ATLANTA — The NFL approved a new owner for the Carolina Panthers, passed a rule to eject players who hit with their helmets, and took steps to spice up the kickoff.

Still to be resolved: a much more contentious issue.

What to do, if anything, about players who kneel during the national anthem?

“We recognize with our visibility and the interest itself that it’s taken a life of its own,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday.

“We ask the world, ‘Don’t turn your head. Look at us. Wait a minute. Look at the NFL. Look at everything we’re doing.’ And then when we have some issues we’ve got to work through, we realize we’ve asked you to look.

“Let’s do as good as we can do.”

Advertisement

At their annual spring meeting, league owners welcomed David Tepper to their ranks by signing off on his record $2.2 billion deal to purchase the Panthers from disgraced team founder Jerry Richardson, who abruptly decided to sell after the NFL began investigating alleged sexual and racial misconduct.

Tepper’s purchase was the first order of business at the luxury hotel in Atlanta’s tony Buckhead neighborhood.

The new kickoff rules are aimed at making the high-speed play a bit safer and perhaps more exciting.

Players on the kickoff team can’t get a running start, while eight of the return team’s 11 players must start out in a 15-yard zone near midfield, forcing them to run down the field alongside the coverage players. That will make the play more like a punt and should improve safety.

Wedge blocks – two blockers teaming up on the same player – will also be banned. In addition, any kick that hits the ground in the end zone will be an automatic touchback.

In another attempt to improve safety, any player who initiates contact with his helmet is subject to ejection after an in-game video review that will be decided in New York.

Advertisement

Al Riveron, the league’s head of officiating, said a foul can be called regardless of where on the body – not just the head or neck area – that one player hits another with his helmet. The rule is not position-specific, so offensive players will be subject to the same criteria as defensive players.

JETS-RAIDERS: New York traded QB Christian Hackenberg to Oakland for a conditional seventh-round draft pick next year, ending Hackenberg’s tenure with the team before he ever took a regular-season snap.

Hackenberg was a second-round pick out of Penn State in 2016, but never played a regular-season snap for the Jets.

EAGLES: Philadelphia released starting linebacker Mychal Kendricks after six seasons with the team.

Kendricks was due to earn $5.85 million in base salary this year with a $7.6 million cap hit. He started 13 games in the regular season and three more in the playoffs last season as the Eagles won the Super Bowl.

RETIRED QB Brett Favre says he made three trips to rehabilitation centers during his Hall of Fame career to fight his dependence on painkillers and alcohol.

Favre told Sports Illustrated he took as many as 14 Vicodin at one time during the 1995 season in Green Bay. Favre won the first of his three consecutive Most Valuable Player awards that season.

CHIEFS: Tight end Demetrius Harris was suspended one game without pay by the NFL for violating its substance abuse policy.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.