Hacksaw’s on holiday….
Thanks for following us daily.
We return August 20th.

 
 
You mention his name, you remember his number, and you have such mixed emotions.

If I mention #55….you know what I am referring to in San Diego. Much like when I mention #19.

They gave us such great joy, they left us too early. The smiles they possessed, the swagger they showed, will forever be San Diego.

Much like standing in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and looking at the light shining on the Gold Plaque for Tony Gwynn, this weekends Hall of Fame induction in Canton for Junior Seau, when they unveil that bust, will forever be something to remember.

And sadly, we cannot forget how it all ended. The cancer that ravaged and took away Gwynn’s life. And how horribly it ended with the suicide by Seau.

The debate will forever rage, why Gwynn could not kick the chewing tobacco habit, especially, as smart as he was, knowing full well what it had done to other modern players, and the players he grew up following. Tony knew about Nellie Fox and Bill Tuttle and so many more.

The debate is not to be over either about the NFL concussion crisis, the head injuries, the degraded health, then the deaths that followed. Tackles, Interceptions, Sacks and fumbles have now been replaced in the conversation by things like CTE, Tao protein, Alzheimers, Dementia, ALS.

We never knew how sick Seau was, nor how hurt he ever was. It’s assumed he went outside the circle of Chargers-Dolphins and Patriots doctors to get treated for possible concussions.

And then it was over, his normal life. Sleep disorders, depression, mood swings, anger, erratic behavior. It is disturbing those closest to him, family and inner circle friends, didn’t see this, or try to do something about it. Of course, we will never really know, because Seau was his own man, and may have fought any type of intervention, professionally or personally.

I will remember Seau for his enormous athleticism. He was Ray Lewis before there was a Ray Lewis. He was a violent version of Dick Butkus. A charismatic version of Mike Singletary. He was a Jack Lambert sideline to sideline.

He had that ‘fist pump’ lightning bolt signature after a sack. A terror to jump the gap, beat lineman, and bury running backs. Vaulting tall building tackles, leaping onto quarterbacks, he could come at your from any direction. He played like Superman.

He was a wildman in practice. Coaches knew an undisciplined Seau could make plays, might screw up your scheme, but would blowup the other guys play call.

I close my eyes, and I see him jump a gap, tackle Seattle running back Chris Warren, whom he thought had the ball off play-action, and then run Warren right over his own quarterback Dave Kreig-who had yet to setup in the pocket. It was dominance. It was fierce. It was typical Seau mayhem

It was Seau bolting thru a gap and crushing a Bengals running back. It was Junior showing blitz, backing out into the passing lane and picking one off against the Steelers. It was Seau over the top on a goal line stand, crashing into the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage.

If there was ever anybody ‘all in’ it was Seau. If he was good at USC, he was great in the NFL.

Sadly it had to end this way. Brain injuries always take a toll. This time, Seau took his own life. He shot himself in the heart, but his face will now be attached to the NFL concussion lawsuit for the betterment of those still living and for players in the future.

There will be a pang in my heart come Saturday night. The bronze bust will be spectacular to see, but there will be smiles and sadness too.

Remember the greatness of the player, the dedication of the person, the boyhood love in a grown man. I don’t know that Oceanside emotionally has ever recovered from what happened to him. Chargers fans will never forget either.

His four kids will be there when they unveil the bust. We will be there in spirit too, remembering how much he cared, and what he gave on game-day and his this community with his charities. And even in death, his Foundation yesterday donated 500,000 to Rady Children’s Hospital in the North County for a construction project.

Junior Seau lived to play football. Football took his life. The Hall of Fame bust will give us a chance to remember his specialness forever and forever.

 
 
So camp opens today at San Diego State, with the Aztecs picked to the win the Mountain West Division race.

The coach is Rocky Long, headed into his fifth year Old school as they come. His game of football hasn’t changed since the days he was a quarterback at New Mexico, or John Heisman and Alonzo Amos Stagg were coaches..

Run the football and play defense. Plain and simple. Make them stop us, after we stop them.

Back in the day, college football was all about control of real estate and the clock. Three yards and a cloud of dust Woody Hayes would say. Further back in the day, it was the single wing.

Rocky Long isn’t quite that far back in time, though he has seen alot of 3rd and long plays in his career.

He embarks on the 2015-season loaded at the spots he thinks are most important, running back and on defense.

They’re going to run it, no doubt about that, with Donnell Pumphrey back as a third year starter, coming off an 1800-yard all purpose season, running and catching. But SDSU is not a 1-man team, though it may lean to 1-dimensional.

Chase Price returns as the backup tailback, backed by two more young pups, Rashard Penny and Marcus Stamps, each of who has shown some real flashes.

And yes, Dakota Gordon returns as a fullback, something you hardly ever see in the college game these days, where most everybody else throws the ball everywhere. Not so much on Montezuma Mesa.

It is amazing, with so many high school programs throwing the ball in California, SDSU just has not recruited well at quarterback in the Long era. They come in, stay, fail to get a starting job, then leave. The turnover is like Grand Central Station.

Not since home-grown products Ryan Lindley and Kevin O’Connell were making big plays a few years back, has SDSU scared anyone at the position.

Maxwell Smith, a transfer from Kentucky, a former starter, has arrived as a grad student, and will play immediately, for just 1-year.

