NFC NORTH

MINNESOTA

The DB is thinking that a player likely to be extremely impactful who is kind of flying under the radar is WR JUSTIN JEFFERSON.  Gary Kubiak is thinking the same thing.  Michael Baca of NFL.com:

After trading wide receiver Stefon Diggs this offseason, the Minnesota Vikings used the first-round pick they got in return to replace him.

Justin Jefferson was selected by the Vikings with the 22nd-overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and Vikings offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak likes what he sees early on in training camp.

“He’s exactly what we drafted,” Kubiak told reporters Sunday. “We knew he was a very talented young man who had a comfort zone in the slot because he did that a lot.

“When you sit there and talk routes and stuff, this kid’s very knowledgeable. He’s been coached by some good coaches before he got here. So he’s working.”

Jefferson starred in LSU’s dynamic passing offense in 2019, catching 111 passes for 1,540 yards and 18 touchdowns en route to their College Football Playoff National Championship. The 21-year-old sports good size (6-foot-1), speed, and play-making ability after the catch, but replacing the elite route-running and sure hands of Diggs will be a tall order for the rookie.

When it comes to Jefferson being a starter on Week 1, Kubiak said he will be competing with Olabisi Johnson, Tajae Sharpe and Chad Beebe for the remaining three spots, which gives the rookie an opportunity to fill Diggs’ No. 2 role opposite Adam Theilen.

“We’re going to find out,” Kubiak about Jefferson’s chances. “We’re going to let these guys compete.”

Kubiak will be assuming the role of play-caller after Kevin Stefanski’s departure to the Browns, and hopes to install a balanced attack for the Vikings in 2020. Quarterback Kirk Cousins and running back Dalvin Cook and Theilen offer a solid trio of weapons for the Vikings offense, and key veteran leadership for a rookie aiming to contribute.

Getting acclimated to the speed of the pro game will be one Jefferson’s biggest tests, however, and Kubiak mentioned this week will be great gauge to see what they really have in their first-rounder.

“This is going to be a grinder week,” Kubiak said. “We’ve got a lot of football practices this week, a ton of reps so everybody is going to get a good hard look. We’ll get our pads on throughout the course of this week, so we should be able to take a good look at what’s going on. That’s when the game gets real.”

We know he was on a great team with QB JOE BURROW throwing the ball – but 111 receptions for 1,540 yards and 18 TDs are awfully good numbers from 2019.

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Peter King thinks the Cowboys will be getting after the quarterback:

I think when I read about Everson Griffen to the Cowboys, my first thought was, This is starting to be unfair. “Player acquisition here is 365 days a year,” coach Mike McCarthy said about the surprise signing of the ex-Viking. Sure seems that way. That Dallas front, particularly if Aldon Smith can make the team and take some rotational role, is going to be an absolute monster. At their peaks, the players on this front are all Pro Bowlers, and that’s not hyperbole. Assume the starters at some point early in the season are DeMarcus Lawrence and Griffen at the ends, with Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe inside, with Smith (I don’t consider him a longshot) getting some nickel rush snaps, and youngsters Trysten Hill and Neville Gallimore cycling through tackle snaps to give the vets a break. Obviously, with veterans, it’s not all going to work out. One or more will break down or disappoint. But that defensive line is one heck of a depth chart.

NEW YORK GIANTS

Numerous outlets are reporting that the Giants will be signing PK GRAHAM GANO, the ex-Panthers kicker.  He’s 33 and kicked for Carolina when Dave Gettleman, now the Giants GM, was in Charlotte.

WASHINGTON

Amidst the muck of controversy, the WFT has the feel-good story of the year.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Washington quarterback Alex Smith is taking another big step toward returning from a career-threatening leg injury.

Smith has been cleared to practice and will be activated off the physically unable to perform list, according to JP Finlay of NBCSportsWashington.com.

That’s a tremendous recovery from an injury that, when Smith suffered it in November of 2018, appeared to have ended his career. Smith’s leg was broken so severely that doctors feared they would have to amputate, and he also developed a life-threatening blood clot.

Smith’s wife posted on Instagram a video of a family celebration on Saturday night after Smith was cleared.

“Hard work pays off! Lots to celebrate in the Smith house tonight,” Liz Smith wrote.

