The nostalgia hit Ross Niederhaus in the grocery store as he stocked up for what might be his last Rose Bowl tailgate.
This has been nearly a lifelong tradition for the native of Linda Vista, starting in 2005 when he was 8 years old and UCLA romped over Oregon State. When he got his driver’s license in 2012, Niderhaus started throwing his own tailgates, bringing chicken-in-a-biscuit crackers because he couldn’t afford fancier fare.
He was back Saturday afternoon underneath a tent on the grass in Lot H, wearing his favorite No. 2 Eric McNeal jersey, possibly here for the last time as the Bruins contemplate whether they will remain at the place they have called home since 1982 or move to SoFi Stadium for the 2026 season.
“I wish we knew whether or not this was the last time,” Niederhaus said, “because if this was the last time for sure I could at least be saying my goodbyes to my favorite tradition. This is my favorite thing to do. My ashes are willed to be spread at the Rose Bowl.”
UCLA fan Ray Hoit sets up a tent while tailgating at the Rose Bowl before Saturday’s game against Washington.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
On the other side of the stadium, on the sprawling Brookside Golf Course, Nicholaus Iamaleava was prepping his pregame tailgate below four tents alongside his brother Matt, the siblings expecting about 60 family members to indulge in a potluck spread of burgers, hot dogs, wings, fries, hot links, sushi and fried rice.
Both brothers were hoping for more tailgates to come outside the century-old stadium. But just in case, they were preparing for the alternative.
“Today, we’re going to go in early,” said Nicholaus Iamaleava, the father of the UCLA starting quarterback by the same name. “Normally we go in right before kickoff but this time, we’re going to go in and soak it all in, man. It might be the last game, right, so we want to enjoy every bit of it and just hang out.”
Matt Iamaleava said he didn’t think moving to SoFi Stadium would solve the attendance issues plaguing the Bruins at their longtime home.
UCLA fan Nathan Nguyen sets up while tailgating outside the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
“There’s nothing like playing at the Rose Bowl,” Iamaleava said. “Hopefully, it works itself out.”
Added Nicholaus Iamaleava: “We’re praying on it. That would be great.”
Nearly 6½ hours before UCLA’s kickoff against Washington, Jamie Hickcox-Baker and Dee Fitzgerald-Cardello lugged a table across the pavement in Lot K, having already unfurled a couple of folding chairs. The UCLA graduates were awaiting the arrival of a massive ice sculpture that would hold margaritas for their group of 25 friends.
“I’m very sad because I live in Altadena and so this is in my backyard and I just hate to see it leave,” Fitzgerald-Cardello said. “It’s just such a tradition. I’m very saddened by it.”
Even though she’s been making the drive from Fresno to tailgate at the Rose Bowl since 1993, Hickcox-Baker was less wistful about a possible move to SoFi Stadium.
UCLA fan Leki Manu throws a football outside the Rose Bowl before Saturday’s game against Washington.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
“I kind of feel like we can talk tradition all we want,” Hickcox-Baker said, “but we left the Pac-12 and the Pac-12 is no longer, so if there’s no tradition in the Rose Bowl game anymore, think about how college football has evolved. I’ve been to a few games at SoFi, it’s a beautiful stadium. The last few years, because our team hasn’t been doing well, we’re stuck in that 100-degree temperature [at the Rose Bowl] and nobody’s coming to the games.”
Back in Lot H, the scene took on the feel of a state fair. The smell of burgers, brats and other grilled delicacies wafted through the air as children played football on the grass and a nearby patch of dirt. One kid kicked a football, commencing a mad scramble as a group of friends converged on the object of their delight.
“This is one of the reasons why people come now,” longtime fan John Anderson said, “is to be here with friends and be able to run around and throw a ball and stuff and if that can’t happen at SoFi, I think it will be a shame. So I don’t think they’re going to get the draw that they think they’re going to get — maybe a little bump for a couple of games and that’s it.”
UCLA fans tailgate before Saturday’s game at the Rose Bowl between UCLA and Washington.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Anderson said he missed one home UCLA football game over the last 16 years, and that was to attend a wedding. And if the Bruins move to SoFi?
“I’ll go to a game or two,” Anderson said. “It really depends on what the pricing looks like.”
Neiderhaus said he always would support the Bruins while conceding he might be in the minority.
“I’ll be there,” Niederhaus said, “but I know a lot of people that won’t — a lot of people I know who are season-ticket holders said they’re not coming back, which I think is a big issue that UCLA needs to be acknowledging throughout all of this. A lot of die-hards care about the Rose Bowl just as much as they care about Bruin football, so who knows” how attendance will go.
A crescendo is building, and the Rams might be best to ignore it.
So much can happen from week to week in the NFL — check out Philadelphia’s loss to Dallas — that the Rams can’t get too comfortable, even with the way they’re playing.
In the last five games, culminating with their 27-point stomping of Tampa Bay on Sunday night, the Rams have outscored opponents in the opening quarter, 63-3.
Matthew Stafford has thrown 27 touchdown passes without an interception.
In four of the games in this six-game winning streak, the Rams defense has allowed 10 points or fewer.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in their 34-7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at SoFi Stadium on Sunday night.
