This may be a year of losers in San Diego sports, but at least we don't turn out jerks or cartoon characters. Our sports personality doesn't venture to the dark side.
David Boston's brief tenure with the Chargers and Milton Bradley's pit stop with the Padres are rare exceptions. Another one is Kellen Winslow II, the Cleveland Browns' tight end from Scripps Ranch High.
I'm reminded of this because the same week I heard Fox Sports NFL analyst Brian Baldinger credit Stephen Neal's return from a shoulder injury as a reason for the New England Patriots' improved offensive line play, the hype was building for a UFC 91 (whatever that is) bout between Brock Lesnar and Randy Coutre. That's another reason to appreciate the career of Neal, a San Diego High alumnus with three Super Bowl rings.
What's the connection, you ask?
Neal finished his college career as a two-time NCAA champion heavyweight wrestler at Cal State Bakersfield by defeating Lesnar in the 1999 NCAA final. Neal went unbeaten as a junior and senior to finish with 88 straight victories.
From there, Neal won the 1999 World Championships heavyweight freestyle title. What that means is in an Olympic year, he would have been the gold medalist.
He gave the Olympics a shot in 2000, but two-time Olympian Kerry McCoy avenged his loss to Neal in the 1999 World Championship qualifying by defeating Neal in the 2000 Olympic qualifying final.
Next, Neal set about fulfilling his dream of playing in the NFL, even though Cal State Bakersfield didn't have a college football program. Neal, a 6-foot-4, 305-pounder, is in his seventh NFL season and Baldinger says he is a Pro Bowl-caliber offensive lineman, although he's never been voted into the game.
Note to frustrated San Diego State fans: If the Aztecs hadn't disbanded their wrestling program, Neal would have gone to SDSU as a scholarship wrestler and walk-on football player.
After the NFL, Neal wants to be a college wrestling coach. McCoy, his old rival, is the wrestling coach at Maryland after serving as Stanford's head coach. In other words, real wrestlers don't sacrifice their dignity to go into World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE.
Neal could have easily cashed in on a contract with the WWE, but he wasn't done testing himself as a legitimate world-class athlete. His response when uniformed people asked him if he was considering the WWE was, "I'm not interested in acting."
Now let's compare Neal to Lesnar's career path after college at the University of Minnesota.
Lesnar became a fake wrestler with the WWE. What self-respecting athlete would become part of the WWE? Then he signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent, but he was quickly cut from training camp.
He went back to the WWE and now he's fooling the gullible American public as a UFC fighter. Are these the same people that watch Jerry Springer? I heard something about how Lesnar beat Randy Coutre, an all-time UFC champion or something like that. Then I learned Coutre is 45 years old! What kind of sport is that? Who's next: Mike Tyson?
The sad part is Lesnar can laugh all the way to the bank.
Maybe if Lesnar had a little San Diego in him, he wouldn't be the cartoon character that he is now with WWE and UFC.
The long-time Padres icon was angry. He couldn't believe after all these years the team was asking him to accept such a pay cut.
Tensions mounted between management and a player that was considered the face of the franchise.
Trevor Hoffman?
Yes, that scenario is playing out now. But actually I'm thinking back to 2001 when the Padres came close to not signing Tony Gwynn for his final season.
Allow me to recount a story Gwynn told before he went into the Baseball Hall of Fame with the unique distinction of having played his whole career with one franchise.
“I was thinking, 'I spent 19 years here and this is how they treat me?" Gwynn said back in 2007.
If wasn't for Tony Gwynn Jr., Tony Gwynn Sr. might have played his final season in another uniform.
"When I got home," Tony Sr. said, finishing that story, “I talked to my family, and my son said, 'Dad, it's not about the money with you anyway. What's the big deal?'"
Gwynn said the time he smiled with pride that he was being counseled by his namesake.
"I said, he's right," Gwynn said, "and I signed a couple days later."
I don't bring this story up with the expectation Tony Jr. will again step in to mediate a contract impasse after the Padres announced they had pulled Hoffman's contract offer of $4 million off the table.
After all, Tony Jr. is out of the country playing winter league baseball right now.
I do bring it up because these are similar circumstances but with a different management. Maybe this is a sign of the times more than a sign of a new direction the Padres are taking.
Hoffman isn't getting the deal he wants from owner John Moores and Chief Executive Officer Sandy Alderson, but Gwynn went through his last contract battle with Moores when Larry Lucchino was still running the team. Theo Epstein, now running the Boston Red Sox, was a Lucchino understudy at the time Gwynn was upset with the Padres' offer.
Maybe big-league sports are finally hitting a tipping point when money isn't so loosely thrown around.
For the past three decades, TV money has fueled the excessive contracts. The question of whether teams could afford the contracts was answered by the next deal a player signed with another team for more money.
The Padres have apparently put a price tag on Hoffman's priceless value to the franchise. Hoffman should be around this franchise in the future as an ambassador. He's paid his dues since he came here in 1993 fostering good will in the community in the name of the franchise.
At the same time, Hoffman needs to realize what he's giving up by taking a few extra bucks to leave the Padres on bad terms.
They need to meet in a middle ground or they're going to squander the relationship they've developed with each other and the community.
Hoffman can still pitch for the Padres. He's not what he used to be, but he's still worth bringing in to close out games for another year.
This is what University of San Diego senior guard Brandon Johnson says he told fellow All-West Coast Conference pick Gyno Pomare when he learned the Toreros' senior center was suspended indefinitely.
"You can't put what I said to him," Johnson said. "It was R-rated."
USD men's basketball coach Bill Grier said Saturday night after the team's exhibition game win over Cal State Los Angeles that he has suspended indefinitely Pomare and sophomore forward Clint Houston for violating team rules in two unrelated incidents.
He added he suspended the players, as opposed to an automatic school suspension, which suggests there are no legal implications.
The suspensions take some of the luster off of the start of the 2008-09 season that begins Saturday at UNLV, a team on the bubble of being nationally ranked.
Pomare, a 6-foot-8, 240-pounder from Oceanside's El Camino High, is a two-time All-WCC pick that averaged 14.1 points and 7.4 rebounds.
Houston is a backup that played some of his best games at the end of his freshman year.
USD is coming off a season that included the Toreros' first win in an NCAA Tournament game. Pomare scored 22 points in the upset of Connecticut and then 20 points two days later in the second-round loss to Western Kentucky.
USD advanced to the NCAA in Grier's first season by winning the WCC Tournament title.
Grier, who turned down Oregon State to remain at USD, was succinct when asked if he was disappointed by the actions of Pomare and Houston.
"Very," he said, declining to elaborate more on the suspensions.
Late last week I asked University San Diego basketball coach Bill Grier if he deserved some of the credit should Barack Obama carry Oregon in the presidential election.
He waved me off with a laugh.
"I want no part of that question," he said, walking back onto the court.
Grier didn't make any public endorsements, but by turning down the Oregon State job, he did raise the Obama campaign's profile in Oregon.
Last April, Oregon State targeted Grier as its new basketball coach.
Grier, an Oregon native, was attractive to the school after he led the Toreros to the NCAA Tournament and an upset of Connecticut in his first season at USD.
The job was reportedly his for the asking, although Grier never said he officially turned down an Oregon State offer when he announced he would return to USD. By avoiding my Obama question, he didn't shed light on that job offer or publicly inject himself into politics.
