The Press Break Q&A: Road Trip Food Stops, Fighting Celebrities and the Worst Hall of Fame
The Press Break Newsletter invites your questions for the new, weekly Q&A. Our first edition starts strong with an eclectic mix of topics.
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When driving to a sporting event, I prioritize convenience: nothing further away from the freeway/interstate than a single traffic light. In the same vein, In-n-Out drive-thru lines are often too deep to be convenient, so that’s usually a no-go.
The perfect stop when I head to USC or UCLA on a college football Saturday is Raising Canes, which has a place right off the freeway on my drive and I like the food. My go-to is the Box Combo with unsweetened iced tea. I cannot stress unsweetened enough. Sweet tea makes me feel like my teeth will fall out.
I traveled to Vegas for sports frequently, or at least did in pre-COVID times. I absolutely love the drive from Southern California to Las Vegas (the drive back, on the other hand, is hellacious). Driving there, though, there’s a feeling of giddy anticipation that gains steam with each milestone passed.
Part of the journey is mapping out a pit stop. The town of Barstow has a bevy of fast-food options directly off the interstate, but I almost always find myself at Popeye’s. There isn’t a location near where I live, so it’s a convenient opportunity to swing through for some of their delicious chicken.
My last Vegas trip, though, I mixed it up and tried the much ballyhooed spicy sandwich. Don’t get me wrong, it tasted good enough…but by the time I reached Primm, just on the Nevada side of the California border and about 45 minutes from Vegas, my stomach bubbled like the swamp where Yoda lived in the Empire Strikes Back.
I learned a valuable lesson not to stray from my usual, Three-Piece Combo with red beans and rice.
In those occasions I deviate from chicken places, McDonald’s is reliable. A double quarter-pounder with cheese, French fries and either a water or tea never fails.
This depends largely on the length of the road trip, but I love stopping at gas stations. I can get away with a relatively healthy meal of jerky, mixed nuts and a banana with a bottle of water, stretch my legs and use the restroom.
On Interstate 8 between San Diego and Tucson, just east of Yuma, there’s a nice, clean gas station in the tiny farming town of Dateland that has a Pizza Hut — but more importantly, the store sells Date Shakes. They are delicious, and I have only ever seen them sold there.
College football’s powerhouses — Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State — feel pretty well entrenched in their spots. While a stumble along the way is certainly possible, if not guaranteed given how infrequently we’ve had undefeated national champions in the past decade, any of them losing isn’t really a changing of the guard.
But there are some matchups that stand out or their landscape-shaking potential.
Clemson vs. Georgia in Charlotte
Clemson’s well ahead of the rest of the ACC, and the likelihood of the Tigers stomping the conference en route to yet another College Football Playoff appearance is unchanged. How it fares Week 1 against Georgia probably won’t have any impact on Clemson’s postseason aspiration, but it could be a program-changing game for the Bulldogs.
Georgia’s been right on the cusp of winning that elusive national championship, to the point it led for almost the entirety of regulation in the 2017 season’s title game. The 2018 SEC Championship loss to Alabama was another heartbreaking near-miss.
Matching up with perennial powerhouse Clemson, at a time when the Georgia roster is more experienced than a Tigers bunch undergoing significant roster changes, presents the Bulldogs a unique opportunity to get over the hump against one of the top-tier programs. A win there sets Georgia on course for a return to the Playoff.
LSU at UCLA
Ed Orgeron’s return to Los Angeles comes against the last team he faced during his 2013 interim tenure at USC. The Bruins thrashed the Orgeron-coached Trojans, 35-14, in a game that looked like it would be UCLA’s stepping-stone to college football’s top tier.
The Bruins have endured repeated disappointment in the years since, while Orgeron won a national championship at LSU in another position that started with him in an interim role. The Tigers’ regression last season brings up a fascinating question: Was 2019 an aberration thanks to a generational transfer quarterback, an overqualified offensive coordinator, and a defensive coordinator who was one of the most lauded assistants in the season for several years prior (and a hire of Orgeron’s predecessor)?
