December 26th, 2016

Yesterday was a Christmas miracle! The Lakers got back in the win column on Christmas day after losing 11 of their last 12 games.  Yes it took injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin for this to happen, but let’s not be picky Laker fans.  You’ll take wins any way they come right now.  The last two weeks have definitely wrecked the Lake Show’s playoff hopes, however, things aren’t as bad as they seem. Many of the troubles the team has had in recent weeks can be attributed to injuries to very important players.  When a young team like this has those types of key pieces in and out of the lineup, consistency is going to be an issue.  On top of that, everyone forgot that the core of this team is still in their early 20’s, learning to play defense and share the ball consistently.  They aren’t quite as good as you thought in the early going, but they still aren’t nearly as bad as you think they are right now.  Even Jim Buss is encouraged, because he’s now publicly saying that if the team shows progress, here won’t be stepping aside like he promised he would.  I’m not so sure that Jeanie Buss will feel the same way come this summer, but it would be a big mistake if she let Phil Jackson back in the fold just to tie her personal and professional life together.   I wonder if D’Angelo Russell got this phone case in his stocking……

As for the Clippers, the injuries are beginning to pile up.  First Blake Griffin goes down for a few weeks, then Chris Paul and J.J. Redick get injured too.  The Clipps are a distant third in the league to the Cavs and Warriors, and maybe an even further distant fourth to San Antonio if they are injured.  It’s a talented bunch, but one that has come together at the wrong time.  Even when Doc Rivers continues to keep Blake, CP3, and the rest of the core together, they will simply continue to age and further minimize their chances of winning.  Then again, Doc Rivers probably doesn’t care because he wouldn’t want to coach the team if they had to rebuild.  Looking back at their game from against the Spurs a few days ago, the Clippers should be eliminated from the playoffs just for this ridiculous sequence……

Elsewhere around the Association on Christmas Day, great game between the Warriors and Cavs.  Kevin Durant is probably going to demand a trade to Cleveland after his Warriors lost.  Kyrie Irving is clutch, and it’s starting to feel like he has Steph Curry’s number.  Did you know that Richard Jefferson is the first Civil War Veteran in NBA history to dunk twice in the same game? Lebron totally got away with hanging on the rim for about 90 seconds after his monster dunk late in the game.  Meanwhile in New York, Carmelo Anthony’s teammates one wish for Christmas was that he would waive his no-trade clause and leave the Knicks.  New York got beat by Boston.  Then there’s Russell Westbrook who’s Thunder beat the T-Wolves, but the real story was Westbrook denying that he was yelling out of excitement when Kyrie hit that last second shot to beat Durant and the Warriors.  Too bad we have visual and audio evidence of his excitement.  The guy clearly is still bitter about Durant leaving the Thunder.  Check it the evidence right here…..

Has anybody checked out the new NBA CBA? You can be almost assured that no elite players are going to be leaving their current teams when they reach free agency.  The new labor agreement has included a rule where any player who earns MVP, All-NBA, or Defensive Player of the Year honors is eligible to make $76 million more by staying with their teams.  That means Karl Anthony Towns and Anthony Davis better get comfortable, because they will be spending their entire careers in Minnesota and New Orleans, respectively.  It also means teams like the Knicks and Heat are screwed because they were counting on free agency to reload their teams, and instead they will be forced to build through the draft from here on out.  The Lakers may not have gotten any big time free agents of late, but at least they were fortunate enough to have drafted five high potential players in the last three years.

What a pathetic show put on by the Rams on Christmas Eve.  LA just gave the 49ers their only two wins of the season.  Somehow, Jared Goff is finding a way to get worse with every week that goes by.  Whatever new coach comes in is going to have to alter his throwing mechanics completely because he missed a lot of open throws.  Tavon Austin should look like Tyreek Hill of Kansas City.  Instead, he’s $44 million more expensive, and not nearly as consistent.  Tickets were going for $30 at the Coliseum on Saturday.  That sounds a lot like football in LA right before the Rams left for St. Louis.  As for the Jon Gruden rumors, I don’t understand how people think he’s a real candidate for the Rams head coaching job.  Gruden is the Jeff Van Gundy of the NFL.  He hasn’t even coached in the last 8 years, and would be a huge risk with this group of players.  Does anybody even know if he can still do it? I sure don’t.

Elsewhere around Week 16 of the NFL, I guess Jesus doesn’t love Philip Rivers that much, because the Chargers lost to the lowly Browns.  Amazing that Cleveland won, and they didn’t even need an Xbox to do so.  I think I even heard Browns fans chanting ‘We Want ‘Bama” when it was over.  Horrible news about Derek Carr breaking his leg for the Raiders.  I was secretly hoping for a Cowboys-Raiders “return to glory” Super Bowl, but it will probably be New England-Seattle now.  Speaking of the Patriots, they dismantled the Jets.  The Texans clinched the AFC South for the fourth time in six years.  Seeing them get eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs is an NFL tradition unlike any other.  The Chiefs look damn good after beating up on the Broncos.  Andy Reid hasn’t been this happy since he first discovered BBQ’d ribs.  John Elway is about to call Tim Tebow.  Eli Manning was about as accurate as Helen Keller from the free throw line in the Giants loss to the Eagles.

It’s bowl time in College Football, but did you even notice?  I don’t blame players like Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette for sitting out these meaningless games.  Other than the top 4 playoff teams, all the other bowl games are just glorified consolation games.  Why should these players risk injury when millions of dollars are on the line at the next level? I’m sure their teammates would agree with their decision to sit out as well.  However, I do think that this is a great opportunity to increase the number of teams in the playoffs.  If these players had even a small chance of making it to the National Championship game, they would play in these postseason games.

Has anybody seen the Michael Floyd video of him getting arrested for a DUI? I’m sure Notre Dame officials are cringing at the fact he’s sporting an Irish beanie while being arrested.  I’m shocked the Patriots actually signed him after the Cardinals released him.  Apparently Floyd’s BAC was .217 when he was arrested.  This makes sense because he’s played the last 16 weeks like he’s been drunk on the football field.

UCLA men’s basketball just finished non-conference play with a blowout win over Western Michigan. That is the first time in over two decades that the team has been undefeated in non-conference play. There’s definitely going to be some tough teams in Pac 12 play, but it’s going to be much needed for the Bruins RPI, which isn’t as they would like at #24.  I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how they handle matchups against Oregon, Arizona, and USC.

I usually find it difficult to hate any kid playing college sports, but Duke’s Grayson Allen is a total punk.  I’m not sure why the guy finds it necessary to trip his opponents, let alone from super small schools like Elon.  Allen is basically the high school villain in every 1980’s movie.  I can’t imagine that Coach K would be willing to put up with this any longer.  This is basically how you act when your dad doesn’t get you a Mercedes for Christmas…..

I still think Christmas is the best holiday.  Yes, it’s usually a lot more expensive than Thanksgiving due to the gift giving.  However, it’s a season, it’s not just a day, and you can’t beat the feelings leading up to the day.  Hope you all enjoyed it.

December 19, 2016

The Rams looked just as bad after Jeff Fisher got fired, as they did before he got fired.  It was only a matter of time before their luck against Seattle ran out, and that’s exactly what happened in that ugly loss on Thursday Night Football.  It was so bad, the FBI is planning on using the game tape as a new torture method when interrogating terrorists.  There were actually a few moments though where Todd Gurley made me remember that he was a decent running back, who was just running behind a horrible offensive line all season.  However, it looked about as bad as you would think for a team that has no coach, and only four days to come up with a game plan.  Expect much of the same in the last two games, which will be an even more pointless exercise after Jared Goff got blown up by Richard Sherman.  Goff apparently doesn’t know which direction the sun rises, nor how to not take punishment while running with the football.  Dude clearly has a lot to learn after this shot…..

As for the coaching search, this is looking more and more like an offensive coordinator’s first job, as opposed to a big name.  That’s definitely not what Rams fans want to here, nor Stan Kroenke, but that’s the cold hard truth.  Jon Gruden will never leave the broadcasting booth.  Jim Harbaugh isn’t ready to leave Michigan yet and would probably want the Bears job if he did.  Also, the idea that Pete Carroll is going to leave Seattle for the Rams job is laughable.  One guy that could be attainable is the Saints Sean Payton, who New Orleans looks ready to part with.  Goff isn’t exactly Drew Brees, but Payton is a better offensive mind than the Rams have had in years.

Elsewhere around week 15, that definitely looked much more like a Raider home game in San Diego yesterday, as Oakland beat the Bolts.  Raiders are in the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.  The Bills beat the Browns, moving Cleveland closer to fulfilling my dream for them to go 0-16.  Aaron Rogers should change his last name to “Hail Mary” after coming up with a clutch long pass late when the Packers beat the Bears.  The Chiefs couldn’t close the door on the Titans, who rallied to beat K.C. with a late field goal.  The Texans got by the Jags, but they now realize that throwing $72 million in the sewer would be better than giving it to Brock Osweiler.  The Ravens edged the Eagles and can still win the division.  The Steelers will probably have something to say about that after they beat the Bengals.  The Lions got shutdown by the Giants.  Adrian Peterson came back just in time to see the Vikings eliminated from the playoffs, as Minnesota got slammed by the Colts.  Drew Brees remembered how to play, and the Saints outlasted the Cardinals.  Falcons destroyed the 49ers, Patriots kept cruising along by beating the Broncos, and  Dak Prescott shutdown the Tony Romo supporters as the Cowboys beat the Bucs.  I loved Zeke Elliot’s TD celebration by jumping in the Salvation Army donation bucket, but of course the NFL didn’t because they are a bunch of hypocrites.  The Dolphins also crushed the Jets on Saturday Night Football, in a game the NFL didn’t want you to know actually happened.  This was actually ruled a catch?

The Lakers are in the midst of a brutal 7 game road trip.  They finally got back in the win column on Friday, but their season has been torpedoed over the last two weeks.  They got everyone healthy again, but the damage has been done.  I do find it very convenient though that everyone is playing “revisionist history” and criticizing the Lakers for not taking Kristaps Porzingas in the 2015 draft.  At the time, nobody in their right mind would have drafted Porzingas in the top 3 picks, including all 30 NBA General Managers.  The Knicks didn’t even want him, and tried to trade out of that slot, but we’re stuck with him.  The Lakers still got a pretty good player in D’Angelo Russell, so you definitely can’t say they made the wrong selection.

Then there’s the Clippers, who got some bad news after their four game road trip.  Blake Griffin is going to need a minor knee surgery, and will be out until the middle of January.  This feels strangely similar to last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.  Maybe now we’ll see DeAndre Jordan go into beast mode getting some 20 point and 20 rebound games with Blake sidelined, since he won’t be occupying as much space in the paint.  DJ is a very good modern day center, but Hassan Whiteside doesn’t think so.   He says DJ just “catches lobs”.  Whiteside does have the more consistent offensive game,  but DJ isn’t the head case Whiteside is.  Most people around the NBA would probably agree with that.  Besides, that’s probably something Whiteside should have only said to his boys and not in the media, especially when your team is a pile of lottery garbage.

Very sad news to hear about the passing of TNT reporter, Craig Sager.   Sager lost a battle with cancer, but fought very hard for the last year, and even continued to work while getting treatment.  He was very well liked by everyone, and I will always remember his great sideline interviews with coaches and players, especially when they would give him a hard time.  Sager was always such a good sport about it, and just shrugged it off, and that’s what allowed him to command respect from everyone.  RIP Craig Sager.

UCLA Bruin Basketball is so good, I don’t even know what to say about them anymore.  They didn’t even play that well on Saturday, yet improved to 12-0 after beating Ohio State by double digits.  I’m almost thinking they should probably lose a game or two before March.  As long as they win the conference and get a #1 seed, there would actually be less pressure on a group that wasn’t undefeated heading into the tournament.   As the legend of Lonzo Ball grows, I suddenly mind Steve Alford a lot less.  Whether Alford becomes a hindrance com tournament time though remains to be seen.

Do USC fans actually know they have a basketball team? Better yet, do they realize that their basketball team is 10-0 and ranked #24 in the nation? The Trojans are by no means a college basketball powerhouse, or a team that can win the national championship, but they are extremely underrated.  Andy Enfield is finally recruiting the kids he needs to implement his uptempo style in a successful manner. Their most impressive win was probably against Texas A&M, and they should be able to contend in the Pac 12, as well as make some noise come tournament time.

