"Anyone want me to hear me do 'Love and Happiness'?"
There was a lot to like in President Obama’s fourth (and possibly last if he’s not reelected) State of the Union speech. Not that you would know if you looked at how tight and screwed up the faces of House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor were. Their seething contempt for Obama almost came off in visible waves.
That’s cool. Let them gripe, groan and gnash their teeth. I know and Obama knows he’s not going to get a damned thing out of the Republicans in Congress. That’s fine because the audience he was going for were Democrats and Independents and from polling results of the president’s speech, they seemed to like what they heard from him.
In a presidential year, everything boils down to politics and so did Obama’s last State of the Union before voters go to the polls to retain or replace him in 40 weeks or so. He used the speech to lay out not just a broad agenda for 2012, but to lay out the initial case for his reelection.
The president also took aim indirectly at Mitt Romney when he renewed his call for tax reform and economic equality and fairness. Romney launched a preemptive strike at the speech and pimped the Republican standard line that the president is pushing class warfare, envy and dividing Americans. As if the country isn’t already divided between the few doing well and the many catching hell.
While I was a little surprised President Obama didn’t mention the recovering Gabrielle Giffords who announced this week she would be leaving Congress in his speech, he greeted her on the floor of the House with a big bear hug that Giffords seemed earnestly appreciative of.
Giffords submitted her letter of resignation to the assembled House before the president’s speech and received a standing ovation from her colleagues from both sides of the aisle.
Gabrielle Giffords is a testament to the power of faith, healing and courage. She has served her state and constituents well. Now she needs to serve her own needs and heal.
The ultimate high in the surprising 2011 San Francisco 49ers season came when QB Alex Smith threw a precisely timed pass to TE Vernon Davis for the winning touchdown with seconds left to beat the Saints was dubbed by the 49er faithful as “The Grab.” It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in ancient Candlestick Park with sunshine, clear skies and a warm, pleasant light growing in the hearts of every long-suffering fan.
The rainy, foggy and cold Sunday where two critical mistakes by a stand-in punt returner brought an ignoble finish to the season will live in 49ers history as “The Fumbles.”
It took me a few days to swallow the disappointment of the 49ers losing to the Giants 20-17 in overtime, but I’ve digested it now. The Giants deserve to go to the Super Bowl. They made the plays and caught the breaks. The 49ers didn’t and that’s why their season is over.
Now let’s talk about Kyle Williams, the guy who lost the two fumbles that cost the 49ers dearly. The player who so enraged some idiots they rushed to Twitter to make threats on his life.
After the game, my wife asked me if the Niners would cut Williams loose. I replied, “No, they won’t and no, they shouldn’t.”
“It was just one of those situations where I caught the ball, tried to head upfield, tried to make a play and it ended up for the worse,” Williams said.
Williams will forever be known and reviled as the goat who cost the 49ers a trip to the Super Bowl. In part that is true and that is something Williams, a second year player from Stanford, will have to own for some time. But football is a team sport and the 49ers lost that game as a team. One or two plays can dramatically alter the outcome of a game but a loss can be attributed to an entire 60 minutes worth of poor execution.
The 49ers offense converted only 1 out of 13 third downs. That’s terrible.
The 49ers wide receivers combined for one catch for three yards in five quarters and almost four hours of football. That’s worse that terrible. That’s pathetic.
Hero one day, goat the next. Welcome to the NFL, Kyle Williams
QB Alex Smith, who looked like a stud in the previous week’s shoot-out with the Saints looked pretty ordinary against the G-men. His two touchdown passes to TE Vernon Davis were things of beauty, but as Greg Cosell in his NFL Flims blog called out Smith for his “tentative and uncertain pocket play. “
Cosell said, “Smith was reluctant to let it loose on routes and throws that were not only well designed, but were open…One of the attributes that separates high level quarterback play in big games and critical moments is the willingness to make stick throws into smaller windows. Smith did that with confidence against the Saints. In the NFC Championship game, he was hesitant and cautious on throws that were clearly defined. Simply put, Smith left a lot of plays on the field against the Giants. While Williams publicly shouldered the burden of defeat, it was his quarterback who failed to deliver on the promise he had shown a week earlier.”
In this season where a franchise that had once been the NFL’s Gold Standard of a successful football organization on and off the field, made an unexpected return to glory, no player benefited more from the coaching of Jim Harbaugh than Alex Smith. The former overall Number One pick looked destined to be a bust. Under the tutelage of Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, they made Smith an effective game manager who didn’t throw interceptions and didn’t make the critical mistake at the critical time.
