A FIFA executive claims video assistant referees (VAR) will be introduced for the first time at the World Cup when the quadrennial contest kicks off in Russia in June.
Chief commercial officer Philippe Le Floc’h confirmed plans to use the video review technology in discussion with The Associated Press, saying, “definitely VAR will happen. I think it’s great to have technology in football because this is also a fair(ness) thing.”
Le Floc’h adds that talks have begun between FIFA and potential sponsors over branding the use of VAR technology.
“We are talking to various technological companies who are very interested with what we are doing on the technology side of things,” Floc’h added.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB), a body formed by FIFA in 1904 to govern the rules of the sport, has been conducting trials on VAR technology for a two-year period dating back to the 130th Annual General Meeting in Cardiff in March 2016.
VAR has since been employed in top-flight domestic leagues in Germany, Italy, and in Major League Soccer, with plans to introduce it next season in top-tier French and Spanish football. VAR has also been trialled in England during domestic cups.
The technology allows the match official to review contentious incidents involving goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards, and cases of mistaken identity.
A final decision will be made by IFAB on March 2 when its annual meeting is held.
PHILADELPHIA — Things were already going very well for the Philadelphia Eagles on this mild January night, but when the call came in — “FLEA FLICKER!” — from the sideline with 10 minutes, 13 seconds to go in the third quarter and the ball at the Minnesota 41-yard line, the huddle had to work to keep it together.
“I think you just try not to smile,” Eagles quarterback Nick Foles said a couple of hours later, long after he and his teammates had all stopped trying. “I don’t know if I’ve ever run a flea flicker, so it was my first time, so I just tried not to smile. Because anytime you’re a quarterback and you can do a little play like that, it’s pretty exciting, and sometimes they can go really bad.”
But nothing went bad for Foles or the Eagles in this one. This was a 38-7 thumping of the Minnesota Vikings that crowned Philadelphia the 2017 NFC champions and tacked another head-scratching chapter on to the odd story of Foles’ career. Coach and white-hot playcaller Doug Pederson sent in a flea flicker, the Eagles ran a flea flicker and Foles just dropped a dime of a 41-yard touchdown pass to a fairly well-covered Torrey Smith. The second of three touchdown passes on the night for Foles against the league’s No. 1 defense, just the way everybody thought it would go.
“I haven’t even had time to really comprehend what is going on, to be honest,” Foles said after the game. “I don’t know if I ever will. When I was up on that stage, that’s something you dream about as a kid.”
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There are so many places to go with the Nick Foles story, but let’s start there on that makeshift stage. A team wins the NFC Championship Game, and it hops up on a hastily assembled stage in the middle of the field to get the trophy and does interviews with Terry Bradshaw the whole stadium can hear. Pederson was up there with team owner Jeffrey Lurie and a handful of other players in their gray, NFC championship T-shirts and hats, filming it all with their phones.
Somebody in charge of staging those postgame festivities spotted Eagles backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld and started shouting, “Hey! You need to be up on that stage! Nick! You need to be up on that stage!” Sudfeld shook his head and informed the earnest individual — as he had informed fans screaming, “Nick!” at him during pregame warmups — that he was not Foles, and that Foles was already up there.
Foles got a kick out of the story when Sudfeld relayed it to him at the lockers a while later. He knows how crazy all of this is. He knows he wasn’t supposed to be here — that but for Carson Wentz tearing his ACL in a Week 14 game in Los Angeles, Foles would have spent this game with an earpiece in, watching from the sideline as Wentz went 26-for-33 for 352 yards and three touchdown passes.
Foles has the perspective to appreciate the texture of his career path. He probably had the greatest statistical season any Eagles quarterback has ever had — his 27-touchdown, two-interception season for the Chip Kelly-coached Eagles back in 2013. But a year after that, he was gone from Philly. He spent 2015 with the Rams, helping turn out the lights on the NFL in St. Louis. Later cut by the Rams in camp in 2016, he pondered retirement before former Eagles coach Andy Reid hired him as Alex Smith’s backup in Kansas City. Then he signed up with Pederson, another of his former Eagles coaches, to back up Wentz in Philly this year.