Washington coach Ron Rivera has confirmed that Smith, once cleared, would be in the mix to become the Football Team’s starting quarterback this season. Although Dwayne Haskins, last year’s first-round pick, remains the favorite to win the starting job, Smith has a real chance to be under center in Week One, and to complete one of the most impressive comebacks in NFL history.

The injury was 21 months ago.

Joe Theismann on the size of his accomplishment:

The one former NFL quarterback who understands the leg injury Alex Smith has overcome is rooting hard for the Washington QB.

“Go, Alex, go,” Joe Theismann told ESPN in a telephone interview.

The former Washington quarterback suffered the same injury in 1985 and was in the stands when Smith broke his leg 33 years to the day Theismann was injured. Theismann needed only one surgery on his right leg to clear up an infection; Smith required 17.

“He has gone through a lot more than I had to go through,” Theismann said. “… Alex came within 24 hours of losing his leg. I didn’t wind up with complications; he wound up with a tremendous amount of complications. It wasn’t just healing from a broken leg. The mountain he had to climb is so much greater.”

NFC SOUTH

TAMPA BAY

Getting the story on QB TOM BRADY was so important to Peter King, he’s going to lock himself up in Brooklyn for 14 days after returning from “hot zone” Florida.  But some good stuff here on Brady coaching up TE O.J. HOWARD:

Such a different year playing in the NFL, which has been well-documented. Covering it is weird too. A two-day visit in Tampa was the first stop on an abbreviated camp tour for me—four camps in eight days. Then home to Brooklyn for a mandatory 14-day quarantine. No in-person interviews at team facilities. This was my routine Thursday: Watch practice at the Bucs 10 feet away from anyone else, then hustle back to room 416 of the Epicurean Hotel, 4.5 miles from the Bucs facility, to await phone and videoconference interviews. “Are you in a hotel room right now?” Brady, sounding surprised, asked me when I interviewed him Thursday afternoon. Yes, I said. “So different for everybody,” he said. “We’re trying to sort through it like you are.”

There’s a lot of the Brady story to sort through, watching him for two days. His arm, I thought, looked very good, better than it did late last season. Before getting to that, watch this short video from Thursday’s practice. NBC videographer Annie Koeblitz shot it, and when I was combing through her video Thursday night to see what I might have missed at practice, this 46-second piece of tape jumped out at me. It’s rare for me to make a piece of video an actual part of my column, but Koeblitz’s work is important to the Brady/Bucs acclimation story that I found in Tampa. It shows that Brady is doing a heck of a lot of coaching.

From the far sideline, Koeblitz and I were maybe 50 yards away from Brady as he ran through an obstacle-course-and-throw drill, and the sound isn’t pristine, but you should be able to hear Brady’s words. I’ll describe the scene. You see Rob Gronkowski (wow—there’s Gronk) catching a ball from Brady up the right seam and putting it away. Then the camera pans back to Brady maneuvering in and out of four padded dummies, simulating moving quickly in a crowded pocket. He emerged to loft a pass to tight end O.J. Howard up the left sideline. Then Brady called to Howard.

“Juice!” Brady called out. “Keep those shoulders square.”

Then Brady stood in place, pumping his arms like pistons, up and down.

“Right here!” Still pumping his arms. “Last minute . . . Catch it on your hip,” Brady said, with some garbled words in the middle.

I was dying to know what it all meant. I figured Howard wasn’t sprinting full-go, and maybe Brady was urging him to have better mechanics running. But last minute and catch it on your hip . . . What was that? So I got Howard on the phone and asked him.

“You hit it on the head,” Howard said. “That’s Tom coaching me. Tom’s been coaching a lot of guys one-on-one.

“When he says, ‘Shoulders square,’ if you watch me on film, and he watched me, watched me a lot, I’d be running a vertical route, not going as fast as I should have. That’s because I’d be running a vertical route, but I’d look back and it’d slow me down. He’d say, ‘Keep those shoulders square. Don’t slow down for me. Six, eight yards, pump your arms, sell it like a go route—I’ll get you the ball.”

Unpacking: In the 2017 draft, Howard was the best size-speed player of all. At 251 pounds, he ran a 4.51-second 40, and the Bucs made him their first-round pick. Three meh seasons and some bad habits later, here’s Howard at the crossroads, on a tight-end-rich team, the subject of trade rumors since the day Gronkowski came out of retirement to wear the pewter. But if a 4.51 guy is peeking back to the line all the time, he’s not going to be a 4.51 guy—he’s negating one of the best qualities any NFL tight end has. Catch it on your hip means, in essence, “Don’t worry—the ball’s going to be where only you can catch it.” (Howard should watch tape of ex-Brady faves Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell abusing the Falcons secondary with precision throws down the stretch in the Super Bowl comeback win over Atlanta. Relatively new receivers, in perfect sync with Brady. Cornerback Jalen Collins must still have nightmares over that fourth quarter and OT.)

