By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- John Merrick couldn't get the words out, but he got the putts down.
Merrick's par on the second extra hole, the tricky, little 10th at Riviera, gave him a sudden-death victory Sunday over Charlie Beljan in the Northern Trust Open.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- There's a statue of Ben Hogan next to the practice green. There are photos of Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Gregory Peck and Katherine Hepburn on the walls of the old Spanish style clubhouse. Riviera Country Club is a site of history, and Bill Haas is trying to create more.
Haas, the defending champion, shot a 7-under par 64 Saturday and took a 3-shot lead after three rounds of the Northern Trust Open.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – The back is bad, as always. The swing is beautiful, as always. Another year at Riviera. Another memorable round for Fred Couples.
We measure Couples' time not in years but in strokes, 68 of them Thursday, three below par.
Was that W.C. Fields winking approval from one of pictures lining the hallway in the clubhouse? Or simply our imagination?
Fred Couples, timeless, nearly flawless. At a course where nostalgia perches upon the oaks and crouches in the bunkers.
A course where a statue of Ben Hogan is next to the practice green and the membership rolls once included Humphrey Bogart, Dean Martin and Gregory Peck.
Couples is a perfect fit.
The place nicknamed Hogan’s Alley and Corey Pavin’s Haven by all rights is just as much Freddie’s Fixture. If ever a man, site and event were inextricably linked it is Couples, Riviera Country Club and the Northern Trust/Los Angeles Open.
“It’s probably my favorite tournament to play in,” said Couples. “This is my 31st year, and Northern Trust has been awfully gracious the past three years to give me a sponsor’s exemption.”
Gracious and realistic. A Northern Trust without Couples would be like a day without sunshine – and there was a great deal of that for the opening round. The temperature reached the mid-60s while the best scores – Matt Kuchar leading at 64 – were at about the same level.
Thirty-one years for Couples at Riviera. Bill Haas, who won the Northern Trust in 2012, is 30 years old. Keegan Bradley, who lost in the playoff in 2012, is 26.
Fred Couples, 53, has been entering the tournament, when it was the Los Angeles Open, the Nissan Open and now the Northern Trust, longer than Haas or Bradley have been around.
“I love the course,” said Couples. He won in 1990 and again in 1992, the year he also won the Masters. “I feel like I’m a very good iron player. It’s a good second-shot course.”
For Couples, a good second-chance course. A course to wake up the echoes.
Three years ago, he was a shot behind coming down the stretch, and for a 50-year-old against Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker the very thought seemed a stretch. Fred would tie for third, two shots back of Mickelson.
“There are some tournaments,” Couples said Wednesday, “where I feel like people deserve to play, and I feel like I deserve to be in this field.”
Even though competing is as much stress as satisfaction. He is a senior, a regular on the Champions Tour, where the courses are shorter and the daily rounds begin later. You’re not going to ask a lot of 50-year-olds to be on the tee at 7 in the morning, are you?
But in the Northern Trust, where 46 of the golfers, nearly a third of the field, were born after Couples first entered the tournament in 1981, play on Thursday and Friday begins at 6:40 a.m. Couples, along with Lee Westwood and Bubba Watson, went off the 10th tee Thursday at 7:11 a.m.
“You don’t get that kind of tee time,” said Couples, referring to the Champions Tour. “Here, I got up at 5 a.m. and walked the treadmill for about 35 minutes (to loosen up his back). I worked up a good sweat, but when I got to the range, it was very cold down there. It’s tough enough to do when you’re 30 years old. I’m not even 45.”
Couples parred 10 but bogied 11, a par-5. But he recovered to start making pars, closed the nine with birdies on 17 and 18 and began the front with a birdie on a 505-yard par-5 that for virtually everyone plays like a 4.
“I putted well,” said Couples, “and I drove it well. I only played Hualalai in January on the Champions tour, so this is just the second time I played all year. It’s irrelevant what everyone else is shooting. I just want to play well and keep staying under par.”
Couples said he was outdriven by one of his amateur partners in Wednesday’s pro-am, although that’s difficult to verify since the ams tee off far in front of the pro. On Friday, the rhythm returned, and so did the distance.
