Hart

When Charlie Sheen needed his then-13-year-old daughter taken to a hair appointment because he was too drunk to drive, he turned to his sober friend, Tony Todd.

When Sheen wanted to meet Carlos Estévez because the major league pitcher shared Sheen’s given name, he turned to his connected friend, Tony Todd.

When Sheen was in the throes of a crack addiction, fired from his starring role on “Two and a Half Men” and in need of an unwavering voice of encouragement, he turned to his non-judgmental friend Tony Todd.

“There are so many fake friends in Charlie’s life,” Todd said. “I’ve been there for him since we were little kids. The cool thing is, we’ve never had an argument.”

Thanks to the recent Netflix documentary “aka Charlie Sheen” and publication of “The Book of Sheen” memoir, Todd’s 50-year friendship with the mercurial actor has been revealed to the world. Todd’s social media accounts have since been flooded with praise from viewers far and wide.

“I had to reach out immediately to say you were and remain an angel from heaven.”

“You are the friend we would all like to have man, greetings from Spain!”

“Dear Tony, If you ever visit Istanbul, it would be our honor to host you in our hotel…. You are not only a great actor but also a true friend.”

“You … are a stellar human being [heart emoji].”

Todd and Sheen have been pals since they bonded through baseball, first on Little League fields in Malibu, then on the Santa Monica High School team, then while taking batting practice in Sheen’s posh indoor batting cage, then while putting on power-hitting displays at local high school fields and even Dodger Stadium.

And their friendship spread into their private lives, with Todd serving as best man at the first two of Sheen’s three marriages and serving as a drug-free wingman even when Sheen descended into a chaotic, self-destructive morass of cocaine, alcohol and reckless sex.

“There’s never been a call he hasn’t answered, there’s never been a crisis he didn’t help solve,” Sheen said in a phone interview. “Tony Todd has always been a friend, and a true one.”

The documentary “aka Charlie Sheen” is a first-person tell-all, with the narrative helped along by Sheen’s oldest brother, Ramon, childhood neighbor Sean Penn, “Two and a Half Men” co-star Jon Cryer and executive producer Chuck Lorre, drug dealer Marco Abeyta and ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller.

And, of course, Todd. He laughs. He cries. He exudes honesty and empathy.

“He’s just one of my favorite people to have around in any situation,” Sheen said.

All of it certainly has made Todd — not to be confused with the actor of the same name who starred in “Candyman” and died a year ago — fame-adjacent.

Although he has enjoyed a career that includes acting/stuntman roles in both “Black Panther” movies and acting roles in the movie “Little Big League,” the TV show “Anger Management” and more than two dozen national commercials, Todd is best known in Santa Monica as the dude who can’t say no to volunteer fundraisers and sports a vanity license plate that reads “NVR KWT.”

Just this summer he helped raise $10,000 for Santa Monica Little League by hosting an outdoor screening of “Little Big League” and tapping into his vast contact list of pro athletes and A-list entertainers to attract silent-auction items.

And Todd was hailed as a “real hero” by authorities after he gave $700 to a family of five who had been robbed of their rent money in Lancaster in 2018. He was “so moved by the family’s story” that he jumped in his car and drove from Santa Monica to the high desert to hand-deliver the money.

His friendship with Sheen resonates with many, in part because Todd professes never to have taken a drug or a drink. Sheen, of course, was the poster man-child of substance abuse until becoming sober in December 2017, the day he relinquished his car keys to Todd to drive his daughter Sami to a hair salon appointment in Moorpark.

When Sheen was addicted to crack, Todd moved into his friend’s Mulholland Estates house in Beverly Hills. Even then, Sheen wouldn’t smoke the drug in Todd’s presence, and they often would end evenings watching MLB Network or ESPN’s “Sports Center.”

“I didn’t do hard stuff in front of him, just out of respect,” Sheen said.

Todd wept in “aka Charlie Sheen” when he explained why he continued to live with his friend knowing the actor was often smoking crack in the next room.

“I just can’t leave him to die,” he said.

Happier times occurred when they would head to a ball field to hit. Years earlier, after suffering a shoulder injury, Sheen had learned to bat left-handed, taking a hundred or so swings a day off an Iron Mike pitching machine in his indoor batting cage.

