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“Aztecs Football–Strange Way Do Business”

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I knew this would be complicated, this attempt to walk down the path for SDSU to take over operation-control and purchase the SDCCU Stadium sight.

Now we have pressure points, insults and threats, and a stupid move that seems to throw roadblocks into the relationship between San Diego State and the City.

And to complicate things, the Athletic Department announces it is opening up sales of the Founders Suites and Sky boxes at the new stadium, the one to be built on land SDSU still doesn’t own, in a stadium that might not open till 2022 or possibly a year after that, at the most traumatic time in our society since 9/11 or 2008.

SDSU has agreed with the city on the 86M-purchase price of the acreage in Mission Valley.  It has the 650M-in financing from the California State system.  It has the architects and the business infrastructure in place.

What it does not have is a finalized contract to take over the land, take over operation of SDCCU Stadium, or the completion of documents on the building of the River Park and an accompanying foot bridge from the Fenton Shopping area.

What neither side has yet either, is a solution to possible litigation from groups that might try to block the construction of housing, buildings, dorms, offices on land parcels near where the Stadium is to be built.  That and answers to what might be a messy environmental issue that could resurface.

SDSU turned over the 600-page contract, full of legalese, to City Council on Tuesday, but the City Attorney says there are still 14-major issues to be resolved, and the Council is not going to sign any document yet.  The City Attorney is miffed that SDSU is trying to execute a ‘power play’ rushing this thru so they can get it done by May 19th, taking over control of the entire real estate project by July 1st.

Added in, the insinuation that SDSU made over 2300-changes in language in the contract that was initially agreed to, and that the city will not sign off on the document till each item is reviewed.  And in the  middle of this Virus-Crisis, with a crumbling budget, City Council is refusing to be bullied into approving a document, that still needs ‘I’s dotted and T’s crossed.  The name-calling, and rock-throwing has begun.

As for the Athletic Department, a tone-deaf move, in the middle of this massive work shutdown, huge layoffs, life threatening unemployment, and daily death counts,  to announce they are starting sales of the Founders Sky boxes and fans sky suites at the new stadium.

You know, the stadium on land they don’t own yet, on a stadium yet to turn a shovel of dirt, in an era where the US shutdown will likely be followed by tons of bankruptcies.

What an ill timed decision by a University, wanting to bid out the 4-Founders Suites and 48-Founder Club seats.  No doubt the package will include tickets and buffets to every Aztecs event and social gathering in the new stadium.  No doubt the hospitality package will be exceptional somewhere down road, but how can you think that today knowing what the news is today about our health and our troubled economy.

But to do this in a city waiting for the pandemic to peak, in an economy facing as much as 20% unemployment by the end of the week, it seems ill-advised for John David Wicker and his Athletic Department to announce this endeavor, at this time in our life.

I knew getting the Stadium purchase agreement done would be challenging.  I didn’t think trying to sell Aztecs football to a physically-and-emotionally devastated business community would happen on this date.

Just asking, “Why”?

Why demand so many changes in the purchase agreement you had accepted?

Why ask for big money donations with so many businesses in trouble and so many people hurting financially?

Please tell me there is a legitimate explanation for all these issues, at this time in our life.

Otherwise I’ll have to tell you this is a bad step backwards.

SDSU-San Diego State University.
SDSU-Same Dam Screw Ups.

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“Baseball–Scott Boras–Letter to New York Times

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Player Agent Scott Boras says it is time for the US to do, what Korea and Taiwan have done, reopen baseball camps and open the season.

He wrote an extensive letter that became an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, about how important a role baseball can play to help America feel good about itself.

All this while the death rates rocket in baseball hotbeds like Boston and Chicago, and fears and threats a 2nd explosion of the virus-crisis could be coming to the Midwest and South.

Take a read of what one of the most influential people in baseball has to say:

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By Scott Boras

Mr. Boras is an attorney for baseball players.
May 5, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET

132

In some of America’s darkest moments, the country has turned to Major League Baseball to bring hope and normalcy back to everyday life.

It happened after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when President Franklin Roosevelt issued what became known as the “Green Light Letter” to Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. President Roosevelt wrote, “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.” He even surprised the team owners by requesting more night games, not fewer, as a source of relaxation and escape for weary workers coming home from their wartime shifts.

