San Francisco trades for Brady’s backup
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers acquired their quarterback of the future on Tuesday by trading for New England backup Jimmy Garoppolo.
The Niners agreed to send a 2018 second-round pick to the Patriots in the deal that will be official once Garoppolo passes a physical. He is expected to be introduced at a news conference later Tuesday.
San Francisco (0-8) had been expected to either draft a quarterback high in the first round next year or try to acquire a proven starter like Kirk Cousins in free agency.
Instead, coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch decided to strike early and put the fate of their franchise in the hands in a quarterback who has started just two games in four NFL seasons.
“We are thrilled for Jimmy to join the49ersfamily,”Lynchsaid.“Jimmy is a player we have researched extensively since Kyle and I joined the 49ers. I am extremely pleased this came together today and we all think it is a big win for our organization. Albeit in limited game action, Jimmy has displayed the characteristics and traits that we believe are vital to being a successful quarterback in this league. He has had the rare opportunity to sit and learn from a future Hall of Fame quarterback in a championship atmosphere.”
Garoppolo, a second-round pick in 2014, is in the final year of his contract. By acquiring him now, San Francisco gets a head start on negotiating a long-term deal to keep him or can use the franchise tag on him in free agency.
Garoppolo won those two starts in place of a suspended Tom Brady at the start of the 2016 season. He completed 42 of 59 passes for 496 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. He got hurt in the second quarter of his second start and has thrown just four passes since then.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jimmy,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “I couldn’t ask for him to give us any more than he’s given us. The 49ers are getting a good player, and they’re getting a good person and they’re getting a great teammate. And they’re getting a good quarterback. And Jimmy’s getting a good coach. His career is moving forward. He’s a talented individual. He was a great person to coach. I met with him weekly, and again I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. But as his career moves forward we have to look to our team, both this year and beyond.”
The Niners hope Garoppolo can be the quarterback to lead the franchise out of its recent cycle of losing that started when Jim Harbaugh was let go as coach following the 2014 season. San Francisco won seven games the past two years with Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert sharing QB duties.
NEW YORK — A federal judge cleared the way Monday night for the NFL to enforce a six-game suspension of Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott over domestic violence allegations.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla denied the request for a preliminary injunction from players’ union attorneys working for Elliott. Failla put the ruling on hold for 24 hours to give Elliott’s legal team time to appeal.
It’s the second time a federal ruling has overturned a reprieve that kept Elliott on the field. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court threw out a Texas court’s injunction and ordered the dismissal of Elliott’s lawsuit there.
The NFL briefly enforced Commissioner Roger Goodell’s suspension before a judge sitting in for Failla in the Southern District of New York issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the punishment for the second time.
If the suspension holds this time, Elliott will be out starting Sunday at home against Kansas City. He will be eligible to return Dec. 17 at Oakland.
Elliott attended the roughly two-hour hearing in New York on Monday, a day after rushing for 150 yards and two touchdowns in the Cowboys’ 33-19 win at Washington. He left court without speaking to reporters.
The 22-year-old Elliott was suspended in August after the league concluded following a yearlong investigation that he had several physical confrontations in the summer of 2016 with Tiffany Thompson, his girlfriend at the time.
Prosecutors in Columbus, Ohio, decided not to pursue the case in the city where Elliott starred for Ohio State, citing conflicting evidence. Elliott denied the allegations under oath during his NFL appeal.
A lawyer for the NFL Players Association, Jeffrey Kessler, argued that the process Goodell used to determine the punishment against Elliott was “fundamentally unfair” because it downplayed the conclusion by an internal investigator that Thompson wasn’t credible in her account of the 2016 violence.
The doubts “were kept from the union, the Cowboys, the player and, we believe, Mr. Goodell,” Kessler said.
At one point, the judge asked NFL attorney Paul Clement, “Why it was OK that the commissioner was not told that (the investigator) had concerns?”
Clement responded that a report given to Goodell before he made his decision made clear that the accuser was a flawed witness, but that he relied on photos of her bruised body and other corroborating evidence to make his decision. Though criminal authorities declined to bring charges in the case, the league has an obligation to combat domestic abuse under its labour agreement, he said.
“There’s a concern on the behalf of the league that its players are held to a higher standard,” Clement said.
The union’s suggestion that its lawyer should have been able to cross-examine Thompson during an arbitration hearing won by the league would set a “terrible precedent,” he added.
Union seeks to block ruling
The union for NFL players has asked a judge to temporarily delay the effect of her ruling permitting the league to enforce Elliott’s sixgame suspension over domestic violence allegations.
The NFL Players Association filed the papers Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. It said it wanted Failla to suspend her Monday ruling so attorneys can appeal it to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
If she doesn’t, lawyers for the union said they will ask the Manhattan appeals court to temporarily suspend her decision. The lawyers asked the judge to rule on the request by 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The 22-year-old Elliott was suspended in August after he had several physical confrontations in the summer of 2016 with his thengirlfriend.