The Los Angeles Rams wanted a contract extension with quarterback Matthew Stafford for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that in his first year with the team, he led the franchise to a victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.
They didn’t have to work hard to persuade Stafford, who might have wanted the new contract as much as — if not more than — the Rams. He indicated on Monday his experience with the Rams was everything he hoped for, particularly in light of his 12 difficult seasons with the Detroit Lions.
“I just had so much fun playing for this team this year, playing for this organization, this coaching staff, and I wanted to make sure I was able to do this for a long time,” said Stafford, who recently agreed to the four-year extension worth $160 million with $135 guaranteed, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“I obviously wanted to say thanks to the Rams for giving me that opportunity. It was a lot of hard work getting to this point. I’m just happy where we are and to know what the future looks like for me and for our team. It’s an exciting thing as a player to kind of know where you are going to be and be able to put some roots down and really go try to make something really special for a while.
“I was just trying to find something that felt good for both sides where we are able to continue to add players and pieces around me.”
The Rams also recently signed free agent Allen Robinson II from the Chicago Bears to join a wide receiving group that includes Cooper Kupp and Van Jefferson. Robinson is well known for making difficult catches in tight coverage.
“Some of the areas that becomes such an advantage is probably down in the red zone,” Stafford said. “There’s just less field for defenders to defend. Therefore, it’s a little bit easier to cover guys. His ability to go up and make catches over guys, around guys, whatever it is, is really special. I’ve seen it up close and personal.
“At the same time, for a guy of his size, I think he does a great job of separating, too. There are quite a few times where he’s doing a great job whether it’s at the line of scrimmage or whether it’s at the top of his route transitioning and doing a great job of creating space for the quarterback as well. I think you get the best of both worlds when it comes to that with him. I’m eager to get out there and get to work with him and see what it’s like throwing to him.”
Robinson said he was eager to play with Stafford as well.
“Just kind of watching Matt’s career from afar, seeing all of the receivers he’s played with and being able to see everything he’s been able to help his receivers accomplish … being able to kind of step into that and being able to build that rapport and that relationship, that’s what I’m looking forward to,” he said.
Kupp had one of the best statistical seasons ever by a wide receiver in 2021 with 145 catches, 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. He then had another 33 receptions and six TDs in four playoff games, including two scores in the Super Bowl.
Robinson had a down season last year but is one year removed from a 102-catch, 1,250-yard season. Stafford was asked whether the Rams have the NFL’s best wide receiving group.
“It looks pretty good on paper,” he said. “It’s on us to go out there and make sure that comes to life … We’ve got to go out there and prove it.”
For months, Jaylin Scott had picked at her armpits. She would dig at her skin any time of the day — even in her sleep — until it bled and burned. These episodes would make her scream and cry in pain, drained by the compulsion to level out her skin.
“In my mind I’m screaming at myself to stop picking, stop picking, but I just couldn’t,” Scott said. “I had to have someone physically pull my arm away.”
The dry heat where she worked as a lifeguard in Las Vegas was intense, but she couldn’t wear deodorant because picking made her skin raw, so she constantly worried about body odor, too.
“It felt really shameful,” Scott said. “I became disgusted with myself.”
Then she found videos on TikTok about people struggling with the same thing, which made her feel seen. That was the first time she’d heard about skin picking disorder, a mental illness related to obsessive compulsive disorder that involves repeatedly picking at skin on the body, resulting in emotional and physical damage.
About six months ago, a dermatologist finally diagnosed her with the condition and prescribed an ointment called triamcinolone acetonide. The medication healed the scabs that formed in her armpits, which helped Scott avoid the urge to pick at her skin, a feeling many with the condition experience due to emotional and physical factors.
Receiving a diagnosis helped her immensely; now Scott is in recovery and has joined the many people with the illness who have posted about their journey on TikTok.
“Beyond proud of myself,” Scott wrote in a TikTok caption in August 2021. “I’ve kept this a secret for a long time and i feel it’s time to share my journey so others don’t feel alone!”
BuzzFeed News; Getty Images
Why people pick their skin
Skin picking disorder affects as many as 1 in 20 people and is a form of self-soothing to handle emotional distress. It was informally called dermatillomania (a term still commonly used) or compulsive skin picking until 2013, when it was classified as excoriation disorder by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
Research on the disorder is in its “infancy,” but awareness around the illness has grown, especially in the past five years, according to Karen Pickett, a licensed psychotherapist in California who has researched the condition for 20 years.
The disorder goes far beyond popping pimples or removing dry skin. It can cause conspicuous lesions on the body. People with the disorder often miss out on normal life or suffer emotional distress because of the compulsion.
Pickett said that someone with the disorder can simultaneously want to stop and seek the satisfaction of checking the skin for areas to work at. The behavior sets off synapses that produce dopamine and endorphin hits in the brain.
“Skin pickers can talk about the ‘reward’ as a feeling of accomplishment or relief or a way to self-soothe,” Pickett said.
According to Lauren McKeaney, CEO and founder of the Chicago-based Picking Me Foundation, triggers depend on the person but can be anything from a stressful day to a comment about your appearance.
The primary kinds of skin picking are scanning, a process of unconsciously searching the skin for something to smooth out, or focused picking, honing in on a perceived imperfection for an extended period of time before “coming to” and realizing what damage has been done, McKeaney said. She likened skin picking to an unavoidable “signal” from the body about an emotional state; to find a solution to picking, it’s important to recognize the emotion behind the behavior, she said.
Based on research about closely related disorders, Pickett said that about 80% of people with skin picking disorders have other psychological conditions, such as depression, because of its emotional regulation component.
Lauren Brown, 26, said she thinks her family’s history of addiction and depression, and her own “addictive personality,” set her up to potentially have dermatillomania.
For her, skin picking was a normal habit exacerbated to dangerous levels by a change in her environment. Brown, who wrote a memoir about anxiety and skin picking called Hands, said the behavior gave her solace after she moved to a new city and felt lonely. After a while, she couldn’t resist looking at herself in the mirror for extended periods of time, picking at her skin, and savoring the reward of clearing perceived irregularities. It’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t have the disorder, she said, but she felt a sense of “achievement.”
“You think, It’s just a habit and I can stop whenever I want,” Brown said, adding that skin picking can be motivated by a sense of wanting to improve skin or a desire to release a feeling. For her, she wanted to get away from negative feelings about her new life. After picking, the emotions would briefly go away, but then she’d be jolted back into reality.
“You go into this mindless state of almost enjoyment. … You all of a sudden wake up to realize time has passed — that can be a shocking moment,” she said.
“Skin picking can actually help a person soothe themselves through uncomfortable thoughts and feelings,” Pickett said, adding that skin picking is a common way for someone to deal with difficult emotions if they are already in recovery from another mental illness. One emotional regulator replaces another.
Courtesy of Lauren Brown and Jaylin Scott
Left: Lauren Brown; right: Jaylin Scott
For McKeaney, it was a way to pacify herself any time she felt too anxious or excited. “It really developed into a repetitive ingrained behavior I used to regulate stimuli,” she said. The disorder affected many of her childhood experiences; she quit figure skating, a sport she loved, because the healing scabs on her legs made it difficult to pull her tights off. She couldn’t stay the night at a friend’s house out of fear she’d have a picking episode; her parents only allowed her to have black bedsheets because they masked the little blood marks she’d leave in her sleep.
A lot of what is known about skin picking disorder is based on research on the closely related trichotillomania, or hair pulling disorder, which is also a body-focused repetitive behavior, Pickett said. People may pull their hair or pick at their skin for similar emotional reasons, or even do both things, so scientists study the disorders closely.
One 2006 study concerning trichotillomania concluded that two mutations in the SLITRK1 gene were linked to hair-pulling disorder. Given the similarities of hair pulling and skin picking disorders, Pickett said it’s possible to assume that a genetic marker may cause skin picking disorder, too, although she said no research has pinpointed one yet.
Pickett said she works with parents with skin picking disorder who fear “giving” it to their children.
Simone Kolysh, 38, a sociologist based in Maryland, has noticed their 15-year-old son is scratching on his shoulders and arms, the same areas they do. They point it out to him and provide a fidget toy to replace the urge to pick, without trying to make a big deal about it.
“I’m a lot kinder to my kids than I am to myself,” said Kolysh, who has four children and said seeing their child picking at his skin has made them feel ashamed and blame themself for his behavior.
BuzzFeed News; Getty Images
How the pandemic raised awareness of skin picking disorder
The pandemic was a pressure cooker for many people with skin picking disorder, Pickett, the psychotherapist, said. Some people with dermatillomania who spoke with BuzzFeed News said the pandemic exacerbated their anxiety and depression, leading them to double down on their behaviors in search of some form of relief. Lockdown meant there was also a reduced likelihood of other people seeing their skin.
McKeaney of the Picking Me Foundation said she began picking her skin when she was 5 years old. Her body is covered in scars from sores she created as a child “anywhere [her] hands could reach,” she told BuzzFeed News.
Now 35 and in recovery, McKeaney said the pandemic was triggering; suddenly the CDC was saying “Don’t touch your face,” something her parents used to say to stop her picking. But more time in front of the mirror also meant new opportunities for self-reflection, she said, and she has also noticed a major uptick during the pandemic of people seeking support from the organization.
As people were isolated and experienced uncertainty during the pandemic, interest in understanding these symptoms increased: Google Trends shows a growth in queries in the US for “dermatillomania” and “skin picking” after spring 2020.
Now an otherwise little-known community is speaking up: Advocacy organizations, bots, apps, TikTokers, and Instagram accounts are spreading awareness about the disorder, debunking myths, sharing personal experiences, and offering support and resources.
Courtesy of Aaron Jeanfrancois
Aaron Jeanfrancois shared his skin picking recovery on TikTok to spread awareness of the disorder.
Aaron Jeanfrancois hasn’t picked the skin on his palms since June 27, 2020. The 18-year-old first-year student at Brooklyn College, who is autistic, started creating lesions on their hands around the age of 5 as a form of stimming, a term that refers to self-calming behaviors. He couldn’t stop, sometimes targeting the area for 30 minutes at a time. Embarrassed by the look of their palms, which became red and raw from the picking, Jeanfrancois avoided giving high fives or would position his hand so only the top was visible.
But in the first summer of the pandemic, Jeanfrancois decided to make a change. His mother had told him that when she was younger, she had picked her skin too, and her recovery motivated him to try to stop. By focusing on other actions such as meditating, playing video games, or exercising, Jeanfrancois has been able to fill the gap. They have since posted about his disorder on TikTok, sharing how he stopped picking and achieved significant recovery milestones.
Why it can often take years to get a diagnosis
For decades, medical professionals failed to find a solution for McKeaney or even diagnose her condition. Dermatologists and psychiatrists said she had eczema or psoriasis, not a mental illness.
McKeaney was finally able to identify her disorder in 2014 when an area she picked on her upper right thigh became infected. She was in severe pain and felt ashamed her disorder had progressed so much. Doctors had discussed with her the possibility of amputating her leg because the bacteria were resistant to several antibiotics, but then a young nurse in the room saw her skin and said, “It looks like dermatillomania.”
“Having a term for this disorder, I felt armed,” McKeaney said. “It felt so awesome to have something to share.”
