Mike Singletary has seen some talented defensive players in his day. So when he says Aaron Donald stands out, that really means something.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid like 99. I’ve never seen a kid like that.”

Different version:

SunTzu_vs_Camus

I loved what new coach Singletary says about ADonald….in that 5 sec. clip..”I have not seen a DT… EVER….do what that kid that does!!! ”

wow. Now that is some praise.

The True History of Libertarianism in America: A Phony Ideology to Promote a Corporate Agenda
Before Milton Friedman was earning plaudits as an economic genius, he was a shill for the real estate industry and an early pioneer for big business propaganda known as libertarianism.

http://www.alternet.org/visions/true-history-libertarianism-america-phony-ideology-promote-corporate-agenda

This article kicks off what will be a focus of coverage of AlterNet over the next few months on the corporate-funded “pro-market” arm of libertarianism in America and the sophisticated methods of inserting business propaganda into the public debate.

***

Every couple of years, mainstream media hacks pretend to have just discovered libertarianism as some sort of radical, new and dynamic force in American politics. It’s a rehash that goes back decades, and hacks love it because it’s easy to write, and because it’s such a non-threatening “radical” politics (unlike radical left politics, which threatens the rich). The latest version involves a summer-long pundit debate in the pages of the New York Times, Reason magazine and elsewhere over so-called “libertarian populism.” It doesn’t really matter whose arguments prevail, so long as no one questions where libertarianism came from or why we’re defining libertarianism as anything but a big business public relations campaign, the winner in this debate is Libertarianism.

Pull up libertarianism’s floorboards, look beneath the surface into the big business PR campaign’s early years, and there you’ll start to get a sense of its purpose, its funders, and the PR hucksters who brought the peculiar political strain of American libertarianism into being — beginning with the libertarian movement’s founding father, Milton Friedman. Back in 1950, the House of Representatives held hearings on illegal lobbying activities and exposed both Friedman and the earliest libertarian think-tank outfit as a front for business lobbyists. Those hearings have been largely forgotten, in part because we’re too busy arguing over the finer points of “libertarian populism.”

Milton Friedman. In his early days, before millions were spent on burnishing his reputation, Friedman worked as a business lobby shill, a propagandist who would say whatever he was paid to say. That’s the story we need to revisit to get to the bottom of the modern American libertarian “movement,” to see what it’s really all about. We need to take a trip back to the post-war years, and to the largely forgotten Buchanan Committee hearings on illegal lobbying activities, led by a pro-labor Democrat from Pennsylvania, Frank Buchanan.

What the Buchanan Committee discovered was that in 1946, Milton Friedman and his U Chicago cohort George Stigler arranged an under-the-table deal with a Washington lobbying executive to pump out covert propaganda for the national real estate lobby in exchange for a hefty payout, the terms of which were never meant to be released to the public. They also discovered that a lobbying outfit which is today credited by libertarians as the movement’s first think-tank — the Foundation for Economic Education — was itself a big business PR project backed by the largest corporations and lobbying fronts in the country.

It starts just after the end of World War Two, when America’s industrial and financial giants, fattened up from war profits, established a new lobbying front group called the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) that focused on promoting a new pro-business ideology—which it called “libertarianism”— to supplement other business lobbying groups which focused on specific policies and legislation.

The FEE is generally regarded as “the first libertarian think-tank” as Reason’s Brian Doherty calls it in his book “Radicals For Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern Libertarian Movement” (2007). As the Buchanan Committee discovered, the Foundation for Economic Education was the best-funded conservative lobbying outfit ever known up to that time, sponsored by a Who’s Who of US industry in 1946.

A partial list of FEE’s original donors in its first four years— a list discovered by the Buchanan Committee — includes: The Big Three auto makers GM, Chrysler and Ford; top oil majors including Gulf Oil, Standard Oil, and Sun Oil; major steel producers US Steel, National Steel, Republic Steel; major retailers including Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field and Sears; chemicals majors Monsanto and DuPont; and other Fortune 500 corporations including General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Eli Lilly, BF Goodrich, ConEd, and more.

The FEE was set up by a longtime US Chamber of Commerce executive named Leonard Read, together with Donaldson Brown, a director in the National Association of Manufacturers lobby group and board member at DuPont and General Motors.

That is how libertarianism in America started: As an arm of big business lobbying.

Before bringing back Milton Friedman into the picture, this needs to be repeated again: “Libertarianism” was a project of the corporate lobby world, launched as a big business “ideology” in 1946 by The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. The FEE’s board included the future founder of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch; the most powerful figure in the Mormon church at that time, J Reuben Clark, a frothing racist and anti-Semite after whom BYU named its law school; and United Fruit president Herb Cornuelle.

