Raiders Take a Chance on Las Vegas

Oakland Raiders logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By 2020, the NFL Raiders will be trading in their hardscrabble existence in Oakland for the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.  This isn't the first time they did that, having spent 12 seasons in the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles (1982-94) before moving back to the Bay Area in 1995.

Once the Raiders touch down in Vegas, they will have a new domed stadium waiting for them, paid for by local taxpayers and the Bank of America.  The only reason they're staying in Oakland for the next couple of years is that Raiders owner Mark Davis doesn't want his team to play outdoors in the desert heat at a small college stadium.

This is the third franchise shift for the NFL in the past year.  The Rams returned to LA after two decades in St. Louis, and the Chargers bolted out of San Diego to join them.  Which left the Raiders, who still have a significant fan base in southern California, looking east.

The NFL (and most professional sports) used to avoid Las Vegas because of its reputation as a gambling haven.  But now it seems hypocritical in an era where sports betting and fantasy football are big business.  The league's owners were almost unanimous in approving the Raiders' move.

Oakland now joins St. Louis and San Diego as cities abandoned by the NFL for bigger bucks elsewhere, and might never see them again.  The Coliseum, which had been the Raiders' off and on home base for over 50 years, is now a concrete dump that's badly in need of repair.  Even Major League Baseball's Athletics couldn't wait to get out of there.  And the NBA Golden State Warriors, who are currently playing at Oracle Arena next door, will be moving to San Francisco in a couple of years.

The Raiders began as an original member of the American Football League in 1960.  After struggling for a few years, the team began to dominate the league (and later the NFL after the merger) by living the "just win, baby" philosophy of managing general partner Al Davis.  They've played in five Super Bowls, winning twice in Oakland (1977 and 1980) and once in Los Angeles (1984).  They last appeared in 2003, losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

So many memorable players have donned the Silver and Black over the years.  Here's some of them:  Daryl Lamonica, Jim Otto, George Blanda, Ben Davidson, Jim Plunkett, Bo Jackson, coach John Madden, Ray Guy, Ken Stabler, Marcus Allen, Fred Biletnikoff and Howie Long.

In the 2016 season, the Raiders finished second in the AFC West division with a 12-4 record.  They lost to the Houston Texans in the wild card round of the NFL playoffs.

Playing in Oakland for the next two seasons (no word on what will happen in 2019) is going to be awkward for the Raiders and their fans, the most rabid in the NFL.  What if they win a Super Bowl, as Davis suggested they might?  Forget handing another Vince Lombardi Trophy to the New England Patriots.  Awarding one to a lame duck franchise could result in another embarrassing moment for commissioner Roger Goodell.

And Las Vegas?  There will be plenty of questions about the viability of an NFL franchise in a growing city with a transient population, and how the league will handle the gambling situation.  With every team getting the stadium deals they wanted and no more worlds to conquer (unless it's London), how long will it be before the NFL discovers all that glitters isn't really gold?

United They Kick

Soccerball with USA flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Minnesota United FC (aka the Loons) are the latest pro sports franchise to come into the Twin Cities.  Their first season in Major League Soccer, after years in the minors, began Friday with a match at Portland against the Timbers.

The Loons are owned by Bill McGuire, who was once the CEO of United Health Care.  He bought the team from the North American Soccer League in 2012, just before they were about to fold it.  Manny Lagos, a longtime figure in Minnesota soccer, is the team's sporting director (read:  general manager).  Adrian Heath is the coach.

The team will play its home games for the next two seasons at the University of Minnesota's football stadium.  Then, probably in the 2019 season, the Loons will move into their new soccer-specific digs in St. Paul, having successfully wrangled money out of a skeptical state legislature that had already seen too many stadium deals.

As an expansion team, United's roster is stocked with the usual castoffs from other squads, young players and the holdovers from their previous incarnation in the NASL.  Heath, who previously led another MLS startup in Orlando, will be tasked with bringing his new team together and making them competitive against the more established competition.

MLS has 22 teams this season (Atlanta United is the other new franchise), and is looking for more.  Soccer's popularity in this country is rising as more Americans are taking the game seriously, thanks to TV coverage of the World Cup and the English Premiere League, as well as attention paid to the U.S. men's and women's national squads.  And they have national television deals with Fox, FS1 and ESPN.

