Banter Sports

After another brutal losing season, Dean Spanos, the owner of the San Diego Chargers announced that the team will moving to Los Angeles. While some call it more of a return to Los Angeles, I wouldn’t go that far. The franchise had only played one season in the Coliseum before shipping off to San Diego for 56 years. Although a majority of the team’s glory has taken place in San Diego under the likes of LaDanian Tomlinson, Dan Fouts and Junior Seau to name a few, this move to LA will see positive results for a few reasons. First, it opens up a huge market to the Chargers who in large part were a small market team. Secondly, the past few years haven’t been anything to brag about, after going 9-7 the first two years under late coach Mike McCoy. The Chargers then went 9-23 the next two seasons and were a dreadful 7-18 in games decided by eight points or fewer in that time.

Philip Rivers did not have a good season on the tail end of this year and struggled in large part with decision making, turnovers and not having his go-to wide out, Keenan Allen for the last 15 games. Even with this much adversity, the Chargers were still a top ten offense. Melvin Gordon proved to be the guy the Chargers thought they were drafting when they took him with their first round pick in 2015, coming up with 3 yards short of 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns. Next season expect Melvin Gordon to break 1,000 yards with a run heavy offense under Anthony Lynn.

The defense has taken a huge step into turning back to a top-notch force in the NFL. This year, even with injuries, they figured to be tough, standing toe to toe with some of the leagues most prolific offenses. Joey Bosa is as good as advertised, and Melvin Ingram is one of the most well rounded outside linebackers in the league. The linebacker corps feature Denzel Perryman, Manti Te’o and Jatavis Brown who was one of the steals of this year’s draft. Next season when Jason Verrett returns, with the addition of Casey Hayward last free agency and veteran Brandon flowers, the Chargers secondary has potential to be downright suffocating.

The Chargers will make the playoffs in a wild card spot next season and be part of a division that features three playoff teams. While this may be a huge step from a 5-11 season, when healthy, the Chargers are one of the most talented teams in the league. With the addition of offensive minded head coach Anthony Lynn who was formerly the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, Philip Rivers will not be throwing the ball as much with Anthony Lynn being a run heavy coach. When he does he will have to take care of the ball more. He will have his best receiver back in Keenan Allen, with an emerging deep threat in Tyrell Williams and rising stud tight end, Hunter Henry. With the defense being potentially stifling, the Chargers are going to be arguably one of the toughest teams to play against in the league next year, with a projected record of 11-5. Los Angeles and the StubHub Center will bring a breath of fresh air and new scenery for this Chargers team to flourish once again.

Every four years, it seems as though Coach K manages to find a new player that embodies Duke University. From Christian Laettner to JJ Redick to Steve Wojciechowski, Coach Mike Krzyzewski has been able to sustain his teams’ identity: elitist, privileged, spoiled, dirty, cocky, and most importantly really good at basketball.

We all love to hate these guys, but Grayson Allen, who is the continuation of this trend, is a different breed. He covers all of the same criteria, but recent hate for him has reached a new extreme. Anyone who is not currently in a coma is aware of his recent incidents in which he is caught tripping numerous victims on the basketball court across the nation. The backlash has been pretty severe, with people calling for his head and even claiming that he is suffering from mental illness because of how preposterous his actions have been.

Thankfully, Coach K suspended Grayson for one entire game which completely rehabilitated him and brought him back a new man. Since the suspension, Grayson has only tripped another player and happened to aggressively push a Florida State assistant into the second row.

Not only is there a blatant lack of accountability for his actions, but Allen has the mentality of a 7-year-old to go with it. He has temper tantrums on the bench when things don’t go his way, and will rub it in your face when he’s beating you. He is the ultimate villain and maybe the most hated figure in sports right now.

With all of that being said, I think that Grayson Allen is the best thing to happen to the game of college basketball in a long time. Despite electrifying freshmen like Lonzo Ball and Malik Monk, it’s Allen’s antics that are putting butts in the seats. A true villain in any sport is going to be good for it. Popularity for the NBA skyrocketed in the 90s because of the “Bad Boy” Pistons and a guy named Michael Jordan who many were not too fond of at the time. The Miracle On Ice probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if we were indifferent towards the Soviet Union. College basketball has a huge opportunity to grow because of America’s sweetheart, Grayson.

People love to hate him and people love to hate Duke. Come March, all eyes will be on Allen and the Blue Devils.