News Analysis: Matthew Stafford's injury raises serious concerns for Rams as season approaches
Aubrey Pleasant deferred to McVay. And Stetson Bennett was so busy leading a comeback victory, he said he did not notice.
No one in the Rams' organization could answer these questions:
How did Matthew Stafford's scheduled workout on Saturday play out? And was he at the Rams' 23-22 victory over the Chargers at SoFi Stadium?
A team spokesman declined to comment, saying McVay would address the situation on Monday.
Read more: Rams mum on whether Matthew Stafford worked out: Takeaways from preseason win
So the Stafford saga plays on, incrementally worsening as the Sept. 7 opener against the Houston Texans draws near.
Stafford, 37, is preparing for his 17th NFL season.
Check that: He would be if not for a back issue that has prevented him from taking a single snap or throwing a single pass during a team practice.
In late July, when the Rams reported to training camp at Loyola Marymount and Stafford's back issue came to light, the situation was cause for concern.
For everyone, it seemed, but McVay.
The Rams had a plan, he said. He was not concerned. Stafford would not practice for the first week, but he would be out there with teammates in Week 2.
It did not happen.
Nearly a month later, it still hasn't.
McVay said last week that the Rams were 'trying to get our hands around' the situation.
But time is becoming shorter.
The Rams are three weeks away from the season opener at SoFi Stadium.
Read more: Whose house? Rams and Chargers fans debate which team is the 'alphas' of L.A.
Jimmy Garoppolo has taken first-team snaps during team workouts and joint practices with the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints. Bennett has started preseason games against the Cowboys and the Chargers.
Garoppolo led the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl. Bennett is playing with the confidence he displayed while leading Georgia to two national titles.
With a physically sound Stafford, the Rams would be regarded as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
With Garoppolo or Bennett...
How much time Stafford would need to be ready for the opener is an open question.
Three weeks? Two? One?
No one questions Stafford's toughness or grit. Or his desire to win another Super Bowl.
But for now, his physical condition and availability — and the Rams' prospects this season and beyond — remain in doubt.
Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Meet Colin Cummings: US air force officer and greatest air hockey player of all time
About an hour before our scheduled chat, Colin Cummings accompanies his polite request to delay with a photograph of an image familiar to parents worldwide, a grizzling newborn strapped to his front, resolutely refusing to succumb to her morning nap. Cummings has gone about this week's defence of his air hockey world title rather differently to his many others. Partly, that is thanks to baby Clara's arrival a couple of months ago, which has dominated most of the summer. The rest of it has been dictated by a job relocation to Hawaii where he has been given a three-year posting as a personnel officer in the US air force. The air hockey table at his Oahu home represents the only professional-style playing surface in the whole multi-island state. Shorn of suitable playing partners, Cummings has geared up for his tilt at a sixth successive world crown in an unconventional manner. Irregular solo practises – increasingly infrequent since Clara's birth – have been the air hockey equivalent of a tennis player hitting balls against a wall. He has also attempted to keep track of opponents on the mainland through video streams of their matches, but his main physical activity of late involves surfing Hawaii's famous waves. Related: Brazilian table tennis star denied entry to US due to having competed in Cuba Aged just 26, Cummings is already almost universally considered the air hockey GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). Two other players, Danny Hynes and Jesse Douty, are now tied with his 12 world titles, but that pair are generally bracketed alongside a couple of others on the second rung of air hockey's all-time pyramid. Cummings, alone, stands at the top. It was he who, at 16, became the youngest ever world champion in the sport – and Cummings is absolutely adamant that air hockey is a sport. And it is he who has relinquished just one of the 13 world championships held over the past decade. Ask the man himself and he is in no doubt over his GOAT status: 'Oh hell yeah, bro, I got to be. I've even got a little goat sticker on my mallet.' Most people Cummings encounters are surprised to hear that air hockey even possesses a competitive life outside arcades and home basements. Played on a low-friction table, with opposing players attempting to hit the puck into goals using handheld mallets, the elite side of the sport has, in fact, been around for almost 50 years, beginning soon after air hockey's invention. Texas, North Carolina, Illinois and Idaho are America's four major competitive hubs, while the recent boom in barcades – drinking establishments featuring retro entertainment offerings – has provided a resurgence in pockets across the country. Aside from a Venezuelan contingent, and a smattering of Russians and Spaniards, air hockey tends to be an all-American affair. Cummings' route in began when his family relocated to Texas in 2009 and happened to move across the road from the world No 4 player. Invited over for a game by the man's son – who was the top-ranked Under-12 player – Cummings received a pasting and vowed not to let it happen again: 'I instantly knew I had to beat the kid. He was so cocky.' Within six months, the Cummings family found a small table of their own at a garage sale; half a year later, they had upgraded it to a professional-standard table. While Colin emerged as the star, air hockey quickly became something for the whole family to play. His younger brother Connor is now ranked world No 3, while their father, Mike, is No 15. As he has done for close to a decade, Colin tops the pile. In the smallest of niche sporting ponds, the biochemistry graduate is a superstar. But unlike his world-beating peers – think Roger Federer, Lionel Messi or Oleksandr Usyk – he receives next to no external recognition. 