The right direction
Washington hires first black team president in league.
For the past seven years, as a partner in the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Jason Wright helped rebuild companies in peril. After being named the first Black president of an NFL team Monday, he pondered his greatest challenge yet: fixing the Washington Football Team, which has hired him to do for it what he had done for many companies in the past.
“Let’s be clear,” he said. “I’m not a savior. Neither is coach Ron Rivera. There’s no silver bullet for turning around an organization.”
But it is almost as if team owner Daniel Snyder has brought him in to do that.
The hiring of the 38-year-old Wright, a former NFL running back who rose fast in the business world after getting an MBA at the University of Chicago, comes at a tumultuous time for the franchise.
The team has had eight losing seasons in the past 11 years; it recently dropped its controversial 87-year-old “Redskins” name under pressure from sponsors; it has commissioned an investigation of its corporate culture after The Washington Post published a story detailing allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse; and Snyder’s three minority
partners want to sell their roughly 40% stake.
Jaguars
Jacksonville is down six defensive linemen before they even put on pads in training camp.
Aaron Lynch is the latest and Rodney Gunter is the most significant missing defender. Lynch and Gunter are walking away from football, the first for personal reasons and the second because of an enlarged aorta.
Veterans Al Woods and Lerentee McCray opted out because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Second-year pro Dontavius Russell (hip) and fellow defensive tackle Brian Price (knee) were hurt in the opening days of camp and placed on injured reserve.
Chiefs
Kansas City, which is scheduled to play host to the NFL’s season-opening game next month, announced plans Monday to begin the regular season with some fans in attendance at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs said they had “finalized plans for a reduced capacity of approximately 22% to kick off the 2020 season.”
That would mean a capacity of a little under 17,000 fans at a stadium that usually seats more than 76,000.
Saints
A person familiar with the situation says New Orleans starting left guard Andrus Peat has a hand injury and that the timeline for his return is unclear.
Peat, a 2015 first-round draft choice by New Orleans, is in the first year of a fiveyear extension worth $57.5 million. He was selected to the Pro Bowl each of the past two seasons.