Brady liked what he saw when Howard came to Tampa for QB/receiver workouts in May. And of all the great weapons Brady has here—it’s perhaps the best arsenal he’s ever had, and certainly since the 16-0 Randy Moss year in 2007—the one that looked the best in the two days I watched was Howard. Easy.

“When Tom does that,” Howard said of the coaching point, “it’s huge for me to hear. I worked on that all offseason, a bad habit I had to break. He puts it in my head every day. That’s what a true leader does. He does it in a humble way. So chill. That’s Tom Brady, one of the best to ever play our game, and every day he’s got something for me to make me better.”

And this on Brady and Bruce Arians:

Brady got rapped for holding informal throwing sessions with his receivers at a private school in Tampa in the pandemic, which was bemusing. Philip Rivers moved to Indianapolis in the spring and threw with his new receivers. MVP Lamar Jackson had spring sessions in south Florida with receivers both on and not on his team. But Brady got called out for it. “I think every quarterback and receiver combination, really throughout the league, they were throwing to some extent,” said tight end Cameron Brate. “I think we were the only ones who had a helicopter watching us throw. That was definitely a little bizarre. The spring is mostly about working out timing, timing on routes, getting comfortable with the different concepts you’re running. We were able to do all that this spring. We really don’t feel like we’re too behind the 8-ball right now.”

What’s different for Brady, besides everything, is the head coach. Bruce Arians is, well, he’s not Bill Belichick. Arians can bite heads off, but he’s a teaching pal to passers. He has coached Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer and Jameis Winston. And now Brady, the six-time Super Bowl winner. That’s a wealth of quarterback-coaching experience right there, and Brady is trying to learn from it.

Brady surprised me when he said: “It’s my 30th year of playing football, including high school, and it’s the first time I’ve ever had an offensive head coach. That provides something a little different for the quarterback.” Recently, Arians and Brady sat at the facility for three hours to talk plays. Not philosophy, just plays. Arians said: “Show me on the board what you love to do.” Brady, Arians said, has adopted most of the Bucs’ verbiage after knowing one offensive language for 20 years. Brady would bring up a play he liked, Arians told him the particulars of what it was called. “He said, ‘Oh cool,’ “ Arians said.

“Tom’s used to audibling so much and we haven’t asked our guys to audible that much in the last few years,” Arians continued. “Going back to [coaching] Peyton, he’d have three plays in the huddle. And he might run a fourth one, because he saw something he liked. Tom can do those types of things. We’ll give him those types of things to do but right now it’s just, Let’s get it all down pat, which he probably has 90 percent of it in the book right now in his mind.”

Arians is convinced—and has told Brady this—that he won’t have to worry about making the perfect decision on every pass-drop. Last season in New England, with a beat-up and lesser group of skill players, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had to scheme everything intricately to give a play a chance to work, and Brady had little margin for error. This year, Arians said, “It’s gonna be a lot easier for what we’re doing because I’m not gonna ask him to put us in the perfect play every play. He’s got two wide receivers that can beat anybody one on one and tight ends and, basically, if you read out our patterns, you’ll get to the right guy.”

Now for the narrative that follows Brady to Tampa: He doesn’t have the arm to fit Arians’ deep-passing scheme, and to make great downfield connections with star wideouts Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich sneered at those with that opinion.

 “They’re not that smart,” Arians said. “The guy can make every throw. He threw a ball 60 yards the other day to [wide receiver] Scotty Miller that was on a dime. The thing about our offense is you throw it to the guy that’s open. If Tom [sees an open man deep], he takes the shot. If not, read it out. He and Peyton have that same characteristic. Like, I’m not gonna take a 50/50 shot when I got a 90 percent shot underneath.”

And this summation on being a Buccaneer:

Are you happy?” I asked.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “That’s a good word.”

Brady said there were about 20 factors he considered, weighted in importance, that he wouldn’t name. “When I added it up, Tampa seemed like it was a great opportunity,” he said. “I am so happy with the decision I made.”