A little later Oregon State hired Craig Robinson, who woke up today a "First Brother-in-Law" to the President-elect. Robinson's kid sister is Michelle Obama, our next First Lady. Robinson, who played at Princeton, was an assistant at Northwestern and a head coach at Brown.
Robinson introduced Obama at campaign appearances in Oregon, and at the Democratic National Convention, he took advantage of introducing his sister by wearing Oregon State's colors and mentioning his school as the pointed to the Oregon delegation.
Who knew Grier's coaching decisions held such national influence?
The Chargers, running of time in their 2008 season, made an aggressive move Tuesday to become a more aggressive defense.
The Bolts fired defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell on Tuesday and replaced him with linebackers coach Ron Rivera. They knew they needed to do something with their scheme, but head coach Norv Turner said he also decided to make a change on their staff.
The Chargers are 3-5 after Sunday's loss to New Orleans in London and have a bye week that allows additional time to adjust to the changes under Rivera.
"There are a lot of things that went into the decision," Turner said.
"There are areas that we just have to play better and we have to improve. Over the next ten days those are the areas that we are going to address. Hopefully we can not only show improvement right away but continue to improve over the next eight games."
The Chargers were playing too far off receivers while the front seven was failing to get pressure on the quarterback. The left New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees and Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards too much time to sit in the pocket and find open receivers.
Players had been hinting they wanted to play a more aggressive style of defense than Cottrell was drawing up in game plans. The Chargers, known as a physical defense in 2007, suddenly were considered a passive defense.
"I think our guys played it the best of their ability," Rivera said.
"Unfortunately we didn't make the plays when we had opportunities.
That's an unfortunate part of the game. We've just got to look at it and evaluate it and see which defenses we feel were better than the others and also look at what position the players were in. I think that's important because you want to continue to put the players in the best position to make plays."
By position, Rivera meant players weren't in the right position on the field.
Rivera coached a 4-3 defense with the Chicago Bears, but he said the Bolts will remain a base 3-4 defense this season. Don't be surprised, though, to see some 4-3 formations in certain situations.
Rivera interviewed as a head coach candidate in 2007 when the Bears didn't renew his contract after their Super Bowl season in 2006. One reason he accepted a step down as a linebackers coach with the Bolts was the former Cal linebacker wanted to learn the 3-4 system to build is resume as well as return to his West Coast roots.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a shift to a 4-3 defense next year, though. The Chargers went from a 4-3 to a 3-4 in 2004 because they felt they had more linebackers than linemen.
But that's next year. Without Rivera playing a more aggressive style, the Bolts were faced with the task of outscoring their opponents to make the playoffs.
The Chargers should beat Kansas City (twice), Oakland, Denver and Atlanta among their remaining games. That gets them to eight wins.
How they split games at Pittsburgh, home against Indianapolis and at Tampa Bay will determine if they can get away with winning the AFC West with a 9-7 record or need to get to 10-6.
The NFL season is so long, teams can look bad for a stretch and still come back to win a Super Bowl title, but the Chargers' defensive deficiencies are so glaring the Bolts may have reached the point they need to chart a new course for the offense.
Throw the ball. It's becoming painfully apparent after San Diego's
37-32 loss to New Orleans Sunday in London that the Chargers must outscore teams to win games. They can't gain the tough yards on the ground consistently enough to control the clock and finish drives.
Conventional wisdom, of course, is you have to establish the run. But the 2008 Chargers, with no pass rush to help the defensive backs, are starting to remind of the 1981 and 1982 Chargers.
Once the late Gene Klein foolishly traded away Fred Dean, a future Hall-of-Famer, the Bolts' defense went into decline without his pass rush. But the Chargers still won by outscoring teams to make the playoffs in the 1981 and 1982 seasons.
The 1981 team might have pulled off a Super Bowl season, but that was the year of the Ice Bowl at Cincinnati.
The Chargers' record dropped to 3-5, but if anybody thinks the AFC West-leading Denver Broncos (4-3) aren't going to lose at least six games this year, they aren't paying attention. And don't think the Oakland Raiders (2-5) or Kansas City Chiefs (1-6) are going to finish with 10 wins.
The Chargers should win their remaining four division games against the Broncos, Raiders and Chiefs (twice). That gets them to seven wins.
If they can outscore two or three of their other opponents (at Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Atlanta and at Tampa Bay), they can still win the division with nine or 10 wins.
I'm not going to blame the coaches, although the players are hinting they want to see more man-to-man press coverage of the wideouts. Most of time when a team struggles it's a matter of the players just not being good enough.
This defense, without linebackers Shawne Merriman
(injured) or Donnie Edwards (let go after the 2006 season), don't seem to have enough physical play to carry the the Chargers. They aren't forcing turnovers or getting sacks as they have in the past.
The Bolts have to compensate by opening up their offense with more formations that spread the field. It's not textbook football, but this team is missing too many pages to go by the book.
I know professional sports is a cold-hearted business without much room for loyalty or sentimentality.
But did the Los Angeles Lakers have to cut San Diego State alum Brandon Heath one day before the Lakers played their annual exhibition game at the Sports Arena on Tuesday against the Charlotte Bobcats?
Couldn't they wait one more day to let one of the Aztecs' all-time greats make an appearance? After all, they don't have their final roster cut down until Oct. 27.
The exhibition game a chance to appeal to San Diego's fans, and in this case it should have been a feel-good moment for San Diego State's fans.
Cutting Heath unceremoniously is a move I'd expect from the Los Angeles Clippers, the franchise that Donald Sterling hi-jacked from San Diego by driving it into the ground and then pleading he had to move it to Los Angeles for financial reasons.
Sterling is a guy from whom you'd expect a classless move, but we see the Lakers in San Diego as the good guys of the NBA.
At first, I was willing to dismiss the Lakers' move as simply a matter of it being pro sports. It's a business. But then I went to the Bobcats' locker room to interview Charlotte's Jared Dudley and ask him about his San Diego homecoming in the same game. Dudley, a backup forward from Horizon High, was granted a chance to start the game -- his first start of the preseason in his second NBA season.
And better than that, Dudley says veteran Gerald Wallace asked head coach Larry Brown to start Dudley in place of him. After all, it's just an exhibition game.
"I think Gerald talked to coach and they decided to let me start," Dudley said. "Gerald is an unselfish leader on our team, and it says a lot about our team that he would take upon himself to let me start."
I've pretty much quit watching the NBA since the game changed into a pushing-and-shoving match after the era of Magic, Larry and Michael. The Lakers' trip to San Diego didn't do anything to win me back, and I don't think I'm alone in that regard.
Sometimes I'm not sure if the Chargers try to make things too simple or too hard.
Why keep pounding LaDainian Tomlinson into the line of scrimmage when he's playing on a bad toe that limits his unique cutback ability? And why keep pounding him when there aren't holes against run blitzes or eight men in the box? Instead, let's see LT out in space to open things up.
Is it because the Chargers are being too stubborn to prove they can run the ball or because they're trying too hard to set up the pass?
I'm not sure which one it is, but I do know that it looks too much like the predictable play calling of Cam Cameron when he was Marty Schottenheimer's offense coordinator before Norv Turner took over last year as the head coach.
One reason Cameron failed as Miami's head coach in his 1-15 season in 2007 is he never adapted his offense to a lack of talent.
