Beverly Hills, Calif. • Kelly Kahl is a brave man. The president of CBS Entertainment showed up at his network’s portion of the Television Critics Association press tour and took a lot of tough questions under the most difficult of circumstances while the chairman of the company, Leslie Moonves, faces allegations of sexual harassment.

As Kahl was doing so, a billboard truck calling for Moonves to be fired was circling the Beverly Hilton.

There were reports that Kahl would skip the session. That CBS could cancel all of its sessions. "Well, we wanted to be here,” Kahl said, adding that “literally thousands of talented producers, writers, actors and crews, not to mention all the people at CBS” have been working hard “for months to launch the fall season … and we think they deserve our best efforts to share all the new shows with all of you.”

Kahl knew it wouldn’t be easy. He did it anyway.

Not surprisingly, he didn’t comment directly on the Moonves situation, except to say that CBS Entertainment is “committed to a collaborative, inclusive, and safe workplace." And he said he’s struggling with the allegations against Moonves, who he called “an excellent boss and a mentor.... At the same time, we must respect the voices that come forward. All allegations need to be and are being taken seriously.”

(Two outside law firms are investigating.)

“It’s a pretty safe bet that not much I can say up here is going to satisfy all of you or answer all of your questions,” Kahl said. Including questions about allegations against the executive producers of “NCIS: New Orleans,” “Madam Secretary,” “Star Trek: Discovery” and “60 Minutes.” And repeated questions about the culture at CBS and the company’s human resources department.

Kahl stuck to his guns. He deflected questions about CBS News and the CBS All Access streaming service, which he does not oversee.

It was a tough session, but Kelly remained calm and professional. The big thing is — he showed up. He didn’t run and hide.

Which brings us to his counterparts at ABC and NBC, neither of whom is scheduled to appear here at the TCA press tour — as has been the tradition for decades. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey got a lot of support from critics when she fired Roseanne Barr, but maybe she’s afraid she’ll be asked why ABC hired Barr in the first place despite her history of racist/offensive tweets.

As for NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt, I honestly have no idea what he might be afraid of. Things are going rather nicely at his network these days.

This is not about the ego of TV critics. It is about our ability to do our jobs. It's about the importance of the people who are responsible for what we see on TV facing the press and, by extension, the public.

Yes, we ask some dumb questions sometimes. But important issues are addressed, from the #MeToo movement to diversity on TV.

A year ago, Kahl was pilloried for CBS' lack of diversity; this year, there’s diverse casting on all of his new fall shows and the network has made strides behind the cameras.

That sort of got lost because of the Moonves situation. But important questions were asked and, to the best of Kahl's ability, answered.

ABC and NBC will not be represented like CBS was, to their detriment.

“I value this event,” Kah said. “I value our relationship and what we do here.”

ABC and NBC demonstrated that they don’t.

Las Vegas • Fifteen states are siding with Nevada as it fights drug companies battling the use of their products in an inmate’s execution.

Republican attorneys general from 15 states filed documents Monday with the Nevada Supreme Court arguing that drug company Alvogen’s claims are a part of a “guerrilla war against the death penalty.”

The attorneys general represent Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt has asked the state’s high court to quickly review the matter so convicted killer Scott Raymond Dozier’s twice-postponed lethal injection can be put back on track for mid-November.

A judge blocked Dozier’s execution hours before it was scheduled in July so she could hear Alvogen’s claims that Nevada improperly obtained its sedative midazolam. A second drugmaker has joined the case.

A team of Navajo high school students from a remote town in southern Utah is building a robot to represent North America in an international robotics competition.

The group from Navajo Mountain High School will travel to Mexico City for the event beginning Aug. 14. The students were invited to compete in the First Global Challenge, which will draw teams from 190 countries to create robots capable of feeding power plants and building environmentally efficient transmission networks.

Teacher Heather Anderson says the teenagers have worked all summer on the project, squeezing meetings between long drives to jobs far from their hometown tucked into redrock and sage country on the Navajo Nation.

First Robotics Regional Director Chelsey Short says the team has been a strong contender for two years in statewide competitions.

A Utah program aimed and helping low-income families buy more produce from local farmers is back.

The Utah Department of Health said Monday that the Double Up Food Bucks is now available at more than 20 farmers markets around the state.

It allows families to double their food-stamp benefits by up to $10 when they buy produce at the markets.

Brian Emerson with the group Utahns Against Hunger says more than 6,000 people used the program last year. He says the majority of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients were children, followed by people with disabilities and seniors.

Department of Health dietitian Jess Church says the program benefits families who report eating more fruits and vegetables and Utah farmers who ring up higher sales and show increased interest in growing produce.

Gallup, N.M. • Federal authorities say an Arizona-based auto dealer who operates in towns near the Navajo Nation falsified consumer information and deceived consumers through advertisements.

The Gallup Independent reports the Federal Trade Commission recently filed a complaint against Tate’s Auto Group after an investigation by the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.

The FTC alleges that Tate’s Auto falsely inflated consumers’ financial information on contracts to make it appear as if consumers had higher monthly incomes than they actually had.

In a statement, Tate’s Auto Group owner and manager Richard Berry strongly denied the allegations and said the company will be vindicated.

Founded in 1977, Tate’s Auto Group is based in Holbrook, Ariz., and has four other locations throughout eastern Arizona and New Mexico.

Utah Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, has his eyes on the top job in the state Senate.

Currently the chamber’s majority whip, Adams formally announced his intention to seek the position of Senate president in a Tuesday letter to his legislative colleagues.

“Our state has a bright future and I believe if we work together, our greatest days are still ahead,” Adams wrote. “Together, we can meet any opportunity or challenge.”

As majority whip, Adams is the third highest-ranked GOP senator in the state. Current Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, announced in March that he would not seek re-election this year, and Sen. Ralph Okerlund, R-Monroe, the Senate majority leader, has been absent from legislative duties this year due to health concerns.

Other senators have been rumored as potential successors to Niederhauser, but Adams is the first to formally announce his candidacy.

Adams, who has served as majority whip for six years, told The Tribune on Tuesday that he has been encouraged to run by colleagues in the Senate. He added that his family, particularly his 15 grandchildren, was a motivating factor in his decision to seek the Senate presidency.

