Jake Oliver Ellenbogen@JKBogenDTR
I’m old enough to remember when people didn’t talk about Todd Gurley’s most complex joint in his body more than Todd Gurley’s actual production on the field…

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81 days until football pic.twitter.com/MEhTC6wLd0

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) June 16, 2019

zn wrote:

Over a toddler “shoplifting” a Barbie.

Chilling Video Shows Cop Aiming Gun At Black Family After Girl, 4, Takes Doll From Store
“I’m going to shoot you in your face,” a Phoenix officer shouts at a couple in front of their two children.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/phoenix-police-shoot-threat-black-family-child-doll_n_5d049cfee4b0985c419defd2?fbclid=IwAR2kRqP–af81lvALR8djz3j340CoIm4s0OgyR3CJD9Xv5O6I1WgZjD83y8&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmFjZWJvb2suY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHPuWQN246rGs1zF9xyhNVabzYUHSvbl841DfFaYU3SwkBIhWMHCKTyYFxUlWxcG7YJWRFu5IwGuvEVZRs6Y7CGasrWhxXvJMtWwJx7IH1WcIUh4IflOPAFAsEOiJm9XkGD1I-IhszCTbhyWGRLdcI-NLMagqL5NpbgK4ScPXrv4

A disturbing video captured a Phoenix police officer aiming a gun, yelling obscenities and threatening to shoot a black family after their 4-year-old daughter walked out of a store with a doll last month.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego reacted in a statement Saturday that “there is no situation in which this behavior is ever close to acceptable.”

Police Chief Jeri Williams launched an investigation into the confrontation after recently receiving the video that was recorded by a bystander. “I, like you, was disturbed by the language and the action of the officer,” she said in a Facebook posting. “I assure you this incident is not representative of the majority of our Phoenix police officers.”

Police released the video (shown below) to the public. Another video shot from a different angle, also taken by a witness, was posted to YouTube (shown above).

The officers involved in the confrontation have been assigned to desk duty. The couple is now suing the police department and the city of Phoenix for $10 million.

The incident began as officers responded after receiving a shoplifting report on May 27. They shouted at 22-year-old Dravon Ames, his pregnant fiance, Aisha Harper, 24, and their two young children to get out of their car, which Ames had just driven to their babysitter’s apartment complex. As Harper, who was in the backseat with the children, told police that she couldn’t open the stuck door and that she had her year-old baby on her lap, an officer can be heard on the video becoming increasingly agitated.

He yelled repeatedly: “Get out of the fucking car.” Then: I’m going to shoot you in your fucking face.”

He also warned: “I’m gonna put a cap right in your fucking head.”

At one point a tearful Harper pleads: “Don’t point it at my kids.”

According to the couple’s account, Ames was shoved to the pavement by an officer as he exited the car and handcuffed. He was then stood up, pushed against the vehicle and kicked in the right leg.

When Harper emerged, the couple said police tried to wrestle her younger child away from her. She can be heard ordered on tape to put the baby down, and she responds: “She’s a baby, she can’t walk.” The baby can then be heard screaming.

At one point the man recording the scene and a friend yell at the cops to “calm down.”

Though the couple was detained, neither Ames nor Harper were arrested or ticketed, The Phoenix New Times reported. The store did not press charges.

Gallego said she was “sick over what I have seen in the video,” calling the confrontation “completely inappropriate and clearly unprofessional.”

She added: “As a mother myself, seeing these children placed in such a terrifying situation is beyond upsetting.” She apologized to the family and vowed to speed up the schedule for equipping all officers with body cams.

An initial police report said that the family drove away from the store even though they were ordered to stop, and that Ames yelled at an officer when he eventually pulled into a parking lot, according to ABC News 10. Harper and her children were “moving frantically” in the backseat and officers suspected she may have been armed, they claimed.

A police report posted to Facebook on Saturday didn’t mention those details. It said that Ames told them when he was stopped that he had shoplifted a package of underwear, and that he was driving with a suspended license.

The lawsuit alleges the police officers “committed battery, unlawful imprisonment, false arrest, infliction of emotional distress, and violation of civil rights.”

