This scene could move to May (USA Today Sports Images)

The NFL and NFLPA are closing in a deal that would make significant alterations to the league calender over the next three years, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports.

According to the report, the union is close to signing off on a deal allowing the league to move the start date of the new league year to before the annual scouting combine in Indianapolis. Historically, the new league year has begun in early-to-mid March, nearly two weeks after the final day of the combine.

An even bigger change, and one that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell does not need union approval for, is pushing the date of the annual NFL draft from late April to May. While the collective bargaining agreement allows for the commissioner to set the date at his or her discretion, Goodell would like to the NFLPA's approval before taking that step.

Schefter adds that the tentative dates for the 2014 draft are May 15-17, with the 2015 draft taking place from May 7-9 and 2016 draft on May 5-7.

Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara could host Super Bowl L (USA Today Sports Images)

NFL owners have gathered in Boston this week for their annual spring meetings. A focal point of this week's meetings will be the announcement of the host cities for Super Bowl L and Super Bowl LI, votes on which will take place on Tuesday.

Owners will choose between presentations from South Florida and the San Francisco Bay Area for the 50th Super Bowl, which will be played in February 2016.

The Bay Area is the favorite to host Super Bowl L as construction is well underway on the San Francisco 49ers' new $1.2 billion stadium in Santa Clara, located about 40 miles south of San Francisco. Completion of the new stadium, which has seating capacity of up to 75,000 and will be named Levi's Stadium once a naming rights deal is approved, is expected in time for the 2014 season.

San Francisco hosted the Super Bowl in 1985 and was tentatively awarded Super Bowl XXXIII, but could not reach a deal to finance renovations to Candlestick Park and lost the right to host the game.

Meanwhile, the current bid out of South Florida is considered a long shot to host either Super Bowl after the Florida state legislature recently defeated a bill that would have granted public money for renovations to Sun Life Stadium.

A three-quarters majority, 24 of the 32 owners, are required on the first ballot Tuesday. If neither San Francisco or Miami receives 24 votes on the first ballot, then a simple majority would win on the subsequent ballot.

E.J. Manuel gets his first reps as a Bill. (Getty Images)

The job of a rookie quarterback was never what you'd call easy. But the sudden, meteoric splash of young talents like Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick have meant that for new QBs, the learning curve is a ten-foot-high wall, and patience with their development is nonexistent. So it's got to warm the chilled hearts of Bills fans to hear that their latest prize acquisition, rookie E.J. Manuel, is acclimating well to the team's new offense under Doug Marrone and OC Nathaniel Hackett.

“The funny thing is it's easier to learn than the offense I had at Florida State,” Manuel said on SiriusXM. “It's a true West Coast-type progression offense. That's really what I wanted when I was coming through the pre-draft process. I wanted something that I could just go in and say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, check it down and run it. That's it, it's that simple. I love it."

Now, the way that Manuel related it, the Bills' playbook sounds only slightly more complex than the "everybody get open"

(USA Today Sports Images)Legend has it that at Vince Lombardi's first team meeting with the Green Bay Packers, the new coach held up a ball and told his team, "This is a football." Many coaches since have pulled similar stunts to start a new season. It's a way of emphasizing fundamentals by starting with the basics.

And it seems very silly because, as we know, by the time players get to the pros they know all the fundamentals in and out, right? Not so fast.

Michael Vick, the 32-year-old starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, has played 10 seasons in the NFL, played two seasons at Virginia Tech, started three years for his high school team and probably played youth football for many years before that. And throughout those thousands of practices and hundreds of games, Vick says nobody taught him how to properly carry a football.

It is absolutely mind-blowing that Vick didn't know the correct way to carry a football before new Eagles coach Chip Kelly pulled him aside at a recent practice and taught him, but that's what he told PhillyMag.com:

The happy (and well-gifted) couple. (USAT Sports Images)It was quite the story last week, especially for those who enjoy outrage over the money made by professional athletes and the sense of entitlement they all supposedly have: Washington Redskins fans went to the Bed, Bath & Beyond website and bought gifts for quarterback Robert Griffin III and his fiancée, Rebecca Liddicoat from the couple's wedding registry. Those gifts included several pricey items (in the $200-499 range), which set quite a few people out of joint. After all, those people said, where does a guy who signed a four-year, $21,119,098, fully guaranteed contract in July of 2012 get off accepting gifts from fans?

Beyond the usual Twitter beefs, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio and Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution were two media pros who seemed especially irritated by the whole thing.

