The Chargers signed tight end Jordan Petaia on Wednesday, the team announced.
He joins the team as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway training program.
Petaia trained in the IPP program over 10 weeks at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, culminated by showcasing his skills at a Pro Day at the University of South Florida on March 26.
A native of Melbourne, Australia, Petaia has appeared in a pair of Rugby World Cups (2019 in Japan and 2023 in France) for the Wallabies, becoming the youngest Australian to play at a World Cup in 2019 at 18 years old.
Internationally, Petaia played 31 tests with Australia since 2019, totaling 40 points. He played his club ruby for the Queensland Reds, making his debut in 2018 as the club’s youngest player ever and playing in a total of 58 tests.
The IPP program, established in 2017, is designed to offer elite athletes from around the world with experience in other sports the opportunity to improve and develop their skills to earn a spot on an NFL roster.
The NFL will be playing a Week One game in Brazil again this year and it looks like the AFC champions are likely to be involved in it.
TheAthletic.com reports that the Chiefs are the favorite to be selected as the designated road team for the September 5 game in Sao Paulo. The league already announced that the Chargers will be the designated home team for the game.
“On playing international games, we’re willing to do it whenever the opportunity presents itself,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said this week. “We don’t have a lot of control over that, except periodically with whatever the rotation of the league is at where we can be the home team. We make the league aware every year that we would be delighted to play, whether as a home team or as an away team. We hope, at some point, we’ll get picked back up.”
The Chiefs’ list of standalone games in 2025 will likely include a Christmas contest as well. Per the report, the Chiefs are expected to play on Christmas for the third straight year and they have requested that the NFL make them a fixture on the holiday the same way that the Cowboys and Lions are annual participants in Thanksgiving games.
The league is set to have three games on Christmas this year and the 2025 season will include seven total international games.
The NFL will play seven regular-season games outside the United States in 2025.
Although the league has discussed as many as eight international games, the NFL confirmed that the seven teams that have already announced they will give up home games to play overseas will be all of them this year.
Three regular-season games will be played in London, with the Browns and Jets giving up home games to play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the Jaguars giving up a home game to play at Wembley Stadium.
For the second straight year, the opening Friday of the NFL season will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the Chargers playing a home game at Arena Corinthians.
Germany will host its fourth NFL regular-season game, and for the first time that game will be in Berlin, with the Colts making Olympiastadion their home.
Spain will have its first NFL regular-season game with the Dolphins playing a home game at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.
And Ireland will get an NFL game for the first time with the Steelers playing at Croke Park in Dublin.
The league is showing no signs of slowing down on its aspirations for international growth, and 2026 will include the first regular-season game in Melbourne, Australia. It won’t be a surprise if the NFL is eventually playing 16 regular-season games a year outside the United States, with every team in the league traveling overseas once.
Former Ravens and Michigan assistant Matt Weiss faces 24 criminal counts arising from allegedly unauthorized access to computers and aggravated identity theft. Michigan and Weiss face a class-action lawsuit arising from Weiss’s alleged misbehavior.
Via NBC News, two women (a former Michigan gymnast and a former Michigan soccer player) have sued the school for failure to supervise and monitor Weiss.
Their lawsuit alleges that Weiss and the other parties (including Keffer Development Services, which managed confidential information) violated the plaintiffs’ Title IX protections, their civil rights, and civil laws arising from legal standards including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
“The recklessness and negligence and misconduct of the Regents, the University, and Keffer in these respects enabled Weiss to target female college athletes to obtain their private and sensitive information without authorization, including but not limited to Plaintiffs,” the civil complaint alleges.
Weiss allegedly began to access personal and intimate photographs and videos from female athletes in 2015. Prosecutors allege that Weiss accessed information regarding more than 150,000 athletes.
Weiss was a graduate assistant at Stanford when Jim Harbaugh arrived as the head coach in 2007. After two years with Jim Harbaugh, Weiss took a job as the assistant to Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. Weiss then moved through a variety of positions through 2020.
He rejoined Jim Harbaugh, at Michigan, in 2021 as the team’s quarterbacks coach. In 2022, Weiss served as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He was abruptly fired in January 2023 following a university investigation of computer access crimes.
Neither the Ravens nor the Chargers (where Jim Harbaugh now works) responded to requests for comment from PFT. Although the alleged behavior was unrelated to Weiss’s Ravens employment, he absolutely would have been subject to league scrutiny and discipline under the Personal Conduct Policy — if he had been working for an NFL team when these allegations came to light.
Former Ravens and Michigan assistant Matt Weiss pleaded not guilty on Monday to 24 counts relating to cyber fraud.
Via Dan Wetzel of ESPN.com, Weiss was released on a $10,000 bond. He also was required to surrender his passport, and to allow officials to place software on his computer to monitor his Internet use.
Prosecutors allege that Weiss’s misconduct dates back to 2015. He allegedly accessed the personal accounts of “thousands” of NCAA student-athletes. He allegedly targeted specific female athletes, accessing personal and intimate photos and videos.
He allegedly exploited the Keffer Development Services system that keeps medical data for student-athletes at roughly 100 schools. He allegedly cracked Keffer’s code for obtaining and guessing passwords.
Weiss faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on 14 different charges, along with another two years behind bars on 10 additional charges.
Weiss has worked for both of the Harbaugh brothers. The relationship began with Jim at Stanford, from 2007 through 2008. Weiss then worked for John and the Ravens, from 2009 through 2020. Weiss rejoined Jim, at Michigan from 2021 through 2022.
