February 15th, 2015

They should have just called it the “Kobe Classic”.  There wasn’t any defense played, but it was very entertaining nevertheless.  The NBA All-Star game is still arguably the best of the four major sports because it’s a phenomenal showcase of talent.  The athleticism and the dunks are more exciting than anything else you will see in any other exhibition, which is exactly what the fans want.  It was great to see Kobe enjoying himself, and all the players enjoying being a part of Kobe’s final All-Star game as well.  I like how the only shred of heated competition was when Paul George needed one point to break Wilt Chamberlain’s single game All-Star scoring record, but Greg Popovich made sure he was double teamed and couldn’t get the record.  Both coaches allowed the players to draw up plays, and didn’t do much coaching.  Tyronn Lue should be used to this by now because that’s usually what happens to coaches in Cleveland.  What was up with Kobe and Westbrook not giving Drake any love after they were introduced? Then again, Kobe is from Philly, and everybody from Philly hates Drake.  Great halftime performance by Sting.  Meanwhile, the players were all Googling “who is Sting?”  Then there’s this dude who should have been in the dunk contest.  And the best part is he did it in jeans!

That was by far the best All-Star Saturday Night I have ever seen.  Sure there have been greater individual moments over the years, but nothing as competitive in each and every competition that we saw.  The slam dunk contest was the best since Dominque Wilkins vs Michael Jordan in 1988.  When did white people learn to jump like that? Aaron Gordon should have beaten Zach Lavine, and at the very least it should have been a tie.  It’s getting harder and harder to come up with dunks that we haven’t seen, yet those two dudes found a way to show new levels of creativity.  Who says the dunk contest is dead? It’s been brought back to life now.  What more did Gordon need to do to win? Cure cancer and AIDS while completing his dunks?  As for the three point shootout, Klay Thompson was great in edging his teammate Steph Curry.  However, imagine how good Devin Booker is going to be once he hits puberty.  Good for Klay, but Steph is still the best shooter in the world.  We also learned that Draymond Green is no better at basketball than Kevin Hart without Steph Curry on the court.  Since Hart beat Green in a 3 point contest, the Lakers are now looking to sign Hart in free agency this summer.  In the skills challenge, too many guys “play it cool” and don’t compete hard, but Karl Anthony Towns busted his ass to win.  I loved seeing it.  The Timberwolves are now considering moving KAT to point guard and Ricky Rubio to center.  Here are the highlights from one of the best dunk contests ever……

I thought both D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson were great in the Rising Stars challenge.  Both had a shot at the MVP.  Russell shot the lights out and was great at making plays for others in limited playing time.  Clarkson was outstanding as well, but I don’t know what the hell happened to him during the skills competition.  He completely “played it cool” and conceeded his matchup with CJ McCollum.  Makes sense though because the Lakers have been conceding games to their opponents all season.  Of course the battle between D’Angelo and Byron Scott continues.  Byron felt the need to call out D-Lo for his lack of maturity compared to other great point guards he’s coached.  So D’Angelo took a shot back at Byron in priceless fashion in the last 30 seconds of this clip……

D’Angelo Russell talks about his Rising Stars game performance.

VIDEO: https://t.co/N5L5FZEnaO

— LakersTV (@LakersTV) February 13, 2016

There’s plenty of interesting trade rumors out there with the deadline approaching on Thursday.  The biggest one being the rumored three team deal between the Celtics, Knicks, and Cavs.  The Celtics would get Kevin Love, the Cavs would get Carmelo Anthony, and the Knicks would get some of the Celtics assets to build around Kristaps Porzingas.  The Cavs aren’t going to have forever to win a title with Lebron James.  They need to build a roster that can better matchup with the Warriors, and that means adding an elite wing player.  ‘Melo may not be a great defensive player, but he sure would matchup with Draymond Green a lot better than Kevin Love would.  We all know the Celtics want a star player, and the Knicks need to build the right way.  The deal makes a lot of sense for everybody, but probably won’t happen because the trade deadline usually amounts to nothing.

The UCLA basketball season is effectively over after the loss to Arizona on Friday.  Barring a miraculous Pac 12 Conference Tournament win, this team is ticketed for the NIT.  Sure Steve Alford is going to blame the referees for the big free throw disparity on Friday, but that’s just covering up the real issues going on with the Bruins.  There’s a lack of talent, lack of depth, and mediocre coaching that has made the program nearly irrelevant.  Sure there’s a great deal of parity across college basketball right now, but there’s no reason why UCLA should lose some of the games they have this year, to schools that they should be blowing off the floor.  I couldn’t help watch Zach Lavine’s brilliance during the NBA All-Star weekend and wonder how in the hell could Steve Alford limit this kids minutes and not take advantage of his talent while he was in the program?  Too bad that nobody associated with the Bruins athletic program can take a long look in the mirror and give themselves a candid evaluation to turn the program around and put it back where it should be.

Meanwhile, USC basketball is still in great shape.  ESPN’s latest bracketology has them as the 5th seed in the Midwest Region, starting out in Denver.  With the way top ranked teams are losing every week in college basketball, would anybody really be shocked if an athletic team like the Trojans made it to the Final Four? I sure wouldn’t.  Jordan McLaughlin and Julian Jacobs are easily one of the five best backcourts in the country, and USC has an experienced coach in Andy Enfield.  They might not win the Pac 12, but look out come tournament time.  Now if only the Trojan alums knew they actually had a basketball team.

Last week, ESPN’s Keith Law claimed that the Angels farm system was the worst that he has ever seen.  He went on to say that since there is no depth whatsoever that is coming anytime soon, the Angels will need to consider trading Mike Trout in a year or two to fix this problem.  This idea is completely preposterous. The Red Sox traded Babe Ruth.  How did that work out? The Mets traded Nolan Ryan.  How did that work out? I realize that baseball isn’t the NBA, where one player changes the fortunes of your franchise dramatically.  However, prospects are completely overvalued these days in baseball.  You can’t trade a once in a generation talent who is under contract in his prime, for 5 or 6 unproven talents.  The Halos play in a tough division, but they were in playoff contention up until the last few days of the season.  The year before they won the division.  The Angels have a decent team, but their window to win is in the next 3 years, before Albert Pujols decline gets too steep.  Things aren’t nearly as bad for the Halos as most are predicting.  But you don’t trade away superstars for 50 cents on the dollar.

This story about Peyton Manning sexually assaulting a trainer at the University of Tennessee is pretty ugly.  Manning allegedly put his genitals on top of Dr. Jamie Naughright’s head while she was examining him in 1996.  She sued Manning and settled.  Then in 2003 he trashed her in a book, causing her to get fired from her job.  She sued him again, and they settled once more.  This whole incident looks pretty bad for Peyton.  I mean people do stupid things in college, but the details of the story make it look like he’s a total liar, and a complete ass hole.  The one thing I can’t figure out is why Peyton didn’t like Naughright.  It’s not clear, but it was apparent that since Manning arrived at Tennessee in 1994, these two had it out for each other.  This is especially bad news for Peyton at a time where his career is probably going to end, and we should be celebrating his accomplishments.  Instead, as more details come to light, we’re probably going to be tearing him down, as we often do with superstars.  I hope we learn more, but so far, this looks really bad for Peyton, and even worse for Tennessee, which looks like another SEC University that is so obsessed with football, that they will protect the players even under the most immoral circumstances.

The People vs OJ Simpson on FX had another great episode last week.  This time we got to re-live the chase in the Bronco down the freeway, that eventually resulted in OJ turning himself in.  The real fascination with that episode was watching how quickly race emerged in the case.  A number of African Americans were lined up on freeway overpasses with signs cheering OJ on as he ran from the cops.  Those African Americans had incredible mistrust for the LAPD (they still do today), and saw OJ as one of their own, who can win a battle against them.  However, the reality of it was that OJ wasn’t one of them.  In many ways he removed himself from African American culture.  African American women hated OJ for the fact that he had been married to a white woman.  They were cheering for the wrong guy.  It was another good episode, and I’m looking forward to re-living more in the coming weeks.

Finally, The Walking Dead retuned on AMC last night for the 2nd half of the season.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  This was a very stressful episode, that made you wonder if we were going to lose multiple characters again.  Glenn has caused most of that stress and did again.  That guy is one lucky Asian, whose ass got saved by Sasha and The Sarge, who used a machine gun on the herd of Walkers who were about to take him out.  Then again, Sasha and The Sarge were nearly toast themselves, until Darryl blew away the bikers that were threatening them.  Something tells me Negan is going to exact his revenge on one of those three.  Even Jessie knew that her son Sam was a liability, and tried to pawn him off on Father Gabriel.  Unfortunately, it was Sam that not only led to his own demise, but those of his mother as well.  Poor Rick….the guy fell in love with somebody else and she dies too.  I’m still not really sure how Carl could survive a bullet to the head.  I’m also not sure how a psychiatrist could have the skills necessary to save his life.  Now what’s left of the gang is going to try and rebuild Alexandria.  It seems as though the next major villain is going to be Negan, but are The Wolves gone for good? Their leader died, but it seems like we barely got to know anything about them before they came and went.  Something tells me that Negan is going to be even more evil, and Rick seems to be getting softer and more humane, which could make the group vulnerable. 

February 1st, 2016

Blake Griffin did the most “Clipper-esque” thing imaginable.  He punched Mathias Testi, one of the equipment managers, in the face.  Since these two are friends, what was this really about? Did Testi buy a Nissan instead of Kia?  Actually, sources close to Jock Talk LA have the real inside scoop.  Testi is involved in developing and promoting a clothing brand called The Datum Line.   The Datum Line features clothing for adults and children, including accessories like socks and hats, and is symbolic of “hard work”  Blake and DeAndre Jordan have been helping him promote the Brand, and have even invested in it.   Those sources indicated to me that “it was about money, and Blake’s investment in the brand.”  So Griffin is just like Vinny Chase in Entourage, while Testi is Turtle, although I don’t ever remember Vinny punching Turtle after he invested in that brand of Tequila.  On and off the court, the Clippers are still “Clippin”.  Despite winning 16 of their last 19 games, everybody knows the Clpps aren’t for real with or without Blake Griffin.  This team is ticketed for another early playoff exit.  The Clippers marketing team might want to re-think this one…..