Chip Kelly is facing a make-or-break season after three lackluster years at UCLA, but this is easily his most experienced roster since replacing Jim Mora. This Week 1 result could set the course for two head coaches’ immediate futures.
Oregon at Ohio State
Ohio State was scheduled to visit Autzen Stadium last September, before COVID-19 intervened. The return match sends the Ducks to the Horseshoe in a test of Oregon’s Playoff mettle.
UO has won three straight Pac-12 championships under Mario Cristobal, and in 2019 was painfully close to a Playoff berth, but the Ducks were clearly a step below the very top echelon of college football. Cristobal and company have recruited well, and this might be the most top-to-bottom talented team in Oregon history. But the Ducks still have question marks, most notably at quarterback.
Annual contender Ohio State is undergoing its own changes, but has also been a juggernaut on the recruiting trail. The 2021 Buckeyes will be much more Ryan Day’s team than a residual of the Urban Meyer era with Day overseeing.
Iowa State at Oklahoma
We’re jumping from the beginning of the season with those first couple games to near the end; much could happen that renders this game a non-factor.
Since Lincoln Riley’s hire at Oklahoma, the Sooners have dominated the Big 12 in a way that even the early 2000s Bob Stoops teams didn’t. It’s not entirely due to Oklahoma being markedly better than those Stoops squads, but rather, the Big 12 lacking a regular challenge to Sooners dominance.
Iowa State’s shown steady progress under Matt Campbell, culminating last season in a Fiesta Bowl. The Cyclones have plenty of buzz heading into 2021, which puts pressure on them to deliver in the weeks before this late-November matchup.
But sandwiched between Oklahoma road trips to Baylor and Oklahoma State, Iowa State draws the Sooners at a critical juncture to stake a claim to the Big 12 championship.
I’ll start spotlighting the best Hall of Fame, the Hall that most seems to get its purpose: The Basketball Hall of Fame recognizes those who made historic impacts on the game, across a variety of levels and around the globe, without adhering to silly and somewhat arbitrary metrics.
Ben Wallace’s upcoming induction is a great example. He may not have been an elite, or even reliable scorer, but he was the NBA’s best defender at a time when defense ruled the league. I can’t envision a comparable player being inducted in other sports’ Halls of Fame.
I am a College Football Hall of Fame voter, but must admit it’s in the running for worst by virtue of imposing strict metrics that deny the inclusion of historically relevant players. For example, Colin Kaepernick is one of only four quarterbacks to score 20-plus passing and 20-plus rushing touchdowns in the same season but cannot be a Hall of Famer because he was never voted All-American.
Howard Schnellenberger is one of the most important coaches in college football history, but he was a program-builder. He took over Miami and Louisville programs in dire straits and built winners; he erected FAU from the ground up. These projects meant taking some lumps, and as a result, he falls short of the minimum winning percentage necessary for coaches to make the College Football Hall of Fame ballot.
The rigidity denies inclusion of profoundly important figures. However, the College Football Hall of Fame at least has a rule that one can point to when questioning why someone isn’t inducted.
The Baseball Hall of Fame is easily the worst because it’s all so arbitrary, up to the whims of self-important writers. Barry Bonds, who can fairly be labeled the greatest player in MLB history, may never be included in the Hall of Fame for steroid accusations (and, if I may speculate, being prickly with media). Meanwhile, disgraced Philadelphia columnist Bill Conlin received a special exhibit in Cooperstown.
Truly baffling and disgusting stuff.
Maybe it’s recency bias, what with his going to social media and blasting out a homophobic slur the first week of Pride in what I assume was a desperate grasp at ever-dwindling attention, but Kid Rock is a strong contender.
As a product of the millennium, and a loyal viewer of the World Wrestling Federation’s Attitude Era, I was inundated with Kid Rock’s awful music as a teen. The trailer-trash hip-hop act was pure shtick, the wholly manufactured persona of a culture vulture who grew up in a suburban mansion.
Put simply, he’s the quintessential poseur. That includes oozing fake tough-guy energy, which is an important part of this exercise. If I’m going to fight a celebrity, it should be someone I know I could take. I look at this dude, and I’m certain I could whip Kid Rock.