“I think I can make a difference,” he said.

Asked about his policy priorities, Adams said he intends to spend the roughly three months between now and the Senate’s leadership elections meeting with his fellow senators to hear their input on the state’s needs. He said he feels strongly about the legislative process and that good ideas become better through debate and collaboration.

“I’d like to come up with some common-ground goals,” Adam said. “What those are, I don’t know yet.”

Last year, Adams was the Senate sponsor of a controversial bill lowering Utah’s blood alcohol content threshold for driving under the influence from 0.08 to 0.05. The bill, which takes effect in December, will set the strictest DUI standard in the United States.

Adams two years ago sponsored a controversial bill allowing the state to swap transportation funds for Community Impact Board money so the latter could invest $53 million in a deep-water Oakland, Calif., port to export Utah coal. That project has been tied up in court, so the money was never spent.

He also has sponsored legislation dealing with school grading and the creation and expansion of UPSTART, an at-home preschool software that is privately owned but developed through taxpayer funding. And in 2015, he sponsored SB296, the so-called “Utah Compromise” that coupled anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals with rights to religious expression.

Logan • Police say a northern Utah homeowner held a man at gunpoint after an attempted break-in.

Cache County sheriff’s deputies tell the Herald Journal the Wellsville homeowner caught the man trying to get into the house early Thursday morning and held him for at least 10 minutes after his wife called police from the safety of a locked bathroom. Two children were asleep in the house as the scene unfolded.

Cache County Chief Deputy Matt Bilodeau says the suspect was arrested quietly, but after he was booked into jail he caused an electrical short after removing a light-switch cover.

Bilodeau says hospital staffers confirmed the man wasn’t seriously injured, but after his return to jail he tried to sneak out behind a volunteer.

He was secured and is being held on suspicion of burglary, escape and other charges.

Farmington, N.M. • The Navajo Nation is offering $50 for each surrendered horse to encourage the removal of unbranded, free-roaming horses from tribal land.

The Daily Times reports the nation’s Department of Agriculture rolled out a voluntary horse sale and equine reward program last week to mitigate the overpopulation of animals on the range.

The department will issue a promissory note for each horse surrendered at the auction yard in Naschitti. According to the department, payment will be issued within 30 days.

The department funded the program through a $250,000 grant awarded this year by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The Navajo Nation has removed more than 2,000 horses this year by roundup and entrapment.

Mike Haddon, interim Utah Corrections Department director since mid-May, has been appointed as director, Gov. Gary Herbert announced Tuesday.

Haddon has been a deputy director for 11 years, including five years under Rollin Cook, who announced his resignation in April and stepped down May 14. Since then, Haddon has been running the department.

As director, the 49-year-old Haddon oversees about 2,200 employees, 6,500 inmates and 17,500 individuals on probation or parole.

“The Utah Department of Corrections works hard each day to keep the public safe and help offenders successfully reintegrate back into society,” Haddon said in a prepared statement. “Much of this success can be credited to our talented and dedicated staff, and I am honored to serve alongside them.

“Utah has a lot of critically important work ahead related to corrections, and I am confident that, together, we will move the work forward with positive results.”

The biggest challenge on the horizon is the completion of and move to the new prison in Salt Lake City west of the airport. The old prison at Draper will be closed.

The new prison, last projected to cost $692 million amid continually rising estimates (it originally was put at $550 million), will house 3,600 inmates.

Haddon says he has a “hands-on” approach to the move. He has a transition team monitoring and providing input at the construction site and travels there every other week to stay on top of the progress. He says projections look good that the facility will be completed in spring 2021 and the move will occur that fall, he said.

He wouldn’t describe how the move will be accomplished — incrementally or in one big push — citing security concerns.

“We will have a plan and we will make sure the public is safe when we make that move,” he said in an interview with The Tribune.

With the physical shift, Corrections also will change how it oversees and interacts with inmates, adopting what is called direct supervision, where officers are stationed inside inmate housing units instead of in protected control rooms.

“Evidence shows that violence goes down, property damage goes down. There are a lot beneficial impacts when you move to direct supervision just because the officers develop more of a relationship and understanding of what the inmates on their units are experiencing,” Haddon told the newspaper.

He couldn’t answer whether that will change the officer-to-inmate ratios, but said the department likely will bring in consultants before the move to figure out the staffing requirements.

Like virtually every law-enforcement agency in the country, Utah Corrections has a problem recruiting and retaining officers.

The Legislature has acted to increase salaries recently, putting in place a pay plan that guarantees annual increases for officers. State corrections officers start at more than $19 per hour, Haddon said. “But with the economy as strong as it is, we still have a lot of vacancies. And I know local law enforcement is struggling with that, too.”

Before his appointment as Corrections deputy director in 2007, Haddon worked as research director for the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. He had been with CCJJ ever since interning there out of college.

The governor, in announcing the appointment, pointed to Haddon’s experience in criminal justice.

“He understands that we cannot simply warehouse inmates. Instead, we need to focus on rehabilitating people and helping them lead better lives and prepare to be productive citizens,” Herbert said in a statement.

Sharrieff Shah and a couple of his cornerbacks were the last players on the practice field after a recent session of Utah's preseason football camp, working on coverage techniques.

Stopping to talk afterward, Shah smiled. “I'm super upset 98 percent of the time,” he said, “but I love 'em.”

Same story with defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley, who coaches the safeties. Asked this week about the secondary, Scalley said, “I feel good. You never feel great.”

The standards are high for this group, evoking comparisons to the 2008 secondary that sent Brice McCain, Sean Smith, Robert Johnson and R.J. Stanford on to NFL careers. Current cornerbacks Julian Blackmon and Jaylon Johnson, nickel back Javelin Guidry and safeties Marquise Blair and Corrion Ballard compose a secondary that Athlon Sports ranked No. 2 in the Pac-12 — behind Washington’s, judged the best in the country.

If Utah's receivers are motivated by doubts about them, the defensive backs want to live up to the praise.

“We hear it all the time, that we have the talent to be the best secondary that this school's ever seen,” Blackmon said. “That just makes our competition level rise. I'm going to make sure my guys know I'm going to bring it every day, so they better bring it. … I just love the pure talent that we have at every position in the secondary.”