The purpose of the FEE — and libertarianism, as it was originally created — was to supplement big business lobbying with a pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-economics rationale to back up its policy and legislative attacks on labor and government regulations.

This background is important in the Milton Friedman story because Friedman is a founding father of libertarianism, and because the corrupt lobbying deal he was busted playing a part in was arranged through the Foundation for Economic Education.

According to Congressional hearings on illegal lobbying activities 1946 was the year that Milton Friedman and his U Chicago cohort George Stigler arranged an under-the-table deal with a Washington lobbying executive to pump out covert propaganda for the national real estate lobby in exchange for a hefty payout, the terms of which were never meant to be released to the public.

The arrangement between Friedman and Stigler with the Washington real estate lobbyist was finally revealed during a congressional review of illegal lobbying activities in 1950, called the Buchanan Committee. Yes, there was something called accountability back then. I only came across the revelations about Friedman’s sordid beginnings in the footnotes of an old book on the history of lobbying by former Newsweek book editor Karl Schriftgiesser, published in 1951, shortly after the Buchanan Committee hearings ended. The actual details of Milton Friedman’s PR deal are sordid and familiar, with tentacles reaching into our ideologically rotted-out era.

False, whitewashed history is as much a part of the Milton Friedman mythology as it is the libertarian movement’s own airbrushed history about its origins; the 1950 Buchanan Committee hearings expose both as creations of big business lobby groups whose purpose is to deceive and defraud the public and legislators in order to advance the cause of corporate America.

The story starts like this: In 1946, Herbert Nelson was the chief lobbyist and executive vice president for the National Association of Real Estate Boards, and one of the highest paid lobbyists in the nation. Mr. Nelson’s real estate constituency was unhappy with rent control laws that Truman kept in effect after the war ended. Nelson and his real estate lobby led what House investigators discovered was the most formidable and best-funded opposition to President Truman in the post-war years, amassing some $5,000,000 for their lobby efforts—that’s $5mln in 1946 dollars, or roughly $60 million in 2012 dollars.

So Herbert Nelson contracted out the PR services of the Foundation for Economic Education to concoct “third party” propaganda designed to shore up the National Real Estate lobby’s legislative drive — and the propagandists who took on the job were Milton Friedman and his U Chicago cohort, George Stigler.

To understand the sort of person Herbert Nelson was, here is a letter he wrote in 1949 that Congressional investigators discovered and recorded:

“I do not believe in democracy. I think it stinks. I don’t think anybody except direct taxpayers should be allowed to vote. I don’t believe women should be allowed to vote at all. Ever since they started, our public affairs have been in a worse mess than ever.”

It’s an old libertarian mantra, libertarianism versus democracy, libertarianism versus women’s suffrage; a position most recently repeated by billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel — who was Ron Paul’s main campaign funder in his 2012 presidential campaign.

So in 1946, this same Herbert Nelson turned to the Foundation for Economic Education to manufacture some propaganda to help the National Association of Real Estate Boards fight rent control laws. Nelson chose to work with the FEE because he knew that the founder of the first libertarian think-tank, Leonard Read, agreed with him on a lot of important issues. Such as their mutual contempt for democracy, and their disdain for the American public.

Leonard Read, the legendary (among libertarians) founder/head of the FEE, argued that the public should not be allowed to know which corporations donated to his libertarian front-group because, he argued, the public could not be trusted to make “sound judgments” with disclosed information:

“The public reporting would present a single fact—the amount of a contributor’s donation—to casual readers, persons having only a cursory interest in the matter at issue, persons who would not and perhaps could not possess all the facts. These folks of the so-called public thus receive only oversimplifications or half-truths from which only erroneous conclusions are almost certain to be drawn. If there is a public interest in the rightness or wrongness of corporate or personal donations to charitable, religious or education institutions, and I am not at all ready to concede that there is, then that interest should be guarded by some such agency as the Bureau of Internal Revenue, an agency that is in a position to obtain all the facts, not by Mr. John Public who lacks relevant information for the forming of sound judgments…Public reporting of a half-truth is indeed a significant provocation.”

So in May 1946, Herbert Nelson of the Real Estate lobby, looking for backup in his drive to abolish federal rent control laws on behalf of landlords, contacted libertarian founder Leonard Read of the FEE with an order for a PR pamphlet “with some such title as ‘The Case against Federal Real Estate Control’,” according to Karl Schriftgiesser’s book The Lobbyists.

What happened next, I’ll quote from Schriftgiesser:

“They were now busily co-operating on the new project which the foundation had engaged Milton Friedman and George J. Stigler to write. It was to be called Roofs and Ceilings and it was to be an outright attack on rent controls. When Nelson received a copy of the manuscript he wrote Read to say, “The pamphlet…is a dandy. It is just what I wanted.”

