CHICAGO

Charles McDonald of YahooSports.com calls this week’s Bears game the NFL’s “saddest matchup”:

The Bears and Broncos are about to play the saddest game of all time

Let’s keep this one brief considering what’s about to occur in Chicago on Sunday. The Bears and Broncos engaged in some of the foulest football that the professional level has ever seen this past weekend. The Broncos, as everyone knows by now, let the Dolphins score SEVENTY points in a game that could have easily ended with more for Miami. The Bears were down 34-0 at halftime in a game where the biggest story wasn’t even the game itself — they were essentially used as a vessel to indulge on our parasocial relationship with celebrities.

This wasn’t how the season was supposed to go for either team. Both of these clubs paid money and/or draft picks to be here. The Broncos invested first-round draft picks into Russell Wilson and Sean Payton to end up with a 70-20 loss in their third game together. The Bears spent money on linebackers T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds, who have allowed 25 of 27 passing targets into their coverage to be completed this season. These teams actually tried to take strides this year, but ended up right back where they started — nowhere.

Now, they play against each other in a game that could be so bad that it’s actually good. Maybe this is the team that Justin Fields needs to see in order to get his career moving back in the right direction. Or maybe they’ll do the right thing and black out this game on all possible platforms so people can do something else with their Sunday.

GREEN BAY

The Packers are getting two somewhat key offensive players back for Thursday’s big showdown between the only two teams in the NFC North that have won a game.

It sounds like the Packers should have two of their key weapons back on the field for Thursday night’s game against the Lions.

Via multiple reporters, receiver Christian Watson said, “That’s the plan” when asked if he was playing in Week 4. Watson has missed the first three games of the season with a hamstring injury.

Receiver Romeo Doubs also told reporters that running back Aaron Jones will also return from his hamstring injury this week.

Jones rushed for 41 yards on nine carries with a touchdown and caught two passes for 86 yards, including a 35-yard TD, in Green Bay’s Week 1 victory over Chicago. But he has not played since.

While Watson was listed as a non-participant in the team’s first injury report of the week, that could change on Tuesday. Jones was listed as limited on Monday’s injury report.

DALLAS

Did former OC Kellen Moore take the Dallas red zone scheme with him to Los Angeles?  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy’s decision to take over offensive play calling in 2023 was a big offseason storyline in Dallas and one area of the attack has been under the microscope over the first three weeks of the season.

The Cowboys have had a league-high 15 red zone drives so far this year, but only six of them have resulted in touchdowns. That shortcoming didn’t hurt them in season-opening routs of the Giants and Jets, but going 1-of-5 against the Cardinals was a big factor in their Week Three loss.

During an appearance on 105.3 The Fan on Wednesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about his level of concern about the team’s 40 percent conversion rate in the red zone.

“I think the thing we need to zero in on is when we get that ball down in there close, we’ve got to get touchdowns,” Jones said, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “And that’s probably across the board over these last three ball games. We got a long time to go in this season. We got a lot of room to really adjust and correct these things. While it’s something to note, it’s not a long-range concern.”

Injuries on the offensive line have not helped matters for the Cowboys in the first three weeks and getting their preferred group together on a consistent basis may be one way to turn more of their drives into six points in the weeks to come.

Moore and the Chargers are 8-12 in the Red Zone, for a 67% TD conversion percentage that ranks 7^th.  The Cowboys are tied for 27^th at 40%

Last year, the Cowboys led the NFL at 71% in the Red Zone, the Chargers were middle of the pack 17^th at 51%.

NEW YORK GIANTS

Fast-healing RB SAQUON BARKLEY has reached “day-to-day” status.  Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com:

The New York Giants are considering running back Saquon Barkley day-to-day as he tries to get back from an ankle injury in time for Monday night’s matchup with the Seattle Seahawks.

Barkley missed Thursday night’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers with the injury, which he described to the Amazon broadcast as a high ankle sprain. He is not practicing Tuesday as the Giants begin on-field preparations for the Seahawks.

“We’re doing kind of a jog-through. So don’t think he’ll do much [Tuesday],” coach Brian Daboll said. “But he’s really now in the day-to-day category.”

Left tackle Andrew Thomas is also feeling better, according to Daboll. He appears likely to make his return after missing the past two games with a hamstring injury. Left tackle Ben Bredeson has also made significant progress and is expected to clear the concussion protocol later this week, barring a setback.

That would give the Giants the left side of their offensive line back against a Seahawks defense that has allowed just 79.3 yards per game on the ground this season.

Thomas and Bredeson will have to make it through a padded practice on Thursday, but things seems to be trending in the right direction.

“I think good,” Thomas said of his chances of returning this week. “Still working every day. This week practice and I get to actually hit somebody and see how I’m really feeling. But I’m feeling optimistic.”

Barkley suffered the injury late last Sunday when his right ankle got caught in the bottom of a pile against the Arizona Cardinals. The standout running back made “considerable progress” last week while the Giants remained in Arizona. Daboll even noted he’s a fast healer.

The original timeline for Barkley had him missing three games. That included this week against Seattle and the following week on the road against the Miami Dolphins.

“Feels a lot better [Tuesday],” Daboll said. “But we’ll kind of take that all the way throughout the week and see how he improves.”

The Giants (1-2) rely heavily on Barkley when he’s healthy. He played an NFL-high 80.2% of the team’s running back snaps last season. He was on the field for 65 of 67 offensive snaps (97%) against the Cardinals before getting injured on the second-to-last offensive play.

This isn’t the first time Barkley has dealt with an ankle injury. He missed three games in 2019 with a right ankle injury and four games in 2021 with a left ankle injury. Both times Barkley came back and struggled, averaging less than 50 yards rushing per game in the next four contests. In retrospect, he admitted his return might have been too soon.

