The Daily Briefing Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Jon Gruden’s trove of emails included one that repeated the widely-held “knowledge” that the NFL compelled the Rams to draft Missouri LB MICHAEL SAM in 2014.  Presumably, the NFL had leverage on the Rams through its support of the team’s move to Los Angeles.  But then-coach Jeff Fisher takes umbrage with that speculation.  Jeff Reineking in USA TODAY:

Gruden’s assertion that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell pressured the Rams to draft Sam was challenged by the coach of the team at the time, Jeff Fisher.  “Michael Sam was the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, and we selected him in the 2014 NFL Draft based on his defensive production and pass rushing skill set on the field,” Fisher wrote in a Twitter post. “As a head coach for over 20 years, we drafted or didn’t draft, players based on a variety of qualities. Their sexual orientation would never – and should never – play a part in the decision-making process.

“I continue to support Michael, and his decision to come out as the first draft eligible openly gay player in the league. It took courage to serve as a role model for those competitive football players who may also happen to be gay.

“Lastly, the NFL never encouraged or discouraged me regarding the selection of a potential prospect.”

Sam was a seventh-round selection, No. 249 overall, out of Missouri. He was among the final cuts as the Rams trimmed their roster to the 53-player limit ahead of the 2014 season. After a stint on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad and a short time in the Canadian Football League, Sam officially stepped away from professional football in August 2015.

NFC NORTH

DETROIT

Star C FRANK RAGNOW must turn his focus to 2022.  Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com:

The Detroit Lions continue to suffer a rash of injuries, with Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow undergoing season-ending toe surgery, coach Dan Campbell confirmed Wednesday.

Campbell said Ragnow had the surgery Tuesday and that the procedure “went wll.”

“He didn’t want to do [the surgery] either,” said Campbell, who added that the Lions will “miss” Ragnow.

Campbell said the discussion with Ragnow over whether to have the season-ending surgery was difficult.

“Look, he feels guilty and he doesn’t need to feel guilty,” Campbell said. “That’s why you love him, though, too. He wants to be a part of this and feels like he’s letting guys down, but it’s just the opposite.

“You’re being unselfish when you need to be selfish about this because maybe there’s a chance you get him back at the very end of the year, but there’s a bigger chance that however, it’s not properly healed.”

Ragnow was already on the injured reserve list for what Campbell described earlier this week as a “version of turf toe.”

He suffered the injury during the first half of Detroit’s Week 4 loss at Chicago. The team also lost outside linebacker Romeo Okwara to a season-ending Achilles injury in that same game.

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Cowboys T LA’EL COLLINS does not get the result he hoped for from his hometown judge.

A federal judge has denied a request by Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman La’el Collins for an injunction that would have halted his five-game suspension with one game remaining.

U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant suggested in his ruling issued Tuesday that the NFL suspended Collins in violation of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union. However, Mazzant ruled the arbitrator’s decision in Collins’ appeal was based on a “reasonable construction of the parties’ agreements.”

The ruling means Collins won’t be eligible to play Sunday at New England. The seventh-year player can return to the team next week, when the Cowboys are idle. Collins can play again in Week 8 at Minnesota.

The NFL accused Collins of bribery in a court filing that opposed the request for a preliminary injunction. Representatives for Collins have strongly denied that and said the league misled the arbitrator by saying Collins had been suspended four games when he hadn’t.

Collins sued the NFL, its management council and commissioner Roger Goodell last week. The lawsuit said Collins was suspended when the new labor agreement signed in 2020 no longer allowed for suspensions over missed tests or positive marijuana tests. The league countered by saying Collins had a “long history of discipline for repeated violations.”

“Clearly in a fair hearing, a fair court, with a judge like we had here, we’d win hands down,” said player agent Peter Schaffer, one of Collins’ representatives. “(Collins) stood up against the league knowing he was right. The only reason he was suspended is this is how the league treats its players.”

The suspension was announced the day after Dallas’ 31-29 loss to defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay in the opener, Collins’ first game since 2019. He missed all of last season because of hip surgery.

Just before the start of the season four years ago, Mazzant granted star running back Ezekiel Elliott’s request for an injunction to stop a six-game suspension over domestic violence allegations. That ruling sparked a two-month legal saga that ended with Elliott serving the suspension.

WASHINGTON

The DB can think of a lot of reasons, a lot of unintended and harmful consequences, that could happen if all 650,000 WFT emails were distributed to be combed over by the nation’s sporting press.  But the lawyers representing 40 women who feel they were harmed by working for the WFT, want that – or at least the release of the formal findings of the NFL’s secret investigation. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

In July, the NFL successfully buried all evidence regarding the investigation of the Washington Football Team. In October, the selective leak of certain emails regarding former Raiders coach Jon Gruden has triggered plenty of questions that weren’t asked in July.

The latest call for transparency has come from lawyers Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 former employees of the Washington football team.

 “It is truly outrageous that after the NFL’s 10-month long investigation involving hundreds of witnesses and 650,000 documents related to the longtime culture of harassment and abuse at the Washington Football Team, the only person to be held accountable and lose their job is the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders,” Banks and Katz said. “If the NFL felt it appropriate to release these offensive emails from Jon Gruden, which it obtained during its investigation of the Washington Football Team, it must also release the findings related to the actual target of the investigation. Our clients and the public at large deserve transparency and accountability. If not, the NFL and Roger Goodell must explain why they appear intent on protecting the Washington Football Team and owner Dan Snyder at all costs.”