Look how new Dolphins coach Tony Sparano has squeezed two wins over the New England Patriots and the Chargers by adding the "Wildcat" formation to the playbook. It may be a gimmick, but it worked.
The Chargers don't need to panic, despite their 3-4 record as they head to London for Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints. But they do have to find more ways to spread the ball around if they're going to do more than make the playoffs.
Look what happened with the sudden production from wide receiver Malcom Floyd -- touchdowns the last two games -- once that happened the Bolts were forced to use him with the injuries to Chris Chambers and Buster Davis.
The Chargers need to spread the field more with combinations of Antonio Gates, Vincent Jackson, Chris Chambers, Buster Davis, Malcom Floyd, Legadu Naanee and Darren Sproles on the field.
And that's not even mentioning some guy named LT, who, you might recall, rushed for 1,645 yards and caught 100 passes for another 725 yards in the 2003 season.
That was a year the Chargers finished 4-12. Were they being creative by finding additional ways to get Tomlinson the ball? Or were they simply just giving him the ball as much as possible?
Come to think of it, that puts us right back where we are today. Are the Chargers making things too simple or too hard?
We'll know more by the time they come back from London, enjoy a bye week and then play at home Nov. 9 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Look what can happen when Chargers general manager A.J. Smith, head coach Norv Turner and the players don't listen to the "echo birds."
That's a term I borrowed from that noted NBC 7/39 football philosopher, Akbar Gbaja-Biamila. It refers to fans chirping on Internet message boards and sports talk radio shows.
The Chargers are now 3-3, and if they're not careful, they'll find themselves a full game behind the Denver Broncos (4-2) in the AFC West standings after the season's first six games with 10 to play.
When are the Chargers going to wake up? Imagine if NFL referee Ed Hochuli had swallowed his whistle in the Bolts' loss at Denver. Then the Chargers would find themselves 4-2 and the Broncos 3-3.
If the Chargers would learn to play as consistently as New England's players, they'd find themselves only a half game behind the Patriots (3-2).
And if Turner would learn to coach as smartly as Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, the Bolts and quarterback Philip Rivers, playing with injured ribs, wouldn't have lost on the road to the Miami Dolphins, 17-10. Instead, the Bolts might have lost 38-13 like the consistent Patriots and their genius coach did at home against the Dolphins.
If the Chargers would learn to be explosive as Indianapolis and quarterback Peyton Manning, they wouldn't find themselves a half-game behind the Colts (3-2). They would also have two wins at home in three tries this year instead of just one home win like the Colts.
If the Chargers would schedule as smart as their next opponent, the Buffalo Bills (4-1), they would have opened their season with four wins against teams with a combined record of 6-15 (Seattle, 1-4; Jacksonville, 3-3; Oakland, 1-4; and St. Louis, 1-4). No, the Chargers weren't that smart. They lost their three games to teams with a combined record of 10-7 (Carolina, 4-2; Denver, 4-2; and Miami, 2-3).
If the Chargers wouldn't listen to the "echo birds," they'll find themselves having scored only 178 points while giving up 139 after six games. They should be more like that team they'll face in London in two weeks. The New Orleans Saints (3-3) have scored 172 points and give up 133. And the Saints are just one missed field goal at Denver from being 4-2.
If the Chargers' front office would take some risks and sign talented bad actors like Terrell Owens and Pac-Man Jones, they might be 4-2 like the Dallas Cowboys. But A.J. didn't listen to the echo birds, and now his Bolts have one win less than the Cowboys. The Cowboys, after all, are a team that almost lost two in a row at home before they survived a scare against the winless Cincinnati Bengals.
If the Chargers had been to a Super Bowl just a couple of years ago like the Chicago Bears, or had the tradition of the Green Bay Packers, they would have 3-3 records like those two NFC North teams.
There are 16 teams in the AFC, the road the Chargers must travel to the Super bowl. Here's how the Chargers' three wins stack up in the conference:
-- 7 teams are behind the Chargers with two or fewer wins;
-- 4 teams are equal to the Chargers with three wins;
-- 3 teams have one more win than the Chargers with four;
-- 1 team, the Tennessee Titans, has a 5-0 record to build a two-game lead on the Chargers.
If the Titans go on to finish 16-0 and win the Super Bowl, then the echo birds will have been right. A.J., Turner and the players should try to be like Titans coach Jeff Fisher and his players.
Oh, by the way, Fisher's career winning percentage in 13 season entering this year is .537 (115-99).
What if the Chargers -- 45-19 with three AFC West titles since 2004 -- would learn to be more like other NFL teams and coaches?
Football coaches are constantly trying to keep up with the innovative offenses and defenses that make it a more competitive league than when dynasty like the Green Bay Packers and Vince Lombardi ruled.
Vince Lombardi and his Packers were the only coach and team that won all the big games.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick isn't exactly a chatty guy. He tries to say as little as possible when dealing with the media, even when obligated.
Belichick doesn't suffer fools, and 35-some years ago he no doubt nodded in agreement with Spiro Agnew when the then-vice president defended the Nixon Administration with his famous quote attacking "nattering nabobs of negativity."
But Kevin O'Connell, the Patriots rookie quarterback from San Diego State, was a subject Belichick didn't mind expanding upon just a few days before the Patriots' nationally televised game against the Chargers Sunday night at Qualcomm Stadium.
The question was about how well O'Connell, a third-round draft pick, was prepared for the NFL. Belichick's lengthy answer amounted to a filibuster.
"Kevin had had a lot of experience in the passing game, and I think that was certainly to his benefit," Belichick said. "Four years of a lot of passes in a passing league. Most of those, however, were in the shotgun.
"Kevin has had to work on the transition from always being in the shotgun to just being in the shotgun a small percentage of the time, getting his mechanics and footwork under center, play-action and things like that which are considerably different reading it from there than it is from six yards from the line of scrimmage, drop back passes all the time, throwing different types of routes.
"It's a different offense, different throwing mechanics, different ball handling, a little different way of reading defenses. But he's made good progress and Kevin has worked hard at it. He's a smart kid. He's picked things up pretty quickly the things that are new to him. He's coming along."
On Sunday, O'Connell will dress in his old locker room -- NFL visiting teams use the Aztecs' locker room at Qualcomm -- and trot out onto his home field the last four years.
The difference will be he's wearing a blue and silver Patriots jersey with No. 5 instead of his familiar red and black No. 7.
"It's interesting; I never thought about coming back to this stadium as a member of the Patriots playing against the Chargers," O'Connell said. "I'm really looking forward to it."
O'Connell was supposed to spend his rookie year as the No. 3 quarterback learning from a future Hall of Famer, Tom Brady. But a knee injury that ended Brady's season in the opener has O'Connell one snap from taking over as New England's No. 2.
It says much about the Patriots' confidence in O'Connell that they didn't go out and sign a veteran quarterback to back up Matt Cassell, the new starter. Second-year pro Matt Gutierrez, who was let go after training camp, was re-signed as the No. 3 quarterback.
"I was looking forward to watching Tom play and watching him take me through a week, Monday through Sunday," O'Connell said. "Now I'm enjoying watching Matt in the role of leading the team. The main thing for me is to get acclimated as much as I can with what we do."
O'Connell made his NFL debut in the Patriots' third game, a 38-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins. He came in late in the game was 3-of-4 for 25 yards without needing to test his running ability against NFL speed.