This is what the Giants and Barkley’s personal team must weigh as he pushes to get back into the lineup. His personality always has him wanting to play, but they must make sure he doesn’t come back too early so that it’s detrimental to the team and player.

There are still 14 games remaining in the season.

“To me, I think every injury is different even though it’s the same body part,” Daboll said. “Let him rehab. Let him get with the trainers. Get a feel for where he’s at. Let’s talk to the trainers and see where they’re at with his injury and then make the decision when it comes time to make the decision.

“He’s getting better. We’ll see how it goes.”

PHILADELPHIA

The Eagles Monday night win benefitted from some sloppy officiating.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com on the difference between pushing and pulling.

The Eagles have perfected the QB push play, which continues to be perfectly legal. It ceases to be a legal play when the push becomes a pull.

There’s a reason for mentioning that. Last night, when the Eagles lined up in their trademark formation near the Tampa Bay end zone on third and goal, the effort by Jalen Hurts to score six points included not a push from tight end Dallas Goedert but an effort to pull him across the white stripe. Goedert did it again on fourth down, but it wasn’t as obvious.

“I was yanking him for sure,” Goedert admitted after the game, via Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. “They say you can’t pull, but I was behind him.”

Goedert was indeed behind Hurts, but Goedert was not pushing. He was, as he put it, “yanking.” He was pulling. He slipped his arms under Hurts’s arms and tried to lift him in.

It’s not classic pulling, but it’s far closer to a pull than a push. And once it becomes a pull, it becomes an illegal play.

Chances are the push eventually will become an illegal play. With only the Eagles perfecting it, it seems like a no-brainer that at least 24 teams would come together and wipe it out.

Still, even without the pushing, the Eagles have the right players to gain yardage consistently via a traditional sneak, thanks to a great offensive line and a quarterback who knows how to slip through cracks and/or shove his way in.

Alek Arend of Athlon on T LANE JOHNSON:

Another week in the NFL, another false start controversy.

Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is the latest offensive lineman to get into his pass protection a tad early, but he’s not getting called for it. At least not on Monday night.

What’s the issue? If an offensive lineman gets a head start without paying the price of a penalty, it puts the defensive line at a serious disadvantage. It’s especially frustrating for edge rushers that rely on their speed.

First Jawaan Taylor of the Kansas City Chiefs. Now Lane Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Fans aren’t happy with how often offensive linemen are getting away with this this year.

“I’d rather the rules just let tackles line up deeper before the snap than see them get this kind of jump all night,” one fan wrote.

“All NFC Championship game, Super Bowl. ery game. Still no call,” another fan said.

“So if he kicks back early, the d-end should be able go just as early,” a fan commented.

“#Eagles RT Lane Johnson has been getting an early start a few times tonight — but hasn’t been called yet. Brings up the interesting topic of Jawaan Taylor getting so many flags for it,” said JPAFootball.

“Jawaan Taylor is screaming at his TV right now at Lane Johnson,” said Andrew Siciliano.

The funny thing about this is the NFL cracked down on Jawaan Taylor doing this. Maybe it will do the same with Lane Johnson.

The Eagles beat the Bucs 25-11 on Monday night.

WASHINGTON

Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com wants you to know that new Commanders owner Josh Harris is short like Daniel Snyder, but the similarity ends there:

IT’S 9:04 P.M. ON a steamy Monday in late August, and new Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris is standing in a booth he never imagined he’d occupy, in between two legends he never imagined he’d meet: broadcaster Joe Buck and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman.

As Harris, all 5-foot-8 of him, prepares for a live interview, the producers have a dilemma: Buck is 6-1, Aikman is 6-4. They’re in town to work ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast of the Commanders’ preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens. If Harris stands between them, the height difference will be noticeable.

How do you ask a man who just spent $6.05 billion — the highest price in history for any North American sports franchise — to … stand on a wooden box?

To anyone who used to work for Harris’ Commanders predecessor, Daniel Snyder, it is unusual that Harris is even considering the box. Snyder rarely granted interviews during his 24 years in charge and didn’t take kindly to commentary on his height. But Harris is cut differently. He often speaks about how being undersized as a kid and wrestling in college at 118 pounds formed his personality, a relentlessness and scrappiness that has fueled his professional life, too. And he has been relentless as hell evaluating everyone and everything within the organization since he took over nine weeks ago.

Before the game, he was taking calls about the new sound system and reviewing ingress and egress plans. After that he was on the field shaking hands and doing photo ops with head coach Ron Rivera, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, franchise legend Joe Gibbs and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, who was the first major corporate sponsor to sign on with the team following the sale from Snyder.

“I’ve been around this long enough to know that people are impatient,” Harris says. “I’m impatient. The honeymoon is going to last a certain amount of time, and then it’s going to be on us and on me.”

So if he has to stand on the box to make a good first impression, he’s going to stand on the damn box.

Harris is one of the most powerful men in sports, owning three teams worth roughly $10.3 billion across three major North American sports. During the nine-month-long bidding process for the Commanders, Harris admits, he nearly walked away a half dozen times but never could. He knew how much the fan base had endured the past two decades because he endured it too. He’d also learned hard lessons in his first decade in the sports world — and couldn’t repeat them.

This was a $6 billion bidding war he had to win.

The Commanders are Harris’ hometown team. And he knows that being out in front, where people can see him, is just the beginning.

“It’s not something that I really relish or want to do,” Harris says. “I’m more famous than I ever thought I would be. I have a family. I have five kids. I want them to have as normal of a life as they can.

“But on the other hand, I realized when I did this that I have a responsibility to the city, and part of that is understanding that the city wants to know who I am as a person. How do I make decisions? What do I stand for?”

This is why he’s on the box between Buck and Aikman, shaking hands even when there’s no shake to be had.

