Niners again face Rodgers, the man they should have drafted

For the 49ers, it wasn’t so much what might have been or could have been but what should have been. Yes, before yet another playoff game between the 49ers and Green Bay Packers, it’s time to recall the unfortunate tale of Aaron Rodgers.

Unfortunate if one is emotionally involved with the 49ers.      

It was a given that in the 2005 NFL draft San Francisco, with the No. 1 pick, would select Rodgers. He played at Cal across the bay; grew up a Niners fan; and in 2004 against USC completed the first 23 passes he threw, tying a record.

Such a certainty. Such a surprise. The Niners had a new coach, Mike Nolan, whose father had preceded him in that position years before.

Mike was going to show us what he knew — and so the Niners picked Alex Smith because, said Nolan, he was more athletic, virtually able to do everything except leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Nolan was relieved of his job before the new man in charge, Jim Harbaugh, replaced Alex with Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback famous — or infamous — for actions other than his play (although he did get the Niners to the Super Bowl).  

Because teams predetermine who they’ll draft, often becoming trapped by the choices, nobody else moved in on Rodgers, who dropped from a presumptive No. 1 down to an actual No. 24, by the Packers.

More than a decade later, in 2016, Mike Nolan, between jobs as an assistant coach, confessed to “NFL HQ” he was less than enthralled with Rodgers’ arrogance and his throwing motion.

With Rodgers having won three MVP awards, favored to win another and at least partially responsible for a Super Bowl triumph, one guesses those failings now appear less important — although Rodgers‘ current lack of honesty about Covid-19 vaccination remains inexcusable.

“Basically, we thought in the long term that Alex Smith would be the better choice than Aaron," Nolan said. "It was one of those, maybe, paralysis by analysis. We had so much time to think about it.

“We put a lot of stock in changing Aaron's throwing style. We also got caught up a little bit in that Alex was so mobile. That was a good thing. But in the end, we felt Alex would be the better long-time guy. Obviously, we were wrong in that thought process."

So again Rodgers, stubborn, cocky, successful, is the quarterback the Niners must confront instead of embrace, while perhaps for the last time they rely on Jimmy Garoppolo.

The draft is a process built on hope as much as it is on preparation. Tom Brady, labeled the GOAT, or “Greatest of All Time,” was not chosen until the sixth round of the 2000 draft, 199th overall.    

Garoppolo, the man the Patriots intended to take over for Brady, was picked in the second round of the 2014 draft, after Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel. But ahead of Derek Carr. The 49ers traded for Jimmy G in 2017. Now they’re waiting for the ascension of Trey Lance.  

The inevitability of Lance becoming the Niners’ starter was presumed the moment they grabbed him with the third pick in last year’s draft. Yet who knows?

In Green Bay, according to Eric Edom of Yahoo! Sports, some suggest that Saturday night’s game at Lambeau Field, similar to the Niners and Garoppolo, will be Rodgers’ last for the Pack.

Over the last couple of off-seasons, Rodgers has avoided giving a direct answer to whether he wanted to remain with the team, figuratively dancing around when asked — like a quarterback evading the rush. And Green Bay did select a quarterback, Jordan Love, in the first round of the 2020 draft, which made Rodgers quite unhappy.

“There are a lot of guys’ futures that are uncertain, myself included,” Rodgers said a season ago after the Packers lost to Tampa Bay in the NFC championship game.

Wouldn’t it be ironic, then, if what turns out to be Aaron Rodgers’ last game for the Packers is against the team that should have drafted him when it had the chance, the 49ers?

Niners win in a perfectly imperfect game

It was a perfectly imperfect game, full of too many penalties (by the Dallas Cowboys, mostly), more than enough tension (thanks to some 49er misplays) and an ending that belonged in a comedy show as much as it did an NFL highlight film.

Yet, when it came to the bizarre conclusion — Dak Prescott trying to run off a play without the officials having touched the ball — there were the 49ers in the next round of the playoffs and Dallas owner Jerry Jones sitting stunned in his box at the multi-billion-dollar stadium in Texas he helped finance.

On Wild Card Sunday the Niners, with a (phew) very wild 23-17 victory, advanced another step in the postseason, to the divisional round, where they’ll face the Green Bay Packers.

The Pack defeated the Niners in the regular season. And with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, football’s anti-vax answer to the disgraced and deported tennis star Novak Djokovic, Green Bay will be picked to win this one.

But who cares? In effect the Niners, who two weekends ago seemed to be done for the season (they’re now 11-7), are playing with house money — mainly because they play with a great defense.

The talk coming into this one was all about Dallas (of course, the former “America’s Team.”) No matter, the Niners clearly were better. The Boys helped SF by getting called for 14 penalties; who do they think are, the Raiders?

But the Niners, who were off to a first-quarter 10-0 lead, made mistakes of their own, including a Jimmy Garoppolo interception to keep us from turning off the CBS telecast, which featured the duo of Jim Nantz, fighting any urge to favor the Cowboys, and ex-Cowboy QB Tony Romo, who was less neutral.

Which made him about the same as others in the CBS crew. When sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson said Dallas was looking to pick off Jimmy G, and did the next play, there were congratulations and joy throughout.

“It was an emotional, up-and-down game,” said Garoppolo, who would rue the interception. “We were in a dogfight. The fans were nuts.”

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, also known as Jerry’s World, holds more than 94,000 of those fans, and with Jones, GM as well as owner, and highly paid quarterback Dak Prescott running things in their own ways, the Cowboys were talking the Super Bowl.

Oops. That’s also a word applicable for the ultimate play on Sunday. Moments before, with the 49ers trying to run out the clock, Deebo Samuel was stopped on third down literally inches short of the first down.

Then came a Niner false start and a punt to the Cowboys’ 20. As the clock kept ticking, the Cowboys, with Prescott running and throwing, moved the ball to the Niners’ eight. Tick tock.

Prescott bumped into ref Ramon George trying to place the ball without an official touching it — or did George, in the line of duty, bump into Prescott? Whatever, the ticking had stopped. Game over.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy — anybody here remember he was the Niners’ offensive coordinator for Mike Nolan in 2005? — said Prescott was slowed by the collision.

McCarthy wanted a review. “They were going to put time on the clock,” said McCarthy, “and the next thing I know they’re running off the field.” They had to catch a flight to SFO.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said later when asked about his team, “There are lots of ways to win a game, but we shouldn’t have given the ball back to them.”

They did, but most importantly they held on to the victory.

Klay wants more minutes, and he’ll get them

Time is always an issue for an athlete. His days, her days, are numbered from the very start. It’s only a question of how many remain.   

And then there are the injuries.

The time in treatment. The time in rehabilitation. The time watching others play the way you played and wondering whether you’ll be able to play again.

The time answering questions about when you’ll be back.

Klay Thompson, at last, is back. Maybe at the moment, after only two games — the third is Thursday night at Milwaukee — not as far back as he desires, but he’s a basketball player once more.

So much joy. So much satisfaction. Not only for Thompson, which is understandable after two and a half years incapacitated, but for the Warriors community, indeed the Bay Area.

Klay Thompson has been a great player. He comes across as a good guy.

Just as Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and the other Warriors we know — or think we know —come across as good people, touching lives if unintentionally.

Strange, and wonderful, how we grow attached to those we watch make baskets or touchdowns or birdie putts, people we may never get closer to than a television screen.    

It’s only laundry that unites us, we’re told, a jersey, a warmup jacket. But it’s the humanity that comes through. How can you not want him to succeed? And succeed he will.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr seemed pleased the way Thompson performed Tuesday night at Memphis, if not the way the game went. Klay hit 5 of 15 shots and scored 19 points, while the Dubs were beaten, 116-108.

