LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Garoppolo will take his first snaps for the Rams when he starts in place of Matthew Stafford in playoff-bound Los Angeles' regular-season finale against Seattle on Sunday.
Coach Sean McVay announced the decision Wednesday to rest Stafford, the 16-year veteran starter. The Rams haven't decided which additional starters will rest.
Los Angeles (10-6) has clinched the NFC West title over the Seahawks (9-7) based on strength of schedule. The Rams are currently the third seed in the NFC playoff bracket, but they will fall to fourth if they lose to Seattle and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7) beat Atlanta to win the South division.
The wild-card seeding is still in flux among Minnesota, Washington and Green Bay, so McVay clearly doesn't care whether the Rams enter the postseason as the third or fourth seed.
Garoppolo has yet to play for the Rams since signing to be Stafford's backup last spring. The 33-year-old veteran who led San Francisco to Super Bowl 54, missed the first two games of his first season in Los Angeles under suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
Stafford has taken every snap this season for the Rams, who have won nine of 11 to surge into the postseason for the third time in his four years with Los Angeles. His 3,762 yards passing and 20 touchdown passes are his fewest in a season in which he played at least 15 games, but Stafford's eight interceptions are also his fewest in a nearly-full season, while his completion rate (65.8 percent) is above his career average.
Stafford improved to 13-1 as a starter in Rams games played in December when Los Angeles held off Arizona 13-9 last Saturday, but his offense has been in a slump. The Rams have scored more than 21 points just once during their current five-game winning streak, and they've managed just three touchdowns in their past three games combined.
Los Angeles' third-string quarterback is Stetson Bennett. The two-time national championship winner at Georgia and fourth-round draft pick in 2023 also has yet to play for the Rams, missing all of last season while away from the team for undisclosed personal reasons.
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FILE - Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo warms up during an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Dec. 12, 2024, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Scot Tucker, File)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford warms up before an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) throw a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)
FILE - Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo warms up during an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Dec. 12, 2024, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Scot Tucker, File)
Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers.
Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct "designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.” Microsoft says the other worker had already announced her resignation, but on Monday it ordered her to leave five days early.
The protests began Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked up toward a stage where an executive was announcing new product features and a long-term vision for Microsoft's AI ambitions.
“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military," Aboussad shouted at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. "Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
The protest forced Suleyman to pause his talk while it was being livestreamed from Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington. Among the participants at the 50th anniversary of Microsoft's founding were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft said Suleyman calmly tried to de-escalate the situation. “Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” he said. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands. She also threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people, before being escorted out of the event.
A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later part of the event.
Aboussad, based at Microsoft's Canadian headquarters in Toronto, was invited on Monday to a call with a human resources representative at which she was told she was being fired immediately, according to the advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, which has protested the sale of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to Israel.
An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
In its termination letter, Microsoft told Aboussad she could have raised her concerns confidentially to a manager. Instead, it said she made “hostile, unprovoked, and highly inappropriate accusations” against Suleyman and the company and that her “conduct was so aggressive and disruptive that you had to be escorted out of the room by security.”
Agrawal had already given her two weeks notice and was preparing to leave the company on April 11, but on Monday a manager emailed that Microsoft "has decided to make your resignation immediately effective today.”
It was the most public but not the first protest over Microsoft's work with Israel. In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting the contracts.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” said a statement from the company Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Microsoft had declined to say Friday whether it was taking further action, but Aboussad and Agrawal expected it was coming after both lost access to their work accounts shortly after the protest.
Dozens of Google workers were fired last year after internal protests over a contract it also has with the Israeli government. Employee sit-ins at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California targeted a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus providing AI technology to the Israeli government.
The Google workers later filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to get their jobs back.
CORRECTS DATE - A pro-Palestinian demonstrator, Ibtihal Aboussad, is escorted away by security as they interrupt Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, ahead of a 50th Anniversary presentation at Microsoft headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)
