Things that concern Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com after Week 1.

There really can be no debate: The NFL has aced its initial efforts to practice and play amid the coronavirus pandemic. Since training camp practices began in mid-August, only seven players have produced positive test results. There have been no team outbreaks, and the only scare was caused by a contaminated private lab in New Jersey.

The success prompts two natural questions. First, are there any remaining obstacles to playing a full 2020 season, as league officials have said for months they plan to do? And second, can the protocols be loosened in any way while maintaining the current results?

The answer to the latter seems obvious. There is a strong internal push to get fans in more stadiums, wherever local and state regulations allow it. Ticket revenue is one motivation, of course, but fans would also enliven the otherwise awkward and sterile game atmosphere in empty stadiums. Commissioner Roger Goodell did not hide this ambition during a media call earlier this month.

“I believe,” Goodell said, “that we will be having a lot of teams that start with no fans at the beginning of the season, and [then] evolve to fans.”

Three teams hosted fans last weekend, in reduced capacities — Kansas City, Jacksonville and Denver — and four more will do so in Week 2. Goodell pledged to take a “cautious approach” and to cooperate with public health officials on all safety measures. To be sure, with the first 20 feet of seats in every stadium tarped off, players and coaches assuredly will maintain a safe distance from fans.

Regardless, some epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists said there is no way to eliminate the risk of bringing together thousands of people in a football stadium, ensuring there is a chance — however slight — that an NFL game could trigger community outbreak. Thursday, the Kansas City Chiefs announced that one guest at their Sept. 10 opener has since tested positive for COVID-19.

“Sports leagues like to talk about this in a binary way,” said Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University. “It’s safe, or it’s not safe. The truth is that everything should be viewed over the risk continuum. More people equals more risk. And it still hasn’t been explained what is the benefit supposed to be. There’s money for the teams. There’s maybe a little bit of mental benefit for the people who get to go to the games. But I don’t think that outweighs even a minor threat to the rest of the community.

“I’m not telling people they can’t have football. I’m not telling them they can’t watch it at home. I’m saying, please just don’t go to the stadium. I don’t think, with all the sacrifices that so many other people are making, that’s an unreasonable request.”

Let’s take a closer look at both of our initial questions, utilizing the expertise of an epidemiologist, an infectious disease expert and an ethicist.

Fans in the stadium

In June, researchers at West Virginia University found a link between seasonal flu deaths and the presence of professional sports in United States cities — and their oft-packed stadiums — from 1962 to 2016. Because the flu spreads in similar ways to COVID-19, one of the authors of the paper said: “Opening pro sports games to fans is probably a terrible idea, in terms of public health.”

Three months later, more is known about limiting COVID-19 transmission. NFL teams are cutting capacity by 80% or more. The Chiefs, for instance, announced attendance of 15,895 at Arrowhead Stadium for their opener, about 20% of capacity. Others are planning for similar restrictions. They are also implementing measures that include mandatory face coverings, symptom checks, dedicated entrances and separated “pods” in the stands.

Those policies might reduce the chance of spread, but they won’t eliminate it. Contact tracing in Kansas City forced 10 people into quarantine who came into close contact with the individual who tested positive. It could take up to three weeks to know whether the disease spread among them or to anyone else associated with the game. And while teams can ensure that fans enter their assigned gate and are wearing masks at that point, they will have less control over enforcement of masking and physical distancing throughout a three-hour game.

“It has been documented in scientific literature that certain activities such as singing or yelling could lead to aerosolization of the virus,” said Jill Weatherhead, an assistant professor of infectious diseases and tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “[That allows] the virus to stay suspended in the air and travel further, and that could facilitate super-spreader events. These activities, even at reduced stadium volume, could lead to outbreaks. The invitation of fans into football games that already involve large groups of players who are in close contact for hours is extremely risky. There is otherwise no data to support a certain number of fans that would be safe, and this should be heavily considered before allowing fans into a stadium during an uncontrolled pandemic.”