“I have not really practiced much,’’ Couples explained. “I used a putter from off the green a couple times because if you don’t feel comfortable with a wedge it can get caught in the Kikuyu grass.
“So this is surprising, but again I can figure my way our around this course.”
As he should after playing it for more than 30 years.
By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA -- It's part tournament, part lunacy and all delight, birdies and laughter in equal proportion, held at a place so beautiful you don't have to know a sand wedge from a sandwich to be enthralled. And from the reaction at times, many in the gallery don't.
Copyright 2013 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA -- Brandt Snedeker was artfully candid. No playing coy when asked what he needs now. "Next on my list is a major," said Snedeker.
That's all he needs to be established as one of the game's best, not that after his run this year few even would question his status. In five tournaments in 2013, he has a third, two seconds and this weekend in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am a victory.
Copyright 2013 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Though Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are ahead of Brandt Snedeker in the world rankings, today he might be the best golfer on the planet.
When Snedeker won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am Sunday, it gave him a victory after two seconds the previous two weeks. He also has a third-place finish in five tournaments this year. Sixteen of his last 17 rounds have been in the 60s, including all four this week. "It's hard to put into words, to have a stretch of golf like I've had the last couple months," Snedeker said.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Along with the zaniness that is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am -- including actor Bill Murray dressing up like an 1890s railroad conductor and tennis star Andy Roddick being hoisted by a raucous crowd along the 15th tee -- Brandt Snedeker and James Hahn played some very serious and successful golf.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
NEW ORLEANS – He was angry. He was proud. The call went against him, went against Jim Harbaugh, went against the 49ers. They had lost the Super Bowl. The unblemished record was no more. The dream was finished.
And yet Harbaugh saw what we saw, a football team, a 49ers team, which was dead in the water, which trailed by three touchdowns and came within a play of victory.
“We were right on the brink of winning it,” said Harbaugh. He’s not a could-have, might-have sort of guy. He’s absolute, unforgiving. This time he also was correct.
Right on the brink. Right where a Joe Montana or a Steve Young might have pulled it. Right where a Colin Kaepernick could not quite do it.
Harbaugh, after again losing to his brother John, the Ravens coach -- in 2011 in a regular season game, this time, Sunday night in Super Bowl XLVII, 34-31 -- was frustrated and disappointed, honest and, yes, angry.
They say never to let a game or tennis match, any sporting event, come down to an official’s call, because then you’re at the mercy of someone making a judgment. Yet that’s exactly what occurred.
Fourth down and goal. Fourth down and five yards from probable victory, although with 1 minute 46 seconds remaining and Joe Flacco – the game’s MVP – at quarterback for the Ravens, who knows?
Kaepernick, rolling hot after a mediocre start, a start echoed by the supposedly efficient 49er defense, threw toward Michael Crabtree in the end zone. Crabtree couldn’t get to the ball, couldn’t get there because TV replays showed he was seemingly held by Baltimore’s Jimmy Smith.
Harbaugh went ballistic. He yanked at his cap. He screwed up his face in a grimace beyond description. He shouted at the official. He went unheard, and the 49ers went winless, incurring their first loss in a Super Bowl after success the previous five times.
“We want to handle this with class and grace,” said Harbaugh, not exactly the epitome of either when displeased. “We had several opportunities to win the game. We didn’t play our best game. We competed and battled back. Yes, there’s no question in my mind that there was pass interference and then a hold on the last one.”
This was not a game we expected the 49ers to play, to get beat by Flacco on third-down passes, to turn the ball over on a fumble by LaMichael James and an interception by Kaepernick, to give up a 108-yard kickoff return to open the second half and fall behind, 28-6.
Yet, conversely, this was the game we did expect the 49ers to play, to hang in, to hold on, to wake up the echoes, and the 49ers fans among the 71,024 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. There was Kaepernick finding Crabtree, there was Frank Gore slipping into the end zone, there was David Akers kicking his third field goal of the game. Suddenly, 28-6, was 28-23.
Kaepernick, with 302 yards, joined Montana and Young as Niners quarterbacks who have completed more than 300 yards passing in a Super Bowl game. Kaepernick, with 62 yards rushing, did not join Montana and Young as Niners quarterbacks who have won Super Bowls.
