NFL

ARLINGTON, Texas — The NFL regular season is turning down the stretch and the playoff picture is coming into focus, and that means not just the teams but the league’s scheduling crew is hard at work.

The Chargers, who play at Dallas on Sunday, can secure a postseason berth with a victory and some help from a team or two. Coupled with a win over the Cowboys, the Chargers need Las Vegas to win at Houston (unlikely) or San Francisco to win at Indianapolis (more likely) so they can rest easy knowing they’re at least in the playoffs for the second consecutive season under Jim Harbaugh.

Although the Rams have already qualified for the playoffs, they need to regain their balance after a spirit-snapping loss at Seattle on Thursday that likely cost them a chance at the NFC’s No. 1 seed.

Here’s a look at the upcoming schedule for the end of this season and beginning of next, along with decisions that need to be made:

— Why did the league schedule Houston at the Chargers for Saturday of Week 17?

The game was always a candidate for that 1:30 p.m. slot on NFL Network, and Seattle at Carolina was also under consideration.

The league liked Texans-Chargers on Saturday because both of those clubs likely will be playing in January — maybe against each other again — and if that game were moved to Sunday afternoon, it would be going head-to-head against Fox’s national game, Philadelphia at Buffalo, a potential Super Bowl preview.

So the NFL wanted to do the Texans and Chargers a solid and give them the national stage to themselves.

— Rams at Atlanta in Week 17 isn’t a fantastic Monday night game for Week 17, especially with the Falcons currently at 5-9. But with all the games spread throughout the week of Christmas, there weren’t a lot of great replacement options.

The league didn’t move Texans-Chargers into that slot for good reason. Because whoever plays in that “Monday Night Football” slot — it’s staying Rams-Falcons — won’t be a candidate for a Saturday game in the final weekend.

So by moving Texans-Chargers to Saturday, both those teams are in play for the two Saturday spots in Week 18. The Chargers finish at Denver, and the Texans play host to Indianapolis. Either or both of those games could wind up on ESPN for those finishing Saturday games.

— The NFL originally slated Cincinnati at Miami for this week’s Sunday night game but last week decided to move New England at Baltimore into that time slot. That’s notable because it’s the first flex of the season, which is an unusually low number. Typically, there have been three or four flexes to this point.

Why only one? There are multiple reasons. First, the league’s scheduling crew had a pretty clear crystal ball in May, a good idea for which teams would still be in the mix. Credit to those folks.

But the bar for flexing games is also a little higher than it used to be. The NFL is cautious about inconveniencing 75,000 fans for a relatively small bump in viewership. What’s more, with all the new windows and partners — Netflix, Amazon Prime, Peacock, Paramount+ — there are fewer games to go around. Even if the league wanted to flex, there are fewer options. The traditional Sunday inventory is a lot thinner than it used to be.

— It’s worth noting that the league’s philosophy on moving games around is it flexes out of a game that’s falling apart, it doesn’t flex into a better game because the network or streaming service doesn’t happen to like the game it has.

Cincinnati-Miami was a no-brainer flex candidate back in October when both teams were reeling. But then Joe Burrow came back for the Bengals, and the Dolphins started winning, and it got interesting for a while. But then Cincinnati got shut out last week by Baltimore, and Miami just benched its quarterback. Flex was back on.

So what to flex into? The thought was, yes, the NFL can move Patriots-Ravens into that Sunday window for NBC, and at least it can leave behind Kansas City-Tennessee for CBS. Everybody figured the Chiefs would be fighting for their postseason lives. That wasn’t the case. Kansas City was eliminated last week and lost Patrick Mahomes to a season-ending knee injury. Chiefs-Titans isn’t nearly as interesting as anticipated.

It could have been an ugly Sunday for CBS, but the network wound up with Pittsburgh-Detroit for its national game. That very easily could have been the far-less-tantalizing Buffalo at Cleveland.

— We’re heading into a postseason with no Kansas City, no Dallas, maybe no Baltimore or Pittsburgh — one of them is going to miss out — and with the rise of Chicago, possibly no Green Bay or Detroit.

A lot of those traditional anchor teams could be watching from their couches.

That means the NFL will have to make some new decisions about who to prioritize in postseason scheduling, perhaps looking with fresh eyes at clubs such as Seattle, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Jacksonville and others. Who are the ones with the most national appeal?

