The recent incident involving federal agents attempting to enter the parking lots at Dodgers Stadium has a bright-line connection to other L.A.-area sporting events that will begin in fewer than two months.
SoFi Stadium will be hosting 19 total NFL games featuring the Chargers and the Rams.
Unlike Dodger Stadium, where the gates can be accessed only through a parking-lot area not open to the public, the gates at SoFi Stadium are fully open to the public and not within an area to which access can be denied. Which means that federal agents can, if they choose, gather at the gates to SoFi in search of those who are or who may be authorized to be present in the United States.
It’s still not entirely clear what happened at Dodgers Stadium on Thursday. The team said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were denied entry to the parking lot. ICE called that claim “false.”
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News that Customs and Border Protection vehicles “were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
That wasn’t the end of the matter. On Friday, the Dodgers donated $1 million to “toward direct financial assistance for families of immigrants impacted by recent events in the region.”
That wrinkle raises an obvious question. Will the other Los Angeles teams follow suit?
Immigration continues to be a hot-button issue, throughout the country. But it’s one thing to secure the border and/or to remove immigrants who have engaged in documented wrongdoing. The indiscriminate snatching and grabbing of human beings by federal officers who are inexplicably wearing masks raises very real questions about who we are and what we are becoming.
Right or wrong, these actions create real trauma for immigrants and their families. By contributing $1 million to the effort, the Dodgers have underscored the simple reality that the chest-thumping mass deportation effort has real consequences for those who are taken away, and for those who have left behind.
Maybe you’re wired to say in response, “Eff around and find out.” Or maybe you’re actually inclined to believe and live the lessons of the New Testament, and not to simply pretend to be a Christian.
Quarterback Sam Darnold’s lone season as Minnesota’s starter was magical, until it wasn’t.
At 14-2 and with one game in Detroit with the No. 1 seed on the line, Darnold’s chariot became pumpkinized. Then, in the wild-card round, the orange menace spread to the rest of the team.
“For lack of a better term, we laid an egg as an offense,” Darnold recently told Mike Silver of TheAthletic.com. “And I think, for me personally, that sucks. I felt like we were a really good team, but at the end of the day — and this is gonna sound a little pessimistic — but when you get to the end of it and you don’t win the whole thing, you failed.”
He’s right. There’s only one trophy. And the better a team performs in the regular season, the more prominent the failure seems when it happens.
“I feel like I could have played way better, to be completely honest with you,” Darnold said. “I feel I didn’t play up to my standard. I truly feel that way. I feel like if I would have just played better, I would’ve been able to give the team a chance.”
Darnold’s play was more conspicuous in Week 18, when the Vikings repeatedly had chances and Darnold repeatedly misfired. By the time the playoffs started, the Vikings were simply overmatched and overpowered.
So what happened in those two losses that turned a 14-2 start into an 0-2 finish?
“I feel like L.A. did very similar things on third down to what Detroit did to us,” Darnold said. “They played man and tried to play some ‘robber’ stuff, and that just gave us some troubles. It gave me some troubles, personally.”
As Darnold tries to learn from that experience, it sounds as if he’ll be more committed to running with the ball in 2025 if/when his options are stymied in the passing game.
“[Kevin O’Connell] and those guys in Minnesota did such a good job — and we do a great job here as well — of giving me answers if they take options away,” Darnold told Silver. “Like, just go through your progressions and work your feet and if it’s not there take off and run — because there’s no one accounting for the quarterback, unless they play a spy or whatever.”
Whatever happens in 2025, the gains Darnold made in the first 16 games of the 2024 season were undermined by the regressions of the final two. And even if he gets off to a great start again this year, the real question will be whether he shows up when the lights are the brightest and the stakes are the highest.
The Rams have interest in a reunion with Jalen Ramsey, and the cornerback apparently does, too.
Adam Schefter of ESPN said Friday on the Pat McAfee Show that Ramsey “would like to go to the West Coast, to Los Angeles — Rams, Chargers, somewhere like that.”
The Dolphins have sought to trade Ramsey since early April, and he was expected to have a new home soon after June 1. It hasn’t happened yet.
Schefter indicated a deal should happen before training camps begin roughly a month from now.