Courtesy of Lauren McKeaney
Lauren McKeaney, who runs a skin picking advocacy organization in Chicago
Jennifer Hollander, a nurse practitioner at the Beverly Hills Center for Plastic & Laser Surgery, helps hundreds of patients nationally with cosmetic skin concerns and said people rarely know they have skin picking disorder when they come to her.
“I would say it’s underreported because there’s a lot of shame around it,” Hollander said, adding she’s seen an “uptick” in patients with skin picking disorder and is treating them “now more than ever.” But she focuses on having a conversation with patients about how common the condition is.
Hollander said it can be difficult to tell if a patient has skin picking disorder or another skin condition, such as acne, because picking creates “secondary” wounds on top of those caused by other conditions. Because medical research into the disorder is lacking, she said, she’s glad to be able to connect patients with support groups or share her expertise on social media.
Talking about the condition, both with their family and online, has helped a lot, said Kolysh. “Once I started posting pictures of it and just talking about it in general, I got a bit more of a handle on it,” they said. “I became more in control of the behavior because I brought it into my conscious sphere out of my subconscious.”
“Talking about it and sharing photos of my skin and not blurring it out or editing it helped normalize it,” they added.
Many of the people who are publicly sharing their experiences with skin picking disorder are white women like herself, said Pickett, the psychotherapist. One reason for this is that white women are more likely to seek out therapy in the US than other groups. Another is that while Black and other nonwhite groups may experience more emotional trauma than white people, there’s a gap in receiving a diagnosis or getting therapy, according to Mental Health America. (In 2018, over half of Black and African American adults with a serious mental illness did not receive treatment.)
Jeanfrancois, who is Black and bisexual, said he is inspired to spread awareness about skin picking disorder among people who are not white women. This is especially important, he said, because symptoms like bloody wounds show differently on nonwhite bodies.
Scott, who is Black, said the disorder resurfaced existing insecurities about her skin color. Before she started picking at her armpits, she said, she was already self-conscious about the area because of dark spots caused by shaving, something Black women experience due to higher melanin levels.
“White women are overrepresented in the research,” Pickett said. “Hopefully that will change with more awareness and acceptance.”
BuzzFeed News; Getty Images
What it’s like to have skin picking disorder
Skin picking disorder is complex because it feels good in the moment, but shame and remorse often follow.
Scarlett, 20, an online personal coach in Northamptonshire, England, is in recovery from depression and an eating disorder but has struggled with skin picking since she was 12. Skin picking served as a way for her to avoid self-harm caused by depression or deal with emotions she had after eating.
Scarlett (who did not want her last name mentioned for privacy reasons) said people should avoid saying “stop picking your skin” or “your skin is looking better” to those with the disorder.
“[If] someone [mentions] anything to do with my skin … I end up just making it worse,” she said, adding that comments like these fail to address the root of the behavior, and sometimes compel her to focus even more on her face. “It’s just understanding that it’s difficult to not do it.”
Pickett added, “Shame is a huge part of skin picking disorder largely because of lack of information. It’s not their fault.”
“That’s the inner conflict — I want to skin pick and I want to stop,” Pickett said. When she treats people, she talks about the behavior, its “addictive quality,” the emotional regulation needed to calm her brain, how to stop, and finding other techniques for dealing with thoughts and feelings.
Pickett said it’s not clear to researchers how the brain is able to basically zone out, but self-reported data shows that it can be a form of the mind soothing itself.
She said that the disorder is a pendulum of reward and shame: “You feel bad about yourself, and it precipitates all these emotions, which you then deal with via the behavior. … Breaking that cycle can be quite difficult.”
Kim Mills, a 29-year-old creator who posts on TikTok and Instagram as Kim on Skin, bit her nails as a child, and after puberty that evolved into skin picking. The disorder was a “cage,” she said, and she got frustrated that she wasn’t growing out of it. She’d give herself goals — once she got a boyfriend or her first apartment, she would stop picking — but the end never came.
It was isolating. “I felt like people around me only knew a certain side of me,” Mills said. “I felt like friends and family didn’t really know me.”
Mills now hosts Dermatillo-Diaries: The BFRB Podcast, posts content about common misconceptions and triggers, and promotes products like Nudge, a wristband device for skin pickers that vibrates and lights up whenever someone raises their hands to their face or head. (Mills said the Nudge device has been out of stock since the start of the pandemic, but the company declined BuzzFeed News’ request for comment on when it plans to restock.)
How to manage skin picking and get help
There’s no single way a doctor may approach treating someone for skin picking disorder. Awareness of the condition is still growing, and the solution is different for every person. Some medical providers may prescribe an ointment like Scott received, while others may send a patient to a therapist for a mental health evaluation. McKeaney of the Picking Me Foundation said she creates information packets to send to physicians — who are often the first point of contact with someone with dermatillomania — and a directory of informed medical providers.
Hollander, the nurse practitioner, gives patients the foundation’s “fiddle packs,” which include tools to keep the hands busy and deter someone from touching their body. She said she can’t speak for the whole medical community but noted that her nursing background gives her a “holistic” approach to skin picking disorder that focuses on the emotional factors behind a skin problem; she also refers patients with skin picking disorder to a therapist for cognitive behavioral therapy, which provides people with ways to approach specific behaviors in the moment.
Many skin pickers feel like they’re the only people doing it. But the Picking Me Foundation has run a virtual support group since March 2020 that has grown from three attendees to about 40 per meeting. The foundation now has over 800 members, and its email list has doubled in size since the start of the pandemic.
Mills said she had trouble finding useful forums or treatments on her own when she started her recovery three years ago, prompting her to make social media content as Kim on Skin to help others feel seen and learn more about skin picking disorder herself. She started her recovery by tracking her triggers, writing down when she was picking, how long the episodes were, and how these might be connected to other events that day. There’s even an app she used for this purpose called SkinPick, which provides a self-monitoring tool and a four-week course to help people understand and reduce their skin picking.
After gathering this data, Mills noticed that job stresses were often behind her picking, so she pivoted from a career in finance to one in social media. She now has a full-time job but hopes to eventually focus full time on Kim on Skin.
Mills reiterated how important it is to not downplay someone’s skin picking as only a habit. “Then they’re back to square one,” she said, “feeling embarrassed and even more alone.”
Investing time in recovery is also not something that may come naturally to people with dermatillomania, Mills said.
“A large majority are struggling with providing self-care,” she said. “Because of that, a big investment into themselves, that’s really hard for people to justify.”
Self-managed treatment depends on the person and their triggers. For McKeaney, avoiding mirrors is important. She splashes water on the sink in her bathroom so she won’t bring her face close to the mirror. She also leaves the lights off, keeps the door open, puts a tape boundary on the floor, uses acrylic nails (which are less sharp on skin), and wears pimple patches to hide areas she would be tempted to pick.
Scarlett, the personal coach in England, manages her picking by going on walks, keeping a stress ball in the bathroom, and covering up mirrors with towels. She spoke out on TikTok about skin picking and connects via DMs with others who do it, which makes her feel less alone. She said her skin picking has become less intense with each little change. In July 2020, she decided to enter a bodybuilding competition; knowing the event was coming up served as a reminder to hold back from skin picking.
Pickett’s advice for anyone who encounters a friend or relative with skin picking disorder is to cite the definition, treatment options, and other resources from the TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors, and then ask them if they’ve heard of the disorder and if they think it might be something they have. This avoids any sense of blame or shame, as if they’ve done something they should be embarrassed about.
“For anyone who is struggling, I ask them to be as gentle with themselves,” McKeaney said. “This disorder already tears us apart and doesn’t deserve another minute of our time.” ●
This story is part of our Body Week series. To read more, click here.
KYIV, Ukraine—Russian attacks struck Kyiv, Odessa and other locations across Ukraine as Moscow appears to be shifting its battle plan to compel Ukraine to relinquish claims to its southern and eastern territory.
The seeming tactical shift comes as President Biden is heading to Europe this week for meetings with allies and partners in NATO, the G-7 and European states, including Poland. They are expected to discuss deterrence efforts, humanitarian relief and the campaign of sanctions against Russia.
Russia’s foreign ministry on Monday warned relations between Moscow and Washington were “on the verge of a rupture.” Moscow summoned U.S. Ambassador
John Sullivan
on Monday to hand him a note of protest over Mr. Biden’s comment that his Russian counterpart,
The Ukrainian government rejected Russia’s deadline to lay down weapons in Mariupol; a security camera captured the attack on a shopping center in Kyiv; the United Nations said the war has forced 10 million people to abandon homes. Photo: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
The State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia for its assault on Ukraine, helping cut the Russian economy off from the global financial system. The U.S. has also provided Ukraine a range of military assistance to battle Russian forces, including antitank weapons and antiaircraft missiles that Ukrainian forces have employed to exact a heavy toll on the invading military.
Near Kyiv, where fighting has settled into a stalemate, Russian forces appeared to degrade Ukrainian positions with artillery strikes and long-range missiles. On Monday, the rumble of artillery barrages was nearly constant.
Russian Strikes Take Their Toll on Ukraine’s Cities
Residential neighborhoods continue to face heavy shelling as casualties mount in the conflict’s fourth week
People stand in the rubble of a shopping center, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday.
Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press
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People stand in the rubble of a shopping center, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday.
Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press
Overnight, Russia destroyed a shopping mall that Moscow alleged was used as an arms depot. The strike gutted a 10-story building at the mall and shattered windows hundreds of yards away. Russia’s defense ministry on Monday released a video of the strike and evidence that it said showed Ukraine was using the facility to store arms and used the parking lot to launch missiles at Russian troops in the front lines near Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials said at least eight people died in the attack.
The military cordoned off the shopping mall, where troops could be seen Monday morning loading corpses into vans. A Ukrainian website said a photo of the mall had circulated on social media before the strike, showing several Ukrainian military trucks parked there. The government has been urging Ukrainians to refrain from circulating photos of the country’s military on social media that might betray their positions to Moscow.
The Russian attacks around military areas have prompted fears that the country has agents working inside Ukraine and spotting targets for Moscow.
The city’s mayor said he would impose another curfew on the Ukrainian capital, lasting 35 hours from 8 p.m. local time on Monday.
the head of the Defense Ministry’s National Defense Control Center, said Sunday that Kyiv had to respond to Russia’s offer by 5 a.m. Moscow time on Monday, according to Interfax.
Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of invasion forces
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Primary refugee crossing locations
Chernobyl
Not in operation
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Controlled by
separatists
Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of invasion forces
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Primary refugee crossing locations
Chernobyl
Not in operation
Controlled by
separatists
Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of invasion forces
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Primary refugee crossing locations
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Chernobyl
Not in operation
Controlled by
separatists
Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of invasion forces
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Primary refugee crossing locations
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of invasion forces
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Primary refugee crossing locations
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
The Ukrainian government early Monday rebuffed the Russian demand on Twitter. It cited the country’s Deputy Prime Minister
Iryna Vereshchuk
as saying that turning over the city wasn’t an option and her demanding that Russia give civilians safe passage to exit.
The bombardment strategy Russia is employing has inflicted a particularly heavy toll on Mariupol, where fighting has reached the streets. Ukrainian officials said an art school where around 400 people had been sheltering was bombed by Russia, trapping people beneath the rubble. Their condition couldn’t be determined. Days earlier, a theater in the city where large numbers of people had sheltered was bombed.