In his first year as a full-time coach in ’08, when the Utes went unbeaten and won the Sugar Bowl, Scalley inherited safeties Johnson and Joe Dale. In ’04, Scalley played alongside NFL star Eric Weddle as safeties for the Utah team that went 12-0 with a Fiesta Bowl victory. So he knows what a top-tier secondary is supposed to look like.

So does Shah, who was the sideline reporter for Ute radio broadcasts in '08, while practicing law. “That's our standard, absolutely,” he said.

The ’08 Utes intercepted 19 passes, with Smith accounting for five and Johnson adding four, including two vs. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The Utes ranked No. 20 in the country in pass-efficiency defense (108.54 rating), allowing 190 yards a game and a 55-percent completion rate.

Last year's defense was 16th in pass-efficiency defense (113.4), but benefited from not facing quarterbacks Josh Rosen of UCLA and Will Grier of West Viginia, due to injury. This season, the Utes are scheduled to meet Washington's Jake Browning, Arizona's Khalil Tate and USC's JT Daniels in September and October.

The Utes played respectably in 2017 against quarterbacks Sam Darnold of USC, Luke Falk of Washington State and Browning, although they allowed Browning to lead drives that produced 10 points in the last 58 seconds of the Huskies' 33-30 win.

So there’re more for Utah’s secondary to prove in 2018. Scalley resists any comparisons to ’08, saying it “may be too early to tell” about the potential of the 2018 secondary, with Johnson and Guidry as sophomores and Blackmon as a junior. Yet because the Ute teams of the previous decade were playing in the Mountain West, the current players arrived on campus with stronger credentials in the school’s Pac-12 era.

Smith, a converted receiver, and Johnson, a junior college transfer, were examples of players who developed in Utah's program on their way to the NFL. “Most of the guys we get now are the elite of the elite, coming out of high school,” said Ute graduate assistant Brandon Burton, a backup corner in '08 as a redshirt freshman.

Burton, who spent four years in the NFL marvels about what his teammates became. “You look back at it, and you're like, 'Wow, you were part of a very good corps, probably one of the best in the country,' ” he said.

The coaching staff's challenge now is to take even more talent and maximize it. Scalley wants the defensive backs to become better tacklers, running to the ball and preventing long runs and receptions.

Without divulging the numbers, Shah said the coaches have set statistical goals that will determine if this secondary becomes Utah's best ever. That could happen, Shah said, “if we do what they think we can.”

“Intellectual virtue is truth. You have to accept the truth.”

The man who uttered those words, back when Urban Meyer was the football coach at Utah, was the single greatest force in Meyer’s life. They came from his father, Bud, who did more to shape the philosophies, the mindset, the attitudes, the drive, the success of the coach than anyone else.

Bud did not say, “Intellectual virtue is truth. You have to accept the truth … unless you have your job and $40 million hanging in the balance.”

Determining where that truth is in the case of Meyer and his former assistant at Ohio State, Zach Smith, who was recently fired, accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife Courtney, has not yet been completely determined. First, Meyer said he knew nothing of the abuse, then, after being suspended, he pivoted, saying, yes, he did know about it all the way back in 2015. And, he has now said, he properly passed the information along to his superiors at the school, conveniently passing the buck, as well. A so-called investigation is ongoing, to eventually be tidily wrapped up within the next couple of weeks, before the Buckeyes’ season starts.

We’ll have to wait on the results of that.

What we don’t have to wait on is the condemnation of knowing something awful took place — have you seen the photos of a battered Courtney Smith? — and not taking strong action on it.

Loyalty to an assistant coach is one thing, ignoring or minimizing the kind of evidence available to Meyer years ago, and sitting on it, waiting this long to see Smith fired, then lying about what you knew, and finally making claims about reporting the incident to higher-ups, once it’s proved that you did know, is quite another.

A man with the kind of power Meyer wielded — I dunno, should we use the past tense? — at Ohio State, a coach that studies and controls every single detail the way he has at every single turn, should in no way be passive on such an important matter. Unless, of course, in the blind eyes of the coach king, winning and loyalty is deemed more important.

It isn’t. It never should have been.

Shame on Urban Meyer, then, for his negligence in this regard.

In review, it’s worthwhile to study — but not excuse — Meyer’s influences and his relationship to the truth from his past, a relationship that, at least when it suited him and his own best interests, has been fast and loose.

Ask the big-money boosters at and around the University of Utah, who were told by Meyer that he had every intention of staying at the school — if they would gift their hundred thousand here, their hundred thousand there, even as he made plans to jump to bigger programs with bigger donors resulting in a bigger paycheck for him.

He didn’t have to lie. He likely could have reaped his success and satisfied his ambition without it, but he went ahead and lied, anyway.

Why? Because he had to ensure that success.

He had to win. Not just win, he had to conquer. Failure for Meyer has never been an option. He once told me during an extended interview that after a defeat, he could barely tolerate being alive: “I can’t function as a human being after a loss. I can’t eat. I can’t shave. I can’t hug my kids.”

That stance on coaching, on winning, on living, stemmed from Bud’s influence, Bud’s demands. In the elder Meyer’s household, adherence to strict rules and the garnering of profound achievement wasn’t just hoped for, it was expected.

As Bud put it, some 15 years ago: “It just takes a little more effort to do things right. Urban had the disposition to accept direction. He adapted himself to the conditions that prevailed.”

When Meyer was a kid, he feared his dad, who fined him 25 cents when he struck out in a junior baseball game and who paid out a dollar when his son hit a home run. Sometimes, for major goof-ups, Meyer had to run 50 laps around the family’s house in Ashtabula, Ohio.

When Meyer was just 4-years-old, he was running away from his father’s justice on account of some unacceptable error he had made, and, as Meyer said it, “was about to get a whupping.” What he got instead was a near-death experience and a trip to the hospital, after stepping in front of an oncoming car on the road in front of his family’s house. That collision resulted in the young Meyer being bound in a body cast for five months.

Bud’s “conditions” included excellence in the classroom, where Meyer felt pressure from his two sisters, who were dedicated students: “They always got straight A’s. It became a competition between us. It was expected. You didn’t want to be the only dope sitting there with a bad grade. Even in college, whenever I got an A, or later, when I did something well in my career, Dad was the first one I called. I never wanted to disappoint him. I couldn’t have looked him in the eye. In that way, the old man, he was always there, always with me.”

