Sez Me …
The NFL season is upon us, and my favorite rumor leading up to it has been the one claiming Chiefs owner Clark Hunt is banning Taylor Swift from attending games because she’s been a distraction.
Sure. She distracted K.C. — all the way to a Super Bowl win.
That’s Unsocial Media. The idiots who believe this crap also insist there wasn’t a Holocaust and that the Earth is flat.
Do you want to know what a distraction is?
An NFL distraction is a team playing mostly road games, which includes those at home. And that’s what happens in Inglewood, this close to LAX, which also welcomes visitors.
Los Angeles is a destination city, but not a pro football city. And it is where the NFL Team That Used To Be Here (you know, the Judases/L.A. Lodgers) plays its home games, games packed with fans of their opponents who put SoFi Stadium on their vacation lists as soon as schedules are released.
Incapable of embarrassment, owner Fredo Spanos gladly sells many thousands of tickets to out-of-towners, and they make noise when the Judases are on offense. Quarterback Justin Herbert constantly is going with a silent count, and if you think that is conducive to winning, that it doesn’t help the opposition, well, the last football game you saw never took place.
So this afternoon, the Judases open their season at their home away from home vs. the Las Vegas Raiders, who, as everybody knows, might as well be the L.A./Oakland Raiders. Silver and Black fans are, for me, the best in sports.
Their team moves around like a military family, but their loyalty never dies.
This will be a home game today for the visitors. The hosts are under new management, with Jim Harbaugh making his debut as head coach, a position at which he has succeeded everywhere he’s been employed — USD; Stanford; San Francisco, where he reached a Super Bowl; and Michigan, where last season he won a national title.
He will have a new group of mostly unseasoned receivers, and running backs brought in from Baltimore (J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards are fine when healthy). The defense should be improved and the kicking game is solid.
Which is important, because quarterback Justin Herbert is 16-0 when the Judases allow fewer than 20 points.
But is it enough to overcome the obvious lack of local interest?
Winning a Super Bowl is hard. Winning one with a hostile crowd in your ears every home game only makes things more difficult. The J’s aren’t likely to get there without a definite physical advantage, and they don’t have that on enough teams as we speak.
I have a lot of confidence in Harbaugh doing good work. He was running professional stuff at USD. His teams will be ready to play. Succeeding at a high level right away will be a surprise, but if can keep his QB ambulatory — and the offensive line looks improved — Jim, who has unorthodox all over him, is going to win games.
But winning a championship when you can’t hear yourself think in your own home is something he never had to deal with at Michigan or anywhere else.
He’s gone from owning the Big House to the Cheap Rental. …
NFL and collegiate officials are off to a wonderful start. The last time I saw so many flags, I got off the tour bus at the United Nations. …
Little Richard had a song about American football played on foreign soccer fields. “Slippin’ and Slidin’.” And player safety’s greatest advocate, Roger Goodell, wants to triple overseas games? …
No question the Chiefs get preferential treatment (an assistant coach goes unpunished for calling a timeout vs. the Ravens?), and they are good, just good enough. But I can’t a luckier team in sports, and you don’t win Super Bowls without good fortune. …
Baltimore was in it because of Lamar Jackson’s legs, but lost it because of Lamar’s arm. MVP quarterbacks make those throws at the end. The Chiefs’ defenders were on their heels. …
If Baltimore plans to “grind it” with Derrick Henry, it better bring in another offensive line. ,,,
As of last week, WNBA defenders had put 17 flagrant fouls on Caitlin Clark. But she’s not being singled out. …
And I don’t understand. Before Clark, the WNBA wasn’t under the radar. It was under sonar. She has done nothing to deserve this treatment. The players should bring her bouquets every day. …
The best thing about basketball is the , and Caitlin can do so. Unselfishness doesn’t help her. …
Thanks to Todd Fuhrman. To watch every NFL game this season you will need: “CBS, ESPN/ABC, NBC, Fox, YouTube TV, Peacock, Netflix and Amazon Prime.” Problem is, if you subscribe to all, you can’t afford a TV. …
Texas has firepower. Michigan has Nerfs. …
The double one-handed catch by USC’s Kyron Hudson vs. LSU may have been the greatest of all time — that OBJ didn’t make, of course. Little secret? Hudson’s was more difficult. …
Lincoln Riley’s clock management at the end of the half in that game tells me he’s looking for an NFL job. If you know what pathetic is, go beyond that. …
How many clock management-impaired college coaches are going to forget there’s now a two-minute warning? …
Reggie Bush, the greatest college football player who has been among us, will be inducted into the 2025 Rose Bowl Hall of Fame class. The same Reggie Bush who Pete Carroll had on the sideline during the crucial play of the famous national championship game in Pasadena vs. Texas (Reggie had three touches in the fourth quarter vs. a team that couldn’t defend). …
There is no difference between allowing a 2-year-old to drive you on an icy mountain road and walking somebody to get to Fernando Tatis Jr. There is great danger to Fernando. …
There can be one reason why the Padres are infinitely better in close and extra-inning games than they were a year ago. Baseball. No one ever will figure it out, especially the nerds. …
What the White Sox are is impossible. Baseball teams win by accident. …
RIP, James Darren. Any cast member of “The Guns of Navarone” is all right with me. …
Has anyone other than Matthew McConaughey attended Texas? …
American tennis has come a ways since the great Jerry Magee wrote one of my favorite ledes on the lack of home-grown players in our biggest tournament: “There is something missing from the U.S. Open. The U.S.” …
I interviewed Taylor Fritz at his Rancho Santa Fe home when he was a kid. Great to see how he is what he wanted to be when he grew up. …
RIP, Sergio Mendes. I love Brazilian music. …
I urge all Ham & Eggers to take a motorized drive down Florida Street and, after iring their remarkably stupid and vacant bike lanes, realize how dangerous they have made this road. …
I read where bees sleep five to eight hours a day. None that I’ve ever met. …
My mom packed me a lunch, not a bulletproof vest. Home school? Won’t work when parents give their children AR-15s.