Ramsey is scheduled to make a fully guaranteed $24.235 million in 2025, and it seems likely the Dolphins will have to pay some of it to facilitate a deal.
The Rams made the unusual decision to have this week’s mandatory minicamp in Maui, and coach Sean McVay said the trip was as much about togetherness as it was about football.
Players were encouraged to bring their families with them for a Hawaiian vacation, and McVay said that meant a lot for the team’s bonding. McVay also said that Los Angeles and Maui have in common that they’re rebuilding from wildfires, and that the Rams wanted to bring some goodwill to the area.
“It’s about connection and being able to get some time,” McVay said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN. “It’s cool to be able to really, for me, meet a lot of these guys’ families that maybe I haven’t met quite yet or see their wives or girlfriends or their kids, and so that’s been a really cool thing so far. This is about being able to get some good quality time with each other and then being able to use the platform that we’re blessed with to be able to get back to a community that went through some similar things that we can all understand and kind of empathize with, and you see how excited they are to see our players and that’s fun.”
There was a time when summer practices in the NFL were brutal, and coaches were taskmasters. McVay represents a new generation of coaches who see the summer as a time to build camaraderie and make sure players are taking care of their bodies so they’re healthy when the season starts. That buys him plenty of goodwill with his players.
Wide receiver Davante Adams has spoken positively about the Rams since joining the club on a two-year deal this offseason, recently saying he feels “rejuvenated” with Los Angeles.
Hearing Adams say that landed well with head coach Sean McVay.
“It’s so cool, and that’s what you want,” McVay said in an interview with J.B. Long of the team’s website. “I think we talk about it as coaches all the time, ‘How do we make sure these guys leave excited about coming back the next day? How do we cultivate an atmosphere and environment that, hey, it’s hard — it’s hard work, and to be able to do special things that are worthwhile, it doesn’t mean that it’s always easy. But it can be enjoyable in the midst of that.’
“So, we’re always trying to strike that balance of urgency and enjoyment. For Davante to say that, that means the world to me because of the respect and admiration I have for him as a person, as a player. Really glad that he’s in our locker room. He’s made a tremendous impact already. And I think he feels appreciated, and I know the guys feel appreciated by the way that he moves, the way that he’s pouring into guys, and just being a great teammate himself.”
Adams, 32, split last season between the Raiders and Jets, finishing with 85 receptions for 1,063 yards and eight touchdowns in 14 games. He’s reached at least 1,000 yards in every season since 2020 and six of the last seven years — narrowly missing out on eclipsing the mark in 2019 with 997 yards.
Rams edge rusher Jared Verse said recently that he thinks he has a lot of room to improve on his performance from his rookie season, but one seasoned NFL offensive lineman thinks he’s already pretty hard to handle.
Terron Armstead retired this offseason after spending 12 seasons as a left tackle for the Saints and Dolphins, so he’s seen a lot of pass rushers come and go. Verse was one of them during a 2024 game between the Dolphins and the Rams and Verse was the first player to come to mind when Armstead was asked which players he won’t miss playing against during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“That young boy Jared Verse? I’m cool,” Armstead said. “I’m good, I never gotta see that man again. I’m OK with never seeing that young man again in my life. Bull rush different — Dawg, it’s different. You know that it’s coming, you brace yourself. He’s different. Jared Verse is different. He will be a defensive player of the year one of these days. Mark my words.”
Armstead rounded out his list with more experienced edge defenders like Myles Garrett, Maxx Crosby, and Trey Hendrickson. It’s good company for Verse to be in at any point in his career, but a particularly good one when there’s reason to think he’s just scratching the surface of what he’ll do in the NFL.
When the Dolphins suddenly announced in April that they’re looking to trade cornerback Jalen Ramsey, it made sense from a cap standpoint to wait until after June 1. Seventeen days after June 1, Ramsey remains a Dolphin.
So when will he be traded?
Only the Rams have been connected to Ramsey. Most recently, coach Sean McVay said “some obstacles” remain to doing a deal.
With the Dolphins making it clear that the relationship with Ramsey is over, they need a second team in the mix to create real leverage. The Dolphins could decide to wait. And if the wait lasts into training camp, things could become even more interesting.
