Raphael Stevens

The matchup had been anticipated all season: Tom Brady and Drew Brees, two sure-shot Hall of Fame quarterbacks nearing the ends of their careers, facing off in prime time on Sunday. The fact that their teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints, are battling for control of the N.F.C. South only raised the stakes.This is the N.F.L., though, where troublesome personalities on the field sometimes steal the show, or at least a lot of the attention. In this case, it was the debut of Antonio Brown with the Buccaneers.Brown, an All-Pro wide receiver returned to the field for the first time in 16 months after tumultuous breakups with three teams, self-destructive explosions on social media and several lawsuits, one of which led to an eight-game suspension. Another one — a civil suit accusing him of sexual assault and rape — may go to trial as soon as next month.If that were not problematic enough, his return to the field came with the full-throated endorsement, if not machinations, by Brady, who had bonded with Brown during a brief stint with the Patriots and is even lending him a room in his Tampa-area mansion.In the end, Tampa needed a receiver and was willing to look past any off-field transgressions, though on Sunday they appeared to need a lot more as the Saints blew them out, 38-3, and Brown caught only three passes.Yet Brown’s return to the N.F.L. — after all his legal troubles, his threats to retire and his bad-mouthing of former employers — raised fresh questions about the league’s tolerance for players who act poorly off the field, particularly when it includes accusations of violence against women, an issue that has dogged the league for years.The N.F.L. professes to hold players accountable when they damage the league’s brand. And, indeed, the league suspended Brown for eight games this season — a hefty penalty by its standards — and Brown could be suspended again depending on what is disclosed during his civil suit.But in allowing Brown to suit up yet again, the league risks tacitly normalizing his behavior, which has included fights with a general manager, livestreaming embarrassing video in his team’s locker room and a grievance over which helmet he could wear.Under the cloak of offering second chances, teams often look past a player’s behavior if he has something to offer on the field. Undeniably, Brown, 32, has been immensely talented. His 68 touchdown receptions since 2013, even after sitting out a season and a half, are still the most among active receivers.Teams want to win championships and bet that fans and sponsors will also look past players with checkered lives. In that light, Brown is simply another hired gun, albeit one with a trail of burned bridges, hired to get the Buccaneers to the promised land. He joins other mercenaries like Brady, who signed a $60 million, two-year contract in March; Brady’s favorite tight end, Rob Gronkowski, who came out of retirement; and running back Leonard Fournette, who spent three rocky years with the Jacksonville Jaguars.“Discipline in the N.F.L. has an inverse relationship to a player’s talent on the field,” said Nellie Drew, the director of the Center for the Advancement of Sport at the University at Buffalo School of Law.In other words, the more talent, the more likely a team looks the other way.The Buccaneers provided all the usual caveats, some of which required back flips and contortions. Coach Bruce Arians said in March he had no interest in Brown. Now that the team has several injured receivers — and a star quarterback who wanted him — Brown seemed like a better fit. Arians added that there was no inconsistency between his well-deserved record of hiring women and signing a player accused of sexual assault.Arians noted that Brown had not been convicted of any crimes. (Brown pleaded no contest to felony burglary and battery charges after an altercation with a truck driver, an episode that led to his eight-game suspension.) Arians said that Brown was in “great shape,” had been “positive” and was “moving forward.” Arians and other coaches on the Buccaneers know Brown from their days together with the Pittsburgh Steelers and would provide support.Even so, Arians suggested Brown would be on a short leash.“I think let the court system do its job,” Arians said. “I mean allegations, I’ve been around a lot of players facing allegations that weren’t true. Some were. So let the court system handle it, and if it’s found out to be true, he won’t be with us.”In some ways, Brown is getting less scrutiny than he would in a normal season. Because of the pandemic, fewer fans are in stadiums, so there is less chance of Brown being booed.Reporters are not allowed in clubhouses this year, so there are no television cameras camped out at his locker. All interviews are done by video conferencing, and team personnel control who asks questions and how long interviews last.Last week, Brown, who wore a “TB12” cap denoting Brady’s health and wellness company, told reporters that Brady was instrumental in his return and had introduced him to the motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Brown said he has been “working on myself within and without” and “not listening to the naysayers.”Still, he hoped to “win them over in my actions, how I move forward and how I handle my business.”Television broadcasters have a different task when discussing Brown because they have a game to produce, too. “Nothing should really overwhelm the game except the game itself,” said Fred Gaudelli, the producer of ‘Sunday Night Football’ at NBC Sports. “Brown will be covered but not at the expense of the game.”On Sunday night, NBC used its pregame show to delve into Brown’s circumstances because there were no unscripted interruptions that might occur during the game. The pregame show, though, has half and sometimes one-third as many viewers as the game.Mike Tirico, the show’s host, introduced the discussion on Brown as “the latest chapter in a saga that has lasted for nearly two years.” He reeled off a list of Brown’s transgressions and travails, including run-ins with his quarterback in Pittsburgh, injuring his foot in cryotherapy sessions, getting fined tens of thousands of dollars for missing workouts and his release by the New England Patriots after allegations of sexual misconduct.Hosts went on to assess whether the “Antonio Brown experiment” would “work” in Tampa. “This has to work for him or he’s out of chances,” Michael Holley said. “And by the way, he’s staying at Tom Brady’s house. That has to work out, right?”Tony Dungy, a former coach, said that Brady’s sponsoring Brown was critical. “Tom Brady, being your quarterback, a veteran, and he vouches for him, and comes to you and says, ‘Coach, we need this guy,’ that definitely impacts your decision-making.”Rodney Harrison, a former teammate of Brady’s, said the 43-year-old quarterback was “the perfect person to manage Antonio Brown” because he would hold the receiver accountable. Harrison never said what that meant.Before kickoff, the sideline reporter, Michele Tafoya, summed up Brown’s problems again. But then it was on to football. Brown’s troubles were discussed again only before halftime.“We’ll see as we move forward,” said Al Michaels, the announcer. “But Bruce Arians making it pretty clear, he toes the line or that’s the end of that.” More

