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“Holiday Bowl–A Crown Jewel”

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It’s one of the special things we have in our city, if you are a sports fan.

Yes we have Balboa Park, and the Pacific Ocean, the Hotel Del Coronado and the Zoo.

From a sports perspective, the Holiday Bowl is one of our historic Crown Jewels as it relates to events.

We have the Padres and the on-again off-again love affair with a baseball team that has had ups and downs.

We have the Aztecs with some very unique football history and more recently tremendous basketball success.

We had the Chargers, stolen away in the middle of the night, but forever revered dating to the Tommy Prothro-Don Coryell-Bobby Ross-Marty Schottenheimer days.

The Holiday Bowl is now our football identity, a small bowl game that began in 1978, one of 11-bowl games at that point.  Blessed by being the stand alone bowl game on ESPN, seen by everyone on cold winters nights natiowide.

This bowl game because a signature event because of its shootouts.

Who could forget the magical tour game of 1980, BYU-vs-SMU.  The Jim McMahon-led Cougars coming back time and time again to take, then retake the lead, from the SMU-Mustangs and their running back tandem of Craig James and Eric Dickerson.

When they were done, BYU had won(46-45).  McMahon put up astronomical passing numbers, (446Y) and led his team to 21-points in a span of (2:33) in the fourth quarter.

Not to be outdone, the Pony Express tandem of Dickerson and James combined for (335Y) rushing in the loss.  The whole nation saw it, and became enamored with explosive displays in late Decembers.

San Diego, blessed by beautiful weather, was blessed too by an array of talent who played in the game.  Heisman Trophy winners, Barry Sanders and Blair Thomas.  Great quarterbacks like Steve Young, Robbie Boscoe and Ty Detmer.

Legendary coaches like Joe Paterno, Jimmy Johnson and more.

The Friday game matches the legendary USC Trojans vs the Iowa Hawkeyes.  A USC team with flash and splash on offense.  Iowa with a blue collar defense and typical Big 10-tough offense.

It’s a special event in our town.

The Holiday Bowl, hosted by great citizens wearing Red Jackets, doing things for the enjoyment of our community, and selling all the Picture Perfect Chamber of Commerce postcards for the rest of the nation to see.

Great history, great games, great leadership making it happen.

A crown jewel of an event in America’s Finest City.

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“Christmas Gifts to 1 & All”

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Coming down the chimney dropping gifts beneath people’s trees.

RON FOWLER-PETER SEIDLER….A return on their Padres investments over the last couple of years and an end to the losing seasons and playoff droughts.  San Diego will be a vibrant baseball town and Petco Park will be the place to be once this team gets into a pennant race.  Padres games, already a destination point when the Mets-Yankees-Red Sox-Pirates-Reds-Giants and other show up, will be rocking and rolling to the tune of 3M-attendance once this team starts to win.

AJ PRELLER…Hope that the next wave of Cuban players he signs will pan out after spending 101M on draft picks and Caribbean players over a 3-year span.  So far, all that he has to show from his farm system is Joey Lucchesi, Cal Quantrill, Michael Baez.  Remember Fernando Tatis, Francisco Mejia, Chris Paddack and Dinelson Lamet came in trades.  Five years into the AJ regime, waiting on more returns.

JAYCE TINGLER…Best wishes dealing with a clubhouse that was void of leadership last year.  Some of the highest paid players became ‘independent contractors’, not necessarily great teammates. Andy Green was a good guy, in a bad situation, who lost a clubhouse that didn’t seem to care about anything than picking up its paychecks the back half of the sorry season.

TOM TELESCO….A gift wrapped box full of good health for a team that has been destroyed by injuries 3-years in the last four seasons.

ANTHONY LYNN…Patience to find a way to survive all these turnover plagued setbacks while having half a team out there around his once superstar QB-Philip Rivers.

PHILIP RIVERS…A franchise tag contract for next season, so he can go out on top rather than face the way Eli Manning’s final year ended up with the Giants.

