Jets place Stephen Hill on injured reserve

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The New York Jets ended the rookie campaign of second round pick Stephen Hill on Wednesday by placing him on injured reserve.

The wide receiver out of Georgia Tech suffered a knee injury in the Jets 17-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars two weeks ago. Hill did not play in Monday night’s loss to the Tennessee Titans. According to Conor Orr of the Star-Ledger, Hill suffered a sprained LCL ligament in his knee and had already been ruled out for the Jets match up against the San Diego Chargers this weekend.

The move will force the Jets to continue to rely upon newly re-acquired receiver Braylon Edwards.

In his first season with the Jets, Hill appeared in 11 games and caught 21 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns. He had an impressive debut against the Buffalo Bills in hauling in five catches for 89 yards and two scores. All three statistics turned out to be season highs.

The Jets signed defensive back Donnie Fletcher from their practice squad to fill Hill’s spot on the roster.

AP

With offseason workouts completed for most teams, the calendar has reached the point at which players have free time — and coaches and General Managers spend most of their free time worrying about getting a phone call regarding a player who has found trouble.

At some point in the past day or so, Patriots coach Bill Belichick received one of those calls.  But instead of hearing about the latest run-of-the-mill off-field entanglement, Belichick was told that tight end Aaron Hernandez faces police questioning after a body of an “associate” was found in the vicinity of a rental car connected to Hernandez.

All reports continue to indicate that Hernandez is not a suspect.  Still, Hernandez has consulted with a lawyer, per SI.com.  According to ABC, Hernandez received at his North Attleboro home on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. a hand-delivered package from the “prominent law firm Ropes and Gray,” an international corporate firm with 11 offices worldwide.

Police reportedly spent hours inside Hernandez’s residence on Tuesday, ultimately searching the structure and emerging with a box.

Two men who tried to leave during the search reportedly were detained.  The car in which they planned to leave also was searched.

Hernandez’s agents have declined comment.  The Patriots issued the standard perfunctory comment, acknowledging the reports but declining to address the situation in deference to the investigation.

It’s unclear whether and to what extent Hernandez has been questioned by police.  ABC has reported that he was initially uncooperative, which implies that at some point he has decided to cooperate.  (The Boston Herald disputes the ABC report, using the dismissive “Web reports” label.)

Many possible explanations exist.  It seems implausible that Hernandez had any role in the killing of the “associate,” given the presence of the rental car tied to Hernandez in the vicinity of the body.  At a minimum, the car would have been removed.

Also, there was no apparent effort to conceal the body, which was found by a jogger in an industrial park roughly a mile from Hernandez’s home on Monday.

AP

Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington is due in court in early July for the next proceedings related to assault charges brought against him following a May arrest for allegedly grabbing his girlfriend by the throat and throwing her to the floor.

Should that case reach a conclusion before the start of the 2013 season, Washington could face discipline from the league under the Personal Conduct Policy and that might extend his early season absence beyond the four-game suspension Washington will serve for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. It’s the kind of baggage that makes it hard to feel too secure about what Washington will bring to the team in 2013, something coach Bruce Arians acknowledged during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio with Alex Marvez and Bill Polian.

“Well, it’s all up to him. He’s had double incidents and, as an organization, that throws a red flag up,” Arians said. “But I think Daryl is a very bright young man who understands the mistakes he’s made and he’s walking a very thin line in the league right now. Super talented, but you have to adhere to the rules.”

The makeup of the Cardinals linebacking corps speaks to their uneasiness about Washington’s status. The Cardinals drafted Kevin Minter in the second round in April after learning of Washington’s suspension and then signed Karlos Dansby in May after Washington’s arrest, giving them two more options at inside linebacker. Those moves came after the additions of free agents Lorenzo Alexander and Jasper Brinkley before any of the bad news about Washington came to light and give the Cardinals enough depth to survive an absence of any length.

That’s not the ideal situation because, as Arians said, Washington’s got an extra level of talent working in his favor. You have to plan for a rainy day, though, and it’s definitely cloudy over Washington.

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Amazingly enough, the guy called Kickalicious is more than just a gimmick.

Norwegian kicker Havard Rugland, who surprised even himself when his Youtube video of trick shots earned him a shot at Lions camp, has impressed coaches there.

“He’s obviously got a strong leg,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “Every step you try to temper, ‘Well, let’s see what happens when there’s a snapper or holder out there. Let’s see what happens when he’s got a defense that’s rushing. . . . Let’s see what happens when it’s in the middle of practice rather than on their own on the side.’