The NFL has a bigger obligation than simply to comply with local regulations, said Don Heider, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

“When you make a decision like this, it’s not just about the players and the coaches and the teams and the fans,” Heider said. “It’s every person those people come into contact with. That’s where it gets much more difficult. As ethicists, we would ask, ‘What is the good here? If I’m trying to maximize good and minimize harm, what’s the benefit of opening the stadiums up? And is that benefit worth a human life? More than one human life? Or a resurgence in the virus in the community?'”

The Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars, who hosted 14,100 fans in their Week 1 opener, both play in outdoor stadiums. In Week 2, two teams with hybrid facilities — the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium and the Indianapolis Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium — will enter the fray. Both stadiums have retractable roofs and sides. The Cowboys haven’t confirmed how many fans they’ll admit, but the Colts have capped their attendance at 2,500. Binney called indoor stadiums “far more dangerous for transmission of COVID-19,” even if the roof and/or sides are open.

Ultimately, Heider said, teams have a “social responsibility” to their community even if it conflicts with what some fans might want.

“It’s a tough decision,” Heider said. “You hope each NFL team is really sitting down and having a serious discussion and analysis of what the ethical implications are, and what the long-term implications are, and if it’s worth it to have X number of fans in the stands.”

Complacency and community load

Binney was pessimistic about the NFL’s pandemic approach when training camp began. The league had decided against the kind of “bubble” environment employed to great success by the NBA, WNBA, NHL and professional soccer. The NFL’s protocols were closer to those of Major League Baseball, which suffered through a series of team outbreaks early in its return.

NFL players, coaches and staff would be subject to extensive masking and social distancing requirements while at the team facility. But as with those in baseball, they would be exposed to communities that in some cases were hosting raging virus spikes. Four summer hot spots — Florida, California, Texas and Arizona — are home to nine of the NFL’s 32 teams.

This week, Binney admitted he is “stunned” at how well the league has fared.

“And I’m happy to be stunned,” he said. “It has exceeded all of my expectations and, I think, many people’s expectations. What we have seen is that these protocols can work for a period of several weeks when people are very vigilant. I have no reason to believe that the protocols are going to start to fail, but it’s important to make the point that they’re constantly in a very fragile situation, and constant vigilance is required.”

Indeed, complacency might represent the NFL’s biggest obstacle to continuing its season unabated. To this point, it’s clear that NFL personnel are largely staying away from the kind of risky behavior that can increase the chances of infection. Daily testing and digital contact tracing, both cornerstones of the league’s protocol, can help minimize the spread of a single infection, but those measures can get overwhelmed if a large number of people are infected simultaneously.

“An outbreak really can happen at any time,” Binney said. “We’ve seen it in college football over and over and over again. If you don’t follow the protocols and you’re not careful, you can do something that would cause the virus to spread through the entire team. That can happen.

“But also, when a case does happen, it doesn’t necessarily mean that somebody did something risky. Cases can arise even if you’re doing your level best. Imagine a coach’s kid is in day care. Another kid gets infected, or a teacher there is infected, and infects the kid. The coach comes home, hugs his kid and gets COVID-19. He didn’t disobey any protocols. He did the best he could and still got infected.”

The chances of such a scenario would increase if community cases rise, as many public health experts are predicting this fall as the flu season arrives and cooler weather forces more people indoors.

“The United States continues to have uncontrolled community transmission in many areas around the country,” Weatherhead said. “Further uncontrolled community spread, and development of new hotspots, could jeopardize the success of football this fall and winter season, as well as jeopardize the health of players, coaches and community members. The higher the rates of community viral transmission, the greater the risk playing football will have for the athletes, staff and the community.”

During the four testing periods that began Aug. 12, the NFL has had zero, four, one and two players produce confirmed positive results, respectively. There has never been more than 10 personnel from other areas of the team to produce confirmed positive results in a single period. In reality, the NFL has some wiggle room before an increase would jeopardize the current game schedule.

“The hope,” Binney said, “is that daily testing and continued vigilance will still prevent outbreaks. So even if there is a seasonal worsening, maybe they go from one or two cases per week to maybe five or six cases but they’re all isolated on different teams. So that would be an increase in cases, but not enough to derail the season. That would be the hope.”

