Letters: A super week, unless you’re a Falcons fan

What a great sporting event. I hope someday L.A. gets a pro football team.

Paul Zimmelman

Marina de Rey

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This time it looks like Tom Brady chose to let the air out of Atlanta’s Super Bowl victory parade.

Bob Paniagua

Susanville, Calif.

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Can we all now agree that Tom Brady has no need for underinflated footballs?

Richard Raffalow

Valley Glen

Run three times, kick a field goal, game over. Still scratching my head.

Ron Ovadia

Irvine

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Dear Dan Quinn:

Hey buddy! Thanks for getting me off the hook!

Let’s do lunch sometime.

Best, Pete Carroll

Howard P. Cohen

North Hills

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Before we get all giddy about a “Patriots dynasty” let’s remember one thing. They didn’t win their last two Super Bowls. Pete Carroll and Dan Quinn lost them.

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

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I would have paid a king’s ransom to have been able to sit next to Bill Plaschke during the Super Bowl.　

Ed Freeman

Moorpark

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The “Plaschke Plague”: A disease that afflicts anyone who takes a tip from Bill Plaschke and places a huge bet with their bookie!

Bill Fado

Pacific Palisades

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Thanks, Bill Plaschke, for being the local version of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.

Lee Barnathan

Chatsworth

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Yes, New England — the team I picked to win — had all of the momentum, but to have the Super Bowl potentially decided on a coin toss because Atlanta never received the ball in overtime makes a mockery of the sport’s championship game. This is tantamount to baseball saying that in extra innings in the World Series, the winner of a coin flip is the only team that gets to bat, as long as that team scores a run. 　　　　　　　

Ken Feldman

Los Angeles　

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For all the negative comments on how soccer ends a game on penalty kicks, ending a Super Bowl in overtime with only one team possessing the ball is equally horrific!

Vincent Martinez

Arcadia

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In answer to reader Jack Wishard, who wrote in and referred to Bill Belichick as “Belicheat”, one needs only only to look to the eye-popping numbers: seven AFC championships, five Super Bowl championships. Flatly unparalleled by anyone, ever in those categories, please avail yourself to “A Football Life: Bill Belichick” to discover what a studied, freakishly interesting dude Belichick is. And do enjoy some crème fresh with your sour grapes, sir, because if you really think he cheated his way to all those victories, I’d say you’re not paying attention.

　　Know it or not, believe it or not, like it or not, all he does is win.

Dan Johnson

Salem, Va.

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We watched the Super Bowl on Sunday. We watched it again on Monday. Then again on Tuesday. Each time it was less believable.　

Tom Brady said, “You only get these opportunities so often.” Then he really made the most of it because, after all, he’s 39 years old and given the point he’s at on his career arc, he’ll probably only get to play in two or three more Super Bowls.

That game was an inspiration for us all. Kids, work hard and never give up like the Patriots and maybe someday you can win a Super Bowl and hoist up the Belichick Trophy.

John Thompson

Downey

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In The Times’ four pages of Super Bowl coverage, neither Bill Plaschke’s front-page story nor the extensive Sports Section reportage (including four separate “Did You Notice” paragraphs) noticed why Tom Brady’s numbers were so spectacular, and the Falcons’ so dismal, in the fourth quarter. The Patriots’ offensive line kept Atlanta’s defenders at a comfortable distance from Brady with only rare exceptions; while the Patriots’ defensive line shut down the most potent scoring offense in the NFL completely, and forced game-changing Falcons’ errors to seize victory from certain defeat.　

Somewhere, if only here, the Patriots’ linemen deserve much greater recognition for the “miracle comeback” than the writers acknowledged.

Gordon Berger

Santa Monica

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America’s annual display of crass commercialism, its side (halftime) show of mind-numbing entertainment, and oh yeah......a football game, is history, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is now considered the second coming. So now what?

Lawrence Kates

Los Angeles

Too much

I can’t blame an adolescent male for not having a brain in his head (female either, e.g., Cheryl Miller, 105 points), but we can be disappointed where an adult coach or parent permits an outmatched opponent to be taken advantage of in amateur sports. It appears that the program at Chino Hills High is out of control while riding a wave of unparalleled success. I would like to hear the coach’s point of view on permitting a player to shoot more than 50 shots in a blowout victory, while other players didn’t even get in the game.

Kevin H. Park

Mission Hills

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I am of the opinion that the game where Chino Hills High scored 146 points was a disgrace. I only hope that every member of the Chino Hills squad was given the opportunity to play including, perhaps the team’s water boy and possibly some of the cheerleaders.

Ray Ceniceroz

Pasadena

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My advice to LaVar Ball, the controlling father of the three Ball brothers, is to look up Marv Marinovich. He’s the father of Todd Marinovich, who also controlled every move that Todd made and became a bust in the NFL. As do a lot kids in that environment, they rebel and like Todd unfortunately become addicted to controlled substances .

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

Purple brains

Nothing against one of the greatest Lakers and basketball players ever, but as long as Jeanie Buss, her family and the Lakers organization insists on looking backward, this legendary franchise won’t move forward. It’s an analog organization in an increasingly digital-age league and world.

