Singletary Makes A Statement

The football god’s must have read last week’s column about the downfall of the San Francisco 49ers. They gave me just what I had asked for during this past week, which was a new head coach! His name is Mike Singletary, one of the toughest linebackers to ever play the game, and already in his first game as a head coach, he made a big-time statement to the fans, the media, and most importantly, the team, on what it is he feels it takes to win.

These football gods made miracles, as to how quick they did it! My column was written last Monday afternoon and by Monday night the 49ers were calling for Coach Nolan’s head, while looking internally for a new leader.

The fans had been on their heels waiting for this move to happen, and ESPN’s Michael Smith reported a couple of weeks ago that a Mike Nolan firing would probably take place during the bye week which is set for this upcoming week. The reports must have had a strong influence on the 49ers front office, as they notified Nolan that he was going to be axed.

The replacement: 49ers Assistant Head Coach & Linebacker Coach, Mike Singletary.

He was an assistant coach in Baltimore with Nolan under former Ravens Head Coach, Brian Billick, and when Mike Nolan was hired to come to San Francisco as the new head coach of the 49ers in 2005, he brought Singletary along for the ride.
Mike Nolan had to inherit a team that finished with the NFL’s worst record in 2004, and to keep it real, he brought a little intensity and respectability to the team. He just never found a way to win or motivate his team in his three and a half seasons as the 49ers head coach.

So, in steps Singletary, waiting to be announced as the new San Francisco 49ers Head Coach at his press conference last Tuesday. Pretty much he thanked Mike Nolan for giving him a good luck blessing, as they have been friends for quite some time now, and also praised Mike Nolan for bringing back respectability to a once storied football team. Singletary stated that the team is talented and that it just needs direction, and his main focus was getting his team prepared for what was their game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Now to the game that was played Sunday at home against those Seattle Seahawks, Singletary’s head coaching debut. The 49ers lost 34-17, but Singletary made a strong statement about this team by getting rid of the bad apples in the tree.

First off, Singletary yanked QB JT O’Sullivan in the 2nd quarter. He had seen enough of O’Sullivan after the quarterback started off the game quite terribly as he has recently. He fumbled inside the red zone, which was recovered by Seattle and set up a score. And then the last straw came when he threw a horrible pass behind his receiver that was picked off and ran back for another touchdown for Seattle.

Secondly, he took matters into his own hands, after TE Vernon Davis gave the 49ers an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for getting into it with a Seahawk defenseman after the play. Singletary sent Davis to the bench, and then eventually to the locker room early in the fourth quarter.

Last, after the game he made his presence felt in the press conference. He is showing the media, the fans, and his team, that he means business. As a 49er fan, I love it, and hopefully it will shape this shambled team up and make them play hard.

Check out this video

the forty-niners downfall

Will the San Francisco 49ers ever get back on the football god’s good graces?

The chances of that are starting to get as slim as Calista Flockhart…

What looked to be a pretty good finish for this year’s team in the offseason is starting to turn into something that is somewhat reminiscent of an old deteriorating building in which everything is going to shambles.

THE DEFENSE

The defense was probably the most promising of all the units that this year’s San Francisco 49ers had to offer. Even though they only had the 25th ranked defense out of 32 teams last year, the numbers don’t tell the story, because they had to be on the field for so long thanks to such a horrible offense, but we’ll talk about that later. Last year Patrick Willis earned the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year, as he tallied 226 tackles! How do you get better than that? You add some key free-agents, such as a pro-bowl linebacker in Takeo Spikes (LB), a tumultuous defensive end from Cincinnati in Justin Smith, and a speedy cornerback / kick returner extraordinaire in Allen Rossum. These pick-ups were meant to complement the studs from last year…

However, things have changed as the defense as they seemed to have forgotten how to tackle. They have shown that they have no answer for a powerful running back, i.e. Brandon Jacobs (NYG), and Deuce McAllister (NO). Not to mention that the safeties, whether it’s Dashon Goldson, or Mark Roman, has been getting burnt like toast at a bad breakfast spot. That’s the least of the problems though!