But it’s uncomfortably early for anyone in the organization to be thinking about Santa Clara in February. The Rams need to play with blinders on. Yes, they’ve secured the NFC’s No. 1 seed for the moment, but they have a one-game lead over the Eagles, who beat them earlier this season and therefore have the tiebreaker. There’s no wiggle room.
The glide path is far different than 2021, when the Rams wound up winning the Super Bowl on their home field. That season, they went 0-3 in November games.
This bears a closer resemblance to 2018, Sean McVay’s second season, when the last game before Thanksgiving was an instant classic at the Coliseum, Jared Goff and the Rams beating Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, 54-51.
There’s no ignoring that we’re watching something special in Stafford, who takes the snap, scans the field and delivers a laser with remarkable reliability. He processes with the speed of AI.
It was 10 years ago at Levi’s Stadium that Denver’s Peyton Manning, quarterbacking his second franchise, won his second Super Bowl ring and decided to retire.
Could that be Stafford? Second franchise. Potential for a second ring. Then again, Manning’s body was breaking down on him and he wasn’t at the top of his game. Those Broncos ran the ball and had a great defense.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford warms up before a 34-7 win over the Buccaneers at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
At the moment, Stafford is playing as well as anyone who has ever played the position. He looks nothing like a 37-year-old guy who sat out training camp with back problems.
His streak of 27 touchdown passes without a pick is, according to Elias, the longest such streak by any player since play-by-play was first tracked in 1978.
“It’s hard to conceptualize the fact that you can throw — put the ball in the end zone that much,” said Rams receiver Davante Adams, who has 12 touchdown receptions this season. “Most quarterbacks can’t throw 27 passes without throwing a pick.”
Stafford’s the leading most valuable player candidate, and this could be the season that secures him a bronze bust in Canton.
As for the poetry of him walking off the biggest stage the way Manning did, that’s all fantasy football now, especially with more than a quarter of the regular season remaining.
(A little more premature conjecture: It’s not inconceivable that the Rams and New England Patriots could meet in the Super Bowl for a third time.)
What is irrefutable is the Rams are continually deepening their foothold on the Los Angeles market. They set their regular-season attendance record Sunday night (75,545 tickets distributed), surpassing the mark they set a week earlier with a home game against Seattle.
This is what Rams owner Stan Kroenke was talking about when he brought the team back in 2016, and when he built SoFi Stadium with the idea of making the nearly-300-acre campus a center of gravity on the West Coast.
It’s not just home to the Rams and Chargers, but it’s the integral role the stadium will play in the World Cup, the 2028 Olympics, and in early 2027, the second Super Bowl it will host. No matter how you feel about UCLA trying to wriggle out of its Rose Bowl deal, there’s a reason the school has turned its attention to SoFi.
Kroenke always told his development team that undershooting L.A. would be a huge mistake, that the opportunity here was immeasurable.
“Sometimes when you’re a real estate developer, I think you have to be tremendously optimistic,” Kroenke told the Los Angeles Times. “You encounter so many issues. … With the NFL, you saw how difficult that whole thing was. So you had to be the optimist.
“Then you get a night like tonight, and it’s just awesome.”
Rams defensive end Kobie Turner reacts during player introductions before facing the Buccaneers on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
The stadium was loud and overwhelmingly blue, with only a sprinkling of Tampa Bay fans. That’s progress.
The peril for the Rams now is letting down their guard. They travel across the country next weekend to play at Carolina, a team that won four of five not so long ago, including an upset of Green Bay.
In his postgame news conference, cornerback Cobie Durant was asked how it feels to have the No. 1 seed in the conference.
“I didn’t know that,” he said, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I don’t keep up with that.”
When community members crowd into a Metro meeting room next Thursday to argue for and against the proposed Dodger Stadium gondola, the board of directors will listen before they vote on whether to proceed with the project.
Will the directors speak?
In a public meeting, officials often explain their position on a high-profile issue. In the Metro meeting next week, the board of directors could vote on the gondola without any of the board members saying a word about it.
Metro released the meeting agenda late Tuesday night. The agenda includes the gondola vote as part of what public agencies call the consent calendar — that is, a package of items that can be approved with one vote, and without any discussion among the officials doing the voting.
The items on any consent calendar generally are routine. Based on a staff report, Metro considers the gondola approval to be routine too: Metro approved the gondola last year, a judge ordered fixes to the environmental impact report, and all Metro needs to do now is rubber-stamp the fixes. The gondola project still would need approvals from the Los Angeles City Council and various state agencies.
At a committee meeting last week — one week after the council had urged Metro to kill the project — Los Angeles Mayor and Metro board member Karen Bass put it this way: “Just real quickly, I just wanted to reiterate or clarify that what the vote is about today is about certifying the EIR, certifying the project’s environmental documents under CEQA, nothing more.”
Two other board members — county supervisors Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis — did address the concerns raised by the public speakers. Hahn voted no on the gondola; Solis voted yes.
Whether Hahn, Solis or any of the other 11 voting board members decide to speak up next Thursday remains to be seen. All it takes is one member to remove the item from the consent calendar and demand discussion on the issue.
