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“NFL NOTEBOOK”
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CHARGERS..A really tough decision for Jim Harbaugh.  The Bolts play the Chiefs on Sunday.  A win puts them in the AFC-West race.  A loss is a setback for sure.  But the bigger story is QB-Justin Herbert’s health and his twice injured right ankle.  You can play him, with limited mobility, but risk further injury.  You can sit him a week, add in the bye week next week, and in 14-days get him healthy for the 13-weeks left on the schedule after the Chiefs game ends.

CHARGERS PROBLEMS II…Losing both LT-Rashawn Slater and RT-Joe Alt is crippling.  There is no Joey Bosa this weekend.  And there will be 3-new different OL starters against Chris Jones and that Chiefs pass rush.  A tough Sunday ahead.

RAMS..Matthew Stafford has willed his team back into games this season, but the problems continue to grow.  All the injuries to the offensive front and the pass defense.  Sean McVay does not have enough players either side of the ball.  LA is giving up (425YPG) and has allowed 11-TDs this season in just 3-weeks.

RAIDERS-BROWNS…2-QBs in trouble.  The highly erratic Gardner Minshew and the suddenly mediocre Deshaun Watson.  Minshew has never been a star.  Watson was once upon a time in Houston, but he is completing just 57% of his passes…has a 71-rating..3TD-4-turnovers and been sacked 16-times in 3-weeks.

BILLS-RAVENS..These two teams have played the big boys already on the schedule.  Josh Allen is carrying Buffalo.  And now Lamar Jackson-Derrick Henry have come together, combining for (1,237Y) all purpose yards in 3-weeks.  Big game.

PACKERS-VIKINGS..Sam Darnold has Minnesota at (3-0) with (8TD-2Int-117 rating).  The Packers could use QB-Jordan Love, coming off a sprained knee, but young backup Malik Willis is coming off a big road win..Green Bay is averaging (391YPG)

DENVER-JETS..It’s the young pup vs the old dog, this  Bo Nix-Aaron Rodgers matchup. Nix has yet to throw a TD..has 4-interceptions, and needs help from an erratic offense.  Rodgers  has tossed 5TDs with his 103-QB rating.  His defense has 14-sacks and is playing well.

EAGLES-TAMPA BAY…What a weird start.  Big plays, big yards, big turnovers.  Jalen Hurts-Saquon Barkley and that offense are explosive (411YPG) but they have coughed it up 6-times in three weeks.  Tampa’s Baker Mayfield has been electric but he has also taken 13-sacks.

WASHINGTON-ARIZONA…Kyler Murray is playing well (104QBR-5TD) and so is his WR-top pick Marvin Harrison averaging (19YPC).  The NFL surprise rookie is Jayden Daniels, playing mistake free ball with a (111QBR).  So far-so good.  We’ll see where they are by Sunday night.

BENGALS..Joe Burrow is throwing for a ton, but he’s on an (0-3) team.
PATRIOTS..Miserable offense (246YPG) and no way out of this mess.
CAROLINA..Bryce Young is (2-16) as a starter and who knows about a future?
BEARS..Tough start Caleb Williams (65 QBR)..2TD-4 picks-2 fumbles-13 sacks.
DALLAS..Yes they have Dak Prescott but they also give up (372YPG-12TD)
GIANTS..May have bad offense but a defense with 14-sacks.
49ers..Lots of injuries but still averaging (409YPG) when they have the ball
SEATTLE…Off to (3-0) start under Geno Smith-see me after the Detroit game.
TITANS..Off sophomore slump-QB-Will Levis..8-turnovers
COLTS..Anthony Richardson-bad start (49%-completions-0TD-6Int)
JAGUARS..Trevor Lawrence (2TD-11 Sacks-75R) in (0-3) start.

I’d say enjoy the NFL weekend, but that is dependent on how your team is doing-winning-or-reeling.

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“CONFERENCE CIVIL WAR”
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Quite a battle that has started ‘after-the-fact’.