If Meyer got hurt playing sports — football and baseball — Bud expected him to play on: “Dad said, ‘Suck it up.’ There was no such thing as getting hurt. He was a hard, hard guy.”

Meyer eventually earned All-State recognition as a prep player in his two sports. When Bud was asked about those achievements, he said: “Well, he was ordinary.”

After Meyer was drafted by the Atlanta Braves and sent to rookie league ball, where he struggled as a 17-year-old prospect, he got frustrated and missed football. He called his father to tell him he was going to quit and come home.

“He told me, ‘OK, but don’t plan on setting foot in this house again. There never will be a quitter in this family.’”

The biggest influence in Meyer’s coaching life, other than his father, was former Buckeyes and Colorado State coach Earl Bruce. “The two of them were exactly alike,” he said. “There was no gray area.”

He added: “Other than my father, he was the person I respected most.”

What does all or any of this background have to do with Meyer’s situation now?

That one word: Pressure.

Meyer still hears the voice of his father, who has since passed away, even now. Winning remains the only option. He will not walk away from all of his success at Ohio State, and an extra $40 million, without a fight. I do not know exactly what Meyer did when he found out about the accusations against Smith, his former assistant and, interestingly enough, Bruce’s grandson.

I do know what he should have done. Three years should not have passed before Smith was fired.

I also know the strain, the duress he feels, the unacceptability of failure, regarding “not being a dope sitting there” with missteps made, errors committed, particularly pertaining to an issue as significant as alleged abuse put on a woman.

“I’m not afraid of losing as much as I”m horrified of underachieving,” Meyer said, all those years ago. “The last thing I would ever want to do is disappoint my dad. I’m still trying, I guess, to live up to his expectations and to make him proud.”

Meyer should have heard and remembered all of his father’s words three years ago: “It takes a little more effort to do things right.”

GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.

Provo • BYU’s pass rush was one of the worst in the country last season, ranking 115th out of 129 schools in total sacks, with 17. The Cougars also had just 11 quarterback hurries, which isn’t an official NCAA stat, but is pretty pathetic, nevertheless.

Naturally, BYU took one of its best pass rushers from the woeful 4-9 season — rising senior Sione Takitaki — and made him a linebacker.

But coach Kalani Sitake, who developed a reputation at Utah for producing prolific pass-rushers and sack records, is telling BYU fans not to fear. The sack will be back in BYU’s 2018 defensive repertoire, he insists.

“We have capable coaches who have led the country in sacks before, so I think we have to go back to that stuff and we will be all right,” Sitake said.

Redshirt junior Trajan Pili, 6-foot-2, 250 pounds, will likely replace Takitaki at outside end, after recording just one sack last year as a backup. But Sitake says the Cougars will return to their sack-happy ways in 2016, when they had 29 in his first season and were among the nation’s leaders in forced turnovers.

Redshirt sophomore Uriah “Lopa” Leiataua is also pushing for time at one of the defensive end positions.

“We have two monster defensive ends and some monster defensive tackles, so if we collapse the pocket right, we will be OK,” Sitake said. “And if we have to call on pressure [from linebackers], we can do that, too. We have added a lot of that in our install. I see it getting a lot better.”

In 2016, BYU also had 13 QB hurries and grabbed 21 interceptions, which are often a function of getting pressure on the quarterback. Last season, BYU had just eight picks and quarterbacks often had all day, it seemed, to find open receivers.

“I think a lot of it is just experience in general and having a sense of urgency. We have got to be better at getting upfield and hitting our moves,” said 6-9, 275-pound defensive end Corbin Kaufusi, who led the team in sacks last year, with six.

Takitaki had five and then-freshman Khyiris Tonga had two.

Tonga, 6-4, 340, is one of those anchors in the middle that Sitake described, but he entered preseason training camp in less-than-ideal condition. Tonga, Merrill Taliauli and Tevita Mo’unga, if he returns from whatever is keeping him out of camp, are collapse-the-pocket guys in Sitake’s scheme that push QBs to the rush ends for sacks.

“Khyiris is a big-time guy,” Sitake said. “We just got to keep working on his conditioning, and working on his technique.”

Sitake also said Taliauli, redshirt freshmen Earl Tuoti-Mariner and Lorenzo Fauateau are doing good things, “but I think Khyiris has to be on the field a lot more if we want to be the type of defense we need to be and as disruptive as we want to be.”

Redshirt freshman Keanu Saleapaga and freshman returned missionary Devin Kaufusi — Corbin’s brother — are also having strong camps, but in general BYU’s offensive line is keeping rushers out of the backfield in camp. Even whistle sacks, as they are called when defenders get close to green-shirted quarterbacks off limits to contact, have been few and far between.

Quarterbacks don’t face many blitzes in preseason camp.

“If you have to rely on your blitzing package to cause some pass rush disruption, then yeah, you probably need to get four different defensive linemen,” Sitake said.

The Cougars were counting on sophomore outside end Langi Tuifua, the former four-star recruit, to improve their pass rush after he showed plenty of promise in a limited role last year. But the Bingham High product is nursing an ailing back and is not in camp.

Pili, who is battling Leiataua, Devin Kaufusi and junior walk-on Bracken El-Bakri for the starting OE spot, said “hands down” the pass rush will be better this season.

“That’s been the focus for all of us this offseason, is just getting sacks,” Pili said. “That’s a huge stat in football, probably the most important other than turnovers.”

Last month, a faculty review board at Dixie State University rejected the midsemester firing of music teacher Ken Peterson, saying there was insufficient evidence to support the school’s decision.

But he’s now calling the agreement he’d have to sign to return to work “punitive” and “vindictive.” He shared it to Facebook on Monday in a last-ditch effort to publicize what he calls an administrative misuse of power.

“I realize that most likely this will spell the end of my career,” he said, since the “Last Chance Agreement" contains a clause specifically prohibiting him from sharing its details. “I would at least hope that by publicizing this document that the general public and those who have oversight will become more aware of the abusiveness of this administration.”

If signed, the agreement would have required Peterson to teach general education classes and banned him from advertising or recruiting for private voice lessons on school property. He said publicizing the document was a “last resort” after working with the school to find a compromise.

