Forty Niners Forever

Well, bad news around Jalen Hurd. He once again injured himself to the tune of a season-ending injury, by bowing out his ACL on a simple cut rounte on the sidelines of practice on Sunday. he had successfully overcome a back injury that sidelined him all of last year. He appears to be as snakebit as RB Jerick McKinnon the once and future star who hasn’t played a meaningful down yet and is entering his 3rd year as a 49er.

Deebo Samuel may or may not make the opening day roster, but his availability will likely fall somewhere between him missing 6 weeks, and Deebo saying he’ll be ready for the Cardinals game. To address these injuries, the 49ers have brought in Speedster Tavon Austin, J.J. Neson, and Jaron Brown to fight for their 2 spots.

And to add to this, Travis Benjamin opted out of the season. So there are 3 possible spots depending on the position decisions upcoming.

Austin of course is intriguing because of his blinding speed, and the way the 49ers use WRs in the short passing, and even running game, the thought of getting him the ball in space seems like a great idea. Nelson spent time with the Raiders and Cards and is a decent #2-3 guy. He and Austin are likely fighting for the same spot as they are both small speed guys.

Jaron Brown however is a big target at 6′ 3 and 203 lb. And 4.40 speed. He has that elusive potential.

Well, the NFL is all set to kick off in 29 days. Thursday night September 10 is the official kickoff to the 2020 season, pitting the Houston Morons vs the Kansas City Chiefs. Should be a good one that Houston will lose. We of course play the beneficiaries of Bill O’Brien’s utter stupidity in the Arizona Cardinals. They of course traded DeAndre Hopkins for a washed up David Johnson. They also jettisoned Carlos Hyde, who had a pretty solid year for the Houstons. So, they traded arguably one of the top 3 WRs in the league for a lousy replacement to a better RB in Hyde, and got a 2nd round pick.

So, we have a very tough opening game, at home at least, against what looks to be a very improved Cardinals team. One that we, and many other teams, struggled to beat last year, despite their 5-10-1 record. That is of course pending the Coronavirus threat hanging over everything and everyone. Baseball has a bunch of teams on hold while the players do stupid shit like going to strip clubs and such in insanely stupid states like Georgia, but they are playing on.

Basketbubble is going just fine as no players so far have broken the bubble (take the bottle, shake it up. Break the bubble, break it uuuuup. Pour some . . .). Football? Well, there have been 59 cases with players, and 2 dozen or so coaches and staff, but nothing recently. Anthony Lynn admitted he tested positive a while ago, and 66 players have opted out.

This includes 49er O linemen Jake Brendel and Shon Coleman, and WR Travis Benjamin; for various reasons. So, as of now it is all systems go, and the league office said there is a very slim chance that things will get bad enough to warrant a cancellation of the season. But as we have seen so far, this can change on a dime.

Well, we signed a tight end, we signed a pass rusher (soon), and a wide receiver opted out of the season due to COVID concerns. The guys in order are Jordan Reed, top 5 pick Dion Jordan, and Travis Benjamin. Other than that we are looking to sign George Kittle to a new deal. We signed Kevin Lynch to an extension. Also, Jeff Wilson and Rick James were off the COVID-19 list and have been cleared to practice.

Other than that, Jimmy Garoppolo ended his 6-month silence, and announced that he still has a lot to learn and that obviously things didn’t end as well as expected. Seeing as one year ago, the 49ers were coming off a dogshit season, and their QB was testing out a surgically repaired knee, he also said that last season was a success. It was his first full season as a starter, so you can’t really expect much more than what he and the team accomplished.

He also said the team is very optimistic and is already playing at a high level and is confident they can pick up where they left off. It is looking more and more like there will be a season, so giddyup folks!

Super Bowl or bust.

4 days into the nascent baseball season, and we have some ominous developments. Regardless of the fact that the Giants used solid pitching and decent defense to comeback and amazingly even up with the hated Dodgers after getting their collective milkshake drank those first two games, 11 Miami Marlin players, and two coaches tested positive for COVID, and they are stranded in Philly while MLB has cancelled the Marlin home opener.

Philly, who played the Marlins, are gonna go into shutdown made as well as their game against the Yankees is postponed. It seemed that things were going fairly well, with just a few positives scattered around the league (Juan Soto, Chapman, and Le Mahieu among a long list of current and post-positive players), but this is the first concentrated outbreak that threatens the whole enchilada.

The next couple days will be very interesting as the league tries to tamp down this outbreak while still allowing other teams to play. This of course comes before both the NBA and NHL are scheduled to restart next weekend, and training camps are set to open.

So this is either the beginning of the end of sports or the first speed bump to overcome.

Whatever you do, don’t lie to me.

Baseball is here, basketball is soon to restart on July 30th, and we will have the 49ers Santa Clara’s training camp open in 5 days. Whether we are all jumping the gun, we will soon find out, but as of now it’s full speed ahead with sports. I’m sure hockey is doing something but who gives a rat’s ass? Problem is, on day one of baseball, Juan Soto tested positive for COVID. His teammates all went out and played their game against the Yankees. Fittingly the first game was a 5 inning affair that was rained out. 3 months late, and rained-shortened? Too funny.

The Giants are going against the Dodgers right now, and as of now, no positives, unless you call Clayton Kershaw hitting the IR a positive development.

Anyhow, drove through the City last week, and hit some old stomping grounds.

Rookies can report on Tuesday, quarterbacks and injured players on the 23rd, and the rest of the players on July 28th, but there is a lot of grumbling among the players and the NFLPA regarding the safety of the game and how players can be safe playing in this pandemic.

