NEWS » NFL’s new mental health initiative that was announced last month.Wha

ENGLEWOOD Miles Boykin Jersey , Colo. (AP) — Forget RPOs. John Elway is going with AARP.The Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, 60, has accepted Elway’s offer to become the Denver Broncos‘ next head coach, a person with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Broncos didn’t announce the hiring, something the team won’t do until Fangio signs his contract. He’s expected to be introduced as the club’s 17th head coach on Thursday.Fangio replaces Vance Joseph , who was fired on New Year’s Eve after posting the franchise’s first back-to-back losing seasons since the early 1970s.Fangio and Elway, who turns 59 this summer, will make up one of the oldest coach-GM duos in the NFL in 2019.Although Fangio, who turns 61 in August, has no NFL head coaching experience, he has been an assistant for 32 years in the NFL and 34 seasons overall, beginning with the Philadelphia Stars of the old USFL in 1984.Just like former Denver defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, Fangio relates to players less than half his age and commands a deep respect in the locker room.“You’re talking about one of the best coaches in football,” Bears star edge rusher Khalil Mack said recently Deandre Baker Jersey , dubbing Fangio “the evil genius himself.”Elway said when he began his search for his fourth head coach in six seasons that he values experience but also recognizes the need to modernize the Broncos’ offensive and defensive schemes to keep up with the run-pass option craze that has swept through the NFL and rendered traditional systems antiquated.Elway didn’t believe that innovation necessitated a young, up-and-coming head coach, however. So, instead of going with a fresh-faced offensive-minded novice in the mold of the Rams‘ Sean McVay, he zeroed in on the grizzled gridiron lifer who’s more like his first head coaching hire, John Fox, or even the Chiefs’ Andy Reid.Joseph was also a first-time head coach with deep defensive roots, but he lacked the lengthy resume Fangio brings. Whereas Joseph had just one year of experience as a coordinator, Fangio brings 19 years of coordinating experience for the Panthers, Colts, Texans, 49ers and Bears.He’s built dominant defenses in different eras, successfully adapting to changes in personnel, philosophies and style.The 2018 season was his best as Fangio guided a Bears defense that ranked No. 1 in the NFL http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-oshane-ximines-jersey , allowed a league-low 17.7 points per game and led the Bears into the playoffs for the first time in eight years.In addition to Mack, who joined the Bears in a trade from Oakland, three other Bears defenders were selected to the Pro Bowl under Fangio’s watch in 2018: safety Eddie Jackson, lineman Akiem Hicks and cornerback Kyle Fuller.Fangio was available to take over in Denver sooner than expected because of the Bears’ stunning 16-15 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round last weekend. Eagles defensive lineman Treyvon Hester tipped Cody Parkey’s last-second field-goal attempt that clanked off the left upright and the crossbar.Several Bears players were hoping the Broncos would choose one of Elway’s other candidates — Steelers O-line coach Mike Munchak, ex-Colts coach Chuck Pagano, Patriots linebackers coach Brian Flores or Rams QBs coach Zac Taylor.When word got out that Elway had chosen Fangio, Bears cornerback Prince Amukamar a tweeted the hashtag “curse words” and Chicago wide receiver Allen Robinson II tweeted the broken heart emoji.Fangio inherits a Broncos team that’s coming off back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1971-72, a hard fall for a franchise that was hoisting the Lombardi Trophy just three years ago thanks to Von Miller’s MVP performance in Super Bowl 50.Peyton Manning retired a month later and the Broncos have cycled through four starting quarterbacks since, including free agent Case Keenum, who was underwhelming during Denver’s 6-10 season that included two four-game skids.Elway said last week that personnel assistant and former Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak will move back into an offensive assistant coaching role in Denver in 2019. Kubiak stepped aside over health concerns a year after guiding Denver to its third Super Bowl victory.Last month, Miller suggested that a defense can still lead a team to a title like Denver’s did three years ago even in this age of potent offenses incorporating college concepts and running up scores.“The Bears have been doing it right. They get takeaways, they play tight coverage and they got a great run defense,” Miller said. “I feel like the Bears definitely got a defense that can go all the way.”Instead, the Bears’ season ended earlier than expected Julian Love Jersey , and now the man Mack dubbed an “evil genius” will join Miller in Denver. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NFL’s top medical experts believe they can take the knowledge of college football physicians and trainers and the research from the NCAA to make football safer — together.Dr. Allen Sills and Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president for health and safety initiatives, spent Monday and Tuesday in Indianapolis sharing data about their findings on the prevention and treatment of injuries. It’s the most formal presentation league executives have had with college officials, and Sills and Miller hope this presentation leads to a broader conversation that includes discussions about lower-body injuries.“We’re able to show them what we’re working on and what we’re finding and how we’re applying that knowledge into the day-to-day care of professional athletes,” Sills told The Associated Press during a break. “I think we hope this is the start of even more regular interaction between the two organizations because we share the exact same goals, which is improving the health and safety of players.”The two-day meeting included participants from the NFL’s health and safety team, the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute and medical staffs from schools in each of the power five conferences. It comes amid a rapidly evolving landscape of injuries in football. Sills is the league’s chief medical officer.Over the past decade, Miller estimates the NFL made between 50 and 60 rules changes to enhance player safety. Members of the league’s competition committee now routinely contact the medical team before considering making additional changes.Plus, as Sills and Miller have collected more data they found NFL coaches and players increasingly receptive to their recommendations and conclusions.Players, they say, are asking more questions about equipment, such as helmets. Coaches and assistant coaches, they add, have shown greater interest in how they can reduce the number of injuries at practices.“They (coaches) care about these people http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-darius-slayton-jersey ,” Miller said. “They care about the performance of them and they care about their long-term viability in the league, and those are all real good reasons to be open minded about how we practice, train and treat athletes as they go through an NFL training season or regular season.”The NCAA also has put a premium on player safety.It has introduced rules such as “targeting” in football, established a formal concussion protocol that includes guidelines for players returning to action after suffering a head injury and adding a section on the well-being of athletes to the governing body’s web site.But the key to success may be developing how to get the message out about additional safety measures.Until now, much of the focus publicly was on concussions: Last year’s statistics showed a 24 % decrease in the number of concussions, dropping from 281 in 2017 to 214.While Sills and Miller agree such work must continue, they also believe it’s time to specifically tackle another key issue: lower-body injuries such as sprained ankles, strained hamstrings and knee injuries, which wind up costing athletes more playing time than concussions.“We’re taking a very, I think, comprehensive approach to understanding foot, ankle or knee injuries and the contributing aspects of that,” Miller said. “I think, we are looking at the performance of certain cleats; their traction; how easily they release from different turf surfaces; how much different turf surfaces contribute to potential injuries; how we train our athletes Quinnen Williams Jersey , the load they go through on a daily basis or through a training camp and whether that correlates with particular sprains or strains.”The league has invested more than $60 million over the past 3½ years to get those answers, which they want others to use.It’s not just injuries, either.Sills and Miller spoke Tuesday about handling emergency situations when players suffer cardiac arrests or heat illnesses, in addition to brain and spine injuries, and they back the NFL’s new mental health initiative that was announced last month.What they want most, though, is to share this information with schools that can help the sport remain strong and safe.“We know that our knowledge is expanding rapidly and there are many things we can learn from each other,” said Sills, a neurosurgeon who worked at Vanderbilt before taking the NFL’s post in March 2017. “There’s a lot of potential for collaboration around the research questions we’re both working on. For example, we have a major research effort around playing surfaces and how cleats interact with playing surfaces. We can look at 1,800 athletes in the NFL, but imagine the power of being able to expand those observations to a number of NCAA athletes. That’s going to allow you to reach conclusions a lot quicker and with more power because we’ll have more athletes.”