Chargers Plight

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The job just got a bit tougher for that San Diego Chargers coaching staff and the front office.
 
In what had been a training camp pretty much free of bad injuries, now this, the loss of fast-developing nose tackle Kwame Gaethers, a mountain of a man at 6’6-335.
 
The nose tackle job is so hard to play, and so hard to find the right guy for the teams that live in a “3-4” defense.  The best modern day one the Chargers have had in decades was Jamal Williams, a Bobby Beathard find, and it took #75 a good five years to learn how to play it, survive it, and flourish in it, at nose tackle.  Before that it was Louie Kelcher, and the 1970s was a long time ago.
 
Gaethers played some at the end of last year, and last year was a mess in that defensive front.  This year, in preseason, he was getting on the field more and more, some because of an ankle injury to Sean Lissimore, but more so because his play picked up and he had become a force.
 
And now he’s gone.  Not for a couple of weeks as Coach Mike McCoy had led us to believe.  Not for the minimum 8-weeks, if he had gone on that special IR-list.  But rather the whole season.
 
The gruesome hit that bent him over backwards was painful to watch, imagine how it must have felt.  The Chargers said hyperextension and a ligament sprain.  It might have been worse, and maybe it really is, to merit him being gone now the entire season.
 
Where does San Diego go?. You can find a wide body on waivers this coming Saturday, when teams cut to 53, but teams don’t give away nose tackles.
 
It’s a lingering problem.  At one point the Chargers had ex-49er Abrayou Franklin, and he played well in chunks of time two years ago.  They had drafted Cam Thomas, and worked and waited for him to develop, and all he did was get pushed around on the field, and get himself in a lawsuit for herpes off the field.  He is gone.
 
GM Tom Telesco could have been pro active in the off season.  Amongst the veterans who were out there as free agents, was Pat Sims, a very active nose tackle on a bad Raiders team.  Issac Sopoaga, once upon a time, a starter with the 49ers.  Both have since been signed.
 
Shaun Rogers, an ex Giant-Lion-Brown is a massive guy, but questionable character.  Ryan Pickett, the ex-Packer-Ram can be had but he has a 100,000 miles on his wheels.
 
Lissimore, who is a bit undersized, will start, but how long he holds up remains to be seen.  Draft pick Ryan Carruthers is next in line, but he played at tiny Arkansas State, and do you know how many miles it is between that place, and this place (the NFL), and I’m not talking  miles?
 
It’s a tough position to play, and now for the Chargers, a tougher position to fill.  They didn’t fix it last year, and didn’t address it this past off season either.
 
The GM hurt the team with his inertia, at a position you really need to have a guy you cannot move off the spot.  And now that guy, Gaethers, is hurt.

The Commissioner Comes to San Diego

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The man is coming thru town tonite on his own personal farewell tour, and will be at Petco Park this evening.

Outgoing Commissioner Bud Selig will hold court in his final press conference, as he vists all the ballparks before heading into retirement.

The man causes reaction from virtually everyone about everything he ever did, and he’s not done yet.  Polarizing is part of his name.

Selig presided over tremendous growth in the industry, which used to be a 1B a year industry and is now worth 8B a season.

He helped create MLB Media and the growth of TV packages for virtually all the teams in the game.

September has become something special now with 4 wildcard playoff berths available in the two leagues.  The World Series at night draws great ratings.

After a decade of strife, there is drug testing at every level and increasing discipline too, for  steroids, amphetamines and HGH..

Sure there is stain over the cancellation of the ’94 season and the World Series…and the public black eye about black market drugs in the Dominican.

But he is not to blame for A-Rod, Ryan Braun, McGuire, or the liars infront of Congress.

Add the strife with umpires, the instant replay mess earlier in the year,the All Star game
fiasco, and the embarrassment of the McCourt-Dodgers era-error.  They were all on his watch.

So too is the sad sack stadiums issues in Oakland and in Tampa Bay, territorial rights, and firesale budgets..It’s always easy to take a shot at the man in the rumpled jacket, askew tie, with little camera presence.But more than anything Bud Selig cared, and it was a challenge to get all the owners and an always angry union to pull the rope in the same direction.

The old car dealer from Milwaukee rescued the Brewers back in the day, and history should write, he did much more positive than negative for baseball as its leader..

A classy gentleman in his own way, maybe the next honor for him might well be on the steps at Cooperstown.

The man would have many positive things to put on his plaque.

You’ve heard the phrase “the beer that made Milwaukee famous.  Bud Selig, the man who made Milwaukee and baseball proud.

Corey Liuget

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It’s taken awhile for him to grow up, but it sure looks as if he has arrived.
 
NFL preseason games are all about individual performances in matchups, not so much about the win or the loss.
 
Such the case yesterday in the Chargers (21-7) loss to the NFC-West power 49ers.
 
