Newsday (N.Y.): Raiders show respect for Eli Manning as they prepare to host Giants

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ALAMEDA, Calif. — His brother, David, was the backup to Eli Manning on the Giants who rarely played. Now, as fate and fable would have it, Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders will be the first to play quarterback against the Giants since Manning was replaced as starter.

“I know this about Eli,” Carr said. “He’s a great person. I was able to learn from him a couple of years ago at the Pro Bowl. I was fortunate and blessed to be on that same team as him. Just learn from him, ask questions, all of those things.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): 49ers humbled by Super Bowl champion Giants

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN FRANCISCO -- The 49ers were waiting for this one. The Giants beat them in overtime in the NFC Championship Game last season on a field goal after a fumble, and the 49ers kept thinking they should have won that game and gone to the Super Bowl.

That's not what they're thinking now -- not after the Giants battered the 49ers, 26-3, at Candlestick Park, where by game's end, it seemed as if the only people left from the announced crowd of 69,732 were blue-shirted fans chanting "Let's go, Giants!''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): 49ers' Kyle Williams wants to atone for fumbles against Giants

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The words from the 49ers' Kyle Williams had a touch of irony. He was talking about Sunday's game against the Giants at Candlestick Park by referencing the teams' NFC Championship Game there last January.

The game in which Williams had two crucial turnovers that helped the Giants win, 20-17, in overtime.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Eli: 'This Might Be the Last One'

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

INDIANAPOLIS — The father and two sons, as so many others walking the streets, wore football jerseys — but not those of the Giants or Patriots. These were Green Bay Packers uniforms, the No. 12 of Aaron Rodgers.

A year ago, they were the team. A year ago, he was the man. A year ago.

How quickly the days go by. How swiftly times and teams change.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Julian Edelman is everywhere for New England Patriots

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

They didn’t, in the poignant phrasing of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, “know what the [bleep]” they were going to do with Julian Edelman. But they knew on the day of the 2009 NFL draft they were going to do something.

“We drafted you as a football player,” apparently is what Belichick, in his arrogance and brilliance, told Edelman. “We’re going to have you on the field somewhere.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Super Bowl Media Day: Senseless, Harmless

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

INDIANAPOLIS -- “Name the Kardashian sisters.’’ Was that an order? Or a request? Rob Gronkowski sat and thought. Maybe better than being asked what kind of tree he would be if he were a tree. But not by much.

Super Bowl media day, when 100 football players, if not all at once, and 100,000 journalists, cameramen and assorted mountebanks -- well, more like 3,000, but it seems like 100,000 -- gather to annoy each other.

“Kim,’’ began Gronkowski, the Patriots’ tight end. “Khloe ...“

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: For 49ers and Ravens, Timing Is All Wrong

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Something was going to happen. Eli Manning made that observation. Something always does happen. Football, like life, is about timing.

Football, like life, also is about accountability.

Eli and Tom Brady are going to another Super Bowl, verification of their skills and, on pass patterns, their timing.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Newsday (N.Y.): Giants 'D' outshone 49ers counterparts

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN FRANCISCO -- The 49ers fans kept chanting "defense,'' and they got defense. From the Giants.

That's the way a team gets to the Super Bowl, by giving the opponent very little. When it counted, that was what the Giants gave San Francisco, controlling the line of scrimmage, controlling the clock. And getting a turnover that turned the game.

Ultimately, that turned the Giants...

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Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Thrilling 49ers season comes to sad end

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

What can we say? What should we say?

Remember that Adlai Stevenson remark, that “it hurts too much to laugh, but I’m too old to cry”?

It’s hard to hold back the tears after this one. As hard as it was for star-crossed Kyle Williams to hold the football.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

Newsday (N.Y.): San Fran finds its offensive man in Roman

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SAN FRANCISCO -- When Greg Roman came to the lectern in the tent-like facility at Santa Clara that the San Francisco 49ers use for media interviews, he noticed a plastic bottle of water next to the microphone.

He reached for it, halted and then, with a smirk, asked, "Vic didn't drink from this, did he?''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Harbaugh Keeps Everyone Off Balance

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — There is a rhythm to Jim Harbaugh's words, if not exactly a pattern. After all, any football coach wants to keep the opponent guessing, make him feel off balance, and maybe nobody does that better than Harbaugh.

Maybe nobody coaches better either.

In his first season in charge, Harbaugh has the San Francisco 49ers...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: New mindset looks right on 49ers Alex Smith

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Now it's not an issue of redemption. Alex Smith has made it through the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, made it past the New Orleans Saints. Now it's not a matter of words, of arguing his worth.

Now it's getting to the Super Bowl.

He knows he's endured, knows he's survived, knows he's been called a bust...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

Newsday (N.Y.): Season of redemption for 49ers QB Smith

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- He wasn't supposed to be here, one game from the Super Bowl, not after the criticism, the boos and time on injured reserve.

Then again, as the first player picked in the 2005 NFL draft, a quarterback chosen to lead the San Francisco 49ers, Alex Smith was supposed to be here, facing the Giants on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game at Candlestick Park.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: 49ers Open Window to Glorious Past

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO – They were The City’s team, in name and function, created here, not transported from New York or Philadelphia. And if they never reached the top, they were no less entertaining than a ride on one of those cable cars halfway to the stars.

The 49ers were so very San Francisco, adored, beloved and invariably stuck in the fog of mediocrity. Oh well, let’s go down to the Buena Vista Café and have an Irish coffee.

The Niners originally played at an expanded high school stadium in Golden Gate Park...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Newsday (N.Y.): 49ers wary of rematch with surging Giants

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- They are happy to be staying home, which is no surprise.

"You'd rather not have to get on a plane and fly to Green Bay, where you don't know what the weather is going to be like,'' 49ers safety Donte Whitner said Monday.

Yet the 49ers are not particularly happy to be facing the surging Giants...

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.