is with the Cowboys after a long battle with a variety of personal demons.  So far so good.  John Breech of CBSSports.com:

After sitting out of football for nearly five years, it doesn’t appear that Aldon Smith has lost a step in his NFL return. Smith hasn’t even finished a full week of padded practices with the Cowboys yet, but everyone in Dallas is already raving about his ability on the field. 

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has been thoroughly impressed with the pass-rusher, who hasn’t played in the NFL since he was with the Raiders in November 2015.

“I would say that if you walked away from practice you’d say, ‘Hey, who the hell was No. 58?'” McCarthy said, via The Dallas Morning News. “That’s my thought when we walked out on the field for the first time. He looks good. I think his process back has been not a gradual one, but he’s hitting all the targets. You can see his power and his length is extraordinary. I’ve very, very happy with where Aldon is right now. You’ve got so much new around him — not only hasn’t he played, but he’s done a great job in training and preparing for this opportunity. But he’s playing in a new defense.”

Dak Prescott might be Smith’s biggest hype-man. After watching Smith in practice over the past few days, the Cowboys quarterback came away impressed with the former top-10 draft pick, who was selected seventh overall by the 49ers in 2011. 

“He’s a monster. Damn sure doesn’t look like he hasn’t played in five years,” Prescott said. “He’s going to make all of us better. A great player.”

Of course, the fact of the matter is that Smith has been out of football for the past five years, and a big reason for that is because he hasn’t been able to stay out of trouble. After a promising start to his NFL career in San Francisco, where he racked up 42 sacks in his first three seasons — the third-highest total in NFL history for a player’s first three years — Smith’s career began to fall apart due to legal issues.

The pass-rusher was suspended nine games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse and personal conduct policy during the 2014 season and was later released by the 49ers in August 2015 after he received his third DUI. Smith then signed with the Raiders prior to the start of the 2015 season, but he didn’t last long on the field, getting hit with a suspension in November 2015. Over the next three years, Smith was out of football due to multiple suspensions, and the Raiders eventually gave up on him in March 2018 when they released him following another legal incident.

The Cowboys decided to give Smith a chance at an NFL return in April when they signed him to a one-year deal. Due to the fact that he’s had some serious trouble staying on the field, the Cowboys gave him a low-risk contract that will only pay Smith $440,000 if he gets cut before the season starts. If Smith makes the final roster, he’ll earn another $910,000 in base salary plus $40,625 for every game that he’s active ($650,000 for all 16 games). Smith also has some sack incentives in his contract, which will pay him up to $2 million; he’ll get the full $2 million if he reaches 14 sacks, but it’s not an all-or-nothing incentive. Smith could also earn $500,000 for eight sacks, $1 million for 10 or $1.5 million for 12.

It might seem like a long shot for Smith to hit that 14-sack threshold after five years away from football, but the way McCarthy has been talking about it, it actually seems possible.

“He’s playing with new teammates. The communication, the language is new,” McCarthy said. “So, I think for that, I really want to give our staff and our players a ton of credit for what we’ve accomplished in the virtual meetings because it definitely carried over to our time together here in pre-training camp and training camp. Aldon is off to a very good start. He’s impressive. Still very impressive.”

WASHINGTON

WFT coach Ron Rivera has cancer, but the prognosis is optimistic and he will continue to coach.  ESPN.com:

Washington coach Ron Rivera has been diagnosed with cancer but plans to continue coaching, he told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Thursday night.

Rivera was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma located in a lymph node, the team said in a statement. Rivera said the cancer is in the early stages and is considered “very treatable and curable.”

Rivera told his players in a team meeting Thursday night. As of now, he said, nothing changes with his job.

“I’m planning to go on coaching,” he told Schefter. “Doctors encouraged me to do it, too. They said, ‘If you feel strongly, do it. Don’t slow down, do your physical activities.’ But everyone keeps telling me by week three or four, you’ll start feeling it.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, squamous cell cancer is a form of skin cancer. It is usually not life-threatening but can spread throughout the body and cause serious complications.

Rivera said he has a Plan B in place, though he wasn’t yet ready to divulge more information. Washington defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has been a head coach for two teams — Jacksonville (2003-11) and Oakland (2015-17). No one else on the staff has head-coaching experience in the NFL.

Rivera, 58, has consulted with a number of doctors and specialists and is establishing a treatment plan with the team and an outside specialist.

Rivera said he found a lump on his neck in early July, and when it didn’t go away after a couple of weeks he visited a doctor. He said he was told of the cancer two weeks ago.

“I was stunned,” he said. “But I was angry because I feel like I’m in the best health I’ve been in.”

Rivera has led Washington through a tumultuous offseason that featured numerous off-field issues, ranging from dealing with the coronavirus pandemic to a name change to a report detailing sexual harassment allegations in the organization.

But lately, Rivera was upbeat as he could focus on football with practice beginning. The team started working in full pads Tuesday, and Rivera appeared to be his normal self during video conference interview sessions with the media.

However, during other times Rivera clearly had other things on his mind.