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

Even as other cities open up, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is quick to shut down the hopes of Bears fans that they could ever see their heroes this season at Soldier Field.  And she’s quick to blame the Bears for being bad partners with her regime.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

The Bears say they’re optimistic they’ll have fans at Soldier Field before the season is over. The mayor of Chicago is less optimistic.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said there’s a less than 50 percent chance that Soldier Field will be open to fans in 2020.

“We’ve had challenges there. The Bears have to be better partners in a range of different issues, this as well,” Lightfoot said, via Chris Emma of 670 The Score. “We’re willing to absolutely work with the Bears. But they got to talk with us and be willing to cooperate and not just say things in the media. . . . We’re nowhere near at a place where we can even realistically talk about fans coming back to Soldier Field.”

Soldier Field opens for the season on Sunday, and the stands will be empty. Lightfoot thinks the stadium will be empty for seven more games after that.

More:

“It’s a complicated thing. I can’t just react to someone saying, ‘Oh, yeah, we want to get fans in the stands.’ It’s not going to be that easy, and it’s not going to happen unless we have real dialogue and a real conversation about the nuts and bolts, the granularity that’s going be needed to even talk about a plan for having fans in the stands. That hasn’t happened yet. We’re certainly open to it.

“I don’t like hearing for the first time on sports media, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re going to have fans in the stands.’ Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Talk to the Cubs.

“We’re nowhere near at a place where we can even realistically talk about fans coming back to Soldier Field.”

Is the DB cynical about Chicago politics to think that the “dialogue” that Mayor Lightfoot is demanding be colored green?

NFC EAST

NEW YORK GIANTS

Tiki Barber, who knows what it like to star under New York pressure, didn’t hesitate to add his voice to the criticism of RB SAQUON BARKLEY.  Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com:

Tiki Barber didn’t mince words when discussing Saquon Barkley‘s Week One performance. It wasn’t only the 15 carries for 6 yards that prompted the former Giants running back’s criticism of the current Giants running back.

Barber questioned whether Barkley should remain an every-down back because “he doesn’t want to hit anybody” in pass protection.

Barkley heard Barber’s comments and said Thursday he didn’t take it personally.

“Obviously Tiki is a legend, did a lot of great things for this franchise,” Barkley said, via Zack Rosenblatt of NJ.com. “I’m not gonna look at it as disrespect. I’m gonna look at it as a challenge. But it’s the same thing with him as everybody else: I don’t care about anybody’s outside opinions. I’m really only focused on the opinions in this building. I try to come to work every single day and get better.”

Barkley has not talked to Barber since Barber made his comments.

“I guess he addressed something on his show, which is his God-given right,” Barkley said. “He has an opinion, he voices his opinion and . . . it’s opinion to have. I’m taking it more as a challenge, not disrespect. I’m just focused on myself and everyone here in this building.”

There is no denying Barkley struggled in pass protection. Pro Football Focus gave him a pass blocking grade of 25.5, which ranked him 69th of 76 eligible running backs in Week One.

“He might not be an every-down back,” Barber said on his CBS Sports Radio show. “He cannot pass protect, and it is starting to become glaring. It was probably the only issue he had to deal with coming into the NFL. He wasn’t asked to do it at Penn State. And you see him diving on the ground, not sticking his head in people’s chests. It’s gonna be a liability, because people see it now, it’s on tape, and it’s gonna come out.”

PHILADELPHIA

The Eagles are saying that RB MILES SAUNDERS (hamstring) is expected to play Sunday against the Rams after sitting out the loss to the Football Team from Washington.

NFC SOUTH

TAMPA BAY

QB TOM BRADY was a bit testy on Thursday, although it was unclear whether or not he was peeved with Coach Bruce Arians or the pesky press.   Tyler Sullivan of CBSSports.com:

Bruce Arians didn’t pull any punches when assessing Tom Brady’s debut with the Buccaneers in Week 1 where the quarterback threw two interceptions in a 34-23 loss to New Orleans. The head coach wasn’t shy at pointing out where Brady made his mistakes in the immediate aftermath of the opener and even followed suit the next day.