DEAN SPANOS…A lump of coal, or maybe a coal truck dumping its load in his living room.  We can never forgive him for what he did to
America’s Finest City.

AZTECS…A thank you note to football coach Rocky Long for all he has brought to Montezuma Mesa, wins, class, dignity, leadership and a desire to help young players develop into men.  San Diego-you need to show up and support this quality product.

AZTECS..A ticket to March Madness to Brian Dutcher’s basketball team, unbeaten and now ranked, heading into the Mountain West Conference full schedule….May the full houses and the raging “Show” of student support in the End Zone seats return.

USD…Some way to better market a really good 1AA football team on a beautiful campus overlooking the Pacific.  San Diego fans have never embraced how good this program has become, with Dale Lindsey the latest coach to have great success…Would love to see USD actually move to 1AA football in the Big Sky Conference but that does not make financial success for the school on the hill.

GULLS…Cell phones with caller ID…Not answering the phone when the caller ID says “949”…it’s the Ducks calling to take your best players from you…we know that is what AHL hockey is all about…you just wish the hot draft picks could stay here a bit longer…Love to see the Gulls and 13,000-fans jamming the Sports Arena, the old gray lady, for AHL Calder Cup final playoff games.

SAN DIEGO STRIKEFORCE….A ticket to hiring better people to run an organization that failed miserably in a (1-13) maiden voyage season.

SAN DIEGO SOCKERS…A Ticket to a better league to play in with more credibility, in bigger markets,  than something that is semi pro.

SAN DIEGO LOYAL….A bottle of champagne to launch their first season in the spring in the USL…If Landon Donovan is involved it will be quality..but no one knows if the fans will react.

HOLIDAY BOWL…Hopes that the continued alignment with new conferences will bring them spectacular intersectional matchups that people around the country wish to see, remembering BYU-SMU and so many other great games back in the day.

LACROSSE-RUGBY…and other assorted fringe sports-hopes the product is good..you get some coverage…so fans who like those sports will show up.

Merry Christmas and thanks for checking my website each day.

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Chargers–How Far Away Are They?”

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I cannot imagine how hard it must be for the loyal employees of the Chargers to enjoy this Christmas holiday.  To go back into that building and try to go to work in the face of all this negativity in the community.  To go do your job in a Southern California community that does not want you there.

The Chargers are (5-10) with one weekend left in a lost-cause season.

They face an off season of really hard decisions involving two of their top players on offense, the quarterback and the running back, Philip Rivers and Melvin Gordon.

And in the bigger picture, the impending move as the tenant going into the new Rams Stadium in Inglewood.

All that off the field.

And then there is on the field.

I’ve watched so many different offenses this fall.  And the teams that will be playing in post season are so different than what we saw from the Chargers the past couple of years.

Compare Tom Brady’s offense to the Bolts.  Look at the ease Patrick Mahomes makes plays in Kansas City.  Aaron Rodgers distributes the ball as quickly as anyone in the league.

The Chargers just seem to labor with Rivers trying to make plays.  Everything seems to be so mechanical with him, having to hang in the pocket, taking so much time to go thru progressions, the long windup to throw, the lack of separation from his receivers, vs defensive backs.

It seem to be such a struggle for the Chargers to have any rhythm to what they are trying to do on offense.

Anyone see much explosiveness from the Chargers running backs, or any type of power equal to the likes of say Ezekiel Elliott of the Cowboys, or the dangerous burst of the Giants Saquon Barkley.

On defense, compare the Joey Bosa-Melvin Ingram led Bolts.  That and Derwin James appears to be all they have on defense.  You see the tenacity of the Packers-Vikings in the Monday night game?  Can you compare to anything you ever see from  the Charges lineup as they try to play 4-quarters of any football game.

Sunday to Sunday, watching all these top teams, it drives home the reality of how little star power talent the Charges have on the field.

In San Diego, the rage and disrespect directed at Dean Spanos seems relentless.