As a league, MLS is kind of a wannabe on the international soccer stage.  Their biggest stars (who are invariably placed in New York and Los Angeles) tend to be veterans with one foot in retirement.  They don't seem to have an identity of their own, having chosen to co-opt the European leagues.  They have teams named Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City.  Their schedules read "Los Angeles Galaxy vs. New York Red Bulls", forcing fans to figure out which one is the home team.  Their season runs from March to December, which is longer than that of the NHL and NBA.  And their plan to expand to at least 28 teams is a reminder of how the original NASL folded back in the 1980s.  Too many teams with too little interest equal a league collapsing of its own weight.

Minnesota United, being a first-year team, is not expected to do much this season.  Most of the players are unknown to the average fan in and out of Minnesota, and will certainly have some adjusting to do.  But this has been a good market for pro soccer, with the Kicks and Strikers of the original NASL selling out the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington back in the 1970s and 80s.  Can the Loons be just as successful with a new generation of soccer fans?  We'll soon find out.

Wolves 2016-17: Not Ready for Prime Time

The current Minnesota Timberwolves logo (2008-present) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Promises, promises.  We hear enough of them from political candidates who'd get elected on them, but somehow never quite deliver.  The same can be said for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who keep building their their roster through the NBA draft hoping for a better result (isn't that the definition of insanity?), only to spend the next season looking at ping pong balls again.

As Wolves fans have been told time and again, the team's young combo platter of Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Wiggins, Zach LaVine and others along with new coach Tom Thibodeau would be helping put Minnesota on the NBA map for seasons to come.  And help make a refurbished Target Center in Minneapolis the place to be.

So how come the Wolves are 22-35 at the All Star break?  Is it Thibodeau having problems meshing his coaching style with his players?  Or is it because the Wolves gave up too may big leads, lose close games and sometimes don't show up for them?

Lately, the Wolves have been playing better basketball.  Towns and Wiggins have been improving their game to the point of becoming highlight material.  So has Ricky Rubio, in spite of reports that he's on the trading block.  And LaVine had been playing up to his potential until a knee injury forced him to prematurely end his season.

For all the talk about how there's only two NBA teams who matter this season--the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, there's a surprising number of teams within striking distance of the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.  The Wolves happen to be one of those teams willing to be the sacrificial lambs in the first round against the Bay Area All Stars, as they are currently three games back of the Denver Nuggets.  It sounds like a mirage for a team for a team that hasn't been to the playoffs for more than a decade.

The Wolves might not be ready for prime time, but the NBA's TV partners TNT and ESPN seem to think that, despite their record, they really are contenders.  And guys like Charles Barkley can't help singing their praises on TV.

Minnesota fans have heard all these hosannas from Barkley and Co., and after seeing this team play, they have a right to be skeptical.  The Timberwolves don't need more kudos.  They need victories.  And winning, not more promises, is what's going to make the Wolves a must-watch for the next few years.

Wild 2016-17: What Could Go Wrong?

Alternate logo since 2003. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Wild, coming out of the NHL's All Star break, has been playing better than anyone anticipated this season given their history.  They have 69 points, leading not only the Central Division but also the Western Conference.  There has not been a major slump nor a debilitating injury to a key player as of the end of January.

The reasons are these:  New coach Bruce Boudreau has so far been making the right moves on the ice, so he hasn't had a chance to wear out his welcome with players and fans just yet. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk is having a great year.  So are Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, free agent pickup Eric Staal and others.

Warning signs?  You mean besides the lack of a slump, or some player who's had an upper/lower body injury?  Boudreau coached the Central Division team in the NHL's All Star Three-On-Three tournament in Los Angeles, and lost the preliminary round to the host Pacific Division 10-3.  Dubnyk let in as many goals as the previous Central goalie before the mini-game mercifully ended.

With two months left to go in the season, the usual factors of keeping things together--staying healthy, avoiding a tailspin, and securing home-ice advantage in the playoffs--will come into play.

But with the Wild's success this season, hockey pundits like NBC's Pierre McGuire are projecting them as a Stanley Cup finalist.  That's kind of optimistic considering that the last time they made a serious run at the Cup was in 2003, losing in the Western Conference finals to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.  Since then, it's been mostly one series and out.

