Hometown Broadcasting Sports Thursday 4/30/20
30 April 2020 Sports
The Green Bay Packers agreed to terms with 15 rookie free agents. The agreements were announced Wednesday by General Manager Brian Gutekunst.
UNDRAFTED FREE AGENTS:
No, Name, Pos, Ht, Wt, College, HS Hometown
51, Krys Barnes, LB, 6-2, 229, UCLA, Bakersfield, Calif.
27d, Henry Black,S, 6-0, 204, Baylor, Shreveport, La.
78, Travis Bruffy, T, 6-6, 298, Texas Tech, Missouri City, Texas
46d, Marc-Antoine Dequoy, CB, 6-3, 198, Montreal (Canada) Rigaud, Quebec, Ca.
50, Tipa Galeai, LB, 6-5, 229, Utah State, Euless, Texas
35, Frankie Griffin, S, 6-0, 204, Texas State, Klein, Texas
68, Zack Johnson, G, 6-6, 301, North Dakota State, Spring Lake Park, Minn.
45o, Jordan Jones, FB, 6-1, 255, Prairie View A&M, Frisco, Texas
7, Jalen Morton, QB, 6-3, 237, Prairie View A&M, Seguin, Texas
99, Willington Previlon, DT, 6-5, 287, Rutgers, Orange, N.J.
34d, Stanford Samuels, CB, 6-1, 187, Florida State, Pembroke Pines, Fla.
45d, Delontae Scott, LB, 6-5, 246, SMU, Irving, Texas
80, Darrell Stewart, WR, 6-0, 212, Michigan State, Houston, Texas
49d, Will Sunderland, CB, 6-2 , 196, Troy, Midwest City, Okla.
27o, Patrick Taylor, RB, 6-2, 217, Memphis, Humble, Texas
-0-
Brett Favre thinks Aaron Rodgers will follow the same career path that he did and finish his career elsewhere now that the Green Bay Packers selected quarterback Jordan Love in the first round of the NFL draft last week.
“I think he’ll play somewhere else,” Favre said Wednesday on NBC Sports Network. “My gut tells me no,” Favre said. “I don’t know this for certain, but I guarantee you, it’s got the wheels turning in Aaron’s mind. If that’s the case, then that means there’s a chip on his shoulder toward the organization that otherwise was not there. All he needs is a reason other than this reason to expedite that.”
Rodgers has four years remaining on his $134 million contract extension signed in 2018. For salary-cap purposes, he’s virtually untradable until after the 2021 season.
Favre said he’s talked with Rodgers since the Packers traded up four spots to pick Love at No. 26 on Thursday.
Rodgers has not spoken publicly since the draft, but Love told ESPN’s Maria Taylor that he has spoken with Rodgers. A source told ESPN that Rodgers initiated the call.
The Packers have faced criticism for not only taking a quarterback when Rodgers has four years left on his contract, but also for not doing more to upgrade the offense around Rodgers. In a draft where a record 36 receivers were taken, the Packers took none despite coming within a game of the Super Bowl last season under first-year coach Matt LaFleur.
–0-
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was set to make as much as $40 million this season if incentives were hit, asked the NFL compensation committee to forego his entire salary amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal.
Many around the NFL did take pay cuts, according to a memo obtained by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham. The cuts ranged from 5 percent at the manager level to 15 percent for executive vice presidents. No employee with a salary of less than $100,000 had his salary cut, and nobody’s salary was cut to less than $100,000, the memo said. There was also a furlough program for those whose jobs can’t be sufficiently done remotely or whose current workload was significantly reduced. The memo said the NFL hopes to return furloughed employees to their jobs “within a few months.”
Adam Vinatieri’s still kicking. At least, he hopes to still be kicking in the NFL during the 2020 season, his 25th campaign and 48th year of earthly existence. The free-agent kicker told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero on Tuesday that he wants to return for a 25th season. However, the quarantine brought upon by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down his rehab following season-ending knee surgery. The future Hall of Famer is not sure he’ll be fully healed by the start of the season.
The 47-year old Vinatieri is currently a free agent. For the last 14 years, he served as the kicker for the Indianapolis Colts. Over that span, he hit 336 of 394 field-goal attempts and 507 of 524 extra-point attempts, made one Pro Bowl (2014) and was named first-team All-Pro once (2014).
A member of the NFL 100 All-Time Team, Vinatieri looked like he was running out of time at points last season. The Colts kicker got off to a rough start in 2019, going 2-of-5 on extra points and 1-of-3 on field goals in the first two weeks. Vinatieri rebounded, but finished with a career-low 68 percent field goal percentage and 78.6 extra point percentage in 12 games played.
-0-
On Wednesday morning, the NCAA announced that its Board of Governors — the association’s highest governing body — expressed support for rule changes that would allow college athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness. The Board of Governors met on the issue this week and agreed that athletes should be allowed to receive compensation for third-party endorsements “both related and separate from athletics.” Additionally, athletes would be permitted to receive payment for other opportunities “such as social media, businesses they have started and personal appearances.”
Within these endorsements, student-athletes would be permitted to identify themselves by sport and school. However, the use of conference and school logos or trademarks would not be allowed as the NCAA wants to make it clear that its athletes would not be paid by a university or college for endorsement opportunities. Athletes would be paid by a third party and there is no cap to how much an athlete can be paid.
Moving forward, the Board of Governors has instructed each of the NCAA’s three divisions — Division I, II and III — to move toward drafting a specific rule structure with the goal of formally adopting new legislation in January ahead of the 2021-22 academic year.
-0-
The NBA has informed its teams that 205 players have filed to enter the 2020 NBA draft as early-entry candidates, according to ESPN. The group reportedly includes 163 college underclassmen and 42 international players. The 205 players will be vying to be selected in a draft that has only 60 slots. As big as that number might seem, it’s actually down from the past two years, with ESPN reporting that 233 players tested the draft waters in 2019 and 236 in 2018. The smaller group could be chalked up to uncertainty around the draft process due to the coronavirus pandemic.
-0-
Share |