NCAA to make football safer — together.Dr. Allen Sills and Jeff Miller Justin Layne Jersey , the NFL’s executive vice president for health and safety initiatives, spent Monday and Tuesday in Indianapolis sharing data about their findings on the prevention and treatment of injuries. It’s the most formal presentation league executives have had with college officials, and Sills and Miller hope this presentation leads to a broader conversation that includes discussions about lower-body injuries.“We’re able to show them what we’re working on and what we’re finding and how we’re applying that knowledge into the day-to-day care of professional athletes,” Sills told The Associated Press during a break. “I think we hope this is the start of even more regular interaction between the two organizations because we share the exact same goals, which is improving the health and safety of players.”The two-day meeting included participants from the NFL’s health and safety team, the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute and medical staffs from schools in each of the power five conferences. It comes amid a rapidly evolving landscape of injuries in football. Sills is the league’s chief medical officer.Over the past decade, Miller estimates the NFL made between 50 and 60 rules changes to enhance player safety. Members of the league’s competition committee now routinely contact the medical team before considering making additional changes.Plus, as Sills and Miller have collected more data they found NFL coaches and players increasingly receptive to their recommendations and conclusions.Players, they say, are asking more questions about equipment, such as helmets. Coaches and assistant coaches, they add, have shown greater interest in how they can reduce the number of injuries at practices.“They (coaches) care about these people,” Miller said. “They care about the performance of them and they care about their long-term viability in the league, and those are all real good reasons to be open minded about how we practice, train and treat athletes as they go through an NFL training season or regular season.”The NCAA also has put a premium on player safety.It has introduced rules such as “targeting” in football, established a formal concussion protocol that includes guidelines for players returning to action after suffering a head injury and adding a section on the well-being of athletes to the governing body’s web site.But the key to success may be developing how to get the message out about additional safety measures.Until now, much of the focus publicly was on concussions: Last year’s statistics showed a 24 % decrease in the number of concussions, dropping from 281 in 2017 to 214.While Sills and Miller agree such work must continue, they also believe it’s time to specifically tackle another key issue: lower-body injuries such as sprained ankles, strained hamstrings and knee injuries, which wind up costing athletes more playing time than concussions.“We’re taking a very, I think, comprehensive approach to understanding foot, ankle or knee injuries and the contributing aspects of that http://www.steelersauthorizedshops.com/ … jr.-jersey ,” Miller said. “I think, we are looking at the performance of certain cleats; their traction; how easily they release from different turf surfaces; how much different turf surfaces contribute to potential injuries; how we train our athletes, the load they go through on a daily basis or through a training camp and whether that correlates with particular sprains or strains.”The league has invested more than $60 million over the past 3½ years to get those answers, which they want others to use.It’s not just injuries, either.Sills and Miller spoke Tuesday about handling emergency situations when players suffer cardiac arrests or heat illnesses, in addition to brain and spine injuries, and they back the NFL’s new mental health initiative that was announced last month.What they want most, though, is to share this information with schools that can help the sport remain strong and safe.“We know that our knowledge is expanding rapidly and there are many things we can learn from each other,” said Sills, a neurosurgeon who worked at Vanderbilt before taking the NFL’s post in March 2017. “There’s a lot of potential for collaboration around the research questions we’re both working on. For example, we have a major research effort around playing surfaces and how cleats interact with playing surfaces. We can look at 1,800 athletes in the NFL, but imagine the power of being able to expand those observations to a number of NCAA athletes. That’s going to allow you to reach conclusions a lot quicker and with more power because we’ll have more athletes.” KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was impressive in his return to Arrowhead Stadium, and Chiefs counterpart Patrick Mahomes may have been even better, as the 49ers beat Kansas City 27-17 in their third preseason game Saturday night.Garoppolo was 14 of 20 for 188 yards while playing the entire first half in a much better showing than his preseason debut against Denver last week. Garoppolo led the 49ers deep into Kansas City territory four times, throwing a nice TD pass to Matt Breida and getting two field goals from Robbie Gould.It was an encouraging night for Garoppolo on another front: He was able to put to rest any lingering memories from last season, when he tore up his knee during a Week 3 game in Kansas City.Mahomes finished 8 of 10 for 126 yards, highlighted by a 62-yard catch-and-run to Damien Williams in which the Chiefs’ injury-prone running back raced right by the woebegone linebacker covering him.COWBOYS 34, TEXANS 0ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Deshaun Watson didn’t get the longer preseason look he wanted against the Dallas Cowboys.The Houston Texans couldn’t get their quarterback off the field fast enough, especially after running back Lamar Miller sustained what coach Bill O’Brien called a serious knee injury on the second play.Watson didn’t return for a second series after getting dropped twice in three plays. The first play wasn’t a sack because of defensive holding, the second was and resulted in a fumble, the first of four Houston turnovers in an exhibition loss to the Cowboys.Miller was carted off after defensive tackle Maliek Collins slammed into his left leg at the line of scrimmage in what figures to be Miller’s only carry