Buffalo’s offense exploded against Seattle, the Ravens and the Chiefs held on for wins, the Steelers improved to 8-0 and the Saints humiliated the Buccaneers. More

John Harbaugh’s paternal grandfather, Bill, was an awful driver, and as a tumultuous week dawned for the Baltimore Ravens, the coach felt compelled to share as much with his players.His grandfather, Harbaugh told them, couldn’t pull in or out of the garage without scraping the paint or battering the wood. When it was gently mentioned that his car lacked a rearview mirror, Bill huffed an explanation: “I don’t need to know where I’m coming from. I need to know where I’m going.”The Ravens’ convictions are cloaked by a sort of blind faith, the expectation that they can summon a critical play, an efficient drive or a dominant half of football when they need to simply because they can — because they know where they are going. As their season teetered on Sunday, the Ravens mustered all three in a second-half reversal that dazed the Indianapolis Colts.For Baltimore, the result — a 24-10 victory — mattered greatly. The win, after a last-second loss to its A.F.C. North rival Pittsburgh last week, reasserted the Ravens’ presence as a contender in the rugged conference and impeded the path of the Colts (5-3) in the playoff chase. But from the Ravens’ perspective, how they managed to win Sunday mattered just as much.“They understood the gravity of the win,” Harbaugh said. “They understood how tough that win was.”It was tough because the Ravens played without two starting offensive linemen who were hurt last week; the All-Pro cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who tested positive for the coronavirus last week; and the Pro Bowl defensive end Calais Campbell, who left early in the first quarter with a calf injury. It was tough because in the first half, the Colts stymied quarterback Lamar Jackson and the league’s most productive running offense like no other team had this season, holding Baltimore to 18 rushing yards. And it was tough because the Ravens, for all their offensive dynamism and defensive might, had lost 20 straight games when down at halftime.When Baltimore (6-2) ran onto the field for the second half Sunday, after it had scored a defensive touchdown to trail, 10-7, it faced the fulcrum of its season: A second consecutive loss could have shoved the Ravens three games behind the Steelers in the division and reinforced the belief that Jackson beats only inferior teams, a notion propagated by the Ravens’ playoff loss to Tennessee last season and perpetuated by defeats this year to Pittsburgh and Kansas City.After a drive in which the Ravens fumbled on first-and-goal from the Colts’ 3-yard line, the game turned four minutes into the second half on an Indianapolis pass that was initially ruled incomplete. But Harbaugh challenged the call, believing that cornerback Marcus Peters, who caught the ball while backpedaling, held on to it long enough to establish possession before it was dislodged. The call was overturned — Peters was adjudged to have controlled it and taken three steps — and after regaining possession, Baltimore recalibrated.By picking up the tempo, the Ravens reduced the efficacy of Indianapolis’s sideline-to-sideline speed. They scored touchdowns on consecutive drives, on a 1-yard run by Gus Edwards and a 9-yard keeper from Jackson on a series that had been extended by J.K. Dobbins’s 4-yard run on fourth-and-3 from the Indianapolis 43.“That’s a tough one to pull the trigger on,” Harbaugh said, but he trusted the play, and he trusted Jackson to make the proper read.The natural inclination is to presume that a player like Jackson, after smashing records and bamboozling defenses and collecting awards, continues ascending at a steady, deadly rate. That his off-season represented a tantalizing respite between M.V.P. seasons, and that in every game he further redefines a position already bent to his will.Except that a player’s development is rarely linear. Quarterbacks, especially. Jackson remains as elusive as ever, but his passing proficiency has waned. Entering Sunday, he had completed less than 60 percent of his throws in four of his previous five games, and he was coming off throwing two interceptions as part of a four-turnover day against Pittsburgh.Against the Colts, Jackson completed all 10 second-half passes — “just keeping it going,” he said — to finish 19 of 23 for 170 yards. He also ran for 58 yards, regrouping after a dismal first quarter, when Baltimore failed to net even a single rushing yard. In the second quarter, the Ravens completed a miserable trifecta — stuffed run, sack, holding penalty — to encounter a third-and-35. The totality of the carnage represented the Ravens’ worst offensive first-half showing since their playoff loss to Tennessee. If not for Chuck Clark’s fumble return for a touchdown, Baltimore wouldn’t have scored at all.But then Baltimore shut out Indianapolis in the second half and Matthew Judon all but extinguished the Colts’ hopes by hitting Philip Rivers to force an incompletion on fourth-and-1 from the Baltimore 16 with 5 minutes 34 seconds remaining. The Ravens gathered in a jubilant locker room, where their general manager, Eric DeCosta, used the word “fortitude” to describe Sunday’s win.At the midway point of their season, the Ravens are positioned well. They are within reach of Pittsburgh. They’re still among the best teams in the N.F.L. They know where they are coming from, and they like where they are going. More