“I say to you young men sitting out there, before you know it, you’ll be an old man sitting over here just like me!” 😂@EricDickerson + @TG3II hosted the 3rd annual rookie BBQ + shared their @NFL experiences. pic.twitter.com/en9rTVgV15

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) June 13, 2019

from RantoulRam , analysis from re-viewing of 2018 games

Noteboom…played the whole 49ers game at left tackle and had a number of noticeable great plays, especially in run blocking. Fairly small sample size and 49ers were trash, but still I am very high on his potential.

Tyler Higbee made some big plays/catches, including some very athletic plays in clutch spots. I know his stats aren’t great but maybe we are underestimating him.

Corey Littleton was a huge find. I have a feeling he may end up being an all-pro.

Obviously, this is not a new observation, but Goff still can improve a lot. I am on the “he has gotten better every year he started, and is only 24” bandwagon, but as many good plays as he makes, he has the potential to make a lot more.

his ability to keep working on maybe getting through, if a particular look doesn’t happen, getting through some progressions, and just really making it hard on him in that regard throughout OTAs to really force more of the strenuous situations that are going to occur, so that when they do occur in season, we are prepared and ready to attack that.”

That’s a big theme this year. Adjustments, responses to different defensive looks, reacting to different situations. This was a big thing about OTAs–a lot of it was situational.

I have to say, sitting in my humble seat and trying to follow these things, if I would name one key thing to learn from last year, it’s adjusting both from play call to play call and also within a given play.

Jared Goff Isn’t Hiding From That Super Bowl Stumble
The supercharged Rams managed just three points against the Patriots on the big stage, but their young quarterback is using those failures to learn and move on—and up—this offseason.

Albert Breer

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/06/03/jared-goff-rams-2019-andy-dalton-cam-newton-odell-beckham-mmqb

Some players and coaches treat a Super Bowl loss like it never happened and figuratively bury the result like a dead body. Others try to confront the setback at every turn, making it a talking point that they won’t avoid the past.

Jared Goff, in the aftermath of Super Bowl LIII, did neither.

The Rams scored three points in the game. Goff threw a devastating fourth-quarter interception, saw half his throws fall incomplete and posted a 57.9 rating. And the offense that 33-year-old coach Sean McVay had turned into the NFL’s most dangerous over the last two years in L.A. was rendered a speed bump on Bill Belichick’s path to a sixth title.

So how did Goff process the Super Bowl? How did he deal with it in the aftermath?

By treating it like any other loss. Or win, for that matter.

“Oh yeah. I went back and watched it the day after,” Goff said on Friday, after wrapping up the Rams’ third week of OTAs. “Postgame, tried to treat it like any other game where you’re evaluating yourself. Obviously, there were much bigger implications, but you just go through it like you would, and evaluate what you think you did well and what you didn’t do well, and move on.

“And yeah, it took longer than a regular game to move on from, because there wasn’t a game after it to fix what you’d done in the previous game. But it’s part of the process. Every year there’s a team that goes through this. This year it’s us.”

Goff then pointed out that losing the Super Bowl isn’t the curse it used to be.

He’s right, too. Eight of nine teams this decade to fall on the biggest stage made the playoffs the next year, six of those got through to the divisional round, five won at least one playoff game, and the last team in that spot, last year’s Patriots, bounced back to win it all the following season.

“It’s something we’re able to look forward to—you’ve seen teams come off losing it and win it the following year,” Goff said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s not going to happen just because the Patriots did it—it’s not like, ‘OK, they lost two years ago and last year they beat us, so that’s our track.’ That’s not how it works, and we understand that.”

But, he continued, if the Rams follow the road that they have for the last 29 months or so, there’s no reason he, and the team, can’t bounce back quickly. For the quarterback, the first steps were taken that next day at the team facility, confronting what stood between him and the Lombardi Trophy.

Sean McVay has been pretty vocal about how disappointed he was in himself in the Super Bowl—and rest assured, Goff felt the loss same as his coach. He hasn’t been as outward about it, but he did beat himself up over how a stellar 18-game body of work to get the Rams to Atlanta somehow didn’t carry over once they got there.

