JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With a 17 1/2-sack season, a second Pro Bowl appearance and a new contract that made him football’s highest-paid outside linebacker, Josh Allen indisputably had become a big name in the NFL. But not exactly like he wanted.

He often was referred to as “the other Josh Allen,” with the more famous one quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills.

The Jacksonville Jaguars pass rusher and his wife, Kaitlyn, watched highlights of this year’s Pro Bowl Games and listened to a commentator refer to “Aidan Hutchinson and Josh … Allen?”

“It was almost like she was confused about who I was,” he says.

She wasn’t the only one. Kaitlyn wanted to know where her husband’s jerseys were being sold and learned they were as difficult to find as disinfecting wipes during the pandemic. The 27-year-old, five-year NFL veteran and father of three had considered changing his name for a couple of years. Now his wife started pushing for it.

His four older sisters have a different last name, Hines-Allen, incorporating their mother Kim’s maiden name. When Josh and twin brother Isaiah were born, their father, Robert, wanted the boys to be Allens. Kim and Robert divorced when Josh was a baby, and his dad wasn’t around much, so the boys were raised and shaped by Hineses. In his…

In their final meeting before every game, former Baltimore Ravens defensive line coach Anthony Weaver imparted a “winning thought” to his position group. He typically handled the responsibility, but occasionally he let other coaches speak. On the Saturday before the team’s Week 4 contest against the Cleveland Browns last season, Weaver tabbed assistant to the head coach/defensive assistant Megan Rosburg.

Rosburg spent a significant portion of her childhood in Cleveland where her father, Jerry, worked as the Browns’ special teams coordinator. It was a sentimental moment for her. But it was also nerve-wracking given she was in her second year as an NFL coach and had never addressed the D-line room. When she stood up in front of everyone, however, that anxiety translated to raw emotion.

“Every good story needs a villain!” Rosburg shouted.

As the Ravens defensive line dominated the Browns in a 28-3 rout the following day, that message became their rallying cry.

“All the guys on the sideline were repeating her line,” Weaver said recently. “That stuck with us for a while.”

Rosburg, now 31, is one of 12 full-time female coaches in the NFL. Seeing the players galvanize around her message affirmed to Rosburg that they respected her just like any other coach on…

WHITE SULFUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — I’ve tried. I’ve really tried with Deshaun Watson. I defended the Browns pursuing him because Baker Mayfield wasn’t good enough and they needed to upgrade the most important position. Despite all his legal issues, Watson was the best quarterback available at the time. 

But Watson isn’t and has never been a victim in any of this. 

More than two dozen women said he harassed or assaulted them during massage appointments. More than two dozen civil lawsuits against him or the Houston Texans were settled in confidential agreements.

Shortly after arriving at the Greenbrier this week for the start of training camp, Watson was asked a standard, mundane camp question about rehab from his shoulder surgery and if anything has changed with his approach. Here was his answer. 

“I think, honestly, it’s really just blocking out all the bull—-,” he said. “It was tough coming in two years ago, different environment, different team, different all that. So you come in and your character’s been mentioned this way and then kind of flip on you and the biggest thing, you’re trying to get people to like you or improve. But now it’s like, at the end of the day, it’s two years in and if you don’t like me or you have your own opinions, then,…

Linebacker Shaquil Barrett announced his retirement on social media Saturday, four months after joining the Miami Dolphins in free agency but just days before the team’s training camp.

“It’s time for me to hang it up,” Barrett said in an Instagram post. “It’s been a great ride and I appreciate everything that came with it over the years. I’m ready to shift my full focus to my wife and kids and helping with realize their dreams and catch em.”

He acknowledged in the post the retirement may seem like a surprise to some, but said he’s “been thinking about this for a while and the decision has never been more clear then it is now.”

Barrett’s abrupt announcement concludes a 10-year career that spanned stints with the Denver Broncos and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He won Super Bowl titles with each franchise.

The 31-year-old entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Colorado State, signing with the Broncos in 2014 but not appearing in any games his rookie season. He made the Broncos roster in 2015 after tallying the most preseason sacks in the league, and played a key rotational role in the team’s Super Bowl run, starting six games.

Barrett remained a rotational linebacker in Denver until he left for Tampa Bay in 2019. There, he blossomed in a historic…

LAS VEGAS — Seventeen-year-old Maci Joncich sat in the bleachers at Coronado High School’s football stadium in Las Vegas on a spring day in April, her future in football crystalizing.

Joncich had recently become the youngest player to make the U.S. Women’s Flag Football National Team. While she had no doubts about where she was headed as she took a break from class, she reflected on how cloudy her football prospects once looked.

Just four years prior, Joncich’s options for role models in the world of flag football were slim and she was charting unexplored territory.

“The biggest point of discussion was, ‘What comes next with flag football?’” Joncich said. “When I started, there was no flag in college. There were no Olympics. It was a bit of a struggle at first just getting the motivation to keep playing.”

All that has changed because of the expeditious rise of the sport.