Prior to that Long was looking at JUCO transfers, and transfers from Oregon and Oregon State. The Quinn Kaehler’s of the world haven’t lit it up. SDSU, with its great reputation of throwing the ball, dating back to the Dennis Shaw-Brian Sipe era, thru David Lowrey and Tim Gutierrez record seasons, just doesn’t get access to throwers any more.

What they do have is defense, lots of it, and that is who Rocky Long is, and what he is all about.

His 3-3-5, his 3-up-8 back, his blitz schemes, are amazing to watch. How he teaches so much in such a short learning curve of time for players, in impressive. And you thought Bill Belichick and New England’s defense was exotic.

Linebackers-R-Us, is the catch phrase about what SDSU has become. Kirk Morrison would be forever proud. This year’s star is Calvin Munson, who was everywhere, making all kinds of plays last season.

The Aztecs bring back a ton on that side of the ball, including 5th year player JJ Whitaker and linebacker Jake Fely, given an extraordinary 6th year to play because of multiple past injuries. 7-veterans return from the linebacker to secondary corps.

The schedule is a hodge-podge. Shameful they open with USD, a non-scholarship program, because they couldn’t find a 12th opponent. Yes there are road games at Penn State and California. The toughest games will be against Fresno and Utah State. The road game at Colorado State will be the hardest. You still get a sense of non-attachment from the community though towards Aztecs football.

It just has never been the same since the Marshall Faulk era, and that was nearly 25-years ago. SDSU will never be in the Pac 12. Thank goodness, somebody scuttled the bad Big East idea. But unless they can configure a rivalry where USC and UCLA do home and home schedules with State, SDSU will be on the outer edge of BCS-interest.

But there’s a bowl game to shoot for, and a conference championship game against possibly Boise State coming out of the Mountain Division.

Rocky Long doesn’t worry much about things out of his control. No Trojans nor Bruins to play. Lots of empty seats. Nah, let’s just go run the football and take the football away from the other guy. He even laughed at himself talking about the new Aztecs uniforms with the Aztecs calendar logo embossed on helmets-“players think they’re cool-I’m not cool-let’s just go play”.

It’s fun to watch. We’re going to pound it. And we’re coming after your quarterback, and what the hell are you going to do about that?

Who are they? Rocky Ball isn’t bad at all.

You just wish a major league sports town like San Diego and its fans, would pay attention to how good a coach, and how good a program the man has built.

Philadelphia, city of brotherly love, city of enormous hate.

History writes it’s one of the toughest cities in the country to play in, because the fans are so intolerant.

And now the media may have moved into lst place in terms of critical coverage of its teams.

Philadelphia, where they even booed Santa Claus, has become a destination point for dislike. The hapless 76ers, the last place Phillies, the chronic underachieving Flyers.

And now Chip Kelly and the Eagles. Chip Kelly and the Eagles? That Chip Kelly, who has posted back-to-back 10-wins seasons?

They are all over the wonder boy coach from Oregon.

He ran off star wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who marched to the beat of a different drum. He dealt away running back LeSean McCoy despite all his productivity. He traded away young quarterback Nick Foles.

He has spent 24-months answering non stop questions about his video game offense, and whether the Eagles can play deep into January with it.

It’s been a continuum of questions from Michael Vick to Mark Sanchez, and now to the oft-injured quarterback Sam Bradford.

It’s a constant barrage of quotes from departing players about racial issues, culture issues, relationship and leadership issues. Love-me, Love-me-not.

And now they’ve gone after his reclusive personal life, digging up data that Kelly was married years ago at the University of New Hampshire. He left, she stayed behind, he went to Oregon and now the NFL.

He doesn’t think it’s anyone’s business. All thought he was single, in status, and in football mind. He called what the Philadelphia media has done as ‘bizarre’, saying ‘who cares-who should care about something years ago?”.

As they say, all is fair in love and war, except in Philadelphia where everything seems to be fair game for evaluation and criticism. Just ask Chip Kelly about that.

 
 
The news was a bit surprising, though the rumors had been out there for a week.

The creative genius will no longer run the Boston Red Sox. Larry Lucchino is stepping down at age 70.

The man who helped end the ‘Curse of the Bambino’, getting the Red Sox to the World Series, has seen his franchise slip, looking now at a 3rd last place finish over the last four years.

It’s hard to tell whether Boston has fallen on hard times because of Lucchino, or the brain drain in the front office, with the loss of GM-Theo Epstien, and so many of his assistants.

They seldom put owners or lead executives into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but there is no doubt about Lucchino’s influence in lots of places on the baseball road map.

As a creative genius, he helped design the beauty of PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Camden Yards in Baltimore, and Petco Park here.

He was the driving force about ways to save-preserve the history of Fenway Park, making it a money maker and reigniting its value and heritage in the Red Sox nation (aka) the State of New England.

An influential man at the Commissioner’s office level, a brilliant man in terms of marketing and maximizing revenue, Lucchino is indeed a special man. Yes pushy, but the first to get to the bottom line in all things baseball related.

A cancer survivor in San Diego, he re-invented himself as a dynamo in Boston. His decision to take on George Stienbrenner in the Border War bidding for free agents set the tone that the Red Sox would be different under John Henry’s ownership and Lucchino’s leadership.

Things change when you don’t win. Age creeps up and influences personal decisions. But one thing is certain, Larry Lucchino’s genius was everywhere in baseball.

We were lucky to cross paths with him in San Diego.