Jets WRs coach Austin suspended at least 1 year by NFL for gambling
New York Jets wide receivers coach Miles Austin has been suspended by the NFL for a minimum of one year for violating the league’s gambling policy.
NFL spokesman
Brian McCarthy on Friday confirmed the suspension, which Austin is appealing. McCarthy added the league would have no further comment until the appeal is resolved.
The former NFL wide receiver did not coach in the Jets’ 19-3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night.
Austin’s attorney and agent William P. Deni Jr. said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that Austin did not gamble on football.
“The NFL suspended Miles Austin for wagering from a legal mobile account on table games and non-NFL professional sports,” Deni said. “Miles did not wager on any NFL game in violation of the gambling policy for NFL personnel. He has been fully cooperative with the NFL’s investigation. He is appealing his suspension.”
Per the NFL’s gambling policy for personnel, wagering on sports — even if not NFL games — is a violation.
NFL Network and ESPN first reported Austin’s suspension by the league.
Austin is in his second season coaching on Robert Saleh’s staff with the Jets. The two were also on San Francisco’s staff together in 2019, when Saleh was the defensive coordinator and Austin an offensive quality control coach. The 38-year-old Austin also served as a pro and college scouting intern for Dallas during the 2017 and ’18 seasons.
Austin caught 361 passes for 5,273 yards and 37 touchdowns during a 10-year NFL playing career. Signed by the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent out of Monmouth in 2006, Austin played his first eight seasons in Dallas and made the Pro Bowl in 2009 and 2010.
He finished his playing career with one-year stints in Cleveland (2014) and Philadelphia (2015) before retiring.
RAMS: Aaron Donald is unlikely to return to the Los Angeles Rams’ defense this season.
Donald will miss his fourth straight game with a high ankle sprain Sunday when the Rams (4-10) host the Denver Broncos. Coach Sean McVay admitted Friday that his seven-time All-Pro lineman and three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year isn’t expected to play in the final two meaningless games of the Rams’ disastrous Super Bowl title defense.
“He’s not cleared yet, and I don’t know that I see that changing in the next couple of weeks,” McVay said.
The 31-year-old Donald had never missed a game due to injury in his NFL career before this disappointing end to his ninth season. He has a careerlow five sacks in 11 games, but was still named to his ninth Pro Bowl this week.
PACKERS: Green Bay’s Elgton Jenkins has signed a contract extension that assures the Packers won’t lose one of the NFL’s most versatile offensive linemen to free agency.
The Packers announced the deal Friday. Terms weren’t disclosed, but a person familiar with the situation says Jenkins received a four-year extension with a base value of $68 million that could go up to $74 million. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal hadn’t been announced at the time.
NFL Network and ESPN first reported the extension. Jenkins’ contract had been set to expire at the end of the season.
Jenkins, who turns 27 on Monday, has played his entire career with Green Bay. The Packers selected him out of Mississippi State in the second round of the 2019 draft.
BROWNS: Right tackle Jack Conklin has agreed to a four-year, $60 million extension to stay with the Cleveland Browns, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Friday.
Conklin was in the final season of a $42 million, threeyear contract he got in 2020 as a free agent. He’ll sign the deal when it becomes finalized in the coming days, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team has not announced the agreement.
His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, first told ESPN about the extension.
Conklin bounced back this season after suffering a torn patellar tendon in 2021. The 28-year-old pushed himself during rehab to get back and has started 12 games after sitting out the first two weeks.