NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

NASCAR won over RB ALVIN KAMARA with its shift away from racially insensitive images.  Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com:

Alvin Kamara knew little about NASCAR before Wednesday, but as soon as NASCAR announced its decision to ban the Confederate flag, the Saints running back tweeted his approval.

“When the next race?” Kamara tweeted.

An hour later, Kamara live tweeted the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief. Four days later, at the invitation of NASCAR, Kamara attended his first race.

Kamara, who makes his offseason home in South Florida, watched the Xfinity Series in Homestead as NASCAR opened the doors to 1,000 spectators.

“I’ve watched it before, like I’ve turned it on and just skimmed through it, but I never really understood it,” Kamara said Sunday, via David Wilson of the Miami Herald. “I never even really took the time to understand what was going on.”

Kamara wore a T-shirt and hat sent to him by Bubba Wallace, the only full-time black driver in the NASCAR Cup Series. Wallace publicly campaigned for NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag, and it did.

“I don’t think it’s about when to say it. It’s about it actually being said,” Kamara said of the current climate prompting NASCAR’s decision. “It’s taken this long to do it, and it is what it is. Me personally, I’m not going to be mad at that because the climate dictated it. The fact that they sat down and got rid of it, and are making these strides to flip the script, that’s all you can ask for.”

The DB, who has barely been paying attention, thought that Bubba Wallace was somehow related to Rusty Wallace.

He grew up in Concord, North Carolina where a lot of the NASCAR shops are located.  Here is some other background:

His father, Darrell Sr., is the owner of an industrial cleaning company. His mother, Desiree, is a social worker who ran track at the University of Tennessee.[62]

Wallace is best friends with fellow driver and competitor Ryan Blaney.

In 2019, Wallace revealed that he dealt with and continues to deal with depression for most of his racing career. After others reached out to him to thank him for bringing awareness to depression, Wallace said he did not know it was such a widespread problem; for him, being depressed was an honest answer to a media question

On July 23, 2019, Wallace posted photos of Richard Petty autographing his left forearm. He vowed to have Petty’s signature tattooed if the photos were retweeted 43,000 times. The goal was made by the morning of July 25. Less than a month later, Wallace had Petty’s signature tattooed on the back of his right thigh.

He has driven for Richard Petty Racing since 2017.  This from that time by Dave Caldwell in the New York Times:

Darrell Wallace Jr. had his first conversation with Richard Petty, his new boss, when they bumped into each other last year at a voice recording session for the animated film “Cars 3.” Wallace played Bubba Wheelhouse, an emerging stock car driver. Petty played, as in real life, the King.

“Hey man, keep doing what you’re doing,” Wallace recalled Petty telling him.

Petty was apparently not just making small talk. When the driver of the top car on Petty’s team, Aric Almirola, was injured in a wreck in May, Petty tapped Wallace to replace Almirola until he returned. Wallace drove in four races, finishing higher in the pack each time.

“It’s like he’d been there forever,” Petty said in a telephone interview this week.

When Almirola left Richard Petty Motorsports in September after a sponsor shake-up, Petty knew exactly whom he wanted as a replacement. On Wednesday, he announced that Wallace, 24, had been hired to drive the No. 43 car that Petty made famous.

When Wallace, who is known as Bubba, drove in a June 11 race at Pocono Raceway, he became the first African-American to compete in a top-level Nascar event since 2006. Wallace won a Truck Series race in 2013 to become the first African-American to win a national series race since 1963.

The driver in 1963 was Wendell Scott, who is the only black driver to race full time in Nascar’s top series; his last year as a regular was 1971.

While having diverse drivers is important to Nascar, Petty said: “We didn’t look at that as much as Nascar did. We just needed a driver. We didn’t care if he was green, white or purple, if he gets the job done.”

It seems like an unlikely partnership. Petty, 80, who won a record 200 races and seven championships, made headlines last month when he said that anyone who did not stand for the national anthem before sporting events “ought to be out of the country,” adding: “What got ’em where they’re at? The United States.”

Wallace, who was born in Mobile, Ala., to a white father and a black mother, has a somewhat different opinion, saying of the protests started by quarterback Colin Kaepernick: “I understand Colin’s reasoning behind it. I really get it.”

“At the same time,” he said, standing for the anthem is something “I’ve always done.”

Many believe that this association will benefit everyone — driver, team and sport. Richard Petty Motorsports has scuffled in recent years, with Almirola, a 33-year-old Cuban-American, winning only one race in six seasons.