“He looks quick, agile, strong,” said Kerr, evaluating Thompson. “It’s really exciting to see him playing this well this early.”

For Thompson, after a battered leg followed by a torn Achilles tendon, it’s no less rewarding as it is exciting.

Long ago, a Warriors center named Nate Thurmond reinjured a knee that had been surgically repaired. He was despondent. “I just can’t go through it again,” said Thurmond.

He did, however. It was the price one had to pay to return to the sport, to be able to use the remaining days of a career that already had grown short.

With fortune, the career of Klay Thompson blossoms again. He will be 32 next month. The future, so questionable after the injuries, now should be full of jump shots and glee.

Thompson’s father, Mychal, was the No. 1 overall choice (by Portland) in the 1978 NBA draft. Klay is well schooled in the sport and in life. That doesn’t make the injuries easier to accept, but it does provide a sense of perspective. Change is inevitable.

“We will ramp up the minutes for Klay,” said Kerr, after Thompson played 20 against the Grizzlies. “It’s a process. He will be getting stronger in the next three, four weeks.”

Kerr also said Thompson has to learn the moves and games of men he had never played with such as Gary Payton II and Jordan Poole. In addition, the NBA style has been altered, teams frequently going to a smaller lineup.

“We’re going to want Steph (Curry) and Klay down the stretch in games,” said Kerr, who has been as patient waiting for Thompson’s return as Thompson himself.

“My minutes are restricted,” said Thompson. “I want to play 35 a game. You just can’t take that much time off and be back where you were. But I feel great. I don’t even feel tired.

“One thing is the same — every team wants to beat us. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

They should respond with enough shots of their own. Klay is back.

Just a game for 49ers — but what a game

It wasn’t for a championship, wasn’t for the record book. It was just a game. But what a game.

A game that offered what sports is supposed to offer, unpredictability, surprise and best of all for the 49ers — and their faithful — a victory.

A game that once and for all disproved any thought that Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t a worthy heir to Joe Montana and Steve Young, no matter what the future holds.

A game that with the Niners, once down 17-0, then in the closing minute of regulation down by a touchdown, managed to win, beating the Rams, 27-24, in overtime on a Robbie Gould field goal.

And oh yes, a game that got the Niners into the coming weekend’s wild card playoffs against the Cowboys, deep in the heartlessness of Texas.

You want drama? You want joy? You want irony? It was 40 years ago the Niners came back against Dallas in the playoffs and won historically when Montana and the late Dwight Clark connected on “The Catch.”

Which would elevate the Niners to their first Super Bowl.

That one was held at aging Candlestick Park, now gone. This one was held at the newest of stadia, $5 billion SoFi in Inglewood. That’s home to the Rams, though you might not have believed it from the crowd reaction.

It’s always been that way, hasn’t it, Niner fans coming south to make their presence felt?

On a Monday night at Anaheim Stadium in the late 1980s, John Taylor caught touchdown pass after touchdown pass, and from the cheering you’d have sworn you were in the Bay Area.

When the listless 49ers couldn’t move the ball and couldn’t keep the Rams from moving it in the first half Sunday — they were outgained, 149 to 83 — you’d have sworn the Niners’ season was done.

Yeah, wait ’til next year and that Trey Lance kid.

Someday, maybe next season, Lance presumably will be the Niners’ quarterback. Management — and Niner fans — can only hope he will show the courage and poise of Garoppolo.

Jimmy G had torn a ligament in the thumb of his throwing hand eight days earlier. The question was whether he even could throw, much less start. The question was answered positively and effectively.

“You learn how to adapt,” said Garoppolo. There was pain. There  was resilience. There was success.

Garoppolo was 23 for 32 for 316 yards and a touchdown. Most of all, for an offense dedicated to running the ball, there was leadership.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan appeared to be gloatingly delighted, implying that all those who doubted Jimmy G and doubted Kyle himself had underestimated both.

Especially with Elijah Mitchell (21 carries for 85 yards) and Deebo Samuel (8 for 45 and one TD) running and pounding, and Samuel (4 catches for 95 yards), Brandon Aiyuk (6 for 107) and Jauan Jennings (6 for 94 and 2 TDs) receiving.

Remember that Rams game a few weeks back when the Niners ground out a victory? In the second half Sunday, they ran the ball on 10 straight plays. Maybe the only stat that counts is the final score, but in winning a sixth straight over L.A. the Niners had 449 yards, the Rams 265.

The saying in football is you win on defense. The Niners were a perfect example.

When needed, such as on a third down and short yardage in the first half, San Francisco, trailing 17-0, stopped the Rams and then was able to kick a field goal.

Asked how he felt after game, Garoppolo said, “It was an emotional game, up and down.”

Down and then up might be a more accurate description. And guaranteed at least one more game.

No Djoke: Aussies tell No. 1 player to leave

What’s with these athletes anyway? Sure sometimes they play loose with the rules—other than golf—but calling a shot in when it’s out or claiming they caught a pass when it hit the turf is one thing.  

 Trying to escape a vaccination for coronavirus is another.

 Do they believe these judgments about health were made to hurt their games?  Is that why Aaron Rodgers spent all that effort to try and con us? Or that Novak Djokovic has given us a lot of  gobbledy-gook that he had a medical exemption?

The man known as the Joker for more reasons than his name, was refused entry into Australia when his flight landed Thursday at Melbourne.

 The No. 1 men’s player in the world rankings was told, basically, “b’gone” virtually as he arrived to defend his title in the Australian Open.

Dokovic is special. As a tennis player. The next Grand Slam he wins, Australia or Wimbledon, U.S .Open, whatever, will be his 21st overall, one more than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

But Djokovic is also just another member of society, another human in a world where a virus has been running wild and hundreds of thousands have died.

As is Rodgers.  And Antonio Brown. And the rest of the athletes with their explanations and fabrications about avoiding the injection that will benefit millions of others.

Djokivic and his agents and traveling party thought everything was arranged. He’s the star, the last of the generation still in shape and in the spotlight.

Personalities are the lifeblood of tennis and golf. His presence lifts the tournament—as television and fans and Novak know. They want him to be there. Djokovic wants to be there.

But who knows if he will be there?

You can sympathize with Djokovic getting held in the Melbourne airport after a 13-hour flight from Dubai. Australia takes no chances. A year ago some 70 players had to spend two weeks in quarantine, allowed out of their hotel rooms only to practice.

This time, officials never permitted Djokovic to get off the airport property. He was kept in a room overnight, a 12-hour standoff—you can imagine his unhappiness debating the validity of his medical exemption from vaccine.

 One day he had been given last-minute permission to enter the country, in effect being told by the prime minister that, indeed he was who he and tennis fans thought he was—Mr. Wonderful—to revert to persona non grata.

 At one point, according to the New York Times, Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, Djokovic’s home country, got involved. Wouldn’t you have liked to be in on that conversation?

Maybe  president Vucic could work out a package deal that includes Kyrie Irving and the Nets.

Sorry. This is serious business in the Land Down Under where they’ve been remarkably successful against Covid-19 because of attention to detail.

“Fair and independent protocols were established for assessing medical exemption applications that will enable us to ensure Australian Open 2022 is safe and enjoyable for everyone,”  said Craig Tiley,  president of the Open.

Djokovic has always done mostly what he wanted, whether when he was young , imitations of others , to at the start of the virus outbreak in March 2020 holding a tournament in Serbia where nobody was forced wear a mask.       

