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.

NHL Lawsuit – Wednesday

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It took them 10-years, cost a player his career, allowed a player to earn millions more, and this is supposed to be justice.
 
The NHL lawsuit involving Todd Bertuzzi and Steven Moore has been settled out of court, a decade after one player assaulted the other, ending his rookie career.  It never went to trial, it was a cash payout.
 
Bertuzzi, a brute of a center, while playing for Vancouver, jumped Moore, a smallish center icemen for Colorado, from behind in a game,  Punched him into unconsciousness, fractured his neck, broke vertebrae, and ended his career.
 
The NHL suspended Bertuzzi for some 50 games and the playoffs.  He was found guilty of simple assault in court, but never served a day in jail.  It hurt his team in postseason, and it cost him 502,000-in salaries.
 
Steven Moore has never been the same since the ambush attack.  He forever has concussion symptoms, not only gave up hockey, but cannot hold a job because of headaches, eyesight problems, vertigo and emotional trauma.  A career ended at age 25.
 
Allegations of a vendetta against the Colorado player, because he had leg whipped a Canucks player earlier in the season.  Legal action that dragged coach Mark Crawford into the incident for putting a bounty of Moore’s head.  Threats of litigation against then GM-Brian Burke.
 
Moore filed a 68M-lawsuit for damages.  Tied up in red-tape, it never saw the light of day in court.  It dragged on for a decade.
 
All the while, Moore sits at home in darkened rooms, his hockey life and his work life forever gone.  Bertuzzi has played on, earning $47M in salaries as a multi-time free agent.
 
A 6’4 giant of a player, jumping on the back of a 5’10 checking center, pounding him senseless, leaving him in a pool of blood on the ice.
 
They settled, reportedly for 8M, a pittance of a fee for a rich man Bertuzzi, no where’s near enough for the damages forever done to Moore.
 
The legal system, and the NHL, you tell me who is served by this end result.

Tuesday August 19th, 2014

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The numbers are just staggering, not the won-loss record of the Padres, or the perpetual drought of playoff seasons under Manager Bud Black.
 
No, the numbers of surgeries to their pitching staff.
 
You don’t really know Max Friend, but the Padres scouts do, and the organization in spinning like a top, with the news, he is the next one to need the so-called Tommy John elbow surgery.
 
San Diego is in lst place right now, first place for the wrong reason, first place in most elbow surgeries in recent years.
 
In a baseball season marred by 36-surgeries to players for torn elbow ligaments since February 15th, the Padres have set their own high water mark.  Not for home runs, nor stolen bases, nor for wins, but for guys on the mound cut on by team doctors.
 
Fried becomes the 12th Padres pitcher to have surgery in 17-months.  Everyone of their young minor league arms have had surgery now.  The so-called ace of the staff Andrew Cashner has had six different arm issues in three years, but luckily has escaped the knife.
 
Corey Leubke is recovering from his second elbow surgery in two years, and won’t pitch till sometime in 2015.  Casey Kelly has had surgery and multiple setbacks in rehab.  Joe Wieland finally pitched in a game in El Paso last weekend, after surgery and additional elbow woes.  Robbie Erlin avoided surgery and is just coming off the DL.
 
Josh Johnson, the ex-Blue Jay-Marlin, who was once the feared right-hander in the National League, is recovering from his second Tommy John surgery and his 3rd operation overall.  He never got to throw a pitch for the Friars.
 
It goes on and on, the body bag count.  From Jason Marquis to Dustin Moseley, and everyone in between, the numbers are staggering for this club alone.
 
The Padres have researched it, but don’t have an answer, at least no common thread reasons.
 
Is it innings per year; stressful innings per outing; variety of pitches used; too much throwing; not enough throwing between starts; or just bad luck?
 
It’s not like the Billy Ball era of the Oakland A’s, where Billy Martin had all four starters go for over 225-innings in a season, and they all broke down within a year.  It’s surely not the era of Glavine-Maddux-Smoltz and all the wins, starts and innings in the Atlanta Braves era, where they had just 1-surgery combined for all three pitchers.
 
Bad luck, bad handling of pitchers, no one knows.
 
What is known is that the future of the team was built around these young arms, they all got here, and they got hurt.
 
And because of the injuries, the numbers are staggering, no playoffs in 8-Bud Black seasons and 11-losing seasons in 16-years.
 
They say good pitching beats good hitting.  Hurt pitching gets you buried in the standings and you sometimes never recover for that.