Jamie Collins has moments where he looks like one of the best linebackers in football, and there are others where the veteran looks totally lost or disinterested. There have been questions about his effort level this season, and Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell is not exactly defending his player.
Campbell was asked by a reporter on Tuesday if the criticisms of Collins are warranted. He said Collins plays “a little bit different.” He also said Collins doesn’t match the intensity of fellow Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone.
Campbell also said there are “things that Jamie does well that we have to continue to use.” That isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement.
Those who have followed Collins’ career know this has been his story for years. The New England Patriots made a surprising decision to trade him years ago when he was a key part of their defense. There were reports then about how Collins’ attitude didn’t match up with his talent, and many accused the Patriots of smearing him on his way out the door.
Campbell seems to have no interest in pushing the narrative in another direction, which says a lot.
Collins had 101 total tackles, three forced fumbles and a sack in 14 games with the Lions last year. He has 10 total tackles through two games this season.
The Boston Celtics hired Ime Udoka this summer to be their next head coach, and their All-Star swingman appears to have had a say in the pick.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown said in an interview this week with Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated that he told Celtics ownership and management that it was important to hire a black head coach after former coach Brad Stevens left his post to become the team’s head of basketball operations.
“They were on board with it,” he said. “They talked about it. It wasn’t like it was just about being African-American. [Udoka is] more than qualified.”
The 44-year-old Udoka has nine years of experience as an NBA assistant. He began on Gregg Popovich’s staff in San Antonio and won an NBA title there. Udoka had already been coveted as a head coach even prior to last season.
Spears notes that the NBA had seven African-American head coaches among its 30 teams last season despite the league being approximately 75 percent black. Now there will be 13 African-American head coaches heading into the 2021-22 season. Udoka will be among them, but he is not the first black head coach in Celtics history, as some people apparently believe.
The Brooklyn Nets have arguably the most talented roster in the NBA, but their three superstar players were rarely on the floor together last season. Isiah Thomas does not see them winning a championship unless that changes, and Kevin Durant agrees.
Thomas emphatically stated this week that the Nets have no chance of winning an NBA title without a healthy Kyrie Irving. You might think Durant and James Harden would be offended by that take, but Durant had a surprising response on Instagram. He called the statement a “fact.”
Durant and Irving are close friends. They chose to team up in Brooklyn together, so it isn’t a huge surprise that K.D. would want to emphasize how important Irving is to the Nets. On the other hand, you could make the argument that a team featuring Durant and Harden should be able to contend for a championship no matter what the rest of the roster looks like.
The Nets took the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks to seven games in the second round of the playoffs despite injuries to Harden and Irving. Durant nearly led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals by himself. Harden has already made a bold statement about the 2021-22 season, and it’s safe to assume Durant agrees with him.
A frightening scene unfolded in downtown New Orleans on Tuesday, as the roof of the Caesar’s Superdome caught on fire.
Numerous videos and photos on social media showed black smoke and flames coming from a section of the roof of the Superdome. Fire and emergency crews were shown arriving at the scene in some of the clips. You can see some of the different angles below:
Fortunately, the fire was quickly extinguished. An executive for the company that manages the Superdome told Jeff Duncan of the Times-Picayune that the fire began when workers were pressure washing the roof. A damage assessment is underway, but the integrity of the building was not compromised.
New Orleans is still being rebuilt in the wake of Hurricane Ida last month, so you hate to see another setback. The Saints have not practiced at their facility in weeks and are scheduled to return to the Superdome in Week 4. We’ve already shown you some incredible examples of the damage that was caused by the storm.
Utah quarterback Charlie Brewer was benched in Saturday’s loss to San Diego State, and it turns out that will be the last game he plays with the program.
Brewer has left the Utah football team, according to Josh Newman of the Salt Lake Tribune. The school said in a statement that Brewer “has decided to move on and we wish him the best.”
Brewer, a senior, was replaced by sophomore Cameron Rising during the third quarter of Saturday’s eventual overtime loss. Utah’s offense had punted seven times and Brewer had thrown one interception to that point. Rising threw three touchdown passes, including one with 16 seconds left, to force overtime.
After the game, Utah head coach Kyle Wittingham said he felt the Utes “needed a spark.”
“We have an excellent quarterback in Cam Rising, who’s the No. 2 guy, and why not give him a shot? He’s worked hard in practice, as hard as anybody else. He’s prepared the right way and I had no doubt in my mind he was ready to play, because that’s the type of kid he is. Given the circumstances, he deserved that opportunity.”
A depth chart that was released on Tuesday listed Rising as Utah’s starting QB and Ja’Quinden Jackson as No. 2.
Brewer was a four-year started at Baylor before transferring to Utah. He was eligible to play immediately as a graduate transfer, and there were extremely high expectations surrounding him when he joined the Utes. There was concern over the concussions he suffered at Baylor, and some felt at the time that he should give up playing.
It’s unclear if Brewer plans to enter the transfer portal or give up football altogether.
