Rams looking to write their own story in 2020

J.B. Long

https://www.therams.com/news/rams-looking-to-write-own-story-in-2020

I forget at what point I started pocketing predictions about the 2020 Rams, but I’ve been collecting for over a month, now.

Less than a year removed from reigning atop the NFC and being pegged as a favorite to return to the Super Bowl, it’s been jarring to find the perception of the 2020 Rams closer to where Sean McVay found them when he arrived in early 2017: cast as an underdog in their own division.

We’ll get to whether the Rams agree with that assessment in a moment. (Spoiler alert: They don’t.)

But first, I want to underscore that with very few exceptions, the Rams are still widely respected. Various power rankings have them slotted in the top half of the league.

This is largely a reflection of how strong the West has become, and more simplistically, how the division stacked up a year ago.

To my knowledge, no credible pundit has gone so far as to pick the Rams last in 2020. Still, I suspect someone might be bold enough eventually. After all, Patrick Peterson believes his Cardinals are the “best football team (he’s) been a part of on paper.”

But according to the consensus, Los Angeles has been safely ensconced in third for much of the spring, impervious to the tides of the Draft and free agency.

Overlooked is the nuance of the Rams finishing a missed 44-yard field goal away from sweeping Seattle last season, giving the eventual NFC Champions everything they wanted in Week 16 in Santa Clara, and having yet to lose to Arizona under Sean McVay.

Nonetheless, it’s understandable after another April without a first-round selection, plus the departures of recognizable talents like Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Dante Fowler, and Cory Littleton.

“Los Angeles took its shot at a Super Bowl, and the bill is coming due,” goes the prevailing narrative.

The league’s official site concurred, citing “several roster holes and not enough cap space or draft picks to fix everything in one offseason.”

Mix in one of the most challenging schedules in the NFL according to multiple outlets, and there you have it. Los Angeles may still be one of the better teams in football, but they’re looking up at the 49ers and Seahawks until proven otherwise.

Unsurprisingly, the Rams aren’t ready to concede that point, here in late May.

“I don’t really care what the narrative is, I care about the belief I have in our players, our coaches, and how excited I am for us to attack this opportunity and to write our own story,” McVay said this week.

“Our goal and expectation is to prepare to win every single game,” was his reply to whether 2020 might be categorized as a rebuilding year. “We didn’t do what we needed to do last year. I own that. I take full responsibility for it.”

Ask Cooper Kupp about returning to the role of hunter rather than hunted, and he echoes McVay’s sentiments.

“Our expectations haven’t changed; our standards haven’t changed. If anything, they’re continuing to elevate,” the fourth-year receiver said on the Rams Revealed podcast.

There may come a time this fall when a doubting or disparaging word might appear on the proverbial bulletin board. But for now – unlike this writer – Kupp and the Rams don’t seem interested in collecting receipts.

“We judge ourselves within the walls we go to work in,” Kupp said. “…Any narrative that can be created outside of those walls doesn’t matter to us.”

.@AaronWilson_NFL NFL extends virtual offseason, hopes to have coaches back at facilities soon https://t.co/QQChwbZR6z

— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) May 29, 2020

Dolphins coach Brian Flores issues a powerful statement on the disconnect between those who have strong opinions on issues like Colin Kaepernick's protests but who have nothing to say about the murder of George Floyd https://t.co/KCykOfz9oT

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 29, 2020

Her car became submerged during heavy rains. This guy jumped-in, pulled her from the vehicle JUST IN TIME — then went back under to save her dog.

Not all heroes wear capes…❤️🌎 pic.twitter.com/Wgy3iaznoR

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) March 9, 2020

Zooey wrote:

zn wrote:

And I had seen that story about the umbrella guy and his violence. It’s still not quite definitive enough as a story for me yet, but I am far from automatically doubting it.

Yeah, at this point, the only thing I can really say about it is that it wouldn’t surprise me. But it is not definitive. Not that it matters to me, really. Either way, it will just be used by one side to change the subject.

Zooey wrote:

Not sure what just happened. Do links to FB just go up in flames?

We have an extra twitchy spam protector that sometimes just paranoiacally overreacts to certain links and marks them as “pending,” which means they have to be approved. (So far I haven’t seen a pattern in its overreactions, it just happens.) The alternative is to be bombarded with spam (which has happened). I apologize for the inconvenience and can only say that I check several times a day to see if any posts need to be “approved.”

And I had seen that story about the umbrella guy and his violence. It’s still not quite definitive enough as a story for me yet, but I am far from automatically doubting it.

