The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Pats fans happy to boo Goodell
It didn’t take long for the booing to begin when Roger Goodell set foot on the Gillette Stadium field Thursday night.
Maybe five or six seconds. Goodell was on the sideline chatting with Chiefs owner Clark Hunt about an hour before Kansas City and New England kicked off the 2017 regular season. When they were shown on the videoboard, the crescendo of boos grew louder and louder.
Goodell simply went on with his conversation with Hunt.
Patriots fans, of course, have a deep dislike for the NFL commissioner who suspended quarterback Tom Brady for four games for his role in the “Deflategate” saga.
Goodell, once a frequent guest of Patriots owner Robert Kraft at games, avoided coming to Foxborough during the Brady case, though he was at the stadium this summer for a preseason game.
Garrett injured
Myles Garrett’s NFL debut for the Browns won’t happen for weeks.
Is that Cleveland’s luck or what?
The top overall pick in this year’s draft will miss Sunday’s opener against Pittsburgh and possibly a few more games after severely spraining his right ankle during practice.
A teammate fell on the back of Garrett’s leg during a drill Wednesday, and the impressive rookie defensive end stayed on the field as long as he could before succumbing to pain.
An MRI revealed the 6-foot-4, 275-pound Garrett has a high ankle sprain, a tricky injury that typically takes several weeks to heal. His status will be updated in a “couple” of weeks,” the team said. That means he will sit out against the Steelers and likely the following week at Baltimore, and perhaps other games.
Garrett is not expected to need surgery.
Garrett’s loss is another blow for the beleaguered Browns, who went 1-15 last season and have had their share of costly injuries in recent years.
Pryor released
Days before taking out their anger in the season opener against the hated Steelers, the Browns fought each other.
Calvin Pryor took the hardest shot.
A former-first round pick by the New York Jets, Pryor was released by Cleveland shortly after he was involved in a fight with wide receiver Ricardo Louis.
Coach Hue Jackson did not provide any details of the skirmish, which took place before practice.
“It was an internal matter,” Jackson said. “We did release the player, and we are moving on. I just made a decision which we thought was best for our football team and we moved on. That is it.”
Jackson didn’t think Louis would also be let go. The second-year receiver had little to say about the altercation.
“Things happen within the family,” he said. “We will keep it within the family, move forward and we will work on winning.”