Dolphins-Bucs postponed by Irma
The Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will open the season with a hurricane-imposed bye.
Their opener scheduled for Sunday was postponed by the NFL until Nov. 19 because of Hurricane Irma.
“This is bigger than football,” Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston said yesterday. “I just want everyone to be safe. Football is not important right now.”
Switching the game to Week 11 was possible because it was a bye week for both teams. NFL officials earlier announced the game would not be played in Miami this week.
The league also decided against playing this weekend at a neutral site, perhaps in Pennsylvania.
“I just don’t think that’s feasible, whether I would have liked that or not,” Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said. “I don’t think you could ask all the people who would have had to travel on both teams to say: ‘Hey, leave your families in the hurricane and let’s go play a game in Pittsburgh.’ I just don’t think that’s feasible.”
Bennett accuses cops
Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett accused Las Vegas police of racially motivated excessive force, saying he was threatened at gunpoint and handcuffed following a report of gunshots at an afterhours club at a casino-hotel.
Police said they’re investigating, but that Bennett failed to stop for officers searching a crowded casino for what they believed to be an active shooter just hours after the Aug. 26 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor.
Bennett said on a Twitter message titled “Dear World,” that police “singled me out and pointed their guns at me for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Bills’ Taylor good to go
Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor was cleared from concussion protocol and coach Sean McDermott said he will start against the Jets on Sunday . . . .
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles showed up on the injury report with a right wrist injury, but said after practice that his wrist “feels good, good to go, 100 percent.”
Beckham injures ankle
Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. did not practice and is uncertain whether his injured left ankle will allow him to face the rival Cowboys in Week 1 . . . .
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, sustained a right ankle injury, leaving his status for Sunday’s opener against Pittsburgh in doubt.