“He looked like Tom Brady in practice all the time, so it’s kind of unusual to see that in the ballgame because they didn’t do the things that we didn’t get ready for,” Arians said Monday. “Everything they did, we thought we were ready for.”

He later added to his criticism: “It speaks for itself. If you throw an out route and you don’t throw it low and outside – that hasn’t been the case up until that one. [He] was a little bit late on it and it probably [would have been] a better decision to go somewhere else with the ball.”

Arians also highlighted that Brady’s receivers need to do a better job at winning one-on-ones and did admit that one of the quarterback’s interceptions was actually on Mike Evans, who should have run a different route on the play. Nevertheless, Arians’ criticism has been a spicy storyline entering Week 2 and has brought about the question of whether or not the six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback should be ripped so publicly by his head coach. After all, Brady’s former coach in New England, Bill Belichick, certainly criticized him over the course of his 20 years with the franchise, but never through the media. 

“He’s a coach and I’m a player – just trying to win a game,” Brady told reporters Thursday when asked about Arians’ comments.

Arians himself doesn’t seem to think that his criticisms have damaged his relationship with his new quarterback, telling reporters on Wednesday, “Tom and I are fine, so I don’t really care what other people think. It’s just what he and I think. We left the stadium fine [and] we showed up today fine, so there [is] nothing to talk about.”

Overall, this may be just part of the growing pains for Brady as he continues to make this transition to Tampa Bay. Facing New Orleans was naturally going to be a tough contest out of the gate, but it will be interesting to see how he and the Buccaneers respond after that loss when they host the Carolina Panthers at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday. 

– – –

Sunday’s nuggets, today.  Adam Amin shares some game prep:

@adamamin

Quick Tom Brady hits:

– 3 start losing streak (w/playoff loss to TEN); has lost 4 straight starts 1x (2002)

– 4x lost week1, previous 3 times ended up in Super Bowl…has never started a season with 2 straight losses

– In-season record with Belichick after a loss: 45-13 (77.5%)

AFC WEST

LAS VEGAS

Emerging star TE DARREN WALLER has a troubled history to go with his bright future.  Terez Paylor of YahooSports.com:

Darren Waller could sense his star beginning to rise last August, when his journey from drug and alcohol addiction to sobriety, and ultimately the NFL’s Raiders, was chronicled on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”

Selected by Baltimore in the sixth round of the 2015 draft, Waller was suspended from the Ravens due to the substance abuse that has plagued him since his teens. After a near-death experience with Baltimore where he overdosed in his car, he underwent intense therapy, returned to the NFL in 2018 and worked hard to carve out a role to keep the comeback alive, which fans of “Hard Knocks” caught a glimpse of.

Yet, it’s when Waller made the team and started thriving for the Raiders that he began to see the impact his personal journey was having on people.

“People would DM me and they would be like, ‘I got clean because of you’ or ‘What can I do? What can be my first steps back?’ that kind of stuff,” Waller told Yahoo Sports in a recent phone conversation. “It was a bit overwhelming to me … like, it was definitely a positive that people would look to me and want that but at first I was like, ‘Wow, you know, I’m just trying to not necessarily just keep my head above water but I’m just working my own program out. I don’t really consider myself the wisest by any means.’”

Waller, 28, says those messages also helped him stay on his Ps and Qs in regard to his recovery, just so he wouldn’t be “giving people lip service.” He responded to fans when he could, stressing the importance of getting out of the denial stage, allowing others to help and embrace the opportunity in front of them to change their lives.

Using those very same tools, Waller thrived with the Raiders last season, catching 90 passes for 1,145 yards and earning a four-year, $29.8 million contract extension last October.

Along the way something else happened, says Waller, who recently celebrated being clean for 37 months. A call to action was spurred, one that was driven from a conversation with his best friend, Stephen Fowler.

“He was like, ‘Man, you’ve got to start thinking about what you’re going to do for people now,’” Waller recalled. “Because before, I was always about me and what I could gain when I was getting high. But now it’s like, OK, I feel like I’m in this position where people are looking to me and people are inspired by me. [I’m asking] how can I really use this platform?”