It was already difficult to justify releasing no information about the outcome of the WFT investigation. It becomes impossible to excuse ongoing silence in the aftermath of the Gruden disclosure and leak. The NFL provided information to the Raiders from the WFT investigation regarding emails sent when he wasn’t an employee of the team with a specific purpose in mind. Last night, that purpose apparently was achieved.

If Gruden must accept a major consequence for his collateral role in the situation, the principal players must do the same. Starting with Snyder.

There’s nothing that can force the NFL to do it. There’s also nothing that can stop fans and media from persisting in their position that the NFL should do it.

Everyone should be making their voices heard on this. The NFL opened the door by using the emails to engineer Gruden’s resignation. The rest of those emails must now be made available for the public to scrutinize, and for any and all fair and reasonable consequences to happen, the same way they happened to Gruden.

And this:

The NFL Players Association said Tuesday that it plans to request that the NFL release the remainder of the 650,000 emails reviewed as part of the investigation into workplace misconduct with the Washington Football Team.

Leaked emails from that investigation that showed Jon Gruden used racist, misogynistic and anti-gay language led to the Las Vegas Raiders coach’s resignation Monday night.

“We have had communications with the league, and the NFLPA plans to request that the NFL release the rest of the emails,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith told USA Today Sports in a phone interview.

NFLPA spokesperson George Atallah confirmed to ESPN’s Dan Graziano that the union planned to request the emails. An NFL spokesperson told USA Today that it had no plans to release those emails for confidentiality reasons.

We really think that in 650,000 emails, the vast majority would be things like “remember, the buses leave for the airport at 1 p.m.”

But some of them might be of value to the other member clubs in terms of candid personnel evaluations.

Others might reveal things like marital issues, health issues, personality clashes, etc. that really are nowhere near criminal, don’t really go to the issue of toxic culture and invade personal privacy.

And, this is interesting, they might not lay a hand on Daniel Snyder who apparently doesn’t really do email.  We saw this on Twitter from Gary Fitzgerald:

@GaryRFitzgerald

Here’s what I recall about #WFT owner working for him 10+ years: he does not (to the best of my knowledge) communicate by email. At all. If/when he wanted to tell you something, he would call you or (more likely) call your senior level boss.

@GaryRFitzgerald

So I would doubt the existence of any email exchanges between #WFT owner and Bruce Allen.

@GaryRFitzgerald

Ask any senior level exec who worked for #WFT owner. He will call your cellphone any hour of the night and the early hours of the morning. What he will not do is send off an email for you to check in the morning when you wake up.

NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

Oft-injured PK CODY PARKEY is one and done with the Saints. Mark Inabinitt ofAL.com:

During his introductory press conference last week, New Orleans Saints kicker Cody Parkey remarked that he had “kind of been unlucky with an injury here or there” during his previous seven NFL seasons.

That brand of luck persisted for the former Auburn standout on Sunday, and the Saints released Parkey on Tuesday after his only appearance with the team.

On Sunday, Parkey sustained a groin injury in pregame warmups, but he still handled the kicking for New Orleans in its 33-22 victory over the Washington Football Team. Parkey made three of his five extra-point kicks.

The Saints released Parkey with an injury settlement rather than place him on injured reserve. An injury settlement allows a team to part ways with a player while compensating him for the games he’s expected to miss because of the injury.

The Saints had Parkey working as a stand-in for Wil Lutz, the 2020 NFC Pro Bowl kicker who is recovering from August surgery to repair a core-muscle injury.

Over the first four games of the 2021 season, Aldrick Rosas handled the kicking duties for New Orleans, but he missed three of his four field-goal attempts, causing the Saints to bring in Parkey last week.

Parkey was available because he’d been released by the Cleveland Browns from injured reserve with an injury settlement after he’d hurt his quadriceps in August.

New Orleans signed Brian Johnson off the Chicago Bears’ practice squad to take Parkey’s place. The Saints have a bye this week and return to the field on Oct. 25 against the Seattle Seahawks. Johnson has never appeared in an NFL regular-season game.

TAMPA BAY

It cannot be a surprise that Jon Gruden was crudely candid in his private moments, but the Buccaneers have erased the coach who led them to their first Super Bowl win from their Ring of Honor.  Luke Easterling of USA Today:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are removing former head coach Jon Gruden from the team’s ring of honor.

“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have advocated for purposeful change in the areas of race relations, gender equality, diversity and inclusion for many years,” the team said in a statement released Tuesday evening. “While we acknowledge Jon Gruden’s contributions on the field, his actions go against our core values as an organization. Therefore, he will no longer continue to be a member of the Buccaneers Ring of Honor.”

Gruden resigned as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night after articles in both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times detailed past emails sent by Gruden that included racist, homophobic and sexist language.

The Bucs sent four draft picks and $8 million to the Raiders in 2002 to acquire Gruden as their new head coach, after which the team won the Super Bowl in his first season. He was fired after seven seasons, finishing with a record of 112-57 in Tampa Bay.

Among the revealed emails was a crude exchange between Gruden and Bruce Allen on the subject of Bucs co-owner Bryan Glazer.

NFC WEST

ARIZONA

COVID strikes in Arizona.  Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com:

Arizona Cardinals star pass-rusher Chandler Jones was put on the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list on Tuesday because of a positive test, a source told ESPN’s Field Yates.

