In my opinion, Sean McVay, who has decided to return as coach of the Rams, rather than being touted as such an elite coach, should be seen as closer to the bottom of the coaching pile.
After losing one Super Bowl, he and ownership decided to buy their way to another. He took a good young QB (Jared Goff, who he nearly ruined) threw him on what looked like a trash heap in Detroit, and went out to buy the best team money could.
So they won a Super Bowl. So what? What do they have now? A bunch of aging vets, no picks from now until forever, and a coach who doesn’t seem to have a clue how to sign and develop young players.
Look at Doug Pederson in Jacksonville, and what he has done (and is doing) with a bunch of unknowns. A whole lot better than the pathetic Rams.
Goff is flourishing in Detroit. Let McVay go on his merry way, leaving the Rams in ruins.
Anne Beaty
Los Angeles
::
With talk of McVay likely leaving, there will inevitably be allusions to a “sinking ship,” but maybe the ship has already sunk, which raises the question: What’s the over/under for Ram wins next year? I’m thinking 5, same as this year and honestly don’t know which way to go.
Jack Wishard
Los Angeles
::
A lot of people thought that at age 30, McVay was too young to be a head coach in the NFL. At age 36, he is too young to take a sabbatical! The challenge is greater, and he should come back to the Rams next season and show what a truly great head coach can accomplish.
Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood
::
Five words for McVay: What would Vince Lombardi do?
David George
Irvine
::
Too bad the Rams came up short against Seattle. It would have been nice to see Jared Goff and the Lions make the playoffs.
Dave Thoma
Ventura
::
Why is McVay always praised as being one of the greatest coaches? Sure, he won a Super Bowl, but so did Don McCafferty. The Rams’ battle cry this year was “Run it back.” They did, to 2016.
Ruben Hernandez
El Monte
Cotton Bowl repeat
How smart is it to bet on sports? If you took TCU against someone willing to give you 57 points, you lost.
Bruce Janger
Santa Monica
::
Like any casual fan, I enjoyed watching the total domination by the Georgia football team in its national championship triumph over Texas Christian University. The turnoff? Postgame cigars all around. Countless teenage boys this week went hunting for smokes, because they saw the glamorous University of Georgia football players enjoying their postgame cigars. Many of those will get hooked on tobacco, and sometime down the road will perish as a direct result. Whose idea was it to roll out the stogies? Whatever happened to sports heroes as role models?
Tad Daley
Los Angeles
Blame it on Grinch
Lincoln Riley’s loyalty to Alex Grinch, while admirable, is indefensible. Giving Grinch passes for the Utah regular-season loss and the Pac-12 title-game disaster, the Cotton Bowl debacle in Dallas should have been his Waterloo. Inexplicably failing to stop Tulane’s mediocre quarterback on two long fourth downs on the final drive, turning Michael Pratt into Vince Young, was simply unforgivable.
Mark S. Roth
Los Angeles
::
Boy, how quickly fans forget the frustrating tenure of Clay Helton and the empty cupboard of talent that Lincoln Riley inherited in his first year at the helm. To now complain about the defensive shortcomings after the great turnaround Riley engineered is shortsighted at best. Give him time to see if he has learned from the defensive woes of his Oklahoma teams as well as this first year at USC. A first-year record of 11-3 is nothing to sneeze at.
Ken Blake
Brea
Blue in the face
It is amazing to me that Stan Kasten can brag about the Dodgers having the highest attendance in baseball and then basically refuse to sign anyone to avoid going over the luxury tax. The only luxury tax will be paid by the fans paying top dollar to see a now clearly inferior product.
Debra Steinberg
Corona del Mar
::
I was wrong. I really thought the same management team that took the money from cable TV and essentially blacked out their fans for years would figure they are already on the hook for another $22.5 million and still desperately need pitching. They’d figure fans will forgive if Trevor Bauer produces, right? Turns out they don’t have courage to do either.
Jeff Heister
Chatsworth
::
Love him or hate him, which comes with the job of sports columnist, Dylan Hernandez is pretty fearless on the pages of The Times.
Calling Stan Kasten shameless and Mark Walter a coward will certainly not get him special access to the Dodgers, and he regularly calls it like he sees it.
Keep it up, sir.
Mike McNiff
Costa Mesa
Getting pushed around
Is it the NFL or the NRL (National Rugby League)? The NFL should disallow letting players push a running back/quarterback across the line to gain. The offensive line should be responsible for moving the defensive line back enough so the running back/quarterback can move forward to make a first down not 900 pounds of players pushing them.
Russell Morgan
Carson
Where’s the golf coverage?
Nearly 10% of our population plays and watches golf. NBC, CBS, TNT, ESPN, Fox and Golf Channel air it. The Times usually “devotes” one or two inches to it, hidden in it’s miscellaneous The Day in Sports. Pro tournaments are played nearly every week and yet, unless it is a so-called major, you have no commentary, no leaderboard, and only a quick mention of a couple of players who are in the lead. Golf fans are basically being ignored.
Sandy Wilk
Encino
Warrior’s farewell
Charles White was a warrior, worth the price of admission, one tough character, Mr. Student Body right/left, Heisman role model, and enshrined forever at the peristyle end. My favorite USC football player. R.I.P.
David Marshall
Santa Monica
::
The Los Angeles Times welcomes expressions of all views. Letters should be brief and become the property of The Times. They may be edited and republished in any format. Each must include a valid mailing address and telephone number. Pseudonyms will not be used.
Email: [email protected]
