January 26, 2026

What a disappointing end to the season last night for the Rams in Seattle. The offense was spectacular against a very good Seattle defense. However, in reality these games are won and lost on the margins. You can’t drop a punt inside your 10 yard line, and when you have a chance to score at the 7-yard line to take the lead in the 4th quarter, you have to come away with a touchdown. It also didn’t help that they lost the home field advantage in Seattle a couple of weeks before the playoffs started. The Rams played a great team, they were right there, but they came up short. They should be kicking themselves for all the missed opportunities throughout the season. The good news though? The Rams have boat loads of cap space, tons of draft capital, and Matt Stafford wants to come back. Their first priority needs to be re-signing Sean McVay and Les Snead, because they are cornerstones for the franchise. Once they do that, no reason they can’t contend for a Super Bowl next year as well.

Elsewhere around Championship Sunday, the Patriots took down the Broncos is a very snowy game. That game was very boring and the only interesting thing about it was the weather. Drake Maye actually reached a Super Bowl before Josh Allen. If that doesn’t tell you that wins is a meaningless quarterback stat, I don’t know what else could. The Titans fired Mike Vrabel and in his first year coaching a new team, he take them to the Super Bowl. That is the most Titans result possible. On the other side, going for it on 4th down in the 1st half instead of taking the points to go up 2 possessions with your backup QB is one of the more moronic things I’ve seen a coach do.

What a horrible article that we had to read by Baxter Holmes last week about the Lakers and the Buss Family. That article wasn’t good for anybody. It makes Jeanie look like a selfish tyrant, and makes Jesse and Joey look like they just have an ax to grind with her. I’m sure Jerry would be very disappointed to see what happened to the relationship with all his kids. However, what probably goes unnoticed is that Jeanie took very good care of everyone in her family with the sale, as they each pocketed generational wealth of $500 million. It’s hard for the average person to read that and feel bad for them. It’s actually remarkable the Lakers have had the success they’ve had with the dysfunction they’ve endured internally. Hopefully now that they’ve sold the team, that dysfunction within the organization ends, and maybe she will even have a better relationship with all her siblings in the long run.

As for Lebron and Jeanie’s alleged feelings about him, you can tell he is a bit bothered. James and his agent, Rich Paul, have both said that they have had an excellent partnership. However, he did indicate that you never know if she has really felt that way about him at times. At the end of the day, I’m not really sure that it matters, even if they clear the air. Lebron isn’t going anywhere right now. Whether or not he continues playing for the Lakers after this year depends on if he is willing to play for less money or not, and his relationship with Mark Walter, their new owner.

The Clippers are still surging. They are now 15-3 since December 20th after beating the Nets. When they were 6-21, their goal was to get back to the play-in tournament, and now they are well in position to do that with the pace they are on. They are playing much better defense, and have much more urgency and connectivity than they did earlier in the season. The real question is if they can now continue to surge into the top 6 of the West, which is where I thought they would be when the season started. It looks like a big jump, but with injuries coming into play for a lot of teams ahead of them, I wouldn’t rule it out.

To baseball, where the Dodgers introduced Kyle Tucker last week, but you always have to ask the question: are the Dodgers done making moves this off-season? They lost out on Freddy Peralta to the Mets, but if there’s one thing they still need to do it’s a couple of fringe moves. Those include bringing back Kike Hernandez to solidify the bench, and Evan Philips to solidify the bullpen. Both of those guys are recovering from offseason surgery, but are poised to make a positive impact on the team for another World Series run. Of course you still have to keep an eye on the Dodgers for the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes, but it doesn’t sound like at the moment he’s going to be traded.

Finally, the UCLA Basketball team probably saved their season last week with a win against Purdue. The Boilermakers were the #4 team in the country, and UCLA really lacked a signature win. The Bruins are still ranked 7th in the Big 10, and there are 5 teams in the Top 11 that are ranked in front of them. However, when you see how well UCLA played against #1 Arizona and Gonzaga, and how they knocked off Purdue, it makes you more frustrated than anything else. These guys can play with anybody when they are playing great defense, and when Donovan Dent and Tyler Bilodeau are playing like the best players. I’ve talked extensively about whether or not Mick Cronin is the right guy for this, but hopefully he can prove me wrong over the course of the next 3 months.