Thrust into the spotlight again after Wentz’s injury, Foles flung four touchdown passes in an encouraging Week 15 victory over the miserable Giants, but then he laid a huge egg in the regular-season finale against the Cowboys. The Eagles entered the playoffs as the NFC’s No. 1 seed, thanks mainly to the MVP-caliber work Wentz did before his injury, but as recently as 10 days ago, their fans were chewing their fingernails down to the nubs at the thought of Foles having to make one of those third-down pickups in a big spot in the playoffs.
“In sports, everything’s a process, and you can’t give up,” Foles said. “Everyone, when it’s a bad outing, wants to be really critical. But no one in the locker room doubted me.”
They really didn’t. Talking to the Eagles’ players in late December, you heard a lot about that 2013 season as proof that Foles could start and succeed in NFL games. The Eagles believed in their coaching staff and the depth of their impressive roster. Having lost left tackle Jason Peters, middle linebacker Jordan Hicks and running back Darren Sproles already to season-ending injuries, they convinced themselves they were strong enough to overcome the loss of Wentz, as well.
“Most teams, when they lose their starting quarterback, the season’s over,” center Jason Kelce said. “Not this team. It’s a credit to our front office for putting a guy back there who can get it done.”
Foles is what he is. The story of his career has been one of ultra-high highs and deep, deep lows. He’s as liable to play poorly in the Super Bowl as he is to repeat Sunday’s triumph. His volatility and his unpredictability are what make him a backup, and by this point, he and those around him have more or less made peace with that.
But right now? Right now, he’s not a backup. Right now, Nick Foles is a starting quarterback in Super Bowl LII against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. And in the wake of Sunday’s victory, he moved around like a man quite comfortable in that impossibly lofty spot.
After the stage, his next stop was the X-ray room, where his team wanted him to have his ribs checked out following a night of hard hits from the Vikings’ front. They checked out fine, and he strode back into the locker room in that gray T-shirt with his uniform pants and cleats still on. At this locker, a well-worn Bible sat on a top shelf with a white piece of paper marking a passage somewhere in the middle. (“I’d rather not share which one, but I appreciate you asking,” he said.) For a full minute, he sat in his chair alone with his head in his hands, quietly pondering it all. Then he got up and, in his low-key way, joined the party.
He laughed with Sudfield at the stories of people confusing the two. He posed for a photo with the children of general manager Howie Roseman. He accepted quiet handshakes and congratulations from teammates and locker-room personnel. After his shower, he sat for a while and talked with Wentz, who was walking with the help of a cane in his right hand and a heavy brace under his left pants leg. He slipped on a black T-shirt with green lettering and a message about Jesus, and over that he slipped that gray NFC-champions shirt again. A pair of clear-framed glasses and a cap that matched the shirt, and he was on his way to his news conference, where he talked openly about just how crazy this all is.
“Right now,” he said, “we’re headed to the Super Bowl, and it’s pretty unreal.”
Yeah, there’s no way Nick Foles woke up on Dec. 1, 2017,and imagined himself starting in the NFC Championship Game and then the Super Bowl. After the way he and the Eagles finished the season, it’s hard to believe any of the revelers who howled their way back up Broad Street from Lincoln Financial Field imagined it, either. But Foles isn’t one to bog down in all of that. He’s basically all about the work.
“You just have to keep working,” he said. “You’re not going to always have a great day. You should never get down. You should always learn from those experiences and look forward to working through them. Because that’s the beautiful thing, when you look back at the journey and you realize that it wasn’t always great. There were bumps in the road, but you were able to overcome them with the help of the people around you, the people that believe in you and love you. That’s a special thing, and that’s what’s so special about a moment like this, because you have an opportunity to reflect and be grateful.”
Sometimes, as the man said, you have to try not to smile.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans have hired Mike Vrabel as the 19th head coach in franchise history, the team announced Saturday.
Vrabel, 42, will replace Mike Mularkey, who was fired Monday. The Titans will give Vrabel a five-year contract, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
A 14-year NFL veteran and three-time Super Bowl champion, Vrabel spent the past four seasons coaching the Houston Texans, including 2017 as their defensive coordinator.