Yes, it’s time to talk about the handshake. Buck asks a question. Harris answers it. Only Buck is also holding his hands out. Harris sees Buck’s outstretched hand and goes in for the shake.

It misses. A total misread. A nightmare scenario on national television, but they both keep talking. Buck pulls his hand back quickly. Aikman smiles. And everyone on social media instantly starts clipping off the awkward clip, which goes viral by the time Harris leaves the booth and starts downloading with Commanders president Jason Wright and public relations specialist Dave Sholler.

The interview went well, Sholler tells him. Except for, well, the missed connection.

Harris, wearing Commanders burgundy, looks down at Sholler’s screen and watches the handshake that wasn’t.

Nobody likes going viral for something like this. But Harris has seen enough in his 12 years as an owner of the Philadelphia 76ers to know a little humility goes a long way.

He laughs and asks to see it again.

“What are you going to do?” Harris says. “Thought he was going for the shake.”

SINCE IT OPENED in 1750, The Punchbowl public house in London’s Mayfair district has served as the site of many great deals and nights out on the town. Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. used to be regulars. Justin Timberlake has stopped in. Guy Ritchie and Madonna liked it so much, they bought it in March 2008. At one point it was even a stop for sightseeing tourist buses.

It is exactly the kind of place two American titans of private equity would go for dinner.

David Blitzer had lived in London for a decade when Harris moved to town in 2008. Blitzer was at Blackstone, Harris at Apollo Global Management. Their firms were hugely competitive, but the community of expats doing private equity at that level in London was a small one, and they became fast friends.

One night over a long dinner at The Punchbowl, the seeds of a future partnership were born.

“I can still picture that dinner,” Blitzer says, “and filing away his interest in investing in sports.”

Harris was nearing what would become a legendary private equity deal — a $2 billion investment in the multinational chemical company LyondellBasell during the pit of the financial crisis.

The company went through bankruptcy proceedings in 2009, but Harris believed in it more than ever. He thought it had competitive advantages in refining natural gas — which had become cheap and abundant as fracking techniques were developed — into polypropylene, a plastic used in everything from food and beverage packaging to textiles and the automotive industry. Where other investors ran from the distress, Harris and Apollo dove in and were rewarded handsomely. In just five years, the investment grew by 500%, to more than $12 billion.

Around the same time, Harris and Blitzer independently began studying another sector they felt might be undervalued: professional sports.

Eight NBA teams — the Charlotte Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Washington Wizards, Sixers, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans and Toronto Raptors — became available between 2008 and 2012, creating something of a buyer’s market.

“I grew up a Sixers fan,” Blitzer says. “He went to Wharton. So I said, ‘Josh, let’s buy the Sixers, man!’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s funny. I already bid on them.'”

They joined forces, eventually adding other limited partners like Jason Levien and a brash young businessman named Michael Rubin, who’d just sold his company GSI Commerce to eBay for $2.4 billion.

Rubin was a late addition to the group, he says, “placed” there by former NBA commissioner David Stern.

The league was facing a long lockout, and Stern was still acting as the owner of the New Orleans franchise after George Shinn went bankrupt and was forced to sell it back to the league. Rubin was a guy the NBA had done business with since 1999.

“David said, ‘Michael, I thought about this. You need to go in and be a real partner,'” Rubin recalls. “I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because if anything goes wrong, you work for f—ing me and I can control you. And so you’re f—ing doing this, because I need someone in this group that I control.'”

The Sixers were something of a distressed asset at the time as well, Blitzer says, losing approximately $25 million a year with a mediocre roster and a frustrated local fan base that routinely prioritized the Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies and Flyers in terms of attendance.

Harris and Blitzer studied the financials, taking more than six months to work through and close the deal. They badly wanted the team. But they’d made their careers — and their fortunes — by making the right investments, at the right time, for the right price.

The more they studied the NBA and the sports world in general, the more untapped value they saw.

And so in early July 2011, Harris and Blitzer put pen to paper. It is one of the great sports business success stories of the modern era — from a purchase price of $280 million to a $3.15 billion valuation in 2023.

“No. 1 is the scarcity value,” Blitzer says. “They don’t make more of them. It’s like art in some ways.”

In a lot of ways, actually. About a year after Harris closed on the Sixers, Harris’ co-founder at Apollo, Leon Black, closed on a $119.9 million purchase of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” at auction, a record at the time.

The second factor, Blitzer says, was the changing landscape of sports media rights.

“I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I had some crystal ball and I realized that the NBA media rights were going to go up as dramatically as they did in 2014,” Blitzer says. “But certainly I thought they were going up.”

Once they were in on sports, Harris and Blitzer did exactly what private equity guys do: They added to their portfolios.

In 2013, they bought the New Jersey Devils for $320 million. In 2015, they bought a $75 million stake in Crystal Palace of the English Premier League.

Two industry-changing deals confirmed their analysis that valuations on sports franchises were about to skyrocket: In 2012, Blitzer’s firm, Blackstone, handled the $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2014, Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion.

Since that Clippers sale, four of the five NBA franchises that have been sold went for at least $1.5 billion — most notably the Phoenix Suns, who sold for $4 billion this year.

“My only regret,” Blitzer says, “is we didn’t invest in every single league back in the 2010 to 2015 time frame.”

HARRIS WOULD LOVE to say that he saw value in sports back in 2010 the way he saw value in LyondellBasell back in 2008.

But that return on investment is not what comes to mind when he looks back on his investments in the sports world over the past 12 years.

“In business we’re fiduciaries for pension funds and investors and our job is to make them money,” Harris says from what has become his office at FedEx Field. The room is empty, save for a few items on the desk. There hasn’t been time to furnish anything yet. Just to work.

“In sports, you can’t make it about money. You have to make it about winning and you have to make it about engaging with the city.”