“I’ve just been angry,” he told Schefter. “The thing that I find out how many people that have gone through this. Outpatient therapy, proton therapy.”

Rivera said he gathered the players in a big circle after their evening meeting so he could tell them in person.

“Some were stunned. A bunch came up and wished me well,” Rivera said. “I said, ‘I’m going to be a little more cranky, so don’t piss me off.'”

Players have taken to Rivera, hired by owner Dan Snyder after the 2019 season.

“He’s definitely a players’ coach,” defensive end Ryan Anderson said earlier in the day. “So far, I like him. I trust him. I’d run through a wall for him.”

Rivera was buoyed by the support he said he has received from the organization and health care specialists.

“I’m going through the proper treatment,” he said. “This will be fine.”

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY

The Chiefs are keeping their name (for now), but they are banning part of their tradition.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Although they’re not taking any steps as significant as the Washington Football Team changing its name, the Kansas City Chiefs have also agreed to make some changes after consulting with Native American leaders.

The Chiefs announced today that they will ban fans from wearing headdresses or face paint that is designed to mimic Native Americans. They are also reviewing whether the “Arrowhead Chop” and drumming in the stadium are offensive and need to go.

“While we have discouraged fans from wearing headdresses for several years, effective immediately, fans will be prohibited from wearing headdresses into the stadium,” the Chiefs said in a statement. “Face painting is still allowed for all fans, but any face paint that is styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions will be prohibited.”

The team says it has an ongoing dialogue that may lead to more changes.

“We are grateful for the meaningful conversations we have had with all of these American Indian leaders,” the team said. “It is important that we continue the dialogue on these significant topics, and we look forward to continuing to work together in the future.”

AFC EAST

MIAMI

Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com updates on the state of the quarterback position with the Dolphins including positivity about JOSH ROSEN:

A few minutes after competing in a hot morning practice in mid-August, you can find Miami Dolphins quarterbacks Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tua Tagovailoa and Josh Rosen seeking more ways to challenge one another.

On Wednesday, the quarterbacks fired strikes at a tire set up some 35 to 40 yards away. After about 20 attempts, all three have hit the target at least once, but there is a clear winner … Rosen. He has hit his target at least three times, and he lifts his hands in the air in celebration.

Unfortunately for Rosen, winning the Dolphins’ starting quarterback position won’t be that simple.

The rookie Tagovailoa is the Dolphins’ star attraction, while Rosen is the intriguing big-name wild card. The overwhelming expectation is that Fitzpatrick will start during the early portion of the Dolphins’ 2020 season.

But this Dolphins’ training camp is just as much about development, growth and the future as it is the present. It is important to take notice of Tagovailoa’s mobility and Rosen’s improvement, even if the QB1 seems like a foregone conclusion.

“All three guys are really competing. It’s a new offense, so the terminology and cadences — I think they’re all picking it up quickly and making good decisions, for the most part,” Miami coach Brian Flores said.

“That’s something that we’ve kind of harped on constantly, making good decisions — smart decisions — whether it’s throwing the ball downfield or checking the ball down or picking up the yardage for a first down. When we get into our two-minute situations, getting us completions, getting us into field goal range rather than going for the big throw. At the same time, we won’t be a checkdown team the entire season, either.

“All three guys are coming along fairly well. Hopefully, we just continue on that trajectory.”

After three days of padded practices, here’s an early look at how each Dolphins quarterback is performing:

The rookie franchise QB

No, Tagovailoa hasn’t yet looked like the next Dan Marino. But he has looked healthy, and he appeared mobile in various drills.

Tagovailoa has been slowly eased into action; he hasn’t yet thrown a pass in 11-on-11 drills longer than 20 yards. Some of that is to be expected, as he is in his first padded football action since suffering a hip injury in November while at Alabama. Hopefully, the training wheels will come off in the coming weeks.

That being said, Tagovailoa did go 13-for-13 on pass attempts during 11-on-11 drills over three days. Most were short passes — primarily slants or screens, but the ball didn’t hit the ground in team drills. The biggest positives the media saw from Tagovailoa was his mobility, showing fluidness in his breaks out of play-action, rolling outside the pocket and throwing on the run.

Tagovailoa’s best throws were over-the-middle intermediate routes hitting Mack Hollins (Tuesday) and Kirk Merritt (Wednesday). He has had two botched snaps on Tuesday with Michael Deiter — a natural guard who is attempting to learn the center position — that have spoiled drives. Strong catches have salvaged a couple of his slightly off-target throws, too.

“Obviously, he’s coming off the hip [injury]. He’s looked good thus far, from that standpoint physically,” Flores said. “As far as how he’s looked the first few days, some good, some bad. Lots to improve upon. Some good throws, some good decisions, some throws that aren’t so good, some not-so-good decisions.”

The entertaining veteran

Rocking a beard as glorious as ever, Fitzpatrick has performed exactly as we have come to expect from him in Miami — exciting highlights, plenty of downfield action and a few head-scratching mistakes. It’s the FitzMagic experience.

