Latest news with #Winston
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
New York Giants' Jameis Winston hilariously compares Jaxson Dart to Taysom Hill
This version of the New York Giants is unlike the ones that we've seen over the past decade or so. This is a diverse group of talents and personalities that are ushering in a much-needed breath of fresh air. Perhaps the most colorful character of the bunch so far has been the veteran quarterback Jameis Winston. Entering his 11th season in the NFL, Winston, a former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall NFL draft selection, has a huge catalog of experience to draw on from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. Winston is the perfect blend of experience and attitude for rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart to be fostered under, and he knows what to do and what not to do as a professional football player. Winston has essentially seen it all since coming into the NFL with Tampa Bay in 2015. He's been a franchise quarterback, a backup, and a reclamation project at different points in his career. "It's fun learning a new offense because it keeps you in the curious mode," he told reporters on Sunday. "You're asking consistent questions, you're asking, 'Hey, what does this look like?' You're asking for clips like, 'How does this look vs. this coverage?' I love that, and it just brings out the little kid in me again. "Sometimes when you get continuity, you're always thinking about the next step and you don't get to focus on just the basics, especially when you're installing. Now, as (Mike) Kafka is installing, I get to learn the basics, and as camp prolongs, I will continue to learn, 'Okay, now this is why we're making this transition. This is why we're adding this look, route to specific concepts.'" With the Giants, Winston is here for depth and is under no illusions about his status and his role. He is behind Russell Wilson on the depth chart and next to Dart, for the moment, but he knows what the future holds. He's been here before. When Winston was with the New Orleans Saints, he would drive the team the length of the field only to be replaced in the red zone by the versatile tight ned/quarterback/fullback Taysom Hill. These days, Winston is being asked to step aside for Dart, not for Dart to run, but in general. It happened to close out practice on Sunday. "Man, you know I'm used to it. If you remember in New Orleans, Taysom Hill -- I used to drive the team all the way the field and then Taysom Hill used to come in and run quarterback power and score a touchdown, so I was like, 'Hey, Jaxson is Tayson Hill,'" Winston said. "Tayson's from Idaho but Jaxson's from Utah. I was like, 'It's that Utah connection.' Every time I have a good drive, they're going to take me out and put a kid from Utah in to come score a touchdown. No, but he needs those reps. He needs those red zone reps. I've been in the red zone a lot and that was a good drive. I knew I was going to end up in the end zone, so it allowed me to visualize myself being in the end zone again." The Giants knew what they were doing by bringing in Winston. He is a positive influence in the quarterback room, the locker room, the huddle, and the sidelines. His demeanor and experience are taking the pressure off both Wilson and Dart while giving the Giants another option under center if needed.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
New York Giants' Jameis Winston named a trade candidate
New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen was given a mandate by management this offseason to solve the quarterback dilemma. The Giants have been one of the NFL's weakest offensive teams the past two seasons, mainly due to poor play under center. Schoen got to work quickly and decided to throw a lot of resources Gone are the likes of Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, and Tim Boyle, replaced by veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston and rookie Jaxson Dart. The moves have been well-received thus far, leading to the question: Did Schoen do too much? Wilson is the starter and Dart the future. Where does that leave Winston? In a recent piece for Pro Football Focus, Bradley Locker identified Winston as a possible trade candidate. After spending the start of his NFL career as the Buccaneers' primary signal-caller, Winston is deep into his second act as a journeyman backup. That road may include another stop soon. While with the Browns in 2024, Winston tallied a 69.5 PFF passing grade with 11 big-time throws and 18 turnover-worthy plays. The 31-year-old displayed that he's still capable of slinging the ball at a high level in spurts, producing 82.0-plus PFF passing grades against the Steelers and Bengals last year. The Giants are likely to start either Russell Wilson or first-round pick Jaxson Dart, leaving Winston as the team's presumptive QB3. New York could keep the former first overall pick in that role, but Winston figures to be most teams' top trade target when a quarterback injury inevitably happens. The reason Schoen went full overkill on the quarterback situation is that the Giants have had an unusually high number of injuries at the position over the past two seasons. He wants to make sure he never runs into that issue again. The Giants still have Tommy DeVito under contract and are surely not going to carry four quarterbacks. Winston is signed for two seasons at $4 million per. As stated, he would be an attractive option for a team looking for an experienced starter due to a sudden injury, but probably not someone the Giants will move.