And that rolls into next season. How does the league dole out those big national windows. With Kansas City missing the playoffs, and Mahomes recovering from a major knee injury, do the Chiefs recede into the background after a decade of division titles and deep playoff runs?

Have the Bears broken through? They’re 10-4. At 12-2, Denver looks to be back and set up to keep it going. Heading into Thursday night’s game, the Rams were as hot as any team in the league, and the Chargers could finally get Justin Herbert that inaugural playoff victory.

The Steelers have won two in a row, and could wind up making a postseason run. If so, what does Aaron Rodgers do next season, and how will the club move forward?

The NFL leaned heavily into Washington after one outstanding season, giving them eight nationally televised games this season. That bet didn’t pay off; the Commanders are 4-10.

It’s the game behind the games, and those decisions are taking shape.

Denzel Perryman quickly listed name after name as he dove deep into his mental roster of the 2015 Chargers.

Manti Teʻo, Melvin Ingram, Kavell Conner and Donald Butler took Perryman under their wing, the Chargers linebacker said. The 11-year veteran said he relied on older teammates when he entered the NFL as they helped him adjust to the schedule and regimen of professional football.

“When I was a young guy,” Perryman said, “my head was all over the place — just trying to get the gist of the NFL. They taught me how to be where my mind is.”

With the Chargers (10-4) entering the final stretch of the season and on the cusp of clinching a playoff berth heading into Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys (6-7-1), veterans have played an important role in the team winning six of its last seven games.

A win over the Cowboys coupled with either a loss or tie by the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon or an Indianapolis Colts loss or tie on Monday night would secure a playoff berth for the Chargers.

Perryman, who recorded a season-best nine tackles in the Chargers’ win over the Kansas City Chiefs last week, credits Philip Rivers and the rest of the Chargers’ veterans for showing him “how to be a pro” a decade ago. Now he’s passing along those lessons to younger players in a transfer of generational knowledge across the Chargers’ locker room.

“When I came in as a young guy, I thought this happens every year,” safety Derwin James Jr. said of winning, starting his career on a 12-4 Chargers team in 2018. “Remember the standard. Remember, whatever we’re doing now, to uphold the standard, so that way, when guys change, coaches change, anything changes, the standard remains.”

Running off the field at Arrowhead Stadium, third-year safety Daiyan Henley charged at a celebrating Tony Jefferson, a veteran mentor at his position who was waiting for teammates after being ejected for an illegal hit on Chiefs wide receiver Tyquan Thornton.

After the game Jefferson and Henley hopped around like schoolchildren on the playground. That’s the atmosphere the veterans want to create, Jefferson said, one in which younger players in the secondary can turn to him.

“That’s what we’re here for,” Jefferson said. “For them to watch us and follow, follow our lead, and see how we do our thing.”

It’s not just the veteran stars that are making a difference. Marcus Williams, a 29-year-old safety with 109 games of NFL experience, replaced Jefferson against the Chiefs after being elevated from the practice squad. The 2017 second-round pick played almost every snap in Jefferson’s place, collecting four tackles.

“That just starts with the culture coach [Jim] Harbaugh creates,” defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said. “It’s really a 70-man roster.”

Harbaugh highlighted defensive lineman/fullback Scott Matlock’s blocking technique — a ba-boop, ba-boop, as Harbaugh put it and mimed with his arms — on designed runs as an example of a veteran bolstering an offensive line trying to overcome the absence of Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater.

Harbaugh said his father, Jack, taught Matlock the ba-boop, ba-boop blocking technique during an August practice.

“He’s severely underrated as an athlete,” quarterback Justin Herbert said of the 6-foot-4, 296-pound Matlock, who also catches passes in the flat as a fullback.

With three games left in the regular season, Jefferson said the focus is on replicating the postseason-like efforts they gave in consecutive wins over the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.

“It was good that they were able to get a taste of that,” Jefferson said of his younger teammates playing against last season’s Super Bowl teams, “because these games down the stretch are really what’s to come in the playoffs.”

Puka Nacua’s comments about NFL officiating came with a cost — and not just the distraction the controversy caused the Rams before their overtime defeat by the Seattle Seahawks.

The NFL fined the Rams receiver $25,000 for remarks he made about NFL officiating, according to NFL Media.

Nacua caught 12 passes for a career-best 225 yards and two touchdowns against the Seahawks.

During a livestream on Tuesday, with YouTubers N3on and Adin Ross, Nacua said, “The refs are the worst.”

