Pac12 Preview: Washington State, UCLA and Cal Win

Pac12 Pick of the Week:


No.12 Oregon (5-1) at No. 25 Washington State (5-1)

Parity reigns in the Pac12. There are no dominant teams, just four or five very good ones, including Washington State and Oregon, which are basically equal.

But the Cougars have the edge here, not only playing with two weeks off but also playing at home. Oregon thought they had it tough against Washington last week, but Duck QB Justin Herbert was able to operate back then with little pressure. It will be different in Pullman, where the defense will give him far less time to pass.

The Ducks' defense hasn't faced a passing offense like the Cougars'--one filled with lightening strikes. State QB Gardner Minshew is one of the best in the country--and one of the best kept secrets since playing in Pullman is flying under the radar. Minshew's stats are startling. The Cougars average over 400 yards a game passing, with Minshew hitting 19 TDs with only 4 INTs.

Overall Oregon is the better team, but look for State, a two-point favorite, to win Saturday and for Minshew to out-duel the much heralded Herbert.


Arizona (3-4) at UCLA (1-5)

This one is easy. All you need to know is that Arizona QB Khalil Tate, a monster dual-threat weapon and the heart and soul of the team, is out. If he's healthy, the Wildcats have a chance against anybody in the Pac12, Without him, forget it.

The Bruins are riding high, with back-to-back solid games against Washington and Cal. QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson is suddenly one of the best in the conference, hitting 40 out of 53 passes in the last two games, adding a deep-passing game to the offense. The O line has developed into a skilled unit, opening holes for RB Joshua Kelley, who now boasts a string of three 100-plus-yard games.

Arizona's Backup QB Rhett Rodriguez is just average and their run game is wildly inconsistent. The Bruins should stampede through the Wildcats' bad rushing defense. The Bruins, 8-point favorites, should cruise. If you are betting, take UCLA.

Cal (3-3) at Oregon State (1-5)

The worst team in the Pac12? It used to be Oregon State, but Cal, with three straight losses, is challenging for the title of best bottom-feeder.

The Bears, however, just might claw their way out of this losing streak. Their primary
problem has been turnovers, with a staggering total of 14 in the last three games. But the Beavers' defense has caused just five turnovers all season. That's just one of its deficiencies. Its most damaging flaw may be its inability to stop opponents on third-down plays. In that category State's D is last in the country. Also in Cal's favor is that State's weak run defense shouldn't be an obstacle to the Bears' strength--its run game, which stars Patrick Laird.

But the Bears, a seven-point favorite, are no cinch to win this one. A nagging hangup is an inability to win on the road. They haven't done it since 2016. However the Beavers' awful defense shouldn't get in the way and the Bears should easily handle their offense, which features just one big gun--freshman RB Jermar Jefferson, one of the best in the conference. It would help if the Bears were more effective at downfield passing but their ground game should be enough.

Prediction: Cal QB Brandon McIlwain stops throwing INTs and Cal finally conquers The Curse of The Road.

Pac12 Preview: Oregon, USC, Cal, USC Wins

Pac12 Pick of the week: Washington (5-1) at Oregon (4-1)

The consensus is that Washington is the best team in the conference. Wrong. Oregon actually deserves that title.The Ducks were minutes away from being 5-0, but late in the Stanford game a few weeks ago they made some boneheaded plays and blew a game they had in the bag.

Oregon can remove any doubt about who's best by whipping the Huskies this weekend. It's mostly up to Duck QB Justin Herbert, arguably the best college player in the country. He's burning up the Pac12, hitting 76% of his passes in conference contests, while averaging more than ten yards per throw.

Washington has a superb defense which is primarily expert at stopping the run. When it comes to pass rush and sacks, however, the Huskies are just so-so. The Ducks' O line should give Herbert time--though with that quick release he doesn't need much time--to decimate that Washington defense. The Huskies' offense has never been that lethal, though it's been scarier in recent weeks since QB Jake Browning has sharpened both his mid-range and deep-passing games

Here's a sobering thought. UCLA freshman QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson lit up the Huskies defense for 272 yards , hitting 71% of his passes and two TDs. If an unpolished freshman can do that to the Huskies' defense, what kind of damage can Herbert do?