In that respect, Harris hasn’t succeeded. The Sixers have won 248 regular-season games over the past five seasons, tied for second most in that span, but haven’t made a conference finals. The Devils have made the playoffs just twice in Harris’ tenure. And Crystal Palace hasn’t finished higher than 11th in the Premier League table.

It’s been humbling.

“You learn so much as an owner,” he says. “You can’t always control the outcome. Just like you can’t necessarily say, ‘I’ve assembled this superteam, and it’s going to win.'”

From the radical Sam Hinkie-era “Process” to the unraveling of Ben Simmons to the still-murky James Harden situation, the Sixers have taken as many big swings as any franchise in the past decade and still haven’t seen the kind of return Harris says is required in sports.

As an investor, Harris has a reputation as a monster workaholic. Eighty-, 90-hour weeks. Phone calls until 2 a.m., then back at it by 5 or 6 a.m. with calls on the way to and from the gym. He doesn’t golf or fish or travel the way men of his station usually do. He works.

But no amount of work and analysis could solve the kinds of issues that have come up during his time as owner of the Sixers. There have been personality conflicts, holdouts, mental health issues, philosophical differences on team building, even a high-profile burner account scandal.

“In sports, I’ve learned you need to get under the hood because everything plays out publicly and it can destroy momentum,” he says. “I want to make sure Joel Embiid is feeling good and he’s taken care of. I’m talking to him and making sure that I’m getting his point of view in terms of some of these decisions. What’s important to a coach? What’s important to a GM? And also not making decisions too quickly. You have to learn all that.”

The public nature of sports ownership — the need he feels to be more forward-facing with the Commanders — has been the toughest learning curve.

“In sports, when your mother says act as if you’re going to read about it on the front page of the paper, that’s really true, literally,” he says. “So how you act, even if it might make sense to do one thing financially, maybe you have to do another thing because it’s your responsibility to the people who work in the organization and the city. Or it’ll play out in public in the wrong way.”

That’s why he has been so public since taking over the Commanders. Right away he and minority owner Mitch Rales started scheduling lunches with groups of 10-12 players to build relationships.

“I have their [phone] numbers, I’m able to talk to them. And that’s just really different to be able to have more of a personal relationship,” says wide receiver Terry McLaurin. “And we have some guys in there who are not afraid to ask the tough questions, but also give our honest opinions. Mostly [Harris and Rales] were just asking about how they can improve. From the locker room, the training staff, the game-day experience, how our families are treated. A lot of things, they just seem little, but they add up.”

There are bigger things Harris wants to tackle in the future, too. The team’s stadium and practice facility are both in need of upgrades. There are hundreds of organizational and staffing issues to evaluate in the next few years. Not to mention a beleaguered fan base that’s desperately hoping he is more than just not Dan Snyder.

It is a massive undertaking.

“Josh, he’s been humbled,” Rubin says. “He realizes this is harder than people think. He knows how to go in, listen, learn.

“This is not about an investment. This is about a chance. I had financial success in business and now I have a chance to buy my team I grew up with. And yes, he is going to make it a much better business. But his dream is to hold up a f—ing trophy and bring a Super Bowl to the region.”

IT’S NOT HARD to drum up enthusiasm in the honeymoon stage of a new relationship. What’s hard is sustaining it when things go wrong.

Two years ago, that’s exactly where Harris was. Officially, he stepped down from running the day-to-day operations of Apollo after clashing with co-founders Leon Black and Marc Rowan over who should succeed Black as CEO amid an investigation into Black’s alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Unofficially, he lost the power struggle with Rowan and left the company he’d spent 32 years building into one of the largest private equity firms in the world.

It hurt him deeply.

“On a human level,” Harris says, “being untethered from something you had done for 32 years was unsettling.

“But on the other hand, it gave me a chance to really think about what I wanted to do,” he continues. “Once I got through the emotional part of it, I had a lot of opportunities.”

He went on a listening tour, first talking with those who knew him best — Blitzer, Rubin and childhood friend and fellow venture capitalist Mark Ein. Then with people whose perspectives he valued: Rales, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, former President Barack Obama, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry.

Rales was someone he knew of but didn’t know personally despite their shared background in Washington. Ein wanted them to meet because Rales had been through his share of personal and professional reinventions.

“Mark said, ‘Would you do me a favor and spend some time with Josh?'” Rales recalls. “He’s trying to think through everything going on in his life. Everything with the firm was coming a little unglued. And he’s thinking about career and what he does next.”

Rales, who made his $5.4 billion fortune by building a variety of businesses, founded the Glenstone art museum in 2006 in Potomac, Maryland, with his second wife, Emily Wei Rales. He has since built its asset collection to nearly $4.6 billion, on par with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

He’d also been through a near-death experience in 1988 while on a fishing trip to Siberia that he says changed the course of his life and priorities.

His advice to Harris was simple: “‘Why would you want to be part of something that doesn’t necessarily want you to be necessarily part of it?'” Rales recalls. “‘You have a chance to really craft something incredible. You’re still a young guy. You’ve got one more great run left.’

“And sure enough, that’s what he did.”

Harris found new purpose after his existential chats with Rales and others. In 2022, he founded a new private equity firm, 26North, which launched with more than $5 billion in assets and put together a group that was a finalist for the Denver Broncos before the Walton-Penner family paid $4.65 billion.

“My view on the Broncos deal was simple,” Blitzer says. “If Rob Walton and his partners decided they want to buy the team, they were going to buy the team. And if they don’t, Josh will buy the team.

“My view on the Commanders was my view of the Waltons and Denver. If Josh hangs in there, he’s going to end up figuring out a way to invest in the team.”

Harris had been building a relationship with Snyder for some time. He understood that Snyder would have the ultimate say on whom the team would be sold to, if he ultimately decided to do so.

