LDN - Sports

National Football League roundup

[March 02, 2017] March 1 (The Sports Xchange) - The Pittsburgh Steelers signed outside linebacker James Harrison to a two-year contract on Wednesday.

The deal for the Steelers' all-time sack leader is worth $3.5 million, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The new contract is Harrison's second with Pittsburgh since he held an official retirement press conference in August 2014.

The 38-year-old Harrison will enter his 15th season in the NFL, all but one with Pittsburgh. The Steelers released him in 2013 when he refused to take a pay cut, and he played that season with the Cincinnati Bengals.

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Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon, who has not played in a regular-season game since 2014, is applying for reinstatement from his indefinite drug suspension.

Gordon's business manager, Michael Johnson, told Schefter that the embattled receiver will appeal to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to let him back into the league.

"Josh is living with me and is in the best place mentally that he has been in dating back years before entering the NFL," Johnson told ESPN.

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The Los Angeles Rams placed the franchise tag on cornerback Trumaine Johnson for the second consecutive season, the team announced.

The move will make Johnson the NFL's highest-paid cornerback in 2017 with an expected franchise tag salary of $16 million.

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Blake Bortles needs to get better and to do that, the Jacksonville Jaguars must improve around him.

"I see Blake Bortles as our quarterback," first-year Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said at the Indiana Convention Center.

New team president Tom Coughlin said the improvement starts with bolstering pass protection. Bortles was sacked 34 times in 2016, when he played with multiple shoulder injuries, after being taken down 51 times in 2015.

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Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce underwent shoulder surgery and is expected to miss time during the team's offseason activities, coach Andy Reid said.

Reid told the Kansas City Star that Kelce "had it cleaned up" but didn't think the 27-year-old would be sidelined for too long.

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Veteran defensive end Chris Long, who signed a one-year contract with the New England Patriots last offseason with a mission of winning a Super Bowl ring, plans to move on in 2017 after accomplishing his goal.

Long said he will not attempt to re-sign with the team, thanking Patriots fans and expressing his admiration and appreciation for teammates and head coach Bill Belichick in a post on his Instagram page.

Long, who turns 32 this month, played the first eight years of his NFL career with the Rams in St. Louis and was never part of a team with a winning record until signing with New England.

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The NFL salary cap will be $167 million per team for the 2017 season, an increase of $12 million over last year.

The upcoming season will be the fourth consecutive year the cap has risen at least $10 million, and since 2012 it has been increased by about $47 million. The first cap in 1994 was $34.6 million. (Editing by Larry Fine) ))

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