Against the Saints, Smith proved he could not only manage a game, but with his feet and his arm, he could make crucial plays and win games as well. Smith didn’t throw any interceptions against the Giants, but he couldn’t get the 49ers in the end zone either when they needed to. Smith played it safe and the difference between his lack of comfort with his wide receivers and Eli Manning’s confidence with his group is like that between night and day.
I really believe Kyle Williams will make plays for the 49ers as he learns how to play the position. During the season Williams caught 20 passes for 211 yards and three td’s . Those aren’t flashy numbers, but Williams is fast and can stretch a defense vertically. I have no doubt as a slot receiver and in a four receiver package, Williams will eventually shine.
With this depressing loss the Niners become just another one out of 30 teams not good enough to get to the Super Bowl with deficiencies and have needs that must be met.
No position needs upgrading more than wide receiver for the 49ers. Michael Crabtree, the first round pick three years ago is a solid Number Two receiver. He lacks the speed or big grab ability to be a consistent Number One. There will be free agent talent available that meets that need. Vincent Jackson, Dwayne Bowe, Marcus Colston, and DeSean Jackson may be available if the Niners want to bid for their services.
The Niners may not have the bank available to sign a big name free agent. They have several free agents of their own they need to resign including Smith. They may have to look past the premier group of receivers for some gems remaining after the initial buying spree or trade up in the NFL Draft hoping to grab a young and speedy receiver.
I like the place the 49ers are in going in to the off-season. After their first playoff appearance since 2003, they have holes to plug, but this year it’s going to be about adding talent, not blowing up the roster and starting over.
“Everyone in here told me to keep my head up, it’s not on me,” Williams said. “You hate to be the last guy that had the ball, to give it up in that fashion and lose a game of this magnitude. It is what it is. We’re going to move forward as a team. I couldn’t be happier with the teammates I have in here.”
I agree. For far too long after the 16th game the typical Niner fan had to sigh in disappointment and disgust, “Well, there’s always next season.” This year we can say “I can’t wait for next season.” Our Super Bowl dreams are merely delayed, not deferred. We’re dreaming out of season.
At the risk of echoing Sarah Palin, the San Francisco 49ers don’t need to rebuild. They need to reload.
Who's got it better than us? Well, there's the Giants...
The death of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno at age 85 brings down the curtain on one of the most storied careers in college football. Conversely, it also punctuates one of the most unexpected and saddest falls from grace any man of his stature has ever suffered.
The Paterno apologists wasted no time attempting to recast him as a martyr who was sacrificed by Penn State officials who fired him in the wake of Paterno failing to take decisive action against former assistant Jerry Sandusky who was indicted for multiple counts of child molestation.
Paterno himself avoided prosecution, but in the court of public opinion he was found guilty of dereliction of duty. Sandusky was the one who committed criminal acts of extreme depravity. Paterno’s role in this tragedy is somewhat more murky.
He most certainly does deserve his share of the blame.
Paterno is a legend, but he tainted his legacy by his appalling moral failing to act to intervene and stop children from suffering. Joe Pa deserves credit for the thousands of young men he helped as a great football coach and he deserves the condemnation he is receiving for his cowardly avoidance to take swift and decisive action.
“I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was. So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”
Didn’t know exactly how to handle it? Here’s a suggestion. Pick up a phone and call a cop. You are Joe Paterno. You are Penn State. If you say, “Hey, I think Jerry Sandusky is raping kids. Come arrest his ass” Jerry Sandusky’s ass will be arrested and he won’t be raping kids in the locker room shower.
Paterno’s buck-passing excuse strains credulity. When a child’s safety is at stake the right thing to do is to take charge of the situation, not farm it out to someone else in a sorry stab at covering your own ass. It would have been better to accuse Sandusky and be wrong than to shuffle it off to bureaucrats without Paterno’s stature to clean up the mess.
If not for the Sandusky scandal we could simply state our sympathy for his family, acknowledge his greatness as a football coach, wonder if he hung around a little too long and let it go at that.
I can’t do that. I won’t do that because to do so is to absolve Paterno from the responsibility any adult has to take action when they suspect a child is being molested. Whether you’re a living legend or the next door neighbor, you have to step up to the plate to protect the innocent. Paterno’s failure to do so was a reprehensible and contemptible act.
