Brees injures thumb, will see specialist
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees will meet with a hand specialist after suffering an injury to his right thumb during Sunday's 27-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Brees was hurt when he hit his throwing hand on the hand of Rams allpro defensive tackle Aaron Donald with 6:48 remaining in the first quarter.
Brees said he had X-rays done on the hand at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum but did not want to say anything until after meeting with the hand specialist, which is expected to happen Sunday night. New Orleans is staying on the west coast with a game at Seattle next Sunday.
Teddy Bridgewater came in at quarterback and was 17 of 30 for 165 yards.
Brees has missed only three games in his 14 seasons with the Saints.
Steelers lose Roethlisberger: Starter Ben Roethlisberger sustained an elbow injury in Sunday's game against the Seattle Seahawks and did not return to the eventual 28-26. He was replaced by Mason Rudolph after halftime.
Roethlisberger grimaced after throwing a pair of passes on a drive late in the second quarter. He completed 8 of 15 passes for 75 yards before exiting.
Head coach Mike Tomlin offered no details on the nature of the 37-year-old Roethlisberger's injury.
Tight end Vance McDonald said the starting offense was told Roethlisberger was hurt just before heading out for the second half. McDonald called the news “a shock” but praised Rudolph's play after the backup completed 12 of 19 passes for 112 yards and a pair of touchdowns to McDonald while taking the first regularseason snaps of his young career.
Steelers running back James Conner also suffered a knee injury in the game.
Saints extend Payton: The Saints have signed coach Sean Payton to an extension running through the 2024 season.
The club, which announced the extension before Sunday's game against the Rams in Los Angeles, did not disclose financial details.
Payton had been earning about $9 million per year in a contract that was due to expire after the 2020 season.
Payton is the most successful coach in franchise history, having won the club's only Super Bowl in the 2009 season and coached New Orleans to a total of seven playoff appearances and three NFC title games.
Before kicking off against the Rams, Payton had a career regular-season record of 119-74 with New Orleans.
Washington’s Norman blasts media: Josh Norman believes some of his words were taken out of context in the leadup to Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys.
And after Washington's 31-21 loss, he was not very happy about it.
At the end of his postgame news conference Sunday, Norman spent nearly three minutes voicing his frustration about the situation and commenting on the relationship between athletes and media members more broadly.
The veteran cornerback was upset about the way some media outlets seized on one of his comments about Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott.
"You stand back there in the pocket all day and go through your first, second and third reads and come back to your first one, OK, cool. Anybody can do that," Norman said this week when asked about Prescott.