And as he saw, it wasn’t just the opportunity that felt wasted in the aftermath. Moreso, it was a defensive effort against Tom Brady, Josh McDaniels and the Patriots offense that probably would’ve stood up as historic if he and the offense had played even an average game.

“The fact that our defense played the game they did, and Wade [Phillips] coached the way he did, all the plays we made—we got an interception on the first play of the game—and offensively, and me personally, we weren’t able to hold up our end, that’s what really bothered me,” Goff said. “At this point, late May, early June, I’m able to move past that, and you’re on to the next step of your career and your life.

“But for a while there, that was the big sticking point in my head.”

What he wasn’t going to waste was the experience, and the lessons that playing against a Belichick defense presented him. It was all there for him when he fired up the tape the next day.

Back in February, we detailed the Patriots’ defensive game plan in both the day-after and week-after MMQBs, first from the locker room and then with the McCourty twins. In each case, the overriding theme was New England not wanting to give McVay, Goff or anyone on the Rams roster any sort of tell into what they were doing—which meant playing differently than they had, and disguising everything.

It worked, and Goff concedes now that the Super Bowl experience illuminates where the L.A.’s high-powered attack still has room to grow.

“They’re so unique in that they change weekly in what they’re doing,” Goff said of the Patriots. “I think for me personally, if we were play them again, or any team that’s similar to them that can do that, you have to be able to adjust on the fly a little bit quicker.

“As opposed to waiting for something to happen, you have to actively adjust to what they’re doing, and adjust to what a team is trying to present to you, whether it’s something they showed on film or not.”

So the Rams are attacking that now, Goff explained, by trying to mimic game conditions in practice. For two seasons the Rams have for the most part been able to dictate the tenor of games to their opponents. What they’re preparing for now are the occasions where the opponent is capable of dictating the rules of engagement to them.

“We know the three or four defenses that’ll be 75 percent of the stuff we play this year, 80 percent of the stuff we play,” Goff said. “There’s that 20 percent that you don’t often get much work on, that we’re trying to actively work on, actively prepare for. And then when the game comes and those situations arise, we will be prepared.”

The Rams also drilled down this spring on third-down conversions (they ranked fifth in that category in 2018 but went 3-of-13 in the Super Bowl) and red-zone situations (they were 18th last year, the only category in which they were middling on offense). It’s a good example of the offense zeroing in on details, with the big picture in good shape.

Which, of course, is a reminder that despite how last year ended, there’s a lot to look forward to in L.A. With that in mind, a few other nuggets from my talk with Goff …

Goff’s work with his throwing coaches has consumed a lot of his offseason. Like more than half of the NFL’s starting quarterbacks, Goff does his personal work at 3DQB in Orange County. Tom House’s partner, Adam Dedeaux, has focused Goff on consistency in his stroke this offseason (House’s star pupil, Tom Brady, is off the charts in that area), and Goff has the advantage of being a drive away, making him a daily visitor at points this offseason.

“Everything he’s done, and I work with him daily, is about being repeatable, being able to repeat the same stroke,” Goff said. “When people ask me about it, I equate it to a swing coach in golf, or if you’re a tennis player, your personal coach, somebody who’s able to teach you how to be consistent. And seeing my mechanics my rookie year, which I’d thought were good, and even my second year, which I thought were really good, to where I am now, and how much more consistent and accurate and on top of it I am, is all a credit to them. They’ve been tremendous for me.”

Goff’s belief is that consistency in the skill position should help too. Two years ago the Rams imported Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods, and drafted Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds. Last year it was Brandin Cooks and Gerald Everett. This year, for the first time in his career, the skill group around Goff will be much the same, which has facilitated the offense’s ability to focus on the smaller stuff.

“That’s definitely part of it, especially with a short offseason,” said Goff. “You feel like you pick up where you left off, and more literally than other teams can say that. We finished in February and picked up in April with the same 11 guys, besides our center and left guard, and it’s been pretty seamless. We continue to run what we run through this spring stuff and OTAs, and we’ve worked on different wrinkles.

