Aaron Rodgers sounds as if he’s more worried about swimming with sharks than a new contract.
Starting training camp without an extension from the Green Bay Packers is not really that big a deal to the two-time NFL MVP.
”I’ve seen a lot of stuff you guys have either written or that’s been written about it http://www.officialducks.com/authentic-adidas-antoine-vermette-jersey ,” Rodgers said Thursday. ”I talk with my agent daily, so I’m aware of conversations. But I’m really not too worried about it.”
He’s under contract through the 2019 season, though NFL salaries continue to escalate. Star receiver Julio Jones showed up for Atlanta Falcons camp on Thursday after the sides reached agreement to renegotiate Jones’ deal next year, avoiding a potential holdout.
Not Rodgers’ style.
”I don’t really operate like that. I have two years left on my deal,” Rodgers said when asked if he could consider holding out to turn up pressure. ”They’re obviously more than willing to talk about an extension. There wasn’t any animosity on either side.”
Team president Mark Murphy is hopeful there will be an agreement, too, at some point.
”I don’t want to put a timeframe on it, but I’m confident we’ll work it out,” Murphy said after the Packers’ annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday night.
So there was Rodgers back to work for the first day of camp on Thursday. One of his first throws was a deep pass for receiver Randall Cobb, who was covered tightly by Kevin King. The cornerback went up and wrestled for the ball before appearing to come away with the pick.
”That wasn’t an interception,” Rodgers said.
So competitive, even in late July.
The quarterback fed his curiosity too when he appeared on an episode of the Discovery Channel show ”Monster Tag ” in which he put on scuba gear and dove into the Pacific Ocean to help tag a blue shark . It was a Shark Week special on the network, in which scientists studied sharks and ways to help preserve the population.
Staying upright in the pocket seems as if it’s a less stressful task. Protection could get a huge boost if 6-foot-5 veteran right tackle Bryan Bulaga remains on track to come back from a right ACL injury.
The right side of the line was in question in the offseason after Bulaga got hurt last season. He has progressed well enough to the point that coach Mike McCarthy hopes that Bulaga will be ready for Week 1, even if the tackle is starting camp on the physically unable to perform list as a precaution.
Getting Bulaga back would leave right guard as the only position up front for the Packers to find a new starter after Jahri Evans wasn’t re-signed as a free agent.
”I’m optimistic about it, yeah,” Bulaga said about targeting the season opener. ”Yeah I’m disappointed that I started on PUP. Been a tough road rehabbing and getting back to this point … but that’s part of the process and I’ve got to keep going.”
Notes: King, the team’s top draft pick last year, also broke up a pass to Geronimo Allison on the next play after his interception. King played through a shoulder injury for much of last season before getting shut down in December. Healthy again, King displayed the type of talent that makes the Packers hopeful that they can improve in the secondary this season. ”I made a couple plays where I got tangled up and had to go to the ground. I feel good,” King said. … McCarthy said he also thinks veteran OLB Nick Perry (ankle) will be ready for the season opener after starting camp on the PUP list. … OLB Clay Matthews may wear a visor on his helmet this season to help protect his surgically repaired nose. It got broken last month during a charity softball game after Matthews, who was pitching, was hit by a line drive by teammate Lucas Patrick. ”So I ate it, walked off the field so as to not create mass hysteria, and proceeded to go through the route of surgery and all that fun stuff,” Matthews said wryly in recounting the accident. ”So two weeks I’ll never get back thanks to Lucas Patrick over there.”
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This version corrects a typo to show that Matthews was hit by the line drive.
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Boston’s rising stars stalled The Process and led the Celtics to victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Substitute point guard Terry Rozier scored 29 Authentic Derrick Henry Jersey , and first-year Celtics forward Jayson Tatum had a career-high 28 points to outplay redshirt rookie Ben Simmons on Monday night and lead Boston to a 117-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.
With much of the attention focused on 76ers youngsters Simmons and Joel Embiid, Boston’s youth movement of Tatum and Rozier led the way. Two days after scoring a career playoff-high 26 points in Game 7 against Milwaukee, Rozier topped it, while also adding eight rebounds and six assists.
