Another 10 Things

Football is often on my mind. With all 32 NFL teams in preparation for the 2018 season and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions on Saturday a lot of football things have been occupying my thoughts. Here are 10 of them.

1. Tony Sparano.

2. Is Canton on Enshrinement weekend heaven? I'll have my second crack at finding out this week.

3. The Pac-12 has an intriguing group of head coaches.

Cal: Justin Wilcox
Stanford: David Shaw
USC: Clay Helton
UCLA: Chip Kelly
Washington: Chris Petersen
Washington State: Mike Leach
Oregon: Mario Cristobal
Oregon State: Jonathan Smith
Arizona: Kevin Sumlin
Arizona State: Herm Edwards
Utah: Kyle Whittingham
Colorado: Mike MacIntyre

Of those, Kelly, Cristobal, Smith, Sumlin, and Edwards are new to their respective jobs. In Kelly, Sumlin, and Edwards, have there ever been a more experienced trio of newbies? Wilcox is only in his second season at Cal. So, half of the Pac-12 head coaches have turned over in the last two years.

4. I believe that Cal is flying under the "under the radar" level. Wilcox has the team headed in the right direction. The four years of Cal football under Sonny Dykes was tough to watch. Some fans love the up-tempo, score-in-a-minute offenses of Dykes and his wacky pals. I'm don't. Dykes gives about zero thought to his own defense. Opponents might as well be playing against air. For four years Cal's defense was horrible, tackling was horrible, coverage was horrible, it was horrible to watch. Cal football in the 1980s, when 2-3 win seasons were the norm, was more interesting and more entertaining than the one-sided teams that Dykes put on the field. Wilcox had the defense playing at a respectable level last season with players that Dykes recruited. That just goes to show what some coaching, let alone interest in that side of the ball, can do for a football team. I like what Wilcox has done in a very short time and I feel bad for SMU fans.

5. Perhaps this interests only me. I'm attending my second Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony this Saturday. The first was in 2013. Here's that class.

Cris Carter
Jonathan Ogden
Warren Sapp
Larry Allen
Bill Parcells
Dave Robinson
Curley Culp

Here's the 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class:

Randy Moss
Ray Lewis
Brian Urlacher
Brian Dawkins
Terrell Owens
Jerry Kramer
Elvin Bethea
Bobby Beathard

I couldn't help but notice some similarities between the two classes. Those similarities start with the Vikings receivers (Carter and Moss) that are the reason for my two Canton visits. Then we have the two Ravens cornerstone players (Ogden and Lewis), two players from the great Lombardi Packer teams (Robinson and Kramer), and two players from the Oilers defense of the 1970s (Culp and Brazile). There's some Hall of Fame trivial fun.

6. The injury misfortune of the Los Angeles Chargers is just ridiculous. They lost emerging tight end Hunter Henry for the season during the offseason with an ACL tear. Then, they lost cornerback Jason Verrett for the season during a conditioning test. A conditioning test! Training camp hadn't even started and two impact players are done for the season. One would think that the odds might settle and they'd get a slight injury break. Not for these Chargers. They lost another tight end. Austin Roberts is done for the season with a torn ACL.

7. I've had more than four months to get used to Kirk Cousins being the Vikings quarterback but there are still moments that it startles me.

8. Offensive tackles are getting paid. That's a good thing. Offensive linemen deserve love too. Dallas Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith might be wishing that he hadn't signed that 8-year deal four years ago.

9. I found these Jay Cutler nuggets in the recent Sports Illustrated.

On Change:
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it..or don't. Whatever."

On Opportunity:
"Some people want it to happen. Some wish it would happen. And others...don't really care that much."

On Perseverance:
"I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I have stopped trying."

On Success:
"It's not whether you get knocked down; it's how comfy it is down there. Is there a soft bed? I like beds."

How the hell did this guy make it through the academic rigors of Vanderbilt let alone make it to the NFL?

10. The Joneses, as in Jerry and Stephen, are idiots. The NFL has made a mess of the anthem issue. Such a mess, that I wouldn't have thought anyone could make it worse. The Dallas clowns are making it worse. Jerry says that his players HAVE to stand. Stephen says that the players HAVE to stand IF they want to remain on the team. A couple things. First, the league's ridiculous anthem policy is on hold. There's no reason to speak about it. Even if it wasn't on hold they are going against that policy. Not only are they going against it Junior Jones is giving an ultimatum. I guess that the Joneses don't like playing by the rules. Second, the league and players association are finally discussing the matter. That's why the policy is on hold. Again, there's no reason to speak about it. Junior says that team ownership is supportive of their players, their issues, and their interests. They aren't. There's nothing supportive about forcing your social and political views on a group of people. Junior says: "when you're wearing the Dallas Cowboys uniform and a Dallas Cowboys helmet and you're working for the Dallas Cowboys, you check the 'I' and the 'me' at the door and you're part of a team." That's not supportive. Wasn't there a Supreme Court case that ruled that children couldn't be forced to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? So, the Joneses fascist plans aren't just going against current league policy, whatever that might be, they run against the law of the land.