Regular season success doesn't always translate to a championship.  Just ask the Washington Capitals, who as it happens lead the league with 72 points.  They also had a great season a couple of years ago before bowing out in the early rounds of the playoffs.  That could also happen to the Wild because the conference they're in is so competitive.

We've also heard Super Bowl talk surrounding the Minnesota Vikings when they started this past season at 5-0, before injuries and dissension put them out of the playoffs.

So before the Minnesota Wild celebrate their Stanley Cup victory with a parade down the streets of St. Paul in mid-June, they have to get through the regular season first.  Minnesota sports fans have had plenty of experience with teams that don't finish what they've started.  Maybe this time things will be different?

The Los Angeles Chargers 2.0

Chargers' AFL logo 1966–1969 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One year after the Rams returned to Los Angeles from St. Louis, they're getting new neighbors.

The Chargers, who have called San Diego home for more than 50 years, is moving up the freeway to the City of Angels.  Just like LA lost two NFL teams (Rams and Raiders) two decades earlier, they get two back at almost the same rate.

The reason the Chargers are bolting San Diego (you knew this was coming, didn't you?  Might as well get it out of the way.) isn't just because Alex Spanos, the owner of the franchise, couldn't get the city and its residents to replace aging Qualcomm Stadium--a tax levy vote failed to pass in November, but also that LA is such a ripe market that he couldn't afford not to move.

Both the Rams and Chargers will be playing out of a new stadium in Inglewood come 2019.  Until then, the Rams' temporary home is the Memorial Coliseum, a historical venue which seats around 100,000.  The Chargers will have to make do with the StubHub Center in nearby Carson.  The home of soccer's LA Galaxy would upgrade its seating capacity to around 27,000, which is well below the NFL standard.

The Chargers began in Los Angeles as a charter member of the American Football League in 1960, then moved the following season to San Diego.  They dominated the AFL's West Division in the early 60s, winning the league championship in 1963 (51-10 over the Boston Patriots).  Following the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, the Chargers won ten West Division titles in the American Football Conference, the last in 2009.  Their only Super Bowl appearance was in 1995, when they lost to the San Francisco 49ers 49-26 at Miami.  In the 2016 season, the Chargers were at the bottom of the AFC West with a 5-11 record.

The Chargers had their share of stars during their years in San Diego, including John Hadl, Lance Alworth, Speedy Duncan. LaDainian Tomlinson, Dan Fouts, Phillip Rivers and many more.    Sid Gillman, Norv Turner and Don Coryell made their names as coaches here.

Now that LA's dance card has been filled, what other city will NFL owners use as bait to force their constituencies to pony up big bucks for a new stadium where they already are?  The Oakland Raiders are close to announcing their own move to Las Vegas, so that's out.  San Antonio?  London?  Toronto?  Heck, why not San Diego with its great weather and rabid fan base?  Once they decide to build a new stadium, they'd have a much better shot at getting a team back than, let's say, St. Louis.

But that won't be any time soon.  San Diego is the latest example of a city that's a little less "major league" because some owner thinks his franchise would make more money somewhere else, and the locals won't pay for a new playground.  So while the Los Angeles Chargers play before small crowds in a soccer stadium, the good folks of San Diego can boast about their beautiful weather.  And the Padres.

Clemson Stems Alabama's Tide

Clemson University (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Clemson Tigers are the new national champions of college football, outlasting the Alabama Crimson Tide 35-31 in Tampa, Florida Monday night.  A fourth-quarter comeback for the Tigers was completed by quarterback Deshaun Watson's last-second toss to Hunter Renfrow in the end zone for the winning touchdown.

This is the first national title for the South Carolina-based school since 1981, avenging last year's loss to Alabama in the championship game.  Heck, this is the first time they beat the Tide since 1905.  The Chicago Cubs could relate. 

Alabama, under coach Nick Saban, has been the class of college football this past season and for much of the past decade.  They were going for their fifth national title in eight years, which spans the Bowl Championship Series and the current College Football Playoff.  One wonders if they had been too confident.  Or if they had let assistant Lane Kiffin go to his new coaching job in Florida too soon.