How lucky are the Dodgers?  Kenley Jansen was offered more money by both Washington and Florida, yet he instructed his agent to get a deal done with LA.  Justin Turner wanted to stay in LA, and the market for his services didn’t work out too well.  Thus, they both were willing to take less money than they were worth on the open market, in order to stay with the Dodgers.  In addition to the market, baseball’s new luxury tax penalties will be gradually phased into the game over the next couple of seasons.  In other words, Andrew Friedman got the perfect storm, enabling him to re-sign two key members of the Dodgers.  Now if he can somehow trade for Brian Dozier, i’ll be impressed.

December 12th, 2016

I’ve gotta hand it to the Rams.  They know they stink on the field, but they are finding a way to keep us amused with all their drama off the field.  Nobody should be surprised they got destroyed by the Falcons yesterday.  Atlanta scored more touchdowns in LA than the Rams have all season.  Jeff Fisher was probably trying to figure out how to stop Andre Rison and Jamal Anderson all week.  Remember when the Rams had one of the toughest defenses in the league? That defense is about as soft as Charmin toilet paper now after getting run over by the Atlanta offense.  Jared Goff hasn’t exactly looked all that promising since his first start, and when I watch the offense, I get about as bored as Michael Vick would be at a PETA meeting.  Off the field, there’s the rumored dysfunction between Fisher and GM Les Snead.  Both deny that there is a rift between the two of them, but given how long it took to actually get Goff on the field, as well as the fact that several sources have reported on this rumored front office tension, there must be some element of truth to it.  Even though both guys were given contract extensions, if LA is an embarrassment  over the last three games, like they were yesterday, either one or both could still be fired.  Stan Kroenke isn’t going to run out of money anytime soon, and will do what he needs to do.  Now there’s rumblings that Jim Harbaugh could leave Michigan for the Rams.  For the love of god, make this happen Stan! I don’t care if Harbaugh is a jerk.  He’s been successful everywhere he’s gone.  That shouldn’t be any different here.

Elsewhere around Week 14, the Chargers got blown out by the Panthers, and all their fans want for Christmas is to actually beat the Browns.  The Titans got by the Broncos.  Le’veon Bell and the Steelers dismantled the Bills.  Buffalo’s field looked like Johnny Manziel’s hotel room after Saturday night’s Heisman Trophy ceremony.  Carson Palmer ruined the lives of his Cardinal teammates and fantasy football owners, as Arizona got beat by Miami.  Remember when everyone thought RGIII was better than Kirk Cousins? That’s laughable now.  Cousins has been dominating and the Redskins topped the Eagles.   Every time I see the Colts and Texans play, I can’t help but think how far those teams have fallen.  Houston outlasted Indy.  The Vikings gave themselves hope they’ll get Adrian Peterson back this season by beating the Jaguars.  Only the Lions would nearly let Matt Barkley beat them, but they just got by an undermanned Chicago team.  Russell Wilson threw as many interceptions yesterday as he did all season, as the Packers throttled the Seahawks.  The Saints can suddenly play defense, but they also forgot how to score, and they lost a tight one to Tampa.  The Jets beat the 49ers in OT, in a game that should be been moved to PBS at 3 am.  The Raiders had a costly loss to the Chiefs on Thursday  Night Football.  Andy Reid has so much fat on his body, there’s no way that guy ever gets cold during those KC winters.  Tony Romo can’t be blamed for last night’s Cowboys loss.  Here come 12 weeks of good jokes about the ‘Boys.  The Bengals took down the Browns.  Here is a recap of Browns football this season……

A few weeks ago I said if the Lakers can get to mid December around .500, and manage the injury bug, they would have a real shot at the playoffs.  Well so much for that.  The Lakers have lost six straight, and they’ve lost contact with the top eight playoff teams in the West, now trailing the Blazers by a couple of games for the 8th spot.  D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young were back from injury, but Russell sure looked rusty.  A couple of games behind Portland might not sound like a lot, however, when healthy the Lakers are about a .500 team, and they’d need to be slightly better than that to make the playoffs.  Just to get back to .500, they will need to reel off six or seven wins in a row, or a streak like 10 out of 12.  Even though this team is improving, they aren’t that good yet.  More than anything though, the Lakers still haven’t figured out how to play consistent defense.  They compete hard on most nights, but they just need to play smarter.  Given how far Luke Walton has taken these guys to this point, I suspect that will come eventually.

As for the Clippers, you didn’t actually get fooled into thinking they were championship contenders did you?  The Clipps got dismantled by the Warriors last week, and like the late Dennis Green would say, “they are who we thought they were”.  The Warriors didn’t even play that well, yet they showed why they are so much better.  As good as CP3 and Blake Griffin are, Golden State is better at a number of positions.  In fact, they are better individually and collectively in the backcourt, infinitely better at small forward, and maybe even better at power forward.  It doesn’t matter if DeAndre Jordan is better than the Warriors starting center, because Jordan isn’t skilled enough offensively to exploit today’s small ball.  Neither is any center in today’s game for that matter.  All the Clippers can hope for is that Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Klay Thompson slip on banana peels and get injured, and even then I’m still not sure they would find a way to get it done.  That’s because they are the Clippers.

Russell Westbrook is averaging a triple double.  I repeat, AVERAGING A TRIPLE DOUBLE.  The only player to ever do that was Oscar Robertson, during the 1961-1962 season.  Despite that, Mark Cuban claims that Westbrook is not a superstar.  By Cuban’s definition, a superstar leads his team to 50 wins and to the playoffs.  That is by far the dumbest thing said by one of the smartest people of all time.  Besides, how would Mark Cuban know what a superstar is anyway? He hasn’t been able to sign one in the last 5 years of free agency.  Then there’s Phil Jackson, who still thinks it’s 1998.  After pissing off Lebron James with his careless comments, Jackson is now taking shots at his superstar, Carmelo Anthony, claiming that he hangs on to the ball too long at times.  Usually there is a method to Phil’s madness, and a reason why he says what he does.  However, he’s failed to realize that the game is totally different as an executive than as a coach.  He’s alienated his superstar, he’s alienating other superstars around the league who will probably never consider his team in free agency, and he’s forcing an antiquated offensive system on his players.  When you are winning, you can get away with this.  Phil isn’t winning as an executive, so it doesn’t fly.  Apparently nobody has told him that.

It’s only a matter of time before the inevitable happens: the Dodgers losing Kenley Jansen in free agency to Florida or Washington.  That may even happen with Justin Turner as well, and it would serve Andrew Friedman and his 30 general managers right for screwing around with them.  Friedman is no genius at all, and every time I hear somebody say that he is, I want to slam my head into a wall.  The Dodgers stellar farm system is not the product of his work, but rather the product of Ned Colleti’s.  The team has had no greater success under him than under Colletti.  In fact, now that the Dodgers actually have to cut payroll, they can’t re-sign two of their most critical players because of the horrible contracts Friedman’s front office gave to Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy.  Sooner or later, the Dodgers are going to fall back to being a mediocre team under Friedman, as he continues to strip the roster of talent.  You can also be sure that he’s not going to pay big money for Clayton Kershaw when he opts out in 2018.

A for the Angels, I really like the trade for Danny Espinosa from the Nationals.  There’s not many 2nd baseman in baseball who can give you 20 home run power, and play decent defensively, which the Halos just got.  The Angels also didn’t give up anything of real value from their farm system either, which speaks to the resourcefulness of the trade.  You can be sure that they’ll be very strong up the middle defensively, it’s just a matter of whether their pitching can rebound and stay healthy compared to the disaster that was last season.

To the college hoops where the Bruins continue to roll.  UCLA took down Michigan on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion to improve to 10-0.  That was the Bruins first sellout at home in four years! That tells you how long its been since UCLA put an exciting product on the floor.  This team is looking like the college version of the Golden State Warriors, showing the ability to blow games open with their outside shooting, while playing an exciting uptempo style.  They even find a way to sprinkle in some defense when they want to, an unusual occurrence for a Steve Alford team.  UCLA would have moved up to #1 in the nation, but Villanova rallied to beat Notre Dame and remain undefeated.  It hasn’t felt this cool to be a part of UCLA basketball since the mid 1990’s.  Hopefully they can keep it going heading into Pac 12 play.

Congratulations to Lamar Jackson on winning the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.  Jackson was easily the most explosive and exciting player in college football this season.  Since Papa John loves Louisville football so much, you can be sure Jackson is going to get a huge endorsement deal from him when he turns pro.  That is if Papa John isn’t already paying him a salary.  Too bad OJ Simpson didn’t Skype in from prison with thoughts on the ceremony, since all the former Heisman winners were in attendance.  Johnny Manziel probably sold his Heisman Trophy for an eight ball of cocaine.  Watching these two polar opposite guys stand next to each is pretty funny…..

Do the LA Kings ever play anymore? They’ve played four less games than Calgary and one game less than Edmonton.  I still can’t understand why Darryl Sutter refuses to play goalie Jeff Zatkoff.  Peter Budaj is 34 years old, and is going to wear out from all the hockey he is playing.  Zatkoff was brought in to provide some support if Jonathan Quick got hurt, and that’s exactly what happened.  The Kings have some other issues though, like their top guys Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik not providing much offense.  They’ll have to rectify that as they head out on a nine game road trip.  As for the Ducks, they’ve won 3 straight after beating up on the Senators.  Anaheim is playing faster and better slowly but surely.  They are now in 1st place in the Pacific as they head out on a six game road trip.

Finally, the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later.  This episode had me losing my mind again because you knew people were going to die, and sure enough that’s what happened.  Amazingly enough, when it was over, it turned out to be a feel good moment for everybody.  Rick was like the dad who comes home from a long trip to find out that his kids just burned down the house.  I’m not sure whether Rick should be more angry at his his kid, who really caused all this, or Negan.  I’m sure most of us were celebrating the fact that Spencer was killed by Negan.  It turns out that Spencer hated Rick so much that it actually got him killed.  No guts, no glory, and Spencer clearly had neither when it was over.  You know Rick is about to go crazy and start fighting back again because his beard is growing.  I’m sure many of us were shocked and felt it was unnecessary for Darryl to kill fat Joey during his escape.  Think of it this way though: Had Darryl not killed him, a heart attack would have.  Eight episodes and Carol and Morgan still don’t know about Glenn and Abraham.  If they did, I’m sure they would go straight to war, let alone knowing that Darryl was captured by Negan.  Am I the only one that found it absolutely hilarious that Negan left a seat at the dinner table for Lucille?  That’s what makes him an amazing bad guy.  I also love when Enid asked Maggie if she wanted a plate for her apple pie, and she said no and just shoved it in her mouth.  Don’t we all have a friend like that? (Whether or not they are pregnant).  Any guess who that mysterious figure was, whose boots we saw after Rick and Aaron loaded the truck, and at the very end of the episode? My guess is it’s the shows next villain, the leader of the Whisperers.  Don’t act like you didn’t cry during that Rick and Darryl hug.  That was a great episode, and a good ending to a somewhat slow season.  I’m really bummed we have to wait two months, but the show figures to have a promising 2017.  Best bro hug ever.

December 5th, 2016

Let’s start with the comedy show that is the Rams.  After getting blown out in New England yesterday, the Rams are an ugly 4-8, and dealing with some obnoxious off the field issues at the same time.  Jared Goff and Todd Gurley were pretty pathetic, as was the entire defense as the Pats dismantled LA.  This outcome was fairly predictable though, as Jeff Fisher was probably watching game tape on Drew Bledsoe in preparation for this matchup.  Fisher couldn’t even identify who the Patriots running backs were heading into the game, so how could he stand any chance against Bill Belichick and Tom Brady? If that’s not bad enough, we found out yesterday that Jeff Fisher and General Manager, Les Snead, were given contract extensions.  That’s like rewarding your child with a new car for getting C’s in school.  Fisher also got caught lying to the media earlier this week during the Eric Dickerson drama as well, in which he claimed he was welcome around the team, while he really told the Rams legendary running back he didn’t really want him around the team.  The Rams have no idea what being in the LA market means both on and off the field, and they are learning about it the hard way.  Looks like we’re going to see some mediocre NFL football in LA for a while.  Jeff Fisher can’t even find his challenge flag……

Elsewhere around the NFL, the Chargers lost another close game after leading in the 4th, and their fans are probably numb to it by now.  Pretty soon LA is going to have two mediocre football teams.  The Seahawks had a good laugh on Sunday Night Football against the Panthers, until Earl Thomas broke his leg and is now considering retirement.  Eric Berry looked like Deion Sanders, and the Chiefs got by the Falcons.  The Lions beat the Saints, then trolled all the ESPN analysts on Twitter for picking against them.  Blake Bortles isn’t very good at football, and the Jaguars got handled by the Broncos.  The Packers aren’t dead just yet after beating the Texans.  The Eagles are getting Philly fans ready for a long 76ers season by losing their third straight to the Bengals.  Those are the Miami Dolphins I know! They got pounded by the Ravens.  Is Chip Kelly ready to go back to college football yet? His 49ers got blasted by the Bears.  The Raiders came back from the dead and beat the  Bills.  The Steelers remembered how to play football again and beat the Giants.  The Redskins played more like the foreskins, as they got beat by the Cardinals.  The Cowboys beat the Vikings on Thursday Night Football, and the Chargers will move to LA by the time the Vikings offense ever scores another touchdown.

