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Who’s Jim Trotter and what will he know that anyone can’t find on you tube or any othe opinion writer?

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Aaron Donald: Retirement never really crossed my mind this offseason

Posted by Myles Simmons on May 10, 2023, 4:48 PM EDT

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Before winning Super Bowl LVI, Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald was contemplating retirement.

But after earning his ring, the three-time AP defensive player of the year elected to come back for 2022. Los Angeles also made it worth his while with a new contract that gave him a significant raise.

Then 2022 happened, which did not go as planned for anyone on the Rams. Donald suffered an ankle injury that limited him to just 11 games. He had not missed a game for injury in his career to that point.

But even as the Rams underwent a significant roster overhaul — gone are former veteran stars like Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner, and Leonard Floyd — Donald said on Wednesday that he wasn’t considering retirement this offseason.

“Not really, honestly. You never want to end your career the way it was last year,” Donald said in a Wednesday press conference. “So, it never really crossed my mind. I was just trying to do everything I could to get myself healthy to be here today.”

Donald did confirm he underwent offseason surgery on his ankle but feels “100 percent” now. And he’s looking toward leading what’s going to be a young Rams defense in 2023.

“At times, I feel like I’m going to need to be [more vocal],” Donald said. “Obviously, you don’t have a Bobby Wagner or Jalen to do it. But, again, you’ve got a guy like Ernest who’s going to step up and play that leadership role well, you’ve got [Jordan] Fuller out there. So, there’s guys that are young, but on this team, they’re no longer young. It’s time to step up and be a leader as well.

“So, you’ve just got to trust that those guys are going to be there to speak up and motivate me, too. We all need it – no matter how long you’ve been playing this game, or how much success you’ve had in it. We all need somebody to push you at times. If I’m slacking, I want them to let me know I’m slacking so I can pick it up and I can get better. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about holding each other accountable and pushing each other.”

With J.J. Watt’s retirement, Donald is No. 5 on the active list with 103.0 career sacks.

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Is the NFL’s ceiling higher in Germany than in England?

Posted by Mike Florio on May 10, 2023, 4:23 PM EDT

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The NFL has been staging regular-season games in London since 2007, in every season except 2020. Last year, the NFL began playing in Germany.

In the second year of the German experiment, Frankfurt scored perhaps the biggest international game yet — the Miami Dolphins vs. the Kansas City Chiefs.

It’s a huge game. It has sizzle. It has story lines. It has big personalities. And Germany has it, and London doesn’t.

Although London got three games to German’s two, London probably would have traded two of the games it got (if not all three) to have Dolphins-Chiefs. And it’s hard not to wonder whether the NFL awarded Dolphins-Chiefs to Germany as a reward for the over-the-top fervor Germany demonstrated during last year’s Seahawks-Buccaneers game — and possibly as a recognition that the NFL has a higher ceiling in Germany than in England.

We’ve had multiple PFT Live viewers in the UK point out that, despite their own intense, personal passion for pro football, the NFL still doesn’t move the needle like it could or should in England, Ireland, etc., relative to other sports. In Germany, the arrival of the NFL has sparked much greater enthusiasm.

Or course, it helped that Germany got Tom Brady right out of the gates. Still, there’s a level of excitement that Germany has exhibited that London arguably has yet to match.

Perhaps the best way to get both countries to the maximum level of engagement will be to do what the Commissioner suggested last year — create a four-team European division with London and German representation. If, ultimately, the division has two teams in London and two in Germany, that would result in four annual games pitting an English team against a German team.

While that might be needed to get the most out of the London audience, it feels as if the German audience is already farther along the path toward becoming the kind of money-making market that the NFL envisioned once it started exporting games to Europe.

At the end of the day, football is a meritocracy, in more ways than one. The best players play. And the best (i.e., most lucrative) places to play get the better games played there.

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Baker Mayfield, Kyle Trask to get “even reps” in competition for starting job

Posted by Charean Williams on May 10, 2023, 3:48 PM EDT

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The Buccaneers will find out their season opening game Thursday during the NFL’s schedule release. They still won’t know who their starting quarterback is for that game.

Offensive coordinator Dave Canales said the team sees “no rush” to choose between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask.

“For me, it’s a win-win when you create a competition,” Canales said Wednesday, via Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com. “Here’s why: If you name a starter today, the backup guy starts thinking like that. But if you say this is a competition, we’re going to allow [them] to go into the preseason, let them show us they can manage, to get us into the right play, to take care of the ball, that’s going to be the determining factor, really.