While filming a DirecTV commercial at Dodger Stadium in 2007, Sheen stepped into the batter’s box during a lunch break and crushed a pitch over the right-field wall. Todd whooped and hollered, in no small part because he had bet a Dodgers employee that his buddy would go deep.

“I knew it was going to happen because of all the [batting practice] we’d been taking,” Todd said.

Sheen also increased his strength by taking massive doses of testosterone, which he mentions in the documentary and alluded to in a 2015 interview when he said his HIV-positive diagnosis wasn’t the reason for his epic meltdown in 2011 after he was fired from “Two and a Half Men.”

“I wish I could blame it on that, but that was more of a ’roid rage,” said Sheen, who earlier had admitted he took steroids ahead of filming the 1989 hit movie “Major League,” in which he played pitcher Ricky (Wild Thing) Vaughn.

Todd had a video shot of batting sessions at Oak Park and Santa Clarita Hart high schools around 2008. Sheen hit a home run Todd estimated traveled 445 feet at Oak Park and hit a barrage of homers at Hart in the presence of Hall of Fame slugger Eddie Murray and the Hart High team.

Todd followed Sheen’s power display at Hart with a home run of his own. Todd was a talented-enough baseball and football player to earn a double scholarship to USC, although a serious injury his senior year in high school cost him the free ride.

His baseball ability landed him the role of Mickey Scales in “Little Big League” and his astonishing speed delighted Sheen even into their 40s. During one of their batting sessions at Oak Park High, Todd was challenged to a race around the bases by an onlooker.

Sheen told the man to start the race at second base while Todd started at home plate.

“By the time they rounded third, Tony had passed him, and after touching the plate he grabbed a glove and pretended to tag the guy when he reached the plate,” Sheen said, laughing.

Todd served as a baseball coach at Santa Monica High for several years, and in 2013 he lobbied for the school to award Sheen his diploma — the actor had been 1½ credits short 30 years earlier and hadn’t graduated.

Todd reached out to his friend Ross Mark, who handled bookings for “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” and they concocted a plan to have Sheen on as a guest and for Leno to surprise him with the diploma.

Todd walked on stage with the diploma and Sheen — who had quickly donned a cap and gown — gave him a hug, his lifelong friend having effectively smoothed over one more rough patch in his life.

Many actors talk about process but Ethan Hawke has made the act of creation central to his work. He’s played musicians and writers and when he’s gone behind the camera, he’s focused on the stories of composers, novelists, movie stars and country singers both famous and forgotten. Sometimes, it feels like he’s the unofficial patron saint of art suffering, fixated on the glory and anguish of putting yourself out there in the world.

So Hawke’s portrayal of Lorenz Hart, the brilliant but troubled lyricist responsible for beloved tunes like “My Funny Valentine,” in a story set shortly before his death would seem to be just the latest chapter of a lifelong obsession. But “Blue Moon,” Hawke’s ninth collaboration with director Richard Linklater, cuts deeper than any of his previous explorations. Imagining Hart on the night of his former collaborator Richard Rodgers’ greatest triumph — the launch of “Oklahoma!” — Linklater offers a wistful look at a songwriter past his prime. But the film wouldn’t resonate as powerfully without Hawke’s nakedly vulnerable portrayal.

It is March 31, 1943, eight months before Hart’s death at age 48 from pneumonia, and Hart has just gruffly left the Broadway premiere of “Oklahoma!” Arriving early at Sardi’s for the after-party, he plants himself at the bar, complaining to bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) that the show will be a massive success — and that it’s garbage. Eddie nods in a way that suggests he’s often lent a sympathetic ear to Hart’s rantings, allowing him to unload about the show’s supposedly banal lyrics and corn-pone premise and, worst of all, the fact that Rodgers will have his biggest smash the moment he stops working with Hart after nearly 25 years. “This is not jealousy speaking,” Hart insists, fooling no one.

As played by Hawke, Hart adores holding court, entertaining his captive audience with witty put-downs and gossipy Broadway anecdotes. Begging Eddie not to serve him because of his drinking problem, which contributed to the dissolution of his partnership with Rodgers, this impudent carouser would be too much to stand if he also wasn’t such fun company. But eventually, Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and his new lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney) are going to walk through that door and Hart will have to swallow his pride and pretend to be happy for them. From one perspective, “Blue Moon” is about the beginning of “Oklahoma!” as a pillar of American theater. From another, it’s Hart’s funeral.

