#_author:Eric Edholm

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Robert Kraft blames 'envy and jealousy' for deflate-gate, praises longtime friend Donald Trump

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft lashed out against the deflate-gate investigation one more time and also chimed in on his relationship with President Donald Trump in a wide-ranging interview at the Bloomberg Breakaway Summit on Tuesday night in New York.

On the league’s investigation into Tom Brady over under-inflated footballs, Kraft couldn’t help but take another shot at the league for its handling of the situation. Brady eventually served a four-game suspension after his appeal was dropped, and the Patriots were hit with massive penalties — the loss of first- and fourth-round draft picks, along with a $1 million fine — following the investigation that stemmed from the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in January 2015.

The Patriots, of course, have won two of the three Super Bowls since, reaching the AFC title game the one year they did not the championship.

“Well, I don’t hold grudges, but I also don’t forget anything,” Kraft said, via USA Today. “Envy and jealousy are incurable diseases. I’m going into my 24th season as an owner. I’m passionate about owning a football team in my hometown.

“If I hadn’t won, I would be so angry at our folks and thinking about what we’d have to do [to win a title]. So, our competitors, I understand how they brought pressure on the league office to be very strong and [lobbied] not to compromise on an issue that was nonsense and foolishness.”

Patriots owner Robert Kraft (L) praised president Donald Trump and head coach Bill Belichick. (AP)

Kraft also spoke about his relationship with President Donald Trump, which goes back 25 years but was crystallized following the death of Kraft’s wife in 2011. The Patriots owner said Trump was one of the people who tried most to keep his spirits up in the aftermath.

“He called me once a week for a year and invited me to things,” Kraft said. “That was the darkest period of my life. I’m a pretty strong person. My kids thought I was going to die. There were five or six people who were great to me, and he was one of them.

“Loyalty and friendship trumps politics for me. I always remember the people who were good to me in that vulnerable time, and he’s in that category.”

As for the now-president who has become a highly divisive public figure, Kraft said he doesn’t like the media’s portrayal of Trump but that some of that is “self-inflicted.” Still, Kraft makes an apology for Trump that others also have said in different forms.

“He doesn’t mean everything he says,” Kraft said. “I’m privileged to know that. People who don’t know him maybe don’t see the better side. I tell you one thing: He’s very hard-working.”

Also hard-working (and not roundly beloved — at least not outside New England) are Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, whom Kraft said people warned him about back in 2000 when he hired Belichick.

“When I hired him, people told me I shouldn’t,” Kraft said. “We had to build a stadium. We needed goodwill from the public. We needed people who interviewed well and were gracious. People sent me tapes of him from Cleveland. In his five years in Cleveland, he had a losing record in four of the five years.

“In life, if you’re picking your life partner or key managers in your company, you can look at the curriculum vitae and look at all these things, but it’s [about] the simpatico of a connection. What is right for me may not be right for you.”

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Meet the folk hero showing his Cubs support in barely legal replica Bugatti

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CHICAGO — Eight hours before first pitch of the first World Series at Wrigley Field since just after World War II ended, there are sights and sounds everywhere. But one rings above the others: the clown-car horn on a Chicago Cubs-themed car that gets people to turn their heads immediately.

And then you see it. There’s a faux Bugatti decked out in Cubs stickers, posters, flags and even a stuffed Cubs bear fixed to the front of the car where a hood ornament normally would go. It’s the bearded lady of this circus, which has been going strong in town now all season — and going strong for the past few weeks with the Cubs making history.

The driver of the Bugatti replica, Joe Limas, is becoming a celebrity quickly. In the span of an hour, he has driven around the park — up Sheffield Avenue, over on Waveland, down Clark Street and across Addison, basically as close as he can get as the crowd swells with anticipation. He also has done “maybe a dozen” interviews, in both Spanish and English, and has posed with just about everyone as Game 3 draws closer.

Joe Limas turned his replica Bugatti from an election car to a Chicago Cubs car, and fans outside Wrigley Field can’t get enough of it. (Eric Edholm/Yahoo Sports)

“Let me tell you this: If I collected a dollar from everyone I took a picture with, I’d be a millionaire right now.”

Alas, Limas, 64, is just happy to show off his baby for free and whip Cubs fans into a frenzy. It’s typical Cubs shtick all over the body of the car:

“I love Da Bears but their Cub’s (sic) are awesome”

“Harry Caray is watching over us”

And the latest addition: the “I ain’t afraid of no goat” slogan that Bill Murray, who is singing the seventh-inning stretch during Game 3, made famous a few weeks ago with a T-shirt saying just that.

The gauche car might not be authentic, or all that valuable really, but it’s a hit in these parts.

“Jay Leno has one of these, I mean a real one. The one he has is worth about a million dollars. This one is not worth as much,” Limas said, deadpan.

He knows his car is a bit too ostentatious to, say, drive it to church on Sundays.

“I drive it on days like this,” Limas said. “This is an important day.”

This guy takes his fandom — and his transportation — seriously. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/04uaqXTaf9

— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) October 28, 2016

Is it street legal? Well, not exactly. He has no clue how many miles it has (“No odometer,” he said) and it’s not even registered.

“I’ve never gotten pulled over,” he said, fingers crossed.

It would be quite the cold-hearted, the-law-is-the-law police officer to pull him over now, right?

“The police in Chicago are fair, I don’t care what people say about them. We have the best police anywhere,” Limas said. “They’re here to help us. Every time they see me, they wave at me and take pictures. They’re super.”

Smart man, covering his bases like that.

Limas bought the car five years ago in dilapidated condition. The original intent was to deck it out as a way to support Chicago mayoral candidate Chuy Garcia, a folk hero of sorts who made a strong push but ultimately fell short of unseating incumbent Rahm Emanuel in 2015. Limas drove it all over the city with Garcia stickers and did his best to show his support.

When Garcia lost, Limas was disappointed. To displace that feeling, he turned it into a Cubs car prior to the biggest season in franchise history. Now he’s proudly stumping for the team he thinks is destined to win it all.

“You can just feel it,” he said. “I am out here to celebrate with the people.”

Limas is a veteran, proudly displaying his pride — for the military, for the Cubs and for his charitable passion, Toys for Tots. Hence the bear on the front of the car. He wants people to enjoy the car and wave, but he also wants people to remember with the holiday season approaching that there are still lots of children in this city who are needy.

“I believe that every kid in the world needs a toy. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I ride all over this city and make sure people remember Toys for Tots. It’s very close to my heart,” Limas said, pointing to the Toys for Tots buttons that date all the way back to 1987 all the way down his Army jacket lapel.

Limas will not be attending the three games in Chicago. He’ll spend his time before them riding around Wrigleyville, hoking his ridiculous sounding horn, taking more pictures and soaking up the scene. And, of course, adding his own little bit of wonderful weirdness to it, too.

“I am going to make sure everyone has a lot of fun out there, and then they can have even more fun watching the Cubs win the World Series,” he said.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Best way to beat the Giants: Drive Odell Beckham Jr. nuts early and often

The league’s scouting book on Odell Beckham Jr. is becoming pretty obvious.

The New York Giants wide receiver is prone to losing his mind in the heat of the action, and it doesn’t have to be Josh Norman covering him to bring it out. The key for opponents is to do whatever they can to incite that inner rage. That’s what the Minnesota Vikings tried to do — and very much succeeded at — in Monday’s 24-10 win to bring them to 4-0.

Get up in Beckham’s face. Double cover him. Give him a little shove after the whistle. Say something in his ear. Put an extra kicking net on the sideline. Whatever it takes.

Xavier Rhodes, left, and the Minnesota Vikings frustrated Odell Beckham Jr, No. 13, often on Monday (AP).

Beckham is a rare talent, but his emotional outbursts are hurting his team, which now finds itself at 2-2 and in last place in the NFC East. He finished the game with three catches for 23 yards — the worst yardage total of his career. Beckham also entered the game with a streak of 28 straight games with at least four catches, and that streak is now over.

The Vikings bottled up Beckham early, holding him without a catch for the first 22 minutes of the game, and that had to drive him nuts. He caught three passes in a 90-second span for 23 yards, but he cost his team 15 of those yards with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Vikings corner Xavier Rhodes gave Beckham a little extra sauce after the second of those catches, and Beckham retaliated. Was it a bit of a weak call? To the normal player — maybe. But just as Beckham was a target of the Vikings, he also is so to the referees who are watching him like a hawk on a weekly basis. He is that guy now.

