Former Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has rejected a claim that the team’s General Manager Chris Ballard influenced his retirement decision ahead of the 2019 season.
Word of Luck’s retirement surfaced during a preseason game that August and Luck explained the decision as a result of the effect that numerous injuries had on his physical and mental health. During an episode of his podcast On My Soul, former Colts tight end Eric Ebron suggested there was more to it than that.
Ebron said Ballard, who he described as someone who “gets on everyone’s nerves,” told Luck “you’re either playing this year or we’re moving on.” Luck was dealing with an ankle injury at the time and, per Ebron, felt he was “not going to be ready” and made the choice to retire given the way Ballard laid things out.
In an email to Mike Chappell of Fox 59, Luck said that was not the way things unfolded.
“Chris and I had a wonderful partnership, especially through my decision to retire, and we remain close,’’ Luck wrote. “Any notion of internal pressures that influenced my decision are without merit.’’
The Colts have played one playoff game since Luck retired and have struggled to find a long-term answer at quarterback over that time. They hope it will be Daniel Jones after signing him to a new deal this offseason and having that bet pay off would help put the Luck discourse to rest once and for all.
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Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. doesn’t think he’s getting the recognition he deserves after three years in the league.
Porter was a second-round pick in 2023 and has been a starter for almost all of his time in Pittsburgh. He has not been credited with a touchdown against him since the middle of his rookie season and there’s some dispute about whether or not that should be on him because of the coverage the team was in at the time.
It’s a strong mark in his favor either way as is the low completion percentage opposing teams have accumulated while throwing his way, which is why Porter said on the Blueprint podcast that he thinks he’s been a top-five corner since his rookie season. He also said he thinks he’s unfairly maligned because he committed too many penalties during his second season.
”That’s what people really harp on my game about, is the PI’s and penalties,” Porter said.” But it’s like, you hold no other DB under that microscope or grade them under just — I haven’t gave up a touchdown in three years. Not one. No wide receiver put over 50, 60 yards on my head alone and I travel with the best of them. And they want to talk about penalties. Even to bring up penalties this year. I had five, which equaled out to 50-something yards. You’re saying I’m not top-five because I had 50 yards in penalties? Like that’s crazy.”
Porter is eligible for a contract extension this offseason and the push the Steelers make to give him one will be a sign about where they fall in the debate about Porter’s play.
NFL teams are allowed to bring in local players for a workout that doesn’t count toward the league-mandated 30-visit limit, and when the Cowboys bought in their local draft prospects to Dallas Day, Texas A&M running back EJ Smith was among the players in attendance.
Smith was mostly a backup during his six-year college career and is not likely to be drafted, but he’s notable as the son of Cowboys Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, himself part of a football family, said he was glad to see the son of a Cowboys legend working out in Dallas.
“Very cool,” Schottenheimer said, via ESPN. “You know me, man, I’m family. I’m all family. And you watch his film and he was an incredible short-yardage runner, powerful. But, yeah, just watching him move, seeing him in person, the type of young man he is, it’s cool.”
Every team can bring in players who played high school or college football in their region for visits beyond the “top 30" visits, and Schottenheimer said that’s an advantage for the Cowboys, because the Dallas area is such a hotbed for football talent.
“We multiply our top 30,” Schottenheimer said. “We’re like top 45, top 48, whatever it is. And it’s because of the fact that we’ve got that location.
EJ Smith, who played four years at Stanford and two at Texas A&M and never gained more than 218 rushing yards in a season, would need to impress in pre-draft workouts just to get a chance to sign as an undrafted rookie. But he got a look with the Cowboys, and he might earn a longer look in a rookie minicamp, and perhaps beyond.
Longtime Lions left tackle Taylor Decker asked for and received his release this offseason after the team wanted him to take a pay cut. But while Decker is done as a Lion, he wouldn’t want to be a rival of the Lions.
That’s the word from Justin Rogers, who interviewed Decker and wrote about him for DetroitFootball.net and learned that Decker wouldn’t want to play for the Bears or Packers.
“He wants to play for a winner. Yet he’s kind of thinking about, ‘Is it cheap to go win somewhere else after you’ve invested all your energy emotionally and physically into one franchise?’” Rogers said on the Lions Collective podcast. “I will tell you that he’s pretty anti-playing for the Bears or Packers. That’s the Lions background in him. I know Ben Johnson did it and that was the right situation for him, but Taylor feels kind of dirty about the idea. It just isn’t interesting to him. I could see him joining a team mid-season, the further he gets away from football and games being played, injuries happening and the right offer occurs. I could also see him not playing.”