Nacua did not stop there.

“These guys are lawyers, and like, really, they want to be on TV, too, bro,” Nacua said. “You don’t think he’s texting his friends in the group chat like, ‘Yo, you guys just saw me on “Sunday Night Football.” Like, that wasn’t [pass interference], but I called it.’”

After the loss to the Seahawks, Nacua appeared to double down.

“Can you say I was wrong,” he posted to X. “Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol”

The post was quickly deleted.

“Just a moment of frustration after a tough, intense game like that, just thinking of the opportunities that I could have done better to take it out of their hands,” Nacua told reporters in the locker room. “Just a moment of frustration.”

Coach Sean McVay said during his postgame news conference that he had not seen Nacua’s post to X.

In regard to Nacua’s criticism of officials during the livestream, McVay said, “Yeah, we don’t want to do that.”

It was a tumultuous week for Nacua, who apologized Thursday for making a antisemitic gesture during the same livestream, saying he didn’t know that the gesture was considered offensive.

Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua apologized for performing a gesture “antisemitic in nature” during a livestream, stating he originally had no idea it “perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people.”

“I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry or hate of another group of people,” Nacua wrote in a post on Instagram.

Nacua made the gesture while appearing on a livestream with Adin Ross and N3on. The livestreamers suggested he perform the gesture the next time he celebrated after scoring a touchdown.

“There is no place in this world for Antisemitism as well as other forms of prejudice or hostility towards the Jewish people and people of any religion, ethnicity, or race,” the Rams said in a statement.

The NFL also released a statement: “The NFL strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and derogatory behavior directed towards any group or individual. The continuing rise of antisemitism must be addressed across the world, and the NFL will continue to stand with our partners in this fight. Hatred has no place in our sport or society.”

Nacua’s gesture came on the same livestream in which he also criticized NFL referees, calling them “the worst” and claiming many probably get a thrill making bad calls on national television during games.

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: CBS, Paramount+.

Line: Bills by 10½. O/U: 41½.

After an amazing comeback against a really strong New England team last Sunday, the Bills are emboldened and Josh Allen is on an MVP pace. Cleveland relies on its stout defense, but that unit didn’t show up in Week 15 against Chicago, surrendering 31 points. Buffalo, which is 7-2 outside the division, wins this going away.

Pick: Bills 27, Browns 16

Puka Nacua thinks NFL referees are “the worst.”

He feels they fabricate calls just so their friends can see them on TV.

But, to be honest, the Rams star receiver doesn’t seem too upset about the situation.

During a livestream Tuesday with YouTubers N3on and Adin Ross, Nacua was asked if he thought referees might bend the truth at times when making their calls.

“Oh, a hundred percent,” Nacua answered matter-of-factly. “Yes, the refs are the worst.”

The third-year player continued in the same casual manner, saying that NFL officials are generally part-time employees who probably get a thrill when they appear on screen during national broadcasts — even if it’s while making a call.

“These guys are lawyers, and like really they want to be on TV, too, bro,” Nacua said. “You don’t think he’s texting his friends in the group chat like, ‘Yo, you guys just saw me on “Sunday Night Football.” Like, that wasn’t [pass interference], but I called it.’”

He added: “I mean, these guys are normal human beings, too.”

The NFL’s competition committee states on the league’s football operations website that “criticism of officiating has always been considered conduct detrimental to the League.” Such conduct is often met with a fine. Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs coach Andy Reid have all been fined for public criticism of officiating in recent years.

The NFL did not immediately respond to questions from The Times on a possible fine for Nacua.

During another portion of the livestream, Nacua agrees to do a celebration dance of Ross and N3on’s choice after his next touchdown. With Nacua out of earshot, the two YouTubers discuss whether the 2023 Pro Bowl player would get in trouble if they have him perform a move that references an offensive stereotype about Jewish people. Ross is Jewish, but he often performs the move and teaches others how to do it in his livestreams.

He ends up teaching the move to Nacua, who practices it with Ross and promises to do it during a game. Ross does not explain the meaning of the move to Nacua, and the star receiver gives no indication he knows its background.

The Times reached out to the Rams and Nacua’s agent and did not receive an immediate response.

Hardy Nickerson, a Verbum Dei grad who played linebacker at Cal, made the Pro Bowl five times, coached in college and the NFL and did two stints as head coach at Bishop O’Dowd in San Jose, has been named head football coach at JSerra.

