Happy Birthday Buddy… enjoy the day….

they seem to die young at ESPN….

Tom Mees, Dick Schaap, Stuart Scott, Bryan Burwell was a regular on Sports Reporters….

BTW, Dick Schaap was the host to The Sports Reports before Saunders replaced him as the shows host…..

I start almost every Sunday morning with The Sports Reporters and a my cup of java.

Veggies from my veggie garden….my 1st real harvest of the year.

Thank you El Nino.

Game pass is here.

https://www.nfl.com/gamepass

I have had Game Pass for the past 2 seasons… this is a good package to have, IMO, a better value and option than Sunday Ticket, which I had from 1997 through 2014.

BTW, when I cancelled DTV and Sunday Tix in 2014, DTV does not allow nor have an option for automated nor online cancellations. I had to do it via the phone with a DTV agent… it took 67 mins for me to cancel DTV via the phone. I was livid…..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Los_Angeles_Rams_season

As they had in 1970, the Rams and 49ers would again stage a season long battle for the NFC West title that would come down to the season’s final game. The Rams season got off to a rocky and controversial start in New Orleans against the Saints and their rookie quarterback Archie Manning. The Saints trailed 20-17 in the final seconds and faced 4th and goal from the Rams’ 1-yard line. Instead of settling for a tie (there was no overtime for regular season games in the NFL in 1971), the Saints gambled and went for the win. Manning ran a quarterback sneak in which the officials signaled touchdown, although television replays showed that Manning was stopped short of the goal line. So instead of a 20-17 win, the Rams lost 24-20. In week 2 the Rams needed a last second field goal to tie the Atlanta Falcons, 20-20. The Rams appeared to right their ship by winning their next 4 games, including a 20-13 win in San Francisco. But back to back losses to the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Colts left the 4-3-1 Rams 1 1/2 games behind the 6-2 49ers. Then the Rams won 2 straight, including a 17-6 win in San Francisco; that gave the Rams a 1/2 game lead in the division and they held the tiebreaker over the 49ers by virtue of their season sweep of S.F. The Rams then lost a Thanksgiving game in Dallas 28-21, but re-took the division lead with two games to play by beating the Saints 45-28. However, just as they had the year before, the Rams lost a Monday night game at home, this time to the Redskins coached by their former head man George Allen, 38-24. And just like the previous season’s Monday night home loss to the Lions, this one ended up costing the Rams both the division title and the wild card berth (won by the Redskins). The Rams won their final game in Pittsburgh 23-14, but learned on their flight home that the 49ers rallied beat the Lions with a 4th quarter touchdown, 31-27.

Wow, I’m surprised that no NFL team wanted to make a deal for Foles…

Not even a 7th rounder in the 2025 draft?

C’mon now! I guess Foles does really suck badly at QB……

it all depends on the stability, execution and health of the QB position..

When Bradford was there, the offense wasn’t bad once the OL gelled

Rams offense was finally clicking in 2013 when Bradford got hurt in Carolina, then it got boring.

tough to have continuity with Shawn Hill, Kellen Clemmens, Austin Davis, Nick Foles, and Joe Germain…er I mean Case Keenum… (I actually like Case)

Fisher’s offenses were good in Tennessee when he had the QB… he was called Air McNair for a reason.

at this time, I’m not expecting much difference from last year….between 7 to 9 wins…. all depends if the QB can execute and OL is healthy, if so, I think Britt, Tavon, Kendricks can deliver. I think Britt can be elite with decent OL and QB play.

Kroenke: My favorite course in grad school was international business. The problem was when I went to grad school there was only one course. And so, I always loved it. And so, this is an opportunity for me to get a little bit involved more internationally. We have some of our other businesses that are a little bit, but this is, the scale of this, Arsenal two years ago was the most popular, we call it football team in Europe, soccer team in China. We’ve been in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, all touring and playing the last few years. So that’s sort of that side. The television revenue growth in that particular sector for English Premier League’s the fastest growing area we have.

impressive from a global business model POV.

