RealClearSports: Luck Leaves Stanford Stadium a Winner

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. — One of a kind. That's how Andrew Luck's appreciative coach described him.

"There's no player in America like Andrew Luck,'' was the biased but hardly inaccurate phrase of David Shaw. "Forget about the stats."

In his last game at Stanford Stadium, Luck's stats...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: 49ers quarterback Alex Smith finished biding time

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He was wearing a 49ers hat the other day, to which you would say, of course. But Alex Smith more often is seen in a Giants hat. Or on occasion, as a salute to his first love, a team of which he always will be a fan, the San Diego Padres.

“I’ve always worn something,” he said about his personal preference.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Jackson creates winning culture with the Raiders

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The blend is unusual in pro football, excitement and candor. Hue Jackson doesn’t stop believing. Or demanding.

When you wait half a lifetime to become a head coach, you look at things differently, and even when the score is wrong, approvingly.

Jackson isn’t the only reason the Raiders have moved out of the darkness...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Winds of change blow through Bay Area football

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The NFL season the Bay Area wondered if they would ever see has arrived.

The gloom has been lifted. The joy has returned. The playoffs are certain for the Niners, probable for the Raiders.

It’s barely past the mid-point, with several weeks...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Oh, Brother! Harbaughs Ready for Battle

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Oh, brother! Coach Jim Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers against coach John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving night. “Yeah,’’ said Jim, “it’s a big deal.’’

Jim, a month from his 48th birthday, John 49. “We’re cut from the same cloth,’’ agreed Jim.

Of course they are, two sons of yet another football coach, Jack Harbaugh...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Luck 'Phenomenal' in Stanford's Victory

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. — He was wet and weary. But on this rainy Saturday night, Andrew Luck also was a winner. Of a football game, a traditional game that means as much to him as — maybe more than — the Heisman Trophy he might not win.

Whether Luck helped or hurt his chances for that individual prize is up to the observers and then the voters, but the only thing that concerned him was Stanford beating Cal in the 114th Big Game, if only 31-28, which might be considered a negative for a 17½-point favorite.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Tiger, Tebow Battle Their Demons

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

They were nearly 9,000 miles apart but as close as a television remote, the "T-Men,'' the demonized men. One is disliked for what he did - disappoint us after we embraced him like no other golfer in history. One is despised for what he hasn't done - play quarterback as conventionally played in the NFL.

On the Golf Channel, Tiger Woods at the Presidents Cup in Australia, a controversial and so far unproductive captain's pick by Fred Couples.

On the NFL Network, Tim Tebow...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: No love lost in Stanford-Cal rivalry

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

This Andrew Luck kid from Stanford? Just diplomatic enough to keep the coach happy. Just candid enough to keep the alumni ecstatic.

“We definitely respect Cal,” said Luck, discussing Saturday night’s Big Game at Stanford, “and I think they respect us. But it doesn’t mean we have to like each other.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Escaping the Hurt for a Few Hours

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

It was all right to watch the Raiders and Chargers, to check in on Tiger Woods at the Australian Open, to find out what was happening with Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech.

It was all right to get away from the hurt.

The world of sport had been changed, pummeled...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Stanford in the spotlight heading into Oregon matchup

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

For this week’s “Game of the Century,” you are presented a team with the longest major college football winning streak in the land, the Heisman Trophy favorite and the early morning arrival of that “look at me, Ma” presentation, ESPN’s “GameDay.”

Yes, as the Stanford band plays, it’s all right now.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: PSU Scandal Robs Sports of Innocence

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

It comes so fast you barely have time to duck. Or blink. “Bad news on the doorstep,’’ were Don McLean’s thoughts in “American Pie’’ – which, heavens, is 40 years old.

Now the bad news is on the screen, on the internet, on Facebook, on Twitter. Now the bad news assaults without a stop.



This is not about results...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Jay Don Blake basks in glory of Champions Tour win at Harding Park

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He doesn’t look back. Jay Don Blake doesn’t wonder how he could have changed the past — ask himself if he would have been a star if he hadn’t been so stubborn, ignored the doctors’ advice, paid more attention to what was in his head, not his heart.

Blake on Sunday won the Champions Tour’s Charles Schwab Cup, at least the single-event section, in the chill and wind at TPC Harding Park on San Francisco’s mysterious southwestern edge.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Even on the Champions Tour, Tiger Woods is the talk of the town

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He’s 5,000 miles away in Singapore. Even if  he were home in America, the Champions Tour, with its season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship underway at TPC Harding Park, is not where Tiger Woods would be competing.

Yet, for better or worse, no matter where, no matter when, Tiger seemingly is the only one who counts in golf.

Even during a tournament for seniors, or if you will Champions.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Couples Taking Heat for Taking Tiger

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — This isn't about the Fred Couples who was tied for the lead after the first day of the Charles Schwab Championship, the Champions Tour's year-end tournament.

This is about the Fred Couples who is finding out what it's like to be Tony La Russa or Phil Jackson, who is taking heat for taking Tiger Woods for a national team.

Couples, with a personality as relaxed as his swing...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Tom Lehman’s had long journey to top of Champions Tour

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The journey is what distinguishes Tom Lehman, no less than the journey’s destination, and the destination at which he arrived after years of struggle and doubt is a place among golf’s best, and surely golf’s most persistent.

The journey took him across America and across the sea.

It took him...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Chip Beck back on course at Harding Park

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He was a golfer good enough to finish second in the Masters. A golfer perplexed enough to give up the game to become an insurance salesman. A golfer persistent enough to rework the swing which had defeated him.

Chip Beck was the second person to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour event — indeed, he could play. He probably wasn’t the first to find he couldn’t drive a ball straight off the tee, and that flaw drove him out of golf and into the so-called real world of 7:24 a.m. commutes and office hours.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: 49ers Bringing Back the Past

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — They're completing passes to offensive tackles and nose tackles. They're on a winning streak that's bringing back thoughts of the past while keeping alive dreams of the future. They're playing football in a devil-may-care style that the coach seems to value almost as victory. Almost.

These are not yet the San Francisco 49ers of Jerry Rice and Steve Young, but what they've accomplished this unimagined season of 2011 allows - no, demands: legitimate reference to the teams of Rice and Young, the last occasion things were this good.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Conspiracy Theory On Tebow Is Nonsense

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

There's a new movie, "Anonymous,'' which is not about who's at quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, but William Shakespeare.

Yes, that Shakespeare. No, not that Shakespeare, because the premise of the film is the person named Shakespeare had neither the skill nor worldliness to create the works of genius we know.

Yes, another film based on conspiracy theory...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: No resting for San Francisco 49ers' reborn QB Alex Smith

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Maybe they should rename it bye-bye week. NFL teams have been getting their break, and many subsequently have been breaking down. That sobering thought was presented Wednesday at Ninerville by Alex Smith, who along with his teammates is coming off a bye.

“I’ve seen the reports,” said Smith, the 49ers’ quarterback. “Teams coming off their bye week this season are 3-9.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company