'It's definitely a challenge,' he says, of his vastly contrasting lives on and off the air hockey table. 'I have to be versatile. 'I have my air force persona where I have to embody a leadership character. Then there's the air hockey champion persona where I walk into a room and people all want to meet me when I have no idea who they are. Then there's normal life. 'I remember when I won my first world title in 2015, I went back to my day job where I was a salad boy/janitor, just mopping the floor in a hair net. I'd gone from being world champion to mopping floors.' In the fledgling days of his relationship with his now-wife Meg, Cummings sent her a video link of an interview he did with CNN. 'She was like: 'You're the world champion? What the heck?' But she's very supportive.' So much so that husband and wife even joined forces to claim world doubles silver in 2022, although Cummings suggests that was a one-off: 'If I've not been playing at all in Hawaii, then she's definitely not been playing.' The furthest any possible discontent stretches is Meg forlornly enquiring whether they might vacation farther afield than Texas, where the world championships usually take place. That return to familiar soil does at least mean they can forego expensive hotel bills and stay with family for free during competition. In a sport that offers about $2,000 prize money for winning the world title, Cummings suggests he has 'at least broken even, if not made money' over the course of his career. When not based in Hawaii, he had also previously earned modest sums through sponsorship from small companies. The ultimate ambition is to 'break out of this niche bubble and turn into something that's multinational and well cemented'. The closest comparison, he says, would be to emulate the growth of table football or foosball – which has produced men and women's world champions from 10 different countries over the past two decades – and, eventually, table tennis. Until then, Cummings must content himself with the adulation of a select few and the ignorance of the masses. When he returns from this week's world championships, he intends to hold an exhibition tournament at home in Hawaii for his air force colleagues, who all believe they can beat him. 'So I'll toast them all,' he says. Wayne Gretzky never had to deal with such disrespect.
USA Today
28 minutes ago
- USA Today
Todd. Freddie. Dave, Liam and Josh. Baker Mayfield has played for a plethora of OCs
TAMPA — Baker Mayfield was headed to the weight room after a recent training camp practice, so, squeezed for time, he suggested that we walk and talk. This got us started with a great deal of efficiency. We walked. Briskly. He talked. Mayfield, the vibrant Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, is flowing off a career year that included him throwing for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns. His reward? Heading into his eighth NFL season, he has another new coordinator, as Josh Grizzard was promoted from pass game coordinator after Liam Coen bolted to the Jacksonville Jaguars. How many coordinators have you had since you've been in the league? Just outside the weight room, Mayfield stopped in his tracks. Time to calculate. 'Let's see. Year 1, I had two,' Mayfield, drafted No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Browns in 2018, told USA TODAY Sports, referring to Todd Haley and Freddie Kitchens. 'Second year, Todd Monken. That's three. Alex Van Pelt, four. (Kevin) Stefanski called the plays. I count that as four and five. 'Then Carolina, Ben McAdoo. Then (Sean) McVay out in L.A. I don't even know what number I'm at right now.' Uh, that would be seven. He finishes with the Bucs chapter of his journey. 'Dave Canales. Liam Coen. And Josh Grizzard,' Mayfield concludes. That's 10, which is proof that Mayfield, 30, who earned his two career Pro Bowl selections the past two seasons, has mastered the art of adaptation. Now he's joined at the hip with a man who has never called plays before on the NFL level. Well, again. Canales and Coen hadn't called NFL plays before, then after one year on the job with Mayfield as triggerman, they landed head coaching gigs. What's different with Grizzard? 'Well, he was here,' Mayfield said. Grizzard joined the Bucs last year after seven years with the Miami Dolphins, where his most substantial role was coaching wide receivers. 'He was in every quarterback meeting we had last year. 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MORE: Michael Penix Jr. shows fight, literally, in Falcons-Titans practice scrap 'He never really had to try to win over the team to become a leader,' Licht said. 'It kind of became natural, just the way he competes. He really wants to win a Super Bowl, obviously, but I just personally have seen — not that he needed to mature — that he also really wants to prove to the detractors that they screwed up by letting him go. 'Cocky is not the word,' Licht added. 'But it kind of is.' Which made me wonder, as our chat neared the end. The Browns had such high hopes for Mayfield when they drafted him out of Oklahoma, then dumped him after four years to hop on the Deshaun Watson train. Paid any attention to the latest Browns quarterback drama? 'No,' Mayfield replied, emphatically. He seemed to carefully measure his words before walking into the weight room. 'That's not my problem,' he said. He had a parting message, though, for the long-suffering Browns fans. 'I love Cleveland, the town, man,' Mayfield said. 'It gets a bad rap.' No, with the prospects inviting enough for another big season with the Bucs, there's no reason for Mayfield to dwell on the past. Not here. Not now. Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@ or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell On Bluesky:
CNN
29 minutes ago
- CNN
Carlos Alcaraz wins first Cincinnati Open title as Jannik Sinner retires with illness
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