nowandlater

It's a big story because The Bachelor/ette is big...The Bachelor premiered 15 years ago (March 2002). Just 2 months before American Idol, which is dead. Yet while The Bachelor/ette fell out of favor, there has been a resurgence the past few years. It's become buzz-worthy. It's like sports for women. So having a "champion" in The Bachelor/ette world related to a former champion in the football world combines for a really big entertainment/pop-culture story, which is why People/Us Weekly/Perez Hilton, etc are all over it. The Bachelor is so big that Mel Kiper has a Bachelor big board. ESPN (and former Grantland) NFL expert Bill Barnwell does a Bachelor podcast. (It doesn't hurt that ESPN and The Bachelor are corporate siblings.) Bill Simmons' The Ringer has also been all over Bachelor coverage.

So People magazine yesterday made note that Aaron Rodgers was "visibly absent" from his family's Christmas vacation. http://thebiglead.com/2017/01/18/people-magazine-doesnt-understand-that-aaron-rodgers-has-a-job/

Is it me, or is Elise Jordan on way too much. Maybe four or five years ago, Lawrence would have on Krystal Ball on with him during the first segment of almost every show. (Until she left for The Five.) Now it seems like Elise Jordan is on every show. I don't have a problem with her specifically, it's just that she becomes almost like a co-host by always appearing. It would be like Rachel having the same person in the first segment 3 nights a week. I like seeing different people on these shows, a rotation. Ditto Malcolm Nance.

Then we get Mike Pence, who is really really good at hiding his evil-ness. And him being president might make it easier for people to re-elect him. I'm hoping/thinking that Americans will get so sick of Trump being part of their daily lives for 5 1/2 years that they won't give him a second term. (There's something to be said for "No Drama Obama.")

For the record: Rodgers started dating Olivia Munn in early 2014. He stopped talking to his family at the end of 2014, as his dad confirmed to the NY Times. 2014 was also the year that Rodgers was named MVP. So Rodgers has played exceptionally well and been ho-hum during the time of not speaking to his family and dating Olivia Munn. His struggles may or may not have anything to do with his family or Munn. Here are some other things of note: Older brother Luke Rodgers, whom Aaron used to live with in San Diego early in his Packers career, used his brother's fame to start a sports merchandising company. He also has gigs with CBS Sports and 24/7 Sports as an "NFL insider." Younger brother Jordan Rodgers was once close to Aaron, who would attend his Vanderbilt games during bye weeks and work out with him in the offseason. I don't know if this had anything to do with the rift, but Jordan Rodgers allegedly cheated on Olivia Munn's trainer/good friend. I should point out that while his family seems nice, it was they who invited ABC Network Television to film them at their house while they left 2 empty chairs for Aaron and Olivia. They're the ones who put the rift on The Bachelorette. They could've lied or said no comment. Heck, nobody forced his dad to talk to The New York Times. There are all sorts of rumors: Was the Rodgers family pissed that Munn talked about their sex life on Watch What Happens Live? But if that's the case, why do they support another son going on The Bachelorette? Maybe Rodgers -- who has become almost a vegan, lives in West Hollywood with Munn, who golfed with Obama during the offseason, and who received a personal letter from Obama after Rodgers denounced a Packers fan for slamming Muslims -- has become too liberal or less Christian for his family. Again, it's all speculation. Other random things to note, which may or may not mean anything: --The Bachelor/ette was created and executive produced by Mike Fleiss, who like Rodgers is a Cal alum. In fact, Fleiss was sports editor of UC Berkeley's student newspaper, The Daily Cal, in the '80s, where he'd cover the Cal football team. Fleiss' assistant sports editor was Mike Silver, whom you may know from the NFL Network. (On a random note, Silver and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr were co-sports editors of their high school newspaper.) --Rodgers' only known previous girlfriend was a woman from his hometown of Chico named Destiny Newton. When 60 Minutes profiled Rodgers a few years back, they noted that she was his girlfriend, even though he declined to discuss his personal life. Destiny Newton's older sister, Shawntel Newton, appeared on The Bachelor in 2 different seasons -- one as one of the finalists, and another season to "crash" the show. Newton was The Bachelor star who worked in a funeral home, and apparently her family was close with Rodgers' family. As for former teammates who hate on Rodgers, they are usually either Greg Jennings, Donald Driver or Jermichael Finley. Read this article, which came out 2 days before the last Packers lost: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2676645-can-aaron-rodgers-be-the-type-of-leader-the-packers-need It's filled with Finley slamming Rodgers' leadership skills. Look, Rodgers isn't a rah-rah type leader. He frequently credits Charles Woodson with being the leader of the 2010 Packers Super Bowl team. But if Rodgers was so terrible a leader, I don't think they would be where they are today.

These aren't the best crews. The NFL grades each official in each crew, and the highest scoring individuals get to work the playoffs, forming ref crews that have never worked together before. Mike Pereira explains it better here: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/article124209329.html

I'm pretty sure Peyton Manning did it all the time -- and was equally praised for it.

Yes, they're getting probably 20 NFL games a year and several Super Bowls over the next few years. A major college game may move there, too. Plus, many other events.