Though favored by 3 1/2 points, Washington will fall to the Ducks.


UCLA (0-5) at Cal (3-2)

The most important aspect of this game is its location. It's in Berkeley. That most likely means a Cal victory. Give the Bears a losing team at home, especially a win-less team like the Bruins that counts heavily on underclassmen and you'll most likely get a Cal win,

But not so fast. The Young Bruins are improving, particularly QB Thompson-Robinson and RB Joshua Kelly, who has piled up 249 yards in the last two games. They don't score much. That 24 points they scored in the 31-24 Washington loss last week was the most they have scored all season. But that was by far their best game of the season. It was all the more impressive considering it came against the best team in the conference.

Cal is the better team but is horribly mistake-prone, with 14 turnovers in the last four games. One of Cal's few assets is nifty running QB Brandon McIlwain. But they have many deficiencies, like no deep passing game and no pass rush. Very easily, the Bears could commit a slew of turnovers and lose this game.

But the young Bruins aren't likely to play their best on the road so, with great caution, I predict Cal wins this one.

Colorado (5-0) at USC (5-2)

Oregon QB Herbert may be the best pro prospect among the conference's QBs but the most effective by far at the position is Colorado's Steven Montez, who has put the Buffalos on his back and carried them to respectability. He faces his toughest task this weekend at the LA Coliseum,

His problem  is two-fold. First he has to beat a conference team on the road, which is hard to do. Second, this is no ordinary conference team. It's one Colorado has never defeated, losing twelve times, dating back to 1927.

By high SC standards, this is a fairly ordinary Trojan team, riddled with flaws, like its penchant for committing penalties, while rarely generating turnovers. The guts of the offense is up-and-down freshman QB, JT Daniels, and a suddenly explosive RB Aca'Cedric White. After a shaky start due to Daniels' inexperience, the offense is finally clicking.

These two teams are fairly equal. The question is can QB Montez play at the top of his game and power the Buffs to a road win, finally shattering that long losing streak. He's unlikely do it on the road.

USC wins this one.

Pac12 Preview: Washington and Cal Win

Let's face it. This Rose Bowl battle between the worst in the Pac12 (0-4 UCLA) and by far the best (3-1 Washington), is one Bruins can't possibly win. The quality gap between the players of these teams is enormous. If Husky coach Chris Petersen rested his starters and played only the backups the Bruins might have a shot.

Here's the core of this contest. Washington's strength is its blazing fast, swarming defense, which leads the country in scoring defense, and will mercilessly destroy the Bruins' awful offense line, the team's major weakness. Because of the O line, the Bruins can't run, averaging a pathetic 136 yards a game. QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who looks totally confused at times, gets a little better each week but he's still a long way from being a polished field general.

On offense Washington is no Oklahoma, so they are unlikely to sweep the Bruins away with a tsunami of points. That's because Husky QB Jake Browning is good but far from great, so the offense doesn't blow opponents out. Don't be surprised if UCLA, at home, starts feeling its oats and beats that 21-point spread.

Cal  (3-1) v Arizona ( 2-3) in Tuscon

Some pundits say Cal, which started at 3-0 and rose to No. 24, didn't belong in the top 25 because two of the wins were over patsies and one was only over fairly decent BYU. Boy, were the pundits right. When the Bears faced a really good Oregon team last week they lost 42-24.

OK, so Cal isn't a top 25 team, but they are improved over last year and have a good chance to pick up three more wins and go bowling for the first time in years. They play three very winnable games in a row, beginning this weekend with so-so Arizona, followed by two against the worst in the Pac12, UCLA and Oregon State. Defeating that trio would give the Bears six wins before they tackle the tough part of the schedule. 