THE OFFENSE

Oh boy, where do I start with this unit? This unit needed a lot of improving after last year, which ranked dead last in the NFL in ever major offensive statistic: Pts/ g, total plays, and Yards/ g; among many others. It didn’t help that their #1 pick from the 2005 NFL Draft, Alex Smith, was injured for a majority of the season, leaving Trent Dilfer to screw up and really show he needs to retire. So, what do you do in a predicament like this, we hire one of the smartest offensive minds in the NFL in Mike Martz to be our offensive coordinator. We then pick up some key free agents on offense as well, such as WR Isaac Bruce, OT Barry Sims, and RB DeShaun Foster. Not to mention we signed a journeyman by the name of JT O’Sullivan in which nobody knew before the season, although he had a great pre-season while starring in a fight for the starting QB spot. Well, he ends up winning the job, and suddenly, you think this offense could be real good…

Yet, that was before the season, and not where were at, 7 games into the season, like we are now. You can’t knock one of the best running backs in the NFL, Frank Gore, because he has done all he can this year. But you can’t run the ball all the time, not to mention, Martz is famous for his brilliant passing attack. The problem is that JTO has shown he’s not really starter material. He makes the wrong decisions at the wrong times. He holds on to the ball for too long, causing sacks, which in turn eventually leads to timely turnovers. Our receivers don’t catch the rare good passes he makes. It’s really bad.

MANAGEMENT AND CLOSING

I’m not one for firing head coaches, but Head Coach Mike Nolan should be fired! He hasn’t shown any kind of leadership. The players don’t trust him. He fails to execute the right plays when needed to.

This all stems from upper management, which in turn falls on the terrible people that own the team, the York Family. They are showing signs of doing whatever they can to run this team into the ground: bad drafts, bad personnel, and a wavering opinion on a new stadium. If they don’t do something quick, my forty-niners will get moved to LA and that would SUCK!

The clever comedian on sports: Ray Ratto

Are you looking for a great take on sports? Something that’s not sugar-coated and watered-down? Someone, that’s going to keep it real, while giving you a laugh at the same time? That’s what you’ll get from reading one of Ray Ratto’s sports columns, which can be found a couple times a week in the San Francisco Chronicle. And if you need more Ratto, which some people, I included, need at times, not only does he write for CBS’ sportsline.com, but he has also written for espn.com as well. Speaking of ESPN, he is also a frequent guest on ESPN’s Jim Rome is Burning sports talk show.

Ray Ratto, 52, has been a writer in the Bay Area for quite some time. He received his education at St. Joseph’s High in Alameda, before arriving and graduating at the best school for broadcast / journalism in Northern California, San Francisco State University. Ratto has been writing about sports for almost 30 years now, while being a sports columnist for about 20 of those years.

However, before getting his chance to write columns, Ratto had to, as many young bucks in the media business do, start his career by being a “staff reporter” for each of San Francisco’s two big papers, the Examiner and the Chronicle. After doing some good work for both papers, Ratto finally got his chance to become the column writer that he had been longing to be.

The first two papers that gave Ratto the opportunity to showcase his sports writing skills are no longer in service. He first wrote for a paper called The National, the short name for a nation-wide sports tabloid newspaper / magazine called The National Sports Daily. Although due to a lack of readership, and other misfortune, The National, which was started in 1990, came to a halt only 18 months later. After that brief venture, Ratto went on to write as a columnist for yet another paper that was on its way to becoming extinct by the time he had arrived. This paper was called the Peninsula Times Tribune. It was a small daily paper that started in 1962 which was owned and eventually closed by the Tribune Company of Chicago in 1992 due to its declining circulation. But with the bad, always comes the good as Ratto then got a job writing sports columns for San Francisco’s “second” paper, the San Francisco Examiner, which would in turn set up Ratto for his best Jefferson’s impression, as he “moved on up” to San Francisco’s #1 paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, jumpstarting an illustrious career.

Ray Ratto, to me, is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sporting Green. Every remembrance of the Chronicle’s Sporting Green starts with a picture of his portly face and walrus-looking mustache. He’s quick with his humor, as he always has the right words to say. For example, this is what Ratto wrote when talking about Oakland Raiders’ kicker Sebastian Janikowski in the article written this past Sunday as the Raiders beat the Jets:

“He has been asked, over the years, to try some improbably long kicks that lower his rating - and no, we're leaving the 76-yard attempt against San Diego as Lane Kiffin's last middle finger to Davis rather than a serious attempt to score.”