Decker didn’t appreciate how the Lions approached him this offseason, asking him to take less money after he had been loyal to the team and spent a decade playing for them. But he still very much considers himself a Lion.
“Taylor Decker wants to be remembered as a Lion, to the point where he wants back in the fold,” Rogers said. “Wherever this season may go, whether he plays for someone else or doesn’t, he wants to come here, sign the one-day contract, retire a Lion.”
Decker will be warmly received by Lions fans whenever he does return to Detroit, and not wanting to play for a rival is one of the things Lions fans love about him.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has a record of 57-25 in the regular season, and 6-4 in the playoffs. Against the Buccaneers, however, Hurts has gone 2-4.
Former Tampa Bay linebacker Lavonte David, appearing recently on The Arena, explained the Buccaneers’ approach to playing defense against the Eagles with Hurts at the helm.
David said they focused stopping the running game, and forcing Hurts and the Eagles to beat them in the passing game.
“Our whole game plan was just give him different looks,” David said. “It was one year when we beat him in the playoffs. We was playing straight cover zero. Cover one and cover zero made him want to beat us. . . . In 2023, the game prior to that, they had a great run game. They ran the ball over us . . . So our game plan [for the playoff game] was just, like, you know, we’re gonna make Jalen Hurts beat us, you know, we’re gonna keep him in the pocket, make him make his reads, make him understand what defense he’s seeing and stuff like that, and make him beat us.”
David reasoned that the Eagles didn’t ask Hurts to do much in the passing game. Some may say Hurts is the one who wanted to keep it simple. Still, the revolving door of offensive coordinators surely has been a factor.
Whatever the reasons for the inability of the Eagles to take advantage of Tampa Bay’s focus on stopping the run, the Eagles have struggled against the Buccaneers. And the Buccaneers, as David has explained it, have prioritized neutralizing the running game and daring the Eagles and Hurts to beat them through the air.
Tampa Bay surely isn’t the only team to play the Eagles that way. Few have managed to win 66.6 percent of their games against Philadelphia since Hurts became the starter. With the Eagles breaking in another new coordinator, and presumably installing a McVay-style attack, the franchise is at an inflection point that will require Hurts to do more.
Whether he hasn’t been asked to do more in the past or has resisted, this year the Eagles will be putting more on his plate. What he does with it will say plenty about whether the 27-year-old Hurts finishes the decade as the team’s starting quarterback.
Titans quarterback Cam Ward’s rookie season ended a little earlier than expected, but there doesn’t seem to be much worry about his right shoulder impacting his readiness for Year Two.
Ward did not have surgery after spraining his AC joint in the first half of Tennessee’s final regular season game and head coach Robert Saleh said that he has been a regular at the team’s facility while working his way back from the injury.
“He is in there, he is working with the trainers, working in the weight room,” Saleh said, via the team’s website. “We are up to date. I am not going to put a timetable on anything, but he is progressing really well.”
The Titans start their offseason program this week, which will be the first chance that Saleh and the rest of the new coaching staff gets to do football work with the quarterback. That work will be crucial to Saleh’s hopes of a more successful head coaching run that he had with the Jets and his initial impression of Ward bodes well on that hope. Saleh said that “I just don’t see him failing” and the shoulder shouldn’t be an obstacle in their first year together.
Once upon a time, the Cowboys beat the Dolphins in the Super Bowl. If the two teams somehow cross paths in the championship game in the not-too-distant future, Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman will definitely have a dog in the fight.
In an interview with Clarence E. Hill Jr. of DLLS Sports, Aikman made it clear that he’s now all-in for the Dolphins. It’s still not clear, however, what Aikman will be doing.
Aikman explained that he was approached by the Dolphins to assist with the General Manager search. Then, he was asked to help find a new head coach. Now, he’ll be sticking around.
“I’ll continue to help in ways that are yet to be defined,” Aikman said.
While Aikman’s specific role is TBD, the thinking is that Aikman can help the effort. In the same way that Tom Brady is helping the Raiders.
“I think all franchise quarterbacks that have been in the league for any length of time,” Aikman said, “I think we all come out of the game thinking that we could run a team, and know what it takes, and certainly having been a part of some championship teams, and I know what the locker room feels like, and what a winning locker room should be like.