Nearly 60 years later, baseball again helped reassure the nation after the Sept. 11 attacks. In the first game back in New York, 10 days after the towers fell, Mike Piazza’s home run in the eighth inning became a potent sign that our healing had begun. The very next month, we all felt the gravity of the moment as President George W. Bush walked onto the field at Yankee Stadium before the first World Series game in New York since the attacks. Alone and secretly wearing a stiff bulletproof vest, he climbed to the top of the mound and fired a strike. The pain of those we lost would never leave, and the rebuilding was only just beginning. But at that moment America, as an idea, roared back to life.

Time and time again, baseball has helped our country heal. Whether it be David Ortiz giving a speech to rally a city after the Boston Marathon bombing or the A’s and Giants aiding a jittery Bay Area after a deadly earthquake that interrupted the 1989 World Series, baseball has been there in times of loss to help our country and our cities move forward.

Now we have lost nearly 70,000 in our nation to Covid-19, each a tragedy beyond words. A growing number of us have found ourselves unemployed without warning, and with each passing day the fear and hunger will continue to rise for those in need. Nearly all Americans continue to make sacrifices. Some on the medical front lines have made the ultimate sacrifice. The “safer at home” policies our experts and federal officials recommended, and our state and local governments instituted, undoubtedly saved lives and prevented even worse devastation across the country.

However, we face a challenge in the coming weeks and months: How do we harmonize the concerns of health experts with the unwanted effects of those public health efforts? Experts believe we need isolation and social distancing, but that has led to lost jobs, increased stresses of every type and a diminishing of the social tapestry that binds and enhances our lives. After many weeks of following safer-at-home protocols, people are understandably restless and looking for an outlet.

It is time again for baseball to serve. The political universe, including President Trump; the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell; Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York; Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois; and Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, have voiced an interest in the return of the game this summer when the time is right. Dr. Anthony Fauci, channeling the sentiment that President Roosevelt expressed in 1942, said in a recent interview that having “the great American pastime be seen” would help the mental health of the country.

In a recent study, nearly 170 million people age 12 or older identified themselves as M.L.B. fans — the highest number in the past 25 years. The first full month of the 2020 regular season has slipped off the calendar without a pitch thrown. However, baseball can and should start up again soon to provide a release for our country desperately in need of live sports entertainment.

I am in constant communication with players, owners and front-office executives, and from what I am hearing, they are focused on getting baseball back. Even before we know when, where and how we will have an Opening Day, we should give players the chance to ramp up for Major League competition. Like many others, they are doing their best to make things work without access to the ballparks that are their “offices.” But the best basement batting cage or backyard mound can’t give world-class hitters and pitchers the game-speed preparation they need.

The first step is to return the players to spring training-style camps as soon as possible. Players want to be with their teams now, safely preparing for the season by using established processes and procedures approved by public health officials. However, this would be a spring training unlike any other. Players would have to be in a “functional isolation,” separated from the public and their families as they prepare.

Players must feel safe when they return, and they understand that they would be in a controlled environment where they could be evaluated by the medical staff each day. The numerous medical experts I have spoken to recommend clubhouses be sanitized daily, and that masks, latex gloves and hand sanitizer should be standard in each one. Major League Baseball, with the understanding that the medical needs of our country’s population comes first, will need to contract with a testing company to make this all safe for approximately 1,600 players, plus coaching staffs, groundskeepers, umpires and other officials.

It will be challenging to do this all at once, but it can be accomplished with staggered reporting dates. Pitchers and catchers would report first, then the position players would come in the next wave, followed days later by the prospects and depth players.
Other nations and leagues can provide helpful models for how to accomplish a return to action and keep players safe. Professional baseball is being played today in Taiwan and South Korea, and players have reported that they feel safe and protected in their environment. We can do it here, and for the sake of America, we should.

While initially the fans won’t be there in person, M.L.B.’s stars can shine brightly on TV screens across the United States and across the world this summer and fall. Televised games each day and night can give fans a unifying feeling, something to look forward to, something to discuss, something to live vicariously through and a reason to cheer. The millions of baseball fans in America can continue to do a small part for the nation by staying at home, while enjoying a sense of hope and normalcy from watching the game we love.

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“Miami–Greatness Has Left Us”

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Don Shula….Father…Grandfather…Iconic coach…..Patriarch has died.

He passed quietly just outside Miami Lakes at age 90, leaving behind a legacy of success everywhere he went.

Shula, the steel jawed leader of the Dolphins, went from small college football, to NFL star cornerback, to the youngest coach at that time in the National Football League.

He leaves behind the greatest winning record of any coach in the NFL, (347-190-6), better than George Halas back then, and modern day legend Bill Belicheck now.

The accomplishments are staggering.  31-winning seasons in 33-years, first as coach of the old Baltimore Colts to the modern day Dolphins.

