INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Only one person would have been comfortable enough to predict Xavier McKinney would have an interception in his first five games with the Green Bay Packers.
It's no surprise that person is McKinney himself.
“Nah, I wouldn’t have thought you (were) crazy at all,” McKinney said after becoming the first NFL player since the 1970 merger to have an interception in his first five games with a team in Sunday's 24-19 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. “I went into the season, I’m on a mission ... Everything that I didn’t get before, that’s what I’m coming for.”
McKinney — signed by the Packers during the offseason after four seasons with the New York Giants — reached the milestone with 8:10 remaining in the third quarter when he picked off Matthew Stafford on an overthrown pass intended for Tutu Atwell. McKinney hauled it in at the Green Bay 18-yard line and returned it 28 yards.
McKinney was playing the deep part of the field but made a great break on the play and trusted his instincts despite being looked off most of the game by Stafford.
“It was probably the most looked off I’ve been this year. So it was difficult, but I know if I trust it, my craft and my instincts, I was gonna be able to get one,” McKinney said.
Stafford said McKinney did a nice job reading the play and that he might have put too much on the pass.
The Packers would convert the interception into a 7-yard touchdown reception by Tucker Kraft to extend their lead to 24-13. McKinney also had a fumble recovery earlier in the quarter that led to Green Bay's go-ahead touchdown.
McKinney tied Irv Comp's run of five straight in 1943 for the longest interception streak in franchise history.
“The guy just has a knack for the football and he’s got great ball skills. He’s very instinctive and smart to allow him to anticipate, to make plays, and then he generally makes the play,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I’m sure there was one play in the second half that he’d like to have back because he might have had another one right there. Certainly, I think he’s been obviously a very key pickup for us in free agency.”
McKinney also had a pick in Week 18 last season with the Giants, which extends his total run to six games over two seasons. He is the fourth player since 1990 to have an interception streak of at least six, joining Dallas’ Trevon Diggs (2021), Minnesota’s Brian Russell (2003) and Carolina’s Doug Evans (2001).
McKinney is also the fourth player since 2000 with an interception in each of his team’s first five games of a season, joining Diggs, Russell and Cincinnati’s Lemar Parrish (1979).
The pair of streaks, though, will be the last thing on his mind when the Packers host the Arizona Cardinals next Sunday.
"Not really thinking about it. I’m just trying to make plays wherever I can make plays at. I don’t go into games thinking like, ‘Alright, let me try to get a pick.’ I’m just continuing to trust in my path and the work that I put into this game and it’s paying off," McKinney said.
McKinney leads the league with five picks. It is also tied with the most he has had in a season, which was in 2021 with the Giants. During training camp, he said his goal for the season was seven.
“I’m not there yet. We got a long season. I’m not gonna sit up here and celebrate my picks because I know that it can be more than that,” he said. "I dropped one today. I’m gonna get back to work and continue to just keep working on my craft and try to keep getting more of those.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Green Bay Packers players celebrate an interception by safety Xavier McKinney (29) during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney (29) intercepts the ball during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney (29) attempts to intercept a pass during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
ACERRA, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday greeted one by one families who lost loved ones to illegal toxic dumping in an area near Naples, tied to a multi-billion criminal racket run by the mafia.
Many paused to share photographs and other mementos of children and young people who have died or are battling cancer because of the pollution.
Leo's visit to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s commitment to carry on his predecessor’s environmental agenda.
“I have come first of all to gather the tears of those who have lost loved ones, killed by environmental pollution caused by unscrupulous people and organizations who for too long were able to act with impunity,” Leo said in remarks to family members and local clergy inside Acerra's cathedral.
The pontiff recalled that the area now dubbed the Land of Fires was once called “Campania felix,” Latin for blessed or fruitful countryside, "capable for enchanting for its fertility, its produce and its culture, like a hymn to life.
"And yet — here is death, of the land and of men,'' the pope said.
The European Court of Human Rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.
The court found Italian authorities had known since 1988 about the toxic pollution, blamed on the Camorra crime syndicate that controls waste disposal, but failed to take necessary steps to protect the residents. The binding ruling gave Italy two years to set up a database about the toxic waste and verified health risks associated with living there.
Bishop Antonio Di Donna estimated 150 young people had died in the city of some 58,000 over the past three decades — emphasizing in his opening remarks that the number didn't take into account adults and victims in other municipalities.
He urged the pope to admonish those who continue to pollute, noting that the dumping of tons of toxic waste was reported a day earlier near Castera. Di Donna said that Italian officials had identified dozens more human-caused contamination sites throughout the country, including the Venetian port of Marghera, and the leaching of PFAS forever chemicals into groundwater near Vicenza.
"We say to those brothers of ours ensnared in evil and seized by a mirage of fabulous earnings: Convert, change your ways, because what you are doing is not only a crime, it is a sin that cries out to God for vengeance,'' the bishop said.
The pope later greeted the mayors of the 90 communities impacted by the toxic dumping, and greeted thousands of people waving yellow flags and chanting “Papa Leone” along the route of his popemobile and in a central piazza.
The victims include Maria Venturato, who died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 25. Her father, Angelo, said he hopes to speak with the pope to explain their reality, “not for me … for the next generation.”
“I’d like to give these young people a future, so I’m asking for the pope’s help with this. That is, I’m making a strong appeal to him to go to those in power and say, ‘Look, let’s heal this land of fires,’" he said on the eve of the pope's visit.
Inside the cathedral, Filomena Carolla presented the pope with a book containing memories from the life of her daughter, Tina De Angelis, who died of cancer at the age of 24.
“I’m just angry at the people who poisoned the soil, because what did our children have to do with it? What did they have to do with it, so young,” Carolla told The Associated Press on Friday.
Francis' plans to visit the area in 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic.
A man presents a pizza with the portrait of Pope Leo XIV during his a one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech during his meeting with clergy, religious and families of victims of environmental pollution in the Saint Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Acerra, near Naples, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV rides on his popemobile during his one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
A man enters a grocery store with posters of Pope Leo XIV ahead of his visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Acerra bishop Antonio Di Donna speaks during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Angelo Venturato talks during an interview with the Associated Press next to photos of his daughter Maria who died at the age of 25 of a cancer he claims to be connected to decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, in the southern town of Acerra, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
