Forty Niners Forever

Man, tragic doesn’t even begin to describe what happened with Aldon Smith. Gifted beyond belief as a pass-rushing DE, he stormed into the league and drove the 49ers defense to great heights in his first 2 years here. But he chased the the party scene equally as hard, and his career was cut short by his many arrests, DUIs, brushes with the law, and suspensions.

36 is way too young for a guy who looked like a Hall of Fame talent had he somehow been able to overcome the demons in his head that were tormenting him. Or whatever was going on. No idea what he was going through, but here’s an interview with Aldon that was released the day before he passed away.

It sounds like he was really trying hard to get his life together but was still running into obstacles.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/aldon-smith-death-interview-personal-struggles/

Sad that sometimes you just can’t turn things around faster. He and Justin Smith were terrors on the right side of the defense in their time together.

Apparently the Brandon Aiyuk saga will be played out via instagram. In the immortal words of Gil-Scott Heron, the disintegration will be livestreamed. He appears to want to show the world that he is not mentally fit to be playing football any time soon. Let alone physically ready.

He’s tweeting (gramming?) all kinds of mumbly screeds calling the team stupid and scared for . . . for . . . for what I’m not really sure. he said the team ‘took the ball and went home’ when he’s the one who is doing just that. He reneged on a deal he held out for and then signed. BA has burned all the bridges in front of him, behind him, and under him. Then he posts a video of himself speeding past Levi’s stadium at a brisk 104 MPH. That’s some four-dimensional stupidity right there.

(side note – the Santa Clara DA issued an arrest warrant for reckless driving or some shit. 6 months later!)

If he expects the team to do ANYTHING remotely in his interest, he’s deluded beyond belief. The 49ers will likely hold on to him until training camps starts. If he doesn’t make an appearance, the 49ers will commence with the $50,000 per day fines for not showing up to camp. That ought to go over well.

This looks like it will be a media-driven pile of hype-laden shit, but if I’m the 49ers front office, I would just continually say “I hope BA gets the help that he so obviously needs.”

In a move that seems like a win/win, Kyle Shanahan cancelled minicamp after everyone showed up and participated in the OTAs this yearNo hold-outs, no hold-ins and no injuries to speak of. A big plus there.

The point being, they are trying something different to reduce the amount of injuries that always seem to hit this team. Huzzah. It’s a start, anyway. They won’t suit up until training camp on July 26th.

OTA winners appear to be De’Zhaun Stribling, who got open at will, and Jacob Cowing, who impressed Mike Evans anyway. Seeing it for real would be awesome. Mike Evans also did well in the red zone offense. Something they finally seemed to grasp las year was to NOT simply run on 1st an goal EVERY goddamn time. Kittle was impressed with all of them.

Kaelon Black is also getting kudos for being explosive, fast, and decisive. Newly acquired Ashtyn Davis made himself known flashing his speed at the safety position and plugging the holes vs the run game.

Losers? Purdy is back to throwing too many picks. Yeah, it’s practice, but he has stretches were he turns the ball over too much. Mac didn’t even practice due to a lingering shoulder injury, so he’s resting til training camp. And fo whatever nondisclosed reason Ricky Pearsall was MIA yesterday and no one was forthcoming regarding his status.

And in other news, a warrant was issued for Brandon Aiyuk for his video selfie speeding past Levi’s stadium at 104 MPH. Allegedly. NOt really sure why they waited 6 months to do something, but hey, whatevs.

If you look under the banner, You’ll see #! GIANTS PAGE. Click that and you’ll get a new page that looks an awful lot like this one, but it’s separated out from the main page and has its own threads.

Trying to see if that is editable and all, but we’ll see how this goes. Lemme kow what you think.

Most notably being the signing of ex-Cal Bear safety Ashtyn Davis yesterday. A special teams standout and versatile safety/hybrid LB. Seems like a good fit for our revamped defense under Raheem Morris.

Also noteworthy is Larry Worth III, he’s another hybrid LB/safety who has impressed in camp and has signed a 3 year deal. The others are the revolving door of a 90-man roster. Sincere McCormick, Jermar jefferson, Jordan Mims, and a bunch of other guys have been released/signed/PUPed, whatevs. Here’s list.

https://www.49ers.com/team/transactions/

In other news, AJ Brown got his wish to fly away fly from the Iggles and is now in New England. Now NE has a WR room full of grumbling. The Factory of Sadness has traded innumerable good players (goodbye Myles) for a boatload of picks but will they put them to any use? Or will they be the Oakland A’s of football and simply provide other teams with stars?

I don’t know, man. I just want this team to improve their line. The front office offensive philosophy seems to be running broken plays with Purdy getting his usual 1.5 seconds before all hell breaks loose and he’s on the run. And throw in a run game going nowhere as teams simply stack the line and short-circuit the runs.