How long Jones, 31, is out will be determined by whether or not he has symptoms since he’s fully vaccinated. If he’s asymptomatic, he can return to the Cardinals with two negative tests 24 hours apart. That could be as early as Thursday.

However, if Jones is symptomatic, he can only return after returning two negative tests 24 hours apart and be asymptomatic for 48 hours.

Jones has five sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery in five games this season.

SAN FRANCISCO

QB TREY LANCE is ailing, but coach Kyle Shanahan thinks he will get QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO back after this week’s bye.  David Bonilla of 49ers Red Zone:

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan joined KNBR this morning and provided an update on his starting quarterback. No, not rookie Trey Lance. Jimmy Garoppolo.

If healthy, Garoppolo is expected to be the Week 7 starter against the Indianapolis Colts. Lance may not even be available for that game. The rookie quarterback suffered a knee sprain during his first start this past weekend. The injury could keep him out for one or two weeks.

Garoppolo is attempting to return from the calf injury sustained on October 3. It sounds like the 49ers are optimistic about his recovery.

“I mean, he’s doing good,” Shanahan said on the Murph & Mac show. “We’ll see when we get back [after the bye week]. I think he’ll be ready to go next week when we get back. That’s the plan. I know he’s doing a lot better now than he was last week.”

Of course, Shanahan doesn’t want to commit to anything when it comes to calf injuries. The team thought tight end George Kittle might recover quickly from his own calf injury. Instead, he was placed on injured reserve this past weekend.

“I know there was an outside chance that he was going to be able to play [this past weekend], which makes me feel pretty good going forward about Indy,” Shanahan shared. “But I’m never going to set it in stone because calves are a little bit weird. That’s what we had to go through with Kittle here over these last few weeks, and Jimmy’s isn’t the same. So, I think it will be better, but let’s hope for the best.”

Former WFT QB NATE SUDFELD is the third 49ers QB, FYI.

SEATTLE

The Seahawks are said to jettisoning CB TRE FLOWERS.  Brady Henderson ofESPN.com:

The Seahawks are expected to release former starting cornerback Tre Flowers in what marks more turnover for Seattle at the position, a source confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.

Flowers began the season as a starter but was benched in favor of Sidney Jones after a loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3. Flowers’ issues in coverage continued in that game, and afterwards, he described it as a scheme issue while saying there was confusion among some Seattle defenders on how to defend certain route concepts.

Coach Pete Carroll later chalked up Flowers’ comments to frustration.

NFL Network first reported Seattle’s plans to release Flowers, saying it was at the cornerback’s request.

Flowers has started 40 games over three-plus seasons with the Seahawks, who drafted him in the fifth round out of Oklahoma State in 2018 and converted him from safety to cornerback. He surprisingly won a starting job as a rookie, replacing Richard Sherman, and started 15 games in each of his first two seasons.

His inconsistent ball skills and two rough performances in the 2019 playoffs led Seattle to trade for Quinton Dunbar in 2020. Flowers started seven games as an injury replacement in 2020 and emerged from the preseason this year as a starter over Ahkello Witherspoon, whom Seattle traded after signing in March to replace Shaquill Griffin.

Flowers was making a nonguaranteed $2.183 million this season. Seattle will save the remainder of that — in cash and cap space — with his release. It also clears a roster spot.

AFC SOUTH

INDIANAPOLIS

Owner Jim Irsay sees a bright future for his Colts.

The Colts are 1-4 and will be without either their first-round pick or their second-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft because of the Carson Wentz trade, but owner Jim Irsay insists his team’s future is bright.

Irsay wrote on Twitter that the Colts will 2in the Super Bowl and hoist the Lombardi Trophy at least twice in the 2020s.

 “Colts Nation,don’t you worry…we’re gonna get The Horseshoe at least 2 Lombardis this decade,” Irsay wrote. “As sure as the sun rises and the seasons change,it’s COMING! Don’t you ever doubt that,EVER! YOU WILL SEE GREATNESS. BELIEVE AND YOU WILL SEE.”

The Colts have won only one Lombardi since moving to Indianapolis in 1984, despite having the incredible good fortune of owning the first overall pick in the NFL draft when the two most sure-thing franchise quarterback prospects (Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck) entered the league.

So Irsay might be just a tad overly optimistic about where the Colts are headed.

AFC EAST

MIAMI

QB TUA TAGOVAILOA looks ready to take on the Jaguars in London.  Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post:

Dolphins coach Brian Flores sounded encouraged Monday about the chances Tua Tagovailoa will return from broken ribs to face the Jaguars on Sunday in London.

“We’ll see how it goes with Tua,” Flores said. “But I would say he’s doing everything —he’s moving in the right direction, Tua, based on what I saw (Monday). And we’re hopeful that he’s ready to go this week in practice and this week for the game.”

Tagovailoa threw on Monday, more than three weeks after fracturing ribs early in Miami’s Week 2 loss to Buffalo.

“He looks like he’s making a lot of improvement,” Flores said. “We’ll need to see him move around, throw the ball, see him make throws on the run, see the deep ball. The one thing we won’t see is real and true contact on the quarterback. There’s obviously going to be from a pain-tolerance standpoint some things he’s going to have to push through, which I’m sure he will.”

Flores noted that backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett played through a hamstring injury in Sunday’s loss to Tampa Bay.

“Definitely sore,” Flores said of Brissett. “Definitely getting treatment. Definitely sore. I thought he really toughed it out yesterday with the leg injury. Look, he’s tough. He’s competitive. I thought about pulling him a couple times and he fought me to stay in. That speaks to his competitiveness.”

