Sports

Cornerback Shaquill Griffin is in position to make his first appearance for the Seahawks since the 2020 season.

The team announced that Griffin and defensive tackle Quinton Bohanna have been elevated from the practice squad for Sunday's game against the 49ers.

The Seahawks drafted Griffin in the third round in 2017 and he played four seasons with the team before moving on to Jacksonville, Houston, Carolina, and Minnesota. He returned to the Seahawks this offseason and signed with the practice squad after being cut late last month.

Griffin had 249 tackles, six interceptions, and a sack in his first tour of duty with Seattle.

Bohanna appeared in one game for the Seahawks last season.

While researching on Friday the past punishments for NFL players who decided to spit on opponents, we tripped over something that's too good to not share.

After Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski spat in the face of 49ers receiver J.J. Stokes, former NFL defensive end Sean Jones shared a story about being on the wrong end of a salivary-gland assault.

“I had a guy spit in my face once,” Jones said at the time, via the Los Angeles Times. “Denver tight end Clarence Kay spit in my face and I went to the sideline straight to the trainer’s medical kit, took out a scalpel and was making my way back onto the field when Howie Long stopped me."

Setting aside the question of why a trainer would have a scalpel, it must have been some sort of sharp object. And Jones apparently was intent on using it, until his teammate intervened.

Every NFL season ends with 16 division rivalries. This season opens with a bunch of them.

Eight of the 16 games to be played in Week 1 feature teams that reside in the same division.

In addition to Cowboys-Eagles on Thursday night and Friday's Chiefs-Chargers game from Brazil, the Bengals visit the Browns, the Commanders host the Giants, the Lions go to Green Bay, the Falcons host the Bucs, and the 49ers face the Seahawks in Seattle. The slate ends with Vikings-Bears from Soldier Field on Monday night.

With the NFL rejecting Detroit's league-instigated proposal for playoff reseeding, division titles remain very important. The champion hosts a playoff game — and is guaranteed one of the top four of seven seeds in the conference.

Although reseeding of some sort feels inevitable based on things we've heard from folks in the know, there's an argument to be made that, in a long season with limited preparation time, games with higher stakes than usual should be delayed until teams get their sea legs.

By January, most if not all teams will be very different than they were in Week 1. To have the outcome of a game from four months earlier provide the difference when it comes to the all-important division title, what's the harm in nudging division contests a little deeper into the calendar?

The league should want games with extra importance to the final division standings to be played when the teams are closer to what they're ultimately going to be. As it stands, one or more of the eight games played this weekend could have major significance when the calendar flips to 2026 — and when the dust prepares to settle on the final standings.

The fact that the NFL always ends the season with division rivalries essentially acknowledges that point. So why not defer the division games until Week 4 or 5?