A pair of contested deep dimes on Monday from Fitzpatrick to wide receivers Preston Williams and DeVante Parker and a nice sideline fade on Wednesday to tight end Mike Gesicki reminded us of how he played in the second half of the 2019 season. But Tuesday was a rocky day, with a bad interception thrown to safety Bobby McCain — the lone pick from all of the quarterbacks in team drills so far — and another poor decision that Noah Igbinoghene should have intercepted reminding us of how things can look for Fitzpatrick when it does go bad.

Fitzpatrick, 37, is expected to be the Dolphins’ starting quarterback Week 1 at the New England Patriots on Sept. 13. His comfort in offensive coordinator Chan Gailey’s scheme, his 2019 success and overall NFL experience (16 years) give him a clear advantage over Tagovailoa and Rosen. But Fitzpatrick knows the competition continues, and a switch to start Tagovailoa should be considered possible, if not likely, as the season goes on.

Despite that, Fitzpatrick remains the Dolphins’ consummate teacher.

“Playing Fitz helps everybody, no matter your position,” Gesicki said. “With his experience and his knowledge of the game, you’d be stupid not to ask him questions and try to see it through his eyes and get his perspective, so this way you kind of get some of his experience, as well.”

The third-wheel gunslinger

It might be a pleasant change for Rosen to enter training camp with less buzz, expectations or eyeballs on him than at any time since he played middle school football. The former UCLA Bruin and 2018 first-round pick is sort of the forgotten man in the Dolphins’ quarterback room.

Rosen has been arguably the most consistent of all of three quarterbacks. Instead of moping around or demanding to be traded following the Dolphins’ decision to draft Tagovailoa, Rosen has put his head down and gone to work.

Rosen, 23, had Monday’s throw of the day: a deep sideline go, right on the money to wide receiver Jakeem Grant. Though also on Wednesday, Rosen twice got caught taking sacks after holding onto the ball too long, and he nearly threw an interception, but his play has been more good than bad.

“The vision for Josh is the same vision for every player — come in, it’s a new offense. There’s new teammates,” Flores said. “He needs to learn the playbook, get to know your teammates, work hard in practice, try to improve every day, take advantage of your opportunities, take advantage of your reps and let your play on the field — what you do on the field will [determine your role] at the end of the day — you’ll earn your reps on the field based on how you play in practice.”

Rosen’s long-term future in Miami is unclear — eventual trade bait or a developing backup — but he certainly is performing better than he did over the past two seasons so far.

NEW ENGLAND

After QB JARRETT STIDHAM looked lost in some early drills, we learn that he has a leg problem.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Patriots quarterback Jarrett Stidham was at Friday’s practice, but the day hasn’t brought much reason to think that he’ll be starting at quarterback when New England faces Miami in Week One.

A report on Friday morning said Stidham is dealing with discomfort in his leg. Michael Giardi of NFL Media added that it is a hip issue and that it will be several weeks before Stidham is 100 percent. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that he had precautionary tests at a local hospital on Thursday that came back negative.

The opener against the Dolphins will be three weeks from this Sunday and it seems unlikely that Stidham would get the nod to start that game over Cam Newton or Brian Hoyer if he’s not totally healthy. Stidham’s also had some iffy play in practice recently, but head coach Bill Belichick downplayed that during a Friday video conference.

“I don’t think it’s really good for us as a coaching staff to over-evaluate an individual play when we have so many plays to work with,” Belichick said. “Every player makes mistakes out there, every player gets corrected, every player gets coaching points on things that they can do better, differently. I would say ultimately we’re going to reach a point where we have to really evaluate what the performance is.”

There’s plenty of time to evaluate the overall performance of all three quarterbacks, but Stidham’s health looks like it will be another big factor for the Patriots to consider this summer.

– – –

We remain amazed at the length to which Florida authorities and prosecutors went to try to hang a misdemeanor prostitution conviction on Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

But it looks as though Kraft has finally prevailed against a troubling police surveillance operation.  Charles Robinson of YahooSports.com:

Robert Kraft’s winning streak against Florida prosecutors continues to roll on. And with it, his fight against prostitution charges appears to be unexpectedly strengthening the privacy of average citizens.

A Florida appeals court sided with Kraft on Wednesday, upholding a lower court’s decision to toss out video that prosecutors allege showed the New England Patriots owner soliciting prostitution during a visit to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in 2019.

The decision is Kraft’s strongest court win yet, delivered by a panel of three judges who ruled that a lower court was correct in striking the surveillance video from a misdemeanor case brought against the NFL team owner. While another appeal is an option for federal prosecutors, having four judges rule in favor of Kraft on key surveillance evidence will likely render the case against him dead.

That’s going to complicate what the NFL can or can’t do — or frankly, should or shouldn’t do — to Kraft under the powers of the personal conduct policy. Particularly when it appears the Kraft ruling may not only have his misdemeanor prostitution charges wiped out entirely, but end up protecting average citizens from boundless police surveillance in the process.

