Veteran cornerback Levi Wallace did not play in the NFL after landing on Jacksonville’s injured reserve list last summer and he won’t be coming back to the field in 2026.
Wallace announced his retirement on Instagram on Friday. Wallace noted that he was undrafted in 2018 and went on to spend eight years in the league, which he termed a “not bad” run in the league.
Wallace signed with the Bills after playing at Alabama and started all 57 regular season and playoff games he played in four seasons with Buffalo. He spent the next two seasons with the Steelers and saw his final game action with the Broncos in 2024.
Wallace had 333 tackles, 12 interceptions, 30 passes defensed and a fumble recovery in 96 career regular season games. He also had 23 tackles, an interception and a sack in six postseason outings.
When it comes to the NFL’s effort to send the Brian Flores case to arbitration, it’s apparently not over until the NFL says it’s over.
Regardless, the presiding judge has now made it abundantly clear that it’s over.
Despite a court ruling and an appeals court ruling that the claims brought by Brian Flores (against the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, and Texans), Ray Horton (against the Titans), and Steve Wilks (against the Cardinals) must be decided in court, the NFL filed a motion to reconsider the ruling that slammed the door on arbitration.
On Wednesday, Judge Valerie Caproni denied the NFL’s latest motion.
The 15-page ruling begins with an expression of exasperation regarding the nearly four-and-a-half-year-old litigation: “This case continues to linger at the starting block. Or, to use a more fitting metaphor, this case continues to linger as the teams mill about in the players’ tunnels.”
Elsewhere in the written decision, there are some not-so-subtle indications of the judge’s impatience with the NFL’s efforts to keep fighting over a settled issue. From page 9: “Defendants can articulate no reason why these arguments were not raised in their response to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration. . . . With sophisticated law firms, it is hard to fathom a plausible explanation.”
Also, from the same page: “Defendants opted for an iterative stream of arguments to buy themselves a few more months hanging out in the players’ tunnels. . . .”
Putting it another way, and as a judge said to the opposing lawyer in a case I was handling more than 20 years ago, “At some point, you stop arguing to the court and start arguing with the court.”
Judge Caproni’s order concludes like this: “Defendants’ seemingly-never-ending list of arguments why they should not have to litigate this case has run its course. Stepping back, while Defendants are free to spend endless attorneys’ fees to pursue the forum they think will be most advantageous to them, arguments about the superior efficiencies of arbitration ring hollow. . . . Instead of proceeding, discovery and motion practice for these three teams have been further delayed so this Court can deal with these teams’ attempt to take yet another run at how to avoid district court litigation and will, presumably, be delayed further while they pursue yet another appeal.”
It’s a mostly tactful way of saying to the NFL, “Enough. You’ve lost on this issue. Stop asking for arbitration and get to work on defending yourself in the litigation.”
Attorney Doug Wigdor issues a statement regarding the latest decision.
“At this point, the NFL and its teams have lost on this issue at the Second Circuit, were denied en banc review by the Second Circuit, were denied Supreme Court review and have now had the District Court twice confirm that the claims will not proceed in an NFL-controlled forum,” Wigdor said. “We hope the NFL and its teams will accept these rulings and proceed with the litigation.”
Presumably, that will happen. One of these days. Or, more accurately, one of these years.
We’ve argued in the past that the NFL should embrace the transparency the UFL brings to officiating. A member of the NFL’s Competition Committee believes it will.
“And I think every once in a while the benefit of this other league we have, I think quite honestly it’s been helpful for our league,” Broncos coach Sean Payton recently told Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom.com. “Every once in a while you see something you like, and I think Dean Blandino and his crew, when we kick live right to the booth review, I think that’s healthy. And I think you’ll see that in the next two or three years in our league.”
As Blandino told Rich Eisen in April, transparency in officiating “eliminates some of the angst and some of maybe the conspiracy theories.” Keeping the review process a state secret makes people think the NFL has something to hide — especially when the UFL and a growing number of college conferences have pulled up the shades and thrown the doors open.
In this age of legalized, normalized, and heavily monetized sports betting, it’s important not only to get calls right but to create the perception that they’re doing everything they can to get calls right.
“I definitely think you’ll see that coming,” Payton said. “I think it’s healthy, and it’s certainly comforting for the fan when you can see how they arrive at decisions. And I think it’s fair, especially to the officials and the people doing the review, to see what we arrived at.”
Yes, Payton is just one voice. But he’s not alone.
“I think a number of people feel the same way,” Payton added.
While there will be logistical challenges, especially during the controlled chaos coming from the cluster of 1:00 p.m. ET kickoffs on every given Sunday, it makes sense to create the infrastructure to both handle reviews efficiently and accurately, and to communicate the information transparently.
It’s one thing for folks on the labor side to talk about the increased use of grass for NFL fields. It’s another thing for management to do it.
Recently, Raiders owner Mark Davis explained his commitment to grass “for safety purposes,” which may have rankled some of his partners who would prefer to see everyone hold the rope in the grass vs. turf tug-of-war. Broncos coach Sean Payton has also chimed in with comments pointing to more grass fields.
“Our game is a little different,” Payton told Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom.com. “When you’re playing in the trenches on that surface, you know, the type of football shoes we wear are different. . . . But eventually I think you’re going to see grass in more stadiums where it’s possible.”
Currently, the Dolphins, Bills (who switched to grass for their new stadium), Browns, Steelers, Ravens, Jaguars, Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders, Eagles, Commanders, Packers, Bears, Buccaneers, Cardinals, and 49ers play on grass. The other 16 play on artificial turf.
La Canfora notes that Payton acknowledged the logistical issues for having grass fields in covered stadiums. Still, multiple enclosed structures have shown that grass is doable in a dome for the World Cup.
It all comes down to money. And, with more and more players clamoring for grass, it also comes down to collective bargaining. The league won’t want more teams to choose to change from the fake stuff to the real stuff, with the issue of switching now becoming a potential topic for the next CBA.
Preference for grass and prioritizing grass are two different issues. The owners can now dig their heels into the artificial turf and force the players to make a concession in order to get it. Which is a good way for the owners to get something for doing it.
Last year, the Broncos were on pace to break the NFL record for sacks for much of the season, before falling short late in the year. This year, they’re expecting to get that record.
That’s the word from Broncos defensive lineman Zach Allen, who said defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s schemes are guaranteed to give all the Broncos’ pass rushers plenty of opportunities to get to the opposing quarterback.
“In this league you’ve kind of always got to keep on finding ways to get better and adjusting and all that,” Allen said, via the Denver Post. “It also helps when you’ve got ‘V.J.’ dialing stuff up that helps us get one-on-ones. We’ve got a lot of good guys and that’s going to create a lot of opportunities for people. We came close to the sack record last year and we fully expect to break it this year.”
The NFL record for sacks in a season is 72, set by the 1984 Bears. Last year, the Broncos finished with 68 sacks. Allen is confident he and his teammates can find five more sacks this year.