The National Association of Real Estate Boards was so pleased with Milton Friedman’s made-to-order propaganda that they ordered up 500,000 pamphlets from the FEE, and distributed them throughout the real estate lobby’s vast local network of real estate brokers and agents.

In libertarianism’s own airbrushed history about itself, the Foundation for Economic Education was a brave, quixotic bastion of libertarian “true believers” doomed to defeat at the all-powerful hands of the liberal Keynsian Leviathan and the collectivist mob. Here is how libertarian historian Brian Doherty describes the FEE and its chief lobbyist Leonard Read:

“[Read] would never explicitly scrape for funds… He never directly asked anyone to give anything, he proudly insisted, and while FEE would sell literature to all comers, it was also free to anyone who asked. His attitude toward money was Zen, sometimes hilariously so. When asked how FEE was doing financially, his favorite reply was, “Just perfectly.”… Read wanted no endowments and frowned on any donation meant to be held in reserve for some future need.”
And here is what the committee’s own findings reported—findings lost in history:

“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Foundation for Economic Education exerts, or at least expects to exert, a considerable influence on national legislative policy….It is equally difficult to imagine that the nation’s largest corporations would subsidize the entire venture if they did not anticipate that it would pay solid, long-range legislative dividends.”

Or in the words of Rep. Carl Albert (D-OK): “Every bit of this literature is along propaganda lines.”

The manufactured history about libertarian’s origins, or its purpose, parallels the manufactured myths about one of big business’s key propaganda tools, Milton Friedman. As the author of The Lobbyists, not knowing who Milton Friedman was at the time, wrote of Friedman’s collaborative effort with Stigler:

“Certainly [the FEE’s] booklet, Roofs or Ceilings, was definitely propaganda and sought to influence legislation….This booklet was printed in bulk by the foundation and half a million copies were sold at cost to the National Association of Real Estate Boards, which had them widely distributed throughout the country by its far-flung network of local member boards.”

There’s no idealism here. The notion that libertarian ideas have captured the political imagination of millions in this country is a root problem: if we’re going to escape the corporate oligarchy that is running this country–their ideas can’t possibility be the alternative solution. This movement has to be recognized for what it is.

Getting excited to see how QBs,Cowboys perform before 90,000 in preseason opener

link: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/cowboys-corner-blog/article94738547.html#storylink=cpy

The Los Angeles Rams are expecting more the 90,000 as the Los Angeles Coliseum for Saturday’s preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys.

It’s not just the preseason opener for both teams but the first NFL game to be played in Los Angeles since Rams and Raiders bolted nation’s second largest city in the 1990s.

It will present an opportunity for Cowboys coach Jason Garrett to see how his team, particularly the young quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Jameill Showers, perform under the spotlight.

“As we go along in training camp you are always trying to up the ante and see how players respond to different circumstances,” Garrett said. Even early on in practice we create these situations where we circle guys up and a pass rusher goes against an offensive lineman in one-on-one setting with everyone watching. And there is a reason we do that, to see how they perform on stage. And the preseason games give us a great opportunity to do that as well. It will be a great atmosphere at the Coliseum this Saturday night. It’s an honor and privilege to play in this game. It will be fun to see how guys respond to that. To be in that iconic stadium, be in that atmosphere, the Rams coming back to the NFL. It will be a really good setting for our team and a great evaluation opportunity for all of us.”

Practice Report 8/10: Drilling Special Teams

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Practice-Report-89-Running-with-the-1s/74afd8d0-8bbf-4b7f-8267-eb1a7c84f319

With the usual camp battles brewing on offense and defense, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the competition for the the Rams’ third unit — special teams.

The club puts a high priority on finding players who can contribute there at a high level, which is why sessions like Wednesday’s special-teams only practice are important. Last week, the club used the same type of time period to take a basic look at how players competed. For Aug. 10, Los Angeles went without pads to work more on skill development in anticipation of the first preseason game on Saturday night.

Special teams coordinator John Fassel — better known around the team as ‘Coach Bones’ — put the players through a few circuits of drills, and also had them work through kickoffs and punts.

“We like to see on tape, individual guys moving, reacting, bending, twisting, turning — all of the stuff that shows up when you start doing 11-on-11,” Fassel said. “Plus it’s fun to kind of compact some things and do some different drills.”

Aside from performing well on the field, one of the best ways to make a good impression with Fassel is to hang around the coach in his office. The way linebacker Cameron Lynch described it is reminiscent of students going to office hours with a college professor, saying he, Bryce Hager, and Bradley Marquez were constantly around.

“When I was a rookie, I was in Bones’ office every single day,” Lynch said. “Every day after practice, we sit now — nine, 10 o’clock — ‘Hey Bones, can we get some extra work in?’ So that was our mentality last year — me, Brad, Bryce — was just to make sure we’re in Bones’ ear and face at all times. And we just went all out during practice and the games and it showed.”

