Miami Dolphins receiver Kenny Stills vacationed this offseason

DAVIE Zach Brown Jersey , Fla. (AP) — led several teammates on a training trip to Nebraska and returned to find the NFL’s national anthem debate again at peak volume.“We’ve got to clean up how things are looking,” Stills said following the Dolphins’ first training camp practice Thursday.The sixth-year pro is part of the debate because he kneeled during the anthem the past two seasons and has been vocal discussing social injustice issues that inspired the protest.Stills would prefer the league had no anthem policy so players could do as they wished, and said he’ll wait until a policy is set to decide what he’ll do during the anthem this season.“At some point before the season starts, the league and the players association are going to come to an agreement,” he said. “And at that point I’ll have a better idea what I’ll be doing.”Last week the league and union issued a joint statement saying the two sides are still working on a resolution. Their statement came hours after The Associated Press reported Dolphins players who protest on the field during the anthem could be suspended for up to four games under a team policy issued last week.More Miami Dolphins newsDolphins sign hometown WR Allen Hurns to 1-year contractNew Dolphins coach Brian Flores has his own daily workout at training campDolphins assistant coach Jim Caldwell takes leave of absence to address health issuesTwo-time Pro Bowl safety Reshad Jones rejoins Dolphins after skipping voluntary practicesDolphins QBs Josh Rosen, Ryan Fitzpatrick embrace battle for No. 1 jobThe Dolphins subsequently issued a statement saying all options regarding the team’s policy remain open.On Thursday, coach Adam Gase said he doubted a Miami player would be suspended for protesting during the anthem.“I mean, if anybody knew actual rules in the NFL, good luck suspending somebody,” Gase said. “It takes about 5,000 things before anybody can get suspended by a club.”Gase said he doesn’t see anthem issue as potentially divisive for his team.“I think they do a good job of when issues come up, they get together and hammer it out,” Gase said. “These guys aren’t shy about speaking up. They’ve done a good job of making sure Devin Bush Jersey , as a group, they talk through things.”Three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jurrell Casey also plans to continue protesting, but wants people to quit seeing this as an anthem issue. The Tennessee Titans lineman said he will continue protesting by raising his fist at the end of the anthem.“The biggest thing that we have right now is the way the justice system is set up for minorities,” said Casey, whose wife is an attorney. “And that’s just what the whole battle is about, trying to bring light to enlighten the things that’s going on around the minority community.”The league hasn’t been able to reach an agreement. On Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he’ll insist his players stand for the anthem.Stills’ reaction to Jones’ comments?“I wouldn’t expect anything different,” Stills said.Stills said he hadn’t spoken much with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross about the issue since last year. Ross didn’t attend the first day of training camp.Stills tuned out the anthem debate this offseason by traveling to Victoria Falls, Kruger National Park and Cape Town, where he learned about African culture, went on safaris and tried bungee jumping. More recently, he spent time in Lincoln, Nebraska, with other Dolphins wideouts and a receivers coach he has known since he was in the 10th grade.“The anthem stuff was becoming a really quiet Diontae Johnson Jersey , quiet topic,” Stills said.No more. Defensive end Robert Quinn, who protested during the anthem while with the Rams last year, was asked following his first Dolphins practice what the league should do about a policy.“I’ll just say one thing: It’s called freedom of speech,” he said. “Simple as that.”Quinn, Stills and others have been targets of criticism for their protests, which they believe have been misconstrued as unpatriotic.But Stills was nominated by teammates last year for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, a reflection of his standing in locker room. His latest community project is with the nationwide OK Program, which mentors young black men.“I think I’ve done a good job of trying to figure out ways to continue to use my voice and platform for the right things,” Stills said, “and put the messaging back in the right direction.” As the interview unfolded, Matt Nagy could sense the Chicago Bears were a fit for him.

He saw a franchise poised to make a big jump, sensed a connection with general manager Ryan Pace.

