Al Davis, good or bad for the NFL? Plaschke and Simers discuss

Late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, who passed away earlier this month at age 82, was considered a bad guy and a villain by many, yet he was a pioneer who took his team to three championships.

Everything considered, was he good for the league?

Bill Plaschke and T.J. Simers discuss the topic in their video series, L.A. Loud, moderated by Times sports reporter Melissa Rohlin.

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--Melissa Rohlin

T.J. Simers: Rick Neuheisel still has a chance to keep his job

We have reached the halfway mark in Rick Neuheisel’s fight for survival at UCLA. It’s been very thrilling.

He lost a game he should have won in Houston to start the "Rick must go" campaign.

But he’s come back to win the games he had to win or get fired on the spot: San Jose State, Oregon State and Washington State.

Thursday night’s game in Arizona is now the swing game.

If the Bruins win, they still have a shot at seven wins; if they lose, they have no margin of error when it comes to winning six.

Six wins makes the Bruins bowl eligible but does not guarantee a bowl invitation or another year on the job for Neuheisel. When UCLA went to Washington, D.C., a few years back, it did so because it finished with six wins and the bowls ran out of seven-win teams to fill all the games.

Seven wins, though, earns UCLA a bowl game, and Neuheisel rejoins the living.

UCLA is 3-3. It’s hard to say any Pac-12 game is winnable for the Bruins, but if Neuheisel is correct in saying UCLA is on the right track, then it should beat Arizona, Cal, Colorado and Utah.

Jerry West and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Plaschke and Simers discuss their recent issues with the Lakers

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West are purple and gold lore, they are legends whose impact on the game continues to have profound reverberations today.

Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer. The league's logo is West's silhouette. Despite their accomplishments, both men have felt like they haven't received their due respect from the Lakers organization after their playing days have ended.

Abdul-Jabbar gripes that he hasn't been immortalized with a bronze statue outside of Staples Center. West feels as though Coach Phil Jackson never truly appreciated him.

In their video series, L.A. Now, moderated by Times sports reporter Melissa Rohlin, Bill Plaschke and T.J. Simers discuss the Lakers legends and what their legacy will be. Here are some highlights.

On Jerry West:

Both columnists said they think Jerry West is a bit "strange." Plaschke recounted how the former Lakers general manager left the gym during Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals against the Portland Trail Blazers to go see a movie.

"Jerry accomplished a lot in his life, but he also did it with some devils in him," Simers said.

Plaschke called him "one of the most fascinating characters ever in L.A. sports." He discussed how even though West helped build the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal dynasty, he felt overshadowed by Jackson.

 On Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

Simers rembembers seeing Pat Riley approach Abdul-Jabbar at an All-Star game in an attempt to introduce him to his friends. The six-time NBA MVP refused to spend any time with them.

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar feels alienated by everybody and it's basically his own responsibility," Simers said.

Plaschke said Abdul-Jabbar has made himself an unlikable figure in the eyes of Lakers fans.

"James Worthy, Rick Fox get more cheers," Plaschke said.

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--Melissa Rohlin

Matt Kemp: Bill Plaschke, T.J. Simers discuss paying the price

Matt Kemp finished the season with 39 home runs, 126 runs batted in and a very strong bid for the National League MVP.

After next season, he's up for free agency.

In a recent column, Bill Plaschke argued that the Dodgers must make Kemp the highest-paid player in franchise history in the next six months or he could jump ship. T.J. Simers called him the "Dodgers great hope ... for better days ahead."

But can a bankrupt team afford to pay the price for Kemp? And even if they can, should they make a roster change considering that the Dodgers were barely a .500 team (82-79) that missed postseason play?

Simers and Plaschke discuss the topic in their new video series, L.A. Loud, moderated by Times sports reporter Melissa Rohlin.

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-- Melissa Rohlin

Plaschke-Simers video: Should Clayton Kershaw win the Cy Young award?

In his final start of the season Sunday, Clayton Kershaw led the Dodgers to a 6-2 victory against the Padres. He went 7-1/3 innings, holding San Diego to two runs on four hits and a walk, and striking out six.

The 23-year-old leads the National League in earned run average (2.28) and strikeouts (248) and is tied with Arizona Diamondbacks' Ian Kennedy for most victories this season (21). Should he win the Cy Young award?

Times columnists T.J. Simers and Bill Plaschke disagree on the answer to that question.

Simers says no way. Kennedy deserves the award because he carried his team into postseason play.

Plaschke says team records are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that Kershaw is the best pitcher in the league.

This is the second installment of a new weekly video series, L.A. Loud, moderated by L.A. Times sports reporter Melissa Rohlin. Check out the first video, in which Plaschke and Simers debate whether Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant should play overseas.

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Clayton Kershaw makes his Cy Young closing statement

Dodgers statement: MLB trying to force distressed sale of the team

-- Melissa Rohlin

T.J. Simers: Don't be fooled -- Vin Scully is a troublemaker

Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda people. I’m gonna be perfectly frank.

