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“Fight for LA-How’s That Goin”

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So how did you feel about what happened on Sunday night?

The Chargers first game ever in Los Angeles, slaughtered by the Seattle Seahawks.

I watched it all, because I am a football junkie, and that was my club for a long-long time in broadcasting.

I realized right after kickoff, I had a knot in the pit of my stomach.

Upset, our team, the San Diego Chargers, had moved. Revisiting all the turmoil within dating back to last February.

By the 10- minute mark, I was angry about it all, as Spero Didas and Dan Fouts and Alex Flanagan all raved about the ‘LA experience’.

By late in the first quarter I was rooting for the Seahawks to bury the Bolts, and all things related to the Spanos family.

And how did you feel?

Bothered by the constant sale pitch of the ‘Fight for LA’. Disappointed at all the players comments about the excitement of the move to the Stub Hub Center, as if all the years in San Diego, meant nothing.

Was surprised to see tarps over end zone seats.

Really stunned to see so many empty seats.

Amazed at the noise the Seahawks fans made, wondering how they got tickets, when the Chargers announced all 27,000-seasosn tickets had been sold out.

The game was horrid. So much for the debut of an unhappy coach Anthony Lynn, whose second and third teams were destroyed by the Seattle backups;

He wasn’t real pleasant to deal with in the post game interview session either..

It was a meaningless preseason game, except the guys he needed to evaluate got buried by the backups the Seahawks were evaluating.

Welcome the real world, where he inherited a team that has lost 25 of its last 35 regular season games.

While the Chargers may be excited about the new futbol venue they will be playing NFL football in, they cannot be happy with some other things.

Tailgating, a staple of the emotional attachment to Chargers games at home, seem to have gone away.

Worse so, these fans here seem to be selling their tickets there, to fans of the opposing team.

The NFL Network report of the 21,054 fans there, almost 7,000-were wearing Seahawks colors, and the “12” th man in the stands, Seattle faithful, seemed everywhere and loud.

And on the out of town scoreboard, the Rams were drawing 68,229 for their game with the Cowboys. Granted there were lots of Dallas fans in the stands there too.

My Fans Mini Poll on my twitter account showed 83% of those who responded, did not watch the game.

Sports talk radio listeners, who called in, watched, were upset, angry, then appalled at what they saw.

Next weekend Drew Brees and the Saints come to town.

Wonder if we see a repeat of the Seahawks experience? Wonder if Lynn’s backups will play better?

Wonder if it really means anything, for when the real season starts, we’ll see lots of Rivers-Gates-Keenan Allen-Melvin Gordon big plays?

But I also wonder if the anger and resentment those of us in San Diego experienced Sunday night will continue.?

I cannot say Los Angeles Chargers. I recoil when I saw the scoreboard with the letters LAC as a symbol to our team.

Wonder too, if Chargers fans here, will be rooting for the Chargers, up there, to lose?

“Fight for LA”. Gonna be tougher than they imagined, on and off the field.

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“NFL-Innocent-But Guilty”

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The new standards in the National Football League.

Touch or abuse a woman, and get suspended.

In a league, which had been tone deaf for decades about its players problems off the field, we have a new norm.

In a league where once ex-Rams linebacker Leonard Little was allowed back onto the field to play, after driving drunk and killing a man, and in a league where Greg Hardy terribly abused a fiancee with a beating and guns, and came back to play for the Cowboys, we now have new rules.

Sensitive to its domestic abuse issues, and its poor reputation in dealing with bad citizens, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott got hammered.

He is the new poster boy for acting like a punk.

A 6-game suspension and a big loss of salary. In addition, a black check mark on his ledger, that even more sanctions will be coming if he steps out of line again.

Elliott was never charged in an ugly series of confrontations with an Ohio State girlfriend he was breaking up with .

Charges were never pressed. He was never arrested.

But yet the evidence of a series of violent outbursts, was out there for everyone, TMZ, lawyers, the NFL to see.

5-physical incidents in a 6-day span. 8-pictures that showed injuries to 4-different parts of the woman’s body last July.

The Cowboys are screaming, much like the Patriots did over the 4-game suspension to QB-Tom Brady, the aftermath of deflate gate, the coverup, and the tampered evidence.

