Year: 2017

LT and Chargers owners still clueless about jilted San Diego

Dean Spanos still doesn’t get it.

The Los Angeles Chargers owner, who ripped the hearts out of the San Diego fans when he moved the team to Los Angeles this year, still thinks the team has a lot of fans in San Diego.

“[We say] thank you,” Spanos said, when asked by ESPN about San Diego fans who still follow the team. “They’ve been great. They’ve been loyal to the team, and there’s a lot of them. I’m very appreciative — my family, players and the entire organization thanks them.”

I seriously doubt there are a lot of fans in San Diego who still follow the team. Some, but not a lot.

Spanos also hired Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson as a special assistant. Tomlinson is supposed to reach out to the San Diego fans.

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Arrogant Patriots got a well-deserved comeuppance

The Patriots didn’t do any deflating Thursday night.

Instead, they inflated five Super Bowl trophy replicas that looked like they belonged in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and rolled them onto the field before their season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

They put on the scoreboard: “Atlanta 28 NE 3 2:12 3rdQtr”

That was a reminder of their Super Bowl comeback, and the announcer talked about the greatest comeback of all time.

They unveiled their fifth Super Bowl banner.

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NFL deserves credit for checking Brady concussion allegations

When Gisele Bundchen speaks, the NFL listens.

The supermodel who is Tom Brady’s wife said on CBS This Morning last May that Brady has had concussions pretty much every year and suffered one last year.

“We don’t talk about it, but he does have concussions,’’ she said.

When Brady was finally asked about his wife’s comments, he said it was not anybody’s business, which is not exactly a strong denial.

The New England Patriots had never put Brady on the injury report with a concussion, but then the Patriots aren’t noted for being candid in their injury reports.

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Pursuit of Elliott is more nonsensical buffoonery from Goodell

Remember New Coke?

In one of the most bizarre marketing decisions in American history, Coca-Cola changed its century-old formula in 1985 to a more sugary taste, only to face a deluge of complaints from outraged customers.

Just 79 days later, the company brought back old Coke as Coke Classic.

All you could think of at the time was, what were they thinking?

Their explanation is that they were worried about losing market share to Pepsi. But nobody in the boardroom raised a red flag that changing the formula wasn’t the answer.

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Five Things to Watch: NFL Week 1

Five things I’ll be looking at in the first week of the 2017 NFL season:

1. How will Tom Brady play in the Patriots Thursday night opener against the Chiefs?

At age 40, Brady has shown no signings of slowing down in training camp. And if Brady is still Brady, they are three games – two home playoff games and the Super Bowl – away from a sixth Super Bowl title before they inflate their first football.

With Brady, they are a lock to make the playoffs again since they play in a division with the Jets, Bills and Dolphins. But sometimes aging quarterbacks can just suddenly fall off a cliff. Or decline slowly.

Brady will be under the microscope for any signs of slowing down all season. Oh, and the other thing about the opener is the reception the Patriots fans will give Roger Goodell. How many will wear the clown T-shirt that defensive coordinator Matt Patricia wore getting off the plane after the Super Bowl? What will their signs say?

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QB-less Texans’ continuing mediocrity is entirely their own fault

When the Houston Texans open the season Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, it will likely be an emotional scene.

It will be the Texans’ first game since the city of Houston was devastated by the floods from Hurricane Harvey.

The Texans have already dedicated their season to Houston, and star J.J. Watt has done an amazing job of raising millions for the victims.

From a football standpoint, though, there’s another interesting storyline. Both teams have shown how it can take a team years to overcome a mistake at the quarterback position.

And both made a huge mistake in the 2014 draft when they both passed on Derek even though they both needed a quarterback.

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NFL’s arrogant L.A. experiment is already a disaster

The NFL wants Los Angeles more than Los Angeles wants the NFL.

That’s been obvious for years.

When the Rams and Raiders both left after the 1994 season, there was no outcry about losing the team and no interest in building a taxpayer-funded stadium to get one back.

The NFL even awarded Los Angeles an expansion team, but Los Angeles shrugged and the team went to Houston.

The first Super Bowl was played there, and the city was so excited that the Los Angeles Coliseum was half-full.

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Bumbling Browns will at least be interesting with Kizer

When the Cleveland Browns started up again as an expansion team in 1999, their first major move was to draft Tim Couch over Donovan McNabb.

It’s been all downhill ever since for the Browns.

Couch was the first of 26 quarterbacks they’ve had since returning, while having just two winning seasons and one playoff appearance. They’ve gone 24 years without a division title.

The Browns have had more problems than just their inability to find another Otto Graham or Bernie Kosar or even Brian Sipe. They’ve been an organization in constant turmoil featuring a revolving door of coaches and front-office executives.

Three of their last four coaches lasted just two years. The fourth lasted just one year.

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Just give J.J. Watt the NFL’s humanitarian award already

I think we can now close the nominations for the NFL’s annual Walter Payton Man of the Year award.

J.J. Watt is likely to be a lock for the award – won the last three years by Eli Manning, Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin – after showing that the power of celebrity can produce positive results.

As you probably know, the Houston Texans’ defensive star started a fund for the victims of the flooding in Houston last week with a modest goal of $200,000.

He quickly reached that goal, got to $500,000 in 24 hours and kept and kept raising the goal. It’s now up to a whopping $14 million and counting at YouCaring.com/JJWatt.

One-fifth of that came from the Titans’ controlling owner, Amy Adams Strunk, who lives in Houston and donated $1 million. And new Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul gave $50,000, but many of the contributions were obviously much smaller. Over 50,000 people have contributed.

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Bowlen wouldn’t even be sniffing the HOF if he hadn’t inherited Elway

When the contributors’ committee met last week to select a candidate to be voted on at the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame selection meeting next February, they were looking at a strong field.

It included Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, former general managers Bobby Beathard and George Young and scouting pioneer Gil Brandt of the Dallas Cowboys.

They could have easily just picked a name out of a hat.

Since there aren’t a lot of other slam-dunk contributor candidates at the moment, all four figure to be selected in the next three years.

There will be two nominated in 2019, then one a year after that.

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