Mayor Believes its Viva Las Vegas for Raiders

Carolyn Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, is confident that the Oakland Raiders will move to her city – providing the prospective relocation is handled properly.

The Raiders inched closer to a move to Las Vegas last month, after owner Mark Davis met Nevada officials and pledged $500m towards the construction of a new $1.4bn, 65,000-seat domed stadium. He said the Raiders would give Las Vegas and the NFL “an offer they can’t refuse” and would turn “the Silver State into the Silver-and-Black State”.

“Mark Davis has assured us that Las Vegas is not getting played in a Raiders stadium deal,” Goodman said on Tuesday. “I think they from what I understand, if truth is truth, they will come if Nevada can go ahead and do this properly. I know we will have a team.” She said that the stadium site could also host an MLS team and UNLV football.

Davis, who inherited the Raiders after the death of his father Al in 2011, wants the team to leave the Coliseum for a football-specific stadium, and is open to staying in the Bay Area, but has not been able to strike a deal with Oakland officials. The Raiders have two one-year leases at the Coliseum that take them through 2018.

Goodman said she told Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and one of the stadium project’s major backers, “to get us a team two years ago.” She said it seemed more likely at the time that Vegas would look to court the Chargers, because of the city’s connection with the Spanos family, which owns the team.

The Chargers, however, are more inclined to stay in San Diego if a deal can’t be struck to move the team to Los Angeles.

Goodman said she doesn’t see funding for the stadium as a major issue. “We are getting calls from outside the region offering to help with funding for stadium in Las Vegas,” she said.

“I think we’re certainly mature enough and ready enough for a major league any sport and have been for some years – because we’ve grown to over 2.1 million in resident population and have over 42 million visitors,” she said.

Goodman also said Las Vegas would be a destination for fans from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and all over the west.

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Raiders Looking to Las Vegas

Mark Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders, is set for another round of talks with officials in Las Vegas as plans to relocate his team there appear to have gathered momentum.

Davis is scheduled to appear at the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee meeting at 11am on Thursday, and under discussion will be the $1.3bn project being proposed by billionaire casino mogul and longtime Republican donor Sheldon Adelson.

Speculation has grown in recent days that Davis could be ready make a commitment to relocate his team to Las Vegas if financing is approved on Thursday.

The Raiders are staying at the Coliseum for one more year at least, but Davis, who inherited the team after the death of his father Al in 2011, wants his team to play in a football-specific stadium, and is prepared to move his team out of Oakland to get one. Officials in Oakland are reluctant to use public money to create a new football stadium; the Athletics also want a new ballpark of their own.

Davis has been in negotiations with Adelson over the move to Vegas for some months now, and toured UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium as a potential temporary home. The location for the proposed 65,000-seat Las Vegas stadium is a 42-acre lot on Tropicana Avenue near the university, a few blocks east of the strip.

Davis declined to speak to ESPN about Thursday’s meeting – which comes on the same day as the NFL draft.

Davis believes that the Raiders can expand their appeal beyond California with a move to Vegas – and that Raiders fans from across America would be keen to visit Vegas to catch a game as part of a weekend trip.

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Johnny Manziel Indicted in Dallas

Johhny Manziel

Johnny Manziel has been indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on a misdemeanor assault charge, according to multiple reports, after an argument with his ex-girlfriend in January in which she accused Manziel of hitting her so hard he burst her eardrum.

The charge is set to be formally announced on Monday. Manziel’s case was heard by a grand jury on Thursday.

Colleen Crowley had told police that the incident, which happened on 29 January, began with an argument about another woman. She said she and Manziel had a confrontation in a Dallas hotel room, and it continued downstairs at the valet station. She said he forced her into a car, and a valet ignored her pleas for help.

The two drove to where her car was parked in front of a Dallas bar, she said in an affidavit. She accused Manziel of getting into the driver’s seat and beginning to drive. She said that when she tried to jump out of the car, Manziel stopped, dragged her back into the car and hit her.

Police said they have spoken to Crowley, interviewed several other witnesses and reviewed medical records. But they did not arrest Manziel, and instead took the unusual step of asking the district attorney’s office to present the case to a grand jury. Typically, the local grand jury hears only felony cases, according to ABC News 8.