The Lakers continue to over-value the appeal of their past triumphs and living in Los Angeles. Players today don’t care about either the way those of the past did. And the new CBA is going to make it almost impossible to convince a premier unrestricted free agent to leave guaranteed tens of millions of dollars on the table of their current teams.

Dennis Leonard

Pacific Palisades

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Many Lakers’ fans were upset when Phil Jackson wasn’t re-hired a few years back, saying he would be a great addition to the front office. Just imagine Phil doing for the Lakers what he has done for the Knicks.

Gerry Swider

Sherman Oaks

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Luke Walton wants the Lakers to be like the Celtics? What planet is he from?

Sterling Buckingham

Canyon Country

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Be like the Celtics? You’re really telling the team to do that and the fans to accept it? There should be a basic class for Laker coaches on what not to say, and this would be the top of the list.　

R.W. Novotny

Long Beach

The end of Tiger?

It’s true that Tiger Woods’ golf skills have diminished, but given the dizzying heights he achieved, anything he’s done recently will be magnified in the press and in the fans’ minds. It’s the mean-spirited letters that struck me as unseemly. The Federer-Nadal match should give heart to all true golf fans that Woods has a shot at competing on the regular tour.

David Pohlod

Oak Park

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I freely admit: I have a Tiger Woods addiction. For three years I have suffered severe withdrawal. But I never lost faith. Now I have lost faith. He is finished. Too bad. It was a 15-year high and while it lasted it was great.

Jack Spiegelman

Los Angeles

Politics vs. sports

In the past, the only section of the Los Angeles Times that had not been systematically poisoned by your ideological bias was the sports section. Now, you devote almost a page of the sports section to J.J. Redick’s political beliefs. Who cares what J.J. Redick thinks? Except your editors who must be thrilled to find someone somewhat known who is dumb enough to agree with them.

Dr. Gary Byrne

Santa Barbara

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I was a bit surprised when J.J. Redick told us that “people who are losing their healthcare, women who are losing their right to decide what to do with their body” since I didn’t know any of that had happened. So I checked and double checked and discovered none of that has happened. I guess even athletes are capable of fake news.

Cecil Worthington

Los Angeles

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If Los Angeles blames President Trump for a possible lost bid for the 2024 Olympics, then it must have been President Obama’s fault for Chicago’s failure to earn their bid for 2016.

Kathleen Collins

Santa Monica

It was an honor

“Honor-Bound” by Bill Plaschke proves my oft-voiced opinion that sports journalism is the most challenging form of journalism and, as such, can deliver the greatest rewards.

Face it, every sports story has the same setup: One team/player lost and the other team/player won. The skillful sports journalist turns this perennial report into a compelling story, a cliffhanger read or a tear-jerking account. “Honor-Bound” ticks all of these boxes because, by the end, the reader is honestly hoping and maybe even believing that the Lucerne Valley Mustangs, with their 1-19 record, just might win their final game of the season. But, more importantly, the story is about winning by demonstrating loyalty, commitment, dedication and persistence.

As a college admissions officer who reads hundreds of college applications and essays each year, I loved this story of what teenagers can accomplish (i.e. not a championship trophy but championship character development) in the face of almost insurmountable odds.

Tina Brooks

Claremont

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Stop the presses! Alert the police! Call 911! While reading this morning’s Times Sports I just saw a pig fly! In this age of hyperbole(often his) and excessive ranting (also his), “Bandwagon Bill” Plaschke’s article on the Lucerne Valley basketball team was a delight and a welcome relief to our win-at-any-cost partisanship. I would like to commend Plaschke for writing and The Times for printing an article that shows the real importance of teamwork. I could go on, but I don’t want to be, well ... hyperbolic.

Ralph Martinez

Arcadia

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To be honest, I usually don’t read the sports pages. But somehow Lucerne Valley caught my eye today. This was a truly inspirational story. I literally had tears in my eyes at the end. Thank you.

Noel Park

Rancho Palos Verdes

Wrapping it up

What we now know for sure;

1. Atlanta, seriously? What happened?

2. A slightly deflated football is much easier to throw and catch.

3. We’ll find out later how the Patriots cheated this time.

4. The Rams and the Chargers dispels the “two heads are better than one” theory.

5. The Clippers are sinking faster than the Titanic.

6. Jim Buss is probably not a man of his word, so deal with it.

7. If Sergio Romo could still pitch, wouldn’t the Giants have kept him?

8. Hockey is still boring.

9. “Fight on!” is back on with Sam Darnold.

10. At least we still have Clayton Kershaw, Venus and Serena Williams.

Marty Foster

Ventura

Minority owner

Dear Guggenheim Partners,

Enclosed please find my personal check in the amount of twenty dollars to purchase a share of the Dodgers. I look forward to meeting Mark, Magic and the rest of my new partners in the owners’ box this season.

Go Blue!

P.S. Please send my share of the dividends to the address on the check.

Rhys Thomas

Valley Glen 　

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