The NFL altered the rulebook in the offseason, and now two unsportsmanlike calls in a game gets you kicked out. It could be anything that sets him off and costs his team dearly. Plus, once you’ve gotten your first one, you’re thinking about not getting a second one — and not fully concentrating on the game at hand.

Couldn’t that be what happened on the opening sequence of the second half? Beckham dropped the first pass of the third quarter, a catch he makes 99 times out of 100. Then on 3rd and 7, Beckham ran an insanely bad route and Eli Manning’s pass was caught like a punt by Rhodes.

Everything fell apart on that drive, but we can trace it back to earlier. The final six passes thrown in Beckham’s direction either were incomplete or intercepted.

Later in the third, Beckham had a step on Vikings corner Terence Newman but couldn’t haul in what looked like a pretty well-thrown ball from Manning. It would have been a tough catch, but Beckham used to be known as the guy who can make the impossible catch look routine. Now he’s known for something else entirely.

The league is cracking down on this stuff. Prior to Monday’s game, there had been 20 unsportsmanlike penalties called, which is right about on pace with the 87 from the 2015 season. In 2013 and 2014, only 59 and 67 unsportsmanlike calls, respectively, were made.

Giants head coach Ben McAdoo said prior to the game Monday that he wanted Beckham to cool it, “control his emotions” and “be less of a distraction.” He saw his wide receiver go nuclear during the loss to the Washington Redskins, and every other Giants player seemed to go right in the loony bin along with him as they let the game slip away with countless mental mistakes.

Monday’s loss was to a superior team but one that is limited offensively, missed a field-goal try and couldn’t put the Giants away until late. This Giants team now doesn’t face a team that currently has a losing record until Week 11. After two impressive victories, they’ve dropped two straight where mental mistakes and a lack of composure were too big to ignore.

On the Giants’ best drive of the night, a 91-yarder that cut the lead to 17-10 early in the fourth, Beckham never saw a pass go his way. Paul Perkins, who had zero NFL touches entering the game, was the one with the 67-yard catch on that drive. Beckham was a highly visible decoy. That’s fine and all, but he has to be out there catching game-changing passes and a regular contributor to the offense. When the ball doesn’t go his way, it’s usually bad news in the grand scheme.

When Rhodes left the game with an injury with just over eight minutes left, there was a brief glimmer of hope. But the Giants didn’t look Beckham’s way much after that point, and he was officially shut down.

The book is out, and every other team on the Giants’ schedule is passing around copies and sipping their tea. They don’t even need to read it at this point.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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32 team grades for the 2017 NFL draft

The grades are in.

From Myles Garrett to Chad Kelly, we truly had intrigue, excitement and surprises from the first pick until the 253rd selection of the 2017 NFL draft. And we tried to look big picture to make an instant read on how every team did.

Clearly, the draft won’t truly start to reveal itself for another few years. But we have some feelings on what really happened over last Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

And of course, please bookmark this so you can get angry a year from now. We expect nothing less.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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2017 NFL schedule: Here's the early scoop on the who, where and when

The NFL will kick off the 2017 season on Sept. 7 with the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots hosting the Kansas City Chiefs on opening night, and the 256-game regular-season slate concludes on New Year’s Eve, likely with two division rivals battling it out — a matchup to be flexed in at a later date — with a spot in the postseason hanging in the balance.

The league released the 2017 NFL schedule in its entirety officially on Thursday night, and now the fun and the planning begin for the quest to Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium on Feb. 4.

The Patriots return to the field for the first time in Tom Brady’s age-40 season with the 12th-hardest schedule by opponents’ win percentage, and they carry a 10-game win streak (including playoffs) into a tough opening game against a Chiefs team that won the AFC West a year ago with a 12-4 mark. Later in the season, the Patriots will play five games on the road in a six-game stretch — one that includes a Week 11 game against the Oakland Raiders in Mexico City in what could be a terrific showdown of AFC powerhouses.

The New England Patriots will kick off the 2017 NFL season against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP)

The rematch for Super Bowl LI — yes, the greatest comeback in SB history — against the Atlanta Falcons comes in Week 7 in Foxborough in a prime-time game at Gillette Stadium on Sunday night, Oct. 22. After Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera complained this past season about having to face the Denver Broncos in the season opener last year, the league appeared willing to cut the runners-up a break and not schedule Falcons at Patriots in Week 1.

The Falcons open their new home field, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with a game against the Green Bay Packers — a rematch of the NFC title game — assuming construction on their new digs is completed by then, otherwise they’ll have to go back next door to the old haunt. The Falcons will open on the road, however, in a Week 1 game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.

The rest of the Week 1 slate appears strong with a terrific battle of NFC heavyweights, the Seattle Seahawks and Packers, meeting at Lambeau Field at 4:25 ET on Fox. This one has it all: Aaron Rodgers vs. Russell Wilson … the Eddie Lacy reunion game … and we can’t wait for the brothers showdown of the Bennett Boys — Seattle’s Michael against Martellus, who signed with Green Bay in the offseason.

The three other Week 1 prime-time matchups after the Thursday opener: New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys (NBC) on Sunday night; New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings for the early Monday night game; and the Los Angeles Chargers — their first game after moving this offseason — at Denver Broncos for the second game of the Monday doubleheader, with the latter two games both on ESPN.

The longest current losing streak currently belongs to the Los Angeles Rams at seven games, followed by their new crosstown rivals, the Chargers, at five straight losses to end the 2016 season. The Chargers will open in their new city — though not permanent home — at the 30,000-seat StubHub Center against the Miami Dolphins in Week 2 in the first NFL game at the venue.

We’ve known the NFL’s London matchups for some time, but we now know when those games will be played:

Week 3: Baltimore Ravens vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, at Wembley Stadium

Week 4: New Orleans Saints vs. Miami Dolphins; at Wembley Stadium

Week 7: Arizona Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Rams; Twickenham Stadium

Week 8: Minnesota Vikings vs. Cleveland Browns; Twickenham Stadium

Those will all be 9:30 a.m. ET, except for the Cardinals-Rams game.

Jumping forward a few months, Thanksgiving offers three good helpings: Vikings at Detroit Lions for the early game; Chargers at Dallas Cowboys for the middle game; and New York Giants at Washington Redskins for the late meal ticket.

There will be a pair of Saturday games each in Week 15 (Bears at Lions; Chargers at Chiefs) and Week 16 (Indianapolis Colts at Ravens; Vikings at Packers). In addition, Week 16 falls on Christmas weekend — 12 games on Sunday, which is Christmas Eve, and two more (Pittsburgh Steelers at Houston Texans; Raiders at Philadelphia Eagles) on Christmas proper.

For many, however, the NFL schedule release day is the real Christmas. We now know where and when the next 256 games will be played.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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More from Yahoo Sports: • Jeff Passan: What isn’t baseball’s best player good at? • LeBron’s epic performance lifts Cavs in historic playoff comeback • Kevin Iole: Former NFL star preps boxer for major bout • Aaron Hernandez’s estate entitled to NFL pension; other revenue in question

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Vikings close door on Adrian Peterson, and backs his age rarely switch teams and thrive

Another domino fell in running back free agency Wednesday night, with Latavius Murray landing with the Minnesota Vikings, who closed the door on Thursday to Adrian Peterson era there.

"With us signing (Latavius) Murray, Adrian will move on elsewhere." – GM Rick Spielman

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) March 16, 2017

The options are drying up, writes Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson, and it’s fair to wonder now where Peterson might land — there’s no obvious choice — and how much money he might play for. Neither might be whopper results. Peterson isn’t commanding a front-line salary, as his wintry market shows, and the team he eventually joins might have to expect commensurate results.

The list of 32-year-old (and older) running backs topping the 1,000-yard rushing mark in the past 20 NFL seasons is remarkably short: Emmitt Smith, Mike Anderson, Frank Gore and Ricky Williams. Of those, Williams’ 2009 season — after a mere 166 total carries the three years prior — was the best with 1,121 rush yards, a 4.7-yard average and 11 TDs.

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It’s likely we’ve seen the best of Adrian Peterson, who has yet to find a home for 2017. (AP)

If you drop the number down to 800 yards rushing, nine backs reached that total at 32 or older in the past two decades. And of those, only three did so after switching teams from the season prior: Gore, Thomas Davis and DeAngelo Williams. Smith had a total of three 800-yard seasons and Gore has had two after that age.

So it’s not like it can’t be done. It’s just uncommon.