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“We want to build a culture around winning, competitiveness and toughness,” Vrabel said. “Everything we do is going to be geared towards winning and being physical. We want to prepare our players so they know what to do, which will allow them to play fast and aggressive.”
The Texans, meanwhile, will replace Vrabel with Romeo Crennel, adding to his previous title of assistant head coach, coach Bill O’Brien told Fox 26 in Houston.
Titans general manager Jon Robinson handpicked Vrabel as his first interview candidate. Earlier this week, Robinson described his ideal head coach as being a “leader of men, team-first, detailed, tough and dependable,” qualities that Vrabel has received high praise for both as a coach and a player.
Robinson and Vrabel spent seven years together in New England, from 2002-08, when Vrabel was a player and Robinson was cutting his teeth in the Patriots’ scouting department. That relationship certainly played a role in this hire.
“I have always had a great deal of respect for Mike as a player and as a coach,” Robinson said. “I saw him up close as a player for the Patriots and saw how he prepared himself to be successful on a daily basis. He was the ultimate team-first player, and he embodies that same mindset as a coach. He is intelligent, energetic, detailed and a leader whose deep passion for this game will resonate with our players. As a coach, I have seen him develop talent at both the college and NFL level, and put players in position for them to be successful. I am excited to get him in front of our team and watch us grow together as a team.”
Vrabel is scheduled to be introduced by the Titans at a news conference Monday at Saint Thomas Sports Park.
Among Mike Vrabel’s top priorities as Titans head coach will be the development of quarterback Marcus Mariota, who took a big step back in his third NFL season. Erik Williams/USA TODAY Sports
Vrabel’s offensive staff will be extremely important, and it’s likely he detailed a solid plan to convince Robinson he could bring in strong coaches to maximize their offensive talent and get the most out of quarterback Marcus Mariota, who took a big step back in his third NFL season.
It’s yet to be seen who will fill the all-important roles of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Mariota’s development will be essential, and those hires could be just as important as Vrabel’s.
Most of the Titans assistant coaches, including defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, are under contract through the 2018 season, and Vrabel will decide which ones he will keep.
With this hire, the Titans prioritized culture, leadership and maximizing the talent on the field. Robinson said it was “paramount” that he and the new head coach be aligned in everything involving the Titans organization. They clearly believe they are.
“In the interaction between Mike and Jon during the interview, you could see their connection right away from the history they have with one another — seeing the game in a similar way and talking the same language,” controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said. “Mike has a commanding presence and a deep understanding for how he will attack this head coaching opportunity. Throughout his football career, he has played for, been mentored by and coached with successful teams and organizations. He knows what it takes to reach that level of sustained success — he has seen it first-hand. We have a chance to build on the solid foundation that we established over the past couple of years and I believe Mike is the right person to continue that progress.”
Vrabel’s first task will be selling his culture and mission to a strong Titans locker room that achieved the most success for this franchise since the 2003 season. Taking the next step from playoff team to championship contender won’t be easy, but Robinson and Strunk clearly believe Vrabel is up for the task.
The Titans also interviewed Rams offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur and Panthers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks for the job.
Covered Vikings for Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999-2008
The Minnesota Vikings have designated Pro Bowl receiver Adam Thielen as questionable for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. But indications are strong that Thielen will start, despite a lower back injury that cost him one day of practice this week and limited him for two others.
Safety Andrew Sendejo (concussion) is also listed as questionable. But Sendejo was a full participant in practice Friday and appears set to start as well. Sendejo still must formally be cleared by an independent neurologist via an exam that will take place no later than Saturday.
Vikings receiver Adam Thielen has been limited this week by a lower back injury, though he is expected to play in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Eagles. Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire
Meanwhile, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer would not say whether Sam Bradford or Teddy Bridgewater would back up quarterback Case Keenum. Bradford took that role from Bridgewater for last week’s divisional playoff round and is expected to do the same Sunday. Earlier this week, Zimmer left open the possibility that all three quarterbacks will be active.