USA Today
5 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Vet sees positive vibes at Saints training camp that the team has been missing
'There's a certain rhythm about this team right now that really wants to go out there and play' It's no secret that the New Orleans Saints' team culture hasn't been what it once was. We didn't see many of the celebratory locker rooms and sideline exuberance over the last few years that the team was known for in the later days of Sean Payton and Drew Brees. Dennis Allen and Derek Carr were poor substitutes. And some players are taking notice. It's a brand new day for New Orleans with Kellen Moore at head coach and a couple of hungry young guys competing at quarterback. Guys are excited to go to work in the morning and endure the Louisiana heat at training camp. Veteran tight end Juwan Johnson says it's a positive vibe he hasn't felt in a long time. But how long has it been missing? "Maybe when we were 5-2 going into, honestly right before Jameis (Winston) got hurt, honestly. That's when the vibes were really high. The vibes were really high man. We felt good about the season and obviously we know how that season turned out," Johnson reflected after Friday's practice session, referring to the 2021 season. The Saints started that year, having been displaced by Hurricane Ida, with a stunning 38-3 rout of Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Winston suffered a season-ending injury on a dirty hit against his old Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, and the Saints fell into a five-week losing streak. They rallied late by winning four of their last five, but it was too little, too late. Still, Johnson wants to emphasize the positives, not dwell on the negatives. He sees some of the same positive energy now that he experienced back in 2021: "We're not going to bring up skeletons, alright? The vibe, you know, it was everybody in the locker room was vibing and everybody felt good. That's kind of like a vibe by feel, just in terms of the excitement people have going onto a field knowing that they just want to go and compete. You know, it's worse when you go out there and it's just like, 'Man, my body, it's sore. It's hurting.' But there's a certain rhythm about this team right now that really wants to go out there and play." Johnson has seen it all through six years with the Saints. He's caught passes from Brees, Carr, Winston, Andy Dalton, Taysom Hill, Trevor Siemian, Spencer Rattler, and Jake Haener, while hearing plays called in from Payton, Pete Carmichael, and Klint Kubiak. He's seen plays work. He's seen what happens when plays don't work. He's seen practices that lack energy and disconnects between teammates and coaches and players. And he doesn't see those things with this team. It's really encouraging to hear. It's early. No games have been won or lost. But if Johnson's words are anything to go by, Moore and his crew are setting the right tone and developing the right practice habits. Hopefully this hard work in the summer leads to success in the fall.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Robert Winston: ‘Striking doctors have lost the plot and the trust of the nation'
Robert Winston's impeccable bedside manner does not lend itself to expressions of anger, but there is no mistaking his disgust as he decries the 'highly immoral' doctors' strike beginning on Friday. After six decades in medicine, Prof Lord Winston is better qualified than almost anyone in the country to assess the current state of the NHS and the impact the strike will have on it and its patients. There is no doubt in his mind that people will die as a result of the five-day walkout – for which he cannot forgive his colleagues – but he foresees a much longer-term malaise taking root in the NHS because of the industrial action. 'I think it's very, very obvious that my colleagues, the resident doctors, have lost the plot, and more importantly probably lost the trust of the nation,' he says, 'and I think it's going to be very difficult to get that back.' A professor of science and society at Imperial College London, Lord Winston is a fertility expert who pioneered key advancements in IVF treatment. However, it was the groundbreaking BBC documentary series he presented – including Your Life in Their Hands, The Human Body and Child of Our Time – that made him a household name. He is also a Labour peer. Celebrated for his calm, authoritative persona, which remains steady even during a clinical dissection of his younger colleagues' behaviour, his message becomes all the more powerful. Earlier this month, he resigned his membership of the British Medical Association (BMA) after 61 years, mainly due to his disgust at the proposed strikes, but also because of its failure to tackle rising anti-Semitism among NHS doctors, of which more follows. The strike is an attempt by the BMA to force the Government into giving residents (previously known as junior doctors) a pay rise of 29 per cent, on top of increases of 22 per cent and 5.4 per cent over the past three years. Lord Winston does not mince his words when I ask him how much danger patients will be in because of the strike. 'It's very likely if this lasts at all long, somebody will die,' he says. 'Inevitably they will. You can't avoid it. 