On Tuesday, Tua was “designated for return.”

THIS AND THAT

GRUDEN’S DEMISE AND ITS FALLOUT

Sam Farmer of the LA Times with the scoop that some of Jon Gruden’s emails were hiding in plain sight for months.

Several inflammatory emails by Jon Gruden were filed as exhibits in federal court by attorneys for Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder in mid-June, almost four months before they were leaked to two newspapers and led to Gruden’s resignation as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

The heavily redacted emails between Gruden and then-Redskins president Bruce Allen filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona include offensive language, chummy conversations with journalists — including an ESPN journalist referring to Allen as “Mr. Editor” while seeking feedback on an unpublished story he sent to Allen to review — and a barrage of complaints about the state of the NFL.

The emails are identical to some of those reported this week by the New York Times. That story detailed homophobic and misogynistic comments by Gruden in emails with Allen. A day earlier the Wall Street Journal reported Gruden used a racist trope in another email exchange.

Gruden’s name is redacted in most of the emails filed in court, replaced with “ESPN Personality.” He was employed by the network as the “Monday Night Football” analyst before rejoining the Raiders in 2018.

However, Gruden’s name and personal email address aren’t redacted — apparently by mistake — in an exchange with Allen from November 2017 discussing a news story about the NFL potentially keeping teams in their locker rooms during the national anthem because of players kneeling on the field in protest during the song.

“These guys can’t come up with a good idea if their life depended on it,” Allen wrote.

Gruden sent a one-word response — starting with “p” and ending in “ies” with the three middle letters redacted.

In another email, the “ESPN Personality” wrote Allen in August 2014 and called a “Redacted — Football Person” a “clueless anti football p***y.” The New York Times reported the email referred to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the slur, partially redacted in the email, is “pussy.”

Allen responded: “I think that summarized properly.”

– – –

A Los Angeles Times source confirmed the contents of emails the New York Times reported not included in the June court filing were accurate.

An attorney for Allen, who worked for Washington from 2009 through 2019, and a team spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Several emails between Allen and journalists are part of the filing too. In one of them from July 2011, ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter sent Allen the draft of an unpublished story that was published later the same day.

“Please let me know if you see anything that should be added, changed, tweaked,” Schefter wrote. “Thanks, Mr. Editor, for that and the trust. Plan to file this to espn about 6 am ….”

ESPN released the following statement in response to the correspondence: “Without sharing all the specifics of the reporter’s process for a story from 10 years ago during the NFL lockout, we believe that nothing is more important to Adam and ESPN than providing fans the most accurate, fair and complete story.”

The emails were filed as part of an effort by Snyder’s legal team to compel Allen to produce discovery in connection with a defamation lawsuit Snyder is pursuing in India against a media company called MEAWW for stories it published in July 2020.

“Accordingly, Petitioner [Snyder] has a good faith belief that Respondent [Allen] has specific knowledge of the creation and distribution of the MEAWW articles, and thus has information relevant to the Indian Action,” the filing by Snyder’s attorneys in April said.

The correspondence with media, including Gruden, Schefter and others covering the team, refuted Allen’s sworn statement he “maintained a low profile with respect to the media” and “never served as an anonymous source for any news or media reports.”

In a declaration in responding to Snyder’s motion, Allen said he has “had no communications whatsoever with the defendants in the Indian Action, or anyone connected to them, and have no knowledge of the source or sources of the alleged defamation at issue in the Indian Action.”

Allen’s declaration said he won an arbitration proceeding against Snyder for withholding compensation after his ouster from the franchise.

Now, the NFL is either adding lying to leaking – or other sinister, secret forces targeted Jon Gruden for an NFL-level extinction event.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

Since Friday, it’s been presumed by many that the NFL specifically and deliberately released the emails sent by former Raiders coach Jon Gruden to former Washington executive Bruce Allen. The league had not pushed back on that theory until today.

In response to an email regarding a separate issue relating to the Washington emails, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT that the NFL has released none of the Gruden emails to the media.

If that’s true, the NFL should be very alarmed. If that’s true, someone else with access to those emails (and not many people have access to those emails) leaked them without authorization and in direct violation of league policy. Indeed, and as the NFL informed USA Today on Tuesday, the NFL won’t be disclosing any emails due to the confidentiality of the broader process.

So if it’s all confidential and if someone violated that confidentiality by leaking just enough Gruden emails to prompt Gruden to resign, the NFL should be concerned. The NFL should be angry. The NFL should be investigating.

Replying to McCarthy’s email, PFT asked whether such an investigation has commenced. More than two hours later, McCarthy has not responded.

If the NFL didn’t leak the information from the highest levels of the organization, the failure of the highest levels of the organization to do or say something about it becomes, at some point, tacit approval of the leak.

Here’s the reality. Whoever leaked the Gruden emails surely had (and quite possibly still has) access to the other emails from the Washington Football Team investigation. If nothing will be done by the league to determine the leak and plug it, that same person has the ability to leak more emails, whether as to Gruden or Allen or others.

So either the league did it as to Gruden, or some shadowy and unknown force in the league office did it. Whoever did it has considerable power. If the league can’t or won’t plug the leak, the only fair conclusion is that the person has as much power as the Commissioner himself.

Checking on weasel words – is “releasing” the same as “leaking.”  To the DB, a “release” implies something that is distributed to all media (which these emails were not).  A “leak” is when a selected media outlet is chosen for distribution with the proviso that the leaker not be identified.

