Monthly Archives: September 2017

Monday Morning Coffee

September 25, 2017

The Rams and 49ers were shockingly able to provide us with one of the best Thursday Night Football games we’ve ever seen.  The Rams also put up 41 points, and coincidentally, 41 is the number of people that actually attended the last Rams home game.  In all seriousness though, Sean McVay deserves credit for turning the Rams offense around and making Jared Goff a competent NFL quarterback.  However, I still have no idea if Goff is Ryan Tannehill or Matt Ryan.  It’s hard to tell when both of your wins are against the Colts and 49ers.  It’s not hard to tell that the Rams defense is garbage.  They can’t stop the run, and their secondary is average at best.  Todd Gurley seems to think the 49ers still have Joe Montana and Jerry Rice because he thinks so highly of beating San Francisco, he says the Rams are going to go “whoop up on Dallas.”  If that happens, they’ve got my attention.  Until then, this team has simply improved from terrible to mediocre.

While most of the NFL players were taking a knee during the national anthem, the Chargers looked like they were taking knee the entire game in their humiliating loss to the Chiefs.  Even more humiliating is the fact the entire stadium was filled with fans off the opposition for the 2nd week in a row.  I don’t know why the league or Dean Spanos is surprised nobody cares about the Bolts in Los Angeles.  People in LA have been screaming for years that they don’t want the Chargers to come to LA, and now the league and Spanos have egg on their face.  Spanos is more hated than Donald Trump in Amerca’s Finest City, so there’s no way the team could move back without him selling the franchise.  If the league were smart, and don’t worry they aren’t, they would let Spanos sell the team for a fair price, then move the team back to San Diego and build a stadium themselves.  That would put the Chargers back where people give a damn about them.  In the meantime, nobody even cares they stink.

Elsewhere around the NFL, Kirk Cousins just forgot to preheat the oven, but he finally tore it up last night against the Raiders.  You like that? The Jaguars probably will never leave London after dominating the Ravens.  The Jets, Jaguars, and Bills all won by a combined score of 90-29, and the Bears upset the Steelers in OT.  The odds of getting hit by Hurricane Maria and a 7.0 earthquake at the same time are greater than that happening.  The Falcons reminded us that god just hates the Lions, while Tom Brady reminded us that he might be the GOAT.  To protest injustice, the New York Giants have decided not to show up in the win column this season.  The Bears Marcus Cooper thought he had a touchdown, and then blew it by celebrating too early….

To College Football, where USC continues to be underwhelming, yet continues to find the win column.  The latest uninspiring performance came against Cal, and required some big plays from the defense to remain undefeated.  The Trojans decided to show up for exactly three minutes of this game, which was just enough to avoid being upset by an unranked team.  Most Trojan fans are going to spin this as “we’re still undefeated which is what matters.”  However, the way they are playing is going to matter when they have to play at Washington State, vs Utah, and at Notre Dame in a few weeks.  Sam Darnold and the Trojan offense are finishing about as well as a 70-year-old dude without his little blue pill.  Things are about to get much tougher for Southern Cal, which means we’re about to find out if they can live up to the hype.

There’s absolutely no hype to the Bruins, who got dismantled again by Stanford.  For the last five years we’ve been waiting for Jim Mora to show us a team that would be tough enough and physical enough to beat Stanford.  Mind you, not all of those Stanford teams were national powerhouse teams either.  On Saturday, we saw a UCLA team that has no defense, no effective threat at wide receiver, and a frustratingly inconsistent running game.  The fact UCLA had a 100-yard rushing running back for the first time in two years was almost more aggravating.  I’ll give Mora credit for his recruiting, and ability to make the team more disciplined.  However, after a solid first two years, and three disappointing years after that, it’s clear he can’t develop his talent.  With every loss Mora gives us more false promises than a Presidential candidate.  I think we’ve seen enough of the status quo in Westwood.

The Dodgers may have clinched the division on Friday, but their bullpen has officially turned into a pumpkin and stinks again, with an ERA of 7 this month.  The pen is also giving up home runs like it’s the steroid era as well.  I guess this is what happens when you have the naive belief that starting pitching is overvalued, and you are forced to use exhaust your pen over the course of 162 games.  Nice work Andrew Friedman.  The Dodgers are also about to give up their lead on the Indians for home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  Then again, I’m not so sure why I’m worried about it because I have diminishing confidence in the Dodgers’ ability to get to the World Series.  I still have no idea why Curtis Granderson is playing everyday when he gives you a hit about once every 40 at bats.  Granderson must have some serious dirt on Dave Roberts because there is no explanation for this.  October is just around the corner and that means my biggest Dodger nightmares are about to arrive like the Grim Reaper standing outside my door.