Nickerson, 60, becomes the first Black head football coach in the Trinity League since it was formed in 2008.

JSerra is hoping to strike gold like Santa Margarita did in hiring Heisman Trophy winner and 15-year NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, who delivered a Southern Section Division 1 championship and CIF state championship Open Division bowl win this year in his rookie season as head coach. Palmer used his NFL connections to put together a top-notch group of assistant coaches.

Nickerson also has lots of NFL connections and far more coaching experience than Palmer. He once was defensive coordinator at Illinois, served as an NFL assistant with the 49ers, Bears and Buccaneers and and has been head coach at Bishop O’Dowd from 2010-13 and from 2022 through this season, when his team won a state Division 5-AA championship.

He takes over a program that went 3-7 last season and cut ties with former Azusa Pacific head coach Victor Santa Cruz. Nickerson will soon learn that coaching in the Trinity League is similar to college and the NFL, where teams expect to win or there is little assurance of keeping a job for long.

BERKELEY, Calif. — Mike White, who had a successful career as a college coach with California and Illinois and later coached the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, has died. He was 89.

Cal said White’s family confirmed that he died Sunday in Newport Beach.

White helped the Golden Bears win a share of the Pac-8 title in 1975, led the Illini to their first Rose Bowl in 20 years in the 1983 season and coached the Raiders in their first two seasons back in Oakland in 1995-96 after leaving Los Angeles.

He also worked as an assistant for the San Francisco 49ers and was on Dick Vermeil’s staff with the St. Louis Rams when they won the Super Bowl following the 1999 season.

“Mike was special,” said Burl Toler Jr., a linebacker who played at Cal under White from 1974-77. “He treated us like men and with a lot of respect. Mike was a very gifted and smart coach who loved Cal and loved being a coach, and he surrounded himself with a lot of like minds who instilled in us a will to succeed.”

White was a four-sport student-athlete at Cal in the 1950s and spent time as an assistant with the Bears and at rival Stanford before getting the head coaching job at his alma mater in 1972.

White had a 35-30-1 record in six seasons at Cal, with his biggest success coming in 1975 when he was named coach of the year after the Bears finished tied with UCLA for first place in the conference. Cal finished 14th in the nation with an offense that featured Chuck Muncie and quarterback Joe Roth.

White also coached quarterback Steve Bartkowski earlier at Cal and helped develop him into the No. 1 overall pick in the 1975 NFL draft.

He then left for the NFL, spending two seasons as an offensive line coach for the 49ers, before returning to college in 1980 with Illinois. He led the Illini to a 47-41-3 record with three bowl trips, including a loss in the 1984 Rose Bowl to UCLA.

That 1983 Illinois team went 9-0 in the Big Ten and is the only team in conference history to beat every other conference opponent in the same season.

White then returned to the NFL in 1990, spending five seasons as an assistant with the Raiders before taking over as head coach. He had a 15-17 record before getting fired after the 1996 season.

Dubow writes for the Associated Press.

The Bucs opened the scoring with a Sean Tucker touchdown before the Falcons led 14-13 at half-time after Pitts, who came into Thursday’s game with just one touchdown all season, claimed his first two scores.

The home team went into a 28-14 lead early in the fourth quarter after Baker Mayfield made touchdown passes to Devin Culp and Chris Godwin Jr.

Veteran Kirk Cousins was making his fourth straight start after a season-ending injury to Atlanta’s starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr and the 37-year-old led the Falcons to the 32nd fourth-quarter comeback of his career.

Running back Bijan Robinson got into the end zone before Pitts claimed his hat-trick and Atlanta regained possession with less than two minutes left.

And despite being backed up to third and 28 after recovering his own fumble and a 10-yard penalty, Cousins made key passes to Pitts and receiver David Sills V to get the Falcons in range for Gonzalez to kick a 43-yard game winner.

Cousins finished with 373 passing yards and three touchdown passes to Pitts, who claimed 166 yards from 11 receptions.

Atlanta are now 5-9 and their upset of Tampa Bay did Carolina a favour as the Panthers (7-6) now top the NFC South and face the Bucs in two of their last four games, with only the division winner guaranteed a play-off spot.

Philip Rivers hasn’t played in the NFL for several years. Neither has Cam Newton.

Rivers is in his mid-40s. Newton is in his mid-30s.

