Let's check in with our local teams while the rest of the world is searching for Ronaldo......

Here's what we've missed in the world of Bay Area sports while trying to figure out who the Oceanic 6 are......

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/25/SPJPUM98P.DTL&tsp=1"> get into a nasty spitball spat with Lane Kiffin. Apparently, Al is a little upset that the Raiders once again didn't have a winning season and blames himself Lane. He is also pretty miffed that Lane talked him into trading Randy Moss. It's a little unclear as to what is going on as ESPN and the Chron have differing accounts but it appears that Al is trying to get Lane to quit so he doesn't have to fire him. ...

Tiger attack victim, 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., was mourned last night at the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church in San Jose by hundreds of loved ones. His altar was decorated with a flowers, including Raiders logo. It seems Sousa was an Oakland Raiders fan, reportedly wearing a Marcus Allen Raiders jersey the day he was killed at SF Zoo. According to the Gate, some of Carlos' "friends showed up at the funeral wearing 'In......

Here's todays sports news...

School buses to run on waste grease from local restaurants. [SF Sentinel] 2007, as Chrissy from Newport Harbor: the Real OC might say, is "o-v-e, but the 'r' is not there yet." Totes, dude. Totes. [SFoodie, SFBG, CHOW, Gridskipper, Yelp] "Subprime" is your word of the year, or so says the Gate. [SF Gate] Tiger stuff. (An aside: Big-Cat Expert is perhaps the best job title in the world, ever.) [Examiner, SFBG] New Jersey......

Here's todays sports news...

Here is today's sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's a roundup of today's sporting news...

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). ...

Ahhh, crap. During this week’s practice, 49er OLB Manny Lawson tore an ACL and will be out for the 2007 season. This is a mighty blow to the nascent Niner defense, who had been counting on the former first-round pick to lend his 6’5” frame and sprinter’s speed to the linebacking corps this year....

After staunching out the Arizona Cardinals last week, the Niners head to St. Louis to try to get ahead at the expense of the reeling Rams and claw ahead in the NFC West race....

So imagine you have a job. And imagine you're really good at your job. You know it, your coworkers know it, and your bosses know it. Now imagine that there's a management position that opens up which would be a great promotion for you. So you apply for it. You think you would be great at the job, your coworkers think you would be great at the job and your friends think you would be great at the job. Now imagine that instead of you getting the job, the head of the company give it to some snot nosed punk straight out of school with no experience. Welcome to Rob Ryan's world...

Last night, we went to last night's Warriors/Cavs game, a game the Warriors lost in overtime. Now, we'll let Basketball Chris do the analysis and post-game wrap up, but we wanted to make an observation of our own. Mainly, that we went to see Lebron and we were disappointed. But not surprised. ...

-The Warriors crumble against the Magic and lose 91-76. Here's the numbers: ten points in the third quarter, twenty-nine points in the second half, and the lowest point total all season. -Ike Diougu needs to step it up. ...

During the pregame of Thursday's MIN/GB game, NFL.com's Adam Schefter reported that the Raiders will let Head Coach Art Shell go after the end of the season. No source was named to have given this statement....

The Oakland Raiders' 2006 slog of a season continues this Sunday at the Coliseum with their Week 15 scrap with the St. Louis Rams. Plenty of good tickets still available for the game. Well, there must be tickets, since the NFL is blacking the game out on TV....

O, those Oakland Raiders. A team so historically shot through with internal strife that we just expect it at this point. It's ordinary. But as of Wednesday, the Raiders' 2006 regular season strife is on some next-level Shakespearean tragedy stuff: At a press conference yesterday, Head Coach Art Shell said that he believes there is someone inside the Raider organization who has been speaking maliciously about the franchise to the news media....

An exasperating, sodden, miscue-filled loss for our Raiders up in Seattle yesterday. What sort of headline should a recap of this game have? We explored this thought, and here's what we came up with. You should add some more in the Comments section. Here we go: ...

