NEW ENGLAND REWARDS BRADY
WR Nelson retires with Green Bay Packers
Quarterback Tom Brady, who turned 42 on Saturday, is set to sign a twoyear, $70-million extension with the Patriots.
Tom Brady has never known what it’s like to play out the final season of a contract in his 20-year NFL career, and the New England Patriots superstar quarterback isn’t about to find out.
Brady, who turned 42 on Saturday, is signing a two-year, $70 million extension that runs through 2021 and includes a hefty raise this season, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press.
The person, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity Sunday because the Patriots hadn’t announced the extension, confirmed the NFL Network’s report on Brady’s contract.
Brady will get an $8 million raise in 2019, when he’ll make $23 million. The extension also calls for him to make $30 million in 2020 and $32 million in 2021, when he would be 44.
Brady, who led the Patriots to a 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 53, is one of just four players to win six NFL titles. The others all played for Vince Lombardi’s mighty Green Bay Packers teams in the 1960s: Hall of Famers Herb Adderley and Forrest Gregg and their teammate, Fuzzy Thurston.
Adderley, 80, told the AP earlier this year that he believes it will take another 100 years for someone else to join the exclusive club, although he figures Brady will make it a moot point with a seventh ring before he decides to retire.
“Oh yes, indeed. He has a shot at it as long as he plays,” Adderley said.
Brady and the Patriots open defense of their latest Super Bowl title against Pittsburgh on Sept. 8. Usually, the champion kicks off the season but that honor goes to Green Bay and Chicago this year as the NFL celebrates its 100th season.
NELSON: Veteran wide receiver Jordy Nelson is retiring as a member of the Green Bay Packers.
The 34-year-old Nelson played in Green Bay from 2008-2017, winning a Super Bowl with the Packers, before spending last season with the Oakland Raiders.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said Sunday that Nelson had informed the team of his decision. A news conference was planned for Tuesday.
Nelson had 550 receptions and 69 touchdown catches in his 10 seasons in Green Bay. He made the Pro Bowl in 2014, missed the 2015 season with a knee injury and was named the 2016 Comeback Player of the Year.
The Packers selected Nelson in the second round (36th overall) of the 2008 draft out of Kansas State. He played in 136 regular-season games, including 88 starts, for Green Bay.
Nelson led the Packers with nine receptions for 140 yards and a touchdown in Green Bay’s 31-25 Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2011.
He played in 15 games for Oakland last year, finishing with 63 receptions for 739 yards and three TDs.
BRANCH: Cliff Branch, one of the Raiders’ career-leading wide receivers who won three Super Bowls in 14 seasons with the franchise, has died. He was 71.
Branch was found dead Saturday in a hotel room in Bullhead City, Arizona, the city’s police department said. It said an initial investigation revealed no foul play and that Branch died of natural causes.
“Cliff Branch touched the lives of generations of Raiders fans,” the Raiders said in a statement on their website. “His loss leaves an eternal void for the Raiders Family, but his kindness and loving nature will be fondly remembered forever.”
One of the game’s top deep threats from 1972 to 1985 in Oakland and Los Angeles, Branch was an All-Pro three straight seasons (1974-76) and made four Pro Bowls. He scored 67 touchdowns through the air, leading the NFL in TD receptions in 1974 with 13 and in 1076 with 12. Branch also had a league-high 1,092 yards receiving in 1974.
He was a force in the postseason, with 1,289 yards receiving. The Raiders won Super Bowls after the 1976, 1980 and 1983 seasons — the last one in Los Angeles, where the franchise moved in 1982 after protracted court fights before returning to the Bay Area in 1995.
In 1983, Branch tied the NFL record with a 99-yard touchdown catch in a regular-season game. He stands third among Raiders pass catchers in yards receiving with 8,685, trailing Tim Brown and Fred Biletnikoff — both Hall of Famers.
Branch was a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004 and 2010.
“All my peers that I played against and that are in the Hall of Fame, they tell me that I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame,” Branch told the Raiders’ website in a recent interview. “It’s the crowning glory, just like getting a Super Bowl ring.”
RIDDICK: Blindsided by the Lions, running back Theo Riddick became an unexpected free agent just as training camps were opening across the NFL.
He landed in Denver and signed a oneyear, $2.5 million contract with the Broncos on Sunday, eight days after his surprising release from Detroit.
A valuable pass catcher with 285 career receptions, Riddick drew interest from several teams and met with the Saints. But he chose the Broncos “because they’re going to utilize my talents and my strengths” and experience, Riddick said.
“We’ve got a young room, very talented, but hopefully I can help them out,” said Riddick, who spent part of his first practice Sunday doling out tips to second-year running backs Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman.
He also flashed some of those great hands that have allowed him to top 50 receptions four years in a row.