When the Dolphins suddenly announced in April that they’re looking to trade cornerback Jalen Ramsey, it made sense from a cap standpoint to wait until after June 1. Seventeen days after June 1, Ramsey remains a Dolphin.
So when will he be traded?
Only the Rams have been connected to Ramsey. Most recently, coach Sean McVay said “some obstacles” remain to doing a deal.
With the Dolphins making it clear that the relationship with Ramsey is over, they need a second team in the mix to create real leverage. The Dolphins could decide to wait. And if the wait lasts into training camp, things could become even more interesting.
It’s unlikely, given the circumstances, that the Dolphins would want Ramsey in training camp. If Ramsey goes along with that (they can’t keep him away if he wants to work), the Dolphins would keep waiting for the right deal.
And what if a deal isn’t done before the regular season begins? Will the Dolphins pay Ramsey to stay home until a trade materializes?
The situation could end up having parallels to the Deshaun Watson situation from 2021. He was nearly traded to the Dolphins before Week 1. Then, as the trade deadline approached, it almost happened again. When it didn’t, the Texans paid Watson for the rest of the season before trading him.
Given what the Texans got from the Browns for Watson in March 2022, it was money well spent. The Dolphins won’t be looking at a significant haul after the season. And it will cost them more than twice the $10 million the Texans paid Watson to not play four years ago.
The fact that a trade hasn’t happened proves that it’s not going smoothly. Ultimately, the Dolphins may have to wait for someone with another team to get injured before a true market for Ramsey’s contract will materialize.
And they may have to pay Ramsey, one week at a time, until it happens.
Remember when Steve Ballmer bought the L.A. Clippers for $2 billion and everyone lost their minds?
Eleven years later, stay in town multiply it by five.
Minority owner Mark Walter has purchased a majority stake in the L.A. Lakers at a valuation of $10 billion. That’s a record for any American sports franchise.
The late Dr. Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979 for $67.5 million.
The Buss family had owned 66 percent of the team. Jeannie Buss reportedly plans to continue to continue to serve as the team’s governor, which will give her the power to vote on league matters at NBA ownership meetings.
Earlier this year, the Boston Celtics sold at a valuation of $6.1 billion. Last month, a minority stake in the 49ers was sold at a valuation of $8.6 billion.
It’s safe to say that controlling interest in any NFL team would generate a valuation of more than $10 billion. Some teams (like the Cowboys) would approach or exceed $15 billion.
The fact that the Lakers were sold at a $10 billion valuation will only make that more likely.
The Cowboys made official the signings of cornerback Robert Rochell and defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey on Wednesday.
They also announced the corresponding moves.
The Cowboys waived defensive tackle Justin Rogers and cornerback Luq Barcoo to make room for the veteran signings.
The team made Rogers a seventh-round pick in 2024, but he did not play in the regular season. They waived him out of training camp, and the Bengals signed him to their practice squad.
Dallas signed Rogers off Cincinnati’s practice squad Dec. 19.
Barcoo joined the Cowboys’ practice squad late last season and then signed a futures deal. He has spent time with six other teams in his career that began in 2020 with the Jaguars.
He has played only three games, starting one, and all with Jacksonville in 2020. Barcoo has totaled 10 tackles and a pass breakup in his career.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are getting a 400 percent raise, one of the members said during the second season of the Netflix series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.”
“Happy’ isn’t even the right word for it,” former cheerleader Jada McLean said on the show, via the Associated Press. “I think I was just . . kind of felt, like, a relief, like everything had paid off. And it was, you know, finally, we were done fighting.”
The cheerleaders have fought for pay increases for years.
The Cowboys settled a lawsuit with a former cheerleader in 2019 that led to the squad doubling their per-game pay from $200 to $400.
“Our efforts were heard and they wanted to give us a raise,” four-year veteran Megan McElaney said on the show. “And we ended up getting a 400 percent increase, which is like, life-changing.”
The Cowboys agreed to pay four cheerleaders a total of $2.4 million nine years ago to settle claims by the women that then-public relations executive Rich Dalrymple filmed them in the dressing room. Dalrymple denied the claims but retired shortly before the settlement became public in a 2022 ESPN story.
The Cowboys are the world’s most valuable sports team, according to Forbes magazine, with a valuation of $10.1 billion as of late last year.
NFL sideline reporter Laura Okmin is leaving Fox Sports of her own accord, having turned down a new contract, she told Front Office Sports.
The third-longest-tenured sideline reporter in NFL history said she wants to focus on her company, GALvanize, which teaches and mentors women sports journalists. She will continue to cover the NFL in the postseason, including the Super Bowl, for the Westwood One radio network.
“They sent me the contract. I printed it out. I sat there. It was just my voice saying, ‘It’s time; this is it,’” Okmin told Front Office Sports. “I called my boss and my friend, Jacob Ullman, who I’ve known as long as I’ve been at Fox Sports. I’m happy to say he was very surprised. I would have been very disappointed if there was any other reaction. It was a really nice call, because I got to have it with my boss and my friend.”