In the Arizona game, even the odds-makers are on Cal's side, favoring them by two points on the road. The Wildcats, under new coach Kevin Sumlin, are off to a wobbly start, beating only Southern Utah and Oregon State. They did do their best work of the season last week in the fourth quarter of last week's 24-20 loss to USC which, with turnovers and penalties, nearly gave the game away.

Running is the key to this game. Cal, averaging about 200 yards per game on the ground, ran for 241 against Oregon, featuring RB Patrick Laird and QB Brandon McIlwain. Oregon has a solid run defense, Arizona does not, surrendering about 200 yards per game. The Bears should win that ground war.

Arizona's offense lives and dies with QB Khalil Tate, who is having an off year so far. He's a great runner and a not-so-great passer. This year teams have bottled up his running and forced him to rely on passing, which has stymied the offense. Look for the Bears to go with a heavy dose of that formula.

Lyin' Donald Trump Smacked By Eagles

Hurrah for the Philadelphia Eagles!

Donald Trump, the lying, racist, sexist bully who scammed his way into the White House with the aid of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his pack of thugs, got smacked squarely in the face by the Super Bowl champs. They were supposed to be honored at a White House ceremony this week, hosted by Trump. But he withdrew the invite when he found out that nearly all the team was boycotting the event.

That prompted this despicable clown to do what he does best---lie. His plan was to make himself look good and the Eagles look bad. So he blamed the Eagles' negative response to the White House invitation on their anger at his hand in the new NFL policy penalizing players for kneeling during the pregame performance of the National Anthem.

What a blatant lie.

Eagle players weren't even into kneeling during the Anthem. One player knelt during Anthems in preseason but didn't make the team. Trump didn't want to acknowledge the real reason for the team's rejection because it's embarrassing to him. It's very simple. In several tweets some Eagles made it very clear they were skipping the White House event because they don't want to associate with a man they consider to be a rotten human being.

What riles the Eagles and most NFL players is that Trump deviously twisted that kneeling gesture, created by Colin Kaepernick when he was a 49er QB, into something it was never intended to be. Trump insisted the purpose of the gesture was to disrespect the Flag and the military. But Kaepernick and the players were actually protesting police brutality suffered by people of color. Trump knew very well that he was misrepresenting the players' purpose.  For him, though, this kind of corrupt behavior has become routine.

Buoyed by Trump's misleading interpretation of the kneeling gesture,  the NFL dipped at the box office and in TV ratings last season. Some fans, mainly those in Trump's base who blindly believe anything he says, branded the NFL as unpatriotic and backed away from it.

To avoid further fan erosion, the NFL clamped down on kneeling. So now players must protest by remaining in the locker room during the Anthem. That's a pretty pathetic, punch-less way of protesting. But for the players it's do it that way or face a penalty.

Did Trump really think the Eagles would ignore his evil deeds and meekly show up at some ceremony he was hosting at the White House? If so, he's delusional.

So the Eagles made an enemy, a very powerful enemy who will be sniping at them and tweeting
snide comments whenever possible.

But clearly, by their defiant response, the Eagles are telling Trump they can
handle anything he can dish out.

Again, Bravo Eagles!

Damned Warriors Have Wrecked The NBA Playoffs Again

I hate the Golden State Warriors.

They have taken a rousing, exciting sporting event, the NBA Playoffs, and ruined it, drained it of all  competitive juices. In the good old days, actually just a couple of years go, usually three to five teams had a chance to claim the NBA crown. The Playoffs were fun, packed with thrills and tense basketball. 

Not any more.

Now I watch the Playoffs with just mild enthusiasm.  It's hard to get worked up about these games when you know who is going to win--the Warriors again, of course. They're good, too damn good, so good that nobody else has a chance. In June they will feast on which ever sacrificial lamb wins the Eastern Conference title, either Cleveland, Boston, Toronto or Indiana. Competitiveness? Hah! Once a staple of the Playoffs, it's now, thanks to Golden State, just a memory. 