Then there’s the Angels, whose odds of making the playoffs appear about as good as winning the Powerball.  Mike Scioscia’s new strategy is to pray his starting pitchers arm’s don’t fall off after five innings, and then hope one of his relievers don’t blow the game.  The Halos schedule down the stretch may be brutal, but that’s why they should have shown up for games in May, June, and July.  Justin Upton and Brandon Phillips were nice contributors for a few weeks, but don’t be fooled, the Halos are deeply flawed.  They need to reconstruct their entire roster, and could use an upgrade at literally every position other than centerfield and shortstop.  If the Angels hope to make the playoffs before Mike Trout’s contract expires, they should seriously consider this.

I’ve gotta hand it to Thunder GM Sam Presti for trading for Carmelo Anthony.  Presti basically gave up half a can of Diet Coke, and two pretzels for one of the best scorers in the NBA.  When you’re in a small market like OKC you have to know your window to win.  Presti realizes that with Russell Westbrook’s looming free agency, and working under a cheap skate owner.  Still, the Thunder are like everybody else and have no chance of beating the Warriors.  They very likely will be starting from scratch next year with Westbrook, Paul George, and Anthony departing via free agency.  I wouldn’t be shocked if two of those three players ended up on the Lakers.  Speaking of the Lakers, I’m still not really sure why they decided to sign Andrew Bogut.  There’s probably no center that is going to play more than 20 minutes in Luke Walton’s system, and those minutes should go to developing Ivica Zubac.

Finally, sports is supposed to unify society and help everyone rise above political differences.  I find it deeply disappointing that Donald Trump has escalated things with the entire sports world, tweeting that NFL players should be fired for kneeling during the National Anthem, and for uninviting Steph Curry to the White House.  At the same time though, I don’t think NBA players should refuse an invite to the White House, even if they don’t like Trump.  If players want to use their fame to make a difference and let their voice be heard, then why not take the opportunity to go to the White House and let your voice be heard in front of the most powerful person in the world? This would be more productive than having Lebron James, Steph Curry, and Donald Trump sling insults at each other via Twitter like high schoolers.

 

 

 

 

Monday Morning Coffee

 

September 18, 2017

I thought the Rams actually had a good defense? The Rams were handing out rushing yards like they had a Groupon for them against the Redskins.  So much for the Rams getting Aaron Donald back and taking advantage of a soft early schedule.  That was a very winnable game they failed to take advantage of.  At least Todd Gurley looked as good as he was during his rookie year, and I guess we’re supposed to be excited that Jared Goff isn’t as crappy as we all thought he might be.  This team is still lacking a lot of talent, and it’s going to really show in the coming weeks against better teams.  They are also lacking some serious fan support too, with a reported 56,612 in attendance yesterday.  It feels like 25,000 of those people showed up disguised as seats.

Things were just as embarrassing in Carson, where the Chargers found a way to blow another game in dramatic fashion.  This time it was against the Dolphins.  You can take the Chargers out of San Diego, but you can’t take bad losses away from the Chargers.  After the team spent all week talking trash about Jay Cutler and how useless he is, they found a way to lose to his team.  For the 2nd straight game the Bolts lost on the leg of Younghoe Koo.  He should change his name to Younghoe Boo because the fans should boo him when he steps on to the field.  Oh and by “the fans” I mean the mere 25,000 that showed up to watch the team play.  The combined attendance of the Rams and Chargers was 81,000 this weekend, which is less than the 84,000 that showed up on Saturday to watch USC play Texas.  I can’t wait to see what the StubHub Center looks like when the Raiders come to town and the entire stadium is silver and black.

Elsewhere around the NFL in Week 2, Tom Brady went full on Katrina against the Saints and their bad defense.  The Patriots keep losing players to injuries but keep winning.  I walked to the fridge and picked up more yards than ‘Zeke Elliott did in the Cowboys’ loss to the Broncos.  Marshawn Lynch is the perfect Raider, and they dominated the Jets.  The Seahawks won but they score about as often as Steve Urkel.  The Packer defense was already in postseason form in their loss to the Falcons.  Andy Reid is going to celebrate the Chiefs victory over his former team by giving his cholesterol a shot of KC BBQ.  The Vikings should have just forfeited against the Steelers when they found out they had to start Case Keenum in place of the injured Sam Bradford.  The Ravens beat the Browns, but so does everybody.  The Colts found a better quarterback but couldn’t find a win against Arizona.  Starting Blake Bortles at QB is like having your football team destroyed by a hurricane every week, which the Jags learned in their loss to the Tennessee.  The Bears got destroyed by the Bucs, and are playing like Jay Cutler is still their quarterback.  Greg Olsen’s foot is broken and so is Carolina’s offense, despite their win against the Bills. The last time the Bengals scored a touchdown, Obama was still President.