Set almost exclusively inside Sardi’s, “Blue Moon” has the intimacy of a one-man stage show. After Hart vents about “Oklahoma!,” he readies himself for the arrival of Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), a gorgeous Yale undergrad he considers his protégée. (He also claims to be in love with her, which baffles Eddie, who rightly assumed otherwise.) If the universal acclaim of “Oklahoma!” will force Hart to confront his professional irrelevance, maybe Elizabeth’s beaming presence — and the promise of them consummating their feelings — will be sufficient compensation.

Linklater, the man behind “School of Rock” and “Me and Orson Welles,” has made several films about creativity. (In a few weeks, he’ll debut another movie, “Nouvelle Vague,” which focuses on the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s epochal “Breathless.”) But what distinguishes “Blue Moon” is that, for once, it’s about someone else’s achievement — not the main character. Fearing he’s a has-been, the diminutive, balding Hart slowly succumbs to self-loathing. He can still spitefully quote the negative reviews for his 1940 musical “Pal Joey.” And he nurses a paranoid pet theory that Rodgers decided to collaborate with Hammerstein because he’s so much taller than Hart. (“Blue Moon” incorporates old-fashioned camera tricks to help Hawke resemble Hart’s under-five-feet frame.) Linklater’s movies have frequently featured affable underdogs, but by contrast, “Blue Moon” is an elegy to a bitter, insecure man whose view of himself as a failure has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of the many artists Hawke has honored on screen, he has never depicted one so touchingly diminished — someone so consumed with envy who nonetheless cannot lie to himself about the beauty of the art around him. Turning 55 next month, Hawke shares with Hart an effusive passion for indelible work but also, perhaps, a nagging anxiety about the end of his creative usefulness. If he were younger, Hawke would have come across as self-regarding. Here, there’s only a poignantly egoless transparency, exposing the lyricist’s personal flaws — his drunkenness, his arrogance — while capturing the fragile soulfulness that made those Rodgers and Hart tunes sing.

Apropos of his relaxed approach, Linklater shoots “Blue Moon” with a minimum of fuss, but one can feel its enveloping melancholy, especially once the next generation of artists poke their head into the narrative. (Sondheim diehards will instantly identify the brash young composer identified only as “Stevie.”) But neither Linklater nor Hawke is sentimental about that changing of the guard.

That’s why Hawke breaks your heart. All of us are here for just a short time: We make our mark and then the ocean comes and washes it away. In an often remarkable career, Hawke has never embraced that truth so completely as he does here. Ultimately, maybe the work artists leave behind isn’t their most important contribution — maybe it’s the love they had for artistry itself, a passion that will inspire after they’re gone. That’s true of Lorenz Hart, and it will hopefully prove true of Hawke and this understated but profound film for years to come.

Match of the Day’s Joe Hart talks about his experience playing under Ange Postecoglou at Celtic to explain why he should be given more time at Nottingham Forest despite a winless start.

READ MORE: Postecoglou ‘expects’ talks with Forest owner and vows to ‘fight’

WEEK 4

(Games at 7 pm. unless noted)

THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE

CITY SECTION

East Valley League

Arleta at Grant

Monroe at North Hollywood

Sun Valley Poly at Fulton, 3:30 p.m.

Verdugo Hills at Chavez

Nonleague

Maywood CES at Roybal

SOUTHERN SECTION

Golden League

Littlerock at Eastside

Pacific League

Glendale at Muir

Nonleague

Azusa at Temple City

Bassett at Keppel

Cerritos at Anaheim Canyon

Cerritos Valley Christian at St. Anthony

Citrus Valley at Norco, 7:30 p.m.

Colton at Arlington

Gahr at Los Altos

Hemet at Adelanto, 7:30 p.m.

Hillcrest at Paloma Valley

Hoover at Arcadia

Irvine at La Palma Kennedy

La Canada at Maranatha

Lynwood at Westminster La Quinta

Marina at Esperanza

Moreno Valley at La Sierra, 7:30 p.m.