And in many stories, in sports, entertainment and politics, the identity of the leakers is actually often as important for understanding the story as the information that is leaked.

Since it was a “good” leak that destroyed Jon Gruden, Charles Robinson ofYahooSports.com is okay with it – but he still has some questions:

The NFL says it played no role in the leaking of the offensive emails that culminated in Jon Gruden stepping down as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. The question now is who did and whether the violation of a confidential investigative process could open the door to some future legal ramifications for the league.

Two sources familiar with the NFL’s investigation of the Washington Football Team — which ultimately churned up derogatory emails between Gruden and former franchise president Bruce Allen — said a sizable number of individuals could have accessed the materials that were apparently turned over to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times last week. Among them? A handful of lawyers who were looped into the process while representing the NFL and Washington franchise during the investigation, a limited number of executives in both the league and team offices, Washington owner Dan Snyder, forensics auditors who extracted the emails, attorney Beth Wilkinson (who led the investigation) and potentially any employees with access to sensitive server data inside the Washington franchise.

And last but not least, Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen.

However, both sources dispelled at least one notion that has floated around since the existence of the emails was first discovered: That someone from the NFL Players Association or executive director DeMaurice Smith was inside the chain of custody for the materials and had a hand in leaking them to reporters. The first of Gruden’s emails, which contained a racial trope directed at Smith, was reported by the Wall Street Journal on the same day the head of the union faced a vote for reaffirmation as executive director. While that timing appeared curious, the email disparaging Smith turned out to merely be the first in a much broader leak that eventually included the New York Times — which showcased Gruden making an array of disparaging remarks about individuals in the NFL and league office. Notably among them, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and a handful of owners.

While the content of the emails has clearly overridden the action of whoever leaked them, it doesn’t erase a looming reality the NFL now must contend with: A league-run investigation uncovered sensitive information about (at least) two high-ranking current or former employees — Gruden and Allen — then a breach occurred that exposed the material before the NFL’s own process of dealing with it had concluded. Unless, of course, the league itself was part of the process of leaking the emails (which it has denied).

What places the NFL in the spotlight — beyond that this was the league’s investigation — is that it corresponded with Raiders owner Mark Davis about Gruden’s emails and then anticipated some type of action by the franchise. On the same day Gruden’s email surfaced about Smith, the league advanced other Gruden emails to Raiders ownership. The result was Davis having a meeting with Gruden and then taking no action. He subsequently coached against the Chicago Bears, sandwiching apologies for the Smith email around that game. By Monday morning, it didn’t appear Davis was going to act on the Smith email or that Gruden was going to voluntarily step aside.

What happened next raised a more significant focus on the NFL: At least part of the broader set of emails that were sent to the Raiders by the league ended up in the hands of the New York Times. And it was those emails and that report which ultimately spurred the reaction that the NFL had been looking for when it had initially reached out to Davis. The Raiders owner was put into a far more public and far more precarious situation of having to either attempt to defend Gruden and ride out the explosion that occurred on Monday, or he could fire him. Somewhere inside all of that, Gruden made the decision to step down.

The timeline of those events is suggestive that even if the NFL didn’t play a part in the leaks, the breaches may have accomplished what the league wanted to happen. And that — in theory — includes the re-affirmation of DeMaurice Smith as head of the player’s union, which was arguably a positive development for the NFL given that the league was able to broker continued labor peace with Smith at the controls, as well as hammer out vital COVID-19 protocols in 2020 that allowed a season of uninterrupted play.

If the leaked email to the Wall Street Journal helped Smith remain at the head of the union — and the NFL sees Smith as a leader it can work with peacefully — then it’s an arguable point that the leaked email about Smith helped the NFL as well. And if the league and commissioner Roger Goodell expected Davis to take action against Gruden in the wake of the other offensive emails that were uncovered, then the leaked emails to the New York Times ultimately stimulated the action of Gruden stepping down.

Regardless of how it happened, that’s a lot of outcomes breaking into a direction the NFL desired. But there is a downside here for the league that also raises the question of whether it would be so brazen as to undertake a set of maneuvers that risk unintended consequences. One of them being the significant amount of focus that has now once again landed on the league’s investigation into the Washington Football Team, which for all intents and purposes was dead and buried until this last week.

Now, because of these emails becoming public, there has been a renewed call from seemingly all corners (including the player’s union) for the NFL to do what it didn’t do this summer when it concluded the Washington probe. Specifically, release detailed findings about the investigation — which the league has declined to do — and expose what is in the rest of the 650,000 emails that were combed during the undertaking.

The NFL isn’t going to do either. There won’t be a detailed report about what evidence led the league to fine owner Dan Snyder $10 million and effectively remove him from day-to-day operations of the franchise. And the league has said it will not be releasing the content of that ocean of email correspondence — due to the confidentiality agreement that governed the investigation.

The same confidentiality that was just violated by some unknown entity in a way that appears to have benefitted the NFL. If that sounds like something that is going to linger for a long time with a whiff of skepticism, that’s because it is.

The one thing about Allen that most inside the league know is that he was a long-tenured and very well-connected executive inside the NFL. Someone with friendships and ties that went well beyond Gruden. He was also someone who was Snyder’s right-hand man throughout the period the NFL found Washington’s workplace environment to be so toxic toward women that it leveled an unprecedented fine and moved an owner away from the power center of his franchise.

