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Newly signed Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson in search of a different number after 2 days of camp

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Newly signed Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson in search of a different number after 2 days of camp
Sport

Sport

Newly signed Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson in search of a different number after 2 days of camp

2024-08-14 02:46 Last Updated At:02:51

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Veteran NFL safety Tashaun Gipson is already hunting for a new number.

Gipson was handed No. 47 — the only jersey available for his position group — when he arrived for training camp practice in Jacksonville on Monday. It looked and felt awkward for the 13th-year pro who spent three previous seasons (2016-18) wearing No. 39 for the Jaguars.

Rookie kicker Cam Little is currently wearing No. 39, but Gipson is holding out hope that Little might want a different number once the roster gets whittled down to 53.

“I’m not used to this and don’t (anyone else) get used to this,” Gipson quipped Tuesday. “I would like to get (39) back, but at this point, if he has ties to it, I think I’m going to have to find another number. But 39 always has a special place in my heart for sure.”

So does Jacksonville, which was the main reason Gipson jumped at the chance to rejoin the franchise despite being suspended for the first six games of the regular season for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancers.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” said Gipson, who has acknowledged taking a supplement that contained a banned substance. “I’m grateful that they had enough respect for me as a man, as a player, as a person, to bring me in here and give me an opportunity. Nothing but love for the city, the organization, from the bottom of my heart.

“I’m just going to try to be a resource and try to pick these guys’ brains and kind of go from there.”

Gipson has started 165 games over 12 seasons with Cleveland, Jacksonville, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco. He has 33 interceptions, including at least one in every year since signing with the Browns as an undrafted free agent in 2012. He started 33 games for the 49ers over the past two years, advancing to two NFC championship games and a Super Bowl.

The Jaguars gave him a one-year deal to essentially be a midseason insurance policy, a guy who would become available beginning Week 7 against New England in London. Jacksonville is expected to be without backup Andrew Wingard for at least the first month of the regular season, and fellow safety Darnell Savage is still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.

So Gipson should get on the field in the preseason and might be a viable option for down the road.

“It’s a veteran player that we’re familiar with, who gives us more depth, gives us an opportunity at safety that right now kind of fills a spot,” coach Doug Pederson said.

Gipson joins a growing list of aging veterans signed by general manager Trent Baalke this year. The Jaguars previously added three starters with at least a decade of experience: center Mitch Morse, defensive lineman Arik Armstead and cornerback Ronald Darby.

In a league in which teams are usually trying to get younger, Jacksonville is headed in the other direction — part of a push to avoid the kind of late-season collapse that knocked the franchise out of the playoff picture a year ago.

“A lot of the things are above the shoulders,” Gipson said. “Some things talent can’t do. I’m a little long in the tooth. I try to spread wisdom as much as I can to these young guys and hopefully it sticks to them. It could just be that extra play that might be a game changer that could get us to where we need to go.”

It remains to be seen what number Gipson will be wearing for what could be his final NFL journey.

“It’ll be something different than 47,” he said. “That’s all I know.”

NOTES: The Jaguars activated Armstead (knee) from the physically unable to perform list. He is expected to practice Wednesday against Tampa Bay.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Newly signed Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson in search of a different number after 2 days of camp

Newly signed Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson in search of a different number after 2 days of camp

FILE - San Francisco 49ers safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. (31) celebrates during the second half of the NFC Championship NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. The Jacksonville Jaguars signed veteran safety Gipson to a one-year contract Sunday, Aug. 11, reuniting him with the franchise despite a six-game suspension to start the regular season. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

FILE - San Francisco 49ers safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. (31) celebrates during the second half of the NFC Championship NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. The Jacksonville Jaguars signed veteran safety Gipson to a one-year contract Sunday, Aug. 11, reuniting him with the franchise despite a six-game suspension to start the regular season. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

Newly signed Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson in search of a different number after 2 days of camp

Newly signed Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson in search of a different number after 2 days of camp

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the United States to again withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.

Trump's action, hours after he was sworn in to a second term, echoed his directive in 2017, when he announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris accord. The pact is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.

Trump also signed a letter to the United Nations indicating his intention to withdraw from the 2015 agreement, which allows nations to provide targets to cut their own emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Those targets are supposed to become more stringent over time, with countries facing a February 2025 deadline for new individual plans. The outgoing Biden administration last month offered a plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.