How Robert Kraft’s case strengthens citizens’ privacy

That’s the unintentional, but potentially significant, side effect of Kraft’s latest court win. It has, once again, backed up the constitutional rights of average citizens who were caught up in police surveillance — the same spa surveillance that four judges have now ruled to be a clear overreach by authorities. And the same surveillance that could end up resulting in Fourth Amendment lawsuits (protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures) brought against police or other agencies that had a role in taping customers who hadn’t committed a crime.

New York lawyer Joseph Tacopina, who said he represents at least 31 individuals who were taped despite receiving only legitimate massages at Orchids of Asia Day Spa, filed a class-action lawsuit in April 2019 and has been battering the surveillance actions of the authorities for more than a year. The Kraft victories have likely strengthened future class-action suits in the case, not to mention general precedent in similar cases.

“It’s a nightmare,” Tacopina told CNN last year. “It’s as if they put a camera in a bathroom and recorded people going to the bathroom. These people — ranging from 40-year-old males to 75-year-old females — [were] in a state of undress [and] getting massages. Nothing more. Legitimate massages, and wound up on a video tape that is perilously close to being put out into the public domain.”

One point that Tacopina has attacked is part of what ultimately ensnared Kraft in the case: The reality that authorities didn’t engage in “minimized” surveillance — which would have parsed out and taped only the individuals who were committing some type of crime.

“It’s a basic tenet of any surveillance,” Tacopina said. “Minimization is when the police have to watch the videos or listen to the recordings … and make sure that criminality is occurring [by each individual being recorded]. If the criminality is not occurring, they must shut off the videotape. And that’s not what happened here. They let it rip, 24/7 for five days. I guess they went off and got lunch or something. But no one was monitoring it to the point where they were shutting off activities that were not illegal. They were recording innocent individuals in a state of undress. That’s why that tape was deemed illegal and suppressed.”

Can the NFL punish Kraft?

What this all means for the NFL is a complicated question — at least partially because Kraft previously issued a vague apology for “disappointing” people in the wake of the 2019 misdemeanor charges.

The reality is that Kraft has never made an outright admission of any guilt in this case, or in response to his charges. And now it appears that prosecutors are going to be stripped of any evidence beyond Kraft visiting the spa, and even that traffic stop has been disputed as being illegal in court.

In essence, if the NFL’s league office chooses to pursue the matter under the personal conduct policy, it might have to do so with no evidence whatsoever to hold Kraft accountable for anything. That is, unless NFL investigators were aggressive enough to secure a copy of the spa surveillance — which might not even be possible or legal, considering the court decisions that have been rendered.

The league could also press Kraft to sit for an interview on the matter, which also seems less likely if the legal case against him and all the evidence accompanying it evaporates in the coming months (which may very well happen).

Essentially, the NFL is on the path to having no evidence in hand, no legal case to reference and no statement of guilt from Kraft. And the authorities who provided the impetus for his charges may end up being sued for violating the constitutional rights of other spa patrons. Also notable is that the spa Kraft visited produced only simple prostitution charges and no ties to human trafficking.

All of this has taken what once looked like a serious legal case against an NFL team owner and turned it into a potentially catastrophic failure by prosecutors and authorities. What once looked like a surefire personal conduct issue for the league now looks like a misdemeanor prostitution incident that completely imploded under legal scrutiny.

Perhaps the only clear result is that Kraft is going to come out of all of this a big winner in the legal arena. His lawyers appear to have exposed troubling issues with police surveillance that could result in a lasting win for average citizens when it comes to Fourth Amendment protections.

Robinson labels the government agency here “federal” prosecutors which we believe is incorrect.  In other stories, the zealous (perhaps overzealous) prosecution is being pursued by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office.

Which is ironic, because that office which is so determined to bring charges for this business transaction between consenting adults is the same one that repeatedly and suspiciously looked the other way in the cases involving the late Jeffrey Epstein and the currently-incarcerate Ghislaine Maxwell.

We should mention that the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office is now under new management.

THIS AND THAT

BIG TEN

We won’t dwell on it too much today, but this from a Michigan player and his emergency room doctor father shows the frustration at the Big Ten’s secretive decision to shutdown.  Clayton Sayfie at Rivals.com:

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh had to stand in front of his team last Tuesday to deliver news that he likely never thought he’d have to. Harbaugh explained that, due to concerns from the coronavirus pandemic, the Big Ten canceled its fall football season.

The players have expressed how disappointed they were at the news in the days since. Junior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson went a step further: He was “infuriated,” and those emotions are still intact a week later.

“They made this decision without talking to us,” Hutchinson told ESPN’s Marty Smith on his podcast, Marty Smith’s America. “The commissioner [Kevin Warren], our president [Mark Schlissel], there were no words exchanged, asking about our thoughts and whether we want to play, because at the end of the day, we’re the ones playing the game.

“They didn’t ask us for our opinion, and it was super frustrating to find out one day that our president voted for us not to have the season, when I’ve never seen that guy in my three years here at Michigan. You know, it was definitely frustrating and I was just very infuriated and kind of helpless, because there’s nothing I can do. Us players don’t have a voice.”