Others on the tennis tours appreciate his skill but not necessarily his style. Or his leverage as a celebrity.

“I think if it was me,” said Jamie Murray of Britain the doubles specialist, and younger brother Andy Murray, “I wouldn’t be getting an exemption.”

But it’s not you, it’s Novak Djokovic. A problem for opponents, a problem for health authorities.

Maybe the best Rose Bowl game ever

PASADENA, Calif. — It wasn’t for the national championship, but that’s the only thing this football game on the first day of January 2022 wasn’t.

They’ve said the one in 2006, when Texas came back to beat USC, was the greatest Rose Bowl ever, and the most exciting. We’ll amend that contention.

The way a redshirt first-year quarterback from Ohio State amended the school’s and the game’s passing records.

C.J. Stroud grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, about 30 miles east of the Rose Bowl stadium itself, so maybe it was appropriate he would help lead the Buckeyes to a last-second win over Utah, 48-45.

The winning field goal from 19 yards with nine seconds remaining was by Noah Ruggles, but those were merely — merely? — the ultimate points in what had to be one of college football’s ultimate games.

It was a game that dragged before it erupted. Five touchdowns were scored in a three-minute stretch in the second quarter, Stroud responsible for six overall as he threw for 573 yards.

Never mind why Stroud left California, but a year ago as a freshman at Ohio State he never threw a pass, waiting behind Justin Fields, who of course was the No. 1 pick by the Chicago Bears in last year’s draft.

To recycle the line used about winning college football programs, the Buckeyes don’t rebuild, they reload.

But for the first time in eight years, they lost to Michigan in the annual matchup, which is why Ohio State was in the Rose Bowl while Michigan was in the playoffs getting pounded by Georgia.

Be assured, with Stroud back another couple of years, that won’t happen in the immediate future.

On the receiving end of Stroud’s passes were Jaxon Smith-Nigba, with 15 catches for 347 yards and three touchdowns, and Marvin Harrison Jr., the son of a onetime NFL star, with 8 catches for 32 yards and three touchdowns.

How times have changed. Ohio State, where the offense 60 years ago was often described as “three yards and a cloud of dust,” on this New Year’s afternoon ran for 110 yards but passed for almost 600.

Stroud said of his link with Smith-Nigba, “We came in together as freshmen. But me and him doesn’t have a good game without our offensive line. Our backs ran well. Our tight ends blocked well. When you get that combination, you get going.”

Stroud, who also was a fine basketball player in high school, has made it a habit of looking for Harrison. “I call him ‘route man,’” said Stroud. “His routes are amazing, especially against a good corner.”

This Rose Bowl was amazing. Utah was all over the field, but after leading through three quarters, the Utes couldn’t close.

“I’m sure the fans and the networks got their money’s worth out of this one,” said Kyle Whittingham, the Utah coach. “Our guys got nothing to hang their heads about.”

Ohio State has played in numerous Rose Bowls. This was the first for Utah.

“It was a heck of a football game,” said Whittingham.

That it was.

Woody and a Rose Bowl in the rain

PASADENA, Calif. — You know the song: “It Never Rains in Southern California — It Pours.” Written by a guy named Albert Hammond about not being able to find work in the movie business.

Could have been about the 1955 Rose Bowl game.

No question, the weather this time of year in SoCal is spectacular. For the most part, it’s blue skies. Chamber of Commerce stuff.

But as the lyrics of another song go, into each life (and region) some rain must fall — the “region” line is my own personal addition, because it was raining here on Thursday as far as the eye could see.

That was also the case more than 60 years ago for the event with the copyrighted nickname, “Grandaddy of Them All.”

The label was created by the good people around here because they believed the Rose Bowl, in a way responsible for the multitude of postseason college football matchups, was being pushed out of the headlines by lesser games.

But on that New Year’s Day, that afternoon in ’55, the Rose Bowl received attention it never wanted.

For the first time since 1934 and the last time ever — not counting some fourth-quarter heavy mist in 1996 — it rained on the Rose Bowl.

What a literal mess on the field. What a virtual stink caused by Woody Hayes.

He was a grumpy, demanding, un-merry old soul who coached Ohio State — which, interestingly enough, will play Utah on Saturday in the 2022 Rose Bowl.

In ’55 Hayes and Ohio State would beat USC, 20-7, but Woody was displeased because the Trojan band had been allowed to march at halftime on turf already soggy, thereby transforming the Buckeye attack to three yards and a clod of mud.

That was only one of the controversies for what, you should excuse the term, became a quagmire of a game.

USC shouldn’t even have played. UCLA not only was the No. 1 team in the land in the UPI poll but also the undefeated champion of the Pacific Coast Conference, from which the West Coast team in the Bowl normally would be chosen.

But the PCC had a no-repeat rule. UCLA had played (and lost to) Michigan State in the 1954 Rose Bowl. Thus USC got the call.

That game was our first formal introduction to Woody, who the late Jim Murray once said was graceless in victory, graceless in defeat. Hayes once punched Los Angeles Times photographer Art Rogers when Rogers, doing his job, aimed a camera at Hayes.

My job at the Rose Bowl, before I became a journalist, was to peddle programs. The first Rose Bowl game I worked, 1954, I ended up with $10 and, because the goal posts were made of wood and people could swarm the field, a few memorable slivers. I was in high school and thrilled.

But one year later, everything was different. Before that 1955 game, the heavens opened up around 10:30 in the morning. I was unprepared. So was everyone else.

The usual 100,000 tickets had been sold (at $15 each, if I recall), but attendance was around 89,000. As I slogged through the stadium trying to sell before the game started, a spectator stopped me and asked if I wanted to buy a ticket for 25 cents. No thanks.

I was wearing one of those high school letterman-type jackets, blue with fake leather sleeves over a required white dress shirt.

By the time I left, the shirt was blue from the jacket color leaking. I had earned $1.25. Happy New Year. Glub.

John Madden was different because he was ordinary

So here was this sports columnist sitting in a lineup of cars trying to get to the Bay Bridge toll plaza. And three lanes to his right, there’s a guy repeatedly honking his horn for apparently no reason.

The columnist finally looks over, and it’s John Madden, waving and laughing. He had seen me as we drove west from Oakland to San Francisco. No pretension, just joy.

Madden, who died Tuesday at 85, was special because he was ordinary, at least away from the field, a size extra-large blend of curiosity and commentary.

He knew the game of football, winning Super Bowl XI as coach of the Oakland Raiders. He also understood the game of life: Be friendly as much as possible.

He was born in Minnesota but virtually was a Northern Californian, growing up in Daly City, graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and eventually ending up in the East Bay community of Pleasanton — where, in the manner of the pioneers, he grabbed vacant fields that quickly enough became valuable property.

John could be demanding. There are stories about his impatience with others in broadcasting. Yet most of all, in person or behind a microphone, he made you feel good.

I was the Raiders beat man for the San Francisco Chronicle for a while in the early 1970s, and he didn’t always like what I wrote — which didn’t make him unusual in the profession.

What did make him unusual was the way he responded. Some coaches claim they never read the papers. Madden would come at me after practice, waving the Chron sports page.

Then he would sit me down and explain what was wrong, so I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. An education. 

In those days, the Raiders took the writers on their charters for road trips, the better for the papers to save travel expenses. As soon as the flight was in the air and the seat belt sign was off, Madden would stand up and march to the front or rear of the aircraft.

As we learned, Madden disliked flying. After he left Cal Poly, a football team charter crashed in 1960. Numerous players, friends of Madden, died. The accident haunted him.

