Gary Radnich made fun of Matt Maiocco’s twitter habits at the Niners’ “nutcracker” practice yesterday, and I’m sure Mr. Rabinich figured he had an audience full of like-minded “working people” who agreed with him. Not this working stiff. While listening to KNBR at my desk, I “edited” stuff and thought how much more fun it would be to get away from my cubicle and report on Patrick Willis’ quad muscles. No homo, as the kids say.
Then Radnich again today, in his own way, ripped the fans who came out and attended practice yesterday. “It’s the daytime,” he said, which means, “You stupid unemployed ingrates, you’re probably mooching off my tax dollars. Speaking of Coach Mooch…” Thing is, I’d have been down in Santa Clara yesterday (and today, and the next…) in a heartbeat. But tweeting about nutcracker drills doesn’t pay the rent. Unless you’re a beat writer named Matt, anyway.
When I was employment-challenged a while back, all I did was apply for jobs and write BASG posts — to keep myself from going insane along with the benefits of procrastination, which is every writer’s guilty pleasure. (Thank God I hated Twitter when I was unemployed or I never would have done enough job-searching to even secure an interview.) Now that I have a job, I write BASG posts when I’m procrastinating at work and dream about a job where I could combine the two. Let’s see, attend countless meetings and smell burnt popcorn from the break room microwave, or getting paid to watch a professional football team bang heads on a weekday? Call me crazy, but I’d take the latter.
Talk about pressure!
– Alex Smith could be considered lucky since he still has the starting QB job in San Francisco long after quarterbacks in most towns would have been dumped on the curb like an old tube TV (Semi-related note: while walking to work this morning I saw an old TV sitting on the curb, not damaged, but with graffiti covering the whole screen. What good is this? Did somebody see a clean, outdated TV and think, “If you’re going to watch this TV, you have to stare at my nonsensical scribblings as well. WEST SIDE!!!”?). But what a nerve-wracking position Smith is in. With a solid-to-potentially-really-really-good defense, two elite weapons in the passing game, the best running back in the division and a completely restructured (and one would hope, improved) offensive line, Alex seems to be the only question mark. He could either become the next Aaron Rodgers (and yes, I realize how ironic that sounds) or lose more games by 6 points or less than any QB in history.
– Is Alex Smith this generation’s Steve DeBerg? If so, does that make Nate Davis this generation’s Joe Montana? Yeah, probably not.
– If you want to get excited about year two of Michael Crabtree as a San Francisco 49er, read this. Sample:
“We talk about it all the time, even in the huddle,” (Vernon) Davis said. “I say, ‘Hey, Crab, you already know what it is. They can’t stop us.’ Throw in our other weapons, and it’s over. What are they gonna do? There ain’t nothing they can do. It’s over.”
– For all the panty-twisting that occurs annually in the middle of each baseball and basketball season as the trade deadlines approach, isn’t it amazing that the NFL is so much more popular than any other American sport and its trade deadline is darn near meaningless?
– Kurt Warner’s going to be on “Dancing With The Stars.” Not surprising, but that bit of news is going to make Cardinals fans more and more angry as the season goes on and Matt Leinart continues to throw interceptions down the middle of the field (Favre style!). I think I’m speaking for a bunch of Niner fans when I say that I cannot wait until the Derek Anderson era starts in Arizona.
– Mike Iupati sounds like a beast. If he isn’t a Niner for at least eight seasons, I’ll be shocked.
– First training camp prediction: Forget this quote by Jimmy Raye (actually, he leaves the door open for this to happen, so on second thought keep Raye’s thoughts in mind) Anthony Dixon will surpass Glen Coffee on the Niners’ RB depth chart by Week 8, if not much sooner.
– Second prediction: no matter what the 49ers say, they will need to sign a FA cornerback sometime before the end of the season. Cornerbacks in football are like relievers who throw strikes in baseball — you can never have too many.
– Third prediction: Mike Singletary will do/say something strange in the next month or two to get the spotlight back on himself. This is the first time in his tenure that the team is more important than his accidental catchphrases or pants-dropping. He’ll throw someone out of practice or rant to the media soon, just watch.