The old ball coach faced a moment that required him to call upon his courage. He punted
Paterno is out of his pain and misery. For the victims of Jerry Sandusky, their pain and misery continues.
You'd look like her too if you had to see Newt Gingrich naked all the time.
The Mitt Romney Inevitability Express went off the rails in South Carolina as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party found himself losing a race he thought he had won to a fat, unlikable, career politician with an even stupider nickname than his, Newton Leroy Gingrich, also known and despised as Newt.
What made Mitt’s trip down South really suck was he thought after Iowa the torrent of negative ads he and the unaffiliated Super PACS had launched against the former Speaker of the House had finished him off.. However, the lust of GOP conservatives for someone to articulate their hatred of President Obama burns strong as does their desire for an alternative to the rich Mormon who stashes his cash in the Cayman Island. Losing to Newt 40 percent to 27 percent should send a clear message to the Massachusetts millionaire: the rank and file just aren’t into you–still.
I missed the Republican debate the other night where Gingrich went right-the-freak-off on CNN’s John King for having the elephant balls to ask him about ex-wife, Marianne Gingrich’s accusation that the Newster wanted an open marriage so he could continue banging his booty call and eventual third wife, Callista.
Life is too short to waste it on bad movies, bad music, and bad politicians bumping their gums talkin’ loud and sayin’ nothin’. I know there was a debate the other night. I had far more important things to do than watch that crap. Like peeling a potato or clipping my toenails or picking lint out of my belly button.
South Carolina doesn’t totally change the Republican race as much as it makes it possible it might go on longer than the experts had though. Romney believed he had things locked up once Chris Christie decided to stay home eating donuts. Christie was the only candidate who could have pulled together the diverse wings of the GOP in a united front against President Obama. His decision to sit out 2012 prompted most of the big money and establishment decided to fall in line behind Romney leaving the hard core Right with nowhere to go and no one to slow Mitt’s roll to the nomination.
But a funny thing happened on the road to Inevitability. Here we are three contests in and the front-runner’s only victory came in a state he was supposed to win. The scorecard so far reads Rick Santorum winning Iowa, Mittens taking New Hampshire and the Newster rising from the ashes to kick Mitt’s ass in South Carolina. Now it’s on to Florida where the results could boost the winner of that state to a the inside track to the nomination or scramble the race so badly, Mitt and Newt might slug it out all the way through January into the spring.
South Carolina did us the great favor of ending the campaigns of Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman. So why is Ron Paul hanging on for? Paul’s support is loud but not broad. He came in third in Iowa, settled for second in New Hampshire, was dead on arrival and if he steps foot in Florida the only reason will be to work on his tan and get a fresh-squeezed glass of orange juice. Florida is heavily made up of elderly Jewish voters and though Paul is 76-years old, his anti-Israel, anti-Social Security rhetoric won’t play there.
In a normal year, a sleazy douchebag like Newt Gingrich would be bumping around in the lower strata with the rest of the also-rans, but this is not a normal year. If his record of unethical behavior weren’t enough to sink him like a stone, Newt’s loose zipper would be enough to disqualify him from serious consideration as a serious contender. Newt is such a man-whore that if he were elected president he would be our commander-in-briefs (tip of the hat to Sandra Booker for that one) whose roving eye means at any moment he might up and leave America for a younger and fresher country (and thank you Rena Marrocco for that).
Regardless of South Carolina, Newt is still big pimpin’ with small bills. He doesn’t have Romney’s resources to wage a long, protracted and expensive war of attrition. It may take Romney longer than he planned and cost him more money before he finally crushes the Newt under his heel, but the bet here is when the final drop of blood is spilled in the GOP Civil War, Mittens will be the victor.
But Mitt will have to try to get to the right of Newt to knock him out and the further he drifts away from his moderate reputation, the harder it will be for him to get back and disavow all the positions he’s taken that will be showing up in Obama 2012 attack ads.
Football is my favorite sport, but watching Republicans claw, fang and devour each other is my favorite bloodsport. It’s been simply splendid entertainment.
“I believe Newt is a conservative visionary who can transform this country,” Perry said.
Making what he called a “strategic retreat,” the Texan obliquely referred to Gingrich’s checkered personal life just hours before an interview with the former House speaker’s second wife was to speak out in a TV interview.
“Newt is not perfect, but who among us is?” said Perry.