These days the NBA consists of the Warriors, up there on a pedestal, and a pack of  teams that aren't in the same class, the Haves (the Warriors) and the Have Nots (the rest of the league). A few years ago, they had the crown in the bag when they had just three All-Stars, super-shooters Stef Curry and Klay Thompson, backed up by versatile, beastly forward Draymond Green, But, two years ago, forward Kevin Durant, arguably the second best player in the league, after King James, was traded to the Warriors. Add him to an already super team and you have an invincible Goliath.              

What the Warriors did was take the old adage--defense wins championships--and demolish it. The Warrior win not because of lock-down defense but because of their spectacular long-range shooting.

When the shooters get hot, which is often, their accuracy is mind-boggling and demoralizing. The problem the opposition faces is that you can't cover all three shooters at the same time. One of them is always open. They are constantly getting open looks. In a seven-game series, no defense can contain this sharp-shooting offense.

While the Warriors don't win because of defense, they are still among the top ten defensive teams in the league and usually play their best defense in the Playoffs.

The Warriors are so good the opposition doesn't actually beat them. They usually lose because they beat themselves, like they did Sunday, when they turned in a halfhearted effort in San Antonio and dropped one to the Spurs. You could see that loss coming. With a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, the Warriors knew they could take a game off and it wouldn't matter. In the very next game, at home, they polished off the Spurs, winning that first round series 4-1.

Their second-round opponent--victim actually---is the New Orleans Pelicans, a young, inexperienced, deer-in-the-headlights team that will be so dazzled by reaching the second round that they'll stumble through the series, plagued by missed shots and turnovers.

One advantage the Warriors have is that they play so well at home in the Playoffs. That win over the Spurs, which cinched the series, was their 12th home Playoff victory in a row.

The only way Golden State loses a Playoff series is if they're undermanned because two of their four All-Stars can't play. Then the opposition might have a chance. Right now MVP Curry is out with an injury. He hasn't played since March 23, when he went down with a sprained MCL in his left knee. But they didn't need him to whip the Spurs. They don't really need him against the Pelicans either, though he will probably return during that series.

Even if Curry is not 100%, that won't matter.  Without him, the Warriors are still way better than any NBA team. 

So thank you, Golden State, for once again wrecking the Playoffs, for making them your own personal playground. Sure, they are lots of fun for you and your fans but for the rest of us, they are a real drag, hardly worth watching.

UCLA Coach Steve Alford, Hanging By A Thread

This is a critical time for UCLA men's basketball coach Steve Alford. Right now the team is in a hole, 13-7 overall, 4-4 in the PAC 12 and stuck in a three-game losing streak. How the team does in the next few weeks will determine if he's back next year.

But tonight's game doesn't count. It's a cinch.

UCLA plays Cal in Westwood. Playing the bungling Bears is like playing a so-so junior college team. It's even easier playing them at home. The Bruins should have this one wrapped up by halftime without hardly breaking a sweat.

After that, though, it gets tough--real tough. The Bruins play the top four teams in the PAC 12, beginning with Stanford at home on Sunday. That might be the easiest of the four games following the Cal breather. After Stanford the Bruins tackle arguably the best team in the conference, USC, Fortunately for UCLA that one is in Westwood. Then the Bruins face the nightmare road trip of the season for every PAC 12 team, playing two in Arizona.

If the Bruins continue to play the way they've been playing during this three-game losing streak.

they will drop all four of those crucial games. That would mean losing seven out of eight. By then the Alford haters would be breathing fire and hanging him in effigy. Demoralized, the team would probably stumble through the rest of the season, which begins in mid February with the rugged Oregon teams in Westwood. Then the Bruins would most likely miss the NCAA tournament and lay an egg in the NIT, if they are invited. Big-money donors would be ready to pay Alford to go away.