The N.F.L. has fined the Las Vegas Raiders $500,000 and their head coach, Jon Gruden, an additional $150,000 and has taken away a late-round draft pick next year because of repeated violations of the league’s coronavirus protocols, according to a league employee who was not authorized to discuss the penalties publicly.The team, which had already been fined for violations earlier in the season, is likely to appeal the latest penalties, the employee said.Thursday’s fines and the loss of a draft pick were by far the strongest punishment yet against an N.F.L. team, as the league has tried to push through a season while the coronavirus continues to rage in many areas of the country.The N.F.L. has increased the restrictions on where and how players, coaches and staff members can move around in and outside team facilities, and it warned teams last month that violations would result in increasingly stiffer penalties, including the loss of draft picks and potentially the forfeiting of games.The Tennessee Titans have had the worst outbreak in the league, with at least two dozen players, coaches and staff members testing positive in a period that forced the postponement of two games and required a half-dozen other teams to juggle their schedules. The league fined the Titans $350,000 for their handling of the outbreak. But it did not take away any draft picks. Last month, Gruden was fined $100,000 and the team was fined $250,000 because the coach had not worn his face covering properly on the sideline during a game. The team was also fined $50,000 for allowing an unauthorized visitor in the locker room.Individual players were fined after 10 Raiders, including the team’s star quarterback, Derek Carr, attended a charity event in a crowded indoor venue without wearing masks.Raiders offensive lineman Trent Brown was put back on the reserve/Covid-19 list for a second time on Thursday because of ongoing complications related to the coronavirus. He was first placed on the list Oct. 21 after he tested positive. The Raiders then sent home the rest of their starting offensive linemen because they had been in contract with Brown.Yahoo first reported news of the Raiders’ latest penalties. More

Those quarterbacks, as well as Philip Rivers, are showing signs of wear and tear but still thriving in the twilight of their careers. They have the Steelers, Saints, Buccaneers and Colts on course to make the playoffs. More

With victory assured, Brady smirked. It was most certainly not a smile, nor was it a grin. Call it a knowing snicker. More