To College Football where USC escaped with a win Saturday night against Texas, in a game that was nearly disasterous for their season.  Perhaps the Trojan players were star struck by seeing Matthew McConaughey on the sidelines, or just thinking about him selling them a Lincoln.  Just when you think USC has turned the corner, they come out flat against a team they should have blown off the field.  To make matters worse, Stanford lost to San Diego State, meaning that the Trojans haven’t  even beaten a ranked team yet, while struggling in two of their three wins.  Clay Helton was out-coached by Tom Herman, and were it not for some late game heroics, Sam Darnold was outplayed by a true freshman quarterback for Texas.  This is sure to hit them in the rankings, and has to make you skeptical.  I like how ten years later, this game was hyped up for “revenge” for what happened in 2006.  I’m pretty sure none of the current players on either side gives a damn about that, and are more focused on what party they are going to go to next Thursday night on fraternity row.

As for the Bruins, they suffered an embarrassment of their own by losing to Memphis.  I don’t care if the game was too early.  UCLA should never lose to a team like Memphis.  Do you really expect Josh Rosen to throw the ball 56 times, or any quarterback, and not throw two interceptions? Rosen’s ego can be irritating, but you can’t blame these losses on him when Jim Mora is asking him to play hero ball.  UCLA has no system and they have no running game.  It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the Bruins get beaten like they stole something next weekend against Stanford.  As long as Mora is coaching this team, Bruin fans should buy a Vegas timeshare for their annual trip to the Las Vegas Bowl.

Elsewhere around College Football, Notre Dame did the UNTHINKABLE and knocked off an unranked Boston College team.  I’m waiting for the day Brandon Wimbush gets his head knocked off as Brian Kelly gets another one of his quarterbacks killed by letting him run around like he’s Forest Gump.  That’s what happens when the rest of your offense is inept.  The Clemson defense is the kryptonite to Lamar Jackson.  The SEC has announced they are demoting Tennessee to Pee Wee Football and will no longer be affiliated with the program.  Well at least they should announce that after Tennessee lost to Florida on a last second Hail Mary.  Rick Pitino made an appearance on ESPN’s College Gameday, but I didn’t realize that he buys his clothes at Baby Gap….

The Dodgers are really making a habit of this whole winning thing.  It was one thing to merely end that 11-game losing skid, but now they are hot again.  Cody Bellinger claimed that what helped the team get through such a rough stretch was having veterans who had been there before.  I didn’t realize that the Dodgers have players on their roster that have been on the team since 1958, because that’s the last time they had a streak that bad.  The Dodgers’ potential for playoff failure still scares me to death.  Somehow they found a center fielder that is worse than Joc Pederson.  Not only should Curtis Granderson be chained to the bench, but so should Yasmani Grandal.  Austin Barnes is statistically the most valuable hitter against right-handed pitching in the National League this year, so I have no idea why he isn’t in the lineup everyday.  Only two more weeks before the postseason, and the Dodgers have to worry about their pitchers being done after five innings, and their hitters being done after September.

The Angels sure are determined to make this AL Wild Card race interesting.  It sure would help their chances though if they didn’t keep losing pitchers to elbow tears.  The latest is JC Ramirez, who is done for the year, and possible next year too.  It’s almost like the team’s training staff is always finding new ways to get their pitchers injured.  Then there’s Luis Valbuena, who is perfecting his bat flip, even during those moments where he’s barely hitting the ball out of the infield.  Valbuena can’t even hit .200, meaning that never has an athlete that is so bad acted so cocky.  Valbuena’s antics actually angered Astros pitcher Mike Fiers so much, after giving up a home run to the Angels’ infielder, he threw at his head.  That got Fiers suspended for five games.  Fiers said he felt “disrespected”.  If you give up a home run to a guy who is hitting .200, you deserve to be disrespected and suspended.