“He’s passed all those tests. Every step along the way, he’s done a good job with that. So the next thing is when the game’s live and guys are really bearing down on him and there’s pressure involved in the kick. But that’s something that won’t come for a while now. He’s done a nice job working through all the different things that are new to him. That’s encouraging to see.”

Of course, the Lions signed veteran David Akers to be their kicker this offseason, so his chance at making the 53-man roster still aren’t. But Akers sat out most of the spring workouts with to rest a hip injury (the same one that made him uncharacteristically inaccurate last year with the 49ers), and that opened the door.

Maybe kicking a field goal through that small crack will be on the sequel video.

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Canisius High School in Upstate New York is adding two great players in Tyrone Wheatley Jr. and Terius Wheatley, the sons of new Bills assistant Tyrone Wheatley.

The Dolphins’ cheerleaders have performed their own version of a Taylor Swift song.

The Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremonies for Tedy Bruschi and Gil Santos will take place on July 29.

The Jets are still paying for Tim Tebow.

Here’s a look at the Ravens’ offseason in pictures.

Will Hard Knocks be a distraction for the Bengals? Data from other sports teams that have done reality shows demonstrates that it typically doesn’t have much of an effect.

Do the Browns have a Plan B after Bon Jovi canceled a scheduled Cleveland concert?

Fans can go on a Steelers-themed cruise in March of 2014.

The Texans want players staying in shape for the month off before training camp, and they’re particularly concerned about offensive linemen and wide receivers not putting on any extra pounds.

The Colts’ cheerleaders have shot their annual swimsuit calendar.

The Jacksonville City Council is unhappy with the city’s chief attorney for, among other things, the way she previously interpreted the Jaguars’ lease with the city.

The Titans welcomed nearly 200 soldiers from Ft. Campbell to the team’s first day of minicamp.

The offensive line may be an area of concern for the Broncos.

Rookie TE Travis Kelce appears to be a good fit in the Chiefs’ offense.

Raiders RB Darren McFadden needs just 17 yards to become one of the Top 10 rushers in team history.

The Chargers are raising awareness for foster children and adoption.

Cowboys RB Phillip Tanner is losing weight and getting in better shape to make himself a better fit in the offense in Dallas.

Giants fans may not be happy to learn that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie confessed on Tuesday that he’s not a Giants fan, or a Jets fan, but a Cowboys fan.

Said Eagles rookie TE Zach Ertz of having to miss offseason work because Stanford was still in school, “I think I missed a lot. The reps are invaluable. . . . But I couldn’t do anything about it, so I didn’t really stress over it too much. I was in the playbook a lot, studied as much as I could. So I basically made the most of what I could.”

June 20 will be Josh Morgan Day in Washington, D.C.

Offensive line will be the most important position to watch at the Bears’ training camp.

The Lions need players to show maturity during the month off before training camp.

The Packers think offseason team-building activities are important.

Vikings FB Jerome Felton says he’s focusing on being a great player.

Falcons DE Osi Umenyiora has impressed WR Julio Jones by showing up to work out early every day.

Here’s a look at the surprises from the Panthers’ offseason work.

Saints OT Jason Smith wants to show he wasn’t a draft bust.

The Buccaneers have donated Warren Sapp memorabilia to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians says LB Daryl Washington is “walking a very thin line” after his offseason issues.

The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission paid $2 million to the Rams to cover the team’s legal fees for a dispute over upgrades to the Edward Jones Dome.

Seahawks S Earl Thomas says all the focus in Seattle is on getting better every day.

49ers QB Colin Kaepernick urged young athletes to chase their dreams at a charity appearance.

AP

Giants punter Steve Weatherford is not done ripping his former Jets special teams coordinator, Mike Westhoff.

Weatherford has said in the past that he didn’t like playing for Westhoff, and in an interview with the Star-Ledger, Weatherford answered a question about comparing the Giants and Jets by explaining that Westhoff was the one problem he had when he played for New York’s other team.

“It’s been a dream come true,” Weatherford said of playing for the Giants. “I enjoyed playing for Rex Ryan but the special teams coach [Mike Westhoff] was very difficult to get along with both on and off the field. Here, the Giants have treated me great since the moment I walked in here. I show up early and leave late and give everything I have. I think the Giants have an appreciation for that. I absolutely love being here. I’d play for free.”

Weatherford kicked for Westhoff for the Jets for two seasons with the Jets, in 2009 and 2010, and after they parted the two spoke negatively about each other over issues including Weatherford ranking 23rd in punting one year and Weatherford calling his own fake punt and failing to convert on a fourth-and-18. You’d think by now they’d be over whatever differences they had, but you’d be wrong.

