• Rosters expanded to 90 for offseason: The NFL has expanded rosters for the offseason and preseason to 90 players. Previously, the limit was 80, but the league’s Management Council voted to increase it Monday. The first cutdown, in late August, will be to 75, with the final cut after the last of four preseason games bringing rosters to 53. Only the 51 highest-paid players count toward the salary cap. The 90 players will include all active, inactive, practice squad, exempt and reserve list players, plus unsigned draft choices and franchise-tagged free agents.
• Arkansas hires interim coach: Eager to move on from the Bobby Petrino scandal, Arkansas announced Monday that popular former assistant John L. Smith will return as head coach of the Razorbacks next season. Smith, who left the Razorbacks after last season to become the head coach at Weber State, will be formally introduced today. The school said Smith signed a 10-month, $850,000 contract and will also be eligible for other incentives. Smith’s return caps a whirlwind three weeks for an Arkansas program reeling in the wake of revelations of an affair by Petrino with a woman, Jessica Dorrell, he later hired to work for the football program.
• Veteran safety Dawkins retires: Brian Dawkins says his head told him to retire, not his neck. The veteran safety called Denver Broncos coach John Fox on Monday morning to tell him that after plenty of prayer and reflection, he’d decided that 16 seasons in the NFL was enough. Then, Dawkins announced his retirement on Twitter, where he quickly began trending as fans worldwide expressed their admiration for the mild-mannered family man who transformed himself into a ferocious football player on Sundays. Well-known by his alter-ego “Wolverine,” and for his passionate, energetic play for 13 years in Philadelphia and three in Denver, Dawkins was considered one of the greatest ever to play his position, and nobody played safety in the NFL longer than he did.
• Troopers suspended over caravan ‘escort’ reports: New Jersey’s attorney general suspended two state troopers without pay Monday, one of them a 25-year veteran, amid reports they served as escorts last month for a group of high-performance luxury cars on a 100-mph trip down the Garden State Parkway, alarming other motorists. An attorney for one of the troopers, meanwhile, called the suspension of his client a public relations move made in the heat of a media spotlight that had intensified by Monday afternoon. The alleged incident occurred March 30. Citing unnamed sources, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported that former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs was among those driving the sports cars. Jacobs’ agent, Justin Schulman, confirmed Monday that Jacobs drove to Atlantic City that day, but he wouldn’t say whether he was part of the caravan.
