Busted Coverage

Phillip Rubino / Shutterstock.com Stefon Diggs has basically been a wanted man since his rookie year turned heads back in 2015. Teams have circled him. Money has followed him. That’s just been the pattern. Even last March, coming off a torn ACL, Diggs still landed a three-year, $63.5 million deal with the New England Patriots. He then went out and posted 1,013 receiving yards, then played in a Super Bowl for New England.

Ron Adar / Shutterstock.com Baker Mayfield’s numbers dropped off last season – his third as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ starting quarterback. Turns out there was a reason nobody really talked about. The quarterback revealed he played through a sprained MCL and PCL (the ligaments on the inner and back part of the knee) starting in Week 2, according to the upcoming third season of Netflix’s “Quarterback” docuseries. Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times first surfaced the details.

The World Cup is impossible to miss. Before the first whistle there are team news posts, injury rumours, squad debates, tactical clips, podcasts, short videos, fan arguments and ten different predictions about the same match. It feels like everything is being covered. But not quite. One type of viewer is still treated like an afterthought: the betting fan.

Marcellus Wiley, the former NFL defensive end turned sportscaster, was arrested over the weekend on alleged domestic battery charges. Orlando police booked him on July 4th. He’s now sitting in Orange County Corrections on one count of domestic battery, and he’s being held without bond until his court hearing. That’s a serious situation for anyone, let alone someone with Wiley’s public profile. Further details about what actually happened haven’t been released yet.

Marshawn Kneeland had stage 1 CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) at the time of his death. Researchers at the Boston University CTE Center made the diagnosis, and the former Dallas Cowboys defensive end’s family announced it Tuesday through the Concussion & CTE Foundation. Kneeland was 24. He died by suicide in November from what police determined was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. CTE is scored on a scale of 1 to 4. Stage 1 sits at the lowest end – but that doesn’t mean it’s minor.

Keith Mitchell, the former Texas A&M linebacker who went on to make a Pro Bowl with the New Orleans Saints, has died at 51. KBTX in College Station, Texas confirmed his death on Thursday. No cause of death has been released yet. Mitchell’s family described his passing as “sudden and unexpected” in a statement to the outlet.

LeRoy Irvin, who spent a decade turning Rams’ opponents into nervous wrecks whenever he touched the ball, has died at 68. The team confirmed the news Thursday, and the announcement hit hard for anyone who watched football in the 1980s. We mourn the loss of Rams Legend LeRoy Irvin. We extend our condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.

University of College / Shutterstock.com Sean Payton once floated a plan so wild it sounds made up – hire Bill Belichick to coach the Broncos just long enough to break the all-time wins record, then hand him the keys back. That’s according to a detailed piece from ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, published Tuesday, digging into Payton’s mindset during Denver’s playoff run last season.

George Wirt / Shutterstock.com Acrisure Stadium finally got the field it needed. The Steelers have replaced the turf that earned them an F-minus grade in last season’s NFLPA report card, a survey that ranked player opinions on facilities across the league. That grade wasn’t just embarrassing, it was the worst in the entire survey. Pittsburgh finished dead last among all 32 teams, and the field conditions played a big part in that ranking.

Less than a week after landing Myles Garrett in a blockbuster trade with the Cleveland Browns, the Los Angeles Rams have restructured the contract that came with him – and it’s a big one. The Rams didn’t negotiate a new deal with Garrett, but they did rework the existing contract, which now pays him $204 million over five years, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Rapoport reported Thursday that Garrett’s total earnings remain roughly the same as what he was set to make in Cleveland.