DEMAURICE SMITH

The NFL combine is winding down and it’s clear the annual scouting event that’s evolved into a made-for-TV spectacle continues to be a required stop on the road to a pro football career amid concerns it can be a demeaning process with diminishing value.

The study, the largest of its kind, compared former players against men of the same age and found that players who had concussions during their NFL careers scored worse on assessments of episodic memory, attention, processing speed and vocabulary.

Deputy labor secretary Julie Su has emerged as the overwhelming favorite of organized labor, receiving endorsements from a variety of prominent Democrats, but Nelson and Smith are among several potential candidates that the Biden administration could tap for the open position.

The NFL’s handling of concussions has evolved dramatically from the days when players were given smelling salts on the bench and sent back into the game.

The NFL says it will appeal a ruling denying the league’s request to move former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit over leaked emails from a public courtroom into closed-door arbitration.

The NFL filed a motion asking a Nevada court to dismiss former Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit against the league, saying the accusations that the the NFL leaked Gruden’s old, offensive emails are “baseless” and “should be dismissed for failure to state a single viable cause of action.”.

Former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden has sued Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL, alleging that a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” was used to destroy Gruden’s career by leaking old emails he had sent that included racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments.

Every week for the past two seasons, NFL players take the field wearing social justice messages on their helmets.

"It is further evidence that the league is just corrupt on a larger scale than we can even begin to imagine," said Melanie Coburn, a former cheerleader for the Washington Football Team.

Current and former NFL players and others who work in the league have varying opinions whether the attitudes expressed by Jon Gruden in emails over several years are pervasive throughout the sport these days.

The deposed Raiders coach expressed attitudes that are all too common in pro football.

Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden resigned over reports of using racist, homophobic and misogynistic language in emails in 2010.

The NFL is not planning to make public any of the hundreds of thousands of emails it obtained as part of an investigation of the Washington Football Club, some of which led to the resignation of Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden.

NBC’s Mike Tirico, who was Jon Gruden’s partner for seven years on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” expressed disappointment with Gruden’s behavior after more emails came out on Monday showing a repeated pattern of racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments.

Gruden used racist language to describe DeMaurice Smith of the NFL Players Association.

Jon Gruden might still be coaching had he merely been exposed as a remorseful racist. No apology could be fast enough when even more emails followed. The emails were exposed, and so was Gruden's real character.

Jon Gruden is out as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders after emails he sent before being hired in 2018 contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments.

Jon Gruden again said he is not a racist after his Las Vegas Raiders lost their first game since the revelation of the head coach’s 2011 remark about players’ union leader DeMaurice Smith.

Gruden wrote about Smith in an email to Bruce Allen, who was the then-president of Washington's NFL team, 10 years ago.

NFL Players Association leader DeMaurice Smith is planning to move on after he serves one more term with the union.

A report that Jon Gruden used a racist comment about NFL Players Association leader DeMaurice Smith in an email 10 years ago drew a strong and quick rebuke Friday from the NFL.

Jon Gruden used a racist remark in 2011 to describe the head of the National Football League Players Association, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

In the decade-old email, the Las Vegas Raiders head coach commented on the size of NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith's lips. Smith is Black.

The NFL’s revised offseason program still includes a post-draft rookie minicamp, voluntary workouts and a mandatory minicamp next month despite the union’s objection to in-person activities due to COVID-19 concerns.

Members of the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks and Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers have become the first to say they won't participate in their team's in-person voluntary offseason programs.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Playing a contact sport in the middle of a pandemic seemed unthinkable to everyone except the NFL when the novel coronavirus shut down the country in March. The league played 256 games in the regular season without any cancellations and made it through the playoffs to get here. “There’s so many people that had to work together to get this done,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday. Though stadiums were empty most of the season, 1.2 million fans attended NFL games when they were allowed. “They need to be smart.”Just as it seems the NFL was for much of the last five months.

On the NFL's lack of diversity in executive and team ranks: "We have a league that's where 70% of the people on the field look one way. WE'LL GET ANSWERS FROM DEMAURICE SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION. SMITH: I- I think that what we saw in the National Football League were a microcosm of the country. What I care about right now is doing anything we can in the National Football League to promote getting the vaccine. SMITH: Yeah, well, I think the direct connection is we have a league that's- that's where 70% of the people on the field look one way.

TAMPA, Fla. – NFL players and their union want the league to continue fighting for social justice and they’re still seeking an increase in the number of minority coaches. Two minorities were hired for seven head coach openings this offseason. There were three Black head coaches when the Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003 and there are three now, despite several changes to the rule to help promote more opportunities. Goodell said having two minority coaches hired this year wasn’t what they expected and not what they expect moving forward. “It does frustrate players, especially African American players, because we see ourselves as potential leaders within the NFL community,” Woodyard said.

(AP Photo)The NFL expanded the Rooney Rule to give more minority candidates opportunities to become a head coach and reward teams who develop them. The Houston Texans hired David Culley this week, making the 65-year-old longtime assistant the league’s third Black head coach hired. Culley and Saleh join Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Miami’s Brian Flores and Washington’s Ron Rivera as the league’s only minority head coaches. “We didn’t make as much progress on the head coaching side as we would have liked,” Rooney said. AdPerhaps an increase in minority executives will lead to more minority head coaches.