 “We’re starting with a clean slate,” Petty said.

Wallace has raced mainly on Nascar’s second-tier Xfinity Series and the truck series for five years and was looking for a full-time shot at the top Monster Energy series. When Almirola’s sponsor moved to Stewart-Haas Racing (where Almirola is expected to land), Wallace was the only driver considered.

Brian Moffitt, the chief executive of Richard Petty Motorsports, said: “We felt like he was ready to make this jump. When he drove for Aric, he impressed us — impressed Richard, impressed the team. I think he impressed everybody.”

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY

Matt Harmon of YahooSports.com thinks the best is yet to come for QB PATRICK MAHOMES:

Patrick Mahomes is already well on his way to becoming an all-time great. It’s not a hot take. For as long as he remains in the league, Mahomes will be a central figure in the story of every season.

The Kansas City quarterback followed up his breakout 2018 MVP season with a Super Bowl title. Frankly, unless you’re a 49ers fan, you should be grateful for the result of the big game from February. As a collective of NFL fans, Mahomes getting his first Super Bowl win out of the way so early is a huge gift.

Now we don’t have to spend years having some stupid conversation questioning whether Mahomes is really that good because he hasn’t “won the big one” yet.

It’s like when Peyton Manning was in the league. For so many years we had to put up with narrative peddlers poking holes in his case as an elite quarterback and/or one of the best of all time simply because he didn’t have a ring yet. Well, he eventually got not one, but two. And now that his career is over, no one cares how long it took him to win his first Super Bowl. When he goes into the Hall of Fame with his accolades laid out, it’ll just say two-time Super Bowl winner. His late arrival won’t be mentioned, no matter how often it was a talking point during his time as an active player.

With Mahomes, it’s beautiful. We get to skip all of that useless dialogue. Not only is he the best active pure thrower of the football in the game today, but he might also be the best to ever do it when all is said and done. Mahomes writes checks on a weekly basis with his arm most quarterbacks can only dream of cashing. Appreciating that gets to be our focus, not his resume. He’ll just keep beefing the latter up as time goes on.

With that being said, Patrick Mahomes’ character arc for this coming NFL season will revolve around whether he can continue to add layers to his already prodigious skillset.

There is still more to fear from Patrick Mahomes

The 2018 season made clear Mahomes’ outrageous ability as a passer. The first-year starter threw an absurd 50 touchdowns and led the league in adjusted yards per attempt. He stacked ridiculous throw on top of ridiculous throw all the way to an AFC Championship game berth for a No. 1 seed Kansas City squad. Despite missing some time with an injury midway through last year, not much changed. Mahomes remains the most uniquely dangerous passer in the game. Yet, the star quarterback did unveil another frightening part of his game as the year wore on.

Many times during his excellent 2018 campaign, I often found myself thinking, “Man, he’s leaving a ton of hidden yards on the field.” That sounds ridiculous for a player who was outright dominant and putting up such gaudy numbers. But it’s just a reminder of how rare of a player we’re talking about here. At least a couple times a game, Mahomes would find himself outside the pocket and would rifle the ball downfield on a low-percentage throw, miss the target, and suffer a negative play. I kept thinking to myself, “It’s insane how good he’s going to be when he realizes he’s so athletic, he can just pick up an easy five to 10 yards by just scrambling here, rather than throwing when it’s not there.”

In 2019, I got my answer. In 2019, he started to take off.

The first sign of it came in Week 4, a win over the Lions. Mahomes took off running six times in total. His longest run went for 25 yards on a third-down play to keep the drive moving in the first quarter. He moved the chains again in the fourth quarter with a seven-yard scamper. That was just a minor taste. Sadly, he got hurt just a few weeks later in Denver. We didn’t get to see the next step of the evolution … at least for a while.

While we’re here, it’s worth revisiting that Patrick Mahomes made an actual miracle comeback from that dislocated knee cap. He was able to come back because he’s just not made like a normal human. When people like me refer to him as “QB Deity” or “alien,” this is part of the reason why it’s deserved.

It makes sense that while recovering from that injury while playing, Mahomes took it easy as a runner. Sure, there were some solid lines of 20-plus yards and/or a touchdown here or there. However, it wasn’t until the playoffs that he truly unleashed this dynamic.

Mahomes took off 24 times over three postseason games for 135 yards and two touchdowns. It was a major factor in moving the chains. He picked up 11 first downs between the Divisional Round, AFC Championship and Super Bowl. For context, he picked up 15 first downs over his 14 regular-season starts last year, 19 during the 2018 regular season and just two the previous postseason.