“I would like to take it as far as I can. . . . Like I told [General Manager Jason Licht] early on, I will coach the crap out of whoever you give me, and whoever we decide to [start], but I’ll have them both ready.”

Mayfield, 28, has the edge in experience with 69 career starts, 16,288 passing yards and 102 touchdowns in five NFL seasons. He also has playoff experience.

Trask, 25, has attempted only nine passes since the Bucs made him a second-round pick in 2021.

The Bucs, though, didn’t hand Mayfield the job after signing him in free agency. They are giving Trask a legitimate shot.

“I’m pretty sure the guys will get even reps, and then we just go by seeing what you do every day,” quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis said. “You’re charting incompletions. You’re charting mental errors.

“Competition makes everybody great.”

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Henry Ruggs pleads guilty to DUI resulting in death, faces 3-10 years in prison

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 10, 2023, 2:53 PM EDT

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Former Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs has pleaded guilty to DUI resulting in death and will spend time in prison.

Ruggs officially entered the plea today and acknowledged to a judge that he was responsible for the death of Tina Tintor on November 2, 2021. Ruggs’ attorneys and prosecutors agreed to a sentence of three to 10 years in prison. The judge will sentence Ruggs on August 9 and he is under house arrest until then.

District Attorney Steven B. Wolfson acknowledged that as little as three years in prison for killing Tintor may seem like Ruggs is getting off easy, but said that if his office had proceeded to trial, there was a chance that the case could have fallen apart, as Ruggs’ attorneys were challenging whether prosecutors could introduce the evidence that Ruggs’ blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

“I recognize this outcome is not sufficient to punish Ruggs for the loss the Tintor family has suffered,” Wolfson’s statement said, “but there was a legitimate concern that a court would have suppressed the result of the blood draw. We would have lost the felony DUI charge. We couldn’t take that chance. This resolution sends Ruggs to prison for up to 10 years on a felony DUI conviction and brings closure to the Tintor family.”

Ruggs, the 12th overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft, was cut by the Raiders after the crash.

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Aaron Jones on Jordan Love: When he talks, everybody listens

Posted by Josh Alper on May 10, 2023, 2:43 PM EDT

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The Packers have spent the early weeks of their offseason program getting used to life with Jordan Love as the starting quarterback and Love said on Wednesday that one thing that’s changed with his new job is that he can be more vocal than he was as Aaron Rodgers‘ backup.

Love’s words are finding an audience. That was the message from running back Aaron Jones during his own press conference on Wednesday. While talking about Love, Jones said “when he talks, everybody listens” and explained why the quarterback has already won the “full trust” of his teammates.

“He believes in himself, first off,” Jones said. “That’s No. 1. You’ve got to believe in yourself or nobody else is going to believe in you. He believes in himself, he cares about everybody around him and we’ve seen him just come in consistently and just work, work, work. As an athlete, you want to come in and play right away. That wasn’t Jordan’s case, he didn’t have that opportunity. He did it the right way, he waited his time and you never heard one peep or complaint out of him.”

In addition to a new starter in Love, the Packers have a young receiving corps this year and Jones said he plans to make Love’s job running the offense easier by being “extra eyes and ears” on the field this season. The Packers also have AJ Dillon in the backfield and both players will likely be leaned on a lot as the Packers plot their new offensive course in 2023.

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Jordan Love: I can step up, be more vocal knowing I’m the guy

Posted by Josh Alper on May 10, 2023, 1:52 PM EDT

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With Aaron Rodgers now playing for the Jets, Jordan Love is officially the starting quarterback for the Packers and he discussed that change in circumstances in a press conference on Wednesday.

Love said that he doesn’t remember exactly what he was doing when he heard that the Rodgers trade was done, but that he’d been approaching the entire offseason as if he would be the starter this fall. Love said he “couldn’t really control what happened going forward” so he just moved forward with his preparations as if the move had already been made.

The Packers’ offseason program has been going for a few weeks and Love was asked how things feel different after his promotion to the top job.

“It’s exciting,” Love said. “I think there’s a lot of energy around it for myself. I think I can step up and be a little more vocal knowing that I’m the guy, not being the backup.”

Love said it was not easy spending three years behind Rodgers after being selected in the first round, but added that it was “very valuable” to learn from Rodgers and that he feels he has “improved drastically” since coming to Green Bay. He’ll get every opportunity to show that on the field over the rest of the year.

