Letters: Should more blame be on Les Snead for Goff situation?

The more accurate question that needs to be asked is: Who looks better/worse in the current Rams saga: the underachieving player who signed a $134-million contact or the GM who signed the underachieving player to a $134-million contact?

Sad to say, the quarterback seems to be the smarter one here. So if Jared Goff is sent packing, Les Snead should not be far behind.

Larry Herrera

Redondo Beach

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Sean McVay says that Jared Goff will have to compete next season for the starting job, and Ram fans go berserk. What in the world is wrong with players having to fight for a starting position? McVay is without doubt one of the best head coaches in the NFL. Take a deep breath and let him do his job.

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

Elsewhere in NFL

Josh Allen may be out of the playoffs, but Sam Farmer’s moving portrait of the young man and the agrarian community from which he came will continue to resonate with those of us who hold a jaundiced eye toward this red portion of the state. Politics may differ, but you can’t argue about genuine, hard-working people who have unabashed pride in their community. Hard scrabble Joe Biden would be proud too.

Mario Valvo

Ventura

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I didn’t realize that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Vlade Divac to teach their receivers the art of flopping. Unbelievable.

David Van Proyen

Palmdale

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While LZ Granderson is correct in criticizing the lack of minority coaching hires in the NFL, there is some progress being made ... from an unlikely source.

Washington was the last NFL team to integrate its roster. It was the first to have to change its name due to negative racial connotations. Yet today, the Washington Football Team has a Black team president, a Black general manager, and a Hispanic head coach. And it just hired a Black female assistant coach.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Steve Mehlman

Beaumont

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I have the solution for the NFL hiring more coaches of color: Stock Sean McVay's Rams staff with only coaches of color. The league seems to love to hire away McVay’s staff so they will have no choice! What he has over Andy Reid, Eric Bieniemy’s boss and one of the great all-time coaches, is unknown to me, but the rest of the NFL seems to think McVay is a better breeder of coaches.

Rich Sieger

Valley Village

Sad anniversary

Little did anyone know that Kobe Bryant’s death was the beginning of what would become the worst year in all of our lives. For us Lakers fans, Kobe was part of our family. His death hit us all hard. It still does. As we watched him grow from a teen to a man, he brought us all countless hours of joy and entertainment. Kobe was ours. He was our son, our brother, our friend. A year later, I still tear up when I think about the moment I heard the news. Kobe Bryant was, is and will always be my favorite player. But the Kobe I got to see and speak to will always be one of my favorite people. We miss you, Kobe Bean Bryant.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

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OK, I admit it. Tears flowed while reading your exceptionally emotional feature on Kobe’s tragic death last year. He was, indeed, a very special player, and even more of a very special man. I mean, how many NBA Hall of Famers also win an Oscar?

Among the multitude of quotes and tributes, one from Magic Johnson really stands out: Upon hearing of Kobe’s fate, Magic says: “Kobe? Nah, not Kobe. He’s invincible. He’s Superman, you know?”

If only.

Marty Zweben

Palos Verdes Estates

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Bill Plaschke’s eloquent elegy about Kobe may be the best column he’s ever scribed. I say this as, first, a longtime Celtics fan and then a Clippers fan, so not a Kobe fan. Clearly, Bill developed a strong tie with Kobe and he effectively painted the greatness of the man as he knew him, while pointing out his foibles. Bill’s paean and ode to Kobe has begrudgingly led me to a more nuanced memory of Kobe. Unlike Bill I won’t have dreams about Kobe.

Bruce N. Miller

Playa del Rey

Hail to the king

I’ve been watching just about every Lakers game since they came out here in 1961, and I have to say after being able to watch LeBron night after night, and especially after his recent performances, he might not be the greatest Laker because he won’t play as long as Kobe and Magic and Kareem, but he is hands down the greatest player in NBA history. He’s Magic with Elgin’s hop and jets. It’s not even close.