“They just can’t get enough,” Fassel said. “We just watch film, we watch them in the drill, we watch other NFL players who we think are really good on special teams, the similar positions. Something about a football player that just can’t get enough football that seems to always have the edge.”

Because the first preseason game is now just a few days away, Lynch said it’s important for players to make sure they know exactly what they need to do for the different units in order to make the best impression.

“That determines whether you make the team or not, whether or not you can learn the counting system when it comes to punt. Or kickoff return, knowing who to block so they won’t bust through your coverage,” Lynch said. “It’s a transition. And as long as you’re open to trying new things and trying your hardest, Bones will give you praise. If you just try your best, Bones will appreciate it.”

According to Fassel, there are elements of the game that are more apparent in the preseason matchups, which makes them essential for determining roster spots. There are a few specific attributes he’s looking for during the game on on film.

“I think guys that are willing to collide and be open-field tacklers,” Fassel said. “Out here, we can simulate the movements and the techniques, but when you get in the game, and you’ve got a live runner and you’ve got to square him up and collide and block, or two-gap and tackle — those things really stand out that is different from what we get on the practice field.”

KICKING AT THE COLISEUM

One among the many adjustments Rams players will have to make playing at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this year has to do with sight lines and the kicking game.

“There’s a depth perception at either end with the field goals. One side where it’s the torch and it’s kind of an arch with a hole in it, so there’s some depth perception. Then, the other side is just a huge grandstand, bowl,” Fassel said. “There’s things we worked on in the Coliseum, targets, because there is some weird sighting depending on which way you kick.”

While place kicking is one thing, punter Johnny Hekker said he’s not too worried about how his job will be affected.

“Definitely being in a big bowl where the stands are kind of set back from the field is a little different — getting mental pictures. But the wind is the same for every punter and every kicker that comes in there,” Hekker said. “That’s what pregame is for. You get used to what you’re doing. You go in there with a game plan.”

“We’re going to hopefully get in the Coliseum a couple more times before the regular season starts and try to figure it out, because it definitely swirls a little bit,” Hekker continued. “But it’s the same for everybody. The field’s 100 yards long. We’ve all got to play the same game.”

Rams hope Jared Goff less confused by defenses than where sun rises

Steve Dilbeck

http://www.espn.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/30014/where-does-the-sun-rise-thanks-to-hard-knocks-rams-goff-knows

IRVINE, Calif. — The most stunning aspect to the Rams’ debut on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” on Tuesday wasn’t a wide receiver getting cut for having a female visitor in his room, but prized rookie quarterback Jared Goff not knowing from which direction the sun rises.

That would be Jared Goff, who went to Cal, ranked by U.S. News as the fourth-best university on the planet.

Alas, there were apparently some things Cal assumed you already knew.

But the series exposed Goff’s particular bit of ignorance during a meeting with quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke. The show had its fun with it, later showing Goff in the Goodyear blimp with fellow rookie Pharoh Cooper.

Goff asked Cooper if he knew where the sun rose and the wide receiver said, “In the air?”

“East,” Goff informed him. “Apparently it’s well known.”

Yeah, maybe not. Rams linebacker Cameron Lynch was asked if he could say Wednesday and struggled like he was asked to do his Will Hunting at MIT imitation.

“Uh, I don’t know,” he said.

Special teams coach John Fassel was shown in the debut show with his toddler running into his arms. Asked if she knew yet where the sun rose, he responded, “No, but she’s always at the beach so she knows it sets in the West.”

But Fassel said no one should be surprised if players are unaware that the sun rises in the East.

“No, they don’t know,” he said. “I had to think about it when you just asked me. I was like, ‘Wait a second.’ We have our minds on football right now.”

Asked if it was remotely possible the players were struggling with this basic bit of knowledge because the franchise had recently arrived on the West Coast, he said: “That could be. You almost kind of have to switch. In St. Louis we don’t know, the sun is like in the middle.”

Punter Johnny Hekker, a five-year veteran, volunteered he was aware from which direction the sun rose.

“Young guys these days,” Hekker said. “As long as [he] can throw the football and move in the pocket, I don’t care what he knows about the sunrise and set.”

Informed Goff was hardly alone on the team in his confusion, Hekker shrugged.

“We’re going to be OK,” he said. “We just have to concern ourselves with football and that’s what we’re here to do. The sun will continue to do what it’s doing.”

The top 5 quotes from the Hard Knocks season premiere

Chris Vannini

http://www.coachingsearch.com/article?a=The-top-5-quotes-from-the-Hard-Knocks-season-premiere

The latest season of Hard Knocks kicked off Tuesday night, featuring the Los Angeles Rams in their new home, and there was no shortage of angry coaches.

