When it comes to the NFL’s effort to send the Brian Flores case to arbitration, it’s apparently not over until the NFL says it’s over.
Regardless, the presiding judge has now made it abundantly clear that it’s over.
Despite a court ruling and an appeals court ruling that the claims brought by Brian Flores (against the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, and Texans), Ray Horton (against the Titans), and Steve Wilks (against the Cardinals) must be decided in court, the NFL filed a motion to reconsider the ruling that slammed the door on arbitration.
On Wednesday, Judge Valerie Caproni denied the NFL’s latest motion.
The 15-page ruling begins with an expression of exasperation regarding the nearly four-and-a-half-year-old litigation: “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.”
Elsewhere in the written decision, there are some not-so-subtle indications of the judge’s impatience with the NFL’s efforts to keep fighting over a settled issue. From page 9: “Defendants can articulate no reason why these arguments were not raised in their response to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration. . . . With sophisticated law firms, it is hard to fathom a plausible explanation.”
Also, from the same page: “Defendants opted for an iterative stream of arguments to buy themselves a few more months hanging out in the players’ tunnels. . . .”
Putting it another way, and as a judge said to the opposing lawyer in a case I was handling more than 20 years ago, “At some point, you stop arguing to the court and start arguing with the court.”
Judge Caproni’s order concludes like this: “Defendants’ seemingly-never-ending list of arguments why they should not have to litigate this case has run its course. Stepping back, while Defendants are free to spend endless attorneys’ fees to pursue the forum they think will be most advantageous to them, arguments about the superior efficiencies of arbitration ring hollow. . . . Instead of proceeding, discovery and motion practice for these three teams have been further delayed so this Court can deal with these teams’ attempt to take yet another run at how to avoid district court litigation and will, presumably, be delayed further while they pursue yet another appeal.”
It’s a mostly tactful way of saying to the NFL, “Enough. You’ve lost on this issue. Stop asking for arbitration and get to work on defending yourself in the litigation.”
Attorney Doug Wigdor issues a statement regarding the latest decision.
“At this point, the NFL and its teams have lost on this issue at the Second Circuit, were denied en banc review by the Second Circuit, were denied Supreme Court review and have now had the District Court twice confirm that the claims will not proceed in an NFL-controlled forum,” Wigdor said. “We hope the NFL and its teams will accept these rulings and proceed with the litigation.”
Presumably, that will happen. One of these days. Or, more accurately, one of these years.
Giants Clips
When the Giants drafted Arvell Reese with the fifth overall pick in April, there were questions about where Reese will line up after playing on the edge and at off-ball linebacker while at Ohio State.
The Giants already had Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux as options off the edge and trade chatter involving Thibodeaux never amounted to anything, so Reese is set to start alongside Tremaine Edmunds at linebacker. Burns said recently that the five players “all look the same” and are capable of rushing the passer or dropping into coverage, which he believes will create problems for the offenses trying to stop them.
“It’s not going to be simple for an offense to read or understand exactly what we’re doing, and that’s the beauty in defense in my opinion,” Burns said, via the team’s website. “And on top of that, you have world-class athletes at our size that can move around and do a lot of different things. I just feel like it’s going to be organized chaos.”
Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson will have to come up with the right way to deploy the quintet of players this fall, but that’s likely something that Burns would call a good problem for the Giants to have after being shorthanded on defense in recent seasons.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh provided updates on a couple of players returning from injuries this week.
Running back Cam Skattebo and wide receiver Malik Nabers are both coming off of season-ending injuries and Skattebo was further along when the team wrapped up their offseason program. During an appearance on The Domonique Foxworth Show, Harbaugh said that remains the case and that Skattebo’s ankle should be well enough for him to be working in the first days of training camp.
The timeline for Nabers isn’t as clear, but Harbaugh said the wideout is “not far behind” his teammate.
“They’re doing well,” Harbaugh said. “They’re both rehabbing every day, working super hard. I would say they’re on schedule. People hear that, and they’re like, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ It’s like, well, ‘I don’t really know because nobody knows. They’re doing well, and they’re getting better every day. I feel like Skatt will be ready early on in camp, really quick. And then Malik will be working his way into practice as camp gets started one way or another. To what degree, we will find out. There’s a lot of optimism about both those two guys right now.”
Full recoveries for both players are central to any optimism about the Giants’ hopes for the 2026 season, so their status once camp gets underway will be the subject of much attention.
John Harbaugh coached Lamar Jackson to a pair of MVPs in Baltimore, but the duo couldn’t find a way to navigate through the playoffs to a Super Bowl before Harbaugh was dismissed after the 2025 season.
Harbaugh’s overall record meant that he only spent a short time out of work before landing as the head coach of the Giants and his chances of finding a way back to the big game will be heavily impacted by his new quarterback. Jaxson Dart showed ability as a runner and a passer in his 12 rookie starts and Harbaugh said on The Dominique Foxworth Show that he sees a chance to do “a lot of the stuff that we did in Baltimore with Lamar” in terms of attacking defenses on the ground and in the air in multiple ways.