Now Peterson, having missed 30 of his past 51 games because of injuries and disciplinary reasons, would be more exception than rule at this point. Of course, we are talking about a player who came back from a torn ACL — in surprisingly quick time, mind you — to turn in an MVP campaign in 2012. The next year he was good, too. So dismissing Peterson’s chances of touching greatness again feels foolish and premature. We just can’t expect anything close to that level of consistent dominance again.

NFL teams clearly feel this way. And it takes a certain fit, too, for his next team. For instance, we have heard that the RB-needy Detroit Lions could make some sense. But are the Lions going to reshape their offense for Peterson? Not likely. He struggled in recent years as a shotgun runner, and the Lions were in shotgun almost 85 percent of their snaps last season. Percentage-wise, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (49 percent shotgun) and Dallas Cowboys (50) would make sense, but the Cowboys are not taking snaps away from Ezekiel Elliott just so Peterson can play for the team he grew up rooting for. Even Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who long has had a Peterson fascination, knows that.

Another question: Can Peterson be effective as a part-time back? He always has been a volume runner, used to getting 20-ish carries (19.7 average career) per game. In regular-season games in which he received fewer than 15 carries, he has averaged 3.8 yards per carry. In games with 15 or more runs, that number vaults up to 5.0 yards per carry. That’s a huge discrepancy. And in the past four seasons, when Peterson’s numbers have tailed off, he has averaged a mere 3.3 yards per carry in non-15-carry games.

Who is paying for that level of production? Perhaps Peterson can find a home as a Jerome Bettis-like counterpunch to a younger, speedier back. And maybe that makes sense for teams such as the Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders or New York Giants. But those teams and others seem to know the history suggests that expecting anything more than that doesn’t make much sense. Peterson also is not a big receiving threat, and his blitz-pickup skills never have been notable.

With other backs starting to find homes and with a deep, quality draft crop of backs looming, the number of places where Peterson makes sense — and where he even has a chance to thrive — is remarkably low.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Based on 49ers GM John Lynch's comments, is DeShone Kizer becoming his draft crush?

INDIANAPOLIS — San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch are in lockstep about one thing: They need quarterbacks.

On Wednesday, Shanahan said, “Well, I know that we don’t have any really under contract” once Colin Kaepernick opts out of his deal in a few days. On Thursday, Lynch echoed that fact — and painted a picture where the 49ers will explore all options to find a potential foundation.

“Look, I don’t think you need to be too transparent to realize that’s a position we’re looking at,” Lynch said. “We don’t have any, so that’s a position that’s a big focal point of our preparation right now.”

And it’s one the team could use almost every avenue — free agency, trade, draft and undrafted free agents — to address this offseason.

Could Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer be in play at No. 2 for the 49ers? (AP)

“A lot of people look at it like, ‘Oh my gosh, you don’t have any quarterbacks,’ but that also is somewhat liberating in that you can create this thing in that position that is so critical in the way that you want it,” Lynch said. “Now, we’re restricted by who’s available and what not, but I think we’ve got a lot of great options at our disposal.”

Lynch’s comments on the draft’s top quarterbacks were fascinating. A few of those QBs made some strong impressions on Lynch so far.

On Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer: “This whole thing is not just about an interview, but if you were grading him on that alone he blew the doors off. He’s an impressive young man … his film’s very impressive.”

On Clemson’s Deshaun Watson: “I think the same can be said for [him]. You watch what he’s done, just putting a team on his shoulders and taking down a great champion. … I love winners, and he has that. … I spent some time around him at the Super Bowl, and there’s certain guys that just carry themselves differently, have a presence about [themselves]. I’d put him in that category. In the brief time you could just see there’s a confidence, an aura that he carries himself with that’s pretty special.”

On North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky: “I got a note today from somebody over there [that Trubisky] measured over 6-2. So he made himself some money today, I promise you. You can see just like the other guys I talked about why people like him. He grows on you. The more you watch him, the more you like him.”

Lynch wasn’t asked specifically about Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes but the GM lumped him into the group with the other three mentioned above and added, “I think it’s a very talented draft class at that position, one we’re very excited about.”

Keep an eye on Kizer, whom our own Greg Cosell broke down for his draft QB series. Cosell writes that Kizer is a “natural thrower,” and those words stood out based on comments Shanahan said during Super Bowl week when we asked what traits were most important to him in seeking quarterbacks.

“There are so many different ways to be successful, but for the most part you want guys who are pure throwers,” Shanahan told us then. “There are not many of them on the planet. They’re hard to find. But you want those guys who can do that and guys who are fearless. It’s very tough to succeed in this league if you’re not a natural thrower, and you can’t think about that pass rush at all.”

The combine quarterbacks throw on Saturday. The 49ers will be paying attention closely. Sure, they could throw us all for a loop and go swing a trade for Kirk Cousins, rendering most of this moot. But barring something dramatic such as that, its possible that the 49ers will have to rely on the draft for QB help in some form — and perhaps as early as the No. 2 overall pick.

Kizer to the 49ers is a realistic scenario at this point.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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That's twice now that Dont’a Hightower has saved the Super Bowl for the Patriots

James White’s third touchdown of the game won Super Bowl LI in overtime. Julian Edelman’s insane catch — the anti-David Tyree/Mario Manningham/Jermaine Kearse curse breaker — allowed that to happen.

But Dont’a Hightower saved the game.

Without Hightower’s strip sack with 8:31 remaining, the Patriots do not beat the Atlanta Falcons — simple as that. As Shutdown Corner’s Frank Schwab pointed out, it was one of 16 plays the Patriots needed (and got) to win the miraculous game.

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New England Patriots’ Dont’a Hightower made the play that allowed the comeback to happen. (AP)

But Hightower knocked out the crucial Jenga piece that allowed the Patriots to finally topple the Falcons. And it’s not the first time he made a somewhat forgotten but crucial play to preserve a Super Bowl title. More on that later.

First, the play in LI: The Falcons faced a 3rd-and-1 from the Atlanta 36-yard line. They had run it twice on first and second down for 9 yards. The Falcons wanted to be aggressive there, so they called for a deep ball.

The problem was that Hightower came free on a blitz and Devonta Freeman never picked him up (despite Freeman’s postgame denials it was his guy) and Hightower crushed Matt Ryan. The ball came loose, and the Patriots recovered at the 25. They would score a TD and a two-point conversion two minutes and change later to make it 28-20, Atlanta.

“The Hightower sack was a huge play for us,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “We really needed that.”

The Patriots felt like they had to make it a one-score game to have a chance at that point, and they did so in a stunning flurry. Without that turnovers, even if Ryan’s pass is incomplete or a short-yardage run is stuffed, the Patriots likely were facing having to drive 65 or 70 yards with a little more than eight minutes left just to cut the lead to eight. Instead, they did so at the 6:00 mark.

Their longest play from scrimmage all night was 28 yards; they were chipping away, and the clock was tick-tocking against them. This was the biggest game tilter right here.

One of the hallmarks of New England’s Super Bowl victories under Belichick has been that they’ve been team efforts. Yes, Tom Brady delivered big moments in all five of them, and unsung heroes stepped up in each as well. But Hightower is one of the Patriots’ better defenders, and quite well known as a former first-round pick. And that’s twice now he’s come through with game-saving plays in his two Super Bowl appearances.

The other came on the oft-forgotten play right before Malcolm Butler picked off Russell Wilson in Super Bowl XLIX. The Seattle Seahawks had the Patriots on the ropes with first-and-goal from the New England 5-yard line with just over a minute left, and Marshawn Lynch appeared to be going in for the game-winning score. But Hightower made an incredible play to power through Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung and somehow bring down Lynch at the 1.

You know how that drive ended. But it never would have happened without Hightower’s superhuman effort on the play before.

There will be plenty of time to speculate about the future of Hightower, who is a free agent after the season and probably wants to get paid market value. He’s not a perfect player, and the Patriots often will sub him out in certain packages. But he played all 49 defensive snaps for the Patriots against the Falcons and delivered the one that allowed New England to finish off their miraculous comeback for the ages.

He can look back and say he delivered when his team needed him most.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Martellus Bennett plans to skip Patriots' White House visit with President Donald Trump

New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett won his first Super Bowl ring on Sunday. And as he promised earlier this past week, he’ll make good on not attending any championship celebration at the White House with new President Donald Trump.

The colorful Bennett (trust us and read here) first said Monday night that he didn’t plan to go. Bennett confirmed that after the Super Bowl victory in which he caught five passes for 62 yards and drew a key pass-interference call in the waning moments of overtime to help seal it.