Citing his Christian faith, Perry said of Gingrich: “I believe in the power of redemption.
“I will leave the trail, return home to Texas, and wind down my 2012 campaign. And I will do so with pride.”
Pride? You mean the closeted and self-hating kind of gay pride, Rick? Not sayin’, just sayin’.
Perry entered the presidential race with every advantage, money, experience, great hair and no idea how to run for president, so he ran one of the worst campaigns I’ve ever seen. Inept in live debate, reactionary in his positions and painfully inarticulate in public, Perry is a heavyweight in Texas, but outside of it, he repeatedly proved he simply was not ready for prime time. After stumbling and bumbling his way through debate after debate, Perry’s poll numbers fell off a cliff as he was elbowed aside by other equally reactionary Anti-Romney candidates.
Perry tried to be the most reactionary Republican in a campaign full of them. His only success came when he entered the race he effectively burst Michelle Bachmann’s bubble, but his fellow Texan, Ron Paul had already staked out the White supremacist/extremist constituency, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were far more skilled at race-baiting leaving Perry with no room on the Right to move to.
Game, set, match. Perry did nothing in Iowa, disappeared in New Hampshire and two days before voters in South Carolina could humiliate him further, Perry quit. Perry had become so irrelevant to Mitt Romney’s eventuality that when he announced he was hanging up his spurs, it wasn’t even the top story of the day. The news media was focusing on one of Newt Gingrich’s ex-wives going on ABC to out the former Speaker of the House as a freak who wanted an “open marriage.’
The speculation is Perry will try again in 2016. The same thing is said about every unsuccessful candidate whether their name is Bachmann, Cain, Pawlenty, or Huntsman. These are not temporary setbacks that can be resolved by licking their wounds and retreating from the national stage. These are failures and losers.
Out of all the contenders, none of them fell off as fast and landed as hard as little Ricky Perry. The far-right, religious freak and potential closet case that couldn’t.
Normally I don’t believe in symbolic gestures. Activism without action usually strikes me as little more than feel good gestures that may attract attention, but have little genuine effect.
But there are always exceptions…
This year will mark my fourth year of blogging. At some point I will end The Domino Theory and move on to something else. When I do pull the plug I want it to be my decision and not that of some wrong-headed legislation pushed through Congress for the benefit of some greedy corporations looking to regulate and control content of the Internet.
Writing in The New York Times, Rebecca McKinnon describes the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in stark terms with dire consequences.
“The potential for abuse of power through digital networks – upon which we as citizens now depend for nearly everything, including our politics – is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age … This is no time for politicians and industry lobbyists in Washington to be devising new Internet censorship mechanisms, adding new opportunities for abuse of corporate and government power over online speech.”
My blog will be “going dark” today for 12 hours to protest the SOPA/PIPA legislation being pushed through Congress by Republicans with the support of some clueless Democrats and opposed by the Obama Administration. If you visit Wikipedia or Google among other websites you will see “blacked out” images. This is not hypothetical and this is not theoretical. This is CENSORSHIP and it is here
We’ve seen this battle before. It used to be fought over audio tape cassettes and VCRs. Then it was waged over file sharing, ripping music and pirating movies. Now it’s about whether you’ve secured the proper permissions and rights to share that You Tube video you’ve been passing around to your 5,000 Facebook friends.
I would like to assume this lousy legislation will die a quick and painful death in the halls of Congress, but when money and power wants something they tend to work very hard to get what they want. We who depend on the Internet to stay free so we can speak freely must work equally hard.
When your birth date falls on the same day as the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday observance you accept the fact that you’re going to have to settle for second billing and like it. Fortunately, Dr. King is one of my few heroes and sharing my day with him honors and humbles me.
As I have said in the past, King was far more than an action figure with a string in the back that says “I Have A Dream” when pulled. That’s too simple and King was far too complicated to be reduced down to a catchphrase.
King was not a popular man at the time of his assassination. Breaking with President Johnson over the Vietnam War had done more than cost King the best friend the movement ever had in the White House. He was vilified by the Left and the Right. Black revolutionaries sneered at his message of non-violence.
But most of all, King was tired. Tired of marching. Tired of re-fighting battles that should have already been won. Tired of being away from his wife and children so much. Tired of the death threats on his life.
Michael Eric Dyson, scholar and author of I May Not Get There With You, the account of King’s later years says we should note King cut less than an iconic figure at the time of his death.