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Jordan Love calls Aaron Rodgers’ extension last year “the hardest time” as he faced uncertain future

Posted by Charean Williams on May 10, 2023, 9:42 PM EDT

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Jordan Love thought this day would never come.

Love, whom the Packers drafted in the first round in 2020, had his first news conference since becoming the team’s starting quarterback. He played only 10 games, with one start, in three seasons sitting behind Aaron Rodgers.

One month after repeating as league MVP, Rodgers signed a three-year extension with the Packers on March 15, 2022.

“I’ll admit: I think the hardest time was when he re-signed the contract last year,” Love said, via Bill Huber of SI.com. “It was like, ‘OK, well, where do we go from here? What do I do?’

“And I think I sat back, thought to myself and just came back with the approach, like, ‘Let’s just go ball out any opportunity I get. I’m going to get preseason and who knows what happens after that, so just grow and try and become the best version of myself. I can’t really control what happens after that, so let it play out.’”

Love, who has thrown 83 passes with three touchdowns and three interceptions, admits it was “very hard’ to be patient.

His patience paid off.

Love has the starting job, a contract extension through 2024 and the full support of teammates and coaches after the Packers’ trade of Rodgers to the Jets.

“Obviously, you want to be the guy,” Love said. “Everybody wants to be the guy. Everybody wants to be on the field making plays. So, it’s not easy, but it was the situation I was put in. It was really nothing I could do about it. I say all the time: Control what I can control, and all I can control with that situation is how I approach every day, how I learn, how I grow and how I get myself ready if my name’s called.”

The Packers finally have called Love’s name. It’s his job. It’s his team. It’s his time.

“I’ve always been a big believer in myself,” Love said.

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Lol.
Kevin O’Connell wants Kirk Cousins to embrace his ability to extend plays

Posted by Mike Florio on May 10, 2023, 9:09 PM EDT

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During a Tuesday interview of Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell on #PFTPM, O’Connell was asked two specific questions about quarterback Kirk Cousins.

First, what is his best attribute for which he doesn’t get enough credit. Second, what can he do to improve in 2023?

As to the second question, O’Connell pointed to one thing — Cousins trusting his ability to make plays with his legs.

“I think he showed it at times last year,” O’Connell said, “but that athleticism to maybe not impact the game the way some of the great athletes that are playing quarterback in the NFL right now impact, but there are some plays where I think he doesn’t give himself enough credit of his ability to extend.

“I think back to that red-zone scramble for a touchdown against the Cardinals last year on a critical third down or even keeping drives alive, stealing a first down. When I call a bad play and he’s got nobody there to convert and he finds a way to extend the play and maybe use his legs to either get that first down or extend a play and make a playoff schedule with his arm, I think he’s capable of doing those things and I think he’s — that’s going to be something his comfort, his understanding year one to year two you just have that much more awareness of not only where your eleven guys are on the field, but defensively how it all works together and you can continue by any means necessary to attack whatever voids and vacancies may be out there for us on each individual play.”

On the positive side, O’Connell raised two points.

“Well, to me he’s got two things that are main requirements that I believe to play quarterback in the NFL,” O’Connell said. “He’s extremely accurate and he’s tough and durable. I don’t know if you can really, quantitatively put that second part into a statistic. I can just tell you that he’s played a lot of football in his career. He consistently is out there every Sunday competing to win football games and can handle the rigors of playing the quarterback position in an NFL offense where we put a lot on his plate. He has a ton to do with our success as an offense and then you can just never undervalue the ability to throw the football at a world-class level and put it where you want to put it location-wise.

“You think back to some of the big throws he made a year ago in critical moments that won us a lot of football games. You know, when we win 13 games, you can go back and find throws that I don’t think a lot of people are making at that type of level, consistent-wise, playing in this position from an NFL pocket, and being able to do the things that that we ask him to do, which are a lot. So, I think those two things are the starting point and then we can get into a lot of as far as his ability to process information, his understanding of defenses, and then ultimately just his ability to run the show and be one of our core leaders of our football team.”

Whether Cousins continues to be Minnesota’s quarterback beyond 2023 remains to be seen. He does have a chance to build on his first year with O’Connell, and to make it obvious to everyone in the organization that Cousins should keep the job he has held since 2018 beyond what will be his sixth season in Minnesota.

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Trotter was fired from NFL.com for asking the Sheriff Roger Goodell some tough questions.

