“Smoking Guns-Paper Trails-NFL On Trial Again”

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How do you spell the word ‘coverup’?

Simple…N-F-L.

It appears to be happening again, another health scandal breaking loose in the National Football League.

The last time, three years ago, it was the concussion lawsuit. This is a massive retired players lawsuit over abuse of pain-killer pills and injections, sanctioned by clubs, given to players.

Over 1,800 players have filed suit saying NFL teams abused DEA rules intentionally, over the dispensing of vicodin and use of Toradol pain deadening injections. Vicodin is highly addicted. Toradol can lead to further damage of body organs.

The big difference is the concussion lawsuit vs this one, is a paper trail of Emails, from trainers and doctors, detailing how they handed out the pills, gave the injections, and how they circumvented DEA rules about policing of these medications.

Who had access to them, who gave them, and what book-keeping was used to hide what was going on everyday of the week in NFL lockerooms.

All this uncovered in discovery, and now there are club survey, that show, ‘on average’, NFL players take 7-pain killing pills or injections each week. That’s right, 7-pills, per player, every week of the season.

And the surveys showed that on game day, an average of 26-players (out of 53 on rosters) were given Toradol injections to deaden the pain, so they could play on game-day. That’s nearly half the roster, shot up.

The NFL and at least 14-clubs refused comment on the story. The NFL Union says it is shocked at the data that has been flushed out. The information points to a couple of clubs that were ringleaders.

NFL credibility was first staggered by the concussion lawsuit, that led to a 965M payout to players who had head injuries, Parkinson’s, ALS, Dementia, Alzheimers and other problems. brought on by concussions.

This payout came before the nearly 5,000-player led lawsuit got to court. And the NFL money came out of a league office that for nearly 22-years had said there was never a link between concussions and CTE.

The early death of Mike Webster, the follow-up seige of suicides of Junior Seau and so many others, led to a settlement.

And now this.

Smoking guns and paper trails. The players have been hurting for years. The NFL has been making money for decades. And this has been going on unchecked, as the league succeeded and the players suffered.

Will this lawsuit get to court, or will there suddenly be another ‘check written’ so the NFL can make this go away?

If it looks line it….sounds like it…..reads like it…what do you think it is?

Coverup…again.

How do you feel about your favorite football team these days?

“Aztecs Basketball-Wait Till Next Year”
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So it’s officially over.

No one is happy. Lots of work to be done.

The Aztecs are going to any post-season tournament games, not the NCAA..not the NIT…not the CIT tourney.

What they need to do is take some time off…hold end of season exit meetings with the coaches staff….get ready for off season workouts.

And expect a culture change and tougher coaching going forward.

For years and years, a 19-win season would have been rewarding, but now it is a disappointment.

Aztecs basketball has been about 20-plus win seasons…even a 30-win season…trips to March madness….a chance to be in the Sweet 16.

What happened this year? Lots.

Injury and illness to virtually all their big men. It started with the Malik Pope knee injury…it ended with him injurying it. Add in Zy Cheatem, Max Hoetzel, Matt Shrigley, sometimes healthy, sometimes not.

Valentine Izundu was a disappointment after transferring from Washington State.

Defense was the Aztecs calling card for years, but the card must have fallen out of their pocket on many nights, because we only saw it once in awhile.

Scoring became a challenge. Free throw shooting was erratic. The resolve to take over games missing.

Was there too much ego? Was there not enough resolve? Was there faulty leadership? Was there lack of discipline? Was there too much notoriety? Was too much taken for granted?

You can probably hit check marks in all those categories.

So things must change. Better focus, more intensity, and additional players.

Jalen McDaniels redshirted this year as a freshman. He plays and plays alot next year.
Guard Devin Watson transfers in from USF and plays with 3-years left.

They do return Trey Kell and Jeremy Hensley, but they graduate D’Erryl Williams and Dakari Allen, their defensive spirit.

It’s the second year in a row without an invite to the Big Show. Hell they didn’t even get an invite to the NIT, where Colorado State-Boise-Fresno all play this weekend.

This year was an aberration. Next year will be a bounce back season.

Believe it, thought between point A today to point B-next opening night, things are going to change, on the floor, off the floor and in that lockeroom.

Steve Fisher and Brian Dutcher will mandate it. These Aztecs players will have to deal with it. .

What we saw this year was not acceptable for a program that had risen to great heights.

Wait till next year. They better work harder to be better than this year”

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Chargers-“Spending Money-Throwing Good Money at Bad?”

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So the spending spree has started in the NFL. The signing frenzy. The enormous amounts of bonus money given to players, who don’t carry “impact ” labels on them.

The Chargers, still doing business out of the Fortress, AKA, Chargers Park, went out and got another left tackle.

Someone will have to explain the days dealings to me.

Having dispatched young stud DJ Fluker, amongst others on Wednesday night, the Chargers stood and watched do-everything 3rd down back Danny Woodhead leave for Baltimore. And they let go of another 3rd down back, the tough little running back Brandon Oliver.

But the decision to write a big check, a huge check, to ex-Seahawks and Broncos left tackle Russell Okung, is a shocker.

A former lst round draft pick out of Oklahoma State, he was an instant starter with the Seahawks, then was let go. He was a starter in Denver, then jettisoned after just one year.

The only metric I can tell you about Okung, is that he always nicked up. Ankles, knees, shoulders.

He’s missed 24-games in his 7-year career, and played sub-standard in other games too.

Sure players get hurt, but he seemed to take it to another level. So he replaces King Dunlap, who has significant head injury issues, in the form of four concussions over the course of his NFL career. He couldn’t stay on the field last year.

