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“Chargers-Pay Day Coming–Will You Pay the Price?”

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The Chargers are two years removed from leaving San Diego.

They’re in 2-places few ever thought they would wind up.

One, in Los Angeles, where they will move into the Rams-owned stadium a year from now, being a tenant, not an owner of their future financial destiny.

Two, having to prepare to fork out the most amount of money they will eve have to pay, to two of their star players.

Dean Spanos has been in the LA market for two years, has hardly ever spoken to the LA media, and his franchise remains on the outside looking in, in terms of acceptance in a market owned by the Dodgers, Lakers, and Rams.

Progress has been slow , but the franchise is winning. A year from now they go into the new Hollywood Park Stadium, being built by Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

Spanos will also venture into the new territory of having to pay his star quarterback and running back mega contracts.

Philip Rivers is in the final year of his contract. The future Hall of Famer has a salary cap figure of 23M this season.

His new contract will likely be (3Y-70M) with probably 30M of it guaranteed and upfront, if you consider what Kirk Cousins, Drew Brees and others are earning. The starting point for Rivers could be 26M a season.

Rivers has never been about the money, but even he might not be willing to take a radically lower priced contract, heading to the twilight of his career.

Add to that, running back Melvin Gordon is headed into free agency too. The state of the art deals for players like him, revolve around the 14M a year package the Jets just gave Le’Veon Bell.

The Spanos family like to think of themselves as wheeler-dealers in the NFL, but the truth of the matter, they are among the poorer owners in the league financially, despite playing in the 2nd biggest market the country.

Spanos net worth is reportedly 1.1B. Compare that to Kroenke’s net worth of 12.8B according to Forbes Magazine.

The Chargers can franchise tag Gordon next year, but even that brings a guaranteed 13.6M figure, and who knows if he’d play under a 1-year deal, or sit out and demand a multi year package and a huge signing bonus, which other star players earn.

So the Chargers owners may think they’re doing well in the LA market, but the financial ledgers don’t show that. Remember Spanos had to borrow the 500M territorial fee from banks to make the move into the LA market.

Didn’t have the money two years ago. Most doubt he has the money now either, for what is coming.

And now a bigger challenge. Are they willing to pay ‘state of the art’ money to their best players,?

Or maybe the real question, where are they going to get the money to pay their stars.

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“Racing Mourns-Courageous Hero”
1-Man’s Opinion on Sports
by Lee ‘Hacksaw’ Hamilton

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If you follow auto racing, you know the thrill of speed, the technology that guides the sport, and you know accidents and wrecks, and sadly death, are an accepted part of the sport.

We all remember the Daytona 500-last lap accident that claimed the life NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt. Since the mid 1990s, there have been no fatalities in the sport, due to upgrades in the structure of cars, the Safer wall barriers and the Hans Head-Neck support.

We have flashbacks of the deaths of Indy car drivers Dan Wheldon, Greg Moore in airborne wrecks into catch fences, and terrible first lap Indy 500-crash that led to horrific fires that maimed Salt Walther and Swede Savage. The integrity of Indy cars is so much greater now than ever.

Formula 1-nearly went out of business when an airborne car went into the crowd at LeMans in France in the 1950s, and some terrible seige of deaths that plagued the sport in the 1970s. Wings, cockpit protection upgrades, are all part of today’s faster, but much safer, sport.

Auto racing celebrates its sports this weekend, with the Indy 500, the Charlotte 600, and the Grand Prix of Monaco too in Formula 1.

This weekend it should also honor the memory of a courageous champion, who should have died, didn’t, survived, raced and won again, and dedicated the rest of his life to making the sport safer

Nikki Lauda of Austria passed away at age 70. He was a 3-time F-1 champion, who was ahead of his time in setting up cars to run fast. He had speed, he had courage, and he had the conviction the sport had to get safer.

In 1976, he crashed and was trapped for almost a minute in a burning car at the German Grand Prix. Three other drivers stopped to pull him out of the inferno he was trapped in.

The burns to his head, face, arms, nearly cost him his life. The damage to his lungs and throat was immense. The pain, the rehab, the suffering was relentless.

And yet thru it all, he laid heavily sedated, bandaged, with skin grafts in a hospital, he watched the F-1 races, and it gave him motivation to get back on the track. He told reporters afterward, he could stand to see other drivers taking the points he would have earned with victories.

Thru sheer will, and courage, he recovered. Six weeks later, in that 1976 season, he was racing again. The following year he won another title, despite the fears of what it would be like to get into another car.

He had brilliant duels with the star of his time, James Hunt of England.

His crash, the horrors of his rehab, and his return, led to more significant changes to better protect drivers.

Others have died, notably Artyn Senna, another world champion. But the fatality rates are way down. Cars can still break, and when they do, drivers are at risk.

Modern day racing has brought us new stars,Lewis Hamilton of England, Dale Earnhardt-Jimmie Johnson-Jeff Gordon of NASCAR fame, and a new wave of Indy car stars led by Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon.

