On Monday, Tom Brady announced that he’ll unretire to play in a flag football tournament in Saudi Arabia.
The press release named several active NFL players as scheduled participants: Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb, Christian McCaffrey, Sauce Gardner, Myles Garrett, Brock Bowers, Maxx Crosby, and Tyreek Hill.
The league said on Tuesday that it’s not an NFL initiative. On Friday, the NFL sent a memo to all teams regarding the event.
“The Event is not an NFL-sanctioned event and the league has no role in the organization or production of the game,” the league explains in the memo, a copy of which PFT has obtained. “This Event is not covered by the resolution to permit NFL Players to participate in Olympic Flag Football. Therefore, if an NFL Player sustains an injury while participating in the Event, he is not entitled to any injury protection or any other rights related to that injury under his NFL Player Contract (‘Contract’) or the Collective Bargaining Agreement as a Football-Related Injury. Any injury sustained while participating in the Event will be considered a Non-Football Injury. Moreover, there will be no roster relief or other measures taken to mitigate the loss of a player to his Club should the player sustain an injury while participating in the Event that renders him unable to perform services under his Contract.”
The memo also quotes the relevant provision of the NFL player contract: “Without prior written consent of the Club, Player will not play football or engage in activities related to football otherwise than for Club or engage in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury.”
As a result, each team must decide whether to allow the player to play. And any team can decline to grant permission.
"[I]t is within your Club’s exclusive discretion whether any player under contract on your roster may participate in the Event,” the memo explains. If you are inclined to grant consent for a player’s participation, you must confirm so by providing written notice to the player. We recommend that you notify the player that his participation in the Event, and any activities he engages in related to the Event, will be at the player’s own risk and will not be covered by his Contract or the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”
In other words, the team has the right to refuse to allow any player to play. The team also has the right to tell the player that, if he participates and gets injured, he won’t get paid.
So far, only the Cowboys have said that Lamb has permission to play. It’s not known whether the Cowboys have committed to paying Lamb, in the event he’s hurt.
For some teams, it may be worth the injury risk to let the player get the extra payday that comes from the flag football tournament. Especially if the player is prepared to assume the financial risk that would go along with suffering an injury.
Ultimately, it comes down to how much Saudi Arabia is offering. At some point, the money will be significant enough to get the player to put his primary football pay at risk for what could be a large pile of low-risk revenue.
UPDATE 7:28 p.m. ET: We’re told that the eight players listed above have received approval from their teams to participate in the event. Also, the players will be covered by the same type of insurance that the NFL uses for the Pro Bowl, the Olympics, and other sporting events involving active players. The players, and their teams, will be insured against losses arising from any potential injuries happening during the competition.
Wide receiver Emeka Egbuka was back on the practice field for the Buccaneers on Friday.
Egbuka did not practice on Wednesday and Thursday due to hip and groin injuries, but head coach Todd Bowles said at his press conference that he was able to get in a limited workout to close out the week. Bowles said that Egbuka will be listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Jets.
Bowles also said that neither wide receiver Chris Godwin (ankle) nor left tackle Tristan Wirfs (knee) will play this weekend. Both players have been practicing on a limited basis, but the wait for their season debuts will last at least another week.
The Buccaneers also put right guard Cody Mauch and right tackle Luke Goedeke on injured reserve this week, so they’ll be missing three of their original starting offensive linemen as they try to get to 3-0 on the season.
Darren Waller is nearly ready to make his Dolphins debut.
Head coach Mike McDaniel told reporters on Friday that he’s expecting Waller to play in next Monday night’s game against the Jets.
But there is a caveat to that.
“His body has to follow through,” McDaniel said, via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
Via David Furones of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, McDaniel noted that Waller was “super close” to playing in last night’s loss to the Bills and may have been able to go if the game had been on Sunday instead of Thursday.
Waller has not appeared in a game since 2023 when he was with the Giants. He finished that season with 52 receptions for 552 yards with one touchdown.
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn ruled quarterback Justin Fields out of Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers earlier this week and he ruled several other players out on Friday.
Glenn told reporters that edge rusher Jermaine Johnson will not play due to an ankle injury. Johnson tore his Achilles in Week 2 on the 2024 season and returned to play in the first two games of this season.
Will McDonald, Micheal Clemons, Tyler Baron, and Braiden McGregor will be available on the edge.
Wide receiver Josh Reynolds will miss his second straight game with a hamstring injury. Defensive tackle Jay Tufele (illness) and kick returner Kene Nwangwu (hamstring) are also going to be out this weekend.
The Jets gave up 224 rushing yards to the Bills — the most they have allowed in a game since 2021 — and 403 total yards. The Bills won easily, 30-10.
Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams said their defensive performance was an aberration.
“We all made a pact as a defense, player to player: That will never happen again,” Williams said Thursday, via Rich Cimini of ESPN.
The Jets were a top-four defense in yards allowed each of the past three seasons. Yet, the Bills opened Sunday’s game with four consecutive scores, taking a 20-0 lead as James Cook ran over them.
Cook finished with 132 yards and two touchdowns.
“We all took constructive criticism from each other, [and] owned up to what we need to do right and get better,” Williams said.
The Jets, who returned eight starters on defense, have allowed 64 points in two games.
“The DNA has to come to life,” Williams said. “The standard has to come to life that coach AG [Aaron Glenn] has been preaching.”
He reiterated that last week’s performance “won’t ever happen again.”