He spent a minute or so praising the Patriots, and saying he left on great terms, and had great regard for them.

“I made a decision to do something different,” he said. “It was a very thoughtful decision. It wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. Really since the moment I got here they’ve embraced me. They’ve embraced me with the opportunity to go and lead the team—that’s a big responsibility for me.”

For now, all good on the southern front for Brady and the Bucs. There’s no reason he can’t play well with these weapons, and there’s no reason the Bucs can’t contend for one of the seven playoff spots in the NFC—other than the pandemic, and the Bucs being in the middle of an American COVID hotspot, and the unknown of Brady trying to be the oldest starting quarterback ever to lead a team to the postseason. Being around the Bucs for a couple of days, I think you won’t have the problem of not enough touches to go around, because they’re just so worn down by losing, and losing in some ugly, walk-off ways late. Now there’s a quarterback who won’t stand for that, if it ever started to bubble up. If the early chemistry experiment on offense works, this is going to be an exciting team to watch. And, I predict, a playoff team.

NFC WEST

SAN FRANCISCO

OL SPENCER LONG has retired after a short stay with SF.  Alex Didion of NBCSports.com:

After just three days as an official member of the 49ers roster, offensive lineman Spencer Long is hanging up his cleats.

San Francisco added the 29-year-old to the roster on Thursday after he was released by the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 4. Long was selected in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Washington Football Team, spending his first four seasons in the nation’s capital. Long started 13 games for the New York Jets in 2018, and appeared in 14 games for the Bills last year.

It is unclear why Long elected to retire just 72 hours after putting pen to paper on a contract with the 49ers. Long was expected to provide some depth on the line for coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense.

– – –

This, as you ponder whether or not to add WR DEEBO SAMUEL to your Fantasy roster:

I think the best bit of injury news around the league—aside from Alex Smith’s good fortune—probably came for the Niners on Sunday, with the slight opening of the window that Deebo Samuel’s broken foot could be healed enough for him to play in the opener. “Hoping for Week 1” but “not counting on it,” was Kyle Shanahan’s prognosis. They’d be wise to err on the side of Samuel missing September, unless the scans of his foot are pristine. He’s just too important to that offense.

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY

Does this description of QB PATRICK MAHOMES also fit GOAT TOM BRADY?  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has shown that he has the ability to inspire his teammates to keep focused and to continue to push ahead, not matter whether the team is down by 24 points in the divisional round (like it was), by 10 points twice in the championship round (like it was), or by 10 points with seven minutes left in the Super Bowl (like it was).

So what’s his secret? Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy offered his opinion on Saturday.

“You guys have been around him, you know him,” Bieniemy sai, via ArrowheadPride.com. “He’s a competitive prick. OK? He’s a great kid, but he’s a competitive prick. He wants to improve at everything he could possibly improve upon. He wants to be the best at whatever he can do. And along the way, he wants to make sure that he’s leading the guys, he wants to be held accountable by his peers, but also, too — he just wants to work. And that’s what you love about being around him every single day.”

Receiver Tyreek Hill was asked to chime in on the label applied by Bieniemy to Mahomes.

“I have no idea what he meant by prick, but I will say, Pat loves to compete, and each and every opportunity that we get to go against the defense, he wants to win,” Hill said. “It don’t matter the situation, it don’t matter whatever it is, he always wants to win and he always brings the best out of each and every one of us, so that’s what I love about Pat. It doesn’t matter who you are — it doesn’t matter if you’re me, [Travis] Kelce or [Eric Fisher] or whoever the case may be, he’s going to give you that extra fuel that you need to continue going.

“It don’t matter if we on play 10 and everybody’s on their knees, dead tired, he’s still [saying], ‘Guys, come on, come on, I need you.’ That’s the thing you got to love about Pat.”

And that’s a prime example of how quarterbacks influence winning, even though quarterback wins aren’t really a stat. The best ones help the effort with their tangibles and their intangibles. And it’s both Mahomes’ tangibles and the intangibles that set the stage for the Chiefs to find a way to win more than one, more than two, more than three, and maybe more than four Lombardi Trophies during his career.

LAS VEGAS

It’s becoming ever more apparent who Jon Gruden wants as his quarterback.  Paul Guttierez of ESPN.com:

While Derek Carr is firmly entrenched as the Las Vegas Raiders’ starting quarterback, the guy signed to be his backup, Marcus Mariota, impressed coach Jon Gruden on Friday, the third practice of training camp in which players wore helmets.