Mariupol is a strategic objective for Moscow as it attempts to open an overland corridor to the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula and shift the momentum in its three-week-old invasion. Russia has so far failed to take any big Ukrainian cities since the start of its invasion.
People dug a grave in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Sunday.
Photo:
ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS
Ukrainians who had fled Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia arrived in Lviv, in western Ukraine, on Sunday.
Photo:
Bernat Armangue/Associated Press
In areas that Moscow has seized, it is trying to quell unrest. On Monday, Russian troops wounded one protester and dispersed others with flash grenades and tear gas in the southern city of Kherson.
Russia’s military operation has been proceeding along three fronts: northward from the Crimean Peninsula, southward from Belarus toward Kyiv, and westward from occupied areas in Ukraine’s south toward Mykolaiv and, ultimately, the port city of Odessa.
Military analysts said Russia may be increasingly looking for an operational pause to regroup its forces and prepare for another offensive, leading to a temporary break in fighting short of a full cease-fire, which would require a breakthrough in so far fruitless negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, or further bombardment of urban areas.
“We’re likely to see a lot more destruction, and far less territory trading hands,” said Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at CNA Corp, adding that Russia is likely to continue targeting cities. “If Ukrainian forces are using urban areas for defense, and the urban environment favors the defender tremendously, what would be your strategy?”
The latest Russian ultimatum came as senior U.S. officials also voiced suspicions that the Kremlin is adopting a new strategy after almost a month of fighting with halting progress while inflicting a heavy humanitarian toll on the country. The new approach, they believe, focuses on securing a so-called land bridge between western Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, and expanding Russian control of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin also appears to be trying to force the Ukrainian government to accept neutrality between Russia and the West.
Ukrainian officials said at least eight people died in the attack on the Kyiv shopping mall.
Photo:
Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press
Russia’s assault on Ukraine has forced more than 10 million people to abandon their homes, the United Nations said, with the scale of the humanitarian disaster showing little sign of easing as Moscow presses its attack with missile strikes and artillery fire. The U.N. estimates roughly 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the Russian offensive began Feb. 24.
The World Health Organization said the fighting is taking an ever greater toll on Ukraine’s healthcare system. The U.N. agency Monday said it had registered 14 deaths and 36 injuries in attacks on the healthcare system tied to the offensive. The nature of the attacks ranged from abductions to heavy weapons to obstruction of medical professionals, the WHO said.
Russia claimed on Monday to have seized a Ukrainian military command headquarters and taken 61 Ukrainian prisoners of war, and reported a cruise missile attack on an alleged training center for foreign and Ukrainian fighters in the Rivne region of western Ukraine, which it says killed more than 80 Ukrainian and foreign fighters.
Ukraine confirmed the missile attack on the training ground in the Rivne region, while saying the intensity of Russian combat air operations had eased. It also said Russia had shelled Odessa.
Ukrainian soldiers searched inside the destroyed shopping center in Kyiv on Monday.
Photo:
Felipe Dana/Associated Press
The two sides exchanged accusations for damage at a chemical plant in the city of Sumy in eastern Ukraine on Monday morning where an ammonia gas leak was detected.
The Ukrainian and Russian sides agreed on eight humanitarian corridors for Monday, including some for Mariupol, Ms. Vereshchuk said.
Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov
accused Ukraine of obstructing those corridors. Ukraine in the past has said Russia has attacked such lines of passage.
When we teach people how to avoid falling victim to phishing sites, we usually advise closely inspecting the address bar to make sure it does contain HTTPS and that it doesn’t contain suspicious domains such as google.evildomain.com or substitute letters such as g00gle.com. But what if someone found a way to phish passwords using a malicious site that didn’t contain these telltale signs?
One researcher has devised a technique to do just that. He calls it a BitB, short for “browser in the browser.” It uses a fake browser window inside a real browser window to spoof an OAuth page. Hundreds of thousands of sites use the OAuth protocol to let visitors login using their existing accounts with companies like Google, Facebook, or Apple. Instead of having to create an account on the new site, visitors can use an account that they already have—and the magic of OAuth does the rest.
Exploiting trust
The photo editing site Canva, for instance, gives visitors the option to login using any of three common accounts. The images below show what a user sees after clicking the “sign in” button; following that, the image show what appears after choosing to sign in with a Google password. After the user chooses Google, a new browser window with a legitimate address opens in front of the existing Canva window.
The OAuth protocol ensures that only Google receives the user password. Canva never sees the credentials. Instead, OAuth securely establishes a login session with Google and, when the username and password check out, Google provides the visitor with a token that gives access to Canva. (Something similar happens when a shopper chooses a payment method like PayPal.)
The BitB technique capitalizes on this scheme. Instead of opening a genuine second browser window that’s connected to the site facilitating the login or payment, BitB uses a series of HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS) tricks to convincingly spoof the second window. The URL that appears there can show a valid address, complete with a padlock and HTTPS prefix. The layout and behavior of the window appear identical to the real thing.
A researcher using the handle mr.d0x described the technique last week. His proof-of-concept exploit starts with a Web page showing a painstakingly accurate spoofing of Canva. In the event a visitor chooses to login using Apple, Google, or Facebook, the fake Canva page opens a new page that embeds what looks like the familiar-looking OAuth page.
This new page is also a spoof. It includes all the graphics a person would expect to see when using Google to login. The page also has the legitimate Google address displayed in what appears to be the address bar. The new window behaves much like a browser window would if connected to a real Google OAuth session.
If a potential victim opens the fake Canva.com page and tries to login with Google, “it will open a new browser window and go to [what appears to be] the URL accounts.google.com,” mr.d0x wrote in a message. In actuality, the fake Canva site “doesn’t open a new browser window. It makes it LOOK like a new browser window was opened but it’s only HTML/CSS. Now that fake window sets the URL to accounts.google.com, but that’s an illusion.”
Malvertisers: please don’t read this
A fellow security researcher was impressed enough by the demonstration to create a YouTube video that more vividly shows what the technique looks like. It also explains how the technique works and how easy it is to carry out.
Browser in the Browser (BITB) Phishing Technique – Created by mr.d0x
The BitB technique is simple and effective enough that it’s surprising it isn’t better known. After mr.d0x wrote about the technique, a small chorus of fellow researchers remarked how likely it would be for even more experienced Web users to fall for the trick. (mr.d0x has made proof of concept templates available here.)
“This browser-in-the-browser attack is perfect for phishing,” one developer wrote. “If you’re involved in malvertising, please don’t read this. We don’t want to give you ideas.”
“Ooh that’s nasty: Browser In The Browser (BITB) Attack, a new phishing technique that allows stealing credentials that even a web professional can’t detect,” another person said.
The technique has been actively used in the wild at least once before. As security firm Zscaler reported in 2020, scammers used a BitB attack in an attempt to steal credentials for video game distribution service Steam.
While the method is convincing, it has a few weaknesses that should give savvy visitors a foolproof way to detect that something is amiss. Genuine OAuth or payment windows are in fact separate browser instances that are distinct from the primary page. That means a user can resize them and move them anywhere on the monitor, including outside the primary window.
BitB windows, by contrast, aren’t a separate browser instance at all. Instead, they’re images rendered by custom HTML and CSS and contained in the primary window. That means the fake pages can’t be resized, fully maximized or dragged outside the primary window.
Unfortunately, as mr.d0x pointed out, these checks might be difficult to teach “because now we move away from the ‘check the URL’” advice that’s standard. “You’re teaching users to do something they never do.”
All users should protect their accounts with two-factor authentication. One other thing more experienced users can do is right click on the popup page and choose “inspect.” If the window is a BitB spawn, its URL will be hardcoded into the HTML.
It wouldn’t be surprising to find that the BitB technique has been more widely used, but the reaction mr.d0x received demonstrates that many security defenders aren’t aware of BitB. And that means plenty of end users aren’t, either.
Chris Pine attends the 33rd Annual Producers Guild Awards in Los Angeles on March 19, 2022. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Spider-Man: No Way Home united Marvel’s three Spider-Men for an internet-breaking — and box-office-record-setting — onscreen get-together. But one fan favorite Peter Parker was left out of the mix: Chris Pine voiced the web-head’s alter ego in the 2018 Oscar-winning animated blockbuster Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and didn’t make the leap to live action.
Still, the the Wonder Woman star tells Yahoo Entertainment that he’s at peace with not being invited to swing into action alongside Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland in No Way Home, which premieres on most digital platforms today. “That’s a full team already,” Pine says of that Spider-trio while chatting about his upcoming action movie, The Contractor. “I’ll happily miss out on that.”
Pine voiced an animated Peter Parker in the Oscar-winning 2018 hit, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Photo: Sony Pictures/YouTube)
Of course, Pine’s Spidey has a good excuse for being left out, as he holds the dubious honor of being the only Peter Parker to die onscreen. In the film, Peter’s murder at the oversized fists of the Kingpin paves the way for arachnid-bitten teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) to assume the role of his universe’s Spider-Man. Miles also gets to meet other Spider folks from across the Spider-Verse, including Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and, of course, the spectacular Spider-Ham (John Mulaney).
Pine’s version of Spider-Man does make a memorable impression before his untimely demise. In addition to swinging from a thread all over Manhattan and catching thieves just like flies, Peter pushes tons of Spider-merch — including a hilarious Christmas album with tracks like “Spidey Bells” and “Joy to the World (That I Just Saved).”
“I had a lot of fun singing those songs; it was a great time,” Pine says of his alter ego’s singing career. Since Garfield and Holland are also musically inclined, here’s hoping that the upcomingsequel Across the Spider-Verse, gives Pine a second shot at a Spider-Bro shindig … complete with a karaoke jam session.
While his Spider-Man career may be over (for now), Pine is boldly going back to the final frontier for a fourth Star Trek adventure. In February, Paramount announced a new Trek feature that will reunite Pine’s Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto’s Mr. Spock and Zoe Saldaña’s Uhura for the first Kelvin Timeline jaunt since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. J.J. Abrams — who directed the 2009 reboot and the 2013 sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness — is producing, and WandaVision helmer, Matt Shakman is attached to direct.
Asked if he’ll approach Kirk any differently after so many years out of his Starfleet uniform, Pine indicates that he’s still waiting for more intel from his Federation higher-ups. “It’s really hard to say without a script or a story,” he notes. One thing he does know is that they won’t be shooting Quentin Tarantino’s legendary R-rated Star Trek script. Pine says that he still hasn’t read the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood auteur’s carefully-guarded pitch, but remains very interested to know what a Tarantino-penned Trek movie might have looked like. Even in the distant future, they probably still sell Red Apple cigarettes.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently available to purchase on most Digital services, including Prime Video.
Movies that imagine an asteroid or comet catastrophically colliding with Earth always feature a key scene: a solitary astronomer spots the errant space chunk hurtling toward us, prompting panic and a growing feeling of existential dread as the researcher tells the wider world.
On March 11, life began to imitate art. That evening, at the Konkoly Observatory’s Piszkéstető Mountain Station near Budapest, Krisztián Sárneczky was looking to the stars. Unsatisfied with discovering 63 near-Earth asteroids throughout his career, he was on a quest to find his 64th — and he succeeded.
