BILLS COACH SORRY FOR 9/11 REMARK TO TEAM
An emotional Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott acknowledged regret on Thursday for crediting the 9/ 11 hijackers for their coordination during a team meeting four years ago.
McDermott had cited the hijackers while stressing the importance of communication. Upon realizing how his message was being interpreted, McDermott said he called a second team meeting an hour later to apologize to his players. And he planned to do so again with his current team on Thursday, after an article posted on the Substack page of NFL writer Tyler Dunne, citing numerous unnamed sources, revealed what McDermott had said at the meeting during training camp in 2019.
“Not only was 9/11 a horrific event in our country’s history, but a day that I lost a good family friend,” McDermott said during an unplanned appearance in the Bills’ media room.
“As I mentioned to the team then that I regretted and apologized for me not going a good enough job of communicating my point, I’m going to do the same with the team today,” he added. “So if there’s anyone new, they understand how important that is to me and my family because it’s an important event, a horrific event in our history.”
The article cites McDermott as referencing “the hijackers as a group of people who were able to get on the same page to orchestrate attacks to perfection.”
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
McDermott did not dispute what was reported about his comments during the meeting.
Wilson returns ‘re-centered’
Zach Wilson was benched by the Jets to try to spark the offense. Two games later, there’s still barely a flicker.
So, Wilson is back as the starter (again) and he’ll be under center Sunday when the Jets meet the Texans.
“I think that he’s had the two weeks off to re-center himself and learn and continually grow,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said. “I think that when we look at it from the very beginning of this season, the whole idea was for him to be able to sit back and learn from Aaron (Rodgers).”
Notable
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence returned to practice in a limited capacity Thursday, taking another step toward playing at Cleveland despite a high ankle sprain.
Longtime NFL kicker
Robbie Gould is retiring following an 18-year career.
Gould was a free agent after the 49ers opted not to bring him back for a seventh season. Gould spent 11 seasons with the Bears and one with the Giants.
Gould, 41, reached the Super Bowl with both Chicago and San Francisco and retires with the eighth most career field goals (447) and 10th most points (1,961) in NFL history.
Hayden Hurst of the Panthers has been diagnosed with post-traumatic amnesia, according to his father. But the tight end wrote Thursday on social media that, although he doesn’t remember “up to four hours after the game,” the injury is not career-ending.