There was a touch of the surreal to the game, and not only because the Ravens had the ball some five minutes more than San Francisco or because Flacco picked apart the Niners' secondary.
But because late in the third quarter there was a power outage at the Superdome, half the lights over the field and all the television sets and Internet connections going out for 34 minutes. It was similar to what happened Dec. 19, 2011 at Candlestick Park before and during a 49ers-Steelers game.
When power was restored for a Super Bowl game which would last 4 hours 14 minutes – but was one play short for San Francisco – the Niners started their rally. “We got a spark,” said Harbaugh, “and we weren’t going to look back after that.”
Others will. They’ll wonder why, after a two-week break and numerous practices, on the first play from scrimmage, a 20-yard pass from Kaepernick to Vernon Davis, Davis was penalized for lining up in an illegal formation. They’ll wonder why the final sequence was composed of three straight incomplete passes from Kaepernick.
And, as Harbaugh, they’ll wonder about the non-call. But Crabtree will not, to his credit.
“It was the last play,” said Crabtree, “and I’m not going to blame it on the refs.”
Neither will Kaepernick. “We had to score,” said the quarterback. “The fourth down play wasn’t the original option. It’s something I audibled at the line, based on the look they gave us. I was just trying to give (Crabtree) a chance.”
He gave him one. He gave the 49ers one. They were unable to take advantage of it.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
NEW ORLEANS -- He is a 25-year-old with biblical tattoos on his arms and a sense of purpose in his manner, a man who in a matter of weeks has gone from a place on the bench to a key position in the biggest NFL game of any season.
Colin Kaepernick is a star, a mystery and, as the man in control of the pistol offense, the primary weapon for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
NEW ORLEANS – The mystery is the attraction. That and the success. What we know about Jim Harbaugh is that his teams, at the University of San Diego, at Stanford, and now with the 49ers, win football games.
What we don’t know about Jim Harbaugh is almost everything else, other than his daily attire – the black sweatshirt, the khaki pants – and his circuitous, indirect answers to questions other than the color of his sweatshirt or his pants.
Which is the way he wants it. And what he wants is what Jim Harbaugh gets.
“We don’t give nothing away,’’ said Niners tight end Delanie Walker.
But on the eve of Harbaugh’s first Super Bowl, Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens and his brother, John, something has been given away about Jim Harbaugh.
It wasn’t where we might expect, in the Chronicle Sporting Green or even on ESPN. Instead – and this is so perfect for Harbaugh – it was in the Wall Street Journal. So perfect because Jim Harbaugh is all business.
An article by Kevin Clark points out that Harbaugh is a disciple of Andy Grove, the 76-year-old intellectual and former chief executive of Intel who in the mid 1960's wrote a guide to keeping on top of one’s game – and we’re not talking sports – “Only the Paranoid Survive.”
Of course. Jim Harbaugh, Mr. Paranoia, Mr. “We Don’t Give Nothing Away.” Other than those two fumbles which cost the Niners a chance to make it to the Super Bowl a year ago.
“His whole demeanor is about that book,” 49ers cornerback Perrish Cox, told Clark about Harbaugh.
Is that why he is so evasive? Is that why when asked if his own experience as an Raiders assistant coach in the 2003 Super Bowl, No. XXXVII, Harbaugh responds, “I think everybody’s anybody’s experiences; we’ll use all to a cumulative affect thing”?
Is that why he hoped we’d believe back in November that Colin Kaepernick and Alex Smith both were first-string?
Brother John said Jim is merely toying with the media, that deep down there beats a loving heart, that we really haven’t seen the man he knows. There’s a reason, certainly.
Jim won’t allow us to see that man. He chooses to keep us at arm’s length, psychologically if not physically.
Jim, what have you seen from the changes to the Ravens offense since Jim Caldwell became coordinator a couple of months ago?
“Yeah, we’re not going to get into a lot of scheme talk,” said Jim Harbaugh.
“What’s new, what’s different. What we expect them to do.”
What we expect from Harbaugh isn’t exactly the unexpected but more significantly the unorthodox. Bench Alex Smith after a mid-season injury for someone who never had started an NFL game, Kaepernick? Is Harbaugh crazy? No, paranoid. And brilliant.