To get here, both teams celebrated New Year's Eve by winning games in the bowls that made up the semifinals.  Alabama beat Washington in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta, while Clemson shut out Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl at Glendale, Arizona.  Both of those games were one-sided, which is one reason why ESPN's TV ratings weren't the greatest.

Just like last year's game between these two teams, this one was also a classic.  But like so many other nationally-televised college football games in recent years, this one took more than four hours to play.  Which is longer than the NFL.  Is it the commercial breaks, the time outs, the replays, stopping the clock with every first down, or is it all of the above?  The NCAA says it's going to take a look at the problem.  But as long as the TV ratings are up, is it really a problem?

So the little town of Clemson, South Carolina is the center of the college football universe for 2017, in a game no one will soon forget.  Until the next Game of the Century.

The State of Minnesota Football, 2017

Minnesota Vikings logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Logo for the University of Minnesota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 . . . is uncertain.  Both the Minnesota Vikings and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers' 2016 seasons ended in chaos after promising starts, and now nobody knows what the future holds.

Gophers:  Claeys Out, Dissension In

Tracy Claeys was let go as football coach as part of the fallout from the University's suspension of ten of his players in a sexual assault investigation, in which the school's code of conduct may have been violated.


Claeys stepped into it with a tweet supporting his remaining players, who held a work stoppage of all football activities as a way of seeking justice for their suspended colleagues.  That lasted until they got a look at the U's lurid report detailing what allegedly happened on the night in question.  That, more than anything else, made Claeys' job status toast.

Claeys became Gophers coach in October 2015, when he was promoted from defensive coordinator following Jerry Kill's sudden resignation for health reasons.   He never really shook the interim label, though he was given a modest contract extension.  As far as the University was concerned, Claeys was a placeholder for the football program until they could find a better coach.

The Gophers finished this season at 9-4, which included a bowl win at San Diego.  But it was a tepid 9-4, considering they beat bad teams like Purdue and Rutgers, lost to 'signature' conference teams Penn State and Wisconsin, and not even scheduling Michigan or Ohio State this year.

Now, as howls of protest swirl over the way Claeys was shown the door from former players and from Kill (who has landed at Rutgers as an assistant), recently hired athletic director Mark Coyle is about to pick his own coach.  But how can you convince any coach, let alone a high-profile one, to come to a program that's pretty much a train wreck?

UPDATE (1/6/17):  Well, somebody took the bait.  The new Gopher football coach is P.J. Fleck, who led Western Michigan of the Mid-American Conference (same league Claeys and Kill came from) to an undefeated regular season.  In his initial news conference, Fleck came across more like a politician and a motivational speaker than as a coach.  He'll be the latest to try and convince Minnesotans that the Gophers' best days are just ahead, while at the same time looking out for a better offer from a bigger program.  Fleck is already 0-1 against Wisconsin, with WMU losing to the Badgers in the Cotton Bowl.

Vikings:  Falling To The Middle

Speaking of train wrecks . . . The Minnesota Vikings began their 2016 NFL season by winning five games in a row, thus becoming the talk of the league for awhile.  They ended the season out of the playoffs with an 8-8 record, becoming only the fifth team to fall so far so fast.  This is the second time they've done that.

Injuries to key players and the lack of an offense contributed to the Vikings' meltdown.  You could also blame late-game miscalculations and mentally not showing up when it counted as other reasons why they finished .500.

Sometimes they had just plain bad karma.  Kicker Blair Walsh, who never quite recovered from missing a possible playoff-winning field goal last season, was let go in the middle of this one.  And coach Mike Zimmer had been having eye problems that required him to miss a game due to surgery.

Quarterback Sam Bradford, the emergency replacement for injured starter Teddy Bridgewater, had a good season even though he wasn't getting much help from his offense.  Adrian Peterson, who was out most of the season with an injury, and Chad Greenway are both nearing the end of their careers.  Cordarelle Patterson, a free agent, might have also played his last game in Minnesota as well.

The off-season challenge for the Vikings is to not only improve their offensive line, but also their special teams with maybe a new kicker.  But they'll have to do it without a first-round pick in the NFL draft, which they traded away to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for Bradford.  Another season like this, and Zimmer could be following Claeys to the unemployment line.

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Our projected matchup for Super Bowl 51 in Houston?  New England Patriots vs. New York Giants.