Letters: Bad calls all around in this deal

The front page of the Sports section Thursday shows a picture of Roger Goodell with his arm up and his thumb raised, supposedly giving the fans a thumbs-up.

Based on his actions, I think that he has the wrong finger raised.

Tom Miller

Whittier

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I think Mr. Goodell finally realized that it was not in the league’s best interests to have the words “National Football League” mentioned in the same sentence with the words “Vegas betting lines.”

To make the commissioner feel the same way NFL fans felt these past three weeks, have some guy who has watched five episodes of “Judge Judy” or “Perry Mason” represent the league in the next collective bargaining negotiations.

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

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Bill Dwyre writes that the NFL is just another greedy corporation, no different than banks or cable TV companies, just more adept at separating fans from their money, but he misses an important point. If my bank and my cable TV company got together every Sunday afternoon to beat each other into submission, every game would be sold out.

Barry Chess

Westlake Village

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The NFL referees deserve every penny they can squeeze out of the greedy NFL, not withstanding the bad calls of the temporary zebras. You wouldn’t catch me running around the field among 22 wrecking balls for any amount of money.

Tom Turner

Dana Point

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Imagine L.A. receiving an NFL franchise had the league moved with such diligence similar to the deal with regular officials three days after a memorable replacement referee faux pas. Compare that one particular moment Monday to 18 years of sheer futility in our great city being constantly coerced into doing everything possible to entice the NFL to return. Not only would we have received an expansion team (or two) 15 years ago, but our L.A. squad(s) could very well have been associated with that same blown call this past Monday.

So I truly hope football followers (Green Bay fans in particular) will cease their collective whining about getting jobbed when there’s a bigger travesty in the NFL: withholding a team that an L.A./Orange County metropolitan population of 12 million-plus could call their own.

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills

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Is Week 3 too soon to request a replacement commissioner?

Tom Nelson

Westchester

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Pete Carroll declares it was a “good call.” Right. So was the decision to leave Reggie Bush on the sideline in the national championship game against Texas. I can see Pete still has it.

Dan Jensen

San Clemente

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While NFL players distinguish themselves, the NFL management and the owners are a disgrace to football. The zillionaire owners decided that squeezing out more profit at the expense of the referees was more important than the integrity of the game. There is only one team that does not have a greedy owner, and that is the Green Bay Packers, who are owned by the public. Guess which team suffered the most from botched NFL management?

Roger Johnson

San Clemente

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The real proof of how incompetent the replacement officials were has nothing to do with the stupid call Monday night. Sunday afternoon, the Raiders went through the whole first half against the Steelers without a penalty!

Harry Turtledove

Chatsworth

The NHL is now in its third player lockout. The NFL gave us replacement players and replacement referees. In baseball, we’ve had the steroid era, a canceled World Series, and a tie in the All-Star game. In the NBA, the commissioner has publicly stated that the best thing for his league is to have the Lakers and Celtics in the finals every year.

Has there ever been a time in American sports history where all the commissioners of the four major professional sports leagues have been so absolutely, completely, totally and utterly incompetent?

Glenn M. Langdon

Garden Grove

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Roger Goodell steps up to resolve the referee lockout and restore the NFL’s credibility while Gary Bettman allows the player lockout to drag on and further damage the NHL’s integrity. How are the people who just officiate games more crucial to a sport than the people who actually compete?

Patty Janner

El Segundo

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Too bad. I was looking forward to Super Bowl XLVII*.

Wes Correll

Laguna Beach

Powder blue funk

The buzz surrounding the UCLA football team now approximates that of a depressed bee in a Tupperware container.

Tom Scarpelli

Northridge

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With the UCLA loss to underdog Oregon State comes a dose of reality. Discipline and hard-nosed coaching as a rule does not prevail over equally well-coached teams with more talent. Though moving in right direction, the Bruins are a work in progress.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

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Against Oregon State, Jim Mora’s penchant for secrecy finally caught up with him. It’s one thing to avoid disclosing your schemes to the press or to the public, but quite another to not even reveal them to your team.

Wes Wellman

Santa Monica

Be positive

Bill Plaschke, after four weeks of USC coverage, all we have heard out of you is negativity! The Trojans are not perfect. I agree that something is up with the timing of Matt Barkley and his receivers. However, give credit where credit is due. Maybe it’s because the Trojan passing game is such a great strength that opposing coaches are preparing mightily to defend it. What do you think? Because you’re the genius, right?

Felipe Varela

Whittier

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Having witnessed both the inexplicable defeat to Stanford and the Cal victory, I am convinced the Heisman Trophy should be awarded to a Trojan — Khaled Holmes! Based upon the nonexistent running game at Stanford and the mammoth holes versus Cal, not to mention the night-and-day difference in pass protection, Holmes is hands-down the most important player in the country.

Mark S. Roth

Los Angeles

Fallen Angels

OK, I admit that I am one of the many disgruntled fans in Angel Land. With all of the moves that Arte Moreno made in the off-season and the tons of dollars he threw at some players, we all expected to be real busy in October. So what happened?

First, we have a manager who over-manages. Yeah, the guy knows baseball but he can’t seem to make the right decisions in the late innings.

Second, we got Albert Pujois for the next 10 years and we’ll be able to watch him slowly fade into the sunset.

Third, Moreno spent $77.5 million over five years for C.J. Wilson. What we really got was a clone of Joe Saunders except that Joe has a lower ERA than C.J. does this year.

I’ll concede that we have had a few pleasant surprises in Trout and Trumbo, although Mark is 0 for August and September. But the bottom line is this: The Angels season is coming to an end after 162 games and I’m getting too old to wait to next year.

Lewis Polin

Laguna Woods

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Even not knowing his place of residence or party affiliation, I’d like to suggest that Jerry Dipoto run for Congress in 2014.

Consider that last fall he came in without really understanding the players or the situation and crafted a high-priced solution that looked great on paper. It didn’t solve the Angels’ problems but it’s something the team will be paying for well into the future. And, now that it hasn’t worked, he’s certainly willing to point the finger of blame in every direction but back toward himself.

If this guy isn’t ready for Washington, I don’t know who is.

Janet K. Schwartzkopf

Palm Springs

Oh, Jamie

I guess Jamie McCourt feels she’s been suckered into accepting the mere paltry sum of $131 million and that there’s plenty more where that came from. With the help of her conscientious lawyer, Bertram Fields, Jamie can now take her never-ending quest for truth and justice (and more cash) to the next legal level. There’s sure to be a judge out there who’s sympathetic to this poor lady and can help her maintain the lifestyle she so richly deserves. Very richly indeed.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

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