FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Connor McGovern was sitting on his couch at home watching the New York Jets in their season opener on Monday night and couldn't help but yell at the TV and cheer on his buddies.
“My wife was like, ‘You’re not even on the team yet!'” McGovern said Thursday with a smile. “I was like, ‘Yeah, but those are my boys out there.’”
The veteran center had been contemplating retirement before coming in for a workout Wednesday with the Jets, the team with which he played the past four years. He was signed to their practice squad a few hours later.
“If or when this team goes to the playoffs and if I wasn’t helping in some capacity,” the 31-year-old McGovern said, “I’d be pretty disappointed that I didn’t seize any opportunity I had to come have another ride with this group and be a part of something special.”
McGovern was the team’s starting center until a dislocated left kneecap ended his year halfway through last season. He also had damage to his MCL in the knee from an injury in 2022. McGovern wore a full sleeve on his left leg as he practiced for the first time Thursday.
Joe Tippmann took over as the Jets’ center after McGovern's injury and did a solid job as a rookie and remains the starter. Meanwhile, McGovern became a free agent in the offseason and was coming off a serious knee injury.
“After I got hurt, I called my wife and was like, ‘Well, that’s it. We’re hanging 'em up,’” McGovern recalled. “And my agent was like, ‘No, no, there will be a spot for you somewhere. Just get healthy, come back and just be ready for an opportunity.’”
And it came at a familiar place.
“I really miss the guys,” he said. “I miss being around this building and being around this organization. And as soon as they gave me an opportunity to come back, I said, ‘Yeah, I need to be back.’”
McGovern spent his first four NFL seasons with Denver after being drafted in the fifth round out of Missouri in 2016. He signed as a free agent with the Jets in 2020 and was the anchor of New York’s offensive line until injuring his knee in Week 7 last year.
“There are some plateaus in there that I wasn’t expecting and a little bit of a longer journey than I really originally had anticipated,” he said of the rehabilitation period. “I normally take pride on being a quick healer and as I hit 30, I think I’m pretty average now.”
McGovern stayed in touch with many of his Jets teammates throughout the offseason, including quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He was part of a group outing with Rodgers in January when the QB made a hole-in-one — "best golf shot I've ever been around — in Las Vegas.
“I feel so much a part of this team and this organization,” McGovern said. “I’ve always been a Jet with a lot of pride and really enjoyed my time here. And yeah, the only team I’d be willing to come back to be on the P-squad on would be this one, for sure, with this group of guys.”
NOTES: LT Tyron Smith got a veteran rest day from practice after the Jets had a walkthrough session Wednesday. ... DL Javon Kinlaw had an excused second day away from the team for the birth of his son. ... DL Micheal Clemons (triceps), CB Michael Carter II (ankle) and CB D.J. Reed (knee) were limited.
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FILE - New York Jets center Connor McGovern (60) blocks at the line of scrimmage during the second half an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sept. 24, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A militant Kurdish group announced on Friday that it had made “historic” decisions during its long-awaited congress earlier this week. The group, however, stopped short of saying whether it had resolved to disband and disarm as part of a new peace initiative with Turkey aimed at ending the four-decade insurgency.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, held a congress in two locations in northern Iraq between May 5-7, according to a statement carried by the Firat News Agency, a media organization close to the banned group.
The PKK said the historic decisions taken during the congress would be shared with the public soon.
In February, the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, called on his group to convene a congress to dissolve itself and disarm to end the conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s.
The group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and most Western states, announced a ceasefire days later but had set conditions to disband, including the establishment of a legal mechanism for peace talks.
During the congress, statements by Ocalan outlining his “perspectives and proposals” were read, according to Firat news. Turkey's Haberturk broadcaster said the congress convened in Suleymaniyah and Duhok, in northern Iraq where the PKK's leadership is thought to be based.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey expects the PKK to respond “positively” to Ocalan's call to dissolve but said an announcement was not imminent.
“It seems that we will have to wait a little longer to hear the organization’s response to this historic call," he told Turkey's 24 news channel in an interview.
“This is not an easy decision for the organization," he added, suggesting possible disagreements among factions within the PKK.
Earlier, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, DEM, which is involved in the peace effort, said the PKK could declare its decision “at any moment.”
“We, too, are awaiting this historic step, this historic decision,” DEM party spokeswoman Aysegul Dogan said.
In a later statement, the DEM party described the PKK’s congress as a turning point toward peace, and paid tribute to all lives lost during the conflict.
The party also said Turkey’s parliament and other institutions would have a significant role to play toward peace and democratization.
“A new page is opening on the path to an honorable peace and a democratic solution,” the party said.
The statement added: “We believe that, following this historic turning point, all democratic political institutions — especially the Grand National Assembly of Turkey — must take responsibility for solving the Kurdish issue and ensuring Turkey’s true democratization.”
The latest peace initiative was launched in October by Devlet Bahceli, a far-right Turkish politician who suggested that Ocalan, who is imprisoned on an island off Istanbul, could be granted parole if his group renounces violence and disbands.
The DEM party statement also honored Sirri Sureyya Onder, a party legislator who was a key figure in the latest effort of peace, and who died last week.
Onder and other DEM party officials visited Ocalan on Imrali island where he is serving a life sentence several times, as part of the peace effort.
Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the group have ended in failure — most recently in 2015.
FILE - Youngsters hold a photograph of the jailed leader of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, Abdullah Ocalan as they gather to watch live on a tv screen a Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, delegation members releasing an statement from Ocalan, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Metin Yoksu, File)