Dan Steinberg, the Big Kahuna over at the Washington Post's indispensable D.C. Sports Bog, got all investigative instead, and actually reached out to the fans who bought those gifts to see why they did it. As you'd expect, Steinberg got some interesting responses.

Patrick Dibert, a 24-year old Redskins fan who works in the non-profit sector for a Virginia group that fights hunger ... bought Griffin and his fiancée, Rebecca Liddicoat, a set of Brita water filters for $30 (including shipping), and he isn’t about to apologize.

“It’s not like that was money I’m not going to donate to charity; I’m just not going to go out to happy hour one time during the week,” Dibert told me on Monday. “I mean, it’s just kind of funny to say I bought RGIII a present.”

Wes Taylor bought RG3 and Ms. Liddicoat a pair of spoon holders for $8, and seemed surprised anyone was taking this so seriously.

"It was kind of a goof," Taylor told Steinberg. “I just saw something on there that wasn’t that expensive and was like ‘You know what, I might as well send that.’ It was off the wall, it was goofy and no one else had bought it.’”

And for John Short, buying a simple wedding gift was more about the goofiness inherent to the hardcore Redskins fan than any sort of "give to the rich" mistake.

Via Keenan Allen's Vine.That happy gentleman sipping on a cup there at right is Keenan Allen. He's living the high life right now, enjoying his status as a newly-minted NFL draft pick. Problem is, he's a draft pick of the San Diego Chargers ... and that there is a Raiders hat on his head.

Rookie move, KA.

This past weekend, Allen was trying a little social-media outreach, recording himself on Vine visiting an In-N-Out Burger. And, as so often happens when athletes get unfiltered access to the public, things turned ugly.

Now, it's generally good form not to in any way endorse your competitors; if you're a Coke spokesman, you don't want to get caught drinking a Pepsi, for instance. But you can figure that Allen, who went to college at Cal, might be a Raiders fan from way back, and almost surely owned the hat before he was drafted in the third round by that bolt-oriented team to the south. Reasonable mistake, right? We can all agree that it was a simple oversight, can't we?

Of course not. This is NFL fandom we're

Via Ray Rice's Facebook page

We all thought Oxbow won the Preakness Stakes in Maryland on Saturday, but that's apparently because we weren't looking far enough in front. Ray Rice led the pack!

Well, at least he did on his own Facebook page, where he posted the above Photoshop. Rice's teammate Torrey Smith was actually at the race, and gave the "riders up" command — horse-racing's equivalent of "start your horses" — while wearing quite the tie:

Torrey Smith at the Preakness.

And as for football players actually competing against their equine equivalents ... here, per Larry Brown Sports, is Ochocinco racing a horse. Giddyup.

"You bought us a WHAT?" RG3 and Rebecca Liddicoat in July, 2012. (Getty Images)

On July 18, 2012, Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III signed a four-year, $21,119,098 contract that is fully guaranteed. That's commensurate with his status as the second-overall pick in the draft, and it pretty much insures that unless he really messes up the numbers, he'll never have to worry about money again.

Still, Redskins fans have decided to help RG3 out a bit with the expenses on his upcoming nuptials to the future former Rebecca Liddicoat by finding the couple's wedding registry on the Bed Bath & Beyond website ... and fulfilling all sorts of orders.

This was confirmed by Griffin on Twitter.

Thank you to the Fans who are helping buy ALL the items from our wedding registry at Bed Bath & Beyond … say.ly/MLw5Rbg

— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) May 19, 2013

Now, before the expected outrage that fans of a player making this much money would pitch in to buy these things for the happy couple (who are tying the knot on July 6), Griffin has an answer for that. The fans found his registry without his prompting and threw down of their own volition.

I didn't ask the fans to buy me anything. They found it on their own and decided to get what they could. SMH at all these Debbie downers — Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) May 19, 2013

SMH, indeed. Now, it should be pointed out that according to the registry site when this was published, not everything had been purchased -- the most expensive item, a $499.99 Calphalon Contemporary Non-Stick 12-Piece Cookware Set, still had a "0" in the "Purchased" column.

However, those in RG3's thrall did apparently buy the $439.99 Palm Harbor 2-Piece Outdoor Wicker Seating Set, the $399.99 KitchenAid® 5-Quart Tilt-Head Designer Series Stand Mixer with Glass Bowl (in lovely Candy Apple), the $299.99 11-Foot Outdoor Round Cantilever Latte Solar Umbrella with Steel Frame, the $249.99 Calphalon® Precision Series 16-Piece Cutlery Knife Block Set, and the $199.99 Shark® Rotator™ Professional Lift-Away