On to the college ranks, where after all the drama, the Trojans are going to the Rose Bowl.  In just a matter of two months, USC went from having a dumpster fire of a football program that wanted its coach ejected from the universe, to having one of the elite programs in the country.  The Trojans are playing as well as almost any of the playoff teams, and you could still make a case for them to be in the playoff with 3 losses.  However,  It’s almost better that USC is going to the Rose Bowl instead of the playoff, so they don’t get their brains beat in by Alabama, as Washington will on New Years eve.  With huge victories against Washington, Colorado, as well as against rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, USC should feel like they have rightfully earned their place in the Rose Bowl.  They’ve also brought the program back to where USC football probably should be.

As for the rest of the college football playoff, Alabama clinched a spot in the playoff after beating Florida 54-16, and Nick Saban probably chewed out his kids for giving up 16 points.  They might as as well request a promotion to the NFC South so they can actually have a challenge in the playoffs.  Ohio State and Clemson deserve to be in there, but I was hoping to see some new teams.  Washington is sure to get embarrassed by Alabama, which is basically a punishment for winning the Pac 12.  I think it’s safe to say that Penn State just got “Sanduskied” by the playoff committee.  Urban Meyer once said if you win your conference you shouldn’t play for a National Championship.  I’m still not sure how Ohio State is in under that logic, and why Michigan even got consideration.

Let’s talk college hoops, where UCLA basketball is back! The Bruins just had their biggest road win in about a decade, as they upset #1 Kentucky on Saturday.  John Calipari is outraged because he isn’t paying his kids millions of dollars to lose games like this in December.  As punishment, he’s going to take away all of the cell phones and cars he gifted his players.  In all seriousness though, Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf are playing so well,  their talent has actually allowed many other Bruins to  settle into more effective roles on the team.  Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton are perfect examples of this.  More than anything though, the Bruin defense is beyond impressive.  Never did I think a Steve Alford coached team could challenge so many shots at that end of the floor.  There’s still a long way to go, and Pac 12 play won’t be easy, but UCLA has a shot to be the #1 seed out West, and has the talent win a National Championship.

To the NBA, where the Laker injuries are starting to catch up with them.  The Lake Show got crushed in Toronto, and lost a very disappointing game to Memphis on Saturday.  This is an absolutely brutal stretch, where its starting to feel like that playoff seeding is starting to slip away.  There’s not too many teams that can win when losing their starting backcourt, and the Lakers have done pretty well just to get this far.  It doesn’t help though that LA is letting guys like Troy Daniels (yea I’ve never heard of him either) drop 31 points on him.  We’re starting to see more instances of lackluster defense, more isolation basketball, and silly turnovers, which is very characteristic of a young team.  Hopefully the Lakers can correct that to stay in the race.

As for the Clippers, I’m still not buying what they are selling.  Yes, they went on the road and beat up Cleveland.  However, Lebron looked about as relaxed as he does when he goes Banana boating with Chris Paul in the summer, and the Cavs didn’t seem to care.  The Clipps have lost four of their last six games including last night’s loss to Indiana, and they still look a lot more like the team we’ve seen the last 5 years.  They’ve also slipped to third in the West, and here come the mighty Warriors to Staples Center on Wednesday.  This is one showdown I can’t wait to see, but fully expect Golden State to handle business.

I completely forgot about Tiger Woods, and he’s back.  Although he finished 15th out of 17 at the Hero World Challenge.  As sad as it is to say, that’s a major accomplishment for him these days.  I’m not sure how that gets him to move up 248 spots in the world rankings, but apparently it’s likely to happen.  We are far from the days of Tiger’s dominance, however, hopefully he can win a major this year and has a tournament or two win in him.  That would definitely bring some excitement back to the PGA, because the current names just don’t bring it.

Finally, a creepy episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later.  This episode was 90 minutes of Negan toying with Carl.  If Carl was supposedly on this suicide mission to kill Negan, then why didn’t he just pull the trigger and shoot him and everybody else when he had the chance?  He has a lot of guts, but also has a lot of stupidity.  So does Michonne, who suddenly thinks she can take out Negan by herself.  Who does she think Negan is, the Governor? He makes the Governor look like Mr Rogers.   I think Negan spent more quality time with Judith in that episode than Rick has over the course of the entire series.  I love that slap Olivia gave Negan, but there’s gotta be a small part of her that would think about sleeping with him like he offered.  I mean, she probably doesn’t get laid much in the real world, let alone with the apocalyptic world.  Negan is clearly Hugh Heffner in the apocalyptic world.  This was definitely not the episode to be ironing your laundry while watching.  If Negan was really intent on punishing Carl, he would have given him a haircut.  This was definitely an “eye-opening” episode.  I can’t believe we’re already at the mid-season finale next week!  For once, I don’t think we’re going to get an all out war between Rick’s group and the opposition during the mid-season finale.  When did Gabriel become so damn likable on this show?  That war feels like several episodes away.  If there’s one character that I would bet wouldn’t make it to through the next episode, it’s Spencer.  Looking forward to seeing how it all goes down next week!

November 28th, 2016

The Rams took a beating from the Saints yesterday in New Orleans, and coach Jeff Fisher was right.  He’s not going 7-9, or 8-8, or 9-7, or 10-6 for that matter.  He’s going to go 5-11.  The Rams defense that’s been so good all year long was nowhere to be found.  The Saints don’t exactly have the 1985 Chicago Bears defense, but Jared Goff helped the Rams offense put up more points than the Rams have scored in a month.  The Goff situation is making Fisher look really bad.  Everyone is wondering why he was sitting on the bench for the first 10 weeks of the season.  Had Goff been terrible, everyone would want to burn Fisher and Les Snead at the stake for trading so much for an inept quarterback.  At least it appears the Rams have a QB they can build around, but if we’ve learned anything from the Dallas Cowboys, it’s that elite NFL teams are built with great offensive lines as their foundation.  The Rams don’t have anything close to that, which makes both Goff and Todd Gurley look like scrubs at at times.  This is just how I remember the NFL in LA when I was a kid.

Elsewhere around week 12 in the NFL, you thought for a second the Chargers were going to find a way to blow another 4th quarter lead, but then you realized they were playing against the $72 million bust Brock Osweiler, so they hung on to beat the Texans.  Only the Cleveland Browns could throw a pick six to a guy with only 8 fingers.  Giants took down the Browns and sent them closer to 0-16.  The Ravens topped the Bengals.  Justin Tucker is like Steph Curry from three, while Mike Nugent is like DeAndre Jordan from the free throw line.  The Falcons beat the Cardinals, got a big performance from Taylor Gabriel, and then trolled the Browns on Twitter by thanking them for releasing him earlier in the season.  The Bills beat the Jaguars, who just aren’t very good at football.  Where did the Dolphins come from? They are now 7-4 after beating the 49ers.  I guess the better question is where Jay Ajayi came from.  Matt Barkley threw his first three career touchdown passes in the Bears loss to the Titans.  He’s been in the league since 2013!  The Raiders got by the Panthers for their 9th win of the season, which is funny because Derek Carr probably has only nine fingers left.  Tom Brady got his 200th win as the Pats edged the Jets.  It would take the Browns 200 years to get that many wins.  Russell Wilson didn’t bring his bag of magic tricks this time, and the Bucs handled the Seahawks.      That was one wild Sunday night game, as the Chiefs rallied to beat the Broncos in OT.  I guess the Broncos can shutdown Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers, but can’t find a way to contain Alex Smith.  As for the Thanksgiving day games, Sam Bradford should have been forced to eat Spam for Thanksgiving after the Vikings lost to the Lions.  Thanksgiving just didn’t feel the same without Tony Romo turnovers, but seeing Josh Norman and Dez Bryant talk trash in the Cowboys win over the Redskins made up for it.  There was also Antonio Brown breaking defenders ankles in the Steelers win over the Colts….

To College Football where the Trojans kept rolling on Saturday, this time beating Notre Dame 45-27.  Before I get to the disaster that was my alma matter, let’s talk about USC.  The Trojans just looked like the team that was oozing with talent, and poured it on with some huge plays from Adoree Jackson and Ronald Jones, to go along with another solid performance from Sam Darnold.  Unfortunately for the Trojans, they won’t win the Pac 12 because Colorado defeated Utah, so they won’t even get to play in the Pac 12 Championship game.  That leads to some major “what if” questions we often ask ourselves when talking about College Football.  There’s still a chance USC could play in the Rose Bowl if Washington goes to the College Football Playoff.  Most will say that loss to Utah is what really hurt but even if the Trojans won that game, who is to say they don’t end up having a let down in another conference game?  Ultimately though, USC is arguably playing like the 2nd best team in the country to Alabama (who would still crush them again), but they could certainly beat any of the other College Football Playoff teams.  Frankly, since the committee takes into account injuries to certain teams in their rankings, you could make the argument that they should be in the playoff because they would provide the most competitive games now that they have Sam Darnold under center.  These never ending arguments will only come to an end when they do the right thing and expand the playoff to more than four teams.  I do expect that USC will be playing in one of the six major New Year bowl games though.

As for my Irish, their lackluster performance against USC was predictable, and just the final blow to a a horrendous season on Brian Kelly’s watch.  The Irish have talent on both sides of the ball, but their defensive fundamentals and discipline were absolutely atrocious all season long, which has to fall at the feet of the coaching staff.   Notre Dame defensive tackle  Jerry Tillery made a completely classless move as well, kicking Cedric Ware in the helmet, and then stomping on Zach Banner’s foot.  I was happy to see Kelly chewing him out for that.  While I’m totally disappointed with Kelly’s football product this year, I am still not a believer that he should be fired.  There’s simply nobody out there who can presently be an upgrade over him.  In one year from now, if the Irish struggle, that may not be the case.  Notice that I haven’t even mentioned any of the stupid NCAA rulings that were made earlier in the week, in which the Irish had been asked to vacate their wins from the 2012 and 2013 season.  Ok no problem NCAA.  We’ll just pretend like that embarrassment against Alabama in the championship game from that season never actually happened.  For the most part, Notre Dame hands down way more discipline for its players stupidity than all the other Universities in those football loving, red neck filled towns.  Here’s Kelly chewing out Tillery…..

Some of you may have forgotten that UCLA was still playing football over the weekend as well.  Then again, after seeing that game against Cal, it made me realize that they stopped playing football weeks ago.  Mike Fafaul definitely looked like a walk-on quarterback in this game, and looked more and more like that since his decent first couple of starts.  For years we’ve heard that UCLA has all this talent, and we’ve just heard excuse after excuse during that time.  The Bruins have already said goodbye to their offensive coordinator, Kennedy Polamalu.  Now for the next six months, Jim Mora will consider whether or not he wants to stick with a pro style offense, which usually takes a year before it looks the way you want it, or go another route.  Since Josh Rosen got hurt running that offense with little protection, it makes you wonder what the right decision is.  Either way, Rosen will be on to his third offensive coordinator in three years, which can’t be easy to build consistency with.

That Michigan-Ohio State game was a great finish, but now the playoff polls are really screwed up.  The two best teams in the Big 10 are not only not going to win the Big 10, but not even play for the Big 10 Championship.  A Michigan vs USC Cotton Bowl would be a pretty intriguing matchup.  Alabama is still Alabama.  Clemson looks good, but is likely to get bounced again in the semi-finals.  Very tough loss for Nebraska against Iowa.  To be fair though, nobody that lives in Nebraska or Iowa is a winner.  This guy really wanted to spend some quality time with Miss Arizona…..

Thank god the Lakers got some relief in their schedule yesterday, by playing the Atlanta Hawks, a team without a real franchise player.  The schedule has been unbelievably brutal of late, and the injuries have been piling up at the worst time.  However, somehow LA is still sporting a .500 record.  That’s a tribute to Luke Walton and all the minutes he’s been handing out throughout the roster.  There’s a reason why Thomas Robinson and Jose Calderon can step into the starting lineup in the absence of Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell.  It’s because Luke Walton has given them enough playing time to make sure they are ready.  If the Lakers can get through this horrible part of their schedule by mid-December at around .500, then the playoffs are a realistic goal.  However, Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell need to come back soon, or else those playoff chances will evaporate quickly.  I’m also getting annoyed hearing the ridiculous Phil Jackson rumors again, and about him potentially joining the Laker front office at the end of the season.  The Lakers are finally beginning to turn it around because they have let go of their past, and now they want to cling to it again? Given how out of touch PJ is with modern day basketball since he became an executive, this story needs to die immediately.