So once the Raiders’ 2019 season ended and the team moved to Nevada, Waller came up with his answer: The Darren Waller Foundation, a charity whose purpose is to help Las Vegas youth avoid and/or overcome addiction to drugs and alcohol, and support them and their families during their recovery and treatment.

“I know there are a lot of Darren Wallers out there, in the fact that they’re struggling to fit in, struggling to find their worth and they may be looking for it in other people,” Waller said. “I just want my legacy to be that I did everything I could to inform them and to let them know that there are other options than the options that I took and so many of us take.”

Waller, after all, knows firsthand how difficult the journey is. It often starts with one’s self, and requires deep, honest introspection about the true cause of the addiction, which for him was feeling alienated growing up in suburban Atlanta, “not Black enough” — his words, which he has elaborated on before with The Athletic’s Dan Pompei — and just not enough, period.

“And I felt like I had to do so many different things to impress people, to be approved because I was craving that, and then I found drugs and alcohol,” Waller explained. “I mean, it was like a double-edged sword — it would help me create relationships, help me be around people and they would see me as cool, but it would also numb me to everything that I was feeling and anything that was racing in my mind, and I just kind of ran with that.”

That is, until rehab helped him realize that he didn’t need drugs and alcohol to get through life, and that a more fulfilling existence remained on the other side.

“I had no idea that my life could have more purpose, more meaning, and I could impact people in a greater way once I could get out of the self-centered nature of how I was using,” Waller said. “And once I was able to do and go to rehab and build a new mental foundation, spiritual foundation, that’s when everything really turned around for me.”

As such, Waller hopes his inaugural “Beyond the Wall” charity event, which will take place Sept. 28 at Dragon Ridge Country Club in Las Vegas, will serve as the jumping off point for the foundation.

“This gala is really just to get people excited, get people on board and to really inform them on what kind of impact I want to have on the community,” Waller said.

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

The injury bug is pouncing on the Chargers.  Jason Owens of YahooSports.com:

Los Angeles Chargers center Mike Pouncey is scheduled to undergo hip surgery and has been placed on season-ending injured reserve.

Pouncey missed the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals with the hip injury, which appears to be worse than initially thought. The nature of the injury is not clear.

This is the second straight season cut short for Pouncey, who missed all but five games last season after undergoing neck surgery for an injury suffered in October against the Denver Broncos.

Pouncey, 31, has made four Pro Bowls in his nine-year NFL career, including in 2018, his first with the Chargers and the last time he played a full season.

Pouncey’s absence marks another significant loss for the Chargers at the season’s outset. All-Pro safety Derwin James suffered a torn meniscus in training camp and is out for the season. Like Pouncey, James was also limited to just five games last season in an injury-ravaged season for the Chargers.

Meanwhile, Pro Bowl pass rusher Joey Bosa missed Wednesday’s practice with a triceps injury suffered against the Bengals. His status for Sunday’s home opener against the Kansas City Chiefs is not clear. Pro Bowl guard Trai Turner (knee) and backup running back Justin Jackson (quad) have also missed practice this week.

AFC NORTH

CINCINNATI

Undefeated at LSU, QB JOE BURROW is 0-2 as a pro, despite his best efforts.  Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:

In his first NFL prime-time game and second start, Bengals rookie quarterback Joe Burrow won over everybody but the scoreboard in the 35-30 loss to the Browns in Cleveland.

It was a record-setting performance, but not the kind he was looking for when he became the first Bengals quarterback to throw 60 passes in a regulation game when he put it up 61 times. His 37 completions were three shy of the record Ken Anderson set in an epic 1982 loss to Hall-of-Famer Dan Fouts, which means the game isn’t all that different from nearly 40 years ago.

A lot of passes don’t usually do it. Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield didn’t have to play like a Hall-of-Famer when he got 215 yards rushing, but he bit them with a deadly efficiency on 16 of 23 for 219 yards that was in stark contrast to Burrow’s miniscule yards per attempt.

But put Mayfield in that growing cadre of Joey’s Pals. After LeBron himself tweeted how special he thought Burrow is and fellow overall No. 1 pick and Fox analyst Troy Aikman predicting greatness, Mayfield chimed in.

