Two years ago, I got in on the first iteration of Jimmy G fever and watched Jimmy Garappolo and the San Francisco 49ers beat the playoff-bound Jacksonville Jaguars in a 44-33 barn-burner, with the side benefit of being able to brag to all fans of The Good Place that I got to see Blake Bortles …
The Philadelphia Eagles finally have a Lombardi Trophy to bring home, their first championship since Concrete Charlie Bednarik sat on Green Bay’s Jim Taylor to win it all in 1960. Hats off to them. They played unafraid, especially Nick Foles, and it took all of their successful gambles to beat the Patriots. Their only mistake …
For those who aren’t obsessive about sports, ESPN posted an article last Friday on the alleged circumstances behind the New England Patriots’ trade of Jimmy Garoppolo, now known to Bay Area fans as the return of Joe Montana, to the San Francisco 49ers last October. The article suggests that the trade, which happened suddenly and …
In the buildup to last Sunday’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, even the most gushing admirers of rookie 49er quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo anticipated a rough time. The Jaguars had allowed the fewest points and passing yards of any team in the NFL, and their defensive line, nicknamed “Sacksonville,” was so …
In the wake of the New England Patriots’ recent come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, many commentators have seen the game correctly as a final exclamation point for the legacies of quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick, and the current New England Patriots sports dynasty: seven championships, two additional Super Bowl …
This may seem naïve, but I was actually a little surprised to hear that Chip Kelly was fired as coach of the San Francisco 49ers after their 2-14 season. No one realistically could have expected Kelly to win with the worst roster in the league, and hopefully he will get some benefit of the doubt …
On Sunday, we got a definitive evaluation of Chip Kelly’s San Francisco 49ers, and the news wasn’t good. Their loss to the Seahawks in Seattle wasn’t nearly as close as the final 37-18 score, since the Niners scored their two touchdowns in what was essentially garbage time in the fourth quarter. The Seahawks, who had …
For those who may have missed it, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 28-0 last Monday night. This was good news for their new coach, Chip Kelly, but the general media consensus suggests that the score reflected the putridness of the Rams more than a Niners resurgence. This article on Bill Simmons’s …
The first thing you notice about Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers and their new coach, Chip Kelly, is how far it is from the city itself—about an hour’s drive south to Santa Clara in a neighborhood dominated by corporate office buildings. With its exposed white framework, the stadium has a slight resemblance …
To anyone who saw the Seattle Seahawks beat down the San Francisco 49ers in the second half of the recently concluded NFC Championship Game, the surprise was not that the 49ers lost, but that they came so close to sending the 12th Man home to an off-season of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Instead, with …
The online magazine Grantland featured a farewell essay to Candlestick Park, where the San Francisco 49ers played their final game on Week 16 before winning three more games on the road to earn themselves their third straight trip to the NFC Championship Game. The essay, titled “Closing the Cave of the Winds,” is notable not …
Watched the whole game yesterday. A few observations: 1. The cold didn’t impact the game as much as people thought it might. Not a lot of slipping or sliding going on, and both teams were able to throw and catch the ball. The kicking game was affected, though. Kickoffs were noticeably shorter even on good …
If there never was a reason before to eliminate divisions in the NFL conferences and go to a playoff structure seeding teams strictly by their regular season record, there is now. There is something unjust about a team tied for the second-best record in the NFC being rewarded by a first-round playoff game in the …
A couple of years ago, National Public Radio ran a story about people recalling what they had done on the day before September 11, 2001. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the story is that people actually recalled in detail what had happened that day, as opposed to September 11th itself. A few people, such …
Thinking to get an early start to this Super Bowl post, I wrote the following two paragraphs prior to the game: The National Football League requires its fans to wait two full weeks after the conclusion of its conference playoffs for the Super Bowl to take place. This is an ungodly amount of time that …
When a big game is about to be played, it is fun to go online and scan for tickets, even if you don’t plan to attend. It is an effective way to see how the business of sports works, and it can be a pleasant reminder of how far short most of us have fallen …
Going into this season’s playoffs, the biggest weakness of Jim Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers seemed to be an inability to play from behind. This had rarely been a problem over the last two years, as the 49ers usually combined their defense with a strong running game to keep control of the ball, avoid mistakes, and …
If anyone still harbored doubts about Colin Kaepernick—I at least will admit to it—he has effectively put them to rest tonight, and barring serious injury he has established himself as the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers for the next decade. The statistics—45 points, 2 touchdown passes, 2 rushing touchdowns, and 183 yards rushing (not …
Until a couple of weeks ago I could hardly be bothered with the NFL. The 49ers were playing well, but Orange October baseball had upstaged them and temporarily reversed the general preference for football in the hearts and minds of fans and media schedulers, at least in San Francisco. Once the Giants disbanded to their …
As most of you are aware, the San Francisco 49ers ended their season in dramatic fashion, losing the NFC Championship Game in overtime to the New York Giants due to a turnover on special teams and a subsequent field goal . Since the 49ers had won many of their games in the same way during …
When it comes to sports, it’s the NFL’s world. All the other leagues just live in it. While the NBA and MLB hope and pray that at least one East Coast big-market team goes deep into their playoffs in order to generate fan interest, the NFL can match up bottom-feeders from such trendy cities like …