The gondola, first pitched by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt in 2018, would carry fans from Union Station to Dodger Stadium. Gondola proponents have not announced any financing commitments for a project with a construction cost estimated at $500 million and proposed as privately funded.
“With memories still fresh of an unforgettable occasion for the Ashes Test, we’re delighted to be able to confirm a return to Hill Dickinson Stadium for the 2026 Super League Magic Weekend,” Rhodri Jones, Rugby League Commercial managing director, said.
“This will be the seventh venue to stage Magic since it was introduced as a new concept for sport in 2007 and our clubs, players and supporters are in for a treat.
“It’s a stunning stadium with outstanding facilities at all levels and also superbly located for summer on the waterfront, and with the many and varied attractions of Liverpool within easy reach.
“We continue to work with the Dragons and Toulouse on the feasibility of delivering a very special event in France too and we hope to be able to announce something in the near future on this.”
I have to give it to Bill Plaschke when he’s right. UCLA moving to SoFi Stadium is about as smart as a typical UCLA coaching hire.
This month I was able to attend the Steelers-Chargers game at SoFi on a Sunday, followed the next Saturday by the USC-Iowa game at the Coliseum. Everything about those two places is different and only one of them feels like the college experience.
SoFi crams tailgaters in like sardines. There is no room to enjoy the experience.
The fresh air and scenery at the Rose Bowl are the best maybe in the country. People don’t show up at the Rose Bowl for a very simple reason: The program stinks. Not the venue. This proves the old adage, “the fish stinks from the head down.” Thousands of fans sat in the rain last weekend for a Trojans game because the product on the field was worth it. Simple.
Jeff Heister Chatsworth
Who can blame UCLA for wanting to play at SoFi Stadium, the ultra-modern sports palace, not to mention great recruiting tool, a mere 15 minutes from campus? As Bill Plaschke waxes nostalgic, the rest of us slog down the 10 Freeway from Westwood, through downtown, up into the far northeast corner of L.A., to the antiquated monument that is the Rose Bowl.
Afterward, those of us sitting on the east side of the stadium, staring into the setting sun until the fourth quarter, stumble with burned-out retinas to the muddy golf course that they call a parking lot, to wait in our stack-parked cars, until everyone else is out, so we can leave, an hours-long ordeal just to get home. My only question is, what genius at UCLA signed a long-term contract to play at a place that was obsolete long before the ink dried?
Art Peck View Park
UCLA will pay attorneys millions of dollars endeavoring to extricate the university from the ironclad Rose Bowl lease it pledged to honor. Beyond those fees, they’ll pay tens of millions more to Pasadena in order to get out of the deal.
If UCLA takes those same many millions, invests in a top-tier coach, enhances its football programs and facilities, and fills their NIL coffer, that should lead to a winning, sustainable program that brings more fans to the games. Rose Bowl revenue goes up.
Pasadena may get a one-time windfall, but over time without an anchor tenant, revenue will shrink and the stadium’s luster will fade.
Where are the sensible, honorable folks who possess the smarts and the backbone to craft a fair deal?
David Griffin Westwood
UCLA likely leaving the historic Rose Bowl, home of a million team memories and successes, for the sterile confines of SoFi Stadium is abhorrent to any longtime Bruin fan. Terry Donahue, you have our sincerest apologies.
PARIS — Salim Toorabally’s mental scars from the Paris terror attacks 10 years ago have not healed with time and the images of that night at Stade de France remain indelible.
The November 2015 attacks began at France’s national stadium and spread across the city in assaults that killed 132 people and injured more than 400. One person died and least 14 were injured outside Stade de France that night, but casualties there could have been far heavier without Toorabally’s vigilance.
It was Toorabally who stopped Bilal Hadfi — one of the three terrorist bombers who targeted the national stadium when France’s soccer team played Germany — from getting inside.
Toorabally was praised for his actions, by then-President François Hollande, by the Interior Ministry and also by the general public. Yet his own suffering, unrelenting since that night, went unnoticed.
“I was seen more as a hero than as a victim,” Toorabally told the Associated Press in a recent interview. “But this part of being a victim is equally inside me.”
Later on Thursday, France played Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, where a commemoration was planned and Toorabally was invited by the French Football Federation.
“I will be there but with a heavy heart,” he said. “Ten years have passed like it was yesterday we were attacked.”
Stopping the bomber
Toorabally was positioned at Gate L as a stadium security agent.
Hadfi tried to enter but was stopped by Toorabally when he spotted him trying to tailgate another fan through the turnstile.
“A young man showed up. He was sticking close behind someone, moving forward without showing his ticket. So I said to him, ‘Sir, where are you going? Show me your ticket.’ But he just kept going, he wasn’t listening to me,” Toorabally told the AP. “So I put my arm out, put my arm in front of him so he couldn’t go inside, and then he said to me, ‘I have to get in, I have to get in.’ It made me suspicious.”
Toorabally kept an eye on the 20-year-old Hadfi, who was now standing back a few yards away.