Maybe some of the glare of the critical spotlight needs to shine on Tom Telesco and John Spanos, the decision makers in acquisition of talent.  This years draft was a washout.

They don’t delve much into free agency.  They have never been bold in terms of making trades as the landscape of the NFL has changed.

To me, the organization has failed Rivers the quarterback  The offensive line, the complimentary wide receiver parts, the acquisition of skill people upfront or at linebacker.

All you need to validate my critique is to watch the good teams around the NFL, and who they are talent wise on offense, personality wise on defense.

Those poor employees of the Charges, trying to fix this mess of a roster, trying to sell Bolt football in an LA market that never welcomed them.

The Bolts, a long way away from being good, miles and miles away from what we see with other teams.  Miles and miles  too away from having any relationship with a fan base too.

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“Chargers—Things I Thought I’d Never See”

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The Chargers home season is over, or maybe the correct term, the road games they had to play at home are over.  It ended with a mugging at the hands of the Raiders on Sunday, before a near sellout crowd of fans clad in Silver & Black.

Never thought I’d see sections of seats from the 40-to-50 yard line ’empty’ the entire afternoon.

Equally stunning, the CBS TV broadcasters saying 95% of the stadium were Raiders fans.

And then there was the San Diego Sign Guy, who rented a plane to fly a banner at kickoff time that read “San Diego Chargers-forever…screw you Spanos”.  Harsh.

The TV cameras had a shot of the owners box, the one where Spanos sits in the rear box, enclosed by glass, away from the cameras or the potential of boos from the fans.

On the field, the record fell to (5-10) and would you ever think any team led by Philip Rivers would have that type of record.

It was bad right from the start, when the Chargers took penalties on the first two snaps of the game.

There was the Raiders 13-play drive that ate up nearly 9-minutes of the third quarter.  There were drives covering 71-75-75 yards for Oakland.

There was the pedestrian offense that the Raiders brought to town, ripping off big plays of 20-21-43-56, and this from a team that no longer had Antonio Brown on the roster and was without its gifted running back Josh Jacobs.

The Bolts opened the day with lots of mistakes and complicated it by having 3-straight 3-and-outs, all that with all that talent on offense.

Of course, in losing their 5th game in the last 6-outings, it’s obvious the interim offensive coordinator Shane Steichlnr, doesn’t belong with the job for next season.  He ran 3-gadget plays, from reverses to flea flickers, and wound up losses of 1, 3, and 4-yards.  It looked like high school football play calls.

How do you not target Keenan Allen for the first 15 minutes of the game.  Why keep running ball when you had 13-rushes for 5-yards in the opening half.  And why more Melvin Gordon and less Austin Eckeler?

The defense gave Raiders QB-Derek Carr plenty of space, and he took it, going (26-for-30), throwing deep early then short late as the Raiders owned the clock and the tempo for most of the second half.

Oh there were some moral victory days.  Joey Bosa hit all the check boxes, a sack, a tackle for loss, and a pressure.  Running mate Melvin Ingram had two sacks .  Rookie Gerry Tillery had 2-pressures and half a sack.Derwin James had 3-tackles for losses and some heavy hits.  But it was never enough.

But in typical fashion, the secondary gave up lots of yards and chunk plays.  Desmond King got scorched for a long TD and gave up 5-completions; Michael Davis got beat 3-times just like that.  Adrian Phillips was victimized on 3-other passes.

And the kid offensive lineman, Trey Pipkens took two more penalties and Trent Scott gave up a really bad sack that killed a drive.

It was a loud crowd, all for the Silver & Black.

The stadium was a home field in name only.

And the Chargers are (5-10) on the season.

And then there were unique closing comments.  Rivers told the media after the game, ‘we felt feel like visitors on our own field’.  And he wasn’t done, ‘we know what real home crowds used to be like’, referencing the good old days when they won games at home before raging San Diego Chargers fans.

Add it all up, things I never thought I’d see.  A (5-10) team, a pathetic environment, and tone deaf ownership and spokesman, who still think they made the right move, leaving San Diego.