“It is what it is. People know how I feel about it,” he said, via Dallas Morning-News. “Just follow me on Twitter.”

New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett doesn’t plan to attend any Super Bowl celebration at the White House. (Getty Images)

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Bennett has used his social media account to express his negativity toward Trump. But is there a conflict of interest considering Bennett’s quarterback (Tom Brady), head coach Bill Belichick and — most important — Patriots team owner (Robert Kraft) all have been claimed by the president as close, personal friends?

“I’m not really worried about that,” Bennett said. “I’m not worried about it at all.”

Bennett said the Patriots manage to circumvent any awkwardness in the locker room by sticking to sports.

“You just don’t bring that to work,” he said. “We all have our beliefs. We accept people for who they are.”

And yet Bennett doesn’t have plans to accept Trump for who he is, if his words are to be taken at face value. We wonder if Kraft might step in and convince him otherwise. But then again, Brady skipped out on going to the White House two years ago when the Patriots won it and Barack Obama was president.

If the Patriots are all truly as “all for one” as they claim, Kraft might let Bennett sit at home. And we can only imagine what he’d be doing while his teammates are getting a tour of the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington.

More Super Bowl coverage on Yahoo Sports:

• Tom Brady faces Roger Goodell after winning Super Bowl LI • President Trump holds Super Bowl party • Slideshow: Best of Lady Gaga’s halftime show

– – – – – – –

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Who has fewest receiving yards for every NFL team? It's a weird list

Surfing the NFL channel on Reddit over the weekend, as one does on gorgeous 80-degree Saturdays in the offseason, I ran into a strange, amusing topic created by user Scorigami — the players with the fewest receiving yards in each NFL franchise’s history.

Yeah, that’s right: the lowest number of yards. As in, all of them are in the negative.

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Believe it or not, Blaine Gabbert holds a 49ers franchise record: fewest receiving yards in team history. (AP)

I am all about statistical oddities, and though football doesn’t have the pure weirdness in this way that, say, baseball does, there still are plenty of obscure numbers we can kick around and have fun with.

These are some of them. What’s notable is that there isn’t a single true wide receiver or tight end on this list. But that actually makes some sense, if you think about it. Most are quarterbacks and offensive linemen in what amounted to one (or maybe two) fluky plays, such as catching batted passes behind the line of scrimmage, leading to this odd ignominy. But that’s not true in all cases, as I found out.

What a strange distinction this must be to be. It’s not like these guys are telling their kids/grandkids about this, but … let’s nonetheless roll through this goofy list, alpha order:

Chicago/St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals Linebacker-fullback Billy Svoboda, minus-9 yards

A lunchpail type (we assume), Svoboda touched the ball 11 times on offense for the 1951 Cardinals — a pretty bad team that at one point had a pair of “co-coaches” that season — and netted a total of 6 yards. We’re not sure which of the co-coach’s idea it was to get the ball in Svoboda’s hands, but it appears to have been quickly scrapped.

What’s incredible, though, is that Svoboda has the amazing distinction of netting negative yards in two separate games, including one in which is caught four (!) passes against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Without more detailed records available, it’s almost impossible to know exactly what happened. But we now have a new favorite player from the Korean War era, that’s for sure.

Atlanta Falcons Offensive lineman Chris Hinton, minus-10 yards

Hinton — most famous for being involved in the John Elway trade before he ever played a down in the NFL — actually was doing well as a blocker, sure, but also as a receiver his first nine seasons in the NFL. He had a 1-yard reception in Year 6 in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts that kept in the black.

But then things went awry in 1992. Hinton caught a tipped pass for minus-3 yards on the play against the Chicago Bears and actually looks amazingly nimble in spite of the lost field position.

(There’s priceless footage of the event right here, and going down the rabbit hole of this game will show you how bizarre this game is, trust us. Deion Sanders, Andre Rison, William Perry and three future NFL head coaches — including Jim Harbaugh — play in the game. The actual head coaches were Mike Ditka and Jerry Glanville, and John Madden is breaking down some key tailgating footage during this drive. The field surface looks absolutely awful. Peak ’90s NFL right here. I could write 5,000 words on this game alone, a 41-31 bizarro shootout between two really bad teams, and you might be able to tell the story of the past 25 years of league history with this game serving as Ground Zero. I’ve very serious about this.)

That catch put Hinton in the red for his career, then standing at minus-2 yards. This was a former tight end at Northwestern, so you know it must have eaten at him. So the following season, almost a year to the day later in 1993, the Falcons amazingly were back in Soldier Field for another game against the Bears. And again, a pass ended up in the hands of Hinton. It was another tipped pass, and sadly this one went for minus-8 yards.

Even more disheartening, I couldn’t track down footage of this play, but I do know it knocked the Falcons out of field-goal range near the end of the first half of what ended up being a 6-0 Bears win. That game, we’re guessing, was a lot less fascinating than the contest the year prior. That would be the final reception of his career. Hinton’s lifetime receiving totals: three catches, minus-9 yards (but minus-10 as a member of the Falcons).

Baltimore Ravens Defensive back Anthony Mitchell, minus-11 yards

In a strange Monday night thriller in 2001 between two teams that routinely knocked the snot out of each other back then, Mitchell — a journeyman DB with a relatively nondescript career — found himself the recipient of a botched punt play. We’ll defer to Bob Christs’ description of the event at the time, which resulted in another strange statistical quirk:

Does the passer-rating system need to be reworked? Ravens punter Kyle Richardson retrieved a wayward snap against the Titans on Monday night and flipped an off-balance throw to Anthony Mitchell that resulted in an 11-yard loss. The play gives Richardson a passer rating of 79.2, which ranks him ahead of 24 QBs who have started games this season.

That play was not one of his most memorable, though hardly through any fault of his own. But Mitchell actually had been on the end of a tremendous play in the AFC title game between the two teams nine months prior when he returned a blocked field-goal attempt 90 yards for a touchdown as a rookie to vault the Ravens into the Super Bowl, which they would go on to win.

In this game between the teams, Mitchell’s minus-8 grab turned into a mere footnote. It ended with the Ravens beating the Titans 16-10 when Steve McNair was ruled down short of the goal line following a QB sneak after a Titans touchdown was called back by officials as time expired.

Buffalo Bills Quarterbacks Joe Ferguson and Jack Kemp, minus-9

A tie! A first on our list, but not our last. Kemp and Ferguson were the franchise’s two most beloved quarterbacks in the pre-Jim Kelly days.

Not much is documented about Kemp’s one career reception, for minus-9 against the San Diego Chargers in 1965. But that grab was not the only miserable thing for him and the Bills that day. After taking a 3-0 lead, the Chargers stomped them with 34 unanswered points in the game between the two AFL heavyweights. Kemp was benched after completing 7-of-23 passes with two picks. But the Bills got the last laugh, with Kemp playing well in the AFL title game shutout of the Chargers two months later, 23-zip.

Ferguson actually had two negative receptions, one in his NFL debut against the New England Patriots. He caught a pass from O.J. Simpson for minus-3 yards and did little else despite starting (1-of-2 passing, two rushes for 4 yards, and that catch), but Simpson — he of the 250 rush yards that day — picks up a wee bit of slack in the 31-13 win. Ferguson’s other negative-yard reception (minus-6) came five years later, also against the Patriots, but Simpson wasn’t around by that time to bail him out in what was a 14-10 New England win.

Carolina Panthers Quarterback Kerry Collins, minus-11 yards

The end was near for Collins, the first draft pick in Carolina franchise history, when he caught his own deflected pass in the 1998 season opener against the Atlanta Falcons early in the third quarter of a 19-14 loss that would kick off seven straight defeats to open the Panthers’ miserable season. Four weeks later, Collins essentially quit on his teammates, telling them his heart wasn’t in it anymore, before being released the following week.

At least his heart was into catching that pass, as it’s now quite fitting to sum up his Panthers career. By the time Collins caught the second pass of his career (a minus-2er for the 2001 New York Giants, also in the season opener), he had been reborn, on roughly the fourth of his nine NFL lives.

Chicago Bears Center Olin Kreutz, minus-8 yards

True story: I accidentally stepped on the foot of Kreutz in the postgame chaos of the Bears locker room minutes after the team won the 2006 NFC title game and advanced to Super Bowl XLI, and he shot me a look as if to say, “On any other day, dude …” If you were ever met with the steely glare of the ornery center, you know how this could take years of a man’s life.