All of this under the cover of an opaque investigation that is now better known for what it told us about Jon Gruden than what it showed us about owner Dan Snyder. There are no Snyder emails leaked in these dumps. Nothing about Allen’s dialogues with other executives inside and outside of his team. Nothing directly referencing any other owners, either.

Somehow, the biggest explosion in the Washington investigation engulfed a head coach who was never expected to be inside the blast radius — yet the key power broker leading the franchise, Snyder, moves on without even a single line of a single email making it out into the public.

At the very least, that’s curious. And at the very most, it might have been a surgically targeted operation that went exactly how it was supposed to: Breaking in a direction that benefitted the NFL, without sacrificing any of the people who have been protected by the league since the start of this.

BROADCAST NEWS

The Monday Night playoff game will be on the home of Monday Night Football.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

This season the NFL will begin playing one wild card playoff game on Monday nights, and the game will remain on the home of Monday Night Football.

ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro announced at today’s Sports Business Journal conference that ESPN and the NFL have agreed to a five-year deal that will put the Monday night wild card games on ESPN.

Although the NFL and ESPN already have a deal that keeps Monday Night Football on ESPN through the 2033 season, the Monday night wild card games are separate from the regular-season contract, and all networks were able to bid on the playoff games.

The Monday night playoff game on January 17 will be shown with the traditional broadcast on ABC and ESPN as well as the Peyton Manning and Eli Manning commentary on ESPN2.

POWER RANKINGS FROM THE ATHLETIC

As voted on by the publication’s correspondents (with a breakout player as a bonus):

1. Arizona Cardinals (5-0)

Previous rank: 1

Breakout player: Fantasy football production aside, this has been quite the start to the season for Chase Edmonds, whom the Cardinals believed could be their every-down running back. He’s averaging 5.5 yards per carry (nearly a yard per carry above his career average) and has become an important part of the Cardinals’ short passing game, with 26 targets in five games. Now we just need to see Edmonds get in the end zone (James Conner has five of the team’s eight rushing touchdowns; quarterback Kyler Murray has the other three).

2. Buffalo Bills (4-1)

Previous rank: 2

Breakout player: When the Bills lost to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game last year, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane bemoaned not having anybody like tight end Travis Kelce. Maybe Dawson Knox took that personally. He had three catches for a career-high 117 yards in the win over the Chiefs Sunday night and is the first tight end in Bills history with a touchdown in four straight games.

3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-1)

Previous rank: 3

Breakout player: It’s hard for a young skill-position player to break through on a team as deep and as experienced as the Bucs. But Tyler Johnson is creating a niche as a depth receiver who is more than capable of filling in if any of the Big 3 (Mike Evans, Chris Godwin or Antonio Brown) is out. Johnson, a fifth-round pick out of Minnesota in 2020, is averaging more than 15 yards per catch on his seven receptions while also contributing on special teams as he awaits a bigger role on offense.

4. Los Angeles Rams (4-1)

Previous rank: 4

Breakout player: The Rams have one of the NFL’s highest-performing offenses (No. 2 in EPA per play, according to TruMedia). One reason why? They lead the NFL in sack percentage, at just 2.3. Center Brian Allen has been the surprise standout on the offensive line. Allen, who started nine games in 2019 before suffering a season-ending knee injury, didn’t play a snap in 2020 and didn’t move into a starting role until training camp, but he has been a rock for new Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.

5. Los Angeles Chargers (4-1)

Previous rank: 6

Breakout player: Justin Herbert gets all the headlines, but what has gotten into Mike Williams? He had eight catches for 165 yards on Sunday, and in a contract year, Williams’ 471 receiving yards are fifth in the NFL. He is using his 6-foot-4 frame to make catches down the field — seven have gone for 20 yards or more — and he has been clutch. You could make a strong case that he and Keenan Allen have been the best duo in the league.

6. Dallas Cowboys (4-1)

Previous rank: 8

Breakout player: It says a lot about the state of the Cowboys that we had so many options here, from tight end Dalton Schultz (three touchdowns) to rookie defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa (two sacks and eight quarterback hits) and rookie linebacker Micah Parsons (2 1/2 sacks and three tackles for a loss), but the only right answer is “Hard Knocks” star Trevon Diggs. The second-year cornerback leads the NFL in interceptions with six in five games (doubling his pick total from his rookie year), including one he returned for a touchdown. Diggs is the type of playmaking cornerback Dallas has been missing for years.

7. Green Bay Packers (4-1)

Previous rank: 5

Breakout player: Inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell was a productive player in Atlanta, as well as in Arizona last year, but now he’s filling a major hole for Green Bay. ]

8. Baltimore Ravens (4-1)

Previous rank: 10

Breakout player: Lamar Jackson? Can we say that? On Monday night, Jackson became the first player in NFL history with 400 passing yards and an 85 percent completion percentage in a game. The former MVP had 499 of the Ravens’ 523 yards of offense, and nothing against Josh Allen, but Jackson should be getting more MVP consideration because his defense hasn’t put up two shutouts.

9. Cleveland Browns (3-2)

Previous rank: 9

Breakout player: Well, sometimes we miss on draft prospects. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah sometimes got stuck on blocks and disappeared against top teams at Notre Dame, but it turns out maybe offenses weren’t worried about anyone else. On the Browns, the rookie linebacker has been flying around and making plays at the line of scrimmage and down the field. He has 21 tackles, three pass break-ups and a forced fumble. He also seems to be OK after leaving Sunday’s game with a throat contusion.