'Several people clearly are going to have much worse chances of getting their cancers treated, and some people will be less well or in pain. You can't simply allow disruption of services on this scale, and not accept the fact that more accidents will happen.' Trust in the NHS will be eroded, and Lord Winston believes that trust is not only important in determining the level of public support for the strikes but also has a direct effect on patients' health. 'That is an important part of treatment because if people trust you and they feel they're getting good medicine, they tend to get better because of what we call a placebo effect, which actually is not insignificant,' he says. 'It's been shown again and again that that attitude to your medicine plays a major role in how you heal. If you're reasonably happy and reasonably sure of your treatment, what studies have shown is that your symptoms get less and your treatment tends to be quicker.' The doctors' union, Lord Winston says, 'does not represent a very large proportion of the medical profession' anymore, and is 'acting highly politically' under the chairmanship of Dr Thomas Dolphin, a militant Corbynista who tried, and failed, to be selected as a Labour Party candidate at the last election. Lord Winston is not convinced that the strikes have as much support among resident doctors as it might seem; he believes many have been 'pressurised' into backing strike action by a union attempting to 'blackmail' the Government. 'At this time when people are struggling in all walks of life, in all professions, particularly with the difficult financial situations we have, I think that's pretty dishonourable. But more importantly, I don't think doctors should strike.' Lord Winston is now 85 but still has a full head of dark hair and a jet-black moustache, and retains all the sharpness and vigour of a man half his age. 'It's probably all genes,' he chuckles when I ask how he stays looking so young. 'I don't live particularly well. I drink too much alcohol.' He is speaking from the kitchen of his home in north-west London, where he lives alone following the sudden death of his wife Lira four years ago, after 48 years of marriage. Lord Winston obtained his medical degree in 1964 and made a career as an expert in fertility. As professor of fertility studies at Hammersmith, he led the IVF team that pioneered pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to identify defects in human embryos. He remains professor of science and society at Imperial College London and its emeritus professor of fertility studies, and is a founding member of the UK-Israel Science Council. He is old enough to remember the formation of the NHS, has worked within it for most of its history, and is not afraid to say that it needs to change to survive. He points out that when the NHS was founded in 1948, the per-patient cost each year was around 10s 6d, which translates to about £100 in 2025, adjusted for inflation. Today's per-patient cost is around £3,000, meaning it is time to discuss a new way of funding the NHS, Lord Winston says. He does not offer a ready-made alternative funding model, but says that if the NHS were a factory producing goods, the manager would know the cost price of everything it did, whereas 'we don't know any of that in the NHS'. The biggest cost within the NHS, of course, is wages, and student doctors entering the profession today need to be realistic about what to expect, both in terms of pay and conditions when they first begin working, he suggests. 'When I talk to medical students, which I do very frequently, I make it very clear that the NHS is not an easy place to work in,' he says. 'When I first got on the wards, I made a terrible mistake on the first day – almost killed a patient by injecting something. 'I say, look, this is difficult, but in the long term it's still worth doing.' Successive governments are partly to blame for the current dissatisfaction among some NHS staff, he says, but from a financial point of view, medicine remains a lucrative profession for doctors who rise through the ranks. 'I didn't get my first house until 10 years after I qualified. It is a problem, but in the long term it's a pretty secure job and you can do a lot of things with it. And you can earn in all sorts of ways if you want to.' Despite being a Labour peer with expertise in health, he says he has never met Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, but believes 'he is absolutely right to be looking at all sorts of options' to end the doctors' dispute. Streeting thinks there is a deal to be done on the cost of exams, equipment and training. Lord Winston says he does not understand why the doctors refuse to consider the offers being made, unless the BMA is purely motivated by a desire to challenge the Government – 'and I think that's a dangerous thing to do.' Another way in which the BMA appears to have become politicised, he says, is over the issue of anti-Semitism in the workplace. Lord Winston, who was brought up as an Orthodox Jew, says this was part of the reason he quit the BMA. Some Jewish doctors have reported feeling 'intimidated and unsafe' at the BMA's annual conference because one in 10 motions relate to Israel, Palestine or Zionism. The union has also been accused of allowing members to cross the line from expressing political opinions into singling out Jewish colleagues. Is that fair criticism? 'I've had a number of letters from colleagues who have raised that issue with me,' he says. 