He also was claustrophobic, feeling trapped in a silver capsule, and as soon as he left the Raiders for broadcasting, Madden switched first to a train and then a bus — the Madden Cruiser.

He was adept at describing the quarterback draw — his signature remark after a big gain was empathic and brief: “Boom.”

He fit in everywhere and with everyone, working TV with Pat Summerall and then Al Michaels; getting off the bus at stops in various places and dining and chatting with the locals.

His daily show on the San Francisco radio station KCBS offered Madden at his eclectic best, moving from sports to food to weather to geography.

Once, relating to rivers, Madden said he was uncertain about the word “confluence,” as to the linking of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers to form the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. “So, that’s a confluence,” he repeated, having as much fun as the listeners.

John Robinson was Madden’s pal from their days as kids and teenagers in Daly City. They were both football people — Robinson became head coach at USC and later the Rams.

“We’d go to an ice cream store,” Madden remembered of their boyhood. “I’d buy a cone, and he’d always take a bite; to stop him I’d lick the whole thing, but John Robinson would eat it anyway. He was different.”

So was John Madden. John, that will be me honking in salute the next time I cross the Bay Bridge.

Is Garoppolo just another Steve DeBerg?

An individual who has followed the 49ers for years has an idea about Jimmy Garoppolo: “He reminds me of Steve DeBerg,” said the individual.

For those unfamiliar with DeBerg, that’s not exactly high praise. Or complete disparagement.

DeBerg had a lengthy career in the NFL, three years of which (1978-80) he spent with the 49ers at the start of the Bill Walsh era, which began in 1979.

The Niners would move the ball, and then in a critical situation DeBerg would be intercepted. He invariably made the big mistake.

As Garoppolo did Thursday night when San Francisco couldn’t hold on to a 10-0 halftime lead and was beaten 20-17 by the Tennessee Titans. 

Jimmy G threw a couple of interceptions, one from Tennessee’s 8-yard line in the first period, and also missed an open man in the end zone in the second half. And while the defense, the Niners’ strength, could be faulted, the quarterback’s failures were inescapable.

“I thought we should have been up more, that was for sure,” was the assessment of head coach Kyle Shanahan. “I thought we could have got three scores with those drives. We didn’t.”

Not with Garoppolo missing receivers or, worst of all, throwing when nobody was open and no worse than a field goal assured — unless the other team gets the ball.

Which it did to halt two of the chances.

So maybe it’s unfair in a team sport in which offense, defense and special teams are involved. But one man has the ball and decides what he’s going to do with it.

“We were rolling early on,” said Garoppolo, “and in the middle just kind of got a little sluggish. It’s tough when you let a win like this slip away.”   

Tougher when literally you throw it away.

Turnovers are killers at every level of football. The Niners had two, the interceptions, the Titans zero.

The Niners are 8-7 this season and still in the wild-card chase. But they are 1-6 when Garoppolo throws at least one interception, as opposed to 7-0 when he doesn’t have one.

Jimmy G was the quarterback for a Niners team in a Super Bowl, something DeBerg was unable to accomplish. Yet the Patriots traded Garoppolo to San Francisco when he seemed to be the heir apparent to Tom Brady.

One wonders if Patriots coach Bill Belichick sensed a deficiency.

The future of Garoppolo’s career with the Niners is a mystery. The Niners traded three first-round selections to Miami for the right to make the pick in April that brought them quarterback Trey Lance.

Shanahan and his staff determined Garoppolo this year would be more efficient than a rookie, no matter how qualified and regarded Lance might be.

That followed the Bill Walsh philosophy. He suffered through the DeBerg seasons while Joe Montana was getting acclimated and confident.

A week ago, Garoppolo was exactly what he needed to be, the Niners winning at Cincinnati. Four days later, he was a quarterback who put his team in distress.

This Sunday, San Francisco has a bye, a time perhaps to reflect and second-guess. The season continues with a home game against the woeful Texans and then one at L.A. against the Rams.  

The presumption is Garoppolo will start at quarterback in both. And that he’ll play well enough to get his team to the postseason.

Then probably, Trey Lance takes over.

But who knows how good Lance might be — the next Tom Brady or the next Jimmy Garoppolo, who was supposed to take over for Brady but never did?

Tour surrenders AT&T golf to Saudi event

So the PGA Tour surrendered, although no one involved would use that term. Maybe “gave in to reality” is more accurate.

Realized the big names always get their way, so why not give them what they want and avoid a conflict in what was once called the gentleman’s game.

The winners, among others, are Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and the Saudi International tournament.

The losers are the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, CBS television and the restaurants and shops on the Monterey Peninsula.

The AT&T, which started as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, has been around for more than 80 years. It’s a traditional stop on Tour. But tradition has no chance when matched against oil sheiks.

They created a tournament that the Asian Tour chose to endorse after the former European Tour (it’s been re-named the DP World Tour) stepped away. It is held at Royal Greens Golf Club near Jeddah and offers a huge purse and appearance fees.

That both events are to be staged in the first week in February makes for a difficult situation. Let’s go to the past tense — made for a difficult situation.

When a Tour player wants to enter an event opposite one on the Tour schedule, he must receive approval — and agree to stipulations for the future.  

On Monday, Saudi officials sent a media release mentioning they had commitments from 11 major champions. Golf Digest asked who would blink first. We found out quickly enough.

It was the Tour. When the AT&T does get underway, they should put white flags in the cups.

Yes, I know the players are “independent contractors” and go where the money is, and I also know that in personality-driven sports such as golf (Tiger Woods, Mickelson) and tennis (Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams) the stars have leverage.

But they built their reputations and bank accounts in tournaments that enabled them to learn and improve. And earn.

The AT&T may offer celebrities and wonderful courses deep in the forest or along the bay, but it’s golf competition, and you want the top players, the ones who drive up attendance and TV ratings as well as drive a ball 330 yards down a fairway.

Long ago, when I tended to write about Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, even if they weren’t on the leader board or in the field, a golf official suggested I focus on the little-known players, to let people know who they were.

But that infamous headline, “Unknown wins Crosby,” will get only shrugs. ESPN, for better or worse, figured it out: Names are more important than games.

It didn’t matter that Tiger before the accident was 10 shots behind. To ESPN he was the story, often the only story.

You know that over the weekend Woods and his 12-year-old son, Charlie, played in the PNC father-son tournament. There were stories and videos from here to St. Andrews. Wow!

Tiger hasn’t been in the ATT for a while, but Mickelson and Dustin Johnson not only were there but more than once finished first. This coming February, however, they’ll be in Saudi Arabia.

The longtime tournament director of the AT&T, Steve John, has to be diplomatic and measured in any criticism. He’s not going to whine about players he hopes will be back in coming years.

"We are still focused on the many highlights of our tournament week," John told James Raia in the Monterey Herald. "We will be messaging that we will eclipse the $200 million milestone in supporting deserving non-profits in and around our community."

“We have received overwhelming community support from fans showing how eager they are to see their favorite celebrities.”

Good, but Phil Mickelson or Dustin Johnson wouldn’t hurt. In fact, they would help.

Justin Thomas ‘friggin’ blown away’ by Tiger’s round.

He played 18, and one of the men who was with him, a friend and a critic—as well as a major champion, Justin Thomas had this to say about the return of Tiger Woods; “I was friggin ‘blown away.”

If that borders on the obscene, well what Woods has done borders on the amazing.

Ten months ago surgeons were inserting a rod into his right leg and attaching his right foot to his ankle with pins and screws.

Ten months ago after that rollover auto accident a sheriff’s deputy in Southern California said Tiger was lucky he’s alive. 

