Yes, it's that time of the college football season when those bronzed, militaristic brutes from the University of Spoiled Children come play our sweet, gentle Cal Bears. As part of their presumptuous triumphal march through the city, the hundreds-strong USC Marching Band took over Union Square this evening for a pep rally. Rumor has it that later in the evening they'll be headed to (where else) the Marina. And it looks like you can still scalp some tickets for the game. more ›

A doorway at a fire station between the W Hotel and the Gold Club has been set up as a Safe Surrender Site for newborns. more ›

Update: Now with "correct" spelling! more ›

The Raiders have a new QB, at least for the moment. That QB is Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss' ex-ball chucker. He had a little tryout for the team yesterday and it went so well, he was signed. Which is one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is that a deep connection was made between two desperate entities as Culpepper came in overweight and was said to be "spotty" with his passes. Culpepper is a pretty good fit as current Raiders QBs Josh McNown or Andrew Walter kinda suck. He's expected to keep the chair warm until first round draft pick JaMarcus Russell is ready to go. more ›

The first weekend of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments is in the books -- are you still alive in your office pool? Not if you took the Road to the Final Four less traveled.

If you went with the favorites, chances are you're sitting pretty. With the exception of the toothless male Badgers of Wisconsin, all first and second seeds in both tourneys advanced to the Sweet 16. That's not to say that a few high seeds didn't get a scare or that some middling seeds will never get a chance to germinate into full-blown Cinderellas, but overall, both tournaments are sticking to the script.

-Warriors get beat down by the Clips, 103-90. Considering the Clippers are one of the teams that the Warriors need to pass in order to make the playoffs, that's a bad loss. more ›

So the Chron has added yet another blog to their arsenal, the originally named Sports Columnist Blog. So with all these blogs going on, who's going to be left to, you know, actually write in the paper? more ›

-Warriors get 40 in the first quarter, then shoot the lights out in a 131-105 win at home. Mark Purdy isn't going to jump on the Warriors bandwagon just yet. more ›

-Sharks score five unanswered goals to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1. It was their first victory in Edmonton since November 2003. more ›

Miss Monta Ellis' last minute shot two nights ago? Here it is. more ›

When Editor Jon sent a message with the scoop that the Raiders had picked up Kiffin to be the new Head Coach for the Silver And Black, we were excited. more ›

We told you, Colts vs. Bears in the Super Bowl. Man, we knew we should have gone to Vegas. Anyways, we're happy with the game, not necessarily because it'll be a good game, but because it's two of the original NFL teams with great traditions and great, traditional uniforms. How could you not love a game that harkens back to the 50's and 60's? more ›

So the final pre-bowl Bowl Championship Series (BCS) poll is out, and guess what? Everybody's pissed about something, except for Ohio State and Florida, the two teams that received Golden Tickets to the big game. Different year, same BS for the BCS.

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. more ›

Lot of sports to talk about, so let's get r' done. -Cal beats Stanford to win the Axe. See what happens when you don't let the Stanford band play? Anyways, Cal played just enough to win and Stanford played well enough to win, but Cal still won. As for Stanford, the Walt Harris death watch begins. more ›

Week 13, and the 49ers go to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. Take this moment to make a donation to a hurricane-related charity. They still need help. The column can wait. more ›

USC 23- Cal 9: We honestly felt Cal would have no chance with USC as we figured Cal to be merely a "Good in the Pac 10" type team, the kind of team who could beat the Beavers but not the big guys. But Cal put up a fight and held 'SC close for three quarters before finally giving way to a superior Trojan team. They did have the lead at 9-6 at halftime but between stupid mistakes, turn overs, and some bad breaks, they couldn't do much against the Trojans in the second half, leading to the playing over and over again of that damn USC fight song. We hate that song. more ›

Because you all love sports so much, we're doing a daily feature on the latest in sports. Warriors 117 Kings 105- What's gotten into the Warriors? They've won four in a row and scoring like Leo DiCaprio in his "P----- Posse" days. Leading the way is Baron Davis who is playing out of his head and playing out of his head a lot as Nelson is playing him almost the entire game every game. Considering Baron's off-and-on again relationship with the injured reserve, we're not sure how smart a move that is. Also playing every minute of every game this early in the season is maybe not a smart move either. Anyways, he lead the way with 36 points. more ›

SFPD not surprised that a member was off doing kiddy sex junkets in Asia as they sort of knew it for years. -Caltrain board approves plan for Wi-FI on Caltrains. Thousands of commuters jump for joy. more ›

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. more ›

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. more ›

Believe it or not, we're not into booing players on opposing teams. Oh, sure, we've been known to let loose a boo whenever A-Rod comes to bat or join in with an entire stadium in chanting "Dar-ryl! Dar-ryl!" but that's about it. As our old Dead Head friends would say, too much negavitive energy is bad, man. Then there's the fact we consider screaming "you suck!" while holding up a middle finger not to be the height of wit (we much prefer our taunting to be more Algonquin Round Table-y). But then there's what Cal fans did during Saturday's victory against USC. more ›

t's time for American Football Spectacular's bowl preview! Assisted by red wine, our American college football consultant Doug "MC Fried Chicken" Mungin, and the sheer will to succeed, we push ever forward to bring you these scintillating projections. more ›

Saturday morning, around 7am, a line started forming outside the Metreon to see British playwright Tom Stoppard's new film, based on a late-70s film by a young experimental filmmaker from USC. By 9:30, the line stretched down around Jillians and up over the stairs, spilling into Yerba Buena Gardens -- about 1,500 people were estimated present. But these were small-scale nerds, not the type who camp out for weeks; as employees of the LucasFilm machine, they were all being treated to a special sneak preview of the movie that represents a final curtain call for the Star Wars films. And we were lucky enough to get scooted into the theater with them, thanks to our uncanny knack for sleeping with just the right person. more ›

In another big split-up, albeit one not nearly as suprising as Gav & Kim, the Niner's divorced themselves today from coach Dennis Erickson and GM Terry Donahue. None of this should be shocking as this is the sort of thing that happens when once proud franchises totally embarrass themselves with 2-14 seasons. While some people thought the miserly John York would hold onto both men as a way of pinching pennies (both men are under contract so York still has to give them money even if they do nothing but lie around the house in pajamas and eat cheetos all day), general consensus was that both would go. See above comment about what happens to teams that go 2-14. Most importantly, York made the move somewhat quickly as every day he dithered was another day of limbo for the team, Donahue & Erickson, and Niners fans. With the clock already ticking away on the #1 pick in the NFL draft, whoever is in charge of the Niners has to start scouting and getting prepared. more ›

It's been an action-packed week for the Bay Area movie world, hasn't it? Last Tuesday saw the triumph of all that was right in the world...HA! OK, not really. But it did see success in three battles when it came to Bay Area cinema. First was the failure of Proposition L. If you don't recall SFist Jon's deft description of this prop: more ›

Recap of the weekend's football action. more ›

The Oakland Raiders manhandled the Buccaneers, beating them far more mercilessly than the 30-20 score would indicate. This was obviously a payback game for the humiliating loss they suffered at the hands of the Bucs in Super Bowl XXXVIII. The game was marked by moments both bitter and sweet - sweet to see longtime Raider Tim Brown catch his 100th touchdown in Oakland, bitter when former league MVP, Quarterback Rich Gannon, went down with a cracked vertebrae, likely sidelining him until November or December. Luckily backup Kerry Collins looked good negotiating Norv Turner's offense, and will lead the Raiders against the Texans in Houston next Sunday. more ›

Football wrap-up. more ›

Weekly football wrap-up. more ›