Then there’s the Clippers, who have suddenly dropped two straight.  The Clipps have become that guy who tells you every year that he’s going to show up to your party, yet when that party comes he never shows.  This year, everyone seems to be convinced that your friend is coming to the party, because everyone is convinced that the Clippers are at least going to the Western Conference Finals.  However, slowly, the Clippers have been surpassed in the standings by the Warriors and Spurs.  They are reverting back to the same team we’ve seen the last few years that is inconsistent at the defensive end, and a bench that can only rely upon the firepower of Jamal Crawford.  Call me when your friend actually shows up to the party.

To College Hoops where the Bruins put together an impressive performance in the Wooden Legacy Tournament over the holiday weekend.  UCLA put together three wins in four days, including victories over Nebraska and Texas A&M to win the tournament.  Bryce Alford looks much better without the ball in his hands, while Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf continue to make their mark.  The Bruins haven’t been this much fun to watch in years.  However, the most impressive part of the last two wins was the fact UCLA defended and played a slower, grind it out, type of game.  They’ll need that versatility as they continue to play better teams.  Those better teams are coming up with matchups against Kentucky and Michigan over the next two weeks.  The Bruins haven’t been this much fun to watch in years, and according to Lonzo Ball’s dad, they are going to win the National Championship.

The Dodgers have been ordered to reduce their debt by Major League Baseball.  MLB rules state that after an ownership change, a team must comply with the debt service rules within 5 years.  Those rules are that a teams debt must be no more than 12 times annual revenue, minus expenses.  This brings up a few important points.  First of all, it’s going to make it that much more difficult to re-sign Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner this winter.  Second of all, it’s a reminder to all you whiny babies who complain that the team was “too greedy” when it put together its TV deal, when it was just trying to be competitive, while some of you were just too lazy to change your cable provider.  Thirdly, why can’t the MLB order the Dodgers not to blow money on scrubs like Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy, and Brett Anderson? Had Friedman and his band of nerds not screwed up there, then maybe the Dodgers would be more like the Cubs, who have no such debt problems and nicely supplemented their youth with quality veterans.  Sure enough it was the Cubs who handled the Dodgers in the postseason, and went on to win the World Series.

Here come the LA Kings.  LA has won 5 in a row, and now they are getting some of their injured players back like Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik.  LA’s defense has been so good, they have made Peter Budaj, a questionable NHL goaltender, look like a very good NHL goaltender.  This team may not be as good as the 2012 team that won the Stanley Cup, but once they get Jonathan Quick back, they are going to be a lot better than we expected.  Then there’s the Ducks who have lost three of their last four.  Ryan Getzlaf actually scored on Saturday to help end their skid.  Getzlaf still scores goals? He’s scored less this season than most married guys do.

Finally, another episode of The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later.  Did anybody actually remember that Tara and Heath left the group to go on a supply run?  Also, did anybody really care, or care if they got killed in the process? This episode was ok, but it seems to create an unnecessary additional story arc.  Now we have another community in Oceanside, that was terrorized by the Saviors at one point, and got away after the Saviors killed all their men.  The last five episodes have now created five different arcs in five different communities: The Kingdom, The Saviors, Alexandria, Hilltop, and Oceanside.  That’s a lot of communities, but I fully expect the next two episodes, and potentially the rest of this season, to connect all of these different communities.  I’m one that has said most people are unnecessarily complaining about the show, but for this episode the complaint is valid.  Tara just isn’t interesting enough to make an entire episode about her and Oceanside.  These stories should all be intertwined much earlier within each episode.  This feels somewhat lazy on the part of the writers.  Also, why is Tara so cool regarding Heath’s whereabouts? Doesn’t it seems like he was kidnapped?  Despite this disappointing episode, I’m still looking forward to the final two episodes in 2016.

November 21st, 2016

The Jared Goff era began yesterday at the Coliseum but the Rams still couldn’t get back in the win column.  If you like offense, then you probably didn’t like watching this game.  The Rams didn’t exactly look a whole lot better on offense with their rookie QB, but Goff was steady, and showed some signs of potential.  I wish Jeff Fisher would have opened up the playbook and let him throw the ball down the field, rather than spoon feeding him the playbook.  If anything, this game was a reminder of just how inept LA’s offense line and receivers are, and how much work they need to be able to actually become a good team.  That’s really a shame though because the defense is damn good, and defensive tackle Aaron Donald is arguably the best player in football right now.  The Rams  aren’t totally out of the NFC Wild Card chase, but the rest of their schedule is a death trap, starting with road games against the Saints and Patriots.  Knowing this team though, they’ll probably end up beating New England and Seattle while losing all the other games that seem winnable.

Elsewhere around Week 11, Russell Wilson and the Seahawks are elite again, while the Eagles are mediocre again, as Seattle beat dismantled Philly.  No Gronk, but no problem for the Patriots, as they took care of the 49ers.  The Redskins were all over the Packers, and Kirk Cousins is way better at football than most of you thought.  The Steelers beat up on the Browns, and Cleveland is working on asking the NFL if they can forfeit the rest of their games.  The Lions took down the Jaguars and Calvin Johnson is somewhere wondering why Detroit decided to start winning after he retired.  Carson Palmer must think it’s playoff time because he threw a 100 yard pick 6, as the Vikings beat the Cardinals.  The Cowboys won against the Ravens and Tony Romo didn’t get injured.  That’s always an excellent weekend for Dallas.  The Colts were so desperate to beat the Titans that they actually resorted to using the wild cat.  It worked, but I thought that scheme died after Tim Tebow left the NFL.  The Bills topped the Bengals, and AJ Green is now out for the season with a hamstring tear, which virtually ends the Bengal’s season.  The Giants took down the Bears, and now Kristin Cavallari can’t talk shit anymore on everybody that’s talking shit on her husband, Jay Cutler.  The Bucs surprised the Chiefs, and it’s gotta be tough for K.C. to win when their best player is their kicker.  The Saints beat the Panthers on TNF, in a game that couldn’t go five minutes without a player getting injured.  There were five misses on extra points yesterday.  It’s like Blair Walsh was kicking for every team.  This sound guy definitely picked the wrong time to run by the Vikings tunnel….

The Bruins put up a spirited effort against the Trojans on Saturday night, but that lasted about as long as Hillary Clinton’s chances on election night.  USC got another big game from Sam Darnold, and handled UCLA 36-14 at the Rose Bowl.  Despite the early struggles in this game, USC is back to playing like one of the best programs in the country.  In fact, they are playing so well that it would be a shame if Colorado wins next week, and goes to the Pac 12 title game instead of them.  A Rose Bowl appearance against a team like Ohio State or Michigan would be an amazing feat for a program that appeared to be shattered less than two months ago.  As for the Bruins, most will point to having Mike FaFaul, a walk-on, start this game.  Let’s not pretend though like Josh Rosen would have made all the difference in the world.  UCLA still couldn’t run the ball, and their receivers don’t scare anybody.  What happened to all those big physical lineman they were going to recruit?  Last year the excuse was the injuries on defense, and this year it’s Rosen.  Where was the defense on Saturday night? It let them down, just as much as Jim Mora has at the end of every season.  Once again, the Bruins lose their final home game of the season, as they have the last couple of years.  The last few years it seems like the Bruin football program’s self-worth has been defined by that game.  That’s pathetic because the talent has been there to do so much better on a national level.  Jim Mora has turn this group into a bunch of annual underachievers.

Notre Dame is now 4-7, and they’ve managed to do it without playing a single team that is currently ranked in the AP Poll.  That’s not easy to achieve so congrats to my Irish.  The Irish should play the Cleveland Browns in the Waffle House Flag Football Iron Bowl.  Also, Brian Kelly is now 15-14 in his last 29 games.  Coincidentally, Charlie Strong was 15-14 in his final 29 games at Texas, before he was fired yesterday.  Strong had no chance from the moment he took that job, since he was their fallback plan to Nick Saban.  Louisville players definitely picked the wrong week to complain about not being in the Top 4 of the College Football Playoff, because they got wacked by Houston.  Next week’s top 4 will probably consist of Alabama, Alabama, Alabama, and Alabama.  Even with Washington’s loss to USC, they can still make it into the playoff by winning out, and winning the Pac 12 Title game.  It’s only been a couple of seasons and we already need this playoff to get to 8 or even 16 teams to make it more fair.  It’s not like college kids are doing anything in December anyway over Christmas break.

To the NBA, where the Lakers are getting better, but they reminded us how much work they still have to do the last couple of games.  San Antonio executed at a much higher level, which is a level the young Lakers just aren’t at yet.  The same can be said for Chicago, who rode on the coattails of Jimmy Butler to beat the Lake Show last night.  In all these games the Lakers have lost, they still need to learn to beat the elite teams in the 4th quarter, and play smarter.  That’s why I’m not sold yet that they can make the playoffs, especially when you consider the schedule over the next few weeks.    As for D’Angelo Russell, he was definitely favoring the knee last night, and if it’s an issue, the Lakers should shut him down until he is right.  In case you haven’t realized how good Julius Randle has been,  he’s one of seven players in the Association that are averaging at least 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists.  The other 6? Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Lebron James, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.  That feels like just the start of players on this team that can develop into excellent NBA players.

Then there’s the Clippers who are still rolling.  The Clipps are 12-2 and Blake Griffin has scored 20+ points in 7 straight games, and he’s been killing people inside the paint.  I’ve always thought that Chris Paul would have a much steeper decline in performance by 31 years of age, but he really hasn’t.  In fact, he’s shooting a career high percentage from three point land, and is averaging a career high in steals per game.  The bench has been nice too, but can we just get to the point where we get to see the Warriors facing the Clippers? We’re still a little over a week away from these two Western Conference powerhouses meeting, but I’m not so convinced the Clippers can beat them, especially not in a 7 game series.

Phil Jackson is arguably the greatest coach in American team sports.  However, as a front office executive, he is completely out of touch with how to handle himself.  His latest blunder as an exec came when he claimed Lebron James requires special treatment, and that when James was with Miami, he and his “posse” wanted to spend an extra night in Cleveland.  Of course James took offense to this.  Obviously Phil Jackson isn’t racist, but he has a history of making crude, ridiculous, and obnoxious comments about players (sometimes his own) through the media.  When you have Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neil on your team and you are winning championships, you can get away with it.  However, as an exec without them, you can’t.  Phil is now trying to run an outdated offense modern day players don’t want to run, and now he’s going to have free agents questioning him prior to joining the Knicks.  This is the guy some of you Laker fans want to be a part of the teams front office? Phil the coach is legendary.  Phil the executive is far from it.

It’s nice to see UCLA basketball taking care of business against the opponents they should be blowing out of the gym.  This may not seem like a big deal, but last night’s blow out win against Long Beach State is the type of game we’ve seen the Bruins lose at home over the last few years, even with elite talent.  TJ Leaf and Lonzo Ball have looked great, and the Bruins are on track to be undefeated come their showdown with Kentucky in two weeks.  I still don’t understand why Steve Alford can’t trust a couple of more players to add to his regular rotation.  If he wants to play this up and down style, he needs bodies, especially if he wants to keep the intensity at the defensive end.  I haven’t seen the Bruins look this good so early in five years, but I’m reserving my excitement until I see them play some real teams.

It’s been a very rough first twenty games of the season for the LA Kings, but somehow, they are tied for first place in the Pacific Division after beating the Ducks last night 3-2.  It’s pretty hard to win when you don’t have your starting goaltender, two of your top 6 forwards, and one top four defenseman.  However, the Kings are finding young players like Nic Dowd and Kevin Gravel to pick up the slack, and develop in the process.  I have officially jumped on the “I have a man crush on Nic Dowd bandwagon”.    Not only are these young players how the Kings are going to get through this  stretch without their key players, but it’s how they will better contend for a cup, as they become more reliable when everyone is completely healthy.  As for Anaheim, even after last nights loss they are still part of that three way tie for first in the Pacific, winning 6 of their last 10.  I’d still be a little concerned about Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf though.  Getzlaf has just 1 goal in his first 15 games, while Perry has four in 18 games.  As these guys are aging, their production is coming further into question.