On the other side of the hallway, the Lakers are challenging the 76ers for the worst record in the NBA.  I’m not so sure how excited the Lakers should be over that since the worst team has only won the draft lottery 4 times in 26 tries, which is just over 15% of the time.  For the sake of pride, the Lakers need to win on Tuesday to avoid the longest losing streak in franchise history.  As for D’Angelo Russell, I have no problem with his level of confidence, or even cockiness if you want to call it that.  You don’t make it to the NBA without having some of that, and you can’t strive toward being one of the best without having that belief in yourself.  It’s Byron Scott’s job to reign in some of that perceived cockiness, and to harness it into developing Russell into an elite player.  We didn’t really see that last week when Russell tried to take over a game against Dallas last week, yet Scott benched him for it.  I don’t agree with how Byron does things, however, I can’t say that it doesn’t work.  Look at Julius Randle, who is balling again after struggling for a bit, and having his own issues with Byron.  Look at Jordan Clarkson as well, who is much more consistent this year, and on his way to being a very good player.

On a much more sad note, yesterday, the Laker family lost Marge Hearn.  Marge was the widow of long time Lakers announcer Chick Hearn, who passed away in 2002.  Marge was 98 year of age.  In many ways, she was “the first lady” of the Lakers, and had some beautiful words to say about her husband when he passed away.  Now she and Chick can finally be together again. RIP.

There are always going to be great players who are snubbed every year during the All-Star selection process.  This year, the biggest All-Star snub has got to be Damian Lillard.  Lillard has been playing out of his mind, and somehow has the Blazers in the 8th spot in the West.  I would have taken Lillard over LaMarcus Aldridge, who has been good, but not great for the Spurs.  Dirk Nowitzki probably deserved a better fate as well.  In the East, I would have taken Pau Gasol over Isaiah Thomas, but other than that, the coaches did good job.  As for the Rising Stars game, I’m very happy to see D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson selected, but how the hell did Julius Randle not get picked? He has 16 double-doubles, which leads all sophomores, and should have gotten the nod over Nerlens Noel.  Although there are some good international players on the world team, I think the USA vs The World format screwed a lot of people out of spots, like Myles Turner and Devin Booker, who might end up being a first team all-rookie selection.

To college hoops, where the Bruins may have salvaged a win against Washington State on Saturday, but they are still slowly circling the drain.  I think the Bruins are going to have to win the Pac 12 Tournament to get in because they are on the bubble right now according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, and they haven’t given me any reason to think they are going to play any better before March Madness begins.  Since the start of Pac 12 play, the Bruins have looked completely unprepared in nearly every game they’ve played in, and the game plan has been dependent on Bryce Alford getting blazing hot from outside the arc.  Tony Parker went to the bench, Jonah Bolden was inserted into the starting lineup, and the Bruins had a more athletic look on Saturday.  This is what happens when a highly touted recruit like Parker doesn’t get the coaching he was promised.  Over at USC, Parker would probably be getting that better coaching from Andy Enfield.  I suppose the trade-off though is that Parker is actually getting an education at UCLA, and can put together coherent sentences.

As for USC, we are halfway through the Pac 12 season, and they are near the top of conference.  This team is now a lock to make the NCAA tournament, and is poised to do some damage.  Not only are the Trojans winning, their basketball team is going Hollywood.  Christian Bale showed up to Saturday’s win against Washington, along with D’Angelo Russell and Taj Gibson.  The Trojans haven’t been this good at home since 1943, as they are now 13-0 at the Galen Center.  If UCLA isn’t careful, their basketball program is going to slip into further irrelevance as the Trojans hoops program steals some of the headlines away from them.  UCLA better start by beating the Trojans at the Galen Center on Thursday, and avenging the beating they were given a few weeks ago by USC at Pauley Pavilion.

Congratulations to the Dodgers Andrew Friedman, who found the other half of his brain temporarily, and re-signed  Howie Kendrick.  The Dodgers were poised to be significantly worse next year after already losing Zack Greinke, and employing a platoon of old guys and average players at 2nd base.  At least Kendrick alleviates some of that with his reliable bat, steady clubhouse presence, and solid defense.  They also got him at a very reasonable two years, and $20 million.  2nd base is just not a position that teams pay a premium for in Major League Baseball.  I still think the Dodgers aren’t going to make the playoffs this year with their horse crap bullpen, and their mediocre pitching staff behind ace Clayton Kershaw.  However, this move at least prevents them from being a total embarrassment.  Then again, nobody will be able to watch the Dodgers embarrassment anyways since only 30% have Time Warner Cable.

We’re just 6 days away from Super Bowl Sunday.  It’s a shame that all we’ve been hearing about is Cam Newton, and why people dislike the guy.  I don’t think there’s any doubt that race plays a role in the minds of most people who dislike Newton’s antics, simply because most people who have these feelings aren’t even subconsciously aware of how race impacts how they look at certain people.  It’s a sad fact of life that you would think we would be beyond.  Nevertheless, the problem with this discussion is that we have two weeks of a build up a storied white quarterback, vs a polarizing black quarterback.  It really takes away from the fact that Cam Newton should be the next face of the NFL. As for the game itself, I think the Broncos are going to keep it much closer than most people expect. It’s very hard to blow out a team with a great defense, and both of these teams have that going for them.  I like Carolina in a close one, but the Broncos have been surprising me all season with how they’ve been winning ugly, so why stop now? I wouldn’t be shocked if they won, and surely would take the points.

The Chargers staying in San Diego for the 2016 season is a very sensible move.  The only problem is that they must insure that they resolve their stadium situation this summer, because moving to LA after next season would just be silly.  Have you ever met a Chargers fan living in LA? I’ve lived in Southern California nearly my entire life, and I have yet to do so.

So while I completely hated the new NHL All-Star Game format, the story of John Scott was incredible, and may have actually made the entire weekend a success.  Scott was initially voted in as a captain as a joke by the fans.  After being traded from the Coyotes to the Canadiens and sent to the minor leagues, the league tried to force him out of the game.  Turns out that Scott was eventually allowed to play, and not only ended up on the winning team, the Pacific Division, but also won the MVP award.  For a guy who isn’t even in the NHL, and about to have another child, it’s a nice story.  Especially with his share of the $1 million his team won, and brand new car.  This was basically a big “screw you” to the NHL.  In fact, it makes you think that the league should find a way for the fans to vote a loveable journeyman into the game every year.  The Pacific Division victory also marked the first time that members of the San Jose Sharks have been part of something that resembled an NHL championship team.  I am happy to see LA getting awarded the 2017 All-Star game as well.

Then there was the other ridiculous all-star event yesterday, The Pro Bowl. This game is a bigger and bigger joke every year, yet nobody is laughing.  It used to be that there was basically no hitting, but just tackling.  Yesterday, there really wasn’t even tackling.  I did notice that Eli Manning threw an interception though, so at least one player was giving his normal effort.  They say that it was Charles Woodson’s last NFL game, but I’d argue that it really can’t be considered much of a game.  Woodson and Richard Sherman even lined up on offense.  Attending this game is becoming more and more of a punishment for players than anything else.  Next years rosters will probably consist of 17 janitors, 12 homeless guys, 18 random Twitter users, 10 NFL execs, and you (if you don’t decline).

January 25th, 2016

Just think how happy Roger Goodell is right now.  He is spared the embarrassment of having to hand the Patriots a Super Bowl Trophy after his initial suspension of Tom Brady was overturned earlier this season.  Goodell is also happy that he changed the extra point rule by pushing it 15 yards back, otherwise the Patriots probably would have sent the game into overtime, and possibly won it there.  Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are both amazing players, and their brilliance nearly pulled it off, even with the Broncos defense all over Brady all day.  I’ve gotta hand it to Peyton though……the man has now made 4 Super Bowls with four different head coaches.  For all the times it felt like Peyton had been owned in the playoffs by Brady, he’s now 3-1 against him in AFC title games.  Yesterday, he made the big throws he needed to, in order to get the win.  I can’t say I like their chances against the Panthers though, who’s defense is just as good.  I wonder who Giselle is going to blame for this one?

Then there’s the dominance of the Carolina Panthers.  Carson Palmer played that game like a college kid who downed a 12 pack and decided to play some Madden.  I’m surprised that the Cardinal haven’t announced Palmer’s retirement after that.  Then again, should we really be surprised? The Panthers went 15-1 during the regular season, their defense was as dominant then as it is now, and so was Cam Newton.  He really is Superman.  I mean he broke his back and was back in the lineup right away.  Batman broke his back and it took him weeks to come out of that hole and take on Bain.  Too bad for Larry Fitzgerald, who is a good guy, who many want to see win a title before his career is over.  Meanwhile, Carson Palmer’s cell phone has been blowing up…..

To the NBA where the All-Star starters were announced a few days ago.  As we expected, Kobe was named to his 18th All-Star team, and I’m totally ok with it.  The game is for the fans, and that’s who the fans want to see. I’m sure most of Kobe’s peers are ok with it as well.  I just wish the guy would take a week or two off so he can actually be healthy for the game and the rest of the season.  I actually think the fans did a pretty good job of picking the starters.  In the West, Draymond Green nearly started, and probably would have if not for the Kobe situation.  In the East, Andre Drummond probably deserved to start over Carmelo, but that’s still not a terrible choice.  I’m also not outraged by Dwayne Wade of Jimmy Butler, since he’ll surely be named a reserve.  The rest of the reserves in the West should be CP3, Klay Thompson, Draymond, Blake Griffin, Demarcus Cousins, James Harden, and Anthony Davis.  In the East, I’d take John Wall, Jimmy Butler, Chris Bosh, Paul Milsap, Demar Derozan, and Pau Gasol.