In keeping with a previous estimate that revenues could be down by at least $100 million for each of the 32 teams, the league missed out on $3 billion to $4 billion while playing in the pandemic. The estimate comes from Marc Ganis, co-founder of Chicago-based consulting group Sportscorp and a confidant of many NFL owners. "Nobody is going to cry for teams that are worth an average of $2 billion," Ganis said. With the majority of revenue tied to national TV contracts that benefit all teams equally, the NFL was well-positioned to handle the pandemic as long as games could be played. "So the NFL, its position as the top broadcast property in the United States actually got stronger," Ganis said.

The dip in revenue for the NFL during the pandemic has been substantial but not crippling. “None of us are going to be surprised that there’s going to be a significant drop-off from overall revenue,” union executive director DeMaurice Smith said. “Nobody is going to cry for teams that are worth an average of $2 billion,” Ganis said. And no one’s going to cry for players who are going to get reductions in salaries over the next two or three years. “Both the league and the players association recognize that there was something going on much bigger than their own interests.

There will be no National Football League playoff bubble. Despite more Covid-19 cases among staff and players, the NFL won't forgo its remaining games, and postponements are a last option as Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay is less than one month away. In an email, an NFL spokesperson, Brian McCarthy, did say the NFL remains "focused on playing the Super Bowl as scheduled on Feb. 7 in Tampa. The NFL has rescheduled regular-season games due to Covid-19 outbreaks, the most notable being the Steelers-Baltimore Ravens games, which went through three postponements. Smith added that there haven't been any talks about delaying the playoff games or the Super Bowl between the league and the NFLPA.

(AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)The NFL won’t be cutting in line to get the coronavirus vaccine. “No one should be thinking about the vaccine going anywhere other than our first responders and the most vulnerable people right now,” said DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association. “The rollout of the vaccine is going to be driven by public health concerns and what medical and government officials determine to be the most efficacious for risk reduction across society as a whole. The largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history got underway Monday with health workers rolling up their sleeves for the first shots on the same day the nation’s COVID-19 death toll hit a staggering 300,000. High-risk health care workers and some nursing home residents were among the first in line for the shots that could finally conquer the outbreak that has upended life across the globe.

“When we all follow the protocols, they work and they work well,” Tretter said. “The contact tracing, getting everyone who potentially are exposed out of the building, works to stop the spread of the virus. Union spokesman George Atallah said that 90% of players that test positive do so within five days of exposure. That is why the league and union have decided to isolate “high-risk” close contacts for a five-day period to make sure they continue to test negative. “We have to make decisions on the information and data we have at the time.”___More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

TAMPA, Fla. A little more than two weeks away from the start of the NFL season, Tom Brady is settling into a new home. The 43-year-old quarterback led touchdown drives on two of four series he worked during a full scrimmage, including a 98-yard march to begin the session. We got to a point where the stadium wasnt that big a deal, Brady said. Getting to the stadium, getting with my teammates, it was a good dress rehearsal, so to speak, Brady said. The communication that we have on a daily basis about social injustice is important for all of us, Brady added.

NFL players are publicly pleading with the league to address several health and safety concerns on the eve of training camp. The league informed teams on Saturday that training camps will open on time even though discussions with the players union regarding testing for the coronavirus and other health and safety protocols are ongoing. Players for all teams are scheduled to report by July 28. If the NFL doesnt do their part to keep players healthy there is no football in 2020. @NFL Training camp is about to start.. And theres still No Clear Plan on Player Health & Family Safety.

(AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth, File)The NFL Players Association wants players tested daily for coronavirus, one of the outstanding points in discussions with the NFL over health and safety protocols as the start of training camp draws near. They gave their medical opinion it was safe to open training camp, and thats where we are, Smith said. If the league and union fail to reach an agreement, the NFL can implement its proposed rules, according to the CBA. The NFLPA could file a grievance to argue the league isnt providing a safe work environment under rules of the collective bargaining agreement. This isnt a normal year so weve always done it this way is not going to work this year, Tretter said.

NEW YORK NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says there remains an urgent need for action following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the protests around the country that have followed. As current events dramatically underscore, there remains much more to do as a country and as a league, Goodell said in his statement Saturday. There remains an urgent need for action. I understand the outrage because it seems the list continues to grow: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. Will he be treated like George Floyd or Ahmaud Abrey?

One week after agreeing to a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement with team owners, the National Football League Players Association is starting the process of repair its union. And the rebuild could include the search for a new executive director, according NFLPA executive committee member Lorenzo Alexander. Donald S. Prophete is a labor lawyer and partner at Kansas City-based Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete. And with new members recently added to the executive committee, including Cleveland Browns lineman J.C. Tretter as union president, he said a change is possible. The executive director's title is under the command of the executive committee.

DeMaurice Smith the Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association speaks during the NFLPA press conference on January 30, 2020 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beack, FL. DeMaurice Smith, the National Football League Player Association's executive director, is caught in the middle of union politics surrounding the proposed collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which top NFL stars have rejected. Under the new terms, players will receive 47% of league revenue, which the Wall Street Journal reported amounted to roughly $16 billion over the last year. The projected payout would be $5 billion to players throughout the 10-year deal, according to the new terms. Media experts said owners want to force a deal with players in efforts to start working on renegotiating NFL media rights.