Here were the top five quotes from the premiere:

– Jeff Fisher cut wide receiver Deon Long for having a girl in his room after curfew. Fisher told Long:

“I’m sorry, but this is our world, man. We’ve got rules and we’ve got to abide by them. It’s not the first time I’ve done this for this particular violation, but I thought I made myself very clear, what we do. It’s not that hard. We’ve only got a couple rules. I wish you the best. Good luck to you.”

– Later on, Tavon Austin left practice with cramps, because he only had two bananas for lunch. Fisher lit into the team.

“How many times have you heard me talk about the little things and what impact the little things have on the bigger things. How are you feeling, Tay? You good? Just cramped? What did you have for lunch? Two bananas. We were two receivers down before practice started. Then Coop has a quad and we shut him down, that’s three. You have two bananas. That’s four. Four receivers down, so what happens? I start cutting reps. Then you guys that deserve the reps don’t get it, because — I’m serious — he had two bananas for lunch.

“Little things are important, you follow me? I’m not f*cking going 7-9 or 8-8 or 9-7, OK? Or 10-6 for that matter. This team’s too talented. I’m not going to settle for that. I know what I’m doing. We had 7-9 bullshit this morning. Deon’s gone, that is 7-9 bullshit. We don’t need it. You guys take ownership of this thing, OK? You take your ownership and you trust that I know what I’m doing, and we’ll be just fine.”

– Quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke made it clear Jared Goff has to step up his game, after struggling with long play-calls and working under center.

“Your expectation is up here. I know you’re a rookie. I don’t give a f*ck, to be honest with you. Everybody’s watching what you do. You can’t f*cking hide. You can’t. It ought to give you chills. You know how many teams are in the NFL? There’s 32. You know how many starting quarterbacks there are? There’s 32, and you are wired to be the starting quarterback of this football team. But how does that happen? It doesn’t just happen through osmosis and you saying, ‘I’m No. 16, I’m going to start.’

“That ain’t f*cking happening. I’m going to tell you right now. It’s up to you. Some people can’t handle the position you play. They definitely can’t handle the position you’re in.”

– Defensive line coach Mike Waufle is a former Marine and is intense as they come. In a position meeting, he laid down the law.

“Don’t f*cking challenge me. I don’t want any bullshit. I don’t want any f*cking body language. When I say jump, you say how f*cking high. We’re going to f*cking work. You could probably f*ck me up and have a good time trying to do it. I ain’t scared. … We destroy things. We are nasty. We have a chip on our shoulder. We want to f*ck you up. There’s a bomb in this f*cking room. We’re going to blow the NFL up. We’re going to blow the f*cking NFL up.”

– Mike Singletary has seen some talented defensive players in his day. So when he says Aaron Donald stands out, that really means something.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid like 99. I’ve never seen a kid like that.”

Well done JM.

I’ll be over in a bit. No need for a formal sit down, just load up my plate.

PFF: CASE KEENUM OVER JARED GOFF WISE SHORT-TERM MOVE FOR RAMS

https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-daily-focus-case-keenum-over-jared-goff-wise-short-term-move-for-rams/

Bringing Jared Goff along slowly smart move for Rams: Ian Rapoport tweetedyesterday that there is a real chance that quarterback Case Keenum enters the 2016 season as the starter for the Los Angeles Rams. While first-overall pick Jared Goff (Cal) is starting to get some first-team reps, the news isn’t entirely surprising if the Rams want to bring their franchise quarterback along slowly. Goff is going to be the Rams’ starting quarterback at some point, and it would be surprising if he didn’t take the reigns during the 2016 season at some point.

Keenum has graded negatively on 942 snaps over the course of his career so far, but did finish three of his five starts in 2015 with a positive grade, so the Rams are at least in fairly safe hands if the veteran indeed begins the season as the starter. He was solid throwing the ball downfield last season, completing six of the 17 passes traveling 20 yards or more downfield, but one area in which he struggled was passing under pressure. On plays where the opposing defense didn’t get pressure, Keenum completed 68.5 percent of his passes for 679 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions; when under pressure, that dropped to 41.7 percent, 149 yards, a single touchdown, and an interception. Under pressure, Keenum’s quarterback rating dropped from 102.2 to 51.7.

While it makes sense to start Keenum early in the year if Goff isn’t quite ready, Rams fans will be eager to see their quarterback of the future, especially after such an impressive 2015 college campaign. His final season at Cal saw him grade higher than both Jameis Winston’s final season at Florida State and Marcus Mariota’s final season at Oregon, and both of those players finished their NFL rookie seasons with an overall positive grade. That doesn’t mean Goff will definitely play well as a rookie, but it’s interesting to compare him to two players who handled themselves fairly well in their first pro seasons.

