It’s a basic opening question, an icebreaker, an easy way to begin a conversation.
“So, you having fun?’’ the veteran columnist asks the kid quarterback.
The answer is almost always the same: a sigh, a nod, an explanation of how football is always fun, a simple cliche.
Except on a bright Tuesday morning in Westwood it becomes pretty clear, pretty quick, that Josh Rosen doesn’t do simple, and he doesn’t do cliche.
“Fun?’’ he asks, pausing. “On or off the field?’’
Then he laughs, because his question is actually an answer, one that carries far beyond the notion of fun and evolves into the far more compelling idea that UCLA’s leader will not be willingly confined, contained, or turned into yet another helmeted caricature.