Jim is the son of a coach and the brother of a coach. Intensity? “An enthusiasm unknown to mankind.” Jack Harbaugh, the father said that about his sons – and daughter, Joanie Harbaugh Crean, wife of the Indiana basketball coach. And three days ago, Jim Harbaugh said it about the way the 49ers are going about their business.
Harbaugh played under Bo Schembechler, who when Jim got his first head coaching job, at San Diego, said to his pupil, “Tell me you’re going to have a tight end that puts his hand in that ground on every snap. Tell me you’re going to have a fullback that lines directly behind the quarterback, and a halfback in the I-formation.” He had that until Kaepernick and the Pistol.
Harbaugh studied the films and videos of teams coached by Bill Walsh, who led the Niners to three Super Bowl victories.
Harbaugh, we now learn, also is paying homage to the philosophy of a fellow worker from Silicon Valley – if in a slightly different sort of production – Andy Grove, who wrote, companies don’t die because they are wrong but because they won’t commit.
The Niners head coach is very committed and rarely wrong. the best example is Kaepernick, who most of us, including former Super Bowl quarterbacks turned commentators Trent Dilfer and Steve Young, believed wasn’t experienced or poised enough to get the Niners to the Super Bowl.
Paranoia? Someone dared ask Harbaugh whether he second-guessed himself after the decision to go with Kaepernick, as if such an admission ever would be made.
“I hesitate to answer those questions about that,” Harbaugh said in a Harbaugh manner. “All those questions and answers really lead to a lot of self-promotion . . . I’d rather answer those questions another time.”
Meaning, he won’t answer them.
“Life is full of bitter disappointments,” was a Harbaugh comment. He was referring to the playoff loss which ended the 2011 season. But that axiom also served as a reminder to those intent on finding out more about the coach or his team.
They don’t give nothing away.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- He was dancing for a few seconds after scoring what would prove to be the winning touchdown in the NFC Championship Game.
Then, suddenly realizing it was out of character -- even when it meant a trip to the Super Bowl -- Frank Gore waved his arms as if to say "this isn't me" and stopped.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- John Madden is known for his television work and the EA Sports game that carries his name. But he also was the coach who led the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl win over Minnesota in January 1977.
Now, living in Pleasanton, east of San Francisco, Madden has a daily morning show on KCBS, an all-news radio station. On Friday, he called 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, whose team will meet the Ravens -- coached by brother John Harbaugh -- next Sunday in Super Bowl XLVII.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
The elements of the formation are basic. The man who is directing things is not. The Pistol works. Colin Kaepernick makes it work.
Chris Ault just stepped down as head coach at the University of Nevada in Reno. That after proving he could design a scheme which would help his team and then many others take the steps they wanted on a football field.
“We’ve had more fun with this thing,” said Ault. So have the Niners.
“It is the next big thing in the NFL,” said Trent Dilfer, the ESPN analyst, and appropriately with the Super Bowl matching those teams, a former quarterback for both the Ravens and 49ers.
Ault had coached at Nevada, where he graduated in 1965, from 1976 to ’95, then became athletic director. “We used the one-back offense,” he said, “and were the No. 1 throwing team in the nation.”
When he returned as coach, his philosophy changed. “In this day and age, if you’re going to win a championship, you’ve got to run the ball better,” said Ault.
He wanted the quarterback off the line of scrimmage but not as far back as the five yards or so in the shotgun formation because that makes for too much side to side running.
He moved the QB up and the running backs directly behind him so that the backs could run right at the line of scrimmage. It was the spring of 2005.
“My assistants were getting their resumes ready,” said Ault, 67. “They thought it would never work.”
It worked when Nevada went 13-1 in 2010. It worked when the Niners beat Green Bay and Atlanta to advance to Super Bowl XLVII. It worked because the defense isn’t quite sure how to play. It worked because Kaepernick, with great speed, with a great arm, is at the controls.
“There is so much more to the Pistol,” said Ault. “You can run anything you like. With a quarterback being in a position where he can carry, that’s a dimension they haven’t had in the NFL.”