But Kreutz’s one career reception didn’t happen that day, or even that season. This was two years earlier in a strange game against the Oakland Raiders that was a virtual block party. Not only did Sebastian Jankikowski have a field-goal attempt swatted, but a few minutes later three straight passes (by both QBs) were deflected. The final one was a Kordell Stewart rejection by Derrick Gibson that ended up in Kreutz’s mitts for minus-8 and a 3rd and 24 situation.

Former Bears center Olin Kreutz could be a pretty serious guy. (AP)

He’d play another 128 NFL games, mostly for the Bears, and never catch another pass. Let’s hope he also never got his foot stepped on by a writer, other than that one fateful time.

Cincinnati Bengals Fullback Nathan Poole, minus-14 yards

Poole came on our radar near the end of the 2016 season when we were doing research about Reggie Bush’s historic season — for all the wrong reasons. Bush set records for rushing-yard futility last season and in our research for that story we discovered the dirty work of Poole, who as a rookie in 1979 had some pretty depressing fantasy production: one rush for minus-3 yards and one catch for minus-10. We hope if anyone had him back then it was at least in a PPR league for some silver lining.

On the play in question, Poole caught a pass from Ken Anderson and lost 10 yards in a scoreless game against the Denver Broncos. It was Week 1 and the first time Poole touched the ball in the NFL. He wouldn’t touch it again for six more games; that was the minus-3.

In his second season, Poole ran five times for 6 yards and caught another negative-yardage pass, that one for minus-3. This means that even as a “skill position” player, Poole incredibly had to play his first 40 NFL games, spanning nearly four years, with a career yards-from-scrimmage total before surpassing the zero mark. It came crashing down when he ripped off a 20-yard run — all that pent-up frustration? — as a member of the Broncos the day after Christmas in 1982.

Amazingly, Poole would actually touch the ball more than 100 times in John Elway’s rookie season the following year, which was also Dan Reeves’ first season as head coach. Reeves always did have a soft spot for the fullbacks, being a former one himself. Poole finished his career with a net 602 yards from scrimmage, but in 32 games with the Bengals he stood at minus-11.

Cleveland Browns Halfback-fullback Jamie Caleb, minus-18 yards

The man who did a lot of lead blocking for Jim Brown scored his only touchdown in his third NFL game, which came against the expansion Dallas Cowboys in their inaugural season of 1960. Caleb plunged in for the score late in that 48-7 Browns blowout, but he also had the strangest receiving line that day that we think we’ve ever seen: five receptions for minus-18 yards. One of those catches apparently went for 2 yards, so the other four netted a minus-20. Lordy.

We might never find out what exactly happened there, as statistics (and more specifically, play by play accounts for games) from that era are a bit sketchy. But we’ll assume it was accurate and that it was some fluky play in a long-forgotten game that caused this strange line. The Browns have provided us with scores of negative plays in recent years to give us our fill.

Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Troy Aikman, minus-19 yards

How miserable was Aikman’s rookie season? Consider that he started the team’s final 11 games, all of which were losses, and capped it with a Christmas Eve crapper that might have been one of the two or three worst games of his career. Aikman finished the 20-10 loss with four picks, zero touchdowns and only 125 yards on 28 attempts. Oh yeah, and a catch for minus-13. Just your standard batted-back-in-his face jobs on that miserable afternoon in Dallas.

But his worst game? Aikman himself might argue it was two years later in a 24-0 loss to the Eagles in which he was sacked 11 times, lost a fumble and threw three picks. And what else happened that game? A reception for minus-6 yards. And that’s how we get to minus-19 for his career.

Denver Broncos Offensive guard Mike Schnitker, minus-11 yards

Trivia: Schnitker played high school, college and pro ball all in the state of Colorado. In his six-year career with the Broncos, he was a part-time starter, but in the middle of what would be his best NFL season in 1971 as the predominant starting right guard, the Broncos were playing in the Eagles — two bad teams facing off on Halloween day at Veteran Stadium. What could go wrong?

This is another case of not knowing a lot about the play in question, but we do have quite the photo from Getty Images. Quarterback Don Horn’s helmet has come off, and Schnitker — No. 64 on the right — has his back to the play in which Horn will lose the ball. It then will end up in the hands of Schnitker, who receives quite the trick (or treat?) in his gift bag for the 11-yard loss.

Denver Broncos offensive lineman Mike Schnitker, No. 64, would end up catching the pass on this wild play. (Getty Images)

The Eagles almost blew a 10-point lead late but hung on to win, 17-16.

Detroit Lions Offensive tackle Rocky Freitas, minus-8

Rockne Crowningburg Freitas was his birth name, one of the best we’ve come across, and he’s one of the most celebrated Polynesian players of his era. He had a solid career with the Lions, a fixture at right tackle from 1969 to 1976, starting every game in that period. But he’s one of those players you almost never hear about now.

Green Bay Packers Halfback Fred Provo, minus-9 yards

Provo might have had a short NFL career, but his impact on society was big. He served as an Army paratrooper in World War II, getting wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and earning a noble two Purple Hearts. His war-addled health kept him from playing more than nine games for Curly Lambeau’s Pack in 1948, but Provo a pretty decent punt and kick returner that one year.

He also ran the ball 29 times for 90 yards and caught four passes for minus-9 yards. One of those catches went for 3 yards. We’re guessing the other three didn’t go so well. Again, incomplete stats and all that. Not too many rotogeeks back then.

Houston Texans Quarterback Brock Osweiler, minus-14 yards

This was the Osweiler-in-Houston experience summed up in one play — a failed play-action pass that was intended to be caught by an offensive tackle (Duane Brown) and instead was caught by the roundly reviled QB:

“An incredible mistake right there,” ESPN’s Jon Gruden said of the Osweiler magic. He left his mark there, that’s for sure. You’re going to like this guy, Cleveland.

Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts Colts: Jim Harbaugh, minus-9 yards

It had to be Harbaugh. In a 1995 game against the Jets, Harbaugh had a pass batted back by Marvin Washington and he caught it for a 9-yard loss. We wish there was more to the story, but there really doesn’t appear to be. The Colts kicked the field goal on the drive and went on to win, 17-10, in a season sweep of their then-division rivals.

Of course, that ’95 season was storybook one for the Colts, and it came up just a bit short as Harbaugh’s Hail Mary attempt was incomplete in the AFC title game.

Jacksonville Jaguars Quarterback Byron Leftwich, minus-7 yards

Another story without much meat on the bone, it seems. Leftwich caught his own pass, deflected by Tommy Kelly, and though the 7-yard loss knocked the Jags out of field-goal range, they hung on to win, 13-6 at the Raiders in a crummy Week 17 game. One reason why: Leftwich was not good that day, but he still was better than Kerry Collins, who threw three picks and fumbled at the Jacksonville 2-yard line on fourth down and goal with 40 seconds left. Blech.

Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback Tony Adams, minus-7 yards

What a strange career Adams had in pro football. He was drafted by the Chargers (in Round 14) but never played for the team and ended up as the World Football League tri-MVP that season (as in, he shared the award with two other dudes). Adams then played for the Chiefs for a few years, starting four games and not doing much in them. The wild part is that after a stint in the CFL that ended in 1980, Adams actually played during the strike season of 1987, starting three games despite not playing football for seven years. That should give you an idea the talent level that some teams were trotting out while the stars were on the picket line.

His entry into Chiefs all-time lore came when he mopped up at the end of a 28-3 Chiefs loss to the Steelers in 1975. Adams had played a few snaps before that game, but these were his first official pass attempts of his NFL career. He threw five passes that day and three were caught: one to Chiefs wideout Barry Pearson for 22 yards, one to himself for minus-7 and one to Steelers Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount for a pick.

San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers Quarterback Tobin Rote, minus-11 yards

Rote finished off a really underappreciated NFL career with two years with the Chargers in 1963 and 1964, followed by a swan-song season with the Denver Broncos in 1966. In his final season with the Chargers, Rote struggled to regain his early-career magic and was benched as the starting QB.

Not only did he struggle to pass the ball effectively that season, he also struggled as a runner. He rushed nine times for a total of minus-11 yards in 1964 after being a rushing threat for much of his career. But that wasn’t his only negative yardage total that season, as he lost 11 yards on a failed trick pass from Lance Allworth in what would be the penultimate start of his NFL career — a 49-6 drubbing at the hands of the middling Chiefs two weeks before the playoffs. And the Chargers were actually in the postseason that year! But they lost their first game, as Rote struggled and was shipped away.

