In 2025, the NFL began outfitting the jerseys of the prior year’s award winners with gold shields. This year, a pair of Rams will be wearing them.
The gold shields go to the reigning NFL MVP, the offensive player of the year, the defensive player of the year, the offensive rookie of the year, and the defensive rookie of the year.
This year, the five awards that will be acknowledged with gold shields were won by Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (MVP), Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njgiba (OPOY), then-Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (DPOY), Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan (OROY), and Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger (DROY).
With Garrett being traded to the Rams, L.A. will have both Stafford and Garrett wearing the gold shields. (If Garrett hadn’t been traded, the 5-12 Browns would have two defensive players wearing gold shield).
The gold shields are hard to notice, since the shield on each jersey is small. The issue landed caught our eye on a slow Sunday because the Seahawks have posted an image of Smith-Njigba in his new jersey.
And, no, Smith-Njigba’s gold shield doesn’t have a typo.
Rams Clips
If you’re confused by how the World Cup works, join the club.
We’ve finally made sense of how 48 teams became the 32 that will now proceed to the single-elimination knockout round. Of the 12 four-team groups, the top two made it, along with the best eight third-place teams.
Along the way, Iran was in after a goal by Algeria against Austria in stoppage time on Saturday night — and then out after Austria scored in the final seconds to force a 3-3 tie.
For the United States, here’s the path to what would be an unexpected but thrilling run to the final match.
On Wednesday, July 1, the U.S. plays Bosnia and Herzegovina at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. A win would put the U.S. team into the round of 16, facing the winner of Belgium and Senegal. That match will happen on Monday, July 6 at Lumen Field in Seattle.
A win there would send the U.S. to the final eight. The opponent for the match to be played on Friday, July 10, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles would be the team that emerges from this quartet of countries: Portugal, Croatia, Spain, and Austria.
Next up would be a trip to the semifinals, on Tuesday, July 14, at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Then, a victory would trigger a berth in the final game, to be played on Sunday, July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
It won’t be easy. It will require four straight wins, starting in just three days, with the site of Super Bowl LX hosting one of the most consequential soccer matches the U.S. has ever seen.
A win would raise the stakes considerably in the home stadium of the defending Super Bowl champions. A victory there would shift the focus to the site of Super Bowl LXI. Then, all eyes would turn to Jerry World — for a match at a level his Cowboys haven’t achieved since the year after the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup.
The Rams don’t yet know where or exactly how they will use Myles Garrett. All they know is the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year will be great at getting after the quarterback wherever and however they deploy him.
The Rams acquired the edge rusher on June 1.
He participated in a handful of offseason practices, with Garrett working with outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio’s group in individual drills. That prompted a question to defensive coordinator Chris Shula about whether Garrett, who spent his entire career in Cleveland playing in a 4-3, is an outside linebacker or whether Garrett’s arrival changes how Shula thinks about the structure of the defense.
“Obviously, we’re still going to have our principals with that stuff, but we’re going to let him do what he does best and we all know exactly what he does best,” Shula said last week, via Stu Jackson of the team website. “You’re not going to take Michael Jordan, LeBron [James], all those guys and pull them out of their comfort zone. We’re going to work with him and put him in the best spots that we think for him and the defense to succeed.”
Garrett, 30, has made seven Pro Bowls and is a five-time All-Pro. He set the NFL single-season record with 23 sacks and has 125.5 for his nine-year career.
It was a surprise to many when the Rams selected quarterback Ty Simpson at No. 13 overall to be Matthew Stafford’s successor in this year’s draft.
But the organization has been clear that it’s still Stafford’s team until he decides to hang up his cleats.
Simpson has said publicly that Stafford has taken a “big brother” role in his development, complimenting the 2025 MVP for being willing to answer all of his questions.
In an interview with Chris Long’s Green Light podcast this week, Stafford was asked what he’d like Simpson to say about him years down the line.
“Hopefully, he comes away with a guy who treated him the right way, showed him what it was about, what it’s like to be a true professional, and also be yourself,” Stafford said. “I’m not some robot out there. Love playing the game — you see me mic’d up, I’m running around like crazy, doing all sorts of wild shit, and have fun with the game because it’s a kids’ game.
“But at the same time, hey, I’m here for him if he needs help. My No. 1 job — I’ve said this 100 times — is to get our team and myself as ready to play as possible. And if he gathers information and he learns from that along the way, I’m fired up for our team, because that’s going to make us better. And I’m fired up for him. But I’m here to encourage — like everybody on our team — encourage everybody to do their best, keep getting better, and find ways to improve. And, hopefully, he’s a guy that 15, 20 years down the road can look back and say, man, I really enjoyed my time with Matthew and learned a lot from him.”