Congratulations to Dave Roberts for winning the NL Manager of the Year.  Roberts did a great job managing a team that lost its only reliable starting pitcher for the majority of the season, and dealing with a bunch of injuries since his GM signed a bunch of guys made out of glass.  Unfortunately for Dodger fans, the team has raised ticket prices on all seats for next seats. I have no problem if a good team wants to raise ticket prices because they are contending for a World Series Championship.  The Dodgers aren’t fooling anybody, thinking they actually are going to assemble a team that is going to truly contend.  Under Andrew Friedman, they are lowering payroll, and looking for “cost-effective options” at every opportunity, as opposed to trying to supplement their great farm system with quality pieces that can put them over the top.  We’re likely to see this play out when Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner sign with new teams in the next few weeks.  If the Dodgers want to raise ticket prices, they should be raising their payroll, rather than lowering it.  The Dodgers have been in the playoffs for 6 of the past 8 years, and they still have no World Series title for the past 28 years.  Not sure how anybody can look at this new front office as any kind of success compared to the previous front office.

Congrats to Mike Trout as well for winning the AL MVP award.  It’s his second career MVP, and a reminder that he is on his way to becoming one of the best players in the history of the game.  That’s also a reminder of why the Angels wouldn’t dare trade him, no matter how bad the team gets.  Also, in case you missed it, Kate Upton, who is engaged to Tigers Pitcher Justin Verlander, went off on Twitter after losing the Cy Young award to Rick Porcello.  This woman has no chill……

Hey @MLB I thought I was the only person allowed to fuck @JustinVerlander ?! What 2 writers didn’t have him on their ballot?

— Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 16, 2016

Finally, another episode of The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if that is the case.  This episode was a little slow, taking us back to the Hilltop, where Maggie slowly gets her health back.  The Saviors visit Hilltop and bully Gregory for a little bit.  The only real suspenseful moment was whether or not Gregory was going to rat out Sasha and Maggie to the Saviors for staying with the Hilltop, even after saving them from Walkers the night before.  Gregory is nothing more than a figurehead at Hilltop, and by the end of the episode, Maggie has basically positioned herself as the leader of the community.  You might as well add him to the “characters that are for sure going to die” list.  Anybody that cares about their own life more than others in this show is toast, and that’s exactly what he does.  Both Maggie and Sasha are looking more and more bad ass by the minute, and the deaths of Glenn and Abraham are pushing them toward any revenge they can get.  What the hell is Carl thinking?  He goes on a rollerblading date with Enid, and suddenly thinks it’s a good idea to jump in the back of the Saviors truck to go exact some type of revenge. My guess is that Negan is just going to toy with him and not actually kill him.   Sounds more reckless to me than anything else, but then again, Sasha’s request that Jesus do the same is just as ridiculous.  Jesus is one loyal dude though.  Enid had Hershel’s watch. Does everybody get a turn with Hershel’s watch?  That thing has been passed around more than the Kardashian sisters during NBA All-Star weekend.  We’ve got several strong characters developing quickly in this season, but I’m curious to see how it’s going to come together in an attempt to take down the Saviors.  It’s probably the women that lead the charge: Maggie, Sasha, and Michonne, who ultimately lead the war against Negan.

November 14th, 2016

There is much to get to in this edition of Monday Morning Coffee, so let’s start with the Lakers.  Taking two out of three on their latest road trip isn’t too bad and after 11 games, a 6-5 record is a very pleasant surprise.  I’m going to overlook the fact that Andrew Wiggins looked like Dominique Wilkins last night, and the Lake Show was blown out of the building.  Instead I’ll focus on the positive.  Luke Walton is playing with a 10 man rotation, with each one playing between 20-25 minutes a night, and closing with the group of players that are playing the best.  There’s a ton of mistakes being made, but there’s energy, there’s effort on defense, and there’s accountability.  On any given night, I’m actually starting to believe that this team can beat anybody that they play.  On the other hand though, if the Lakers are gonna play .500 ball, the playoffs are a realistic goal. If that’s the case then they can’t afford to lose games to Minnesota and Dallas like they did last week.  This is definitely a fun team to watch, and one that Laker fans can really get excited about.  Let’s hope they get back in the win column against Brooklyn on Tuesday before the schedule gets tougher again.

As for the Clippers, they’ve got the best record in the NBA after 10 games, and they are off to their best start in franchise history.  However, nobody cares, and it’s not just because they are the red headed step child of LA sports teams.  It’s because they will be defined by whether or not they make it past the 2nd round of the playoffs, which they have never done.  I fully expect Golden State to get their act together and finish 1st in the West.  However, the Clipps best hopes of getting to the conference finals are to finish 1st so they can avoid what is likely to be the Warriors or Spurs in the 2nd round.  In that case, I guess I should say that nobody cares about the Clippers until the playoffs, but the Clippers should care about the regular season if they have hopes of making a real playoff run.  Between the Lakers and the Clippers, the NBA in LA is getting very fun to watch.

On to the NFL and the Rams.  Look people…our troops don’t defend our freedom in this country so we can watch Case Keenum vs Bryce Petty on Sundays.  That Rams-Jets game went exactly the way we thought it would, with neither team being able to do anything on offense.  The Rams may have come away with the ugly 9-6 win, but it’s nothing more than a game that one of two mediocre teams had to win.  As usual, Jeff Fisher didn’t put any blame on the quarterback, and gave us no reason to think he’s going to give Jared Goff a chance to start next week against Miami.  Since Case Keenum is easily the worst starting quarterback in the NFL, and Fisher insists on keeping Goff on the bench, I’ve subscribed  to a new theory.  The theory is that Fisher and General Manager Les Snead realize that Goff really isn’t that good, and that trading their first born child for him in the draft was a mistake.  That’s right folks, that means that Goff isn’t even better than the worst starting quarterback in the NFL right now.  Since Fisher and Snead know this, they won’t let Goff see the field or else everyone will realize how badly they screwed up, and they could lose their jobs.  In other words, keeping Goff on the bench actually increases their job security.  As if the quarterback situation isn’t bad enough, I’m beginning to wonder about Todd Gurley too, since he’s yet to have a 100 yard game this year.  Gurley might just be an average NFL running back, and not the all-pro we thought he was going to be last year.  In fact, Gurley might not even be the best back on the Rams, given how Benny  Cunningham looked yesterday.  Collectively, the offense is so bad, I can’t tell who is a stiff and who is actually a serviceable player.

Elsewhere around week 10 of the NFL, I don’t know how the Chargers do it.  They lost another game late in the 4th, this time on a Philip Rivers pick 6, at the hands of the Miami Dolphins.  The Bolts are now losing on and off the field.  More on that in a moment.  I’m surprised that Tony Romo wasn’t waiving one of those terrible towels yesterday, in hopes that Dak would screw up and he’d get his starting job back next week.  Sorry Tony, Cowboys got by the Steelers in a good one.  Jay Cutler is back to throwing interceptions, so everything in our country seems right again.  The Bucs beat up on the Bears.  The Packers defense has as many holes as the cheese that’s made in Wisconsin, and they got blown away by the Titans.   The Browns couldn’t even get a win in the same week that a reality TV star became President, as the Ravens beat up on Cleveland.  Carson Wentz got his game back and the Eagles took down the Falcons.  Saints fans are probably jumping in the bayou with the alligators after losing to the Broncos on a blocked PAT.  The Texans beat the Jaguars in a game that should have been aired on Comedy Central.  Sam Bradford has suddenly remembered that he’s only Sam Bradford, and the Vikings lost again, this time to the Redskins.  Cam Newton brought back the dab, but that wasn’t enough to get the Panthers to beat the Chiefs.  The Cardinals got by the lowly 49ers, who have nothing but Colin Kapernick’s political crusade to keep them relevant.  There’s always time for a selfie at an NFL game right?

The city of San Diego voted against a hotel tax that would fund a stadium downtown for the Chargers.  That leaves the Chargers with very few good options.  They’ve been trying to get funding for a new stadium for 16 years, and the city just won’t do it.  Now it seems as though their only viable option for a new stadium is to go to LA, and share the new Inglewood stadium with the Rams.  That may be a smart monetary move for the Chargers, but they would become by far the most irrelevant team in the LA sports landscape.  The Bolts would have completely alienated all of their San Diego fans, while simultaneously struggling to  build a new fan base in a market that’s already dominated by the Rams.  It’s a crummy situation for the Chargers who are either going to lose money, or lose their fans.  It also means that we might be just a year away from having not 1, but 2 terrible NFL football teams in Los Angeles.

To college football, where the Trojans pulled off the big upset against #4 Washington on Saturday.  I wasn’t really sure, but now I am: USC is back, and Clay Helton is off the hot seat.  Helton has found a dynamic quarterback in Sam Darnold.  The kid takes chances, but he’s one of the best freshman quarterbacks we’ve seen at ‘SC in the last twenty years.  It’s not just Darnold’s greatness that’s putting the Trojans on this run.  The defense shut down one of the most dynamic offenses in the country, and the special teams play has been huge during their six game winning streak.  That streak is something that hasn’t been done by USC since the Pete Carroll era, which the Trojans have been desperately trying to replicate since his departure.  It would almost be a shame at this point if USC doesn’t get a chance to play Washington again in the Pac 12 Title game.  The Trojans still need to win against UCLA and hope for Utah and Colorado to lose another game for that to happen.  That’s a little bit of a long shot.  Looking back on it, losing to Utah and Alabama was understandable, but the Stanford loss is what really hurt.

It was nice to see the Bruins get back in the win column on the football field against Oregon State.  it was also good to see Mike Fafaul get himself a win as the Bruins starting quarterback.  However, it’s going to be blood bath next week when UCLA takes on USC at the Rose Bowl.  I have no idea how the Bruins are going to be able to move the ball considering that have no running game, and the Trojan secondary is going to be licking their chops at every pass Fafaul puts in the air.  This one could get ugly.

Elsewhere around college football, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame managed to avoid an embarrassment this weekend by beating Army.  That counts as something significant these days for the Irish, who have suffered mass amounts of humiliation this season.  Then there’s the chaos that is now the polls after Clemson, Michigan, and Washington lost.  I do hope this moves Louisville up in the ranks though, because they would probably give Alabama the best game in the playoffs.  Meanwhile, Alabama beat up on Mississippi State, clinching the SEC West title, and inspiring tons of inbred sex on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.  There’s also UNLV’s backup punter who wasn’t really planning on playing, and instead wore his girlfriend’s Yoga pants to the game…..

Is UCLA basketball back? Ok maybe not, but they look pretty damn exciting in their first two games.  Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf are already looking like super freshman, and the Bruins have depth.  I’m not going to lose my mind over a couple of wins against Northridge and Pacific, but we’ve seen UCLA have major let downs at home against those types of schools in recent years.  The Bruins should win their next four games and be undefeated going into their showdown against Kentucky.  That will be the first true test on the national stage.  This team is going to score, but as with any Steve Alford team, the question is whether or not they can play defense.  They have the athleticism to do so, it’s just a matter of being accountable on that end of the floor.  Also, now that Arizona appears to have lost it’s best player, the Bruins have an even better chance to win the Pac 12.

As for USC basketball, their off to two quick wins against easy opponents, but it’s like everyone completely forgot about their success last year.  They finished 6th in the Pac 12 last year, and were actually picked to finish 6th again, mostly due to a couple of players turning pro.  However, Andy Enfield’s recruiting has been a little bit underrated the last couple of years, and he has some players that can help make some noise in the conference, and be dangerous again come tournament time.  What isn’t going to help USC though is that they don’t have a single non-conference game against a ranked opponent.

To baseball, where I had a feeling Andrew Friedman was going to do something stupid.  Sure enough he did.  He traded Howie Kendrick to the Phillies for two useless minor leaguers.  Farhan Zaidi, Friedman’s “whipping boy”, explained that his was simply done to create payroll flexibility.  Thank god for that considering there are no good free agents out there.  The Dodgers have a good third baseman and a good closer, but they are about to give us a bunch of excuses about why they aren’t going to sign them, even after clearing $14 million with the trades of Kendrick and Carlos Ruiz.  I’m also going to lose my mind the next time I hear Zaidi or Friedman say they have starting pitching depth.  Apparently these guys didn’t watch the same NLCS that we did, when they had no starters beyond Clayton Kershaw who they could give the ball too.