For Alford haters that's a dream scenario. Will it happen? Let's say it has a 50-50 chance. This young team is woefully under-developed. The players aren't listening to Alford. He's preaching teamwork to a bunch that's addicted to one-on-one play. But you can't win in the major-college ranks with playground-style ball. Where these young Bruins are most deficient is on defense. That debacle in Oregon last weekend may have been their worst defensive effort of the season, from bad board work, to clumsy rotations to sloppy ball-handling. A well-coached team would have won that one by 15 instead of losing 94-91.

I know this is not what Alford haters want to hear but I wouldn't give up on him just yet. He's not Coach K but he's not bottom-of-the-barrel either. He has skills. They are just not working on this current crew. He's well aware that he's backed up against the wall. To keep his job he has to whip these wayward kids into shape, get them to play smart and morph into a quality, disciplined unit.

In other words, he has to do some first-rate coaching. Will he do it and survive? My guess? Can't say.

This one is too close to call.

Cal Men's Basketball--Crippled By Crappy Coaching

Only one word can describe the Cal men's basketball program:

Crap.

That's because the rookie head coach, Wyking Jones, is a disaster. He didn't inherit a bunch of five-star players but there is some talent there, particularly power forward Marcus Lee, a transfer from Kentucky who has pro potential and is by far the best Bear. The team looks poorly coached, playing what amounts to ragged, playground basketball. The players are constantly in the wrong defense, allowing opponents to dominate the inside, clean up the boards and get open look after open look. The Bears' outside shooting, due to horrible mechanics, is awful. Even worse, the players are often roaming at half speed, looking disinterested.

The team is an embarrassment. After following Bears men's basketball for many decades I can say this is, unequivocally, the worst Bear team I've ever seen. They are 7-9 and that's with a preseason schedule packed with patsies. But, shockingly, this sorry bunch was blown out by some of these patsies, losing badly to the likes of Chaminade, Central Arkansas and UC Riverside. Now that they have started the PAC 12 schedule and will be facing much better competition, Cal's record will only get worse.

They opened the league season with a surprising win over Stanford in Palo Alto, thanks to closing the game playing their best ten minutes of ball of the season. However, they followed that victory by reverting to form in routs by USC and UCLA. Why, Cal fans are naturally asking, can't the Bears always play like they played at the end of the Stanford game? Because of uninspired, inept coaching, that's why.
      

How did the Bears get in this mess? Athletic director Mike Williams is largely to blame. He hired Jones, who had no head coaching experience. There is a reason Jones was a career assistant, working for several schools over a period of 15 years. It was obvious to others that he'd make a lousy head coach--obvious to everyone except Williams, that is. Jones had been a Cal assistant for two years under Cuonzo Martin. When Martin left to take the Missouri head coaching job, Williams promoted Jones.

In hiring Jones, Williams was obviously looking for a bargain. Someone like Jones, with no head-coaching experience, commands much less money. Cal can afford an experienced, high-quality coach but Williams, using horrible judgement, opted for the cheap way out, settling for Jones.

Cleaning up this mess won't be that easy. Firing a coach in the middle of the season is generally a bad idea, unless there is a great assistant who can step in right way. Unfortunately the Bears don't have a top-notch assistant. Also, at the end of the season, there's a much bigger pool of coaches to chose from, so it's wiser to wait til then. There's another reason not to dump Jones now. Williams has resigned, effective in May. The new AD, who hasn't been hired, should pick the next coach. Besides, Williams can't be trusted to hire a good coach.

Here's the bottom line. We're stuck with Jones. Supposedly he has lined up a Top 25 recruiting class for next season, but with his job hanging by a thread and the team's record on the way down the drain, some of these incoming studs may sour on Cal and decide to go to other schools. One thing for sure. The new coach will inherit a bad team, with no time to make any improvements.

So look for chaos and crappy play to haunt the team for at least another season or two. The hole that Williams and Jones have buried the program in is so deep that it will take at least that long for Cal to field another decent team.