In a statement, Dixie State University said the agreement was drafted with the input of an independent reviewer from the Utah State Board of Regents.

Elizabeth Hitch, associate commissioner for academic and student affairs for the board, made the final decision to reinstate Peterson “contingent that certain terms and conditions be included in a Last Chance Agreement,” the statement says. The terms “are based upon Dr. Hitch’s independent determination that Dr. Peterson’s actions violated DSU policy,” it says.

Peterson’s March 2 termination letter, which he also made public on Facebook, contended that he had revealed confidential information about theater professor Mark Houser’s tenure review (which the university’s Retention, Promotion and Tenure Policy notes could result in disciplinary action) and damaged Houser’s reputation.

The agreement contends that Peterson has “demonstrated unprofessional/uncivil behavior towards DSU and its faculty, staff and administration” and sets out requirements for his return, saying they are a result of the university’s “lost confidence” in his ability to act appropriately.

He believes its conditions were aimed at facilitating his removal.

“They essentially forbid me to do what my entire academic and professional career has trained me to do: teach singing lessons,” he told The Salt Lake Tribune shortly after he published the agreement online on Monday. “My bachelor’s degree, my master’s degree, my doctorate are all in voice performance. And they’re saying, ‘You can no longer do that.’”

A spokeswoman for Dixie State declined to answer questions beyond what was included in the school’s statement.

After a nine-hour hearing before his peers on May 29, Peterson said, the faculty review board found there wasn’t enough evidence to support the university’s stated reasons for his termination, and it recommended his reinstatement.

The agreement the university offered to allow for his return would have required Peterson to stay 500 feet away from Houser and his family at all times, except in group settings where both are “appropriately present.”

The school’s statement notes that university President Richard “Biff” Williams, who would normally make the final call about discipline, recused himself to “avoid any possible conflicts,” since he was mentioned in the investigation into Peterson. Williams was not involved at any point in the process, including in drafting the agreement, the statement says.

Peterson says the agreement, which the school’s provost has signed, doesn’t align with the faculty review board’s recommendations.

“The administration has made their intentions unmistakably clear, and so I can’t really say I’m surprised at this point, having seen it happen to friends and colleagues for the past four years,” he said.

Peterson is one of at least four tenured professors who have been terminated or put on extended administrative leave at Dixie State over the past four years. One of those professors and at least two other former employees have filed suit against the school over the past two years, alleging they were fired unfairly.

After the university terminated Peterson and Glenn Webb, the former music department chair, a number of students protested that the dismissals were based not on classroom conduct but on bureaucratic bickering and had disrupted their educations.

Webb was placed on administrative leave in January and was terminated in March, on the same day as Peterson. He appealed his termination in two separate, hours-long hearings before the school’s faculty review board at the end of May and the beginning of June. He was notified that he would be reinstated toward the end of last month.

“I will return to teach classes in jazz and percussion this fall semester in my tenured position in the music department, and I look forward to it immensely,” he told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Webb has declined to comment on the details of his dismissal and said he also could not offer specifics about his hearing. But he did say he is apprehensive about his return.

“I’m trying to balance the optimism of the appeals process — the due process working out in my favor — and knowing that for some people, I do have a target on my back,” he said.

As Webb prepares to return to DSU, where classes begin later this month, Peterson said he plans to put his house up for sale and start a new life with his family in Wyoming.

“I was prepared to face this decision on March 2 when I first received the termination notice,” he said. “It’s obviously still painful but not surprising.”

Chicago • Hockey great Stan Mikita has died at 78.

His death was announced Tuesday by the Chicago Blackhawks, the team he helped lead to the Stanley Cup in 1961. The Blackhawks did not disclose details but said he was with his family.

Mikita played for the Blackhawks for 22 seasons, becoming one of the franchise's most revered figures. He is the team's career leader for assists (926), points (1,467) and games (1,394), and is second to Bobby Hull with 541 goals.

Mikita became the first player to have his jersey retired by the Blackhawks in 1980. He was inducted into the hockey Hall of Fame three years later.

After a frosty stretch in his relationship with the franchise, Mikita became a team ambassador in 2007 and was a regular at home games before his health deteriorated.

Las Vegas • Utah and 14 other states are siding with Nevada in a state Supreme Court fight against drug companies suing to prevent the use of their products to execute a condemned inmate.

In what a national death penalty expert on Tuesday called a setup for a showdown, documents filed with the Nevada Supreme Court argue that drug company Alvogen’s effort to block the use of its sedative midazolam in the stalled execution of Scott Raymond Dozier in Nevada is part of a “guerrilla war against the death penalty.”

“The families of these victims deserve justice,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement Tuesday. Arkansas is leading the 15 states that include Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

“If Alvogen is allowed to succeed,” the Monday friend of the court filing said, “there is a substantial risk that pharmaceutical companies — prodded by anti-death penalty activists and [defense attorneys] — will flood the courts with similar last-minute filings every time a state attempts to see justice done.”

The states’ brief points to an Arkansas Supreme Court decision that overruled a state court judge and allowed executions to go forward in what the states now argue is a nearly identical case involving the drug company McKesson Medical-Surgical and stocks of its drug vecuronium bromide. At the time, Arkansas was on track to execute eight men in an 11-day span. It ultimately put four men to death over eight days.

Alvogen in Nevada, like McKesson in Arkansas, argues that it doesn’t want its drugs used in executions and that prison officials improperly obtained its products for a lethal injection.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA, a maker of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, has joined Alvogen in a bid to stop the use of its product as the second of three drugs in a lethal combination never before tried in any state.

That was over a Nevada state attorney’s objection that it was ironic that the maker of a drug blamed for illegal overdoses every day was claiming its reputation would be hurt by being associated with a lawful execution.

A judge in Las Vegas who is due to hear arguments Sept. 10 is expected to decide Thursday whether Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, maker of the third drug, the muscle paralyzing drug cisatracurium, can join Alvogen and Hikma in the Nevada case.

That could pit at least three prominent pharmaceutical firms in a Nevada court against more than half the 31 states in the U.S. with the death penalty.

“I think states are attempting to make this a showdown,” said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Nevada, which hasn't executed an inmate since 2006, has become a model of the trouble that death penalty states have had in recent years obtaining drugs for lethal injections.