”It’s been a dream come true. I want to keep going,” said Rozier, who was wearing a Drew Bledsoe Patriots jersey to milk one more chuckle out of his pseudo-feud with vanquished Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe. ”I’m just a guy just living in the moment.”
Embiid scored 31 points with 13 rebounds for Philadelphia, which lost for just the second time in 22 games. Simmons, the likely rookie of the year, scored 18 with seven boards and six assists.
But with six days of rest since eliminating Miami, the 76ers missed 15 of their first 20 shots and hit 5 of 26 from 3-point range to lose for just the second time since March 13.
”We’re NBA players and we have to be ready,” Embiid said. ”We weren’t ready tonight.”
Al Horford had 26 points and seven rebounds for Boston, which will host Game 2 on Thursday night. The Celtics are hoping to have guard Jaylen Brown back from a hamstring injury he sustained in the clincher against the Bucks, leaving him sidelined along with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.
Playing in place of Irving Demarcus Lawrence Jersey , Rozier picked up where he left off in the first round by scoring 10 points and six assists in the first quarter on Monday night. He was 7 for 9 from 3-point range overall, combining with Tatum to overshadow the lottery picks accumulated by Philadelphia during The Process.
The first overall pick in the 2016 draft who sat out all of last year with an injury, Simmons was heckled by the Boston crowd with chants of ”Not a Rookie!” In the fourth quarter, as Tatum stepped to the free throw line to protect a double-digit lead, the chant turned to ”He’s a Rookie!”
”I love when people talk trash,” Embiid said. ”Keep bringing it, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Tatum was Boston’s first pick last year – third overall – after swapping the No. 1 pick to the Sixers and grabbing a 2018 first-rounder as well. Philadelphia picked Markelle Fultz; he did not play on Monday night.
”It’s been great to see Jayson and Terry and just our guys play like that,” Horford said. ”I think that Jayson’s starting to figure it out. … And it’s great to see for our team.”
It was 33-all with just over seven minutes left in the half when the Celtics ran off 10 points in a row. Horford had four of the five baskets and assisted on the other. Boston led 87-70 in the final minute of the third quarter when Philadelphia scored nine straight points to make it a nine-point game.
After Simmons made a layup to make it 97-88, Horford hit a 3 from the top of the key with 5:30 left and it was never within single digits again.
PUT ME IN COACH
Up until about an hour before game time, Brown was still trying to figure out a way to play on his strained right hamstring.
The Celtics’ second-leading scorer in the first round with 17.9 points per game, Brown was finally ruled out about a half-hour before tipoff following a conversation with doctors, trainers and Horford.
”Jaylen’s a competitor, I know he was doing everything he could to be out there Jakub Voracek Jersey Kids ,” Horford said. ”His health is most important. We didn’t want any setbacks with him. One of the things when I talked to him, I was like `Hey, we obviously really need you out there, but we need you for the long run. We need you to be healthy and to feel good.’
”Hopefully now he has a couple of day to recover and he’ll be back Thursday.”
OLD SCHOOL FEEL
Sixers coach Brett Brown is familiar with the Philadelphia and Boston matchups of the 1980s, having grown up in South Portland, Maine. Though he knows other teams in the East remain relevant, he thinks there is enough young talent on the current 76ers and Celtics rosters to give the rivalry a rebirth.
”I hope so,” Brown said. ”I personally grew up with this rivalry, just right on your doorstep and just a big part of your basketball life as a young kid. It sure seems like both programs are heading into the right direction.”
TIP-INS
Sixers: Embiid is the first Sixer with 30 points in a playoff game since Andre Miller in 2009. He is the first one with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in a postseason game since Allen Iverson in 2001. … Embiid again wore the mask he has needed since missing 10 straight games – including the first two of the playoffs.
Celtics: It was the first time that Boston has had three players score 25 or more points in a playoff game since Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo in 2009. … Hall of Famer and 11-time NBA champion Bill Russell was in the crowd…. Smart missed his first five shots. … The Celtics put T-shirts on every seat that said ”BEAT PHILA.” The ”L-A” were in bold, a nod to the longtime rivalry with the Lakers.
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This story has been corrected in the 6th paragraph to indicate the 76ers missed 15 of their first 20 shots, not the Heat.
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07.10.2018 10:09
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