There are 11 states where flag football is sanctioned as a girls’ varsity high school sport. Women’s flag football scholarships are offered at 25 NAIA colleges, and five NCAA Division III colleges will follow suit in 2025. There aren’t currently options for boys or men beyond the club level, but there will soon be a professional option, as the American Flag Football League plans to launch…

Harrison Butker issued a response to a dig tennis legend Serena Williams made at the Kansas City Chiefs kicker while she hosted the 2024 ESPY Awards on Thursday. Butker called Williams a “great host” but said she used the event as an “opportunity to disinvite” those with whom she disagrees.

Williams discussed the year in women’s sports onstage with sister Venus Williams and “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson. Venus told the audience to “go ahead and enjoy women’s sports, like you would any other sports, because they are sports.”

Serena then added, “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you.”

“At all. Like, ever,” Brunson said.

Butker drew widespread criticism for a commencement speech he gave in May at Benedictine College in which he said a woman’s most important title is “homemaker,” among other controversial comments.

Butker attended Thursday’s ESPY Awards, but the telecast did not show his reaction to Williams’ jab. He later issued a statement addressing the comment.

“I thought Mrs. Williams was a great host and applaud her for using her platform to express her beliefs on a variety of topics,” Butker said in the statement, first reported by NBC News on Friday and confirmed by The Athletic.

“Sports are supposed to be the…

Welcome to the 38th Media Mailbag for The Athletic. Thanks for sending in your questions via the website and app. There were more than 170 questions, so this is Part 1 of a two-parter. (Note: Questions have been edited for clarity and length.)

---

Does hiring guys like Tom Brady to broadcast football games REALLY move the needle for viewership? Are there people out there who will say, “Yeah, let’s watch that game because ____ is calling it?” Don’t most fans prefer their own homer broadcasters anyway? Am I way off on this? — Kris A.

It’s an interesting question, Kris, and one that’s discussed within the industry all the time given the extraordinary salaries of the NFL analysts who call the top games for their respective networks. The core answer is that viewers watch games for the game itself; the viewership number would likely be close to the same if you and I were calling it.

But the presentation of the game and how viewers process the game matters greatly to leagues and broadcasters because they want you to leave the broadcast wanting to come back. With leagues specifically, they want people in the booth who they believe represent their product — and leagues have some veto power on broadcast hires, even if the networks don’t publicly admit that.

Now for Brady…

LEBANON, Pa. — Narrow evergreens tower over the split-level house, lining the long driveway. Arborvitae, they are called. There are 145 of them, and not one has a branch out of place.

When Mark Gastineau and his wife came to see this property for the first time a few years ago, he stopped at the trees that are the color of the uniform he once wore. The realtor told them to come inside and look around, but Gastineau didn’t need to go inside. All he needed to see were the trees.

“They’re the most beautiful trees in the world,” he says. “I love them.”

Gastineau was one of the most accomplished pass rushers in NFL history. But more than that, he was a star. After games ended and his teammates left, he sometimes stayed on the Shea Stadium field so he could feel the crowd’s roar in his chest. He sat on talk show couches for David Letterman, Oprah and Dick Cavett. He won the 1985 “Superstars” competition in Miami and was featured in a six-page spread for “Playgirl” magazine titled, “Mark Gastineau: Out of Uniform.”

Gastineau still is the kind of person who turns heads at the grocery store, with thick black hair slicked back into a mullet that would stick out from the back of a helmet if he still wore one. But he’s 67 now, living with the reverberations of…

Wide Receiver Randall Cobb and his wife Aiyda said on social media late Wednesday night that they and their three sons are “safe and healthy” after escaping a fire in their Nashville home.

“We are lucky to be alive,” Aiyda said in an Instagram story.

Aiyda said a Tesla charger caught fire and spread through their home. Cobb said he was able to go back into the house and rescue the family’s dog, Louie.

In a separate post, the couple shared videos of the damage and said they were grateful for the efforts of the Nashville Fire Department.

“I can’t get the image of the brave firefighter getting into position out of my head; he didn’t even have water to shoot yet,” they said. “I truly thought the cars were going to explode and that we would lose him to this tragedy. He is a true hero.”

They called the incident a “reminder that nothing is more important than the health of our family,” and said they are unsure if any of their affected belongings will be “salvageable.”

Cobb, 33, spent last season with the New York Jets where he appeared in 11 games and caught five passes for 39 yards and a touchdown.

He spent most of his career with the Green Bay Packers, playing the first eight seasons of his career at Lambeau Field before playing stints with the Dallas Cowboys…

Jocelyn Pierce, the wife of Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce, filed for bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona on June 12. The schedules and statement of financial affairs required in the filing provide a detailed disclosure of the family’s financial status and history, including that Antonio, 45, is subject to judgments that amount to more than $28 million.

According to documents obtained by The Athletic, Jocelyn stated the lenders owed those judgments have attempted to satisfy their judgments from the couple’s assets. The motion goes on to state that two of those lenders — Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation (holding a $23 million judgment) and Hyundai Capital America (holding a $4.5 million judgment) — recently attempted to garnish Antonio’s wages with the Raiders.

It was after those attempts that Jocelyn filed for bankruptcy to “protect her assets and those of the marital community,” according to the documents. The bankruptcy filing took place in Arizona because that’s where Jocelyn officially resides. She has been granted an extension until July 12 to “accurately gather all information concerning the community property while attending to her home and children.”

The Raiders hired Antonio as their linebackers…