Would you like to know what kinda conversation goes on at home?

That’s right, it is time someone call out Vin Scully.

Well, either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated.

The guy is a true blue rabble-rouser.

I’m telling you, ya got Trouble, my friend, and that’s spelled with a capital T, and I wouldn’t be surprised later to learn Vin Scully has a pool table in his home.

I don’t know how he does it. It’s like Major League Baseball has these games scripted and Scully gets an early read and chooses to give away the ending.

He had Arizona’s Gerardo Parra pegged as the bad guy almost before Arizona came to town this week, singing Parra’s praises as he does and the hometown kids having no choice but to get irritated.

You might say, “Come on, they can’t hear him, so no harm, no reason for a bean ball.’’

T.J. Simers: The suspension of UCLA's Kai Maiava raises questions

 

I hesitate to call our Chris Foster a crack reporter, knowing that Foster’s sources are the ones who have linked a positive marijuana test to UCLA center Kai Maiava.

Someone might misunderstand, so let’s just say Foster is very good at what he does when no one wants to come clean.

UCLA announced at the start of the week that Maiava, one of the team’s top players, was being suspended for the San Jose State game for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

Then school officials refused to say anything more.

OK, so forget about your opinions of marijuana and whether it should or should not be legalized, and stay on point here.

Under UCLA’s drug policy, as Foster wrote, "an athlete is suspended for the next athletic contest after testing positive for a third time."

Keep in mind for a moment the words: "The next athletic contest."

Foster went on to wrote, "Last season, four UCLA players were suspended for a game after testing positive for marijuana a third time."

So we know some of the football players at UCLA don’t necessarily believe in putting football first, the team or all that other rah-rah stuff.

UCLA observers say Maiava is the one offensive lineman the Bruins can’t afford to lose, but apparently he didn’t feel the same way.

The lack of football commitment at UCLA is a topic for another day, or already maybe a commentary on why the Bruins consistently disappoint.

But call me skeptical -- in addition to all the other names already used: Aren’t the Bruins darn lucky that Maiava was caught at a time when he will only have to miss the easiest game on UCLA’s schedule?

But I wonder. Did Maiava test positive before the season opener in Houston, no one wanting the Bruins to get off to a bad start, so the Bruins waited until after the game to discipline him?

Some deterrent.

Would UCLA have handled things differently if Maiava wasn’t so vital to the team’s chances of success? Did he test positive before the opener, file an appeal as the rules allow, and as a result buy an extra week on the field?

Foster asked, but UCLA won’t comment.

So what about UCLA’s credibility, and that of Coach Rick Neuheisel?

T.J. Simers: John Elway needs to find a QB better than Tim Tebow

Trent Dilfer is a terrific guy. A terrible quarterback, but great guy.      

He won a Super Bowl, so terrible quarterbacks still have a chance in the NFL, which is the best thing that can be said about Tim Tebow.

He’s a terrible quarterback by NFL standards, and while people love him like they did Doug Flutie, a.k.a. the Mission Bay Shrimp, it’s a tall order to overcome one’s limitations.

Tebow fared well in the Broncos’ exhibition opener, which of course means absolutely nothing. He probably helped sell tickets, or justify the money spent on an exhibition game, but he’s probably looking at a long career as a heady backup who will always look good in exhibition games.

I’m more interested in John Elway’s development as NFL executive.

I was covering the Broncos in Denver when Elway arrived as a player, his first appearance in the second half of an exhibition game electrifying.

Then the season started and he was a mess. Replaced by Steve DeBerg, he struggled but threw himself into the weight room and into getting better. And with that kind of talent and arm, the results should have surprised no one.

He’s off to another struggling start as an NFL executive, mixed messages being sent regarding Tebow and Kyle Orton, and nothing disrupts a team like uncertainty at the quarterback position.

Orton appeared on his way to Miami at one time, the team belonging to Tebow. Once the Broncos realized they had no chance to win, they switched back to Orton.

Six or seven wins are better than two or three.

A few years ago I had hoped to see Elway in Los Angeles working as an executive with an expansion franchise. He bought an Arena League football team to better prepare himself for such an opportunity and spent time with Broncos owner Pat Bowlen.

Los Angeles now will probably play home to the Chargers next season, the Broncos becoming the enemy. No sweat if the Broncos persist in allowing Tebow to muck up their long-range plans.

That will be up to Elway, his development as an executive and his plan for Broncos’ success -- success in the NFL in a large part dictated by who plays the quarterback position.

He has to find a better one.

He already has his Gary Kubiak in Tebow.

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Tim Tebow looks solid in Broncos' preseason opener

Bill Plaschke: Hall of shame is more like it for Dennis Rodman

-- T.J. Simers

Left photo: John Elway. Credit: Ron Chenoy / US Presswire

Right photo: Tim Tebow. Credit: LM Otero / Associated Press