Whether something fell thru the cracks that led to the decision not to prosecute….or a lack of evidence… whether there was a payoff from Elliott to the woman, to not pursue the case, it did not influence the NFL investigators.

Where the shadow of Ray Rice’s knockout punch to his girlfriend, and his suspension, or the Adrian Peterson child-beating incident, that kept him out of football for a year, still exists, the NFL continues to take steps forward tp discipline players for off the field incidents.

And with this suspension, the Cowboys themselves will be slapped with another 500,000-fine from the NFL, for a little known by-law. If you continue to employ players who get in trouble, the club gets fined too. In the Cowboys case, fined again.

It happened last year when a half-million fine was levied for the year long drug suspensions to Rolando McClain and Randy Gregory among other discipline issues.

NFL players keep doing stupid things off the field. You sometimes wonder if the message will ever get thru to them.

It should in Dallas where their superstar running back is gone for nearly two months. He is the 6th Cowboy now to run afoul of the law, and the NFL league office in 24-months.

In the court of law, Ezekiel Elliott viewed himself as off the hook. The evidence given to the NFL was pretty strong.

Innocent-but-Guilty in the eyes of the NFL, and they are their own Judge-Jury-Executioner.

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“Losing-Losing-More Losing”

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I like Andy Green alot.

Padres manager, classy, sharp, baseball smart

Full of philosophies that make sense. Motivator. Strong willed. Willing to be creative. Willing to stand up and say what he believes.

Even when he blows it.

Has probably done more with less in a year and a half on the job with the Padres.

But I don’t understand the decisions in Cincinnati in the ugly Thursday loss to the Reds.

Pulling reliever Kirby Yates in the 7th, and inserting his closer Brad Hand, that early in a game.

He inherits a ‘2-2’ count…pitches carefully, walks Joey Votto. Then gives up a grand slam home run to Scooter Gennett.

Game over, blowout loss to ensue.

Maybe Green is running out of trustworthy relievers, the aftermath of the Royals-Padres trade that took 3-pitchers off the major league staff.

Maybe Jose Torres is worn out. Maybe Phil Maton is getting overwhelmed by the opposition’s big innings. Maybe Carter Capps can’t pitch two days ina row coming off surgery.

But Brad Hand in the 7th makes no sense at all, especially since you need a closer for whatever games you might win with what’s left on the schedule.

The Padres are now (50-64) heading into the slaughter house that is Dodgers Stadium.

Fifty wins right now is ahead of what I thought they could do, considering I predicted (60-102) on opening day.

They seem to be making progress with the everyday batting order, Wil Myers horrible slump excluded.

They need more arms, but none are ready.

I think Andy Green has done a good job in trying circumstances, and his mistakes have been few and far between.

But this one had blunder, in capital letters, written all over it.

Ugly series, losing 3-of-4 to a Reds team with one of the worst modern day pitching staffs of all time.

In a season of lousy losses, this one was different. Not a lost fly ball. Not botched ground ball. Not guys tossed out on the bases killing rallies. Not a first inning meltdown by the starter. No this loss came from the dugout.

This one is on the manager more than any of the others.

Losing-losing, more losing. ugh.

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“NFL-12 Month Calendar-Screwed Up”

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The ‘Good Ole Days’…that’s what some people call them.

Back in the day the NFL used to play 7-exhibition games, that’s right.

In those days clubs could bring in 120-players to camp to survive the rigors of two-a-days and all those preseason games.

In that the NFL has now become all about money, and the Union has gotten so powerful, lots of things have changed.

Included in preseason are lots of new rules, but many say not for the better.

Over the last two years, the NFL invoked limitations in off-season workoouts.

Complaints mounted that football was becoming an 11-month a year job, and that players had little or no time to recover from the wear and tear of a 16-games schedule, with post games added on.

With cutbacks negotiated thru the union, players were barred from practice facilities for a near 3-month span.

Teams now have a 90-man roster limit.

You now have a 3-day rookie orientation camp in May right after the draft..

They added 3-weeks of OTA workouts, with limited time on the field in helmets and shells, no pads, no contact, but more teaching and film work than actual on the field activity.

Preseason camp under the new rules has virtually done away with 2-a-day drills. Now a padded practice and a walk thru. Days in pads and contact workouts have been limited to alternating days in practice.

