Papa John's and the NFL have mutually decided to end their sponsorship agreement.

The brand became the official pizza of the NFL in 2010.

The company said on an earnings call that there was no additional cost for undoing the deal.

"The NFL and Papa John's have made a mutual decision to shift from their official league sponsorship to a focus on partnerships with 22 local NFL teams, presence in broadcast and digital media, and key personalities in the sport," the league and company said in a joint statement.

John Schnatter suggested that protests during the national anthem hurt Papa John's business.

"We are disappointed the NFL and its leadership did not resolve this," Schnatter said at the time.

Schnatter later apologized after the company's stock dropped 12 percent. Schnatter was also replaced as CEO.

Jerry Jones will be forced by the NFL to reimburse the league's legal fees for his part in attempting to block the contract extension of Roger Goodell and for also defending Ezekiel Elliott during his suspension battle last season.

Goodell has the backing of many NFL owners to punish Jones. Goodell has been reluctant to issue a fine because he doesn't want to be viewed as exacting retribution for Jones' actions. But several owners believed Jones had crossed a boundary by threatening his fellow owners and that it was detrimental to the NFL.

Jones will be ordered to pay the legal fees that the committee incurred defending itself, as well as the legal expenses the N.F.L. spent defending its decision to suspend Elliott.

Jones was aware as early as August that only about 12 percent of Goodell’s compensation was guaranteed, and the rest would be based on whether he and the league met a variety of financial targets. Jones, however, continued to argue that Goodell was being overpaid. 

Based on the calculations of a $178 million salary cap, Albert Breer has projected the following franchise tags for 2018:

CB: $15.04 million
DE: $17.22 million
DT: $14.00 million 
LB: $15.03 million
OL: $14.14 million
K/P: $4.96 million
QB: $23.29 million 
RB: $11.90 million
S: $11.34 million 
TE: $9.90 million 
WR: $16.05 million

With Washington trading for Alex Smith, they are unlikely to tag Kirk Cousins, but Le'Veon Bell could receive it from the Steelers.

Colin Kaepernick's attorneys have added Jane Goodell, wife of Roger Goodell, to a list of potential deposition requests in his grievance case against the NFL.

Jane Goodell’s inclusion is a more recent addition, coming months after an October Wall Street Journal report determined she had been surreptitiously using the Twitter account @forargument to defend her husband against articles and comments critical of his handling of league issues. 

Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, Bob McNair, John Harbaugh, Pete Carroll, Ozzie Newsome and John Schneider have also been requested for depositions.

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster has been arrested in a domestic violence case.

Foster was booked at the Santa Clara County Jail and is currently being held without bail, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The 23-year-old is expected to be one of the 49ers' defensive building blocks, but this is the second time he's been arrested this offseason. He was previously arrested in Alabama for marijuana possession.

Colin Kaepernick's attorneys and the NFL recently exchanged almost 100,000 documents as part of his collusion case.

Kaepernick remained unsigned through the entire 2017 season following his anthem protest in 2016.

As part of the discovery process, Kaepernick's lawyers sought electronic communications (texts, emails, etc.) from numerous league and team employees - including high-ranking NFL officials, coaches, and general managers from teams like Dallas, Baltimore, Tennessee and others who signed quarterbacks and worked out quarterbacks in season. 

Kaepernick's attorneys are also expected to pursue the role of Donald Trump in setting a climate in which he was unable to secure a tryout for a job in the NFL last season.

DeMaurice Smith is already preparing the union for another collective bargaining agreement battle in 2021.

Smith was asked if he has any hopes for a smooth agreement before a possible work stoppage.

"No. We prepare for war," said Smith.

Speaking at his annual Super Bowl news conference, Smith added: "So if we're able to get a collective bargaining agreement done, that's great. But all of these men went through a unilateral declared war on players in 2010 and 2011. I think it's important for [NFL commissioner Roger Goodell] and I to have a wonderful open discussion, but he represents the owners, and we represent the players."

Owners locked out players in the spring of 2011 and received many concessions from the players.

"Everyone likes to posit that there would be some kind of extension," he said. "This collective bargaining agreement was painfully negotiated at a time when the league secured a $4 billion war chest to basically put us out of business. There are a lot of great things about the collective bargaining agreement, but whether it's the great things or the thing that we don't like, collective bargaining agreements are grinding, exhausting elements that come out of two parties that want fundamentally different things. So, I could never imagine a world where you would simply put a page on the back of it that says, 'This document is now extended until 2035.'"

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that fans are following the NFL less closely.

Adults who report following the NFL closely have dropped 9% since 2014, the poll finds. Just 51% of men aged 18 to 49 say they follow the NFL closely, down from 75% four years ago. 

The Journal/NBC News poll interviewed 900 adults from Jan. 13-17.

The drop offs, according to the poll, also crossed political lines. Base Democrats who follow the league closely fell by 16 points versus four years ago, while it was 14 points for base Republicans.

League executives have pointed to a changing media environment in which prime-time ratings have dropped across the board.