Stafford is coming off arguably the best season in his career, tossing a league-leading 46 touchdowns en route to being named a first-team AP All-Pro for the first time. With Stafford at 38 years old, we’ll see how long he holds off Simpson’s ascension to QB-1.
The U.S. men’s soccer team returns to World Cup action tonight in a match that is ultimately meaningless to their prospects in the knockout round.
That’s not making it any cheaper to get a ticket to watch the contest at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, home of the Rams and Chargers. Via Sports Business Journal, the get-in price is currently $1,594.
That figure is up 69 percent from the start of the tournament, but down 22 percent from a week ago.
A victory would become the first time the U.S. men’s team has ever won all three games of group play in a World Cup.
The match begins at 10:00 p.m. ET on Thursday night. Coach Mauricio Pochettino will not start four players who have received yellow cards in prior group matches. This means midfielder Tyler Adams, forward Folarin Balogun, defender Chris Richards, and outside back Antonee Robinson will likely get the entire night off.
A second yellow card in group play would result in a suspension for the first match of the knockout round. Pending yellow cards are expunged after group play.
The U.S. currently is expected to face Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32. Given the cost of seeing a group match that doesn’t mean anything, get ready to dig very deep if you’re interested in attending the next one — which is scheduled for Wednesday, July 1, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
A bill that would have revamped workers’ compensation laws in California to the detriment of professional athletes has died.
The NFL Players Association has informed registered contract advisors that the effort to turn the proposed legislation into law has ended.
“California SB 795, a bill that would have significantly restricted professional athletes’ access to workers’ compensation benefits, has been pulled from consideration and will not move forward for a vote,” the NFLPA said in an email to agents, a copy of which PFT has obtained. “This is a meaningful win for your clients and helps keep critical protections in place for injuries sustained during their careers. Protecting the health, safety and legal rights of active and former players remains a top priority, and we will continue to fight against efforts that threaten those protections.”
Earlier this month, the NFLPA made it clear that it “strongly opposes” the effort.
“As employees in a high-risk profession, NFL players rely on workers’ compensation as a critical protection,” the union said at the time. “In fact, the cost of these benefits is already paid by our players out of their collectively bargained share of league revenue. By advancing this latest anti-player legislation, California’s professional sports teams are seeking to evade that system for financial gain, denying injured athletes the care they are owed.”
The three NFL teams headquartered in California — the 49ers, Chargers, and Rams — supported the bill.
It doesn’t end the effort for good. An effort has been made in the past to revise the workers’ compensation laws regarding professional athletes. It likely will happen again.
Having won his first MVP award in 2025, quarterback Matthew Stafford is coming off a year where he played some of the best football of his career.
But Stafford, who turned 38 in February, is clearly on the back nine of his career — if not the proverbial final few holes.
There was speculation that Stafford could retire after the 2025 season, but he put that to rest in his MVP acceptance speech. He and the Rams are now comfortable going year-to-year as it relates to Stafford continuing his career.
As Stafford gets older, he’s consulted with some of his former peers about potentially playing into his 40s: Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
He addressed that in a recent interview with Chris Long’s Green Light podcast.
“I talked to [Brady] a little bit, I’ve talked to Drew Brees a little bit about it as well,” Stafford said. “It is year-to-year because I think it’s fair to the team, I think it’s fair to me, my family — I don’t want to sit there and say, OK, 24 months from now, I’ve got to be ready to play another football season. I’m like, phew, that just seems like a lot. I know that I’m ready to play this year. And hopefully, I feel great at the end of next year, and I’m ready to play another one after that. And then maybe we just kind of keep going like that. But, committing to more than that feels a little bit daunting. And I think a little bit unfair to the team and myself.
“So, the last thing I want to do is sign some five-year extension, and after one year be like, ‘Oh man, I’m ready to retire. I want to spend time with my family.’ And they’re sitting there with four years on the books and had a bunch of planning done that I was going to be around. I don’t want to play football not all the way in it, too, and just be half-assed leading it.”
Stafford added that the Rams’ brass has been great about the situation.
“But, yeah, I don’t know,” Stafford said. “I don’t know how far I want to play. I know I’m excited about playing this year and then we’ll see after that.”
