This week, I sat down for conversations with veteran NFL reporter Dan Pompei and former NFL center LeCharles Barkley. Pompei discusses the latest Monster of the Midway middle linebacker in Chicago, whether the Bears may have had the best offseason of any team in the league, on why the Colts stuck at six and picked a guard. He also talks about his new book due in August, Doug Pederson’s memoir Fearless.
LeCharles Bentley, an adviser to the NFL’s committee on taking the helmet out of the game, on whether it’s possible to create a reasonable game of football with the new rule, on Jets coach Todd Bowles’ biggest concern (and the concern of several coaches) with the rule about preventing both defensive and offensive players from lowering their heads and using the helmet to strike the opponent, and on what is at stake with the parents of America with this new and revolutionary restriction to the game.