[King] was at the low point of his popularity at the time of his death. When Martin Luther King Jr. met his end on that balcony in Memphis, he was indeed at the low point of his popularity for the first time in nearly a decade. He didn’t make the most admired list for the Gallup poll. Very few universities wanted to hear from him. No American publishers wanted to publish a book by him. And he was being questioned, even in African-American culture, for the relevancy of his non-violent approach. Dr. King was facing tremendous odds. His back was against the wall. His resources were drying up within his own organization. He was fighting with a prominent northern board member about whether or not he should speak out against the war in Vietnam and paid the price for it. So, he was facing opposition from within his organization and more broadly from the civil rights movement, and even more broadly from the mainstream American press as well as from public policymakers and politicians in America. He was quite on the outside and outskirts of popularity and acceptance in America. This notion that Dr. King was widely praised is one of nostalgia and of amnesia, and it should be combated.
Some might think it audacious and brazen to call King the greatest American ever. Shouldn’t that sort of accolade be reserved for presidents and statesmen, not a Baptist preacher?
It is neither audacious or brazen to tell the truth and I have no problem defending Dr. King as a greater transformative figure than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt. A listing of the Greatest Americans places King at third, ahead of Washington and just behind Lincoln. Ronald Reagan was named Number One, so take that as you will (I take it as patently ridiculous).
It is expected that presidents will be–for better or for worse–transformative figures. For a private citizen to do so the unmeasurable help of millions of dollars backing them up and effecting their change by way of non-violent resistance against the evil of state-sanctioned racial discrimination is almost impossible to fathom. Bill Gates with all his billions could not have done what King did with shoe leather and faith.
By no means was King the only one marching. It took the commitment of thousands of like-minded souls willing to be spat upon, beaten, bitten by dogs, and in some cases murdered for their courage to be the change they sought to bring to the world.
Without them and the leadership and inspiration of a Dr. King, the part of the Dream that was realized with the election of Barack Obama does not happen. Without Dr King there is no President Obama.
There is an urge by some to see Obama as the realization of King’s dream. I understand this urge, but it should be resisted. Obama is not so much the manifestation of the Dream as he is the greatest beneficiary of The Dream. King’s mark on the world is established beyond dispute. Obama is still attempting to make good on his and like any politician it’s a mixed bag. “Change We Can Believe In” is hard to bring about when there is a rigid status quo resistant to changing a thing just as Dr King’s dream seemed like a waking nightmare to his opponents.
On MLK Day the man who would be Obama’s replacement praises the preacher man. Writing on his Facebook page, Mitt Romney says, “Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an occasion to reflect on the legacy of an outstanding American. Dr. King not only believed in the fundamental truth that we are all made in God’s image, he fought for that truth in a campaign that brought our country closer to fulfilling its historic promise of liberty and justice for all. The United States has made enormous strides toward racial equality in the decades since Dr. King’s death, but we must never rest until all people are judged, in his immortal words, not ‘by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
On the Today Show, Romney, who got wealthy by shutting down companies and putting workers on the street said all this talk about income inequality was simply “envy.”
“You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on the 99 percent versus one percent — and those people who have been most successful will be in the one percent — you have opened up a whole new wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God.”
A clueless plutocrat like Mitt Romney could never understand a humble man like King who was motivated by a fierce sense of justice, not personal wealth. If King were doing in 2012 what he was doing in 1968 Romney would not be mumbling empty platitudes he neither wrote nor believes. He’d be condemning King as a dangerous radical who wanted to take from the 1 percent and give to the 99 percent.
I Mittens ever read King’s A Proper Sense of Priorities speech he would have ample reason to be scared right down to his silk skivvies.
Someone said to me not long ago, it was a member of the press, ‘Dr. King, since you face so many criticisms and since you are going to hurt the budget of your organization, don’t you feel that you should kind of change and fall in line with the Administration’s policy. Aren’t you hurting the civil rights movement and people who once respected you may lose respect for you because you’re involved in this controversial issue in taking the stand against the war.’ And I had to look with a deep understanding of why he raised the question and with no bitterness in my heart and say to that man, “I’m sorry sir, but you don’t know me. I’m not a consensus leader. I don’t determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Nor do I determine what is right and wrong by taking a Gallup poll of the majority opinion.” Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus. On some positions cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
Mitt wouldn’t know a thing about that. That’s why he isn’t a leader and should never be president.
