This is the bear time of American Football, where the NFL's regular season gasps its last, college teams compete through the institutional irregularities of the bowl games, and high schoolers are home for the holidays. Mmmm... home cookin'.

Here's the problem: your San Francisco 49ers won! Really! 24 - 20, sweeping those dastardly St. Louis Rams for 2005. Sure, they were somewhat depleted in Saturday's Christmas Eve matchup, but so what. We win. Hah!

And, yeah, that's good, but no, that's mostly bad. Well, at least that makes things more difficult for the franchise, because the Niners were lined up for a shot at the top of the draft going into the offseason. Now? Pfffft. It looks as though the Niners will landing at-or-about the fifth draft slot right now, after winning where they were not expected to win -- and where they should not have won -- running right through the Rams like Theoden's charge back through the Hornburg's gates. Boy, did Frank Gore look good. Looks like risking that draft pick on him to recover from his college injury paid off. The Gore payoff is the opposite of the Niners' Cade McCown affair -- a few years back SF signed the UCLA alum QB in the hopes that after shoulder surgery he would contribute. McCown never fully recovered. Glad to see that at least with Gore, karma comes through every so often.

And now we don't have to talk or hear about Reggie Bush coming to San Francisco anymore. It was foolish from the first; as further proven by last Saturday's game, the Niners have more pressing needs than running back. And that, gentle friends, is an American Football Spectacular column slated for later this week.

SFist Christopher Rogers, contributing