Rialto at Banning

Rim of the World at Bloomington

Santa Clara at Duarte

Santa Monica at Gardena, 4 p.m.

Sierra Canyon at Orange Lutheran

Temecula Prep at Rubidoux, 7:30 p.m.

Yucaipa at Palm Springs, 7:30 p.m.

INTERSECTIONAL

Carlsbad La Costa Canyon at Murrieta Mesa

Gardena at Santa Monica, 4 p.m.

Desert Mirage at Mendez

North Torrance at Carson

Westlake at Venice

8-MAN

CITY SECTION

Nonleague

Sherman Oaks CES at Stella

SOUTHERN SECTION

Heritage League

Lancaster Baptist at Milken

Nonleague

Southlands Christian at Noli Indian, 6:30 p.m.

FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE

CITY SECTION

Eastern League

Bell at Huntington Park

L.A. Roosevelt at South Gate

Legacy at Garfield

Valley Mission League

Canoga Park at Panorama

Reseda at San Fernando

Van Nuys at Granada Hills Kennedy

Nonleague

Angelou at Locke

Contreras at Santee

Eagle Rock at Taft

Granada Hills at Fairfax

Jefferson at Firebaugh

King-Drew at Westchester

Los Angeles at L.A. University, 7:30 p.m.

L.A. Jordan at L.A. Marshall, 4 p.m.

Manual Arts at Lincoln

Maywood CES at Roybal

Palisades at El Camino Real

Rancho Dominguez at L.A. Hamilton

Rivera at Fremont

Sylmar at Chatsworth

West Adams at Santee

SOUTHERN SECTION

Camino Real League

Bosco Tech at St. Genevieve

St. Bernard at St. Monica

Foothill League

Canyon Country Canyon vs. Golden Valley at Canyon

Saugus vs. Hart at College of the Canyons

Valencia vs. West Ranch at Valencia

Golden League

Antelope Valley at Knight

Highland at Quartz Hill

Palmdale at Lancaster

Manzanita League

California Military Institute at Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian

Desert Chapel at Nuview Bridge

San Jacinto Valley Academy at Vasquez

Mission Valley League

Arroyo at El Monte

Gabrielino at Rosemead

South El Monte at Mountain View

Moore League

Lakewood at Compton

Long Beach Cabrillo at Millikan

Long Beach Poly at Long Beach Jordan

Pacific League

Burbank at Crescenta Valley

Hoover at Arcadia

Pasadena at Burbank Burroughs

Nonleague

Agoura at Buena

Arrowhead Christian at Jurupa Valley

Arroyo Valley at Cathedral City

Artesia at San Gabriel

Ayala at Glendora

Baldwin Park at Monrovia

Barstow at Ridgecrest Burroughs

Bassett at Keppel

Beaumont at Vista Murrieta

Beckman at Woodbridge

Big Bear at Desert Hot Springs

Bishop Amat at Upland

Bolsa Grande at Corona

Bonita at Schurr

California at Bell Gardens

Capistrano Valley Christian at St. Margaret’s

Cathedral at Chaminade

Century at Costa Mesa

Chaffey at Victor Valley

Chino at Don Lugo

Corona Centennial at Rancho Cucamonga

Crespi at Oak Park

Damien at Salesian

Dana Hills at Tesoro

Dominguez at Compton Centennial

Dos Pueblos at Ventura

Eastvale Roosevelt at Corona Santiago

Edison at Fountain Valley

Eisenhower at Hesperia

El Rancho at Fontana

El Segundo at Torrance

Elsinore at Norte Vista

Etiwanda at Bishop Diego

Fillmore at Carpinteria

Foothill at Capistrano Valley

Gahr at Los Altos

Garden Grove Pacifica at Aliso Niguel

Garden Grove Santiago at Ocean View

Glenn at Westminster La Quinta

Grace at Brentwood

Granite Hills at Los Alamitos

Great Oak at Chaparral

Hemet at Adelanto

Hillcrest at Paloma Valley

Indian Springs at Citrus Hill

Inglewood at Downey

Irvine University at Garden Grove

Jurupa Hills at Rancho Mirage

Kaiser at Cantwell-Sacred Heart

La Habra at La Mirada

La Salle at Claremont

La Serna at Crean Lutheran

Laguna Beach at El Dorado

Leuzinger at JSerra

Linfield Christian at Carter

Los Osos at Sultana

Mary Star at Lawndale

Mayfair at Huntington Beach

Montebello at San Marino

Newport Harbor at Colony

Nordhoff at Beverly Hills

Northview at Covina

Oak Hills at St. Bonaventure

Oaks Christian at Gardena Serra

Ontario at Montclair

Orange at Redondo Union

Oxnard at Rio Mesa

Pacific at Heritage

Palm Desert at Redlands

Paramount at Norwalk

Perris at Grand Terrace

Pioneer at Estancia

Placentia Valencia at Walnut

Portola at Northwood

Ramona at Riverside Poly

Rancho Alamitos at Godinez

Rio Hondo Prep at Bellflower

Riverside King at Murrieta Valley

Riverside North at Redlands East Valley

Riverside Prep at Whittier Christian

Rowland at Nogales

Royal at Del Sol

Saddleback at Westminster La Quinta

San Clemente at Chino Hills

San Gorgonio at Indio

San Jacinto at Cajon

San Juan Hills at Mira Costa

San Marcos at Santa Barbara

Santa Ana Valley at Santa Ana

Santa Rosa Academy at San Bernardino

Savanna at Garey

Shadow Hills at Patriot

Sierra Vista at Lakeside

Silverado at Ontario Christian

South Hills at Santa Fe

South Torrance at Hawthorne

St. Francis at Loyola

Sunny Hills at Sonora

Tahquitz at Liberty

Temescal Canyon at Temecula Valley

Thousand Oaks at Simi Valley

Trabuco Hills at Brea Olinda

Troy at Segerstrom

Tustin at Yorba Linda

Twentynine Palms at West Valley

Valley View at Heritage Christian

Village Christian at Paraclete

Warren at Culver City

West Torrance at Cypress

Western at San Dimas

Whittier at Magnolia

Yucca Valley at Xavier Prep

INTERSECTIONAL

Alhambra at LA Wilson

Bakersfield at Dorsey

Bernstein at Ganesha

Calabasas at Birmingham

El Cajon Granite Hills at Los Alamitos

El Centro Central at Coachella Valley

El Toro at Henderson (NV) Foothill, 6 p.m.

Franklin at South Pasadena

Hawkins at Viewpoint

Honolulu (HI) St. Louis at St. John Bosco

Jefferson at Firebaugh

Marquez at La Puente

Mater Dei at Las Vegas (NV) Bishop Gorman

Mission Viejo at Chattanooga (TN) McCallie, 4 p.m.

Oceanside El Camino at Apple Valley

Orange Vista at Vista

Pueblo (CO) Central at Moorpark

Rancho Buena Vista at Fullerton

San Diego Clairemont at Buena Park

San Diego Kearny at Anza Hamilton

San Diego Rancho Bernardo at West Covina

San Pedro vs. El Modena at SoFi Stadium, 5 p.m.

Santa Paula at Narbonne

Silver Valley at California City

Verbum Dei at Belmont

Wilmington Banning at Palos Verdes

8-MAN

CITY SECTION

Nonleague

New Designs Watts at Valley Oaks CES

SOUTHERN SECTION

Academy for Careers & Exploration at United Christian

Cornerstone Christian at Sage Hill, 5 p.m.

Legacy College Prep at Santa Ana Magnolia Science, 3 p.m.

Lighthouse Christian at Calvary Baptist

Thacher at Hillcrest Christian, 6:30 p.m.

Vista Meridian at Villanova Prep

INTERSECTIONAL

Chadwick at Animo Jackie Robinson

East Valley at Malibu, 6:30 p.m.

Highland Entrepreneur at Ridgecrest Immanuel Christian

Trona at PAL Charter, 3 p.m.

Victor Valley Christian at Valley Oaks CES

SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE

SOUTHERN SECTION

Channel Islands at Webb

Desert Mirage at Verbum Dei, 1:30 p.m.

Riverside Notre Dame at Aquinas

8-MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Coast Union at Cate, 1 p.m.

Faith Baptist at Flintridge Prep, 5 p.m.

Hemet River Springs at Downey Calvary Chapel, 5 p.m.