[whatever_gong82]

Here's his opinion piece from yesterday's Athletic (Note to everyone: I bolded and italizied everything in the article):



Trotter: My goal at The Athletic? Remain comfortable covering uncomfortable topics

By Jim Trotter
May 10, 2023

One of the great things about journalism is that you never know what the day will bring.

One minute you’re settling at your desk and scrolling the news wire, the next you’re being sent to cover an introductory news conference for the city’s newest sports franchise.

That was me in 1990, while working as a cub sportswriter for The San Diego Union. The calmness of a lazy summer morning was broken by the swoosh of Bob Wright’s office door swinging open.



Wright was the Union’s veteran sports editor, a short, bespectacled man who moved with energy and purpose. He kept a pack of cigarettes in his chest pocket and a flask of brown liquor in a desk drawer. He spent the early years of his career in Philadelphia and was so old school he tended to edit printouts with a red pen.

“I’ve got something for you,” he said, standing outside his office.

The news release in his hand was from the International Hockey League’s San Diego Gulls.

“See what it’s worth.”


It didn’t matter to him that I had never attended a hockey game or watched one on television from start to finish. It didn’t matter that my ability to name an active NHL player began and ended with Wayne Gretzky. I had heard of a five-tool player in baseball but knew nothing about a five-hole in hockey.

Who knew that I would end up spending three years as the primary beat writer for the Gulls, or that I would look back several decades later and remember it as one of the most enjoyable periods of my career? It was an opportunity to try something different and learn something new, and thankfully the general manager, coaches and players were willing to teach and tolerate me. They didn’t always agree with what I wrote, but they knew it came from an honest and pure place.

Which is the perfect segue to my arrival at The Athletic. It’s not quite history repeating itself, but the undercurrent of being comfortable with being uncomfortable is similar.



As a national columnist, I get to take a wide-angle view of the sporting landscape, which is a dramatic departure from the bulk of my career. I spent the past 27 years exclusively covering the National Football League, first for The San Diego Union-Tribune, then Sports Illustrated, ESPN and, finally, NFL Media.

Anyone who has covered the league full time knows it’s a 24/7 job, not a 9-to-5. That left little time to delve deeply into other sports. I might watch another sporting event with casual interest, but I rarely immersed myself in the day-to-day goings-on.



My new role will allow me to jump headfirst into stories of interest. Many of my writings will continue to focus on the NFL; that’s where my expertise is. But I’m excited by the opportunity to weigh in elsewhere, to go where the brush closes behind as I move forward.

I love a good human-interest story, or an inside look at individual greatness, what it looks and smells and tastes like. But my greater focus — what I like to call my purpose — is giving a voice to those whose voices are not being heard.

I used to say I wanted to give a voice to the voiceless, but someone far smarter reminded me that these individuals have always had voices. We simply chose/choose not to hear them.



I want to hear them. The Athletic wants to hear them. It’s a big reason why I’m here. There is the freedom — and support — to write on topics of my choosing. I no longer have to worry about my words being watered down or silenced altogether, which was not always the case over my final two years with NFL Media Group, which is owned by the NFL.

I thought I knew what I was getting into. I was told we would always report the news, though we might not opine on it. That was not the case, particularly when it came to reporting on team owners or the league office.


Here, the news is the news. The story is the story. And the fact that I get to work with an exceptional group of writers and editors, all of whom are striving to raise the journalistic bar, makes it even more exciting. I say that as a paid subscriber since the site’s inception, not just as a new employee.

So don’t be surprised if you see me at the ballpark or in an arena. You might even spot me at a hockey rink. That’s the beauty of journalism: You never know what the day will bring.


To receive topical opinion pieces from Jim Trotter and other columnists at The Athletic, follow Opinion.

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Jalen Carter faces lawsuit in death of former teammate Devin Willock

Posted by Charean Williams on May 10, 2023, 6:34 PM EDT

USA TODAY Sports

Eagles rookie Jalen Carter faces a lawsuit stemming from a car crash that killed his former Georgia teammate, Devin Willock, Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS Sports reports.

Dave Willock Sr., Willock’s father, seeks $40 million in a case filed Tuesday against the school’s athletic association, Carter and others. The suit alleges wrongful death, negligent hiring and negligence.

Carter pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of racing and reckless driving and was sentenced to 12 months probation, fined $1,000 and required to complete 80 hours of community service. He also must complete a state-approved driving course.

A police investigation determined Carter and an SUV driven by Georgia staffer Chandler LeCroy were racing in the early morning hours of Jan. 15. LeCroy’s car crashed, killing her and her passenger, Willock, a Georgia offensive lineman, and injuring former Georgia player Warren McClendon and staffer Tory Bowles.