Hutchinson’s father, Chris Hutchinson, is an E.R. doctor at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., and has been on the front lines fighting COVID-19 since the pandemic swept America this past spring. He is also a former All-American defensive lineman at Michigan. He knows both sides of the coin to this decision, and has remained firm throughout that he feels it’s safe to play.

Aidan’s parents, along with those of many other Wolverines, wrote a letter this week, demanding the reversal of the Big Ten’s decision to cancel the season and requesting transparency and clarity regarding the reasons behind the decision.

It’s been reported that one reason why the Big Ten decided to postpone is the issue of myocarditis, a heart condition that is the result of viral infections such as influenza and COVID-19. Dr. Chris Hutchinson doesn’t believe those concerns are valid enough to warrant a cancellation, he said last week. Aidan said his father is working on more research to back up his claim.

“I just got off the phone with my mom, and she was talking about how my dad has just been debunking the whole data that Kevin Warren, the Big Ten commissioner, has been using as his primary data to cancel the season,” Aidan Hutchinson said. “My dad was really curious on this data, with the heart condition. It was very flawed, is what he told me.

“I think him and my mom are visiting the Big Ten headquarters, with that whole thing going on, soon. I think he’s gonna debunk the data they gathered on the heart condition, because it’s flawed and it wasn’t right for Kevin Warren to use that data as his primary reason to cancel our season.”

Although he knows there’s a slim chance the Big Ten actually reverses course, Hutchinson believes Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields’ #WeWantToPlay petition is a positive step toward giving players more of a voice.

“It’s kind of tricky,” Hutchinson said. “I don’t know how effective all of it is, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to have that season. I don’t know if Kevin Warren or Mark Schlissel, our president, are listening, but as long as we keep having our voice and, with the whole Justin Fields thing and all the people visiting the Big Ten headquarters — I think if we keep pressing them and pressing them, I think there will be changes made.

“I’m just hoping that we can get a response from our president, a response from the Big Ten commissioner about something. There’s just so many questions going around right now, and I feel like questions that are being unanswered, quite frankly.

“I think it’s very unfair to us as athletes and it’s very unfair to the parents. We’re the ones out there playing football. We’re the ones playing during this pandemic. And it’s the Big Ten commissioner who’s making the decision for us. I think it’s unfair, and we all just want answers to our questions.”

Interesting that Hutchinson’s comments haven’t been picked up by ESPN.com or most other corporate media.

Somebody got to Pat Forde of SI.com after he expressed extreme skepticism about the decision on Monday.  By Thursday, he was all in on the “perfectly logical” decision of “smart people” and everyone else who is not convinced by Kevin Warren’s semi-charm offensive is “looney.”

The Big Ten can stop fighting itself now, right?

Right?

Can we get a peace sign out of the folks in Columbus? A white flag from Lincoln? Some happiness from Happy Valley? Can all the nice people who go to Iowa games get back to waving? Can the looney player parents who talked about going to Chicago to confront commissioner Kevin Warren at league HQ find something more important to protest?

Warren’s open letter Wednesday closes the book on fall football in America’s oldest and richest college athletic conference. The decision made last week—“a gut-wrenching decision,” Warren told Sports Illustrated—is not changing. Fall sports are not happening.

It sucks. It’s also a perfectly logical and defensible position to take, one that Warren very consistently stated all along could end up being the way it goes. It’s also a position shared by the Pac-12, the Mountain West, the Mid-American Conference and just about everyone at the FCS level of NCAA Division I athletics. That includes the Ivy League, which has a few smart people within its membership.

Six other leagues are still playing, as we all know, including three members of the Power 5: the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences. That has made Warren’s stance tougher, with fans howling that the league is being left behind. (Which is ludicrous.) The fact that his son, Powers, is playing at SEC member school Mississippi State has also created a lot of noise.

“As a family, we’ve had many difficult discussions,” Warren said. “You don’t mix family issues with work issues.

“I have great respect for the other Power 5 conferences … but our focus is on the almost 10,000 student-athletes we have at 14 world-class institutions over 11 states. That is my focus.”

There is no guarantee that, in a week or two or three, those leagues still playing won’t end up where the Big Ten is today. If anything, news out of North Carolina and Notre Dame has thrown fresh doubt on whether anyone can pull this off. With campuses welcoming in the general student population, COVID-19 forest fires can erupt all over the place.

So it bears repeating that the Big Ten decision is not some irrational, outlier stance. It’s simply an unpopular decision, and the people who are performatively outraged over the process are actually just angry with the result. Warren acknowledged that he didn’t do a great job articulating the league’s reasoning last week, but ultimately he had the backing of the university presidents and the Big Ten medical advisory board.

A group of Big Ten parents showed up in Rosemont, Illinois to confront the conference and were left standing outside to fume as Kevin Warren was nowhere to be found while security kept the property safe from the mob.  Joe Kinsey of Outkick.com:

Parents of Big Ten players descended upon conference headquarters this morning to voice their concern with how the fall football season was canceled and the lack of transparency out of commissioner Kevin Warren. Outkick’s Ryan Glasspiegel was on the ground to talk to parents who want answers from Warren.