“He’s interesting,” Gruden said, with a smile, of Mariota. “He took off a couple times today and it really fired me up. He’s been hurt, but looks like the ankle really turned a corner. He’s a dazzling playmaker with his feet, and that’s the key to his game.

“I saw glimpses of that today. It’s exciting. Started off slow on 7-on-7 [drills], but [he] picked it up, had a nice day. Had a real nice day.”

Indeed, Mariota, who lost his starting job with the Tennessee Titans to Ryan Tannehill last season, struggled early in practice, missing tight end Jason Witten badly on an intermediate pass to the right sideline. And he throws a different ball than Carr.

But it is Mariota’s scrambling ability and willingness to extend plays with his legs that makes him a good fit for Gruden’s offense. Even as Mariota, the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner, has said since signing as a free agent with Las Vegas in March that the Raiders were Carr’s team.

In fact, both Mariota, the No. 2 overall pick of the 2015 NFL draft by the Titans, and Carr, a second-round pick of the Raiders in 2014, suffered season-ending broken legs on the same day in Week 16 of the 2016 season.

“It’s like weird, crazy things that link you together,” Carr, 29, said earlier in camp.

“I’ll tell you one thing, in our quarterback group you have to compete, and that’s what I do. Anyone that’s around me, all I’m going to do is compete. I’ve had multiple starters in the NFL come in here and be in the same room as me. You can go through the list about who’s started games and who’s been in our quarterback room. It happens all the time, but when you go 7-9, people like to make up stuff.”

Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson said Mariota, 26, would push Carr, a three-time Pro Bowler and the franchise’s all-time leading passer who is coming off career highs in passing yardage (4,054), completion percentage (70.4%) and Total QBR (62.2) but is just 39-55 as a starter, with one winning season in six years.

And as Raiders owner Mark Davis told ESPN.com, “The best quarterbacks are the ones that have the wins. Stats will follow.”

Mariota is 29-32 as a starter.

“Competition brings out the best in any player in any sport,” Olson said. “I would say it’s the best competition that we’ve had since we’ve been here.”

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.om on Gruden’s mind games:

Derek Carr is tired of getting disrespected. If he doesn’t play better, he may end up being demoted.

Raiders coach Jon Gruden gushed about newcomer Marcus Mariota, who arrived on a one-year, $7.5 million deal in the offseason.

“He has turned a corner with his ankle [injury] and he is a dazzling playmaker,” Gruden said of Mariota, via Vic Tafur of TheAthletic.com. Gruden added that Mariota “really fired me up today.”

Gruden is known to talk up his players, but the situation with Mariota and Carr obviously is delicate. Then again, it could be that Gruden deliberately is throwing praise onto the new backup in order to see how Carr will respond.

Gruden wants his quarterbacks to have a certain demeanor, to act a certain way. To be ready to kick some ass and take some names. Carr, despite his penchant for periodically complaining and/or blocking people on Twitter, has yet to become the Sheriff Swagger the head coach seems to want. The dalliance with Mariota seems to be both an effort to irritate Carr into finally carrying himself the way Gruden wants (and performing accordingly, by taking chances and not playing it safe) and a potential Plan B, in the event Carr is injured or regresses.

When the Titans added Ryan Tannehill last year, plenty of people shouted down the possibility that the writing was on the wall for a Mariota demotion, given that he was making north of $20 million. And then Mariota was demoted. This year, if Gruden ends up flipping the switch from Carr to Mariota, no one should be surprised.

If that possibility makes Carr mad, good. That’s part of what Gruden hoping will finally happen, if it translates to Carr being more of the gunslinger Gruden wants at the position.

AFC SOUTH

JACKSONVILLE

QB GARDNER MINSHEW, a Covid-19 survivor or at least a Covid-19 positive test survivor, is in preseason camp as the expected starter.  He’s not used to that.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew was a starter at Northwest Mississippi Community College, at East Carolina and at Washington State. But in all three places, he had to compete in training camp to win the job. Not this year.

Minshew had a strong enough rookie season in Jacksonville last year that he’s not at risk of losing the job to backups Mike Glennon, Josh Dobbs or Jake Luton. Minshew is excited about that.

“I actually haven’t had a camp like this, going into it, since I guess my senior of high school; it’s awesome,” Minshew said.

