NFL notebook: Owens reveals why he's skipping HOF

Terrell Owens shared a glimpse as to why he has elected against attending the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony next month. Owens, who will celebrate his big day on Aug. 4 at his alma mater of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, responded to a person on Twitter who was criticizing the wide receiver for citing Jerry Kramer's decades-long snub. "I'm SO HAPPY for JERRY (Kramer)!!" Owens wrote. "(He) shouldn't have had to wait that damn long either! I'm doing this for guys like him. Past, present and the future." Kramer, 82, was a pivotal member on Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers teams that won five NFL championships as well as the first two Super Bowls. The guard was named to the NFL's All-Decade team for the 1960s and -- for the time being -- remains the lone member of the league's 50th Anniversary Team that resides outside of the Hall of Fame. Prior to his modern-era eligibility expiring in 1988, Kramer was a Hall of Fame finalist nine times. He also was a senior finalist in 1997. A finalist for the past three years, Owens was selected for enshrinement in the Class of 2018 along with linebackers Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher, wide receiver Randy Moss and safety Brian Dawkins. They will be joined by Bobby Beathard (contributor) and seniors committee nominees Kramer and Robert Brazile. Owens caused a stir last month by declaring that he would not be in attendance for the festivities in Canton, Ohio. The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced Thursday that it will ostensibly ignore the 44-year-old Owens during this year's induction proceedings. --Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas criticized Terrell Owens for his decision to boycott this year's enshrinement ceremony. Thomas, who starred for the Buffalo Bills in the 1990s, said he is upset that Owens will not attend the Aug. 4 ceremony in Canton, Ohio. Owens will instead celebrate his big day at his alma mater of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. "I'm a little ticked off that he's not coming," Thomas told the Professional Football Researchers Association Convention on Saturday, according to the Buffalo News. "But it's his choice. ... I think it was a bad P.R. move on his part, but I do get it. ... Every guy thinks they should have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I remember Deacon Jones telling me after I didn't get in the first time ... he said, 'Whether you're going to get in the first time, the second time, the third time, it's when you get in that you should enjoy it.' " --Defensive ends Demarcus Lawrence and Ezekiel Ansah are expected to play on the franchise tag this year, according to a published report. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that both players likely will not receive long-term deals with their respective teams prior to Monday's deadline, "barring a significant turn of events." If deals are not signed and approved by the league before 4 p.m. ET, the sides cannot agree to new contracts until after the regular season is over. Lawrence, who has been seeking a long-term contract from the Dallas Cowboys, is set to play for just over $17 million in 2018 with the franchise tag. The 26-year-old Lawrence started all 16 games last season and amassed a career-high 14.5 sacks. Ansah recorded a team-high 12 sacks, 44 total tackles, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery last season with the Detroit Lions despite missing two games with a back injury. The 29-year-old Ansah has registered 44 sacks over his first five seasons, including 14.5 sacks in 2015. He had just two sacks the following year while being bothered by a high ankle sprain that limited him to 13 games. --The Los Angeles Rams chose to slap a franchise tag on safety Lamarcus Joyner back in April. The two sides have been talking, but no long-term deal is expected to be reached, a league source told ESPN. They have until Monday's 4 p.m. ET deadline to agree to a multi-year deal. If a new contract isn't signed, Joyner will play this season on the franchise tag. The Rams could then tag him again next offseason or he would become a free agent. The Rams decided to franchise Joyner instead of receiver Sammy Watkins, who later left for the Kansas City Rams. The 27-year old played slot corner his first three years in the league before moving to safety in 2017, where he notched his first three career interceptions. --Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is thinking positive as it relates to the franchise tag negotiations surrounding superstar running back Le'Veon Bell. Tomlin told WAVY Channel 10 in Virginia that he would like the Steelers to sign Bell to a long-term contract prior to Monday's deadline (4 p.m. ET). "Obviously we want to get a deal done, he wants to get a deal done, everybody has said that," Tomlin said. "Now it's just about the negotiators getting into a room and doing what it is they need to do. I'm excited and hopeful. Hopefully we'll have some exciting news before Monday." Tomlin expressed a similar sentiment prior to last year's deadline, when the Steelers failed to sign Bell. The running back didn't report until training camp ended and signed his $12.12 million tag on Sept. 4. Should Bell and the Steelers fail to come to terms this time around, he will play on this year's tag -- worth $14.5 million. Multiple media reports have Bell seeking at least $17 million annually. --Tony Romo's admittedly early prediction of the Green Bay Packers facing the Jacksonville Jaguars in Super Bowl LIII drew a response from New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The NFL's official Instagram account posted a photo of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey with the prediction of Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback turned CBS analyst. Brady, who is a five-time Super Bowl champion and three-time NFL Most Valuable Player, opted to chime in on Instagram. "We will see tony, we will see !" the 40-year-old Brady wrote. Romo picked the Jaguars in part because they "had the Patriots on the ropes" in the AFC Championship Game. With that said, Romo was quick to praise the Patriots for their consistency over the years. "You can never count out New England," Romo said. "As long as Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are breathing, the easy pick is them." --Philadelphia Eagles running back Darren Sproles signed a one-year, $1.415 million contract extension in May. That appears to be his last NFL deal as he announced his decision to retire after the 2018 season. In a blog post, the 35-year-old Sproles said he plans to play just one more NFL season. He had planned to make 2017 his final season but he tore his ACL in Week 3 so he decided to return for 2018. "I feel like I left a lot out there, and I couldn't let my career end like that," Sproles wrote in the post. "I'm excited to come back and I am even more excited to come back to the defending Super Bowl champion, Eagles," Sproles wrote. "We have something special here with the team, the fans, and the city. We made history bringing the first Lombardi trophy to Philly and now we want to go back-to-back." --Cleveland Browns defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah is ready to take the next step in his development, according to defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. "I'm so excited to see how well (Ogbah's) doing out here this year," Williams said, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "He's night and day more relaxed and doing things more instinctively, not overthinking and not as afraid to make a mistake as he was last year because we moved him into a new position. Knock on wood, staying healthy, he's going to really stand out this year." Ogbah, a second-round pick in 2016, had 29 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles in 10 games last season before a broken foot landed him on injured reserve. The 24-year-old will also have another year under his belt with fellow defensive end Myles Garrett, who was the top overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft. --Doug Pederson took the high road and turned a negative into a positive when addressing former New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo's comments about the Philadelphia Eagles' chances of repeating as Super Bowl champions. McAdoo lobbied the following shot last week to the New York Post: "I think Philly, how much success has Philly had?" McAdoo said. "I think they're gonna have a hard time handling success." While Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills quickly dismissed McAdoo's words as "irrelevant," the Philadelphia coach took a different approach. "I think there's a point there," Pederson said, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. "I mean, quite honestly, complacency can set in. You can skip an OTA, you can maybe skip a workout or whatever. But what I saw from our players was not that. Our players showed up for OTAs, they spent time getting themselves ready. "... It is my job to make sure they don't get complacent and we stay hungry and there is an edge. And we're going to get everybody's best each week and that's what we want. I think anybody that plays on Sunday wants to play the best. "So now we've got the targets on our backs and we're going to embrace that and get ready this training camp and we are going to try to defend. But at the same time, we're going to take it one week at a time and build the season just like we did last year." --Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles may be willing to take less money in the future so the team can fill other needs to make the team better, he recently said in an interview. Bortles could have played out his $19 million fifth-year option for this season but instead signed a three-year, $54 deal a month after helping the Jaguars reach the AFC championship game. The deal includes $26.5 million guaranteed over the first two years. Bortles said he preferred the security of the multi-year deal because he did not "really care about how much money" was in the one-year option. Bortles praised New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for taking less money over the years to free up resources to improve other areas of the team. Bortles hinted he may do the same in the future. "I think definitely the way the Tom has done it is the way to try to model," Bortles recently told Sirius XM NFL Radio. "Having guys and putting pieces around him was definitely something. When you take up a ton of money you kind of limit your team and who they can help you out with and put around you. I'm not naive enough to say that we don't need a run game. We also need a good defense, we need good receivers, we need all these pieces. You can't play as a quarterback and do it yourself so I'm more than willing to take less money than somebody else might in my position to put good guys around us." --Arizona Cardinals All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson has praised rookie quarterback Josh Rosen, but believes veteran Sam Bradford should still be the starter. Earlier this month, Peterson said he has been very impressed with Rosen, the No. 10 overall pick in this year's NFL Draft. However, Bradford signed a one-year, $20 million contract with the Cardinals in March and is the presumed starter. Peterson told NFL Network recently that he agreed the veteran should get the starting nod. "Well, right now I'd probably take Sam due to his experience," Peterson said. "Due to some of the records that he has in the league. Because when Sam is healthy and is on the field and has talent around him, he's a top-10 quarterback." The 30-year-old Bradford has a lengthy injury history, appearing in only two games with the Minnesota Vikings in 2017. He has played 80 of a possible 112 regular-season games. If he can stay on the field, the former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick in 2010 is expected to be under center in Week 1. --Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has routinely shown a soft spot in his heart for children. Kelce surprised 10 kids at his first annual Elite Pro Skills Camp on Saturday with a free shopping spree at DICK'S Sporting Goods. "It's something that my mother taught me," the 28-year-old Kelce said Saturday of the gesture, per the Kansas City Star. Kelce's charity, Eighty-Seven & Running, shared some photos from the experience over social media. Per its Twitter account, Eight-Seven & Running is a nonprofit organization that provides resources and support to empower disadvantaged youth to cultivate their talents and achieve success. The generosity is nothing new for Kelce, who hosted a private shopping experience for 50 underserved children in December 2016 at a JC Penney in Independence, Mo. --Odell Beckham Jr. is recognized wherever he travels, due in large part to his colorful wardrobe and daring sense of style. Perhaps it comes as little surprise that the New York Giants wide receiver was named Sports Illustrated's Most Fashionable Athlete of 2018, which will be on newsstands Monday. "Everybody was getting their suits and I was wondering, what can I do to be different?" the 25-year-old Beckham told Sports Illustrated. "That blazer might have been a size too big at the time, but I just had to have it. To me, it was the hottest thing in the world." Beckham made the list during its inaugural issue in 2016. The three-time Pro Bowl selection won the "Swag" Award last year. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady also made the "Fashionable 50" list, despite receiving questionable reviews from several of his peers for wearing an all-black suit with elaborate designs on the lapels at a recent Met Gala. --Former Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson is best known for two memorable plays during his NFL career. Although he famously fell short of the goal line during the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV, Dyson wasn't denied in his doctoral pursuit recently -- and he couldn't be happier. "A lot of people have looked at me crazy when I've said this, but to me this is a lot greater accomplishment than being drafted in the first round, than my football career," the 43-year-old Dyson told The Tennessean. "... I went to school so I could play sports. I had to be eligible. I didn't take education nearly as seriously as I should have and as I do as an adult. So this was greater because I've never considered myself academic. ... "Athletically, I was blessed with some gifts and I enhanced those skills. Until a few years ago, I never wanted to do anything like this. That's why it's my greatest personal accomplishment. It's my Mount Everest." Dyson's two-year climb ended in him claiming a doctorate in education in leadership and professional practice. He also has two master's degrees from Trevecca, in education and leadership.