Results tagged “nfl”

It's time for American Football Spectacular's capsule reviews of the first round in the 2009 NFL Draft. All the intrigue, all the anticipation, all the measurables! All hard information was culled from NFL.com's pretty excellent draft tracker site. Let's do this.

* Pittsburgh vs. Arizona (in Tampa)
Sunday, February 1, 2009. 3:00 PM, PST.
Super Bowl XLIII
Battle Of The Steelers

Oh, great. SF's semi-rival Arizona Cardinals against the five-ring-holding Stillrrs.

If Arizona wins, our once hysterically hapless divisional foe (now built into an actual team by former Steeler coaches) get a championship for the first time since 1947. If PIT wins, they pull ahead of the 49ers and Cowboys for most total Super Bowl wins. Who to root for in today's game, then? Fuhhhh. It's a Morton's Fork. It's a Kobayashi Maru. It's no fun. What's a Niner fan to do?

Root for the Steelers. Here's why.

Playoff football. Thank goodness. O, blessed entertainments... commence!

The first couplet of games come to us from the still sun-kissed southwestern parts of the nation: Arizona and San Diego. Non-wintry wintertime excitement ahoy!

* Atlanta vs Arizona
Saturday, January 3, 1:30 PM PST
Wild Card 2009
The N00bs' Battle

The Arizona Cardinals haven't been in the playoffs since 1998. The oldest franchise in the NFL has seen a lot of suffering over the last couple decades, shackled to a notorrriously penny-pinching ownership. Things have turned around in last five years as the Bidwell family has opened up the pursestrings. Brand new stadium and hiring Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt from PIT as steps toward an actual long term solution have seen the Cards grow from doormat to sleeper to (ZOMG) this year's NFC West champs.

Defensive end Kevin Fagan and his mighty mustache helped hold the line for George Seifert's boxer's-mentality 3-4 defensive scheme during the zenith of San Francisco's 1980s power.

This Sunday, the current San Francisco 49ers will be honoring the 49ers of the past by wearing mustaches in their final game of 2008 against Washington. We will honor this honor by honoring Great 49er Mustaches as this game draws nigh.

Roger Craig was one of the most versatile running backs the NFL has ever seen.

A perfect fit for Bill Walsh's short-passing offensive system, in 1985 Craig became the first man to gain 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 receiving in the same season.

This Sunday, the current San Francisco 49ers will be honoring the 49ers of the past by wearing mustaches in their final game of 2008 against Washington. We will honor this honor by honoring Great 49er Mustaches as this game draws nigh.

When Joe Montana first came to the 49ers from Notre Dame in 1979, he brought this fanciful Fu Manchu style with him.

Of course, everything went up from there. Joe grew into the greatest quarterback the NFL has every seen, and the 49ers began their golden age of dominance throughout the 1980s.

Holy living crap, we love this so much!!

This coming Sunday, the 49ers are having a throwback uniform day in the final game of the season as Washington comes to Candlestick.

Word is that the o-linemen got it in their heads to pay tribute to Niners of the past by breaking out throwback mustaches to go with the throwback unis. The glorious idea spread, and now much of the team will be attempting mustaches for the Week 17 matchup as sign of strength of silly solidarity.

The Redskins ain't gonna stand a chance.

* San Francisco vs. St. Louis
Sunday, December 21, 2008. 10:00 AM, PST.
Week 16
The Interim Battle

Remember when battles between the 49ers and Rams would be cataclysmic offensive showdowns to determine ownership of the NFC West?

Yeah, those days are gone for now.

Only a few games left of the NFL's 2008 season and as is customary, the Raiders are in full plummet. The last things that stand to be parsed out are which players are making enough of a name to picked up by other teams next year, which players are playing enough to be kept via Al's calculi for next season, and those that have given up all hope whatsoever.

"We're not close," said Oakland's best player, CB Nnamdi Asomugha, to the Merc after the last week's loss to San Diego, "and it's clear that we're not close. We don't play good football, we don't play sound football, and we have been undisciplined. We wonder why we don't get prime-time games, and this is why. We were on Monday night against Denver, we got blown out. Now, we came here and we got blown out. You just wonder how many people care and how many people are upset. You can't go out and play the way we played and expect to win or expect to do well."