For years Snyder maintained he would never sell. But over the course of the past three years, a series of lawsuits and league and congressional investigations made it untenable for Snyder to continue. That spiral began with a series of reports by the Washington Post into mistreatment of the team’s female employees in the middle of 2020. Those allegations led to an investigation by the NFL and then Congress. In February 2022, the NFL opened a second investigation into the team, led by former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White, following the testimony of two former employees before Congress. Snyder’s final surrender seemed to come in February of this year after ESPN published a story detailing a federal investigation into allegations of financial misconduct by Snyder and the team.

Harris followed all of the news from afar but was close enough to the situation to be in position to bid on the team when the time came.

“I met with Dan a few times,” Harris says. “Anytime that you’re in a deal like this, the seller has to want to do a deal with you. So I had to cultivate him.”

This was not the first time he had to build a relationship with the owner of a distressed company. He’d made his career buying companies like this.

“You have to be transparent, be direct,” Harris says. “Say what you’re going to do and then do it, be polite, be respectful. Sometimes when you’re in a process [like this], there’s agreements and lawyers and people can get angry. So communication is important.”

The specter of Snyder’s legal situation hung over everything. The threat of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — one of the richest men in the world — coming in at the last minute and outspending them was always there.

But after nine months of late nights and long calls, Harris and Snyder had a deal. A record for any North American sports franchise — not Harris’ typical buy-low acquisition.

“Paying $280 million [for the Sixers] then, might’ve been a harder decision than Josh paying $6 billion for the Commanders, just because it was a different time,” says Rubin, who sold his stake in the Sixers last year to avoid conflicts of interest with his company, Fanatics. “And because he didn’t understand sports then the way he does now.”

NFL rules hold that the majority owner must hold over 30% equity. Harris says he’s “well north of that” and that Rales is the second-largest shareholder, at around 10%. Ein is also a minority partner, along with Magic Johnson.

Hours after the sale closed, Harris called into a local radio station (106.7 The Fan) and bought a round of beers for about 1,000 listeners at the Old Ox Brewery in Ashburn, Virginia. Since then he has done countless photo ops and interviews all over the District. The Commanders won their first home regular-season game Sept. 10 in front of Embiid, D.C. native Kevin Durant and franchise legends such as John Riggins, Champ Bailey and Sonny Jurgensen.

There hasn’t been much time to soak it all in. There have been nice moments, like holding his daughter Bridget’s hand on the field before the first preseason game, in between photo ops.

But there hasn’t been time for much else. Not even makeup before his TV appearance with Buck and Aikman.

“It’s not going to help,” Harris jokes. “Not at my age.” But there’s a larger point he is making.

The Commanders might not end up producing the kind of financial returns Harris is used to delivering.

But that’s not the kind of reward he’s after.

“People just start almost crying when they tell you about the memories they had of Washington football,” Harris says. “One of the most important people in government just emailed me and said they remembered being at a game with their dad. I remember being at games with my dad.

“So this is really important. It’s a very important city, and it’s a very important franchise.”

CAROLINA

Another injury for the banged-up Panthers defense per Charean Williams ofProFootballTalk.com:

Panthers starting safety Xavier Woods injured his hamstring in Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks. Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that the Panthers expect Woods to miss 4-6 weeks.

Woods has made 11 tackles with two passes defensed in three games. He has played 63 percent of the defensive snaps.

It is the latest injury for a banged up defense, which could play Week 4 without four starters.

Starting cornerback Jaycee Horn already is on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, and Horn’s replacement, CJ Henderson, injured his ankle Sunday.

Inside linebacker Frankie Luvu injured his hip against the Seahawks, which comes with inside linebacker Shaq Thompson out for the season with a fractured fibula.

KANSAS CITY

A giddy TE TRAVIS KELCE describes his weekend.  ESPN.com:

Saying he “sure as hell enjoyed this weekend,” Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce addressed Taylor Swift’s attendance at Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bears while adding he wanted to respect their privacy.

Kelce talked about the Chiefs’ win on his “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce” podcast, which published Wednesday morning. Swift attended the game at Arrowhead Stadium and was sitting in a suite next to Kelce’s mother, Donna. Kelce and Swift were also seen leaving the stadium together after the game.

“I just thought it was awesome how everybody in the suite had nothing but great things to say about her,” Kelce said. “… She looked amazing. Everybody was talking about her in a great light. And on top of that, the day went perfect for Chiefs fans.”

Kelce joked that Swift’s attendance has made his personal life “not so personal” but did not specifically say whether the two were in a relationship, noting that Swift is more private and does less media appearances than he does. He acknowledged seeing paparazzi outside his house recently as rumors have swirled around their connection.

“I know I brought all this attention to me,” he said. “… What’s real is that, you know, it is my personal life. I want to respect both of our lives.”

Swift’s attendance appears to have brought a new segment of fans to the Chiefs. Sunday’s broadcast ratings showed significant improvement in one demographic, as female viewers age 12-17 were up nearly 8% from a year ago. The broadcast also led in female viewership in every major demographic.

Kelce also received a boost. A spokesperson for sportswear and fan merchandise company Fanatics told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Kelce’s jersey sales had spiked more than 400%.

“Sounds like the Swifties are also part of Chiefs Kingdom,” Kelce joked.

As the buzz around the star singer and the star tight end continues to grow, Kelce said he appreciated getting to look back at all the viral moments of Swift cheering him and the Chiefs on.

“To see the slow-motion chest bumps, to see the high-fives with Mom, to see how Chiefs Kingdom was all excited that she was there — that s— was absolutely hysterical,” Kelce said. “It’s definitely a game I’ll remember, that’s for damn sure.”

One game or first of many?  We shall see.

LAS VEGAS

EDGE CHANDLER JONES is claiming he was hospitalized “against his will” by unnamed forces, presumably at the behest of the Raiders.  Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com:

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones wrote in a social media post Monday night that he was taken to a hospital “against my will” by the Las Vegas Fire Department and later transferred to a behavioral health facility last week.