'There are lots of areas where the BMA is failing. Anti-Semitism certainly is something that I know a lot of Jews have been worried about, and sometimes I've seen pretty horrific things that are still going on and not properly dealt with.' He says one of the problems he keeps hearing complaints about is NHS workers conflating being Jewish with being Israeli, meaning 'you're responsible for the Israeli government and the appalling things which are happening in the Middle East'. 'I've seen many people who've been very unpleasantly criticised for something which is no fault of theirs simply because they're Jewish.' He has come to the conclusion that the BMA, which has not even bothered responding to his attempts to engage with it, is 'not fit for purpose'. Last year, Dr Dolphin put forward a motion, passed without debate, to reject the independent Cass review into children's transgender services, which called on the NHS to stop prescribing puberty blockers to minors. Lord Winston, who believes people cannot change their biological sex through surgery or any other means, was an outspoken supporter of the gender-critical academic Kathleen Stock, who was sacked by the University of Sussex in 2021. 'The BMA haven't done very well on that either,' Lord Winston says. 'They've ended up with a very muddled appraisal of transgender, which doesn't make any kind of scientific sense. And of course, transgender is a massive problem because people who are transgender are now really quite at risk. 'How we deal with this, of course, has to be a scientific solution to some extent until we understand why people want to be transgender or end up being transgender […] I know from my own clinic I saw quite a few patients who had changed their sex, or had transgender procedures, who then regretted what had happened later on. 'One of the things we do need to have is real sensitivity towards people who are in this situation, and towards the families too, who often have difficult relationships with their own children as a consequence. That needs to be dealt with. I don't think the BMA has made a great attempt at doing that. 'It would be very helpful if we had a proper discussion which is based more on the science and the medicine than the attitudes.' Another emotive subject facing politicians at the moment is assisted dying. Kim Leadbeater MP's bill to legalise it is currently on its way through the House of Lords, and Lord Winston will be speaking when it is debated later this year. He says that, having initially been against the bill, he is now leaning towards supporting it. 'I'm massively coming around to the fact that we're behind the curve in this country because […] there are many, many countries now that have some form of legislation. 'And it seems to me that there are certain situations where people really have a right to take some kind of elixir that, in fact, allows them to be finally free of pain. 'Of course, I want to see more palliative care, but one of the problems is that many of those most opposed have strong religious views. That's a dangerous position to take if you're a parliamentarian, because you're legislating for the whole community, not just people of your own faith.' For that reason, he abstained from the last vote on the bill in the Lords, but says he has tried to imagine what he would want if he were in the position of terminally ill patients seeking control over their own death. He draws on personal experience, recalling his time working for a GP to earn extra money during holidays from his hospital residency. The GP told him that a terminally ill lung cancer patient must not be admitted to hospital under any circumstances 'because he wants to stay in his own surroundings'. Lord Winston was told to visit the man every day, and in the end 'he died very peacefully' in his own home. He also brings up the case of Herbie Mowes, the German antiques dealer who made history by allowing the BBC to film his death from cancer for Lord Winston's documentary series The Human Body in 1998. The BBC, he recalls, 'wanted to abandon the programme' after the press derided it as a 'snuff video,' but after it was broadcast, it helped to change attitudes towards death, he says. Herbie 'was content with his garden, his little house, and his friends,' and his GP visited twice a week to adjust his medication. A large crew worked on the documentary, he says, and 'I think they often changed their view about dying afterwards'. It would be remiss not to ask the country's foremost expert on fertility for his views on the latest developments in IVF and genetics. When I ask him for his views on this month's controversy over 'three-parent babies'– in which the nucleus of a fertilised egg is transferred into a donor egg to avoid a type of genetic disease – he points out that he fought for the procedure to be legalised during a Lords debate a decade ago. He dismisses criticism of the procedure, which has been pioneered by Newcastle University, saying that it is only really the 'battery pack' in human cells that is being altered. But it does raise a much wider question: would it be right for science to eradicate disability altogether if it were possible? 'No,' he says, 'but we couldn't, because when it comes to genetic disease, many genetic diseases occur between generations. 