Ten months ago the question was whether Woods would walk normally again, never stand and swing a golf club

But Saturday Tiger walked and played golf and awed Thomas along with most of us.

Sure he rode the course in a cart, but when he stepped out to hit a ball it was without a limp or without hesitation

It wasn’t the Masters. Wasn’t even  a normal PGA Tour tournament, but rather the PNC Championship, an annual  father-son (or for the Korda family, father-daughter) event at the Ritz-Carlton course in Orlando, Fla.

Two rounds, scramble format (each person hits and then the decision is made which ball to play. Entrants from 86-years old (Gary Player, teamed with grandson, Jordan) to 11 years old.

Thomas and his dad, Mike a teaching pro with a bad back, are defending champions, but everyone involved knows the idea is to have a good time. And usually nothing else is important.

Except this time. Except when Woods, who hadn’t played in competition for 263 days, makes –well, Peter Jacobsen said he wouldn’t describe it as a comeback although that’s exactly what it is.

So you don’t particularly care about golf. And you’ve been on Tiger ever since those escapades with the women. No matter, Woods remains transcendent, up there in the sporting galaxy with Tom Brady, Steph Curry, LeBron James and  Bill Belichick.

Tiger again played with his son, Charlie, who now is 12, has a swing much like his father—not from Tiger’s instruction but from Charlie’s replication—and loves to practice.

The Woods team is at a best-ball 10-under (Stewart and Reagan  Cink are 13—13 under but the only story really is Tiger. “Welcome to the most anticipated 36 holes in golf,” Dan Hicks told the Golf Channel audience at the start of a telecast which subsequently was switched to NBC. 

An exaggeration, indeed, but quite acceptable knowing the circumstances., Hicks later said tournament sponsors probably could have sold 20,000 tickets, but there wasn’t room on what basically is a resort course.

The man is not merely a sports figure, he’s a 21st  century version of a Greek tragedy whose struggles have only magnified his presence.

Praise him—as most do—or belittle him, you can’t ignore him. His past sins? America has forgiven others guilty of worse  transgretions. Woods will be 46 the end of December, the age of respectability.

After the round Woods—as any parent—talked more about his son than himself, explaining when questioned that Charlie tends to emulate all the moves of his father. But those were acquired, not taught. “I’m his father,” said Woods, “not his coach.”

One learns by practicing. “The grind of the game,” said Tiger, “from Hogan to Trevino to me.”

Lee Trevino, playing the PNG with one of his offspring], won two U.S. Opens and two British Opens. He’s now 82.

As we know, Tiger has won 15 majors, the last one the 2019 Masters, a surprise—as would be  any Tour victory, now,  major or not.

“He made some quality golf shots out there,” Thomas said about the round Saturday. I’m happy for him,”

So is all of golf. A Tiger revival would be just what the game needs.

Steph brings out the best in sports

This was sport at its best, a record, respect, appreciation, sharing. It was perfect timing in an imperfect world.

This was as good as it gets on the night Steph Curry got a place in history, along with an outpouring of praise from those who perhaps best understand what he has accomplished: others who play basketball at the highest level.

Tweets from so many, including LeBron James.

Curry literally was moved to tears as he considered what he had achieved, even though breaking the NBA record for career 3-point baskets had reached the point of inevitability.

He knew he was going to do it. We knew he was going to do it. He did it Tuesday night on arguably the game’s grandest stage, Madison Square Garden in New York City.

If you can make it there, the lyrics tell us, you can make it anywhere.

What Curry made at the 7:33 mark of the first quarter of the Warriors 105-96 win over the Knicks was the 3-pointer that would surpass Ray Allen’s mark of 2,973.

Before the game ended, among his total 22 points, Curry would make three more 3s, adding to a number that will grow as long as Steph keeps playing and shooting — and the contract for the 33-year-old lasts another three and a half seasons.

“I hope to push the record a long way,” said Curry.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, an excellent long-range gunner long ago, admiring the post-game celebrations, again reminded how much Steph had affected basketball.

“There were 82 3-pointers taken (Tuesday),” Kerr said. “So, on a night when he broke the record, the sum of both teams’ 3-point attempts was kind of a testament to Steph’s impact on the league.

“It’s a different game now, obviously. But Steph made it a different game.”

After Reggie Miller, who was broadcasting the game for TBS, and Allen, who was in the building, made their contributions, Reggie holding the record until Allen grabbed it.

The two were thrilled to be part of an evening that in a way was as much theirs as Steph’s.

“Reggie came up to Boston to cheer me on,” said Allen, who was with the Celtics. “As Steph got closer to the record, I told myself I had to find a way to be there.”

So he was, along with Curry’s parents — his father, Dell, played in the NBA — a few coaches and friends, and a Garden crowd of 19,000, some of which paid prices inflated by the importance of the event.

“When I came in the league,” said Curry, as a matter of fact and not pretension, ”I watched things like this happening. Now 11 years later, I’m the one.”

Indeed, the one who has brought attention to the Bay Area as well as himself. In an activity too full of bitterness and criticism, egotism unfettered, Curry seems universally loved.

He plays basketball beautifully and joyfully. As well as successfully.

“He’s great at the one skill every player wants to be great at,” Tim Legler, a very competent shooter himself, said on ESPN. “Steph has redefined shooting. The things he does to get open are incredibly difficult. He makes it look easy.”

Although Kerr thought he had prepared himself for the basket that would make Steph the record holder, he was awed by the reaction after it took place.

“The moment was spectacular,” Kerr said. “The aftermath was more emotional than I expected it to be. It was just an outpouring of love and appreciation for Steph from seemingly everyone in the building. Beautiful, beautiful.“

As are the gifts that ESPN reported Curry gave long-time teammates Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala for their support — Rolex watches.

Time pieces from a man whose play is timeless.

Down the stretch, Garoppolo performed like Montana

Agreed, he’s not Joe Montana. But the way Jimmy Garoppolo performed down the stretch Sunday, completing passes, leading the Niners from behind in overtime to a victory, was — dare we say — very reminiscent of Joe.

Jimmy G. won a game the San Francisco 49ers very much needed, a game it seemed they had let slip away and then wrenched back from the Cincinnati Bengals on the road.

He wasn’t alone. Joe Montana wasn’t alone. Tom Brady isn’t alone. John Elway wasn’t alone. Football is a team game, and a game of ebbs and flows, when the opportunity must be grabbed or it will lay groaning as a painful memory.

The memory of the Niners’ 26-23 victory on Sunday touches back to the good old days of comebacks and championships, of making the right calls and the right plays.

That in the great scheme of this NFL season the game may turn out to be insignificant doesn’t matter. When the oft-criticized Garoppolo had to get a win, he got it, in conjunction with Deebo Samuel and Nick Bosa and Brandon Aiyuk — and certainly and demonstratively, the amazing George Kittle.

There, late in the afternoon at Cincinnati, were the erratic Niners, failing to take the game when Robbie Gould’s 43-yard field goal try at the end of regulation was wide; quickly behind, 23-20, when the Bengals made their own 3-pointer; pulling it out when, with virtually no time remaining, Aiyuk shoved the ball over the goal line as he flew into space.

It wasn’t beautiful, but it was successful. The saying in golf is applicable, “It ain’t how, it’s how many.” There’s no judging of form, just a display of the final score.

As a relieved Niners coach, Kyle Shanahan, conceded. 

Garoppolo botched things a week ago against Seattle, and there were other games when he couldn’t bring it home (even after the win, San Francisco is just 7-6, although very much a wild card possibility). 