Crowley requested and was granted a protective order against Manziel, 23, that prevents him from seeing her for two years.

A misdemeanor assault case carries a maximum punishment of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

Manziel was cut by the Browns in March after two tumultuous seasons marked by substandard play and off-the-field headlines. His future in the NFL is uncertain, and the quarterback has been cut by two agents and dropped from a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal by Nike.

In a statement on Tuesday, Manziel said: “I’m hoping to take care of the issues in front of me right now, so I can focus on what I have to do if I want to play in 2016. I also continue to be thankful to those who really know me and support me.”

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Abdullah Retires Citing Concussion Concerns

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A week after the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted to a link between football and the degenerative brain condition CTE, the Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah has announced his retirement at the age of 30, citing concerns over concussion.

“There are numerous deciding factors in my decision, with personal health being foremost,” wrote Abdullah in a post on Instagram. “Sitting for five weeks last year after suffering the fifth concussion of my career, I had a lot to contemplate. My goals moving forward are to be of benefit to my family, my community, my country and hopefully the world.

“Having a sound mind will be vital in accomplishing these goals. Thank you to everyone I’ve crossed paths with during my time as a player. You’ve had an impact on my life for the better. Thanks for the love and support. It’s greatly appreciated.”

Abdullah joined the Chiefs as a free agent in 2013. He had previously played for the Minnesota Vikings after finding himself undrafted out of college. He is also an practicing Muslim and took the 2012 season off to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

A number of high-profile stars have retired in their prime this off-season, including Calvin Johnson and Marshawn Lynch, although neither of those players cited any concerns over their health. In 2015, the San Francisco linebacker Chris Borland quit the NFL at the age of 24 due to concerns about head trauma. He has since described football as “inherently dangerous”.

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NFL Commissioner Supports CTE Link

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has supported the assertion of a senior league official who last week acknowledged the connection between football and the degenerative brain disease CTE, describing the statements as “consistent with our position over the years”.

Goodell’s comments on Wednesday at the annual owners meetings directly referenced NFL senior vice president Jeff Miller, whose remarks to a congressional roundtable last week represented the first time a league official has acknowledged a link between football and CTE by a league official.

“The most important thing for us is to support the medicine and scientists who determine what those connections are,” Goodell said. “We think that the statements that have been made by Jeff Miller and others have consistent with our position over the years. We’ve actually funded those studies. So we’re not only aware of those and recognize them but we support those studies. A lot of the research is still in its infancy, but we’re trying to find ways to accelerate that.”

The remarks came one day after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones characterized the connection between football and CTE as “absurd”.

The commissioner addressed a broad range of topics at the news conference on Wednesday, including the potential relocation of a team to Las Vegas and the reports suggesting the league is near a deal to host a regular-season game in China in 2018.

Goodell wouldn’t dismiss America’s gambling capital as a potential home for an NFL team when asked about Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis’ interest in moving his club there.

“Mark Davis is appropriately looking at all his alternatives,” Goodell said, adding the city’s association with legalized betting “are things we’d have to deal with. We would have to understand the impact on us. Each owner would have a vote; it would be a factor many owners would have to balance, the league would have to balance.”

The commissioner stopped short of confirming the Los Angeles Rams’ would play a regular-season game in China – news first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday and by NFL.com on Wednesday – but acknowledged the league’s well-documented global ambitions.

“I think the size of China in the global marketplace, that’s something you can’t ignore. We know we have lots of fans over there, and more important, potential fans over there,” Goodell said. “We have multiple teams that are interested in playing. We have more than we can handle at this point in time.”

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NFL Vote on Touchbacks and Ejections

The NFL has moved touchbacks to the 25-yard line and passed a new ejections rule – despite objections from coaches.

NFL owners voted to move the ball spot on touchbacks after kickoffs to the 25-yard line, to try to limit the number of returns after injuries on the play rose in 2015. They also ruled that players will be subject to automatic ejection if they commit two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the same game. Specifically, a “player penalized twice in one game for certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct fouls” will be “disqualified”.

The automatic ejection proposal was suggested by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell just before the Super Bowl.

Both rule changes will be reviewed after the 2016 season before the NFL decides whether to make them permanent.

The owners were concerned about player safety on kickoffs – but the decision to move the touchback up five yards could have the opposite effect.

