DAILY NFL NEWS CLIPS November 12, 2020 NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE 345 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10154 (212) 450-2000 FAX (212) 681-7579 1 NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS DAILY NFL NEWS CLIPS 11/12/20 NFL ISSUES & OWNERSHIP 3 New York Times – “N.F.L. Announces the Weeknd for Its Super Bowl Halftime Show” By Belson, Rosman, Sisario 5 Associated Press – “Column: Half a season and a Super Bowl ahead for NFL” By Tim Dahlberg 7 ESPN – “Source: Kansas City Chiefs seek NFL inquiry on unmasked union rep” By Adam Teicher 8 Associated Press – “AP source: 49ers cleared of COVID-19 violations” By Josh Dubow 9 Associated Press – “Steelers trying to get a grip on their ‘virtual’ reality” By Will Graves 11 11 Minn Star Tribune – “Fans won't be allowed in U.S. Bank Stadium for the remainder of the 2020 season, Vikings say” 13 Washington Post – “Sports were a distraction from the pandemic. Now they’re being battered by it.” By Jerry Brewer 16 Wall Street Journal – “College Football Limps Toward the Pandemic Season’s Conclusion” By Laine Higgins 18 Chicago Tribune – “Why are there so many late afternoon NFL games this Sunday? Chalk it up to Masters in Nov.” 20 Miami Herald – “Tagovailoa versus Herbert looks like a classic in the making for years to come” By A Salguero 24 AZ Republic – “Arizona Cardinals are NFL contenders because of quarterback Kyler Murray” By Jeremy Cluff 26 ESPN – “For Washington Football Team QB Alex Smith, return to lineup just another comeback” By John Keim 29 Washington Post – “Alex Smith is the NFL’s best story, Washington’s next few weeks are about Dwayne Haskins” 31 Wall Street Journal – “Baseball’s Dearth of Black Catchers Helps Explain Its Dearth of Black Managers” By Diamond 34 New York Times – “Sports Helped Shape Biden. But Expect a Quieter Fan in the White House.” By Jonathan Abrams 37 New York Times – “How Trump Lost Sports as a Political Strategy” By Jere Longman 40 Associated Press – “NFL announces Salute to Service Award nominees” 42 Military.com – “NFL Honors the Real Warriors With a 'Salute to Service'” By James Barber 44 FW Star-Telegram – “Charlotte Jones announced as Dallas Cowboys’ nominee for the Salute to Service Award” 45 ABC 7 News – “Local heroes get to compete with Rams players at SoFi Stadium” By Ashley Mackey BUSINESS/MEDIA 46 Hollywood Reporter – “ESPN Shutters Esports Editorial Division” By Trilby Beresford 47 Front Office Sports – “Streaming Service FuboTV to Expand into Sports Wagering” By Torrey Hart 48 DigiDay – “‘Launching content on behalf of clients:’ How Gallery Media turned TikTok into a 7-figure business” 50 Wall Street Journal – “Social-Media Companies Took an Aggressive Stance During the Election. Will It Continue?” 53 Sports Business Daily – “Rams Sign Rocket Mortgage To Multiyear Sponsorship Deal” By Ben Fischer FEATURES/COLUMNS 54 Sports Illustrated – “The Infinite Possibilities of Josh Allen” By Greg Bishop 62 Pitt Post-Gazette – “Steelers turn to Cam Heyward for leadership on and off the field” By Gerry Dulac 64 Green Bay Press-Gazette – “Sky's the limit for Packers' prolific passing duo of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams” 67 The Undefeated – “Shedeur Sanders says playing for dad Deion Sanders at Jackson State will prepare him for NFL” 2 N.F.L. Announces the Weeknd for Its Super Bowl Halftime Show New York Times –– 11/12/20 By Ken Belson, Katherine Rosman and Ben Sisario The Weeknd, the Canadian pop star, has been chosen to play the halftime show at the Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., in February, a performance that may face challenges because of pandemic restrictions. “We all grow up watching the world’s biggest acts playing the Super Bowl, and one can only dream of being in that position,” Abel Tesfaye, who is known professionally as the Weeknd, said in a statement. “I’m humbled, honored and ecstatic to be the center of that infamous stage this year.” The selection of the 30-year-old singer is in keeping with the N.F.L.’s recent attempts to attract a wider audience by pivoting from classic rock acts dominated by white musicians to artists with large social media followings who are popular with younger fans and people of color. The Weeknd has had five No. 1 hits, including “Can’t Feel My Face,” produced in part by the Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin, and “Starboy,” created with Daft Punk, the French dance- rock duo. It will be the second Super Bowl halftime show produced in part by Jay-Z and Roc Nation. “The Weeknd has introduced a sound all his own,” Jay-Z said in a statement. “His soulful uniqueness has defined a new generation of greatness in music and artistry.” The N.F.L. recruited Jay-Z in 2019 to help orchestrate musical performances for marquee games, most notably the Super Bowl, after artists across the music industry said they would not work with the league to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers quarterback. Kaepernick began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before games to protest police brutality and racial injustice, and has not found work in the league since 2016. Tesfaye has publicly supported Kaepernick. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing in police custody, he donated $200,000 to Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp Legal Defense Initiative, showing receipts to his 2.5 million Instagram followers. He has also been a vocal advocate for wider social justice causes. In a brief acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards in August, he said simply: “It’s really hard for me to celebrate right now and enjoy this moment, so I’m just going to say: Justice for Jacob Blake and justice for Breonna Taylor.” The N.F.L. has scaled back its plans for the Super Bowl, on Feb. 7, because of the pandemic. Last month, the league said it was likely that only about 20 percent of the seats at Raymond James Stadium would be filled. In most years, the halftime show is set up by hundreds of people who run onto the field to build the stage. Then hundreds of fans, chosen in advance, typically rush out to the stage to cheer. 3 The N.F.L. has not indicated how it will stage the show. Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner, has said the league will work within the safety guidelines established by the city of Tampa, Hillsborough County and other officials in Florida, as well as following their own protocols, which this season have included a significant reduction in the number of people allowed to be on the field before and during games. After emerging a decade ago as a mysterious creator of brooding R&B, the Weeknd has found success as a pop artist with a dark, avant-garde edge. In the music video for his latest No. 1 hit, “Blinding Lights,” the Weeknd becomes a bruised and bloodied character in a red suit and black gloves, laughing maniacally as he dances to the song’s bright, pulsing synth-pop. With an enigmatic stage persona, the Weeknd stands out for a high tenor with a strong Michael Jackson influence. “After Hours,” his latest album, held the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s album chart for four consecutive weeks this spring. He also appears in a Mercedes-Benz commercial. As a performer, including on TV appearances like “Saturday Night Live” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the Weeknd has tended to favor elaborate, high-concept stage settings that can easily translate into a stadium environment. But televised awards shows have struggled during the pandemic to capture the live performances that are usually their biggest draw. At the MTV awards, where the Weeknd was the lead performer and won video of the year for “Blinding Lights,” and at the Billboard Music Awards last month, artists appeared on soundstages without an audience. On Wednesday night, the Country Music Association Awards, in Nashville, featured a socially distanced but largely unmasked live audience that consisted mainly of the show’s performers, including Maren Morris, Eric Church and Chris Stapleton. 4 Column: Half a season and a Super Bowl ahead for NFL Associated Press –– 11/12/20 By Tim Dahlberg It feels like another time, but it was only a few months ago that the NFL managed to pull off what seemed like a minor miracle. With Roger Goodell leading the cheers from his basement, the league conducted a virtual draft that stocked teams with new players and, more importantly, infected no one. The actual season was always going to be harder. For that, the NFL needed a real miracle and the buy-in of everyone — including the Las Vegas Raiders — to clear a path to the Super Bowl in February. Whether the title game will be played Feb. 7 in Tampa Bay still remains in question, halfway through a schedule upended at times by the coronavirus. If anyone needed a reminder the virus was in charge, they got it this week when the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers put quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and three others on the COVID-19 list after tight end Vance McDonald tested positive. Equally as worrisome for the NFL, the number of people testing positive doubled this week in the league’s latest results. The new positives included 15 players and 41 other team officials. One thing is certain: With empty or partially filled stadiums and fake crowd noise filling broadcasts, this isn’t the NFL anyone wants. That includes the new team in Sin City, where a 5-3 start and a win over the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs should have fans dancing on the Las Vegas Strip.