What really blows your mind, is how the Chargers have continually missed on left tackles, since the retirement of stalwart Marcus McNeill with neck problems four years ago.

This team, that front office, just gave Okung a (4Y-53M) deal with 25M guaranteed. Twenty five million guaranteed for a guy who is constantly dinged up.

In the tradition of Chargers leadership, they gave Okung this money, after last year lavishing Dunlap with a (4Y-28M) package, 13M of it guaranteed, and we know how many injuries he has sustained.

And this all started with Jared Gaither, you remember him, the big hulk-turned-big stiff. They gave him (4Y-24M) with 11M-guaranteed. They disliked him so much, they did not invite him back for the 2nd year of the multi-year deal.

Think about the decision makers in these transactions, not just the players. John Spanos to Tom Telesco to Ed McGuire have signed off on 105M in salaries, and 47M in guaranteed signing bonuses, and roster bonuses. They spent that in a 5-year span, at one position, with zero return on investment.

All this for left tackles, the second most important position on the roster, to the quarterback they are supposed to protect.

The Chargers, still searching for the right guy at left tackle. Still spending ridiculous amounts of money too.

Draft a left tackle, develop him. Easier said than done, I know. Especially since they drafted a right tackle (DJ Fluker) , and just cut him.

Throwing good money at bad. and wondering why they are not winning.

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“Chargers Revisionist History”

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The Pulitzer Prize for fiction goes to the Los Angeles Times sports section.

The alert came screaming across my cell phone, about the award winning feature story in the Times sports section about the greatness of the Spanos family, the one that ripped the hearts out of San Diego Chargers fans, as the ownership ripped the NFL team about of our city.

Tilted. That’s the only thing I could think of reading thru the story, praising, rightfully so, the early days of the success story of owner Alex Spanos, as an entrepreneur in Stockton.

But then came the sob story of son Dean, and all he tried to do to keep the Chargers in San Diego. And woe is him and his sons, who felt for the good of the family, the team had to leave here and go there,Los Angeles.

And point-by-point, all the things the first family of football did with their last place franchise, to try and stay in San Diego.

Left out, left on the cutting floor at the editing desk, had to be the rest of the story.

How Spanos never intended to pay any family money for a stadium in San Diego. How the owner tried to hide his downtown stadium idea wrapped inside the Convention Center annex. How the hotel tax and the fans PSLs and Stadium naming rights would replace Spanos dollars in funding the local share.

No mention at all of the Spanos-approved, Mark Fabiani led, scorched earth policy in dealing with city government. No comments from the mayor, city council, county supervisors, or CSAG committee members who worked tirelessly to try and find a financing plan.

No mention either of the refusal of Team Spanos to even go to the bargaining table to find a common ground on a new stadium. And of course no mention about how the sons, given control of the team, have run it into the ground financially and physically.

Guess ownership does not bear any responsibility for the poor product, the decreased attendance, and the reduced revenue streams.

The story was definitely titled towards ownership. No balance what-so-ever.

Maybe there will be an extensive followup story, still to come, that will present the other side of the story. I felt like throwing up on my LA Times as I read of all the glory the current leadership deserves, for what they did to get to LA.

But for now, I can only imagine they are clearing wall space in the sports office, for that Pulitzer Prize plaque, the one for revisionhist history on the Chargers move, the prize for fiction writing.

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“Chargers-Solve 1-Problem-Create Another”

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Quarterback sacks, hurries, hits, turnovers.

As much part of San Diego Chargers football as Powder Blue Jerseys and Lightning Bolts on the helmet.

Now what is Philip Rivers going to?

The weakest part of the team, just got weaker, with the surprise decision by the front office to blowout four year veteran starting offensive guard DJ Fluker, a cornerstone on their roster and in their lineup four straight seasons.

Yes, he was slated to earn (8.8M) salary this year, a very high figure for a guard, who was not a Pro Bowler. And yes, he seeminly had plateaued after the first two seasons of his career.

But you let him go, for nothing? Moved him out without trying to restructure down the contract? Did not try to change his off season habits, to get him to shed some of his 339-pound girth to become more flexible, more quicker? You gave up on a 1st round draft pick, who is still pretty young?

Left behind after the decision to dump Fluker, oft-injured DB-Brandon Flowers, and wide receiver Stevie Johnson, is 19M-cap space. As of this morning the Chargers now have 23M total space to re-sign a chunk of their in-house free agents, and maybe dabble a bit in free agency on the outside.

But also left behind is an offensive front where injuries and subpar performances were almost weekly occurrences. I’d choose a warrior like Fluker over what’s left on the field now, King Dunlap, Orlando Franklin, and Joe Barksdale.

Fluker was a warrior, maybe not the player we all envisioned after his rookie season, but still better than most of the others out there.

Rivers is a warrior too, but I cannot imagine tomorrow can be better than yesterday, with what is left on the offensive front after what they let go.

In his last five seasons, Rivers has piled up yards, thrown touchdowns, but has not won a playoff game. Yet his team has lost 25-of its last 35-games, and he is coming off his lowest QB rating (87) of his career as a starter.

In those five seasons of football, he has thrown 78-interceptions, lost 18-fumbles, put the ball on the ground 39-times, and taken an incredible 191-quarterback sacks.

The Chargers didn’t want to keep Fluker. They should have worked harder at it, financially, and from a football technique standpoint, physically.

I don’t see this team keeping Rivers upright going forward, with them getting rid of the cement-tough right guard. And here’s a scary thought. What if Flukers winds up with the Chiefs-Broncos-Raiders?

John Spanos and Tom Telesco may have solved one problem, one they created, the cap mess, but now they’ve created maybe a bigger problem, a really bad offensive front line, the one playing infront of the most important player on their roster, their quarterback.

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