Some coaches suggested that the number of kickoff returns could actually increase, with kickers using “mortar kicks” that drop close to the goal line and require a return.

According to Deadspin, two veteran special teams coordinators told the Chicago Tribune the new rule will lead more teams telling the kickers to get as much hang time as possible while landing the ball near the goal line in an effort to cover a kick and pin the offense inside the 25 or even inside the 20.

Coaches also claimed that opponents will bait players into committing penalties that qualify for the ejection rule, but owners say that won’t happen. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said: “I think it points to our emphasis on good sportsmanship.”

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NFL CTE Link Absurd - Cowboys Jones

When a senior member of the NFL admitted last week that there is a link between football and the degenerative brain condition CTE, the issue appeared to have gone some way towards being settled. 

That admission does not appear to have been clear enough for the Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, however, who still believes there is no firm evidence of a connection.

Jones is currently attending the NFL owners meeting in Florida and was asked whether he thought there was a firm link between football and CTE.

“No, that’s absurd,” he told the Washington Post. “There’s no data that in any way creates a knowledge. There’s no way that you could have made a comment that there is an association and some type of assertion. In most things, you have to back it up by studies. And in this particular case, we all know how medicine is. Medicine is evolving. I grew up being told that aspirin was not good. I’m told that one a day is good for you. I’m saying that changed over the years as we’ve had more research and knowledge.

“So we are very supportive of the research. We have for years been involved in trying to make it safer, safer as it pertains to head injury. We have millions of people that have played this game, have millions of people that are at various ages right now that have no issues at all. None at all. So that’s where we are. That didn’t alter at all what we’re doing about it. We’re gonna do everything we can to understand it better and make it safer.”

Last week, Jeff Miller, the NFL’s senior vice-president for health and safety appeared at a congressional committee discussion on concussions. He was asked if there was a link between football and brain disorders such as CTE.

“Well, certainly … research shows that a number of retired NFL players were diagnosed with CTE, so the answer to that question is certainly yes, but there are also a number of questions that come with that,” Miller said.

Democratic representative Jan Schakowsky repeated the question: “Is there a link?”

“Yes. Sure,” Miller responded.

CTE’s symptoms include memory loss, depression and progressive dementia, and can only be detected after death. Hall of fame players who have been shown to have been suffering from CTE include Ken Stabler and Junior Seau, who took his own life in 2015.

Jones’s Cowboys have an estimated value of $4bn and Forbes rated them as the most valuable sports team in the world last year.

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Kraft Hopes for Goodell Draft News

Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, said on Monday that he personally asked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to reinstate the draft picks the Patriots lost as part of their punishment for the Deflategate scandal.

Kraft said he wrote to the league over a month ago in response to Goodell’s claim that he would reconsider the punishment if any new facts were learned. The Patriots were stripped of a 2016 first-round pick and a 2017 fourth-round pick and were fined $1m after the league found Patriots employees had tampered with footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship game against the Colts.

“I personally believe that when the league made their decision, they did not factor in the ideal gas law. They admitted that publicly. They had a full year of being able to observe Tom Brady play with all the rules of whatever the NFL was, and make any judgments there,” Kraft told reporters in Boca Raton. “We have laid it out pretty straightforward. And now it’s up for them to decide.”

Kraft did not say whether he had received a response from the league.

Brady was originally suspended for four games, but that ruling was overturned last year and Brady played the entire season. The league is currently seeking to restore the ban.

Asked whether he holds out any hope of getting back the pick in April’s draft, Kraft said: “I pray and desire.”

“It’s very hard to compete without the lifeblood of the draft,” Kraft said. “And so we understand the importance and I assure we’ve done everything we can do that has a chance of success.”

But Kraft did praise Goodell for his work as NFL commissioner. “Putting personal situations aside, I think he has done a very good job,” Kraft said. “He’s worked hard. The health of the league has not been better. We have our issue that we don’t think has been handled well, but it is what it is.”

In the 13-minute session with reporters, Kraft was also asked if he was disappointed that the NFL didn’t share PSI readings from 2015 as part of the league’s new football testing procedures.

“They did their own testing, they have results, and for whatever reason, they haven’t shared them with any of us. We actually requested at the beginning of the season that they test every game throughout the league and do that, but they chose to do it their way,” he responded.

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