MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings had to hit the reset button at quarterback again, forced into another switch in the first quarter of the season opener when newcomer Kyler Murray took a scary hit to the head.
Carson Wentz filled in after Murray was ruled out for the rest of the game with a concussion and helped the Vikings rally for a 39-22 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. Wentz might need to play again next week when the Vikings visit another NFC North rival, the Chicago Bears.
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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, center, is tackled by Green Bay Packers' Lukas van Ness, left, and Javon Bullard, right, during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray walks off the field after throwing a pass that was intercepted by the Green Bay Packers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, center, is tackled by Green Bay Packers' Lukas van Ness, left, and Javon Bullard, right, during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers players look on after Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray was tackled during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, center, walks off the field with staff after suffering an unknown injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Murray was walking around and talking with teammates in the locker room afterward, but concussions are unpredictable and delicate injuries so the Vikings had no update on his status or timetable for his return.
“Take it day by day and see how he comes in tomorrow,” coach Kevin O'Connell said in his postgame news conference. “I did just see him and he seemed to be doing pretty well.”
Murray took off on a third-and-7 play from the Vikings 33 and ran around the right end, leaning forward to avoid contact as Packers outside linebacker Lukas Van Ness got his hand on Murray's helmet at the end of his pursuit. Cornerback Javon Bullard arrived a split-second later and slammed his shoulder into the side of Murray's exposed head, drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty as the quarterback's helmet popped off.
Vikings right tackle Brian O'Neill and left guard Donovan Jackson immediately turned toward the sideline to motion for the medical team, with Murray lying on his side and his legs kicking back and forth. The eighth-year player, who spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Arizona Cardinals, eventually walked off the field under his own power with athletic trainers by his side.
“It’s tough. It almost puts me in a bad head space in a way, because you never want to see anybody get hit, especially when somebody’s posturing on the field. That’s when it’s scary,” Vikings running back Aaron Jones said. “We know what we signed up for, but at the same time you never want to see it happen and you hope it’s never one of your teammates or you. So we’re praying for him. It takes something from you a little bit.”
Wentz entered the game at quarterback and led the Vikings to a field goal on that drive. Wentz was pegged as the primary backup ahead of J.J. McCarthy, the 2024 first-round draft pick who started 10 games last season for Minnesota. McCarthy was inactive on Sunday as the emergency quarterback, meaning he could only enter the game if Wentz were also injured.
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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray walks off the field after throwing a pass that was intercepted by the Green Bay Packers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim)
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, center, is tackled by Green Bay Packers' Lukas van Ness, left, and Javon Bullard, right, during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers players look on after Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray was tackled during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, center, walks off the field with staff after suffering an unknown injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City lawmakers plan to ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, ending their more than 150-year run as an iconic, old-timey tourist attraction, following decades of opposition from animal welfare activists and the death of a teenage tourist last spring.
The City Council is expected to approve a bill next week that would end the rides by 2028. Three consecutive mayors had called for an end to the carriage rides because of safety concerns, only to have lawmakers yank back the reins.
A spokesperson for Julie Menin, the council speaker, confirmed the incoming vote and said the proposal had enough support to pass. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said he had reached a deal with the speaker on the legislation.
“The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City,” Mamdani said in a social media post.
The latest push for a ban started in June, when 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan, visiting the city from India, died after jumping from a runaway horse carriage during a ride with family members. His death, which appeared to be the first fatality in a horse carriage accident since they were introduced in Central Park, reignited the debate over whether carriages, a romantic throwback to the city's past, have a place in a modern metropolis.
Mahajan's family has appeared at City Hall, in person and through videoconference calls from India, begging the city to finally end the rides.
“We are shattered, our whole family shattered. The pain does not go away,” his father, Deepak Mahajan, told city council members via a videocall during a hearing for the bill last summer, saying his son leapt from the carriage to try and help his mother, who was flung from her seat, after the horse bolted. “Every morning we wake up and think of nothing but the loss of our son.”
For decades, animal welfare activists and other critics have decried the carriage industry, arguing horses shouldn't be hauling tourists around busy streets and Central Park while having to navigate bustling traffic and gawking passersby. In the past, horses have collapsed, gotten startled and run off, hitting cars or other objects, with each accident resulting in fresh calls for a ban.
“The tragic and preventable death of 18-year-old Romanch Mahajan made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Horse-drawn carriages have long been part of New York City’s history, but in an increasingly busy Central Park, this tradition has become a growing public safety liability,” Menin said in a statement.
The industry and its supporters have long cast the rides as a way for visitors to experience the New York they know from classic movies and television.
Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse danced into one of the carriages in “The Band Wagon.” Robert Redford and Jane Fonda rode one in “Barefoot in the Park.” Macaulay Culkin escaped bandits in a carriage in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”
“Taking a horse and carriage ride in New York City is one of the most iconic things to do in New York City and people from all over the world know about us and travel to New York to go to a carriage ride in New York,” Conor McHugh, a longtime carriage driver, told the Council earlier this year.
Efforts to close down the industry have been met with pushback from unions and influential supporters, often resulting in tiresome political fights that have seen mayors throw up their hands over nagging worries about putting carriage drivers out of work and what to do with the horses if they can no longer work.
Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen said the Council's bill has “no meaningful economic relief for workers” and that Menin “used the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis.”
“This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families’ livelihoods are being destroyed. This entire situation is reprehensible,” he said in a statement.
The proposal as written would require the mayor's office to develop a workforce transition plan for drivers, and includes a measure that would allow the city to consider some kind of compensation for industry workers. Carriage owners could not sell their horses off for slaughter, according to the bill's language, which requires that horses be disposed of in a “humane manner.”
“I think we have a civic responsibility to ensure that we are not leaving anybody out to dry,” Mamdani told reporters Wednesday.
The mayor's predecessor, Eric Adams, called for ending the industry during the waning days of his administration, but the proposal went nowhere. The mayor before that, Bill de Blasio, had pledged to eliminate the rides on day one of his administration but abandoned the crusade after heavy opposition from unions and a media blitz involving actor Liam Neeson.
Over the years, the city has placed various safety regulations around the industry, including a requirement that the horses get at least five weeks of vacation a year outside of city limits with daily access to a pasture. The horses are inspected by a veterinarian twice a year, and the maximum age they can work at is 26, according to city regulations. And they don't work when it is hotter than 89 degrees.
A horse-drawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park as joggers run, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Horse-drawn carriages offer trips through through Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
An ice cream vendor peers from his food truck where horse drawn carriages wait for passengers at the entrance to Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A horse-drawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A carriage horse that takes people on rides through Central Park drinks water at an entrance to the park, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - Horse dawn carriages gather at an entrance to Central Park in New York on Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - A carriage horse is covered with a blanket, waiting for customers on Central Park South in New York on Jan. 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - A horse dawn carriage takes passengers for a loop through Central Park in New York on Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - A horse and carriage are seen in the snow in Central Park on Jan. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)
