Incidentally, did you see the look or Roger Goodell's face?

Just a quick hit before I get out the door to go to work.

Did you get a clear look at Roger Goodell's face as he exited the court building yesterday? He looked like someone had kicked him in the balls with an iron boot, and then hit him with a vicious upper-cut to the jaw. That was a look of profound distress, like he was trying to shake off one hell of a hit.

I am not exactly sure who instigated the current labor strife. I don't know if it was the owners who pushed this on the Commish, or if it was the Commish who had the bright idea and proposed it to the owners. In any case, the strategy is not working. The NFL has already lost it's lockout insurance policy from the networks, and now the players have basically defeated the lockout.

I think this has to be viewed as a crisis point for management. Not that it will last forever, but we could have a temporary blast of absolute baseball free agency that could see marquee players like Peyton Manning moving around at NASA moon-shot prices.

If this whole adventure was designed to peel back some labor costs, you just might have another thing coming. This is a very good object lesson in Conservatism. This is the doctrine of unforeseen consequences come home to roost. Don't upset a delicate financial balance when you have one. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Don't sew to the wind.

These guys sewed to the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind in the next 72 hours. Folks, all hell is going to break loose when the 8th Circuit orders the injunctive relief to be implemented.

This was just one of those goddamn fuckin’ days

At least in the news…

I honestly have little or nothing to complain about on this day. Given the magnitude of the circumstances going on around the world, I have every reason to count my blessings. I should be a pretty happy guy.

What’s going on in the news is absolutely crazy.

The East Coast of Japan has been destroyed

For those of you who don’t keep track of current events, you may be surprised to learn that an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck some 230 miles off Honshu, the main Island of the nation of Japan. It was devastating. Most Japanese infrastructure has been designed to withstand 8.0 to 8.2, which is lot better than we good people of California have done. Nevertheless, it was not designed or built to withstand an 8.9 quake.

They say the quake itself lasted some 2 minutes. If that were not bad enough, some 10 minutes later the East coasts of the Japanese Islands were pounded by a titanic tsunami, that did nearly as much damage as the quake. If that weren’t bad enough, the coastal cities were then inundated by mudslides as the top soil on the hills began to descend towards the Pacific. The next thing you know, fires were burning in 80 different regions around the country. This was a very San Francisco-esque scenario.

If that were not bad enough, nuclear emergencies were declared at two of Japan’s key nuclear plants. The facilities themselves took damage in the quakes and tsunami waves. They automatically shut down, as per their computer-programmed SOP. The problem was that they were in full-swing when the devastation hit.

It is not that easy to simmer-down a controlled nuclear reaction. Authorities at the Fukushima nuclear plant were forced to release a huge blast of steam in order to avoid a complete meltdown. The problem was that this was radio-active steam. Radiation levels around Fukushima reached 1,000x normal background radiation levels almost immediately. Fukushima is already being called the Japanese Chernobyl.

This is absolutely horrible stuff folks. This is worst kind of Hollywood disaster crap, but for real. The horror… The horror…

How powerful was this quake? Well, let me tell you about that.

· Earth scientists say that this is the most powerful quake in the region in some 1,200 years.

· It ripped a new trench in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that is more than 150 miles long and 50 miles wide.

· The quake moved the entire Island of Honshu 8 feet to the east. That is astounding.

· Japan has literally lost land in this quake; as in land has slid off the islands and been subducted under the sea. Right now, geologists are trying to compute the quantity of land that Islands of Japan has lot as a result of this quake, but there is no agreement in these figures. I have read several conflicting estimates.

· The quake was so powerful it changed the tilt of the axis of the Earth by some 25 centimeters.

· The quake was so powerful it actually changed the speed of the rotation of our Earth; shortening our days 1.6 microseconds. You may laugh at the small figure, but the quantity of energy required to change the velocity of the Earth’s rotation by that minuscule amount is absolutely quantum and terrifying.