Ben Roethlisberger suffered an injury during last week’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders, and it is apparently one that could impact his performance going forward.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters on Monday that Roethlisberger is dealing with an injury to his left pectoral muscle. While Big Ben is expected to play against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Tomlin admitted that the quarterback could be at less than 100 percent health.
Roethlisberger was hit 10 times in Pittsburgh’s loss to the Raiders. The Steelers have a lot of new players on their offensive line this season, and the unit has clearly experienced some growing pains. Tomlin said he will not make any changes, however.
Roethlisberger went 27/40 for 296 yards, a touchdown and an interception in Week 2. He issued an apology to Steelers fans for his performance. It’s unclear at what point during the game he suffered the pec injury, but it may have been a factor.
The Philadelphia 76ers are trying to convince Ben Simmons to show up to training camp while they work to trade him, but it does not sound like the former top overall pick is listening.
Simmons is committed to never playing for the Sixers again and will not report to training camp next week, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. He reportedly has not spoken with anyone from the organization since a meeting last month in which he formally asked for a trade.
The desire for a divorce is mutual, but the Sixers likely want Simmons to show up to training camp so they can give other teams the impression that the situation is not quite as ugly as it seems. Simmons, however, has no interest in helping to rebuild his own trade value.
Simmons has four years and $145 million left on his contract. He is coming off a postseason in which his offensive play cost the 76ers, but the team has not backed off of its high asking price. While there has been some interest in Simmons on the trade market, the Sixers appear intent on trying to utilize leverage that they no longer have.
San Francisco 49ers running back Trey Sermon fumbled his first ever NFL rushing attempt on Sunday, but officials ruled that the Philadelphia Eagles committed a personal foul on the play. That negated a crucial turnover, and there has been extensive debate over whether the right call was made.
Sermon fumbled near midfield with the Niners leading 17-3 and roughly five minutes remaining in the game. There was a flag on the play, however, as Eagles safety K’Von Wallace was called for a helmet-to-helmet hit on the ball carrier. Wallace definitely hit Sermon in the head, but many felt the contact was totally unavoidable. If you watch the replay, it looks like Wallace was going in for a low tackle when Sermon was hit by another Eagle.
Here are a couple of angles of the hit:
The initial hit from Anthony Harris was clean. He hit Sermon in the shoulder area with his forearm, which caused Sermon to fall forward. You can even see in slow motion that the hit from Harris led to Wallace making contact with Sermon’s head. A lot of people feel the officials should know the difference and penalize (or not) accordingly.
San Francisco ended up winning the game 17-11. The Sermon turnover could have served as a huge momentum shift if it was not negated. Had there been no flag, Bart Scott might look a lot differently today.
H/T SpinMax
The Dallas Cowboys committed a brutal special teams mistake on Sunday that they are fortunate did not cost them a win, and one member of the coaching staff has since defended the decision that led to the blunder. Jerry Jones views the play differently.
The Cowboys had 4th-and-20 on their 46-yard line late in the first half of their game against the Los Angeles Chargers. They should have gotten the ball back with a chance to build on their 14-11 lead, but they instead roughed the punter. On Monday, special teams coach John Fassel said he was giving Cowboys fans what they wanted by trying to block the punt.
“I think Cowboys fans aren’t the play-it-safe type. So I was going to give them what they wanted, come after their a– on the punt rush,” Fassel said, per ESPN’s Todd Archer. “So I hope they’re happy with it. We came after him.”
Fans certainly were not pleased with the result. Neither was Jones, who made it clear on Tuesday that he disagreed with the play call.
The Cowboys won 20-17 on a last-second field goal from Greg Zuerlein, so all is forgiven. They also benefitted from a brutal call that went against the Chargers late in the second half. Had they lost, the roughing the kicker penalty would have been a much bigger topic of conversation.
The Green Bay Packers were pathetic in their loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, but they proved they are still a contender with their dominant win over the Detroit Lions on Monday night. The performance must have felt particularly good for Aaron Rodgers, and he did not exactly take the high road when addressing his critics.
With Rodgers having missed a significant portion of the offseason, there was a lot of talk after Week 1 about him not being committed to winning anymore. He responded to that following Green Bay’s 35-17 win.
“I think we maybe tried to show that we cared a little bit more tonight … I just think people like to say a lot of bulls–t, and it’s nice to come back in here after a game like that,” Rodgers said, via Mark Maske of the Washington Post.
Rodgers was an extremely efficient 22/27 with 255 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions against Detroit. He was just 15/28 with 133 yards, no touchdowns and two picks in the 38-3 loss to New Orleans last week.
The Packers trailed 17-14 earlier in the third quarter, which led to some premature rumblings about them beginning the season 0-2. Rodgers then threw a beautiful touchdown pass and celebrated accordingly (video here). Green Bay never looked back after that.
This may wind up being Rodgers’ last year in Green Bay, but it would be an exaggeration to say he doesn’t care about winning. The 38-year-old clearly wants to add a second championship to his resume.