AP

In an effort to better the experience of attending an NFL game in Seattle, the Seahawks announced Tuesday they will be forming an advisory panel consisting of season tickets holders that will meet with team executives in an effort to get input directly from the fan base.

The group will consist of 12 Seahawks season ticket holders that will meet regularly with team president Peter McLoughlin.

“The Fan Advisory Council will play an important role in our efforts to maintain and enhance the Seahawks fan experience,” McLoughlin said in a statement. “We will hold quarterly meetings to discuss and focus on a variety of fan related issues including: in-stadium fan experience, game presentation and in-stadium technology.”

The Seahawks aren’t the only team that have looked to their fan base for input to improve the fan experience. The Cleveland Browns formed a similar panel in 2009 with 25 fans selected by the team to meet with members of the Browns front office.

AP

Tight end Rob Gronkowski underwent yet another surgery Tuesday as part of an offseason filled with procedures aimed at patching the New England Patriots star back together.

This surgery was to address a problematic back. The surgery was said to have gone well and now the surgeon who performed the procedure, Dr. Robert Watkins, has released a statement on the procedure.

“New England Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski underwent a microscopic lumbar discectomy surgery performed by Dr. Robert Watkins at Marina Del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles,” the statement said, via Christopher Price of WEEI.com. “The surgery went well. The timing of his return to football will depend on his progression through the rehabilitation program.”

A lumbar discectomy is geared toward addressing issues with a herniated disc in a person’s back.

Watkins performed the same surgery on New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul earlier this month. Pierre-Paul’s recovery time was pegged at 12 weeks. If the same time table holds for Gronkowski it will be very close whether he’ll be available to start the season. Twelve weeks from the day of the surgery would be two days after the Patriots season opener against the Buffalo Bills.

AP

With all due respect to the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears and others, Cleveland Browns rookie linebacker Barkevious Mingo believes the Cleveland Browns could have the best defensive unit in the league this season.

According to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mingo believes the Browns have the pieces in place to be among the league’s best.

“If everything is going well, I think this defense could be the best in the league,” Mingo said.

“We have a lot of players that can contribute and help this team win. We’ve got a lot of rushers. We’ve got corners on the back-end. We’ve got D-linemen that can hold those blocks and get off and make plays. We’ve got linebackers that can come up and tackle the run and get back in coverage as well. So we have a lot of tools that we can use.”

It would be a pretty significant climb from where the Browns finished in 2012. Cleveland was ranked 23rd in the league last season in total defense and 19th in points allowed.

The Browns do have some strong pieces on the defensive side of the ball and the potential to be especially strong in the front seven. Joe Haden has Pro Bowl potential at corner and the addition of defensive coordinator Ray Horton could help solidify the group as a whole.

Still, it seems a little premature for anyone, let alone a rookie, to claim the Browns belong in that conversation. The potential could be there, but they’ll have to prove they belong to be considered one of the league’s best defenses this fall.

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Last month, former NFL agent Benjamin Geller was charged with one count of wire fraud.  This month, Geller pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

According to the New Orleans Times Picayune, the guilty plea came on Friday in federal court.  Geller was accused of spending roughly $500,000 in life insurance proceeds generated by the death of former Saints defensive lineman Frank Warren, who passed in 2002.

Geller was wiring diminished payments to Warren’s family, keeping the rest.  Suspicions first arose in 2009.

Sentencing is set for September 12, at which time Geller faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.  The decision to accept responsibility absent a trial should help Geller receive a more favorable punishment.

In time, that revolutionary new stadium to be built in Minnesota will look downright boring.

NFL teams are realizing that one way to get fans to choose attending games over watching them at home will be to play the games in compelling structures that make fans want to be there, regardless of how good or bad the home team is.

The new Vikings stadium becomes the first to incorporate an Olympics-style ingenuity.  The new Falcons stadium will take it to a new level.

On Tuesday, the Falcons announced that the “conceptual design” of the stadium has been “completed and approved.”  And the “conceptual design” that has been selected has the look of a futuristic change purse.

A Falcons spokesman tells PFT that this isn’t the final design, but that there’s a “pretty good chance” the finished product will closely resemble the concept.

If the “Change Purse” comes to fruition, designers of future structures will have their work cut out for them, as the stadium arms race expands from giant HD video screens and high-speed Internet access to include stunning designs that will make the cars line up even deeper than they did for Kevin Costner’s corn field in Iowa.

AP

With some uncertainty still surrounding their middle linebacker position, the Minnesota Vikings are bringing in recently released linebacker Desmond Bishop for a visit on Wednesday.

