Thoughts of opening new SoFi Stadium minus fans brings an empty feeling https://t.co/nzVK4MNyFA

— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) May 9, 2020

Field Yates@FieldYates
The Seahawks are scheduled to travel the most miles in the NFL this season at 29,203, followed by the Rams (26,104) and 49ers (25,507).

The Ravens will travel just 6,310 miles in 2020, the fewest by any NFL team in the past four seasons.

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Sean McVay talks Rams 2020 schedule:

“The first thing that stands out is just the opportunity to open up on primetime in front of the world in the new stadium.”

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NFL Research@NFLResearch
Tom Brady and Philip Rivers are expected to be the 5th and 6th QBs to start for new teams after having previously won 100+ starts for a different franchise.

They will join Peyton Manning and Hall of Famers Brett Favre, Joe Montana and Johnny Unitas.

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JJ Cooper@jjcoop36
In talking to scouts in preparation for a five round draft I heard some concerns. Notably unless they come from money a player signing for $20K or less will likely need to work full-time in offseason. Won’t be able to train in offseason same as a player receiving even $100k.

McKay Coppins@mckaycoppins
One of the weirdest features of our discourse is how people who fire off ranty, unhinged takes on Twitter then demand careful, nuanced responses from people who disagree and act like martyrs when it doesn’t happen.

Sources: Adam Silver preps players for possibility of no fans through next season https://t.co/06STM5ABc9

— trey wingo (@wingoz) May 9, 2020

Todd Gurley says everybody has told him to stop whining, but he remains dedicated in the pursuit of his paycheck. (Which the Rams have said they'll pay when it's due) https://t.co/KX5PTG4MSm

— LindseyThiry (@LindseyThiry) May 8, 2020

Mike Pence caught on hot mic delivering empty boxes of PPE for a PR stunt. pic.twitter.com/IduvGhiPwj

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) May 8, 2020

An Epidemic of Hardship and Hunger
Why won’t Republicans help Americans losing their jobs?

Paul Krugman

link https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/opinion/coronavirus-republicans-jobs.html

Covid-19 has had a devastating effect on workers. The economy has plunged so quickly that official statistics can’t keep up, but the available data suggest that tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, with more job losses to come and full recovery probably years away.

But Republicans adamantly oppose extending enhanced unemployment benefits — such an extension, says Senator Lindsey Graham, will take place “over our dead bodies.” (Actually, over other people’s dead bodies.)

They apparently want to return to a situation in which most unemployed workers get no benefits at all, and even those collecting unemployment insurance get only a small fraction of their previous income.

Because most working-age Americans receive health insurance through their employers, job losses will cause a huge rise in the number of uninsured. The only mitigating factor is the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, which will allow many though by no means all of the newly uninsured to find alternative coverage.

But the Trump administration is still trying to have the Affordable Care Act ruled unconstitutional; “We want to terminate health care under Obamacare,” declared Donald Trump, even though the administration has never offered a serious alternative.

Bear in mind that ending Obamacare would end protection for Americans with pre-existing conditions — and that insurers would probably refuse to cover anyone who had Covid-19.

Finally, the devastation caused by the coronavirus has left many in the world’s wealthiest major nation unable to put sufficient food on the table. Families with children under 12 are especially hard hit: According to one recent survey, 41 percent of these families are already unable to afford enough to eat. Food banks are overwhelmed, with lines sometimes a mile long.

But Republicans are still trying to make food stamps harder to get, and fiercely oppose proposals to temporarily make food aid more generous.

By now everyone who follows the news has a sense of how badly the Trump administration and its allies botched and continue to botch the medical side of the Covid-19 pandemic. Weeks of denial and the failure to implement remotely adequate testing allowed the virus to spread almost unchecked.

Attempts to restart the economy even though the pandemic is far from controlled will lead to many more deaths, and will probably backfire even in purely economic terms as states are forced to lock down again.

But we’re only now starting to get a sense of the Republican Party’s cruelty toward the economic victims of the coronavirus. In the face of what amounts to a vast natural disaster, you might have expected conservatives to break, at least temporarily, with their traditional opposition to helping fellow citizens in need. But no; they’re as determined as ever to punish the poor and unlucky.

What’s remarkable about this determination is that the usual arguments against helping the needy, which were weak even in normal times, have become completely unsustainable in the face of the pandemic. Yet those arguments, zombielike, just keep shambling on.

For example, you still hear complaints that spending on food stamps and unemployment benefits increases the deficit. Now, Republicans never really cared about budget deficits; they demonstrated their hypocrisy by cheerfully passing a huge tax cut in 2017, and saying nothing as deficits surged. But it’s just absurd to complain about the cost of food stamps even as we offer corporations hundreds of billions in loans and loan guarantees.