He led Miami to the only unbeaten season ever in the game, (17-0) in 1972.  He won back to back Super Bowls with the Dolphins, and drove the Colts to a Super Bowl game.

The memorable wins include the perfect ’72 Super Bowl season.  It also includes the stunning loss to the upstart Joe Namath-Weeb Ewbank led AFL-New York Jets in an early Super Bowl.

Steel jawed, a Man’s Man, Shula went to tiny John Carroll University outside of Cleveland, near his hometown of Painesville.  He starred for legendary Paul Brown in the 1950s, when Cleveland owned the NFL, intercepting 21-passes in 6-seasons.

If Halas and Brown were the early day legends on the sidelines, Shula became the group of the next generation of greats, along with Chuck Noll and Tom Landry as the 60s became the 70s into the 80s.

He wanted to be a priest, but became a coach, and at 33-was the youngest head coach ever in pro football back in the day.

His Miami tenure spread from Bob Griese to Dan Marino.

As times changed, so did he, handling, tolerating the likes of Mercury Morris and Garo Yepremian, to so many other diverse personalities.

He created the ‘No Name Defense’, pioneered by Nick Buonoconti and Manny Fernandez.  Names like Jake Scott and Bill Stanfill became adored figures in South Florida.

He had the ‘Marx Brothers’, Clayton and Duper.  He brought in Larry Csonka-Jim Kiick-Paul Warfield in the ‘Butch Cassidy & Sundance’ era .

Inheriting the Dolphins of the old AFL, he took a team that had gone (15-39-2), and promptly went (37-7-1) in his first three years, just like that, the fastest turnaround from bad to good in league history.

He made the Dolphins important in Miami and at the historic Orange Bowl, before the other Miami (Hurricanes) became relevant.

He was a potpourri of personality.  Passionate, popular, pushy.  He cared about family-faith-football every minute of everyday.

Don Shula-a very special person–someone we will never likely see again.

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“Soccer Power Play–Misses Goal”

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US Soccer is a mess.

From the turmoil with the resignation of the US Soccer Federations’ President, for tasteless comments.

To the failure of Team USA to qualify for the next World Cup.

To the financial troubles youth soccer is going thru.

To the global disgrace that is FIFA, its corruption-leadership issues.

Not a pretty picture.

And now this, the US Women’s National Team’s ugly 66M lawsuit over the Gender-Equity Pay issues.  Women not being treated as fairly as men.

Or so we thought.

The women of Team USA have brought their program to enormous popularity with their successes in World Cup play….two trophies in global play in 2015-2019.

And like the success women’s college basketball had, driving us to the success that Title IX has brought women’s athletics, the outspoken personalities of Meaghan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd brought attention for the need for the US-Womens program to get equal treatment and pay to that given Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and more on the men’s side.

The public drive for equal pay, led to the massive 66M-lawsuit against the USSF…that has been brewing for over two years.

And now it is over.

A New York federal judge threw the lawsuit out of court, saying the US Women’s program never showed the inequity they say exists now.  Far from it.

Instead the judge released the documents showing the women rejected an offer from USSF to be paid along the same structure as the men, in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement.  They would have been paid the same game salaries, and bonus’ for wins in international play.

The women rejected it, even though the CBA offered them additional medical benefits, for childbirth, leave of absence and more.  They wanted higher game salaries in the ‘Pay for Play Plan’

The women said ‘no’, they wanted to be paid at a different salary than men, and used a 4-year payment schedule, they thought would show inequities.

It didn’t.

Instead it showed the 18-men, on Team USA,  earned 17,625-dollars per game plus bonuses for victories and additional money in sponsorship deals.  the men each earned on the average 212,639-per year.

The US women over the last four years, each earned 220,747 each, plus bonuses, plus their unique motherhood benefits, plus sponsorship money, and not counting additional pay for playing in the National Women’s Soccer League.

The women won 2-World Cups in that span, and made more money per year than the men.  The federal judge ruled the women made the ‘choice’ not to accept the pay structure offered to the men.

It looks as if Rapinoe and others were yelling ‘fire’ to get attention, when no fire existed.

They created angst within the USSF, burned thru a lot of lawyers fees, and triggered significant ill-will in the soccer community.  Maybe 10-years ago, the deal wasn’t fair.  Maybe 20-years ago it was a disgrace.  Right now it’s not.

Better days are likely coming.  With the purge of leadership atop complete, Cindy Cone has been elevated to the lead position as President.  As a new CBA gets negotiated, look for a deal that is fair and equal for all the stars of Mens-Womens soccer in our country.

