Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson wants to represent Team USA in the Olympics.
Shortly after the NFL’s 32 owners voted unanimously to allow active NFL players to participate in Olympic flag football in 2028, Jefferson joined Commissioner Roger Goodell at a press conference to say he’d love to be an Olympian.
“Just to think about the chances of playing in the Olympics and getting a gold medal is a dream, just reverting back to being a kid and watching the track and field meets, watching basketball win the gold medal,” Jefferson said. “That’s something that as a kid I always wanted to be a part of, but football wasn’t global. So now that we’re expanding the game and we’re going more global, it’s pretty cool. It’s pretty cool, just seeing all the different countries being involved.”
Jefferson acknowledged that there are significant differences between 11-on-11 tackle football and 5-on-5 Olympic flag football, and that he doesn’t know if he’ll be chosen three years from now. But he’s among the many players expressing interest in being among the 10 chosen for Team USA in 2028.
The Patriots are planning joint practices before each of their first two preseason games this summer.
Head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about plans for such practices during a Tuesday press conference from the team’s facility. Vrabel said that the plan is for the team to work out with Washington in New England before traveling to Minnesota to practice with the Vikings.
“I think for sure that the Washington Commanders will come here and then they’ll play us, and then we are excited to go to Minnesota,” Vrabel said, via a transcript from the team. “It’s a good setup that they have. It allows for great work. The Vikings have an excellent football team, and we have worked with them before, so we’re excited to go back up there.”
The Patriots close out the preseason on August 21 with a road game against the Giants.
For the first time ever, an NFL team will play a pair of road games in two different European cities. It’s a sign of things to come.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Vikings’ Week 4 game against the Steelers in Dublin followed by their Week 5 game against the Browns in London is trial run for the expanded use of multiple teams that will play in multiple European cities in consecutive weeks.
As soon as next year, there could be two or three teams that swap two traditional road games for a pair of neutral-site games in London and/or Dublin and/or Germany and/or Spain and/or elsewhere in Europe. (Sign me up for Bruges.)
In 2026, those teams would likely come from the AFC, which will have nine road games in the current 17-game eight/nine home/away rotation.
Eventually, look for four franchises to serve as the “road” team in (math is hard) eight European games.
It’s all part of the NFL’s current plan to expand the number of international games to 16 per year. Which will be the approach unless and until the NFL drops a franchise or two (or four) in Europe.
Drafting quarterbacks can be a delicate science, particularly when you’ve recently acquired someone else at the position.
The Seahawks have had significant turnover at QB this offseason, starting with trading Geno Smith and signing Sam Darnold. But then the club also drafted Jalen Milroe out of Alabama in the third round, setting him up to be the team’s quarterback of the future.
While this was no Kirk Cousins/Michael Penix situation from 2024, the Seahawks still gave Sam Darnold and backup Drew Lock a heads-up before they selected Milroe.
“Yeah, coach Mike Macdonald gave Sam a heads up,” Seahawks G.M. John Schneider said in a recent interview with Rich Eisen. “It was kind of in that period just coming down the pike, like, ‘Hey, this isn’t about you. This is about acquiring an impact player, in our opinion. Where’s the quarterback stuff go? We don’t know how fast.’
“So, Mike talked to Sam. I was able to communicate with Drew. And, obviously, we were communicating with Sam Howell all throughout the weekend as well. Sam Howell’s a special person, too.”
Seattle ended up dealing Howell to Minnesota on Day 3 of the draft to set up their QBs room with Darnold, Lock, and Milroe for the offseason program.
Early in the 2024 pre-draft process, there was plenty of speculation that quarterback Caleb Williams didn’t want to play for the Bears.
And he didn’t.
Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com has plenty of reporting on the subject in his upcoming book, American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback. On Thursday, ESPN.com posted an article focusing on Williams’s reluctance to play for the Bears.
“Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die,” Caleb’s father, Carl Williams, told Wickersham.
Wickersham reports that Caleb Williams asked confidants regarding Chicago, “Do I want to go there? I don’t think I can do it with [former Bears offensive coordinator Shane] Waldron.”
Carl Williams reportedly was blunt with several agents: “I don’t want my son playing for the Bears.”
Caleb had a different target, in the same division.
“I need to go to the Vikings,” Caleb Williams reportedly told his father.
“Let’s do it,” his father said.
That ended when Bears G.M. Ryan Poles told Caleb Williams that "[w]e’re drafting you no matter what.” They nevertheless considered going scorched earth against the Bears, with Carl taking the lead.
“He’s worried about me taking bullets,” Carl Williams told Wickersham. “I don’t care. I just don’t agree with this shit, you know? I’m more interested in making sure that he can do what he wants to do.”
So with no way out, Caleb quickly progressed through the stages of anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
“I can do it for this team,” Caleb told his father after a pre-draft visit to Chicago. “I’m going to go to the Bears.”
Obviously, he did. It remains to be seen whether Wickersham’s reporting creates any issues for Williams in Chicago. And it invites a fair question — will he sign an extension if the Bears decide to keep him for the long haul, or will he try to move on the first chance he gets?
