Matthew Stafford is staying in Los Angeles.

The 37-year-old quarterback, who led the Rams to a Super Bowl win in 2022, agreed to a restructured deal with the Rams on Friday, according to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter. The financial details of the deal have yet to be revealed.

Stafford’s return to the Rams was in doubt after Los Angeles allowed him to meet with other teams last week. The two-time Pro Bowler was reportedly seeking a salary of around $50 million per year—more than double the $23 million base salary (and $27 million in total 2025 cash) he was expecting under his previous deal.

The Raiders and Giants were two of the teams interested in Stafford, and both explored a two-year deal for him with guaranteed money worth around $90 million to $100 million, The Athletic’s senior NFL insider Dianna Russini reported Friday. But Stafford ultimately chose to return to the Rams, who were the only team to come close to defeating the Eagles during their Super Bowl run last postseason.

According to Russini, with Stafford now off the market, the Giants have shifted their interest to another veteran quarterback: Aaron Rodgers. 

The Raiders are also expected to explore other veteran quarterback options. According to Schefter, some candidates include Steelers quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, and Vikings free agent Sam Darnold. Las Vegas could also look to draft a new signal-caller, which could be Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Miami’s Cam Ward.

NFL: Tom Didn’t Tamper

Las Vegas was not able to secure Stafford—but minority owner Tom Brady did meet with him in Montana on Wednesday. However, the NFL cleared Brady of wrongdoing.

Multiple outlets reported that the NFL said “there is no issue here” because the Rams had granted Stafford permission to speak with other teams.

There were conflicting reports as to whether Brady and Stafford’s meeting was formal or a chance encounter. Fox Sports NFL insider Jordan Schultz reported Wednesday that the two met at Brady’s home in Montana to discuss joining Las Vegas. However, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported less than an hour later that they had a chance encounter at a ski resort and did not include extensive talks about Stafford joining the Raiders.

The conflicting accounts led to a reported verbal altercation between Schultz and Rapoport at a Starbucks in the JW Marriott Indianapolis lobby, not far from the NFL Scouting Combine. 

INDIANAPOLIS — Top quarterback prospects Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward won’t throw at the NFL Scouting Combine on Saturday, but they did make their case for the individual professional potential as they met with the media Friday morning.

For Sanders, he knows he won’t be able to—and he’s not trying to—escape the spotlight that his father, Deion Sanders, brings. “There’s a lot of exterior things that people don’t like about me,” he said. “I’m realistic about my family and everything that people say it comes with.”

The Titans hold the No. 1 pick, and need a quarterback, but this year’s class of signal-callers isn’t rated as highly as previous ones. Sanders said his draft position won’t matter to him, citing Raiders minority owner Tom Brady (selected with pick No. 199 in the sixth round of the 2000 draft), who he has developed a close relationship with in recent years. 

“He was just telling me knowledge, and I filmed everything,” Sanders said of the time he spent with Brady. “I recorded everything. So, now even, sometimes I go back and just listen to the things that he said.” Las Vegas currently holds the No. 6 pick—and also needs a quarterback.

Similarly, Ward isn’t stressing about his draft position, either. “The only difference between the first-round and a seventh-round pick is the signing bonus,” he said.

Draft Day Decision

Sanders won’t attend the NFL Draft in Green Bay, so that he can spend the evening with loved ones—and save some cash. 

“It makes more sense for us to be at home, be with my family, be with everybody that supported me,” he said. “Cost-wise, it’s not going to make sense to fly everybody there—it’s going to be too much of a hassle.”

Ewers Content With Turning Down NIL

Quinn Ewers skipped his senior year of high school to capitalize on the beginning of the NIL (name, image, and likeness) era in college sports. But after four years in school, with one year of eligibility remaining to keep cashing in, he opted for an uncertain pro journey instead of one more payday.

“It was never a thought for me,” Ewers said when asked about transferring from Texas instead of entering the draft. Texas is moving forward with Arch Manning as its starting quarterback and reports linked Ewers to a potential $6 million NIL offer at another school. His draft stock fell during this past season. If he goes outside of the top 100 picks (roughly the first three rounds), his four-year rookie deal will be less than what he potentially could have made by transferring.

Turning down more guaranteed money is a different approach than Ewers took four years ago, when he decided to leave high school early to go to Ohio State in 2021, which was the year NIL was legalized.

“It was a weird dynamic, for sure,” he said. “The Texas legislature wasn’t going to allow high school football players to be paid, but I had a big opportunity in front of me to go make a good chunk of money. And I went about it like, ‘I don’t know what’s certain in the future, but I know what’s certain right now.’”

A deal between ESPN and Formula One for U.S. media rights may not be dead.

F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali said at the Liberty Media earnings call Thursday that discussions with ESPN are still moving even though the exclusive negotiation period between the two has passed.

“The fact that at the end of the exclusivity period they have not put in place on a formal offer, doesn’t mean that the discussions aren’t going ahead. Actually, it’s the other way around. So there are still a lot of discussions to try to find the best solution,” Domenicali said.

Domenicali’s statement comes just two weeks after Puck News reported ESPN had dropped out of the running for the U.S. media rights of the motorsport league. 

ESPN has held the broadcasting rights to F1 since 2018. In 2022, the two sides agreed to a deal reportedly worth around $75 million to $90 million over three years, which expires at the end of the 2025 season. Domenicali was also complimentary of the relationship of the two sides that started in 2018.

“We need to be thankful for what ESPN is providing to us. We are very happy about the quality of the service. We need to always remember that they were first to believe in our projects,” Domenicali said. 

ESPN declined to respond to a request for comment.

Liberty Media president and CEO Derek Chang added that discussions for a new U.S. media deal are still in the early stages, though he would like to secure an agreement by the middle of this year.

Earlier this month, The Athletic reported Netflix is exploring a bid for the media rights. The streaming giant kick-started the viewership boom for F1 in the U.S. after the launch of the docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive in 2019. Netflix has been more aggressive in acquiring sports rights, airing one-off events like the Mike Tyson–Jake Paul fight and NFL Christmas Day games late last year. 

It also began airing its first live weekly sports product this year with WWE’s Raw.

Revenue Up for Fourth Straight Year

F1 reported $3.65 billion in revenue for 2024, a 14% increase over the previous year. However, fourth-quarter revenue dipped to $1.17 billion from $1.23 billion, which can be attributed to weaker sales for the second year of the Las Vegas Grand Prix compared to its 2023 debut.

The company also reported total race attendance at 6.5 million, up 9% from 2023. F1 had a record 24 races last year, two more than the previous year (2023 was originally scheduled to have 23 races, but the Italian Grand Prix was canceled due to flooding). There are 24 races scheduled for 2025.