-Shaun Hill got himself a spanking new three-year contract with the Niners at $2 million a year. Quite a deal for basically two and a half games worth of work. This means every 49ers fan dream has come true-- a Shaun Hill/Alex Smith QB-off! Not quite up there with the Montana/Young debate of decades ago now is it?

-And speaking of Smith, Tim Kawakami compares new Superhero Eli Manning to Smith in that Manning had a similar kind of injury to Smith and gutted it out. He succeeded, didn't have his arm fall off, and as a result gained the golden aura of "leader." Smith, however, didn't, or couldn't gut it out, thus the Nolan/Smith fracas. Essentially, Nolan thought Smith was a wuss. None of this, however, is really fair because Smith's injury was obviously much worse. Not to mention the fact that Manning was on a better team with better players and a better coach.

-Thursday's Warriors game will be the first one with Chris Webber officially playing. And not just playing, but starting. Most Warriors watchers are still completely flummoxed by all of this as Webber doesn't quite fit the run-and-gun style the Warriors play, as he's kind of an old dodderer. Sure, running teams trading for big men is all the rage these days but Chris Webber is most definitely not Shaq. Then there's the fact that whatever works for the Ws mainly works because of that weird mojo that they have and Webber is, if not, a Mojo Killer and a sulker of the first degree. With the Warriors playing well and in an amazingly tight race for one of the last playoff spots in an increasingly difficult Western Division, why throw Webber in there? Is Nellie onto something nobody can quite see (possibly) or is Nellie just being Nellie and being too cute by a half? We guess we'll find out soon enough.