LeCroy’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, according to a toxicology report.

In addition to the school and Carter, the lawsuit also names the estate of LeCroy, Sarchione Auto Group — which provided Carter with a 2021 Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk in an NIL deal — and strip club Toppers International Showbar as defendants, per Jeyarajah.

The lawsuit seeks $30 million from the defendants in compensatory damages and an additional $10 million in punitive damages from Carter.

It alleges Carter had a “pattern of excessive speeding” that the car dealership should have taken under consideration after multiple speeding tickets. He previously was fined $1,013 after being cited for going nearly 90 mph in a 45 mph zone.

The Eagles made Carter the ninth overall pick in last month’s draft.

[jaadam4]

Jalen Carter faces lawsuit in death of former teammate Devin Willock

Posted by Charean Williams on May 10, 2023, 6:34 PM EDT

USA TODAY Sports

Eagles rookie Jalen Carter faces a lawsuit stemming from a car crash that killed his former Georgia teammate, Devin Willock, Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS Sports reports.

Dave Willock Sr., Willock’s father, seeks $40 million in a case filed Tuesday against the school’s athletic association, Carter and others. The suit alleges wrongful death, negligent hiring and negligence.

Carter pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of racing and reckless driving and was sentenced to 12 months probation, fined $1,000 and required to complete 80 hours of community service. He also must complete a state-approved driving course.

A police investigation determined Carter and an SUV driven by Georgia staffer Chandler LeCroy were racing in the early morning hours of Jan. 15. LeCroy’s car crashed, killing her and her passenger, Willock, a Georgia offensive lineman, and injuring former Georgia player Warren McClendon and staffer Tory Bowles.

LeCroy’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, according to a toxicology report.

In addition to the school and Carter, the lawsuit also names the estate of LeCroy, Sarchione Auto Group — which provided Carter with a 2021 Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk in an NIL deal — and strip club Toppers International Showbar as defendants, per Jeyarajah.

The lawsuit seeks $30 million from the defendants in compensatory damages and an additional $10 million in punitive damages from Carter.

It alleges Carter had a “pattern of excessive speeding” that the car dealership should have taken under consideration after multiple speeding tickets. He previously was fined $1,013 after being cited for going nearly 90 mph in a 45 mph zone.

The Eagles made Carter the ninth overall pick in last month’s draft.

This is BS. Carter wasn’t driving the car that killed those people. Unless he was intentionally putting them into a wall his name shouldn’t be in the paperwork.

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This is BS. Carter wasn’t driving the car that killed those people. Unless he was intentionally putting them into a wall his name shouldn’t be in the paperwork.

People can sue for anything. The burden of proof to win is less also. We were once sued from a drunk driver who ran a stop sign and totaled a police vehicle. He won $250k. Was some bs. But he won.

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Jordan Love, Packers scheduled for six prime-time or standalone games

Posted by Josh Alper on May 12, 2023, 8:04 AM EDT

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The Packers don’t have Aaron Rodgers anymore, but they will still have plenty of exposure in standalone games during the 2023 season.

Green Bay is scheduled to play five prime-time games in Jordan Love‘s first season as their starting quarterback. The first of them comes in Week Four when they host the Lions on a Thursday night.

It’s not the only Thursday game they’re slated to play against the Lions. The Packers will also be in Detroit on Thanksgiving.

They’ll be back in prime-time the next week for a road game against former Packer Davante Adams and the Raiders on Monday night. They’re slated for another set of back-to-back prime-time games in Weeks 13 and 14 with a Sunday night home game against the Packers being followed by a Monday night road game against the Giants.

Week 17 finds the Packers scheduled for a Sunday night game against the Vikings, although that could be a candidate to be flexed to a different time if the matchup of NFC North rivals doesn’t carry major playoff implications.

Here’s the entire Packers schedule for the 2023 season:

Week One: at Bears
Week Two: at Falcons
Week Three: Saints
Week Four: Lions (TNF)
Week Five: at Raiders (MNF)
Week Six: Bye
Week Seven: at Broncos
Week Eight: Vikings
Week Nine: Rams
Week 10: at Steeelers
Week 11: Chargers
Week 12: at Lions (Thanksgiving)
Week 13: Chiefs (SNF)
Week 14: at Giants (MNF)
Week 15: Buccaneers
Week 16: at Panthers
Week 17: at Vikings (SNF)
Week 18: Bears (Jan. 6/7)