“He positioned himself right in front of me, he was watching me work and I alerted [fellow security agents] over the radio: ‘Be careful at every gate, there’s a young man dressed in black with a young face, very childlike, who is trying to get in. Do not let him in,’” Toorabally recalled. ”He stood in front of me for about 10 minutes, watching me work, and that’s when I got really scared. I was worried he’d go back in, that I wouldn’t see him. I watched him intently, he stared at me intently and suddenly he disappeared in the crowd, he slipped away.”
Toorabally’s warning worked. Hadfi was denied entry elsewhere, before later detonating his explosive vest.
The explosions
There were two explosions close together during the first half of the match; the first ones around 9:20 p.m. near Gate D, and a third explosion approaching 10 p.m. close to a fast food outlet.
Toorabally vividly remembers them.
“I could feel the floor shaking,” he said. “There was a burning smell rising into the air, different to the smell of [smoke] flares.”
He also tended to a wounded man that night.
“I took charge of him, I lay the individual down. He had like these bolts [pieces of metal] lodged in his thigh,” said Toorabally, who still speaks to the man today. “I looked at my hands, there was blood. I didn’t have gloves on, and there were pieces of flesh in my hands.”
Keeping fans in the dark
Toorabally said he and other security agents were told not to inform spectators of the attack, to prevent a potential situation where 80,000 people tried leaving at the same time.
“The supporters inside couldn’t know the Stade de France had been attacked otherwise it would have caused enormous panic,” Toorabally explained. “At halftime some fans came up to us and asked, ‘What happened? Was there a gas explosion at the restaurants in front of the stadium?’ We didn’t answer them so as not to cause panic.”
After the game the stadium announcer told spectators which exit gates to use and many went home by train, including Toorabally.
Traumatic images
Five days after the attack he was called to a police station to help identify Hadfi as one of the bombers. Toorabally was given no forewarning of what he was about to see.
“They showed me a photo, his [Hadfi’s] head was separated from his body. The forensic police [officer] was holding his head,” Toorabally said. “I formally recognized him. It was indeed the man who had been in front of me, who had stood there, who had been alive and was now lifeless.”
Hadfi’s face remains imprinted on Toorabally’s mind.
“The image is very violent, someone’s head separated from his body. Then there’s the explosion, the odor of burning and my hand filled with human flesh. These images have stayed in my mind for 10 years.”
Toorabally‘s wage that night was 40 euros ($46). “I suffer from post-traumatic stress, it is very severe, very violent.”
Horrific memories can appear at any moment.
“I could be with you and talking with you and then all of sudden my mind goes back there,” Toorabally said. “This is something very, very difficult to deal with. It handicaps you.”
Talking helps
Toorabally talks to a psychiatrist and says it helps to tell people about what happened. But at the time of the attacks and in the months afterward he received no psychological support.
“That’s how traumatism sets in,” Toorabally said. “The proof being it stayed 10 years.”
He dealt with his mental anguish alone, having potentially saved hundreds of lives.
“Every time I go back to the Stade de France, I can’t help thinking about it,” Hollande told L’Équipe newspaper. “I realize what could have happened if an attack had taken place inside the stadium, or if panic had gripped the crowd.”
Former France midfielder Blaise Matuidi called Toorabally “more than a hero” and added “if the terrorists had entered, what would have happened? Just talking about it gives me chills.”
The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Co. requested a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking to prevent UCLA from leaving the Rose Bowl or terminating its stadium lease until pending litigation against the school is resolved.
The filing contends that the plaintiffs would suffer “immediate and irreparable harm if the status quo is not preserved during the pendency of this lawsuit.” A hearing has tentatively been scheduled for Wednesday morning.
UCLA responded in a statement that it was still evaluating options for its football home, though someone familiar with the university’s thinking on the matter later confirmed to The Times that if the Bruins decided to leave for SoFi Stadium, they would want to do so for the 2026 season.
In their Monday filing, the plaintiffs contended that: “there is no way to sugarcoat it: UCLA has confirmed its imminent departure, severely destabilizing Plaintiffs’ core operations. Those operations are structured around and contingent upon UCLA. Without confirmation that UCLA intends to honor its contractual commitments — at least during the pendency of this litigation — Plaintiffs are deprived of the ability to plan and manage the stadium’s schedule and their ongoing business operations, including cultivating and securing future business partners and opportunities, retaining personnel, and maintaining confidence among the many vendors and sponsors who rely on UCLA Football.
“Equally troubling is the precedent UCLA is setting. Stadium and arena public-private partnerships, and the financing that makes them possible, turn on enforceable, long-term contracts, with terms that typically follow the public debt incurred. UCLA’s attempt to break its contract decades early critically undermines these structures.”
UCLA is apparently running the equivalent of a hurry-up offense as part of its efforts to switch football homes.
Should the Bruins go ahead with plans to abandon the Rose Bowl for SoFi Stadium, the move could happen quickly — as soon as next season.
But no one should reprogram their GPS for 1001 Stadium Dr. in Inglewood just yet.
