NFL’s wild Week 11 included Garrett, Kaepernick, Mexico

NFL’s wild Week 11 featured Myles Garrett getting in a swivet, Colin Kaepernick’s pivot and all those Azteca Stadium divots. bookends were fracas that occurred Thursday night in closing seconds of Cleveland’s 21-7 win against Pittsburgh and Chiefs’ 24-17 victory over Chargers on Monday night in Mexico in a game that left field looking as though Charles Barkley and Bill Murray had been practicing at driving range.

In between, all attention was on Kaepernick’s audible to move his scheduled workout in front of 25 NFL teams to a high school field in suburban Atlanta after refusing league’s limitations. t everybody came down as hard on Garrett as NFL did when it suspended Browns’ star pass rusher and former . 1 overall draft pick indefinitely for ripping Mason Rudolph’s helmet off and n smacking him over head with it.

“That’s t him,” Broncos star linebacker Von Miller said of his fellow Texas A&M alum. “He’ll be able to get up out of this, just continue to be himself. Everybody kws that that’s t him. It just happened. You can see why he was driven to that by all stuff that Mason was doing. But it was a mistake. It’s t going to define his career. “He probably didn’t kw he had helmet in his hand still,” added Miller, who cut off interview just n as TV cameras suddenly swarmed around him.

While Miller was especially vocal in his defense of his fellow Aggie, general position in locker rooms across league was this: Mason might have tried wresting Garrett’s helmet after a late hit and kicked him in crotch, but so what? “I don’t think that Mason Rudolph is incent by any means,” Denver defensive end Shelby Harris said. “But matter what, he didn’t deserve to be hit in head with a helmet.”

code of football fisticuffs is this: when somebody’s helmet comes off, fight stops. Miller’s teammate, safety Justin Simmons, said he figured Garrett was going to just toss helmet once he pried it from Rudolph, “but coming over top and hitting him? You just can’t do it. That could have been his career. And that could have been t just brain dam but that could have been his life.”

Many NFL players came to defense of Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey, who drew a three-game suspension for coming to Rudolph’s defense by punching and kicking Garrett. “He’s just trying to protect his quarterback,” Harris said. “I didn’t think anything was going to happen to him.” Pouncey will have his appeal heard Tuesday and Garrett will try to get his suspension reduced on Wednesday.

NFL returned to Mexico one year after calling off a Rams-Chiefs showdown at Azteca Stadium on short tice because of poor field conditions, but two teams that played re Monday night left field full of large divots from sharp stops or changes of direction. Officials at Azteca Stadium converted field back to natural grass after a failed attempt at a hybrid last year led league to relocate last year’s game to Los Angeles on six days’ tice. And field this year had been untouched since Club América’s last home soccer game v. 2.

An NFL delegation visited Azteca earlier this season and “found field in exceptional shape,” Chris Halpin, NFL’s chief strategy and growth officer, told Associated Press last month. But return to grass and a lighter event calendar didn’t help once game got going. grounds crew came onto field at halftime and during timeouts in second half to attend to worst spots.

Kaepernick, who hasn’t played in NFL since 2016 after sparking a wave of protests and divisive debate by kneeling during national anm in protest of social and racial injustice, worked out in front of eight teams Saturday at an Atlanta area high school after moving his league-sponsored workout from Falcons’ training facilities, where 25 clubs were set to watch. Both sides share blame in messy episode.

Kaepernick’s side said league wanted him to sign more than standard workout waiver and didn’t want to let media in to videotape. NFL countered with a long reply that ran 510 words (about as long as first 16 paragraphs of this 24-paragraph story), saying, among or points, that league had agreed to Kaepernick’s request to bring along his own receivers but that y hadn’t been told of his desire to allow media to attend until last minute Saturday.

Kaepernick declared again that he’s ready to play in NFL. “I’ve been ready for three years,” he said. “I’ve been denied for three years. We all kw why. I came out here today and showed it in front of everybody. We have thing to hide. We’re waiting for 32 owners, 32 teams, (Commissioner) Roger Goodell, all of m to stop running, stop running from truth, stop running from people.” NFL concluded its statement by saying, “Colin’s decision has effect on his status in league. He remains an unrestricted free nt eligible to sign with any club.” That doesn’t seem likely, t after this whole situation showed just how much of a circus might accompany a Kaepernick return to serve as somebody’s backup quarterback.