"I was happy with the way I played, but I definitely have a lot to work on," O'Connell said. "Things can get going very fast. There are so many things going on for every snap and you have to have a good mindset for knowing what you're doing."
O'Connell was home for an Aztecs game two weeks ago when the Patriots had a bye, and he was invited to take part in the coin toss before San Diego State's win over Idaho at Qualcomm.
"I've been able to keep in touch, and I was excited with how they played well early this year," O'Connell said. "They could have come out of it 3-1. For the most part, they're still a young team, but I think they can surprise some people before the year is over."
As a Patriot, O'Connell returns home with a team Chargers' fans have learned to hate the last two seasons, but he says he has confidence in San Diego sports fans.
"I think I've been around the city long enough that some Chargers fans will have a soft spot for me," O'Connell said. "I'm sure there will be a chorus of boos for the uniform, but I'll have plenty of family and friends there."
If Belichick likes O'Connell enough to offer a lengthy quote to the San Diego media, then we can expect that this won't be his last homecoming in a Patriots uniform.
The U.S. Olympic Committee last week named Lawrence Probst as its new chairman, even though he was first contacted to join the USOC board just "six or seven months ago" by his own recollection.
Probst is the chairman of Electronic Arts, the world's leading video games company. His resume is in line with USOC's goals of operating with the business sense of a successful corporation.
If Probst is looking for advice for how to better utilize the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, he need not look further than San Diego's golden girl, Monique Henderson.
The three-time Olympian and two-time gold medalist should be the cover girl for the OTC's marketing campaign, and not because at least one prominent athlete I know of saw her picture at the San Diego Hall of Champions (my day job) and thought it was a photo of Naomi Campbell.
Henderson, unlike most Olympians, has used the OTC as her training base ever since the Morse High alumnus returned home from her All-American career at UCLA. She added a 2008 gold medal in the 4x400 relay at Beijing to the gold she brought home from the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
"I'm so lucky it's down here in San Diego," Henderson said. "My family lives in Bonita, and I found a place between the two (family and the OTC). It's the per fect situation. I go from the track to the weight room."
The trouble with the OTC is when it opened, it was irrelevant to Olympians such as Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson or even basketball's Dream Team. That class of athletes stays in five-star hotels, not OTC dorm rooms.
But athletes at the middle, low or non-existent level of endorsements deals can use all the facilities to maximize their potential.
Henderson was one of only five athletes from the OTC to claim medals in
2008 -- two in track and three in BMX cycling (two men, one woman).
In fact, Henderson recruited the other track medalist, former UCLA teammate Sheena Tosta. She won the silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles.
"She was having trouble in L.A. finding a track she could train on and place she could get treatment for her body," Henderson said. "It was costing her a fortune. I told her everything (at the OTC) is free and you can't lose -- it's in San Diego. She came down here, used the facilities and earned a silver medal."
The U.S. women's field hockey team also recently moved its base from Virginia Beach, Va., to the OTC, and the team's overall performance improved. The U.S. women qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 1988 and placed fifth after entering the Beijing Games ranked 11th in a 12-team field.
The OTC can appeal to more athletes by targeting the right athletes as well as educating the general public on which athletes use it. Making sporting events open for the public to attend wouldn't be a bad idea, either.
"I tell everyone it's an ideal situation," Henderson said. "I think it's underutilized. It's a great place to train in a remote area. It does what it was built for -- 100 percent."
That seemed to be a good question for what took so long for the Padres to announce manager Bud Black would return in 2009. By not announcing earlier in the month that Black wouldn't be the fall guy for 99 losses in 2008, the Padres allowed speculation to fester.
Would the Padres' brass really let him go because he didn't follow a so-called manual of the organization's philosophy on how many pitches to take before swinging?
Black had some fun with the philosophy question when it was finally announced on Monday he would return and Black and general manager Kevin Towers met with the media in the dugout at Petco Park.
Black recalled a philosophy class he took at San Diego State in which the professor asked students on an exam just one question.
"He wrote on the chalkboard, 'Why?' Black said. "One guy turned in his answer in about 15 seconds. I asked him later what he wrote. He said he wrote 'Why not?' And he got an A. I wrote four or five pages and got a C."
It turns out Towers -- and by extension team president Sandy Alderson and owner John Moores -- isn't a nutty professor. He had more than one question for Black when the two talked Sept. 21 in Los Angeles during the series against the Dodgers.
"We met for about four or five hours," Towers said. "I told him what I thought went wrong this year and asked him what he thought. I was comfortable with the responses I got back from him that we're on the same page about where the breakdown was."
"That was enough for me to go back to Sandy and John and tell them we need to keep this guy."
Black says the issue is whether he buys into the so-called "moneyball" philosophy of working the count for the right pitch and getting walks to increase on-base percentage.
"We want to develop pitch recognition throughout the system," Black said. "We want aggressive hitters ready to hit their pitch, and that's especially true in rookie ball and low A ball. We want to ensure they hit strikes and take balls."
So why fuel the speculation there was a rift between Black and the organization? Even after hitting coach Wally Joyner resigned Sept. 22 and expressed a difference in philosophy on how to coach hitting, they left the issue in doubt.
We know the Padres aren't a knee-jerk reaction organization, so I think it has more to do with the Padres deciding they were going to follow a certain procedure, and speculation in the media wasn't forcing them to move up their time schedule.
It might have been the smart thing to do, especially with all the doubt surrounding the franchise's future with the owner's divorce proceedings. But maybe it just made them more stubborn to wait until after the final game.
There really isn't a mystery as to why the Padres weren't very good this year. They didn't have good players. Or more specifically, too many players that didn't to play up to the front office's best-case scenario.
They were hoping for big years from Scott Harriston, Khalil Greene, Jim Edmonds, Tadhito Iguchi and a bullpen to get the ball to Trevor Hoffman in the ninth inning.
They struck out on all five counts, but I don't blame them for trying to squeeze one more year out of contending for a National League West title with their core players.
First baseman Adrian Gonzalez is an All-Star, outfielder Brian Giles is a pro's pro and third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff is a No. 6 hitter with 20-plus homeruns miscast by default as a No. 5 hitter by necessity.
Towers said discussions have begun to bring Hoffman back for another year.
The gamble didn't work, and now they begin re-tooling the lineup with younger players in their minor leagues in 2009 instead of wondering if they pulled the plug too soon in 2008.
"The challenge is to get this turned around like we did from '03 to '04," Towers said. "I think we're in a better position now than we were then. We have more young players in our system and we have our core players. We have young people other teams want in trades."
The Oakland Raiders and their owner Al Davis, who collectively represent everything that is evil in sports, are finally getting what they deserve.
The Chargers are heavy favorites to win Sunday when they play the Raiders at Oakland, and why wouldn't they be? The Raiders are being mocked around the country as a bad football team and a dysfunctional organization.
What took so long?
The Raiders are the ones who popularized black uniforms that gangs embraced and celebrated.
Before long, respectable pro sports teams were incorporating black into their uniforms. The St. Louis Cardinals wore black baseball hats, even though black isn't a team color. That's just one example of gang-style clothing inspired by the Raiders creeping into the mainstream.
The Raiders and Al Davis are the ones who popularized the expression, "Just win, baby!"
In other words, bend the rules, flat out cheat and set examples of poor sportsmanship. And then laugh about how you got away with it. Never mind the negative trickle-down effect on high school and youth sports.
