Bring extra chin straps for Steelers, advises long-time rival Ray Lewis

Le’Veon Bell capitalizes

“Great players don’t get to leave their teams.  Le’Veon Bell is the first great player in his prime who is going to hit the open market.  The people want to blame him.  The team has at least as much blame.  They applied the artificial restriction of the franchise tag to keep him from having a shot at free agency that he earned after four years of his career.”  

Mike Florio, NBCS Pro Football Talk   

 

How Mike Tomlin motivates

“A running back came into Mike Tomlin’s office and said, ‘Coach, if I get so many yards this last game of the year, I can win the rushing title.’  Tomlin said, ‘Son, when you walk into this building you see a beautiful glass case, and six Super Bowl trophies in it.  You don’t see any rushing-title trophies out there, do you?  We’re about Super Bowls here, so I don’t care about that rushing title.’”

Phil Simms, on Showtime’s Inside the NFL

 

“I don’t like Pittsburgh at all, but I respect the hell out of Pittsburgh . . . the culture.  Because when you walk into Pittsburgh you gotta bring four chin straps.  At halftime, it’s four!” 

Ray Lewis, Inside the NFL

 

Baker Mayfield energizes Cleveland

“There’s now a belief in Cleveland that they have a future, because they have a personality and a player, Baker Mayfield, who brings energy.”

Boomer Esiason, Inside the NFL

 

Falcons didn’t take Browns seriously

“It’s the Cleveland Browns and we didn’t take them serious.  We’ve got to come out with energy every game.  Today we took a huge step back.”

DeVondre Campbell, Atlanta Falcons linebacker, after losing to the Browns

 

Philadelphia reacts to trailing 13-3 at halfime

“Booing the crap out of the team that delivered a stirring Super Bowl championship nine months ago?  Bush-league.”

Peter King, Football Morning in America

 

Seeking revenge against O’Brien

“Bill O’Brien is a control guy.  ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that.’  I remember like it was yesterday, O’Brien cut the walk-through short . . . and chewed me out.  From that day on I never could be myself in Houston.  I could never find my groove.”

D.J. Swearinger, who has 4 interceptions this season for the Washington Redskins, looking to revenge Sunday against his former coach

 

MLB not pushing minority hiring

“Clubs need more aggressive encouragement to hire black and Latino managers.  Rob Manfred doesn’t seem to exert that aggressive influence.  Three years ago Manfred strongly urged the Milwaukee Brewers to hire David Stearns, a young white man, as general manager, because Stearns had worked for Manfred in the commissioner’s office.   I have never heard of any black or Latino — or woman, for that matter – getting such strong support from Manfred.”

Murray Chass, former New York Times baseball writer