This and That

This is just some football stuff outside of the playoffs.

The San Diego Chargers are no more. Very sad. It's a terrible day when a sports team bolts the city that loves them. It's not terrible for the team. There's often a damn shiny pot of gold waiting for them in their new city. Chargers owner Dean Spanos is happy. In a few years he's going to play in a spectacular new stadium and only have to pay his landlord (Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke) a buck a year to do so. That's so sad for him. Getting a new stadium built is a difficult and controversial thing. It's a touchy subject and I understand a public that doesn't want to vote up the cash to help a team build a stadium. They just won't have a team in their city. It's as simple as that. Despite what most seem to think very few of the 32 NFL owners truly have the funds to build a stadium on their own. It should be a joint team-public venture for the simple reason that both will benefit from it. I followed the Minnesota Vikings path to a new stadium much more closely than that of the Chargers. From my distant perch, it didn't seem that the Chargers efforts came anywhere near those of the Vikings. Vice President-Stadium Development Lester Bagley was a star in the Vikings efforts. He was a constant presence in the city and state offices. He worked towards something rather than trying to get something. San Diego Union-Tribune sports writer Kevin Acee followed the Chargers efforts closer than anyone and he said that Spanos routinely approached public officials with his hand out. He wanted a sweet deal more than a stadium. Acee says that the Chargers and the city share the blame. The people that lost are the people that should matter the most. The fans. Roger "the goods" Goodell routinely spouts that everything thing that the league does is for the fans. Actions rarely show that to be true.

And for those that think that Los Angeles is still so close to San Diego. It's only close geographically.

More moving. The Oakland Raiders filed paperwork with the league to move forward with a move to Las Vegas. It appears that an NFL vote is the only standing in the way of that move becoming a reality. Very sad. The Raiders belong in Oakland.

Coaches.

Six NFL teams entered the offseason looking for a new head coach. Five have found one.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Doug Marrone
Denver Broncos: Vance Joseph
Buffalo Bills: Sean McDermott
Los Angeles Rams: Sean McVay
Los Angeles Chargers: Anthony Lynn

It's going to take some time to get used to Los Angeles Chargers.

The biggest surprise of the five hires is probably the Rams hiring Sean McVay. The surprise being that he only turns 31 in a couple of weeks. For comparison, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was 58 when he got his first head coaching gig. Bruce Arians was 60 when he got his. McVay's defensive coordinator is Wade Phillips. He's 69 and started his football coaching career before McVay was even born.

In talking about McVay's quick rise to a top job many talking heads have called him the youngest head coach in modern NFL history. They have to add the "modern" tag because he isn't the youngest ever. Here are a few coaching kids that were younger.

George Halas was 25 when he coached the Decatur Staleys in 1920.
Curly Lambeau was 23 when he introduced the Green Bay Packers in 1921.
Guy Chamberlain was 28 when he led the Canton Bulldogs to the 1922 NFL title.

The lone head coaching vacancy left is that of the San Francisco 49ers. They are the only team apparently intent on hiring a coach that coached for a successful franchise in 2016. If the 49ers want to hire a coach from a playoff team (Kyle Shanahan or Josh McDaniels for example) they have to wait for that team to exit the playoffs. Now they have no competition.

Congratulations to the new head coaches. To Doug Marrone, hopefully this shot turns out better than the last one.

Playoffs!

Hopefully we'll have a close game. I've kinda forgotten what those look like.