Rams host Bills to kick off 2022 season

To the Super Bowl winner goes the spoils of opening the entire schedule at home.

So the Los Angeles Rams will host the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night, Sept. 8, to begin the 2022 season.

It’s a juicy matchup of the team generally considered the title favorite by oddsmakers in the Bills traveling to SoFi Stadium, where the Rams won the championship over Cincinnati in February.

The Bengals are home to their division rivals, the Steelers, on Sunday, Sept. 11, when all but two other teams get started. Those two clubs playing on Monday night also offer an enticing storyline: Russell Wilson bringing his Broncos to Seattle.

The Seahawks traded their longtime quarterback to Denver in the offseason.

Sunday’s prime-time game features Tom Brady— unless he retires again before September — and the Buccaneers at Dallas. Brady’s decision to unretire after a short hiatus forced NFL schedule makers to redo some of the game slots.

Several key division matchups are on tap for

Sept. 11: New Orleans at Atlanta, Indianapolis at Houston, New England at Miami, Las Vegas at the Los Angeles Chargers and Green Bay at Minnesota.

Also, it will be Cleveland at Carolina, San Francisco at Chicago, Philadelphia at Detroit, Baltimore at the New

York Jets, Kansas City at Arizona, and the New York Giants at Tennessee.

ELSEWHERE

Broncos: Denver wide receiver Jerry Jeudy was arrested Thursday on a misdemeanor charge after a dispute with his girlfriend at their suburban Denver home and he was being held at the Arapahoe County Jail, next to the team’s training complex.

According to a police report submitted to the Arapahoe County court, Jeudy’s girlfriend, Antoinette Tharp, told a deputy that “things got crazy” with Jeudy on Wednesday night and he put her wallet and medical paperwork for their infant child in his car at their home so she could not get them.

She said she wanted to go back to Virginia but could not leave without those belongings, telling the deputy she did not want to get Jeudy in “trouble” but just wanted her things back.

According to the document, Jeudy admitted to locking some things in his car, including baby formula, because Tharp took one of his three cell phones and would not give it back.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown said at a news conference that Jeudy was cooperative during his arrest and that there was no physical violence involved.

Jeudy, the Broncos’ first-round draft pick out of Alabama in 2020, was being held on suspicion of second-degree criminal tampering with a domestic-violence enhancer, a misdemeanor.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Ginger Delgado said domestic violence enhancers are added to cases when the victim is someone who either had or has an intimate relationship with a defendant. Because of the domestic violence enhancer, Jeudy couldn’t be released on bond until appearing before a judge, she said.

Brown, who called the charge a “very low-level misdemeanor,” said he called the news conference to clarify a couple of points, including that there was no physical violence involved.

Jaguars: No. 1 overall draft pick Travon Walker signed a four-year, $37.4 million rookie contract with Jacksonville on Thursday, a deal that includes a $24.4 million signing bonus.

The 6-foot-5, 272pound Georgia pass rusher’s contract is fully guaranteed and includes a team option for a fifth year.

Obituary: Gino Cappelletti, a former AFL Most Valuable Player and original member of the Boston Patriots who was part of the franchise for five decades as a player, coach and broadcaster, has died. He was 89.

Cappelletti died Thursday at his home in Wellesley, Massachusetts. His death was announced by the New England Patriots on Thursday. No cause of death was given.

Known as “The Duke,” Cappelletti played receiver and kicker and scored the first regular-season points in AFL history, a 35-yard field goal in the first quarter of the Patriots’ loss to the Denver Broncos on Sept. 9, 1960.

He went on to be the league’s MVP in 1964 and was one of three players to play in every game in the AFL’s 10-year history, along with and