As for the Lakers….the more and more I watch D’Angelo Russell play, the more I think that he’s going to be the teams best player as early as next season.  Russell looked good offensively on Saturday against the Blazers, despite another Laker loss.  I’m really hoping the Lakers can get 4 players into The Rising Stars All-Star Weekend event: Russell, Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell, and Larry Nance, Jr.

Meanwhile, the Clippers have now lost 2 of their last 3 games after reeling off 10 straight wins.  Funny how Doc Rivers described his team’s bench play as “awful” after losing by 18 points to the Raptors yesterday.  This is exactly what we knew was coming.  The Clipps play real teams like Cleveland and even Toronto, and they get exposed for what they really are.  The Clippers also decided to end a disastrous six months with Josh Smith, by sending him back to the Rockets.  In typical Clipper fashion, Smith had a great game in his first game back with Houston, where he clearly seems to be more comfortable.  It’s going to be especially amusing when the Clippers play the Rockets again in the playoffs this spring, and Smith is the one that destroys them and sends them home early again.

The Cleveland Cavaliers really amaze me.  The were 30-11, in 1st place in the East, and they fire head coach David Blatt.  He probably wasn’t the best coach for the team, but the way this whole situation was handled, screams of a team that has no idea what it’s doing.  The weirdest part is that they immediately signed Tyronn Lue to a three year extension.  Lue? A dude that has never been a head coach? This kind of crap, along with paying a role player like Tristan Thompson $82 million, is only done in Cleveland, where they are at the mercy of their superstar, Lebron James.  Funny, because Pat Riley would never have to ask Lebron about these type of things, because he knew what he was doing.  The Cavs don’t.  If these buffoons had any idea what they were doing, they would have fired Blatt over the summer, and brought in a real high profile head coach to bring this superstar team together.  The Cavs are looking more and more like a franchise that is going to waste the talent of the best player of the generation with their incompetence.  The All-Star game should be a 1st half of David Blatt coaching vs Luke Walton, followed by a 2nd half of Steve Kerr vs Tyronn Lue.

Speaking of incompetence, it’s time for me to dust off that Joe Blanton joke book, now that the Dodgers just signed him to a $4 million contract.  Isn’t baseball amazing? Joe Blanton was absolutely horrible two years ago with the Angels, after being mediocre with the Dodgers the year before.  He looks ok for half a season, and he finds an idiot like Andrew Friedman to pay him $4 million to pitch out of the bullpen.  That’s right…the bullpen.  The crappiest part of the Dodgers team the last couple of seasons.  By the time you finish reading MMC, Blanton would have already given up 3 home runs.

In college hoops, the UCLA Bruins continue to flirt with missing the NCAA tournament.  The Bruins got handled by Oregon in Eugene on Saturday.  The Ducks just looked way more athletic, and crushed UCLA on the glass.  It amazes me that Steve Alford was actually known for defense at New Mexico, because his team plays none, and is especially awful when it comes to zone.  Alford’s idea of a game plan is to hope that his son Bryce is shooting 38% from three, and then his team will have a chance.  Hopefully this nonsense doesn’t cost the Bruins some of their better recruits they are slated to have next year.

Finally, don’t laugh Trojan fans.  Your basketball team came crashing back to earth last week as well.  USC lost to both Oregon and Oregon State, and will probably tumble back out of the top 25.  Suddenly, the Trojans can’t make three point shots, or play any defense.  It will be interesting to see if this team just caught lightning in a bottle for a couple of weeks, or if they are really legitimate threats to win the Pac 12.  The answer should be revealed soon.

January 10th, 2016

Ok people calm down.  Everybody wants to burn Mitch Kupchak at the stake for saying that this season is all about Kobe, and that the Lakers can’t move on as a franchise until he retires.  Isn’t this obvious? He’s Kobe Bryant.  He’s a once in a generation talent that can’t be replaced.  Kupchak never said the Lakers aren’t going to develop their younger players.  They already are.  All he’s saying is that even when Kobe doesn’t play, every game is still about Kobe.  In fact, that’s actually a good thing.  The Lakers can develop Russell, Randle, Clarkson, Nance, and Brown, with little to no pressure on them because it’s all about Kobe.  Once again, we have another classic example of  NBA fans and media losing their mind and providing zero rational perspective on a story.  Besides, Russell and Clarkson have been balling of late.  They just need some work on their celebrations.  What is this Ben Stiller nonsense???

What do you know….the Clippers have won 9 straight games.  What a surprise…..all 9 of those games have come against teams that under .500.  This has nothing to do with Blake Griffin being in the lineup or out of the lineup.  It’s nothing but status quo for this same cast of characters.  CP3 and DeAndre leading the way, JJ Redick shooting well, but there’s still no help from the bench.  CP3 is getting serious about his all-star campaign however, as Justin Bieber is asking all his Twitter followers to vote for Paul.  This brings up a much more important question.  How the hell does Bieber have more Twitter followers than Kobe, Lebron, Durant, and Chris Paul combined?

What a crazy Wild Card Weekend in the NFL.  The Seahawks are so lucky, I wouldn’t be surprised if they win the $1.3 billion Powerball on Wednesday.  Maybe Jesus is rewarding Russell Wilson for his will power to not have sex with Ciara? As for Blair Walsh, I’m sure years from now he’ll be screaming that the laces were out in a small town in Florida, have a sex change, and kidnap a Viking.  Hopefully Ace Ventura will be around to solve that case.  It was so cold in Minnesota, the Seahawk fans were wearing their Warriors and Royals gear underneath their clothes for extra warmth.  Even the Bengals think that was a bad loss by the Vikings.  Speaking of the Bengals, the last time they won a playoff game, America had only 13 colonies.  Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones are total pieces of shit for their actions at the end of that game.  So is the Bengals fan that threw the beer can at Ben Roethlisberger when he was being carted off the field.  That fan was far more accurate however, than his teams quarterback.  After seeing Martavis Bryant’s ridiculous touchdown catch though it’s official: to make a catch in the NFL you must use two hands, touch two feet, hold the ball to your butt, do a front flip and keep control.  Meanwhile, Marvin Lewis phone was blowing up after the game…….

Meanwhile, Kirk Cousins didn’t like that.  Before you go making fun of the Redskins however, put yourself in their moccasins.  Next year’s winner of the NFC East should get unlimited breadsticks.  Brian Hoyer was so terrible in that Chiefs-Texans game that Andy Reid should have just punted the ball back to Houston on 1st down to give Hoyer more chances to throw the football.  DeAndre Hopkins probably wanted to trade himself to Carolina for a draft pick by halftime.  I mean the Texans offense was so bad they probably couldn’t score on the Rockets.  As for Kansas City, they haven’t caused that much suffering in Houston since they were down 4 runs in the 8th in October.

It’s starting to look like by Wednesday afternoon, we could have not one, but two NFL teams officially moving to Los Angeles.  The rhetoric has changed quite a bit over the last few weeks, but the league seems more motivated than ever to get this situation resolved.  The most sensible move would be for the Chargers and Rams to share a stadium in Inglewood, but that would take Dean Spanos and Stan Kroenke putting their egos aside, and the league feeling bad enough for the Raiders to provide them with a viable alternative with more financial support.  Moving the Rams makes sense, but moving two teams to LA is foolish.  Even research shows a general apathy SoCal fans have toward NFL Football coming back, which the league is ignoring.  The Chargers claim that they need to move if another team is moving to LA to protect the 25% of their fan base that comes from the LA area.  Ok, but what about the fact that moving will alienate the other 75% of their existing fan base?  San Diego sports fans make up barely any of the fan base of LA sports teams.  Once two teams move, one will instantly become the red headed step child, while the other will be the more popular team.  It will almost surely be the Chargers in this instance.  Look at the difference in fan base between the Lakers and Clippers.  The Dodgers and the Angels.  The Kings and the Ducks.  Those differences played out over many years.  The differences in this case will be apparent right away.  We couldn’t support two teams twenty years ago, and we’re definitely not in a better position to support two teams now.

I’m taking Alabama tonight over Clemson, but the bowl season has been a complete joke.  The selection committe should be embarrassed for ranking Iowa #5 and Michigan State #3 after their horrendous bowl performances.  Ohio State and Stanford would have been more appropriate choices.  Ranking these teams is no art or science.  It’s a political exercise subject to incredible human error.  Sounds like the Obama administration might have had a hand in this.

Years ago, I thought the Pac-12 was the best basketball conference in the country.  This year, top to bottom it’s making a case once again.  Great game on Thursday night between UCLA and Arizona, and the Bruins came away with another win against a ranked opponent.  Are UCLA fans really surprised? This is the Steve Lavin era all over again.  Lose to Washington and Washington State on the road, come back and beat Arizona, and almost lose to Arizona State.  It always feels like one step forward and two steps back with Steve Alford as coach.  That’s also because when things get tight, nobody on the Bruins touches the ball except for Bryce Alford.  He hit big shots late against both Arizona schools, but the Bruins actually have some decent talent that they sometimes forget to use.

Meanwhile, USC might actually be a basketball school for the time being instead of a football school.  The Trojans are 14-3 overall and 3-1 in conference play thus far, including an exciting win over Arizona.  This is a critical year for Andy Enfield, who could be fired if his team doesn’t make the tournament.  The Trojans are looking good so far, but Enfield almost botched Saturday’s game against Arizona single handedly.  The Trojans had the lead late in regulation but didn’t use either of their two fouls to give.  USC has also had success as an outside shooting team all year, but they stubbornly tried to play inside against a bigger Arizona team with little success.  Katin Reinhardt has been one of the teams best outside shooters all season, but was chained to the bench in OT.  Wednesday’s USC vs UCLA showdown should be great, and a riveting coaching battle.  It will be Alford’s nepotism vs Enfield’s ineptitude.