Adding this dimension to his game should terrify the rest of the league. It’s not as if Mahomes wasn’t already a pristine improvisational artist but if he’s now going to answer with “I’ll run” when presented with these moments of debate, it’s scary to think how much better he and the rest of this Kansas City offense can get going forward.

Even from a raw fantasy football perspective, this development is huge. While 135 yards and a pair of touchdowns over three games doesn’t sound like much, it amounts to an extra 8.5 points per game. You’re not necessarily going to tack that onto his 2019 per game total and just start flying but having stretches like that within his range of outcomes only increases the upside of this uniquely gifted passer. Despite Lamar Jackson’s historic fantasy run in 2019, Mahomes could easily overtake him as QB1 in 2020 if he strings this together through the course of an entire season.

At first blush, you might think that adding a few more quarterback rushing attempts in place of passes might be bad news for some of the notable pass-catchers in this offense. On the other hand, hacking off some of the low-percentage throws he was taking on those third downs and subbing in needed scrambles that actually help move the chains could serve to make this offense more efficient. Keeping drives alive and moving closer to the end zone is of far more importance than the fringes of their passing volume. This can still be good news for Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Sammy Watkins, Mecole Hardman, and the rest.

The fact that there is more greatness for Patrick Mahomes to unlock is quite wild. Given all that he’s done in such a short amount of time, it’s tempting to just accept what we already have. And yet, he’s shown us that there is a greater ceiling ready for him to access. He’s the proof; that’s all we need.

Mahomes beginning to marry his historic abilities as a passer with timely, chain-moving rush attempts over 16 games and a postseason run will be a major plot point in the story of the 2020 NFL season. He’s already the face of the league.

Now, he’ll just attempt to further chisel his legacy. 

AFC EAST

MIAMI

The physical therapist of QB TUA TAGAVIOLOA says he’s doing great.  Safid Deen of the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

Tua Tagovailoa is moving to his new hometown.

Tagovailoa, the Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback, was expected to officially move from Alabama to South Florida on Saturday as the NFL has recently eased its restrictions for players to be able to visit and workout at team facilities.

Coach Brian Flores, general manager Chris Grier and team doctors will finally get their hands on Tagovailoa, the team’s fifth overall pick in April’s NFL draft who has continued to make significant progress in his hip injury recovery.

“He’s doing miraculously well,” said Kevin Wilk, a renown physical therapist in the sports world who has been working with Tagovailoa at the Champion Sports Medicine facility in Birmingham, Alabama.

“The miraculous part is that he healed so well. The second part is, he’s been so well at getting his strength back, which usually takes a long time after something like this.”

Tagovailoa has spent about 3 1/2 hours each workout with a special emphasis placed on three areas of his body:

— His hip, which is recovering from a posterior wall fracture and dislocation suffered in November.

— His ankles, which both underwent tight-rope procedures while in college at Alabama to aid the healing process from high-ankle sprains.

— And his left shoulder with a throwing program to maintain and strengthen his throwing arm.

Over the course of a workout, Tagovailoa would run, lift weights, do agility-type drills, stretch, get his soft tissues worked, ride a stationary bike and do some throwing with friends running routes.

NEW ENGLAND

Mike Reiss of ESPN.com acquaints us with the name of RB DAMIEN HARRIS:

Backfield depth: In describing why the Patriots invested a significant asset to bring aboard a backup, coach Bill Belichick once said, “Nobody needs insurance until you need insurance.”

At the time, he was speaking of No. 3 quarterback Jacoby Brissett being activated off injured reserve late in the 2016 season. Fast-forward to the present and Belichick’s words also fit with running back Damien Harris.

When Harris hardly played during his rookie 2019 season, despite being selected in the third round out of Alabama after setting the Crimson Tide record for average yards per carry in a career (6.4), it sparked a question as to what he might bring to the team.

Running backs coach Ivan Fears said late last season that the Patriots were pleased with Harris, but that he was buried on the depth chart behind four quality backs/special-teams contributors (Sony Michel, James White, Rex Burkhead and Brandon Bolden) who had mostly remained healthy throughout the year. Fears’ message was that Harris has a “great future” but needed to be patient, similar to running backs Shane Vereen (2011) and White (2014) in their quiet rookie seasons.

So Harris was the Patriots’ running back insurance as a rookie, and now, the start of training camp in late July is shaping up as a time to see how valuable that insurance might actually be.