Despite significant momentum among UCLA officials toward making the move to SoFi Stadium, no final decision has been made, according to one person familiar with the school’s discussions about the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
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Even if the school did agree to play its 2026 home games at SoFi Stadium as part of an accelerated timeline — first reported by Bruin Report Online — at least one significant hurdle would remain.
That big roadblock involves pending litigation designed to keep UCLA at the stadium it has called home since the start of the 1982 season. The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Co. have filed a lawsuit to force the Bruins to honor the terms of the lease that requires them to stay at the Rose Bowl through the end of the 2043 season.
A consideration of an estimated payout has presumably been factored into UCLA’s calculus of its willingness to abandon its Rose Bowl lease for more lucrative terms at SoFi Stadium. But might a possible massive financial penalty imposed by a court give university officials pause?
In their joint filing, Pasadena and the Rose Bowl contended that UCLA’s departure could cause harm to the city and its residents that might “easily exceed a billion dollars [or more],” and that monetary damages alone might not be able to compensate for the losses incurred by those entities.
Money is clearly at the heart of UCLA’s proposed move.
For the fiscal year 2024, the last for which information is available, UCLA reported $8.35 million in football ticket sales — less than half of the $20 million it made in 2014, when it was setting attendance records under coach Jim Mora — and just $738,373 in revenue from game programs, novelties, parking and food and concessions.
As part of any lease agreement with SoFi Stadium, the Bruins would receive suite revenue they were not taking in at the Rose Bowl, where they had locked themselves into a long-term deal giving them no return on suite sales or stadium sponsorship sales and only a sliver of parking, concessions and merchandise revenues.
In return, the Rose Bowl had pledged more than $150 million in stadium renovations while recently refinancing an additional $130 million in bonds for additional infrastructure improvements. Among the plans in the works is a field-level club in the south end zone scheduled to open in time for the 2026 season. The Rose Bowl has agreed to let UCLA keep revenue from 1,200 plush, extra-wide seats as part of the renovations, though those seats would also benefit the stadium at other events throughout the year.
Where might UCLA get the money to pay the Rose Bowl as part of any settlement for leaving the iconic venue? Like other Big Ten schools, the Bruins could receive an up-front payment of $140 million as part of a proposed $2.4-billion deal between the conference and an investment fund of the University of California pension system.
Other benefits of moving to SoFi Stadium would include a 13-mile commute that’s half the distance between campus and the Rose Bowl, as well as enhanced facilities such as more modern seating and scoreboards. But there are concerns about tailgating at SoFi Stadium, which has far more restrictive policies than those enjoyed by fans on a sprawling golf course and parking lots at the Rose Bowl.
There would also be no guarantees of increased attendance as part of a stadium switch. When UCLA played Boise State in the 2023 L.A. Bowl at SoFi Stadium, the game drew an announced attendance of 32,780. That’s less than the 37,098 fans the team has averaged this season at the Rose Bowl, which is putting it on pace for an all-time low at the stadium.
Visiting fans might also be less likely to travel across the country to see a game at SoFi Stadium as opposed to the Rose Bowl, which has long been considered one of the top destinations in college football.
While it’s unlikely that UCLA’s stadium situation will be settled before its final home game of the season against Washington on Nov. 22, fans might want to savor that view of the San Gabriel Mountains a little longer than usual.
Just in case it’s the last time they get to see it before a home football game.
Nico Iamaleava looks for an open receiver against Nebraska.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
After UCLA’s 28-21 loss to Nebraska, one more defeat will erase the possibility of a bowl game, leading freshmen, sophomores and juniors to join their more veteran teammates in developing a potential case of senioritis.
Quarterbacks: A. There’s nothing more you can ask from Nico Iamaleava given all the hits he takes and resolve he shows while running this offense.
Running backs: C-. Once again, Iamaleava (86 yards rushing) outgained the combined efforts of running backs Jaivian Thomas, Jalen Berger and Anthony Woods (69 yards).
Wide receivers/tight ends: C-. The only touchdown catches were made by Woods and fellow running back Anthony Frias II.
Offensive line: D. Eugene Brooks’ return was offset by the injury loss of Garrett DiGiorgio and more false start penalties.
Defensive line: D. The Bruins have failed to record a sack in three consecutive games as part of a sustained failure to put pressure on the quarterback.
Linebackers: C. The struggles to contain Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson didn’t end here.
Defensive backs: C. Key Lawrence and Cole Martin made the team’s only tackles for loss, but the secondary allowed a freshman quarterback to complete his first 11 passes in his debut as a starter.
Special teams: B. Jacob Busic ran for a first down on a fake punt, but Mateen Bhaghani pulled a field goal wide left.
Coaching: C-. Two weeks to prepare after a blowout loss weren’t enough to help this staff get the Bruins to play at a high level again.
Opening basketball thoughts
Xavier Booker in the second half against Pepperdine.
(William Liang / Associated Press)
It’s easy to overreact to what happens early in a season.
With that caveat out of the way, the first impressions of the UCLA men’s basketball team were not great. Two relatively narrow victories in what were expected to be blowouts of Eastern Washington and Pepperdine caused the 12th-ranked Bruins to slip all the way from No. 10 in the metrics of basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy to No. 31.