Jones was placed on the non-football illness list last week by the Raiders with what the team has described as a personal matter. He has been away from the team since Labor Day weekend when he began a series of social media posts aimed at the Raiders, owner Mark Davis, general manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels.

He wrote in his post to X on Monday night, “First day out but I’m still aligned,” indicating that Monday was his first day out of the facility. He attached journal entries plus a statement of “patient rights” from the Seven Hills Behavioral Health Hospital in Las Vegas, highlighting sections of the document he believes were not followed by the facility.

In the journal entries, Jones said that “5 to 7” Las Vegas Fire Department officials came to his front door and told him he had been put on a “court hold” by the Las Vegas Police Department.

“I haven’t done anything wrong. The police said people were concerned about me because of my posts online,” he wrote, adding that once in an ambulance he was “injected” with an undisclosed substance even though he didn’t give consent.

He said he was taken to Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas and “then transferred to Seven Hills where they tried to force me to take meds & injections.”

Jones wrote that he called Ziegler “6 to 7 times asking for help and I wondered if he had me put in here, but he never answered.” He said he left voicemails with Ziegler and is just trying to figure out why the Raiders won’t allow him in the facility or to be a part of the team.

“I’m still confused on what I did wrong. I’m stuck here. I’m very sane,” he wrote, adding “I’m to strong of a person to be mentally broken.”

The Las Vegas Fire Department, citing HIPAA privacy regulations, said it “cannot confirm patients’ identities to which Las Vegas Fire & Rescue personnel may or may not have provided medical care.”

ESPN also reached out to the Las Vegas Police Department for comment.

The Raiders have repeatedly referred to Jones’ situation as a private matter and declined further comment.

Jones was inactive for the first two games and, after being put on the NFL list, also missed the Raiders’ Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Jones, 33, is in the second season of a three-year, $51 million free agent contract he signed last year.

HOUSTON

Charles McDonald says that QB C.J. STROUD has taken to the NFL like a duck to water:

C.J. Stroud? He’s good at the football

Of the three rookie quarterbacks who have played this season, C.J. Stroud has gotten off to the best start, even with the acknowledgement that Anthony Richardson and Bryce Young have been injured. Stroud has hit the ground running and looks to be the quarterback who can get the Texans back to being relevant again.

Stroud has always been a talented prospect, but the way he is commanding the Texans’ offense and making big-time throws down the field is incredibly inspiring for his future prospects and he’s done it against some quality opponents. Even with a pressure percentage that ranks eighth in the league among starting quarterbacks (40.9%), Stroud has stood tall and routinely made big throws. The play under pressure isn’t as consistent as some of the other veteran quarterbacks, but that’s to be expected.

Now that the Texans appear to have their new franchise quarterback, everything gets a little bit easier for head coach DeMeco Ryans and the Texans as they continue on through their rebuild. They’ve seen enough positives from Stroud already this season to alleviate the concern of his transition. Yes, he’s going to have some stinkers in his rookie season, but he also looks to be a high-floor player who is a stabilizing presence for any offense. Through three games, Stroud is on pace to throw for 5,134 yards and 43 touchdowns — a pace that won’t last but is impressive nonetheless for a player just starting his first season.

The Texans look to have found a quarterback in Stroud and hit another home run with the selection of Will Anderson Jr. Anderson has already established himself as one of the more disruptive edge players in the league and has a chance to swiftly become a dominant force in the NFL. Stroud and Anderson are leading a future for Houston that finally looks bright after the messes the Texans have dealt with over the past few years.

INDIANAPOLIS

Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com ponder the upcoming fate of RB JONATHAN TAYLOR:

Make the call: Will Jonathan Taylor get traded before the deadline?

Graziano: I’ll say yes. From what I understand, he still doesn’t want to play for the Colts, and they still don’t want to give him a long-term contract. The time since the preseason has mellowed out the market a bit and maybe created more fertile ground for a deal. Taylor has to miss at least one more week while on the Physically Unable to Perform list, but it wouldn’t surprise me if his first game of the season was in a different uniform. The Browns might end up being more motivated to make a deal than they want us to believe after the Nick Chubb injury.

Fowler: I think he stays put. For as much as Taylor would like to be dealt — and heck, the Colts are probably cool with it at this point, too — I don’t see a team that’s clamoring to give up a Day 2 pick for a running back.

Just look at the Colts, who are 2-1 with Zack Moss as their leading back. Taylor is much better, of course, and has value. And maybe he’s the player to unlock a contender; Cleveland does make some sense, and Browns GM Andrew Berry never shies away from a potential deal. But Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt is a pretty good tandem. Plus, Miami — a Taylor suitor in the preseason — is running wild with Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane.

Graziano: I watched Rachaad White on Monday night and wondered whether Tampa Bay might jump in. But then I remembered that you and I together have more salary cap space than the Bucs, and such a move probably isn’t feasible.

Taylor is only 24 years old, still young even for a running back, and I keep thinking some team will see him as a difference-maker. But I hear all of your points about why teams don’t want to pay for the position, and they’re all correct.

Fowler: If teams prefer smaller-scale RB deals at the trade deadline, one option might be Chicago’s D’Onta Foreman, who has been a healthy scratch for the Bears despite rushing for 914 yards and five touchdowns in Carolina last season. His base salary of $1.525 million is reasonable. This reminds me of Cam Akers, whom the Rams dealt to Minnesota for a swap of late-round picks.

NEW YORK JETS

The Jets are turning to…QB TREVOR SIEMIAN

Rich Cimini with a summation in a tweet:

@RichCimini

Trevor Siemian is 13-17 as a starter, but hasn’t won a start since 2017. He has lost his last 6 starts, including one last season for the Bears against the Jets. Started 1 game for the #Jets in 2019, but didn’t make it out of the first quarter (ankle).