Finally, seeing Mike Piazza get inducted into the Hall of Fame this past week as a New York Met is just sad for Dodger fans, and another tragic reminder of the franchise flaws over the past twenty years. A couple of years ago, Piazza came out with a book in which he talked about his hard feelings toward the Dodgers after they were unable to come to terms on a contract extension, and then ultimately traded him in the late 1990’s.  Piazza blamed Vin Scully of all people, for turning the fans against him.  Who hates Vin Scully? What a weirdo.  Besides, what Dodger fan actually hates Mike Piazza? I blame much of that situation on the new Fox ownership that had just acquired the Dodgers at the time.  If the new Guggenheim group were smart, they would find a way to make amends with Piazza, and retire his jersey.  It would be shortsighted on behalf of both Piazza and the Dodgers if they don’t try to work things out.

December 21st, 2015

I like how everybody thought for a second that the Lakers might reel off a few wins after beating the Bucks.  Nice try folks.  This team still stinks.  They looked like a bunch of high schoolers playing against pros in Oklahoma City, and they got demolished by Houston.  Poor Anthony Brown.  His first NBA start and he’s up against Kevin Durant.  It was like child abuse.  The young players are coming along, but watching the last two games just shows you how much work is ahead of them.  Then there’s Kobe.  At least he’s playing better and not looking like total dog crap.  The real question though is whether or not he should be an all-star.  Being an NBA-All Star isn’t easy.  The honor is only given to 24 players, and people always get the shaft.  Take a player like Eric Bledsoe for instance.  Having an all-star worthy year, but may or may not make it. If Kobe makes the team as a “legacy award”, that’s a spot a player like Bledsoe won’t get.  Bledsoe may be young, but he’s a guard, which is a stacked position in the West.  This may be his best chance to make an all-star team.  Would it be nice for Kobe to be there? Of course, but it shouldn’t happen at the expense of a roster spot.  The commissioner should give the West an honorary 13th spot.  I don’t think anybody would have a problem with that.

As for the Clippers, exactly as I suspected.  They tear it up against the league’s trash, then get exposed against real competition.  Only 5 of their 16 wins have come against teams over .500.  They  fell short against the Spurs then got punked by the Rockets, who are softer than Charmin.  The funny part is, the Clippers haven’t actually played that badly against teams like the Spurs and Warriors, but instead of building off the success they’ve had, they always have the body language of team that knows it isn’t going to come through in the most critical moments.  They also don’t seem to enjoy playing with each other either.  This is a leadership problem more than anything.  Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, and Doc Rivers have created this culture.  They are the ones that need to be accountable for turning it around if it’s ever going to happen.  Since they’ve been together for years now, it seems unlikely to change.

Dwight Howard is such a chump.  That dude has fallen so far, and his act is wearing thin in Houston. He’s played the last two games against the Lakers and Clippers like he’s playing pickup basketball at 24 Hour Fitness.  His teammates don’t even respect him anymore, and he’s a total liar.  He claims he doesn’t want out of Houston and that his relationship with James Harden is fine.  That’s about as believable as a promise from a Presidential candidate, especially since Dwight echoed the same thing in Orlando and Houston before he left those teams.  I can’t imagine any team that’s going to give him a 4 year max deal if he opts out of his contract this summer.  If Darryl Morey were smart, he’d ship that fool to Philly to let him rot, and just take the cap space and some draft picks.  Meanwhile, Kendrick Perkins set this epic screen last week…..

For a little over a week, UCLA looked like it might be one of the best basketball teams in the country. They even looked that way in the 1st half against Carolina.  It was like John Wooden rose from the dead and took over the body of Steve Alford.  In the 2nd half Saturday, Wooden went back to his grave because the Bruins returned to playing no defense and turning the ball over, while getting outclassed by elite competition.  Much of that can probably be attributed to UCLA big men Tony Parker and Thomas Welsh, who got themselves into foul trouble early, and couldn’t play together for much of the game that they dominated early on.  UCLA probably won’t face another team that good until NCAA tournament, but at least they’ll be well prepared for Pac 12 play.  It’s just hard to know exactly how good this team is right now.

Has anybody seen MonMouth play basketball? Then again, you probably are all wondering where that school is.  This squad has actually beaten some halfway decent competition this year, taking down UCLA, USC, and Notre Dame.  They’ll be a dangerous mid major come tournament time.  However, the real story with these guys is their bench.  They have some epic celebrations that you’ve gotta see.  Of course there’s rumors of the NCAA creating rules to prevent teams like MonMouth from doing these types of celebrations.  As usual, the NCAA is nothing but a wet blanket that won’t even let these kids have fun.  Now this is a team that is clearly having fun both on and off the court…..


The Dodgers off-season is actually becoming hilarious.  The latest joke is that they couldn’t even finalize their deal with pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, who ended up re-signing with Seattle.  Sorry but there’s just no way the Dodgers aren’t doing this on purpose.  You think a team goes from a $300 million payroll to half that in one season accidentally? Friedman has been stupid by just giving away talent, but the Dodger ownership is enabling them to do this because their $5 billion television contract isn’t what it was once worth without being distributed by Time Warner Cable.  Other than Corey Seager, many of the Dodgers top prospects are several years away from making a big impact at the Major League level.  If the Dodgers were really trying to make their team better they would have acquired Todd Frazier in that three way deal last week, and would have already signed Howie Kendrick.  You thought it was Frank McCourt that didn’t like to spend money and only Ned Colletti that signed old guys? Think again.  For now, we’re re-living the past.  Don’t worry though….most of you won’t actually have to watch the garbage product the Dodgers put on the field next year, because you won’t be able to without the Dodgers channel distributed again.  Meanwhile, the TMZ video of Yasiel Puig’s recent violent acts surfaced.  However, TMZ later reported that it wasn’t Puig in the video.  That makes sense…..there weren’t enough hits.

Anybody actually watch the Bowl games this past weekend? In case you missed it, there was New Mexico vs Arizona in  “The Meth Bowl”.  BYU vs Utah in “The Premarital Sex is Bad Bowl”.  Ohio vs Appalachian State in “The Teams Michigan Can’t Handle Bowl.”  San Jose State vs Georgia State in “The These Two Teams Play Football? Bowl”.  And finally, there was Arkansas State vs Louisiana Tech in “The Still Better Than The SEC East Bowl”.

It seems like we’re closer than ever to an NFL stadium solution, but very far apart on the owners agreeing which teams will be moving to LA.  The Chargers and the Raiders have one foot out the door in their current markets, who have done very little to provide them with a solution for a new stadium.  The Rams on the other hand, have been provided with a reasonable stadium solution in St. Louis from public money.  However, do you really think that Stan Kroenke would buy all that land in Inglewood and not move his team there? I still think when push comes to shove, Kroenke is going to move his team regardless of what the owners think, even if it means dealing with lawsuits from the league.  If the Rams were to move to LA, in many ways the Chargers and Raiders are screwed, because they desperately need stadiums.  What the Chargers don’t realize though is that if they move to LA, their fan base will be even smaller than that of the Los Angeles Clippers.  When the Chargers had their training camp in Carson, nobody showed up.  Many fans from San Diego are also claiming they wouldn’t follow the team anymore if they move. At least the Rams and the Raiders can stake their claim to a fan base they already know is here.

Speaking of the NFL, Week 15 went down yesterday.  How did Odell Beckham not get ejected from that game? If it were a UFC fight he would have been disqualified.  The Dallas Cowboys have now clinched a wild card bye, a division round bye, conference championship bye, and a Super Bowl bye.  The Chiefs have won 8 straight games and have been dominating for weeks.  I doubt anybody in the AFC is going to take down New England though.  The Chargers finally scored a rushing touchdown!  Wasn’t Melvin Gordon supposed to solve all those problems? I don’t know if the Panthers can handle the pressure of going into the playoffs if they are 16-0.  Sometimes Teddy Bridgewater makes you think he’s an elite QB, like yesterday.  The Bills made Kirk Cousins look like Dan Marino.  The Redskins look like they are going to take the NFC East.  I wonder how RGIII feels about all this.  Remember that guy?  The Seahawks are still dangerous, but them playing on the road in the playoffs is like Superman battling Lex Luther without his cape.   I have no idea how the Texans have 7 wins, but they look like they will win that pile of trash known as the AFC South.   After the Rams beat the Bucs on Thursday Night Football, they should take on Mayonnaise next week in the “The Condiment Bowl”……

Steve Harvey had the most hilarious screw up last night during the Miss Universe contest in Las Vegas.  He mistakenly announced Miss Columbia as the winner, when it turned out it was Miss Philippines.  That mistake was so bad, I fully expect him to be hosting an ESPN midday talk show shortly.  Here it is in case you missed it……..

That was a good season 5 finale of Homeland last night, but it almost covered waaaaay too much.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  In less than an hour, we covered Carrie preventing the Sarin attack, her suddenly renewed then severed relationship with Jonas, Laura’s threat, Carrie’s cloudy future with the agency, and Allison’s whereabouts.  There was so much that it felt like an episode of 24.   And of course it left the fans unsatisfied because Peter Quinn died.  Everybody wanted him to live because they wanted him and Carrie to start some type of romance.  But it’s Homeland, which means that everybody that Carrie loves dies.  Quinn was a man who was living on borrowed time all season, so his death (or so we think) was inevitable.  I also wanted a more satisfying ending to the Allison saga.  In fact, I kind of wanted her to get away, instead of just seeing her shot to death in the trunk of a car.  I still wanted to see her demise, but in a different way. Since each season of Homeland post Brody has been a  a story by itself, it’s hard to know how good the show will be moving forward.  You know that Carrie is coming back to the agency, or else the show won’t work.  I guess I need to take the leap of faith and watch next fall just to be sure.