Sports talk radio personalities latched on to the expression as a gimmick to talk about on the air, spreading the word among impressionable fans. They celebrated the Raider way. Never mind they denigrated everything good about sports.
The Raiders are the ones who popularized milking public tax dollars from schools and fixing roads to remodel stadiums. They did it when they moved from Los Angeles to Oakland and then back to Oakland. In between, Davis suckered Irwindale, Calif. in to paying him millions for the possibility to move the Raiders up the freeway from the Coliseum.
"Genius," the Raiders players chanted in the locker room after they won the Super Bowl in 1980 by beating the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now we know Davis is nothing more than an eccentric old man who is spoiling the proud legacy he built, but we're stuck with this "genius" label being thrown loosely around within all sports.
For example, after Eric Mangini was called a genius in 2006 after he went 10-6 with Herm Edwards players. "Man-Genious," they said. Yeah, right. Try saying that now.
Remember how Davis was always accused of interfering with the head coaches' game plans? The coaches and players always denied it. Even after they left the Raiders organization, they wouldn't admit it.
Now people are finally admitting Davis interferes with the team. There was an interesting interview Thursday with former Raiders head coach Tom Flores on XX Sports Radio.
Flores, now a commentator for Raiders radio broadcasts, admitted Davis always interferes. He explained it was that way when he played for Davis, so people brought up in the Raider system accepted it. I was stunned to hear him admit it. He must figure Al is so out of it, word won't get back to him about what he said.
But Davis has brought in so many outside coaches in recent years, and he can't get away it anymore. Plus, he has apparently lost his ability to judge football talent.
Here's one more story, and then I'll get off this rant about Al Davis and the Raiders. I heard it from a former Raiders assistant coach.
La'Roi Glover, the former Point Loma High and San Diego State defensive lineman, started his career with the Raiders in 1996, but was cut after one season.
A couple of years later Glover, who is now a six-time Pro Bowler in his 13th NFL season with the St. Louis Rams, played against the Raiders as a member of the New Orleans Saints. Glover, exacting his own revenge, had a monster game, blowing up the Raiders' offense line from the first snap.
When the coaches watched film on Monday -- with Davis present as always -- Davis kept muttering out loud, "Can't anybody block him?" each time Glover made a play.
The coaches, under their breaths, kept muttering, "He used to be on this team, Al."
That's the Al that used to be considered the clever guy who was a step ahead of everyone. Now we know the Raiders are what they are -- and that they represent everything evil about sports.
Norv Turner opened his post-game comments stating the defense set the tone of the game. He felt it was the reason Chargers beat the New York Jets 48-29 Monday night at Qualcomm Stadium.
"When (the Jets) have an interception for a touchdown and kickoff return to the 5-yard line, and those are their only points of the half
-- we only gave up 80 yards in the first half (84 actually) -- well, we got back to the way we play," Turner said.
Then somebody reminded Turner that second-year wide receiver Buster Davis -- coming off an unproductive rookie year -- kept two early scoring drives alive for a 10-7 lead with three third-down catches over the middle that totaled 43 yards.
"I'm glad you reminded me of that," Turner said. "That is something that set the tone for the game. He’s a talented young player, but he’s had unfortunate injuries. It was a big lift he gave us. I think he’s going to be an exciting player for us. Sometimes it takes young guys a little longer. He’s doing that, and he stepped up big tonight."
So which one set the tone, Norv? The defense or Buster?
It's not that Turner was confused; it’s just that he had a choice this week, unlike those two season-opening losses to Carolina and Denver when the Chargers’ defense gave up big yardage and dramatic winning touchdowns.
The Chargers' defense wasn't dominating against the Jets -- it gave up
308 total yards. But it forced three turnovers, including an interception return for a touchdown by cornerback Antonio Cromartie.
If the Chargers can hold their opponents without a scoring drive in the first half, the offense can build big leads as it did against the Jets.
The Chargers have scored 110 points in their first three games. Only the 1981 Bolts, with Hall-of-Famers Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow and Charlie Joiner and Chuck Muncie, a running back with Hall-of-Fame talent wiped out by drug problems, have scored more in their first three games.
You can gripe about the big plays the Jets put together or their long kick returns -- and plenty of you will -- but that’s football, especially in this era of parity. Turner said a focus this week will be fixing those problems before Sunday's game at the Oakland Raiders.
But the offense doesn't need to be fixed. It just needs to get healthy.
It's put up 110 points without full production from running back LaDainian Tomlinson, a future Hall-of-Famer, and tight end Antoino Gates, a Hall-of-Famer at the pace he's producing, fully healthy.
One reason is quarterback Philip River, now in his fifth NFL season and third as a starter, is playing at the highest level of his career.
"They doubled our outside receivers and every one doubles Gatesy,"
Turner said. "When they do that, (Davis) ends up in can single coverage. Philip has done a great job of moving in the pocket, which he's done in each game to buy a little extra time. He was getting the ball to (Davis)."
Hey, maybe it was actually Rivers who set the tone.
Sam Posner, a Torrey Pines High teacher who has long served as the public address announcer at the school's football games, was attempting to decipher a confusing situation.
Oddly enough, his description at the microphone Friday night turned out to be quite similar to one that legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg attempted to provide his audience during the Chargers-Broncos game broadcast Sunday afternoon on CBS.
That's not a bad thing to have somebody say about you.
But more importantly, because what happened in the Torrey Pines game Friday night with a referee's whistle was similar to the Chargers' game at Denver, Torrey Pines football coach Scott Ashby had a little easier time explaining it all to his teenage players.
"I did help," Ashby said. "I told our young men that we made our fair share of mistakes in the game, and the referee made a mistake with a quick whistle. You just have to realize everybody makes mistakes and try to overcome it and move on to the next game."
Chargers fans who watched the Bolts' 39-38 loss at Denver know all about referee Ed Hochuli blowing a call when he ruled a fumble as an incomplete pass and stopped play with a whistle.
Everyone was confused, and Enberg admitted he didn't know why the referees placed the ball at the 10-yard line before resuming play.
That's similar to what Posner said, too, when everyone was confused that the referee in the Eastlake-Torrey Pines game spotted the ball at the Eastlake 40-yard line after Torrey Pines running back Brock Ringo had run around end and scored an apparent touchdown. Ringo was holding the ball aloft in the end zone when the referees instructed him to bring the ball back.
"They're putting the ball at the 40-yard line, and I don't know why," Posner told the fans at Falcon Field, which, by the way, should be re-named John Lynch Field for the future Hall-of-Famer once he officially retires.
Torrey Pines runs a Wing-T offense that relies on deception, and what happened is fullback Robert Murray carried out his fake so well into the middle of the line, the referees blew the play dead when Eastlake's defenders gang-tackled him. But Ringo was on his way to the end zone before anyone realized the fullback didn't have the ball.
I didn't know what happened, and neither did Curt Stephenson, a La Jolla High alum who knows a lot more football than me as a former Buffalo Bills and University of Michigan wide receiver. He provides color analysis for the Torrey Pines radio broadcasts, and he pulled off his headset and exclaimed, "Can you believe that?"
Similar to Hochuli admitting his mistake to Chargers head coach Norv Turner, Ashby said the referee (sorry, I don't have his name, so Torrey Pines fans might be disappointed that they can't flood his e-mail box similar to poor Hochuli) admitted his mistake before play resumed.