Dunham characterized the states backing Nevada as “for the most part a gathering of states that have engaged in the most questionable practices in efforts to obtain execution drugs.”

A judge blocked Dozier’s execution just hours before it was scheduled in July so she could hear Alvogen’s claim that Nevada improperly obtained midazolam.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt has asked the state Supreme Court to quickly overrule the judge so that Dozier’s twice-postponed lethal injection can be put back on track for mid-November.

Dozier, 47, is a twice-convicted killer for drug-related slayings in 2002 in Phoenix and Las Vegas. He has not responded to email and messages through his attorney from The Associated Press.

He told the Reno Gazette Journal for a Monday report that he wants the sentence he received in 2007 carried out rather than spend life in prison. He called the uncertainty of his fate “torture.”

Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

A federal judge has ruled that San Juan County officials improperly invalidated the candidacy of Willie Grayeyes, a Navajo Democrat running for County Commission.

After a hearing Tuesday in Moab, Grayeyes’ attorney, Steven Boos, said U.S. District Judge David Nuffer restored the candidate’s voting rights and ordered his name back onto the November ballot. Grayeyes' name had been stripped from the ballot by county officials who said he didn’t reside in the county.

“He’s glad to get past this part of it because he would like to help guide the county in a direction where the county is solving problems for all the citizens of the county,” Boos told The Salt Lake Tribune.

San Juan County Administrator Kelly Pehrson declined to speak with The Tribune about the judge’s ruling.

Grayeyes, the Democratic nominee and a leading activist in the successful Bears Ears monument campaign, sued San Juan County after he was removed from the ballot by County Clerk John David Nielson, who declared that the candidate did not live in Utah.

Grayeyes insisted that he resided at Paiute Mesa, on the Utah part of the Navajo Reservation near the Arizona line, and records show that he has voted in San Juan elections for the past 20 years.

Navajo Nation officials condemned Nielson’s handling of an investigation into Grayeyes’ residency.

"It appears that Mr. Nielson backdated official county documents in an attempt to strip Willie Grayeyes of his candidacy. It’s clear that Nielson made egregious, if not purposeful, errors in disqualifying Mr. Willie Grayeyes as a candidate,” Leonard Gorman, executive director of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, said.

Nielson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The fall election will be the first since another federal judge redrew the county’s voting districts. The new boundaries give Navajos, who tend to affiliate with Democrats, a significant majority of voters in two of three commission districts and three of five school board seats. That ruling, which Boos and Gorman had a hand in winning, was meant to reverse the historic political domination by minority whites over a majority of American Indians.

San Juan County has appealed the gerrymandering ruling, but a special election must be held in November for all the commission and school board seats.

Nuffer is expected to issue a formal ruling Thursday, explaining his rationale for overruling the county in the Grayeyes matter.

According to Boos, the judge was disturbed that Nielson had backdated the key piece of evidence against Grayeyes, a complaint lodged by a failed Republican candidate for the commission seat. In March, Wendy Black of Blanding shared with the county her suspicion that Grayeyes lived in Arizona, which would render him ineligible for a seat on the San Juan commission.

Through a series of public-records requests, Grayeyes' legal team unearthed Black’s formal challenge that Nielson had backdated to March 20, court filings say. Boos argued that the backdating appears to have been done to evade statutes of limitation for contesting candidacies and voting registration. In this document, Black said Grayeyes' purported residence was uninhabited.

“It is not livable, windows boarded up. Roof dilapidated. No tracks going into home for years,” she is quoted as saying in the backdated challenge. Yet no evidence was offered that she visited the home; rather, a sheriff’s deputy reported that Black did not find it.

“The county had violated Mr. Grayeyes' due process rights. The county didn’t follow state election code from beginning to end,” Boos said. "If you ever have a public official creating backdated, fraudulent documents, there’s a problem. Everyone has a right to expect that public officials will follow the law and not create false public documents. It is something the county admitted to.”

The left-leaning advocacy group Alliance for a Better Utah called for an independent investigation into the backdated complaint.

“If the allegations are found to be true, Mr. Nielson should resign from office, either for discriminatory behavior or for his incompetent handling of this complaint,” the group wrote in a news release. "The people of San Juan County deserve a county clerk they can trust will handle complaints with integrity and competency.”

Grayeyes is a member of the Navajo Utah Commission and the longtime chairman of Utah Dine Bikeyah, the grass-roots group that helped lead the campaign to persuade President Barack Obama to designate the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument against the wishes of county officials and many residents.

With Grayeyes’ name back on the ballot, San Juan County faces the possibility that its commission will feature two of the most prominent backers of the monument President Donald Trump slashed by 85 percent in December, citing the wishes of local leaders.

Grayeyes will now face Kelly Laws, a prominent Blanding resident running as a Republican, in the general election. Should Grayeyes win, the County Commission would have a Democratic and pro-monument majority.

The county recently certified the narrow victory of another Bikeyah leader, Kenneth Maryboy, over incumbent Rebecca Benally, a strong Navajo anti-monument voice, in the Democratic primary for the commission seat typically held by a tribal member. There is no Republican candidate for that seat.

The back-to-school season is upon us. Of the questions that preoccupy incoming college students — financial, scheduling, housing, belonging — advisors report that the choice of major and career path is the most anxiety-inducing. After all, isn’t choosing the right major the ticket to a successful career and life?

Unfortunately, most students feel undue pressure to discover the perfect major. But unless they are headed for specific careers with precise knowledge or licensure requirements, the belief that the major is a direct line to a career is misleading, and a cause of widespread "dysfunction," according to Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The problem begins when students pick a major that is misaligned with their aptitudes, interests or personal values, yet they stick with it due to social pressure or a perceived lack of suitable alternatives.

To begin to dispel this dysfunctional belief, it is important to realize that the correlation between a major and a specific career is weak, especially in today’s global economy that creates and destroys jobs at an accelerating pace. We know from a LinkedIn study, for example, that recent college graduates will change positions "an average of four times in their first decade out of college.” Moreover, a Federal Reserve Bank of New York study shows that a staggering 73 percent of the nation’s graduates are employed in fields unrelated to their undergraduate major.

What should we conclude from these facts?