The biggest early concerns about this team are rebounding and defense. Tyler Bilodeau continues to look lost at times after moving from center to power forward and the guards need to do a much better job of grabbing rebounds.
The big positive takeaway was Xavier Booker’s 15-point, five-block performance against Pepperdine, which signaled that the converted power forward might be the answer the team needs at center after the departure of Aday Mara.
A more definitive assessment of UCLA’s potential will come after the Bruins (2-0) face No. 13 Arizona (2-0) on Friday night at the Intuit Dome in an early season showdown.
Meanwhile, there was plenty to like about the UCLA women’s basketball team based on its early results.
After a slightly disjointed opening victory over San Diego State, the Bruins showed off their depth with three 20-point scorers — none of them named Lauren Betts — in a blowout of UC Santa Barbara. This team can beat you from inside and out, with so much shooting and playmaking complementing Betts that opponents won’t know where to start when game planning.
No. 3 UCLA (2-0) faces an early test Monday against No. 6 Oklahoma (1-0) at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Olympic sport spotlight: Men’s water polo
Ryder Dodd
(Raymond Tran / UCLA)
Get ready for an epic rematch.
Having suffered its only loss of the season to its biggest rival, the UCLA men’s water polo team can even the score when it faces USC on Saturday morning at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on the Trojans’ campus.
The second-ranked Bruins (21-1) got a final tuneup for the rematch with the Trojans (18-2) on Friday, beating Pacific, 17-2.
When UCLA faced USC on Oct. 18, the Bruins rallied to forge a 12-12 tie on a fourth and final goal from sophomore Ryder Dodd before the Trojans’ Jack Martin scored the winner with 46 seconds left in a 13-12 victory.
The rematch between the rivals will be UCLA’s last game before it opens play in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament on Nov. 21 at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center.
Remember when?
Most UCLA fans reflexively think about the Bruins’ 1976 Rose Bowl triumph over top-ranked Ohio State when asked about their favorite football memory involving the schools who will meet again Saturday at Ohio Stadium.
But an equally improbable triumph came in 1980 in Columbus, Ohio.
With the Bruins coming off a 5-6 season and coach Terry Donahue feeling considerable heat amid player losses to academic and disciplinary problems and mass turnover on his coaching staff, including the departure of close friend Bobby Field to do landscaping near Dallas, the team entered Ohio Stadium as a double-digit underdog.
It left as 17-0 victors.
Behind a dynamic offense devised by new offensive coordinator Homer Smith and another workmanlike performance from tailback Freeman McNeil, whose 118 yards rushing in 31 carries marked his third consecutive 100-yard game, UCLA dominated the second-ranked Buckeyes.
Donahue had fired up some of his players, including All-American safety Kenny Easley, earlier in the week by handing out photocopies of a Times article from the previous season. After Ohio State pulled out a 17-13 victory over the Bruins at the Coliseum, several Buckeyes players were quoted as saying their UCLA counterparts were soft and had been “sucking it up” by the second quarter.
A year later, many of those same players went on to hold the Buckeyes scoreless in their home stadium.
Afterward, Donahue ascended the stadium steps to celebrate with his wife, Andrea, who wiped a tear from her cheek as her husband returned to the field, according to Sports Illustrated. In the locker room, the Bruins blasted what became their theme song on the way to finishing the season 9-2.
It was one of Queen’s greatest rock anthems — “Another One Bites the Dust.”
Opinion time
If UCLA plays its football games at SoFi Stadium in 2026, will you go?
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Otherwise, risk missing the master class that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is conducting this season.
One that has the 17th-year pro squarely in the conversation for his first NFL most valuable player award.
“I see those people say stuff like that,” Stafford said Sunday after passing for four touchdowns in the Rams’ 42-26 victory over the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium, “and all I can think about is like I’m just lucky to have unbelievable teammates.”
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Gary Klein breaks down what went right for the Rams in their 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
Stafford, 37, is playing as if he were in the middle, not near the end, of a possible Hall of Fame career.
On Sunday he tossed touchdown passes to receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams and tight ends Davis Allen and Colby Parkinson as the Rams avenged an overtime loss to the 49ers in Week 5 and improved to 7-2.
How efficient has Stafford played this season?
He has passed for a league-leading 25 touchdowns.
With only two interceptions.
“He can walk on water right now,” Nacua said.
In the last three games, Stafford has passed for 13 touchdowns. His second touchdown pass Sunday, to Allen, was the 400th of his career.
Stafford’s name already fills the NFL record book. He is among the top 10 in several passing categories. But he never has been this efficient for this long.
Stafford has not had a pass intercepted in the last six games, the longest such stretch of his career.
“It looks like the game is really in slow motion to him right now,” coach Sean McVay said.
Rams players (from left) Puka Nacua, Matthew Stafford, Jordan Whittington and Davante Adams celebrate in the third quarter of a 42-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday.
(Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
Stafford’s recent run of excellence is on par with other awe-inspiring Los Angeles sports icons.
He has been as dominant as the UCLA fast break and full court press from the 1970s. Clayton Kershaw’s 12-to-6 curveball. Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer swing.