If there’s a bright side it’s that Rote’s career receiving yardage stands at a respectable plus-28 with a TD catch thanks to a few wily plays earlier in his Packers glory days.

Cleveland/St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams Tailback-quarterback Parker Hall, minus-16 yards

Nicknamed “Bullet,” Hall truly was a Renaissance Man after the Rams used the third overall pick in 1939 on the former Ole Miss star. He punted. He ran the ball. He threw it. He returned punts and kicks. He even won the MVP award as a rookie that year, running the ball 120 times, throwing it 208 and punting it 58 — an unheard-of combination of numbers, even at the time when it was all hands on deck for some teams.

The one thing he didn’t do? Catch the ball. Oh, sure, this was an era where games averaged about 257 pass yards — that would be both teams combined, mind you. But the fact that Hall caught a mere one pass in his first four brilliant seasons (before being shipped off to World War II) appears downright goofy through today’s lenses.

Of course, that pass was for minus-16, and maybe the Rams thought … well, that didn’t work, so we might as well stick with what does. All’s well that ends well. Hall caught two passes for 25 after returning from war with the San Francisco 49ers in 1946 to lift his career receiving total to a gaudy plus-9. Oh, what might have been, had the Rams figured out how to unleash him in the passing game. They had other guys who could throw the ball, but it turned out that he was the best at it most of the time.

Miami Dolphins Quarterback Dan Marino, minus-6 yards

Marino went his first 180 NFL games without catching a pass, which is no surprise considering he was the best pure passer of his generation and a pretty statuesque one at that. His longest career run traveled 15 yards, and he never caught a pass in his brilliant four-year college career at Pitt, either, so this all made perfect sense.

But Marino’s first career reception came at an odd crossroads in his career in 1995. That was considered to be perhaps his last great season in the NFL, and on the day it happened Marino threw for 333 yards against the Patriots and broke Fran Tarkenton’s NFL career record for passing yardage. However, it came in a surprising loss that day in a season that ended with the Dolphins finishing a game behind the Bills for the division title. Marino had a chance to tie the game early in the fourth quarter when, but the 6-yard loss came on fourth down after Chris Slade swatted it back to him.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino salutes the fans in this 1995 game against the Patriots, but not for his first career reception. (AP)

The Dolphins would go on to lose their wild-card game at Buffalo, a team they had beaten by three scores earlier in the season, in Don Shula’s final game as coach.

Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Christian Ponder, minus-15

Some of these are just downright poetic. Ponder is one of the more disliked recent Vikings quarterbacks, as many fans feel he was a symbol for some of the team’s shortcomings after Brett Favre left the team while Adrian Peterson remains in his prime. Basically, Ponder was an easy mark, as the Vikings had not landed anyone else who gave them a better chance to win at QB.

That doesn’t mean he played well, either. But the game in which he caught his own deflected pass for minus-15 yards, Ponder actually was decent. The loss didn’t knock the Vikes out of field-goal range even! And they won, 34-24. Fun for all.

Of course, that season Ponder threw for 2,935 yards — the fewest of any 16-game starting quarterback over the past decade, per Pro Football Reference, but he safely was 36 yards behind Joe Flacco’s 2008 passing total, so the backward pass didn’t affect that. Of course, that would have been even more poetic had that been the case.

New England Patriots Offensive lineman Logan Mankins and quarterback Drew Bledsoe, minus-9 yards

Another tie, and another fun one. We previously enjoyed writing about Mankins’ only NFL touchdown, which came in the wild 2006 AFC title game between the Colts and Patriots — truly an all-time classic in that rivalry.

Mankins’ only career regular-season reception came the following fall, as he caught a pass from Tom Brady for nearly an anti-first down. Mankins was flagged for illegal touching on the play, so it was not a batted pass (the penalty was declined, to take the loss of yards and down). Mankins now — and likely forever — holds the distinction of recording the “shortest” pass play in Brady’s career, so that’s something.

As for the guy Brady replaced, Bledsoe had his minus-9er a few weeks after Marino’s own catch, and this one was similar. Ray Seals batted the ball back to Bledsoe, who caught it and got smeared by Kevin Greene and Greg Lloyd. Sounds like a fun day at the office. Seals — who is famous for having a successful NFL career despire never playing college football — was in Bledsoe’s grill all day, earlier forcing a fumble that was run back for a score.

And Seals also has a fascinating tie-in here, as the unofficial patron saint of passes batted back into the hands of quarterbacks. He’s also famous for being the guy to deflect Brett Favre’s first Packers completion in 1992 that, yes, ended up being caught by Favre himself.

New Orleans Saints Quarterback Archie Manning, minus-7 yards

This also makes sense. The Saints were awful during Manning’s days as QB, through little fault of his own, and he made a name and endeared himself with the team’s fans for his anything-can-happen playmaking ability. Midway through his rookie season, Manning and Edd Hargett (yes, two Ds) were flip-flopping at QB and Manning had replaced an ineffective Hargett (1-of-12 passing, 10 yards) against the Browns in December 1971.

New York Giants Fullback Merwin Hodel, minus-15 yards

Hodel is a long-forgotten player who lasted a mere two games with the Giants during their only losing season in a 15-year stretch from 1949 to 1963. In his first action, Hodel rushed five times for 11 yards and caught one pass for minus-5 in a blowout loss to the Eagles. His next game, a 14-10 loss to the Steelers, resulted in one touch: a catch for minus-10. The Giants had seen enough at that point. And that’s how you arrive at a career with minus-4 yards from scrimmage. Sorry, Merwin.

New York Titans/New York Jets Offensive guard-linebacker-defensive end Bob O’Neil, minus-13 yards

O’Neil played at two colleges (Notre Dame and Duquesne) and played three positions for two NFL teams, the Steelers and Titans, who later became the Jets, and also played in the CFL for one season. He didn’t do much noteworthy during his pro football career and there’s not much written about his playing days. The most interesting thing we dug up:

His nickname was ‘Huck’ coming from his adventurous spirit and his dislike for shoes as a youngster like Huckleberry Finn.

That’s just wonderful. O’Neil also served in the Korean War with the Air Force, so hats off to him. But he also found his way into franchise history for his one offensive touch at the Polo Grounds (played on a Thursday, reported attendance: 12,023) in 1961, a 13-yard loss against the Bills, the details of which might be lost to history.

Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders Offensive guard Gabe Jackson, minus-5 yards

Jackson had two catches as a rookie in 2014 — a 1-yard grab in his NFL debut and a catch for minus-6 later that season. The first one came when Derek Carr’s pass was almost picked, bouncing off the hands of the Jets’ Muhammad Wilkerson and into those of Jackson, the starting left guard.

The second came in Week 13 that year, and we’re not sure it was witnessed by any actual humans other than the men playing in the game. It came near the end of the first half, with the Raiders trailing 38-0 in what would become a 52-zip blowout by the Rams (!). Jeff Fisher and Tony Sparano, then the Raiders’ interim, were the head coaches that day. Whew boy, this one feels like it was 10 years ago, not less than three.

Jackson caught a deflected screen off the hands of fullback Marcel Reece, who got tattooed on the play. Not a fun day for Jackson or any of his teammates.

Philadelphia Eagles Defensive lineman-offensive lineman Reggie Singletary, minus-11 yards

The Dolphins beat the Eagles by a score of 28-10 in Week 14 of the 1987 season, and the final pass Randall Cunningham completed that day was to Singletary, who had switched from defense to offense and was a reserve guard getting a few reps at the end of the game. The catch went for the entire minus-11, his only career touch, and Cunningham dropped from 200 passing yards to 189 in the game. For his career, Cunningham threw for 29,979, so he would have been tantalizingly close to 30K — a plateau only 44 QBs have surpassed — had ol’ Reg just let the ball hit the terrible turf of Veterans Stadium.

Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, minus-11 yards

Steelers fans know all too well: Watch Big Ben long enough and you’ll see greatness, with a little crazy mixed in. That’s why his minus-11 yards are so beautiful — they’re spread out over three different losses (and one gain) over four seasons.

The only official reception in Roethlisberger’s 13-year career came in 2008 against the Browns in Cleveland in Week 2. Although the batted pass back to himself went for negative yards, there actually was a net gain on the play when Browns defensive lineman Shaun Smith was called for a facemask against Ben. Adding insult, what was originally ruled as a sack for Smith was changed on the official stat sheet the following day when Elias Sports Bureau determined that the ball left Ben’s hand and hit off a teammate back to himself. Weird.

