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Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden ignored and tried to bury. Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words. Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle. |
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Sports Medley: Why the Rams lose 7 Nov 16 by Tony Medley Without much question the best teams in the NFL today include Dallas, New England, and Oakland. Why? The answer is clear, but not many people know it, certainly not the Rams’ fans and sportswriters who chant for rookie Jared Goff to be inserted as quarterback. The Cowboys, Patriots, and Raiders have the best offensive lines in the NFL. The Rams’ on field problem isn’t at quarterback. It’s their offensive line. While the Rams were trading their future to get a rookie quarterback in the draft during the last offseason, Oakland was spending a lot of money getting the best players it could find for its offensive line. Look at the two teams. Oakland just beat Super Bowl champion Denver and is leading its division. The Rams couldn’t manage to score even one point against the 49ers, the worst team in the NFC. The Rams have an adequate, if not great, quarterback in Case Keenun and a better than average running back in Todd Gurley. What they don’t have is blockers. The only running backs I’ve ever seen who could run without blockers were Gale Sayers and Barry Sanders, and Gurley isn’t one of those. No quarterback, be he Johnny Unitas or Peyton Manning, can be successful behind a weak offensive line. As long as the Rams are run by the people who made the trade for Goff, decisions will continue to be made by people who don’t have a clue about what makes a football team win, so what the fans and sportswriters should be chanting for is cleaning out the front office, not “we want Goff!” This guy was an offensive coordinator? It’s hard to believe that Philadelphia coach Doug Pederson was an offensive coordinator before becoming head coach of the Eagles. He made incomprehensible decisions in Sunday’s loss to the Giants, twice going for it by running on fourth down instead of kicking easy field goals. His play calling cost the Eagles the game, and not just because he disdained the field goals, although that was bad enough. His choice of plays both times, line plunges behind a weak offensive line, was foolish. Then when the Eagles had a shot with four downs inside the red zone to win in the final minute, the Giants blitzed 8 rushers on three consecutive downs and he had no answer for it. The Eagles weren’t outplayed as much as they were outcoached. Incomprehensible ruling on penalties: In the second half of a 0-0 tie, LSU had 2nd and 5 on the Alabama 37 when four penalties were called on the same play, three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against Alabama and one unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against LSU. The referees ruled that they offset and the down was replayed, which makes no sense at all. Maybe one penalty by one team should offset one penalty by another team, but when one team commits three infractions and the other only one, the one committing multiple infractions should be penalized. A further change should be that a major infraction should not be offset by a minor infraction. I call my sugar candy: Carolina Quarterback Cam Newton has been crying crocodile tears about being hit so much. He might have more credibility if in the waning moments of last year’s Super Bowl, he hadn’t turned tail and run away to hide instead of diving to recover his fumble to keep Carolina’s chance of winning alive, allowing Denver to recover and seal the victory. Instead of taking responsibility, in the postgame interview he acted like a spoiled brat and stormed off the podium in a funk. Now he’s angry again and mouthing off that people have the gall to hit him, and often, without penalty. They must not know that he’s a star and, in his mind’s eye, untouchable. But that’s how prima donnas think. You don’t hear Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethlisberger or Eli Manning crying because they get hit a lot. Just because someone is a coach doesn’t mean he knows anything about the game: “I didn’t know a game could end in a tie,” said Jay Gruden, Coach of the Washington Redskins. I have two questions for owner Daniel Snyder:
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