New Jaguars offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said Minshew is making the most of his status as the starter.

“We’re starting the meat and potatoes of our offense,” Gruden said. “I like where his mind’s at, number one. We’re trying to challenge him with these challenges and protections. So far, it’s been great. He’s got a skillset that’s really unlike a lot of players at that quarterback position. He’s not real tall. He doesn’t have a cannon, but he’s just a highly competitive guy. He’s got great anticipation and accuracy. He can make plays happen when the plays break down. It’s going to be fun to work with him.”

The Jaguars hope Minshew can grow in Year 2, and remove all doubt that he’s the starter for several training camps to come.

THIS AND THAT

COPING WITH CORONA

We’re keeping an eye on the Big Ten where the secretive decision to shut down football has not gone over well.  Parents groups from several schools are demanding answers on the process more extensive than two paragraphs in a press release and a couple of short interviews by Commissioner Kevin Warren with hand-picked reporters.

Ohio State QB JUSTIN FIELDS is among those incensed.

The players of the Big Ten aren’t giving up on the 2020 college football season without a fight.

Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields posted a petition Sunday on behalf of Big Ten players, calling on the conference to reinstate the season:

“We, the football players of the Big Ten, together with the fans and supporters of college football, request that the Big Ten Conference immediately reinstate the 2020 football season. Allow Big Ten players/teams to make their own choice as to whether they wish to play or opt out this fall season. Allow Big Ten players/teams who choose to opt out of playing a fall season to do so without penality or repercussion.

“We want to play. We believe that safety protocols have been established and can be maintained to mitigate concerns of exposure to Covid 19. We believe that we should have the right to make decisions about what is best for our health and our future. Don’t let our hard work and sacrifice be in vain. #LetUsPlay!”

The petition has reached more than 35,000 signatures within a little more than an hour of Fields posting the plea on his Twitter feed.

We note that, via Twitter, Tim Brando of FOX Sports says the Big Ten’s actual vote on shutting down was razor thin, not lopsided as leaked to friendly media outlets:

@TimBrando

What’s clear in the @bigten  is division. Commissioner Warren dodged every question & every follow up from @BTNDaveRevsine on his own Network. The vote originally leaked as 12-2 to the media, was done so incorrectly. It was 8-6, and it’s impossible politics didn’t play a role.

Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com surveys the conflict.  If you can get past his slights of the pro-playing side, it’s a good overview of the state of the battle:

It is now a nuclear-grade conflict of silliness, this debate over playing the 2020 college football season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Actually, calling it a “debate” is an insult to civility.

It is a battle of the science of two conferences (Big Ten Pac-12) versus the science of three (ACC, Big 12, SEC). It is parents from half the Big Ten schools demanding answers as to why their sons aren’t playing in the face of what is still a raging pandemic.

On Sunday, Heisman Trophy finalist Justin Fields took the battle to a new level. Ohio State’s quarterback posted a petition calling on the Big Ten to “immediately reinstate the 2020 football season.”

It had more than 121,000 signatures in the first four hours, and the number continues to climb.

If it all wasn’t so befuddling, it would be sad. Ask Jon Drezner, the University of Washington’s team physician and a member of the Pac-12 medical advisory board. 

“We are in the middle of a pandemic, our country is one of the worst controlled on the planet,” Drezner said. “We have more deaths than any country. We have cases surging all over the place. We haven’t done what we needed to do to play fall sports.

“And that is really sad.”

The NCAA’s top doctor late Saturday night said there’s “no way to go forward” with fall sports without drastic improvement in testing nationwide.

But it’s not over, this battle. Not by a long shot. In fact, it’s getting worse and more intense.

An LSU infectious diseases expert seemed to call out the decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12 as part of a Q&A with The Athletic.

“I would say we have seen enough to develop a safe plan. They have not,” Dr. Catherine O’Neal said.

Never mind that COVID-19 has been raging in the United States basically since March. That’s not enough time for most to date a future spouse, much less evaluate the second-worst pandemic in the nation’s history. The most deadly occurred a century ago, the infamous Spanish Flu that killed at least 50 million worldwide.

“Not to disparage Dr. Neal at all, but if she had opined it wasn’t safe to play college football this fall, I’m not sure she’d be representing the SEC much longer,” said Tom Mars, a prominent Arkansas-based attorney who has battled the NCAA on eligibility issues.