This NFL season might still be two-games young, but already it's looking like one of the biggest storylines might be happening here. And that is this: just how bad are the Raiders? Just plain ole bad team? Really, really, bad? Or historically bad? In fact, there are already people wondering if this team might do something completely historic, something epic, something so amazing that it just makes you giddy at the thought: going 0-16. Unless, of course, you're a Raiders fan and right now you're probably sick feeling sick over all of this. On the other hand, you're a Raiders fan so you're probably a little sick anyways. ...

Thank goodness. It is here. Let the games count once more, o sweet departed St. Tagliabue, let the National Football League's Regular Season mercifully come. Once more for our entertainment, the 32 franchises will clamber over one another to reach the Vince Lombardi Trophy like kittens chasing a moth. Let's see how our Oakland Raiders are doing, shall we? ...

We bloggers love the pop culture references. Love, love, love, them. We use them everywhere and anytime. This is especially true of us sports bloggers-- nothing goes hand in hand like sports and pop culture. It's like Shakespeare and poetry or George Will and obscure quotes by obscure people. So, in keeping with this tradition, we here at SFist will break down the upcoming NFL season with quotes from one of our favorite personages of pop culture-- Moliere. Cause nothing says American football like Enlightenment-era French dramatists. Grab a seat, put on some chamber music, and put on your favorite wig as SFist takes a look at the new NFL year!...

Our favorite part of the beginning of any sports season is scanning through magazine after magazine for previews of our favorite teams. What will the experts say? Is our team as good as we think it is? As bad? Should we have hope or despair? And who kidnapped Peter King and replaced him with some skinny dude? So this year, as we approach NFL '06, we read through the experts to see what they have to say about our two local teams. This year, they all pretty much said the same thing about both of our local teams. In fact, we could sum it up in two words: last place....

Bust out the Kangol Caps, drawstring pants, and Bell Biv Devoe concert tees Raiders fans as the Silver & Black continue with their love affair with Back in the Day as they signed the one and only Jeff George. Yep, that Jeff George. George, in a way, makes a perfect Raider-- he's old, he's got a rocket for an arm, and he's dumb as dirt. Which is why he's become a running joke over the years: the dude was majorly talented yet majorly douche-y....

Let's meet the guys newly selected to bear the Silver And Black, shall we? Presenting the top three picks of your Oakland Raiders' 2006 Draft. ...

Let's meet the guys newly selected to bear the Silver And Black, shall we? * Picked round 7, pick 47; 455 overall / Kevin McMahan / WR / Maine / 6'2" / 196 / "Mr. Irrelevant" * Picked round 7, pick 6; 214 overall / Chris Morris / C / Michigan State / 6'4" / 305 / "The Heady Snapper" * Picked round 6, pick 7; 176 overall / Kevin Boothe / OL / Cornell / 6'4" / 327 / "The Ivy League Hotelier" ...

Let's meet the guys newly selected to bear the Silver And Black, shall we? * Picked round 7, pick 47; 455 overall / Kevin McMahan / WR / Maine / 6'2" / 196 * Picked round 7, pick 6; 214 overall / Chris Morris / C / Michigan State / 6'4" / 305 ...

Every Head Coach has inclinations about how they like to run their team. For example, our Niners' savior-genius Bill Walsh ran a short passing game informed by strong running. Bill Cowher, Head Coach of the Steelers, prefers heavy ball-control pounding with a dash of trick plays, and a powerful 3-4 defense. The two Head Coaches in The Battle Of The Repurposed are both out of their comfort zone, and that is fascinating....

Hope y'all had a Merry Fitzmas. -After the umpteenth and fifth non-sell-out, the Oakland Raiders "brain-trust" have started to think that maybe all their ticket trouble could have something to do with the fact that a lot of people are kind of afraid about going to Raiders games. After all, Raiders fans have a reputation for being a little on the dangerous side. Some would even say drunken hooligans who like to beat the......