I’ve been telling you for about a year now, but nobody was listening.  Donald Trump had a real shot to be the next President of the United States.  Now it’s finally happened, so I’m not surprised.  Now that we’re here though, people need to stop losing their minds.  Give the man a chance before you continue your protesting, complaining, and threats to move to Canada.  I can’t believe somebody hung the Nazi flag in San Francisco as a sign of protest.  Really people? So Donald Trump is Hitler? Apparently some people have zero historical perspective.  People complained about Ronald Regan when he was elected because he was an actor, yet he turned out to be one of our best Presidents ever.  Wait and see what happens before you start complaining.  As for Hillary, she foolishly failed to campaign extensively in the most critical states she needed, which she totally took for granted, just like many of Donald Trump’s opponents over the last year.

Finally, a 90 minute episode of The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if that is the case.  We finally get back to Alexandria and see how the group is doing, but the entire episode was Negan basically taunting Rick as his people raided the Alexandrian’s supplies.  Learning that Rick is aware that Judith isn’t really his daughter and is Shane’s, really didn’t have quite the effect on me as I thought it would.  Since Lori died four seasons ago when Judith was born, we are just so far removed for me to be really connected with it anymore.  However, I get the significance, which is that Rick is willing to endure these difficult situations like this, and still raise Judith like she is his own.  The fact that Rick didn’t smash Negan over the head with Lucille just goes to show you how much fight has been taken out of Rick.  The same can be said for Darryl, who didn’t even have the energy to convince Negan he wanted to stay in Alexandria.  It’s interesting that Negan doesn’t want to kill women, but it’s actually the women in this group that are probably the most dangerous to him: Michonne, Maggie, Sasha, and Rosita.  I suspect they will be the ones that are going to inspire the group to take down Negan.  I haven’t heard that much talk about guns since the Presidential election.  Negan is definitely not a guy you want to be “audited” by during the apocalypse.  Not a bad episode, but I’d say my least favorite of the first four we’ve seen this season.  Looking forward to seeing what’s up back at Hilltop next week.

November 7th, 2016

It’s time to start planning the Laker championship parade right? Ok, maybe not, and I know it’s way too early to be drawing any conclusions about just how good the team is.  However, after taking down the Suns last night for their 3rd straight win, and improving to 4-3, there’s a few key takeaways from the early going.  Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell are developing quite nicely, and learning how to make an impact on the game in a number of ways that we didn’t see last season.  There’s also way better offensive structure and ball movement than last season’s train wreck.  It feels like we see more ball movement in one possession this year than we did in an entire game last season.  There’s also a much greater effort and accountability on the defensive end, even though many of the teams younger players are still learning how to defend at this level.  Much of that can be attributed to the job Luke Walton is doing, especially since the players look like they are having fun.  At minimum, the Lakers are becoming fun to watch again, just as Larry Nance reminded us on Friday night……..

As for the Clippers, they are off to a hot 5-1 start.  On Saturday, Blake Griffin looked like the second coming of Karl Malone, and J.J. Redick looked like Mark Price.  With those two playing like that, it would’t have mattered if Tony Parker and Danny Green had been in the lineup for the Spurs.  Besides, Tony Parker has played more like Sarah Jessica Parker so far this year.  As I said earlier, it’s way too early to be drawing conclusions.  However, in the early going, it’s starting to feel like the West has some aging teams aging teams like San Antonio, Memphis, and Dallas, which the Clipps can take advantage of.  I fully expect the Warriors to become more dominant as the season goes on, and they find their chemistry.  However, if the Clipps are going to contend, Blake and DeAndre have to dominate in the paint.  That’s the edge they have over almost every other team in the league.  The only question is whether or not they decide to take advantage of it.

I guess that bye week didn’t make the Rams offense any better.  LA lost their fourth straight yesterday, this time to Cam Newton and the struggling Panthers.  The Panthers followed the usual “beat LA” playbook by stacking the box and daring Case Keenum to beat them.  That strategy worked beautifully, as Keenum missed some very important throws.  Keenum is the worst person to play the Coliseum, and OJ Simpson killed two people.  Roger Goodell should order him to move back to St. Louis.  As if Keenum isn’t bad enough, his pass catchers like Lance Kendricks are dropping touchdown passes. I’m not sure how much longer Jeff Fisher is going to make us endure the Keenum era, but the fans yesterday were not only chanting “we want Goff”, but things got so bad, the fans even chanted “we want Tebow”.  Wait until next week when the Rams travel to New York to play the Jets.  Case Keenum vs Ryan Fitzpatrick? That’s almost as bad as Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump.  The Rams have not only reverted back to the team we thought they might be, but much worse.  Fans were headed to the exits yesterday with plenty of time left in the fourth quarter.  I guess they wanted to beat that Uber surge pricing.  Football in LA is back, and just like I remember it.

Elsewhere around week 9 of the NFL, Melvin Gordon continued his Jim Brown imitation, as the Chargers topped the Titans.  The real question for the Bolts though is what’s going to happen on Tuesday when the City of San Diego votes on funding for a new stadium.  The Raiders are relevant for the first time in a decade after beating the Broncos last night  The Eagles are back to looking like the Eagles again.  Eli Manning ate his Lunchables before the game, and the Giants took down their division rivals.  To make it more fair, the NFL should spot the Browns 14 points before every game the rest of the year.  I guess it wouldn’t have mattered anyway yesterday, when Cleveland got blown out by the Cowboys.  The Saints crushed the 49ers, and for the love of God, Chip Kelly needs to go back to coaching college football.  It was the Colts all over the Packers.  A squirrel ran onto the field and gained more total yards than the Packers did all day.  Good thing the Steelers fans have those terrible towels.  They needed them to dry their tears after losing to the Ravens.  Minnesota’s running game is worse than it’s weather.  The Vikings lost to the Lions in OT.  The Chiefs got by the Jaguars, but the highlight of the game was seeing Travis Kelce getting ejected from the game after throwing his towel at the official.  The Dolphins outlasted the Jets in what was “The Incompetent Quarterback Bowl”, and the Bucs were the latest team to get destroyed on Thursday Night Football, when they got dismantled by the Falcons.  This was the worst onside kick in the history of the NFL…….

Off to the college ranks, where the Trojans made it 5 in a row by crushing Oregon at the Coliseum on Saturday.  We’re going to get a lot of answers as to how good the Trojans are next week when they take on Washington.  The reality of it is that three of the last five wins have come against three of the worst defenses in college football.  However, I’ve always said what makes life so difficult for the Trojans is the fact they constantly have to live up to the greatness of the players in the Pete Carroll era.  Some of these players are now doing things that we haven’t seen since the Carroll era.  Sam Darnold has been putting up video game numbers we haven’t seen since the Matt Leinart, added another 309 yards and two touchdowns against the Ducks.  Compared to some of his other recent performances, that was rather unspectacular.  Then there’s sophomore running back Ronald Jones, who tied Lendale White’s school record of four TD’s in a single game on Saturday night.  That comes after running all over Cal the week before for a career high of 223 yards.  I guess nobody is talking about Clay Helton getting fired anymore either.  Next week will tell us just how far USC has come since the beginning of the season.

As for the Bruins, they can’t even hope to go to a crappy bowl game after losing to Colorado.  UCLA would need to win out for that to happen, and with games against USC and on the road against Cal later in the month, the odds of Kanye West becoming the U.S. President in 2020 are better than a Bruins bowl appearance.  When you look at the big picture, it doesn’t seem all the bad for the Bruins.  They have been within a play or two of winning all their games, they have a new pro-style offense that usually takes a full year for players to adjust to, and their defense is much improved.  Even though you wouldn’t expect UCLA to win those close games without Rosen, their inability to become elite with our without him could not be more disappointing.  Their running game has been nonexistent, and their receivers drop more balls than average local high school players.  The last couple of years have been one excuse after the next when it comes to why UCLA can’t get their football program to the next level.  It’s been a soft schedule that the Bruins just couldn’t take advantage of.  I guess nobody is treating this as a crisis since UCLA is a basketball school.  Except right now, it isn’t that either.  More on that shortly.

How bad has it gotten for Notre Dame? They just lost to Navy, and are now 3-6.  Somewhere, Rudy is drinking a bottle of Jameson and holding a shotgun.  The Irish probably aren’t even going to go to a bowl game, although if they did, they should call it “The Toilet Bowl”.  The punters in that Alabama vs LSU game were really earning their money.  ‘Bama still #1 in the country after that ugly game.  Just give Lamar Jackson the Heisman Trophy already. Texas A&M got upset, but of course in the eyes of the playoff committee, LSU and Texas A&M have the most important thing on their resume: a loss to Alabama. Arkansas pulled off the upset over Florida.  The Razorbacks haven’t beaten the Gators since Michael Jackson was black.  Clemson, Michigan, and Washington dominated, and should all be in Tuesday’s latest college football playoff poll.

To college hoops where that so called “basketball school”, UCLA, is opening up their season on Friday.  The Bruins are #16 in the preseason poll, but are going to be facing some stiff Pac 12 competition.    Arizona and conference favorite Oregon, are both ranked in the top 10.  The Bruins ranking is all coming based on two recruits: Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf.  Ball is one of the most hyped prospects I’ve seen coming out of high school, so much so that I’m concerned that he isn’t going to live up to the ridiculous expectations.  Leaf is a solid player as well, but UCLA has had great recruiting classes in recent years that haven’t vaulted the Bruins into national championship contention.  However, the Bruins non-conference schedule isn’t too bad.  Their only tough game is at Kentucky.  The teeth of their schedule will actually be once they get into conference play.  Aren’t you impressed I haven’t even ripped Steve Alford yet after writing all that about UCLA basketball? I’m sure there will be plenty of time for that though as the season goes on.

Well the Cubs did it.  They won the World Series, ending their identity as “the lovable losers”.  I’ve gotta tip my hat to the team, and its long suffering fans.  The last time the Cubs won the World Series the dinosaurs were roaming the earth.  That game 7 was really one of the best I’ve seen.  Of course some poor 100 year old Cubs fan probably died during that rain delay.   This has to be payback for all those Cleveland fans that were making fun of Warrior fans for blowing a 3-1 series lead a few months ago during the NBA Finals.  If nothing else though, the last few months have put Cleveland back on the map as a sports city, despite all the depressing things about that town.  There were two things I loved about the final out of game 7.  Kris Bryant fielded that ground ball at 3rd base with a gigantic smile on his face, which was hilarious to watch.  Then there was Anthony Rizzo, who had the presence of mind to actually put the ball in his pocket after the final out.  Amazing that he remembered to do that in all the commotion of the celebration.  Rizzo might have actually listed that ball on Ebay by now.  In any case, congratulations to the Chicago Cubs.

Speaking of baseball, the Angels made the first move of the baseball offseason by acquiring Cameron Maybin from the Tigers.  The Halos have had a black hole in left field for the last couple of years, and prior to this trade, I was beginning to think they should hold open tryouts for fans for that position.  However, since they couldn’t find a decent left fielder, Billy Eppler decided that he would trade for a center fielder, and just move him to left him.  The cost wasn’t very high, and Maybin has a reasonable contract, so this seems like a pretty good move.  The real question is whether or not Maybin can stay healthy because he’s had some very unlucky injuries the past few seasons.  Nevertheless, it’s a decent start to the offseason for the Angels, who need to plug holes at 2nd base and catcher next.

We may be coming closer to the Dodgers TV blackout coming to an end.  The U.S. Justice Department is suing DirecTV over colluding with other cable companies to keep the Dodgers off-air.  If AT&T is going to proceed with it’s Time Warner merger, it will probably need to settle this lawsuit, and that will ultimately mean putting the Dodgers on DirecTV.  I’m not really sure how the U.S. Justice Department is going to force the exorbitant price of SportsNet LA on cable providers, but cable companies are starting to get desperate.  More and more people are cutting the cord, and resorting to streaming alternatives to get the content they want.  If you try hard enough these days, you can probably watch whatever content you want for free.

On the ice, the Kings finally won in regulation.  I don’t even remember the last time that happened.  If you think that’s rare, they got goals from Trevor Lewis, Kyle Clifford, and Devin Setoguchi, who hasn’t scored since high school, in their 5-0 win against the Flames.  With all due respect to Setoguchi and his quest for NHL redemption, I’d really like to see the Kings give their younger players from Ontario a chance to develop at the NHL level.  Instead of hoping veterans like Setoguchi, Teddy Purcell, and Tom Gilbert can acquire some career reviving magic, I’d much rather see promising young players like Nic Dowd, Kevin Gravel, and even Michael Mersch try to make an impact.  The Kings did it before in 2011-2012 in their first run to winning a Stanley Cup.  No reason to not follow that path this year, especially during a time with so many injuries.  As for the Ducks, they’ve looked a lot sharper the last few games.  They throttled the Kings, then pounded the Coyotes and Flames.  Anaheim is starting to gain some ground on those upstart Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division.

