FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Kansas City Chiefs are out of excuses if they don’t maintain inside position for the AFC’s Super Bowl berth. For a team that for several seasons has been on the cusp but not quite elite, that’s a decidedly comfortable place to be.
The Chiefs took the mantle as AFC favorite from the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots by winning at Gillette Stadium 42-27 on Thursday night. The Chiefs accomplished the improbable by getting two elements that seemed most unlikely leading up to the game.
Alex Smith threw for 368 yards with four touchdowns and no picks in the Chiefs’ rout Thursday. Steven Senne/AP Photo
Smith was 28-of-35 for 368 yards and four touchdowns, without an interception. Brady was only 16-of-36 for 267 yards, without a TD or INT.
The Chiefs also got a big game from Hunt, who became only the third player since 1970 with 150 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns in his NFL debut, joining Marshall Faulk (1994) and Billy Sims (1980).
The Chiefs made the interesting decision to try to disrupt Brady with coverage rather than pressure. The Chiefs frequently dropped eight players into coverage and rushed Brady with three.
The strategy wasn’t consistently effective, but it allowed the Chiefs to limit the damage the Patriots did with their passing game.
All things seem possible now for the Chiefs after their most impressive victory in four seasons (plus one game) with Andy Reid as their coach. The Chiefs have some wins to be proud of in that time, such as against the Falcons in Atlanta and two victories over the Oakland Raiders.
Thursday night’s win was in a different category. It came at the expense of the defending Super Bowl champions in a building where they rarely lose with Brady as their quarterback.
If the Chiefs can overcome all of that, what’s left on their schedule that can’t they conquer?
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Martellus Bennett heard from his brother, Michael Bennett, in the immediate aftermath of what happened in Las Vegas on Aug. 27. But when Martellus saw the video of the incident involving his sibling for the first time on Wednesday, he had to excuse himself from a meeting room at Lambeau Field, where he and the Green Bay Packers were preparing for Sunday’s season opener against the Seattle Seahawks.
“I didn’t even know there was a video,” Martellus said. “I had to walk out of meetings because I broke down crying, just thinking about what could have happened, what could have been. It was just so close. You never know these days.”
He’s uncomfortable with the world and wants everyone else to feel that way too.
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In a 20-minute session with reporters on Wednesday, Martellus spoke at length about Michael, the Seahawks defensive end. By the end, Martellus had tears streaming down his face when he talked about just giving his brother a hug when the two are reunited this weekend before Sunday’s game at Lambeau.
“Sometimes, a hug is the best thing you can give,” Martellus said as his voice cracked. “I mean, I don’t really know, really — you know what I’m saying? I don’t really have the answers. You just think, ‘What if?’ You know? Two seconds this way, two seconds that way, the whole thing is different. So for me, I’ll just be happy to see my brother, because there’s a chance I couldn’t see him.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Michael Bennett posted a social media message about the Las Vegas incident, in which he accused police of using excessive force and drawing a gun on him. He wrote that officers pointed guns at him “for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time” and ordered him to lie down on the ground.
A video posted Wednesday by TMZ Sports shows a police officer putting handcuffs on Michael. At one point in the video, Michael is heard yelling to the officer: “I wasn’t doing nothing, man! I was here with my friends. They told us to get out; everybody ran. Can you answer my question, sir?”
Martellus Bennett said he received a call from his brother in the hours shortly following the incident, after the Packers had returned home from a preseason game at Denver. He described Michael as “hysterical” during the phone call and said he just tried to calm him down.
“Michael’s doing well,” Martellus said. “I think the first couple days were really tough. I think he’s doing well. He has a lot of support, a lot of good support, a lot of friends, but he’s doing well.”
Martellus said he supported his brother’s decision to go public with the incident.
“I’m very proud of Michael and the way that he handled it,” Martellus said. “There’s a lot of guys who told him not to say anything. It may be a distraction. You don’t need to say anything. You’re alive, you lived through it, why tell anyone your story? For me, I think that’s the wrong way to go about it. I think his letter, it was eloquent. You had to empathize with the side of the story that he was telling, what happened to him.”
Last month, Martellus offered his support for Michael’s decision not to stand during the national anthem, even though Martellus has not replicated his brother’s actions. Instead, Martellus released his own political cartoon last month as his statement on society and race relations.
Martellus said he does not plan any anthem protest for Week 1.
“I like to speak through my art, my words and things like that,” Martellus said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I draw another political cartoon or some s—, but other than that, I don’t know right now. I’m more of a spur-of-the-moment type guy, type thing.”
Most of the Bennett family is expected to be in Green Bay this weekend for the Packers-Seahawks game, and Martellus said it’s perfect timing, because though he has spoken to Michael at length following the Las Vegas incident, the brothers haven’t seen each other in person since then.
“Life goes so fast and seasons go so fast,” Martellus said. “You don’t get to spend as much time with family. So, it’s pretty good to have so much family coming to town this weekend, being able to see him and have dinner with him and talk to him and different things like that — and then go out there and try to kick his ass.”
FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is eligible to play in Sunday’s season opener against the New York Giants even though an arbitrator upheld Elliott’s six-game suspension handed down by commissioner Roger Goodell.
In a temporary restraining order hearing in U.S. District Court in Sherman, Texas, on Tuesday, NFL attorneys acknowledged that, because of the timing of Harold Henderson’s decision to uphold Elliott’s suspension for violating the personal conduct policy, Elliott will be able to play in Week 1 against the Giants.
The NFL issued a statement on Twitter explaining Elliott being cleared to play Sunday.