“You could tell and it is true, the hype is real with Joe,” Mayfield said post-game. “I thought he played extremely well. Just being decisive, keeping plays extended and taking care of the ball, I thought he did a great job. It is always good to see another young guy come in and take over. Obviously, that team loves him, they follow him and he leads them.”

But Burrow wasn’t pleased. He calculated it may be the first time in his sporting career that the former Ohio High School All-State basketball guard has lost two straight games. Head coach Zac Taylor is 0-2 for a second straight season knowing the only time an 0-2 Bengals team that made the playoffs won the first AFC Central the season before Anderson was drafted 49 years ago.

“Losing isn’t very fun,” Burrow said. “It doesn’t feel very good. I know that the guys in there are hurting. We are going to come back to work tomorrow and try to get this thing right. Losing is unacceptable to me, to everyone in there, to Coach Taylor and to everybody in this organization. We are just going to have to get it fixed.”

Still, Burrow stood tall with his first three NFL touchdown, all five fourth-down conversions and a bottomless well of grit. The fact he could stand was even noteworthy. He kept them in a game the defense couldn’t keep close and with the Browns knowing he had to throw he took an ungodly number of shots and now has Bengaldom concerned about just how many of these games he can endure.

Three sacks. Seven hits. His first career sack-and-strip executed by the rampaging Myles Garrett on his own one-yard line.

“Yep,” Burrow said when asked if he can keep taking the hits all season. “I’m good. I feel good.”

But he didn’t feel good about the offense. His only completion of more than 20 yards was his first NFL touchdown pass, a 23-yarder floated down the left sideline to tight end C.J. Uzomah splitting the cornerback and safety and Burrow putting it on his numbers to pull the Bengals to 14-10 with nine minutes left in the first half.

The 61 passes netted just 316 yards, less than six yards a throw. He couldn’t connect with wide receiver A.J. Green on 10 of 13 targets. They couldn’t punch it in from the Browns 1 when they had a chance to cut it to 28-21 at the end of the third quarter, a sequence all say turned the game.

– – –

Was it Burrow or WR A.J. GREEN primarily responsible for the duo’s lack of success?  Kevin Patra of NFL.com thinks the latter:

Sometimes the end comes like a speeding road roller traveling at 120 mph, flattening everything in its path.

Is A.J. Green’s career staring directly at this steamroller?

The star receiver struggled mightily in Thursday night’s 35-30 loss to the Cleveland Browns. It wasn’t for lack of effort from rookie quarterback Joe Burrow, who targeted Green a team-high 13 times.

Green caught three of those 13 targets for a measly 29 yards. Per NFL Research, he became one of three receivers with 13-plus targets and fewer than 30 receiving yards in the last 10 years — Indianapolis’ Reggie Wayne in Week 3, 2011 and Carolina’s Rashad Greene in Week 1, 2015.

Burrow shouldered blame for some of those struggled connections.

“They started playing more two-high,” Burrow said of the Browns, via The Athletic. “He was playing well at the beginning of the game. I missed some throws to A.J. again. I am just going to have to fix that. I can’t keep missing throws to A.J. when he gets open like he does.”

The rookie is being kind to the venerable veteran receiver.

The ugly truth is that Green wasn’t open much. Burrow kept giving him chances, however. The receiver seemed to be fighting the ball at nearly every point. Green missed several catches he’d have made look routine in the past. He seems to be taking odd routes and getting too close to the sideline at certain times, and his timing with Burrow is clearly off.

CLEVELAND

Maybe QB BAKER MAYFIELD wants all of the Browns games to be played on Thursday.  Jake Trotter of ESPN.com:

Baker Mayfield’s NFL career began on a Thursday night. It might have just been revitalized on a Thursday night as well.

Coming off a rough 2019 season and even rougher season opener on Sunday, Mayfield roared back with perhaps the sharpest performance since his rookie year, as he propelled the Cleveland Browns to a 35-30 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Mayfield came out hot, completing his first five passes, including a 43-yard touchdown pass to Odell Beckham Jr.