· It sent Tsunami waves that wrought havoc in small port cities like Santa Cruz and Crescent City.

· We don’t know how many lives have been lost, but the number has been growing all day, and it is going to be terrible.

· The quake was followed by aftershocks as large as 6.4 and 5.7 in magnitude.

I have to say that I am a big fan of the country of Japan. I love just about all things Japanese. I have since I was introduced to Shotokan Karate at the age of 11. I have to say, I am pretty depressed about this.

Small potatoes in the scheme of things

Not much to mention in comparison to what is happening in Japan or Libya, but the NFLPA is now the former NFLPA. They decertified today and launched law suits. This means the 2011 NFL season is now judge David Doty’s court of law… among other players.

I’d be lying to you if I told you I’m not disappointed. I thought there was actually a glimmer of hope. I thought we might hash something out today. It didn’t happen. The players dropped the law bomb.

I have to say that based on what I have read, the Players made an unreasonable move. It seems to me that the owners caved on nearly every key point. The only thing they won was a rookie cap and a rookie scale, something the NFLPA also wanted.

I went ahead and signed the players petition, but right now I have to say that you guys have disappointed me greatly.

Khadafy Duck is gloating

For those who don’t know, that grand sonofabitch bastard known as Moammar Khadafy managed to defeat rebles in the city of Zawiya near Tripoli. This was a key strategic victory for him when it was thought that the Rebels were knocking on his door. He’s bought himself some time.

If there is a silver lining here, it is found in the fact that Obama has now declared for the rebels. We await word on just what that means.

I look forward to a better day tomorrow

As you know, tomorrow is 3/12/2011. Tomorrow will be the 25^th birthday of the theoretically perfect woman (for me), code-named La-La. Settle down cougars, I am the theoretically perfect guy for her also. Men born on 9/2/1966 crush all men of all other birthdays for women born on 3/12/1986. Our scores greatly exceed all others.

I have no idea whether I will ever meet or date a woman born on this date, but I intend to celebrate the day anyhow. For all I know, some outstanding Capricorn or Aquarius female may well intercept me on the way to finding La-La, by I do intend to begin a glass-slipper quest in approximately 3 months.

Incidentally, my brother and two of my cousins are dying to shoot this glass-slipper quest on HD video for publication as an inde-documentary. They insist the idea is so novel it can win multiple Oscars.

The Sophomore Jinx?

A lot is being written right now about whether or not Sam Bradford will experiance the sophmore jinx in 2011. I'll give you my short answer and I will give you a longer answer. The short answer is: It can't be avoided, but it won't be as bad you think, and it probably won't last long. Now I will give you a longer answer unpacking that conclusion.

There are a number of factors conspiring against Sam's 2nd tour of duty in the league:

1. Pat Shurmur has moved on to Cleveland
2. Josh McDaniels in the new Ram-OC.
3. This means moving from the West Coast Offense to the NFL Spread.
4. There will be new rookie receivers to play with.
5. There will be new offensive guards to play with.
6. We have this little labor strife over the collective bargaining agreement going on right now. As a result of this fact, here may not be any OTAs or Mini-Camp. If so, Josh McDaniels will have precious little time to install his new system.
7. If worse comes to worse, and the lockout wears long, it could delete all of training camp and the first few games.

As far as the Rams' specific problems are concerned, I don't think things are nearly as bad as some portray them. When people say that there is a great deal of difference between the WCO and the NFL Spread, they are quite correct. Still, what is the value and importance of that fact? I think it is fairly low. I don't think this is particularly important point.

Sam was in the WCO for exactly one year. He was in the Spread for most of his high school and college years. The pertinent question is this: How different is Josh McDaniel's Spread from Bob Stoops's Spread? In truth, I do not know the answer to that question. I suppose assesments would vary. I can only tell you that they look somewhat similar to me. I can't tell you how much difference there is in language and terminology under the hood, in the playbook.