Stafford added that he’s spent time talking with Brady in each of the last two offseasons. But one of his most notable conversations with Brees happened last year.
“I think one of the things that surprised me is, I was talking to Drew — this was before last season — and he was like, ‘How old are you, again?’ I was like, ‘I’m 37.’ He’s like, ‘You might have your best five years of your career coming up.’ And I was like, ‘Huh,’” Stafford said. “I never really thought about it that way. You’re taught as a player in this league it’s a young man’s game and the older you get, you’re just kind of doing everything you can to try to stay up to par with everybody else. And Drew saying that kind of lit a fire under me, and it give you a little bit of belief that maybe an old guy can go out there and spin it around a little bit.
“Obviously, last year was a successful year for our team and for myself. And just gives you a little bit of energy moving forward and hope that that continues.”
Stafford completed 65 percent of his passes last season, leading the league with 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns while throwing just eight interceptions. In the postseason, Stafford completed 55.5 percent of his throws for 936 yards with six touchdowns and one pick in three games.
Jimmy Haslam is one of the rare sports owner to have his fingerprints all over a pair of massive deals in two different sports in the same month.
With the Milwaukee Bucks trading Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat, barely three weeks after the Cleveland Browns traded Myles Garrett, Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports reports that the Browns owner was a “driving force” in the decision to pick the Heat deal over an offer from the Boston Celtics that included Jaylen Brown.
As O’Connor explains it, “Haslam didn’t want to risk Jaylen Brown wanting out of Milwaukee in a year after dealing with Giannis and Myles Garrett trade demands.” Instead, Haslam wanted the “certainty” that comes from having draft picks. (Until, of course, those players selected with the extra picks want out, too.)
Haslam’s involvement with the Bucks is no surprise. It became clear last month that he’d be taking a more active role in the NBA team he partially owns.
Which serves as a reminder that owners always have the right to take an active role in roster management — regardless of whether they have the skills, knowledge, and/or ability to do so.
In Cleveland, Haslam has been the common denominator through the last 14 years of dysfunction. Now, dysfunction could be descending on Wisconsin’s NBA franchise.
At least dysfunction is easier to spell than Antetokounmpo.
The Rams have announced their open practice schedule for this summer’s training camp.
Rams rookies and veterans will report to training camp at Loyola Marymount University on Saturday, July 25. It’s the third straight year that the school has hosted the Rams’ camp.
Monday, July 27 will be the first of the team’s seven open practices. The other open sessions will take place on July 29, August 1-3 and August 5-6.
The team will also host youth groups to their first practice of camp on July 26 and certain season ticket holders will have a chance to attend practice on July 31.
Joe Thomas and Myles Garrett were teammates for one season — Garrett’s rookie year of 2017.
Then Thomas retired after a terrific career, and Garrett took over as the best player on Cleveland’s roster for the next eight years.
But Garrett no longer has that title, as the Browns traded him to the Rams earlier this month in a blockbuster deal.
In a recent interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Thomas noted that he understood why Cleveland made the deal, particularly given that the Browns received Jared Verse as part of the trade package.
“Yeah, I mean, I think the news came out, it probably caught a lot of people by surprise,” Thomas said. “I knew there was always going to be a chance that the Browns [would trade] Myles, just knowing the situation they’re in and the valuable asset they had. But for Cleveland fans, it’s tough, right? Because for several of those seasons that Myles was here in Cleveland, he was the one thing we got to cheer for, right? Last year, out of the playoff hunt for a long time, but it gave us reason to be proud as Browns fans, to see him chasing that sack record, and to finally get it. And just to see the commitment that he had on the field to his team, to the city, it was incredible.
“So it was really hard to hear that he was traded. It hurts everybody that Myles is not a Brown anymore.”
But, Thomas continued, this trade should help set up the Browns for long-term success.
“I’m not willing to accept the fact that we’re only allowed to think that our ceiling as Browns fans is to cheer for a player that’s having a good season, or breaking a record,” Thomas said. “I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we’re still here to try to win championships. And when you look at the Myles trade, to be able to get a great young player like Jared Verse — who’s a tremendous pass rusher, who’s a great asset to that team. He’s on a friendly contract, saving money there. Getting three draft choices for Myles — a first, second, and a third. It puts us in a much better position for the next two, three, four years as we’re in this building phase.
“So, as you step away from the emotion of losing Myles, you realize this puts the team in a much better situation moving forward. And it was the right decision, even though it hurts.”