At first, the object he spotted appeared normal. “It wasn’t unusually fast,” Mr. Sárneczky said. “It wasn’t unusually bright.” Half an hour later, he noticed “its movement was faster. That’s when I realized it was fast approaching us.”
That may sound like the beginning of a melodramatic disaster movie, but the asteroid was just over six feet long — an unthreatening pipsqueak. And Mr. Sárneczky felt elated.
“I have dreamed of such a discovery many times, but it seemed impossible,” he said.
Not only had he spied a new asteroid, he had detected one just before it struck planet Earth, only the fifth time such a discovery has ever been made. The object, later named 2022 EB5, may have been harmless, but it ended up being a good test of tools NASA has built to defend our planet and its inhabitants from a collision with a more menacing rock from space.
One such system, Scout, is software that uses astronomers’ observations of near-Earth objects and works out approximately where and when their impacts may occur. Within the hour of detecting 2022 EB5, Mr. Sárneczky shared his data and it was speedily analyzed by Scout. Even though 2022 EB5 was going to hit Earth just two hours after its discovery, the software managed to calculate that it would enter the atmosphere off the east coast of Greenland. And at 5:23 p.m. Eastern time on March 11, it did just that, exploding in midair.
“It was a wonderful hour and a half in my life,” Mr. Sárneczky said.
Although EB5 was meager, it doesn’t take a huge jump in size for an asteroid to become a threat. The 55-foot rock that exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013, for example, unleashed a blast equivalent to 470 kilotons of TNT, smashing thousands of windows and injuring 1,200 people. That Scout can precisely plot the trajectory of a tinier asteroid offers a form of reassurance. If spotted in sufficient time, a city faced with a future Chelyabinsk-like space rock can at least be warned.
It normally takes a few days of observations to confirm the existence and identity of a new asteroid. But if that object turns out to be a small-but-dangerous space rock that was about to hit Earth, deciding to wait on that extra data first could have disastrous results. “That’s why we developed Scout,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who developed the program, which went live in 2017.
Scout constantly looks at data posted by the Minor Planet Center, a clearinghouse in Cambridge, Mass., that notes the discoveries and positions of small space objects. Then the software “tries to figure out if something is headed for Earth,” Dr. Farnocchia said.
That Mr. Sárneczky was the first to spot 2022 EB5 came down to both skill and luck: He is an experienced asteroid hunter who was serendipitously in the right part of the world to see the object on its Earthbound journey. And his efficiency permitted Scout to kick into gear. Within the first hour of making his observations, Mr. Sárneczky processed his images, double-checked the object’s coordinates and sent everything to the Minor Planet Center.
Using 14 observations taken in 40 minutes by a sole astronomer, Scout correctly predicted the time and place of 2022 EB5’s encounter with Earth’s atmosphere. Nobody was around to see it, but a weather satellite recorded its final moment: an ephemeral flame quickly consumed by the night.
This isn’t Scout’s first successful prediction. In 2018, another diminutive Earthbound asteroid was discovered 8.5 hours before impact. Scout correctly pinpointed its trajectory, which proved instrumental to meteorite hunters who found two dozen remaining fragments at the lion-filled Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana.
That won’t be possible for 2022 EB5.
“Unfortunately, it landed in the sea north of Iceland, so we won’t be able to recover the meteorites,” said Paul Chodas, the director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Dr. Chodas said we also shouldn’t worry that this asteroid was detected only two hours before its arrival.
“Tiny asteroids impact the Earth fairly frequently, more than once a year for this size,” he said. And their sizes mean their impacts are typically without consequence. “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” Dr. Chodas said.
That Scout continues to demonstrate its worth is welcome. But it will be of little comfort if this program, or NASA’s other near-Earth object monitoring systems, identifies a much larger asteroid heading our way, because Earth presently lacks ways to protect itself.
A global effort is underway to change that. Scientists are studying how nuclear weapons could divert or annihilate threatening space rocks. And later this year, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, a NASA space mission, will slam into an asteroid in an attempt to change its orbit around the sun — a dry run for the day when we need to knock an asteroid out of Earth’s way for real.
But such efforts will mean nothing if we remain unaware of the locations of potentially hazardous asteroids. And in this respect, there are still far too many known unknowns.
Although scientists suspect that most near-Earth asteroids big enough to cause worldwide devastation have been identified, a handful may still be hiding behind the sun.
More concerning are near-Earth asteroids about 460 feet across, which number in the tens of thousands. They can create city-flattening blasts “larger than any nuclear test that’s ever been conducted,” said Megan Bruck Syal, a planetary defense researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. And astronomers estimate that they have currently found about half of them.
Even an asteroid just 160 feet across hitting Earth is “still a really bad day,” Dr. Bruck Syal said. One such rock exploded over Siberia in 1908, flattening 800 square miles of forest. “That’s still 1,000 times more energy than the Hiroshima explosion.” And perhaps only 9 percent of near-Earth objects in this size range have been spotted.
Fortunately, in the coming years, two new telescopes are likely to help with this task: the giant optical Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, and the space-based infrared Near-Earth Object Surveyor observatory. Both are sensitive enough to potentially find as many as 90 percent of those 460-foot-or-larger city killers. “As good as our capabilities are right now, we do need these next-generation surveys,” Dr. Chodas said.
The hope is that time will be on our side. The odds that a city-destroying asteroid will hit Earth is about 1 percent per century — low, but not comfortably low.
“We just don’t know when the next impact will happen,” Dr. Chodas said. Will our planetary defense system be fully operational before that dark day arrives?
Leah Cole Allen, a former state representative from Peabody, launched a bid for lieutenant governor Monday, saying firsthand frustration with COVID-19 mandates pushed her to reenter public life and team up with her former colleague Geoff Diehl in the Republican primary.
“I am faced with losing my job over not complying with the COVID-vaccine mandates,” Allen, 33, said at a morning press conference with Diehl outside the State House. “It makes me want to get involved again.”
Allen, who left the Legislature in in 2015 to focus on her nursing career and now lives in Danvers, said she requested a religious exemption and was denied. She declined to identify her employer.
“I was pregnant during the pandemic [and] not comfortable taking the shot,” Allen said. “There was no evidence that was proving to me that we understood the long-term safety data, or the side effects that it could have on anyone, regardless of pregnant or breastfeeding.”
While Republican primary voters will ultimately choose their nominees for governor and lieutenant governor separately later this year, Allen said Diehl’s opposition to vaccine mandates and a personal bond forged with they were legislative colleagues make him an ideal political partner.
“After serving with him in the Legislature, getting to know him, I felt that he was an honest person that I could trust,” Allen said.
Allen and Diehl are also aligned when it comes to fiscal policy. Both believe that Massachusetts spends too freely and imposes an undue tax burden on its residents.
“Massachusetts [took] in something like $5 billion over expected tax revenue [in 2021],” Allen said Monday. “And I think when we have that kind of a surplus, we need to look at ways of returning the money to families … to help better their lives.”
A second pair of GOP hopefuls, gubernatorial hopeful Chris Doughty and LG candidate Kate Campanale, are also running as a ticket.
Claims of COVID overreach are prominently featured in the “policy” section of Allen’s new website, which asserts at one point that “kids shouldn’t be in masks.” Asked Monday to elaborate on that statement, Allen said that kids were forced to wear masks far longer than necessary.
“Perhaps in the beginning it was an appropriate response,” Allen said. “But fairly quickly it was starting to become evident … that masks were not effective as we thought they were, and most of all that children were not at high risk of morbidity from COVID, as well as they were not the primary vectors of spreading COVID.”
According to an October 2021 study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, “Symptomatic and asymptomatic children can carry high quantities of live, replicating SARS-CoV-2, creating a potential reservoir for transmission and evolution of genetic variants.”
There is also a significant body of evidence that mask use, while not completely effective, substantially reduces the spread of COVID-19.
At one point in the press conference, Allen was asked about former President Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was illegitimate. Diehl, Allen’s running mate, was an early supporter of former President Donald Trump, but has offered conflicting assessments of Trump’s claim.
“I think that there was enough states that felt that it was that they were investigating it, and I would like to see the outcome of those investigations,” Allen replied. “I think that there was enough evidence that there could have been an issue.”
In a recent interview on GBH News’ Talking Politics, Doughty and Campanale, the two Republicans on the competing ticket, both said the 2020 election was legitimate.
Investors sold stocks and government bonds after Federal Reserve Chairman
Jerome Powell
reiterated the central bank’s commitment to controlling inflation through a rapid series of interest-rate increases.
The S&P 500 was down 0.5% in afternoon trading, turning lower after comments from Mr. Powell about the possibility of more-aggressive interest-rate moves to tame inflation. Treasury yields rose following his comments, reaching their highest level since May 2019.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index was recently down 1.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped about 322 points, or 0.9%.
Investors digested comments Monday from Mr. Powell as he discussed the economic outlook. Speaking at the National Association for Business Economics, he said the central bank was prepared to raise interest rates in half-percentage-point steps—and high enough to deliberately slow the economy—if needed to fight inflation.
“Investors are taking Powell’s transparency as a step further to say ‘He’s just preparing us for the worst,’” said
Shannon Saccocia,
chief investment officer at Boston Private. “Whereas, bond market is saying, ‘No, no, he’s telling you he’s going to do at least seven [rate increases], and you aren’t listening.’”
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.295% from 2.146% Friday, according to Tradeweb. Investors expect additional interest-rate increases from the Fed this year as the central bank aims to slow inflation that is running at its highest levels in four decades. Analysts say higher yields could sap appetite for riskier assets. Yields and prices move inversely.
“I wouldn’t say bonds look like a phenomenal investment at this point in time, but they are definitely more balanced than they were earlier into the year,” said
Matt Dmytryszyn,
chief investment officer at Telemus.
The Ukraine war has heightened volatility in stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies, as investors try to assess the economic impact of sanctions and the potential for disruptions to supply chains. Investors are monitoring developments out of the region and whether a resolution can be soon found. The Ukrainian government said it wouldn’t relinquish Mariupol after Moscow gave the port city’s defenders until Monday morning to surrender.
“This is the main driver of markets in the coming days and maybe even weeks—it is about everything that comes out of the Ukraine conflict,” said
dropped 7.3% after it rejected a roughly $9 billion takeover offer from a private-equity consortium, saying that the offer undervalued the TV-ratings company. Shares of insurer
Brent-crude futures, the international benchmark, added 6% to $114.42 a barrel. Their U.S. counterpart was up 5.3% to just below $110 a barrel. Elevated oil prices have prompted concerns of sustained high inflation and lower economic growth in the U.S. and Europe, as gas and energy prices eat away at household spending on other goods and services.
Most of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors fell Monday. Energy, recently up 3.4%, was an exception.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has drawn focus on Europe’s reliance on Russian energy, with Germany getting over half of its gas from Russia. Investors expect untangling those trade links could lead to prolonged elevated energy prices.
“We have this growing awareness that a couple of supply chains could be broken for good. Energy prices, no matter how the war resolves, will remain high,” Mr. Brzeski said.
Traders worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
Photo:
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 traded up less than 0.1%. Russia’s stock market remains closed, but trading of Russia’s local-currency government bonds resumed Monday. Russia’s central bank said it would purchase government bonds. Gov.