It’s easy to understand why the Rams want to ease Goff into the pro game gently, rather than throwing him in at the deep end, but he was the top player selected in this draft for a reason, and has the arm to make big-time throws in the NFL. He excelled throwing the ball downfield in his final season at Cal, completing 44 of the 100 passes he attempted over 20 yards or more downfield. It looks like Keenum will open the preseason as the starter, but it also wouldn’t come as a shock to see Goff outplay him and win the top job before the season begins.

Practice Report 8/9: Running with the 1s

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Practice-Report-89-Running-with-the-1s/74afd8d0-8bbf-4b7f-8267-eb1a7c84f319

There are plenty of benchmarks for a rookie quarterback. The first time he straps on the helmet, his first OTA practice, his first training camp, his first preseason game — the list goes on.

It’s one checkpoint, but on Tuesday Jared Goff took some of his first live snaps with the first-team offense for a two-minute drill.

“It was designed to give him a chance to work with the ones in two-minute,” head coach Jeff Fisher said. “It’s always good to get him working with the other offensive linemen and get him a chance to work with

Tim [Barnes] from a communications standpoint, because Tim is so smart up front. Tim can take some of that load off him and let him play.”

Goff excelled at the two-minute drill on Saturday at the Coliseum when he led a drive that finished in the end zone, and Tuesday displayed many of the same skills. For the situation, the quarterback’s objective was to put the offense in position to kick a game-winning field goal after taking over with under a minute left on the clock and two timeouts. It’s not particularly easy to accomplish that against Los Angeles’ vaunted defense, but Goff and the offense was able to just the same.

“He took the ball right down the field and got points and that was good,” Fisher said.

Fisher has maintained since the draft that Goff will move into the starting quarterback role when he’s ready. But the natural progression will see Goff taking more snaps with the first-team offense as the preseason goes on.

“That’s part of the process,” Fisher said. “As I mentioned, he’s getting walk-thru reps with the ones. This is one of the first or second times he’s gotten live reps with the ones, but that will increase.”

Overall, offensive coordinator Rob Boras said he’s been pleased with Goff’s progress throughout the two weeks of camp.

“Jared is getting better — just like we hope everybody is getting better,” Boras said. “It takes guys two or three times running the play before they really feel comfortable with it, and you saw that across the offense today. So, Jared is handling everything well.”

As for Goff’s upcoming first preseason action against the Cowboys, Boras said he just doesn’t want Goff to try and do too much.

“We want him just to relax Saturday night,” Boras said. “It’s just kind of like when we started OTAs and we started training camp — everybody gets on edge. There’s a lot of expectations. The more that he can go out there and just settle in, like we saw him settle in at the Coliseum during the Family Day, he’s going to play confident.

“We know he’s talented, so [it’s a matter of] him just doing what he does,” Boras added. “And, obviously, everyone else just playing football around him.”

ON THE ROOKIES

Aside from Goff, two rookies who have been impressing throughout training camp have been the Rams’ fourth-round draft picks wide receiver Pharoh Cooper and tight end Tyler Higbee.

Both have taken significant snaps with the first-team offense, and Fisher has labeled the pair as players who should be able to contribute sooner than later.

“Coop is handling everything really well,” Boras said. “We love what Pharoh can do. It’s great to get him back out.”

The offensive coordinator had similar glowing remarks for Higbee.

“Tyler really has handled everything well. It started fast, and I don’t know why, but you get to that point where you’re kind of waiting for that rookie slump,” Boras said. “It hasn’t happened.

“We’re putting him in some situations that he wasn’t asked to do in college, and handling it very well,” Boras added, saying Higbee has never had to block a player like defensive end Will Hayes. “There’s not many Will Hayes. When you’re asked to block that, that’s different than what he’s had to do. You do that enough times, you better learn how to drop your pads and play a little stronger.”

Much like the approach with Goff, Boras said he wants both players to be able to relax against the Cowboys this weekend and just go play football.

“Obviously, Saturday night we’re going to try and get those guys going and just feeling comfortable, and not trying to overthink anything,” Boras said.

AUTOMATED TACKLING DUMMIES

It’s rare for teams to run through tackling to the ground in practice for a number of reasons — player safety chief among them. But with the help of some clever folks at Dartmouth, there’s an alternative method that’s been spreading around the game.

The Rams brought in automated tackling dummies on Monday and began implementing them into practice on Tuesday. Defensive backs used the bags in their individual drills and they were also used for special teams drills. Plus, middle linebacker Alec Ogletree went through some of his warm ups with the dummy, getting a feel for how it can be utilized to help the team improve.