December 7th, 2015

This is obviously a lot closer to Tuesday Morning Coffee, but with everything going on, much to get to nonetheless.  Zack Greinke is gone, just like I told you he would be months ago.  I think the question needs to be asked at this point: is Andrew Friedman an idiot or was he brought in to destroy the team? It feels like just yesterday that the Dodgers were spending money on players like Charlie Sheen spends money on hookers and blow.  They even spent $62 million on unproven Cuban players like Hector Olivera, but now you’re telling me they got outbid by Arizona by $50 million for a proven elite pitcher?  I’m sure some of you will argue that it isn’t reasonable to give a pitcher over 30 years of age over $30 million a year.  However, it also isn’t reasonable to spend $30 on a hot dog and a beer at the game, but fans do it because it’s just the cost associated with watching a good baseball team.  Of course Friedman foolishly would rather spend $45 million on what’s likely to be three injury plagued years of Hisashi Iwakuma, then twice that on 3-4 years of brilliance on Greinke.  This may have something to do with the Dodgers not actually being able to distribute the SportsNet LA channel due to failed negotiations, which ultimately is putting pressure on Time Warner, and in turn putting pressure on them to give back financially to TWC and lower their payroll.  Either way, Friedman is still an idiot for trading Dee Gordon, and trading Matt Kemp for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He’s also about to waste what’s left of Clayton Kershaw’s prime.  Even if they get Ardolis Chapman, they will only be renting him for a year.   Get ready for a crappy few years Dodger fans.  We’ve now become a small market baseball team.

Meanwhile, the Angels may not be going after any big name pitchers, but they are rumored to be in the mix for Jason Heyward.  If somehow the Halos could lock up the 26 year old outfielder, and bring back Howie Kendrick at 2nd base, I’d really like their chances in the American League, let alone the AL West.  The Angels still have some very good arms in their rotation, and they’ll also have some payroll coming off the books next year to spend big now.  The Angels are also shopping pitcher CJ Wilson, and at this point, most fans would gladly pack his bags for him and drive him to the airport.

To the NBA, where this Kobe circus is just too much.  We have to endure 60 more games of this farewell tour? Look, I love Kobe, but I echo the sentiments of Jerry West, in that it’s just too damn painful to watch him like this.  It’s like watching Batman get his ass kicked by Bain.  It’s like watching Superman get destroyed by Lex Luther.  Or Spiderman get beat down by the Green Goblin.  I totally understand the idea that he needs to say goodbye, and that he’s never cared about his critics, and is finishing his career by raging against them once again.  There may be poetic beauty in that, but there isn’t aesthetic beauty in watching him shoot 30% from the field every game.  It’s been so bad and Byron Scott’s rotation decisions have been so bizarre of late that you have to wonder if he’s doing this on purpose.  There’s still a lot better ways for this team to lose than this.  D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson pay the price the most for this circus tour, as it will only delay their growth  and development.  At least Byron Scott is giving the Lakers a great chance of landing a franchise player, in Ben Simmons.

As for the Clippers, they are just treading water with a recent win over Orlando.  They stink on the road, and now they have a 5 game trip coming up against some soft competition, so this would be a good time for them to pretend like they have it together.  You think Kobe’s 27% shooting is embarrassing? The real embarrassment is DeAndre Jordan getting a max contract and not even being able to make a free throw.

To College Football, where USC was basically one bad Saturday afternoon away from having buyers remorse about the Clay Helton hire.  Sure enough, that bad Saturday afternoon came a couple of days ago, when they lost to Stanford in the Pac 12 Championship game.  The Trojans were totally outmatched by the Cardinal, who played their typical smash mouth style of football, running the ball and controlling the clock.  USC should be able to handle business in the Holiday Bowl against a Wisconsin team that has been about as impressive President Obama’s last term in office.  However, wait until early next season when they’ll probably have to face the preseason #1 team in Alabama, which should bring out the Helton haters quickly.  Of course there’s never a dull moment in Trojans football, as Steve Sarkisian is now suing the program for wrongful termination.  This was somewhat predictable, but definitely a sign from Sark that he knows he’s never going to get another head coaching job again, so he’s trying to squeeze the University for as much money as possible.

UCLA got exactly what they deserve: A crappy bowl game in a crappy city, against an even crappier team.

The College Football Playoff selection committee had an easy job picking Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Michigan State.  Of course, if the best SEC team had 1 win, I’m sure the committee would find a way to get them in playoff regardless.  The Ohio State vs Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl is going to be fantastic, and is a great accomplishment for a Notre Dame team that has suffered so many injuries, they’ll probably lose somebody else by the time you’re done reading this.  That’s easily the best matchup outside of the playoff games.  What a dumpy Rose Bowl matchup though: Stanford vs Iowa? That’s like having to eat stale leftovers on Thanksgiving Day.  Meanwhile, this Texas player must have thought his Bae was watching….

I don’t know what got into UCLA basketball the other night.  They actually took down the #1 team in the country in Kentucky, and even more impressive was the fact that the fans acted like they had been there before and didn’t storm the court.  The Bruins actually looked like they were well coached in that one, and they even played defense.  That’s bizarre from a Steve Alford team.  As a reward, maybe Dan Guerrero will let Steve Alford fly first class, since he complains about that.  Then again, you would think he can afford it with his $2.7 million salary.  Meanwhile, John Calipari is sure to punish his players by taking away the cars and cell phones he gave them.

Finally, week 13 of the NFL was another wild one.  Aaron Rodgers will probably never stop laughing after that last second Hail Mary win against the Lions.  That final play was very symbolic of Detroit Lions football.  Tom Brady should have been throwing passes to himself on Sunday.  Suddenly, the Pats are kind of a wreck.  Brock Osweiler is now going to replace Peyton Manning in all his Papa John’s commercials, in addition to being the starting quarterback.  Remember when Jeff Fisher’s football teams used to be good? They haven’t been in a while.  The Rams stink.  The Jets and the Bucs have come out of nowhere to contend for Wild Card spots.  The Seahawks looked elite again and so do the Chiefs, while the Raiders, Chargers, and Browns look like trash.  Funny how all the teams that suck might actually be moving to SoCal next year.  Sounds about right….NFL Football back in SoCal.

November 30th, 2015

It’s damn near remarkable.  After all the drama they went through this season, USC won the Pac 12 South with a blowout win over UCLA on Saturday at the Coliseum.  The Bruins may have been beaten up, but this was simply a case of a more experienced Trojan defense that got the best of an inexperienced freshman quarterback in Josh Rosen.  Rosen had moments of brilliance throughout the season, and in the game, but in the second half he had more turnovers than Betty Crocker.  Clay Helton simplified everything: run the ball, put pressure on Rosen, and win the battle at the line of scrimmage.  That’s something the last two Trojan coaches failed to do.  The Bruins once again put together a season that makes you think they are “on the verge”, but leaves their fans disappointed.  They may have had injuries, but they had every opportunity to win the South.  A coach as good as Jim Mora should have won the Pac-12 at least once by now.  Rosen is going to get better, but will the team actually win something even more than a rivalry game against the Trojans? I’ll believe it when I see it.

As for the Trojans, leave it to many of their obnoxious fans to pretend like Saturday’s win was the re-incarnation of the Reggie Bush era.  Nevertheless, the better team won, and USC stands a decent chance of knocking off Stanford this week and advancing to the Rose Bowl.  That’s as long as they execute a similar simplified game plan they did against the Bruins.  They should also now be known as the “University of Settling For Clay” since Pat Haden has now named Clay Helton full-time head coach.  Helton has shown he has the X’s and O’s, but there is much more than that as the head football coach at SC, like recruiting and developing players.  In the long-run, the Trojans could have done better elsewhere.  My guess is that Haden probably couldn’t get the big name he wanted after looking around, so this was the sensible choice, especially if it was going to pump up the kids even further for the Pac 12 title game.  So much for the so called “Trojan insiders” that pegged USC already having an agreement with a new head coach, which many would consider a big splash.

Elsewhere around college football, we witnessed a spectacular game between Notre Dame and Stanford on Saturday, but as usual for Irish fans, it ended in devastating disappointment.  How the hell do the Irish let Stanford go 60 yards in 30 seconds to win the game? That was the worst thing to happen to Notre Dame since the movie Spotlight came out.  Look, no team in college football has been hit harder with injuries than the Irish, and to go 10-2 was a freaking miracle they should be proud of.  However, the Irish were basically 2 plays away (one at Clemson and the other at Stanford) from being the #1 team in the country.  That seems very symbolic of Notre Dame football.  That makes the playoff committee’s job pretty easy.  Clemson and Alabama are in easily if they win next week, and so is Oklahoma after dominating Oklahoma State.  Michigan State should be in as well if they handle business against Iowa.  Meanwhile, Ohio State is probably trying to schedule Michigan 5 more times to fill out their 2016 non-conference schedule.

As many of us expected, yesterday Kobe announced that he will retire at the end of the season.  Kobe made the announcement by writing a letter to the Players Tribune.  He also wrote a letter to the fans.  Both nearly made me cry.  However, he says “this season is all I have left to give.”  This season? Do you even have that??? Ok really Kobe.  It’s time to retire.  Not in April……right now.  Nobody wants to watch this Kobe Bryant.  He hasn’t had a single game this season where he has shot 50% or better.  Kobe is easily my favorite player of all-time, but it’s just too painful to watch.  I get it though…..Kobe has earned the right to say goodbye, and his letter to the fans and the Players Tribune at least dignifies this final season.  I haven’t been on the “fire Byron Scott bandwagon” like most of you, but I’m baffled by some of his comments.  He basically said that Kobe has earned the right to take whatever bad shot he wants.  That’s not exactly the best message to send to his younger players he is trying mature.  He also said that under no circumstances would he bench Kobe.  However, he also claimed that his first priority is winning and not player development.  It shouldn’t be, but whichever it is, Kobe isn’t the teams best player anymore, and his play is actually hurting the team.  On the bright side, D’Angelo Russell is steadily improving.  Coming into Sunday’s game he was averaging 13.4 points over his last 5 contests, significantly raising his field goal percentage, 3 point percentage, assists, and rebounds from his season average.