Skeptics will want to argue that universities are failing students by not delivering on an implied "major-to-career" promise. Indeed, a few outspoken politicians around the country have concluded that too many students are choosing the "wrong" major and want to defund majors – or even entire colleges – that do not lead directly to jobs.

While the sentiment is perhaps understandable, and university reforms are in order, there is a more accurate way to view this problem: reverse the perspective. If the statistical correlation between choice of major and direct career outcome represents only 27 percent of the college-educated sector of the labor market, why is this minority sector considered the norm?

This shift in perspective is potentially liberating for students as it suddenly takes pressure off finding the elusive “perfect” major while widening student focus to the full spectrum of available pathways into the labor market, including those in the liberal arts and social sciences. In this vein, it is also helpful to know that approximately 30 percent of post-collegiate hiring in the U.S. is major-independent and about 70 percent of employers are looking for a hybridity of skills that draw on different academic disciplines and experiences. This is according to the Collegiate Education Research Institute (CERI) at Michigan State University, which conducts an annual survey of 2,000 to 3,000 companies and organizations on topics related to hiring college graduates.

An important corollary, then, to the choice of major is an integrated approach to higher education — one that promises maximal entry-level options and the ability to pivot to a new career when market disruption inevitably strikes. An important new report by The National Academies of Sciences - Engineering - Medicine (2018) suggests that even employers in the white-hot STEM market seek agile graduates with integrated skill sets:

“Students and parents have increasingly focused their aspirations and plans on a vocationally-driven approach. Ironically, [...] many employers — even, and, in fact, especially in ‘high tech’ areas — have emphasized that learning outcomes associated with integrated education, such as critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and abilities for lifelong learning, are more, not less, desirable.”

Phil Gardner at CERI sums up the key point like this: "There are really only two choices for graduates who want a lot of options: be a technically savvy liberal arts graduate or a liberally educated technical graduate."

In the Lindquist College at Weber State University, we are advising students to think beyond the major so that they fully understand and can apply the skills learned in the arts and humanities while acquiring professionally-relevant crossover skills in technical or vocational fields. Other strategic approaches to thinking beyond the major include:

1) Designing the undergraduate experience with intention: Rather than treating college as a series of check-off boxes, students should discover in advance which skills and competencies are generally desired by employers and then reverse engineer the college experience as a resource to build on strengths and minimize deficiencies.

2) Being strategic about general education and elective coursework: Short of a double major or interesting major/minor combinations, students should strategically select general education and elective courses with the purpose of cultivating valuable foundational and crossover skills.

3) Translating academic learning into employable skills: Rather than think solely in terms of administrative units (majors, courses, credits), students should learn to identify and translate their acquired academic skills, competencies and experiences into terms that will resonate with employers.

4) Connecting knowledge and skills to other contexts outside the major: The act of connecting and transferring skills to new problems or contexts is an essential skill in today’s swift-moving economy.

5) Completing professionally relevant internships. The internship is by far the most valuable extra-curricular experience for learning to identify and articulate acquired skills and for increasing one’s chances of employment upon graduation. Around 95% of employers reject applications without professionalizing experiences.

6) Telling one’s story. Because the college degree alone does not tell a story, students should learn to narrate how they have intentionally assembled all of the pieces of their educational experience into a coherent, purposeful and compelling whole.

As we welcome one of our largest incoming classes to the Lindquist College this fall, we will be making every effort to prepare our students to “expect the unexpected” as they enter a complex world of work for which the college major is increasingly only partial preparation.

Scott Sprenger is dean of the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities at Weber State University. Prior to joining WSU, Sprenger spent two years as provost at The American University of Paris and 21 years teaching French literature at Brigham Young University.

A majority of U.S. athletes responding to an anti-doping survey said they feel pressure from higher-ups to win medals, and the spotlight shines only on those who pile up victories.

Though athletes have often cited the win-at-all-costs culture as a reason they cheat, only a slim number of those surveyed said they would be tempted to take performance-enhancing drugs.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency received responses from 886 athletes in a wide-ranging survey , released Tuesday, that gauged their feelings about a number of issues regarding performance-enhancing drugs.

Sixty-five percent agreed when asked if the U.S. Olympic Committee and individual sports federations pressured elite athletes to win medals; 61 percent agreed with the statement: “When I am failing people are less interested in me.”

Travis Tygart, the CEO of USADA, said he wasn’t surprised at the high percentage of athletes who feel they’re part of a “win-at-all-costs” culture.

“It is exactly what we hear from athletes about why they chose to dope when they have, and why we must change this culture if we hope to fully return the playing field to clean athletes,” he said.

But when asked if they would be tempted to use PEDs under a variety of circumstances, including if their coach recommended it, no more than 9 percent of the athletes responded “yes” to any of the scenarios.

USADA billed this as the largest survey of its kind. It was sent last year to 2,000 athletes in the U.S. testing pool. It got the most responses (149) from track and field.

Only 7 percent of the respondents said they had been tested more than 50 times over their career — an interesting figure during a summer in which Serena Williams has suggested she’s discriminated against because she gets tested more than most tennis players. The plurality, 36 percent, said they’d been tested between once and five times. Authorities commonly increase the number of tests for high-ranked players and players coming off long layoffs.

When asked how other anti-doping programs compare to USADA, 34 percent said they were less effective or not effective, while 49 percent replied “I don’t know” — a high number in an era in which Olympic sports have been bombarded by a stream of reports about Russian doping . Thirty-five percent disagreed with the notion that their international competitors were adequately tested when compared to themselves.

“Certainly, the Russian state-sponsoring doping scheme showed that there are major international players not running an effective anti-doping program, but actually running a “dope to win” program,” Tygart said.

Facial recognition system to be used in Tokyo Olympic security

A facial recognition system will be used across an Olympics for the first time as Tokyo organizers work to keep security tight and efficient at dozens of venues during the 2020 Games.

Olympic and company officials say the NeoFace technology developed by NEC Corp. will be customized to monitor every accredited person — including athletes, officials, staff and media — at more than 40 venues, athletes villages and media centers.

Olympic officials on Tuesday said Tokyo will be the first Olympic host to introduce the face recognition technology at all venues. The system is expected to effectively eliminate entry with forged IDs, reduce congestion at accredited waiting lines and reduce athletes’ stress under hot weather.

