September 8, 2025

It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough to feel good for the time being. The Rams took down the Texans in their opener at Sofi Stadium yesterday, 14-9. It’s safe to say that the Rams defense was just as good as it was last year, and reminded us of that with Nate Landman’s beautiful forced fumble late in the 4th. Although the offense wasn’t exactly explosive, Matt Stafford looked really good, and was able to make some clutch throws. He also endured three sacks which tells me he is healthier than we thought, but the offensive line may also need some work too. Still, I think the offense will get much better than we saw. They were rusty for not really playing much together in the preseason, and remember, they actually played a great team. The Rams need to take care of business on the road against the Titans, because they week after that they’ll have to go to Philly for a re-match against the Eagles.

As for the Chargers, I absolutely hate the idea of a season opening game, and a divisional game abroad for any NFL Team. It’s wrong. However, the Bolts should feel great about their big win over Kansas City. Justin Herbert reminded us that he is an excellent quarterback. The defense also stepped up against Patrick Mahomes, who had beaten the Chargers 7 straight times before Friday. Considering how critical everyone was of the Chargers offensive line, they also held up very well. Omarion Hampton looked good in his debut, but needs his head examined after running out of bounds on a 3rd down with 54 seconds left. Now the Bolts should feel really good about their chances of going 2-0 with a Monday night game against the Raiders coming up on the road.

Is USC Football really good, or are they just beating up on crummy teams? It’s too early to tell, and the fact one of their wins came against Clay Helton doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the idea that they are elite. They piled up some very gaudy numbers against Georgia Southern, including 755 yards of total offense. That’s like playing Madden on easy mode and cruising to an easy victory. Should you be more worried about the passes Jaiden Maiava couldn’t complete? Should you be worried about Waymond Jordan fumbling on the opening drive? Should you be worried about multiple illegal use of hands penalties? These wins won’t do much for USC in the way or their rankings, buts one can say that wins are wins at this point in the season, and a few warm up games are needed for this group. I’m of the opinion that the truth is usually somewhere in between. USC has a talented team, and is probably top 25. Are they good enough to make the playoff? I still have my doubts. I guess we’ll get some answers when they play Michigan State.

I think it’s safe to say that UCLA Football is in serious trouble right now. They lost to UNLV over the weekend, in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score. Despite rallying toward the end of the game which fell short, UCLA was favored and never should have been trailing. Their defense was out of the position frequently, and their offense is very unproductive. Nico Iamaleava is clearly a very overpaid quarterback, that bamboozled the Bruins when he came here. Deshaun Foster says the Bruins are “close”. Close to what exactly? Close to rock bottom? It’s like the captain of the Titanic giving his crew a pep talk before the ship goes under. I see maybe 2 wins on the schedule right now if they are lucky, and not sure that will get DeShaun Foster to keep his job. Does Martin Jarmond even care anymore? It sure seems like the fans don’t, because they don’t show up to the Rose Bowl either.

The NBA is suddenly investigating the Clippers for circumventing the salary cap to pay Kawhi Leonard. This is all thanks to ESPN’s Pablo Torres, and his investigative reporting. This is actually hilarious for a lot of reasons. Nobody actually believes a big star in their prime would be weird enough to sign with the Clippers, unless they were breaking the rules. Also hilarious is the fact that Kawhi was allegedly paid for a “no-show” job, and coincidentally he has “no-showed” for most of his contract with the Clippers! In all seriousness though, after seeing Ballmer’s interview on ESPN, I don’t know what to believe. I’m not saying he’s guilty, but I certainly didn’t come away from it thinking he was for sure innocent. Especially when I hear that Mickey Mouse voice of his going up a couple of octaves. Ballmer is one of the richest men in the world, and he got conned by a couple of tree planting dudes? Seems weird. Also seems weird that he claims he was conned and didn’t due his due diligence on these guys, but at the same time was considering putting their naming rights on his building, before deciding on the Intuit Dome. So he knew nothing about the company, but also knew enough to consider investing $50 million, and also consider putting their naming rights on a building? With all this, plus all the noise about all the illegal things Uncle Dennis has been asking for over the years, at minimum, this entire Kawhi situation is suspicious. Now that the league has hired a law firm to investigate, if they end up punishing the Clippers, a fair punishment would be to have them re-sign Paul George, and make Kawhi play all 82 games.

To baseball, where the Dodgers have really mastered losing stupid games. They are playing miserable against below .500 teams, most recently displayed against the Orioles and Pirates. There is no team in baseball that has ever lost a game after no-hitting a team for 8 2/3rd innings, yet they found a way to lose on Saturday. They can also kiss goodbye to a 1st round bye in the playoffs, considering they are now 5 games back of the Phillies for the #2 seed heading into Sunday. The only good news for the Boys in Blue is that the Padres absolutely stink as well, which is keeping them clinging to their lead in the division series. I’ve been saying it for months, but now that it’s September, the terrible decision making is only magnified. There is no reason in the world that Tanner Scott and Michael Conforto should be getting the playing time they are. Both are complete overpaid liabilities, and this team has better options right now, and especially in the playoffs. I don’t care if they are each making around $18 million. They stink right now, and are costing the team games. That would solve part of their problems, and when they get Max Muncy and Tommy Edman back, maybe they can stop screwing around with the position players, and play them in the right places on defense. They also need to do a better job of putting together quality at bats, and manufacturing runs, rather than sitting back and waiting for the 3-run homer. It doesn’t matter how good the starting pitching is if the Dodgers don’t fix these other areas. At least the Dodgers wouldn’t have to play any below .500 teams in the playoffs! However, I have seen nothing that makes me think this will change, so I have a hard time believing the Dodgers will get very far in October, let alone if they make it there.