But the driver from Austria was so very different. So very intense. So very dynamic. So very smart.

I interviewed him, like so many other NASCAR, Indy Car, and select F-1 drivers. When I thought of him, I thought of two drivers I got to know well, who died, Neil Bonnett, from the Alabama gang in NASCAR, and Scott Brayton, who died in practice for the Indy 500. That, and the equally courageous comeback of another friend, Rick Mears, from horrible injuries in a bad crash in Montreal, returning to win multiple 500s.

Lauda was eclectic, electric, intellectual, brash, a bully, and brilliant. We may never see a driver like him ever again.,

I hope in Charlotte, Indianapolis, Monaco, they will hold a moment of silence for one of the greatest drivers, one of the special contributors, one of their most courageous stars we ever witnessed.

Nikki Lauda, champion, for lots of different reasons.

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“NFL-Last Place Team Moves Into 1st Place”

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It took awhile, the Joe Namath era was years ago, but they are celebrating in New York now.

The Jets have moved into 1st place in the NFL off seasons standings.

In an era in which we have had poor NFL ownership on and off the field, the Cincinnati Bengals, the lowly Buffalo Bills, the downtrodden 49ers and the forever struggling Raiders, we have a new first place team.

The New York Jets, moving to the top of the NFL’s standings for dysfunction.

Go figure this out.

A franchise that drafted young phenom Sam Darnold at quarterback, gives up on a highly regarded coach after just 1-year with the rookie QB.

Out goes Todd Bowles, in comes ex-Miami head coach Adam Gase.

Seems like a right fit.

The team, in efforts to fix a terrible offense, makes the deal to bring in ex-Steelers star RB-Le’Veon Bell, who sat out last year in an ugly contract dispute as he headed to free agency.

They wind up with a very high draft pick, and have Alabama’s brilliant defensive tackle Quinnen Williams fall to them in the first round.

And they storm thru off season, spending a total of 125M-to upgrade the roster.

All seems headed in the right direction, after mistake-after-mistake made by GM-Mike Maccagnan in prior years..

Then they fire the GM-two weeks after the draft.. No details, just time to move on, and they did.

The Jets franchise that wasted a high draft pick on the last QB they took Geno Smith. The Jets teams that got rid of a promising defensive line in contract disputes, Sheldon Richardson and Mohammad Wilkerson. The team that dealt top tackler LB-Darron Lee.

A Jets team that gave big money to Darrelle Revis, only to have him show up as an old man.

Out goes the guy who made all those decisions.

And now the post-firing rumos everywhere. That even with the hiring of Gase as head coach, there were internal problems between the Coach and GM right from the start.

Maccagnan took control of the 53-man roster. He would make player personnel decisions.

The GM refused to include Gase nor seek his advice in pre-draft meetings, excluding his opinions on what type of players the coach needed for the systems he was going to put in.

Gase had no input in free agency signings, Le’Veon Bell included.

It is amazing an organization’s ownership would allow something like this to develop.

In the 11-hours of meetings over two days beween Maccagnan and Gase, you mean to tell me they never sorted out who had power….’responsibilities’….’input’….in any player acquisition decisions.?

You mean to tell me only the GM interviewed the big money Steelers free agent running back, not the head coach, nor position coach?.

Are you to believe it was okay by the GM standards, that Bell boycott the opening minicamp, after cashing that signing bonus check?

What in the name of Bengals-Raiders, Mike Brown-Al Davis football, is going on in New York.

So now they need a GM to replace Maccagnan. It appears they have a power hungry head coach who executed this coup-d’etat- against the guy who hired him. And it sounds like they have Maccagnan’s players for Gase’s roster, a square peg-round hole syndrome.

Add to all this, lead owner Woody Johnson is nowhere around. He has left the country to be the Ambassador to Denmark, and his son, Chris Johnson, with no football experience, now has this GM-coaching mess on his resume.

And you thought AJ Smith-Marty Schottenheimer, fired after a (14-2) season was mess?

This will bear watching, this 2019 Jets season, with what is ahead from a chemistry standpoint, and what was left behind this oil fire in the front office.

The New York Jets, now in 1st place in NFL-dysfunction. Do they give out rings or trophies for that?

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“Tension–Everywhere”

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I call it a great sports weekend.

Others would say it was action packed everywhere.

The reality was there was tension reaching unbelievable stages.

Pick a sport, you could cut thru the tension with a knife.

RAPTORS…..The Toronto-Milwaukee Bucks playoff game was a war of attrition. Fouls, collisions, tons of free throws, turnovers, and a lot of contact. Kawhil Leonard and Giannis Antetokoumpo put on an amazing show of skill and toughness in their multi-overtime street fight. Leonard, limping with an ailing quad, stole two passes and scored on length of the court slam dunks, then added a third basket, to incite the Toronto crowd in overtime. It fueled a huge must-win for the Raptors.. That game, that arena, no place for the timid.