Chargers football, a disaster, in a city that ignores them.

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ReplyForward

 

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“Firing Passes-Here-There-Everywhere around the NFL”

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FINAL WEEKEND…..The Chargers play their final home game Sunday against the Raiders in the Carson soccer stadium that has been their home for three years.  Per the norm, the Silver & Black fans will overwhelm the Stadium, because tickets are always available for Chargers home games, either thru brokers in LA, or from what few Chargers fans there are, who are reselling them at profit.  In the 3-years they have been gone, I have not come across a San Diego fan that goes up there, and I’m in the community a lot.  Home field, what home field?  The Chargers are just (11-10) at Carson in the three seasons there.  Now the national media has taken the public stance of the disaster Dean Spanos brought his franchise with the move to a market no one wants them in.

RAIDER NATION….They are not happy, and they showed that booing the home team off the field after an ugly loss last Sunday to lowly Jacksonville.  They threw garbage on the field as the players left after the Jaguars setback.  So much for Jon Gruden being a difference maker as head coach.  He is (10-20) since taking over the Raiders job, and despite two years of drafts and free agency, and despite having Derek Carr as quarterback, they seem years away from having a playoff team.

RAMS OFF TRACK….Not the same team as the one that went to the Super Bowl a year ago.  Jared Goff has regressed to the turnover prone quarterback he was his rookie year.  Sacks and picks are his problem.  And second guessing has begun of ancient defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.  Giving up points and TDs and not the dominant team of a year ago.  May be too many roster changes the last two years have robbed the team of its overall edge in playing defense.

49ers….What a special defense, the 48-sacks, the 27-takeaways, but you have to wonder if they have anywhere enough offense to go deep in the playoffs.  Outside Jim Garoppolo and tight end George Kittle, there does not seem to be any game-changer anywhere else in the offensive formations.  As good a season as it has been, they might not go far into January.

SEAHAWKS….A quick two year-turnaround rebuild by the Seattle front office.  Russell Wilson is having a magical year on offense, they have 3-big play receivers, two power running backs, a very athletic defense, and have even patched the offensive line with journeyman they took off the waiver wire.  It’s impressive.

BUFFALO….A nice season, triggered by a rugged defense, but the Bills probably need another draft to go get some playmakers to help the young QB Josh Allen.

BALTIMORE….Can you say MVP-Lamar Jackson, over 3900-yards in offense and now 40-TDs with two games left.  Compliment that with a really tough defense.  Home field for the entire AFC playoffs.  Next stop Super Bowl.  Think so.

PATRIOTS…Tom Brady doesn’t make the Pro Bowl for the first time in a long time, but it’s not on him.  No tight ends, battered wide receivers, a less than efficient run game.  an awful lot of pressure on a pretty good defense.

CHIEFS…Patrick Mahomes can make anyone look great, as witnessed by the nagging injury they have had on offense, and his ability to take replacement parts and see making plays.  Good enough to withstand a leaky defense.

SAINTS….How can you not root for all the things Drew Brees is to the Saints and to that community. Mike Thomas is about to shatter the single season pass catching record.  If you have to go thru the Superdome in the playoffs, you might have trouble winning in the postseason.

HOUSTON…Quite a job by Coach Bill O’Brien to keep his team in the mix, with all the injuries they have had on defense and the nagging injuries to the wide receiver corps.  Luckily Deshawn Watson has stayed on the field, and his put up awesome numbers.  But there may not be much hope for a postseason run.

VIKINGS…Lots of firepower and a pretty rugged defense, the Kirk Cousins led team would be a problem for anyone.  Mike Zimmer has willed this team to a pretty good season and playing at home will be a key.

PACKERS…Can a two man team carry a team deep into January?  We find out, because the Packers and the combo of Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Jones will carry this team.  The two lousy West Coast losses have denied them home field advantage thru the entire NFC. Think what it would be like if you had to go win a game in Lambeau in January.  They could have had all home games, but won’t now.

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