“To be able to continue that chemistry with the receivers and the offensive line has been tremendous.”

This year is different from last year. And for really good reasons.

“Way different. Way different,” Goff said. “Last year, being in that first round of the playoffs, playing the Falcons, the previous season we were 4-12, so you’re thinking, ‘OK, this is kind of fun, I like the playoffs, this is cool.’ And you go through it and you lose, and you’re like, ‘Wait, wait, I want to go back to that. That was fun, I shouldn’t have taken that for granted.’ This past season, you’re like, ‘OK, we belong.’”

Which brings us to the question of sustainability. Goff is 24, Todd Gurley is 24 (even with questions on his health), Cooks is 25, Aaron Donald is 28, and the Rams have become the kind of place where veterans (Ndamukong Suh last year, Eric Weddle and Clay Matthews this year) come to make a run at a ring. And it’s through those guys that Goff has gotten an appreciation for what’s going on.

“For me, personally, the best example is when we sign free agents, and we’ll talk to them about where they been, and the culture [in those places], and they’re like, ‘Dude, it’s nothing like this. It’s not even close,’” Goff said. “That’s where we sort of take a step back and try not to take it for granted. I understand I’m in a very fortunate situation, and I’m going to try and take full advantage of it.”

The Rams broke through in 2017, and took a major leap forward last year. Now, how they process the memory of Feb. 3 will play a big part in whether they take the next major step. “When you have that last game and you don’t get a chance to redeem yourself, there’s not a next week’s storyline. It’s like, ‘Alright, this is the story of the whole offseason.’ And now you have to deal with it.”

That’s what this spring has been about in L.A.

Celebrate @CooperKupp's birthday by looking back on his best plays from 2018! pic.twitter.com/Ioy3BByFlq

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) June 15, 2019

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving, or as Sarah Huckabee Sanders would say, "Sarah Huckabee Sanders is not leaving."

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) June 14, 2019

Rams rookies among the team employees at Belvedere Elementary School, which opened in 1912, for annual community improvement project.https://t.co/3zSG2tAXGJ

— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) June 15, 2019

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Putting on the finishing touches at Belvedere Elementary! Enjoyed building a playground and beautifying this school. S/o to all of the staff and players that showed up to help. pic.twitter.com/BjODKTRB0O

— Erica (@EShermm) June 14, 2019

MCVAY: “SEE THIS IS ARIZONA, THEN TEXAS, ON A LINE THAT GOES ALL THE WAY OUT TO THE ATLANTIC. THAT’S ALL EAST OF US. AS THE EARTH ROTATES, THE SUN RISES FROM THAT DIRECTION.“

If ‘load management’ works in the NBA, then it should with Todd Gurley

Vincent Bonsignore

https://theathletic.com/1024384/2019/06/12/if-load-management-works-in-the-nba-then-it-should-with-todd-gurley/

Whatever we think, believe, or have heard about the condition of Todd Gurley’s left knee, one indisputable fact remains and often gets overlooked in the aftermath of the confusing end to his 2018 season: As Gurley took the field for the Rams’ Week 14 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, he was very much in the discussion for his second straight NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.

Going into the third-to-last game of the regular season, Gurley ranked second in the NFL in rushing yards (1,202), first in rushing touchdowns (15), third in yards from scrimmage (1,707), and first in total touchdowns (19).

Up to that point, it was business as usual for one of the NFL’s most dynamic offensive forces.

And in retrospect, perhaps a key clue. The Rams remain optimistic that the plan in place for Gurley in 2019 will mean much more of the Gurley we saw through the first 13 games of last year and less of the one who missed the final two games of the regular season, the one who played like a shell of himself in two of the Rams’ three postseason games.

As Gurley himself pointed out Tuesday, after the Rams wrapped up their offseason program, he considers the current situation with his knee a “small problem” compared to what he faced five years ago as a junior at Georgia when he underwent reconstructive knee surgery.