I’ve been trying to figure out what Angels GM Perry Minasian meant earlier this summer when he said he just wants his team to play “meaningful games” in September. The Angels lost 3 straight headed into Sunday, were 8.5 games out of the Wild Card, and 11 games out of the division. They got smashed by the A’s 17-4 on Saturday night. I guess by “meaningful” he means meaningfully embarrassing! There is simply no end in sight to this complete disaster of a franchise the Angels are, but Arte Moreno doesn’t care as long as people fill the seats on all his bobblehead and Star Wars nights at the Big A!

September 1, 2025

The Dodgers are still clinging to a 2 game lead in the NL West over the Padres, but they’ve got problems. They are all or nothing on offense, either hitting homers like they are the ‘27 Yankees, or getting shut down like they are Little Leaguers. Then there’s the bullpen, which has Tanner Scott problems. The man couldn’t close a hot dog stand right now, let alone a baseball game. It’s September 1st, so at this point, those of you that have hopes of getting rid of Michael Conforto can dream on. With a 40-man roster you can only hope that he’s left off the playoff roster. The talent is there, the starting pitching is looking great, but the rest of the play is so inconsistent, I can’t say I feel great about this team’s chances come October.

I’ve done the math, and if the Angels can go 22-4 the rest of the way, they can probably make the last AL Wild Card spot. You have a better chance of winning the $1.1 billion Powerball drawing than that happening. Prayers up to Taylor Ward, who went crashing into the wall yesterday, after trying to chase down a fly ball. Give the man credit because he’s playing hard, while his teammate Anthony Rendon has been at home on the couch all season long drinking whiskey, and playing PlayStation, while collecting his $38 million paycheck. I told you right after the trade deadline that the Angels were going to be fools for being buyers, because they are going to end up finishing out of the playoffs by double digit games. Sure enough, with less than a month left they are 9 games out of the Wild Card and 11 games out of the Division. It’s like everybody saw this coming except Arte Moreno.

To College Football, where USC got off to a nice easy win against Missouri State on Saturday at the Coliseum. Jayden Maiava and Husain Longstreet looked like a dangerous duo on offense, and that is the most points USC has put up in a game since 2005. Of course it’s easy to look great against a team like that, and next week will be easy street as well against Georgia Southern. Then it gets real against Purdue, Michigan, followed by three straight top 15 opponents. The Trojans and their fans are really going to need some of these early easy wins to get the confidence of everyone up.

Then there’s UCLA, which looked like a complete disaster against Utah. I don’t want to overreact to one game, but there really is a lot to be concerned about. They attracted only 35,000 fans on a holiday weekend, against a very good opponent. That opponent took them apart from start to finish. Deshaun Foster got completely out coached, and Nico Iamaleava looks like an overpaid and overrated quarterback. The concerns is that Foster started 1-5 last year before turning things around, but this time his schedule is much tougher. The Bruins will be at UNLV next weekend, where they will actually be favored by a point or so. If they can’t win that game, they should be quite worried.

Elsewhere around College Football, Arch Manning should probably be compared to Uncle Rico instead of Uncle Peyton after Texas lost to Ohio State in the opening game. Notre Dame lost a close one to Miami as well. Their offensive line offered about as much protection as a busted condom all game, and let them down when it mattered most on the last drive. Clemson got upset by LSU, Alabama lost to Florida State, and ‘Bama fans are going to think this is the worst thing to happen to them since they made it illegal to marry your cousin in the state.

In the NFL, the Rams are getting ready to take on the Texans next week in their season opener. The good news is that Matt Stafford is expected to start in the game, after all the concerns about his back. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of concern once he starts taking hits, but it’s a good sign that he’s going to be on the field and ready to go. Alaric Jackson is also on track to play too, despite the blood clots he’s been dealing with. The Rams have gotten off to slow starts the last few years, then rallied to make the playoffs or win the division. With their first two games against the Texans and Titans, this would be a good time to get some early wins.

Then there’s the Chargers, who will open the season on Friday against the Chiefs. I contend that the Chiefs are much better than most people think they are going to be. However, the Bolts need to win their games against their division rivals, especially the Chiefs. Since the Chiefs are missing Rashee Rice for the firs six games, now is as good a time as ever to find the win column against them, especially playing at home.

Finally, the Kings are going to open training camp in 3 weeks from now. The bigger news though is that Anze Kopitar said that this may very well be his last season in the NHL. It will be his 20th season in the league, and he will finish as the franchise leader in games played, assists, and most likely points when it’s all said and done. He is arguably the greatest LA King in franchise history. As for his retirement, he’s still a very productive player, and when he retires, the Kings really won’t have a capable replacement for him. By now they should with all the young talent they have wasted.