As for the Clippers, they are still hovering around .500, but they have now embarked on their annual stretch where they beat up on mediocre teams and make us think they are actually an elite team again.  Last year we thought the Clippers had upgraded their bench, and they stunk.  This year, we thought once again that they upgraded their bench and they still stink.  The bench has been so bad that the Clippers actually thought Wesley Johnson was going to be a good rotation player for them.  That guy has underachieved on bad teams his entire career, which is funny because the Clippers have been a bad team for the first month of the season.  Other than yesterday against the Raptors, Paul Pierce has been old and useless, Josh Smith has been as bad as he was in Detroit, and Lance Stephenson’s play is more offensive than Donald Trump.  When will Steve Ballmer start holding Doc Rivers accountable? Not soon enough. Congratulations to Jahlil Okafor.  After his street fight last week, he becomes the first 76er to beat someone this season.  Did you know that the 76ers are named after the average number of losses they are projected to have each season? In case you missed footage of the fight here it is…..

UCLA basketball looks exactly like they did a year ago.  A team with marginal talent, mediocre coaching, and unable to hang with decent teams.  I fully expect the Bruins to collect just enough wins in Pac 12 play to barely squeak into the tournament and keep Steve Alford employed, but watching losses against Kansas and Wake Forest were just a reminder of how far this program has fallen.  Do you realize that the Bruins are ranked 282nd in points allowed in the nation?  They are also ranked 160th in opponent field goal percentage.  If the team were some type of offensive juggernaut I’d say ok fine, but there are 99 teams putting up more points in Division I.  As far as I’m concerned, the only redeeming quality for Steve Alford is his 2016 recruiting class.  I doubt he can actually do something with it anyway.

Speaking of hoops, it looks like USC is the best basketball team in Los Angeles right now.  Most Trojan fans probably didn’t even realize it, but USC is off to a solid 5-2 start, including a win over #20 Wichita State.  Freshman Bennie Boatwright can play! USC had not beaten a Top 25 team in two years.  Andy Einfield might actually know what he’s doing.  There’s no reason why SC can’t put together some halfway decent basketball teams given that they are in basketball hot bed in downtown Los Angeles.  Nobody in their right mind would claim that USC is a basketball school, but they should be able to beat teams in the Top 25 more than every couple of years.

To the NFL, where on Thanksgiving Day, the only thing worse than the Eagles play was Big Sean’s halftime performance.  The Lions were definitely thankful for the Eagles defense.  After Tony Romo re-injured his collar bone, Cowboy fans have switched from drinking liquor to chugging gasoline.  I’m shocked Brett Favre didn’t announce another comeback during the Bears win over the Packers.  Odell Beckham had another filthy catch yesterday, but you can’t be serious….the Redskins are in 1st place in the NFC East???? The AFC South is so sorry, but the irony of it is the Colts and Texans might both make the playoffs.  Johnny Manziel should not be blamed for his actions.  If I were the Browns starting quarterback I would be driven to drink as well.  Check out Tom Brady’s text inbox after  last night’s loss to the Broncos………

Meanwhile, Miami Dolphins football can be summed up on this play….

In San Diego, Blake Bortles didn’t let a little thing like the line of scrimmage prevent him from throwing a touchdown pass….. And all this time I thought it was NBA referees that were the worst in sports…….

What a couple of amazing hockey games over the weekend in SoCal.  First the Blackhawks shocked the Ducks on Friday in Anaheim by winning 3-2 in overtime.  The Hawks trailed 2-0 with 90 seconds left and in typical Ducks fashion, they choked the lead away.  It’s only November and the Ducks are already in playoff form, coming up small in the big moment.  This team might need a trade to shake things up because the leadership and has been questionable, and the goal scoring has been few and far between.  Then on Saturday, the Kings gave the Hawks a taste of what the Ducks felt like by beating them 3-2 in overtime, after trailing 2-0 heading into the 3rd period.  That was another classic Kings vs Hawks game, and here’s to hoping the two teams meet again in the West Finals this spring. Also, if you haven’t watched 3 on 3 overtime in the NHL this season….do it.  It might be the most exciting 5 minutes in sports.

Disney just announced that ESPN has lost 7 million subscribers due to cord cutting.  No, it’s not because we have to hear Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith scream at each other for no apparent reason.  It’s because the consumer is fed up with cable companies.  The mergers with AT&T and DirecTV, along with other potential mergers aren’t going to help.  These companies are going to have to completely overhaul their model to survive.  Live sports is the only thing preventing most people from cutting the cord, but people are getting around that and will continue to do so.

Finally, that was a very intense mid-season finale of The Walking Dead last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  All things considered, I thought we were going to lose a much more significant character than Deanna.  She did go out in a great blaze of glory screaming what was basically a war cry.  Was I the only one that wanted Tara to shoot the Wolf even if it meant Doctor Denise was going to die?  I bet if it were Carol that were holding that gun she would have taken the shot.  Carl was actually much less annoying in this episode, and was actually kind of a badass too for not ratting out Ron for nearly getting everybody killed.  His comment was pretty legendary too.  “I get it, my dad killed your dad,” said Carl. “But you need to know something: your dad was an asshole.”  Jessie’s son is a little pansy, and if he makes it out of Alexandria alive, his mother should smack him across the face for his stupidity.  Overall it was a good episode, and a solid first half of the season.  I’m looking forward to seeing where the group goes now that Alexandria is overrun, what becomes of the relationship between Carol and Morgan, and how the group might get rid of the Wolves.

November 23rd, 2015

Saturday’s UCLA vs Utah game should have been called the demoralization bowl.  Neither one of these teams can go a full series without losing a starter to injury.  Lucky for the Bruins, they survived the war of attrition by putting together a strong defensive effort, and some gutty moments from Josh Rosen.  The freshman QB didn’t exactly set the stat sheet on fire, but he showed enough maturity and poise throughout to guide UCLA to a big road win.  The guys post game comments have been pretty epic as well of late, saying that he “wussied it out” on a few throws while not standing in the pocket, and a couple of weeks before saying that Oregon State had some “B.S.” defensive tactics.  I was impressed, but now comes an equally challenging task: going to the Coliseum and beating cross-town rival USC with the Pac-12 South on the line.  This game is a coin-flip.  The Trojans may have a slight edge in talent and depth, but the Bruins are better coached and they might even have the better quarterback.  Should be a good one, and the way the Pac-12 South should be decided every year.

Speaking of those Trojans, their defense against Oregon was about as sloppy as a Thursday night on fraternity row.  Oregon QB Vernon Davis exploded for 407 yards passing and 6 TD passes, something an opposing QB has never done against USC.  I’ve said all along that the Trojans don’t even need a handful of games to realize that Clay Helton shouldn’t be their head coach of the future.  However, this was a reminder for those of you that think that Helton is the guy.  The secondary always looked completely out of position, and the team was penalized repeatedly. That’s the sign of a team that is totally unprepared, and that falls on Helton.  Cody Kessler must lead the league  in throws that are short of the sticks.  The Trojans won’t be anywhere near elite again until they get a quarterback that can actually throw the ball down the field (maybe Max Browne), and a coach that looks to do so.

Elsewhere around College Football, that Notre Dame vs Boston College game was unbelievable.  Ball handling hasn’t been that sloppy since your freshman year of college.  You know you played a bad team when you turn it over five times and still win.  I think the Irish get bumped from the top 4 for now in this week’s College Football Playoff Poll.  However, if they beat Stanford next week, they should still get in that playoff.  The bad news though is that Notre Dame is piling up more injuries, losing starting cornerback KeiVarae Russell to a broken leg, and now running back CJ Prosise to an ankle sprain.  Meanwhile, Urban Meyer is probably going to check himself into the hospital with more “health problems” now that Ohio State finally played real competition and lost to Michigan State.  Foolish play by TCU to go for 2 pts to try and win the game against Oklahoma.  You take your chances in overtime where you have a much greater chance of winning.  After Oklahoma State’s loss to Baylor, they would need a lot to happen to get into the playoff.  The debate between Notre Dame, Iowa, and Oklahoma will be an interesting one for the committee this week when it comes to who is going to occupy the #4 spot.

To the NBA, where these days, the Lakers win games about as often as Charlie Sheen uses a condom.  Still, there’s a few things you’ve gotta love.  Kobe is doing an excellent job of mentoring the Lakers young core of Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, and D’Angelo Russell.  For all you folks that love to criticize Kobe for being selfish, a terrible teammate, and all that nonsense, he’s not only helping those players with their development, but also stepping aside and giving them more and more opportunities to succeed on the floor.  Despite all the minutes Bryant is playing, Kobe is making a conscious effort to move the ball, and give LA’s future stars the opportunity to play major roles in the offense.  It’s sad to see Kobe struggling just to walk to his car after the game with all his ailments, and that tells you it’s probably time for him to hang it up.  However, at least he’s finding ways to help the franchise in ways that most of you probably never thought he would do.

Meanwhile, there must have been one hell of a party on Saturday night in LA, which the LA Clipper players attended, because they got blown off the floor early against the Raptors yesterday.  Don’t look now, but the Clippers are now one game under .500, and their chemistry is about as bad as anyone acting in a movie with Katherine Heigl.  The advantage the Clippers had coming into this season was their depth, but Doc Rivers can’t decide if he wants to play 7 or 8 guys, or if he wants to play 11 or 12 in a given night.  Lance Stephenson has no idea if he’s going to play 30 minutes or not at all.  Josh Smith decided to sign with the Clippers so he could have more of a “defined role”, but he probably didn’t think that role would be limited to 15 minutes a game.  To make matters worse, the Clippers still have no idea how to overcome their psychological woes in the big moment, like when the blew that massive lead the other night against the Warriors.  There’s plenty of time to work through their issues, but the Clippers had better not get too far behind in the West or it will be trouble.

