ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Marvin Harrison Jr., Joe Alt, Kris Jenkins, Jonah Ellis and Luke McCaffrey have turned the NFL draft into a family affair.
The sons of former pro football stars, they've followed their fathers' formidable footsteps into the league.
Elliss was selected by the Denver Broncos in the third round Friday night. His father, Luther Ellis, was once the NFL's highest-paid defensive tackle while playing for Detroit for nine seasons. He played one final season with Denver in 2004. In 2015, Luther served as team chaplain for the Broncos in their last Super Bowl season.
“Actually, I don't remember too many of his highlights, but I do remember when we moved out to Colorado,” Jonah Elliss said. “I spent a year there. It was really awesome just to see my dad start to get back into football, even though he was just the chaplain at the time. So, it was awesome seeing him do that. And I'm really excited to come down there where he was.”
Elliss also has three brothers in the NFL: Kaden (Falcons), Christian (Patriots) and Noah (Eagles). Kaden played his first four seasons with New Orleans and was also drafted by Sean Payton, who's now the Broncos' coach.
“Kaden told me how much he loved Coach, so I'm just really excited to get out there and work for him because my brother had such good things to say about him," Jonah Elliss said.
Elliss, an edge rusher, wore No. 83 at Utah just like his dad did in the early 1990s.
Jenkins, an All-American and team captain for national champion Michigan as a senior who was selected by the Bengals in the second round on Friday, also has NFL bloodlines.
His father, also named Kris, was a two-time All-Pro defensive tackle during 10 seasons with Carolina and the New York Jets. And his uncle is Super Bowl champion defensive end Cullen Jenkins.
Luke McCaffrey, a wide receiver from Rice, was selected by the Washington Commanders at the end of the third round. The 100th overall selection is the son of former star receiver Ed McCaffrey and the brother of current star running back Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers.
On Thursday night, the Harrisons and Alts became the 10th and 11th families since 1967 to have both a father and son selected in the first round of the NFL draft.
Arizona selected Harrison with the fourth overall selection Thursday night. His father, Pro Football Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison Sr., was selected in the first round by the Indianapolis Colts in 1996.
One pick later, the Los Angeles Chargers chose Alt, whose father, John Alt, was a first-round pick by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1984 NFL draft.
More prospects with pro bloodlines are expected to join them this weekend in Rounds 4-7 as Frank Gore Jr., Brenden Rice (son of Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice) and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. are on the board.
Texas wide receiver Jordan Whittington, Missouri offensive lineman Javon Foster, Michigan offensive lineman Drake Nugent and Michigan defensive lineman Jaylen Harrell also are sons of former NFL players.
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Los Angeles Chargers draft Joe Alt takes questions from the media at an NFL football news conference Friday, April 26, 2024, in Costa Mesa, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Arizona Cardinals first round draft pick Marvin Harrison Jr. speaks at an NFL football press conference, Friday, April 26, 2024, at the teams' facility in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
ROME (AP) — Italy’s aviation authority has barred humanitarian migrant rescue groups from using a Sicilian airport to launch search and rescue flights over the Mediterranean, in the government’s latest move to regulate their activities.
An ordinance from ENAC’s western Sicilian office said the flights interfered with the Italian coast guard’s exclusive role in coordinating search and rescue efforts and put migrant lives at risk. Non-governmental rescue groups that continue using the Lampedusa, Sicily airport risk unspecified fines and the seizure of their aircraft, it said.
The ordinance marked a new effort by the government of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni to crack down on migration from North Africa, a key campaign promise that brought her right-wing coalition to power in 2022.
In addition to targeting smugglers and the migrants themselves, the government has taken a series of measures to complicate the work of humanitarian aid groups that rescue migrants at sea. The government accuses these groups of encouraging risky departures by their presence in the Mediterranean and fuelling the trafficking demand.
The aid groups say they are saving lives in the absence of an adequate European response to the migration problem and have lashed out at the Italian measures, which they say are designed to limit their time at sea.
In addition to occasional law enforcement sequesters of ships and investigations, Italy now assigns rescue ships to ports far from the active search zone and requires them to return to port after each rescue, rather than stay at sea to pick up as many migrants as possible.
The German rescue group Sea-Watch, which operates its Seabird aircraft to spot migrant boats in distress, vowed to continue its flights. It said late Tuesday that the flights were the only independent way “to document the daily violations of human rights that occur” in the Mediterranean.
It cited the activities of the Libyan coast guard, which is trained and equipped by the European Union. Libyan rescue ships regularly intercept migrant smuggling boats and bring them back to shore in Libya, where the United Nations and human rights groups have documented grave abuses at migrant holding facilities.
“This attack that tramples on international law will not stop us from continuing to annoy those who would like what happens daily in the Mediterranean to remain a secret,” Sea-Watch said in a social media post.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the groups would do to keep flying, and whether they could find alternative airports close enough to the search zone.
Sara Kelany, lawmaker and migration coordinator for Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, denied the government was trying to limit the groups' activities. The aim, she said, was to ensure the coast guard can do its job in accordance with international regulations.
“It is an order issued by ENAC that substantially regulated the activities of NGOs in the air space corresponding to the Italian search and rescue zone,” she told The Associated Press.
Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, has long been the destination of choice for migrant smugglers who charge people hundreds of euros apiece to be crammed into overcrowded boats to make the dangerous crossing from North Africa.
Meloni has vowed to strangle the flow, and has inked a series of agreements to incentivize North African countries to prevent departures, while also persuading would-be EU member Albania to build two centers to process the asylum claims of those migrants who are rescued by Italian ships.
To date, the number of migrants arriving in Italy is way down this year compared to the same period last year: 17,666 had arrived as of Wednesday, compared to 44,739 by this time last year and slightly more than the 11,797 in 2022, according to interior ministry data.
Paolo Santalucia contributed.
FILE - Eike Bretschneider exits the Seabird aircraft after flying for nearly six hours before running low on fuel over the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya, as a storm approaches the island of Lampedusa, Italy, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. Italy’s aviation authority has barred humanitarian migrant rescue groups from using a Sicilian airport to launch search and rescue flights over the Mediterranean, in the government’s latest crackdown on their activities. (AP Photo/Renata Brito, File)
