Aug 25, 2020 4 min read

Grant Delpit’s 2020 season ended with the Browns before it began.

And Cleveland’s first training camp under new coach Kevin Stefanski is turning more black and blue by the day.

Delpit, a rookie safety from LSU, ruptured his right Achilles tendon while going through individual drills on Monday, another dose of bad luck for Cleveland and Stefanski, who has lost three likely defensive starters in a week to injuries.

The team said Tuesday that Delpit, a second-round pick from the national champion Tigers, will undergo surgery.

“Very disappointed for Grant,” Stefanski said. “He is disappointed, but I think he has the right mindset to bounce back. Unfortunate to see that, but we are fully supporting him, and then we will make sure that he attacks his rehab.”

His loss is yet another blow to Cleveland’s defense, and especially its secondary, which was overhauled during the offseason.

Delpit’s injury is the third significant one to strike Cleveland’s defense early in Stefanski’s camp.

Linebacker Mack Wilson hyperextended his left knee while breaking up a pass last week, and nickel back Kevin Johnson lacerated his liver when rookie tight end Harrison Bryant landed on him. It’s not known when Wilson or Johnson will be back on the field.

Lions skip practice in wake of shooting

The Detroit Lions decided not to practice on Tuesday, protesting after a Black man was shot by police in Wisconsin.

“We came up with this one as a unit,” Detroit defensive end Trey Flowers said.

Lions coach Matt Patricia opened the team’s morning meeting by allowing players to share their thoughts on the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down. Blake was shot Sunday, three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

The players continued to discuss Blake’s shooting and shared their personal experiences regarding race in the locker room.

Lions players and Patricia later filed out of the team’s practice facility, pushing a dry-erase board on wheels along the sidewalk to address the media. The words: “The world can’t go on,” was written in blue on one side of the dry-erase board and “We won’t be silent!! One pride,” was in black on the other side of the white board.

“If you’re being silent, you’re OK with it,” Detroit safety Duron Harmon said. “You’re OK with what’s happening. No one in this organization or on this team is OK with it. “

Patricia said he is proud of the players and hopes they inspire other people and teams in the NFL to take a stand for social justice.

Lawyers: NFL awards racially discriminateDementia tests in the NFL concussion litigation allow doctors to use different baseline standards for Black and white retired players, making it more difficult for Blacks to show injury and qualify for awards, lawyers for two ex-players argued in court filings Tuesday.

The settlement fund has so far paid about $720 million to retired players for neurocognitive problems linked to NFL concussions, including more than $300 million for dementia. The dementia claims have proven especially contentious – three-quarters of them have been denied, often after challenges from the NFL.

Lawyers for ex-players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport said their clients were denied awards “based on a discriminatory testing regime” that weighs sociological factors including race. Both men would have qualified for awards had race not been considered, they said.

“Black former players have been automatically assumed, through a statistical manipulation called ‘race-norming,’ to have started with worse cognitive functioning than White former players,” the lawyers wrote.

That makes it harder to show they’ve suffered a deficit and deserve compensation, they said.