“We want to know what has to happen in different areas around these schools for us to move forward safely,” Randy Wade, father of OSU CB Shaun Wade said to the gathered media. “We don’t want them to just say we can’t play because of uncertainty.”

“I’m military, you’re always going to have uncertainty,” Wade added.

Julie Waggoner, the mother of Iowa DE John Waggoner, said she saw “feeling” in Warren’s letter to the Big Ten community and that was worrisome. “We understand some people having fear, but we need to lead with facts and not with fear.”

The blame lays with the Big Ten for a lack of communication, according to Jeff Borland, the father of Ohio State LB Tuf Borland.

“These kids have virtually self-quarantined for three months and worked their tails off and done everything the NCAA and the university have asked them to do,” Jeff Borland said. “To have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last minute with really no additional information is really a shame.”

Commissioner Warren has said the decision to cancel fall sports is final. According to Glasspiegel, police are keeping people off the Big Ten’s property and Big Ten representatives have not met with the parents.

“You can’t tell us that the Big Ten can’t get it together,That the ACC can get it together. That the SEC can get it together. The Big Ten can do the same,” Andrea Tate, the mother of Ohio State cornerback Sevyn Banks, said during a passionate speech.

“We need the Big Ten Conference to stand and fight.”

Randy Wade said that he’d like to see Warren hold a Zoom call with all 14 parent associations to clarify how decisions were made.

“We don’t like how the decision went down and not knowing whether they voted or didn’t vote” he said. “Our kids wear Big Ten on every jersey. We represent the Big Ten. It’s just not good to have a kid disappointed over something he can’t control.”

BROADCAST NEWS

Thom Brennaman will not be calling NFL games on FOX in 2020 after an unfortunate word came out during a Cincinnati Reds broadcast.  Phil Mushnick of the New York Post looks at how a broadcast career can be damaged in an ill-advised second.

Who’d a thunk it? In our exchanges, he’d never even cussed. Can’t say the same for myself.

I know Fox and Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman long enough to be shocked that he’d speak a slur for homosexuals — the F-word — even when he thought he was off the air, let alone while attached to a microphone.

I don’t know if he’ll receive the career death penalty, given that he was more likely trying to sound like a wise guy rather than a hate monger. Sometimes “Some of my best friends are …” makes for legitimate mitigation.

But we can rationalize anything. Bottom line: Brennaman should never have been inclined to speak such a slur.

But I do know that even after Jay-Z wrote, recorded, performed and sold rap songs in which he trashed gays — and rapped far worse, including a steady reference to black men as the N-word and the vulgar sexual objectifications of women — Roger Goodell’s NFL embraced him as its Minister of Social Justice.

Thus we do know that justice is selective, seldom reflecting the genuine, blindfolded kind.

Philadelphia’s former mayor, Michael Nutter, a black man, demanded the Eagles fire white receiver Riley Cooper for using the N-word, but had no problem with the Phillies signing Delmon Young after he attacked a bearded man because he thought he was Jewish.

In the meantime, Charlotte Hornets’ first-season radio play-by-play man John Focke has been indefinitely suspended for tweeting on the fly from his kitchen table while watching a Utah-Denver game.

Hitting “send” without looking, he referenced the Nuggets as the plural of the N-word while quickly banging out “Jazz-Nuggets,” a no-look message for the real-time reading edification of very few.

Focke explained his was a careless cell phone mistake. And as the Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler wrote, “Look down at your own screen. The ‘u’ is next to the ‘i,’ the ‘t’ is next to the ‘r.’ ”

Still, as CBS’ venerable Verne Lundquist has preached, the most dangerous word in our language has become “SEND.”

Beyond that, for what logical reason would Focke have typed and sent such? Was he trying put an early end to his career or did he make a negligent technological error?

This week I returned an email to a reader named “Puggy,” later to see that I referenced him as “Piggy.”

As a matter of common sense, the suspension of Focke makes none, like ESPN’s firing of tennis analyst Doug Adler for complimenting Venus Willliams’ “guerilla” tactics, as if he suddenly and for no reason called her a gorilla.

If the Hornets believe Focke’s intentionally used that word, he must be fired as a racist — even if others in and associated with the NBA regularly use it.

If it was what it sensibly appears to be — modern technology turned on its creator like Frankenstein’s monster — Focke must be forgiven, his career unstained by a speed-typing accident.

Only the unreasonable and illogical would be left to believe otherwise, that out of the blue, Focke, a freshly hired NBA radio man, decided to call the Nuggets a group racial slur. By the way, who suspended or fired the Rev. Jesse Jackson for calling NYC “Hymie Town”?