This is a Wayne Gretzky assist. A Nolan Ryan no-hitter.
A Reggie Bush breakaway run. A Serena Williams backhand winner. A Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sky hook, a Magic Johnson no-look pass, a Kobe Bryant game-winning three. A Lisa Leslie low-post move. A Candace Parker dunk.
A Jim Murray or Bill Plaschke column.
A fill-in-the-blank run of excellence.
Overblown? Perhaps. The NFL is a humbling league. Stafford’s recent run could end next Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium.
So enjoy it in real time. Follow Stafford’s lead.
“I have fun out there,” he said when asked about what Nacua described as Stafford’s ‘shimmy shake’ touchdown celebration. “I lose my mind when we score touchdowns.”
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford smiles while being interviewed after the Rams’ win over the 49ers on Sunday.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
That’s how defensive coordinators must feel when Stafford completes one of his patented no-look passes.
Adams played eight seasons in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers. He knows what an MVP looks like.
“It’s looked like MVP play to me all year,” Adams said, pointing to a Week 2 game against the Tennessee Titans, when Stafford shook off an interception and led the Rams to victory. “Just to rally a team and continue to lead at a high level when things don’t go your way, I think that’s what really shows what an MVP is like.”
Stafford’s success harks to 2021, when he passed for 41 touchdowns and led the Rams to a Super Bowl title. He is on pace for an even more impressive statistical finish.
“The heater that he’s on, it’s elevating everybody else’s play,” Nacua said, “and we’re continuing to jump on that bandwagon with him and let him take us as far as he can.”
If Stafford continues his stellar play the Rams could find themselves right back here at Levi’s Stadium.
A week ago, Harrison Mevis was working out on his own, kicking and preparing for the day an NFL team came calling.
On Sunday, Mevis will be the Rams’ kicker when they play the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, coach Sean McVay said Friday.
Mevis and long snapper Jake McQuaide were signed to the practice squad this week because of kicking-game issues that led to early-season losses against the Philadelphia Eagles and the 49ers and resurfaced in last Sunday’s victory over the New Orleans Saints.
Mevis and second-year pro Joshua Karty competed during practices on Wednesday and Thursday.
“Ultimately, in its simplest form, who do I think gives us the best chance to have successful outcomes, particularly in that operation with the given factors on Sunday,” McVay said.
Mevis, 23, made 89 of 106 field-goal attempts at Missouri, including one from 61 yards. In the United Football League this past season, he made 20 of 21 field-goal attempts.
Mevis said he had been preparing for a call every week since the New York Jets cut him from their practice squad in September. He said he performed well this week.
“I feel like I put myself out there, I showed what I can do and proved that I can play at this level,” he said after Friday’s practice. “And I’m ready to go.”
Not only for this week.
“The work’s just starting,” he said. “This is not the end goal. I didn’t come here just to be the starter for one week. So I’m just here to help the team win.”
McVay said he still has “a lot of confidence” in Karty, a 2024 sixth-round draft pick in Karty, who has made 10 of 15 field-goal attempts and 23 of 26 extra-point attempts.
“He’s not going anywhere,” McVay said, noting that the situation would be evaluated again after Sunday’s game.
McQuaide, a 15th-year pro who played for the Rams from 2011 to 2020, replaces Alex Ward. He will work with punter/holder Ethan Evans and Mevis in what the Rams hope will be an improved operation.
“It’s definitely been a little chaotic,” Evans said of the changes this week. “But I feel very confident we’ll be able to go out there and execute our jobs.”
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The celebration had hardly begun, when Shohei Ohtani first voiced the theme of the day.
“I’m already thinking about the third time,” he said in Japanese, standing atop a double-decker bus in downtown Los Angeles with of thousands of blue-clad, flag-waving, championship-celebrating Dodgers fans lining the streets around him for the team’s 2025 World Series parade.
Turns out, he wasn’t alone.
Two days removed from a dramatic Game 7 victory that made the Dodgers baseball’s first repeat champion in 25 years, the team rolled through the streets of downtown and into a sold-out rally at Dodger Stadium on Monday already thinking about what lies ahead in 2026.
With three titles in the last six seasons, their modern-day dynasty might now be cemented.
But their goal of adding to this “golden era of Dodger baseball,” as top executive Andrew Friedman has repeatedly called it, is far from over.
“All I have to say to you,” owner and chairman Mark Walter told the 52,703 fans at the team’s stadium rally, “is we’ll be back next year.”
“I have a crazy idea for you,” Friedman echoed. “How about we do it again?”
When manager Dave Roberts took the mic, he tripled down on that objective: “What’s better than two? Three! Three-peat! Three-peat! Let’s go.”
When shortstop Mookie Betts, the only active player with four World Series rings, followed him, he quadrupled the expectation: “I got four. Now it’s time to fill the hand all the way up, baby. ‘Three-peat’ ain’t never sounded so sweet. Somebody make that a T-shirt.”
For these history-achieving, legacy-sealing Dodgers, Monday was a reminder of the ultimate end goal — the kind of scene that, as they embark on another short winter, will soon fuel their motivations for another confetti-filled parade this time next year.