January 19, 2026

What a wild win by the Rams yesterday against the Bears! There were about 10 times where I thought the Rams were gonna win, and there were about 10 times I thought the Bears were gonna win. Caleb Williams is an absolute magician, and I still can’t believe the play he made at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime. I have to say, though the Rams dodged a serious bullet because Sean McVay should not have thrown the ball over 30 times like he did and instead should have ran the ball a lot more against a bad Bears run defense.  Now the Rams are set for a rematch back in Seattle for the NFC championship game next Sunday. Seattle is really tough, but I like the Rams chances to go in there and beat them because frankly, they should have won the last time they played.

Elsewhere around the NFL, you have to feel bad for Josh Allen after seeing the Bills lose to the Broncos over the weekend. Allen played well in a postseason game again, but his team came up short once again. He’s a great player, but he’s gotten some really bad breaks in the playoffs and Saturday night was another example. I still have no idea what is considered a catch in the NFL and what isn’t. As far as I’m concerned that interception in overtime should have been a simultaneous catch and not an interception and that would’ve won the game for the Bills.  I guess the Seahawks thrashing the 49ers wasn’t all that surprising since San Francisco barely has anybody left on their team that’s healthy. However, it does amaze you that the Rams were able to score so many points on the Seahawks defense the last time they played.  Then there’s that Patriot-Texans game, which was pretty boring. The Patriot handled business in bad weather, but neither team looked all that impressive or experienced.

The Dodgers punked the baseball world again last week! They signed Kyle Tucker to a four year $240 million contract to solve their outfield needs.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again you’ve gotta love what the Dodgers are doing! They just won back to back World Series and now they strengthen their team by adding the best closer on the market and the best outfielder on the market this off-season.  Of course the baseball world is completely outraged by this whole thing which is hilarious. I don’t wanna hear anybody tell me this is “bad for baseball“ or that we need more “competitive balance “ in baseball. If you think that you either just started watching baseball in the last two years or you just hate the Dodgers and are spewing some BS for the sake of your agenda.  Baseball has had its best ratings in the last 34 years thanks to the Dodgers dominance, and prior to their back to back championships, baseball had more parity than any other sport in this country.  The bottom line is if you think the MLB needs a salary cap, just tell me you think it’s because you hate the Dodgers or you want a CBA to stop their dominance, but don’t tell me it’s for any other reason.

Meanwhile, the Angels acquired outfielder Josh Lowe from the Tampa Bay rays in a three team trade.  Ironically, they gave up Brock Burke as part of the deal who was a pretty good reliever for them last year. Considering the Angels have been in desperate need for good starting pitching and relief pitching it’s a little bit of a head scratcher. However, I do understand the rationale for the deal to some extent. Lowe is a player who they believe can replace Taylor Ward, who had a great breakout year last season. The problem for Lowe though, he looks like a guy who peaked three years ago and has been battling injuries ever since.  Even more aggravating is the fact that Arte Moreno has just pocketed a bunch of money from getting rid of Anthony Rendon this off-season, but hasn’t reinvested that money in player payroll at all!

In the NBA, the Lakers won last night but they can thank Rich Paul for wrecking their season. Paul continues to run his mouth on The Ringer Podcast with Max Kellerman. He’s obviously a buffoon for suggesting that the Lakers should trade Austin Reaves for Jaren Jackson Jr. If this isn’t actually passive aggressiveness from Lebron to use Rich as his mouth piece, it’s incredibly naive behavior from Lebron and Rich Paul to think that the public won’t think this is what Lebron really thinks. You can’t tell me that this is sitting well with dudes in the Lakers locker rom either and the team chemistry, which if we’re being honest was a lot better befor Lebron came back. Rich Paul likely realizes that if his client, Lebron, wants to continue playing next year, it’s going to have to be at far less than a max salary if he stays with the Lakers. Therefore, you can see the motivation for him to say they should move Austin Reaves, so his client can take up the limited money the Lakers have available, since the the NBA is a salary cap league. Ultimately though, the joke is going to be on Lebron and Rich Paul when he has no choice but to take a $40-50 million pay cut if he wants to play in LA, or even some dump like Brooklyn.

The Clippers are the hottest team in the NBA winners of five straight games and 12 of their last 14. They have now moved into a tie for 10th place in the Western Conference, which is the final play in tournament spot however it’s not all great news anymore. This one is almost felt inevitable, because Kawhi Leonard has been diagnosed with more knee soreness and is going to be sitting out for a few more games. The Clippers hot streak is largely a result of Kawai playing out of his mind so whether or not they can continue it is in serious question.