Elvira Nabiullina
said last week that the Moscow Exchange would reopen gradually but provided no details beyond the bond buying.
A Russian local-currency bond maturing in March 2033 fell to 68.5% of its face value, also known as par, from about 87% before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to FactSet. Russia’s central bank doubled interest rates at the outset of the war to 20%. When interest rates rise, the value of existing bonds, which pay a lower rate of interest, drop in value.
The Egyptian pound fell by more than 13% against the dollar Monday after Egypt’s central bank raised its key interest rate at a meeting of policy makers that was brought forward by three days, citing the pickup in inflation pressures it sees following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As with many countries in Africa, Egypt has relied heavily on Ukraine and Russia for its imports of wheat. According to the United Nations, more than 80% of its wheat imports came from the warring countries between 2018 and 2020.
Major indexes in Asia closed with mixed performance. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.9%. China’s Shanghai Composite edged up 0.1%. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday.
Breath is an intrinsic part of personal hygiene, and it is indicative of a lot of health issues. But did you know that you may unknowingly be eating certain foods that can cause unpleasant breath?
Mac Singh, a dietician and co-founder of Fitelo fitness app, says the medical term for bad breath is ‘halitosis’. “While good dental hygiene is the first step in having fresh breath, the knowledge of which foods cause bad breath, and which foods mitigate it can also help to keep the unpleasant effect at bay,” he says.
Here is a guide shared by the expert.
Food that cause bad breath
* The first two food items are onion and garlic. They have a high amount of sulphur, which leads to an undesirable effect immediately after consumption. Sulphur gets absorbed into our body’s bloodstream and is released when we exhale, which leads to bad breath.
* The next food item is cheese. It contains amino acids that interact with naturally-occurring bacteria in the mouth to produce sulphur compounds. In a final reaction, hydrogen sulphide can be produced, which is known to have an extremely unpleasant smell.
Cheese contains amino acids that interact with naturally-occurring bacteria in the mouth to produce sulphur compounds. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock)
* The next items to be cautious of are beverages like coffee and alcohol. Both tend to dehydrate one’s mouth, allowing foul-smelling bacteria to grow. Since alcohol stays in the body’s bloodstream for extended amounts of time, its effects last for a longer time.
* Next on the list of foods to avoid for bad breath is high levels of sugar. It leads to an increase in the level of candida yeast in the mouth. An increase in sugar consumption can be identified by a white tongue, which is a sign that one may need to look into one’s diet and dental habits.
Singh says there is an equivalent list of foods and beverages that can help to keep bad breath away.
* The first item is green tea. It provides antioxidants, has natural compounds that fight bad breath, and also keeps hydration levels high, making it the best bet against bad breath.
* The consumption of mint leaves and parsley also helps one achieve fresh breath. Both these herbs contain natural chemicals that work as bad-breath remedies. These ingredients can easily be adapted into salad dressings, parathas, garnishes, and main dishes.
Mint leaves and parsley help one achieve fresh breath. (Photo: Pixabay)
* The next natural ingredient that one should know about is the spice clove. Cloves are antibacterial. One can chew whole pieces of cloves or make them into a tea to consume easily after meals to get instant fresh breath.
* Fermented foods like yoghurt and kimchi help rebalance the good bacteria in one’s mouth. While they may not produce an immediate result, they tend to work over a longer period and have been proven to be extremely effective in fighting bad breath.
“One should also adopt a good dental hygiene routine, including brushing teeth twice a day, using mouthwash, and flossing when needed. Since bad breath can also be a sign of cavities, gum disease, or a more serious underlying problem, in case one experiences it even after making recommended dietary and dental changes, they should visit a dentist,” the expert concludes.
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I am not going to write about the difference Deshaun Watson makes in the Cleveland Browns as a football team. There will be time for that—five years. Five obscenely expensive years, in which the Browns will pay a question mark $2.7 million per game to play football.
I am going to write about the Browns selling their souls for a football player who has 22 open accusations of sexual assault or sexual harassment against him.
This is all necessary, of course, because the Browns acquired Watson from Houston in a blockbuster trade on Friday. Cleveland sent three first-round picks (including the No. 13 overall pick in April’s draft), a 2023 third-rounder and a 2024 fourth-rounder in exchange for Watson and a 2024 fifth-rounder. As part of the deal, Cleveland gave Watson a new five-year, $230 million contract.
I don’t think any team should go into business with a player—though cleared of criminal charges—who has 22 women accusing him of indecent acts. Thirty-one teams should have risen up and said, We might be interested in this great football player, but only after we know the full scope of what we’re dealing with. The fact is, they don’t know. Watson could be faultless, and he could have run into 22 women, all of whom are lying, as his attorney Rusty Hardin thinks. That would be an incredible coincidence, 22 women all lying. But let the legal system play this out.
What happens, do you think, if the cases run their course and the Browns find they’ve handed $230 million, guaranteed, to a man who loses some of these civil suits, or one, or all? What happens if even some of the ghoulish and sexually graphic offenses described in the reporting of Jenny Vrentas for Sports Illustrated in the last year are true? Extrapolate. How would Browns fans—women and, I hope, men—feel about wearing their WATSON 4 jerseys in the community and to games? How would you feel about your children wearing them?
I stress: We are innocent till proven guilty in this country. But in what other business, in what other line of work, would a person with such serious accusations against him be handed a guaranteed $230 million to lead the jewel of the community, a prized and beloved public trust like the Cleveland Browns?
(Getty Images)
I don’t know how this happened, and I don’t know whether there was internal disagreement among the owners or executives of the Browns about signing Watson. I don’t know if the Browns volunteered to do this five-year, $230-million deal, the one with $80 million more in guarantees than any contract in NFL history, or if it was what Watson’s camp insisted. It doesn’t matter. The result is the result: Deshaun Watson got a $74-million raise after sitting out the 2021 season (the difference between his Houston contract and the new Cleveland pact) while his legal fate was being decided. How does this happen?
What is also reprehensible is the fact that Watson’s signing bonus is a reported $45 million, while his first-year salary is a relatively puny $1.035 million, which becomes significant if he gets suspended, as is widely expected. The suspension and resulting fine would come out of his salary only. Say the NFL bans him for six games. The fine would be $345,000, which is seven-tenths of 1 percent of his 2022 compensation.
It’s hard to be more outraged about this story, but that last paragraph makes me want to spit nails.
Owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam signed off on it all, obviously, and will have to live with the consequences. Those consequences might be a Super Bowl, or two, in the next five years. That’s why they’re going out on such a risky limb, of course.
Those consequences, for now, are these, from the community:
The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center said Saturday, “We understand the story surrounding Deshaun Watson joining the Cleveland Browns is triggering for far too many of our friends and neighbors … To the community we say, we see you. We hear your outrage. We feel it too.”
Doug Lesmerises, a writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, quoted a woman, 23-year-old Molly Rose of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, who wrote to him saying: “I don’t know how to root for a team I’ve loved my whole life when every time I see their QB it reminds me of my own experiences being a victim of sexual assault. It may sound dramatic, but my heart is broken.”
“They chased the joy, and they dented the pride,” Lesmerises wrote.
They better hope it’s only dented.
New Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson. (Getty Images)
Usually after you make a trade for the quarterback you believe will make you a contender for the next 10 years, you have a press conference trumpeting the event. The Browns waited till Sunday to issue three statements—one each from the Haslams, from GM Andrew Berry and from coach Kevin Stefanski. “We are acutely aware and empathetic to the highly personal sentiments expressed about this decision,” the statement from ownership said. The owners said they spent “a tremendous amount of time” in “in-depth conversations” in a “comprehensive evaluation process.” They said Watson was “humble, sincere and candid” and “embraces the hard work needed to build his name both in the community and on the field.”
We did our due diligence, in other words. What did you expect? But words and statements don’t matter now. The action of signing a player with so much hanging over him, that’s what matters.
I am also going to write about the National Football League, which is very good at making billions, not so good with the moral compass.
The NFL is good at marketing the game to women, at having breast-cancer awareness and pink cleats, at hosting Women’s Careers in Football Forums, at trumpeting female game officials, scouts and assistant coaches. But when it comes time to discipline the owner of the Washington franchise for a string of sexual harassment (and worse) cases against women, all the NFL could muster up was fining Daniel Snyder $10 million, about 3 percent of his franchise’s annual TV revenue, and making him hand over the day-to-day ops of the organization to his wife for several months. Snyder wasn’t banned from being part of the organization. While $10 million is a lot of money, it is also about 2 percent of an average team’s annual total revenue.
How do women who go to work in the league office every day, or women who work for teams, feel when they see the hushing-up of what surely would have been a damning report on Snyder? How do they feel when the league sits idly by and watches one of its most popular franchises, Cleveland, chase after a tarnished (to put it mildly) star? The league is alienating the part of its fan base, women, it is marketing so aggressively.
The moral of the story is if you’re good enough, or you’re rich enough, all else can be overlooked.
The NFL will be in-person for its annual league meetings starting next Sunday, the first time every significant league figure will be together since the last non-virtual meetings in 2019. Roger Goodell needs to show he’s more than a business leader who makes 32 owners richer by the day. Goodell needs to show he’s a moral leader as well. I don’t know how he can look at the last few days in the NFL, with four teams vying for Watson’s services and the winner looking so craven and embarrassing in the process, and not feel shame about the direction of the league.
Free agency and the start of trading in a new league year is always a fun and rejuvenating time. This year, I feel like I just drank a quart of sour milk. The bad taste will take a while to go away.
The news doesn’t stop, of course, and I’ll cover it. In the headlines:
RIP, John Clayton. The most indefatigable reporter I have ever met.
The Davante deal. I wouldn’t despair for the Packers, who probably thought it was insane to commit $85 million in new money to Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams in 2023 and thus dealt Adams to Vegas for first- and second-round picks. Green Bay is in the wide-receiver sweet spot of this draft now.
Aaron Rodgers to Chris Olave? The hot Buckeye prospect sure fits what the Packers want in a receiver.
Get some rest, Dave Ziegler. In the span of 28 hours, the rookie Raiders GM traded one edge-rusher (Yannick Ngakoue), signed another in free agency (Chandler Jones) and with one last reluctant concession, made the trade heard ‘round the league (for Davante Adams).
The AFC West is the best division this century. The league went to eight divisions in 2002, and none can touch the depth of the 2022 wild West.
The AFC, overall, is insanely better. Six of the top-rated 10 Pro Football Focus free agents when the market opened have signed, all with AFC teams. Lamar Hunt is smiling down at the AFC dominance.
I pick my five favorite signings. Clue: One’s a hyphenated space-eater from Rutgers.
Davis Mills intrigues me. And multiple ones in 2023 and ’24 give Nick Caserio the chance to see if Mills, coached by Pep Hamilton, can be the long-term guy in Houston.
Mahomes to JuJu. That combo could be absolute gold for Andy Reid.
Deep breath, David Ojabo. Terribly rotten luck for the prospective first-rounder, tearing his Achilles at the Michigan Pro Day. Probably pushes him to round two.
Coach K and the sad evergeen tree. Master class in feature-writing. Professor Kent Babb takes a shot at the story everybody’s done ad nauseum, Mike Krzyzewski, and nails it.