This time with plenty of assistance from the offensive line, the receivers and the game plan, Garoppolo hit one pass after another. Or handed off to Samuel or Jeff Wilson. There was a sense of purpose and feeling of confidence.

“We kept saying that we’ve been in this situation before,” Garoppolo explained about the drive. “No one blinked. Guys knew that we had been here before, and we’ve done this before.”

True, but until you do it correctly, pulling out a game that seemingly was lost, it’s just rehearsal.

“We’ve just got to do this game,” said Garoppolo.

They did in no small part due to Kittle, the tight end who snares passes, batters potential tacklers and just generally makes the 49ers formidable and fearsome.

“That dude is the one Shanahan describe as a violent blocker and violent receiver” Aiyuk said of Kittle. “Not a bad combination. That dude is special.“

Kittle would just as soon hit possible defenders as catch a football, a trend coaches find perfect for a tight end, not that George shies away from getting a ball in his hands.

Against the Bengals, Kittle caught 13 passes for 151 yards, a touchdown and two first downs on third-down situations. “When you have a guy like him, you lean on him,” said Garoppolo.

If you didn’t, you’d better get a new job. Back when the Niners had Jerry Rice, and failed to target him, John Madden would growl, “He’s your best weapon. He needs the ball.”

What the 49ers needed was this victory, achieved in part because Cincy fumbled away two first-quarter punts and in part because Jimmy Garoppolo did what a 49er quarterback is expected to do.

Win the game the way Joe Montana used to do.

Steph lets his shots do the talking

Steph Curry was missing. Not with his shots. From the scene.

This was on Wednesday night, and as we all know — especially the guys at ESPN, who control our sports perceptions — only two people count in the NBA: Steph and that LeBron James guy.

LeBron, after helping the Lakers beat the Celtics, stood at a microphone and said, “I just like the way we competed tonight on both sides of the ball. A lot of intensity.”

Nothing to be etched in stone, but at least more than we heard from Curry.

Which was nothing.

Maybe Steph was trying to allow his teammates to get the attention after a 104-94 win over the troubled Portland Trail Blazers. Or maybe he was just weary from answering questions about the record he’s about to break.

You know the one, the lifetime total for 3-point baskets. For another few hours — or if Curry is off when the Warriors begin their road trip at Philly on Saturday, another few days — that record is 2,973, held by Ray Allen, who retired after the 2012-13 season.

Should we be excited about Steph’s quest? Indeed. He now is only nine threes short of tying Allen.

But unless the NBA is going to shut down tomorrow, Curry’s record is going to grow and grow. And grow. 

He has miles to go and many shots to make. The man is 33, and assuming he plays two seasons after this one — hey, LeBron will be 37 in a couple of weeks and he’s still rolling — Steph ought to put the record not only out of reach but beyond our imagination. He might hit another 200 of those long-range shots.

Not that teammate Draymond Green believes Curry will retain the record, once he sets it.

“Most people, especially in the analytical department, didn't think Steph Curry shot enough threes,” Green told NBC Bay Area Sports. 

“To this day, they still don't think Steph Curry shoots enough threes. That just goes to show you where the game is going and why his record will be broken probably within five to six years of him playing the game."

Who knows? What everyone does know is Curry helped remake the sport. Kids who wanted to dunk now just as often want to score from beyond the arc, which in the NBA is painted at 23 feet 9 inches.

"It totally changed the way the game is played,” said Green, “just by the way Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have been playing the game all this time.”

What Curry should be celebrated for is his accuracy and consistency. Along with his showmanship. Dribbling two basketballs in practice and connecting on those 35-foot baskets in pre-game warmups are fan favorites.

The eternal saying is that basketball is a team game, and while that’s true — hit the open man, switch while caught behind a screen on defense — it’s the individuals who make the game the joy it is.

The movie industry figured out a century ago that stars sold tickets. You didn’t need Shakespeare if Marilyn Monroe or Humphrey Bogart were on the marquee. In the NBA, what matters is who’s on the court — LeBron or Kevin Durant or, yes, Steph Curry.

As much as we love to watch them, others love to play with them — in effect sharing their success as well as adding to it. The other Warriors are well aware of the chase, at Chase Center and other locations, of a record.

“The vibe is still good,” said the Warriors’ Otto Porter Jr. “We are trying to figure out how to win playing Warriors basketball. We are trying to get good looks cutting off him. Steph is playmaking whether he is on or off the ball.”

Mostly when he shoots, he is on target.

Warriors soldier on after loss to Spurs

SAN FRANCISCO — They’re at it again Monday night. No time to rue. No time to relax. “This is how the NBA works,” said Steve Kerr.

He went through it as a player. Now he’s going through it as coach of the Warriors.

An impressive victory over the Suns on Friday night; a gloomy loss to San Antonio despite a comeback Saturday night; a day off Sunday for what little rest is possible, and here come the Orlando Magic, a third game in four nights.

Maybe Steph Curry will have recovered. “It looked to me like fatigue,” Kerr said of Curry missing 21 of his 28 shots. Probably the Warriors won’t fall behind by 22 points. We’ll find out out soon enough.

What we should have known is the season is destined to be a grind, although it’s doubtful there will be many games like Saturday night’s at Chase Center, when the Dubs were out of it, then worked back into it and took a 5-point lead before losing to the Spurs, 112-107.

Kerr couldn’t say much except he was proud of his team. “We’ve got a bunch of competitors,” was the affirmation.

But isn’t everybody in the NBA — except the Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost a game last week by a record 73 points?

Highly paid athletes may stumble, but they don’t quit. 

It was a rigorous weekend for the Dubs, beginning with an important victory over a Suns team that had won 18 straight.

“We don’t have to win it,” Kerr said in response to a question about that necessary victory. “It’s an 82-game season, and we didn’t have to win (Friday) night. It’s the body of work that counts.”

If you’re looking for perspective, that is. Still, it’s each individual game that matters, against the particular opponent or in the standings. And when the time comes in spring for the playoffs.

The psychology of success — or failure — is not to be overlooked. You beat a team often enough, and you’ll know you can do it in the postseason. So will they. 

The elephant missing from this room, certainly, is Klay Thompson, who may return in a couple weeks from the consecutive leg and foot injuries that have kept in from NBA competition since June 2019.

He not only scores, he enables Curry to score and plays outstanding defense. Or did. Surely the thought of a healthy, helpful Thompson allows Kerr a degree of serenity.

Yet even without Klay and with an understandably weary Steph (he was 7-of-28 for 27 points Saturday), the Warriors have gone 19-4.

“There are nights when things are stacked against you, in terms of the schedule,” Kerr pointed out, referring to back-to-back games that involved the Suns against the Warriors and then, a night later, the Warriors against the Spurs.

“When Phoenix played us (Friday), they probably got in (to San Francisco) around 3 a.m. That’s all part of being in the league. It’s going through scheduling stuff and trying to find the energy to win. (Saturday) it looked to me like our whole team, not just Steph, was a step behind. We’ll bounce back.”

Before the season, the question was whether the Warriors had a chance against the Lakers, but L.A. has been without LeBron James for numerous games, either because of a groin injury or Covid-19 protocol.

James will turn 37 at the end of the month (Curry is 33), and his age may be an issue. The Lakers do have Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, and Russell Westbrook, each an all-star.

Yet it’s the Suns, NBA finalists a year ago, who figure to be the team the Warriors must beat.

Assuming they don’t beat themselves, as almost happened Saturday night.

A courageous stand by women’s tennis

You know the line about putting your money where your mouth is. When the words stop and the action begins. When it gets down to courage instead of talk.