But what’s even worse, if you ask me, is hearing Republicans complain that food stamps and unemployment benefits reduce the incentive to seek work. There was never serious evidence for this claim, but right now — at a time when workers can’t work, because doing their normal jobs would kill lots of people — I find it hard to understand how anyone can make this argument without gagging.

So what explains the G.O.P.’s extraordinary indifference to the plight of Americans impoverished by this national disaster?

One answer may be that much of America’s right has effectively decided that we should simply go back to business as usual and accept the resulting death toll. Those who want to take that route may view anything that reduces hardship, and therefore makes social distancing more tolerable, as an obstacle to their plans.

Also, conservatives may worry that if we help those in distress, even temporarily, many Americans might decide that a stronger social safety net is a good thing in general. If your political strategy depends on convincing people that government is always the problem, never the solution, you don’t want voters to see the government actually doing good, even in times of dire need.

Whatever the reasons, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Americans suffering from the economic consequences of Covid-19 will get far less help than they should. Having already condemned tens of thousands to unnecessary death, Trump and his allies are in the process of condemning tens of millions to unnecessary hardship.

Links to some articles.

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Instant reaction to Rams 2020 schedule
J.B. Long
https://www.therams.com/news/instant-reaction-to-2020-schedule

Los Angeles Rams’ schedule 2020: Opening stretch looks extremely daunting
Lindsey Thiry
https://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/41663/los-angeles-rams-schedule-2020-opening-stretch-looks-extremely-daunting

6 takeaways from the Rams’ 2020 schedule
Cameron DaSilva
6 takeaways from the Rams' 2020 schedule

7 toughest games on the Rams’ 2020 schedule
Cameron DaSilva
7 toughest games on the Rams' 2020 schedule

alyoshamucci

Couple hard turnaround weeks and lots of time on the east coast … but the wins and losses look favorable.

NorCalRamFan
3 of first five games on east coast
Four of the last six are at home
And five of the last eight
Rams are 2.5 points underdog against the cowboys for our home opener

Ramsman34
5 of 6 divisional games are after the Bye. we should be a well oiled machine by then. and, the first divisional game is week 6 against the whiners.

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
I could see anything from 7-9 to 11-5

LindseyThiry@LindseyThiry
Right now, mostly based on departures and unproven replacements, I have them at 8-8. It’s a brutal division, and a pretty tough schedule.

Albert Breer@AlbertBreer
There are collapsible elements to the schedule (all teams share a bye with their Week 2 opponents).

All shows this a preference: moving back things over shortening

Another thing that I didn’t know beforehand: As part of the bid process, cities contending to host Super Bowls must have contingency dates cleared in case the NFL has to delay the game.

So Tampa has those for Super Bowl LV.

Darren Rovell@darrenrovell
Spoke to some big brokers tonight.

Secondary sales of NFL tickets are roughly 15 percent of what they normally are when the schedule is released.

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PFF LA Rams@PFF_Rams
#LARams CB Troy Hill stepped up and had a career year in 2019 following some significant turnover in the #LA secondary

Among all defensive backs with at least 500 snaps, Hill ranked 14th in NFL Passer Rating when Targeted and 25th in Overall Defensive Grade

from Former Cardinals QB Carson Palmer recalls when he realized Rams DT Aaron Donald was special

Former Cardinals QB Carson Palmer recalls when he realized Rams DT Aaron Donald was special

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Appearing on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, Palmer recalled when he and his teammates realized it.

It was in 2015 and the final game the Cardinals would ever play in St. Louis. It was a 27-3 win that improved the Cardinals to 10-2 that year en route to their division title.

Palmer recalled near the end of the game after Donald was seemingly in the backfield in every play, asking his teammates in the huddle to try and block No. 99.

Lyle Sendlein, the team’s center, according to Palmer, responded by saying, “Block him? I can’t even see him!”

Donald finished the game with seven tackles, two for loss, a sack and five quarterback hits. “He was in the backfield every single play,” Palmer said.

Rams GM Les Snead traded away from Bobby Wagner in 2012, a decision he hasn’t forgotten.

He now has a “Bobby Wagner Rule” in the draft https://t.co/noIvM2Blmy

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) May 7, 2020

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from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2020/05/07/nfl-draft-rams-cam-akers-total-package/

Snead has changed his view in the draft and has tried to avoid getting cute by trading down to add more picks, while potentially missing out on a player the team really likes.

“I call it the ‘Bobby Wagner Rule. There’s a lot of ways to carve a draft strategy … but the ‘Bobby Wagner Rule’ would be, if a player falls to you and you really want that human being, don’t get cute and don’t worry about those extra draft picks,” he said. “Just take that human being and the rest will take care of itself. Some of the best lessons in this business are learned the hard way.”