"My reaction was utter helplessness," Ashby said. "You know it's a mistake, but you also know there is no recourse. They (the referees) felt very bad about it. All you can do in that situation is own up to your mistake, and they acted very professionally."
The mistake wasn't nearly as costly in the Torrey Pines game - on the scoreboard or, of course, in financial terms in the billion-dollar business of the NFL. Eastlake, ranked No. 8 in the CIF San Diego Section, won convincingly, 35-17, so the whistle didn't change who won the contest.
But it did make it easier for Ashby to get his players to accept what happened and move on to this week's game against Rancho Bernardo.
"I was working, preparing for the next game, so I didn't see it happen on TV, but I did see the highlights later," Ashby said of the Chargers' game. "It just goes to show you that it happens at every level."
Pro athletes do such a disservice to high school coaches by setting bad examples - from fighting to taunting to excessive celebrating -- that at least this is one time when pro sports made life easier for a high school coach.
Chargers head coach Norv Turner will never be confused with Jimmy Johnson, his boss when he was an assistant on Johnson's staff with the Super Bowl-champion Dallas Cowboys.
He will never be confused with Super Bowl ring-sporting Bill Parcells, his old NFL coaching rival.
But just because Turner isn't as effusive as Johnson or as ornery as Parcells doesn't mean he can't break down a football game, recognize what went wrong and know how to try to fix it.
That's what I listen for when Turner meets with the media for his post-mortem. That's what more fans should listen for instead of making snap judgments they've picked up on Internet message boards or sports talk radio.
If Turner had Johnson's personality, he could bluff his way through interviews with clichés and one-liners without explaining much about football. If he had Parcells' personality, he wouldn't suffer fools gladly in interviews.
But Turner is just a football coach -- that's all he wants to be -- who lacks the type of personality that keeps frustrated fans coming back. One of the first observations Turner made following Sunday's 39-38 loss to the Denver Broncos was that it reminded him of the Chargers' 31-24 loss to Green Bay last year, which dropped the Chargers' record to 1-2.
If you'll recall, Green Bay's then-quarterback Brett Favre passed the Chargers silly at Lambeau Field, similar to Denver quarterback Jay Cutler did Cornerback Antonio Cromartie was a victim against Favre and Cutler.
"It reminded me of our Green Bay game in a lot of ways," Turner said. "There are things I look at where we need to get better; we need to get better in all three phases. We can get better. A lot of the plays it was one guy out of position or one guy a step away from getting pressure. Those are things we can improve upon."
After that game, the Chargers eventually improved, struggling at 5-5 before they won their final six regular season games and two playoff games before losing in the AFC Championship game.
This time a year ago Denver's defensive players were lamenting their inability to stop the run. Denver never did shore up its defense, but do you think it was because Mike Shanahan and his staff forgot how to coach? They tried a lot of things that didn't work until they had a chance to re-tool the roster in the offseason.
Turner and his staff know they have to get a better pass rush on defense. They know they have to do it without Shawne Merriman, the three-time Pro Bowler lost for the season with knee surgery.
"One of the things that helped us turn it around a year ago is we got better on coverage, and we made the most of our opportunities to create turnovers," Turner said. "That's the biggest difference between now and the high level we were playing last year. We have to create more of a pass rush and when we have opportunities for turnovers, we have to make them."
He was asked how much the Chargers' pass rush missed Merriman.
"That's impossible to say, and I'm not going to answer it and get into it every week," said Turner, getting about as close to a snippy Parcells as you'll see him.
So it's back to work. Maybe the Chargers will find what's missing like they did a year ago. Maybe they'll never overcome the loss of Merriman's pass rush, just as Denver was unable to stop the run a year ago.
Who knows? Turner may not entertain us like Jimmy Johnson or ignore us like Bill Parcells when trying to explain what went wrong in a game, but to say he doesn't know what he's doing is a snap judgment that shouldn't be taken seriously.
Maybe next year, the NFL Competition Committee will decide to allow referees to watch the network telecast if NFL replay equipment fails. Maybe they'll decide that if a referee mistakenly whistles a play dead and then determines that the subsequent action resulted in a change of possession, they have the discretion to decide who should be awarded the ball.
Maybe next year.
The Chargers found themselves in both of those circumstances on Sunday, leading to a 39-38 loss to the Denver Broncos. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has already stated that the league will review the plays for possible rule changes.
"As for things that occurred during the game, in my mind, they're done," Chargers head coach Norv Turner said. "We sent the plays ... that we had in question. We expect to get a response back. Anything that we talk about or anything that is discussed in terms of any of the rules or any of the calls isn't going to change the outcome of that game. That game is going to be 39-38, forever."
The first blown call occurred when the referees ruled what appeared to be a completed pass (from Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers to wide receiver Chris Chambers) an interception, though replays showed Denver cornerback Champ Bailey pulling the ball away after both were on the ground. Denver was awarded the ball at the 28-yard line and quickly converted the possession into a touchdown.
But the replays were the network replays. The NFL replay equipment failed.
"That was tough to swallow because it turned into seven points," Rivers said. "You'd like to think there is a backup plan. You've got every TV angle paused and highlighted and four jumbotrons in the stadium that can show it."
But the bigger play in the game came in the final minute when an inadvertent whistle turned a fumble by Denver quarterback Jay Cutler into an incomplete pass. Denver retained possession and scored a touchdown and two-point conversion for the one-point victory.
"It's a point blank missed call," Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. "So many people are affected by it. That's the thing that's most disappointing. It's not just us -- it's our families, the fans. Everybody is affected by the call. A prime example is when I called my wife after the game, and she was crying, all because of a call. It happens, but it's huge."
In 2007, the NFL changed the "down-by-contact" rule so that such a fumble ruling could be a reviewable play. The same could happen with the pass/fumble rule in 2009.
Usually, an inadvertent whistle involves a play during which the referee is fooled on a misdirection play in which player with the ball is running away from the scene of the falsely-blown whistle.
But in Sunday's particular play, the ball was bouncing away from Cutler and Chargers linebacker Tim Dobbins, who recovered the ball before it went out of bounds. No other player was near the ball and, thus, no other player was confused by a whistle.
A new rule in 2009 should allow the referee to interpret what happened and make amends for the inadvertent whistle.
But that will help the 2008 Chargers as much as the 1978 Chargers were aided by a new fumble rule after the Oakland Raiders pulled off the "holy roller" play to beat the Chargers 21-20. In this game, Raiders quarterback Kenny Stabler "threw" a fumble before he was sacked, and Pete Banazsak kicked the ball forward while pretending to be grasping for it. Dave Casper advanced it with his own stumbling grasp before finally falling on it in the end zone for a touchdown.
By 1979, there was a new rule in place that prevented such a fumble from being advanced.
But, like Turner said in reference to the 39-38 loss in 2008, the 1978 Oakland-San Diego score has remained 21-20 "forever."
We're about to find out how good the Chargers' defense is without Shawne Merriman applying pass rush pressure.
Merriman, a three-time Pro Bowler who had hoped to play as long as possible this season on his injured knee, informed the Chargers Tuesday he would undergo season-ending surgery to repair torn ligaments.
Merriman didn't have a sack -- as a team, the Chargers had only one sack -- in the Bolts' season-opening upset loss Sunday to the Carolina Panthers.