Then you have the request that players be tested every day, and the NFLPA has already put forth not playing any preseason games. In all, no one is clear if the game would be safe to resume, let along practice but here we go. I think.

A far as testing goes, my daughter was tested 2 WEEKS ago and still no results. In other words testing is useless. Must be nice for these folks to be able to get tested, with results, at the drop of a hat, and us regular folks can’t get shit.

Welcome to the NFL, Raheem Mostert. The feel good story of the 2019 season, Raheem paddled imaginary surfboards onto imaginary waves after scoring real touchdowns last season, and turned in a spectacular 220 yards on 29 carries performance in the NFC Championship game. So, naturally he wants to get some scratch for, you know, the effort. In the immortal words of the Dalai Lama, gunga la gunga. Not sure if he will get total consciousness, though.

Problem is, Mostert has no leverage. He just signed a 3-year $8.7 million deal last year. Sure it was for a guy who, before week 12 was a 3rd string RB and special teamer who has bounced around the league for 5 teams in 2 years before landing on our practice squad in 2017. And that’s the rub. Mostert has 8 games under his belt as a starter. Well, I take that back. Shanny mysteriously didn’t play Mostert until midway through the 2nd quarter of the Super Bowl.

Speaking of Shanahan, he, and his father before him, seem to be able to make any running back look like the 2nd coming of Jim Brown. His zone blocking scheme works very well, and running backs in this system are pretty much plug-and-play. Give any RB a shot to get through the line untouched, and they will pile up yards. Which makes the RB position, one of not nearly the value it once held in recent football memory, even less so with the Forty Niners. Shit, Jeff Wilson has looked very good at times. He had 4 TDs in his first two games last year.

And, sure, I like the guy, but Mostert is walking into a buzzsaw what with no leverage, fighting for playing time (if McKinnon ever sees the field), having 2 years left on his original deal, and going against Paraage Marathe and the 49ers front office. As much grief as I’ve given Marage, it has never been around his contract dealings. He’s a master of the deal, and is not someone to try and push over or bully in contract negotiations.

So, if he doesn’t want to be here, in the best system around for a guy of his talent, trade him. His value right now will never be higher, and we should be able to get what, a 3rd round pick? Even that may be a stretch. Teams don’t even draft RBs on day 1 of the draft anymore, and a guy with his limited action won’t broker any deals in the first 2 rounds, let alone the 3rd round.

Plus, the 49ers can merely sit back and say play or go home. He’s under contract, and his only move is to hold out.

Nothing seems to be stabilizing, let alone getting better in the U S of eh? I’m assuming neither baseball, basketball, or football will be played this year, despite the ramping up of something resembling training camp for baseball, and the restart of the basketball season. Baseball of course spent two months haggling about the money while the rest of the nation struggled on. During the game of chicken regarding playing, the league did nothing with the time allowed to figure out a testing protocol. Something EVERYONE knew was the biggest issue around starting the game back up. Now that we are here, the league missed their ship date for tests to numerous teams, and they look like the stupid fucks that they are.

Basketball chose the worst hotspot in the nation, Floriduh, to restart their interrupted season. That should go well. Maybe Rudy Gobert can be in charge of cleaning the press room.

But, fuck baseball and basketball. I’m more worried about football. As of now, teams are rag-tagging it, and various players are testing positive as they ignore the rules around practice. A couple preseason games have already been cancelled, and frankly with the way the powers that be have screwed the pooch in the response to this outbreak, I’m not very optimistic about the season. barring the miracle vaccine.

Well, dominoes 2 and 3 have just fallen as the NFL has cut 2 preseason games from the 2020 NFL schedule. They are saying games 1 and 4 just for fun, but this ain’t fun. As the Coronavirus drags on, the entire year of 2020 looks to be a wash for sports of any kind.

The COVID situation here in the US of A is not improving, and the Commander in Grief (thief? greed? cheat? Vlad? Pick an adjective) ain’t doing shit about it, and we are wallowing in a sea of people who think wearing a mask is a political statement. Hey, next time you get an operation, tell the surgeon to do the op in the parking lot without a mask or gloves because America!

But I digress. The truth is, this looks to be a slow inevitable crawl to the cancellation of the entire 2020 season. I hope not, but without some real progress getting this shit under control, we are all just hoping against hope something good comes out of this.

The Hall of Fame game in Canton, OH was just cancelled, to the surprise of no one. It is getting grimmer and grimmer regarding the 2020 season, as the country has pretty much screwed the pooch in regards to containing the virus. Of all the sports, baseball is the least onerous when it comes to spreading things, if you take away the licking and spitting and drooling in the dugouts. Korea is playing, minus fans, and it is going fine.

Basketball? That’s gonna be tougher. There’s a lot of contact, and no way to distance. I mean it won’t affect guys like James Harden and Russell Westbrook, who don’t play defense anyway, but I can’t really see how that is gonna work.

Then there’s football. A game where EVERYONE is in close contact with everyone else.From the players and coaches on the sidelines, to the offensive and defensive huddles, to the 14 guys on the line of scrimmage, to actual crashing and hitting and blood and sweat flying. They’ve had the longest time to wait for a solution, as this took off right when the Super Bo, uh, nevermind, but the point being, we haven’t even gotten over the first wave of this, let alone the predicted second wave once fall and winter hit.

I wish there was good news coming around this, but I’m not very optimistic at this point. Barring some kind of miracle around a vaccine.