On with the show.
Late in the free-agency prep process, about 12 days ago, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler looked at Davante Adams’ tape independently. When McDaniels and Ziegler met to discuss what they’d seen, they agreed he was an incredible prize: great start-and-stop ability to create separation, big and thick but excellent short-area quickness, runs through defenders, excellent hand strength, dictates leverage. A premier talent.
Adams, a free agent who had told the Packers he wouldn’t play on the franchise tag, had been tagged by Green Bay nonetheless. Every team has been in this situation—an unhappy player saying he won’t play under his current deal. Ziegler didn’t know what to expect but called Packers GM Brian Gutekunst last Sunday, eight days ago. Over the next three days, they talked six or seven times. Late in the process, it became clear it would take a first-round pick and a second-rounder to pry Adams away. While Ziegler was willing to give Vegas’ first in 2022 and second in ’23, he didn’t want to denude his draft this year by giving both picks in 2022.
But in the opening days of free agency, you’re not just doing one deal. You’re cutting players—in Vegas’ case, linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski and defensive end Carl Nassib—and trying to get minor and major deals done too. While the Adams talks were getting serious, the outside world was moving fast at edge-rusher.
New Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams. (Getty Images)
McDaniels and Ziegler both loved edge-rusher Chandler Jones, the 32-year-old former Patriot. They’d known him in New England, and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham coached on that defensive staff for Jones’ four seasons as a Patriot before Jones was dealt to Arizona. In order to pursue Jones, for cap integrity and roster balance, they probably had to move edge-rusher Yannick Ngakoue. Luckily, Ngakoue had engendered some interest, specifically from Colts GM Chris Ballard. And when Ziegler looked at the Colts roster, he saw a player he liked entering the last year of his contract: cornerback Rock Ya-Sin. As a Patriots scout, Ziegler had spent two hours with Ya-Sin at Temple the day before his 2019 Pro Day and found him cerebral and competitive.
Ziegler’s first talk with Ballard and the agent for Jones came Tuesday. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, Ziegler had to balance both deals. He wasn’t signing Jones without being sure he could deal Ngakoue. He had the structure of a deal done with Jones’ agent Ethan Locke but nothing set in stone. So around 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, Ziegler and Ballard agreed to the trade, and within 10 minutes, Ziegler finalized an agreement with Locke.
Success in one area. In another, Adams was getting to be a slog.
It became clear by Wednesday afternoon that Gutekunst was firm. The deal for Adams wasn’t getting done unless the Raiders traded both the first- and second-rounder in this year’s draft. That would give the Packers enough ammo to replenish the receiver group minus Adams in this year’s draft—four picks in the top 60 of a draft chock-full of wideouts. But it would rob the Raiders of any picks in the 2022 draft till 86th overall. Ziegler didn’t want to be shut out of his first draft as a GM through 85 picks.
They’d sleep on the Green Bay ultimatum Wednesday night. The next morning, McDaniels and Ziegler met in the room they were using as the sort of free-agency command center at the Raiders’ facility in Henderson, Nev. The meeting lasted four hours. Was there another creative way to entice Gutekunst? They couldn’t think of one. Pros and cons, cons and pros. Contract alternatives in case they could get Adams, and cap ramifications. Around noon PT, Ziegler and McDaniels agreed Adams was worth the one and the two this year. That’s how much they wanted Adams to be reunited with his good friend and former Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr.
Early in the afternoon Vegas time, mid-afternoon in Green Bay, Ziegler called Gutekunst and said they were willing to do the deal: Adams for the Raiders’ first- and second-round picks this year. But now they had to be concerned with getting a new contract done; Adams wasn’t playing on a one-year deal. Gutekunst gave them permission to talk with the agent for Adams, Frank Bauer. In the next couple of hours, the Raiders got a deal done that satisfied Adams—five years, average yearly compensation of $28 million, best for any wideout in the league—and one that satisfied the Raiders. The deal, practically, is three years for an average of $22.5 million a year, with no guarantees in year four and five. Vegas expects Adams will still be a big-time player in year four, when the contract would likely be extended or amended.
Now the deal could be consummated. When they got back on the phone, Gutekunst and Ziegler, to be official, so there would no mistake, each repeated the terms of the trade:
Davante Adams from the Packers to the Raiders. First-round and second-round picks in 2022 from the Raiders to the Packers.
“We’re good,” Ziegler said into the phone before hanging up.
He turned to his partner in this new Vegas adventure, his friend from the football team at John Carroll University just outside Cleveland in the mid-nineties.
“We’re good,” Ziegler said to McDaniels. “Got Davante Adams!”
Ziegler and McDaniels bear-hugged.
The deal gives Adams the most guaranteed money ever for a wideout, per a source: $65.67 million, with an eye-popping $42.75 million in compensation in year one. And it gives Adams the happiness he wanted: He wanted to play in the west, and his first choice was to be able to play with his college quarterback from Fresno State, Derek Carr. Adams gets the money, and he gets the happiness.
Adams and Derek Carr, August 2016. (Getty Images)
Carr was happy. Adams was happy. The Raiders were happy. The Packers, well, realized it was probably unwise to get in a possible holdout war with Adams, and now have the ammo to replace him with a veteran in trade or a couple of draft picks from a loaded wideout pool in the April draft. (More about that down in 10 Things I Think I Think.)
Outside the building, the football world got bug-eyed over the stunning Packers/Adams divorce and what it meant for Derek Carr and the retooled Raiders. After the hug, Ziegler looked at his board. Back to work. Next job: importing free-agent running back Ameer Abdullah. Ziegler finished Abdullah’s deal Thursday night.
Five mini-storylines that strike me in the wake of the week:
Free agency, trades have made the AFC a lot better
Every team in the division got better, three of them markedly.
• The Chargers needed surgery on a D that allowed 27 points a game, and added Sebastian Joseph-Day to the front, Khalil Mack to the rush, J.C Jackson to the back end. No team attacked its weaknesses the way the Chargers did.
• Denver got a quarterback, Russell Wilson, who turns the division from a three- to four-team race.
• Las Vegas added Davante Adams and Chandler Jones, two day-one impact players.
• Kansas City has a league-high 50 wins in the last four regular seasons, so they’re the hunted. Swapped out a great player/leader, Tyrann Mathieu, for safety Justin Reid (they hope it’s a wash, but that’s not a sure thing). Added a potential major weapon for Patrick Mahomes in JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Hard to predict every team in the division will be over .500 because of the six division games, but I’m predicting it.
New Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. (Getty Images)
Sneaky signing of the week: JuJu Smith-Schuster by Kansas City
Smith-Schuster is 25, he’ll have two huge weapons (Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce) to draw attention from him, he’ll benefit from the play never being over with Patrick Mahomes and he’ll benefit from a coach who knows how to get his best players the ball. This is my personal favorite note: in Smith-Schuster’s two 16-game seasons in Pittsburgh, he averaged 104 catches, 1,128 yards and eight TDs. With the proviso that he has to stay healthy, if Smith-Schuster plays 15 games, this will be a brilliant signing by Kansas City.
Five contracts I liked
1. Russell Gage, WR, Tampa Bay.He’s 26, signed for three years and $30 million, and gives the Bucs a strong third receiver.
2. Ted Karras, C, Cincinnati. For three years and $18 million, the Bengals upgrade a crucial spot—and Joe Burrow will love the smart and feisty Karras.
3. Allen Robinson, WR, Rams. A tad pricy (three years, $46.5 million) but I love this stat from PFF: Robinson’s a top-10 NFL receiver since 2018 in catching inaccurate throws (72). Imagine what he’ll do with the accurate Matthew Stafford.
4. Rasul Douglas, CB, Green Bay.More than they wanted to pay, but a top-five defensive player on the Packers (as of 2021 season’s end) is well worth three years and $21 million.
5. Myles Jack, LB, Pittsburgh. This is the kind of player, with coach from Brian Flores and the faith of Mike Tomlin, who EASILY could be a Pro Bowl player in 2022. This is a great defense for a playmaking linebacker like Jack.
Gut feelings on the Packers, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams
• I don’t think Aaron Rodgers is particularly surprised about Adams leaving, nor do I think he’s really angry about it. He’s known for some time that Adams’ heart was out west.
• I think Rodgers is year-to-year at this point. I saw the money he signed for. If he’s not enjoying the game or his place in it in 11 months, I could see him walking away.
• The decision-making of GM Brian Gutekunst reminds me of those GMs (Ron Wolf being one of them) who understand team-building is a continuum. It won’t surprise me if Gutekunst trades for a vet receiver, or signs one like Jarvis Landry off the street (that’d be my choice right now) and then uses the 22nd pick on one. He could trade for one and draft one, sign an aging one and draft one, or draft two. But the one thing Gutekunst can do is take the heat, and he will in the wake of losing Adams.
• Postscript on Adams: He wanted to play out west. He wanted to play, mostly, with Derek Carr out west. No crime in that. I always think fans bases should be grateful for the greatness they’ve been able to experience, and in this case, revel in what’s to come. If Rodgers stays two more years, get excited about the new receivers he’ll have in his stable, rather than mourn over a player whose heart was somewhere else.
The little borough just east of Pittsburgh where John Clayton grew up, Braddock, declared John Clayton Day in 2018. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote a story on it, and writer Ed Bouchette touched on Clayton’s love of the job, of the sport, of the business. “What I love about it is there’s so much more stuff we didn’t have access to years ago and now we do — the salary information, NFL Game Rewind where you can watch coaches tape,” Clayton told Bouchette. “There’s so much information and analytical stuff, it’s phenomenal.That energizes me. I feel like a student still learning because you pick up all this stuff. I get excited about the little things. I have a data base that keeps track of every salary, the height and weight of all the players in the league. I put together a program on a worksheet for the top 51 players so I have an up to the minute salary cap sheet of every team in the league.”
That’s the John Clayton I knew. Clayton died Friday afternoon at 67 in Bellevue, Wash., after a brief illness. Just a week earlier, he’d been reporting in print and on the radio in Seattle about the impact of Russell Wilson’s departure. Very few people knew he was ill.
Lots of us in the football media business really like our jobs. It’s not work, doing what you love. But John Clayton lived to do his job. He had no hours on, no hours off. He woke up thinking about football and went to sleep thinking about football. Later in life, he cared for his wife, Pat, who has multiple sclerosis, and took her everywhere on the NFL circuit—league meetings, the Super Bowl. Football was the thread through it all.
In 1984, when I started covering the NFL as a young reporter in Cincinnati, Clayton was a reporter in Pittsburgh, covering the Steelers and the NFL for the Pittsburgh Press. The Bengals and Steelers would play twice a year, of course, and when the game was in Cincinnati, he showed up on Friday and grilled me for an hour. Of course I knew of John, but I didn’t know him. But he talked to me like I had a PhD. in Bengaldom, wanting to know everything about injuries, lineup changes, Anthony Munoz anecdotes. I thought at the end of that session, “John Clayton might know more about the team I cover than I do. I better get moving.”
49ers running back Frank Gore and John Clayton, December 2006. (Getty Images)
Over the years, he was omnipresent. At league meetings, the NFL Scouting Combine (he absolutely loved getting to know 330 more prospective players for his database), big games, playoff games. The combine was a passion week for him, annually. He could strike up a conversation with a Boise State fifth-round guard prospect; he’d know something about the kid.