Kroenke is paying for police already, so I expect he'll continue doing it at the new place. But L.A. is a big-event town. Earlier this week, they had the FBI secure the Golden Globes. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rams-stadium-security-20160913-snap-story.html

Okay, Stan Kroenke may be a D-bag to St. Louis fans, but at least he's paying for his billion-dollar stadium out of his own pockets, a development that will include apartments and stores to revitilize an entire area of Inglewood. Also, he's paying the cost of securing the coliseum. It sure beats having taxpayers footing the bill.

My life trajectory is weird because I've spent most of my life near the Raiders.... I was born in Los Angeles in 1977. In 1982, the Raiders moved to Los Angeles and played 6 miles from my home (I've never actually been inside the L.A. Memorial Coliseum but I've been outside of it a bunch of times). In 1995, the Raiders moved back to Oakland. In 1996, I entered UC Berkeley*, which is about 11 miles from the Oakland Coliseum. In 2002, I actually moved to the City of Oakland, where I lived through 2016. (I also liked to bike to the area around the Raiders HQ, which is located in a beautiful part of Alameda known as "Bay Farm Island.") So that's 33 seasons of my 39 years on Earth living near the Raiders. (I've yet to go to a Raiders game, though.) ----- I moved to the city of Oakland just months before they got creamed in the Super Bowl. So they were terrible nearly the entire time I was there. Then I moved to Los Angeles over the summer. And what happens? The Raiders are good, but the Rams are terrible! It's all my fault! ----- *During my first semester at UC Berkeley, Steve Mariucci was in his first year as head coach and his offensive coordinator was Hue Jackson. At the end of that season, the 49ers hired him as their head coach. One of Mariucci's players was Tony Gonzalez, who yesterday orecounted how he had a roommate who was a vampire.

I lived in the Bay Area, and had to suffer through 2 terrible NFL teams (except for the Harbaugh years). I moved to L.A. a few months ago, and now I'm stuck with 2 terrible NFL teams.

These playoff games have been so exciting. Great, riveting games!!! The ratings are gonna be yuuuuge.

10 years ago this week, Stanford hired Jim Harbaugh. A local columnist was really skeptical of this hire, and called it "a huge gamble" Bill Walsh, who would die 7 months later, was in attendance at Harbaugh's press conference. I remember that date because I am a Cal fan. We were 5-0 vs. Stanford when Harbaugh was hired. Since that day, Cal has been 2-8, with those 2 wins coming vs. Harbaugh. I bring this up because David Shaw is kind of like Tomlin, he too inherited a great QB (Andrew Luck) from a great coach and also took his team to the next level. (Shaw won 2 Rose Bowls and lost a Fiesta Bowl, Tomlin won and lost a Super Bowl in his first four seasons and he reached 100 wins faster than Cowher and, unlike his predecessor, has never had a losing season.) Yet because they took over for successful coaches, Shaw and Tomlin -- who, by the way, were born 4 months apart -- will seemingly never get total credit for their successes. So here's what I'm wondering: At what point do you escape your successful predecessor's shadow? As we've seen in San Francisco, it's hard finding another good coach to succeed a good coach. Bill Walsh's successor, George Seifert, went 98-30 and won 2 Super Bowls with the 49ers in 8 seasons (and was dumped and replaced by Steve Mariucci after going 12-4), yet he seems like an afterthought in NFL history because he followed Bill Walsh. (Yes, he did suck as coach of the Panthers.)

I just can't watch Trump spokespeople interviews, especially not with KellyAnne Conway. Not even with Rachel. I totally just avoided it, even though I did stick through the first one.

Wow, this is so riveting.

Here's a good thread on Kurt Eichenwald's past:

I wish most people would pay attention to Trump's corruption in general. But it's a sea of corruption, so people don't care. That's why the new Secretary of State being friends with Putin and the CIA thing doesn't matter. Nobody cares anymore.

I'm tired of the Kurt Eichenwald scoops that Rachel touts as huge news that nobody really cares about the next day.

One problem with the Rams? They have too many sons with famous coaching names on staff. John Fassel. Mike Fisher. Mike Groh, Al Groh's son. I read that Fisher had 6 winning seasons in 22 seasons as a head coach. He was highly regarded but terrible. Over the summer, I moved from Oakland to Los Angeles. It's all my fault that the Rams are terrible and the Raiders are now good.

Yeah, but schedules are made years ahead of time. You have no idea if your going to get a good team or not. As it happens, Penn State scheduled Temple when they were terrible and Kent State, which was terrible, as well as in-state team Pitt. I don't think non-conference should count as much unless you do something ballsy, like Ohio State did in scheduling to play at a big-time school like Oklahoma. You really don't know. Michigan's out of conference schedule looked terrible before this season, with Colorado coming off 6 wins in 2 years and Hawaii coming off a 3-win season.

In January, Jimmy Kimmel had on Casey Affleck as the No. 1 guest. I was like, "Why is he a #1 guest?" I mean, he's done stuff, but he isn't No. 1-worthy. (I was also annoyed because Kimmel had on Julia Roberts as the No. 2 guest last year, with Sally Field as No. 1.) Casey Affleck was on Kimmel again 2 weeks ago. And I realize he's getting Oscar buzz for his new movie. But now I'm asking, how is he hosting SNL? I mean, I just feel he isn't as worthy as Dave Franco.

Jared Goff vs. Tom Brady this weekend. Brady was a high school senior in the Bay Area when Goff was born ... in the Bay Area.