In case you haven’t heard, the Lakers are retiring Kobe’s jersey on December 18th, when they host the Warriors.  They will also be retiring both his #8 and #24 jersey’s.  I think the #24 Kobe was much better than the #8 Kobe, and the Mamba reached the pinnacle of his career wearing #24.  That one should really be the only one to be retired, however, there’s probably no player in their right mind who would want to wear #8, so the Lakers might as well retire both jerseys.  By the way, the cheapest ticket to get in that game right now is $600.

The NHL preseason is underway, and it couldn’t have gotten off to a cloudier start for the Kings.  Defenseman Drew Doughty told The Sporting News that if the team didn’t start contending for Stanley Cups again, he would consider signing elsewhere when his contract expires in two seasons. When an LA Times reporter questioned him about this, he said he would love to finish his career as a King.  Drew, if you back peddle any faster, you will start moon walking like Michael Jackson.  The Kings are a lot closer to rebuilding than contending, and Doughty could easily leave the team in two years.  On the bright side though, the Kings Twitter account is run far better than that of the Ducks.  Here’s a look at their early season social media fail….

Finally, has ESPN’s Jamele Hill been living under a rock for the last year? She just witnessed complete carnage at her company, as a number of her colleagues were laid off due to declining ratings and more cord cutting.  We can attribute some of that to the fact that ESPN’s content has become more and more political, which has displeased viewers.  So what does Jamele do? She decides to go on some Twitter rant, ripping Donald Trump for being a racist, and called him a white supremacist.  Regardless of what you think of Donald Trump, if Jamele wants her political voice to be heard, she should just go join CNN with the 12 other people sitting at a desk screaming their biased opinions at each other.  I also like how hypocritical ESPN is after suspending Linda Cohen last spring for saying the network was getting too political, yet they did nothing to Hill for her unnecessary rant.  It’s also apparent to me that Colin Kaepernick has no desire to play in the NFL, because he came out and supported her rant on Twitter.  I guess the man just couldn’t get enough controversy in his life.

 

 

Monday Morning Coffee

September 11, 2017

The Dodgers are collapsing faster than the state of Florida.  Oh wait, this must all be a part of Andrew Friedman’s plan right? The Dodgers must be sending a message to all the other teams in the NL, trying to make them overconfident come playoff time.  Those other NL teams must be real overconfident now because the Dodgers’ entire pitching staff looks like a bunch of stiffs.  This has to be the case since Dave Roberts assured us all a few days ago that the Dodgers will win the NL West.  Not even Clayton Kershaw can help the team find the win column, and suddenly the entire team can’t hit.  I’m beginning to think this is the law of averages catching up with the team at the worst time, because they are on the verge of one of the biggest choke jobs in baseball history.  Since Sports Illustrated came out with an issue asking if this is the best team ever on the cover page,  Perhaps the Dodgers would have better luck if Sports Illustrated’s next cover page said “Biggest Choke Job Ever?.  It’s officially time to panic.

Meanwhile, the Angels are still hanging in the AL Wild Card race, but are limping their way toward the finish line.  After avoiding a sweep yesterday against the Mariners, they Halos are just one game out of the final Wild Card spot.  However, Andrew Heaney looks more broken than those couples that win reality dating shows.  Garrett Richards looks like his arm could fall off any moment.  Parker Bridwell has remembered that he’s just Parker Bridwell.  This team has impressed me given how they’ve handled adversity, but since they have nine more games against Houston and Cleveland, I doubt they can make it through that field of land mines to make the postseason.

To the NFL, where the Colts made the Rams look like the 1972 Miami Dolphins yesterday at the Coliseum.  I’ll be far more impressed when the Rams manage to do this against a team that isn’t playing at a college level, which probably won’t be for a few more weeks.  Actually, I’m not even sure that Scott Tolzien played at a college level yesterday.  Of course Jared Goff is going to look like Joe Montana against a crappy defense like that.  The Colts lost by so many points, Chuck Pagano actually forgot who they played, referring to the Rams as the 49ers.  Don’t think the Rams managed to entirely avoid embarrassment for the week though.  The amount of empty seats at the Coliseum made the game look like a University of San Diego football game.  I guess this NFL in LA thing is really working out so far.