Clayton could converse with anyone, and did. Specifically, he used to make 32 phone calls every Friday afternoon, asking every PR director about injuries and who had practiced and who hadn’t. And he used to make 12 to 15 more calls on Sundays, 100 minutes before kickoffs. He wanted the inactives at every stadium. Imagine covering a huge game with playoff implications in San Francisco one Sunday, and seeing a solitary guy with big wire-rims in row two of the press box at Candlestick, a Martinelli’s apple juice half-consumed in front of him, calling the press box in Jacksonville for the Jets-Jags inactives.
The essence of Clayton.
He moved to Tacoma to cover the Seahawks in 1986, then struck it big as one of ESPN’s original insiders in 1995. For 22 years, you’d see Clayton pop up on “SportsCenter” as the NFL profile grew there. All hours of the day America saw him, in bars and homes and dorms. I’ll always think he was a driving force toward making the NFL the 24/7/365 phenomenon it became. He was a 24/7/365 phenomenon. Once we were together at a Colts’ training camp practice in Indiana, and when it was over, more people wanted Clayton’s autograph than any player except Peyton Manning.
“Weird,” he said with a smile, “but fun!”
A good friend, Seahawks PR man Dave Pearson, told me Saturday: “I went out to lunch with John a lot over the years, and going out to lunch with was like being with a beautiful woman. You had teenage boys and 75-year-old men stopping at the table wanting to talk to him. They just loved being around him.”
Clayton was a metronome. I never saw him sick, never saw him tired, never saw him angry, never saw him in any way other than, Let’s go! Let’s talk some football, big guy! That’s how I’ll remember him.
I
“I’m voting for realignment.”
—Buffalo GM Brandon Beane, after every good player in recent NFL history landed in the AFC in March.
II
“I was 3 years old when Tom Brady got into the NFL. For me to hear from somebody like that, now he’s reaching out to me, it was unreal.”
—New Tampa Bay wide receiver Russell Gage, on the recruiting phone call he got from Brady when considering his options after leaving the Atlanta Falcons.
III
“He is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in the storied history of the Packers and we look forward to him being enshrined into the Packers Hall of Fame one day.”
—Green Bay GM Brian Gutekunst, after trading Davante Adams to the Raiders.
IV
“It really felt like I broke up with my girlfriend and she never did anything to me. She was good to me. She was good to me, and I had to break up with her to choose another girlfriend. I hate that part.”
—Von Miller, after spurning an attempt by the Super Bowl Rams to re-sign him and instead working out a deal with the Buffalo Bills.
V
“Until they plant me, I guess.”
—John Clayton, to Ed Bouchette, then of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in 2018, when Bouchette asked Clayton how much longer the indefatigable sports reporter and radio host planned to keep working.
Clayton died Friday at 67.
Yannick Ngakoue was traded from the Raiders to the Colts on Wednesday.
In case that sounds familiar, Ngakoue has been traded three times in the last year and a half.
He is on his fifth team in 19 months.
You wonder how something like that is possible—that a starting edge rusher in a league starved for them, who has not yet turned 27, who has missed two games in a six-year career, who has never had a season with fewer than eight sacks, would be traded three times since the end of 2020 training camp. Really. How? Why? This is just … weird.
How long Ngakoue has been with the five teams that have employed him in the last 19 months, since Aug. 21, 2020:
Jacksonville, 9 days Minnesota, 53 days Baltimore, 143 days Las Vegas, 366 days Indianapolis, 5 days
I
To: Texans fans From: Me Re: Davis Mills
Let’s not mourn the fact that there’s a 60-40 chance your quarterback this year is going to be Mills, and that your front office has very little interest in trading for Jimmy Garoppolo (unless it’s a major bargain) or scotch-taping the position with a Baker Mayfield type. Be happy. Four reasons:
• Mills’ final five starts last season: 2-3, 68.4 completion rate, 9 TD, 2 INT, 102.4 rating.
• Pep Hamilton, who once worked under Mills’ college coach David Shaw at Stanford, is back for his second season as Mills’ mentor, this time as offensive coordinator.
• Let’s say the Texans are going QB-hunting one year from now. You’ll have four first-round picks over the 2023 and 2024 to use as draft capital. Considering that one of the 2023 picks should be a top 10 pick, maneuvering to trade for a high pick next year should be doable.
• It’s waaaaay early, but you’re $118 million under the projected 2023 cap this morning, per Over The Cap. The Texans are a receiver-poor team right now, which GM Nick Caserio has to work on over the next six weeks, but I’d rather be close to an answer on Mills in 10 months than going for broke to try to be .500 this year.
II
Every year there’s at least one of these ridiculous upsets in the NCAA Tournament. This year, it was 15th seed St. Peter’s, of Jersey City, N.J., beating two-seed Kentucky 85-79 in overtime in Indianapolis Thursday night, and then, in a lesser stunner, taking out Murray State 70-60 Saturday night. St. Peter’s is the third 15 seed in history to make the Sweet Sixteen, and they could have a decent home-court advantage Friday night playing in nearby Philadelphia. The five factoids I like about the Peacocks:
• They were 3-6 on New Year’s Day.
• Five weeks ago, in their little gym in Jersey City, they lost to Rider by nine to fall to 11-9. Attendance: 571.
• They were swept this season by 15-14 Siena.
• They have a particularly laid-back mascot, as this video from ESPN’s Mike Wells shows:
Davante Adams leaves Green Bay after 116 games, exactly as many as Don Hutson (1935-1945) played. Here are their career stats as Packers. pic.twitter.com/RWkFdlx2gk
Chase Stuart, of Football Perspective, is one of the smartest football people in our business.
This is a phenomenal illustration of a player, Hutson, who rarely gets his due in historical perspective.
One other point about Hutson below in 10 Things I Think I Think.
Reach me at peterkingfmia@gmail.com, or on Twitter @peter_king.
Good question.From Phil Rohtla, of Ottawa, Ontario: “Has the NFL lost its collective marbles? This is a man who allegedly did improper things with 22 women that we know about. I know it is the job of GMs to win, but at what point does someone say, “You know, maybe we should take a pass on this guy, no matter how good he is.” I know that not all of our heroes are saints and that he is innocent until proven guilty, but where there is smoke, a fire is often easily found. How is this even happening in the #MeToo era?”
Talent wins. Talent dictates a lot of decisions in the business world, and it’s dictating this decision too. I can’t defend it. I don’t like it either.
On John Clayton.From Ken Boyer, of Redmond, Wash.: “I am in shock about his death. Not sure how to be a Seahawk fan without John. Such a geek in every good way possible. This one hurts.”
Sure does. One thing to remember, too, as many have pointed out, was his constant care for his wife, in a wheelchair for the last years of his life. John was so good to Pat. I remember being at a dinner hosted by the Steelers at the annual league meetings a few years back. John was so devoted to her, making sure she was a part of every conversation, and being gentle transporting her. Sweet.
Kind and courteous man.From @jamesg7932, of Seattle, on Twitter: “Dedicated to his callers on his Saturday morning weekends show in Seattle. He treated every caller with respect and dignity. He made me love the game even more. RIP professor.”
Very well said.
Teams can grant permission.From Steve Rodgers, of Havre de Grace, Md.: “Explain to me how if a coach or GM talks to a player on another team “under contract” it’s tampering, yet Deshaun Watson (under contract) can talk to as many teams as he feels. Why isn’t that tampering?”
Because Watson has a no-trade clause, he needs to okay whichever team he is traded. In order to be sure he would want to go to a team, the Texans gave him and his representatives permission to talk to teams. So the deal had to be multi-layered from the start: Houston GM Nick Caserio had to be satisfied he had a team paying enough to make a deal, and Watson had to be satisfied with the team he was going. The only way he could know that was by meeting with the candidate teams, with Caserio’s permission.
Becky is out.From Becky, of Oregon: “I have read your column almost religiously since at least 2007. I’ve put up with inane comments, arrogant clap-backs, obtuse observations, and an extremely unhealthy obsession of [Tom Brady]. After your latest column, I’m just done. Devoting that much space to Tom Brady unretiring is absolutely ridiculous. Who cares?! Outside of Tampa, New England, his family and your own pathetic attempts to constantly get on his radar to be his best friend, no one actually cares! You really don’t need to find a reason to bring him up in Every. Single. Column. You do realize he manufactured this whole retiring thing for attention, right? Your column is toxic. I’m out.”
It was good to have you as a reader for 15 years, Becky. Thanks. I write what I think is topical, and you disagree, and you stop reading. That’s the great thing about the country we live in. We can think differently, and life goes on.
1. I think now that the compensatory picks have been set, and the draft order has been released by the NFL, here are a few notable draft nuggets:
• Cleveland still has five picks in the top 120, because the deal with Houston for Deshaun Watson includes just one pick this year—the first-rounder, 13th overall.
• Houston now has multiple first-rounders in the next three drafts. The Texans get first- and third-round picks from Cleveland in 2023, and first- and fourth-round picks in 2024. Don’t complain, Texans fans: Houston has five of the top 80 picks this year, and it’s better to spread these picks out, particularly if a quarterback is a target next year.
• The Niners have zero picks in the top 60. The Raiders have zero picks in the top 80. The Rams have zero picks in the top 100.
• The Giants, picking fifth and seventh overall, are likely to look to move one of them to try for multiple first-rounders next year.
• The Jets, with four picks in the top 40, would also love to put one of them off till next year, if the right offer comes.
• Denver has zero picks in the top 60, and five picks in the next 60.
• The Ravens, starting with the 76th overall pick, have seven of the next 66 picks.
• The Packers have an intriguing option or two …
2. I think I’m not trying to say trading Davante Adams is a good thing. But Packer fans should realize five things after life post-Adams:
a. They have the 22nd, 28th, 53rd and 59th picks in the draft.
b. Davante Adams was the 53rd pick eight years ago.
c. The three NFL all-pro receivers in 2021 were the 36th overall pick (Deebo Samuel), 53rd (Adams) and 69th (Cooper Kupp) in recent drafts.
e. I asked Daniel Jeremiah to pick two receivers to give Green Bay—one in the 22-28 area, and one in the 53-59 area. “Chris Olave for the first one,” he said. “Incredibly smart, disciplined route-runner, 4.3 speed, the kind of receiver Aaron Rodgers would love.” For the second, Jeremiah chose North Dakota State’s 6-4 burner, Christian Watson. Smart and physical, with 4.36 speed. Practiced in Fargo for five years, so the weather wouldn’t be an issue.
2022 NFL Draft wide receiver prospect Chris Olave. (Getty Images)
3. I think the saddest draft news of the week had to be first-round edge rusher David Ojabo of Michigan, the yin to Aidan Hutchinson’s yang on the Wolverines’ defense, tearing his Achilles on the school’s Pro Day. No way to sugarcoat it than to say it probably pushes Ojabo—who should be fully recovered for the 2023 season, and has a ghost of a chance to be fit by late this season—down into the second round. It’s mindful of the Achilles tear Washington cornerback Sidney Jones suffered on his Pro Day in March 2017. Jones was likely to be a mid-first-round pick; the Eagles picked him 43rd overall, with the 12th pick of round two. Jones hasn’t been the player the Eagles projected. But I doubt that will be a negative in the consideration for teams playing the long game (Seattle at 41 overall, Indianapolis at 42, Baltimore at 45, Philadelphia at 51) if Ojabo is on the board for them.