“They’re pretty cool,” Ogletree said. “Doing linebacker drills, I can kind of read the dummy and just kind of go do what I’ve got to do and actually hit it, too. You’re actually hitting a moving target instead of something that’s sitting still. The game of football — there’s nothing sitting still.”

The dummies have are steered by a remote control that gets them to where they need to be on the field and in drills.

“We were aware of the concept and the prototypes a long time ago and they just got the first two out, so we invited them out,” Fisher said. “There’s a place for it at our level and there’s a place for these things at all levels. In this day and age when we’re so concussion-conscious and contact-conscious, live contact between players — you want to reduce as much as you can, but you still have to have the contact. This is an opportunity to hit a bag that’s moving and a bag that moves around pretty fast.

Last year they got in fights practicing with Dallas. Including an entire team fight.

There are probably memories of that.

This year, they are shown on Hard Knocks, and their talk includes things like this: Mike Waufle: The former Marine is the defensive line coach. “We are going to blow up the NFL,” he told his linemen during a colorful speech.

Talk like that can sometimes get other teams to say so you think you’re a big deal, well prove it.

RamBall

Let me start with a big THANK YOU to CoachO and all the others that gave us camp reports the past 5 or more years. Today there were group drills going on all over and I had a hard time getting anything from any of them.

But what little I did get, Higbeast will be a big weapon, dude catches everything. Duke looked good in Wr drills. Online is just out matched by our Dline, no surprise but IMO it makes a lot of what happens in the team sessions meaningless, our QBs would have been sacked on almost every pass play. The bright side, the Online looked to be opening holes for the run game.

We sat on the wrong side to start practice, then had poor seating so didn’t get a lot of video today, did get some interesting bid of punt fielding drills.

Cooper has looked good when I’ve watched him, but he hasn’t been targeted much in team drills, Coop, Duke and Spruce all 3 look to have good hands, Thomas has had good days and so so days, same with Quick. They both look great 1 min, then get the drops, Quick also seems to have trouble holding onto the ball he dropped a hand off on an end around yesterday.

Offensive coordinator Rob Boras wants Jared Goff "to just relax" Saturday night in his preseason debut. pic.twitter.com/WwMrbQaNjB

— Joe Curley (@vcsjoecurley) August 10, 2016

HBO's Hard Knocks: 12 best moments and takeaways from episode one

It’s finally here. HBO’s Hard Knocks with the Los Angeles Rams began on Tuesday night, and even though it was the first episode there was still plenty to take in from the action. Let’s jump into it with the best moments and key takeaways.

1. Jared Goff must have made a pretty nice first impression
The rookie QB ordered 60 (yes, 60) fans for the offense and offensive coaches to use during training camp. Obviously, this was a pretty huge deal at first, as the dorms didn’t have air conditioning or fans at first. Fortunately, the team wound up ordering each player and coach personal air conditioning units.

2. Eric Kush is convinced there is such a thing as ‘going out tanks’
I’m not really sure I can get on board with the fact that there are tank tops that are specifically good for going out.

What's @EricKush64 philosophy on life? You can NEVER have enough tank tops. #SunsOutGunsOut #Hardknocks pic.twitter.com/Emzr5c0NNd

— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) August 10, 2016

3. Deon Long was cut for having a female visitor in his room
When Fisher released Long, we weren’t exactly sure why. Thanks to Hard Knocks, we found out it was due to Long having a female in his room, something that Fisher made clear was not allowed when explaining the rules of training camp. Long didn’t look completely shocked, and it was a short conversation, capped with Long thanking Fisher and then going on his way.

4. Goff’s personality showed up way more
He was sarcastic, outgoing and essentially sought out conversations with teammates and coaches. Best of all, he was majorly interactive with the fans. This seemed to be a different player from the mildly-quiet quarterback who we saw after he was drafted No. 1 by the Rams this offseason.

5. Every Rams player came to camp in shape
Early on in the show, Fisher and the coaches put the players through a conditioning test. While it was apparently pretty grueling, the good news was that each player passed the test, showing that the team came to California ready to roll.

6. Aaron Donald is awesome at ping pong. Eugene Sims? Not so much
As good as Donald was at ping pong, Sims did let his teammate down a bit, as the two wound up losing their game against two UC Irvine students. Maybe we’ll get a rematch at some point in the coming episodes.

7. We got an update on Tavon Austin’s cramps, and it involved two bananas
For those who are curious, Austin did eat lunch the day that he cramped up. Unfortunately, his lunch consisted of exactly two bananas. That explains it pretty well.

8. Aaron Donald’s got really good hands
Donald joked at one point, stating ‘who has the best hands on the team?’ after making multiple catches, including a one-handed grab. In all honesty, though, watching him catch passes was actually really impressive.