The leaders of women’s tennis displayed that courage. Stood up for one of their own — and other women who never have picked up a racquet.

Announced they were suspending all tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, because of the disappearance from public life of former Grand Slam and Olympic doubles champion Peng Shuai.

The suspension will cost the Women’s Tennis Association hundreds of millions of dollars. It comes only two months before the Winter Olympics are to be held in China.

Yet after numerous requests to contact Peng had been ignored, the WTA, to its credit, did what the NBA or International Olympic Committee either could not or would not do.

It made an individual more important than a barrelful of dollars.

Two years ago Daryl Morey, then general manager of the Houston Rockets and now president of the Philadelphia 76ers, tweeted support of those marching against the Communist repression in Hong Kong.

The Chinese government responded angrily, threatening to end NBA telecasts in China, which earn the league millions. The NBA apologized. Never again would someone involved with the league mention anything about democracy.

The situation with Peng Shuai is different literally but virtually the same, an authoritarian government reminding the world of its power.

The WTA tried unsuccessfully to speak directly to Peng after her accusations in social media. Finally, in a move that surprised some, it came on strong.

Peng had been seen on iPhone screens — including a video conference with the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach — but not in person.

Bring her forth, said Steve Simon, chief executive of the WTA. Or else. The “or else” proved to be huge.

“I very much regret it has come to this point,” Simon said in a statement Wednesday. “The tennis community in China and Hong Kong are full of great people with whom we have worked for many years. They should be proud of their achievements, hospitality and success.

“However, unless China takes the steps we have asked for we cannot put our players and staff at risk by holding events in China. China’s leaders have left the WTA no choice.”

The suspicion is that China’s leaders didn’t really care when it comes down to protecting their interests.

Over the years, we’ve heard how sport helps develop relationships with other counties. But you better play by their rules if you want to have a chance in the game.

The story reads like one of those “me too” situations, except in China it seems less an issue of helping the victim than protecting the guilty.

In a free society, it would be tabloid stuff, scandalous. But as you have concluded, China is not a free society. 

Peng, 35, accused Zhang Gaol, 75, a former vice premier of China, of sexually assaulting her at his home three years ago. She also said she had an on-and-off consensual relationship with him. Then she disappeared.

When people in tennis wanted to know her whereabouts and her condition, China’s state-owned broadcast network came up with a story that Peng claimed she didn’t make the accusations.

“Hello, everyone, this is Peng Shuai,” the voice said, adding there had been no sexual assault. “I’m not missing, nor am I unsafe. I’ve been resting at home, and everything is fine. Thank you for caring about me.”

Skeptical? So too were Steve Simon and most everybody in tennis. Simon said he wants a full, fair and transparent investigation into Peng Shuai’s claims, “without censorship.”

Whether or not Peng Shuai is missing, for sure women’s tournaments in China will be.

Death of a Masters legend

Did Cliff Roberts literally say that no black man would play in the Masters golf tournament as long as he were chairman of Augusta National Golf Club?

That was the rumor in the press room in the late 1960s and early 70s. After all, hadn’t the qualifying standards been adjusted again and again, seemingly to exclude Charlie Sifford or Pete Brown?

But Lee Elder qualified just after the ’74 Masters ended, and at a function weeks later in New York, where the ’74 U.S. Open was scheduled, Roberts and Elder embraced while others stood and cheered.

It was as if a burden had been lifted. For Roberts. For Elder. For golf. For the Masters.

Elder, who died Monday at 87, would make history when he teed off in the ’75 Masters, even though he would not make the cut — something he accomplished three times — of the six he played.

A quiet, persistent individual, basically a self-taught golfer, Elder won several times on Tour and the Champions Tour. 

He was the legacy of men like Ted Rhodes, who in the 1940s and 50s overcame restrictions that now would be illegal as well as immoral.

Until 1959, the PGA of America, which ran the weekly tournaments, had a Caucasians-only clause in its charter. When two black pros were allowed to enter the Richmond Open — Richmond, Calif., near Oakland, not Richmond, Va. — an official came on the course and forced them to leave.

Elder knew. He also knew he had to play on the United Golf Tour, where in effect black golfers had their own league until they qualified for the PGA.

And he knew as he traveled from event to event there were places he couldn’t stay or couldn’t eat. It was the Jackie Robinson story a decade later.

It worked out well. Elder and his first wife, Rose, settled in the suburbs of Washington D.C., where a local Oldsmobile dealer became a sponsor and friend, and where some of the nation’s political leaders joined him for a round or two.

The 1976 PGA Championship was held at Congressional Country Club, and Rose and Lee Elder threw a party for contestants, a few media and at least one person who played an occasional round with Lee, President Gerald Ford.

Dave Stockton finished first, the second of his two PGA Championship victories. Elder obviously was also very much a winner.

You could say that by the time Lee played that first Masters, at age 45, time had passed him by, that he was cheated out of his best chance to win, but there was no whining.

There was just appreciation.

The days of struggling and threats from fans who sought to keep the status quo were in the past. There were black fans. The Masters would have an African-American champion, maybe the greatest golfer ever, Tiger Woods. Elder was in attendance when Woods stunned the world with his record-breaking first win in 1997.

How fortunate for the Masters and the game that the current Augusta chairman, Fred Ridley, a former U,S. amateur champ, chose this year’s Masters for Lee to be an honorary starter.

Lee joined Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player to hit the traditional early-morning tee shots that begin the round. He already was a hero to the Augusta employees, many of whom are black. Now he was a legend.

The only shame was that Clifford Roberts, who died years earlier, wasn’t there to see it.

No trombone, but for Cal a win over Stanford

STANFORD — The band wasn’t on the field. But the football was. Or jn the other team’s hands after an interception.

This was the 124th Big Game, which was great and historic, if you’re interested in that stuff. But for the sporting world — especially for those beyond the bay — there only will be one memorable game.

That would be the one in 1982, when Cal won on that miraculous (poorly officiated, the Stanford people will argue) multi-lateral kickoff return, when announcer Joe Starkey gave what seems is the most incongruous call ever in college football: “The band is on the field!”

In this year’s matchup, there was nothing quite as interesting or debatable — did the knee of one Cal returner touch the ground before the end of the kickoff return that gave the Bears the 25-20 win?

Nothing that would get ESPN, which normally doesn’t pay attention to what happens out here in the West, to show rerun after rerun.

This Big Game, which Cal won 41-11 on a cool Saturday before 49,265 at Stanford Stadium, wasn’t quite that compelling. Or controversial.

Or even competitive. But how could it be? How could anything be?

At the end of that run, Cal’s Kevin Moen crashed into Stanford band member Gary Tyrrell, who along others in his group had marched onto field to celebrate.

Before the kickoff, Tyrrell was despised by Stanford types, who believed his presence in the end zone was a reflection of imperfection.

But over the years attitudes changed, even if the score didn’t.

Now a financial consultant, Tyrrell lives in Half Moon Bay and is involved with the Stanford program. “Rivals, and kindred spirits. Honor the game. Beat Cal,” he tweeted prior to Stanford failing to beat Cal.

The trombone is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

John Elway was the Stanford quarterback in that 1982 Big Game. The defeat cost him and the Cardinal a chance for the Rose Bowl. Tyrrell, meanwhile, got over the game quickly enough, doing public appearances with Moen, the guy who knocked him and his trombone for a loop.

“In getting to know Gary, I have found him to be a nice, diligent, normal guy,” said Moen, now a real estate broker in Rolling Hills Estates.

Elway needed years to forgive. At last he mellowed, after leading the Denver Broncos to Super Bowl victories, and conceded to Jackie Kretzman in a piece for Stanford Alumni Magazine, “It gets funnier as the years go along.”