Michel is recovering from surgery on his foot, and even if he progresses well over the next six weeks, it makes sense to think the Patriots will proceed cautiously with him. That would give Harris an extended opportunity to show he’s worthy of a larger role.

THIS AND THAT

ANTHEM DISCUSSION

The NFL appears headed, now with the League Office’s enthusiastic support, towards widespread, if not close to unanimous, symbolic actions in conjunction with the Kaepernick movement calling attention to widespread systemic racism in policing and other actions by elite whites.

JJ WATT, now fully onboard with the prevailing sentiment among the players, is among those, including his coach, insisting that the upcoming actions have nothing to do with any disrespect with the flag as a symbol or the country’s governing system in general.  Sarah Rumpf at Mediate.com with an update:

One of professional football’s most beloved personalities, J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans, tweeted his support on Saturday for the kneeling protests that have taken on new significance since George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds.

On Friday, the Houston Chronicle published an interview with Texans coach Bill O’Brien, who voiced his support for joining his players kneeling at the sideline.

“Yeah, I’ll take a knee — I’m all for it,” said O’Brien. “The players have a right to protest, a right to be heard, and a right to be who they are. They’re not taking a knee because they’re against our flag. They’re taking a knee because they haven’t been treated equally in this country for over 400 years.”

After the O’Brien news broke, a Twitter user tweeted at Watt, “Pretty sure you won’t see @JJWatt taking a knee,” followed by three American flag emojis.

“Don’t speak for me,” replied Watt, “if you still think it’s about disrespecting the flag or our military, you clearly haven’t been paying attention.”

@JJWatt

A) don’t speak for me

B) if you still think it’s about disrespecting the flag or our military, you clearly haven’t been listening https://twitter.com/Texas_Trump_20/status/1271526597053513733 …

It’s an evolution for the team from 2016, when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first began protesting by kneeling during the national anthem. Several Texans players, including Watt, remained standing and held a giant American flag during the anthem before a game against the Chicago Bears.

Even then, Watt might not have participated in the kneeling, but he wasn’t opposed to it, telling ESPN, “I think everybody can do what they choose to do. Everybody can form their own opinion on how they want to do it. That’s just what we chose to do. Everybody’s different, everybody has their own opinions, and that’s what we chose to do.”

O’Brien was also quoted around that same time, saying that he wasn’t going to talk about any other team or their players, but the Texans policy was to discourage players from kneeling.

“I’m going to just tell you that we encourage our players to stand for the national anthem to honor their country,” he said. “That’s the way we handle it.”

Watt wasn’t the only NFL player shrugging off fan complaints about kneeling. Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield posted an Instagram comment Saturday declaring that he intended to kneel.

According to Yahoo Sports, one of Mayfield’s followers commented, “Please tell Browns fans you’re not going to be kneeling this season.”

“Pull your head out,” Mayfield replied. “I absolutely am.”

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino  responding to Watt, sees a double standard with the in-your-face imposition of the kneeling by people who are adept at seeing microaggressions in things like the Betsy Ross flag.

@dbongino

Ironic that your generation, which is obsessed with every “microaggression,” seems to be ignorant of the impact of their actions on others. People who left pieces of themselves overseas fighting FOR YOU, & millions of patriots, feel that it is disrespectful. ARE YOU LISTENING? 👇🏻

Back in 2016, Kaepernick wanted everyone to note that his protest was indeed directly against the flag and the government it represented.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

This twitter user thinks there are ways around it, if Watt is correct:

@KB2408LAFAN

Great point!!! If it’s not about the flag or military then do it after the game together in a huddle. Or have a moment of silence before the flag!!!

@JJWatt  Don’t discredit our country, military, and respect for our freedom!

Mayfield broke his offseason vow of silence to speak passionately on his new-found commitment to the cause.  Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com:

Baker Mayfield‘s offseason motto was “moving in silence.” But after the death of George Floyd on May 25, followed by nationwide protests, the Browns quarterback is speaking out. Loudly.

And, frankly, he doesn’t care what anybody thinks.

Mayfield expanded on his earlier Instagram post after receiving flak from some fans for vowing to kneel for the national anthem this season.

“Everybody so upset about my comment doesn’t understand the reasoning behind kneeling in the first place,” Mayfield wrote on his Instagram story. ”Nate [Boyer, a former NFL player and Green Beret,] and Kap [Colin Kaepernick] came to an agreement that kneeling was the most respectful way to support our military while also standing up for equality.