After the fact that the Pac 12 announced it was acquiring 5-teams from the Mountain West Conference, and willing to pay exit fees to make the deals go thru.

San Diego State-Boise State-Fresno State-Colorado State and Utah State are headed to the Pac 12, trying to rebuild itself after the demise last year of the Conference of Champions.

But now the Pac 12 has gone back on the deal, filing a lawsuit that the MWC’s demand for (55M) in exit fees is illegal.

The Pac 12 had agreed to go fund part of the exit fees of the five schools joining their league from the MWC.

The (55M) payment request for poaching schools by the Pac 12, was separate from the MWC schools agreeing to pay 18M each if they decided to leave.

Added into the talks, was the fact the Pac 12-paid the MWC (14M)-as part of a scheduling alliance to help Oregon State-Washington State find games this fall.  The relationship fell apart when the MWC asked for (30M) to continue the scheduling alliance.

Now the Pac 12 wants a judge to remove the (55M) payments they owe, saying it is unlawful.

The Mountain West rejected the assertions, saying the Pac 12 lawyers agreed to the terms of the agreement, vetted the deal, and signed the deal.  End of discussion.

Now just two weeks after SDSU joined the Pac 12, the league is in trouble.  They tried but failed to lure Memphis-Tulane-South Florida, but could not give them a guaranteed figure of what a new TV deal would bring each school.  That plus the AAC would need to be paid (27M) to release those 3-schools to go to the Pac 12.

They went after Air Force and UNLV, but the MWC countered with bonus money above the 11M each is expected to get in a new TV deal for the Mountain West.

Now the 7-team Pac 12 is backed into a corner.  There’s no one else to get to join.  They face an August 2025 deadline from the NCAA to get to 8-teams.  The Pac 12 says it really wants to go to 9-football teams.

Who?  Where?  How much?

Hard to believe the Mountain West is the power broker in this, and the Pac 12, reeling from the loss of 10-members, seems left with no options going forward.  Shocking to think New Mexico, Wyoming and the others left behind have bargaining power, while the new look Pac 12 seems in worse shape, despite its national brand.

And now this vicious Civil War between the two conferences.  The story is not over.  The solutions may be hard to find.

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‘A’s FAREWELL’
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Baseball History can write many, many stories, many versions of Athletics baseball.

Yes the A’s, who are leaving the Oakland Coliseum this weekend, as the franchise moves to Sacramento for 3-years to play in a minor league ballpark, before moving to Las Vegas.

The history will include the bitter ending authored by current owner John Fisher, who is the catalyst for the move.  He wrote a letter expressing sadness he was not able to get a new stadium built at the Howard Terminal site in Oakland.

He failed to mention the cost cutting operation, that led to a very low payroll, a losing record, the continual trades of veteran players for prospects.  All of his baseball decisions led to last place finishes, and the lowest attendance in modern day baseball (10,266) in his final year.

And no mention of  his failure to privately fund a portion of the stadium, wanting instead a destitute city to pay for a large segment of the costs.  It was always the blame of the Coliseum Commission, the city of Oakland, Alameda County.

Nice resume John Fisher has in his briefcase.

So this weekend they will pack up the Green & Gold uniforms and vacate the dump of a stadium, and the decades of fans, who loved the team.

There is history, lots of history surrounding the A’s and yet it seems like a curse that followed the franchise.

Connie Mack and the early Philadelphia A’s, were dominant, yet he always sold off his players because of financial problems.  The yesteryear names like Eddie Collins, Al Simmons, Jimmy Foxx, Lefty Grove and more were stars and then victims.

A team that in the late 1920s into the 30s won the American League over the Yankees multiple times, including a 107-win season.  But a team that sold off its players, and forever fell into last place.  One year the A’s lost 109-games, but their co-tenant Phillies lost 111.  Can you imagine that misery at then Shibe Park?

They became the Kansas City A’s in 1954, moving to a new market, but again plagued by ownership problems forever.  The biggest claim to fame, the A’s always traded their top players to the Yankees, and the standing joke, Kansas City was in the Yankees farm system.  Look up the Roger Maris deal if you want.