Dr. King had so much more to say than just “I Have A Dream.” Take two minutes out of your day and get hip to a King many Americans do not know. The radical Dr. King. The threat to both racists and reactionaries Dr. King. The Dr, King that was too dangerous to live.
I could not love Martin more if he were my father. He inspires me and guides me as much as a father ever has a son or daughter. This is his day and the legacy of America’s greatest King is far richer and more complex and enduring than a fading memory of a distant figure whose legacy has been watered down to four words.
The hero of the day in the San Francisco 49ers victory over the New Orleans Saints was tight end Vernon Davis who caught the game winning score from much maligned quarterback Alex Smith. The 36-32 downing of the high-octane Saints gave the 49ers their first playoff win in nine years and punched their ticket for an appearance in the NFC Championship.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh and the front office deserve all the credit for making the 49ers this year’s most unlikely Super Bowl contender. Some credit should go to Mike Singletary, the man Harbaugh replaced for being responsible for getting Davis to drop the diva act and tap into his incredible potential.
For a while Davis looked to be just another in long list of first round failures for the Niners. Nobody questioned if Davis had the talent. The question was whether he would ever pull his head out of his ass and tap into it.. Singletary was not a good coach. What he was was an excellent motivator. Davis was motivated by Singletary and Harbaugh coached him up.
While Smith-to-Davis isn’t a moment as iconic as Montana-to-Clark, give them time. They had to endure a lot of crap to get to this moment of glory.
My wife and I are 49ers fans going back to “The Catch” which occurred 30 years ago this weekend.
Today we witnessed “The Catch II” or “The Grab” as some have dubbed Smith’s TD pass to Davis. Whatever the hell you want to call it after nearly nine years or wandering in the NFL wilderness, it feels really good to return to being a relevant team again..
I respect the Saints and I’m not going to lie: I expected them to win. I felt the Niners had a chance to throw some blows and go toe-to-toe with the Saints’ explosive offense. Drew Brees is crazy good, but I also thought if the Niners had to deal with the Saints, that was fine. They had to deal with us too.
If this had been in the Superdome, I’m not sure the Niners would have won. They worked hard to secure that home field advantage over the Saints and it paid off in full.
The cherry on top is how satisfying it is that this the Saints/49ers was merely supposed to be the opening act for the main event of Tom Brady vs. Tim “Touched By An Angel.” Tebow in primetime. Nobody pimped this game harder than ESPN. They have been riding Tebow’s dick even more than they were Brett Favre. I didn’t think that was possible, but ESPN’s saturation coverage and endless hero worship proved it was.
Joke’s on you, ESPN. There was only one football game that was Must See TV and it wasn’t in Foxboro. Brady demolished Denver and sent Tebow packing until he can plan his resurrection next September.
I have nothing against Tim Tebow personally. He seems like an earnest young man who loves playing football and giving the glory to Jesus Christ, but I watch football because I enjoy the sport. I don’t want anyone’s religious beliefs up in my face.
Anyone remember Reggie White? He was religious, very conservative and after the game he would gather with players from both teams and pray. But White didn’t make a show of his faith. Tebow does and that’s annoying as hell.
It only took seven years for Alex Smith to get San Francisco to fall in love with him.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Reggie White was one of the greatest of all time at his position and a Hall of Famer. The only way Tebow gets in the Hall of Fame is if he waits in line and buys a ticket.
Enough about losers that are not longer relevant. The Niners are moving on and the Saints and Broncos are cleaning out their lockers. For the past nine years it’s been the other way around. I don’t know who the Niners will match up against next Sunday, but I know they’re playing and that is something I haven’t been able to say since they were rolling up Super Bowl wins.
These 49ers are not the 49ers teams of Montana and Young. They lean on playing stout defense, capitalizing on the other team’s mistakes while minimizing their own turnovers. Frank Gore pounding the rock between the tackles is how Harbaugh prefers it instead of Alex Smith strafing secondaries with his arm. It’s not glamorous and it sure ain’t sexy. Sometimes it’s even a little bit boring.
But it’s damn efficient even if it runs counter to how the Packers, Patriots and the Saints do things. Those teams were supposed to be contending for a Super Bowl ring. The 49ers were supposed to be happy if they finished with a .500 record. Nobody could have predicted this kind of success and nobody did.
Anyone who tell you they saw it coming is lying their ass off.