That’s where we are with the ACC, Big 12 and SEC hoping to play this season while the Big Ten and Pac-12 are evaluating a spring season in 2021. For now, pick a group of medical advisors for your version of the truth.

For these conferences, it starts to look like a trial where each side brings its own group of expert witnesses to make their case.

Who’s right?

In this case, the jury not only decides but holds these decisions up to scrutiny bordering on ridicule. (Just read some of the responses to Fields’ petition.)

The Pac-12 issued a 12-page document detailing the medical reasons that led to its decision not to play. So far, it is the only FBS conference to provide such an explanation. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was pressed last week why his conference didn’t explain the medical reasons why it is playing. He simply said playing is the “status quo.”

“There’s absolutely no reason whatsoever to not be completely transparent with all that information,” Mars said.

Those liability waivers that players affiliated with the #WeAreUnited movement protested against just two weeks ago now seem like a necessity if the conferences that have canceled their seasons want to play.

A group of Big Ten parents asked Mars last week for advice on how to get their sons back on the field.

Mars drew up an “action plan” that started with the parents/players asking the NCAA to rescind its ban on waivers, the one requested by players in the first place. That means those players and parents would sign away the right to sue their respective schools if the players caught COVID-19.

Specifically, Mars wrote, the parties would sign a document that “extinguishes liability for negligence” and “requires [a] player to knowingly assume risks of infection.”

A more detailed part from that action plan:

The NCAA made a mistake in banning “liability waivers” in response to Senator [Corey] Booker’s and Senator [Richard] Blumenthal’s demands. Though this decision was meant to protect student-athletes’ rights, the NCAA’s paternalistic reaction to the Senators’ demands had the effect of depriving student-athletes of making an informed choice that would allow them to pursue their dreams.

The immediate reaction: Will parents actually agree to such a thing? The answer isn’t obvious.

“I just dropped my daughter at the University of Iowa last night,” said Gary Koerner, the father of Iowa defensive back Jack Koerner. “Nobody asked me to sign a waiver. Nobody promised me strict protocols and contact tracing and testing. Why is it different?”

Drezner had an equally logical explanation: “Sports are being postponed because we have a pandemic that is out of control.”

One might argue: What makes football players so special? The entire country has been — at the bare minimum – inconvenienced. There simply hasn’t been enough communal cooperation in the United States, given the length and breadth of this tragedy, while foreign countries that have universally adopted mitigation measures have drastically reduced or even eliminated the spread.

What’s so wrong with being overcautious? COVID-19 hot zones exist in half of the Pac-12 schools, Drezner said.

Koerner is among that group of Big Ten parents who believe there is always risk in playing the college football.

Signing a waiver could potentially be reckless, but wouldn’t it now also be hypocritical? Would a portion of those players who campaigned so hard for their rights and demanded the elimination of such waivers now be willing to sign them away to play football?

The first question regarding that would have to go Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence: Would he and his #WeWantToPlay colleagues sign such a waiver to play?

“We strongly believe that denying these players the opportunity to play football this season would jeopardize their fitness, their happiness and their futures,” Lisa and Ed McCaffrey said in a Michigan parents’ letter sent to the Big Ten. (Dylan McCaffrey is a QB for the Wolverines.)

Koerner asked, if conditions are safe enough for regular students to be on campus, why can’t football continue with its “strict protocols, consistent testing [and] with some of the best medical professionals around”?

It’s safe to say, amid this contentious dialogue, rookie Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is under pressure. Some Big Ten parents hand-delivered their message to conference headquarters Friday asking for an in-person meeting.

There is something to be said for the Big Ten releasing its rationale for cancellation. For the most part, the Big Ten conference is comprised of state institutions using taxpayer money.

“In no way do I want to personally attack in any way our Big Ten leaders,” Koerner said. “But being in business, all of us know what the principles of good leadership are. We know what the principles of poor leadership are.”

Meanwhile, Drezner said both Pac-12 and Big Ten athletes have thanked team physicians for the decision to postpone the 2020 season.

“You also have student-athletes on the other side who wanted to play no matter what the risk,” he said. “Those are individuals choices. I’m not sure this is about right or wrong.”

It’s about what sort of truth you want to believe. Last week, Nebraska coach Scott Frost threatened to leave the league after the Big Ten canceled its season. The Huskers could handle the coronavirus, Frost contended.