Laguna Blanca at Cuyama Valley

Rolling Hills Prep at Avalon, 1 p.m.

INTERSECTIONAL

Escondido Calvin Christian at California Lutheran

Fresno Christian vs. Santa Clarita Christian at Hart, 6:30 p.m.

Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart and striker Chris Sutton discuss Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi’s “respectful” approach to the transfer window, after a proposed move to Liverpool collapsed on deadline day.

Watch the Monday Night Club on BBC iPlayer, and listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.

The Foothill League doesn’t have to take a back seat to any league when it comes to tradition and success, from producing state champions to being the league where Hall of Fame coaches Harry Welch and Mike Herrington once saw huge success.

All seven schools that are part of the William S. Hart Union High School District took part Saturday in the first Foothill League media day at Saugus High. There’s much to admire about the league, including that all seven schools have athletic trainers and six of the seven head coaches are also full-time teachers.

Hart, Canyon and Valencia have produced their share of NFL players. And this season, Valencia has the talent to make a run in Southern Section Division 2 or 3 with the return of running back Brian Bonner, a Washington commit, and quarterback Brady Bretthauer.

Coach Larry Muir is entering his 20th season as head coach and still teaching four classes of U.S. history each day. “He’s a lot nicer in the classroom,” Bretthauer joked. “He picks on the football player.”

Bretthauer also revealed how he motivates his linemen to block. “If I get sacked, no In-N-Out,” he said.

Even though Muir is challenged daily to balance his time and commitment from teaching to coaching football, Muir said he wouldn’t want it any other way. “I love being in the classroom,” he said. “I literally don’t feel I go to work. “

The rivalries in the league guarantee the sports-crazed Santa Clarita Valley weekly entertainment. About the only issue is a lack of stadiums. Canyon and Valencia have stadiums and College of the Canyons also hosts games.

“It’s playoffs every week,” Golden Valley coach Dan Kelley said. “There are no slouches.”

Golden Valley will have a four-year starter in lineman Evan Nye, a 6-foot-3, 250-pound senior.

Castaic is turning to junior Aidan Mojica, a former tight end, as its new quarterback. There’s a promising sophomore linebacker in Lucas Duryea, who will be eligible at the end of September after transferring from Chaminade.

West Ranch has a first-year head coach in TJ Yonkers. Its top returning defensive player is Max Piccolino, who had 15 1/2 sacks last season.

Carson Soria, a former receiver, is moving to quarterback for Canyon. He’s also the punter, so beware of trick plays.

Hart quarterback Jacob Paisano will be trying to get the ball to junior Matix Frithsmith in a variety ways, whether Frithsmith is playing running back or slot receiver. Two of Hart’s players are the sons of principal Jason D’Autremont.

Saugus has the son of Valencia principal Kullen Welch playing for them, which should make for an interesting game when those two schools play. Beckham Welch is an offensive lineman for the Centurions.

Saugus coach Jason Bornn, who organized the media day, wondered how many championships would be won if the talent in the area was concentrated at one or two schools rather than seven.

“If we only had one or two high schools, Mater Dei and St. John Bosco wouldn’t have a chance,” he said.

As Hart High football players participated in a 6 a.m. workout on Wednesday morning, injured player Micaiah Underwood was given an important task — flying the team’s drone to take video. He had been trained by head coach Jake Goossen.

When an alarm went off alerting low battery, Underwood calmly manipulated the controls to bring the drone down — though it briefly went so high that teammates were joking it was out of control.

Every head coach needs to delegate responsibilities and rely on others to help him focus on getting his team ready, and three important positions in 2025 are drone operator, manager and athletic trainer.

Every program needs one of each.

At a City Section school earlier this week, three managers were making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for players to eat after practices. At another school, the athletic trainer was taping ankles and roaming the field in case of an emergency. For those teams without athletic trainers, coaches were forced to take on the task.

Coaches kept handing out their keys to managers to retrieve or open something.

Managers and trainers have been around for years, but drone operators are new. At Hart, they have to pay special attention to hawks. Seriously, Hart had a drone disabled by a hawk. Now there are spotters to make sure no hawks are nearby. After all, Hart’s new nickname is the Hawks and apparently the real hawks like flying drones.

So everyone say thanks to the drone operators, managers and trainers. They’re unsung helpers every program needs.