Are you ready for the election? I’m ready for it to be over.  That way I don’t have to have to listen to somebody telling me how “out of my mind” I have to be to vote for Clinton or Trump.  Never have I seen such passion and anger from two political candidates.  This race is becoming a lot closer than I thought it would be, and frankly, either outcome is possible come late Tuesday night.

Finally, another intense episode of The Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you haven’t seen it yet.  This episode was all about Negan, his relationship with Dwight and his wife, and their efforts to break Daryl.  The real question out of this episode is whether or not you feel bad for Dwight and his wife Sherry, or not.  Even in the world of The Walking Dead, there’s only so much one should do to remain alive, otherwise life is just too unbearable to go on with.  Dwight and Sherry had choices to make, and they made poor ones out of fear.  Sherry had the chance to go to Alexandria, and probably could have convinced Dwight to come too.  Instead, they left themselves susceptible to the mercy of Negan.  I found it laughable when Dwight and Sherry were speaking to each other, claiming that they were better off at the mercy of Negan, rather than being dead.  That sounds highly questionable considering that Dwight got half his face burned off, and had to endure losing his wife Negan.  What’s the point of living in this world if you have to sacrifice so much? The best part of all this is that Dwight is just getting more and more angry at Darryl because Negan likes him, and because he’s learning that Daryl has the strength that Dwight wishes he had.  He refuses to succumb to Negan, and he won’t be broken.  Daryl knows the choices that Dwight made and knows why he made them, but he won’t do it.  Even Sherry knows that Daryl is the person that she and her husband used to be, and in some ways, is also envious of that.  Honestly though, if I kept hearing that “Easy Street” song like Daryl did, I’d succumb to Negan in a second.  Overall, a very good episode with some pretty good story telling.

October 31st, 2016

Welcome to the Halloween edition of Monday Morning Coffee.  Although this edition is more like Monday Afternoon Coffee.  We start with the Los Angeles Lakers, who are off to a so-so start after 3 games.  The opener was amazing.  The Lake Show played with energy, D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, and Brandon Ingram all gave us hope for the future.  Then they began a road trip on Friday that is the equivalent of trying to walk through a mine field.  Nobody shot well in Utah, but the Lakers played hard, and played cohesively.  They just didn’t take the game away from the Jazz when it was presented to them.  Against Oklahoma City, they just had a bad matchup.  D’Angelo Russell may have taken a beating from Russell Westbrook yesterday, but so does everybody.  For him, there’s value in that, and it will make him a better player in the long run.  Russell and Randle still were effective, but it’s the superstars like Westbrook that take over in the 4th quarter.  If somehow the Lakers can come back 2-2 on this trip, that would be a nice accomplishment for this young team.  You can see the potential.  You can see the effort and the engagement level.  However, it just needs time and patience.

As for the Clippers, as much as I criticize them for not getting it done, they have looked great so far against two pretty good teams.  CP3 still looks like he has quite a bit of game left in the tank, and Blake Griffin is back to putting up big numbers.  As I noticed in training camp a few weeks ago, Blake isn’t necessarily trying to dunk on everybody like he used to, which may be a product of age and the mileage on his body.  That doesn’t mean he can’t be a great or even better player than he’s ever been.  However, there really is no reason for him to be settling for three-pointers.  He’s too big and strong for most of the people that guard him, so he should focus on dominating people in the paint.  The addition of Mo Speights also seems to be giving the Clipps a different offensive look in their front court and off the bench, which should help neutralize DeAndre’s free throw issues when the game is on the line.  DeAndre may not have role offensively that he wanted, but if he’s dominant on the defensive end, that’s all you need from him.

As for what we’ve seen early on in the Association, Anthony Davis is putting up video game numbers in New Orleans, but he can’t get any help.  It’s going to be a looooooong season for the Pelicans.  Russell Westbrook is a machine.  Who cares if Russell Westbrook took 44 shots against the Suns? He had a triple double.  Are you going to call him selfish?  Less than a week into the season, the 76ers have already been eliminated from the playoffs.  However, Joel Embiib is actually good for more than just drinking Shirley Temples, because he’s been impressive on the court so far.  After getting blown out by the Spurs, the Warrior fans are ready to trade Kevin Durant to Dallas for Andrew Bogut and Harrison Barnes.  I love the prison of the moment panic we’ve seen, but I’m pretty sure the Warriors are still going to be dominant this season.  Just give them time to get their chemistry right.  I love Russell Westbrook’s reaction to this loser fan in Philly……

Let’s to week 8 of the NFL, where Philip Rivers took a beating I haven’t seen since watching last week’s episode of The Walking Dead.  Rivers was hit 17 times, sacked four times, and picked off three times in the Chargers loss to Denver.  I guess the Eagles thought leaving nobody in the end zone to cover Jason Witten was a good strategy, but unfortunately for them, the Cowboys beat Philly in OT.  If the league really wanted to stop domestic abuse, they wouldn’t give us the Titans and Jaguars on Thursday night Football.   If you thought that was bad, the Browns vs Jets was the dumpster fire game of the week.  They really wonder why ratings are dropping? Too much football means over saturation. What’s gotten into Matt Ryan?  He’s usually great in September and early October.  Apparently he’s a lot better than that, as he’s still dominating the league, and dominated the Packers yesterday in the Falcons close win. The Redskins and the Bengals ending in a tie couldn’t be any more fitting.  The game was played on a soccer field.  The Cardinals were doing a great re-enactment of last years NFC Championship game by getting blown out by the Panthers.  Gronk and the Patriots steam rolled the Bills, and the Pats tight end had his 69th career touchdown.  Knowing Gronk, he’ll probably find it cool to not score for the rest of the year to stay at that number.  The Raiders vs Bucs was the game of teams with pirate logos that nobody wanted to win, until Derek Carr threw his 5th TD pass in OT.  The Chiefs took down the Colts, but not before Alex Smith’s wife began ripping KC weather men on Twitter, after they took shots at her husband.  Russell Wilson got married and see what happens? He never scores anymore.  The Saints shocked the Seahawks at home.  Playing the Lions was the perfect cure for Brock Osweiler to not suck for a week, as the Texans defeated Detroit.

Ok, how good is Sam Darnold? The statistics say he’s doing better as a freshman than Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and Matt Barkley.  In fact, he’s suddenly the best quarterback in Los Angeles, surpassing the injured and cocky Josh Rosen.  After beating Cal, the Trojans still have a shot to win the Pac 12 South, and potentially have a chance to play for the Rose Bowl.  The Trojans could easily go 8-4 before losing in the Pac 12 Championship game.  With a suddenly elite quarterback, a couple of victories over rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, Clay Helton is going to be smiling and thinking he’s done enough to keep his job.  But has he? I think most Trojan fans would say no, but until I see what USC looks like against Washington, and potentially in the Pac 12 Title game, I’m reserving judgement.  Even if the Trojans look good, I’m not sure why they wouldn’t go out and get themselves and elite head coach, given how much more attractive the program is going to look.

Elsewhere around College Football, Notre Dame finally got back in the win column by beating Miami. The Irish still managed to blow a 20 point lead though, which is nothing new for them this season. Amazingly, the Notre Dame defense even managed to get a few sacks. Brian Kelly said after the game that “we actually sack the quarterback here at Notre Dame.” Really? Because, it’s felt like your defense hasn’t even been able to tackle anybody all season, let alone sack anybody. Clemson got by Florida State, in game that featured Jimbo Fisher coaching against Dabo Sweeney. Might as well have called it the Red Neck Bowl brought you by ‘Natti Light. Washington got by Utah, in what was probably their last big test on their schedule. The Huskies better win out, because they are unlikely to make the College Football Playoff with their soft schedule down the stretch. This is definitely the point where Nebraska comes crashing back to earth and becomes the team we thought they were. They lost to Wisconsin, and are probably going to take a beating from Ohio State next week. Michigan is now in the driver seat in the Big 10, and as long as they keep winning, it doesn’t matter how many people Jim Harbaugh pisses off.

I thought the city of Chicago was going to burn down last night if the Cubs had lost game 5 to the Indians. It might still happen on Tuesday night anyway. See what happens when you have more than 1 quality starting pitcher, and more than 1 quality reliever? You can actually shut down a pretty good lineup like the Cubs. Are you listening Andrew Friedman? On paper, the Cubs have a great team, but the Indians pitching is just a little bit better right now, and that’s going to be the difference in this series. Besides, the Cubs losing the World Series is still a better story than them winning. They are “the loveable losers” , and the fact that they keep losing in these big moments keeps them an intriguing story. It’s not like the Indians have been reeling off World Series Championships annually for the last half-century either, so they will at least get to end their years of futility in the next few days. That’s a pretty nice story for the city of Cleveland, which has had to deal with the Browns for all these years.

Speaking of the Cubs, after they defeated the Dodgers, I couldn’t be any more irritated with the comments from Andrew Friedman and Stan Kasten. Instead of acknowledging that they are going to go out and get the one or two pieces needed to put them over the top, they chalked October up to nothing more than luck. They simply think that by going to the playoffs 10-12 times, they are bound to break through. Funny, because Friedman never won anything in Tampa, and Kasten failed to get his teams over the top year after year of having solid teams in Atlanta in the 1990’s. I’m pretty sure the Indians and Cubs got to the World Series because they spent a little extra money on quality starting pitching, and in the bullpen.   Neither one of those teams has to ask themselves what injury prone stiff they forced to start in a long playoff series. The Dodgers better be smart enough to bring back Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner if they are serious about contending. Sounds to me like it’s the fans that are the unlucky ones, since they are stuck with a front office that has no idea how to get it done.

On the ice, it’s been a tough road trip for the Kings. The last time LA scored a goal, Donald Trump had real hair. Ok, so it wasn’t that long ago, but the Kings offense has been shutdown badly on this trip. The Kings really miss the speed and skill of Marian Gaborik. They also miss the elite goaltending of Jonathan Quick. I admit that Peter Budaj has surpassed my expectations so far, but I can’t imagine the Kings going another three months with him and Jack Campbell as their goaltenders. Then there’s the Ducks who took a beating from the Blue Jackets last week. A 4-0 loss to Columbus at home has to make you question how well the Randy Carlye coaching change is going. We’ve seen a lot of players on this team not respond to Caryle before, so that’s something to keep an eye on. The Ducks are also the latest good team to be facing salary cap issues after re-signing Hampus Lindholm. The production of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry are going to be under a microscope for a while with their massive salaries on the books.

Ok people, it’s time to let go of the emotional distress the Walking Dead caused you last week, and move on to the next episode.  With that being said, spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see last night’s episode, so read no further if you plan on watching it later.  This episode was a much less stressful one, and one that reminded us of one of the shows best qualities: world building.  Rick always seems to run into blood thirsty, power-hungry maniacs, disrupting these plans.  Carol and Morgan have stumbled upon The Kingdom, which seems to be an inspiring place of hope, led by King Ezekial.  Seeing Ezekial’s medieval themed kingdom with his tiger made me feel like I was watching some weird combination of Game of Thrones and Sigfried and Roy.  Ezekial becomes a pretty likable character immediately when he calls Carol out for being a bullshitter, and seeing through her phony sweet act.  Even with his ability to keep his people safe from The Saviors by providing them with weekly goods, we’ve seen these idealistic leaders get crushed in the world of savages around them.  However, for the time being, this guy seems to have given Carol and Morgan some inspiration to continue fighting.  We need Carol to go back to that ruthless assassin that she was, and we need Morgan to begin to realize that sometimes he has to fight ruthlessly to survive.  The Kingdom has probably given those two reason to do that for the time being, and I suspect that somehow they will team up with the Kingdom to help fight back against Negan.  A pretty good episode, and special thanks to the writers of the show for giving us one that was stress free.

October 24th, 2016

I’ve been telling you all since last spring that this Dodger team isn’t going to the World Series. The fact they were eliminated by the Cubs in the NLCS on Saturday night doesn’t making it any less disappointing.  It was like Steve Bartman was playing left field for the Dodgers.  Ok fine, for about two seconds I believed that the pressure might be too great for the Cubs after the Dodgers went up 2-1 in the series. Then I realized that once Kenta Maeda was starting game 5, LA had no chance. Just like the Cubs, the Dodgers have some good young players.  However, unlike the Cubs, the Dodgers haven’t adequately supplemented that young talent with the proper veteran support to make themselves a true World Series contender.  We’ve been hearing “the Dodgers are close” since 2013. Under Andrew Friedman, they are no closer.  The Cubs have a Cy Young candidate themselves in Jake Arrieta.  He’s been struggling, but you’d never know it because they have three other capable starting pitchers. The Dodgers don’t, and their bullpen wasn’t as good as we thought.   Clayton Kershaw has to do everything for LA. When he and Kenley Jansen fail, that’s all we hear about.  I’m surprised Kershaw’s arm hasn’t fallen off given how much he’s pitched in the last two weeks. What we should be talking about is how pathetic the Dodger offense is. How Joc Pederson, Yasmani Grandal, and Josh Reddick can’t hit, and how the team has no speed.   Your window to win isn’t forever, especially when you have a great pitcher like Kershaw. When Andrew Friedman decides not to re-sign Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen, and Rich Hill, the Dodgers will be no closer to the World Series, which is really a shame and very frustrating for Dodgers fans.

