WESTFIELD, Ind. (AP) — Michael Penix Jr. went through his usual routine Wednesday and Thursday — quarterback drills, seven-on-seven work and mental reps as his Atlanta Falcons teammates squared off with the Indianapolis Colts during two days of joint practice.
Except there was nothing typical about this trip to Indiana for Penix.
The Indiana University graduate spent the week about 90 miles northwest of the Bloomington campus, throwing in front of some familiar fans and an old Hoosiers teammate, Wabash College safeties coach Noah Pierre.
To some in central Indiana, it was a reminder that Penix was supposed to be the quarterback who would revive Indiana football. Instead, his career and the Hoosiers' ascension was derailed by multiple injuries like the one he's now trying to overcome in his third season with Atlanta.
“I've got to talk to my doctor, and I know that call will be coming up soon,” Penix said. “I've got to talk to my doctor to see where he thinks I am and see how he feels about everything. Then we'll go from there.”
For Penix, it's been a rugged road back from a third surgery for a torn ACL. This one was the first in his left knee.
The injury cost Penix the final five games of last season, his first as the Falcons' full-time starter. Since then, the Falcons signed Tua Tagovailoa following his release by the Miami Dolphins, added undrafted rookie Jack Strand and brought in veteran Cooper Rush last month.
Tagovailoa has struggled in camp, including the past two days. His workout Thursday ended with four straight errant throws during a two-minute drill.
“You’ve got to be where you are right now and learn from what happened in practice,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “We’ll take the good as well as the bad. We’ll move forward and continue to play that way.”
Penix, meanwhile, continues to follow his rehab plan.
“It's not frustrating,” Penix said. “Obviously, I don't get a lot of reps so I want to take advantage of every rep I get. Today, I ended on a bad play, I ended on a pick. So for me, it's like now I've got to sit here the rest of practice and think that was my last play. But at the same time, it's good to be able to go out there and compete. It's good to be able to learn from the mistakes.”
The Colts also have two quarterbacks — Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson — trying to prove themselves.
Jones suffered a broken bone in his left leg and a season-ending torn right Achilles tendon last year. Doctors cleared him without any limitations to return to practice as training camp opened, and Jones has taken all of the normal snaps in team drills and has looked sharp.
“I feel good, I feel good moving around,” Jones said. “I think with any major rehab process, you're always kind of progressing and getting back and getting used to doing everything, building up the reps on it, building your conditioning level. So that's good. There's nothing I don't feel good about.”
Richardson, like Penix a first-round pick with a long injury history, is trying to show he can stay healthy and fulfill his potential. He's battling to remain the No. 2 quarterback on Indy's depth chart.
Richardson looked better, at times, during Indy's first preseason game. He went 11 of 14 for 145 yards, but he also threw an interception and lost a fumble. Second-year quarterback Riley Leonard is expected to start Saturday's preseason game against Atlanta.
For the second straight day, there were no major fights as the Colts wrapped up a nine-year run in Westfield, a suburb of Indy. The Colts are expected to hold next summer's camp at the team headquarters.
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Atlanta Falcons quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) cuts between wide receiver Antwane Wells Jr. (82) and wide receiver Chris Blair (19) during a joint practice with the Indianapolis Colts at the team's NFL football training camp in Westfield, Ind., Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (17) throws during a joint practice with the Atlanta Falcons at the team's NFL football training camp in Westfield, Ind., Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (9) runs drills during an NFL football training camp practice on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — The Texas prosecutor who oversaw Karmelo Anthony 's conviction in a deadly stabbing at a high school track meet said Thursday that both sides had agreed to hold back evidence that risked further inflaming a case already boiling with racial tensions and death threats.
That agreement is at the center of whether a judge will order a retrial for Anthony, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison over the killing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf last year during a confrontation in the bleachers of a high school stadium near Dallas.
Anthony, 19, sat at the defense table as his attorney argued that the pact ultimately marred the June trial, which ended with jurors rejecting his claims of self-defense. Prosecutor Bill Wirskye defended the trial as fair.
The hearing was set to continue Friday, and it was not clear when the judge will rule on Anthony’s retrial request.
Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Among the details that jurors never heard, according to attorneys on both sides, were that Anthony once sent a text message fantasizing about stabbing someone and Metcalf had a history of fighting and using racist language.
During the trial lawyers on both sides told jurors the tragedy had nothing to do with race, but social media posts amplified the killing nationwide in racial terms.
“All of us wanted the temperature on this, so to say, to be turned down,” said Mike Howard, who was Anthony’s lead attorney.
In addition to citing the off-the-record agreement, defense attorney Russell Wilson also told the judge a new trial should be allowed because of errors that limited access to the proceedings.
Wilson said the case’s original judge allowed a “shadow docket” that shielded character information about both sides. “Everything was done off the record, at an astonishing clip,” said Wilson, who didn’t represent Anthony at the criminal trial.
Wirskye said Anthony's original attorneys agreed to everything done during the trial.
“Witness after witness came in” and said Anthony did it and it was not self-defense, Wirskye said.
The prosecutor said he agreed not to use evidence that showed Anthony had an obsession with guns and knives and that he was angry on the morning of the stabbing.
“He went there that day spoiling for a fight,” Wirskye said about the day of the track meet.
The defense team had information showing that Metcalf used racial slurs in the past and bullied Black classmates, according to Howard and documents shown during Thursday's hearing.
As Howard spoke in the court, Metcalf's parents sat quietly in the gallery. There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from them through a court spokesperson.
As national attention intensified last year, the families of both Metcalf and Anthony said they had been targets of harassment.
The prosecutor said there were threats against a judge who granted Anthony bond, fake autopsy reports circulating online and attempts to intimidate witnesses.
“The lawyers on both sides were worried about their lives in this case,” Wirskye said.
Anthony already won a legal victory on Wednesday when the judge who presided over his trial was removed from the case. Judge Michael Chitty was then assigned to consider the motion for a retrial.
Anthony's attorneys had asked for state District Judge John Roach to be removed in part because of a TV interview in which Roach said jurors “got it right” when they delivered a guilty verdict.
Students who took the stand described a heated exchange over Anthony’s refusal on a rainy spring day to leave a tent that belonged to Metcalf’s team.
Several schools were competing at the track event when Anthony sat under a tent in the bleachers. Metcalf and others repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to a confrontation.
Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.
Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
This story has been corrected to show that prosecutors said a judge who granted bond, not the trial judge, received threats.
Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
This booking photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, shows Karmelo Anthony. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
FILE - A courtroom sketch provided by Pat Lopez shows Karmelo Anthony, center, at the defense table, the jury on the left and the presiding judge on the right, June 4, 2026, in McKinney, Texas, during the trial of a teen accused of fatally stabbing another during a track meet in suburban Dallas last year. (Pat Lopez via AP, File)