The Vikings have planned on shifting Erin Henderson inside this offseason to serve as their starter after primarily serving on the outside during his time in Minnesota. But Henderson doesn’t feel there should be any uncertainty whatsoever. He has no doubts he will be the Vikings starting middle linebacker.

“I’m playing the Mike,” Henderson said, via Judd Zulgad of 1500ESPN.com.

It’s just another possible replacement for Henderson that has cropped up this offseason. Manti Te’o, Brian Urlacher and now Bishop have all been considered as options to fill the Vikings middle linebacker role. It’s actually angered Henderson to have to continually hear about guys who will be taking a job he firmly sees as being his.

Henderson isn’t opposed to the Vikings signing Bishop if he can add to the talent at the position. He just had no intentions of letting Bishop, or anyone else, take his starting job.

“I have a chance to play Mike now, I don’t see why I would let it slip out of my hands or let it go any other way,” Henderson said. “So, that’s what my mindset is and that’s what I’m thinking.”

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Jets.  Four letters.  Four heads on Mt. Rushmore.

None will be wearing the headgear of a firefighter.

But 12 finalists other than Fireman Ed have been identified.  Vote for up to four from the list of finalists appearing below.

The winners will be announced on Thursday’s Pro Football Talk on NBCSN, the same day the Patriots’ Mt. Rushmore will be announced.

Coincidentally, the butt fumble happened on a Thursday.

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If the NFL plans to make the process of cutting players more “humane,” that dose of humanity won’t come from a kinder, gentler Hard Knocks.

The executive producer of the show has told SiriusXM NFL Radio that scenes of players being cut won’t be cut from the upcoming season.

“How we’re going to handle it is show exactly how they handle it,” Ross Ketover told Jim Miller and Alex Marvez.  “If it’s kind, we’re going to show it.  If it’s harsh, we’re going to show that, too.”

This could mean that the league office will suggest that the Bengals use a softer approach.  Softer, say, than the scene from the last time the Bengals were the subject of the series, when former Bengals director of football operations Jim Lippincott dumped fullback J.D. Runnels in a manner that Ketover admits was “pretty harsh.”

Still, there’s only so much that can be done to change the way teams reduce from up to 90 players down to 53.

“There is no easy way to release players,” coach Marvin Lewis told Marvez via text message. “It’s always easier early in the morning so they don’t have to face their peers.  Generally, this is done around the breakfast hour.  Otherwise, it’s more awkward.

“It is the end to a chapter here but hopefully not to their career.”

Though every meeting with every player who is cut includes some sort of encouragement or advice suggesting that the glass is half full, plenty of these guys just don’t have what it takes to make it at the NFL level.  At some point, the most humane approach entails telling them that it’s time to find something else to do.

After the cameras are off, of course.

Reuters

The vast bulk of the pro football apparel of my childhood has long been discarded or boxed away, but what NFL fans and personnel wear still continues to interest me.

It’s nostalgia, I suppose. I associate the team apparel of the 1980s and 1990s with my formative years watching and learning the game.

I remember getting a Seahawks rain poncho ordered out of the Sears catalog as a gift, buying an Los Angeles Rams Starter snapback cap at a little mall sports store long gone. When I watch NFL Films highlights, I note the fashion of the day, how the uniforms have changed, what brand of jackets the coaches wore on the sidelines.

The Boston Globe published an interesting feature Tuesday about the current state of NFL merchandising. As you might imagine, the business of team apparel is big business.

Of particular note: league-approved vendors are already readying merchandise for 2014.

“The sports apparel industry has become exponentially more strategic and sophisticated,” Marty Brochstein, senior vice president for industry relations and information for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association, told the Globe.

Another tidbit that intrigued me: per the Globe, the NFL requires Nike to have enough blank jerseys on hand to meet demand in the event a player becomes especially popular. As the Globe noted, Colin Kaepernick’s 49ers jersey is one that quickly became a big-seller.

So who emerges to become a jersey-selling star this year?

I’m very intrigued by the Jets’ Geno Smith. Here’s why: if he wins the starting job and the Jets start well, his replica jerseys are going to sell very, very well in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.

After all, it’s not as if the Tim Tebow green replicas are in style these days.

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The 49ers waived Brandon Carswell with an injury designation on Tuesday, the NFL disclosed in its transaction log.

The 24-year-old Carswell suffered an ACL tear last Wednesday, the same day he signed with the club.

Carswell, who played collegiately at Southern Cal, had a brief stint on the Raiders’ practice squad a season ago.

The 49ers now have 11 wide receivers on their roster, including Michael Crabtree, who figures to miss at least a portion of the 2013 campaign after tearing his Achilles in May.