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Sports
Jameis Winston Says He
Dalvin Cook Reportedly Wants More Than $16M Per Year From Vikings
DALVIN COOK
Dalvin Cook wants a new contract from the Minnesota Vikings, and it sounds like the star running back is aiming as high as possible.
Cook is not planning to re- port to the Vikings or take part in any team activities unless he gets a new contract.
Cook is seeking an average annual salary that is higher than the $16 million per year the Carolina Panthers will be paying Christian McCaf- frey.
Robert Griffin, III Says He Wants To Be Starter Again
ROBERT GRIFFIN, III
Robert Griffin, III may be eight years and countless injuries removed from his famed 2012 season, but he thinks that he still has plenty of time to perform at a high level again.
Appearing Tuesday on 1660 ESPN’s “The Matt Mosley Show,” the former Pro Bowl quarterback expressed his goal of returning to regular starting duties.
“I want to be a starter again. I’m 30 years old, and quarterbacks are playing into their 40s now,” Griffin said. “There’s a lot of time left to still go achieve all the dreams and goals I set for myself.”
Griffin spent last season as Lamar Jackson’s backup on the Baltimore Ravens. While he got the start for Jackson in Week 17 when the Ravens had already clinched the top spot in the AFC, Grif- fin has not been a regular starter since his short-lived stint with the Cleveland Browns in 2016.
Shaq Preached Message Of Unity To Saints After Drew Brees Apology
SHAQUILLE O’NEAL
Knows He's One Of The Best
QBs To Play The Game
Without Needing To Say It
Jameis Winston is the biggest enigma of the NFL quarterback fraternity. His physical talents are nearly perfect and his statistics are occasionally eye-popping. But he has only led his team to a winning season once in five NFL seasons because his de- cision-making is astound- ingly poor. He is just as likely to throw an interception to a defender standing directly in front of him as he is to throw a 60-yard dime on the run.
It's all just very confusing. Last year was peak Winston if we've ever seen it; the for- mer first overall pick led the league in yards with over 5,000, but also threw 30 in- terceptions, but also threw 33 touchdowns! And the Bucs went 7-9. He has now fol- lowed that up with a peak Winston quote, if I've ever seen one. From an interview with Bleacher Report:
"I know what I'm worth," Winston says by phone from Alabama. "And I know day in and day out, without publicly coming in and saying it, that historically I'm one of the best
JAMEIS WINSTON
quarterbacks to play the game."
So, Jameis Winston wants us to know that he knows he's one of the best quarterbacks in history, but he doesn't need to say in pub- licly. He conveyed this mes- sage in a public comment.
Irrational confidence is basically a requirement for professional athletes. The phrasing simply could have been better. You'd think Winston would have figured out the importance of that after his very uncomfortable "eating W's" pregame speech from a few years back, but no. Perhaps that's another thing he wants to learn in New Or- leans this year.
Shaquille O’Neal spoke with the New Orleans Saints last week in the middle of the media firestorm surrounding Drew Brees’ comments on the national anthem. The Big Fella preached a message of unity to the team and ad- vised them to avoid being di- vided.
“They’re going to try to divide you, just like they di- vided us with the Lakers! Me and Kobe [Bryant], we had a great thing going, but the media divided our team,” O’Neal said during a virtual team meeting, according to
ESPN. “We could have won five more championships! Stay strong. Don’t let the media divide you! Don’t let social media divide you!”
Brees said last week that he would not agree with players not standing for the national anthem. He re- ceived immediate backlash from many, including team- mates, and issued an apology a day later.
Shaq said on TNT Thurs- day that many Saints team- mates recognized Brees has good character despite mak- ing the comment.
Malcolm Jenkins Wants
NFL To Apologize To
Colin Kaepernick
Many were pleased to see NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admit that the league was wrong in its handling of player protests, but one of the league’s leading voices on so- cial justice feels that the NFL is still failing in one key way.
New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins believes the league will not get it right until they specifically address Colin Kaepernick by either apologizing to him or putting him on a team.
“I still don’t think [the NFL has] gotten it right. Until they apologize, specifically, to Colin Kaepernick, or assign him to a team, I don’t think that they will end up on the right side of history,” Jenkins told “CBS This Morning” on
MALCOLM JENKINS AND COLIN KAEPERNICK
Tuesday, via Tim McManus of ESPN.
“At the end of the day, they’ve listened to their play- ers, they’ve donated money, they’ve created an Inspire Change platform; they’ve tried to do things up to this point. But it’s been one player in par- ticular that they have ignored and not acknowledged, and that’s Colin Kaepernick.”
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