Which answers the question whether a unique college offense – do not call it a gimmick, insists Ault – could find a place in the pros, who are notoriously rigid in their beliefs how to play offense and what a quarterback should do.
As Ault pointed out, with Robert Griffin III of the Redskins, with Kaepernick of the 49ers, the Pistol is a perfect alignment.
“You have a thrower who can run,” said Ault, “or a runner who can throw. The Pistol provides opportunity along that line. And because the quarterback may run, as Colin did in the playoff game against the Packers, or may hand off as they did to (Frank) Gore against the Falcons, the (defensive) rush against the offensive line may be slowed down. The Pistol is not just a read-option formation.”
Kaepernick was a redshirt freshman in the fall of 2007. “I had seen him at a high school quarterback camp we had,” said Ault. “He had run the Wing-T in high school, so he hardly ever carried the ball, but I saw what he could do.”
When Nevada’s starter was injured early on that season of ’07, Kaepernick stepped in – as five years later he would step in to replace an injured Alex Smith with the 49ers. “It was a great marriage,” said Ault of player and plan.
In his four seasons at Nevada, Kaepernick passed for 10,098 yards and ran for 4,112, becoming the only player in the Football Bowl Subdivision to pass for more than 2,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 three times in an undergraduate career.
As we know, Niners coach Jim Harbaugh went to Nevada to scout Kaepernick. As we know, Niner offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who was at Stanford with Harbaugh in 2010, “loved the downhill element” of the Pistol.
"Sure, it can be defended,” said Ault. “Any formation can be defended. But it’s a matter of personnel and execution.”
So far, the personnel who have executed have been on the 49er offense, as in 2010 they were on the offense at Nevada, when the school not only made it to the Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T but also upset then unbeaten Boise State.
“It isn’t predicated on the quarterback running,” Ault told the NFL Network about the offense. “The defense will take away some of the runs, but that leaves the middle open.”
As it did Sunday in the NFC Championship, when Gore scored two touchdowns.
Because the running back is directly behind the quarterback, the linebackers do not have a clear view, making it harder to key on the running back.
While Colin has copyrighted his touchdown gesture, “Kaepernicking,” Ault unfortunately never through about a copyright of his formation, which he calls “my baby.” And it is.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
You watched, as much in dismay as disbelief. The 49ers were down by 17 points early in the second quarter.
Down against the Falcons, a team with the best record in the conference.
Down at the other team’s home, a domed stadium full of hysteria and great passing by the other quarterback.
Down but, despite the way many of us thought, not even close to being out.
“It’s hard to break us,” said Niners running back Frank Gore, the nonpareil. “We’re tough.”
Tough mentally, which is where it starts.
“We still had confidence we could beat those guys in their house,” said Carlos Rogers, the cornerback.
Tough physically, which is where it continues.
“There had been breakdowns in communication and coverage,” said Dashon Goldson, the free safety. “We did a good job of tightening up some things.”
A great job of holding the Falcons scoreless in the second half and, in the process, recording the third-biggest post-season road comeback in the 90 years the NFL has been in existence.
A spectacular job of defeating the Falcons, 28-24, in the NFC Championship at the Georgia Dome and reaching the Super Bowl a sixth time – where the Niners, coached by Jim Harbaugh, will face the Baltimore Ravens, coached by his brother, John.
Coaches talk of players who make plays.
Players such as Joe Montana and Dwight Clark who three decades ago combined for The Catch and altered the path of history for San Francisco football.
Players such as Ahmad Brooks who, on third down, and NaVorro Bowman, on fourth, broke up consecutive fourth-quarter pass Atlanta pass attempts.
Players such as Vernon Davis, suddenly rediscovered in an offense quite capable of adapting to the moment, who caught five passes for 106 yards. “It’s bigger than me,” insisted Davis. “It’s not about me. It’s about the team.”
Players such as Gore, who, with Atlanta having schemed to stop the expected running of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, ran for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
Players such as Kaepernick, the second-year quarterback, who after last week, when he rushed for a record 181 yards, this time carried only twice for 21 but completed 16 passes in 21 attempts for 233 yards and touchdown.
“The Falcons put a spy on Kaep,” said Gore, using football language for a defender assigned to keeping the quarterback from running. “We kept hearing all week how they were going to pound Kaep. He made the right decisions. I got the opportunities.”