The Chargers released a statement from general manager A.J. Smith:
"Shawne informed me he did not feel right (on the field) and thought it best to shut it down. The road to winning the AFC West just got more difficult, but not impossible. Nothing is impossible. Shawne is a great player and an inspirational leader. He will be missed. We wish him a successful surgery and a speedy recovery."
We're also about to find out how strong Jyles Tucker is as a linebacker. He started the 2007 season on the practice squad as an undrafted free agent.
But he sure looked good as Merriman's replacement at the end of last season, especially in the Oakland game when he had three sacks, forcing a fumble on one he recovered for a touchdown, and was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week.
On the other side is "The Other Guy," a label Shaun Phillips got saddled with while playing in Merriman's shadow. Phillips will draw more double-teams, but this is also his opportunity.
He can make a Pro Bowl simply by duplicating his past seasons that were overshadowed by Merriman's play. After all, he got his label when an opposing coach said "the other guy's pretty good, too."
At the end of the preseason, Merriman visited doctors around the country for opinions on whether he could play on the knee. He has a torn posterior cruciate ligament and a tear in the lateral collateral ligament.
A tear to the anterior cruciate ligament, like the season-ending one suffered by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Sunday, is more serious and requires surgery before play can resume.
Merriman's decision to attempt to play this season goes back to what I said in an earlier blog. Football is still a game for him. He wanted to play. He ignored those who say that the game is a business and he was risking future injury.
How can you criticize the guy for that? Plenty did, and will continue to find fault with how he approached this season, but I don't know why.
Internet message boards are buzzing. Sports radio shows are talking. Blogs are blogging.
San Diego State fans are angry at Chuck Long for the Aztecs' season-opening loss to Cal Poly.
But I wonder if it's true that the times have changed in sports and we really do live in harsher times? Or are the snap judgments simply more instantaneous and available to public debate?
Let me take you back to 1977 on Notre Dame's campus. History tells that Notre Dame won the national championship under Dan Devine that season with a 38-10 upset of then-No. 1-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
But the weekend Notre Dame was scheduled to play Michigan State was just two weeks after the Irish had lost to Mississippi. That defeat turned out to be the only loss of the year, but it came in the second week of the season -- after Devine's first two teams finished 8-3 and 9-3.
Remember, this is back in the day when a three-loss record at Notre Dame was considered a losing season. Devine had fewer backers then than Charlie Weis does now, after coaching the Irish to a 3-9 record last year.
Also, know that Devine had arrived at Notre Dame after being run out of Green Bay as the Packers' head coach. Legend has it that a Packers fan shot and killed the family dog, although the veracity of that story has been disputed.
Consider this, though: Today, even Internet posters and sports talk radio hosts would say it's unbelievable. But back then, since the rumor continued to spread, people must have nodded their heads and agreed, "Yeah, that's possible."
Anyway, back to the Oct. 1 Michigan State-Notre Dame game, which I remember like it was yesterday. I never saw anything like then or since. I was a student at Michigan State, writing for my college newspaper, when a friend who attended Notre Dame showed me around campus.
When we passed the basketball arena, I noticed that painted on the curb, designating parking spots, were the names of the football coaches.
Dan Devine's name was crossed out with bold black paint.
That night we went to the pep rally at the old basketball field house. The band was playing the Notre Dame Victory March, and student-thrown streamers flew back and forth. The atmosphere was electric.
Then Ross Browner, Notre Dame's All-American defensive end, stood up on stage to speak.
"We know we're going to win tomorrow because we have the best fans!" he said to roars from the students.
"We know we're going to win because have the best offense!" Louder roars.
"We know we're going to win because we have the best defense!" Still louder roars.
"We know we're going to win because have the best coaches!"
Total silence.
I was about to burst out laughing until I saw all the serious looks on the faces surrounding me. In an instant, the mood went from joyous to hostile.
To the students' credit, they didn't boo as Browner stammered on stage before generating excitement again. This lack of boos, maybe, is the one difference between then and now.
The next day, the game was close until Devine pulled quarterback Rusty Lisch and sent in some backup named Joe Montana. A buzz came over the press box, not to mention the stadium crowd. Montana trotted into the huddle and led the Irish to a 16-6 win.
Two weeks later, No. 5-ranked USC traveled to No. 11 Notre Dame. That's when Devine worked some magic, changing his legacy from reviled to worshiped.
He had his players warm up in traditional blue jerseys, only to return to the locker room to find green jerseys. When they emerged from the tunnel dressed in green, the place went nuts. Notre Dame won 49-19.
In today's climate, former Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham didn't survive after three years. Weis may not see a fourth season if he doesn't turn around last year's record.
We know that Joe Montana and green jerseys helped Devine earn a fourth year at Notre Dame and a place in Irish lore.
But what if he'd had to contend with the Internet and sports talk radio and the snap judgments that fuel criticism and spread like wildfire?
The story swirling around Chargers Pro Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman -- should he or shouldn't he play this year -- reminds me of a scene from the 1979 movie "North Dallas Forty."
The late John Matuszak, a former defensive lineman with the Raiders and a monster of a man, is raging at an assistant coach about the issue of playing with injuries as the team dressed for a big game.
"Every time we say it's a game, you say it's a business! Every time we say it's a business, you say it's a game!"
Now that Merriman, who will eventually need reconstructive knee surgery, has decided he will play on his wounded knee in the season opener Sept. 7, some NFL pundits and fans are essentially saying, "Shawne, it's a business. Don't risk further injury and multi-million dollar contracts."
Merriman, though, is saying, "It's a game. I'm a football player. I want to be part of a possible Super Bowl season."
How can you fault the guy for that? Did anybody call Philip Rivers a fool when it was revealed he played in the AFC Championship game on a knee that needed surgery after the season?
My guess is Merriman probably won't make it through the season, but barring the bad luck of a catastrophic injury -- which could happen even if his knee was 100 percent -- he will be back negotiating multi-million dollar contracts in the future.
Merriman knows the deal -- that later in life he'll probably be getting knee replacements. Willie Buchanon, the great Chargers and Green Bay Packers cornerback from San Diego State and Oceanside High, had two knee replacements at the same time in April and says he's walking around better than he has in years.
I saw Art Powell, the great wide receiver from San Diego High who was one of the American Football League's all-time great wide receivers in the 1960s with the Oakland Raiders, recently. We were talking about his grandson, Alec Williams, a San Diego State-bound basketball recruit.
Williams is a 6-foot-6, 245-pound "small forward," so naturally I asked Powell with a body like that why his grandson wasn't playing football.
"Because I wouldn't let him," said Powell, referring to the injuries football players suffer without the guaranteed contracts of basketball and baseball players.
There's no way to tell from Matuszak's lines in North Dallas Forty if "The Tooz," as he was known, would have played or not in Merriman's situation.
My guess is he would have played. When you're that big, that strong and having that much fun playing a game, it overrides the business aspect.
Shawne Merriman is no one's fool. He' knows what he's doing.
Our media partner, NBC 7/39, has this report about Stephen Strasburg, a pitcher for my alma mater, San Diego State and, now, an Olympic bronze medalist. You can check out all NBC's coverage of local Olympians here.
The Chargers preseason match-up against the Seattle Seahawks ended in dramatic fashion Monday, with a two-point conversion in the final minutes of the game giving the Bolts an 18-17 victory. Here's a selection of photos from the game:
The Padres and Chargers couldn't even win this one.
