Jim Alexander: It seems that Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has been his very own news cycle the last couple of days, no thanks in part to a couple of, um, YouTubers. (Is that really a thing? Can’t we come up with another title? I’m having enough difficulty typing “influencers” without breaking out in laughter, but I think that’s just from being of a certain age.)
Anyway, Puka stepped in it in a couple of ways on a You Tube livestream this week with hosts Adin Ross and N3on. (The spell-check correction for the latter came up “Non.” I’ll just leave that there.)
Puka assured himself a hefty fine from the league office when he took off on NFL officiating. The quote that made the rounds: “The refs are the worst. … Some of the rules aren’t … These guys want to be … these guys are lawyers. They want to be on TV too. You don’t think he’s texting his friends in the group chat like, ‘Yo, you guys just saw me on Sunday Night Football. That wasn’t P.I., but I called it.’”
(And never mind that the most controversial touchdown in this past Sunday’s victory over Detroit was scored by the Rams’ Colby Parkinson, on a play where it appeared his knee went down at the 1 and the ball hadn’t crossed the plane. It was upheld on review.)
That’s not all. The livestreamers suggested he perform a gesture as part of his next touchdown celebration that … well, turned out to be antisemitic and offensive, and Nacua wound up having to issue an apology that said, in part: “At the time, I had no idea this act was antisemitic and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people … I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry or hate of another group of people.”
I guess the lesson here is to be very careful who you hang with, especially if it’s on a livestream that goes into the public domain.
Oh, and that’s not all. Nacua’s older brother, Samson, along with another man, was arrested last week and charged with taking the BMW that, according to several reports, belonged to Lakers rookie Adou Thiero.
Some game day, right? I’m sure Puka won’t hear it from the Seattle crowd tonight when the Rams face the Seahawks.
Mirjam Swanson: Yeah, you laid it all out there, Jim. Had all of us doing double-takes, and none of us finding any of those things on our bingo cards.
I guess the moral of the story is: Kids, beware of streamers! (As if! That genie is out of the bottle…) Seriously though, high-profile athletes really should back away. Someone like Puka has so much to lose from a stream that goes sideways, a stream that simultaneously stands to benefit the streamer who is looking for exactly those kind of moments. Feels like a trap to me.
But I have to imagine Puka was familiar with Adin Ross’ game before agreeing to give him his time, and that he was probably plenty aware of how controversial and/or offensive many people find the guy.
I think we could laugh off the riff on the refs, but putting together all the Nacua news of the past day or so from one of L.A.’s most refreshing and joyful athletic performers was kind of jarring, not going to lie.
At least the Rams have a whole couple hours to put it behind them before they face the Seahawks in Seattle for NFC West supremacy.
What are you expecting from that one tonight, Jim?
Jim: To be honest, I’m not sure. If I were actually handicapping games, or at least investing my hard-earned money in them – which I don’t – I would think Thursday games would be the least predictable. You’ve got three days to prepare, and I’m not sure if the Rams even did anything that could pass for a full practice this week. Both teams face the same issue; the Rams started the physical preparation process almost immediately after Sunday’s game, and I’m sure the Seahawks did the same.
Plus, it will be cold, at least by SoCal standards, and it will be wet. Kickoff is 5:15, and The Weather Channel forecasts 50 degrees and showers when the game begins. (Footnote: That app’s outlook noted that the upcoming forecast, which encompasses this weekend, was “perfect for cozy indoor activities.” This ain’t it.)
That said, I’m guessing Rams wide receiver Davante Adams will not play; he was listed as “doubtful” on Wednesday’s final injury report, and defensive end Braden Fiske (ankle) was listed as “questionable.” Nacua left Sunday’s victory over Detroit with cramps but he was not on the injury report, so I expect him to be available.
If I had to say — if you absolutely pinned me down — I’d say Rams 20, Seahawks 17. But nothing that happens tonight would surprise me. There! How’s that for a prediction?
Mirjam: I’m going to hold you to it, Jim. Writing it down.
Don’t rat me out, but I’m going to copy off our beat writer Adam Grosbard’s work here, because he’s been killing it all season with these predictions, 12-2 so far. And he suggests: Rams 24, Seahawks 17. So I don’t see why not.
The Rams won the first meeting, they’ve seemed only to get better, I think if they get the ground game going in the wet conditions, they’ll be good. Kyren Williams rushed for 91 yards and a TD in their last meeting, and he’s been averaging more than 5 yards per carry in the past three games. So, basically: Avoid streamers and feed Kyren!
Also, yes, the Rams will have to sharpen their focus, what with the Nacua stuff and with Sean McVay and his family having just welcomed their second child this week. But the Rams are nothing if not pro’s pros, so I expect they’ll figure it out tonight too.
Even though, for the record, Thursday games are dumb. The punishment these guys put themselves through on a Sunday, you listen to them talk and they’re just starting to feel right again Thursday. It’s like the NBA putting what should be showcase matchups on the second night of back-to-backs – do you want to give your audience a good product, or not? Then you have to remember these are human beings. Super-human beings, in many cases, but human beings nonetheless. (And, with so much else trending toward the artificial in our entertainment spaces – thank God.)
Jim: Saw an interesting suggestion in The Athletic involving the NFL workload: Games with less than full rest, like this one, exacerbate the issue, but the 17-game schedule is its own heavy workload – and one that reared its ugly head when Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons went down with season-ending injuries Sunday.
And even without a serious injury, you ask any NFL player the day after the game how he feels and I suspect the polite answer would be, “Lousy.” The real answer might be more like, “I feel like I was in a car crash yesterday.”
So, it was suggested, if the owners are determined to expand the schedule again to 18 games, maybe the NFLPA should develop a spine and insist that the schedule be pared back to 16 – and should be ready to walk out to back up their point. If nothing else, it would be negotiating leverage.
And now for the final topic of the week: ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne had a piece about the Clippers’ failed signing of Chris Paul, and what seems to have become a miserable environment around that team.
One interesting nugget in that story: After the Clippers sent Paul home from a road trip and told him that he would no longer play for them, he reconnected with his Lob City brothers, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Paul and Griffin might not have been close for a while, but they had this in common: Both were dumped by the Clippers, Griffin in a trade to Detroit and Paul put in limbo, and in both cases it was cruelly, coldly and unexpectedly.
Again, Mirjam, given your exposure to this organization over the years, is any of this really surprising to you?
Mirjam: In a word, no.
Yeah, Chris didn’t make a secret of that FaceTime call – posted it right to social media. Maybe as it was happening! I think this is one of those stories where no one is right and that everyone could have handled it differently and better. Alas, Chris will end his career elsewhere, I’m sure. Someone will take him, right?
The question for me now is how the Clippers are going to handle the rest of the season. The great Marc Stein is reporting that James Harden’s name has been circulating on the trade market, which isn’t a surprise, considering where the player and the team stand. One is 36 and on the backside of his career but proud of the fact he’s never missed the playoffs – which the 6-20 Clippers seemed bound to do.
If the Clippers can get a sufficient return for the ball-dominant guard with major defensive liabilities, they should go ahead and make a deal. I think, at this point, they should deal whoever they can for whatever they can get of value in return …
I respect them for never punting on a season purposefully, I think it’s tremendous that they haven’t wanted to tank, but it’s sports – sometimes it happens organically.
And it’s happening all on its own right now – with a roster that’s proven uncompetitive because it’s either too old or too green – in today’s NBA, so the smart thing to do would be to speed up a rebuild, collect some picks to replace all those they gave up in previous trades.
I just don’t know how much they’ll really get back.