Monday's NFL: Four-time Pro Bowl guard Iupati retires after 11 seasons
Four-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Mike Iupati says he’s retiring after 11 seasons in the NFL with three NFC West teams.
Iupati told The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington on Monday that his body told him it was time to step away.
Iupati made four straight Pro Bowls from 2012-15, the first three with San Francisco and the final one with Arizona. He was also a first-team All-Pro selection in 2012 with the 49ers.
Iupati spent five seasons in San Francisco after the 49ers selected him in the first round of the 2010 draft out of Idaho. He played for Arizona for four seasons and spent his final two years with the Seattle Seahawks.
Iupati started 139 of 140 regular-season games in his career. But he was limited to just 10 games this past season for Seattle.
The Seahawks tweeted congratulations to Iupati on his decision to retire.
Mahomes becomes father
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his fiancee, Brittany Matthews, are parents to a girl.
Matthews announced the Sunday birth of Sterling Skye Mahomes in a tweet. The birth came two weeks after Mahomes and Kansas City lost 31-9 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl.
Mahomes and Matthews had announced their engagement in September, the Kansas City Star reported. The next month, the couple used their dogs as part of a gender reveal, and Mahomes tweeted that he was going to be a #GirlDad.
“It’s extremely exciting,” Mahomes said last year after announcing Matthews’ pregnancy. “Being able to grow up and have these dreams of having a family and playing in the NFL – for that stuff to start happening and really coming to truth, it’s really cool.”
In celebration of the birth, Union Station in Kansas City was lit up with pink and white lights Sunday night.
Woodley confirms engagement
Shailene Woodley confirmed that she’s engaged to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The actor discussed her relationship with Rodgers on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” saying they got engaged “a while ago.” The 37-year-old Rodgers mentioned his engagement and thanked his fiancée while accepting his third career MVP award on Feb. 6 but didn’t say her name.
“Yes, we are engaged,” Woodley said. “We are engaged. But for us, it’s not new news, you know, so it’s kind of funny. Everybody right now is freaking out over it and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we’ve been engaged for a while.’”
The 29-year-old Woodley said she still hasn’t attended one of Rodgers’ games, noting the attendance restrictions caused by the pandemic this past season. Woodley added that she’d never even seen a football game before meeting Rodgers.
“He’s first off just a wonderful, incredible human being, but I never thought I’d be engaged to somebody who threw balls for a living,” Woodley said. “Like I never thought as a little girl, I was like, ‘Yeah, when I grow up, I’m going to marry someone who throws balls, yeah!’ But he’s really just so good at it.”
Woodley said she realized Rodgers was a football player when they met but didn’t know much about his career. She said friends now try to get her to watch Rodgers’ highlights on YouTube.
Extra points
The Baltimore Ravens promoted Craig Ver Steeg to running backs coach. Ver Steeg, 60, is a 38-year coaching veteran who most recently served as the Ravens’ senior assistant/running backs coach from 2019-20. The opening was created when Matt Weiss left to become the quarterbacks coach at the University of Michigan under coach Jim Harbaugh, brother of Ravens coach John Harbaugh.
... The Carolina Panthers have agreed to one-year contracts with restricted free agent wide receivers Brandon Zylstra and Keith Kirkwood, a person familiar with the situation told AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not yet announced the signings.