NEC says the system is used at airports and elsewhere in 70 countries.

Over 16 seasons in the NFL, Steve Smith Sr. developed a reputation for being one of the toughest wide receivers in the game. But he never really appreciated the accolades and stats he piled up, he says now, because he was struggling with depression throughout his playing career.

“Despite all of my achievements, I routinely felt trapped, inferior and alone,” Smith wrote this week in a first-person column on NFL.com. “This overwhelmed me internally and often left me mentally, physically and emotionally broken.”

Such struggles among pro athletes have become a regular media topic in recent days; last weekend, for example, former Eagles great Brian Dawkins said in his Hall of Fame induction speech that his deepest days of depression led him to consider methods of suicide that would allow his family to collect on his life insurance. For Smith, the 1,031 career catches for 14,731 yards (eighth all-time) and 81 touchdowns with the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens didn’t really register, he wrote in the column, because of his internal battles.

“I never truly enjoyed those moments,” he wrote, “never felt genuine delight in my accomplishments.”

His playing persona seemed invulnerable, impossibly strong and feisty, willing to take on all defenders. But he wrote that the question “what’s wrong with me” dogged him during the “highs and lows” of his depression.

Now Smith, who retired after the 2016 season, says he feels free “for the first time,” crediting counseling for the change.

“I’ve learned through hours and hours of counseling — and am still learning — so much about the battle I fight within,” the former Utah Ute wrote. “I find myself, as an extreme introvert defined by my counselor, looking for excuses on how to avoid large crowds and retreating during public appearances, big events and even family gatherings. Being in public is a constant struggle, not because I don’t want to attract attention or think I’m ‘important,’ but because of my inner battle.

“This is all proof that I still face my demons often, but I’m gradually learning how to cope with them,” he went on. “How to understand them. And one thing has become abundantly clear: The best thing I ever did for my well-being was to seek help. I needed someone to help me comprehend how my mind deals with disappointment, grief, failure, etc. - and most importantly, how to prohibit that critical voice inside my head from defining who I am on an everyday basis.”

Smith, 39, urged anyone considering the core question he grappled with — what’s wrong with me? — to ask for help. In that, he echoed other athletes who have come forward in recent years with their own stories about depression. Chargers tackle Joe Barksdale explained to the Los Angeles Times, “Some days you can talk yourself out of it. Some days you can’t. Some days it just feels impossible.” Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has said that, at times, he “straight up wanted to die.” The NBA’s Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan shared their stories, too, while wide receiver Brandon Marshall - one of the first athletes to openly advocate for mental health awareness — has called that “the civil rights issue of our era.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me, nor is there with anyone else who suffers from depression and other mental health disorders,” Smith concluded. “All human beings have strengths and weaknesses, physical and mental. You’re defined by how you play the hand you’re dealt in life. I’ve spent the last year grieving, in a sense, the fact that I no longer am a football player — the one thing I have been my entire life. Reidentifying myself has been quite the process and learning to be okay with that even more so.

“My advice to anyone suffering from mental health issues — and specifically athletes who can relate — is this: Ask for help. Stop trying to deal with these serious matters alone. You’re not alone. Believe me.”

Davie, Fla. • Miami Dolphins 14th-year veteran John Denney first saw his future career path in eighth grade, when he bent over and looked between his legs.

His coach was putting together a place-kicking team at practice, and Denney volunteered to try out as a long snapper.

"Whoever was interested lined up and started snapping the ball at a tire hanging from the uprights," Denney said. "Beginner's luck, I hit the chain holding the tire and it knocked the tire off the chain. At that age, that got everybody in a frenzy."

Those cheers might still be the loudest Denney ever received for doing his job. All long snappers toil in anonymity — unless they make a mistake, and Denney doesn't. That's why he has been with the Dolphins since 2005, four years longer than any other active player.

At 39 he's among the oldest players in the NFL.

"It has been a ride, that's for sure," Denney said following a recent practice. "I would never guess 14 years later I would still be on this field in the same place. I won the lottery."

Is the hardest part of the job the drudgery of training camp in steamy South Florida?

"For everybody else, yeah," Denney said with a chuckle. "My position is different."

That's for sure. Long snappers spend much of practice off to the side with the place-kickers and punters, often watching and chatting. It's not bad duty for $1 million a year, which is Denney's salary this season.

But as with any specialist, there's pressure. Denney is expected to be nearly 100 percent accurate, and has been. When asked to tabulate the misfires, Dolphins special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi paused to search his memory.

"In my nine seasons with him, I think we had confusion once on a field goal," Rizzi said Tuesday. "Brandon Fields (the holder) wasn't looking, and John hit him in the face mask.

"To have to sit here and think about it is a credit to him."

And while the 6-foot-5, 242-pound Denney doesn't log as many snaps as an every-down player, he does run downfield under punts, and wins raves for staying in shape.

"The guy is in unbelievable physical condition," coach Adam Gase said. "He's the ultimate pro."

Denney doesn't look his age, but he'll turn 40 in December.

"Wow. I didn't know he was going to be 40," said running back Frank Gore, who's a mere 35. "He does work hard, though. During the offseason he works very, very hard."

That includes snapping drills. Sometimes Denney recruits his 11- and 13-year-old sons to help, and hikes in the backyard.

Like everything else, practice makes perfect.

"If I give you a ball right now and you look between your legs and everything is upside down, it's not natural," Denney said. "It's a matter of working at it to a point it becomes natural."

Denney played linebacker and offensive line in high school in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was a three-year starter at defensive end for Brigham Young. All the while he groomed his skills as a long snapper, which is how he made the Dolphins' roster after going undrafted.

He played in every game as a rookie, and each year since he has played in all 16 games — 208 in total. That's by far a team record for consecutive games, and tied for third among active NFL players.

The streak will likely grow, although Denney has nominal competition in training camp from undrafted rookie Lucas Gravelle. It's one of the few times the team has brought in another long snapper to compete with Denney, but he said he always feels like he's fighting for his job.

"Regardless of whether there is another body in camp, they have a list on a board somewhere with the next five best long snappers available," he said. "It's not like you're ever in the clear."

That accurately describes life in the NFL. As usual, Denney is right on target.