Poppa Ball Makes President Trump Look Like a Jerk

Le Var Ball, a loudmouthed, obnoxious braggart who's addicted to the media spotlight, may be the most hated man in the sports world. A former athlete, he has a son, Lonzo, on the Los Angeles Lakers and another, freshman LiAngelo, on the UCLA basketball team. He won't shut up about his sons, constantly boasting, ad nauseum, how great the are.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    I couldn't stomach him--until recently. Now he's my hero. I absolutely love the guy. Why? Well, all he did was get sucked into a twitter war with President Trump and then proceeded to wipe the floor with the White House clown.

LiAngelo Ball is one of the three UCLA players recently detained in China after a preseason game and accused of shoplifting. In China at the time for a meeting with the Chinese president, Trump intervened, got the charges dropped, leading to the players being shipped back to Los Angeles, without penalty.

Through a series of tweets, Trump, a bigger egomaniac and blabber mouth than Ball, made it clear that he wanted LeVar to thank him profusely and lavishly praise him. LeVar refused. Clearly his ego wouldn't let him bow down to Trump.

This infuriated the President, who's been blasting Ball with vicious tweets, calling him an "ungrateful fool" and even suggesting that he should have left the UCLA players in China to face the consequences.

As a result, Trump has looked ridiculous, coming across as a small-minded bully who craves ego stroking. Here you have a head of state, squabbling with a private citizen who won't thank him properly. How trivial can you get? Yes, what Trump did was laudable but only an uncouth blowhard like him expects pats on the back for a good deed. What's worse for the President there's an underlying racist angle--big-shot white man picking on a black man with considerably less stature.

Ball comes out of this twitter war looking like the victim, the little guy who stood up to the bully. Trump, on the other hand, looks like the bad guy, enhancing his rep as a self-promoting jerk.

I'm not a Ball fan, but this time I'm firmly in his corner. Anybody who makes our idiot President look like an even bigger idiot gets my vote.







                                                                     

Memo To Dodgers: Dump Yu Darvish

 






I wanted to wait a week or so before making this comment to see if I'd cool down. Well, I haven't. What I'm about to say isn't rational. It's mean. It's nasty. It's petty. But it's gut-level. I apologize before even saying it. Here goes:

I hate him. I hate Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Yu Darvish.

I'll never forgive the right-hander for blowing Game 7 of the World Series, at home no less, to the Houston Astros. The city has waited 29 years for another World Series title. Thanks to Damned Darvish, the wait will be even longer

Next spring, when the Dodgers begin their quest for a title, I don't want to see Darvish in a Dodger uniform. In that 5-1, Game 7 loss to the Astros, he surrendered his right to wear a Dodger uniform again. In that critical game, with the weight of the team on his shoulders, he collapsed, he choked.

When the Dodgers picked up Darvish from the Texas Rangers in August he was supposed to be the backup ace to Clayton Kershaw, the gritty, dominant Number Two Pitcher who, everyone figured, just about guaranteed the baseball title was coming to LA.

But I always had doubts about Darvish. Sure he's a four-time All-Star who averages eleven strikeouts per nine innings. But too often he was wild. Even when he won, many times it wasn't pretty. He always seemed to be a borderline ace, the kind that needed a lot of run support, the kind of pitcher you might not be able to count on in the clutch. He didn't dazzle in any of his starts leading up to the World Series, There was no string of games where he gave up just a run or two and only a few hits and looked like he was in total command.

Game 3 of the Series was a red flag. Darvish looked like a batting practice pitcher, getting pounded for four runs in 1 2/3 innings. Great players bring their A game to championship games. Darvish showed up with his D game, triggering a Dodger loss.

Dodger manager Dave Roberts ignored all the Game 3 signs that Darvish didn't have the stuff to baffle Astro hitters and decided to start him in Game 7, the team's biggest game in decades. Roberts will never admit he regrets that decision but you know damn well he does.

