Diggs returns to Bills’ practice

To begin with, McDermott said Diggs didn’t skip the team’s mandatory session on Tuesday, but was in fact excused. As for the issues that led to Diggs’ concerns in questioning his role in the offense, the coach said the team and the receiver are “in a real good spot.”

McDermott made an unscheduled appearance with reporters after practice to address questions raised regarding Diggs’ status, by clarifying and expanding on the limited comments he made in helping create the stir a day earlier when saying he was “very concerned” with the receiver leaving the team’s facility and missing a mandatory practice.

In laying out a timeline, McDermott said he and team officials spent Monday and Tuesday having conversations with Diggs to address the receiver’s concerns. The team and player then agreed to take a break from talks, with McDermott saying he excused Diggs from practicing and then picked up the conversations later in the day.

“Sometimes you’ve got to have conversations, you need communication and I appreciate Stef being willing to communicate,” McDermott said. “And you guys need to understand, Stef’s a valuable member of this football team. He’s one of our captains and a leader. … And I love him.”

Though Diggs has yet to address reporters or share his concerns publicly, he was a welcome sight wearing his No. 14 white practice jersey and shorts in making his offseason practice debut. Diggs previously skipped the team’s previous voluntary workout sessions, which opened in mid-April.

Diggs was limited to participating in only the stretching and individual portions of practice, while watching team sessions from the sideline, some of them alongside offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. During a stretching session, Diggs reached over and shook hands with quarterback Josh Allen.

McDermott said Diggs’ limited practice time was by design in “ramping him up” toward the start of training camp. The Bills are scheduled to hold a third and final mandatory practice on Thursday before reporting to camp in suburban Rochester late next month.

Having spent his adult life speaking out against domestic abuse, NFL Vice President Troy Vincent recently began wondering if he needed to modify his message to reach a younger audience.

What concerned him were the worrisome statistics showing gender-based violence being as prevalent — if not more — in today’s society as it was when an 8-year-old Vincent and his younger brother huddled in a closet to seek shelter and shut out the sounds of their mother getting beaten by her boyfriend.

“I’m at the what, almost 30-year point in this space, and I look at the CDC numbers and we’ve got a long way to go,” Vincent told The Associated Press.

“And I feel I have more questions than answers now,” he added. “I’m a 52-year-old now that has to evolve even in this particular area. But I need to make sure that I am connecting based off what the research says on how these young men or young women would like to be engaged.”

The research he referred to is joining his wife Tommi, chairwoman of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, in establishing the Vincent Commission, and partnering with Niagara University to launch a year-long study focused on how to reshape the narrative and identify new approaches.

The study’s aim, which Vincent announced Wednesday, is to gain a better understanding of what may trigger young men toward violence and specifically on campuses, where college women between the ages of 18 and 24 are three times more likely to be victims of abuse, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

FALCONS: After scoring poorly on a players’ union survey, the Atlanta Falcons have announced a major renovation of their training facility in Flowery Branch. Construction will begin early next month on a two-story strength and conditioning center on the south side of the existing main facility. The expansion will allow for a seamless open-air transition from the workout areas to the outside practice fields It includes a second-floor mezzanine with a focus on cardio equipment. In addition, the dining area will be renovated and expanded.

GIANTS: Jeff Nixon has spent most of the past quarter century working almost exclusively with running backs, including the past 12 in the NFL. The 48-year Nixon has coached Reggie Bush and Christian McCaffrey just to name a few and he joined the New York Giants this year with the idea of working with Saquon Barkley, a fellow Penn State player. As the Giants ended a two-day mandatory minicamp on Wednesday, Nixon has yet to work with Barkley.