Elsewhere around week 1, apparently that judge had Ezekiel Elliott on his fantasy football team.  Elliott and the Cowboys got an easy win against the Giants.  First Hurricane Harvey, then losing to the Jags.  As if Houston hasn’t suffered enough.  Andy Dalton is already in playoff form, throwing four  interceptions in yesterday’s loss to Baltimore.   The NFL should spot the Browns 14 points in every game to make it more fair.  They could have used that yesterday in their loss to the Steelers.  Russell Wilson and his Seahawks got manhandled by the Packers yesterday.  He must have stopped having sex with Ciara again.  The 49ers barely scored more points than the San Francisco Giants yesterday.  Alex Smith is probably going to sit out of next week’s game with arm fatigue after throwing the ball more than 30 yards in the Chiefs win over the Patriots.  The Bills beat the Jets in a game that should have been called “the toilet bowl”.  Great special teams tackle by the Jets on themselves here…..

To college football, where the Trojans finally found what they were missing against Stanford: an elite quarterback.  The Cardinal had won 7 of the last 10 games against the Trojans, but Sam Darnold returned to the elite QB we saw for most of last season, leading USC to a big win.  The Trojan defense is nothing to brag about, but if Ronald Jones is going to run like Reggie Bush, and Sam Darnold is going to play like Matt Leinart, that won’t matter.  Nobody even heard of Deontay Burnett until the Rose Bowl last January, and now he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Darnold’s four TD passes vaulted him back in the Heisman discussion.  The Trojans beat Stanford at their own game, running the ball, and playing a much more physical, ball-control game.  The only thing Stanford did better was drink more chardonnay during the tailgate.  USC should roll in their next two games against Texas and Cal, before facing a tough Washington State team on the road.

It would have been very “UCLA” of the Bruins had they lost Saturday’s game against Hawaii after defeating Texas A&M in dramatic fashion.  Instead, Josh Rosen picked up where he left off by throwing five TD passes, piling up 329 yards like he was playing a video game, and UCLA hammered Hawaii at home.  The Bruins did what they were supposed to do, crushing a team with inferior talent, but they still have plenty of issues.  The defense is banged up, the offensive line provides about as much protection as a broken condom, and they have no running game.  If Rosen can overcome all that and lead the Bruins to an upset road victory or two over the likes of Stanford, Washington, or USC, he definitely deserves to win the Heisman.

As for the rest of college football, nice job by the NCAA to schedule all of last weekend’s great games at the exact same time.  Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly says that the Irish are really close to being able to compete with any football team in the country.  After losing to Georgia at home, the Irish are 2-11 in their last 13 games against top 15 teams.  They are only a head coach away.  Looks like “The” Ohio State University has “The” worst pass defense in the country, and won’t be in this year’s college football playoff after losing to Oklahoma.  Baker Mayfield was savage putting that flag into the center of the Buckeyes logo after the win.  Here’s the Buckeyes new logo…..

Finally, I feel terrible for Florida, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families that were impacted by the Hurricane.  However, why don’t these people evacuate sooner? The real problem is the name of the Hurricane.  Nobody is afraid of Hurricane “Irma”.  However, if you gave it an Arab name like Hurricane “Abdullah” or Hurricane “Muhammad”, people would run for the hills.  I also love the fact that these news reporters are practically in a contest with each other for an Emmy award while reporting on the Hurricane.  In fact, it’s getting so competitive we’re practically seeing field reporters blown away on live television, and they seem to be ok with it.

Monday Morning Coffee

September 4, 2017

Every blogger and writer has done it at least once before. You write your story or column before the game is over because you think the game has been decided. I was guilty of that last night when I thought UCLA would never rally from a 34-point deficit against Texas A&M. I was ready to trash Josh Rosen, and instead he shut me up for a week by throwing for 491 yards and 4 TD’s. I was also about ready to have Jim Mora fired and replaced with Chip Kelly, but I guess that will have to wait at least another few weeks. The Bruins showed they are entertaining and may win some games, but they are still deeply flawed. There is no running game, their offensive line is downright offensive, and they can’t tackle anybody. It’s probably only a matter of time before all this catches up with them. In the meantime though, they deserve credit for yesterday’s win, while Josh Rosen can go keep his grades up in those really hard classes he hates taking.

So this is the USC football team everybody waited eight months to see? I guess everybody was excited to see a team that tackles about as well as my high school varsity team did, and one that is made up of wide receivers that can’t even catch a cold? Despite beating Western Michigan, this looks a lot more like the disastrous team we saw at the beginning of last season, rather than the juggernaut we saw after the Rose Bowl. The Trojans don’t have much time to get their act together either, with Stanford coming to town next week. You can be assured that the Cardinal will be running the ball early and often, against the tackling dummies that appeared to be the USC defense on Saturday. Sam Darnold had what was easily his worst game as a starter. Even though it wasn’t entirely his fault, you’ve gotta wonder if the kid can live up to all the ridiculous hype he’s been getting since the end of last season. The Trojan faithful had better hope that this was simply a case of the boys doing a little too much early semester partying on fraternity row. Don’t be surprised if they drop slightly from their #4 ranking.