In Game 7, Darvish choked again, looking as pitiful as he did in Game 3. He lasted just as long, a meager 1 2/3 innings, giving up five runs, four earned. Kershaw relieved him and mowed down Astro hitters in the middle of the game. Clearly he should have started, not Darvish. That blunder will certainly haunt Roberts.

Even writing about that Series dredges up those post-Series feelings of misery. No question that pain would resurface every time I'd see Darvish in a Dodger uniform. So I don't want to see him in a Dodger uniform again.

This brings to mind something that happened to the Dodgers on the last day of the 1951 season, when they were in Brooklyn, tied with the New York Giants, playing a game to see who would advance to the World Series. Giant slugger Bobby Thompson hit a three-run, walk-off homer to win the game. Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca served up the crucial pitch.

Some bitter Dodger fans morphed into lifelong Branca haters. I know how they feel. Count me in as a lifetime Darvish hater.

Will that hatred wither away? Forget it. Forgiveness is off the table.

Dimwit Trump vs NFL= Bull Crap

President Donald Trump vs the NFL.  What a farce.

This stupid little war is basically what Trump would label FAKE NEWS--a manufactured nothing of a story that's being covered to death by the media.

First let me make this perfectly clear. I hate Trump. He's vile, shallow, despicable, loathsome, shockingly ignorant and woefully corrupt. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, he's a world-class liar, a bully, a sexual predator, a con-man and a white supremacist. Though totally unfit for the Presidency, he was voted in by selfish, small-minded Republicans who were seduced by his glittering assortment of lies. By a country mile, he's the worst President in our nation's history.

Considering Trump is doing his damnedest to drag the country down in so many areas, it's inevitable he'd somehow stick his nose into sports. So what he's done is start a juvenile war with the NFL

Trump began the conflict by attacking players who kneel during the pregame performance of the National Anthem, charging that's disrespecting the Flag and the military. He urged team owners to fire the protesters. Of course that would be a violation of the players' constitutional rights but Trump, who's clearly ignorant of the Constitution, has no idea about that.  He has been particularly vicious when talking about QB Colin Kaepernick, who started the kneel-down protest movement last season when he was with the San Francisco 49ers.

For the last two Sundays this conflict has been an irritating distraction at games. With his                    relentless barrage of nasty tweets, Trump inflames patriotic fans, who boo the players who, in turn, angrily defy the President and his supporters with assorted protests during the pregame National Anthem. I don't know about you, but I prefer not to have my sporting events sullied by politics.

Trump created the war by twisting and trampling on Kaepernick's original point. With his kneel-down protest, the QB, who's part African American, aimed to call attention to police brutality against blacks. But Trump blatantly ignored Kaepernick's purpose, claiming the protest was actually a slight against the Flag and the military.

Who's kidding who? Do you think Trump, a bogus patriot and a thoroughly amoral egomaniac, really gives a damn about the Flag or the military being disrespected? Hell, no. All Trump cares about is Trump.

Here's the real reason Trump trumped up this battle with the NFL:

Sources close to the President have revealed he started the squabble with pro football simply to create a distraction, arguably the most popular tactic in the Trump public relations arsenal. When he doesn't want you to focus on Point A he vigorously draws your attention to Point B.

Trump is hoping  this fan-friendly, juicy battle with the NFL will  steer  people away from special prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe into the 2016 Trump election campaign's ties with Russia. Just about every day some damning tidbit leaks out that makes serious against the President and his gang more likely.

Also, Trump blasting America's most popular sport for patriotic reasons is a move geared to delight members of his base, mostly a rural and lower-middle class crowd that appreciates a hearty defense of the Flag and the military.

But if you regard Trump as a cheap imitation of a President, don't get sucked into his dumb little scrap with the NFL. It's not worth your time and energy. Instead focus on everything he doesn't want you to focus on--all the dirt related to the Mueller investigation, dirt that hopefully will get this clown booted out of office.