That confidence flies in the face of the gloom-and-doom speculation that’s run rampant almost since the end of the Super Bowl, most of which I take with a grain of salt.

In the absence of solid information, conjecture always reigns. And for whatever reason, it’s usually in our nature to assume the worst.

I’ve cautioned against that type of dire thinking time and again this offseason. That’s not sweeping under the rug any potential lingering issues with Gurley’s knee. In fact, I suspect he’s dealing with a condition that absolutely needs to be adequately managed. And I’m certainly not ruling out a decline in Gurley’s performance. Perhaps even a sharp one.

But I also believe the personal training staff Gurley is working with, along with the Rams’ medical staff, have a pretty good idea what they are dealing with and have a sound plan to manage it.

The key will be adhering to it. And the ultimate goal will be to ensure Gurley is physically sound, even beyond the 16-game regular season. And not merely as a good back, but the lethal offensive force he’s been almost from the moment he stepped foot in the NFL.

It’s much like the “load management” plan that successfully got Kawhi Leonard through the NBA regular season and left him physically fit enough to carry the Toronto Raptors to the brink of an NBA championship.

In fact, Leonard is a poignant reminder of how ill-advised all the doomsday speculation about Gurley might be.

If you remember, Leonard, the former San Antonio Spurs star, missed all but nine games during the 2017-18 season while dealing with a mysterious quad injury. Words such as atrophy and degenerative and ossification were bandied about. Much like the murkiness surrounding Gurley’s situation — we’ve heard about arthritis and the potential of stem cell treatment — there was some speculation Leonard might never be the same player again.

After trading for Leonard, though, the Raptors outlined a specific management plan for the situation.

The details remain mostly vague — we have to assume a lot goes on behind the scenes to manage his physical fitness — but part of the plan was restricting Leonard’s availability in back-to-back game situations. Interestingly, while he averaged a career-high 34 minutes per game, he played in just 60 of the 82 games overall. The Raptors focused on the big picture, but never at the expense of the immediate one.

Obviously, it had the desired effect. And as Leonard recently acknowledged, there’s no guarantee that without that plan, he would be playing as well as he is right now.

Much like the Raptors, the Rams have been tight-lipped about what they have in mind for Gurley. It includes his workload during training camp, whatever schedule and treatment outline he’ll follow during game weeks and how he’ll be used in terms of the number of carries and snaps he’ll receive each week.

All we know is Gurley was held out of all on-field activities during OTAs while working behind the scenes with his personal trainer and the Rams’ training staff. But it would be a mistake to assume his limited offseason work or the hushed nature in how the Rams are publicly handling the situation means a worst-case scenario is at hand.

For now, it’s all part of the plan.

Circling back to the Eagles game in Week 14, something obviously happened to Gurley’s knee, although exactly what happened remains murky to this day. Did it take a big hit? Did he tweak it? Was it strained while making a hard cut? Or was a surgically repaired knee simply showing signs of wear and tear after a long season of usage?

Maybe, as I’ve long suspected, a combination of all of the above resulted in a slower than usual recovery time for a moderate injury.

Whatever the case, the Rams held Gurley out of their last two regular-season games. And aside from a brilliant — albeit condensed — performance against the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs, he never seemed quite right the rest of the season.

The confusing manner in which Gurley was used and how he performed both in the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl — and the lack of any real clarification about what was really going on — has led to boundless speculation over the last four months.

Meanwhile, the Rams haven’t publicly given any explanation or diagnosis, other than occasionally describing Gurley’s issue as a matter of “wear and tear.”

That sentiment is consistent with what’s been shared with me privately as well, sometimes with the reminder that Gurley was soaring through the first 13 games of the season in dynamic fashion and that he looked fine against the Cowboys in the divisional round. Gurley also delivered a critical six-yard touchdown run in the NFC title game and looked perfectly fine while breaking off a beautiful — albeit nullified — 13-yard run in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl to set the Rams up in Patriots territory.

The point being, the Rams feel good, publicly and privately, about where things stand with their star running back and, just as important, with the plan they have in place to get him through next season.