“And so I really thought I would go in that direction when I was getting out of football, but because of things in my personal life, it kept me from really being able to devote time in that way. But, in the back of my mind, I kind of hoped it’d come along, and then, you know, I was so far removed at this particular time, I didn’t think it would ever happen. But so it’s kind of scratched that itch, but, you know, I don’t have any ownership. I don’t have the influence, if you will, that Tom seemingly has there with the Raiders. So it looks similar, but I’m not so sure that is.”
It is similar in one important respect that continues to be glossed over by the league and the broadcast networks. While calling games for all 32 teams, Aikman now has a clear interest in the success of one of them. And he apparently plans to leverage the things he learns in his primary job to assist the performance of his second one.
“I think the Dolphins were wise in understanding my relationships around the league,” Aikman said. “And knowing that I have information that they don’t have or can’t get. And I think they were smart in taking advantage of that — whether it was through me or through somebody else. The Cowboys have never elected to do that, at least with me. You know, maybe they have with others. But, no, I don’t feel there’s a conflict [with the Cowboys]. But I will say I’m pulling for the Dolphins . . . because now I have something at stake, and I think they hired two really talented, wonderful people, and I think that’s gonna prove itself out. . . But, yeah, I’m pulling for them. I want to see them do well because I feel like my fingerprints are on it as well.”
While there may be no direct conflict with the Cowboys until they play the Dolphins, the conflict of interest between Aikman’s main job and his side job is clear. And it will become an issue the moment Aikman shows up to visit another team’s facility and/or attend another team’s practice — especially if that team is on Miami’s 2026 schedule.
As to Aikman’s dual role, the league has said it will address the situation “at the appropriate time.” In the interim, Aikman will be in the draft room with the Dolphins, further cementing the fact that he’s on the payroll and working to advance the team’s interests.
Having a slice of equity doesn’t matter. Aikman is on the payroll. He wants the Dolphins to win. They’ve hired him, as Aikman said, due to the fact that he has “information that they don’t have or can’t get.”
His two jobs have clearly conflicting interests. One employer will expect him to gather information that will help him perform that job to the best of his abilities. The other employer will expect that the information gathered in the first job will be shared for strategic purposes in the second job.
Aikman is right about one thing: If the league is going to allow teams to hire broadcasters to funnel “information that they don’t have or can’t get,” every team should be smart enough to do it.
It all goes back to Brady’s dual role. The moment the league shrugged at Brady working as Fox’s No. 1 analyst and owning a piece of the Raiders, a bridge was crossed. Aikman is merely the second guy across that bridge. Unless the league burns that bridge down, any team that doesn’t follow suit will be at a competitive disadvantage.
Bill Belichick’s second offseason as head football coach at North Carolina has yet to include the storm of distractions that emerged a year ago. But the experience is not distraction-free.
Via the Daily Mail, a painter has sued Belichick for injuries suffered while painting at Belichick’s home in July 2024.
Andrew Jackson contends that Belichick’s $5 million property on Nantucket had improperly maintained plastic sheeting or coverings to protect the floor and furniture, which created a “dangerous and unsafe” work environment.
From the lawsuit, which reportedly seeks nearly $300,000 in compensation: “Defendant owed Plaintiff a duty to use reasonable care to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition, to inspect for hazards, to warn of dangers of which it knew or should have known, and to coordinate the site in a reasonably safe manner for lawful workers present there.”
Jackson claims he fell at the work site, suffering a severe ankle injury. Jackson allegedly suffered pain, disability, lost wages, and medical expenses.
He contends that he has incurred $61,000 in hospital expenses, $4,600 in doctors’ visits and $2,000 in physical-therapy bills. Jackson also alleges that he has lost $167,828.25 in wages, and that he will lose another $50,000.
The total financial losses specified by Jackson total $285,436.39.
If Jackson can prove Belichick was responsible for the injury, and if the financial harm can be established to the satisfaction of a judge and jury, Jackson would also be eligible for an award of general damages based on his pain. That would be over and above the financial consequences — and it could push the final award well north of $300,000.
Belichick presumably has insurance that will cover the case. Still, he’ll be expected to cooperate with the litigation, unless and until a settlement is reached. Depending on the limits of Belichick’s liability coverage (and someone with his assets would be crazy not to have an umbrella policy worth at least $10 million), he’ll possibly face no specific financial losses.
