Allen vs. McKay? Carroll vs. A.D.? Vote in third round of the football regional

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get to the tournament!

The second round of voting in the football regional “Biggest Icon in L.A. Sports History” is over. Today, voting in the third round begins.

Some rules.

1. There are four regionals, with 32 people in each regional, seeded from No. 1 to No. 32. The winner of each regional will face off in the Final Four. Those two winners will meet in the championship round.

2. With each matchup, there will be a link for you to click on to vote. You can also send your picks by email by clicking here. Or you can vote on Twitter by clicking here.

3. When voting, ask yourself “When I think L.A. sports, whom do I think of first?” and vote for that person.

4. A brief sentence or two accompanies each entrant below. It is not meant to be an all-encompassing list of their accomplishments, just a brief reminder of why they are on this list.

If missed the third round of basketball and baseball, you can click here to vote in the basketball regional and click here to vote in the baseball regional.

So without further ado, let’s get to the third round of the football regional, with the second round results after approximately 16,000 votes. Voting ends at midnight Tuesday. Remember, you can vote by email by clicking here, on Twitter by clicking here, or you can click on the link after each matchup.

Biggest Icon in L.A. Sports History, football regional (third round)

No. 1 Marcus Allen vs. No. 8 John McKay

Marcus Allen: He was a legend for two local teams. He won the Heisman Trophy while playing for USC in 1981 after becoming only the second person in NCAA history to gain 2,000 yards rushing in a season. Then, with the L.A. Raiders, he ran for 191 yards, caught two passes for 18 yards, and scored two touchdowns in the Raiders’ 38–9 victory over Washington in Super Bowl XVIII.

How he got here
Defeated No. 32 Red Sanders in the first round, 88.1%-11.9%
Defeated No. 16 Jim Plunkett in the second round, 87.5%-12.5%

John McKay: All McKay did in his 16 seasons coaching USC was win nine conference titles, five Rose Bowl games and four national championships.

How he got here
Defeated No. 25 Carson Palmer in the first round, 73.1%-26.9%
Defeated No. 9 Jack Youngblood in the second round, 60.5%-39.5%

Vote via Polldaddy

No. 2 Pete Carroll vs. No. 7 Anthony Davis

Pete Carroll: Let’s face it, most Trojans fans were disappointed when he was hired, but he coached the team back to prominence. Under Carroll, the Trojans reached the BCS title game two times (winning once) and seven consecutive BCS bowl appearances.

How he got here
Defeated No. 31 Ricky Bell in the first round, 82.5%-17.5%
Defeated No. 15 Jackie Slater in the second round, 60.8%-39.2%

Anthony Davis: AD led USC in rushing, scoring and kick return yardage for three consecutive seasons. He was also the first Pacific-8 Conference player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons: 1,191 in 1972; 1,112 in 1973 and 1,469 in 1974. For his career at USC he carried the ball 784 times for 3,772 yards and 44 touchdowns. On Nov. 30, 1974, he started an amazing rally that brought the Trojans back from a 24-0 second-quarter deficit against Notre Dame to a 55-24 win. Scored 11 touchdowns against the Irish in three games.

How he got here
Defeated No. 26 Charles White in the first round, 61.6%-38.4%
Defeated No. 23 Troy Polamalu in the second round, 60.2%-39.8%

Vote via Polldaddy

No. 3 Reggie Bush vs. No. 6 John Robinson

Reggie Bush: A two-time Pac-10 player of the year and Heisman Trophy winner, when he left USC he was 10th in NCAA Division I-A history with 6,541 all-purpose yards, racking up 3,169 yards and 25 touchdowns on 433 carries (7.3 avg) and 1,301 yards with 13 scores on 95 catches (13.7 avg).

How he got here
Defeated No. 30 Gary Beban in the first round, 73.1%-26.9%
Defeated No. 14 Howie Long in the second round, 54.9%-45.1%

John Robinson: Was USC’s coach from 1976-82 and again from 1993-97, leading the team to four Rose Bowl victories overall and a national title in 1978. In between, he coached the Rams to two NFC title games and his 79 victories with the team are the most in franchise history.