10. Kansas City Chiefs (2-3)

Previous rank: 7

Breakout player: All Jody Fortson does is catch touchdowns, basically. As the Chiefs search for a reliable third (and fourth and fifth) receiving option behind Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, they’ve at a minimum discovered a decent red-zone target in Fortson, a 6-foot-6, 230-pound receiver who spent most of the past two seasons on Kansas City’s practice squad. He’s caught four passes in five games this year (on all four of his targets), and two have been touchdowns.

11. New Orleans Saints (3-2)

Previous rank: 17

Breakout player: Wide receiver Marquez Callaway was a preseason star for the Saints, and his regular-season production is finally catching up. After 85 receiving yards against Washington (and one touchdown catch on a Hail Mary pass from Jameis Winston), Callaway has already surpassed his 2020 receiving yardage total and is continuing to develop rapport with Winston as a true downfield threat.

12. Cincinnati Bengals (3-2)

Previous rank: 16

Breakout player: Remember way back when Ja’Marr Chase said the ball was different in the NFL than in college, and that’s why he maybe had some drops in the preseason? He clearly got used to it. Sunday, Chase had six catches for a career-high 159 yards and a touchdown to become the second player in NFL history at age 21 or younger with at least 400 yards receiving and five touchdowns in their first five games. Randy Moss was the other.

13. Tennessee Titans (3-2)

Previous rank: 18

Breakout players: Derrick Henry is running over 10-man fronts but are you really surprised? Only two players are clocking in and going to work on defense and that’s safety Kevin Byard and linebacker Harold Landry. Byard is having a bounce-back season and had 10 tackles, an interception and a fumble return for a touchdown against the Jaguars. Landry had two sacks, increasing his total to 4 1/2 for the season.

14. Carolina Panthers (3-2)

Previous rank: 15

Breakout player: Can we consider someone who has already had two seasons with more than 1,200 all-purpose yards a breakout candidate? Yes. And we will. Because this is our Power Rankings and we can do what we want. DJ Moore fits here because he’s on the cusp of becoming a true No. 1 receiver (even though he’s not paid like it on his own team, cough, cough, Robby Anderson). Through five games, Moore is fourth in the league in catches (35), behind only clear high-target wide receivers like Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill and Keenan Allen. He needs one more touchdown catch to match his season high (4).

15. San Francisco 49ers (2-3)

Previous rank: 14

Breakout player: He’s missed some time with a shoulder injury, but Elijah Mitchell has become the 49ers’ No. 1 running back, something none of us would have predicted two months ago. Mitchell, an undrafted rookie from Louisiana-Lafayette, climbed the depth chart because of injuries to veterans Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson Jr., and moved ahead of draft pick Trey Sermon. He averaged 4.78 yards per carry Sunday against a stout Arizona defense.

16. Denver Broncos (3-2)

Previous rank: 13

Breakout player: The Broncos lost Jerry Jeudy and then K.J. Hamler to injury, but sure-handed Tim Patrick has been there to catch the slack. The 6-foot-4 Utah product had seven receptions on nine targets for 89 yards Sunday, and his targets have gone up the last four weeks (from 4-5 to 6-9). He has 302 yards on 22 catches this season. Wait, did this just become a fantasy football waiver-wire pickup column?

17. Las Vegas Raiders (3-2)

Previous rank: 11

Breakout player: Hunter Renfrow has gone from cute little third-down guy to a hard-nosed enforcer on fake punts who is hard to cover on any down. He first gave notice that this year was going to be different when he got the best of Rams corner Jalen Ramsey at the teams’ intrasquad practices in August. Now, he’s one of only a handful of receivers to have topped 50 yards every game. He has even used a patented, slow-developing triple move that hypnotizes defensive backs.

18. Seattle Seahawks (2-3)

Previous rank: 12

Breakout player: Consider us cautiously optimistic about second-year pass rusher Darrell Taylor, who missed his entire rookie season recovering from a leg injury. He’s been the Seahawks’ most consistent pass rusher, with one sack in each of the Seahawks’ five games. They will need plenty more of that in coming weeks if they have to win games with defense while quarterback Russell Wilson recovers from finger surgery.

19. Chicago Bears (3-2)

Previous rank: 22 (tie)

Breakout player: We tried really hard to find a player other than Justin Fields, but it’s impossible. It’s Fields, who truly understood the assignment of what it takes to be a breakout player. He’s completed at least 60 percent of his passes in his previous two starts (and threw his first touchdown last week against the Raiders). And while the Bears’ offense is still relatively conservative, Fields is the team’s most exciting player and the reason we’ll be watching every Sunday.

20. Pittsburgh Steelers (2-3)

Previous rank: 22 (tie)

Breakout player: Diontae Johnson has gotten better each year since becoming a third-round pick out of Toledo in 2019. Now he’s clearly Pittsburgh’s No. 1 target, even before JuJu Smith-Schuster was injured. Johnson has 25 receptions for 305 yards and three touchdowns, which if you do the math (we don’t feel like it), you’ll see he’s headed for a huge year for the Steelers and shrewd fantasy owners.

21. Minnesota Vikings (2-3)

Previous rank: 20

Breakout player: It’s hard to get targets and touchdowns while playing alongside Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen, and yet receiver K.J. Osborn has turned into a very good WR3 in Minnesota, just one year after not registering a catch or even a passing target in his rookie season. Osborn’s production has dipped a bit in the past two games after his hot start (he had 167 yards in the first two weeks), but he’s given a spark to a Vikings offense that has needed it.

