Two years ago, Saquon Barkley signed as a free agent in Philadelphia, won a championship in his first season there, and became one of the city’s most beloved athletes. Barkley is now recommending the same course of action to LeBron James.
James is a free agent and the Philadelphia 76ers are among the teams in the mix to sign him. Barkley has weighed in and told James that
“I think it’s one of the greatest sports towns in the world,” Barkley told NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I know [New York Knicks player] Josh Hart said the opposite. I saw that today on Twitter. But I have to disagree with him. If you want to go out with a bang, I feel like a great spot would be in Philly, and bringing a championship to Philadelphia, you’d be remembered forever.”
James has played for three NBA teams and won championships with all of them, winning in Miami in 2012 and 2013, Cleveland in 2016 and Los Angeles in 2020. Barkley thinks Philadelphia in 2027 would be a nice place for James to cap his career.
Tom Brady has been in and around the NFL since 2000. He’s seen a thing or two. And one thing he’s seen is fairly constant.
Receivers bring drama to the game.
“I think that’s the only position on offense that requires a lot of extra energy and attention,” Brady said on the latest episode of the New Heights podcast with the Brothers Kelce. “Because the running backs are gonna touch the ball. The line, they’re gonna be engaged in every play. The tight ends, run or pass, you’re gonna be engaged in every play. It’s the receivers who stand, you know, 25 yards from the ball, just talking smack with the DB. Trying to figure out, ‘Alright, I ran my ass off and didn’t get the ball, and how do I stay locked in and committed to the team when I don’t touch the ball?’
And it’s a hard thing. Like, they’re working hard to get the ball and they don’t get it. So they get frustrated so easy, and I almost think, like, when I see these NFL offseasons, I think, I swear to God, I think now, like, ‘This is just déjà vu.’ I’ve been seeing the same shit since 2000 when I came into the league. You know, this guy . . . gets in trouble, he’s arrested. This guy gets cut, this guy gets traded. This guy’s unhappy at receiver. You know what I mean? It’s like Real Housewives of the NFL.”
Part of the challenge is to get receivers to ride the highs and lows of the number of times the ball comes their way.
“It’s the same script, and it’s, like, over — and we just, that position, it’s like I almost want to like — the psychology of receiver,” Brady said. “I almost want to say, like, ‘You’re gonna catch 110 balls this year, OK? Seventeen games. You’re a great receiver. You’re gonna catch 110 balls. One game, you’re gonna get 11 and one game, you’re gonna get three. And the next game, you’re probably gonna get 11, then you’re gonna get three. I can’t have you, like, the happiest guy in the world when you catch 11, or the most miserable guy on the team when you catch three.
“We’ve got to look at it over the course here, you’ve got to sustain, because it is a lot of emotional energy that you put out to that position to go, ‘Come on, come on, got it? Come on, stay locked in. Let’s go, because I need you. Come on.’ And it’s like, that position takes away if you have that volatile, emotional output, it takes a lot of energy from a lot of people to keep that player really stable. So you’ve got to, like, try to reframe it for them. And just say, ‘Listen, like, you may get three, but you’re gonna get 11. Or you might get 11, 11, 11. And then, you know, three, three.’”
The question came up in the context of unhappy receiver A.J. Brown, who was traded last month from the Eagles to the Patriots.
“We’re gonna see it again this year,” Brady said. “Who’s the next unhappy receiver? And I understand it. I mean, they want to be involved in the game, you know. And A.J. wanted to be involved — I covered a lot of those Eagles games. That passing offense isn’t — that’s not what that team’s known for. So now he’s actually going to a team where they are more known for their passing offense. So, you know, there will be maybe a little more satisfaction from him from that standpoint.”
Lately, Brown hasn’t gotten much satisfaction from his NFL team. But he tried. And he tried. And he tried. And he tried.
He’ll keep trying this year, in New England. And regardless of whether Brown finds it, Brady is right. There will always be an unhappy receiver, somewhere.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
Bryce Huff abruptly retired from the NFL in March at the age of 27. He instantly transitioned to the thing Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll called a football player’s “life’s work.”
As explained recently by Vic Tafur of The Athletic, Huff and his older brother have started a company that hopes to address the fire risk of lithium-ion batteries.
“I feel like we’re going to save a lot of lives and protect a lot of companies,” Huff told Tafur.
Bryce Huff has funded the company, which currently has six employees as it ramps up, with some of his $40.6 million in career earnings.
“Everything is slowly but surely containing batteries, from cars to our tools to bikes, you name it,” Huff told Tafur. “The biggest risk with batteries is the way they ignite if they were to take on some type of damage or malfunction or short circuit. One cell in the battery combusts . . . and then it’s just like a chain reaction throughout the battery.”
The goal is to find a way to quickly extinguish such fires, without toxic chemicals being released.
“There’s not really much on the market that works like our product does, being environmentally friendly and safe to use for firefighters and people around the world,” engineer Nik Tacker told Tafur of the company’s efforts to date.
Bryce Huff studied mechanical engineering while playing college football at Memphis.
“Going into the NFL, I couldn’t really put my love for engineering to good use,” Huff told Tafur. “But now I feel like since we’re working with engineers on a day-to-day basis, it’s just as good as actually being an engineer myself.”
Even though, from the outside, it appears that Huff retired early after six years with the Jets, Eagles, and 49ers, he knew the end was coming one way or the other.
“Everybody knows football is a short-term game,” Huff said. “You can only play until your 30s anyway.”
Huff said his teammates were shocked. His mother was also upset.
“I’ve played football my entire life, and she definitely wanted to see me continue to play,” Huff said.
She now may see him start a successful company from scratch. And the product could indeed help protect many, given that lithium-ion batteries are pretty much everywhere at this point.
As the 16th overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, wide receiver Jahan Dotson has been a disappointment. In two years with the Commanders and two with the Eagles, he has a total of just 1,519 career receiving yards.
Now Dotson is on his third team after signing with the Falcons in March, and he thinks he’s in the right place — for the first time.
“I want to be one of the greatest,” Dotson told Josh Kendall of TheAthletic.com. “I’m not afraid [of saying that]. I was talking to Jessie Bates, and he was talking about wanting to be the best who ever played, and I’m comfortable with those sort of things. I want to be one of the best in the league. I want to show my talent. I haven’t really gotten to do that.”
Dotson signed a two-year, $15 million contract, but he says more important than the money was believing the Falcons had a plan to use him to the best of his ability.
“The big thing for me was going to a team where I felt like my talent could be showcased,” Dotson said. “I learned a lot in my first four years in the NFL from some great receivers and great coaches, but I feel like now is really my time to put my talents on display.”
Dotson didn’t get many balls thrown his way with the Eagles last year, but that hasn’t affected his confidence.
“I 100 percent believe in my talent and ability to make plays in this league,” Dotson said. “It’s just about getting the opportunity to do so. I didn’t really have that opportunity the past couple years. Now I’m looking to really do that, and I can’t wait to make plays for this football team.”
