Le Journal

I do not know about the rest of you, but finding a rooting interest among the final four teams that are still remaining, is difficult at best for me. Usually, once the Colts are out of it, my focus turns to who I am rooting against. This is often determined by who my friend’s teams are. I want them to lose, because misery loves company. I can only imagine how much shade I would have had thrown my way, had the Bears beat us in 2006. So, aside from friends who root for bottom feeders who are still looking for a title, I want them all to lose. Rooting against New England is conditioned, so I will have no problem rooting against them. I have to say that I despise this iteration of the team far less than past teams, but I will still see the helmet and want them to lose. The bad part of it is, I really do not want to root for the Broncos either. I really have no issue with them, but if they win, that means countless interviews with Peyton, where he gushes over his former team. If you haven’t guessed, I want him all to ourselves and any love he shows to Denver, feels like a gut shot. Over on the NFC side, I see two teams that I do not have much against. You don’t run into many Rams or Seahawks fan in Colts Country, or my new location in SE N. Carolina. So, I don’t have to worry about anyone strutting or talking junk to make a bad season worse. From a Colts standpoint, three of the four teams were on our schedule and represent three of our better performances. You all know how they turned out, but the simple fact is that the Colts could have emerged 3 – 0, or 0 -3 for that matter, because all three games were in our grasp. I suppose that seeing Darnold win with the “retread” label, might be cause for some optimism for us and D. Jones next year? A first year coach winning might be cool as well. I’m still not a fan of theirs, since they had the Pats beat, only to lose and thus stole an opportunity for us to see Brady sad when it was all said and done. Media day would not be the same without Beast Mode telling everyone that he was only there to avoid a fine. Now that he is a commercial celebrity, it would be funny to see him asking questions. As for the Rams, I go to McVay as reason to dislike that team. He comes off as pretty arrogant, which I do not like from an opponent. I think I would learn to love it in massive hurry, if he was on our sidelines. He’s won enough to be a little cocky, but not so much that I am tired of seeing his face in the post season. I think Stafford is a HOFer anyway, but another Lombardi would cement it. There are no former Colts of note, to root for or against. The results do not affect our draft status. Aside from a natural inclination to root against the Pats, I have no dog in the fight. I think I will be rooting for the Broncos, but I may find myself switching mid stream. How can I like Vrabel better than Payton? I’m figuring that the winner in the NFC will be the favorite in the big game, but again, do I really care which one? Of course I will be watching and I know that most of you will as well, so give me your reason for aligning with any of the four remaining teams. Maybe I’ll see something I like and join you.

The Arizona Cardinals remain in the hunt for a new head coach. They began with a long list of names, and a few took jobs elsewhere or were not invited back for another interview. One of the names that remain is Mike LaFleur, the Los Angeles Rams’ offensive coordinator. He is fairly young at 38 years old, but has five years of experience as an offensive coordinator. RELATED: CARDINALS REQUEST INTERVIEW WITH BILLS COACH The Cardinals fanbase and a lot of media outlets have expressed interest in hiring an offensive-minded guy to head the franchise instead of going with a coach to lead the defense. Currently, Arizona’s defense is in pretty good shape and certainly needs a piece here and there, but a qualified DC could come in and set up shop rather quickly with the talent on that side of the ball. The Rams are in this year’s NFC Championship Game. Last weekend, they defeated the #2 seed the Chicago Bears and had a great showing with the offense. No penalties, no turnovers, and had plenty of good drives which produced points. That is the result of LaFleur’s efforts. But who is he? What are his qualifications? Beginnings LaFleur grew up in the small town of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, nestled in the bullseye of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. To know Mike LaFleur, you have to be acquainted with his family. His parents are Kristi and Denny LaFleur. His father, Denny, played linebacker at Central Michigan, which won the D-2 National Championship in 1974, while his mother was one of the team’s cheerleaders. Denny held the school’s record for most career tackles. Denny then transitioned into teaching and became an assistant football coach for his alma mater. That lasted 20 years. Kristi was a physical education and health teacher who coached track and cheerleading. At Central Michigan, Denny had coached practically every position on defense. The couple has now been married for 51 years. Kristi’s father, Bob Barringer, was also a football coach at Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan. So, football was more than just a sport in her family. Barringer just happened to be a Central Michigan fan. Kristi and Deeny got married in their senior year at CMU. Mike’s brother is Matt, currently the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. He played quarterback for most of his life and went to Western Michigan and then Saginaw Valley State. After going undrafted in the 2003 NFL draft, Matt signed with the Omaha Beef of the “National Indoor Football League.” The following season, he played for the Billings Outlaws of the same league. Growing up, brothers Matt and Mike, who is the younger sibling, competed in the AAU basketball circuit. But their lives were football with their dad as a coach and their mom coaching the cheer squad. Both brothers were great kids to coach because they had such an intensity about the way they played. Both boys knew that one day they would also be football coaches. Matt got in the door when his father called the new CMU head coach, Brian Kelly, and asked if he needed any grad assistants. There, he met another grad assistant, Robert Saleh, who is now the head coach of the Tennessee Titans after building up the San Francisco 49ers’ defense. When Matt became the OC with the Rams and Mike was hired as the 49ers WR coach, these two teams played each other twice a year both being NFC West Division members. Kristi LaFleur had a difficult time of which team to pull for when the two clubs met on the gridiron. So, she devised a system. Kristi wore t-shirts she designed that appeared to be authentic NFL gear. The shirts read on the front, “The San Angeles Ram-ers.”   Mike’s path Mike LaFleur was also a quarterback, but played three sports in high school. He then played football for Elmhurst University, located in nearby Illinois. In addition to playing quarterback, he would also line up at safety and was elected team captain. After graduation, he became an offensive assistant with Elmhurst. The following year, he…