The US Women’s Team tried to pull off a power play, due to their popularity.  They suffered a loss in credibility for how they handled all this.

US soccer has so many issues, they didn’t need this ugly in-fight.

US-Women…Missed a shot on goal for sure.

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“Chargers–Looking for the Next Winner”

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In the last 40-years, the Chargers have had all of 3-quarterbacks you would call stars, winners, possible Hall of Famers.

Dan Fouts gave fans in San Diego four spectacular years in the midst of the Air Coryell years, but never got the chance to go to the Super Bowl, betrayed annually by a substandard defense and the Ice Bowl.

Stan Humphries led the Chargers to the playoffs and eventually a Super Bow game in his brief four year tenure before a concussion ended it all.

Philip Rivers has just completed a likely Hall of Fame run over a 16-year period, getting to the playoffs and one AFC-Championship game, that was derailed by injuries to LaDainian Tomlinson and Rivers own knee issues.

All teams go thru transition, and now it begins anew with another 1st round draft pick, Oregon QB-Justin Herbert.

He comes to the Bolts off 4-years of growth and success with the Ducks.

It didn’t start easy, nor go easy for the 6’6-QB.  He played for 3-different head coaches in a 4-year span.  He had to learn from 4-different offensive coordinators in those four seasons at Autzen Stadium.

It all started when injuries forced him on the field in the middle of his freshman season.  End result a (70-21) blowout loss to the Washington Huskies in his first Pac 12-start.  He has come a long way since then.

Herbert capped off his career with an MVP-outing in the Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin.  That was followed by an MVP-type showing in the Senior Bowl.

He leaves Oregon with a (30-12) career record and bowl wins.  He exited the senior season with a (4.05-GPA).  He concluded wearing Green and Lemon by throwing for (10,541Y-95TD) in a 44-game career.

He overcame the loss of the man who recruited him, head coach Mark Helfrich, dumped after 1-losing season after 34-wins in the three years prior.  He stood in the middle of the lone season of crossfire with coach Willy Taggart-who was there-but didn’t want to me there.  He flourished under Mario Cristobal, leading Oregon back to the glory days of Mike Belotti and Chip Kelly.

He is resilient, tough, strong minded and all-in in the football world.

From that catastrophic first start against the Washington Huskies, Herbert drove the Ducks to excellence as the program bounded back with him at the helm.

They battered Washington twice.  Beat Mike Leach and Washington State’s Air Raid offense in shootouts.  Wins against hi-octaine USC, defensive stalwart Utah, victories over Nebraska and Michigan State. Showup and get beat up.

Look at the stat sheet and be impressed.  Look at the video and be wowed.

Listen to the people who studied him, interviewed him, and talked to everyone who was around him, and you have to come away impressed.

General Manager Tom Telesco:
..Highly competitive
..Accountable
..Mentally tough
..Humble
..Highly intelligent
..Driven to be great.

Coach-Anthony Lynn
..He asked a lot of right questions
..Outstanding senior season
..6’6-a big man
..Could be a franchise quarterback
..He could play in a month…or in this first year
..Fanatical student of the game

It took Dan Fouts 5-losing years in a row to get established, and make people forget about (2-12) and (2-11-1) seasons early on before the Bolts became great.  Fouts first five seasons brought a (12-30-1) record to San Diego.  Oddly his career record was (86-84-1).  He did throw  (254TDs) but also (242) picks.

Humphries came in a trade from the Redskins with little experience and drove San Diego to the playoffs twice and then a Super Bowl season.  His ledger was (50-32) with (85TDs-73 Int).  It ended way too early.

Rivers sat for 2-years behind Drew Brees, then became great.  He left with 123-career wins, all those touchdowns, and the full respect of the franchise, the fans and the media.  When he was done, he had driven his team to 12-13-14 win seasons, winding up (397TD-198Int).  He had to bear the brunt of front office mistakes of saddling him with head coaching failures like Norv Turner and Mike McCoy, good guys but bad head coaches.

It won’t come easy for Justin Herbert.  Troy Aikman went (1-15) his first season in Dallas.  Peyton Manning was (3-13) the first go round with the Colts.

Somewhere in between the street fighter that was Aikman, to the mad scientist that was Manning, to the gunslinger that Rivers became, lies Justin Herbert.

It will be fun watching him grow and seeing if an emotionally downtrodden team in Los Angeles, can ever achieve what it did in San Diego, sellouts, and a chance to play on Super Bowl Sunday.

Justin Herbert has earned this, and now his time has come.

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