Mayfield was far from flawless. He threw an ill-advised interception on Cincinnati’s half of the field in the fourth quarter — his NFL-leading eighth consecutive game with a pick — that allowed the Bengals to hang around late. But in lighting up Cincinnati up to that point, Mayfield also seemed to rediscover the same touch, poise and accuracy that allowed him to break the NFL rookie record with 27 touchdown passes in 2018.

“That’s gonna build confidence for us, and us playing complementary football with the defense,” Mayfield said. “That’s the scary part — if we start clicking and [get] better, it’s gonna be a fun ride.”

After struggling in the opener, a 38-6 loss in Baltimore, Mayfield said this week that the potential of a talented offense built around him was “not just false hopes.” That was on full display against Cincinnati, as Mayfield coolly spread the ball around to his array of dynamic weapons.

AFC SOUTH

HOUSTON

QB DESHAUN WATSON has given Ravens coach John Harbaugh the impression that he holds the ball a long time.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Ravens coach John Harbaugh says Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson will be a unique challenge on Sunday because of how long he holds onto the football.

Harbaugh said that Watson is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and that his ability to extend plays rather than throw the ball away is a big part of that.

“He actually holds the ball longer than anybody in the league,” Harbaugh said. “I think their offensive line does a good job; the scheme is part of that, but it’s really mainly him. And he does it to create opportunities for the pass game.”

The NFL’s Next Gen Stats actually say Watson had, on average, 2.59 seconds to throw in Week One, which makes him middle of the pack — far from holding the ball longer than any other quarterback. But those stats don’t necessarily refute Harbaugh’s point about Watson’s ability to extend plays. When some other quarterbacks would take a sack or throw the ball away, Watson is still looking downfield.

AFC EAST

BUFFALO

NFL.com:

The Buffalo Bills will be without two key defensive pieces Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.

Coach Sean McDermott said Friday on WGR 550 in Buffalo that both linebackers Tremaine Edmunds (shoulder) and Matt Milano (hamstring) will be out for Week 2. The team would then announce the news on Friday morning.

The absence will leave a big hole in the middle of a stout Bills D. In Week 1, Milano compiled four tackles and an INT while Edmunds earned three tackles in the Bills’ season-opening win over the Jets.

THIS AND THAT

SHAUN WADE

Apparently CB SHAUN WADE did not cross the Rubicon when he “opted out” of Ohio State.  Or at least that is what he believes.  Tom VanHaaran of ESPN.com:

Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade announced on SportsCenter that he’s returning to play for the Buckeyes this season after declaring for the NFL draft on Sept. 14.

Wade originally announced his decision to leave the team as uncertainty loomed over the Big Ten season. Once the Big Ten on Wednesday decided to play a fall season beginning in October, Wade rethought his decision and is now coming back.

“Really, back in January, I didn’t go to the draft and my goal was to come back, be a captain, get my degree,” Wade said Thursday on SportsCenter. “And they didn’t cancel football. Now it’s back. So since it’s back, we’ve got a chance to win a national championship. That’s been my goal since day one.

“So that’s what we’re striving for. That’s what we’re gonna strive for when we get back in October.”

JOE BUCK

Congratulations to Joe Buck, the winner of this year’s Pete Rozelle Award.

It seems like just yesterday, but this is Buck’s 19^th season as FOX’s lead football announcer in partnership with Troy Aikman.  Plus, he is in season #25 as the lead baseball voice and will be calling his 23^rd World Series in a few weeks.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame surprised him with the announcement last night during the Cincinnati-Cleveland game.  Jack Baer of YahooSports.com:

Joe Buck is headed for Canton.

The longtime Fox Sports announcer will receive the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s prestigious Pete Rozelle Award, given for “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.” Buck joins his father, Jack Buck, in receiving the award, the first father-son duo to ever do it.

Like we saw a few times last year, Hall of Fame president David Baker surprised Buck with the news on Thursday’s broadcast between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Buck said after seeing the video announcement. “That’s unbelievable.”

Buck’s career with Fox goes all the way back to 1994, when he started calling NFL games at 25 years old. Soon after, he was calling MLB games and pulling double duty between two sports, just like his dad.

