There have been reports this week that the Seattle Seahawks have signed/are in the process of signing “free agent” Terrion Arnold. I put quotation marks there because Terrion Arnold is facing criminal charges such that if convicted, he might be spending life in prison. That could change the meaning of “free” in the sentence above. Let me do a reset here:
- Terrion Arnold is a highly regarded CB from Alabama; he was a first-round pick by the Detroit Lions in 2024.
- Arnold was arrested and charged with eight felony counts including kidnapping and robbery in June of this year.
- The Lions released him soon after the arrest. Dan Campbell said Arnold was a “cool dude” and was sorry that the Lions had to do what they did.
- A judge released Arnold on $1M bail and allowed him to visit other NFL teams for workouts.
- Character witnesses including Nick Saban who coached Arnold at Alabama say he is a model citizen, and he carried a 3.8 GPA in high school. Arnold’s attorney – naturally – says there is no evidence that Arnold is guilty of these charges.
There is no serious question about Terrion Arnold’s ability to play in the NFL; there are serious questions about his availability to play in the NFL over and above the charges pending in court; the NFL has yet to weigh in with any action related to putting Arnold on the “Commissioner’s Exempt List” which means a player can be signed by a team but cannot practice or play for that team until whatever landed him on that list is sufficiently resolved to convince The Commish to remove him from the list. This situation bears watching not only because of the extraordinary charges in the case but also because several NFL teams have shown interest in signing him despite the charges and the potential suspension. Stay tuned …
Moving on … The CFL season is half over; the East Division is a runaway; the West Division is tightly contested. In the East, the Montreal Alouettes are 9-1-0 and their nearest rival would be Toronto Argonauts at 4-5-0. At the bottom of the East are the Ottawa Redblacks who are winless at 0-10-0.
The West is much more tightly bunched. The Edmonton Elks lead the West at 7-3-0 while the fifth-place – – last place – – Calgary Stampeders are 4-6-0. I will be paying a lot more attention to those western teams from here until Halloween when the CFL playoffs begin.
Switching gears … NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was speaking with some folks in Germany, and he said he was certain there would be NFL teams (plural) in international cities one of these days. In 2026, the NFL will have 9 regular season games in 6 different countries and usually NFL games draw significant attendance in overseas venues. So where might they be?
- London has hosted more NFL regular season games than any other international city and has two stadium venues that have hosted NFL games.
- Munich and/or Frankfurt in Germany have hosted successful NFL games in the past.
- Mexico City has the advantage of being in the same time zone as other NFL teams mitigating some of the travel scheduling quirks for teams playing in international games.
- I do not think any Canadian cities would be strong candidates because the NFL has 4 teams up against the Canadian border (Seahawks, Vikes, Lions and Bills) and the Canadian cities in the “gaps” between those existing teams seem smaller than optimal for a new NFL franchise.
Next up … ESPN is going to add Pat McAfee to the cast of Monday Night Countdown. I am not a Pat McAfee fan; I think his bombast is overdone and is distracting from what is the purpose of a “countdown show”. But McAfee draws a loyal audience and that is more important to ESPN than content. There is also a rumor that ESPN will try a Pat McAfee version of the Manningcast on those weeks where the Manning brothers are off doing other things. For now, there are supposed to be 10 Manningcasts meaning there are at least a half-dozen open weeks for the “McAfee-fests”. Given his daily show on ESPN and his time on College Game Day, the addition of him to “countdown” and potentially to have him do an alternate telecast of MNF, will certainly have me in an overload situation.
Finally, this from George Burns:
“When I was a boy, the Dead Sea was only sick.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
Where is Brazil?