How he got here
Defeated No. 27 Dick “Night Train” Lane in the first round, 71.8%-28.2%
Defeated No. 11 Matt Leinart in the second round, 70.5%-29.5%

Vote via Polldaddy

No. 4 Eric Dickerson vs. No. 5 “The Fearsome Foursome”

Eric Dickerson: Broke the NFL season rushing record in his second season with the Rams and it still stands. He was with the team only four full seasons, but his number was retired by the team and he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He remains very active in the Rams community.

How he got here
Defeated No. 29 Jon Arnett in the first round, 91.2%-8.8%
Defeated No. 20 Aaron Donald in the second round, 84.3%-15.7%

The Fearsome Foursome: Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen, Deacon Jones and Rosey Grier was one of the most dominant defensive lines in NFL history. They transformed the Rams from a mediocre team to an NFL powerhouse.

How they got here
Defeated No. 28 Kenny Washington in the first round, 87.4%-12.6%
Defeated No. 12 Mike Garrett in the second round, 87.3%-12.7%

Vote via Polldaddy

Don’t forget to vote

You can vote one of three ways: Click on each individual Polldaddy link above, click here to vote via email (with all your picks in one email) or vote here via Twitter.

NFL

Rob Gronkowski sure seems to have enjoyed his retirement from the NFL. He’s danced with the Laker Girls, won the WWE 24/7 belt, competed on “The Masked Singer,” played beer pong with some famous friends and did whatever this was.

But now Gronk seems ready to give up the retired life and join his old New England Patriots teammate Tom Brady with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Patriots have traded the Pro Bowl tight end, who has one year and $10 million remaining on his contract, and a seventh-round draft pick to the Buccaneers for a fourth-round pick, according to multiple media sources.

The deal was pending a physical, ESPN reported.

Multiple media outlets reported earlier Tuesday that the two teams were in talks to make the trade happen and that Gronkowski already had his physical with the Buccaneers before the deal was complete.

CHARGERS

The Chargers will play in the 2020 season with numbers on their helmets and sleeker lightning bolts all over the place.

The team unveiled its new uniforms Tuesday morning, with the immediate reaction on social media being quite positive.

“What was widely considered the best uniform in the NFL has been updated to include 60 years of Chargers history and make way for a new era of Chargers Football,” read a news release.

The numbers on the helmets are a throwback to the franchise’s early days in the 1960s. Lightning bolts can be found on the helmets, shoulders and down the pant legs.

HOCKEY

The hands that once gripped a hockey stick so skillfully have a new and heroic purpose. Every time Hayley Wickenheiser collects cartons of masks, surgical gowns, face shields or hand sanitizer and brings them to front-line medical personnel battling the COVID-19 pandemic, she earns an assist more momentous than any point she scored during a brilliant career that took her from rural Saskatchewan to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Wickenheiser, widely considered the best female player in hockey history, won four Olympic gold medals and one silver medal during a dominant run that spanned 23 years and included a rare Winter-Summer Olympic double after she made Canada’s softball roster for the 2000 Sydney Games. She retired in 2017 to pursue her dream of becoming an emergency room doctor and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019, her first year of eligibility.

When the pandemic hit, Wickenheiser was working in the emergency rooms of several hospitals in Toronto as part of her final year of medical school. The doctors training her were reassigned to treat COVID-19 patients; she wasn’t allowed to directly treat those patients but felt she couldn’t sit idle while colleagues in the trenches were running low on personal protective equipment.

“They pulled all the trainees out of hospitals about three weeks ago and redeployed us to do things like contact tracing and sourcing PPE and things like that,” she said, “because they need the attending doctors to focus on treating patients, not teaching, and also they don’t want to deplete supplies.”

Read the rest of Helene Elliott‘s column by clicking here.

BORN ON THIS DAY

1949: Former Laker Spencer Haywood

1961: Former Raider Jeff Hostetler

1968: Basketball player Bimbo Coles

1982: Soccer player Kaká

1986: Football player Marshawn Lynch

DIED ON THIS DAY

2004: Football player Pat Tillman, 27

AND FINALLY

An NFL tribute to Pat Tillman. Watch it here.