Letters: No one is bowled over by USC or UCLA this season

It’s not rocket science, it’s actually economics 101. If your kid is a potential NFL lottery pick, are you going to suggest that he plays for Clay Helton, or God forbid, Chip Kelly? Didn’t think so. You’re gonna pray that he signs with Urban Meyer, and then you’re going to research that beachfront retirement home you’ve always dreamed about.

Marty Foster

San Francisco

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What a sad statement about the state of college football when we have an article about USC’s dilemma about whether to pursue winning or integrity. The new president suggests both are possible. Their history suggests otherwise. Go Bruins.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

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With a game so important to both coaches, we should remember Red Sanders, the former UCLA coach. When asked about the UCLA-USC game, “It’s not a matter of life and death,” he drawled, “it’s more important than that.”

David Wilczynski

Manhattan Beach

Taking charge

The Chargers are in trouble. They play in Los Angeles, but most people continue to refer to them as the San Diego Chargers. Their current games are attended by more of their opponents’ fans than their own. They will be moving into a new stadium next year and they are destined to lead the NFL in the lowest attendance. The face of their franchise, Philip Rivers, is beyond done. He has been an embarrassment over the last few weeks and this team has become unwatchable.

This is not going to end well for the team. Who knows what Dean Spanos was thinking, but Roger Goodell and the other owners should force a sale of this team and move them to anywhere else but Inglewood.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

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Go Chargers ... and feel free to take the Clippers back to San Diego with you.

Larry Herrera

Redondo Beach

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If the Chargers want to win another game this season, they’ll bench ineffective old man Rivers and let Easton Stick play. At season’s end if not before, fire Lynn and let Rivers ride off into the sunset. His time is long gone as he and the head coach should be.

Thomas Filip

Moorpark

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I’m fed up with Philip Rivers. He had another sparkling performance highlighted by four interceptions plus a another throw that should have been his fifth, but was dropped by the Kansas City defender. Along with Tony Romo, Andy Dalton, and Matt Ryan, Rivers has to be one of the most overrated quarterbacks of all time. Perhaps the NFL can force London to take this unwanted, woeful team.

Noa Whon

Huntington Beach

Making Kap space

Can you imagine being a pretty good writer for the L.A. Times, but then you start writing stories in such a way as to alienate half of your paper’s subscribers and advertising income? After being fired and not rehired by any other media giant, can you imagine suing because no media owners want to lose half of everything by employing you? Can you not understand why you’re still not playing in the NFL, Colin Kaepernick?

Dave Eng

Thousand Oaks

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I honestly wish him well, but Colin Kaepernick squandered a chance to win multiple Walter Payton awards. All he had to do was establish a foundation (totally separate from football) to raise money for victims, public defenders, research studies, etc.

His poor decision making sabotaged any chance of advancing a golden opportunity for humanitarian advances in an especially delicate field. It’s all about him.

LZ Granderson, if I’m off base, please let me know.

David Pohlod

Oak Park

Rank injustice

What a farce the college football rankings are and supposedly making the case that they want to make sure the four best teams make the finals. They need to explain how they can ignore results on the field and rank teams that lost to teams ahead of that team. (Penn State ahead of Minnesota).

What this so-called show really wants is to make sure they get the teams that will attract viewers and not reward teams that deserve to be there based on performance on the field. How can Alabama, with a very weak schedule, deserve to be ranked fifth?

Of course it makes sense for the committee’s real purpose, which is to make sure if Georgia loses to LSU, they can move Alabama up to No. 4. Perhaps they can justify it with a solid win by Alabama over Western Carolina this week.

Edward A. Sussman

Fountain Valley

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The article regarding LSU and its Cajun coach Ed Orgeron was wonderful. Once again we celebrate a man for what he is and what he is doing as opposed to the PR types that may look good on the surface but don’t have what it takes to build a sustainable program.

Bob Knight

Santa Barbara

Thanks, Yu

I knew Yu Darvish was a great pitcher who had two terrible outings, but I had not known what a tremendous sportsman he is.

Maybe he is naive about the win-at-all-costs dynamic of American pro sports, but he is very grounded in how to deal with all of life’s experiences, sublime and awful, and how they can be used to grow as a person. Darvish was asked about the debacle of Game 7 and stated, “In life, I think huge failures are extremely important.”

What an admirable man, and I hope to cheer him in the stadium some day.

David Gooler

Pasadena

Hoops, here it is

I just got off the phone with Frontier Communications and found out I can no longer watch Lakers games on TV. The Lakers pulled their games from Frontier.

Between no Dodgers games or Lakers games I guess I should catch up on the daily crossword puzzle in The Times.

Matthew D. Kerster

Gardena

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How long before tipoff do the Clippers announce whether Paul George or Kawhi Leonard will play? Do the gamblers get the info at the same time as the fans?

And once the casinos hear that one or the other won’t play, does the game go off the board? Or do they just adjust the points?

Tom Scheerer

Glendale

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I don’t hear enough praise for Rob Lowe, I mean Pelinka. He traded away a lot of fan favorites to acquire Anthony Davis, which has proved to be an excellent move. Davis and LeBron James have meshed well. Oh, and Frank Vogel was a great hire to handle this team. These Lakers are a joy to watch.

Jack Walker

Santa Monica

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So LeBron James thinks “it’s so surreal ... to have a guy like Kobe just take time out of his day” to attend a Laker game? Wow! Kobe is so magnanimous!

Gimme a break.

Andrew Weiss

Playa del Rey

They lost to who?

After suffering through this season’s version of UCLA’s loss to Cal Poly a while ago, I searched for some teams Mick Cronin should book for next year while he is still telling us, “It’s a work in progress.” How about Bluefield State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Redlands, Hampton, or SUNY Cortland? All of them scored 50 or fewer points against other no-names in Thursday’s college scores.

Alan Segal

San Diego

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