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

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

RealClearSports: Palmer Gets 'a Little Piece of the Action'

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Carson Palmer called the week surrealistic, an appropriate word when one begins by getting on a plane in one city and ends by throwing three interceptions in another.

Maybe Palmer indeed will prove the quarterback savior the Oakland Raiders thought was so desperately needed they sent off a couple of first-round draft picks to wedge him loose from the Cincinnati Bengals and the inactivity he had imposed on himself.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh is doing it his way

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Who cares about decorum? If the people running the 49ers — meaning Jed York — cared about decorum, protocol or manners, they might have hired someone who knew how to shake hands.

Instead, they hired someone who knows how to win football games. Shake that.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: For Raiders, Future Is Now Or Never

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

ALAMEDA, Calif. – Of course it’s a smart move. Maybe it wouldn’t have been for the New England Patriots or Green Bay Packers, but these are the Oakland Raiders, who went out and traded a couple of first-round picks for Carson Palmer.

The Oakland Raiders who suddenly are grabbing at brass rings, grabbing headlines and most of all grabbing games.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Raiders Audacious, Resilient, Winning

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. - Something's happening here on the east shore of San Francisco Bay. Something strange, something emotional, something that has brought together an audacious coach, resilient players and an relenting belief in the spirit of a man whose basic concept of sport as in life could be reduced to three words: "Just win, baby."

Just win. Al Davis said that a thousand times.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 RealClearSports

RealClearSports: USC Not Stopped by Sanctions, Cal

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- The gulls showed up as always, drawn by the leftovers and the lights. Not an Alfred Hitchcock movie, although it made you think of one.

Cal football at a baseball park, at AT&T, where a year ago the Giants were in the postseason and right now Cal is in a funk. The Bears' own stadium across the bay in Berkeley is being renovated. The Bears' season looks like it could use some renovation of its own.

Read the full story here.


© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Al Davis had lasting impact on 49ers, Raiders coaches

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The man knew football. Also football coaches. Al Davis gave Jim Harbaugh his first pro coaching position. Al Davis gave Hue Jackson his first pro head coaching position.

Davis had his well-reported faults, but consider his virtues. Those two gentlemen always will.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Al Davis: Great, Devious, Imperious

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

He believed in white suits -- double-knit -- and lawsuits. In late-night phone calls and early-morning training camp cutdowns. In loyalty and intimidation and, as he made clear, more than anything, Al Davis believed in winning.

Davis died Saturday at 82 in Oakland, Calif., a surprise, although he had been ailing. Al seemed if not immortal then indefatigable, a lone individual refusing to bend or buckle, clinging to his ways and even to life itself.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Raiders Not Equal of Patriots Yet

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. — Team efficiency showed up again. One game's mistakes for the New England Patriots became the next game's corrections, the way the Oakland Raiders became the Pats' victims Sunday.

And, no, the balance of power in the NFL is not about to change.

Whatever this matchup proved...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Should Raiders Be Taken Seriously?

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. — Echoes of the past are reverberating. Like a 4.5 Richter Scale reading on the Hayward Fault, which runs along the hills not far from the O.co Coliseum, there is a rumbling large enough to create interest but not quite large enough to create concern.



What to think of the Raiders, where Al Davis seemingly has done what was needed after years of hiring coaches and firing coaches and trying virtually every living soul at quarterback?

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Stanford's Luck Mixing Passes and Classes

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

STANFORD, Calif. — The should-have-been No. 1 pick of last spring’s NFL draft, the quarterback who stayed to finish things as student and athlete, was asked now that Stanford has started its academic year, what it was like again mixing classes and passes.

“I love not having school,’’ said Andrew Luck, to which a journalist blurted, “You never had to take a class again.’’ When the laughter subsided, Luck, said, “I guess that’s true. The joke’s on me, right?’’

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

Newsday (N.Y.): Cromartie's day gets all fouled up

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — Antonio Cromartie was headed to the hospital. "He won't be talking," a Jets spokesman told several reporters waiting at his locker. True to the cliche, Cromartie's actions, the ones on the field, had spoken louder than any words Sunday.

Twice Cromartie, a cornerback and return man, was called for pass interference. Twice Cromartie was called for defensive holding. Once he muffed a kickoff, at the end of the third quarter, allowing Oakland to recover the ball at the Jets' 13, only seconds after the Raiders scored to break a tie at 17.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): McFadden paying dividends for Raiders

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Maybe the Raiders shouldn't have taken Darren McFadden in the 2008 draft. They needed defensive linemen -- they still do -- not a running back.

Maybe the Jets would have chosen McFadden. The rumors were they tried to get him, but the Jets were in the sixth slot, two behind the Raiders, and Raiders owner Al Davis, always infatuated with speed, was enamored with McFadden.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

SF Examiner: Not time for 49ers, Raiders to push panic button yet

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

There’s a segment on ESPN in which a former player, now employed by the network, tries to judge an NFL team’s immediate future. It’s labeled “Patience or Panic,” which is self-explanatory. In the Bay Area, it would be called “Panic or Doctor, can I get a prescription for sedatives?”

After two games, the 49ers and Raiders are 1-1. And people are giving up already. Maybe...


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company