Dell Franklin

Cayucos

Going organic

While I look forward to seeing the new game-day enhancements that Wanton Davis will bring to Kings games, I truly hope that the first sound I hear upon entering Staples Center will come from Dieter Ruehle’s organ. For years, Mr. Ruehle’s performance at Dodgers and Kings games has provided a soundtrack for the in-game dramatics and larger-than-life personalities on the ice and between the foul lines. “Go-Kings-Go!”

Rob Demonteverde

Brea

The Hall story

The Baseball Hall of Fame is intended to be a museum not a mausoleum. The fact that Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are not first-ballot Baseball Hall of Fame inductees is a travesty. To simply ignore they ever existed is contemptible.

If Curt Schilling is being kept out of the HOF because he’s a jerk or doesn’t meet someone’s perceived moral standards, then we better start removing Ty Cobb, Connie Mack and all of the other racists from that era.

Ron Yukelson

San Luis Obispo

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So right wing mouth Curt Schilling doesn’t make into Cooperstown, and his allies scream what about his freedom of expression.

I must ask these individuals, where were they when Colin Kaepernick was basically blacklisted by the NFL?

Hypocrisy abounds

Fred Wallin

Westlake Village

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So the Baseball Hall of Fame holier-than-thou writers and selectors leave out baseball’s greatest living hitter and pitcher (Bonds and Clemens) for the ninth straight time while almost electing the “moral” Curt Schilling and electing a very non-qualified Harold Baines the year before last.

Heaven knows how many steroid users there were in the ’90s, and amphetamine and speed users in the two decades before that. If there was a morals hall of fame (Mickey Mantle, anyone?) half the Hall would exit stage left. Just elect the best players of their sport and be ready for the Rodriguez and Ortiz candidacies of next year.

Robert Goldstone

Corona del Mar

(Editor's note: Harold Baines was selected by the Veterans Committee, not the baseball writers)

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It is good to know that former baseball players who got up each morning and stuck a needle in their arm to cheat against other players will not be honored by induction into the baseball Hall of Fame. Much of America has lost its way and this is a clear signal that we have a few of the old guard who still care about what is right and what is wrong.

Kevin H. Park

Westlake Village

Thanks, old-timers

In last Saturday’s letters, Gordon Cohn of Long Beach wrote about spotting Don Sutton in a booth at a Westwood deli reading The Times the day he was to be interviewed for a broadcasting job with the Atlanta Braves.

As a Times staff writer, I did a phone interview with Sutton in the mid-’90s. He was home in Atlanta and at the time had been a full-time Braves commentator since 1990.

“I read your column every Friday,” Sutton told me. When I asked how he did that, he said, “I read you on The Times website.”

The Times website had just been launched and its readership was minimal. It was apparent to me that, in the tech world, Sutton was way ahead of the curve.

Larry Stewart

Arcadia

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Thank you for reprinting Jim Murray’s 1987 homage to Henry Aaron. It was great to read, once again, the words of the most talented columnist to ever grace the sports pages of the Los Angeles Times.

Rhys Thomas

Valley Glen

Anaheim rerun

Looks like the Angels’ new GM thinks he has the pitching staff to make the playoffs this year. Raise your hand if you’ve seen this movie before.

Jim Fredrick

Manhattan Beach

New Frontier?

I declined jumping to the more powerful cable TV provider when the Dodgers disappeared. Years passed and I missed baseball but I thought it was the right thing to do. Frontier Television thanked me by raising rates and this season dropping both the Kings and Ducks telecasts.

What’s next — cornhole and axe-throwing pay-per-view?

Nigel Miller

Hermosa Beach

Not so grateful dread

If Commissioner Larry Scott is the person responsible for Bill Walton’s continued employment as color commentator during Pac-12 basketball games, he should have been relieved of his position a long time ago. Who at ESPN, the Pac-12 or the NCAA thinks that Walton’s belittling and harassment of his broadcast partners and constant spewing of inane, pseudo-intellectual prattle is actually entertaining?

Larry Scott, if you’re going to step down, why not take Walton with you?

Scott Grieve

Carpinteria

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.