He has some background in a West Coast offense. It gives them more depth, but not a season-saving move, quite obviously.

Meanwhile, QB AARON RODGERS is disappointed in some of his teammates and others in the Jets family.  More from Cimini:

Injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers wants his teammates to do a better job of handling adversity, and he’d like the fans — including franchise icon Joe Namath — to stay positive.

Rodgers, in his weekly spot on “The Pat McAfee Show,” said Tuesday that he didn’t care for the sideline behavior during Sunday’s 15-10 loss to the New England Patriots.

“I think we need to hold our poise a little bit better across the board,” Rodgers said. “Just offensively, we need to not have some of those things happen on the sideline and to be a little better and to be a, just be a little better competitors.”

Wide receiver Garrett Wilson and running back Michael Carter were caught on camera in animated conversations with assistant coaches. Carter, in particular, was hot; he was screaming at running backs coach Taylor Embree.

Rodgers, who watched from his home in Malibu, California, said there were “too many little side conversations, and we just need to grow up a little bit on offense and lock in and do our jobs and not point fingers at each other — and that’s everybody. Don’t point fingers at the coaching staff, don’t point fingers at each other. Just get back to work and get the job done.”

The Jets (1-2) have dropped two straight games, as the Zach Wilson-led offense produced only two touchdowns in the two defeats. Wilson, who replaced Rodgers on the fifth play of the opener, has come under fire.

“I feel like if I was there, some of those things wouldn’t be happening,” said Rodgers, who underwent Achilles surgery Sept. 13. “[I’m] not sure we’d be 3-0 — I don’t know that. I’d like to think there’s a possibility of that, but it’s more the side stuff that I don’t like and that I want to see us stick together through the tough times.”

Namath fueled the firestorm Monday, ripping Wilson in an interview with “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York radio. Namath said Wilson was “awful” against the Patriots, adding that he’d trade the 2021 No. 2 pick because he has “seen enough of Zach Wilson.” He also said coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas should be replaced.

Rodgers was asked about Namath’s comments, and although he didn’t address Namath by name, he made it clear he didn’t appreciate the negativity.

“When we’re not having success, how do we respond? How do we respond to adversity? And that goes for our fan base and former players as well,” Rodgers said. “You’re not helping the cause.

“I’d like to see everybody stick together — our fan base, our former players and our current players because there’s too much negativity and the world is crashing down after three weeks. [It’s] a long season, a lot of time, a lot of things that can happen. So, let’s just take a couple breaths, OK? I’m not going to say we need to relax. Let’s take a couple breaths.”

Garrett Wilson, in his weekly spot on the “Bart & Hahn Show” on ESPN New York radio, said he had “really no reaction” to Namath’s comments.

“We love Joe Namath in the Jets’ facility, and we love everything he did for the New York Jets,” Wilson said. “That’s something that doesn’t need to be said. He’s got the right to an opinion, the right to feel any type of way.”

Wilson added, “I hope we find a way to use that as ammunition and one day that Joe Namath can admit he was wrong and make him eat his words. That’s what it comes down to. … We love Joe Namath, but we love Zach, too. We’re confident in Zach.”

Rodgers, in the early stages of rehab for his injured leg, hinted he might attend the game Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs at MetLife Stadium.

“You never know who you’re going to see at the game,” he said.

He might have been referring to Taylor Swift, who caused a frenzy Sunday when she attended the Chiefs’ home game against the Chicago Bears after being invited by tight end Travis Kelce.

Meanwhile, QB Colin Kaepernick is begging for a chance on the practice squad.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

The Jets have become the epicenter of quarterback ineptitude. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick still wants a job in the NFL.

It’s a perfect match, from the player’s perspective.

Kaepernick recently sent a letter to the Jets seeking consideration for a spot on the team’s practice squad. The letter publicly surfaced on Tuesday, posted to social media by rapper and producer J. Cole.

Per multiple sources, it is authentic and real. And while I believe that Kaepernick was indeed blackballed by the NFL and victimized by collusion aimed at punishing him for making players aware of their rights to protest during the national anthem, I also believe that this latest effort is a misguided publicity stunt aimed not at returning to the NFL for the first time since the 2016 season.

In the September 21 letter to Jets G.M. Joe Douglas, Kaepernick requests an “opportunity to come in and lead the practice squad . . . with the sole mission of getting your defense ready each week.”

The terminology is a little off; it prompted us to confirm and re-confirm that the letter was actually real. Kaepernick presumably meant to say he wants to lead the scout team each week.

Regardless, his broader goal is to provide the Jets with an alternative to Zach Wilson, in the event things don’t work out. And the reality is that, if this is Kaepernick’s prerogative, it makes far more sense to not turn it into a spectacle.

The mere fact that the letter came to light will make it even less likely that the Jets will accept the offer. “Why would they release that?” said one source with knowledge of the team’s thinking. “If you’re truly trying to get in with a team, why create drama?”

The letter identifies Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, UCLA coach Chip Kelly, Ravens coach John Harbaugh, and Raiders owner Mark Davis as references. Frankly, if Kaepernick truly wants to play again (and not just generate free publicity from his supposed effort to play again), he should be texting Davis over and over and over. Davis brought him in for a workout last year, and Davis’s starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, currently is in the concussion protocol.

What happened to Kaepernick was wrong. But the NFL successfully ran out the clock on his NFL career. At this point, it’s over and it’s done and no one will be signing him. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did. While he has every right to take every opportunity to draw attention to the situation, this doesn’t feel like a true effort to play again — and the early indications are it will not work.