Oh, and one more trend. There are so many players using electric bikes to get to practices perhaps a charging station is next to be added on a program’s football budget.

Tarheeb Still said his farewells and was ready to leave for a three-day weekend. On a Thursday this offseason, the second-year cornerback told Ben Herbert, the Chargers’ executive director of player personnel, that he would “see him Monday.”

A deep voice in the background suddenly changed Still’s schedule.

“Why aren’t you coming in tomorrow?” Khalil Mack asked the 22-year-old.

Motivated by Mack’s example, Still is poised for a breakout season as he competes for a larger role in a stacked secondary group. The former fifth-round pick who started 12 games as a rookie has been working with the 34-year-old, nine-time Pro Bowl selection every Friday, picking Mack’s brain on football and life.

No wonder why Still “seems like he’s a different person,” defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale said.

“I love when you see young players run towards great players, greatness and not the other direction,” Clinkscale said. “It’s awesome to mimic their habits and what they do, especially their good habits, and Tarheeb has really done that. He’s really grown up and matured.”

Still was already working with Herbert from Monday through Thursday, but soon added Fridays with Mack. They begin their strength training around 9 a.m. together, but Still knows Mack gets to the facility earlier in the training room. There’s no way Mack could have built his Hall of Fame-worthy career without putting in every ounce of extra work.

“Khalil is just showing me how to be intentional,” Still said. “Every day, taking advantage of small incremental gains every day to get to where I want to be.”

The Chargers progressed to the next step of their offseason program Tuesday, opening organized team activities. The sight of offense and defense lining up against each other for the first time during the offseason brought excitement to the facility, but frustration for Cam Hart. The second-year cornerback, who, like Still, was drafted in the fifth round last year, is not yet fully cleared after undergoing shoulder surgery in January.

Hart sustained a torn labrum against the Houston Texans in the playoffs, but said he expects to be cleared to return around mandatory minicamp, which begins June 10.

The shoulder injury was a punctuation mark on a promising, but injury-riddled rookie year for Hart. Despite making six starts in 14 appearances with 37 tackles, Hart also battled two concussions and an ankle injury. The injuries tormented Hart as he went through the offseason program, rehabbing twice a day since the shoulder injury.

“I showed a small percentage of who Cam can be in the NFL last year,” Hart said. “With 17 healthy games, I think I got a lot more to show.”

Although they return most of their top performers from last year’s secondary that ranked seventh in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game compared to 30th in 2023, the Chargers have renewed competition at cornerback without Kristian Fulton and Asante Samuel Jr. Fulton parlayed a resurgent season with the Chargers into a multi-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs as a free agent, and Samuel remains a free agent after a shoulder injury limited the former second-round pick to just four games last year.

Wanting to bolster the secondary with more size and speed, the Chargers brought in free agents Benjamin St-Juste and Donte Jackson. The 6-foot-3 St-Juste started in 42 of his 45 appearances for the Washington Commanders in the last three seasons, and Jackson, an eight-year NFL veteran, is coming off a career-best five interceptions with the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. Still and Hart, who were rookies hoping to make any positive impact a year ago, are now “the cream of the crop,” Clinkscale said.

The newest crop of rookies even flashed their potential Tuesday as seventh-round selection Trikweze Bridges and undrafted free agent Jaylen Jones each got an interception during the no-contact 11-on-11 periods.

The secondary depth could cause headaches for Clinkscale. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Nobody has a spot,” Clinkscale said. “We want to see who’s going to earn it.”

With more than three months remaining until the Chargers open their season in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Still knew he had to dial back the competition Tuesday during practice. The drills are still meant to be non-contact during the voluntary sessions. Keeping everyone on their feet and healthy was more important than breaking up a pass or grabbing an interception, Still said.

Still was attached to receiver Ladd McConkey’s hip on a deep route down the sideline, but didn’t dive or reach for the ball to breakup a slightly underthrown pass from quarterback Justin Herbert. McConkey’s tightrope catch drew cheers from his teammates.

Still said the no-contact periods were perfect opportunities to hone his technique, but when asked if he would have picked off the pass intended for McConkey, Still covered his face.

“No comment,” he said, trying to hide his smile.

The confident look on his face was comment enough.