Forbes magazine has ranked San Diego the second-worst major metropolitan city for sports fans, saying its high ticket prices and low winning percentages put San Diego only behind Miami on its list of worst cities to be a sports fan.
From the magazine:
Throw in a $38,632 median household income for the greater Miami area, fifth-lowest of the 29 markets, along with a $292.50 price tag for a family of four to see a game, and the city's pro sports scene ranks as the worst deal in the country by our accounting. That's what happens when the NBA Heat and NFL Dolphins combine to go 16-82 during the 2007-08 season, more than offsetting the competitiveness of baseball's young Florida Marlins.
Lining up behind Miami for the booby prize are San Diego ($300 a game for a family of four; .425 combined winning percentage for the Chargers and Padres), Indianapolis (a lower-income market with middle-of-the-road ticket prices) and New York (second-highest prices in the country for teams that lose just over half their games, the Super Bowl champion Giants not withstanding).
This is how the magazine calculated the index:
In figuring the toughest cities in which to be sports fans over the past year, we compared the latest median household income figures from the Census Bureau to the Fan Cost Index for each team compiled by Team Marketing. Those metros with the lowest ratios of income to ticket cost were deemed most expensive for fans. Those ratios were then compared to team performance, with regular season won-lost records and playoff outcomes combined for all teams in a given city.
"The draft has never been anything but a f------ crapshoot. We take 50 guys and we celebrate if two of them make it. In what other business is 2-for-50 a success? If you did that in the stock market, you'd go broke." -- Billy Beane
While 2003 may have been the end to an era, it would be difficult to argue that much had changed following the 2004 Amateur Draft. In a draft where the executive decisions were inexplicably carried out by owner John Moores, the Padres drafted local Mission Bay High School product, Matt Bush. The team immediately felt the return of their $3.15 million investment when, 13 days later, Bush was arrested in a night club scuffle under suspicion of "felony assault, and misdemeanor trespass and disorderly conduct ... [and] underage drinking." What's worse, the dude's a biter.
The move was immediately scrutinized as many believed it was merely predicated due to a financial bottom line as opposed to acquiring top shelf talent. While this isn't necessarily a fair assessment (Bush was considered a Top 10 prospect in many circles and the Padres weren't the only team who refused to pay premium prices for first round picks), the move ushered in a new philosophy and face for the front office:
John Moores rebuilt the Padres' entire draft and development department, from the top down. Sandy Alderson, former executive with Major League Baseball became a part owner and team CEO. Grady Fuson, who nearly worked his way to general manager in the Texas Rangers' system due to his extensive experience as a scout and talent evaluator, was named Padres director of scouting. Paul DePodesta, former executive vice president and general manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers, became Padres special assistant for baseball operations.
The franchise distanced itself from frivolous spending and settled with modest payrolls ranked either near or below the Major League average; fan favorites left via free agency. While the casual fan saw departing players and the concept of a modest player payroll as a black mark upon the franchise, the team began a new approach to the draft to create an advantage.
Since the move to Petco Park, the Padres have struggled promoting from within due to years of neglect that relegated their farm system near useless, ranking near the worst in the league up until this past season (courtesy of Baseball America):
2005: 27th 2006: 29th 2007: 29th 2008: 12th
The marked improvement can definitely be attributed to the new franchise philosophy and although this couldn't happen overnight, the franchise continues to exhaust every effort in order to restock their depleted farm system. The methods in which Alderson and company sought to improve this franchise were dubbed by sportswriter Tom Krasovic as "Sandyball," and simply reiterated the importance of acquiring extra draft picks in any way possible:
[Getting extra draft picks] is done by offering salary arbitration to a free agent who played for your club the previous season. If the player declines and signs with another team, the original club gets one or two high-end picks in the next June amateur draft. Under Alderson, the Padres have obtained 12 extra picks, including seven in 2007 and another three for the upcoming June draft. From 2000-2005, they had two extra picks. "The farm system has improved," Alderson said. "That's partly because of more draft picks. But it's also partly more effective use of draft picks."
The method -- from the standpoint of retooling the farm system -- worked. As outlined above, over the past three years the Padres have hoarded sandwich picks more than at any other point in franchise history and, in that time, selected more players in the first three rounds than any other team in baseball.
Money allocated for contracts to Padres' draft picks is also far more significant than in years past. In 2007, the Padres managed to sign all but one of their 12 first-day draft picks and this year they not only had a successful Amateur Draft, but they locked up an additional $4.8 million in player contracts during the International Draft -- which, not so coincidentally, is the first year in which the Padres' $8.5 million scouting facility in the Dominican Republic has been open. That total, according to a report in the Union Tribune, was approximately five times their normal amount, "as the Padres spend about $1 million during the international signing period." Of the five players taken that day, all four that played in Latin America made ESPN's Top 12 "Best Latino Prospects of 2008" list.
The hope is that their growth and maturity as a franchise continues with an unshakable focus for sustained future prosperity, no matter how the major league squad is playing at the moment. With this front office and the impressions they've made through their accomplishments, there's reason to be optimistic.
Our media partner, NBC 7/39, has video of the family and friends of Tiffany Snow, the local Olympian who I had the privilege to meet and photograph for this story.
Sorry my Voice posts have become an All-Burgener sports page, but when I called Mike Burgener for a former college football player and Marine's perspective on San Diego State practicing at Camp Pendleton, I had to ask him about his son, too.
Casey Burgener, if you didn't hear, qualified for the USA Olympic men's weightlifting team on May 17 at the Olympic trials in Atlanta when he finished third in the super heavyweight division.
At least that's what Burgener, 25, thought.
The Rancho Buena Vista High alumnus traveled to Beijing with the USA Olympic weightlifting team as planned only to learn on Thursday that the International Weightlifting Federation had ruled the USA would only have two spots at the Olympics instead of three.
Understandably, it was a great disappointment for Burgener, but his father, a Bonsall resident and retired teacher and coach at Rancho Buena Vista, said Casey has received an outpouring of support in Beijing from other U.S. Olympians, as well as athletes from other countries. When Casey talked with his father on Thursday morning, he told him he was so depressed that his father shouldn't expect to hear from him for three or four days.
But support from other Olympians helped salve the wound, and officials at USA Weightlifting, the national governing body for the sport, found a way to keep him busy. Casey checked in with an update.
The 6-foot-2, 275-pound Burgener told his father he's even serving as a bodyguard at some practices and games for the U.S. men's basketball 'Redeem Team,' which includes Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
"He said the players have been coming up to him and offering support," Mike said. "He said it was weird that he was looking at them as the best in the world, and they were treating him like one of the best in the world at what he does. He was real impressed with them; he said they're regular guys."
Well, the "regular guys" label might be hard to apply to pampered multi-millionaire athletes, but the point was that NBA stars took the time to offer their sympathy.
Mike Burgener said USA Weightlifting has also provided Casey with tickets to attend other Olympic events. And Casey also is watching his fiancée compete. Natalie Woolfolk is a member of the U.S. women's weightlifting team.
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Merriman, a three-time Pro Bowler who had hoped to play as long as possible this season on his injured knee, informed the Chargers Tuesday he would undergo season-ending surgery to repair torn ligaments.
"Every time we say it's a game, you say it's a business! Every time we say it's a business, you say it's a game!"