I’ve had it with UCLA basketball. The Bruins were up and down again last week defeating Penn State and then losing to Ohio State in a couple of important Big Ten matchups. Don McLean is out here trying to tell me that the Bruins might not ever win the Big Ten regular season championship just because of travel but insists they are still a good team that will be in the tournament and might even win the Big Ten tournament and make a run in the NCAA March madness.  I just don’t see it. This team is way too inconsistent. They are supposed to be a defensive team and they can’t even defend consistently. They also go through very long stretches of critical parts of games where they just don’t score. That’s never a recipe for success against good college basketball teams.  I also feel like I was sold a bill of goods on Donovan Dent. He’s also way too up and down. He can’t shoot threes and can’t make free throws. I’m not sure why he was considered the number one player in the transfer portal last year.

There might not be another franchise in sports that is so out of touch with their fan base than the LA Kings. The entire fan base sees nothing but incompetence at multiple levels of the organization. For some reason ownership does not see that their GM Ken Holland is a fool, nor that coach Jim Hiller doesn’t know what he’s doing.  Sorry but sports is a bottom line business. Are you winning or are you losing? It doesn’t matter if you’re losing close, you’re losing. Don’t sit up there after every hockey game and tell me we were right there! Nobody wants to hear it. Figure out what you’re going to do differently to get those wins. The Kings have done nothing differently to try to get those wins and it’s continuing to cost them in the standings. For instance, I love what Drew Doughty has done for the Kings in his career, but it’s clearly time to play him much less, and eventually move on from him. The good news, though? Doughty is going to be on team Canada in next months winter Olympics. That might actually help team USA’s chances of winning a gold medal.

January 12, 2025

It was ugly, but they got it done. The Rams survived Wild Card Weekend against the Panthers with a 34-31 victory. I know many people will be alarmed by the fact they nearly lost after being 10-point favorites. I don’t think that part is a big deal though. This is the NFL playoffs. Any team can beat anybody in one game. You can also argue that the Rams could have put the game away early, but some unfortunate plays put the Panthers right back in the game. The close margin of victory didn’t both me. What does both me though is the Rams weakness in their secondary and special teams. They cornerbacks don’t seem to have that much size and physicality, so they have shown a propensity of late to get beat. They’ve also had some glaring special teams issues all year, and they reared their ugly head again in the 4th quarter. With all that being said, every team has their issues, but the Rams are still good enough to win a Super Bowl if things break right. Now they get the Chicago Bears on the road in freezing cold temperatures. The Rams haven’t won in Chicago since the Bush Administration, so let’s hope this one is different. I think the Rams should be able to score against the Bears defense. However, Caleb Williams can make big plays and isn’t afraid. The defensive line is going to have to apply a lot of pressure to contain him. I don’t like the idea of Matt Stafford in cold weather and hope it turns out much better than the last time they played there. If Stafford looks anything like he did in the 4th quarter on Saturday, the Rams should be just fine.

Then there’s the Chargers, who got smashed by the Patriots yesterday. I know many of you want to rag on the Chargers for another 1st round exit, but it wasn’t hard to see this coming. This was a patchwork offensive line that had a very hard time protecting Justin Herbert all year, which ended up costing the Bolts yesterday. They also didn’t have many wide receivers that were too productive either. The Chargers have a good quarterback and a good coach. Those two things are hard to find. They should be able to fix their offensive line and their wide receivers. The real shame in this is that this was a year where the Chiefs, Ravens, and Bengals all missed the playoffs, and the AFC felt fairly wide open. However, you can’t do much without a good offensive line, and that was always going to be a problem for this team, once they started getting banged up in the pre-season.

Elsewhere around the NFL, Erin Andrews was looking like Cruelle Deville with that massive fur coat on during the Eagles and 49ers game. When the Eagles get knocked out of the playoffs, America wins! The Bills won a playoff game for the first time on the road since the internet was invented. Is Trevor Lawrence really supposed to be good? Or do we just think he’s going to be good because he has long hair? The Packers gave away that lead to the Bears like they were some 501C3 charity. The idea of playing these playoff games on Saturday and Monday is ridiculous, and creates an unfair advantage for many teams that play the following week. Of course the NFL could care less about fair, and only cares about ratings.

The College Football National Championship game is set! It’s Indiana and Miami. For those of you saying “I told you that Miami belonged over Notre Dame” you’re missing the big picture. Miami was never the issue getting in over Notre Dame. The issue was Alabama getting in. They had no business being the playoff whatsoever. As for Indiana, they have turned things around so much in 3 years, that it makes you wonder if they are cheating. It also makes you think that if they can do that in 3 years, there is no reason Lincoln Riley can’t make USC a playoff team next year with the #1 recruiting class. Do you really envision Riley creating a roster that is as physical as the teams we’ve seen in the playoffs? I sure don’t. In any case, it really should be put up or shut up time for Riley.