Elsewhere around college football, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame actually looked halfway decent against Temple. The Irish have talent, but they are being far more courteous to their fans this year by waiting until at least after the first week of the season to disappoint them. #1 Alabama looked strong in their win over #3 Florida State, in the cousins vs convicts battle. After the win, ‘Bama should be entitled to replace the Jets this season in the NFL. Tom Herman made his coaching debut for the Longhorns, and he learned that everything is bigger in Texas. That includes their losses, as they got beat by Maryland. This  Wyoming punter really put the “special” in special teams…..

The Dodgers have problems.  They aren’t new problems.  They are the same ones I was concerned about back in April.  When things really matter in October, they still don’t have any pitcher you can trust outside of Clayton Kershaw.  You thought it was Yu Darvish? Somebody needs to tell him “Yu Suck.”  Some of you are panicking because you are just noticing this now, but the last week has only reinforced what I’ve thought all year.  At the same time, Cody Bellinger should not only be rookie of the year, but also NL MVP because the Dodger offense has gone to hell when he’s been out of the lineup.  Curtis Granderon has been such a failure at the plate since he was acquired, all Alex Verdugo needs to do is hit .240 to make the playoff roster.  When it comes to pitching, this team is nothing but Clayton Kershaw and four guys carrying baseball gloves.


Meanwhile, the Angels better hope they make the playoffs because what they are doing is pure recklessness.  They just acquired Justin Upton and Brandon Phillips, who are both nice players, but are nothing more than two-month rentals.  The are depleting a farm system that is already devoid of talent.  As if that wasn’t reckless enough, they are sending Garrett Richards to the mound on Tuesday against Oakland, when he hasn’t even built the arm strength to throw 60 pitches.  60 pitches???!!! Why not just get some AAA scrub to give you three innings since it will be a bullpen game anyway? If Richards is supposed to be the Halos franchise pitcher, they certainly aren’t treating him that way.  If the Halos were going to acquire anything in August, it should have been pitching.  Instead, adding Upton and Phillips is like making a run to the store for some vodka and tequila in the middle of a party, when you really just need some ice.

To the NBA, where the Lakers avoided a disaster last week, after only getting fined $500 K by the league for tampering with Paul George.  This could have completely derailed the Lakers’ plan to sign two max level free agents, or even just George next summer, had the penalty been anything more severe.  Word is that Jeanie Buss was not pleased that her front office did this.  However, how can you blame Rob Pelinka.  This happens all the time.  How do you think that Chris Paul got traded to the franchise of his choice, the Rockets, three days before he was due to become an unrestricted free agent?  Since the Lakers still have the largest TV deal in the NBA, they will be paying $500 K fine like….

I don’t blame Aaron Donald at all for holding out.  If Donald were to simply play out his rookie contract and then go on to hit the open market, he would likely be in decline.  This is the only leverage he has, and since the Rams are a talentless team, there is no reason for them not to pay him.  Perhaps it would have been smarter not give Tayvon Austin an extension worth $28 million last summer.  The bad news for Aaron Donald is that the Rams might actually get off to a decent start since they aren’t really playing anybody in the first three weeks of the season.  However, when it’s all said and done, this is probably going to be no better than a 6-10 team.

Then there’s the Chargers.  With each passing day, the Bolts’ ownership must be considering jumping off the tallest building in Los Angeles, as they continue to walk down the path of irrelevancy.  The San Diego State Aztec football team had 40,000 people at their first football game on Saturday.  The Chargers drew half of that in their first preseason game.  You think that’s bad? The combined ratings for the Chargers and Rams final preseason game wasn’t even as great as the Raiders final preseason game that was shown on KTLA.  It’s still a Raider town, and the Raiders aren’t even coming back.

Brock Osweiler is the real winner after he got cut by the Browns.  He’s getting paid $16 million to not play for the Cleveland Browns.  Since he never got to actually play a game, it isn’t an unreasonable question to ask: is he the greatest quarterback in franchise history?

Finally, NHL training camps open in a little over a week from now, but the trash talking has already begun between the team Twitter accounts.  You have to love that Vegas is already well-versed at making fun of the Sharks.