Eagles Wake-Up Call: ‘Players Just Want Transparency’

What strikes you is how casually they greet the alleged corruption.

Congressional investigators recently released a 91-page report supporting the claim that the NFL inappropriately attempted to influence a sports-related study on brain disease by the National Institutes of Health. After committing an “unrestricted” $30 million donation to the NIH, the NFL apparently balked when a $16 million grant was given for research efforts to be led by neurodegenerative disease expert Dr. Robert Stern, who has been critical of the league in the past, and attempted to redirect funds to grant applicants with league ties.

“No conversations [with the NFLPA] yet. I think everyone is waiting to get a little more information,” said Eagles player rep Malcolm Jenkins. “But I also don’t  feel like anyone is caught by surprise. I feel like we’ve felt like that was the case the entire time anyway.”

That what was the case?

“That the NFL wasn’t being 100 percent [in respect to] their findings of the investigations on concussions… I’m going to speak for myself, but I don’t think players really have the confidence in the league to do the right thing — or completely the right thing — when it comes to player safety.”

“I haven’t really heard too much on it,” added Lane Johnson, “all I can say is that the NFL is going to try to preserve its image the best that they can. Any bad news is going to get brushed under the rug. That’s how it’s always been.”

That seems like a much more difficult task for the NFL these days — to keep the underbelly of the beast out of public view. The gladiator sport has gone mainstream, evolving into a multi-billion dollar industry that enjoys unmatched popularity. It strikes as strange that such a heavily-scrutinized  giant would engage in the kind of reported behavior that puts its players and its own reputation at unnecessary risk.

Jenkins believes that the motive is self-preservation.

“Like you said, it’s a billion dollar company. I mean even when the information about the dangers of concussions came out, you had mothers and parents everywhere talking about they’re not going to allow their kids to play football. And nobody wants that. And I think that’s where it comes from, because if kids stop playing then eventually, the league will disappear because you’ve got less kids playing high school, less playing college, and eventually it’s a trickle-down effect. That will effect the NFL at some point. So nobody wants that.

“But I think from a player’s [standpoint] there’s a fine line where you want to educate everybody, you want to keep people in your sport, but you also want to give the guys that are playing in it, educate them on the real dangers of playing the sport and give them the opportunity to make an educated decision on whether they feel like taking that chance or not. That’s where I don’t feel like a lot of guys have the most confidence in the league to actually give us all the honest information that’s out there.”

Jenkins suffered what he believes was the first concussion of his career last season. He said he is not concerned about long-term brain injury as a result of playing the sport, noted that everyone who plays the game does so voluntarily and that players sign up knowing there is risk  involved.

And, Johnson added, the league has come a long way in respect to player safety.

“I think players back in the day had it a lot worse,” he said. “The equipment wasn’t as good as it is today. I can speak for my father-in-law, his helmet was thin. I mean no wonder guys were getting concussions, the equipment they had was just outrageous. And then they never really paid much attention to it until some of those guys like Mike Webster and some of those stories came out. I think we’re in a much better light now than it used to be, a lot more attention is being put on it, so I think in the next couple decades it’s just going to increasingly get better.”

The conversation is much more prevalent in the media than it is in the locker room, it seems, but safety issues are more front of mind for players than ever. They are generally aware of the dangers of their profession, and choose the profession anyway. What they want is to be armed with all available information so they know that the decisions they are making when it comes to their own well-being are sound ones.

“It’s always, whenever they’re in question, a report comes out that they tamper with this or try to influence that, they never tell you what really happened, they just tell you, ‘That’s not the case.,'” said Jenkins. “And I think players just want that transparency whether it be with the health and safety of the players or it be the discipline, anything. We have to be transparent when all these investigations come on but we never get that transparency from the league. But that’s part of being an employee.”

WHAT YOU MISSED

“Stay in nickel. F–k ’em.” Practice observations include a few notes on the colorful Jim Schwartz.

“This is a scheme that greatly limits what he’s asked to do.” Schwartz on Marcus Smith, Fletcher Cox and more.

“Excluding the obvious (QB Sam Bradford), [Marcus] Smith is the Eagle with the most to prove.” WTS.

Josh looks at how Rodney McLeod is settling into Schwartz’s scheme, and who has stood out to him so far in OTAs.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Jeff McLane offers his observations from Tuesday’s session.

Sam Bradford had another strong practice. No one can dispute that he’s a very good thrower. He might have missed two weeks during a “holdout,” but he’s still far ahead of where he was last year – coming off the knee injury — in terms of repetitions. His problems historically have come when his protection hasn’t been consistent. The importance of the Eagles offensive line, and its health, can’t be overstated. Bradford overthrew an open Zach Ertz early during 7-on-7s, but he was sharp during team drills. He hooked up with Nelson Agholor, Jordan Matthews, Trey Burton and Ertz on four straight downfield passes…

— Doug Pederson’s practices aren’t carbon copies of Andy Reid’s – at least when he was with the Eagles – but there are a lot of similarities. As most coaches do, Pederson likes to make corrections on the field. Chip Kelly was the anomaly. He emphasized speed and maximizing the number of reps in practice, so he waited until film review to point out mistakes. There was one play in which Wentz checked down to Burton that Pederson didn’t like. He called everyone back and had them run the same play, this time with Wentz throwing farther downfield.

As does Jimmy Kempski.

• The Eagles’ defense stunk today. There were wide open receivers all over the field, and the defensive line must have jumped offsides on at least a half dozen occasions. “You guys saw practice today,” said defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. “We have enough problems on defense right now.”

• I don’t know what happened last year in the games that mattered, but there’s no question Nelson Agholor is talented. He snatched a deep crosser with his hands away from his body over the middle and then turned on the jets, running away from the safeties for a score. His acceleration is very impressive.

COMING UP

We’ll have more from Tuesday’s availability.