Okmin worked on a team with play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler and game analyst Daryl “Moose” Johnston in 2024.
She joined Fox in 2002 as a host, anchor and reporter and has covered more than 20 Super Bowls.
Fox’s Pam Oliver and the retired Michele Tafoya are the only sideline reporters believed to have worked more NFL games as a sideline reporter, according to Front Office Sports.
Chiefs punter Matt Araiza is officially under contract for the 2025 season.
Araiza’s return wasn’t in much doubt once the Chiefs tendered him as a contract as an exclusive rights free agent early in the offseason, but it wasn’t formalized until Araiza signed that tender. The NFL’s daily transaction report for Wednesday shows that Araiza has done that.
Exclusive rights free agents aren’t permitted to negotiate with other clubs once they are tendered, so Araiza was not at risk of leaving the team unless the Chiefs pulled their offer.
Araiza was a Bills sixth-round pick in 2022, but was released ahead of the regular season after being sued for an alleged rape. Araiza signed with the Chiefs in 2024 after being dropped from the suit and had an average of 41.5 net yards per punt last year.
There’s yet another place to spend money in Sin City.
Tom Brady has opened the Hall of Excellence at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, via Greg Bishop of SI.com. (Technically, it’s open to the public on Friday.)
It’s a partnership between Brady, the Tom Brady Family Collection, sportscaster Jim Gray, his wife, Frann, and the hotel.
The Hall of Excellence will feature “history’s elite entertainers, with items used or worn by Elvis Presley and the Beatles; Jackie Robinson’s bat from the season when he broke the color barrier; the late Kobe Bryant’s McDonald’s All-American gear; Billie Jean King’s most iconic tennis dress; a golf ball smacked by Tiger Woods in his first Masters triumph; all of Brady’s rings; worn gloves from Muhammad Ali’s first bout . . . and Shohei Ohtani’s bat from last season’s World Series triumph.”
Actor Morgan Freeman provides the main voice for the venue, with Oprah Winfrey, Brady, Jim Nantz, Bob Costas, Marv Albert, Mary Carillo, Mike Emrick, Andres Cantor, Jim Gray, and Snoop Dogg among the voices explaining various specific items.
And Bishop became the official writer for the facility. Between the audio scripts, item descriptions, case inscriptions, labels for items, and a Wall of Excellence, he writes that he generated more than 660,000 words.
As Brady told Bishop, “[A] certain legend who shall remain nameless called me from his own exhibit and said, ‘This is better than the Hall of Fame.’”
Not mentioned in the article is the price of admission. Tickets are sold based on admission every 15 minutes, at a rate of $35 each.
Because excellence ain’t free.
The Cowboys are signing cornerback Robert Rochell and defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey, Aaron Wilson of KPRC reports.
Rochell became a free agent May 6 when the Chiefs released him after spending two months on the offseason roster.
Rochell appeared in 48 games for the Rams and Packers the past four seasons, playing mostly special teams. He has 25 tackles, an interception and three forced fumbles in his career.
In 2024 with the Packers, Rochell played one defensive snap and 121 on special teams.
Winfrey has not played in the NFL since 2023, which also was the last time he was on a roster. The Browns, who drafted him in the fourth round in 2022, released him a year later after a second off-field incident.
He later signed with the Jets’ practice squad and appeared in one game in 2023.
Winfrey has not been in the league since, but he earned All-UFL honors this season with the Birmingham Stallions. Winfrey totaled 29 tackles and a sack.
Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders was ticketed in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville for driving 101 miles per hour in a 60 mph zone.
Fox 8 in Cleveland reports that police records show Sanders received a citation for driving 101 mph on 71 North at 12:24 a.m. on Tuesday. Sanders can either pay a fine or contest the ticket in court.
A speeding ticket is far from the worst offense a person can commit, but this won’t do anything to challenge perceptions that Sanders lacks the maturity NFL teams look for in their franchise quarterback. Once the betting favorite to be the first overall pick in the draft, Sanders fell to the fifth round amid talk that teams weren’t impressed with the way he conducted himself during the pre-draft process.
Sanders is part of a four-way quarterback competition in Cleveland, with Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel.
Lamar Jackson asked for Jaire Alexander and he got him on Wednesday.
The Ravens announced Alexander’s signing a day after Jackson said that he’d spoken to his college teammate about the possibility of coming to Baltimore. At a press conference Wednesday, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said that work had been going on “behind the scenes” since Alexander was released by the Packers and that the team saw the move as a chance to build up their defense.
“I know he wanted to be here,” Harbaugh said. “We wanted him here. For it to work out the way it did, it made Lamar happy. I think it made everybody happy. An opportunity to be a better team in that sense today, so we’re really excited about it.”
Alexander will have to be healthier than he’s been over the last two seasons in order for the Ravens to reap the full benefits of the move and they’ll begin the process of integrating him into their defense at training camp this summer.
