The Departed.

Friday afternoon flights into Las Vegas’ McCarron airport are illuminated with all the enthusiasm and hope that exists before that first $200 is pissed away in Vegas. The bachelorette parties with matching shirts and cocktails are ready. The dancers are all coming in for the weekend to take off their shirts for cocktailers. There is laughter and excitement in the air as the city awaits the revelers and their ATM cards. Las Vegas is a city which is built on a business model of people making bad decisions while drinking alcohol. The crowd leaving on Mondays in Uggs, sweats and massive sunglasses is a testimony to the city’s pervasive ability to ensure the successful extraction of people from their wages.

Al Davis died this past weekend. Yard staffers were completely shocked by these tragic events. We actually thought Al had already died. The Lane Kiffin “firing” press conference from several years back with Mrs. Taglin’s 8th grade overhead projector will live forever but apparently Al did not. Al was always wearing those Weekend at Bernie’s shimmer suits and glasses. We thought he was already gone and his Stepford staff kept the Alster “alive” in our lives to enjoy his best team in a decade. It is unfortunate for his family but not the franchise. The Raiders upset the Titans as part of the wake festivities. It was refreshing to hear Jon Gruden and Roger Goodell praise Al’s legendary leadership while they both personally loathed the man.

The NFL potential lock out this past summer was watched almost as closely as the Cuban missile by the American public. It was headline news daily and congress attempted to get involved. The sports books in Las Vegas were reeling if regular season games were lost. Eventually a deal was reached and for the good of the Obama administration, America’s most important distraction was saved before we started really wondering how bad things are. Sport is a solvent for the residue that accumulates in the psyche of America. The anxiety of the week can easily melt into the confines of 56 inches of liquid crystal display and a few frosties before Monday beckons.

The NBA does not share this same national interest. There are NFL cities not NBA cities. College football and basketball are more important than the NBA. If you are in Des Moines or Duluth, you have an NFL telecast every weekend. There is a local college team that is followed in Lubbock and Little Rock as well as the NFL. People in Oklahoma hate the University of Texas but love the Cowboys. The NBA is only followed with reverence in a few towns. Los Angeles, Boston, Miami and Dallas of late have strong NBA traditions and following. All of the other 2nd and 3rd tier markets that do not have a local team would rather watch Celebrity bowling or poker over the NBA. In the 1970’s before Magic and Larry supercharged interest, the NBA Playoffs were only on TV on a tape delay after the local news.

The NBA is off everyone’s radar until football ends in February. Pundits figure it will get done in time. But the public apathy that exists will mature into disdain if the NBA is not careful. NBA players are the most notorious spenders and sperm donors of all professional athletes. With an extended family and sometimes a few others, missing paychecks is not part of that economics for the average NBA power forward. The megastars have their largess but the second tier guys slogging along for $7.2 million a year are going to suffer. Their pay is doled out $87,804 per game to get their millions. If the season is shortened to 76 games, $7.2 million is $6.67 million and so on. The players will cave because if they do not their siblings will be on their butts for their monthly stipend. Be careful what you wish for in today’s world.

4Th and long: The State of UCLA football is irrelevant even on the campus in Westwood. There is no buzz or excitement at the games. The team has swirled in a soup of mediocrity for nearly a decade. Every day someone inquires at the Yard if Neuheisel’s job is in jeopardy. The simple answer is these days all of our jobs are in jeopardy. The real answer is that UCLA has never gone all in with football. The 1990’s were nice but UCLA coasted when they should have had their foot on the gas pedal. The team was exciting and USC was wandering in the desert with Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett carrying the commandments. UCLA left the load of Bob Toledo feeding at the bountiful trough of Terry Donahue’s mission too long before firing his lazy ass. USC hired Saint Pete in the interim and the rest is well documented in this ugly down spiral into the depths of the Pacific 12 conference. While UCLA basketball gets a new arena, football has never had a home to call their own. UCLA Football facilities are arguably the worst in the conference with no improvement planned. Super-agent Michael Ovitz rose over $200 million for the Ronald Regan hospital. Can he find $50-75 million for football? We need an Oklahoma State’s booster like T. Boone Pickens. He gave the school $100 million and warned them not to spend a nickel of it on academics.

If UCLA is not going to step up does it matter if there is someone out there better than Neuheisel out there? Urban Meyer is not coming. One of the top programs in the country works out in brand new multi-million dollar facilities with historical and recent greatness ten miles away. Oregon has Nike. Stanford has their rich alumni including the Google boys. UCLA has Rick and Dan and their tin can. The one guy out there who could help UCLA is Mike Leach, the former Texas Tech coach. He coached exciting teams that beat the Mack Brown coached Texas Longhorns in a legendary shootout. His teams were exciting and they were built on all of the castoffs that Texas and Oklahoma did not want. His career got derailed by ESPN and Craig James. Craig James son Adam was on Leach’s last team and apparently Leach was accused of unnecessary punishment of James’ son. James Sr. was loud as was ESPN in commenting on the situation and portraying Adam as a victim. ESPN let one of their anchors become the story.

Leach got run out of Lubbock under a sea of allegations and lawsuits with ESPN in hot pursuit. Leach has sued Texas Tech, ESPN and Craig James. We are not sure if his suit has merit but the University’s claim of sovereign immunity was thrown out which does not bode well for Tech. Apparently, Leach was due an $800,000 performance bonus two days after his firing. He had demoted Adam James to third string wide receiver just prior to the uproar. When Adam was told the news, he promptly cursed at the coach and assistant coach and did $1100 in damage to his office door. Apparently, the news was not well received by Craig James either. He was noted in court documents for his frequent and belligerent calls to the Texas Tech coaching staff to discuss his son’s demotion and remand their stupidity. His son was the progeny of a champion! Apparently, Leach’s staff did not see it that way. That did not stop James with ESPN’s support in their efforts to destroy Leach’s career at Tech.

The Yard did find it interesting that the morally outraged Father Craig James was also a prominent member of the most notorious football program in college football history at SMU. In the history of college football, no team was ever as arrogant and egregious as the SMU Mustangs and their tag team backfield of Eric Dickerson and Craig James. The Yard has no idea if James was taking improper benefits from boosters. His name or Dickerson’s never came out in the inquiry. Apparently, the second string linebacker who got caught with the envelope of money was the only culprit. Leach might be the kind of fighter and contrarian UCLA needs to come out of their pigskin dark ages.

While responding to a comment that a player was listed as day to day Vin Scully replied, “Aren’t we all?”