Ouch.

Found by American Football Spectacular's vigilant Kansas City correspondent Kyle Vorak, this mesmerizing image is from last night's TB@CAR ESPN coverage.

People of Charlotte, we say to you: do not be unkind to Steve Young.

As you can see, he is still elusive after years of retirement (and those adorable truck ads that your Mom appreciates).

* San Francisco vs. Arizona
Monday, November 10, 2008. 5:30 PM, PST.
Week 10
The Battle For Change

Can you believe that a week ago it was still in-question whether the United States Of America would either embrace change or sink with the failed policies of the GOP regime?

What a difference a week makes.

Also attempting turnaround is 49er Head Coach Samurai Mike Singletary.

OK, it has been reported by the NFL Network that the 49ers may offer a position to Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice

One high-ranking 49ers official said last week, “If she’s interested in talking to us, I’m interested in talking to her.” Rice has told friends as recently as last week she would love to become president of an NFL team.

Oakland Raiders Hall of Fame guard and union leader Gene Upshaw died last night at his Lake Tahoe home. He was 63. Having been diagnosed last Satuday with pancreatic cancer, the death comes as a surprise to fans, family, and friends. According to the Gate, his "illness, as well as his sudden death, stunned the sports world and caught even his closest friends by surprise. He had lost weight in recent months but continued to work at his usual breakneck pace." RIP, Upswhaw.

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This is the game that John Madden has been gerly awaiting. A matchup of two classically built, smashmouth NFL franchises in a cold weather playoff game.

The NFL's 2008 Wild Card Wknd has arrived at the same time as this rainstorm front...

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With the perpetual rebuilding process that is the San Francisco 49er franchise, every so often an old part of old successes will cycle back through SF. This Sunday, Gilroy’s second-most-favorite export returns to the Bay Area at the reigns of Chucky Gruden’s particular strain of West Coast Offense. You never should have been run out of town, Jeff.

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Joe Frazier was once quoted as sayin' "Kill the body and the head will die." For an NFL offensive unit, the opposite is the case. And here comes the context: it's your American Football Spectacular preview for lucky Week 13 of the 2007 NFL season.

Reporting from spa-side in Santa Ana, it's your American Football Spectacular preview of the next rung of pain on the agony ladder that is the 49ers' '07 season.

-With tonight's 108-82 win against the running joke that is the New York Knicks (seriously, what does it take to get fired in that organization?), the Warriors have now won three in a row and are one game from totaling the amount of wins our local football teams have. The Beard led the way with 31 points, seven assists and six rebounds and Stephen Jackson got 23 points. For the Knicks, Starbury played his first game of the season showing that blackmail does work

If there's anybody in the city taking more heat than Mike Nolan, it's his quarterback, Alex Smith. Smith stands accused by the Faithful of not very being good. The evidence? Overthrowing Receivers. Underthrowing Receivers. Not seeing open Receivers. The numbers back up the evidence-- he has a preposterously low QB rating (57.2) and completion percentage (48.7). He is also 11-19 as a starting QB. In the games we've watched, Smith looked like the same QB he was when he first started-- skittish and inaccurate-- so much so, the Faithful are muttering that Smith, as a #1 draft pick, has been a bust of Lucy Pinder-like proportions (sort of NSFW-y).

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Continuing the tour of pain through the ex-members of the NFC West, this week the 49ers visit the the wreckage that once was the Atlanta Falcons.

A hurrah and a huzzah goes out to Raider Nation for not selling out Sunday's Raiders game. As a result, football fans throughout the area will be allowed to watch The. Biggest. Game. Ever. from the vicinity of their couch.

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For both the New Orleans Saints and the 49ers, this season has suuucked. There's no worse feeling in fandom than unmet expectations. And both of the NFL's gold-helmeted teams have seen the bottom drop out of their dreams for the 2007 season.

Some random effluvia from the weekend that was