of the preseason. The eighth-year back didn’t play in the first two exhibitions.Dak Prescott scrambled and threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Michael Gallup while playing the first two series for Dallas. Prescott was 2 of 5 for 22 yards Zach Gentry Jersey , the three incompletions his first of the preseason.Tony Pollard, the starting running back with Ezekiel Elliott holding out, stayed an extra series, when the rookie had a 20-yard run to finish with 26 yards on six carries. Alfred Morris, the primary replacement during Elliott’s six-game suspension two years ago, had a 1-yard TD run.SAINTS 28, JETS 13EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Drew Brees threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Michael Thomas to cap his only drive in his preseason debut, and New Orleans defeated New York.Brees didn’t take a snap in the Saints‘ first two exhibition games, but Sean Payton gave the 40-year-old quarterback a brief regular-season warmup in this one. And, Brees and the starting offense breezed down the field.Alvin Kamara had a 25-yard catch on third down, and a 20-yard grab by Thomas two plays later got the Saints (2-1) down to the 23. On third-and-6, Brees found Thomas in the back-right corner of the end zone with a perfectly placed ball over cornerback Tevaughn Campbell’s head for the touchdown.Brees finished 4 of 6 for 68 yards and was done for the night, along with the rest of the offensive starters, and was replaced by Teddy Bridgewater.Sam Darnold’s night for the Jets (1-2) lasted quite a bit longer as the second-year quarterback played midway into the second quarter, despite three projected starting offensive lineman — center Ryan Kalil and guards Kelechi Osemele and Brian Winters — sitting out.Darnold was 8 of 13 for 97 yards and a touchdown pass.BEARS 27, COLTS 17INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Chuck Pagano, Andrew Luck’s first coach, returned to Lucas Oil Stadium for the first time since his firing shortly after the 2017 season.The new Bears defensive coordinator made a splash.Despite both teams sitting all of their starters including Jacoby Brissett, the Bears used their second defensive touchdown to take the lead for good late in the third quarter.Trailing 10-0 early in the second quarter, safety Deon Bush ripped the ball out of the air from rookie tight end Hale Hentges got up and scored on a 91-yard interception return. After two field goals from Eddy Pineiro made it 17-13, linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe returned a fumble 22 yards to give the Bears a 20-17 lead.Chicago closed out the scoring with a 17-yard TD pass from Tyler Bray to Jesper Horsted.Bray was 11 of 16 with 136 yards and Ryan Nall had two carries for 73 yards.Chad Kelly led the Colts to all three of their scores and was 16 of 21 with 209 yards and one touchdown — all in the first half. Deon Cain caught three passes for 74 yards, including a 46-yard TD catch.After the game, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement.VIKINGS 20, CARDINALS 9MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Dalvin Cook had an 85-yard touchdown run for Minnesota Joey Bosa Jersey , the highlight of an otherwise rough first half by the first-team offense in a preseason win over Arizona.Cook scored early and Mike Boone crossed the goal line late, as the Vikings totaled 190 yards on 29 carries. The ground game was by far the best development of an afternoon when Kirk Cousins went just 3 for 13 for 35 yards while taking two sacks and Kaare Vedvik missed field goals from 43 and 54 yards.Rookie Kyler Murray, the first overall pick in the draft to whom new coach Kliff Kingsbury and the Cardinals have turned to lead the reconstruction project, was relatively sharp while going 14 for 21 for 137 yards over the five possessions against a Vikings defense that was almost at full strength. Three of the drives ended with a successful field goal by Zane Gonzalez, a result that surely made the Vikings envious.Vedvik, who has been given an extended evaluation as both a kicker and a punter, made both of his extra point attempts, at least, while incumbent Dan Bailey took the afternoon off. Matt Wile punted six times for an average of 47.3 yards, leaving no more clarity about the specialists than when the month began.RAMS 10, BRONCOS 6LOS ANGELES (AP) — Brandon Allen passed for 162 yards, and Jalen Greene caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from John Wolford with 12:38 to play in Los Angeles’ preseason victory over Denver.Both coaches sat nearly all of their starters for the final NFL preseason game at the 96-year-old Coliseum, and neither team managed a touchdown before Wolford led a 52-yard drive spanning the final two quarters and capped it with a sharp pass to Greene.Wolford, who went 6 of 12 for 64 yards, is competing for the Rams’ No. 3 quarterback spot with Allen, who had the job last season. Allen went 12 of 19 and mostly looked sharp while Jared Goff and backup Blake Bortles watched from the sideline.Almost every Rams player expected to make a significant contribution this season skipped this game in keeping with coach Sean McVay’s total disinterest in risking his starters’ health for meaningless exhibitions. McVay also followed the strategy last August, and the Rams matched the NFL’s best regular-season record at 13-3 before reaching their first Super Bowl in 17 years.SEAHAWKS 23, CHARGERS 15CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Russell Wilson directed a pair of first-half touchdown drives, going 6 of 9 for 73 yards, and Seattle beat Los Angeles in the preseason matchup.Wilson has directed the Seahawks to a pair of TDs and a field goal in five possessions in two preseason games.Rashaad Penny and C.J. Prosise scored rushing TDs for the Seahawks (2-1).Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen did not suit up for a third straight game, with Chargers coach Anthony Lynn sticking to his pre-training camp plan of resting his veterans. With Melvin Gordon continuing to hold out, the running game struggled as Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson combined for 23 yards on nine carries.Tyrod Taylor was on the run most of the time, finishing 6 of 9 for 61 yards in three possessions. Taylor also was the Chargers’ leading rusher with 34 yards on six carries.Easton Stick led the Chargers (0-3) to a pair of scores in the fourth quarter.