:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50353063/usa-today-9165116.0.jpg)
Rio 2016
Cal the source of U.S. dominance in Olympic swimming
Every four years the United States puts on a display of such unfathomable dominance that shrouds even that of the UConn women's basketball team and Floyd Mayweather. It's done in a pool, of varying distances and formats: 100 to 800 meters, individual or relay. It doesn't matter.
When there is a swim competition in which the United States is involved, the end result is predetermined.
And much of that is thanks to the University of California.
Berkeley is not home to our nation's greatest swimmers. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time and counting, was never a Bear, and Katie Ledecky, who is as invincible in water as one could get, will be calling Stanford home.
But Cal, which sent 50 athletes to the Olympics, more than any university in the country, is the quiet engine behind the United States' supreme reign in the pool.
All in all, 19 Bears, either former or current, will enter the pool swimming for the red, white and blue. Some of them are familiar names, like Nathan Adrian, Missy Franklin, Anthony Ervin and Dana Vollmer. Others, like Ryan Murphy and Kathleen Baker, are making their Olympic debuts, and doing so in podium-finishing fashion.
Football
Jared Goff Headlines "Hard Knocks"
Touching on all the glitz, glamour, celebrities and the Pokemon Go craze while offering the first look at the freshly relocated Los Angeles Rams as they prepare for the upcoming 2016 NFL season, HBO Sports premiered the latest season of it's long-running reality series "Hard Knocks" Tuesday night.
The first episode of the show's 11th season covered both players and coaches in their preparations leading up to training camp at the University of California-Irvine in Orange County, flirted but largely sidestepped the Rams somewhat messy move from St. Louis to back to their original home on the West Coast, and even included the release of two players within the first 20 minutes.
Appropriately, "Hard Knocks" producers spent much of the premiere setting up key storylines on the shoulders of rookie quarterback Jared Goff, head coach Jeff Fisher, star defensive tackle Aaron Donald, and introduced several of the rookies who may or may not earn a roster spot by the season finale.
Goff, who the Rams selected No. 1 overall, is firmly at the forefront of the show just like he is the Rams' future as a franchise and in their new location. He and rookie receiver Pharoh Cooper opened the show aboard a GoodYear blimp and prepped for take off, and when airborne bold red letters reading "Welcome Los Angeles Rams" flashed to signal the Rams', and really Goff's, arrival.
The former California Golden Bears star went through some typical good-natured teasing from teammates and coaches, specifically for his lack of knowledge of where the sun rises and sets, and was also ripped for throwing several interceptions.