The NFL put an arcane rule into effect that draft picks cannot take part in OTA drills, if their schools have yet held graduation ceremonies. Ridiculous considering virtually all draft picks drop out of school in January to train for the combine, and they are not student-athletes when the OTA’s start.

But we still have a four game preseason schedule. We still have heavy criticism that it is nothing more than a money grab.

And we have lots more injuries, preseason thru regular season.

The NFL, plagued by a concussion crisis, now has problems too with massive numbers of ruptured achilles tendons and ACL injuries. Many believe it is a by-product of less off-season team-training sessions.

Two years removed from the installation of all these new off-season rules, changes are in the offing.

Coaches want more off season access to players to teach fundamentals, install systems, and get them in better game shape. Players themselves say they need more coaching.

GM’s want more time to evaluate their younger players, and need that in off season camps.

Roger Goodell wants the 4th preseason game dropped. He wants it replaced by just a rookie scrimmage. He may push to add extra weeks to the OTA schedules in the spring as a teaching tool.

Of course it has been rumored, the NFL would really consider dropping the one preseason game, if they could add games to the regular schedule, going from 16-to-18 games.

That will never pass because of the injury crisis in the league. Goodell should count up how many players are on NFL-IR by the last week of December. And you want to add a 17th and 18th game to the schedule?

Oh that’s right, because the NFL is all about making more money, isn’t it.

So as the NFL preseason schedule kicks into high gear tonight, teams will hardly play starters, will charge full ticket prices to see rookies and free agents, and will try to avoid catastrophic injuries.

Somewhere between what the NFL used to be in the off season, to where they are now, there has to be a middle ground.

Most feel the season is too long, but now they gripe the off season is too short.

Everyone seems to be getting screwed. The coaches don’t have enough time to evaluate players. The players get hurt. The fans get charged high ticket prices.

And Jerry Jones, Bob Kraft and Dean Spanos all make more money.

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“College Football-None So Blind-Those Refuse to See”

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The college coaches football poll is out, and it is so very important to everyone who roots, cheers, writes checks for the Power 5-Football powers.

So Alabama, with its dynamic QB-Jalen Hurts, is preseason ranked one. No argument there.

Florida State, loaded with talent, per the norm, is ranked 2nd in the country.

Ohio State, with a stable of running backs and its Buckeye defense is 3rd in the nation.

And USC is returning to glory, with QB-Sam Darold leading a parade of talent that stormed to the finish line after a (1-2) start.

But missing in the top 25, is the team that finished the Bowl season in the Top 25…San Diego State.

You remember them?

The Aztecs, who beat Josh Allen in Laramie in the MWC-championship game, and then smoked the Houston Cougars in their bowl game.

They return a ton of talent, led by the 3rd year QB-Christian Chapman (13-3) as a starter, and thousand yard rusher Rashaad Penny, and its defensive front seven, and its great field goal kicker John Barron…and above all, coach Rocky Long

Oh by the way, SDSU gets Boise State here, the team that they have started to beat with regularity. They play an unheard of 7-home games this year, including Stanford, preseason ranked too.

Of course the Aztecs did not get ranked. Agonizing to see Boise State ranked ahead of them in the poll too, knowing that the Aztecs have been them multiple times now over the past few seasons .

Go figure the voters, uninformed, not paying much attention, the same group of people that had SDSU finish in the top 25-to end the season.

The same thing happened to the little guy on the other street corner, in Division 1-AA football..

Dale Lindsey’s USD Toreros, the perennial Pioneer Champion.

The Blue put together another great season, getting into the polls, and then winning a playoff game at Cal Poly-the school that gives out 63-scholarships.

Befitting, the voters did the same thing to USD. Did not rank them, but ranked Cal Poly, despite what happened last season-post season.

Well we will wait to see what kind of message USD delivers with QB-Anthony Lawrence, TE-Russ DeWilley and pass rusher Jonathon Peterson, and a talent laden returning roster.

It would be nice if somebody nationally, these coaches, and these pollsters actually paid attention, and might try to recall what these coaches and their kids did last year at SDSU and USD.

Last I checked, it would mean a lot to a lot of people who pour time, money and heart into the Red & Black and the Blue. It is just as meaningful as it is in Tuscaloosa and other spots on the college football road map

The pollsters, none so blind as those who refuse to see, how good these teams here, are.

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