Charley O. Finley, the insurance tycoon, bought the team and moved it to Oakland.  He stockpiled talent and managers, and won in the early years.

But as times changed, the union won court cases against baseball, that led to free agency, it led to the next demise of all things Athletics.

Finley tried to sell off his players.  Breached their contracts.  Lost court and arbitration cases, and wars with the commissioners.  They became decisions that forever changed the game and wrecked his franchise, the one with a mule and an elephant as mascots.

The Swinging A’s with Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter, Joe Rudi, Sal Bando, Reggie Jackson and so many more big time stars and personalities were so popular.  Division titles, World Series rings, mustaches, beards and more.  And then it ended.

Finley stripped it, then sold the team.   The A’s became famous for Moneyball, and then John Fisher showed up with co owner Lewis Wolff but failed to put a winner on the field.

The stadium eroded, the franchise eroded, and support for the A’s and its Stadium ideas eroded.

So the A’s leave behind a sordid legacy, dating all the way back to the 1930s of Connie Mack, thru Kansas City, onto the Charley O days in the East Bay.

A collection of good players, but because it was the A’s, it always ended badly

Sadly, MLB allowed this to happen.  Approving sales of the team from one under financed owner to another.  Allowing the small market A’s to take in huge amounts of revenue share money, and put it into the owner’s pockets, not back into payroll.  MLB failed to intercede to help get a stadium deal done when they could have used  their influence to find better owners and find a better solution.

Check off all the emotional boxes this final week of the season.  Sadness at the way it ended; anger that John Fisher allowed this to happen.  Melancholy that something that was so special turned out so badly.

Next up, three summers in Sacramento, where those June-July-August nights are wrapped around triple digits temperatures.  Good luck in Las Vegas, where they have yet to find funding for John Fisher’s idea of a new snazzy Sin City Stadium.

Bad team, roster, franchise, owner, and history.  A farewell funeral this weekend for the Swinging A’s.

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“AZTECS BASKETBALL-A DIFFERENT ERA”
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Sweet 16s…a Final Four…a Championship game appearance.

That is all on San Diego State’s basketball resume in recent years.

The Steve Fisher-to-Brian Dutcher era may be about to take on a different look.

SDSU’s stars have gone onto the NBA careers they hoped for.  The dynamic March Madness stretches are in the rear-view mirror.

This year’s edition of SDSU hoops, as they open practice, will be a team devoid iof established stars, putting a mixed bag of young transfers, young recruits, and a couple of guards playing their final year.

A somewhat younger basketball team, but a very different basketball team from what he have expected in the Kawhi Leonard, Malachi Flynn eras.

A bit of a different coaching change too, as Dutcher looks ahead to the membership in the Pac 12-Conference two years from now too.

Brian Dutcher-pre season press conference:
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Friday..we go a couple of hours of practice
Get injured G-Nick Boyd-out of his walking boot
New challenges

Impact of Pac 12…we are a power five school
New opportunity..new opponents
Can’t wait to see who else they add
2-more years Mountain West
We won’t change recruiting..we get top level talent
Going to NCAA finals cemented our program

I would love Gonzaga to come join the party
They have had opportunities to move before-but stayed
Talked to JD Wicker a bit about what teams are in the discussion
I like to stay regionally with our conference
I think there will be sanity at some points down the road
I think some of the Pac 12 teams who left will find sanity

I think next thing is football goes on their own..rest of us settle back in and play regionally
The travel component is a big issue of what is happening

New schedule..USD-UCSD will to play us only in Viejas
Don’t want to play home and home with cross town rivals
Still want to start a home and home with a name team
The games in Las Vegas will be difficult
We can make NCAA tourney by what we do with the 5-big non conference games

Playing in the NIL Festival and get paid helps us alot financially
NIL dollars important

We have 8-new guys on the floor-and see what we look like
We don’t have a franchise player..we are flipping rosters
We need to mesh by November-good team-good talent

Magoon Gwath-Jared Jones..
Magoon is a red shirt freshman-teaching him half court style
They look good in teaching but now have to play up and down
Jones is learning a new system

Wayne McKinney-USD-played four years
Nick Boyd-been out 8 weeks..played alot of basketball-so there is help

We have young guys who will play this year..this is different this year
Elijah Saunders-nothing surprises you with the portal
You don’t begrudge a guy going to Virginia
The 2-years he spent here will help him to move to ACC

Miles Heide..center position so hard to play..more comfortable as a sophomore
You make a mistake at center-it winds up in the basket..he is better

We have 5-bigs and depth at power forward and center position.