Trump's order says the Paris accord is among a number of international agreements that don't reflect U.S. values and “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people."

Instead of joining a global agreement, “the United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries,'' Trump said.

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris accord, called the planned U.S. withdrawal unfortunate but said action to slow climate change “is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies."

The global context for Trump's action is “very different to 2017,'' Tubiana said Monday, adding that “there is unstoppable economic momentum behind the global transition, which the U.S has gained from and led but now risks forfeiting."

The International Energy Agency expects the global market for key clean energy technologies to triple to more than $2 trillion by 2035, she said.

“The impacts of the climate crisis are also worsening. The terrible wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest reminder that Americans, like everyone else, are affected by worsening climate change,” Tubiana said.

Gina McCarthy, who served as White House climate adviser under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said that if Trump, a Republican, “truly wants America to lead the global economy, become energy independent and create good-paying American jobs," then he must “stay focused on growing our clean energy industry. Clean technologies are driving down energy costs for people all across our country."

The world is now long-term 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) above mid-1800s temperatures. Most but not all climate monitoring agencies said global temperatures last year passed the warming mark of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and all said it was the warmest year on record.

The withdrawal process from the Paris accord takes one year. Trump’s previous withdrawal took effect the day after the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden.

While the first Trump-led withdrawal from the landmark U.N. agreement — adopted by 196 nations — shocked and angered nations across the globe, “not a single country followed the U.S. out the door,” said Alden Meyer, a longtime climate negotiations analyst with the European think tank E3G.

Instead, other nations renewed their commitment to slowing climate change, along with investors, businesses, governors, mayors and others in the U.S., Meyer and other experts said.

Still, they lamented the loss of U.S. leadership in global efforts to slow climate change, even as the world is on track to set yet another record hot year and has been lurching from drought to hurricane to flood to wildfire.

“Clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered,″ said climate activist and writer Bill McKibben. “For the next few years the best we can hope is that Washington won’t manage to wreck the efforts of others.”

About half of Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose U.S. action to withdraw from the climate accord, and even Republicans aren’t overwhelmingly in favor, according according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults “somewhat” or “strongly” in favor of withdrawing from the Paris agreement, while about one-quarter are neutral.

Much of the opposition to U.S. withdrawal comes from Democrats, but Republicans display some ambivalence as well. Slightly less than half of Republicans are in favor of withdrawing from the climate accord, while about 2 in 10 are opposed.

China several years ago passed the United States as the world's largest annual carbon dioxide emitting nation. The U.S. — the second biggest annual carbon polluting country — put 4.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air in 2023, down 11% from a decade earlier, according to the scientists who track emissions for the Global Carbon Project.

But carbon dioxide lasts in the atmosphere for centuries, so the United States has put more of the heat-trapping gas that is now in the air than any other nation. The U.S. is responsible for nearly 22% of the carbon dioxide put in the atmosphere since 1950, according to Global Carbon Project.

While global efforts to fight climate change continued during Trump's first term, many experts worry that a second Trump term will be more damaging, with the United States withdrawing even further from climate efforts in a way that could cripple future presidents’ efforts. With Trump, who has dismissed climate change, in charge of the world’s leading economy, those experts fear other countries, especially China, could use it as an excuse to ease off their own efforts to curb carbon emissions.

Simon Stiell, the U.N. climate change executive secretary, held out hope that the U.S. would continue to embrace the global clean energy boom.

“Ignoring it only sends all that vast wealth to competitor economies, while climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse," Stiell said. “The door remains open to the Paris Agreement, and we welcome constructive engagement from any and all countries.”

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

AES Indiana Petersburg Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant, operates in Petersburg, Ind., on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

AES Indiana Petersburg Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant, operates in Petersburg, Ind., on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

FILE - Wind turbines stretch across the horizon at dusk at the Spearville Wind Farm, Sept. 29, 2024, near Spearville, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - Wind turbines stretch across the horizon at dusk at the Spearville Wind Farm, Sept. 29, 2024, near Spearville, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

President Donald Trump gestures during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

President Donald Trump gestures during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

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