There was nothing humorous for the referee, Charles Moffett, who was chased down by an outraged Paul Wiggin, the Stanford coach. But after conferring with the other officials, Moffett ruled that the TD counted.

“You would have thought I had started World War III,” said Moffett.

What “The Play” started was a sort of cottage industry. Cal would sell a gold T-shirt on which a diagram of the runners’ route and the final score was printed. The shirt has become a collectors’ item and still is sold.

Yes, I was there. Yes, I still have the T-shirt.

It was one of those sporting events that remind people in a stadium never to leave until the game is over. Which the late, great Art Rosenbaum, at the time sports editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, did unfortunately.

Stanford had kicked a field goal to go in front, and there were only seconds remaining.

But Cal took the subsequent kickoff, and every time it appeared a Bears runner would get tackled he flipped the ball backward or sideways until Moen crossed the goal — winning the game and denting a trombone.

Oh, if only that could have happened this time.

Steph’s ‘greatest show in basketball’

JJ Redick knew how to shoot a basketball. He made 2,000 3-pointers in his NBA career. But Redick doesn’t know how Steph Curry shoots it.

“He’s tapped into a higher level of consciousness,” Redick said of Curry. “Right now, Steph’s the greatest show in basketball.”

Redick was speaking Tuesday night on Scott Van Pelt’s ESPN show. Curry had scored 37, made nine 3-pointers in a Warriors romp over the Nets.

He got 40 on Thursday night when the Warriors, once trailing by 13, outscored Cleveland by a remarkable 36-8 in the fourth quarter to defeat the Cavaliers, 104-89.

The Warriors have been stopped only twice in 15 games.

The question asked of Redick, who in September retired after 14 seasons in the NBA, was how do you stop Curry?

Basically, you don’t.

“He’s gotten stronger,” said Redick. “He can shoot every which way. And he’s not just a shooter. He’s got imagination, daring. He can go right, left, dribble right, left. He can play physical, off the ball.

“He’s like no other player of my generation.”

A generation that for the 37-year-old Redick includes LeBron James, arguably the best in the NBA.

When Michael Jordan was the man of the game and the time, he virtually owned every arena he entered, from New York to L.A.

The people might have been Knicks fans or Lakers fans — or Warriors fans — but most of all they were MJ fans.

Now? “It’s him and LeBron,” Redick, a Duke grad who should know better, said ungrammatically about Curry and James.

We’ve heard it. We’ve seen it. When Curry’s lighting them up, hitting from the corners, from way beyond the arc, the crowd becomes as much of the story as the shots.

Dunks are thrilling, but except for a rare few of us, unattainable. “But we’ve all shot a basketball,” said Van Pelt. We can identify with Curry’s accomplishment.

If really all we can do is marvel at it.

Redick was one of the sport’s top long-distance shooters. Which makes him appreciate Curry’s brilliance.

Curry again had nine 3-pointers on Thursday, the 38th time he’s made nine or more in a game. “You know how many times I had nine?” Redick said as a matter of comparison. “One.”

When he played, beginning at Duke, Redick was feisty, combative — and unpopular, the focus of booing and derision.

But what the public thought of Redick is not reflected in what he thinks of other players. There is no jealousy, just honesty.

“He plays with joy,” said Redick. “It’s infectious to everyone in the arena except the opposing team.”

They used to say that about Magic Johnson who, while others scowled or frowned or gasped, played with a smile, as if he were happy to be there.

Curry is living the good life, off court as well as on. He has a great family. He’s at the forefront in support of various charitable programs.

He’s been on three NBA championship teams, and it’s beginning to look like he may well be part of another.

“You see the way his teammates respond when he’s going well,” said Redick. “I never got to play with him, but I assume it must be a lot of fun.”

It is, for teammates, spectators, and the community.

Redick alluded to a popular tavern game. “Watching him,” said Redick, “is like having a perfect buzz and making the last shot in beer pong.”

He remembered a few seasons back when Klay Thompson was in the Warriors’ lineup, and he or Curry or both were unguarded and making one three after another.

Thompson, injured since the playoffs of 2019, finally is supposed to return in a month or two.

“Back two, three years ago,” Redick reminded, “they had the most open looks on threes in the NBA. The scary thing is when Klay comes back, they’ll have more.

“Shooting begets shooting.”

As only a shooter would know.

Niners go back to who they are

The man on ESPN sounded as baffled as he was impressed: “They did not look like this last week.” He meant the 49ers, of course,

And to that observation we add, nor any week in the last year.

The Niners had gone 390 days since a win at Levi’s Stadium, their home. Then they played their patsies, the Los Angeles Rams.

We modify the cliché — let’s make it “on any given Monday.” On this Monday, the 49ers gave it to the Rams, winning 31-10, ending a streak of eight straight losses at Levi’s and continuing a streak of wins over the Rams, now six. 

There was a lot in print and on TV the past few days about the Rams, Hollywood’s team if you will, mostly for acquiring that receiver with the flair, flash and catchy name, Odell Beckham Jr., a.k.a. OBJ (yes, too many initials, but that’s our world). Headline stuff. OBJ, we were told, was the final piece in the puzzle, the guy who was going to get the Rams to the coming Super Bowl — which conveniently will be played at the Rams’ $5 billion SoFi Stadium.

OBJ may indeed help get the Rams to the NFL Championship, but he couldn’t do much about getting L.A. out of the pit in which he and the Rams found themselves in against San Francisco.

There are 60 minutes in a game. On Monday night, the Niners had the ball 39 minutes 3 seconds of those 60.

Hang on to the ball, pick off a couple of Rams passes (both by Jimmy Ward, one of which was returned for a touchdown, the infamous pick six) and you can’t lose.

“They went back to who they are,” said Louis Riddick, who analyzes for NBC Sports Bay Area.

Or who they were.

Maybe you missed the grumbling from fans and media because of the attention to OBJ — hard to ignore ESPN — but there was great disenchantment with the 49ers, beginning with head coach Kyle Shanahan.

A team that had been considered a probability for the postseason was 2-4 and at the bottom of NFC West.

And besides that, the Niners looked so awful against Arizona a week ago, one supporter emailed that he switched channels to some music program.

What to do? The old cure.

“We went back to basics,” said quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Meaning plays that would succeed. Taking opportunities not chances.

Garoppolo, who gets his share of criticism, was effective, completing his first 12 passes and 15 of 19. When Deebo Samuel wasn’t catching the ball, he was running with it.

The Niners, perhaps as much in frustration as determination, pounded away. Woody Hayes, he of the three yards and a cloud of dust, would have been overjoyed.

It isn’t too much of a reach to say Shanahan was.

The Niners had 156 yards rushing, the Rams 52. Passing? The Rams had 226 to San Francisco’s 179. OBJ had two receptions for 18 yards.

You might say the Niners were fighting to keep their jobs.  What Shanahan would say was, “The whole team has to play that way, offense, defense, special teams.”

The game plan was simple — and brilliant. Keep the ball and keep the opponent off balance.

“The Rams are a real good team,” said Shanahan, “but we were excited to play them.” Given history, it’s easy to understand why.

“I think we took a lot of things personally,” said Shanahan. “We were very aware. We wanted to make the game as physical as possible. But our physical guys also have some skill sets.”

They can maneuver. They can think. They also can grasp the disappointment — disgust, even — engendered by going winless game after game on their home turf.

“There are no secrets to what we did,” said Garoppolo. “We were just locked in.”

After figuratively being locked out for 390 days.