There are plenty of good articles that one can bring up examples of, but then that would ruin all of the fun for you readers that have yet to experience one of his articles. So, if you have the time, and you like the combination of sports and comedy, check out Ray Ratto’s columns in the San Francisco Chronicle either in print or at sfgate.com in the sports section.

The Year of the Underdog

Whatever happened to teams winning the games they’re supposed to?

This question gets brought up not only because of what we’ve seen in college football lately, although that has heavily influenced the need for this question, but really, it’s this whole sports year in general which has had my mind boggled, bet-takers shutting their mouths and their bank accounts, and the word, UNDERDOG, becoming an everyday term of choice.

It all started with this year’s biggest sporting event, the Super Bowl, which took place on February 3, 2008. The NFL’s biggest game featured the matchup of the “no one can beat these” New England Patriots, the NFL’s newest version of a dynasty, a team that was looking to be the first to go a perfect 19-0, while setting multiple offensive records, taking on the “just squeaking by, kind of lucky” New York Giants, who had to win on the road three straight games including an overtime victory in horrible weather conditions over the NFL miracle man himself, Brett Favre, and the Green Bay Packers.
CONCLUSION: The Giants, the biggest Super Bowl underdog ever, wins 17-14, thanks to Eli Manning conducting what is known as “The Play”, in which he eluded pressure, shook off a sack, and launched a 32 yard missile which was cradled by David Tyree to set up the game winning touchdown.

The Upset Bug then struck once again at this year’s college baseball championship, The College World Series in Omaha, NE. The SEC conference Georgia Bulldogs, who featured sensational shortstop Gordon Beckham, the 8th overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft were supposed to shellac the weak little WAC team out of Fresno, the Fresno State Bulldogs, who had more losses than any previous champion in college baseball history. Fresno State had never won a championship in any of their men’s programs.
CONCLUSION: Fresno State went on to win 6-1, with their outstanding offensive outfielder, Tommy Mendonca taking the MOP (Most Outstanding Player) of the 2008 College World Series Tournament. They are currently the biggest underdog to win an NCAA championship in any sport.

Flash forward to where we're at now…

This year’s college football season has showed us so far that being of a higher rank doesn’t mean diddly squat. On September 25, 2008, 4 out of the Nation’s top-10 teams at the time, were upset including the #1-“can’t be stopped” USC Trojans, who were dethroned by losing to their PAC-10 “do it again” Oregon State Beavers on a Thursday night in Corvallis OR. The Beavers who upset the Trojans two years ago, the last time the Trojans made a trip to the campus of Oregon State, found ways to knock off #1 again 27-21 this year.

Then this weekend 3 of the then top 10 teams fell including a stunning surprise when #5 Texas took it to #1 Oklahoma in their annual Red-River Rivalry.
Having the title of “#1 in the Nation” means absolutely nothing during the regular season in college football anymore until that day comes when you actually win the glass shaped football signifying that you are the champion. Lower-Level schools have shown swagger and fearlessness as they anticipate big time matchups against teams that are supposed to cream them.

Basically what I’m saying is…don’t become a bookie. Business is as bad for bet-takers as it is for stock market traders. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that has never made the playoffs in their 11-year existence until now, completes this crazy year, by going on to win the World Series, and proving that 2008 is the year of the Underdog, not the Rottweiler.

The United States Presidential Candidates

The United States Presidential Candidates


The big question that will be enforced on our society for the next month and a half is, who will be the next president? After watching tonight’s presidential debate, in my mind, there is still no candidate that makes me say, “Wow, this is our guy!” Both candidates really didn’t answer the questions too clearly, and both candidates just kept exchanging jabs back at each other, while relying on their past records. Who cares about the past? Let’s talk about the future!

ECONOMY

Obama started off by saying that we (the United States) are in the worst economy since the great depression, but where were the answers to solve it? All he did was allude to the fact that McCain and Bush have a “connection” when dealing with the economic crisis. Duh. They’re both republican. He also answers this by saying we need to lower taxes, crack down on CEO’s, and come up with an infrastructure to create jobs. HOW is this going to get done?

McCain was just as bad. He said that we need to stop the spending spree, yet at the same time he wants us to buy all of the bad mortgages. That doesn’t make sense! He also stated that he has a plan, yet he never really told us what the plan consists of?