In the NBA, you know it must be really nice to not matter and be low key. The Lakers have 1 more loss than the 2nd seeded Spurs, but every talking head will tell you that their season is over. Meanwhile, the Rockets are sinking like the Titanic, the Bucks are a lottery team, the Cavs are an embarrassment, the Warriors stink, the Thunder have been a .500 team for a month, and the Clippers have been the hottest team in the league just to get to the 11th seed. As we’ve told you before, the Lakers are flawed, but they still have a lot of talent and can win a lot of games. They will make things interesting in the standings and in the playoffs. How is Luka Doncic not the MVP? This team is one of the worst in 3-point shooting, bench scoring, and defense, yet they are right behind the #2 seed in the West.

Meanwhile, the Clippers now have 9 victories in their last 11 games. They are back in the mix for the play-in tournament. They are also a good example of how you can turn it around on defense. You can do that simply by communicating better, and hustling back to prevent easy buckets in transition. I do really wonder if the Clips might have an interest in Ja Morant. We saw Trae Young get traded last week for a ham sandwich. Say what you want about Trae being a small guard who is hard to build around. That’s fair, but he is still an NBA All-Star who was traded for very little. The same might be said for Ja Morant, and the Clips are looking to get younger and more athletic. This may also be a turning point for “star players” who are making upwards of $40 million a year. These guys are getting harder to trade, let alone trade for anything of value. That means those types of massive contracts may eventually only be in play for the 5-10 truly elite NBA Players.

Finally, in baseball, I’m getting a little bit skeptical of the idea of Kyle Tucker signing with the Dodgers. His market is dropping quite a bit, and I don’t think he’s going to get anywhere near the $400 million over 10 years or so he wanted to get. He’s just not that type of player. However, what scares me about him is there are questions if he really likes baseball that much. That’s giving me some Anthony Rendon vibes. If the price is right, ok he’s worth a look, but if we’re talking “if the price is right” I’d rather have Bo Bichette or Cody Bellinger.

January 5, 2026

Happy New Year everyone! I know Larry David said the last day to say that was on January 3rd, so I admit I’m violating his rule telling you that. Let’s start with the Rams, who beat the Cardinals yesterday to secure the #5 seed, and a date with the Panthers next weekend for Wild Card Weekend. Obviously most of us are still licking our wounds from the “what could have been” with the Rams potentially being a #1 seed in the NFC. I’ve gotten past all that, and believe the Rams path to the Super Bowl might not be as bad as you think. They will take on arguably the weakest opponent in the NFC playoffs, and potentially get a home game in the divisional round. Plus Seattle and San Francisco could even knock one another out. The Rams would much rather play Seattle than see a Kyle Shanahan team in the playoffs. I’m a bit alarmed at the lack of rhythm we’ve seen from the offense of late, especially yesterday against a poor Cardinals team. However, we’ve see that when this team plays with urgency, they can beat anybody in the NFL. Getting Davante Adams and Kevin Dotson back next week should help with that immensely.

As for the Chargers, there are two ways to look at yesterday’s game. They played their backups against the Broncos and held their own. It actually made me think that the Broncos won’t be around in the playoffs for that long. On the other hand, the Bolts have to travel to New England to face a very good Patriots team. Will they have the ability to protect Justin Herbert? I’m skeptical. Sure they are very well coached and the AFC feels a bit wide open, but this Chargers team is so up and down, you don’t really know what to expect.

This is an interesting stretch for the Lakers. They entered Sunday tied for 4th in the West. There is definitely a perception about this team that they can’t beat the elite teams, and that they can’t defend very well. In this stretch of games they probably won’t be playing anybody that will make you feel differently about that, but that shouldn’t stop them from trying to bank as many wins as possible. The Lakers are banged up, missing Austin Reaves and Luka is hurting. However, so are their competitors like Denver and San Antonio. They can still move back up in the standings in this stretch of games that they will be favored in.

Meanwhile, the Clippers win streak came to an end on Saturday against the Celtics. However, they have made up a lot of ground in the standings. They are now 3 games back of the 10th seed, which would be the final play-in tournament spot. You’ve gotta give credit to Kawhi, because during the Clips winning streak, he became the only NBA player, along with Kobe, to average 40 points, with 50-40-90 shooting splits, and going undefeated in a five game stretch. By the way, Kobe averaged 50 points in that stretch, which is something you would only see while playing NBA 2K. Then of course there’s still the looming investigation of the franchise on salary cap circumvention the league is still working on. Privately, they may not feel great about it, or their overall place in the standings, but for now, they are working with what they’ve got and trying to make the best of the situation.

