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Everson Griffen ordered by Vikings to get mental health evaluation
The Minnesota Vikings informed Everson Griffen and his agent last week that the star defensive end would not be allowed back to the team until he underwent a mental health evaluation, according to a police incident report obtained by ESPN's Courtney Cronin.
Leslie Pico, the Vikings' executive director of player development, told police in Minnetrista, Minnesota, that team management sent Griffen and his agent the letter on Thursday, two days before an alleged incident involving Griffen at a Minneapolis hotel.
According to the incident report, Pico told police that Griffen had been "explosive, screaming and yelling" at the team facility and that he had been struggling in recent weeks.
Even though the Vikings want Griffen to undergo the mental health evaluation, Pico told police that Griffen has not done or said anything that led the team to believe that he is a danger to himself or others.
Griffen is being evaluated at a Minneapolis-area hospital, a league source told ESPN's Josina Anderson earlier Tuesday. The source said Griffen is "getting assistance on personal matters" and that the league is "comfortable he has a good support system around him."
Pico also told police that he intended to meet with Griffen on Saturday at Hotel Ivy, where Griffen had been staying. According to a separate incident report obtained earlier Tuesday by ESPN, authorities from the Minneapolis Police Department were called Saturday to Hotel Ivy because an individual was threatening to shoot someone if he wasn't allowed in his room.
Though his name was redacted from the incident report, sources told Cronin that the individual in question at the hotel is Griffen.
Pico told police that upon meeting Griffen at the hotel that the defensive forgot why he wanted to speak to him and did not want to talk to him anymore.
Griffen did not practice last week and was listed as having a knee injury. The Vikings ruled him out of Sunday's game against the Bills because of the injury, and coach Mike Zimmer said after the game that Griffen was not in attendance because he was dealing with a personal matter.
Sources told Anderson that a number of Vikings players and coaches were not aware of Saturday's incident, even at game time on Sunday.
Vikings general manager Rick Spielman said Monday night in a statement that the team was "currently focused on Everson's well-being and providing the appropriate support for him and his family."
Competition committee to look at roughing the passer penalties
The NFL's competition committee is scheduled to speak on a conference call next week about the proliferation of roughing the passer penalties, two sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
The sources said the committee is concerned about the frequency of these penalties and has voiced those concerns to the league office.
"There's some concern that the officials are going a little bit too far with some of these calls," one of the sources said.
Through three weeks, there have been 34 roughing the passer calls. Through three games last year, there had been 16, and through three games in 2016, there were 20.
Part of the issue is that the league this year made a "point of emphasis" of a 23-year-old rule that prohibits defenders from landing on the quarterback with their full body weight or driving him into the ground with excessive force. The NFL says that rule has been on the books since 1995 (Rule 12 , Section 2, Article 9) and that it made it a point of emphasis this season after hearing complaints from coaching staffs that it wasn't being enforced. The competition committee issued the following recommendation this offseason:
"The Committee recommends that the Officiating department emphasize that the defender is responsible to avoid landing on the quarterback when taking him to the ground. The Committee also recommended that video be shown to players, coaches, and officials during the offseason demonstrating legal and illegal plays. Examples of rushing defenders getting their bodies to the side during the contact and avoiding putting their body weight on the quarterback must be included so that coaches can teach proper technique."
NFL officials visited all 32 training camps, as they do every year, to explain rule changes and points of emphasis. Video examples were shown of what the league describes as proper and improper technique.
That specific call has been a big part of the early-season controversy, though part of the issue the competition committee has is with hits that don't fit into that category -- for example, the controversial Clay Matthews hit on Kirk Cousins in Week 2 that led to the Vikings' game-tying touchdown. That play was put on the league's weekly teaching tape as an example of how not to sack the quarterback, but one of the sources said the competition committee was confused about whether that penalty should have been called.
"I don't recall ever hearing the terms 'scoop and lift' before," the source said.
The sources both said they don't expect any major changes this season, though discussions are ongoing and could eventually include officials.