”I’m here because of the organization and the direction,” Nagy Justin Layne Jersey , the Bears’ new coach, said. ”I could feel that from the moment I was in that interview process.”

Getting to work with quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is ”a benefit.”

The Bears introduced Nagy on Tuesday, a day after he was hired as the team’s 16th head coach to replace the fired John Fox and help a charter NFL franchise emerge from one of its worst runs.

He takes over a team that missed the playoffs for the seventh straight season and hasn’t finished above .500 since Lovie Smith got fired after going 10-6 in 2012. The Bears are on their third head coach since then, with Nagy trying to do what Marc Trestman and Fox could not.

Both got fired with losing records, Fox’s 14-34 mark over three seasons giving him the second-worst winning percentage in team history. Chicago went 5-11 this past season on the way to its fourth straight last-place finish in the NFC North.

A day after his first season as the Chiefs’ sole offensive coordinator ended with a playoff collapse against Tennessee, Nagy spent 4+ hours interviewing with Pace, president Ted Phillips and chairman George McCaskey at a hotel on Kansas City’s Plaza on Sunday morning. He and Pace, along with their wives, also had dinner that night.

In between, he met with the Colts and returned to the Chiefs’ practice facility for exit interviews.

”When I went into this interview in that room it felt… it’s a special feeling,” Nagy said.

”(Pace and I) walked out, we just had a conversation among the two of us and you just kind of knew that this could be really good. Again, I’m going to be right there by his hip.”

There are some big holes on offense, particularly at wide receiver.

But the Bears have two solid running backs in Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen Benny Snell Jr. Jersey , not to mention a quarterback they drafted with the No. 2 overall pick after trading up a spot with San Francisco to grab him.

”This is about more than the quarterback,” Pace said. ”Yes, that’s the most important position on our team, but this is about 53 players and it’s about leading a group of men and it’s about winning in all three phases.”

A former quarterback at Delaware who played in the Arena Football League, the 39-year-old Nagy spent the past 10 years working under Andy Reid in Philadelphia and Kansas City.

Though he didn’t start calling plays until late in the season, he has drawn praise for his work with Alex Smith.

Nagy has also come a long way, from working in real estate while serving as a coaching intern with the Eagles during training camp in 2008 and 2009. Reid hired him as a coaching assistant during the 2010 season, and he’s continued to work his way up.

That wasn’t lost on Pace. Nor was this: Nagy didn’t shy away from what happened against Tennessee on Saturday.

He owned up to it during his interview with the Bears the next day.

”He owned it,” Pace said.

On Tuesday, Nagy said he called ”every single” play – not Reid – when the Chiefs got blanked in the second half and blew an 18-point lead.

”For me, that was a failure in my book,” Nagy said. ”But I’ll grow from it, and I’ll learn from it, I promise you that Zach Gentry Jersey , and I’ll use it as a strength here for me with the Chicago Bears.”

Nagy said he will call plays on offense in Chicago. He also said he’s not sure if defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will stay or if the Bears will continue to run a 3-4 defense.

Fangio interviewed for the head coaching job, as did Philadelphia quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, offensive coordinators Pat Shurmur (Minnesota) and Josh McDaniels (New England) and Vikings defensive coordinator George Edwards.

That the Bears hired an offensive coach was hardly surprising given how much they have riding on their quarterback’s development.

Pace had said they were considering involving Trubisky in the search, but he was not in the interview with Nagy.

The two are, however, familiar with each other. Kansas City interviewed Trubisky at the combine and had him visit prior to the draft.

”I had an opinion of Mitch (at the combine) where he was kind of introverted and I felt scripted, which 95 percent of the guys are in that atmosphere,” Nagy said.

”But we went ahead and took several quarterbacks that we were interested in and brought them in and basically had them for six or seven hours and let their personalities show, let them be who they are just in front of us. After six hours of being with Mitch, it was unbelievable.”

—