He’s scaling his soccer marketing approach that he has with the Arsenal to the Rams.

His Business model is consistent across his pro teams (Nuggets, Rams, Arsenal). Kronke Inc owns the stadium, parking and Kronke Inc corners that revenue for each of his teams.

Let’s hope that his business culture has integrity……..he seems to have loyalty to his people that manage his pro teams……

“Culture will always beat strategy” -Bill Walsh

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by joemad.

I saw the 1st episode…., it was very good.

I like Turturro’s work (Do the Right Thing, Game Show, etc)

the interrogation scenes have been good….

Pass the doobie to the left hand side……..

In their prime, I think I would pick Chuck Knox over Dick Vermeil. (22 seasons as a head coach). The Bills and Seahawks were terrible when he took over those teams. Known for his defense and running game, the Rams were top 10 in offense during his tenure in the 70’s.

George Allen .712 winning %, incredible…..

I ended up loving Vermeil, but honestly, I couldn’t stand him when he was first hired…… you could see steady improvement even though they lost of ton of games…..what bugs me most about DV is that he unexpectedly quit after the Super Bowl. He also quit with the Eagles.

Like my HS coach would say, “Once a quitter, always a quitter”

Although I don’t remember George Allen with the Rams, I do remember the over hill gang in DC and liked him when he worked for CBS… You can tell George Allen liked the Rams when he did color on CBS….

BTW, I’d take John Robinson over Fisher….. I liked those Robinson teams very much.

bnw wrote:

Not true. I watched “Happy Days” so I know.

Richie campaigned against the family and was gun ho for Stevenson… but not the Fonz…..
I actually liked the first two seasons of Happy Days very much…

I wonder who Chuck (Ritchie’s brother) voted for?

SNL meets GoT meets Naked and Afraid…..

no need to be a fan of any of these shows to appreciate a laugh or 2.

URL =

Gruber (Carl Ballentine)… one of my favorite sitcom characters.

1) Tony Banks, to me this guy was the worst Rams QB, never improved and didn’t have the greatest of attitude ………Ironically, he had a few snaps in Super Bowl 35 and has a ring…..

I’m not sure Joe Germain, Covington, Null, Bert Jones, Boller deserve the dubious nod, since they barely got any actual play time for fans to see enough play to criticize.

with that being said, I remember seeing Steve Walsh play in the early St. Louis seasons and this poor guy played terrible and HE barely played in Rams uniform.

Steve Dils… I liked this guy at Stanford, I remember he replaced an injured Bartkowski in 1986 when the Rams offense was totally inept, in comes Everett to finally make good use of Henry Ellard with actual QB play…..

BTW, about that 1986 season, I went to the SF / Ram game at the Big A that year…. Bartkowski was the starter, the game was tied late in the 4th qtr in an ugly game…. but the Rams put together one of my favorite all-time Ram drives…we initially had terrible seats for the game, but moved and squatted on some outstanding seats at Half-time to see the 2nd half….

I remember driving home with my brother just talking up that final drive that saved an otherwise dismal day for the offense…….just a classic time consuming drive. (article below)

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-09-15/sports/sp-11895_1_rams

Bartkowski Saves His Best for Last; Rams Win, 16-13

September 15, 1986|CHRIS DUFRESNE | Times Staff Writer

The dagger had been all but planted in the back of the Rams’ offense Sunday as it lined up one more time on its own seven-yard line with six minutes left and nothing but the game on the line.

For quarterback Steve Bartkowski, who had turned the common center snap into creative art form, the San Francisco goal line might just as well have been 93 miles away instead of 93 yards.

Maybe the Rams could cheat and move the ball when no one was looking? How else would they get there?

But just when it got so bad that you started wondering when Dieter Brock was due back, Bartkowski shocked a sellout crowd of 65,195 at Anaheim Stadium by leading his team on a 92-yard drive in the final minutes, setting up an 18-yard field goal by Mike Lansford with two seconds left to give the Rams a 16-13 win over the 49ers.