I’m no GM but how fucking obvious is this? I’m not saying spend ALL your picks on the O line, but do more than day-3 fliers and UDFAs. Still need a center and guard depth.

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As far as the Giants go, I’ll think about how to split this up. If possible.

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My interest in the fucking Giants is waning pretty heavily as management doesn’t appear to give any fucks about the state of the team.

Buster should know a fuck-ton better than to dick around with Eldridge’s playing time, having a revolving door of turd outfielders falling out of the Sacto bus, and the whole pin the tail on the reliever thing.

Thankfully we are nowhere close to ever having a lead late in any games anymore, so there’s no need to develop a closer. But infielder (who knew?) Buddy Kennedy and his 76 MPH fastball sure looked good the other day.

Welcome to the clown-show, Buddy.

Something like that. Bosa has been ethereal in his approach to rehabbing his torn up knee this time around. Ignoring social media (like we all should) and not rushing back into action like he did back in 2020. He has becomea big reader, gotten into meditation, and done things to quiet the external demands and implications of being ‘the man.’ The mental health aspect of all this is a pretty bug deal as he started last year on fire, getting a strip-sack of Sourdough Sam to seal the early win vs Seattle, and generally harassing the Rattler in the win over the Saints only to suffer a season-ending injury early in the Cards game.

He says he’ll be ready for the Rams game in Australia. Hope the rest of the team is also somewhere near healthy. If we can get through a season in relative health, I like our changes. I’m excited about this new more aggressive defense, and hopefully our offense can be more balanced. The run game was awful last year, and we still haven’t really found a backup that can gain consistency behind CMC.

This is of course predicated on the offensive line but don’t get me going on that . . .

Just a new thread to kick off the battle for the NL West cellar. The Bay of Pigs so to speak.

And, in shocking news Brandon Aiyuk didn’t show up for OTAs. And in other shocking news, Issac Guerendo was injured in the offseason lifting weights, so he’ll likely start the season on the PUP list.

From there, it’s off to the pet store I guess. He and BA may never play another snap on the NFL.

Weird times indeed.

And with it the hopes and dreams of the Bay Area sports world. Sad to say it has come to this what with the Giants in terminal suck mode, the Warriors dynasty crumbling with the aging of superstar Steph, Dray, and Jimmy B; and whoever the 12 guys are who follow the Sharks as they skated through another playoff-less season.

Of course with the OTAs come the inevitable injuries. This team has wallowed through about 25 seasons of injuries in the past 7, and the hope is they figure something out that isn’t the same crash-and-burn scenario. Stretch more? A little more contact in practice? Better offseason prep?

I don’t have any clue their preparation and such but to keep doing the same thing and seeing the calamities that befall this team season after season is amazing in its consistency. I think they got more trainers or something. Huzzah. Maybe tinfoil helmet liners are in order to deflect the massive amount of EMFs coming off the PG&E power station next door.

Speaking of consistency, the Giants are finally consistent. Consistently awful. They get to go to their favorite place on Earth. Denver. Where large leads go to die horrible deaths, and well, the battle for the cellar begins now.

. . . for offensive line help. At this point I’d be thrilled if we signed a center. They look to rol with the rookie Willis at LG so I guess that fixes that? Man, I don’;t’ know.

It smacks of the Giants signing Mahler and Houser and calling their rotation fixed. Or banking on Walker saying he fixed his closer issues.

There are hopes. And there are prayers. We need to do more to the O line.

For those who served and to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, you are not forgotten. Strangely enough both my grandfather (born in 1900) and my father (born in 1925) didn’t make it out of training before the respective wars ended. Dear old dad was training to be a fighter pilot and got a little seat time in a P-51 when the war ended. Funny thing is, my oldest sister was born in 1950. She broke the streak by having her daughter in 1968.

Lots of chatter out there about 4th round OT pick Carver Willis being the guy who helps solidify this swiss cheese O line by winning the left guard spot. Let’s hope so. That still leaves the revolving door that is Jake Brendel, at center but one thing at a time. Someone may fall out of a troster somewhere hopefully.

As for the hapless Giants? Yesterday is kinda what we thought the team would be. Decent hitting with middling pitching. Instead we get 1-2 game sa week where everything lines up surrounded by 4-5 that don’t.

Not sure how we get out of this other than to hope all their slow starters wake up. There’s plenty of time to get things right, but with the pitching being so scattershot with the starters AND the pen, depending on this team to consistently hit its way to victory is proving to be too much.

Hope y’all have a nice long weekend, and gland to hear Paul is on the mend. We al seem to be about the age where maladies and medical procedures are the grist of the mill.