PADRES….The wheels are coming off the Kiddie Kar pitching staff the Padres have. Teams catching up with the young pitching. Calvin Quantrill gives up another big inning, in another loss. That a day after Nick Margavicius gets pounded, and then sent to AA-Amsrillo with an ERA of nearly 8.00 over his last 5-starts. Add in the continued poor hitting of Will Myers, the slump of Austin Hedges and the struggles of Ian Kindler and Ty France. The fans are booing, not just because of F-bombs and bad outings, but the losing. has returned. The (11-5) start has been replaced by a (12-19) swoon. Things getting tense at Petco Park.

PGA GOLF….Brooks Koepka did it again, win another major, his 4th in 8-outings at the Grand Slam events. He led by 11-storkes at one point, staggered a bit on Sunday, shooting a 74, but still won. Maybe the next star in the ;making.

TIGER….You could read the body language, you could sense he wanted to scream and curse, but he didn’t. He didn’t make the cut after a lousy Thursday and a poor Friday, and just like that the Tiger Woods comeback story hit another pothole in the road. He was pretty tense, and pretty upset over the weekend.

INDY500….Some two days of unhappiness at the Old Brickyard. The pressure to qualify was everywhere. The stunning story of Fernando Alonso and the McLaren team, with all its resources, failing to make the 33-csr field. He bumped by a new bankrupt team, Juncos, and young driver Kyle Kaiser. His team worked 48-hours straight to rebuild a wrecked car, and ran without sponsors, and got in. He never practiced in it on Sunday, took it out, ran on the edge, and got the 33rd and last starting spot on the grid, taking it from Alonso, the former two time F-1 champion. The tenseness along Pit Row was overwhelming. The story the same for James Hinchcliffe, who wrecked twice, went out in a rebuilt car he never tested, and got in the back row. So full of emotion thru the tough times, he could not even talk. The emotions of those who got it, surprised only by the anger of those, who did not. The scowl of Alonso, the tears from Kaiser told the whole story.

A NEW ACE…Mention Dodgers, and the word ace, and everyone says Clayton Kershaw. Not this week, maybe not this season Hyun Jin-Ryu has now throws 31-straight shutout innings in starts over the last 3-weeks. That’s pretty impressive.

HALOS HERO….Maybe he rescues the season. So far so good. Shohei Ohtani is hitting (.285) with 3-homers in the first week back after a year long rehab from elbow surgery. Now Mike Trout has someone to protect him in the batting order.

GULLS GUYS…..They’ve won 21-games on the road since mid-December, and now they come home for 3-straight games having taken home ice advantage away from the Chicago Wolves in the AHL-Western Conference finals. The key, a roster full of contributors. On any night, a different guy steps up to win a game, a backup goalie, a 4th line winger, or a young winger just showing up from junior hockey. Coming from behind in these road game-no big deal. No panic, just take care of business. It’s been an amazing run.

An amazing weekend of success and failure. Part of a great sports weekend.

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“Padres-How They Got Here”

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The Friars have turned the quarter pole of the baseball season a lot better off than they have been in recent years.

In fact, this is the best start Manager Andy Green has had in his fourth year on the job.

Gone forever, the (15-0) shelling that first game he ever managed against the Dodgers.

In the past too getting shutout 3-straight games to start the season against those hated Dodgers…too.

Forget the (66-96) disaster that last year was.

No longer do we consider the (205-281) record Green had for the first three seasons of mistakes, injuries and limited talent players.

New season, new day, new era, lots of new-young players.

So far, so good, for a Padres team making progress while going thru a learning curve season with a very young pitching rotation.

No one should be ordering wildcard playoff tickets yet, but fans should be hating out ‘attaboys’ to Padres GM-AJ Preller, and his posse of scouts for the job they have done in getting some talent to the majors, with more to come.

The Padres stole Fernando Tatis from the White Sox in a James Shileds trade.

They went out and traded for hot young pitcher Chris Paddock, when he was with the Miami Marlins.

They sighted-scouted pitcher Matt Strahm, who they got in a deal from Kansas City.

Look at what Francisco Reyes has become in right field, with bat and glove.

Kid catcher Francisco Mejia came from Cleveland and shows a lot of promise on defense.

Of course when you spent 101M to sign draft picks and international free agents, you need to get results, and they have.

So there is excitement and promise from Joey Lucchesi, Eric Lauer, Cal Quantrill and more on the way, promise of more arms within the next calendar year..

It’s the money from Ron Fowler and PeterSeidler. It’s the acumen from lead talent evaluators Chris Kemp and Sam Geaney and Mark Conner and grizzled veteran exec Logan White.

While all the attention has been focused on Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer and the kid arms, the unknown people upstairs at Petco Park deserve kudos.

A lot of leg work by a lot of scouts, has led this team to a quick getaway out of the gate at the quarter pole of the MLB season.

1-winning season in the last 10-years. Looks like that is about to change this year.

Hard work-quality scouting, that’s how they got here.

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