NFL Notes: Inglewood, Mark Sanchez, & Seahawks

Inglewood

Former budget and accounting manager for Inglewood, Barbara Ohno, alleges that current mayor James T. Butts instructed employees to “create a faςade of financial responsibility and well-being” for the city in an attempt to lure the Rams to California, via Angel Jennings of the Los Angeles Times.

Inglewood was competing with Carson to build a new stadium to host one or possibly two NFL teams with Inglewood ultimately winning out.

According to Ohno, Inglewood regularly used restricted federal and state grant money to pay for daily operational costs and used money seized from federal crime enforcement operations that was meant to cover police-related expenses.

Butts has denied the allegations, saying that the claims are “totally baseless and without any merit.“ 

“The city undergoes rigorous and thorough audits by an outside audit firm,” Butts said in a statement. “We are proud of the improvements made during my tenure in not only improving its reserves, but our financial reporting procedures.”

Mark Sanchez

Broncos QB Mark Sanchez explained to Jason Cole of B/R that he had no idea that the Eagles and Broncos were discussing a trade before it went down.

“No, not at all. This happened all while I was working out,” Sanchez said. “My agent hadn’t heard yet. [Philadelphia general manager] Howie Roseman and [Denver general manager] John Elway were really the only ones who knew until they told me. Nobody really knew. I was maybe the third, fourth or fifth person to know. Once that happened, I called my agents to find out what was happening and they said, “We don’t know that.”

Sanchez said that he was working out and noticed he missed a call from Eagles executive VP Howie Roseman.

“I was in the workout and went to the bathroom. When I got back, I noticed I had a missed call and two texts from Howie. So I called him back, and my friend is there looking at me, like, “What’s going on?”

As I’m listening to Howie, I’m mouthing to him, “I got traded to Denver.” It was literally like that. I’m thinking, “What’s going on here?” After that, it was immediately “What’s worked in the past? What’s the right thing to do? How am I going to make the most of this opportunity?” It was just huge.”

Seahawks

Sheil Kapadia believes that Seahawks DL Frank Clark is the favorite to take over the bulk of DE Bruce Irvin‘s snaps, following his departure for the Raiders.

Clark, who is already impressing at OTAs, was often used as an interior pass rusher last season and was on the field for just 33.5 percent of the team’s total defensive snaps.

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll offered praise for Clark and his approach this offseason.

“Here’s a guy that came back to us with a little bit different makeup. Stronger, he looks faster than ever,” Carroll said. “Lost a few pounds. Came in a little bit leaner than when he had come in a year ago. He feels great. He just feels physically on it. We talked today about how much further down the road he is now in understanding what’s expected of him and all that. He’s having a blast playing with these guys, and again, there’s so many guys that are just off to a great start this offseason. Frank’s one of those guys.“