MWC-every team lost players but Boise has 2-good back..Nevada 3-starters back..New Mexico has 3-veterans back

Alot of mystery rosters this year-conference is wide open

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“CHARGERS–THE COACH FOUND OUT”
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Jim Harbaugh, he of bold comments all the time, said it at the end of the week as the team put finishing touches on practice in Charlotte, before heading to Pittsburgh to meet the Steelers on Sunday.

‘We’ll find out what we are made of’.”

They found out Sunday afternoon on the banks of the 3-Rivers.  You can find the remnants of the Bolts game out on the curb waiting for the sanitation crews to come by and pick up the garbage.

They got blasted, pasted, buried by a mediocre pedestrian Pittsburgh offense, and then sledge hammered by a Steelers defense that ran them into the Allegheny River by the time it was over.

The (20-10) beatdown is more than just one loss in the standings.  There now appear to be long lasting effects from injuries that could spill over for weeks into the schedule.

Quarterback Justin Herbert re injured his high right ankle sprain, hobbled off and now is in jeopardy of missing next week’s game against Kansas City.

Left tackle Rashawn Slater left in the second half with a pectoral shoulder injury, something critical when it comes to pass blocking the QBs blind side.

Right tackle Joe Alt, who had his hands full with TJ Watt’s pass rushing, seemed to strain a knee falling backward in the 4th quarter as things fell apart.

Pass rusher Joey Bosa limped off apparently re injuring his hip-groin problems, as his chronic health issues continue for a third year in a row.

Pittsburgh mugged Jim Harbaugh’s team.  It was like assault and battery.

The Chargers self destructed with 3-major personal foul penalties, led by safety Derwin James, who got two of them.

The Steelers blitz got stronger and stronger as the day went on, finished with 5-sacks, 7-hits on the QBs, 7-tackles for loss against the run game, and 5-pressures.

Kick returner Derious Davis killed them with decisions to return kicks out of the end zone, pinning them back to their own 11-and-12 yard line.

The secondary fell apart, giving up a 55-yard TD catch by Cal Austin, and allowing tight end Pat Friermuth to catch pass after pass down the middle.

The run defense, that had been so stout, let Najee Harris bust off yards after yards.

The second half was a nightmare, allowing Mike Tomlin’s team to run off 48-plays to just 15 by Harbaugh’s team.  The second half yardage was ghastly (249 to -15) as the sacks piled up.

The Steelers had a (20-10) edge in first downs and choked off the Bolts on 3rd downs, holding them to (3-11) conversions.

Justin Fields, fighting for NFL life at quarterback, got better and better as the game went on.  His (10-for-10) start was then completed as he threw for (245Y-TD) along the way.

The fallout from Sunday’s failure, this battering to a lower echelon team, will be felt for awhile.

Anybody can get blown out on an NFL-Sunday…just ask the Eagles and Cowboys for example.  But this hammering has many more implications.

So Jim Harbaugh told us ‘we’ll find out who we are heading into Pittsburgh’.  Now we know, they are a ways off, and they have a variety of health issues that may make them a different team moving into the teeth of the schedule.

As the Pittsburgh sanitation department picks up the garbage bags outside the Stadium on Monday, you hope the Chargers potential for a big season is not included in the plastic bags next to all the other refuse coming out of the Stadium from Sunday night.

It was a really bad beatdown for lots of reasons.  And Jim Harbaugh cannot sales pitch us differently.

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