==

CNN crew released from police custody after they were arrested live on air in Minneapolis

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/minneapolis-cnn-crew-arrested/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_source=fbCNNi&utm_content=2020-05-29T11%3A00%3A44&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2F43lty6cL5eJR06IF8Wf2iMOxeaauUQtFvfLOQbjYej-MOZVvFbcZfFc

(CNN)A CNN crew was arrested while giving a live television report Friday morning in Minneapolis — and then released about an hour later — as the crew covered ongoing protests over the death in police custody of George Floyd.

State police detained CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, his producer and his cameraman shortly after 5 a.m. CT (6 a.m. ET) as Jimenez was reporting live from a street south of downtown, near where a police precinct was earlier set ablaze.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker that he deeply apologizes for what happened and would work to have the crew released.
Jimenez and the others — producer Bill Kirkos and photojournalist Leonel Mendez — were taken to the city’s downtown public safety building, but were released after 6 a.m. CT.
Jimenez, after his release, then reported live outside from downtown, and said he’d been treated cordially after he’d been led away.
“We’re doing OK, now. There were a few uneasy moments there,” Jimenez said.
The arrest
The crew were handcuffed and detained as Jimenez gave a live report on a Minneapolis street. A line of state troopers had just recently arrived in the area, which city police seemed to have abandoned for hours overnight after the police precinct building was set on fire.
Police told the crew they were being detained because they were told to move, and didn’t, one member of the CNN crew relayed to the network.
“A CNN reporter and his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves — a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, including the Governor, must release the three CNN employees immediately,” CNN said in a statement shortly after their arrest.
Officers approached the crew as they moved in to arrest a protester behind them.
Jimenez could be seen holding his CNN badge while reporting, identifying himself as a reporter, and telling the officers the crew would move wherever officers needed them to. An officer gripped his arm as Jimenez talked, then put him in handcuffs.
“We can move back to where you like. We are live on the air here. … Put us back where you want us. We are getting out of your way — wherever you want us (we’ll) get out of your way,” Jimenez said before he was led away.
“We were just getting out of your way when you were advancing through the intersection,” Jimenez said.
After the CNN photographer was arrested, his camera was set on the ground and continued to transmit live images.
Jimenez and the crew had been reporting from the site, near a city police department precinct that protesters had burned and officers had abandoned overnight. About a block away, a fire was burning at a different, four-story building that had contained restaurants.
Over 100 state police officers in body armor and riot gear had arrived shortly before 5 a.m. CT and lined up near the area where the CNN crew was, near the precinct building on East Lake Street.
For a portion of time overnight — from sometime after city police abandoned the precinct building that was set ablaze — police weren’t in the area until the troopers arrived Friday morning, Jimenez had reported. The four-story event and restaurant building was burning unabated, and people were throwing things into the flames, Jimenez said.
A separate CNN reporter there was not arrested and ‘treated much differently’
CNN’s Josh Campell, who also was in the area but not standing with the on-air crew, said he, too, was approached by police, but was allowed to remain.
“I identified myself … they said, ‘OK, you’re permitted to be in the area,'” recounted Campbell, who is white. “I was treated much differently than (Jimenez) was.”
Jimenez is black and Latino.
Former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey, a CNN law enforcement analyst, said the arrest made no sense.
“State police are going to have a lot to answer for this arrest here,” Ramsey said. “(Jimenez is) standing there … you can see his credential. Just move him where you want to be.”
“They should have a designated (media) area, and just tell them to move to that area.”

Zooey wrote:

I am just so fucking angry right now.

That’s my meme. Or maybe Tweet. Maybe this should go in the Tweet thread.

Fuck.

Floyd?

MORE: Video obtained by CBS News shows what appears to be the start of the confrontation between George Floyd & Minneapolis police officers. A restaurant's security footage shows cops taking him into custody, but the restaurant owner says it does not show Floyd resisting arrest. pic.twitter.com/KR8r7B1WPl

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) May 26, 2020

Why'd the NFL leak the Rooney Rule incentives? @AndrewBrandt knows and told me on today's @RTFPodcast: https://t.co/FTrNyiwbA9 pic.twitter.com/GH4joI5j62

— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) May 27, 2020

Dugar, Michael-Shawn@MikeDugar
Seahawks left tackle Duane Brown, one of 3 players to stay in the locker room during the national anthem the past 2 years in the name of social justice, was asked if we’ve made progress there.

“No.”

Torrey Smith@TorreySmithWR
I know plenty of amazing and selfless police officers but where are they when things like this happen?

Their silence is alarming. The standard for people in power is to condemn the actions of those that don’t align with your mission and values.

We don’t see it enough.

J.A. Adande@jadande
This is in part because the media failed to frame the Kaepernick-inspired debate properly: Where do we stand on agents of the state killing unarmed American citizens? That question should have been the main focus.

#BREAKING

Trump tells a reporter to take of coronavirus mask and stop being ‘politically correct’https://t.co/NmHrbDduIb

— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 26, 2020