RANKING THE BACKUP QUARTERBACKS

Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com on which teams can persevere if QB1 goes down (the Saints top the list) and which are dead in the water (the Rams).  As we scroll down the list, we’re going to look to where we think Colin Kaepernick (based on what we can extrapolate on his level of performance when he left the league and the passage of time) might be an upgrade:

In this season of all seasons, having a backup plan is vital. Below is our ranking of the backup quarterbacks around the NFL.

1 Jameis Winston

New Orleans Saints · 6th year

Post-LASIK Jameis in a Sean Payton offense is something I want to see. For all the mistakes Winston made last season, quarterbacks don’t stumble into 121 touchdowns and a 7.7 YPA average (13th all-time!) in 70 starts by age 26. Winston may be the opposite of Teddy Bridgewater in most respects, but they should share an ability to beat out Taysom Hill, he of six career completions, in a quarterback competition.

2 Andy Dalton

Dallas Cowboys · 10th year

If Dak Prescott were to get injured, there is little doubt Dalton could keep the Cowboys’ offense above average. For so long the prime meridian dividing franchise quarterbacks from the rest, Dalton inspires gratitude as a backup rather than ambivalence as a starter.

3 Tua Tagovailoa

Miami Dolphins · Rookie

Two veterans are ranked ahead of Tagovailoa because this is only taking the 2020 season into account. Early practice reports about Tua’s health are promising, but he’s still coming into his rookie year fresh off a major injury with very little practice time. He profiles as the type of player, however, to mitigate mistakes while figuring out the pro game on the fly.

4 Jacoby Brissett

Indianapolis Colts · 5th year

Coach Frank Reich insists he’s going to find ways to use Brissett, easily the highest-paid backup in football with nearly $16 million in cash due this year. Brissett’s play plummeted while he gutted it out through a knee injury in the second half of last season, but he was a heady starter before then.

5 Nick Foles

Chicago Bears · 9th year

Foles’ every-other-opportunity career would put him on track to improve this Bears offense once the Mitchell Trubisky era runs its course. (Estimate: Week 3.) Then again, Foles’ all-or-nothing style means that this ranking is either way too high or way too low.

6 Case Keenum

Cleveland Browns · 9th year

Only 17 quarterbacks have started more games than Keenum since the start of 2016. He may never reach the heights of his Vikings days again, but Keenum can keep a good ship afloat or provide a spark for a lackluster situation.

7 Justin Herbert

Los Angeles Chargers · Rookie

It is no surprise Herbert’s arm looks great throwing against air in Chargers camp. His athletic skill set is similar to Tyrod Taylor’s in many ways, which should make for a natural transition if Los Angeles’ offense goes south during the season.

8 Marcus Mariota

Las Vegas Raiders · 6th year

No one has ever doubted Mariota’s leadership or toughness. If he wasn’t the No. 2 pick in the draft, however, there isn’t much about his passing game that stands out. No matter what bouquets Jon Gruden throws Mariota’s way publicly, don’t expect to see him play this season barring a Derek Carr injury or the Raiders falling 2-to-3 games under .500.

9 Nick Mullens

San Francisco 49ers · 4th year

No one besides Kyle Shanahan seems to give Mullens credit for his performance during eight starts in his first year on an active roster back in 2018. To put it another way: If Mariota played exactly like Mullens, he’d probably have a starting job.

10 Jalen Hurts

Philadelphia Eagles · Rookie

Hurts is ranked a little higher here despite his lack of experience because of my confidence that Doug Pederson would play to his strengths. Hurts’ first order of business is to beat out Nate Sudfeld in camp. I know Pederson’s been labeling Sudfeld as the QB2, but I’ll bet on Hurts’ second-round draft pedigree and dual-threat ability winning out in the end.

11 Geno Smith

Seattle Seahawks · 8th year

Geno played well in his last extended stretch of starts. The problem is that they took place in 2014, before The Punch. Still just 29, Smith has since backed up Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson, making the Divisional Round the last two years. How many quarterbacks can say that?

12 Joe Flacco

New York Jets · 13th year

Flacco would be ranked higher if he wasn’t still recovering from neck surgery. Imagining him behind the Jets’ offensive line makes me wince.

13 Chad Henne

Kansas City Chiefs · 13th year

Andy Reid named Henne the backup quarterback early in camp, designating Matt Moore the No. 3 option. He’s thrown five passes in the last five seasons, but the Reid seal of approval carries weight in these parts.

14 Chase Daniel

Detroit Lions · 12th year

Now seven years removed from his career-defining Making the Leap piece, Daniel is still waiting to break out. He’s made over $37 million in career earnings for five starts, which has to be one of the best ratios of cash-to-playing time in NFL history.

15 Trevor Siemian

Tennessee Titans · 6th year

Signed Wednesday to compete with Logan Whiteside, Siemian had better tape than you remember in 24 Broncos starts between 2016 and ’17. While he’s coming off a gruesome ankle injury, Siemian profiles as a poor man’s Ryan Tannehill, athletic enough to succeed as a system quarterback.