“In the absence of a ruling from Mr. Henderson at the outset of the hearing, the judge indicated his desire to have the appropriate time to consider all legal issues before making a ruling,” the NFL explained. “To that end, the judge asked counsel whether it was prepared to allow Mr. Elliott’s suspension, if upheld, to begin after week one allowing him time to make that ruling. In deference to the judge, NFL counsel agreed that Mr. Elliott would be permitted to play this weekend regardless of the timing of the decision. When the decision was issued, the judge advised that in light of the league’s agreement, he would allow additional filings and make his decision by Friday.”
Elliott’s availability for Week 2 at the Denver Broncos and beyond is in doubt. Judge Amos Mazzant said he will make a decision on Elliott’s temporary restraining order by Friday at 6 p.m. ET.
While the Cowboys back will be allowed to play Week 1, he may have to serve a six-game ban afterward including a Week 8 game against Washington.
If the TRO is not granted and Elliott does not take the case further in the legal system, then the first game Elliott would be eligible to play would be Nov. 5 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Elliott’s attorneys said they intend to take the running back’s case to the federal level if necessary.
“Mr. Elliott is looking forward to having his day in federal court where the playing field will be level and the NFL will have to answer for its unfair and unjust practices,” Elliott’s attorneys said in a statement.
A spokesman for the Cowboys said the team has no comment on Tuesday’s decision.
That Elliott will be available Sunday could be viewed as a minor victory for the running back and the Cowboys. While the Cowboys express support for Elliott’s potential replacements, Darren McFadden, Alfred Morris and Rod Smith, none is as good as Elliott, who led the NFL in rushing with 1,631 yards last year.
The Cowboys were 3.5-point favorites over the Giants at the majority of Las Vegas sportsbooks, prior to Elliott’s being cleared to play in Week 1. The line ticked up to Dallas -4 after the news was announced.
Ezekiel Elliott is eligible to play in Sunday’s season opener, despite his six-game ban being upheld. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
Elliott took part in Tuesday’s meetings and walk-through at the Cowboys’ practice facility, The Star, in Frisco, Texas, before heading to Paul Brown District Court, roughly 50 minutes away, in time for the hearing. He is expected to be at the Cowboys’ full-pads practice on Wednesday.
On Aug. 11 the NFL announced a six-game suspension for violating the personal conduct policy, citing “persuasive” evidence Elliott committed physical abuse against Tiffany Thompson, a former girlfriend, at least three times in July 2016.
Despite Elliott’s ability to play Sunday, his attorneys issued a statement decrying Henderson’s decision.
“We are extremely disappointed with Mr. Henderson’s inability to navigate through league politics, and follow the evidence and, most importantly, his [conscience],” Elliott’s attorneys said in a statement.
The statement also contends that Elliott is the “victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by the National Football League and its officers to keep exonerating evidence from the decision-makers, including the advisors and Roger Goodell.”
Elliott had his appeal heard last week in New York with three days of testimony lasting 25 hours from Elliott and multiple experts and witnesses, although Thompson was not allowed to be called. It was revealed during the hearing that the league’s lead investigator, Kia Wright Roberts, was not at the meeting in which Goodell and the four advisors reached the conclusion Elliott needed to be suspended. Roberts was the only NFL employee to interview Thompson, doing so six times, and she recommended Elliott not be disciplined.
In the conclusion of his decision, Henderson explained that as arbitrator it was his job to evaluate the fairness of the NFL’s process in which it penalized Elliott, not whether or not the punishment was fitting.
“The review is to determine whether the player was afforded adequate notice of his alleged violation, the right to representation, opportunity to present evidence, and a decision which is fair and consistent,” Henderson wrote. “In a case involving violation of a policy, fair and consistent means whether the process and result were in compliance with the terms of that policy. This one is, in every respect.”
When the Seattle Seahawks pulled off a surprise trade for tight end Jimmy Graham in March of 2015, general manager John Schneider said the reasoning behind the move was his belief that there are “no finish lines” to building a championship-caliber team.
At the time, the Seahawks were coming off back-to-back Super Bowl appearances and had come within a yard of repeating as champions. They could have stood pat, but Schneider believed that as good as his team already was, acquiring a weapon like Graham would make it even better, even at the cost of a first-round pick plus starting center Max Unger.
The same roster philosophy led the Seahawks to make their latest blockbuster move, a trade for defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson in exchange for a package that includes Seattle’s second-round pick in 2018.
That’s not to say Richardson is entirely a luxury addition. The Seahawks could use a difference-maker at defensive tackle with top pick Malik McDowell potentially unavailable for his entire rookie season, if not longer, following an ATV accident. But Seattle’s defense already featured seven Pro Bowlers, including two on their defensive line in addition to Frank Clark, who’s coming off a 10-sack season. This was not a move they had to make, but Schneider made it anyway.
The same was true with Percy Harvin in 2013, when Seattle already had Doug Baldwin, Golden Tate and Sidney Rice in its receiver corps plus a Pro Bowl kick returner in Leon Washington. Seattle gave up its first-round pick and signed Harvin to what at the time was the richest contract in franchise history. He couldn’t fit into the Seahawks’ offense nor their locker room and was dumped 19 months later.
When the Seahawks traded for Graham the following offseason, it showed that the Harvin flop didn’t leave Schneider at all gun-shy when it comes to making bold moves.
Schneider and the Seahawks’ front office take great pride in how aggressively they pursue potential personnel acquisitions, even if they never materialize.
“That’s kind of how we got guys like Ahtyba Rubin here, Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett,” Schneider told 710 ESPN Seattle in 2016. “That’s how we acquired those guys a little bit later on, just by being aggressive in terms of staying in deals. Now, we walk away from, shoot, I would say like 70 percent of them, maybe 80 percent.”
The Richardson trade was one of those moves they stuck with until the end.
The Seahawks’ defense would have still been among the NFL’s best without him. But as Schneider has shown, he doesn’t believe in leaving well enough alone.