4. I think I’m dizzy considering the rapid transport of Case Keenum, who has moved to eight teams in the last eight years. Starting in 2014, from Houston to the Rams, the Rams to Houston, Houston to the Rams, the Rams to Minnesota (for the Minnesota Miracle), Minnesota to Denver, Denver to Washington, Washington to Cleveland, and now Cleveland to Buffalo. He’ll back up Josh Allen, and the Browns get a seventh-round pick in this draft.
5. I think it’s only right that Matthew Stafford signs a four-year extension with the Rams (which happened Saturday) and finishes his career with the Rams. The end of this deal, most likely, would give Stafford 18 NFL seasons. If he wraps up with 12 seasons in Detroit and six in L.A. (should he stay healthy), that feels like it’d go down as a highly successful trade by the Rams.
6. I think it qualified as a wow to see a highly respected young general manager, Buffalo’s Brandon Beane, throw a dart at Washington after running back J.D. McKissic agreed to a free-agent contract with Buffalo, then reneged when his original team, Washington, offered to match. McKissic chose the Commanders. Beane was not pleased, particularly because many of those in the Washington organization, including head coach Ron Rivera, were Beane’s co-workers in Carolina. “Once you have an agreement,” Beane said in a news conference the other day, “the agent is supposed to say, ‘It’s over.’ And this agent did that. And this agent told the other club it’s over. But the other club didn’t back off.” That’ll sting for a while.
7. I think I can’t believe Bobby Wagner, healthy and coming off the second- and 11th-best seasons for linebackers per Pro Football Focus in the last two years, is still on the street.
8. I think the headline that was lost in the Friday mayhem of Deshaun Watson but was notable to me was this from the Washington Post: ”Anheuser-Busch cuts ties with Washington Commanders.” No reason given. But what reason could there possibly have been, other than the one that has plagued this team for months—the endless string of sexual-harassment claims against the franchise and its disgraced owner, Daniel Snyder? I’ve said it repeatedly: How much longer will this tarnished franchise be forced to get whittled away, day by day, because Daniel Snyder will not sell? If he truly loves the franchise, rather than loves the thought of owning this franchise, then he’d sell. But of course Snyder loves the power more, so he hangs on while the team continues its descent long past mediocrity.
9. I think the easiest way to show me you’re a lousy football fan is to scoff at Don Hutson’s career, which many in the Twitterverse did when Chase Stuart tweeted about his greatness the other day after Davante Adams was traded to the Raiders. Stuart pointed out that both men had played 116 regular-season games for Green Bay, and Hutson had 99 TD catches to Adams’ 73 … and Hutson’s career average reception was 16.4 yards to Adams’ 12.1. I understand Hutson played in a far different era, and there wasn’t the same kind of competition and emphasis on the passing game throughout the league as there is today. But the way players should be considered in historical perspective is by comparing them to those in their eras. When Hutson retired in 1945, the NFL was a quarter-century old, and he had three times as many touchdown receptions (99) as any player in NFL history at that point. That record lasted a remarkable 44 years, till Dec. 10, 1989, when Steve Largent caught his 100th for Seattle. Don’t tell me Hutson doesn’t belong in the discussion for the greatest receiver who ever lived. (Before you rush to your keyboard and write or Tweet at me, “You idiot! Jerry Rice was far better!”, I said that Hutson belongs in the discussion. There’s a good argument to be made for Rice, of course.)
10. I think these are my other thoughts of the week:
a. Sports Story of the Week: Kent Babb of the Washington Post with a masterful piece on what it’s like to have Mike Krzyzewski for a father-in-law.
b. How many in our business have tried to find something new about a very famous figure? So often, it’s the great white whale: You get an assignment to turn over something new about LeBron or Brady or Coach K. And it’s well-nigh impossible. But Babb did it, about as well as it can be done.
c. Babb wrote that son-in-law Chris Spatola, soon after moving to Durham with one of Coach K’s daughters, Jamie, was preparing for her parents to come to their home for dinner for the first time. He hired Krzyzewski’s landscaper to make the yard look great. But when the folks arrived, the coach/groundskeeper-in-chief took one look at a sad evergreen planted near the house, frowned and said, “Whose decision was this?” Wrote Babb:
Its branches drooped, making it look a little like a forlorn Christmas tree. And that was precisely the problem, Krzyzewski explained, in the same excruciating detail as if he were correcting a freshman’s mechanics on a jump shot
“You need to send a strong message, plant-wise, when people come up to your home,” Chris remembers him saying, an extremely Coach K way to think about such a thing. “And that’s just a sad-looking tree.”
In that moment, on that walkway, Krzyzewski — with his five national championships, dozen Final Fours, three Olympic gold medals — wasn’t a coaching icon who built a basketball dynasty using talent, his own instincts, and relentless attention to detail. He was every father-in-law ever …
“It wasn’t even about me liking the plant! It was about him coming to my home and telling me to change that plant,” Spatola says. “By that time, I had been to combat. I was a West Point grad, and I was a good husband. ‘This may be your daughter, but this is my family.’ There were some real mind games going on, and no, that tree is going to stay right there.”
d. Wonderful, Kent Babb.
e. If you have a chance to see my TV Show of the Week, please do. It’s a year or so old, but my wife and I found it on Netflix: My Octopus Teacher. It’s a documentary that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film … about a South African conservationist, Craig Foster, who is at a low point in his life when he begins to dive deep off the southern coast of Africa. He sees an octopus. He’s fascinated, and begins to watch the octopus every day he can find her. The octopus begins to trust him, and gets close and touches him. Such a cool story, complete with good news and bad news and the ultimate bad news of nature.
f. Eighty-five minutes very well spent. Thanks, Craig Foster.
g. Seems so easy to understand, and so apolitical. But this bill to keep the time the same year-round in the United States actually has some consequences that, particularly in northern climes in the U.S., should certainly be considered.
h. Daylight Savings Time Story of the Week: Gal Tziperman Lotan and Sahar Fatima of the Boston Globe, with health experts saying it’s a terrible idea. As reported by Lotan and Fatima:
“In their zeal to prevent the annual switch, the senate has unfortunately chosen the wrong time to stabilize onto,” said Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “What the Senate passed yesterday would require all Americans to start their work and school an hour earlier than they usually do, and that’s particularly difficult to do in the winter, when the sun is rising later.
“… It is disheartening to think, especially as progress was being made in starting high schools and middle schools at a later hour, that all of that would be reversed by causing children at schools and adults at work to start an hour earlier,” Czeisler said. “And that was never mentioned in any of the articles I saw describing this legislation.”
Think back to the darkest day of 2021, the winter solstice on Dec. 21: The sun rose at 7:08 a.m. and set at 4:16 p.m. Boston got 9 hours and 8 precious minutes of sunlight, which, for many people, fell during work or school hours.
A permanent switch to daylight saving time would mean that next winter solstice, the sun won’t rise until after clocks strike 8 a.m., and set at about 5:15 p.m.
i. This bill seemed to come out of nowhere. It’s not the biggest thing confronting our country, and it’s not in the top 20. But it seems to need a little more consideration.
k. So cool, waxing warmly on his 2005 GMC Sierra. Wrote Wallace:
… After its initial owner had put 30,300 miles on it, that pickup was mine. I drove it off the lot of a used-car dealership on Valentine’s Day 2007, and we’ve been on the road together ever since. My truck and I have weathered blizzards, sandstorms, floods, I-35, and four presidencies. We have (sadly, unintentionally) taken the lives of a couple of deer, a turkey vulture, and an armadillo. And on at least two occasions, the two of us have very nearly been sent to that big garage in the sky.
Yet here we are. At last check, the odometer read 266,195. That’s enough miles to land you on the moon or to make about seventy trips along the perimeter of Texas. Our most recent visit to the repair shop wasn’t a cheery affair. The mechanic handed back the multipoint inspection scrawled in ink. He said the brakes needed to be replaced ($1,478), the tires showed signs of sun rot ($1,120), the engine could use a new serpentine belt ($139), and the engine was leaking from “basically everywhere.” I suppose with unlimited money and the right mechanical skills, a truck can technically last forever. But after you’ve replaced the motor, the seats, the dash, the windshield, the panels, it becomes a bit like the ship of Theseus. Is it really the same truck?
Lately, I’ve begun to look, every now and then, at used pickups online. But every time I start browsing, I can’t help but think, “Yeah, but besides the wobble and the wacky thermostat and that weird whirring noise when I press the throttle, there’s nothing really wrong with my GMC.”
Part of me knows that our travels are nearing their end. Still, I’m having a hard time letting go.
l. I’ve never felt that way about a vehicle. Wish I had.
m. Ukraine Idea of the Week: David Muir of ABC News, on the Door County Candle Company in northern Wisconsin making Ukrainian-themed candles, with all money raised going to Ukrainian relief.
n. And 20,000 orders by the airing of this, with thousands more to come I’m sure.
o. Fowl Story of the Week: Christian Martinez of the Los Angeles Times on a weird event in northern California, “A feud between mail carriers, wild turkeys comes to a deadly climax near Sacramento.” Just wild.
p. Martinez reports that while a postal worker was delivering mail in a neighborhood outside Sacramento, one of the oldest of the wild turkeys attacked him. The carrier got a stick from his truck and bashed the turkey to death. Wrote Martinez:
So far, the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s investigation into the incident has revealed strange details about the area’s turkeys and their behavior and treatment.
Investigators found that some residents had been feeding the turkeys “copious quantities of food,” which is prohibited in California and could be a factor in the birds’ aggressiveness.
“It probably contributed to the massive size of the turkey in question because it was eating just an unlimited amount of food every day from this particular household,” Capt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said. “We are addressing that issue as a major contributing factor to this overall problem.”
The turkeys seem to have been targeting delivery workers in the neighborhood since October, when the postal service began reporting the situation to wildlife officials. Foy said the attacks had also disrupted deliveries from FedEx, UPS and other carriers.
Foy said the turkey that was killed Monday was by far the heaviest he had ever lifted.
“I’ve been around about 25 years, so I kind of know turkeys,” he said. “And I just I looked at it, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is the biggest turkey I’ve ever seen.’ ”
q. Last week, it was disclosed that unvaccinated New York athletes (as of now) will not be allowed to play home games this year. Which means Mets and Yankees need to show vax proof to be able to play.
r. What Aaron Judge was asked in Florida: “Are you vaccinated?”
s. What Aaron Judge said: “I’m so focused on just getting through the first game of spring training. I think we’ll cross that bridge whenever the time comes. But right now, so many things can change. I’m not really too worried about that right now.”
t. What Aaron Judge meant: “No.”
u. John Clayton, gone. Man, that one hurts.
Never saw a scribe who loved his job like Clayton. Lesson for us all.
Cheese contains amino acids that interact with naturally-occurring bacteria in the mouth to produce sulphur compounds. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock)
Mint leaves and parsley help one achieve fresh breath. (Photo: Pixabay)