“For me, winning a championship, the seminal moment of that is the parade,” Friedman said. “The jubilation of doing it, when you get the final out, whatever game you win it in, is special. That night is special. But to be able to take a breath and then experience a parade, in my mind, that is what has always driven me to want to win.”
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“[To] do this for the city, that’s what it’s all about,” first baseman Freddie Freeman added. “There’s nothing that feels as important as winning a championship. And if so happens to be three in a row, that’s what it is. But that’s what’s gonna drive us to keep going.”
Much of the group had been part of the 2020 title team that was denied such a serenade following that pandemic-altered campaign. They had waited four long years to experience a city-wide celebration. The reception they received was sentimental and unique.
Now, as third baseman Max Muncy said with a devious grin from atop a makeshift stage in the Dodger Stadium outfield, “it’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here. Let’s keep it going.”
“Losing,” star pitcher and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto added, in English, in a callback to one of his memorable quotes from this past October, “isn’t an option.”
Doing it won’t be easy.
This year, the Dodgers’ win total went down to 93 in an inconsistent regular season. They had to play in the wild-card round for the first time since the playoffs expanded in 2022. And in the World Series, they faced elimination in Games 6 and 7, narrowly winning both to complete their quest to repeat.
“I borderline still can’t believe we won Game 7,” fan favorite Kiké Hernández said in a bus-top interview.
But, he quickly added, “We’re all winners. Winners win.”
Thus, they also get celebrations like Monday’s.
As it was 367 days earlier, the Dodgers winded down a parade route in front of tens of thousands of fans from Temple Street to Grand Avenue to 7th Street to Figueroa. Both on board the double-decker buses and in the frenzied masses below, elation swirled and beverages flowed.
Once the team arrived at Dodger Stadium, it climbed atop a blue circular riser in the middle of the field — the final symbolic steps of their ascent back to the mountaintop of the sport.
Anthony Anderson introduced them to the crowd, while Ice Cube delivered the trophy in a blue 1957 Chevy Bel-Air.
Familiar scenes, they are hoping become an annual tradition.
“Job in 2024, done. Job in 2025, done,” Freeman said. “Job in 2026? Starts now.”
The Dodgers did take time to recognize their newfound place in baseball history, having become just the sixth MLB franchise to win three titles in the span of six years and the first since the New York Yankees of 1998 to 2000 to win in consecutive years.
Where last year’s parade day felt more like an overdue coronation, this one served to crystallize their legacy.
“Everybody’s been asking questions about a dynasty,” Hernández said. “How about three in six years? How about a back-to-back?”
And, on Monday, all the main characters of this storybook accomplishment got their moment in the sun.
There was, as team broadcaster and rally emcee Joe Davis described him, “the Hall of Fame-bound” Roberts, who now only trails Walter Alston in team history with three World Series rings.
“We talked about last year, wanting to run it back,” he said. “And I’ll tell you right now, this group of guys was never gonna be denied to bring this city another championship.”
There was Game 7 hero Miguel Rojas calling up surprise October closer Roki Sasaki, on his birthday, to dance to his “Bailalo Rocky” entrance song; a request Sasaki sheepishly obliged by pumping his fist to the beat.
Yamamoto, coming off his heroic pitching victories in Games 6 and 7, received some of the day’s loudest ovations.
“We did it together,” he said. “I love the Dodgers. I love Los Angeles.”
Muncy, Ohtani and Blake Snell also all addressed the crowd.
“I’m trying to get used to this,” Snell said.
“I’m ready to get another ring next year,” Ohtani reiterated.
One franchise face who won’t be back for that chase: Clayton Kershaw, who rode into the sunset of retirement by getting one last day at Dodger Stadium, fighting back tears as he thanked the crowd at the end of his illustrious (and also Hall of Fame-bound) 18-year career.
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“Last year, I said I was a Dodger for life. And today, that’s true,” Kershaw said. “And today, I get to say that I’m a champion for life. And that’s never going away.”
Kershaw, of course, is one of the few still around from the club’s dark days of the early 2010s, when money was scarce and playoff appearances were uncertain and parades were only things to dream about — not expect.
As he walks away, however, the team has been totally transformed.
Now, the Dodgers have been to 13 straight postseasons. They’ve set payroll records and bolstered their roster with a wave of star signings. They’ve turned the pursuit of championships into a yearly expectation, proud but unsatisfied with what they’ve achieved to this point.
“I think, definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” said Friedman, the architect of this run with the help of Walter’s deep-pocketed Guggenheim ownership group. “But that to me, in a lot of ways, that kind of caps it if you say, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ For me, it’s still evolving and growing. We want to add to it. We want to continue it, and do everything we can to put it at a level where people after us have a hard time reaching.”
On Monday, they raised that bar another notch higher.
“This parade was the most insane thing I’ve ever witnessed, been a part of,” Kershaw said. “It truly is the most incredible day ever to be able to end your career on.”
On Tuesday, the Dodgers’ long road toward holding another one begins.
“I know they’re gonna get one more next year,” Kershaw told the crowd. “And I’m gonna watch, just like all of you.”