16 AJ McCarron

Houston Texans · 7th year

McCarron’s Week 17 outing against the Titans last December was his first significant action since starting one of the most infamous playoff games of the 2010s. Last year’s spot start (with Deshaun Watson resting for the playoffs) didn’t go very well, but his track record of impressing solid quarterback tutors like Hue Jackson and Bill O’Brien is worth something.

17 Blaine Gabbert

Tampa Bay Buccaneers · 10th year

Bruce Arians likes Gabbert, which is a strong point in his favor. He needs to be careful, though, after Tom Brady got his last handsome backup run out of town.

18 P.J. Walker

Carolina Panthers · QB

Walker looks like the favorite in a training camp battle with Will Grier. He was the most exciting player in the XFL, and the recency bias of that performance is carrying weight because it’s been so long since I’ve seen most of these guys play that well.

19 Tim Boyle

Green Bay Packers · 3rd year

Early camp reports make it sound like first-rounder Jordan Love has a lot of ground to make up in the battle to be Aaron Rodgers’ backup. Boyle has a big arm and flashed in the preseason last year, giving the Packers an enviable quarterback room.

20 Robert Griffin III

Baltimore Ravens · 8th year

After missing all of 2015 following a preseason concussion and being out the league entirely in 2017, it’s an upset that RG3 wound up outlasting Andrew Luck. The limited sample size Griffin has shown in regular-season action in Baltimore, however, hasn’t been great.

21 Kyle Allen

Washington Football Team · 3rd year

New Washington offensive coordinator Scott Turner and head coach Ron Rivera liked Allen enough to import him from Carolina. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Allen start games this season despite an uneven run as the Panthers’ starter.

22 Matt Schaub

Atlanta Falcons · 17th year

Schaub was only a year younger than Michael Vick when he entered the league as his backup. It’s wild that Schaub is still collecting checks all these years later — and it’s even wilder he threw for 460 yards against the Seahawks in his only start last year.

23 Colt McCoy

New York Giants · 11th year

McCoy has lasted a decade in the NFL despite myriad injuries because he usually looks pretty capable until he gets hurt. His role with the Giants is ideally more as a mentor for Daniel Jones.

24 Jarrett Stidham

New England Patriots · 2nd year

It is tricky in these rankings to know where to bet on unknown upside over known mediocrity. It’s hard to imagine Stidham playing over Cam Newton, but it’s also hard to imagine Stidham being a total stiff after the Patriots came so close to handing him the keys to the kingdom. All of his camp interceptions aren’t helping.

25 Jeff Driskel

Denver Broncos · 5th year

No one has been called “sneaky athletic” by announcers more despite nothing about Driskel’s awesome athleticism being sneaky. That makes him a fun fill-in for a game or two, but that’s about it. John Elway could have done a whole lot better when looking for Drew Lock insurance this offseason.

26 Mike Glennon

Jacksonville Jaguars · 8th year

That three-year, $45 million contract with the Bears feels like a long time ago, as does that promising rookie season with the Bucs. The larger the sample size Glennon has seen in the league, the harder it’s become to find a coach who believes in him.

27 Matt Barkley

Buffalo Bills · 8th year

Entering his eighth season, he’s now outlasted Matt Leinart’s NFL tenure. And he always comes into games gunning, which is the right approach to keep a career going.

28 Mason Rudolph

Pittsburgh Steelers · 3rd year

Pittsburgh coaches and fans say they need to see more from Rudolph before honestly evaluating him, which feels like the same sort of sunk-cost fallacy that makes teams stick with starters like Mitch Trubisky for too long.

29 Sean Mannion

Minnesota Vikings · 6th year

Mannion has two career starts, both coming when his teams rested their starters in Week 17. Spending multiple years under Sean McVay and now Gary Kubiak, if nothing else, should provide an incredible education in offense.

30 Ryan Finley

Cincinnati Bengals · 2nd year

If the Bengals didn’t rush Finley into the starting lineup before he was ready last season, they may never have wound up with Joe Burrow. <Insert GIF of man pointing at his head here.>

31 Brett Hundley

Brett Hundley

Arizona Cardinals · 6th year

It’s surprising that Hundley has a No. 2 job while Blake Bortles is out of the league. (Anyone making it this far in a backup-quarterbacks ranking was probably not expecting a take that scorching, but that’s why I make the big bucks.)

32 John Wolford

Los Angeles Rams · 3rd year

Perhaps L.A. gave Goff a few extra million dollars for his durability. The Rams certainly seem to assume they’ll never need a backup, especially this year with Wolford as the No. 2. He’s another AAF grad who went undrafted from Wake Forest in 2018 before spending last season on the Rams’ practice squad.

So we’ve scrolled down – and we’re not sure where to put Kaepernick, partly because we can’t buy into all the ratings.  For example, we think MATT SCHAUB (22) and JARRETT STIDHAM (24) probably should be higher while we aren’t as enamored of TREVOR SIEMIAN (15) and A.J. McCARRON (16).

And we would prefer a non-controversial Kaepernick to Siemian and McCarron, but not Schaub or Stidham.

So somewhere in the area near #20, which is the top 50 line of current QBs.  What say you?