Who would you rather be right now….the Clippers or the Rockets? Houston has some major player issues with their leaders being accountable, because the firing of Kevin McHale was way too premature for a team that was in the Western Conference Finals just a few months ago.  It is pretty enjoyable though to see Dwight Howard in a shitty situation.  The Warriors are looking so good right now, Kim Kardashian might actually sleep with a white man before they lose again.  Kristaps Porzingas is making everyone look foolish for criticizing him before they knew what he was.  If the draft were re-done today, that guy might have gone #1 overall.  Even Carmelo owes him an apology.

Let’s talk about Week 11 in the NFL.  Wait until Chip Kelly gets his system in place…..the Eagles might lose 16 games then.  Tony Romo finally came back, but for a while there, it was Ryan Tannehill  who looked like the best QB for the Cowboys.  Don’t be shocked if they come all the way back and win the NFC East.  The 49ers loss to the Seahawks was inevitable.  San Francisco made history earlier in the week by basically placing Colin Kaepernick on injured reserve for sucking.  The US tortured POW’s by forcing them to watch the Titans-Jaguars game on Thursday night.  Peyton Manning probably isn’t going to get his job back.  The Broncos are just as good, if not better with Brock Osweiler, who is the future of their team.  Nice to see the Chargers retiring Ladainian Tomlinson’s jersey.  However, there aren’t a whole lot of good things happening for the Bolts other than that.  Oakland had a very “Raider-like” loss to the Lions yesterday.  It’s going to be hilarious when the Colts still win the AFC South with a sub .500 record and their backup quarterback.

In baseball, the Dodgers are a complete disaster.  They have hired Dave Roberts, a good guy, but a manager who has no experience and will be nothing more than a figurehead.  You can blame that on Andrew Friedman who had a chance to hire a quality skipper in Bud Black, but passed on him.  Then there’s the drama that is Yasiel Puig.  Former Major Leaguer Andy Van Slyke decided to torch any chance he had of getting another job by going on the radio and ripping everyone from Puig to his former player, Robinson Canoe.  Andy is the father of Dodgers outfielder Scott Van Slyke, and claimed that the Dodgers highest paid player (who is Clayton Kershaw), was asked by the front office what they need to do to improve.  According to Andy, Kershaw responded by saying they should trade Puig.  First of all, Scott Van Slyke must be mad as hell that his dad would come out and say something like this, which completely fractures the relationship between he and Clayton Kershaw.  This also furthers the tension in the relationship between Puig, Kershaw, and the rest of his Dodger teammates.  More importantly, if Friedman has to ask Clayton Kershaw what needs to be done to improve the team, it only further re-enforces the idea that he has no idea what he’s doing.  Weren’t the Dodgers supposed to become a better and more peaceful clubhouse with Andrew Friedman at the helm? He’s been nothing but a total disaster.

Finally, a major episode of the Walking Dead went down on AMC last night.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  It’s official, Glenn is alive.  When the episode began, we see that he somehow slid underneath the dumpster to avoid getting bitten by all those Walkers while they feasted on Nicholas’ body.  Of all the farfetched and ridiculous things that the show has done over the years, this was least believable (Yes I realize a zombie apocalypse is probably unrealistic too people!). Nevertheless, I’m please to see that he’s still alive.  I’m definitely surprised that Enid is not a spy for the Wolves.  Speaking of the Wolves, Morgan not killing that prisoner is sure to backfire, especially now that all hell has broken loose and Walkers are about to overrun Alexandria.  Rick is going to flip his shit when he finds out that Morgan has that Wolf as a prisoner.  Meanwhile, Spencer’s dumb decision to hang off the wall ultimately leads to him being saves by Rick’s crew.  This just shows you that the Grimes crew and the Alexandrians are now beginning to accept that they are “stuck with each other” as Tara said, and that there’s even some trust building.  Darryl meshed with Aaron, Glenn is with Enid, and Rick has something going with Jessie.  The two groups are meshing.  However, we are sure to lose some next week for the Mid-Season Finale.  Stupid decision by Rick to teach Ron how to shoot.  That kid is dumb, but he definitely knows how to plot his revenge, which appears to be directed toward Carl.  Looking forward to what appears to be an action-packed Mid-Season Finale next week.

November 16th, 2015

Before we get into sports and everything else, I can’t go any further without commenting on the events in Paris, Baghdad, and Beirut. It’s these horrific moments of senseless violence that force us to realize just how precious life is. I am also absolutely amazed at the number of people that live among us, especially community leaders, who have no conscious. It is those people, who like everyone else, are looking for respect from their peers. However, that combination has the ability to turn people into monsters. These are the people that ISIS is brainwashing. The way we live our lives, especially here in the United States, makes me think we will always be vulnerable to these types of attacks. However, it is my hope that Muslim communities will work in tandem with intelligence organizations to do a better job of rooting out those plotting the attacks.

Ok, onto sports and entertainment, which is why you actually come to this site. I don’t know about you guys, but I think this Laker season might be going about as well as it possibly could. No really, I’m not even joking. Most of you probably think the Lakers should be demoted to the WNBA to play competition as soft as they are. However, after last night, the Lakers are 2-8, and their opponents are a combined 10 games under .500. Wait until they start playing the Warriors, Clippers, Thunder, and Spurs. That means their chances of holding onto this years 1^st round pick is excellent, given that they only keep it if its in the top 3. Can you imagine adding another top 3 pick to the nice young core of Julius Randle, D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr? Better yet, those 4 kids are quietly coming along quite nicely. I realize that it’s not fast enough for most of you, but if you take a step back from jumping off the Santa Monica Pier, you might actually see the bright side here. The Lakers have a collection of assets that are slowly but surely increasing in value. As for Byron Scott, you can’t blame him for not just handing D’Angelo Russell some minutes, and letting him earn it. He will eventually, but there’s nothing wrong with making him work for it.

As for the Clippers, these guys are must-see TV, even when Chris Paul isn’t playing. No, it’s not because you have to see Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan posterizing someone. It’s just to see the look on Doc Rivers face when a call doesn’t go his way. The man has that “no way could I have knocked up bae, because I was wearing a condom that night” look on his face. I don’t even remember Chris Paul behaving this way when he was with New Orleans. It’s like Rivers has infected Paul, Griffin, and the rest of his team with this constant complainer syndrome. The irony is the Clippers went from a team that was very enjoyable to watch for a lot of people, to a team that is just downright obnoxious and very unlikable.

Speaking of hoops, stellar start to the season by the UCLA basketball team. We’ve reached the point where the Bruin basketball program is now losing games to Monmouth. Monmouth? If the Bruins had to actually play this game on the road, would they even know how to get there?  They almost lost to Cal Poly last night too! This serves all you jokers right who wanted to get rid of Ben Howland. You don’t get rid of a coach unless you can get somebody better. At least his teams played defense, and at least he recruited elite talent for years. The Bruins will be trapped in mediocrity for years while Steve Alford continues to make his kids the cornerstones of the program.

That’s ok though, UCLA is now a football school right? Oh wait…..they just blew it on Saturday against an inferior Washington State team at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins should be thanking the football gods that they still control their own destiny in the Pac-12 South.

Then again, does anybody actually think the Bruins can go into Utah and win, or even the Coliseum and beat USC? The injuries were no excuse for losing on Saturday. Apparently the Bruins think that their best chance to win is by getting penalized on every play. The game was so symbolic of the Jim Mora era. A dramatic comeback and late touchdown led by Josh Rosen, only to fall short of sealing the victory a minute later. With Mora there’s so much hope, you think you’re on the verge of being elite, but you just fall short in the big moment. Washington State wasn’t even the big moment. That’s coming up the next two weeks, and if history tells us anything, don’t expect the Bruins to come through.

Then there’s the Trojans, who nearly had a major letdown themselves on Friday in Colorado. USC has really been mailing it during the first half of the last two weeks against Colorado and Arizona, and it’s nearly cost them. Remember when Cody Kessler used to rack up those video game like numbers against those scrub teams? Gone are those days. I guess nobody has told him that it’s ok to check off his primary receiver once in a while and hit the guy that’s wide open. I guess the last thing that Sark thought about recruiting during his coaching tenure was a kicker. Somebody told him he could probably walk over to the Nine-O or Chanos and find one. There must be some high school kickers out their licking their chops for a scholarship. USC may be in 1^st in the Pac-12 South with the opportunity to control their own destiny, but they’ll need to play much better next week in Oregon to keep the dream alive of making it to the conference title game.

Elsewhere around college football, Notre Dame handled business against Wake Forest, except those damn chardonnay-drinking nerds from Stanford lost, which deals a blow to ND’s College Football Playoff hopes. Michigan’s defense looked worse on Saturday than John Harbaugh’s khakis. I guess LSU thought that by losing another game it would give them some more “quality off loss” points with the playoff committee. Meanwhile, Baylor is not only losing games, but also reminding each other went to fake injury….

To the NFL, where the Denver Broncos are currently filling out Peyton Manning’s retirement papers and attempting to forge his signature. His QB rating was listed as “Tim Tebow”. As I said with Kobe, it’s just sad to see great players hang on a little too long, and then suck at the end. After losing to Arizona, the Seahawks playoff hopes are fading faster than Jimmy Graham’s skills as a tight end. The Patriots incredible run continues. When they take the field and win every Sunday, they are basically giving the entire league the middle finger. The Dallas Cowboys find more ways to lose than the Washington Generals. The Lions actually did not blow a lead and won in Green Bay? The last time that happened, the Internet wasn’t even around. Since Mike Ditka put on that Packers sweater a few weeks ago, Green Bay has looked a lot more like the Bears. The Saints made Kirk Cousins look like Dan Marino. If there’s anybody that knows how to give the Jets a loss, it’s Rex Ryan. The Vikings and Panthers are looking good. Meanwhile, the Steelers tried to kill Johnny Manziel in their blowout win over the Browns.  This has got to be the special teams play of the year by Miami.  Dolphins football everyone….