THIS AND THAT

THE DEATH OF MIKE WILLIAMS

The death of former WR Mike Williams is under investigation per the AP:

Police are investigating the death of former NFL player Mike Williams in Tampa after getting information that he might have received unprescribed drugs from someone while hospitalized after a construction site accident.

The Tampa Police Department said in an email Tuesday that the probe involves “unprescribed narcotics by an outside party.” Williams died Sept. 12 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa at age 36, two weeks after he was injured in a construction accident that left him partially paralyzed.

“We take all allegations of criminal activity seriously, and detectives are working tirelessly on this active investigation,” the Tampa police email said. The investigation was first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

BROADCAST NEWS

NFL Nerd is looking ahead:

Through 3 weeks of the NFL season, we have a few candidates for primetime flexing:

WEEK 10 – Sunday Night Football

Jets @ Raiders

Some possible replacements:

Packers @ Steelers

Browns @ Ravens

49ers @ Jaguars

Commanders @ Seahawks

WEEK 11 – Sunday Night Football

Vikings @ Broncos

Some possible replacements:

Titans @ Jaguars

Chargers @ Packers

Giants @ Commanders

Steelers @ Browns

Cowboys @ Panthers 

WEEK 12 – Monday Night Football

Bears @ Vikings

Some possible replacements:

Steelers @ Bengals

Saints @ Falcons

Patriots @ Giants

Chiefs @ Raiders

Keep in mind that CBS and FOX both get to protect a game each week from being flexed out. I excluded certain games above for that reason:

WEEK 10

Lions @ Chargers 4:05 CBS

WEEK 11

Buccaneers @ 49ers 4:05 FOX

WEEK 12

Bills @ Eagles 4:25 CBS

The DB sees Buccaneers at Colts as more likely in Week 12 than some of the games listed.

$100 MILLION QBs

Who is getting their money’s worth from a big investment at QB?  That’s the setup for Charles McDonald of YahooSports.com, but he’s really ranking the teams and not the value of the QB versus his contract.  And there is a big difference between the top-end values and the terms of the contracts.

So we’d argue that the Lions are getting pretty good value from QB JARED GOFF, while Cleveland has not seen a commensurate return in value from their huge investment in QB DESHAUN WATSON.

We’re already three weeks down in the NFL season. With each week, we get a clearer picture of how these teams are performing and what their flaws are. This week’s Four Verts jumps all across the NFL landscape, but takes its first stop with the teams that have very expensive quarterbacks.

The past few offseasons have seen the young quarterbacks in the league get their big-time paydays that entrench them as the future of the league. Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts and plenty of others have secured generational wealth through their play, which gives their teams a chance to hold onto top-tier quarterback play as their careers continue to grow.

Let’s rank the teams that have poured money into the quarterback position. Ranking things is fun, right? These are the teams with quarterbacks that are making at least $100 million in guarantees according to Spotrac.

1. Kansas City Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes, $141.1 million guaranteed)

Patrick Mahomes! Patrick Mahomes? Patrick Mahomes. Oh, and the defense looks to be pretty good as well.

2. Buffalo Bills (Josh Allen, $150 million)

The Bills had a rough Week 1 against the Jets, but blew out the Raiders and Commanders over the past two weeks. They will be fine.

3. Philadelphia Eagles (Jalen Hurts, $179.4 million)

The Eagles have so many star players and they appear to have hit a total home run with defensive tackle Jalen Carter in the first round of the draft. Hurts and the rest of the Eagles’ offense are too loaded to fully fail right now.

4. Baltimore Ravens (Lamar Jackson, $185 million)

The loss to the Colts was weird, but the Ravens are still a top-tier team. They just need to get a couple of their starters back from injury, but Jackson is still giving this team a chance while they recover.

5. Dallas Cowboys (Dak Prescott, $126 million)

Losing to the Cardinals is a huge red flag, but the team is still about as talented as they come in the NFL. That loss against the Cardinals will probably end up being a blip on the radar for a club that has talent all over the place.

6. Los Angeles Chargers (Justin Herbert, $218.7 million)

The Chargers have not been good this season as a team, but Herbert has played so well that they get a boost here. They have a chance to win any game he’s healthy. Austin Ekeler coming back eventually will give this team a big boost.

7. Cleveland Browns (Deshaun Watson, $230 million)

Watson finally had his first good game as a Brown, but the real story here is the defense. The Browns have given up just 21 first downs this season, 20 fewer than the second-place Buffalo Bills. The defense is elite so far, and that gives the Browns a boost even with the uncertainty that they’re paying $230 million on a QB.

8. Cincinnati Bengals (Joe Burrow, $219 million)

The Bengals have had one of the worst offenses in the league this season, producing almost no explosive plays as Burrow attempts to play through a nagging calf injury. The defense is still quality, but the Bengals will need to get way more from their offense to scare people again.

9. Detroit Lions (Jared Goff, $110 million)

The Lions are a good team. The defense has taken a step forward and the offense is gelling well again this season. The only thing keeping the Lions here is Goff not being quite as dynamic as the other QBs in front of him — although he has certainly been better than Deshaun Watson recently.

10. New Orleans Saints (Derek Carr, $100 million)

The Saints’ defense is exceptional, but their offense has been up-and-down this season. They’ve scored only 20 points once, which is a number that needs to increase with the investment the Saints made in Carr.

11. Los Angeles Rams (Matthew Stafford, $130 million)

Stafford has tried his best in poor circumstances this season, but the Rams don’t have enough talent at critical parts of their roster. That was easily apparent when Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson on Monday repeatedly ran around an offensive tackle who was previously on the Bears’ practice squad.

12. Arizona Cardinals (Kyler Murray, $159.8 million)

The Cardinals might be higher with the services of Murray considering their recent performances, but for now they can be known as the team that didn’t give up 70 points Sunday.

13. Denver Broncos (Russell Wilson, $161 million)

You give up 70 points, you’re last. It’s that simple