22. New England Patriots (2-3)

Previous rank: 19

Breakout player: Mac Jones? Please. As the great QB guru Rex Ryan said on TV Monday, “You have a pea-shooter at quarterback. He’s closer to Danny Wuerffel than he is Tom Brady.” … Jones should be fine, but we’re going with tight end Hunter Henry finally making good on all the potential he showed with the Chargers. Henry was targeted a team-high eight times on Sunday and had six receptions for 75 yards, including a touchdown. He has 20 catches on 26 pea shots this season, and he and Jones will only get more in sync.

23. Philadelphia Eagles (2-3)

Previous rank: 25

Breakout player: With his next sack, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave will surpass his career single-season high (6 1/2 with the Steelers in 2018), and he’s already set a career mark for quarterback hits (nine, in just five games). His consistent interior pass rush, especially in concert with Fletcher Cox, has been the best part of the season for the Eagles.

24. Indianapolis Colts (1-4)

Previous rank: 24

Breakout player: Jonathan Taylor showed his knee wasn’t bothering him too much when he took off for a 76-yard touchdown off a screen pass against the Ravens on Monday night. He also showed his power on some runs. He has 283 yards rushing and receiving in the last two games.

25. Washington Football Team (2-3)

Previous rank: 21

Breakout player: We suppose it says a lot about the state of the Washington Football Team that it was really hard to pick a worthy breakout player. So here we are with defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, who, when things are going well for the Washington defense, is overshadowed by some of his teammates on the defensive front. But lost in Washington’s front-seven struggles this season is how consistent Allen has been. He’s already credited with 12 quarterback hits, just three shy of his career high. That’s the type of production Washington needs after it signed him to a four-year, $72 million contract earlier this year.

26. Atlanta Falcons (2-3)

Previous rank: 28

Breakout player: It feels a little weird to be naming a 30-year-old, nine-year veteran as a breakout player, but it’s like the category was built for Cordarrelle Patterson, who is shattering the expectations any of us had for him in Atlanta. Patterson, who is now officially listed as a running back instead of a wide receiver, already has 41 rushing attempts (his career high is 64, last year with the Bears). He’s averaging 4.2 yards per carry and 11.8 yards per catch. Perhaps his production is an indictment of the Falcons’ overall offensive play, but it’s still exciting to see a player enjoy this sort of career renaissance.

27. Miami Dolphins (1-4)

Previous rank: 26

Breakout players: The Dolphins haven’t had a lot to be happy about in 2021, but maybe they finally have some key pieces to build around their quarterback. On Sunday, running back Myles Gaskin became the third Dolphins player with at least 10 receptions in a game this season (joining Jaylen Waddle and Mike Gesicki). It’s the first time in franchise history that three players have recorded a 10-reception game in a single season. Of course, it could just mean that Miami is losing a lot.

28. New York Giants (1-4)

Previous rank: 27

Breakout player: The Giants have been waiting for Daniel Jones to make this sort of leap. Through five games, the former first-round pick quarterback has career highs in completion percentage (64.3) and yards per attempt (8.2). He’s also taking fewer sacks and is making fewer mistakes, with just one interception and three fumbles (but none in the past two games). His improved play hasn’t translated into wins yet for the Giants, but it’s hard to put too much of that blame on Jones himself. Now we wait to see when he’ll be cleared to return after suffering a concussion against Dallas.

29. Houston Texans (1-4)

Previous rank: 31

Breakout player: We’re not going to say Davis Mills turned the corner and actually looked like an NFL quarterback against the Patriots … but if you say it, we won’t disagree too loudly. The rookie made all the different kinds of throws you’re supposed to and finished with three touchdown passes and 312 passing yards, completing 72.4 percent. He didn’t even throw an interception. Mills became the only rookie not named Russell Wilson to throw three TDs against a Bill Belichick defense. Houston fans may have even forgotten they have Deshaun Watson and don’t play him. … Too much?

30. New York Jets (1-4)

Previous rank: 29

Breakout player: The Jets traded up in the draft to get guard Alijah Vera-Tucker. He had a slow start to the season after missing most of the summer and all of the preseason with a pectoral injury, but the rookie is now starting to show his skill. The Jets are running the ball better behind him and he hasn’t allowed a pass-rush pressure since Week 3 (or a sack since Week 1, according to Pro Football Focus).

31. Detroit Lions (0-5)

Previous rank: 31

Breakout player: For once, we’re not here to pile on the Lions. This season, and especially Sunday, has been tough enough. This rebuild will be a long, painful process, but it helps to have talented young players like free safety Tracy Walker, who had seven solo tackles (including one for a loss) and a pass breakup against the Vikings. Don’t let him leave in free agency, Detroit.

32. Jacksonville Jaguars (0-5)

Previous rank: 32

Breakout player: The only offensive skill-position player we’re excited to watch on a weekly basis (other than Trevor Lawrence, because, obviously) is wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. He’s a ridiculous athlete and a legit deep threat … if only the Jaguars would consistently make him part of the game plan. Jacksonville’s offense was at its best this season vs. the Bengals in Week 4, when Shenault had seven targets that resulted in six catches for 99 yards. It’s a mystery why the Jags couldn’t get him more involved in Week 5 against Tennessee. He had just one target, which went for 58 yards, late in the game.