On the CSN Bay Area post-game show, Clark, pointed out. “I thought it was a brilliant game plan. They came out in the read-option, and Colin made the right decisions. Even when they got behind, they didn’t panic and try to pass a lot.”
Atlanta certainly passed a lot. In the first half alone, quarterback Matt Ryan threw 24 times, completing 18, three for touchdowns. The Falcons appeared unstoppable.
“We had the jitters,” said Niners cornerback Tarell Brown. (So did Niners fans). “We knew it would be a challenge. We just settled down.”
Once they did the gloom started to settle in on Atlanta. A week earlier the Falcons had squandered a 20-point lead to Seattle but rallied to win. This time they squandered a 17-point lead, but it was to the Niners. To a franchise which after 18 years is back in the championship game.
The post-game locker room offered not only athletes in celebration but a glimpse into the past. There was Eddie DeBartolo, who owned the Niners when they won their five Super Bowls, presenting the NFC Championship trophy to his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, who owns the team today. And right there were Denise’s husband, John, at last a happy man, and his and Denise’s son – and Eddie’s nephew – Jed York, the Niners president.
There was a sense of solidarity and tradition, a feeling that after the lean years the restoration of the Niners franchise is all but complete.
“This is fun to be a part of,” said Justin Smith, the defensive tackle. He is playing with a torn triceps. He will need surgery. But he wasn’t going to miss being a part of scene. And he was a very big part of the success.
“We knew Atlanta had weapons all over the place. We knew they started fast. But we never got down and we won. It’s an awesome feeling.”
At halftime, Harbaugh, the coach was simply businesslike. It was Davis, the receiver, who was emotional, giving the motivational speech. Later he would shout out, “Kaepernick is the man.”
The 49ers are composed of a lot of men, symbolically as well as literally, a lot of people who never concede.
“Everybody goes through adversity,” reminded Patrick Willis, the All-Pro linebacker. “The way we came back makes it so more captivating.”
Donte Whitner, the safety, would say, “When we had to stop them at the end, there was a lot of pressure. We knew what was at stake.”
In three words, the Super Bowl.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- He has a voice that has been described as both piercing and maniacal. He carries the nickname "Lord" from when he was an assistant at Stanford. He leaves messages on his voicemail at the office just before he falls asleep or if he wakes up in the middle of the night with a thought.
Vic Fangio is coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers' defense, which was the NFL's third best during the regular season and is the best of the four remaining teams in Sunday's conference championship games. The 49ers play the Falcons in Atlanta for the NFC title.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- It's the Tim Tebow syndrome, 2,500 miles west and a year later. Colin Kaepernick is also a quarterback with a signature gesture. But there are differences. Kaepernick has a body full of tattoos -- virtually all religious in nature -- is a starter and has the 49ers one win from the Super Bowl.
In this world of short attention spans, Tebowing -- taking a knee and holding a clenched fist to his forehead -- has been replaced by Kaepernicking, in which he kisses his right biceps after scoring a touchdown.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
49ers Insider, San Francisco Chronicle iPad App
We have seen the future and it’s unflappable, uncatchable and wears No. 7. Colin Kaepernick is football’s new wave, a player who has his coach in thrall, opposing defenses in confusion and the 49ers in the NFC Championship.
Some quarterbacks run for their life, to escape. Kaepernick runs for records. And Saturday night, in San Francisco’s 45-31 win over the Green Bay Packers at the Stick in the NFC divisional playoff, he set two.
The game we used to know is being altered forever by signal callers just as apt to call upon themselves as the halfback or fullback who lines up behind them.
Magicians without a cape but with an innate sense of where to go. Or where to throw.
The attention went to Robert Griffin III, until his injury, and Russell Wilson, both first-round picks. Runners who were passers, passers who were runners. Even Andrew Luck is elusive, adding to his talent.
Kaepernick is no less the athlete and the leader. That he was drafted in the second round was an oversight that he won’t forget, but for the 49ers an opportunity they won’t regret.
“It’s a great team victory,” was the expected Harbaugh response when asked if Kaepernick’s brilliance justified the coach’s decision to use him.