“I have the utmost respect for our military, cops, and people that serve our country. It’s about equality and everybody being treated the same because we’re all human. It’s been ignored for too long and that is my fault as well for not becoming more educated and staying silent.

“If I lose fans, that’s okay. I’ve always spoken my mind. And that’s from the heart.”

Mayfield’s initial post about his pregame intentions came in response to a fan who asked the quarterback to “please tell Browns fans you’re not going to be kneeling this season.” Mayfield answered: “pull your head out. I absolutely am.”

Mayfield worked out in an “I can’t breathe” T-shirt on Saturday, posting video on Instagram.

There have been more than 100,000 tweets, and counting, calling for a boycott of the NFL in 2020 – some from what were once conventional Americans, others who need to have Kaepernick under contract before they will believe the NFL’s sincerity in adopting the anti-flag Black Lives Matter mantra.  This from CBSDFW.com:

Texans are among those not happy with the NFL in recent weeks, according to analysis of more than 100,000 tweets across the nation.

The map below is based on geotagged Twitter data in the last three weeks, tracking tweets and hashtags about boycotting the NFL. This includes hashtags such as #boycottnfl, #nflboycott, #boycottthenfl, #nokaepernicknonfl, to name a few.

The boycott activity is coming from people on both sides of the player protest issue.

Many are calling for boycotts due to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s recent video message, in which he apologized on behalf of the league for not supporting player decisions to kneel in protest. Thereby angering those that feel the protests are disrespecting the flag.

At the same time, those that support the protests and former QB Colin Kaepernick, wanted a direct apology to Kaepernick and reinstatement in the league, so they are boycotting for this reason, with hashtags such as #nokaepernicknonfl.

The map shows the Midwest and southern states seem to have the most activity, with Mississippi being the top boycott state.

The top states planning to boycott the NFL are as follows:

1. Mississippi

2. Florida

3. Iowa

4. Missouri

5. Tennessee

6. Alabama

7. South Carolina

8. Texas

9. Maine

10. Indiana

The map was put together by sportsinsider.com, using trends software with direct access to geotagged Twitter data.

On the one hand, tweeting you are going to do something is easy; actually not watching is another.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan base has been tagged as the most Republican in the NFL, but we really don’t think Florida Man will pass up on the chance to watch TOM BRADY in Pewter and Red just because he silently kneeled during an anthem.

CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG

Failed QB Christian Hackenberg is taking his talents, or lack thereof, to baseball.  Rich Cimini of ESPN.com:

After washing out in football, former Penn State and NFL quarterback Christian Hackenberg is attempting a sports comeback as a baseball pitcher.

“Simple as I can put it: I just want to compete, man,” Hackenberg told NBC Philadelphia. “I’ve kind of had my trials and tribulations with the NFL, and had success and had that roller-coaster ride. At the end of the day, I’m sitting here at 25. For me … I feel like I’ve got a lot left in the tank.”

The former New York Jets draft pick, who throws right-handed, reportedly has a 90 mph fastball. He’s working himself into shape and making progress, according to his agent, Noel LaMontagne.

“He isn’t rushing anything and is being smart about not putting his health in a bad situation,” LaMontagne said in an email to ESPN. “He’s young, has the work ethic, a ton of natural arm talent, plenty of athleticism and the focus it takes to put himself in a position to have a chance.”

Before landing a football scholarship as one of the nation’s most coveted recruits, Hackenberg played baseball at the Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, Virginia. He pitched mainly in relief, showing a live but erratic arm — a lot like his quarterback play.

In high school, in 25 2/3 innings, he struck out 33 batters, with 40 walks, five HBPs and a 7.36 ERA, according to Max Preps. He was better as a hitter, with 10 home runs and a .378 average in 148 at-bats.

Hackenberg will be remembered as one of the biggest disappointments in recent NFL history. A second-round pick by the Jets in 2016, he never played a regular-season game with New York — or any team, for that matter.

The Jets gave up on Hackenberg after two seasons, and he became only the third quarterback selected in the first or second round of the common-draft era (since 1967) to not play a game in his first two seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The Jets traded Hackenberg to the Raiders in May 2018. He lasted less than three weeks before being released by coach Jon Gruden, who was complimentary of Hackenberg when he came out of Penn State.

Hackenberg spent three weeks on the Philadelphia Eagles’ preseason roster before landing on the Cincinnati Bengals’ practice squad for two months. He tried the now-defunct Alliance of American Football but didn’t last long as the starting quarterback of the Memphis Express franchise.

