The NFL Players Association released its annual Rising Stars list on Tuesday and the first overall pick of this year’s draft is one of the players at the top.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza is No. 1 on the list of the 10 rookies that the NFLPA projects to be future members of the Top 50 list of licensed player product sales. There is also a list of 10 players with NFL experience who have not been on the Top 50 and it is topped by Saints quarterback Tyler Shough.
Mendoza is followed on the list by Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, Titans wide receiver Carnell Tate, Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon, Commanders linebacker Sonny Styles, Saints wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, Ravens wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, and Buccaneers edge rusher Rueben Bain.
The list of veteran players also includes Bears tight end Colston Loveland, Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker, Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Cardinals tight end Trey McBride, Dolphins running back De’Von Achane, Bills running back James Cook, and Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
Now that the NFL has failed in its silver-bullet attempt to move former Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit to arbitration, the NFL is grasping for another silver bullet.
As explained by Eriq Gardner of Puck, the NFL seeks the dismissal of Gruden’s lawsuit under Nevada’s anti-SLAPP statute.
SLAPP means Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. Anti-SLAPP laws give defendants a quick and easy resolution to baseless lawsuits filed by big-money interests that seek to intimidate critics by forcing them to incur significant legal fees.
Nevada’s anti-SLAPP law protects “[a] person who engages in a good faith communication in furtherance of the right to petition or the right to free speech in direct connection with an issue of public concern.”
So, basically, the NFL is saying that the leak of confidential documents harvested during the investigation of the Washington franchise was an exercise in free speech in direct connection with an issue of public concern.
While the law in many situations allows alternative defenses to be advanced in civil litigation, it’s very hard to reconcile the notion that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the NFL was vindicating the public interest by leaking the emails with the notion that the NFL didn’t leak the emails. Then again, the discovery process inevitably will show that someone connected to the NFL or the Washington franchise leaked the emails.
As PFT has consistently reported since Gruden was forced to resign following two waves of leaks of emails he sent while working for ESPN, a very small universe of individuals had access to the emails. One of those persons leaked the emails.
By throwing an anti-SLAPP Hail Mary, the NFL hopes to short-circuit the effort to reveal who leaked the emails, while also preventing Gruden from proving that the league intentionally interfered with his current and future business relationships by forcing him out as head coach of the Raiders and impeding his future employment efforts.
The key to an anti-SLAPP motion is proving that the exercise of free speech was in “direct connection with an issue of public concern.” If the NFL was advancing an issue of public concern, why leak the emails five weeks into the 2021 NFL season? Why leak them at all? Why not just release them directly?
The timing of the leak is critical, in our view. As PFT has consistently reported, the NFL knew about the Gruden emails in June of 2021. If this was an exercise in advancing a public concern, the NFL should have disclosed the emails then, allowing the Raiders to hire a full-season replacement. Alternatively, the NFL should have waited until after the 2021 season ended.
Ideally, the NFL shouldn’t have leaked the emails at all. While investigating the Washington franchise, the NFL stumbled into dirt on Gruden that had been hiding in plain sight in the team’s collection of sent and received emails. Someone correctly realized that leaking the emails would result in Gruden’s termination or resignation.
In this specific case, the leaker tried initially to force Gruden out with a leak to the Wall Street Journal. When that didn’t do the trick, a leak was made to the New York Times. At that point, Gruden walked away.
Here’s what the NFL’s effort to wrap itself in the First Amendment is missing. Disclosing the emails during the 2021 season undermined the integrity of the entire season by forcing one of the 32 franchises to pivot on the fly to an interim head coach.
And while Rich Bisaccia did an admirable job after Gruden left (hindsight shows Bisaccia should have gotten the permanent gig after taking the Raiders to the playoffs), how good could the Raiders have been that year if this supposed effort to advance a public concern hadn’t kneecapped the Raiders?
Without Gruden, the Raiders nearly beat the Bengals in the wild-card round. And the Bengals nearly won the Super Bowl. With Gruden, what could the Raiders have done? We’ll never know, because someone intentionally pulled the plug on the Raiders’ ability to finish the season with their chosen coach.
Setting aside the details, every NFL fan should be upset that someone saw fit to tinker with competitive balance by forcing a team to change coaches during a season. (Raiders fans in particular should be livid.)
This wasn’t some effort by the NFL to engage in journalism as to itself, exposing things that the league would have preferred to keep quiet. This was an effort to weaponize confidential internal documents against an NFL head coach during an NFL season.
The real issue isn’t the content of the confidential investigative materials. It’s the motivation for the disclosure — and the timing of it.
