Monday Morning Coffee

February 14, 2022

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Rams for winning Super Bowl 56! We really are lucky to be sports fans in Southern California. The Bengals were a handful, and everybody was underestimating them, but the Rams pulled through when it mattered and came out on top. The fact they made it to the end without OBJ, Tyler Higbee, Robert Woods, and without being able to run the ball speaks to how great Matt Stafford and Cooper Kupp were. The Rams stars delivered when it was all one the line. As fans, we have created a culture of expectations that in most cities, would be completely unrealistic: championship or bust. The Rams organization embraced that concept, went all in with the moves they made, and it paid off with a Super Bowl Championship. They maxed out their credit card, and it was worth every penny. I don’t see anybody questioning the Matthew Stafford trade now. I sure hope that Sean McVay and Aaron Donald don’t decide to retire, since we’ve been hearing rumors about them. Coaching is so important in the NFL, McVay has a chance to be one of the greatest coaches of his era if he continues to lead this team. Donald also has a chance to become arguably the greatest pass rusher of all time. Plus, the Rams still have a window to contend because some of their dead money with Jared Goff and Todd Gurley are coming off the books, so they could pay the likes of OBJ and Von Miller. Even with Beckham’s injury, he should recover and come back. For now, just soak up the glory Rams fans……..the city of LA has another championship added to it’s mantle!

As for the telecast, the halftime show was amazing. All the performers were outstanding, however, it feels like they told Mary J Blige and Fity Cent they were performing two weeks ago, since it looked like the just emerged from months of Covid quarantine. The commercials though were very underwhelming. These companies that are blowing $8 million on a commercial are just giving us a celebrity love fest, or trying to tell us how exciting it is losing boat loads of money gambling or trading crypto currency.

I’m very tired of this exercise. You know, the one where we talk about the Lakers and how they can turn it around. Stop it. They can’t this season. The season is over. If the Lakers consistently played with the kind of effort they did on Saturday night in their loss to the Warriors, they could probably make the postseason and make a run. However, I have no reason to believe they can play with that kind of effort consistently. Frank Vogel said “we believe in this group” after the trade deadline. You sure Frank? Because apparently your players don’t seem to think so, which is more or less what Lebron and AD indicated before and after the deadline. This team is a sinking ship, taking on water from one part of the boat after another. You plug one hole and another one is created. They either can’t put enough quality defensive players on the floor around AD and Lebron, or if they do, they can’t put enough quality offensive players on the floor around them. Oh, but what about the buy out market? Yes, I’m sure free agents are just itching to play for a minimum contract, with a team that has multiple ball dominant players, with zero championship hopes. This was simply poor roster construction, and it’s not all because of Russell Westbrook’s play. It’s because of his contract.

It’s a shame that lost in the Laker troubles is the unbelievable play of Lebron James in year 19. Lebron became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Saturday night (combined playoffs and regular season). Imagine having scored more points in NBA history than anybody else, and scoring isn’t even your greatest skill set? Year 19, and he might even win the scoring title. I don’t care what you think of his politics. With 4 Championships with 3 different teams, 4 finals MVPs and 4 regular season MVPs, this man is making his case as the greatest player of all-time.

UCLA basketball took another L over the weekend, this time to cross-town rival USC. The Trojans always play with a chip on their shoulder against UCLA, which explained why amazingly, Mick Cronin has never beat them since he started coaching UCLA. You can pretty much kiss hopes of winning the Pac-12 good bye after that one. You can’t win a basketball game shooting 30% from the field. The Bruins also can’t overcome that when Johnny Juzang, Jules Bernard, and Jaime Jaquez aren’t in peak form. Jaquez needs to shut it down until his ankle gets better. They also haven’t been getting much in the past five games from Myles Johnson and Cody Riley, who represent the only size on the roster. Until their big three scorers get it going, the Bruins also need to stop relying on jumpers like they are the Golden State Warriors. It would also help if Mick Cronin didn’t throw his players under the bus like has the past few weeks. However, it was only two weeks ago that the Bruins were in peak form. There is still time to get it back as we saw last season when they struggled around the same time, yet made a run to the Final Four. Let’s just hope this team can get healthy and can make that kind of run again.

I don’t know about most of you complainers, but I love the Winter Olympics. All I’ve heard from you is how difficult it is to find the events, but all you have to do is watch NBC, USA, or Peacock. Yes we have to deal with the time difference, but so does the rest of the world when they watch all our sports so deal with it! I really don’t know how a lot of these snowboarders and skiers do what they are doing with their incredible acrobats. It must be that if you don’t die during the training for these events, you automatically qualify for the Olympics. I’m enjoying it, but I just wish that the NHL had sent their players to the Olympics to represent their countries, especially since the players love playing in it. I’m sure Canadians are ready to move continents after the US Men’s hockey team defeated Canada 4-2 the other day in pool play. I do also wish that NBC would stop focusing on the favorites that lost their events and them crying their hearts out, as opposed to the winners that are on the podium and enjoying their gold medals. We’ve seen repeated examples of this, which is just sad. The LA Times is guilty of this too. Rather than featuring a shot of the medal winners hugging and rolling around together in celebration (with an American included), they decided to show Jamie Anderson sitting in defeat. And on the following page, they show an American woman ice skater and go on about her “nerves” after she lost to an incredible Russian skater.

Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer will not face any criminal charges after he was being investigated for sexual assault last year. Much of the discussion that has occurred after that has revolved around whether or not he should pitch for the Dodgers again. In fact, Bill Plaschke of the LA Times suggested he shouldn’t, while many readers wrote letters telling Bill he is a hypocrite, comparing him to Kobe, who everyone embraced after his sexual assault charge in 2003. First of all, this is entirely a moot point, because Bauer is going to be suspended by the MLB, and very likely for 1-2 years. Second of all, Bauer shouldn’t pitch for the Dodgers again because of all the other baggage he brings aside from this. This wasn’t a one time incident. He’s got lots of baggage, the Dodgers knew this was a risk when they signed him, and it was a risk that ultimately backfired on them. That situation can’t really be compared to Kobe, who did not have a questionable past, prior to the incident in Colorado. For those reasons, as well as the fact that Bauer’s teammates have written him off, he should not be allowed to pitch for the Dodgers again.

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