Until proven otherwise, I still believe that moving to Josh McDaniels's Spread will be more like a home-comming at Oklahoma than learning an entirely new system. In 2010, Sam was learning an entirely different system. In 2011, I don't think so. I think he'll be learning a slightly different variety of a system he already knows well.

However, all our vets will be learning a new system... That could spell some trouble. The brand new receivers and guards will create some initial problems in timing and cohesian, but if we chose our people well, this should pay big dividends a few games down the road in 2011... assuming there is a 2011.

There are adverse circumstances facing Sam, the whole roster, and everyone else in the league this year. We could throw in the media people also. Everyone is in danger of being compromised by the labor strife and lockout looming on the horizon. That's why both parties involved better compromise soon and sign that new CBA.

Andrew Brandt of the National Football Post seems to believe these problems are not so bad as I think they are. He claims that negotiations always saunter along at a lazy pace until the drop-dead date looms large. When the deal has to get done, it gets done. He says he was a party to a hundred different negotiations and the deal never got done until it had to be finished. That's just how the game is played. He seems to believe that we will have a new CBA in March.

Now on the other hand, you have the absolutely fabulous "in a state of war" rhetoric thrown around by DeMaurice Smith, the boss of the player's union. This sort of rhetoric only seems to strengthen rumors I heard early-on about DeMaurice Smith being a wrecklass adventurer on quest to prove himself stronger than Upshaw in fiery crucible of battle. Right now, DeMaurice Smith does resemble those remarks. He's also making Roger Goodell look pretty damn good. Trust me, you don't want to do that to your opponent.

Let us hope they will resolve all this bullshit so the millionairs can contine being paid by the billionaires.

Anyway... I hope I have made my point. Given the confligration of events coming together in 2011, a sophmore slump of some kind probably cannot be avoid. The worst factors in this function aren't even under Rams' control. These things have to be settled at the league level.

I also don't expect the sophmore slump to be that bad, or last that long. A move to the NFL spread may hurt offensive cohesian in the first couple of weeks, but it will help Sam and the whole offense perform a lot better down the road.

56 underclassmen have declared for the 2011 NFL Draft

So by now you know that 56 underclassmen have declared their intent to enter the NFL Draft. This is up 3 from last year, when 53 entered the draft. Of course, this does not mean they will be drafted. You always find a few kids who declare and aren't drafted. 'Tis a tragedy every time.

I find this quite surprising, if not stunning. Perhaps they are not doing so well in school, like Jevan Sneed. Perhaps some are leaving town ahead of the possy, like Cam Newton. Perhaps the kids just don't understand the legal and financial ramifications of the current CBA problems. Perhaps they can't define the word "Lockout", or even spell it. Perhaps they don't understand what is meant by the terms "rookie cap" and "rookie scale". Perhaps they will win their life-gamble. Perhaps not. We shall see.

In the best case scenario, the new CBA will be signed and countersigned by all parties shortly before March 8th. End of problems. Now all you youngins can take the wage scale the new CBA will define for you. You won't make out like bandits, but you will make more than you did in school... maybe. We've all heard the Eric Dickerson stories.

In the worst case scenario, you will get locked out for a year, you will get paid nothing, and you will show up for work in 2012. At that point, you will be getting paid the rookie wage scale the new CBA will define for you. Let's hope that won't happen. You'll be hating life if this happens to you. You won't be getting any hundred dollar handshakes either. Let's hope the rookie scale specifies more cash than the hundred dollar handshakes once provided.

In any case, it seems that the 2011 draft has been rescued by the bad judgement of youth. As you know the 2010 Draft was a PH-PHAT draft because it looted the 2011 draft. If we had not had a phat crop of underclassmen this year, it would have been a poor draft indeed. Game on. It looks like we are going to have a decent crop to chose from this 2011 draft.

I'm happy for my team. We have a couple of good looking receivers in the first round that we may want to claim. There will be some in the second round as well.