“Jaxson’s capable of doing a lot of things,” Harbaugh said. “Like he can live in a lot of different worlds, football-wise. He can live in a power-running game, obviously, and a power-running game protects the quarterback because you can hand the ball off and get yards and make people defend that and keep them honest. Then, it opens up your play-action passing game. . . . That stuff, we’re gonna be in those worlds. But now we can also get in the gun or we can get in the pistol, and we can run RPOs, we can run quarterback-driven runs.”
Dart’s flashes as a rookie were mitigated by a concussion that kept him out of two games and concussion checks that forced him out of parts of other contests. That’s made his ability to stay on the field a question heading into his second season, but Harbaugh downplayed concerns about Dart’s style by again citing Jackson.
“You say something like that to Lamar, and he kinda just looks at you like you’ve got three heads,” Harbaugh said. “It’s like, ‘No, I’m gonna play ball, I’m gonna play ball.’ I just knew, I trusted that he was gonna protect himself because he wants to be out there and he wants to play. It’s not the type of a sport where — you can’t put yourself in bubble wrap.”
Harbaugh’s feelings will be put to the test this fall and he’ll need to be right about Dart for the Giants to fully blossom.
Back in May, the Giants navigated through a murky situation after edge rusher Abdul Carter publicly rebuked quarterback Jaxson Dart for introducing President Donald Trump at a rally.
The two teammates publicly squashed the proverbial beef soon after, making a clear effort to prevent the issue from becoming a further distraction.
In an interview with the Dominique Foxworth Show that was released on Monday, head coach John Harbaugh brought up the situation when addressing a question about team culture.
“I think that emotional intelligence that you’re talking about, it takes everybody having a mindset that we are in here to get out and play well together. And that’s going to be really important for all of our success. And now, let’s make some really wise decisions on how we want to go about doing that,” Harbaugh said. “It may be like the thing we went through with Jaxson and Abdul, the conversations we had around that — that’s one little piece of that journey in deciding how we’re going to operate together. And I think a coach is responsible for being aware of all of those things every single day that are happening in real time that are going to bring us together so that we can operate together when the battle hits the fan.”
Harbaugh saw the issue between Carter and Dart as an opportunity, which makes sense given that it popped up during the low-stakes time of the offseason program.
“One-hundred percent, yes, truly an opportunity,” Harbaugh said. “Those are welcome things because those are going to happen. Those types of things — I told the guys, this is not a one-off. This is not the first time we’re going to be thrown into this very thing, the political, social discourse. So we have to have conversations in a reasonable — in a way that respects one another. So, how are we going to go about this? What do you guys think?
“And, really, honestly, Dominique, I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to say anything, really. The players said it. They laid the ground rules down for the guys and decided how it would be approached going forward. So now, when these waves keep coming in from the ocean and crash against our shore, I think we’ll be better prepared for them going forward because we’ll be expecting them. And we’ll be talking about how we’re going to deal with them.”
Giants rookies are set to report to training camp on July 23 with veterans reporting on July 28.
The Giants added a player to their defensive line on Tuesday.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they have claimed C.J. Ravenell off of waivers. The Titans waived Ravenell off of their injured reserve list on Monday.
Ravenell was placed on that list in June. He played in 14 games for Tennessee last season and was credited with six tackles and a forced fumble in those appearances.
The Giants waived defensive back Rico Payton to make room for Ravenell on the 90-man roster. The move came with an injury designation.
Payton had 12 tackles in nine games for the Giants last season and he also played in 16 games for the Saints in 2024.
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.
The Giants were seen as a potential landing spot for running back Jeremiyah Love in the first round of this year’s draft, but they never had a chance to consider him while on the clock because Arizona made Love the third overall choice.
It doesn’t sound like that’s an issue for head coach John Harbaugh. Tyrone Tracy had 2,151 yards from scrimmage over his first two seasons and Cam Skattebo returned to practice at the end of the team’s minicamp last month.
Skattebo, who scored seven touchdowns in eight games as a rookie, is coming off a serious ankle injury, but Harbaugh expressed little concern about his ability to pick up where he left off last year.
“I thought he was just what you saw, a downhill runner, a tone-setter type runner,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the team. “He’s a tough tackle. That’s what you look for. How many guys can make yards when they’re not supposed to make yards on their own? It seems to me he was that kind of guy at Arizona State and the exact same guy that I saw on tape last year. You guys know better. You watched him up close and personal. He’s a top-tier back, and he’s planning on playing that way this year.”
A strong run game was a consistent part of Baltimore’s offenses during the Harbaugh era. Skattebo should be front and center as the Giants try to establish the same in Harbaugh’s first year on their sideline.
The Giants announced in March that they will be holding training camp at The Greenbrier in West Virginia this summer and they have now announced their schedule of sessions open to the public as well.
The team’s rookies will report to camp on July 23 and the veterans are due on the 28th. The first of six open practices will be held on July 30.
Fans will also be welcome to attend practices on July 31, August 1, and August 5-7.
The Giants will be in West Virginia for two weeks before heading back to New Jersey. They’ll open the preseason at home against the Vikings on August 15 and will practice with the Dolphins before a game the next week. Their annual exhibition with the Jets will be their final tuneup for the regular season.
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.