It was the only way possible that Bartkowski and the Ram offense could have saved face in this one, as the Rams spent most of the afternoon moving laterally, watching the quarterback they couldn’t use (Jeff Kemp) nearly beat them.

But that’s not the way it worked out and, for another week, Ram Coach John Robinson can just smile, knowing that he dodged yet another round of incriminating questions about that thing he refers to as his offense.

Escaping also was Bartkowski, by way of the most important drive of his young Ram career.

Bartkowski was 5 for 21 for 91 yards in last week’s opener and just 13 for 24 for 114 yards Sunday, but it would have been worse had he not completed 4 of 4 passes for 60 yards on the winning drive.

“Nothing was crisp, I don’t know the reason,” Bartkowski said. “There’s a feeling you get when you have it. And when I get there, I’ll let you know.”

For one brief moment, though, Bartkowski did get it back.

With 6:10 remaining and the score tied, 13-13, the Rams found the ball at their own seven. At that point, they had totaled just 100 yards in offense, a number they would almost equal during the final drive.

On first down, Bartkowski threw 12 yards to Barry Redden in the left flat. Two plays later, it was 10 yards to David Hill, then 6 yards to Ron Brown. With two minutes left, the Rams had worked down to the 49er 35-yard line, taking more than four minutes off the clock in the process.

There, Bartkowski said he expected a 49er blitz and got it, leaving a soft spot in the secondary.

Bobby Duckworth ran a post over the middle and Bartkowski dropped the ball perfectly in his hands at the 49er 11.

Don Griffin, covering on the play, took a final swipe at Duckworth as the Ram stumbled forward after the catch and rolled into the end zone.

The Rams assumed a touchdown, but the play was whistled dead at the three-yard line, the officials claiming that Griffin had made contact with Duckworth.

Duckworth said later that he wasn’t touched, but things couldn’t have worked out better for the Rams.

Duckworth made the catch with 1:11 remaining and, had it been ruled a touchdown, that would have given the 49ers a chance to counter.

As it turned out, the Rams took the ball at the three, Dickerson picked up two yards in two carries and San Francisco called time out with five seconds to play.

On third down, Lansford kicked the field goal and the Rams had escaped with a win for the second week in a row.

Last week, the Cardinals were left standing on the Ram goal line when time ran out.

“It’s obvious that we’re struggling,” Robinson said afterward. “We’re a long way from being a great football team. But we’re a football team with great heart.”

Robinson’s was no doubt beating a little faster near the end.

“We finally took the ball the length of the field,” he said. “I loved Steve Bartkowski (on) the last drive. It’s obvious he’s not playing at the level we think he can play, or the level he thinks he can. But, so what?”

Of course, it might not have been “so what” had the 49ers pulled this one out, especially if Kemp, a Ram reserve for five years, had turned out to be the hero.

And, except for two interceptions in the first quarter, Kemp was nothing short of brilliant.

Of course, he’s going to have to be because Joe Montana will undergo back surgery this morning and be lost for the rest of the year.

“I’m not Joe Montana but I’ll be looking forward to the challenge,” Kemp said.

Kemp, flourishing in Coach Bill Walsh’s pass offense, put up some numbers that should have made Bartkowski jealous, completing 19 of 24 passes for 252 yards with 1 touchdown.

His one touchdown, though, was a big one, a 66-yarder to Jerry Rice with 6:15 left in the third quarter to cut the Rams’ lead to 13-10.

The 49ers tied the game with 2:37 remaining in the third quarter on a 29-yard field goal by Ray Wersching.

Up to that point, the Ram offense had consisted of two Lansford field goals and LeRoy Irvin’s 65-yard touchdown return of a blocked field goal attempt by Wersching in the second quarter.

The Ram defense, as usual, was expected to do it all.