RealClearSports: Playoffs? Nah, Bowl Games Are Just Fine

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PASADENA, Calif. — Playoffs? Not to sound like Jim Mora, so let’s paraphrase him. In college football, who needs playoffs?

We have bowl games. We have the BCS. We had an overload of overtime. An abundance of suspense. What else do we need?

You think LSU-Alabama will be any better than Oregon-Wisconsin...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Newsday (N.Y.): Oregon gets 1st Rose Bowl win since 1917

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — Oregon's "Quack Attack'' offense of rapid-fire plays, so effective until the postseason, finally showed up in one of the wildest Rose Bowl games ever, one that broke scoring records and in the end broke Wisconsin's heart.

The Ducks had the ball 11 minutes less than the Badgers, but if they trailed in time of possession they didn't on the scoreboard, opening 2012 with a 45-38 win Monday night in the 98th version of what has been nicknamed "The Granddaddy of them All.''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Oakland Teams Find There's No There There

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. – She didn’t mean what we thought she meant. Gertrude Stein’s infamous quote about this town, “There is no there there,’’ was misinterpreted. The intent of teams that, like Stein, called Oakland home is well understood, however.

They can’t wait to get out.

Stein, the poet, author and art collector...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: It all comes down to one game for the Oakland Raiders

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Oh, those Raiders. So many penalties. “After the flags, guys come up to me on the sidelines, and say, that’s what happens when you play for the Raiders,”  mused quarterback Carson Palmer.

Oh those Raiders, blown out by Green Bay, giving up a late lead to Detroit, ranked fourth-worst in the NFL in total defense.

Oh those Raiders...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: This year's San Francisco 49ers reminiscent of 1981 team

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

What’s made this 49ers season, this delightful journey, even more fulfilling is no one saw this coming. In a way, it’s similar to 1981, the year that changed the way the Bay Area, really the entire country, judged the franchise.

There were no expectations back then, other than the fact that somehow the Niners wouldn’t win. But as we know, they did win, and San Francisco, beside itself with joy, celebrated as it never did again. The first time never can be repeated.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: When big plays are needed, Raiders are unable to deliver

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The Raiders had the game, and then they didn’t.

“We let it slip,” Raiders safety Tyvon Branch said.

They had the game, then the Detroit Lions had it.

“We can’t finish,” said Oakland coach Hue Jackson. “To say I’m disappointed is an understatement.”


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: When Lights Come on, It's 49ers Football

in ,
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Let's skip the obvious and refuse to describe the performance as lights out, because literally at Candlestick Park on Monday night, they did go out - twice - in a power outage.

Let's not skip the obvious: The San Francisco 49ers are a very good football team, and they proved it by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, another very good football team, 20-3.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Good News in Sports? Tim Tebow

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

He’s cured cancer? He’s overthrown the Castro government? He’s solved the Euro crisis? He hasn’t? You mean all Tim Tebow has done is play football, and maybe knelt down a few times?

And because of that he’s despised by one segment of society and idolized by another? And ESPN keeps talking about him and showing him for hours on end? Amazing. Understandable.

He’s easier on the conscience than Penn State...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: San Francisco 49ers aren't catching breaks these days

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Jim Harbaugh was talking about criticism, conceding when the 49ers lose, there will be second-guessing.

“The whys for what happened,” he calls it. The worry is not what happened, but what didn’t happen, with the 49ers unable to get a victory.

“They’re the hunted now,” Harbaugh said of his Niners, after winning the division...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Rodgers still breaking hearts of NFL fans in the Bay Area

in ,
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The question arose again on an afternoon when the Niners once more had trouble scoring touchdowns and the Raiders simply had trouble playing football: What if San Francisco had selected Aaron Rodgers with the first pick in the 2005 NFL draft?

Growing up in Chico, playing for Cal — where he once completed 23 straight passes against USC — Rodgers was a 49er fan. That the 49ers — specifically coach Mike Nolan — chose Alex Smith and Rodgers slipped to 24th, taken by Green Bay, always may haunt San Francisco.


Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Niners need extra push in red zone

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

So the Niners are less than perfect in the red zone, which is football newspeak to describe when a team is within the opponent’s 20-yard line. And they rank 24th in the NFL in offense. Yet, only one team has a better record, so what’s the problem?


That they get field goals instead of touchdowns? When the other team doesn’t score, as the St. Louis Rams didn’t score Sunday, at the moment, that’s only a trifle. Now when they face the Packers ...





Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Call It the 'Bowl Complaint Series'

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

And from the sort-of-great Northwest comes the word. “Everybody is just tired of the system.’’ That was Chris Petersen, Boise State coach, the system meaning the Bowl Championship Series, which should be called the Bowl Complaint Series.

Everybody? An exaggeration by Mr. Peterson, who if he doesn’t like the status quo could have accepted the position reportedly offered him by UCLA, which is having as much trouble finding a new football coach as it did scoring points against USC.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

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

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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

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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