The storyline was more than just the (9-for-10) passing day of QB Philip Rivers, or the improvement on defense due to the return to health of Jarrett Johnson and Dwight Freeney.
 
No, the big story was the dominance of one player, at a very hard position to dominate, defensive end. 
 
That was Corey Liuget’s calling card all over the field. 
 
When it was 1st team vs-1st team, when it was the Bolts-Niners’ best going against each other, it was Liuget whom the spotlight shined on.  In the first four possessions of the game, Liuget had 4-solo tackles, 2-quarterback pressures, 2-tackles behind the line of scrimmage, a forced fumble and a quarterback sack.
 
And he did it against the top two left side lineman the Niners have, Pro Bowler’s Joe Staley and Mike Iupati.
 
It has taken Liuget awhile to arrive.  A lst round pick out of Illinois, he was undersized at 298 pounds on a 6-2 frame.  He got overwhelmed by massive left tackles as a rookie.  He played better in his second year, more explosive and was moved around from outside to inside on rushes.  He was nicked up some but he always plays hard, and he started to make plays..
 
This preseason he looks like an experienced old hand, something to see after just two full seasons in the NFL trenches.  I watch him off the ball and I see a quicker version of a pretty good pass rusher, Jared Allen, the longtime Chief-Viking defensive end.
 
He is for real; and he now may be the most important person on that defensive front.  Just ask the Niners left side of the offensive line.
 
Liuget has been building towards this.  It looks like he has arrived.  You’ll find him in the backfield of opposing quarterbacks this year.  Number 94-likely now Number 1-if the Chargers defense is going to have a good season.

 

America – Ice Challenge

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It is amazing what athletes can do, not just on the field, but in society.
 
It is amazing what social media has triggered just because someone had an idea to help raise money.
 
You don’t know Steve Gleason, I do.  I don’t know OJ Brigance, but know his story.  We are just learning too about Ted Shaw.
 
NFL-CFL players afflicted with ALS-the crippling Lou Gehrig disease, that has their life on the clock.
 
Brigance works out of a wheelchair for the Baltimore Ravens, as an ambassador, though his life functions are severely diminished as we await the final outcome of his struggles.  He played in Baltimore and before that in the CFL.  He has fought the disease for 7-years.
 
Gleason was a blue collar linebacker at Washington State, and a very good special teams player with the Saints.  He is now confined on a downhill track with the horrors of ALS just infront of him.
 
Ted Shaw just retired from the Eagles, and has been diagnosed with the early stages of this too at age 27.
 
Across America, and around the NFL, players are doing the Ice Challenge, dumping ice cubes and water on each other, and donating tens of thousands of dollars directed towards ALS.
 
The Tennessee Titans stood on the field on Wednesday night, all 90 on the roster, made donations and did the ice bucket challenge.  It is spreading like wildfire across America.
 
In just over 11-days, 47.3 million dollars has been raised for ALS research.  Those who can are giving, and it is a sight to see.
 
Also a sight to see is the courage of Brigance, Gleason and Shaw, facing what they know will be an early finish line to life, without fear, with courage and with the support of Americans everywhere.
 
We know the outcome for them.  What is happening the last 11 days may help the outcome of the future…finding a cure for this terrible disease. 
 
Something good coming out of something so bad.  Credit the NFL, social media and a caring society.

 

Johnny Football

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You may like him, you may dislike him, you are following him though.  Why else would anyone in the world pay attention to the once proud Cleveland Browns franchise, now moribund, were it not for him.
 
Him.  Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, one of their top draft picks, hope for the future, college rock and roll star.
 
It is intriguing to watch him learn to play at the NFL level after the explosive Saturday-by-Saturday shows he put on in the SEC.
 
He is dynamic, he is fiery, he is flamboyant, he is arrogant. 
 
He comes from money in Texas and fame plus that fortune has always been around him.  Manziel has been the neon light attraction all camp long in Cleveland.
 
Can he take a hit?  Will he be able to make plays in the pocket? Will he run around and create?  Will he get killed.
 
His first two games haven’t been great.  More scramble and runs for your life, than go thru progressions and do the right thing.  But he has made it fun to watch.
 
The NFL Network had an all time high 2.8 million viewers for the first game he played.  Last week, ESPN had the 2nd highest preseason rating, 4.8, it has ever had for his game.
 
He freelances, he fires bullets, he takes off and runs, he takes some wicked shots.  And to top it all off, he gave the Redskins bench the finger in the second half on Monday night after they chased him all over the pocket but didn’t sack him.
 
Manziel is cocky and confident, arrogant and artistic.  Only time will tell if he becomes a Frank Tarkenton or a Kordell Stewart.
 
They’ve called him so many things.  Johnny Football, Johnny Heisman, Johnny Jerk.  Now you call him Johnny Backup, since he didn’t win the starting Browns QB job as everyone hoped.
 
His uniform number is the same as his spot on the depth chart… #2.