Winner- draw


TREASURER SECRETARY CHOICE

Obama- Warren Buffet-CEO Berkshire Hathaway- philanthropist-financial advisor for Lebron James

McCain- Meg Whitman-CEO eBay-never heard of her until now

Winner- Obama


BAILOUT RESCUE

Obama said, “This is not the end of the process, this is the beginning.” And then went on to note what he will try to do for American families which to me sounded like fairy tale talk.
McCain was actually straightforward on this topic as he said that we need to stabilize markets and buy up the bad loans.

Winner-McCain


PRIORITIES

Obama- 1. Energy, 2. Health care, 3. Education

McCain- said that all can be taken care of adequately, never gave a prioritized list for those three topics.

Winner-draw; but more, Obama, for actually giving an order

LAST THOUGHTS

As mentioned, this debate was really a bunch of bull for an hour and a half. These guys stated what it is they want to do in order to take care of some of the problems facing our country, but yet, none of them took it a step further to really explain better to us regular folk of how they will take care of these issues. It seemed that they both took some swigs of the haterade, but McCain was drunk off it, as it seemed like 90% of what he had to say was Obama bashing.

Last but not least, to wrap this debate up in its the best form, both of these candidates must not have played red light green light when they were young. There was a traffic light kind of device used during the debate to help them recognize when to go, have final thoughts, and conclude. They clearly do not know what a red light means, as they kept talking. My advice to not be on the road with either of them. They’ll cause an accident!

The funniness of family guy

If you’re looking for a cartoon with random moments that will have you laugh so hard that you might piss your pants…than go to the store, pick up some Pampers, and make sure you’re back at your house before 9pm on Sunday Night, in order to catch the new season of Family Guy. Unlike Trix cereal, it’s not just for kids.

THE HISTORY

Family Guy was originally created by Seth MacFarlane in 1999 for Fox. It was cancelled a year later by the network and then was brought back in order to finish through to three seasons. After those three seasons, it was cancelled once again, and some thought for good.

Cartoon Network started airing Family Guy re-runs for syndication, on Adult Swim, the network’s more adult-oriented late-night block of television, and that fueled a family guy phenomenon. Fans of the show from when it was on Fox tuned into their beloved show again, and somehow, word started spreading about how funny the show really is. Ratings for Adult Swim increased heavily, and later on, once the seasons were released on DVD, those sales skyrocketed as well. The success that resulted influenced Fox to bring the show back to production for new episodes, and ever since, it has continued to stay strong. Fox has a deal for Family Guy to be produced until 2012.

REASONS TO WATCH

The show has had a lot of success because of the way it goes about its comedy. The characters are the heart of the show. Peter is the fat, always up to some crazy scheme, dad of the family. Louis, who loves sex, is the mom of the family. Chris, the oldest child is the stupid fat son, a direct result of Peter. Meg, is the ugly, often ignored middle child of the family in which everyone in the family, including the dog Brian, makes fun of. Stewie, who always has plans of world domination, and is quite possibly the funniest character in the show, is the baby in the family. He is always kickin’ it with Brian. They’re boys yet they’re enemies. And speaking of Brian, Brian is the smooth talking, yes talking, dog of the family who loves a good drink, and is up to no good, no matter who he kicks it with.

The show is built mainly around random and hilarious flashbacks and / or pop culture references that just totally catch you off guard.

The flashbacks most always start with something like, “that was worst than the time I…” and then they flashback to something that is so random and funny, that it just has you sitting in your chair, saying to yourself, “what the (expletive)?”
The cartoon, South Park did a spoof of how family guy gets their metaphorical or simile-like jokes when in one of their episodes, they said that Family Guy jokes come from manatees who pick different idea balls to construct a joke for an episode. The idea balls involved the themes of a date, Mexico, and Gary Coleman. Then you saw them refer to a made-up version of Family Guy in which Peter makes a joke about going on a date with Gary Coleman in Mexico.

The pop-culture references also make the show. For instance in the episode of Family Guy aired last night on Fox, the best was when they re-enacted a scene made famous in the movie, “Office Space”. In the movie, Michael and Samir, get so frustrated with a certain fax machine, that they take turns destructing it. Family Guy did their version of this scene with Brian and Stewie demolishing Peter’s “Bird Surf” album, in the exact same fashion as in “Office Space”. The music was the same, and so was the way in which both items were destructed.

The show is a classic, sometimes referred to as a cult classic. If you need some comedy in your life, Family Guy is the way to go.