Here’s a quick sneak peak of Donald catching passes, via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport:

Odell who? That's what #Rams DL Aaron Donald would like to know pic.twitter.com/J6K09zRnKi

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 8, 2016

9. Defensive line coach Mike Waufle is down-right intimidating
If not a single one of his multiple speeches to his defensive line gave you goosebumps, then you might not be human. The guy is just all in, all the time, and it’s awesome.

10. Goff and Keenum’s budding friendship seems like the real deal
The two slowly seemed to get closer, from a quick pat on the back to joking about Goff’s interest in Taylor Swift. This heated training camp competition isn’t likely to be one that turns sour quickly, as both QBs seem more than happy to support each other.

11. Kenny Britt and Kush had no issue staying after practice with Goff
While much of the love went to Goff for staying after practice to get extra reps in, both Britt and Kush were more than happy to stick around and work with Goff for what seemed like an extended time after practice.

12. Tavon Austin drove around UC Irvine’s camp catching Pokemon
Pokemon Go is taking over, and Austin made sure to get on the train. He spent one night riding around learning the ins and outs of the game, while also getting super excited about the Pokemon he wound up catching. It was pretty enjoyable to watch overall.

Jared Goff takes snaps with Rams’ first team

Gary Klein

http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-training-camp-20160809-snap-story.html

As milestones go, it wasn’t groundbreaking.

It was incremental.

And once again Jared Goff performed without major error.

On Tuesday, the rookie quarterback for the first time took snaps with the first-team offense during a training camp practice.

The opportunity came during a two-minute drill, another step in preparing the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft for Saturday’s exhibition opener against the Dallas Cowboys, and a march toward possibly starting the Sept. 12 season opener against the San Francisco 49ers.

“Jared’s handling everything well,” offensive coordinator Rob Boras said. “We want him to just relax on Saturday night.”

Case Keenum will start against the Cowboys but Coach Jeff Fisher has said that Goff would probably play a half.

Fisher said Goff’s reps with the starters would increase but reiterated that there would not be a quick decision regarding when Goff might ascend to the top of the depth chart.

“We’re going to start him when he’s ready to play,” Fisher said. “It’s all about the process. It’s about being patient.”

Goff had taken reps with the first-team offense during training camp walkthroughs, but Tuesday marked his first time working with starters in a live situation.

The period started awkwardly with what appeared to be a miscommunication on a pass play. But Goff came back and delivered two consecutive strikes to tight end Lance Kendricks and another to receiver Tavon Austin before a running play and a field goal.

“He took the ball right down the field and got points,” said Fisher, who noted that Goff would benefit from working with starting center Tim Barnes.

“Tim is so smart up front,” Fisher said. “Tim can take some of that load off of him and just let him play.”

Remote control

The Rams became the latest NFL team to debut remote-controlled tackling dummies.

The padded “Mobile Virtual Players” are capable of moving quickly in all directions.

“They’re pretty cool,” middle linebacker Alec Ogletree said. “For me doing linebacker drills, I can read the dummy and just kind of do what I’ve got to do and actually hit it too.

“You’re actually hitting a moving target instead of something that’s sitting still. In the game of football, nothing’s sitting still.”

The technology has a place in the NFL and all levels of football, Fisher said.

“In this day and age when we’re so concussion conscious and contact conscious, live contact between players you want to reduce as much as you can,” he said. “But you still have to have the contact. This is an opportunity to hit a bag that’s moving. And a bag that moves around pretty fast.”

Fisher operated the remote control after the morning walkthrough.

“If I could get it to go up stairs, I’d have them do bed check,” he said, jokingly.

Quick change

Receiver Brian Quick signed what is a considered a one-year “prove-it” deal during the off-season.

Quick, a second-round pick from Appalachian State in 2012, acknowledges the situation.

“You have to come out there and grind if you want to go get something,” said Quick, who will be paid $1.75 million. “Let actions control everything.”

Quick caught only 10 passes in 13 games last season. He has 64 receptions, seven for touchdowns.

The 6-foot-3 Quick has made several impressive leaping catches during camp, and appears to be making strides under Mike Groh, the new receivers coach and passing game coordinator.

“’He’s staying healthy and he’s running all day long, which is good,” Fisher said. “Hopefully, that will transfer over to production in the preseason games.”

Notes

Cornerback Trumaine Johnson intercepted a pass by Keenum and also broke up a long pass toward the end zone. … Keenum made several impressive throws, including one delivered sidearm. Rookie receiver Michael Thomas dropped a long pass in the end zone. … Second-year receiver Bradley Marquez is quietly enjoying a productive camp and making multiple catches during team drills. … Andrew Donnal got extensive work at right tackle after Rodger Saffold came out of an early drill. … Running back Malcolm Brown broke off several strong runs. … The Rams have a special-teams practice Wednesday.