It was also a great individual performance. He threw an early interception for a touchdown, a "pick six" the announcers call it. Then he threw the Packers for a loop.
Send out the bureau of missing quarterbacks. Green Bay still is trying to find out where he went.
Kaepernick’s first NFL playoff game was a mad dash to greatness, not to mention a reaffirmation of his coach, Jim Harbaugh, who didn’t so much take a chance on Kaep as pull back the curtain to show others what Harbaugh already guessed: Football is about to take a step forward. In Kaep’s situation, a very quick step.
“He’s got keys that he’s reading,” said Harbaugh. “It’s the read option. It’s a give read, or it’s a pull and run it himself.”
Kaepernick’s 181 yards were both the most rushing for a quarterback in NFL playoff history and the most for any Niner player in playoff history. He also completed 17 of 31 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns. Then he went home and fed his pet tortoise.
To steal from that movie title, catch him if you can. Green Bay couldn’t.
There have been mobile quarterbacks, Fran Tarkenton, Michael Vick, Steve Young, way back Billy Kilmer, but Kaepernick keeps the other team off balance as nobody did or does.
The Packers would drop back and he would sweep through or around. The Packers would move in, and he would throw.
The rule of thumb, the old-school thinking, is that running quarterbacks have a short career. Harbaugh, a non-running quarterback in his day, makes his own rules. And his own choices.
There was nothing wrong with Alex Smith. Colin Kaepernick simply had more right. And more speed. Whoosh. A quarterback who can move like that gives a team a back who’s not in the defense’s thinking but definitely was in the Niners’ game plan.
The Pistol was the offense created at Nevada by Chris Ault, a hybrid of the shotgun and the single back. Kaepernick ran for 4,000 yards and passed for 9,000 in Nevada’s Pistol, but the skeptics didn’t think it would work in the NFL. Nor did they think Kaepernick would star in the NFL. Wrong on both counts.
“I saw a lot of great qualities about (Colin) in college,” said Harbaugh. As Stanford coach, he saw a lot of Luck, who at times he turned into a receiver. Versatility comes to the fore.
Harbaugh said the Niner game plan went heavy on the Pistol and on Kaepernick. “Both handing the ball off and running and play action,” explained the coach.
“We’re pretty multi-dimensional from that formation.”
Pretty unstoppable too.
“From what we see in practice,” said Niners linebacker Patrick Willis, “and from what we see in the game, you see a quarterback run the way (Kaepernick) runs, that’s unbelievable . . . It amazes me. It wows me.
“Credit goes to the whole offense to have a (running back) like Frank Gore, who people have to account for. And then Kaep’s doing what he’s doing. And before you know it (the opposition) doesn’t know which one to go for. And both of them are running wild, which they did (Saturday).”
The other quarterback, Aaron Rodgers of the Packers, the Cal kid who wanted to be a 49er, watched Kaepernick in awe.
“He was running all over the field,” said Rodgers. “He’s big, strong, athletic, throws the ball well and runs the ball extremely well. We didn’t really have a whole lot of answers for him.”
Maybe there are no answers.
Copyright 2013 San Francisco Chronicle
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN FRANCISCO -- His runs break tackles or break into the clear.
His passes nearly break fingers, they're thrown so hard.
He has a body full of tattoos (mostly religious icons), a pet tortoise, a lingering chip on his shoulder.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco 49ers -- with Colin Kaepernick rushing for 181 yards, an NFL postseason record for quarterbacks -- crushed the Green Bay Packers, 45-31, Saturday night at Candlestick Park in an NFC divisional playoff game.
The 49ers will face the winner of Sunday's Atlanta-Seattle game in the NFC Championship Game. For the second straight year, both 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh and his brother, Ravens coach John Harbaugh, will be coaching in the conference championship games.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SAN FRANCISCO -- The quarterback who wanted to be with the San Francisco 49ers is playing against them. In perfect symmetry, the quarterback who wanted to be with the Green Bay Packers is playing against them.
Aaron Rodgers, who grew up three hours north of San Francisco and was a 49ers fan but was ignored by them in the draft after a great career at Cal, leads the Packers against the 49ers Saturday night in an NFC divisional playoff game at Candlestick Park.
Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.