When the Packers traded quarterback Brett Favre to the Jets in 2008, Green Bay included a poison pill aimed at preventing the Jets from re-trading him to another team in the NFC North. The Packers had a similar term foisted on them in the trade that brought Micah Parsons from the Cowboys to Green Bay.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, the Packers will owe the Cowboys a first-round pick in 2028 if the Packers trade Parsons to a team in the NFC East.
The Eagles made a big push for Parsons. The Cowboys refused to trade him to a division rival.
The Parsons also included a poison pill for the other player in the transaction. If the Cowboys trade defensive tackle Kenny Clark to another team in the NFC North, Dallas will owe Green Bay a 2028 first-round pick.
In the Favre trade, the cost of a re-trade was three first-round picks. The Jets cut Favre after one year, and he signed with the Vikings.
Plenty of teams have an aversion to their players ending up with division rivals. Which is fine, unless that causes them to get less value for their assets. Other teams simply want the best deal they can get, regardless of where the player goes.
In their helmets and pads, they look like gladiators. Invincible. Invulnerable.
Within each NFL uniform is a human, no different from the rest of us. They have issues, stress, problems. Their chosen profession can exacerbate the situation, since most players live under the constant cloud of learning that the “best interests of the team” have resulted in the team moving on from the player.
Throw in the scourge of social media and add a dash of disgruntled gamblers, and the stew can quickly turn toxic for the men who play the game we love.
The passing of Marshawn Kneeland in an apparent suicide has resulted in a stream of necessary and appropriate expressions of sympathy and concern for the player and his family. The more difficult issue arises from the desire to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.
And while most can only sympathize with the Marshawn Kneeland situation, Colts right tackle Braden Smith (at the far left in the attached photo) can fully empathize. Last year, a struggle with OCD derailed his season. Earlier this year, Smith went public with his condition.
“I was physically present, but I was nowhere to be found,” Smith told the Indianapolis Star. “I did not care about playing football. I didn’t care about hanging out with my family, with my wife, with my newborn son.”
Smith said he believed he was a month away from ending it all.
Now, Smith is leading the charge for change. Smith’s agent, Michael Perrett, outlined in a Sunday morning phone call the things Smith is doing to help other NFL players.
Perrett said the biggest challenge comes from having effective resources immediately available to players. And while it’s important for all teams to have a full-time mental-health clinician, Perrett said there’s a very real trust issue that arises from players opening up to team employees about their problems. Players worry that the information will make its way back to the people who shape the roster, and who decide which players should stay — and which players should go.
Years ago, before the advent of Uber, the NFL made drivers available for players who had had too much to drink. Most players feared using the service, because they believed the fact that they’d done so would get back to the team.
To address that dynamic, Perrett said Smith is working with the NFL Players Association to make a mental-health clinician available to players in every NFL city. Currently, the NFLPA maintains a network of workers compensation attorneys for each team’s players. This would be an extension of that effort, with players having a union-affiliated representative who can be contacted at any time, for any reason. Big problems, small problems. Any problem. The clinician would then direct the player to the proper specialist for care, depending on the player’s symptoms and/or concerns.
Smith, as Perrett explained, believes this approach would make players more likely to come forward and seek help when they need it. There would be no footprints back to the team. No complications with any of the player’s current relationships away from work. A player could simply activate the process and talk to someone who is there for two important reasons — to listen, and to help.
Perrett said Smith also is working with the NFL to revise the injured reserve rules to encompass mental-health issues. Currently, a player who cannot perform his job duties due to a mental-health challenge must be placed on the non-football illness list, as Smith was last season. Perrett said Smith hopes that, in time, mental health and physical health will be viewed as equivalent on NFL rosters.
We’ve asked the league and the NFLPA for input and guidance as to any programs that currently are being developed.
This is a very important issue for all NFL players. Tragedies like the death of Marshawn Kneeland can be prevented. The NFL and the NFLPA must work together to give players quick, easy, and trustworthy methods for getting help whenever, wherever, and however they need it.
For players who need a ride home after having too much to drink, it’s now as simple as pressing a button on their phones. That’s the kind of system that needs to be put in place for any player who recognizes that, if he continues to internalize his feelings and concerns, things will only get worse.
NFL players need a simple and easy and safe way to try to make things better. And Smith deserves not only credit for trying, but full and complete cooperation and support in his effort to improve things for all players.
This week, Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland died in an apparent suicide at the age of 24.
This weekend, per multiple reports, the NFL has asked teams to hold a moment of silence for Marshawn before every game.
The Broncos had a moment of silence for Marshawn before Thursday night’s game against the Raiders. Before Sunday morning’s game in Berlin between the Falcons and Colts, a moment of silence was held. In both instances, the gesture was followed by a message regarding available resources for suicide prevention.
There is much more that can be done for NFL players when it comes to spotting mental-health issues and addressing them, not only when the situation becomes critical but when problems first arise. We’ll have something later today about the various efforts that were already underway before the recent tragedy.
It will require cooperation, collaboration, and determination. The desire is there. Marshawn Kneeland’s passing will hopefully be the catalyst for the kind of changes that will benefit all players, current and future.
The Bills did not make any trades this week, but it reportedly wasn’t because of a lack of interest in adding to their roster.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the team tried to make deals with the Dolphins for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and with the Jets for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, but ultimately were unable to come to agreements with the two AFC East teams.
Waddle was the subject of a lot of conversation heading into the deadline and word this week was that teams who called about the wideout found that their asking price was too high. Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports they were looking for a package centered around a first-round pick and that the price for dealing him within the division would have been higher.
Williams was ultimately traded to the Cowboys for a first-round pick, a second-round pick and defensive tackle Mazi Smith.
In the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game against the Cardinals, the Cowboys were down by 10 points and driving. After making a catch for a first down in Arizona territory, Pickens held the ball in the direction of Cardinals cornerback Denzel Burke.
Pickens was flagged for taunting.
On Saturday, the league announced that Pickens has been fined $17,389.
The penalty added 15 yards to the Cowboys’ effort to carve deeper into what had been a 17-point Cardinals lead. The Cowboys didn’t score again in the game.
For Pickens, it was a reminder that — despite having immense talent — there’s an immaturity that can rear its head an inopportune times. And that will become a factor for any team monitoring his performance in 2025 (which has been very impressive) with an eye toward possibly trying to sign him in free agency, if Pickens and the Cowboys can’t come to agreement on a new deal.