Roethlisberger actually gained 5 yards — without the benefit of a reception — on the final play of a six-point loss to the Miami Dolphins in 2013, catching a lateral on a Stanford band type of play that failed on the snowy field that day. The same thing happened the following season in a loss to the Buccaneers, except that Ben fumbled and the ball was recovered 6 yards backward, which (odd statistical quirk) resulted in minus-6 receiving yards for him.

Ben Roethlisberger gained 5 of his minus-11 career receiving yards in this 2013 game against the Dolphins. (AP)

And what do you know? On another game-ending Lateralpalooza in 2015, Roethlisberger again fumbled and when teammate DeAngelo Williams recovered it, that play was chalked up as minus-3 receiving yards without Ben actually catching a real pass. Clearly, the Steelers work on these plays in practice, although one certainly could argue the efficacy of them hasn’t been all that good. But add them all up, the three losses and the one gain, and Roethlisberger’s career receiving total stands at minus-11. That’s just the way these yards always have been recorded, strange as it might seem.

San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Blaine Gabbert, minus-16 yards

This one might hold up for a century, or perhaps longer. In Gabbert’s first start with Chip Kelly as coach, the final result — a 28-0 win over the Los Angeles Rams — was good. But Gabbert was barely passable in the game, and had the 49ers lost that one we might have been all over him for catching his own rejected pass and then (the funniest part) thinking he could make something of it.

The funniest part is the official NFL Game Book, which credits Gabbert with minus-4 yards worth of YAC. Just delightful. He brings his talents to the Cardinals this season, to the joy of many.

Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Trent Dilfer and right guard Bryan Millard, minus-5 yards

Another odd OL-QB duo you’d never expect to see on the same list. Millard was a good starter for much of the 80s for the Seahawks, a blue-collar performer who somehow went undrafted (back when the draft was 12 rounds) and spent two years in the USFL before making his mark in the NFL. In the 1987 opener, Seahawks QB Dave Krieg was solid in the first half and terrible in the second. He threw three picks, and Millard caught a 5-yard deflected pass to start a drive that ended in a red-zone fumble. But as far as we are concerned, the Millard catch was maybe the most insignificant catch in NFL history. Or certainly one of them.

The Dilfer play was equally as meaningless. He replaced an ineffective Matt Hasselbeck after halftime — the two later worked together at ESPN — and was beat up in his place. Kenard Lang batted a ball back to Dilfer for, you guessed it, a minus-5 that no normal human being should remember, save for Lang’s family. The tie between Dilfer and Lang? They were later teammates with the Cleveland Browns, both Walter Payton Man of the Year nominees for the club. So there you have it.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Quarterback Brian Griese, minus-4 yards

Congrats are in order for Griese, who carries the highest low-water mark for any team. So that’s worth something. The play in question came in a 31-24 loss to the Chargers in 2004, and it was a rough series for Griese: caught his own pass on first down for minus-4 on first down; incomplete pass on second; third down was a strip sack on his own 28-yard line that turned into a Chargers field goal.

What’s funny is that Griese had a minus-6 catch of his own pass as a member of the Broncos in a win over the eventual champion Patriots in a game in 2001. But given Mike Schnitker’s minus-11 Griese safely escaped leading two franchises for the fewest receiving yards.

Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans Quarterback-kicker George Blanda, minus-23 yards

The king of all negative yards, ladies and gents. With a minus-16 against the Chargers in the first meeting in 1961 (the Oilers lost that one but got revenge in the first AFL title game at the end of that season) and 7 yards lost in 1964 in the Week 1 loss, again to the Chargers, he made franchise history. We’re assuming Marcus Mariota will try to avoid this mark as much as possible going forward (see what we did there?).

Washington Redskins Quarterback Shane Mathews, minus-13 yards

I was watching a show about the first SEC title game on the SEC Network the other day, and Matthews mentioned to one of the Bama guys that he played 13 years in the NFL. I assumed he was totally kidding. Then I looked it up. Thirteen years! Dude wasn’t kidding.

How fitting then. On Oct. 27, 2002 as the Redskins’ starting QB, Matthews caught his own batted pass and lost that baker’s dozen — one negative yard for every season he was on an NFL roster.

(Hat tip: Steve Spurrier’s favorite quarterback, or one of them anyway, scrambled for 11 yards on 2nd-and-23 and salvaged a field goal out of that drive at the end of the half of what would end up a 26-21 win over the Colts.)

Matthews was the Chase Daniel of his day. He appeared in a mere 31 lifetime games, starting only 15, but likely has a sweet pension set up. Good for him. Mothers, breed your babies to be clipboard holders. And Matthews even has a fun little spot in Redskins lore with the fewest receiving yards in the franchise annals. Something he can boast about on talk radio maybe.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Todd Bowles: Jets might need Josh McCown to help teach 'kindergarten'

Head coach Todd Bowles said he might go with a veteran QB to help ‘teach kindergarten’ with the young Jets this season. (AP)

It has been a rough offseason for the New York Jets, who have jettisoned several big-name and high-priced veterans. Sure, some of them probably needed to be shown the door and had outsized contracts. But that doesn’t mean what’s left isn’t all that encouraging.

So concerning is the Jets’ youth that head coach Todd Bowles made a pretty shocking statement when asked why he might start soon-to-be 38-year-old quarterback Josh McCown amid what could be a pretty massive youth movement on the rest of the roster.

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“Even when you go to kindergarten, somebody’s got to be the teacher,” Bowles said Monday after the Jets’ first mandatory minicamp practice, via USA Today.

Ouch. Even if the analogy makes some sense, it doesn’t exactly send a strong message about the state of the franchise. Could this be some subtle shade at management and ownership for not managing the salary cap better and assembling a stronger roster? Read it how you may.

One of those “kindergartners,” quarterback Christian Hackenberg, has been the talk of the offseason. But yeah, not necessarily in the best of ways. His errant passes have been about as accurate as a toddler’s tantrum throws. (Hey, we’re just building off the metaphor the coach laid out there.) This is another reason why Bowles might feel compelled to go with McCown or Bryce Petty over Hackenberg, on whom the Jets spent a second-round pick last year but don’t yet know what they have.

Bowles is in a tough spot here, and there’s only so much mentoring and teaching he’s going to want to do with a roster that featured only a handful of players 30 years and older. He just has to hope that his permanent recess doesn’t come too soon, unless he’s got a fully guaranteed contract, in which case getting fired might not be the worst result in the world, professionally speaking.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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More from Yahoo Sports: • Umpire drops F-bomb on Nats star after being asked to move • Pro Bowler stunned by Seahawks’ Kaepernick decision • Yasiel Puig flips off Cleveland fans after homer • LeBron’s stunning answer about NBA ‘super-teams’

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Aqib Talib, Cavs fan, mocks Kevin Durant and champion Warriors

Aqib Talib, a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, had plenty to say about Kevin Durant and the NBA champion Golden State Warriors. (AP)

As a man who accidentally shot himself in an adult show club, Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib will forever leave himself open to some pretty solid comebacks. But that’s not stopping him from firing off a few virtual bullets on social media at the NBA’s recently crowned champions.

Talib was born in Cleveland and carries his pride on his sleeve. Hence this attack on the Golden State Warriors and finals MVP Kevin Durant, who fled Oklahoma City to chase a title out west.

Congrats @cavs! Boys gotta join forces to see us! @KingJames can bring whoever he want to the Land! Let's link up then!!! #suckachip2017

— AqibTalib21 (@AqibTalib21) June 13, 2017

@KDTrey5 u a suburban kid!!! Link up with the best to chip!!! ???? HOF laughing at you right now!!!

— AqibTalib21 (@AqibTalib21) June 13, 2017

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Talib, mind you, also chose his own jump from one contender to another, leaving the New England Patriots and taking the money from the Denver Broncos, who had just made a Super Bowl the season prior. Not exactly slumming it, eh?

On top of that, Talib is suggesting LeBron James do just the same and go find another Durant this offseason. Then Talib went after Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, claiming that his proximity to greatness in his playing days was the only reason the two-time champion coach has that job in the first place.

Kerr wouldn't even be a head coach without Jordan!!! #coattailboys!!!

— AqibTalib21 (@AqibTalib21) June 13, 2017

Talib might not be handling this all very well, if his tweets are any indication. We just hope he can focus his energies on the upcoming season — oh yeah, and steering clear of Texas strip joints — with all this anger he threw out on Twitter.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Joe McKnight shooting death case heads to trial in August

The man accused of killing Joe McKnight will face second-degree murder charges in a trial beginning Aug. 7. (AP)

The man accused of fatally shooting former NFL player Joe McKnight during an apparent instance of road rage has his trial date set for Aug. 7., on a charge of second-degree murder.