Hackenberg is being trained by Rutgers-Camden baseball coach Ryan Kulik.

SHEDEUR SANDERS

A name to know.  TOM BRADY already does.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Trinity Christian High School football player Shedeur Sanders is a four-start recruit heading into his senior year, and he’s the son of a Hall of Famer, Deion Sanders. But it’s not his dad whom Shedeur is modeling himself after.

Instead, Shedeur Sanders is trying to be like Tom Brady — and getting some private tutoring from him. Shedeur, a quarterback who has strived to make himself an accurate pocket passer, posted on social media some pictures from a one-on-one session he had with Brady.

“Learning from the [Greatest of All Time] soaking up all the knowledge,” Shedeur wrote on Instagram.

Shedeur has scholarship offers from many of the best football schools in the country, including Florida State, where his dad went, and Michigan, where Brady went.

A little more about Sanders from back in January at MaxPreps.com:

Texas high school football star Shedeur Sanders – the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders – announced Wednesday via Instagram that he will remain at Trinity Christian (Cedar Hill) for his senior season.

As a junior, Sanders threw for 3,477 yards and 47 touchdowns (against just four interceptions) in leading the Tigers to a 13-1 record and the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools Division II state title.

247Sports has the 6-foot-2 signal caller pegged as a four-star prospect and Top 400 prospect nationally. Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, LSU and Michigan are among his 18 reported offers.

Rumors have swirled this offseason about the future of Shedeur and his famous father, especially after Trinity Christian was formally removed from TAPPS in late December. Deion was reported to be a candidate for the Florida State head coaching position while social media fueled buzz of Shedeur spending his senior season at IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.).

Trinity Christian is in Cedar Hill, Texas, south and a bit west of Dallas, more south of Grand Prairie, on the way to Midlothian.

This, on why they are not in TAPPS:

Twelve days ago, Trinity Christian-Cedar Hill was celebrating a third straight TAPPS Division II football state title.

A week later, the school learned its time in TAPPS would be ending even earlier than expected.

Trinity Christian-Cedar Hill is no longer part of TAPPS after its membership was terminated Dec. 13. The school received a letter from TAPPS last Friday, notifying TC-Cedar Hill that it had been handed several punishments — most notably an immediate exit from the association as well as a five-game suspension for head football coach Andre’ Hart.

TC-Cedar Hill announced in late October that it was planning to leave TAPPS at the end of the school year, claiming that its athletes and students were treated unfairly and that it received unfair sanctions.

TAPPS executive director Bryan Bunselmeyer said Wednesday that the sanctions against TC-Cedar Hill were the result of violations that occurred after the 48-19 win over Austin Regents in the state championship game Dec. 6 in Waco. The most serious were alleged violations of the following sections of the TAPPS bylaws.

Section 131.I.C: Accept decisions of sports and school officials without pro­test, and without questioning their honesty or integrity, and extend protection and courtesy to sports officials from participants, school personnel, and spectators remembering that officials are guests.

Section 138.X.H: A coach or player deliberately coming into physical contact with, or threatening harm to, an official shall receive a minimum five (5) game suspension and monetary fine as determined by the TAPPS Executive Board.

Section 138.XIV.J: The use of, or appearance of using, any controlled substance (alcohol, drugs,etc.) before, during or after games at contest sites is prohibited by TAPPS.

Bunselmeyer said the violation of the controlled substance bylaw occurred in the TC-Cedar Hill locker room after the state title game but declined to comment beyond that.

 “They are blatantly untrue,” TC-Cedar Hill superintendent Mark Hennesy said. “We have never had an opportunity to address them. They never asked us anything, never spoke to us. We would have been happy to tell them that they were untrue. They contacted us with a decision made.”

When asked why TAPPS handed down sanctions after TC-Cedar Hill had already said that it was leaving TAPPS, Bunselmeyer said, “I don’t think we were given a choice. When the actions occurred, they were witnessed and reported, and the board then had to take action.”

Hennesy said TC-Cedar Hill has not decided what it will do for winter and spring sports this school year but plans to finalize those plans by the start of January. Hennesy said that TC-Cedar Hill was told that the school could have met with the TAPPS board in January, but “we choose not to do so.”

“We are happy to be looking toward our future, going in a new direction and glad to be done with it all,” Hennesy said.

Bunselmeyer said that because TC-Cedar Hill had its membership revoked, instead of voluntarily withdrawing from the private school organization, that the school could reapply for TAPPS membership at any time.