As for the Cubs, you have to give them credit. Theo Epstein built this team to win now, after suffering through several losing years.   What’s a few more losing years when you’ve been waiting 108 years to win a title? Somewhere in a Chicago dungeon, Steve Bartman is in chains celebrating the Cubs victory.  I think it’s safe to say that hell has frozen over since both the Indians and Cubs are in the World Series, except one of these long suffering fan bases is going to be extremely disappointed. Here’s a live look at hell.

Remember when Jeff Fisher said the Rams “aren’t going 9-7, 7-9, or 8-8”? Oh yes they are. In completely unsurprising fashion, the Rams went to London, and lost another close game to a non-divisional opponent.  There are guys with erectile dysfunction that finish better than this team has over the first seven games of the season. They just don’t have enough playmakers on the roster.  My goodness Case Keenum!  That was the worst interception of all-time on the final drive of the game. Tavon Austin is supposed to be the teams’ most dangerous weapon, and even he couldn’t be counted upon to hang onto an important pass, which resulted in one of the Giants’ touchdowns.  I think it’s safe to say the Rams have regressed towards the mean after a couple of big divisional wins, and that the team is simply average at best.  If the team is going to lose, and their quarterback is going to throw four interceptions, then it should be their quarterback of the future, Jared Goff, who is throwing them.  Goff is going to go through growing pains, so why not let him do it now? The Rams have a bye week coming up, and the struggling Carolina Panthers after that. Sounds like a pretty good time to get your rookie quarterback in there. Still, I feel like Jeff Fisher is going to hold onto false hope that this team can go 7-2 down the stretch and get in the playoffs. That sounds laughable though, especially given the way Seattle and Arizona are playing now.  We can’t find a quarterback better than this?

Elsewhere in week 7 of the NFL, The Falcons reminded that Chargers that they have been collapsing in games way before San Diego made it cool again.  The Bolts have suddenly won two in a row, and their new game plan should be to trail heading into the 4th so they can’t blow the game.   I like how everyone suddenly believes in Aaron Rodgers again after beating up on the Bears, one of the worst teams in football. Let’s see him do that against some reasonably good competition before we jump back on the bandwagon.  Both the Seahawks and the Cardinals deserved to lose that game last night.  Seattle is scoring less these days than before Russell Wilson married Ciara.  That game ended and Donovan McNabb was still sitting in his living room wondering when the game was going to resume.  LeGarrette Blount and the Patriots defeated Le’Veon Bell and the Steelers in “The Weed Bowl”.  The Raiders not only beat the Jags, but they discovered the best running back on their team is actually their punter.  Sam Bradford did a great job reminding the Eagles why they traded him when Philly beat up on the Vikings.  Drew Brees has way more class than me.  If I were him I’d be saying after every game that “it’s not my fault our defense can’t tackle.” So that’s what happens when you protect Andrew Luck? He goes off and the Colts actually win.  49ers linebacker Aaron Lynch said San Fran is the most talented team in the NFC after his team got pounded by Tampa Bay.  Lynch should be suspended immediately for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.   Jay Ajayi is like the cocaine boost the city of Miami needed, as the Dolphins got by Buffalo.  Ryan Fitzpatrck to Geno Smith, and back to Ryan Fitzpatrick.  Does it matter when your team stinks? The Jets only won because the Ravens offense is horrendous.  The Redskins should blame Skip Bayless for losing to the Lions.  He tweeted that the game was in the bag once the Skins got the lead.  If Skip said the sun was going to rise tomorrow, I’d be worried the world was going to end.  It turns out that God doesn’t actually hate Cleveland.  He just hates the Browns.  AJ Green proved this with his miraculous catch.

The UCLA football team amazes me. They find new ways to disappoint on a weekly basis. With their backup quarterback, Mike Fafaul, they found a way to put 45 points on the scoreboard, yet still lost at home to Utah. Where was the much-improved defense that we’ve seen of late from UCLA? The Bruins also have the worst running game in Division I football.  How can a school like UCLA not have any halfway decent running backs? The Utes piled up 539 yards of offense, and the Bruins let some kid who retired from college football a few weeks over, run over them for 332 yards rushing.  UCLA can kiss it’s hopes for winning the Pac 12 South goodbye, and pretty soon it might be kissing its hopes goodbye just to make a sorry bowl game.  After a few years of “coming close”, it looks like the Bruins aren’t that close at all.  At best, you might get a win or two against your cross-town rival, USC, who has been down in recent years anyway. However, on the national stage the Bruins are nothing more than an average team.  It’s ok Bruin fans, you still have basketball season. Oh wait, nevermind.

Elsewhere around college football, Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbick has ended the speculation.  Head Coach, Brian Kelly, will be keeping his job regardless of what happens the remainder of the season. Kelly looks like William Shatner, and there have definitely been moments where I thought Shatner would do a better job coaching this team than Kelly.  Still, unless you can find me a better option than Kelly, and there’s not one available that I can think of, the wise thing to do would be to give him another year.  He has built enough equity to give him that opportunity.  On the scoreboard, huge upset by Penn State over Ohio State. The referees must have been busy watching the Cubs-Dodger game though, because they completely missed a pass interference call on Penn State late in the game that cost the Buckeyes.  It really doesn’t look like anybody is going to be stopping Alabama right now.  The Tide crushed A&M, and are killing it even though their fans probably aren’t smart enough to count the 33 points they scored. Speaking of killing, Leonard Fournette should be arrested for murder after what he did in the LSU game.

I was in Chicago over the weekend and got in an Uber.  It turns out that my driver was a former  lineman at Southern Illinois, and his son graduated last year from Michigan and was a starting defensive back for them.  The driver spent the duration of the ride telling me how much of a jerk Jim Harbaugh is, and how after just 1 year, all his players hate him.  In fact, he went on to say that not only do he and his son despise Harbaugh, but that it would only be a matter of time before he has a mutiny on his hands in the locker room, and he’s out as coach.  That may be a little extreme since Harbaugh probably wasn’t hired to be nice to his players.  However, I think it’s safe to say that despite his success, Jim Harbaugh is becoming more and more unlikeable with both his players and the media.  By the way, the driver also kicked me out of the car when he found out I went to Notre Dame.

To the NBA, where the 2016-2017 season begins this week.  The Lakers will open things up at home on Wednesday against the Houston Rockets.  This may sound sorry to say, but if the Lakers can win 30 games this season, that should be seen as huge progress.  That may be asking a lot though, so if nothing else, I’d like to see some major development from the likes of D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr.  If two of those players can become all-stars in the next couple of years, LA will be in a good place.  Russell and Ingram look like they have the best chance to do that, so much of this year should be based on development, more so than wins and losses.  That development and the establishment of a new culture under Luke Walton is what this season is all about.  The early going could be tough since the Lakers have to play the Warriors three times in November.  However, as long as we see that development and culture change to re-establish a new Laker foundation, that’s something we can be satisfied with for now.  Just remember, the core are basically a bunch of teenagers.  You were probably buying booze and sneaking into clubs with a fake ID at that age.  It takes time, however, If things break right the Lakers might be back in playoff contention in 2017-2018, especially with some teams in the West getting older.

As for the Clippers, the storyline is going to be similar to the last five years.  They have a very good team on paper, but one that probably isn’t good enough to contend for an NBA title.  One of these days, Doc Rivers is sure acquire some players that will actually make the bench better.  We thought that was the case going into the last two seasons, but it never worked out.  Mo Speights, Ray Felton, Brandon Bass, and Alan Anderson seem like nice additions, but that’s probably not going to determine the fate of the Clipps.  It’s whether or not the CP3-Blake-DeAndre trio can elevate their game enough to take down the Warriors.  That’s a nice trio, but probably not. No matter how hard Doc Rivers tries to convince us and himself that they have a shot, I don’t really believe he thinks they can do it.  He knows however, that there’s no better situation for him, and the same with Blake and CP3, who will be free agents at the end of the year.  The best case scenario for this team is that they become the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, who caught lightning in a bottle, and managed to snag an NBA title before the Miami Heat got their act together.  That sounds far-fetched to me, but the Clipps should be #2 in the West during the regular season. The question is whether or not they can finally make it out of the second round, let alone beat the Warriors.

Who are we kidding? The NBA Finals are going to be the Warriors vs the Cavs again. This time, the Warriors will have too much firepower, beating the Cavs in 5. They are more than head and shoulders above everybody else.  Lebron and his children could make it out of the East.  There’s a few other teams and stories I’m keeping my eye on though. In the East, the Celtics might be a little improved, but people are acting like Al Horford is the second coming of Bill Russell.  The Raptors are still the 2^nd best team in the East, but a distant second.  I can’t wait to see the disasters that are the Knicks and the Bulls.  The Knicks will be Porzingis and a bunch of injured guys. The Bulls can only compete if they find a way to convince the league to get rid of the three-point line.  I expect that neither will make the playoffs.  In the West, the Spurs will be #3, but the question is whether or not LaMarcus Aldridge will be a part of their core moving forward.  I can’t say I see a trade out there that makes the Spurs better without him.  The Thunder, Grizzlies, and Mavs had major roster turnover, and will be hard pressed to make the playoffs, but I expect them to hold off the Rockets, Timberwolves, and Suns.  I’ve been saying that Jazz will make the playoffs the last two years and have been wrong.  Third time is the charm right?  That Jazz should make it in this year.  It’s going to be fun, until you see Steph-KD-Klay-Draymond and the Warriors rule the league.

Let’s go to the ice where the LA Kings can’t go more than five minutes without losing a goaltender to a groin injury.  Jonathan Quick is out for three months, and now backup Jeff Zatkoff is out too with a groin pull.  My groin is starting to hurt just thinking about these injuries.  Even though Peter Budaj has helped the Kings win two straight, LA can’t spend the next three months playing with goalies who might not be able to stop a beach ball from going in the net.  I’d love to see Dean Lombardi pick up the phone and call the Red Wings about Jimmy Howard, who’s salary is high, but could fit with Quick on injured reserve.  The Kings may also be able to flip him later for some assets when Quick comes back from injury.  Then there’s the Ducks, who are also off the a rough start under Randy Carlyle. Jonathan Gibson seemed like he was a lot better goalie when he had Freddy Anderson pushing him for the starting job.  I expect that the Kings, Ducks, and Sharks will turn it around shortly, and will still be the class of the Pacific Division despite their early struggles.

Finally, who isn’t emotionally drained after watching The Walking Dead last night? Spoiler alert for those of you that have yet to watch it, and I’m about to drop some serious spoilers on you if you haven’t so read no further if you don’t want to know.  This show was such a blow to the fans, and just to frustrate us even more, Negan’s victims were drawn out until the middle of the episode.  Although the show did a good job of providing some misdirection for the last few months, if you followed the chatter online, you knew it was both Abraham and Glenn who were killed in gruesome fashion, and that’s exactly what happened.  Damn you Darryl! Had it not been for you punching Negan in the face, we might still have Glenn.  Glenn was my favorite character by far.  He was saving lives, getting tail, and became a man over the last six seasons.  Ultimately though, losing two significant characters was necessary.  As angry as you are, if they had just killed Aaron and Rosita, it would have lost credibility and the cliffhanger would have been stupid.  Ok, so they could have just made this whole thing 1 episode instead of two grueling episodes and a five month intermission between the two.  Ultimately though, the show just couldn’t go where it needed to go without this moment.  Frankly, I’m tired of hearing many of you cry about how you’re over the show because of the teasing and taunting the writers put you through.  Look television series kill off important characters all the time.  It’s all about luring you in and making you believe those characters could never die so that when they do, the dramatic impact is that much more magnified.  Apparently most of you forgot that, and for some reason convinced yourself that couldn’t be the case on this show.  The bottom line is that we’re still left with a a charming yet very evil villain in Negan, and what could potentially become a new leader in Maggie.  Oh, there’s also still plenty of great characters in the show in Darryl, Carol, and Morgan.  In other words, stop complaining and let the season play out people!