The Why and How of the 49ers Move to Santa Clara
Gregg Easterbrook has a fantastic update on the status of the Niners' proposed move to Santa Clara in today's Tuesday Morning Quarterback:
Recent passage of a ballot initiative clears the way for the Squared Seven's new stadium in Santa Clara. The plan is for a $937 million structure -- a bargain compared to the $1.7 billion Monstrosity in the Meadowlands -- with $114 million paid directly by the city of Santa Clara, $330 million loaned by the city and the rest raised by the team and league. Backers of the plan say the city could receive $155 in rent and profit sharing, plus the city would receive $150 million in new revenue for the Santa Clara municipal utility. (Many California cities own power plants.) What's the plan -- leave the stadium lights on all night? California politicians and public-service commissions have for years been pressuring consumers to reduce electricity use. Suddenly, Santa Clara thinks it's good that a new stadium would increase fossil-fuel consumption. Here is the story behind the story behind the story of why the Niners are leaving San Francisco.
Fresh Soccer Unis
Beware the small one in the front, their most feared assassin.
Shaolin shadowboxing, and the Wu-Tang sword style. If what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous.Do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me? En garde, I'll let you try my Wu-Tang style...
- Wu-Tang Clan, Bring Da Ruckus, from "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" (1993)
[via Kenny Bloggins]
#50 Will Fix The 49ers
Eyes. Intensity. Focus. Singletary.
Mike Singletary is the best. I loved him when he was the best linebacker in the NFL and the heart of the Bears' defense. He's been a great mentor and coach to Patrick Willis, the Niners' middle linebacker and a beast of a player.
This week, after Mike Nolan was fired as San Francisco's head coach, Nolan said the next coach needed to be Mike Singletary... and if Singletary said no, Nolan thought it was so important that he'd be willing to talk to the Hall of Famer.
After another mistake-ridden loss by for the once-great franchise, Coach Singletary spoke his mind at the post-game press conference. Honesty can be so refreshing.
And in case you missed it, yes, Singletary kicked his star second-year tight end, a top former top draft pick and a guy who was supposed to be a core member of the team for years to come, out of the game.
From Rotoworld:
Interim 49ers coach Mike Singletary confirmed in his post-game press conference Sunday that Vernon Davis was benched and sent to the locker room in Week 8 after committing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
"I will not tolerate players who think it is about them and not the team," the fired up coach said. "I'd rather play with 10 people...Rather than play with 11, when I know that right now, that person is not sold out to be part of the team. You can not play with them. You can not win with them. I want winners. I told him he'd do a better job for us right now taking a shower and coming back and watching the game." Singletary added that he'll "think about" whether Davis will keep his starting job during the Week 9 bye.
Sam McGuffie, UMich RB
Sam McGuffie
Kid's a freak. Read the SI article and then watch the highlights. A Michigan freshman, McGuffie became a sensation after The Hurdle and MCGUFFIE MIXTAPE! hit YouTube.
It's important to understand how he evolved into a 6-foot, 190-pound streak of lightning who can bench press 355 pounds, tightrope the sideline and flip over 6-7, blue-chip offensive linemen without dropping the football. His genes help. When coach John Basel met a young McGuffie in the late '90s, Basel knew just by watching McGuffie run that he'd stumbled upon a superior athlete. Basel also noticed something else.
"He could walk on his hands from day one," Basel said.
Basel isn't a football coach. He has owned Basel's All-Star Gymnastics and Cheer Academy in Spring, Texas, since 1992. McGuffie honed his handstands, flips and tumbling in Basel's beginning boys' gymnastics program for a short time before McGuffie's family moved to Cypress. Basel believes if McGuffie had stuck with gymnastics, he might have made a college team. That said, Basel isn't heartbroken McGuffie took the strength and agility he learned in gymnastics to the gridiron.
[Photo via USA Today.]
Bar Exam: Run Through The Line
Do. Not. Stop.
This is the final weekend before the fun and games we call the California Bar Exam. Three days of bliss. First, a day of reading and writing, then a day filled with lots of coloring in of circles (staying inside the lines is very important... maybe even more important than the actual answer if my conspiracy theories about the Bar trying to kill our inner child are correct), and finally, a third day of more reading and more writing. And then... we wait till November to find out if we're official and certified.
As Jack Handey explains about his first day in Hell:
To relieve the boredom, you can throw rocks at other people in line. They just think it was a demon. But I discovered the hard way that the demons don’t like it when they’re beating someone and you join in.
It’s odd, but Hell can be a lonely place, even with so many people around. They all seem caught up in their own little worlds, running to and fro, wailing and tearing at their hair. You try to make conversation, but you can tell they’re not listening.