As Gardner notes, the trial court judge has ruled in Gruden’s favor. The NFL is trying to get the Nevada Supreme Court to overturn that decision.
Meanwhile, consideration of the merits of the case continues to be delayed. And the comments made last week by Judge Valerie Caproni regarding the NFL’s handling of the Brian Flores case apply with equal force to the NFL’s effort to delay the litigation of Gruden’s case:
“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.”
Training camps will be opening soon. Before 2011, that meant most teams engaging in a game of beat the clock with most of their draft picks.
Nowadays, most contracts are signed by Memorial Day weekend.
This year, there are four notable exceptions. They are the first four quarterbacks taken in the draft: Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza (first overall), Rams quarterback Ty Simpson (13th overall), Cardinals quarterback Carson Beck (third round, 65th overall), and Steelers quarterback Drew Allar (third round, 76th overall).
There’s not much to negotiate. The dollars are set by a formula based on the draft slot. Pressure points in the past have related to signing bonus cash flow, voiding of guarantees, and offsets on guarantees.
Surely, all of the deals will get done. Rookie holdouts are now very rare.
But no deal is done until it’s done. And it’s getting a little glaring for the first four quarterbacks taken in the draft.
We all need someone in our lives who will tell us when we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing. Tom Brady apparently doesn’t have that.
Brady’s bizarre move toward pro wrestling took another step forward at the World Cup final on Sunday, when he and Logan Paul traded middle fingers, and Fanatics founder Michael Rubin pushed Paul away.
It comes just a couple of days after Brady slapped Paul during an appearance at Fanatics Fest.
While we fully support the slapping of Logan Paul, Brady is better than this. It’s beneath him to be dicking around with some goofy WWE storyline so that he can have a one-day, live-action fantasy camp at Wrestlepalooza or whatever they call one of the various events that are now hyped relentlessly by ESPN throughout the year.
I loved pro wrestling at one point in my life. My dad used to take me to the matches when they came to the venue in our town. And I’d get pissed when he told me it was fake, even though I sensed that grown men didn’t fight by stomping a foot on the mat every time they landed a punch with no follow-through of any kind.
I watched it on TV when it was known as “studio wrestling,” because they literally taped the matches in a TV studio in Pittsburgh. I followed it closely as it began to grow in popularity in the ‘80s, thanks to the likes of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Andre The Giant.
And, yes, NFL players have been connected to pro wrestling. The second Wrestlemania, split between three cities, featured a collection of current and former pro football players (including William “The Refrigerator” Perry) in a 20-man battle royal. Lawrence Taylor was part of the main event at Wrestlemania, nine years later.
But this one seems different. It feels contrived, gratuitous. Whether it’s about money or ego, someone should tell Brady to knock it off.
If no one else will do it, we will. Tommy, you don’t need to do this. You own a piece of the Raiders. You make $37.5 million per year with Fox. You’ve been immortalized in bronze at Gillette Stadium, even though you’re still very much alive.
You’ve got a bunch of other stuff going on. Pro wrestling shouldn’t be jammed onto your docket, especially when you’ve publicly written about trying to find “balance” in your life.
And while I currently don’t have my finger on the pulse of the things wrestling fans are clamoring for, Tom Brady inserting himself into a concocted storyline with Logan Paul seems to be at or near the bottom of the list. If it’s even on the list at all.
It’s probably too late for Brady to turn back now. The wheels are in motion. And he’ll likely keep escalating this phony-baloney feud with Paul until they’re standing face to face, stomping a foot on the mat while landing a punch with no follow-through of any kind.
As noted English poet William Michael Albert Broad once said, “Too much is never enough.”
American quarterback Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. lives that message, every day.
Despite explaining his quest for “balance” in April, Brady hasn’t met a paycheck he won’t cash. Most recently, he has been flirting with WWE.
At Fanatics Fest on Thursday, Brady told WWE superstar Cody Rhodes that Brady wants to climb into the squared circle.
“I need to get an invite,” Brady said, via Shakiel Mahjouri of CBS Sports. “I’ve been waiting for [WWE president] Nick Khan to come up with some storyline for me to get in the mix. I feel like I’m retired from football, and I have an opportunity to go out there and still showcase that I’m a little bit of an athlete.”
The storyline apparently was hatched quickly. On Friday, Brady slapped WWE wrestler Logan Paul.
Get ready. The FOX analyst, Raiders limited partner, Birmingham City minority owner, apparel mogul, electric race boat team owner, Delta airlines strategic advisor, flag-football player, and pitchman who’ll never say no to anyone who’ll meet his price is going to be wrestling, too.
So much for balance.
Unless he meant balancing from the top rope.
