If ever the timing of an NFL injury could seem propitious, Jared Goff and his broken right thumb would be in the discussion. Until he sustained the injury, late in a 20-9 loss at Seattle on Sunday, the leading post-game topics were going to be about the Rams quarterback, who had another lousy performance, and […]

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Has Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay gotten over that 23-20 home defeat inflicted last week by the previously winless New York Jets? I haven’t. Last Sunday, kickoff was a bit after 1 p.m. The Rams, however, didn’t show up until about 2, when a field goal got them to 13-3. (That score again!) What […]

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It was a preposterous bit of “news” in the offices of The National newspaper, based in the United Arab Emirates. Diego Maradona had signed a two-season contract to coach the Dubai club Al Wasl FC of the UAE Pro League. (Sure, and Pele was going to come with him as an assistant.) However, as that […]

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Why aren’t more people talking about this? Is it just me? “Stuck” over here in France, getting a limited amount of NFL in my TV diet? The Los Angeles Rams moved heaven and earth (and six high draft picks, to Tennessee) so that they could make Cal quarterback Jared Goff the first pick of the […]

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The new (to me) slogan attached to the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team is kinda cute. “THE FUTURE IS US.” All caps and a period, see? So “US” can be a pronoun as well as the US in the abbreviation for “United States”. It is a temptation to blurt out a rejoinder to that: “AND […]

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I need the Lakers to close out the NBA Finals tonight. Because I have money on them? Because I have become a fan of LeBron James? Because I can’t stand to see them lose? Nope. I need them to win so I can get a little sleep. A downside for an American living in France? […]

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It looked like it would be a Messi mess, but it turned to be much ado about nothing. And just when soccer fan were getting their heads around the idea of Lionel Messi playing for a club other than Barcelona. He did say that was his preference, getting out of Dodge, following another Champions League […]

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The dominoes are falling now. Nearly every day over the past two weeks has brought news of some other school or conference or league announcing reduced schedules, with the reductions going all the way down to not playing football this season. At all. Back in the spring, noted U.S. immunologist Anthony Fauci was asked about […]

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Baseball is on the way back, we were told this week. “Spring” training camps will open on July 1, a 60-game mini-regular-season will begin play on or about July 24, and the World Series will finish no later than October 28. The NBA’s plan for a return-to-play “bubble” in Orlando was made public on June […]

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First printed in the San Bernardino Sun, November 3, 2002. Twice in my life I have gone to a hospital emergency room as a patient. On both occasions it was after suffering a head injury on a kickoff at a high-school football game. And you thought freeway driving was dangerous. From where we sit, it’s […]

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