It’s unlikely, given the circumstances, that the Dolphins would want Ramsey in training camp. If Ramsey goes along with that (they can’t keep him away if he wants to work), the Dolphins would keep waiting for the right deal.
And what if a deal isn’t done before the regular season begins? Will the Dolphins pay Ramsey to stay home until a trade materializes?
The situation could end up having parallels to the Deshaun Watson situation from 2021. He was nearly traded to the Dolphins before Week 1. Then, as the trade deadline approached, it almost happened again. When it didn’t, the Texans paid Watson for the rest of the season before trading him.
Given what the Texans got from the Browns for Watson in March 2022, it was money well spent. The Dolphins won’t be looking at a significant haul after the season. And it will cost them more than twice the $10 million the Texans paid Watson to not play four years ago.
The fact that a trade hasn’t happened proves that it’s not going smoothly. Ultimately, the Dolphins may have to wait for someone with another team to get injured before a true market for Ramsey’s contract will materialize.
And they may have to pay Ramsey, one week at a time, until it happens.
Remember when Steve Ballmer bought the L.A. Clippers for $2 billion and everyone lost their minds?
Eleven years later, stay in town multiply it by five.
Minority owner Mark Walter has purchased a majority stake in the L.A. Lakers at a valuation of $10 billion. That’s a record for any American sports franchise.
The late Dr. Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979 for $67.5 million.
The Buss family had owned 66 percent of the team. Jeannie Buss reportedly plans to continue to continue to serve as the team’s governor, which will give her the power to vote on league matters at NBA ownership meetings.
Earlier this year, the Boston Celtics sold at a valuation of $6.1 billion. Last month, a minority stake in the 49ers was sold at a valuation of $8.6 billion.
It’s safe to say that controlling interest in any NFL team would generate a valuation of more than $10 billion. Some teams (like the Cowboys) would approach or exceed $15 billion.
The fact that the Lakers were sold at a $10 billion valuation will only make that more likely.
Jalen Ramsey remains a member of the Dolphins and the Rams remain one of the possible landing spots for the veteran corner in a trade.
Ramsey was with the Rams before going to Miami and head coach Sean McVay has consistently said that the Rams have interest in bringing him back to Los Angeles since it became clear the Dolphins are looking for a trade partner. Ramsey’s contract would have to be absorbed in any deal and compensation would have to be worked out to make it happen, which are likely the stumbling blocks that McVay referred to while discussing Ramsey’s situation on Tuesday.
“Usually, those are scenarios and situations that you have to have plans in place prior to executing some of the decisions that have occurred,” McVay said, via the team’s website. “Definitely don’t want to rule anything out because we’re always open-minded to onboarding and acquiring quality players and people like him if we’re able to do that, but there would be some obstacles that are real that are in the place of maybe preventing that from occurring.”
The Dolphins could retain some of Ramsey’s salary to help facilitate a trade, but, for now, the status quo remains in place for one of the biggest names on the trading block in the NFL.
Rams coach Sean McVay confirmed Tuesday that left tackle Alaric Jackson is dealing with blood clots in his lower leg.
McVay did not provide a timeline for Jackson’s return.
“We’re really just taking it a day at a time,” McVay said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.
Jackson is not with with the team in Hawaii for the mandatory minicamp this week.
Jackson dealt with the same issue in 2022 when he missed the final nine games. He has served as Los Angeles’ primary left tackle since 2023, starting 15 games that season and 14 games in 2024.
McVay said Jackson complained of “feeling some things in his lower leg,” and a scan revealed the issue.
“You pray for him to be able to have a healthy, safe recovery,” McVay said. “And we’re really just taking it a day at a time with him. There’s a lot of examples of people that have had situations like this, but they’re all still so uniquely independent in their own right. And so we’re gathering information.”
The Rams re-signed Jackson to a three-year, $57 million contract this offseason, but after finding his blood clots, the team added insurance by signing tackle D.J. Humphries to a one-year deal on Friday.
“There needs to be a lot of discussion and dialogue with [Jackson] and with the doctors about, most importantly, what’s best for him as a human being,” McVay said. “And then you talk about football after that. But what we are grateful for is that we were able to identify this based on his communication and get him on the appropriate medicine to make sure that he’s as healthy as possible.”