Among the other consequences for what TAPPS termed “violations occurring while the school was on probation” were three additional years of probation for TC-Cedar Hill as well as public reprimands for Hart, his entire coaching staff, athletic director Troy Williams, Hennesy and the school itself. TC-Cedar Hill’s football coaching staff includes Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders (offensive coordinator) and former NFL defensive back Kevin Mathis (defensive coordinator).

Other TAPPS schools will not be able to schedule football games against TC-Cedar Hill for the next two years. Bunselmeyer said that if a school is already scheduled to play TC-Cedar Hill in any sports the remainder of this school year that they can honor that commitment if they choose.

According to sanctions posted on the TAPPS website, TC-Cedar Hill violated nine different items within the association’s by-laws. Of the nine, the only one Hart acknowledged was Section 138.X.H which involves “a coach or player deliberately coming into physical contact with, or threatening harm to, an official.”

Hart said that there was an incident with officials during the state title game in which he was “irate,” but both he and Williams stated that there was no contact made with an official in any form.

SAY NO TO 17 GAMES

Author Michael McCambridge, sitting in for Peter King who is vacating, uses his guest column appearance to warn about the “perils” of playing an extra game:

There are 162 regular-season games in a full season of baseball, 82 in the NBA and the NHL, 38 in England’s Premier League, 34 in Major League Soccer and the WNBA, 24 in the National Women’s Soccer League, 22 in the UK’s Premiership Rugby league, and 18 in the National Lacrosse League. It’s not a coincidence that all those figures, across all those sports, are all even numbers. Because one of the first principles of fairness in professional sports is that teams competing have an equal number of home and road games. It’s basic, fundamental component of virtually all leagues.

Except, it seems, the National Football League.

Starting in 2021, in all likelihood, the NFL will move to a 17-game regular season, as permitted in the new collective bargaining agreement signed in March, meaning some teams will have eight home games and some will have nine. In a league whose competition thrives on fine margins, the resulting advantage or disadvantage could be significant.

But for reasons that go far beyond that, the near-inevitable move to a 17-game regular season next year strikes me as the single most troubling competitive change the league has made in more than 30 years, at least since the decision, in the midst of the 1987 strike, to use replacement players to play games that would count in the standings.

This latest move was not exactly buried but also didn’t get a lot of attention when the latest extension to the CBA was announced. The addition of a seventh playoff team in each conference (starting this season) seemed to get more coverage, but I’m convinced that a 17th regular season game will have a more profound effect on the league.

The 17th game is the product of the league’s architects putting an unending desire for more revenue ahead of every other potential consideration, including safety, competitive balance, optics, and common sense. The change is, in a word, dispiriting.

Over the past fortnight, I’ve talked with more than a half-dozen football people whose opinions I respect—two Super Bowl-winning former coaches, two owners, two general managers and a longtime league executive (many of whom asked that their comments be off the record or not for attribution)—and not a single person seemed enthusiastic about the 17th game, each of them recognizing that the change happened for one reason only.

“I don’t see the rationale for it other than it brings in more revenue,” said Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy. “And I think that’s why the players agreed to it, that’s why the owners want it. It’s not something, I don’t think, the fans are demanding. I think people love our regular season, because the games are meaningful. I could understand maybe expanding the playoffs, but to add an odd number of regular-season games makes zero sense to me.”

Even the two owners I spoke to, who supported a 17th game, seemed wholly unenthusiastic, citing the need for more revenue.

“Do I prefer it for the game? I do not,” said one.

As the former Ravens coach and NFL Network analyst Brian Billick put it, after talking with dozens of coaches over the past couple of months, “I’ve not heard of anybody who likes it.”

There are so many things to dislike about a 17-game schedule, and many unintended consequences that could ensue, but I think the biggest concern involves player safety, both the reality and the perception of it.

The greatest problem pro football has faced this century is what to do about the physical trauma that the game exerts on players. There is still much research to be done, and the answers are not as clear-cut as the film “Concussion” would have you believe (read Ingfei Chen’s story in the New Yorker from earlier this year). But it remains an existential challenge that has to be faced at every level of football, from Pop Warner to the NFL.

The one thing we already know is that the players who put their bodies on the line every week are taking significant risks which can and often will affect their long-term health. Because of the riches the game offers and the powerful sense of camaraderie it can provide, it’s a risk they willingly take. Without knowing exactly what the long-term effects are, the risk/reward ratio remains necessarily murky.

