It's time for American Football Spectacular's capsule reviews of the first round in the 2009 NFL Draft. All the intrigue, all the anticipation, all the measurables! All hard information was culled from NFL.com's pretty excellent draft tracker site. Let's do this.
While the 2009 NFL Draft's spotlight was stolen by the New York Jets' acquisition of USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, there was plenty of drama around the San Francisco 49ers' signing of wide receiver Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech.
Gilroy's second-favorite export is returning to the Bay Area.
Defensive end Kevin Fagan and his mighty mustache helped hold the line for George Seifert's boxer's-mentality 3-4 defensive scheme during the zenith of San Francisco's 1980s power.
This Sunday, the current San Francisco 49ers will be honoring the 49ers of the past by wearing mustaches in their final game of 2008 against Washington. We will honor this honor by honoring Great 49er Mustaches as this game draws nigh.
Roger Craig was one of the most versatile running backs the NFL has ever seen.
A perfect fit for Bill Walsh's short-passing offensive system, in 1985 Craig became the first man to gain 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 receiving in the same season.
This Sunday, the current San Francisco 49ers will be honoring the 49ers of the past by wearing mustaches in their final game of 2008 against Washington. We will honor this honor by honoring Great 49er Mustaches as this game draws nigh.
When Joe Montana first came to the 49ers from Notre Dame in 1979, he brought this fanciful Fu Manchu style with him.
Of course, everything went up from there. Joe grew into the greatest quarterback the NFL has every seen, and the 49ers began their golden age of dominance throughout the 1980s.
Holy living crap, we love this so much!!
This coming Sunday, the 49ers are having a throwback uniform day in the final game of the season as Washington comes to Candlestick.
Word is that the o-linemen got it in their heads to pay tribute to Niners of the past by breaking out throwback mustaches to go with the throwback unis. The glorious idea spread, and now much of the team will be attempting mustaches for the Week 17 matchup as sign of strength of silly solidarity.
The Redskins ain't gonna stand a chance.
* San Francisco vs. St. Louis
Sunday, December 21, 2008. 10:00 AM, PST.
Week 16
The Interim Battle
Remember when battles between the 49ers and Rams would be cataclysmic offensive showdowns to determine ownership of the NFC West?
Yeah, those days are gone for now.
Found by American Football Spectacular's vigilant Kansas City correspondent Kyle Vorak, this mesmerizing image is from last night's TB@CAR ESPN coverage.
People of Charlotte, we say to you: do not be unkind to Steve Young.
As you can see, he is still elusive after years of retirement (and those adorable truck ads that your Mom appreciates).
* San Francisco vs. Arizona
Monday, November 10, 2008. 5:30 PM, PST.
Week 10
The Battle For Change
Can you believe that a week ago it was still in-question whether the United States Of America would either embrace change or sink with the failed policies of the GOP regime?
What a difference a week makes.
Also attempting turnaround is 49er Head Coach Samurai Mike Singletary.
After dutifully soaking-in the coverage of Samurai Mike Singletary's promotion to head coach, the unfortunate conclusion becomes: it doesn't matter who San Francisco's head coach is.
The single biggest problem hobbling the 49er brand is that the ownership is inept in overseeing the processes of running a football franchise.
Well, that's that.
ESPN's Chris Mortensen just reported that Mike Nolan has been fired by the 49ers.
"Seems like the economic downturn has spread to the NFL," said AFS Bills correspondent DJ Burrito, as he thoughtfully swirled his wine.
Well, that sucked.
Now we've got all these rumors swirling that Head Coach Nolan II will be fired after this latest underwhelming showing.
American Football Spectacular's New York American Football Giants correspondent Joon Lee has some verrry specific opinions about Nolan and the state of the Niners...
-So with the passage of Prop. G., a Proposition designed to try and keep the Niners in San Francisco, the question now is what the hell does it mean? Maybe something, maybe nothing. The whole thing has to be built and the Niners haven't made a decision as to where they're going to move. Even worse for the Niners is that with the economy as it is, it's even harder to convince some place to build them a stadium as there's not a lot of money to throw the team's way. Why should a city give a team money to build a stadium when they have no money to throw around? And it's not just a problem the Niners' face, but the A's too.
So after all that, the Niners hired Mike Martz as offensive coordinator anyways. After just one interview and after not really talking to anybody else.
Ending a few days of speculation, it was announced that as expected, Mike Nolan will once again be prowling the sidelines in his spiffy suit as head coach of your San Francisco 49ers. He will, however, no longer be the Head Cheese as Scot McCloughan will take over in that role. Personally, we think the Yorks did this all backwards as they should have hired the personnel type guy first instead of the coach-- especially as the coach was somebody with absolutely no experience in doing either-- but what do we know? We're only bloggers.
With the perpetual rebuilding process that is the San Francisco 49er franchise, every so often an old part of old successes will cycle back through SF. This Sunday, Gilroy’s second-most-favorite export returns to the Bay Area at the reigns of Chucky Gruden’s particular strain of West Coast Offense. You never should have been run out of town, Jeff.
Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start: when Alex Smith got injured, there was some back-and-forth about whether or not he was healthy. While this was going on, Nolan made the occasional subtle and not-so-subtle dig at Smith for not being sufficiently tough. Cue speculation and rumormongering approaching Brangelina levels. The Merc apparently had heard some other Niners joining in on the Smith dog pile and asked Alex about it. Alex went a wee bit on the ballistic side and accused Nolan of trying to turn the team against him, making him play when he wasn't healthy, and for generally being a big poopy-head. This all hit the press sometime yesterday and, well, hello hullabaloo. Naturally, the two parties met and issued statements talking about how their relationship is all :) and not :(
If there's anybody in the city taking more heat than Mike Nolan, it's his quarterback, Alex Smith. Smith stands accused by the Faithful of not very being good. The evidence? Overthrowing Receivers. Underthrowing Receivers. Not seeing open Receivers. The numbers back up the evidence-- he has a preposterously low QB rating (57.2) and completion percentage (48.7). He is also 11-19 as a starting QB. In the games we've watched, Smith looked like the same QB he was when he first started-- skittish and inaccurate-- so much so, the Faithful are muttering that Smith, as a #1 draft pick, has been a bust of Lucy Pinder-like proportions (sort of NSFW-y).
After staunching out the Arizona Cardinals last week, the Niners head to St. Louis to try to get ahead at the expense of the reeling Rams and claw ahead in the NFC West race.
The glaring problem with the 2007 San Francisco 49ers is that there are two 49er teams: the American football team that Head Coach Nolan II will put on the field of play this year, and the ownership team led by the hapless Dr. York.
Yesterday, the gentleman who came to be called The Genius passed away from leukemia at the age of 75.
Happy 4th of July!
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