In the second blockbuster trade of the day, the Eagles are – as has been expected all off-season – shipping wide receiver A.J. Brown to the Patriots, for a first-round pick in 2028 and a fifth-round pick in 2027.
And, the Giants have brought back WR Odell Beckham Jr. OBJ is now 33 years old, is ten years removed from his last Pro Bowl appearance, and has only played in 9 games in the past two seasons – and none in 2025, when he was a free agent, and was suspended for part of the season for PEDs.
Completely agree. The ESPN article notes that the Giants have several injured WRs, and I imagine that this is a low-risk move for the team, giving them another warm body for training camp and pre-season games, and giving Beckham a chance to show that he has anything left.
Prior to those two, there was a not-quite corner case, in Super Bowl XIX. It was played at Stanford Stadium, and won by Joe Montana’s 49ers; it’s located in the Bay Area, so it was played in the 49ers’ home market (more or less), but it wasn’t their actual home stadium.
If you want to count playing in the home market, then I think Super Bowl XIV was the first. It was between the Rams and Steelers at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, not too far from LA’s home stadium.
Seems like a win/win. Rams, in “win now” mode, get possibly the best football player on the planet at a reasonable price, both in terms of cap hit and draft capital. The first round draft pick next year will likely be in the mid to late 20s.
The Browns, who are chronically in “win few” mode, get a younger and cheaper (for a year or so), with a stud pass rusher coming into his prime, and a first round pick next year and a couple more thrown in. And Garrett had been unhappy there (didn’t effect his performance much, though).
Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons, who suffered an ACL tear in mid-December, is likely to not return to play until sometime in mid-October, at the earliest.
He had surgery on the knee on December 29th, and revealed today that the surgery also involved a procedure on the meniscus. The expectation is that he won’t be cleared to return to football practice until the nine-month mark post-surgery, which would be in late September.
It seems likely that he’ll start the season on the PUP list, which would rule him out from even practicing for the first four weeks of the season.
I can’t see how this will work out well. That guy has the on-screen personality of drying paint. Have you ever seen his advertising campaign with Subway?
The Bears are – maybe – a step closer to moving over the state border, to Hammond, Indiana.
The Illinois state legislature adjourned from its “spring session” this past Sunday without successfully passing either of two bills which would have provided the Bears with tax breaks to build a new stadium in northwest suburban Arlington Heights, on property which they have owned for several years.
Today, the team announced that its board of directors has voted to advance their stadium development in Hammond, though an exact site has yet to be determined. Back in February, the Indiana legislature passed a bill to provide tax incentives for a Bears stadium.
AIUI, unless Illinois calls for a special session of its legislature to revisit the Bears’ situation, they will not convene again until next January.
