The National Football League OR ... the National FLUFF League? Here's what 3 retired NFL players have to say



Like many institutions in America, the NFL seems to be getting too soft — and Jason Whitlock is not pleased.

“I’m not real comfortable with where the NFL has gone in terms of softness,” Whitlock says.

Warren Sapp, a former defensive tackle who helped win Tampa Bay’s first Super Bowl title, agrees, joking that it should be called the “National Fluff League.”

“We play a game that you can go down, and we all take that risk going into it, you know, with our children and our moms and everything, but we got to finish this game,” Sapp adds.

Whitlock believes the NFL has been “demonizing” hard hits on other players for years, noting that Sapp himself was “demonized for a hit on an offensive lineman."

Seth Joyner, who was a linebacker in the NFL and helped bring the Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl victory in 1998, believes it’s important to remember how the NFL got to this point.

“When a multibillion-dollar industry gets sued for $760 million,” Joyner explains, “that’s gonna have reverberations all the way down through every level of football.”

However, Joyner believes that for all the danger the game of football brings, it’s worth it.

“People were like ‘Oh I can’t believe you let your son play football.’ I’m like, I learned more from football than the college degree that I got, okay? There’s no way I wouldn’t let him play now,” he says.

“We had a rule, we talked about it. I said, you got three concussions, and then you’re done,” he adds.

Brett Favre, a famed NFL quarterback who most famously played for the Green Bay Packers, believes the rules and regulations that have been added surrounding things like concussions are a good thing.

Favre spoke to an expert who asked him how many concussions he’d had, to which Favre responded three or four where he blacked out.

“And he said how about a thousand or thousands, and I thought, this guy is crazy,” Favre recalls.

The expert told him that every time he saw stars, or his ears were ringing, those were concussions too.

“I said, ‘So when do you think it’s safe to play tackle football?’ He said, ‘Never.’”

“There’s truth in that,” Joyner responds. “The human body was not designed to be in 60-something car wrecks a game.”


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Washington Commanders RB Brian Robinson Jr. shot twice in attempted carjacking, DC mayor condemns gun violence



Washington Commanders rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. was shot at least twice in an attempted carjacking Sunday in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department said.

Robinson, 23, was assaulted on H Street NE by two teenage gunmen who wanted to steal his car, a white Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, according to Chief of Police Robert Contee.

“At some point during the course of this robbery attempt, our victim in this case began to struggle with one of the suspects, was able to actually wrestle that firearm away from one of the suspects. And he was shot twice by the second suspect,” Contee told reporters Monday.

Robinson, a University of Alabama alumnus who in April was drafted by the Commanders in the third round, was shot in the hip and the leg, WTOP-TV reported. His injuries were non-life threatening, and he is reportedly in stable condition now.

"Surgery went well! Thanks for the prayers! God is Great!" Robinson posted on Instagram Monday morning from Medstar Washington Hospital Center.

Commanders head coach Ron Rivera said Sunday he visited Robinson in the hospital and that the rookie running back was in "good spirits" as he recovers.

"I just got done visiting w/Brian. He is in good spirits and wanted me to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers & support. He wants his teammates to know he appreciates them all for reaching out and he loves them all & will be back soon doing what he does best," Rivera tweeted.

\u201cI just got done visiting w/Brian. He is in good spirits and wanted me to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers & support. He wants his teammates to know he appreciates them all for reaching out and he loves them all & will be back soon doing what he does best.\u201d
— Ron Rivera (@Ron Rivera) 1661738698

Contee said authorities believe the two suspects left the scene in a vehicle that was stolen at about 4 p.m. Friday on Branch Avenue in Temple Hills in Prince George's County, Maryland. The vehicle was found Sunday at about 7:20 p.m. in Landover.

The shooting took place at around 5:30 p.m., after Robinson went to Crab Boss at 10th and H streets in Northeast D.C. for seafood, WTOP reported.

Police said both of the suspects are teenagers. One was wearing a dark colored shirt, the other, a shirt with yellow smiley faces.

There were two guns involved in the crime, according to law enforcement. One was retrieved at the scene, and authorities are attempting to trace it.

Contee emphasized that while high profile crimes like this one make citizens feel unsafe, the overall crime rate in D.C. has not increased compared to last year.

Mayor Muriel Bowser condemned gun violence in a statement.

“If you know you have a young person that’s involved in crime, may have access to guns, may have a gun in your home, you need to reach out to us so that we can get them some help before they hurt themselves or get hurt,” Bowser said. “We also need young people to face consequences. MPD is going to locate who is responsible for this crime.”

Couch: Football gods use Mitch Trubisky to torture Chicago Bears fans and new QB Justin Fields



I don't mean to be a pessimist about Justin Fields, the new Chicago Bears quarterback. I consider myself a public servant by pointing out that I don't believe in him, that he hasn't done a thing to earn the crazy belief and love Chicagoans already have for him.

I'm worried about the mental health of my fellow Chicagoans. They can't stomach another failed QB.

I pointed this out last week, too, but that wasn't good enough. After the second preseason game in the Fields era Saturday, the sickness only got worse. Bears fans completely lost their minds.

The football gods are always laughing at the Bears' QB setup, trying to come up with new ways to amuse themselves. On Saturday, the gods were on their game even if Fields wasn't on his.

The appeal of Fields, who was already the No. 2 selling NFL jersey before his first preseason game, is not who he is, but who he isn't. He isn't Mitch Trubisky, Fields' predecessor as great Chicago QB nope.

After four years of Trubisky, the Bears dumped him, picked up Andy Dalton from the Dallas Cowboys, and quickly pronounced him QB1. Then Fields fell to the Bears in the draft.