Unless, of course, the insurance companies try to claim that all or part of the incident isn’t covered. Which is the first question most insurance companies ask when faced with the prospect of paying out money to anyone.
In less than two months, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has gone from being “so amazed at how good our officials are” to being so intent on improving officiating.
So who’s to blame for the actual or perceived deficiencies in officiating?
As one high-level team source recently explained it to PFT, speaking on condition of anonymity given the league’s zip-it mandate regarding the ongoing labor strife with the NFL Referees Association, the officials haven’t failed the league but the league has failed the officials.
The claim is backed up by objective facts contained in the NFL-NFLRA Collective Bargaining Agreement covering 2019 through 2026, a copy of which PFT has obtained and reviewed.
The NFL has had, throughout the term of the current CBA, the ability to hire up to 17 game officials as full-time employees. The NFL has never taken full advantage of its power to employ 17 full-time officials.
The number seventeen surely wasn’t picked randomly. The NFL could have made all 17 referees full-time employees. One per crew. The leader of each crew. That’s the next best thing to making all officials full-time employees.
It’s unclear why all 17 referees weren’t made full-time employees since 2019. One possible explanation is money.
Under Section 24 of the CBA, the full-time officials would have been paid “a total annual compensation amount which is comparable to the annual earnings of full time officials at the same years of service in other professional sports leagues.”
Likewise, Section 9(g) of the CBA contemplates the creation of a game officials training and evaluation program. The goal was to implement it by 2020, at the latest. The league agreed to hire a vice president of training and development, who would be responsible for designing and implementing a comprehensive training and development program for game officials.
The league has had multiple vice presidents of training and development. As we understand it, the NFL has never fully developed the contemplated training and evaluation program.
Finally, as to the NFL’s P.R.-driven focus on the NFLRA’s insistence on preserving the dead period from the end of the season through May 15, the current CBA already allows it to be partially disrupted. Under Section 9(f), new officials are required to attend a five-day orientation program, which can happen after April 1.
How aggressively has the NFL utilized the power it already has to improve officiating? There aren’t 17 full-time officials. The training and development program apparently has not become what it was intended to be. And there’s already a vehicle for putting new officials to work during the dead period.
The current posturing from 345 Park Avenue implies that the officials are the reason for a level of performance that went from so amazing to so inept between early February and late March. It’s no surprise; as the source put it, the NFL is simply trying to bully the officials into taking the last, best offer the NFL makes.
The P.R. effort is part of it. The effort to hire replacement officials is part of it. The changing of the rules to allow for expanded replay in the event of a work stoppage is part of it.
The NFL likes to win at every bargaining table. It usually does. Which makes it even more intent to do so in the latest negotiations with the NFL Referees Association.
And the clear message to the NFL Players Association is this: You’re next.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has a reputation for playing through anything. In 2025, he may have been playing through everything.
Retired Tampa Bay linebacker Lavonte David recently opened up about Baker’s many bumps and bruises during an appearance on The Arena.
“The season’s over now, I can talk about it,” David said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “Man, Baker was going through a lot, bro. Baker had a lot of injuries that you didn’t expect a quarterback to play through. You know what I’m saying? He had the oblique injury, he had the shoulder injury, he had a lot of things. You know, ankle injury, knee injury. . . . He was really trying to push through and really trying to be the player that we needed him to be.”
Mayfield started all 17 games. He was listed as questionable only twice. In Week 4, he was questionable with a right biceps injury. In Week 13, Mayfield was questionable with a left shoulder injury.
In all, Mayfield appeared on the injury report for 10 games: Week 3 (foot/toe), Week 4 (right biceps), Week 5 (right knee/biceps), Week 8 (knee), Week 10 (knee/oblique), Week 12 (illness), Week 13 (left shoulder), Week 14 (left shoulder), Week 15 (left shoulder), Week 18 (right shoulder/knee).
And that’s just the stuff that was listed. If he didn’t get treatment and/or otherwise kept it to himself (David mentioned an ankle injury that was never listed), it wouldn’t have been listed.
Bottom line? Mayfield is tough, determined, and able to play through injury. It gets potentially awkward if/when the team thinks a backup at 100 percent would be better than Mayfield at something less than that. If that question ever emerged for the Bucs in 2025, they did a very good job of keeping it quiet.