Brian Gregory was a controversial hire. Mat Ishbia promoted yet another Michigan State Spartan to a position of power in an offseason where that became a trend, as new head coach Jordan Ott was a former video coordinator at MSU under Tom Izzo.  These days, most Suns fans have very little to critique about the coaching hire. Everyone who watched the last dregs of the Monty Williams era, the Vogel season, and the Budenholzer season is elated by the progress this team has shown under Jordan Ott, and I see many fans routinely discuss their contentment with the coach online. One person who doesn’t seem to get his flowers as often is Brian Gregory. GMs tend to be judged over the course of many drafts and offseasons. The fruits of their labor can take years to be tasted. Coaches give us the here and now. We can see the difference a coach makes a minimum of 82 times per year. Jordan Ott also had a proven track record as an assistant around the league. The only things we really knew about Gregory were his connection to the Spartans and his fondness for the word “alignment.” BUZZWORDS COUNTER: Three things are clear from new #Suns GM Brian Gregory… Alignment Identity Vision pic.twitter.com/kOO4S8Khp8— Cameron Cox (@CamCox12) May 7, 2025 That said, we do have a sample size. 44 games are behind us. 53.7% of the season has come and gone and we are closer to the playoffs than we are to opening night. So, how has Brian Gregory’s first offseason aged? The Kevin Durant Trade: Grade: B+ The big one. The first item on the agenda. What was Brian Gregory going to do with KD. The Kevin Durant trade ended up being the largest trade in NBA history, comprising 7 teams. The Suns traded Kevin Durant for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, picks 10, 31, and 41 in the 2025 NBA draft, and two future second-round picks. At the time, I would have graded this a C- or maybe even a D. The best player the Suns received back played the same position as Devin Booker. After that, all the Suns got was a role player, one good pick, and a handful of second-rounders. When do late picks ever work out, anyway? As it turns out, I was a fool. Dillon Brooks has had a career season, even though he has begun to regress back to his mean a bit on the current road trip. His mean, however, is a good defensive wing who can space the floor and average 15 per game for his career. Jalen Green has played just two full games on the season. In one of those two games, he looked like an explosive athlete who was going to be a dynamic backcourt partner to complement Booker. He scored an efficient 29 points and looked good doing it. In his return to the court in Philadelphia, he struggled with his efficiency a bit, but was showing some playmaking ability to make up for it. Most importantly, he looked healthy. While the Jalen Green sample size is not enormous, it does give us hope moving forward. Jalen Green still could have a “second star” in his future. Meanwhile, the young player I desperately wanted from the Rockets, 22-year-old power forward Jabari Smith Jr., is playing…okay. He is averaging 15 points and 7 rebounds and is generally just a good basketball player. He would have probably played well under Coach Ott, but with the flashes Green has shown for the Suns, I think fans are expecting to be happy with the package they received. The draft compensation received for Kevin Durant was about as good as Phoenix could have hoped for. We no longer live in the same NBA that was trading the farm for Rudy Gobert. A top ten pick and some future second-rounders in return for an aging star was a reasonable amount of draft compensation. The most important thing the Suns received in return for Kevin Durant is the privilege of not having him in their locker room. At just the halfway point of the season, the vibes are already poor in Houston. pic.twitter.com/2zGa9upoyy— No Context NBA (@NoContext_NBA_) January 10, 2026 While Durant was in Phoenix, I thought that watching him play on the…

Bravo pour cette initiative....37 e les 5 consos