Put all of that together, and here's what happened Saturday when the Buffalo Bills crushed the Bears: Dalton started, but Bears fans were chanting for Fields. Coach Matt Nagy has said that Dalton is the starter and won't be judged until he plays regular-season games.

Fans of the worst quarterback franchise in NFL history don't want to have anything to do with their starting quarterback. They just want Fields. Nagy will cave soon enough.

After Fields' first preseason game, he said he was surprised the NFL seemed slow. Was he really already OK with the speed of the league? On Saturday, he was hit so hard that he lost his helmet. He was sacked twice and couldn't get out of the way. He mixed in some effective scrambles and a perfect leading 30-yard pass to tight end Jesse James. That was enough to make Bears fans happy, even though he completed just 9 of 19 passes for 80 yards and a 59.1 passer rating.

WAKE UP, Chicago.

And the ultimate irony: Guess who was quarterbacking Buffalo to four straight touchdown drives and 28 points by the middle of the second quarter.

Yes, Trubisky. Of all people. It was the football gods spiking the ball in Bears fans' faces.

Four years ago, Trubisky, much like Fields, also had an excellent first preseason game with the Bears. He completed his first 10 passes and ended with a 103.1 passer rating. Afterward, as the Chicago Sun-Times reminded us the other day, this is what NFL analyst Mark Schlereth said:

"You can see great poise. You can see a guy who was in control. You can see a guy that – even when they had these half-field reads and they ran a lot of boot-keeps and those things – man, he understood the progression."

Four years later, you couldn't see any of those things.

After Trubisky burned the Bears Saturday, I sarcastically tweeted that I wish the Bears could get a quarterback like the guy the Bills have. Then, @indybill23 tweeted back: "I mean, they probably could, but they'd have no idea how to develop him."

That brought up a great question: Is the Bears' problem the failure to identify a QB or to develop one? I think it's more about ID'ing one, as their high draft picks have left Chicago and continued to fail. That said, they never improved in Chicago, either.

One quarterback after another has paraded through Chicago for three-quarters of a century since Sid Luckman won four NFL titles and ushered in the T-formation.

He left in 1950, though. Joe Biden was 8 at the time.

Every Bears quarterback has failed since then. You'd think Chicagoans would be well prepared for this.

Instead, they are like a homeowner in Florida hurricane country with nothing to protect their windows from being smashed in. At some point, don't you know what's coming? Shouldn't you be prepared?

So like I said, the appeal of Fields is that he's not Trubisky. Chicago loved Trubisky because he wasn't Jay Cutler. Cutler wasn't Rex Grossman, who wasn't Kordell Stewart, who wasn't Cade McNown.

It's Fields' turn now. And somehow Chicagoans are sold. It's not healthy for them. I fear that three or four years from now, the Bears will get their next QB: Not Justin Fields.

Shannon Sharpe blasts Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy for watermelon stunt



Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was heavily criticized by sports commentator Shannon Sharpe Tuesday morning after McCarthy used a sledgehammer and a watermelon to motivate his players to win their Sunday match against the Minnesota Vikings.

McCarthy reportedly pulled out a sledgehammer during Saturday night's team meeting and smashed watermelons, mimicking the prop comic Gallagher, to inspire his players to "hammer the ball" out of Minnesota running back Dalvin Cook's hands. NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero recounted the stunt Monday.

#Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy pulled out a sledgehammer during Saturday night’s team meeting and smashed watermelons… https://t.co/5LAWxAmFvr
— Tom Pelissero (@Tom Pelissero)1606167522.0

"Mike McCarthy gets up and says, 'Guys, I want to apologize. I don't think I did a good enough job emphasizing our objectives for the week' — one of which was to hammer the ball out of [Minnesota running back] Dalvin Cook's hands," Pelissero said. "At that point McCarthy pulls out a sledgehammer, not a prop, a full sledgehammer you could knock a wall down with, and someone rolls in a bunch of watermelons."

"Each one has a different objective written on it," Pelissero added. "McCarthy reads the objective — BAM! — smashes the watermelon. He goes down the row doing this. The players are roaring, McCarthy's pants are soaked. He finally gets to the watermelon with Dalvin Cook's picture on it, DeMarcus Lawrence jumps up and goes, 'I've got to get that one.' He hands the sledgehammer to Lawrence, he smashes that watermelon."

Fun, right? Not according to Fox Sports 1's Shannon Sharpe. Discussing the Cowboys' team meeting on "Undisputed," Sharpe said "I don't think it's fun."

"Dear white America, any time you have black people in your presence, watermelon has a negative connotation," he continued.

"Yep," Skip Bayless agreed.

Mike McCarthy hits watermelons with a sledgehammer to amp up the Cowboys.Shannon Sharpe: Watermelon is racist tow… https://t.co/1Y5mKQgWeN
— David Hookstead (@David Hookstead)1606242903.0

"Let it go," Sharpe went on. "Things that were acceptable many, many years ago, even though it wasn't acceptable, it was tolerated, is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Find another tool, another mechanism to motivate your players. Black players: If you need somebody, a white man smashing watermelons, to get you motivated, you're in the wrong line of business. It's not funny. It's not cute."

Sharpe began yelling:

I don't get these young guys anymore, I really don't. Because there ain't no way in hell Mike Shanahan, Dan Reeves, Wade Phillips, or any of my coaches could have ever brought a watermelon and ... what!? And you think that's cool? And he bragged about it!

If you ain't going to a picnic, if you ain't going to a cookout or a barbecue, man you better not have no watermelons coming up in there talking about we smashing this.

I don't know what Mike McCarthy was thinking. And I don't know what those black players in the locker room was thinking allowing him to do that to them.

"Agreed," Bayless said.