“Joe’s preparation for his games and his delivery in key moments of those games bring an added quality to the network’s production,” Baker said. “Being named this year’s Rozelle Award winner is well-deserved recognition for over two decades of excellence in his craft. I know his dad would be proud.”

Buck will be officially recognized during next summer’s enshrinement week in August, during the enshrinement of the Centennial Class of 2020.

STATE OF PROTEST

Jason Whitlock of Outkick.com tells of a personal tragedy, yet he is still not on the side of what he calls the Criminal$ Justice Movement:

Most athletes have a cursory knowledge of the Criminal$ Justice Movement. They’re young, rich and easily influenced by social media. They don’t have the time or an interest in researching the details of the movement. What they know is the best way to avoid public criticism and not be accused of selling out or being a racist is to pretend that Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor were honor-roll students walking home from Sunday church.

My cousin, Anton, was a paroled felon when sheriffs, in our view, needlessly tasered him to death. I loved my cousin. He had a huge heart. He loved his mother and his brother. He had the potential to be a doctor, lawyer, scientist or whatever he wanted to be. He was let down by his negligent father and a difficult zip code. Dealt a bad hand, he played it poorly and found himself in a dangerous situation he could not control.

Everyone has a story. And I get why the people close to Blake, Floyd, Garner, Taylor, etc., are devastated. But the outsiders preening outrage and sadness and kneeling for cameras are using the tragedies to advance careers and personal finance.

Jacob Blake isn’t Emmett Till. Breonna Taylor wasn’t Rosa Parks. Eric Garner wasn’t Medgar Evars.

The Pittsburgh Steelers slapped Antwon Rose Jr.’s name on the back of every Steelers helmet on Sunday. Offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva had the good sense to replace Rose’s name with the name of a heroic soldier. Steelers captain Maurkice Pouncey announced Thursday that he won’t be wearing Rose’s name on his helmet this week.

“I was given limited information on the situation regarding Antwon,” Pouncey said via Instagram, “and I was unaware of the whole story surrounding his death and what transpired during the trial following the tragedy. I should have done more research to fully understand what occurred in its entirety.”

Please read Pouncey’s entire Instagram post. It’s brave and transparent.

His post is an indictment on the mainstream media and the Steelers organization. The players were fed bad information. Minutes before being stopped by police, Rose was caught on video participating in a drive-by shooting. The victim said Rose was the triggerman. The police stopped the car Rose was riding in because it fit the description of the vehicle used in the drive-by shooting. Rose jumped from the car and was gunned down as he tried to escape. Gun residue was found on his hand.

Black men in Pittsburgh were far more likely to be hunted and shot by Antwon Rose than any Pittsburgh cop.

All of this information was readily available for anyone in the mainstream media to point out to the Steelers on game day. This type of clarifying context is virtually illegal to report or talk about on ESPN. The Worldwide Leader is committed to paying and promoting the employees willing to stir racial animosity, demonize the police and support the Criminal$ Justice Movement.

Am I unsympathetic to criminals? No. Not at all. I’ve spoken at prisons. I’ve written passionately and persuasively about the need to rethink the war on drugs and the economic exploitation allowed within the prison industrial complex.

But I’m also aware of the facts. It is extremely rare for police officers to kill any American citizen. Policing has actually improved over the past three decades. Local governments are highly incentivized to push law enforcement to avoid harming criminal suspects. The financial settlements, as Ben Crump would tell you, are escalating.

Also, I believe every man (and woman) has a responsibility to protect himself. It makes no sense to fuss, argue and wrestle with a government official authorized to use deadly force against you. Furthemore, I’ve lived long enough to have made some shady friends. I make it a point to avoid involving myself in their shady activities.

Defunding the police is stupid. It will harm black people. Creating an environment where it’s acceptable to eschew compliance with law enforcement is stupid. It will lead to more criminal suspects being shot and killed.

The Criminal$ Justice Movement only improves the lives of Kaepernick, Nike shareholders, hearse-chasing lawyers, black elites using the movement to advance their careers and white Marxist anarchists determined to overthrow capitalism, democracy, freedom and God.

I’ll pass on being on that side of history.