Browns All-Pro defensive end Garrett recovering from car crash, unclear if he’ll play Sunday

BEREA, Ohio (AP) — For the first time, the Cleveland Browns didn’t mind that Myles Garrett wasn’t with them on the field.

The All-Pro defensive end stayed home to rest and recover Wednesday from injuries suffered in a single-car crash as his status for the Browns’ game on Sunday at Atlanta remains in doubt.

Garrett was not at the team’s facility two days after one of the NFL’s top players flipped his Porsche when he veered off a rural road near his home following practice. He suffered a sprained shoulder, strained biceps, cuts and bruises in the wreck.

“Very, very grateful that he’s OK,” said Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, who has spoken to Garrett.

After rolling his car, Garrett was hospitalized for several hours. Bodycam footage from the Medina County Sheriff’s Office showed him looking dazed while being treated by medical

The National Championship Trophy is displayed following a news conference on Aug. 16 in Atlanta, announcing that the CFP National Championship will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2025. The conference commissioners who manage the College Football Playoff met for almost seven hours Tuesday, to work on expanding the postseason system from four to 12 teams as soon as the 2024 season. There is still much work to be done. personnel as he sat on the ground near his badly damaged and overturned vehicle.

The team said Garrett cleared concussion protocol.

Stefanski expects Garrett to return Thursday and didn’t rule out the possibility of him practicing. As for Sunday’s game, Stefanski said Garrett will be evaluated by team doctors who will consider his physical and emotional states before clearing him.

“You take everything into account,” Stefanski said. “But I think like we do with anything, it’s case-by-case basis and really I’ve spoken to him but get to have him in the building tomorrow and talk more in-depth.”

Several of Garrett’s teammates expressed gratitude and relief that he wasn’t more seriously hurt in the crash, which also injured an unidentified female passenger. They saw photos of Garrett’s mangled car and were stunned he was able to escape with relative good health.

“In the grand scheme of life the best thing is that’s he’s OK,” said quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who has also been in touch with Garrett. “When I texted him, I was like, ‘Man, I’m just glad you’re all right.’”

Falcons coach Arthur Smith was equally relieved Garrett will be able to come back. “It just brings you back to what’s important in life,” Smith said. “I don’t know Myles personally. I have a lot of respect for him. But when you see that around the league, obviously it happens every day in every major city, it does hit home when you see it.”

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — The administrators who’ve been given the task of expanding the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams left their latest in-person meetings Wednesday with the biggest question unanswered: How soon?

“Making progress,” CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said after the meetings near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. “We all have to remember the College Football Playoff will expand. And that will be a good thing for the game. And we’re just trying to see if we can do it earlier.

“I think a lot of us feel like earlier is icing on the cake. We’re going to have our cake in 2026. Can we ice it now and start earlier?”

The CFP management committee is scheduled to convene again on Oct. 20 in Dallas. The members expect to get some work done before then by video conference, but whether the logistical hurdles can be cleared to implement a new format as soon as the 2024 season is unclear.

“There are a million details, but really encouraged by our ability to work through them,” said Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who is a member of the management committee along with the 10 FBS conference commissioners. “Lot of work to do, we’ll see. But thus far nothing that causes you to say, ‘This is impossible.’”

Swarbrick said there is still no hard deadline for deciding whether the new format can be implemented in 2024.

“To dig in as much as we’ve dug in and not find something that causes you to say, ‘This can’t happen,’ it’s encouraging,” he said.

Hancock emphasized if expansion can’t be done for 2024, that wouldn’t rule out 2025.

Expanding the playoff early could be worth an additional $450 million in gross revenue from media rights for the schools that compete in major college football.

The additional revenue will require a tweaked plan for distribution between conferences and for participating teams.

“The good news is you have a model you’ve worked under for a long time,” Swarbrick said. “So you’ve got a starting point.”

Most of the CFP revenue goes to the Power Five conferences and the bonuses for participation are relatively small: $6 million for placing a team in a semifinal game and $4 million for placing a team in a New Year’s Six bowl.

Since a plan to expand to 12 teams was unveiled in the spring of 2021, and then snarled throughout the rest of the year by mistrust and provincialism, the commissioners have blown through several soft deadlines, hoping more time would bring consensus. That didn’t happen.

Expansion of the playoff for the 2024 and ‘25 seasons appeared off the table in February, but the university presidents and chancellors who oversee the CFP took matters into their own hands and revived the process.

By adopting the 12-team plan last month, the presidents directed the commissioners to try to implement a new format before the end of the CFP’s current contract with ESPN. That deal ends after the 2025 season.

The playoff will expand to 12 for 2026, with a new television contract that is likely to include multiple network partners. If expansion happens in 2024 and/or 2025, ESPN would have first crack at buying the rights to the additional games. But expanding within the existing contract is trickier because agreements, dates and venues have already been set.

Atlanta was announced as the site for the championship game following the 2024 season. The game is set for Jan. 6, but would need to be pushed back about two weeks to accommodate a 12-team playoff. Same for the semifinals.