In College Football, is the glass half full or half empty for the Trojans? Going into the Alamo Bowl, many seemed to think that 9 wins was progress for Lincoln Riley at USC. Many people might not feel the same after losing to TCU in overtime of that Bowl Game. Look, the final play of the game was embarrassing, and I’ve seen Pee Wee football players tackle better than that, but you’ve got to keep something in mind. Bowl Games are nothing more than glorified consolation games, and at this point, many of the 1st and 2nd stringers are opting out of these games. You’re evaluating Riley based on what his back ups are doing. At the end of the day, Riley has to win next year with what is widely considered the best recruiting class in the country. If he doesn’t, many of those players will transfer. Does that mean he is really on the hot seat? I’m not entirely convinced of that, especially after the Trojans moved to a much tougher conference in the Big Ten. You’re only as good as your options, and I don’t currently see any better options out there for USC.

To baseball, where the off-season hot stove is heating up for the Dodgers. Things have slowed down since the signing of closer Edwin Diaz. However, at this point, I am of the opinion that the way the market is shifting, the Dodgers will end up with at least one of Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, Bo Bichette, or Tarik Skubal before spring training. Suddenly Bichette or Tucker seem far more likely than the other two, and if it’s Bichette you would have to love adding a player of that versatility to the Dodgers lineup. Over in the American League, the Blue Jays keep rage spending, and look like they are going to be the best team in the AL. The Dodgers can certainly keep up with that spending though, and don’t be surprised if they do.

As for the Angels, their off-season is just getting more and more disappointing. Their payroll is now $30 million less than last year, and they are doing nothing with it that extra money. They restructured the contract of Anthony Rendon to defer his remaining $38 million over the next 3-5 years. I don’t like this at all, unless they plan to sign some serious players and compete now. Instead, all they have done is sign a bunch of relievers who had terrible years last year: Kirby Yates, Drew Pomeranz, Jordan Romano, and Tyler Saucedo. They’ve been tied to Nolan Arenado, but he’s got another 2 years and $37 million on his contract, so I’ll believe it when I see it. Plus that feels like they would be going from a big money third baseman who does not care about your team or the sport , to a big money third baseman who has declined in production and doesn’t care about your team. In Arte Moreno’s world, maybe he sees that as progress.

In College Hoops, what a disappointing game for UCLA hoops over the weekend against #25 Iowa. I was a believer that this team could get better as the season goes on like many Mick Cronin teams. Instead, they are getting softer and softer as the season goes on, and that couldn’t have been more apparent in the opening half of basketball on Saturday. The bench and 3-point shooting was abysmal. They got the best player in the transfer portal, and although he played a decent second half, he’s been so inconsistent that one would think he might be placing prop bets on Draft Kings every time he takes the floor. A team with Donovan Dent and Tyler Bilodeau shouldn’t be this inconsistent on both ends of the floor. They can’t play good enough defense for long enough stretches, and at the same time they go very long stretches at the most crucial times with offensive droughts. It’s obvious now that the whole is much less than the sum of the parts. Joe Lunardi currently has UCLA as a #9 seed, and I have no idea why. They don’t even have a signature win yet, and the most impressive thing they’ve done is lose a game by a couple of baskets to Arizona.

Speaking of UCLA, I’m not sure how excited the Bruins should be about the news that Nico Iamaleava will be returning to the team next year. For all the hype around him, he was really a very mediocre quarterback from what I saw. To be fair to him though, he had some very inconsistent coaching throughout the season, and may get some better results with Bob Chesney installed as the man in charge next year.

I can’t believe that it’s easier to remove the President of Venezuela from his position, than it is to fire Los Angeles Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller. How mediocre does this team have to be in order to get rid of him? We are halfway through the season, and the Kings are tied for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, a far cry from their desire to be a Stanley Cup Contender. In reality, this team is much closer to another full rebuild and a lottery team than a Cup Contender. A trade? A new coach? I don’t want either. I want a new a new front office before any of that. This coaching staff and front office can’t even recognize who their best player is in Brandt Clarke. They have no idea how to properly develop their young talent like Quinton Byfield, and others who aren’t even in the organization anymore over the past five years. These guys are living in the year 2012. The Kings are acting like Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar are still their best players. Not even close. They have had great careers with the franchise, but those Stanley Cup contending days are long gone. The sooner Phil Anschutz realizes that, the sooner we can move forward.