Rivers signed with the Indianapolis Colts this week. Newton did not — and he’s taking it somewhat personally that the team did not even reach out to him.

“It’s almost like a slap in my face, bro,” Newton said on the latest episode of the “4th&1 with Cam Newton” podcast. “ I ain’t gonna lie.”

Cohost Omari “Penny” Collins pointed out that NFL teams may not realize Newton is available because of his high profile as a podcaster and TV personality.

Newton stared at Collins incredulously before shouting his response.

“Did Philip Rivers send any type of sign that he was available?” the regular contributor on ESPN’s “First Take” said. “Why you asking me to do something that everybody else didn’t do? I ain’t no sucker. I ain’t no lab rat. Come on, bro.”

Newton added: “People be holding people to a standard that they ain’t even holding everybody else to that standard. And that’s what I don’t like. ‘Well, you ain’t showed that you [are available].’ Have you followed my Snapchat?”

Rivers spent his first 16 NFL seasons with the Chargers and one more with the Indianapolis Colts before retiring after the 2020 season. An eight-time Pro Bowl selection, Rivers ranks in the NFL’s top 10 for passing yards, passing touchdowns and passes completed. He is currently a Pro Football Hall of Fame semifinalist, although his eligibility for that honor may soon get pushed back.

If Rivers ends up on their active roster — a distinct possibility with the multitude of quarterback injuries the Colts are dealing with — Rivers won’t be eligible for the Hall of Fame until five years after he retires again.

The signing reunites Rivers with Indianapolis coach Shane Steichen, his onetime quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator with the Chargers. The two men are close friends who are said to speak on the phone weekly. As coach of St. Michael Catholic High in Fairhope, Ala., Rivers uses the same plays and terminology as Steichen.

But, as Newton pointed out to Collins, “he’s 44 years old, bro.”

Newton, on the other hand, is 36.

Drafted No. 1 overall by the Carolina Panthers in 2011, he was the league MVP in 2015 and led the Panthers to the Super Bowl the same year. His 75 career rushing touchdowns and 46 career games with both passing and rushing touchdowns were both records for NFL quarterbacks until they were broken this season by Buffalo’s Josh Allen.

Newton has not played since 2021, but he never officially retired.

“I did not,” he said, “and will not because of an opportunity like this.”

Newton speculated that teams might be scared off by his flamboyant personality. “They don’t want a circus,” he said.

He also joked that the Colts already have a star player who wears jersey No. 1 — cornerback Sauce Gardner — and they knew “I gotta get No. 1.”

Newton was sure to state he had nothing personal against Rivers, his “brother from another.” But Newton also made it clear he wouldn’t hesitate to work out for an NFL team truly interested in his services.

“I’m open for business,” he said. “But I wanna be [with] who really want me. If you don’t want me, don’t send flowers.”

The NFL is advocating a more performance-driven model for its game officials, one linking bonuses and postseason assignments to regular-season grades as opposed to seniority.

The plan was outlined in a memo distributed to the league’s 32 teams Wednesday and obtained by the Los Angeles Times. It comes with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with game officials expiring at the end of May and negotiations slowed to a crawl.

The topic was part of a two-hour virtual owners meeting on Wednesday.

In the memo, sent by NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent and Management Council General Counsel Lawrence Ferazani Jr., the league said it is looking to implement changes that will “improve the performance of game officials, increase accountability, and ensure that the highest-performing officials are officiating our highest profile games.”

The NFL is pushing for mandatory training and development programs for low-performing and probationary officials, and contends the union is “resisting our efforts to give these officials access to more practice repetitions.”

The league is also seeking to extend the probationary period for assessing new game officials to have more flexibility to identify and remove those who are underperforming. According to the document, the union’s latest proposal seeks to eliminate the probationary period entirely.

“Our union’s negotiating committee is working diligently on behalf of members, and we will continue to respect that process,” said Scott Green, Executive Director of the NFL Referees’ Assn., in a statement. “We look forward to our continued conversations with the league as we make progress towards a new CBA.”

As it stands, the NFL has no communication with game officials following the Super Bowl through May 15. The league wants to shorten that so-called “dead period” and increase access to officials for rules discussions, video review and the like.

The league is also proposing a practice squad for game officials to deepen the bench of talent.

The next formal bargaining session between the NFL and officials union is scheduled for Dec. 30 in Atlanta.