'So we're going to continue to get genetic disease, even with screening, even with the ability to change DNA in embryos.' The future of medicine, he says, 'is not really in our genes, it's in how we improve people's environment'. Better education and higher living standards, he believes, will have a greater impact on world health than the DNA inside embryos. As for his own living standards, he mentions that he could have chosen to settle in America, where he was paid 'a huge salary' with much better funding for his research during a spell there in the early 1980s, but he cannot live without London's art galleries and its classical music and opera scene. His other passion in life, aside from his three grown-up children and eight grandchildren, is his wine collection, which he started building up as an undergraduate, with a particular love of burgundies – 'unpredictable and often unrepeatable,' in his words. 'I recently drank one from 1919,' he says, 'which I bought for a couple of quid a long time ago and which would now be valuable at auction. 'But I'm not interested in trying to sell wine. What I like is to sit around and drink it with friends.' Likewise, Winston's medical career has never been about the money – and he seems to wish that today's resident doctors would adopt the broader view that has guided him throughout his career. He believes that 'doctors have a huge moral obligation'. 'They're sitting in front of somebody they don't know very well,' he says, 'but who is actually opening themselves up in a very private way, in a way they don't really want to. 'They're often in pain. They're often very worried. They often think they have something much worse than they really do. They're about to undergo all sorts of humiliating tests and investigations. They're in hospital, away from their family. They're worried about money, they're worried about their family. 'A doctor has a unique privilege. Nobody else in the world has that privilege. And I want to say that to them because, if you abuse that privilege, you run great risks with the relationship you then have with the patient afterwards.'
Time of India
6 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Fijian village of Nagigi adapts to rising seas and declining fish stocks with community-led solutions
Climate change threatens livelihoods in Nagigi village Live Events Women lead aquaculture and mangrove replanting efforts Community takes collective action for resource management (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Nagigi village, located on Savusavu Bay in Vanua Levu, Fiji's second-largest island, is facing direct impacts from climate change. With a population of 630, Nagigi relies heavily on marine resources for food security and income. Residents have observed significant environmental shifts in recent years, including rising sea levels and fish scarcity.'Tides are pushing inland. Once abundant, fish are now harder to find. Sandy beaches and coconut trees have been washed away,' one villager read: Award-winning reggae artist Fiji, known for Hawaiian and Polynesian hits, dies at 55 In discussions held in 2021 and 2023, villagers reported increased coastal erosion, saline intrusion into plantations, and extreme weather events such as Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016, which destroyed homes and forced some residents to relocate inland.'Sometimes the sea is coming further onto the land, so there's a lot of sea intrusion into the plantations,' one resident explained. While some were able to move to customary mataqali land, others lacked access or preferred to remain near the coast.'Leave us here. I think if I don't smell or hear the ocean for one day I would be devastated,' a villager address declining fish stocks and adapt to climate pressures, the women of the nearby Bia-I-Cake settlement, with a population of 60, have spearheaded community-led initiatives. The Bia-I-Cake Women's Cooperative launched a small-scale aquaculture project, farming tilapia and carp to reduce food insecurity and diversify local by grants from the United Nations Development Programme and Women's Fund Fiji, the cooperative has built fish ponds, reared fish, and sold them through local markets and online platforms. The group also established a greenhouse to cultivate new crops and began mangrove replanting to mitigate coastal erosion.'These efforts show women have the capacity to build a sustainable, secure and thriving community,' one woman initiatives reflect both a response to environmental challenges and an application of traditional stewardship practices tied to the Fijian concept of, a holistic view of the interconnectedness of land, sea, people, and residents have taken additional steps to preserve marine resources. The village has temporarily closed customary fishing areas to allow fish populations to recover and is considering the declaration of a locally-managed marine area, or. These measures respond to climate impacts, overfishing, and reef generations, villagers have practiced resource protection, but these actions are now being formalized in the face of environmental threats. However, adaptation efforts remain uneven. Not all residents can afford relocation or reconstruction, and some lack access to customary read: UN's top court says failing to protect planet from climate change could violate international law The Nagigi case illustrates the significance of local adaptation strategies. The community has demonstrated an ability to assess risks, implement responses, and recover from climate-related damages using available social and ecological assets.'Small communities are not just passive sites of loss. They are collectives of strength, agency and ingenuity,' researchers noted. As climate adaptation efforts expand across the Pacific, support for community-led responses will be essential.