Ronald Gasser, 55, is accused of shooting McKnight, 28, who was pronounced dead on the scene after the two were involved in a dispute at an intersection where both had been driving in the Terrytown section of New Orleans.

Gasser has pleaded not guilty, and it’s expected that his defense team will claim that he acted in self-defense. McKnight left his car and reportedly was approaching Gasser’s vehicle when the fatal shots were fired as Gasser allegedly shot him from inside his own car. According to a report from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, McKnight was under the influence of anabolic steroids, marijuana and pain pills when the shooting occurred.

The prosecution claims that this is a clear-cut road rage incident, with Gasser having chased McKnight down in his car after McKnight had cut him off. Gasser remained on the scene following the shooting when police arrived.

Gasser previously was involved in a road rage incident in 2006, when he was accused of simple battery in a case that occurred — incredibly — at the same intersection where Gasser is accused of shooting McKnight more than a decade later.

Louisiana is a “stand your ground” state, which means that a person “who is in a place where he or she has a right,” including a public space, “may stand his or her ground and meet force with force.” Additionally, anyone found acting in self-defense under the law cannot be prosecuted for use of deadly force.

If found guilty, Gasser can face a sentence of life in prison at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence, according to Louisiana state law.

McKnight played four seasons in the NFL, three with the New York Jets and one with the Kansas City Chiefs. He rushed for 505 yards and had 241 yards receiving over his career and still holds the Jets team record for longest kick return (107 yards, in 2011).

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Redskins promote Doug Williams in another front-office shuffle, but not to GM

Doug Williams received a promotion from the Washington Redskins, even if the power structure truly hasn’t charged all that much. (AP)

The Washington Redskins know all too well how the Beltway works, surviving as much as thriving amid constant change. There was more of it in the team’s unstable front office on Tuesday, although we’re sadly left to ask what actually is different?

It might be notable that Doug Williams has been named the Redskins’ new senior vice president of player personnel. It represents another former player — a Super Bowl MVP for the franchise, no less — rising in the ranks of a prominent team’s front office, and it certainly is a promotion for Williams, who in essence replaces fired general manager Scot McCloughan.

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But therein lies the issue.

This is still the Daniel Snyder and Bruce Allen show, no matter how anyone at Redskins Park spins it. As long as Snyder owns the team, as he has since 1999, it will be business as usual. As long as Allen lords over whomever the de facto GM might be, we know he will be the one ultimately pulling the strings.

Oh, and about that …

Bruce Allen: "This was Doug's plan," to proceed without titular GM.

— Nora Princiotti (@NoraPrinciotti) June 13, 2017

Titular. Good word. And fitting.

I read this as Williams being a smart man. Sure, he would love to be one of only a handful of African-American general managers in the league. It’s an honor, and the league certainly would have liked to see it as well. That’s positive publicity for the NFL. But Williams knows that, whether he deserves this role or not, there will always be the umbrella over his head deciding when he can stay dry or not.

At Tuesday’s news conference Allen would not say who has control over the 53-man roster, calling it a “Redskins decision.” That’s cute. But really, that power never was going to be handed off to anyone who might replace McCloughan, who was fired in May, anytime soon. McCloughan was fired amid his own personal troubles away from the field in what only can be described as Redskins drama, when he wasn’t with the team at the NFL scouting combine. But below those personal demons where the underlying truth that Allen and McCloughan were at odds, and Allen always has tried to wrest the power or the praise when things were going well and shift the responsibility and blame when times were tough.

We don’t know if Williams, a smart football mind with two stints as a college head coach at Grambling and extensive personnel experience, would be a great GM or not, but we’re never going to find out as long as the current structure remains static. It’s overstating to say that anyone below Allen must be a straight yes man, but it’s also naive to think that he won’t have his hand on every major decision going forward, such as the thorny contract status of quarterback Kirk Cousins, which looms over everything currently.

Allen also made sure to mention that Eric Schaffer, a valuable member of the front office who has handled both legal and financial decisions for the team well for more than a decade, would have a very football-y title now amid the restructuring: vice president of football operations. Other promotions included Kyle Smith being elevated to director of college scouting and Scott Campbell receiving a senior executive title.

So having a nominal general manager was never that important anyway. The rumors on Monday were that Schaffer would earn that placard, but it turned out to be Williams. This should not be viewed as a knock on Schaffer, nor should it be viewed as a massive leap for Williams, who served under Allen previously in Tampa Bay as well.

It should be seen for what it is. Business as usual.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Shoulder setback? Cam Newton will not throw at minicamp

Has there been a setback in the rehab schedule of Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton? He was expected to be available for his first throwing since his March shoulder surgery, but it turns out that head coach Ron Rivera got a little ahead of himself.

The Panthers’ mandatory minicamp begins Tuesday and runs through Thursday, but it will be the Derek Anderson show while Newton will remain sidelined.

Panthers announce Cam Newton won't throw at minicamp this week as previously scheduled.

— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) June 12, 2017

Head coach Ron Rivera had said Newton was ahead of schedule last week, saying he would throw on the sideline this week. But then the team announced Monday that Newton won’t even do that and that Rivera “got ahead of himself by one week,” via the Charlotte Observer.

Cam Newton will not throw at the Carolina Panthers’ mandatory minicamp, the team announced. (AP)

Nothing ever seems clean and easy for the immensely talented Newton, but this appears to be little more than a miscommunication. Still, there has to be some concern given that, as Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson wrote recently, Newton really hasn’t done anything constructive with the team’s offseason passing program as he works his way back from surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff on March 30.

Newton likely wasn’t going to do a lot at the OTAs, even if he was cleared, so that perspective is key. He was not expected to be allowed to get any real live action, but precision and chemistry are built now and built upon at training camp. That puts the Panthers and Newton behind.

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The Panthers will welcome in rookie running back Christian McCaffrey and could see concussion-addled tackle Michael Oher, who hasn’t participated in voluntary workouts and remains in the protocol for now. They also have other players coming back from injuries.

Newton most recently was spotted pitching to some kickball kickers at his annual charity, via ESPN, and the QB said that the underhanded throwing motion was “natural treatment” for his shoulder even though he expected the Panthers trainer to “give [him] a big earful” when he next saw Newton.

.@CameronNewton throwing some ???? at his annual charity kickball tournament! #KickingItWithCam pic.twitter.com/zlg5UeKvxG

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) June 10, 2016

For now, we have no idea if there was a setback to the rehab or if kickball caused Newton issues. It doesn’t appear to be the case. We’ll find out if Newton not throwing now is a bigger deal a month or so from now, but at this moment the concern certainly isn’t yet lowering.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Tipping the scales: Eddie Lacy makes weight again, earns more dough

Seattle Seahawks running back Eddie Lacy has once again cleared a weight hurdle and earned money for it. (AP)

Perhaps there are more organic food options in Seattle versus Green Bay, but that’s now two straight weigh-ins that Eddie Lacy has made. And that’s good news for both him and the Seattle Seahawks.

His weight has been a constant point of chatter, especially after the Green Bay Packers allowed him to walk for relatively cheap money to join the Seahawks this offseason. But when Lacy had a clause built into his contract to monitor his fitness with regular weigh-ins, it was clear where the concern was about him.

Now, though, Lacy appears to be on the right track with his new team.

Seahawks RB Eddie Lacy passed his weigh-in today, per source. Should collect his $55K for being 250 lb or below.

— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) June 12, 2017

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That’s two straight weigh-ins below 255 for Lacy, who could carve out a nice role with the Seahawks, who allowed Marshawn Lynch to come out of retirement and join the Oakland Raiders. Ever since Lynch drifted into the sunset, the Seahawks have not had a consistent punisher in the backfield.

There’s a fine line with Lacy’s weight, and he got too big with the Packers, to the point where his power was minimized by a lack of foot quickness and a propensity for getting hurt. But if Lacy keeps things in check, he has terrific ability and could be a nice addition. His one-year contract demonstrates where he is in his career: in prove-it mode. But he’s up to $110K now in weight-related bonuses, so that’s nice.

His weight has always carried a strange fascination with fans and media ever since Lacy admitted at the NFL scouting combine coming out of Alabama that he was a “pound or three” too heavy in school. His most recent Seahawks weigh-in suggests that’s currently not an issue.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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