This whole NFL to LA in 2016 is already losing momentum. The owners are backpedaling faster than Michael Jackson moonwalks. They said previously that they would vote on teams potentially relocating in January. Now they are saying the vote might be delayed for a few months, with the intention of buying more time to resolve the stadium situation in their home markets. As we’ve seen the last 20 years, this is starting to smell like another case of owners using LA for leverage in their current markets.

The baseball off-season is underway, and the Angels made a bold move last week, acquiring shortstop Andrelton Simmons from the Braves. The Halos gave up their two best pitching prospects and their much older shortstop, Eric Aybar, for one of best young shortstops in baseball. Simmons is under contract for the next 5 years at a very affordable number. Say what you will about giving up young pitching, but Billy Eppler is already doing a good job of trying to build a team around Mike Scioscia style baseball, which the Halos have gotten away from the last few years. That starts with strong defense up the middle. The Halos pitching is also better than you think. They just underachieved last year. They don’t need to blow their wads on a $200 million pitcher. Eppler is definitely going to make some aggressive moves re-shaping this club, and it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Then there’s the Dodgers, who got burned by giving Brett Anderson a qualifying offer of $15 million, which he accepted. I continue to be amazed at how much Andrew “Jones” Friedman likes to spend money on mediocre talent. Anderson was nothing more than a .500 pitcher, but in Friedman’s eyes he worked out well because he actually stayed healthy for more than 100 innings. Odds are, Anderson will probably get hurt again. Then Friedman is also framing our expectations about signing Zack Greinke, by saying how risky those long-term deals can be. Friedman’s idea of building sustainable success is trapping his team in mediocrity for years to come.   Pretty soon the Dodgers are going to be in worse shape than Ronda Rousey’s face.

I’m no big UFC fan, but it’s about time that they let their moneymaker Ronda Rousey take on a real trained fighter in Holy Holm, instead of those cross-fit models they have been throwing at her for years. Rousey got cocky, she went Hollywood, and got exposed. If she had just watched Rocky III none of this would have happened. The sport needs this though because everyone is anxiously going to be awaiting the re-match. I can’t believe this entire time people were talking about how Rousey could beat up Floyd Mayweather. That’s silly because we all know that Floyd has proven he can easily beat up women.

Finally, another episode of the Walking Dead went down last night on AMC.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  I’ve gotta admit, I really thought for a moment in that episode that this whole Glenn drama was just a big smokescreen for the writers killing off Daryl.  It had been so long since we had an extended episode with him involved, we sort of forgot about his significance. The episode reminded us of how much of a character transformation he has undergone since the first season.  When we first met him, he was basically a thug.  Now he’s developed a deep level of compassion and humanity, despite the chaotic world he’s living in.  He showed that by helping people that five minutes earlier, threatened to kill him.  Then again, they took advantage of that compassion later on when he got his bike and his crossbow taken.  The moral of the story is….don’t trust anyone in the zombie apocalypse!  The Abraham-Sasha storyline wasn’t quite as interesting.  Abraham apparently hates life enough to play chicken with an impaled zombie.  Then before it’s over, he comes back and asks out Sasha.  I’m sure this relationship will go nowhere quickly.  Meanwhile, you can bet that Daryl will find those people that took his crossbow and get it back.  He’s Daryl, he’s gotta have it!  Overall, it was an ok episode.  I liked the Daryl part, but not so much the Sasha-Abraham part.  The Wolves are bound to attack again.  So, Glenn are you alive or what?

November 9th, 2015

This is brutal to watch.  Never in my life did I think Kobe Bryant would look this bad as an NBA basketball player.  This is like watching Willie Mays stumble around in center field in his final years, or Muhammad Ali lose his skill in his final years of boxing.  It’s one thing to not be in championship contention, but it’s another thing for Kobe to be a shell of himself, which is exactly what he is now.  He only shoots three pointers these days, because that’s just about the only shot he can create for himself.  Watching him yesterday at Madison Square Garden was the sad beginning of a farewell tour.  This is definitely not how I want to remember one of my favorite NBA players of all-time.  Kobe needs to retire because playing for this version of the Lakers just isn’t worth it.

Meanwhile, the Clippers remind me a lot of the Sacramento Kings teams of the early 2000’s.  Those teams were very talented, and also known for being very whiny.  That Clippers are doing exactly the same thing, and it’s probably hurting them to a degree with the NBA referees that work their games.  Saturday night’s loss at home versus Houston was very symbolic of a whiny team.  Make no mistake about it, the Clippers got screwed when Blake Griffin’s layup was goaltended by Dwight Howard, which the referees completely missed.  Nobody is going to do this team any favors.  I don’t care that the Clippers didn’t have Chris Paul.  They need to suck it up and use moments like that to build an “us against the world” mentality.  Everyone knows the Clippers have great talent, but it’s the mental toughness they lack.  Saturday night was a perfect example of that mental toughness that they have yet to find.

To college football, where the Trojans got off to a horrendously sluggish start on Saturday, before taking down Arizona 38-30.  Clay Helton probably has very faint hopes of being the Trojans head coach next year, but the guy deserves a lot of credit for simplifying the playbook and just giving the ball to freshman tailback Ronald Jones II.   Where has this kid been for the first two months of the season? There’s good talent and there’s special talent.  No freshman tailback has put up those kind of numbers since Lendale White (before he was addicted to food and tequila).  Jones may have the special talent the Trojans have been missing for quite some time.  The real question is why the hell he insists on throwing that bubble screen pass all the time, which is straight out of the Sarkisian playbook?  It’s like he’s determined to give up a pick 6 by running that play, which every team in the Pac-12 seems to recognize.  The Trojan pass rush was ineffective, but their run defense was solid.  I like USC’s chances against Colorado and Oregon, but they’ll need a lot of help along the way to win the Pac-12 South.

As for the Bruins, they romped Oregon State 41-0 at Reser Stadium.  Josh Rosen probably hadn’t had that much fun since high school, throwing for 333 yards and a couple of touchdown passes in just three quarters of work.  Oregon State has now lost 16 of it’s last 18 conference games, and the only part of their games that are entertaining is when the play-by-play announcers start talking about the defensive line “dominating the Beavers with their penetration”.  The Bruins are looking good and so is Rosen, but I’m not sure sure it’s enough to overcome the injuries they’ve suffered.  Although the Bruins control their own destiny with games vs Washington, then at Utah, and at USC,  the Pac-12 south is still Utah’s to lose.  The margin for error is too small at this point.

Elsewhere around college football, the  College Football Playoff rankings are about to create a parting of the Red Sea for Notre Dame to get into the dance.  The Irish handled Pitt on Saturday, and with 3 more wins, including one against Stanford, they’ll likely get in the playoff.  Then again, we should probably expect LSU to move up in the polls after their “quality of loss” to Alabama.  I used to think that the NBA official were the worst in sports, but I’m beginning to think college football may have them instead.  What a horrible call at the end of the Michigan State-Nebraska game.  That Nebraska receiver was clearly not forced out of bounds before catching the game winning touchdown, and it will probably cost MSU a spot in the playoff.  America was really torn between rooting for Florida State and having to potentially watch Clemson in the College Football Playoff.  The finish to the Arkansas-Mississippi game was one of the most amazing I’ve ever seen, and those CBS announcers called it like it was a 1 yard rush up the middle…..

Let’s talk week 9 of NFL Football.  Tony Romo is clearly the MVP of the season, just from watching how horrible Matt Cassell and Brandon Weeden are.  NBC needs to show more shots of Jerry Jones trying not to throw things after last nights OT loss to Philly.  I don’t know who is in worse shape…the Packers or Eddie Lacy? I think Johnny Football’s passes were targeted to more fans in the crowd on Thursday night than his receivers.  Funny how Andrew Luck decided to finally kick ass when his predecessor Peyton Manning came to town.  Remember when Alfred Morris was a good running back? Is Tom Brady actually better than he’s ever been? It sure feels like it.  I thought the Raiders might have turned the corner, but then they lose to a banged up Steelers team.

Here’s quick update on our local hockey teams.  The Kings are in 1st place in the Pacific Division, but they’ve got their issues.  Most of their goals are coming from three players.  Anze Kopitar doesn’t have an assist yet, which makes me think everybody he’s playing with sucks.  Dustin Brown makes $7 million a year and hasn’t scored a goal yet.  As for the Ducks, here they come.  They’ve won 4 in a row.  They still can’t score, but they are getting great goaltending, and they are bound to put the puck in the net soon.

Finally, The Walking Dead was back on AMC last night for another episode.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it.  The writers really slammed the brakes on the show in this episode.  Of course we have to wait at least another episode to find out what happened to Glenn.  I love how at the beginning of the episode, Rick defies logic by presumably escaping from the RV surrounded by Walkers that we last saw him in, and somehow ran back to Alexandria before the Walkers could get him.  I’m still not really sure what the purpose of Maggie and Aaron’s field trip in the sewer was.  Did she really think she was gonna find Glenn down there? Or is this her idea of clearing her head? Deanna’s son is just obnoxious.  He seems like a good bet to die before the seasons over.  Speaking of Deanna, are we really supposed to believe that when she killed that Walker, she didn’t actually get the Walkers blood in her mouth? I guess the show doesn’t always punish characters for their stupidity.  I like how these slower episodes have to give us the teenager drama that revolves around Carl, who’s always great at putting people in danger.  The scene where Jessie killed the Walker was maybe the weakest Walker kill the show has ever had.  Her speech to the rest of the Alexandrians was also recycled and boring.  If these people don’t get how the world is now, they never will.  This slow down episode got on my nerves a little bit, and frankly, made me want more of these Alexadrians to die.  I’m looking forward to a slightly better episode next week.