But surely the answer is NOT to play more games. The NFL has been bewildering, and at times tone-deaf, on this issue for years. Before offering up a 17-game schedule, Commissioner Roger Goodell and other league leaders floated the idea of an 18-game schedule, while reducing the pre-season to two games. This, then, is a half-measure in the wrong direction.

“It’s duplicitous,” said Billick. “We hear ‘safety safety safety’ from the owners, and then how do you justify adding another game now?”

One owner I spoke to gamely made the case that, with the preseason likely cut from four games to three, teams would still be playing 20 games across the preseason and regular season. But that argument doesn’t hold up to scrutiny; veterans rarely play in the preseason, so they are trading a game they aren’t playing in for one that they will. Another owner noted that there are far fewer days of contact in practice and training camp than a decade ago, which is certainly true. But there’s also no contact like game contact, and a 17th game adds to that.

What I think those in the league—both players and owners—are missing is the way this move sends a mixed message to fans concerned about safety, and breeds a kind of cynicism, making those concerns expressed by both players and owners at least sound hollow.

“I don’t want to hear another word from the players complaining about health issues,” said one rabid fan I know, after the deal was ratified. Indeed, it seems inexplicable that an NFLPA keenly aware of all the issues involving player safety would recommend their membership add games to an already staggering workload.

My guess is the NFL and the NFLPA settled on a solution no one likes because neither side was confident a more reasonable solution could be hammered out in the months ahead. There seems to be a lack of trust on both sides.

So the owners gave the players a package in which a 17th game was tied to more jobs and more benefits, but essentially made clear that it was a take-it-or-leave-it proposal, and the NFLPA accepted, albeit by a narrow margin (1,019 to 959). The rules that will govern football for the next decade—especially one adding a game to the schedule—should have had more than 52% support of the players.

I understand the desire to grow the game, and the quest for more revenue. But even here, there was a safer, more sensible alternative. What the 17th game will do is add an 18th week of “inventory” for the networks. But the league could have done the same thing and still kept the schedule at 16 games, simply by giving each team in the league a second bye week. If that had been done, it could have been accompanied by a stipulation that the additional bye week would always fall before each team’s Thursday night game, so no team was ever taking the field on three days’ rest. (The Players Association, I’m told, has been opposed to a bye week prior to a Thursday game, because then players don’t get a full week off, although that could be legislated as well.)

One owner insisted there’s no data to suggest injuries occur at a higher rate in the Thursday night games. But the fact remains that many fans perceive the Thursday games as poorly played, and almost all players hate playing on the short week.

“What’s the physical toll?,” asks Billick about the Thursday games on short rest. “I don’t think you can quantify the cumulative effect.”

At the root of all this is the unloved institution of preseason games, which are baked into the NFL’s economic model. You could write a graduate thesis on the decline of exhibition games in American sports. Remember the College All-Star Game that used to begin the football schedule? Remember when Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game was the biggest sports event of the summer? Remember when people used to care about the Pro Bowl? (More recently, do you remember when people used to tackle at the Pro Bowl?)

It’s not too late. The league could still decide to stay at 16 games. But no one in football thinks they will. And whether you’re an NFL owner, an NFL player or an NFL fan, that’s a negative development.

The next TV contracts will be bigger, but the game won’t be better, the players won’t be safer, the regular season won’t be more compelling, and the league’s stranglehold on its position as America’s most popular sport will not be solidified.

To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca,” if the NFL goes to a 17-game schedule, the caretakers of the league will regret it. Maybe not in ’21 or ’22 but soon, and for the rest of their lives.

Dungy sees the writing on the wall. Invoking George Young, the Hall of Fame Giants GM and later league executive, Dungy recalled, “George Young used to always talk about, when we’d have a rule change, that ‘the camel is getting its nose under the tent,’ and when we let the camel’s nose get under the tent, nothing good can happen; the tent is eventually gonna tip over, right? And there will be talk in a couple of years about an 18th game, and then there’ll be talk about a 19th game. And so I would have fought it a little harder as a player. But, in the end, the owners won out by telling them how much more revenue they could make.”

Just to quickly re-hash a few points – at 17 weeks in length, the NFL schedule is the shortest in all major sports with European soccer at 39 weeks and the other American sports around 26.

The DB favors 17 games, an extra bye week as well for 19 weeks with only two preseason games.  Currently, at 16 and 4 half games, teams play something like 18 total physical games.  At 17 and 2, the workload would be similar, perhaps just a bit more for key players.  And they would have an extra week to rest and there would be 19 weeks of revenue to grow the game.