That was a different conclusion from a member of the NCAA’s COVID-19 advisory panel.

“I feel like the Titanic,” Dr. Carlos Del Rio said. “We have hit the iceberg, and we’re trying to make decisions of what time should we have the band play.”

Medicine is supposed to be somewhat black and white, isn’t it? Not always. That’s why there are second opinions. That’s why it’s hard for some to accept even the basic concerns for playing football amid a pandemic.

“The one thing that has proven true is that, when you put people together more, you have more spread [of COVID-19]. It’s an absolute truth,” Drezner said.

So then how did something as serious as myocarditis become a battle? The condition has been studied and treated since the 19th century. It’s a viral infection that causes inflammation of the heart. Drezner said myocarditis has been found as the cause of death in 9% of all cardiac-related deaths among college athletes.

That’s without factoring in COVID-19.

CBS Sports reported last week that at least 15 Big Ten players had been diagnosed with myocarditis. The condition factored heavily into the decision making of each Power Five conference.

“There’s no debate that it is clinically relevant,” Drezner said.

Six years ago, Mars was running 30 miles a week with a resting heart rate of 60. A chest cold lingered. A stress test revealed an arrythmia. In the process of explaining to Mars that he had contracted myocarditis, doctors explained that he was subject to an SDE — a sudden death event.

“I may live to be 100,” Mars said. “I may drop dead on this phone call.”

A different doctor who recently reviewed Mars’ EKG thought the attorney had just suffered a heart attack. That was the lingering evidence of Mars’ 2014 myocarditis.

This is mentioned because the seriousness of the affliction was enough for the Big Ten and Pac-12 to postpone their seasons. The ACC, Big 12 and SEC chose to plow through.

True, myocarditis can also be caused by the common cold. But adding another dreadful virus to the brew certainly doesn’t help.

“That’s like saying you could be hit by lightning,” Mars said. “Therefore, why don’t you go stand on the beach during a lightning storm with a steel rod in your hand.”

Mars is in his 60s. He’s not an athlete, but he’s in the demographic that simply cannot afford to get COVID-19.

“I’m treating this COVID like it’s a hit man with a $1 million contract on my head. I’m not taking any chances,” he said. “I’m hoping somebody kills him before he kills me.”

That’s his truth.

College football’s version of the truth amid the coronavirus pandemic is getting harder to nail down.

2020 DRAFT

Peter King has discovered QB TREY LANCE, the latest sensation from the school that gave us QB CARSON WENTZ:

Heard of Trey Lance? It’s time you did. He’ll be eligible for the 2021 NFL Draft after a redshirt 2018 season at North Dakota State, playing in 2019 (pretty famously), and sitting in 2020 after the Bison announced the team would not play the fall schedule because of COVID-19. Even though Lance has played only one season, he will be eligible for the 2021 draft next spring, because the NFL clock includes years eligible, not years played. When a player has been eligible to play for three seasons after his high school career, he can enter the draft the next spring. So the 6-4, 222-pound Lance, who exploded onto the draft scene last fall, can come out if he wants in 2021. No announcement yet, but lots of speculation that he’ll come out.

So there could be an embarrassment of riches in the 2021 draft. Imagine if the presumptive top two picks next spring, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Josh Fields of Ohio State, are accompanied by the darkest of dark horses, the raw Lance. Mel Kiper leaves open the chance that he could burst into the Lawrence-Fields area at the top of the draft. Pete Thamel, the Yahoo college football sage, says he will “stand on the table” that Lance will go in the top 10, and perhaps on the early side of that. But smart money says if Lance does come out, he won’t play in any possible spring 2021 games for the Bison.

Carson Wentz, North Dakota State QB, went second overall in 2016. If Lance comes out for the 2021 draft, how will the league judge him if he plays just one season? This is the secret problem with whatever happens with the draft next year. There’s no way NFL scouts and GMs will have anything close to the same idea as usual about players in 2021.

The mystery of Lance will be discussed endlessly in the next few months. Let’s meet him. Look at his 2019 stats for the Bison:

Games: 16

Comp-Att: 192-287

Pct.: .669

Pass Yds: 2,786

TD-Int: 28-0

Rush-Yards: 169-1,100

Yds Per Carry: 6.5

TD: 14

Sixteen games, 42 passing-rushing touchdowns, zero interceptions. In a league that values an efficient quarterback who can run, yes, that will play.