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Jim Harbaugh – Gone guy?

October 7, 2014

Who needs the Bard when we have the San Francisco 49ers? Talk about your drama.

From quarterback Colin “I’m not the baby daddy” Kaepernick to defensive end Ray McDonald, arrested but not yet charged with the abuse of his pregnant fiancée, the stories are endless if not always entertaining.

The latest narrative centers on teensy-bit-excitable Coach Jim Harbaugh, who may or may not be steering the team next year, even if the Niners win the Super Bowl. Harbaugh has already been to the dance, so to speak, where he and his miners lost to the Baltimore Ravens, who are coached by his brother, John. (You can’t make this stuff up.)

So Harbaugh, Jim, is pretty good at what he does. But there are rumors, and here you can take your pick: He’s too hyper, contorting his face on the sidelines like something out of “Chicken Run”; he treats the guys in the locker room like the college kids he once coached at Stanford; he did wrong by then-Niner QB Alex Smith by secretly courting Peyton Manning when he was a free agent. (Ultimately, Smith would go to the Kansas City Chiefs after losing his starting job to a concussion and Kaepernick,)

Enter SF CEO Jed York, who only fanned flames by tweeting that the team is trying to win a Super Bowl, not a personality or popularity contest. Translation: “Yeah, Harbaugh’s a jerk, but he’s our talented jerk.” ...

Under fire, the NFL thinks pink

October 6, 2014

A shout-out to two former colleagues covering the NFL’s domestic abuse crisis.

Jane McManus of ESPN continues her fine reporting with a piece on the NFL’s addition of more women to the team that will ultimately help clean up this mess. A revelation: Off the Field, the NFL wives organization, is just being included in the discussion now. (Apparently, a first letter from the wives to the league was lost. What a surprise.)

If you’ve been reading this blog, then you know that Jane and I worked together at The Journal News, a Gannett publication. One of our estimable colleagues was longtime religion reporter Gary Stern, who contributed a piece on the entwined lives of NFL commish Roger Goodell and suspended player Ray Rice in the paper’s Oct. 5 edition. ...

Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick and ‘the good wife’

October 4, 2014

So the San Francisco 49ers face-off against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, Oct. 5 for the first time in the regular season since the Niners traded quarterback Alex Smith to the Chiefs, signaling that Colin Kaepernick would be their guy.

The Niners seem destined for an embarrassment-of-quarterback-riches drama. This is the team that traded Joe Montana – possibly the greatest quarterback to date – to the Chiefs no less, because they had Steve Young.

When Alex Smith suffered a concussion back in 2012 and Kaepernick took over for him, leading the Niners to the Super Bowl, well, it was a bit like that moment in “42nd Street” when the star breaks her ankle, the ingénue goes on and the rest is theatrical history.

Even though Kaepernick has better statistics than Smith – and from a pure performance standpoint is a helluva lot more thrilling to watch, because he’s a running quarterback – the Smith-Niners reunion has led to the inevitable “Did the 49ers Make the Right Choice?” column.

Here’s the thing...

This is your brain on football

September 30, 2014

At my uncle’s birthday party recently, I spent part of my time with my little cousin Mark, eating birthday cake and watching the 49ers (my team) come back against the Eagles (his).

Mark is a solidly built, cherubic 9-year-old with a curly top and an appetite as big as his grin. Already a talented hockey player – like his poised, more reserved older brother – Mark told me he’d love to play football, but his parents, my goddaughter and her husband, won’t allow it.

Good call. Time magazine’s Sept. 29 issue has a poignant cover story that’s a must-read for any parent – or, for that matter, anyone interested in the game’s recent, headline-grabbing developments.

It’s the story of 16-year-old Chad Stover, who sustained a traumatic brain injury during one of the many games played under the “Friday night lights” across this country every autumn. Indeed, on fall Fridays when I leave my office late, I can see those lights and hear the throng gathered at the local high school clear across the highway.

Maybe that’s what I had in mind in this passage from my upcoming novel “In This Place You Hold Me,” about a quarterback’s search for identity amid the brutality of the NFL...

Oh, captain, their captain

September 29, 2014

How do you fall out of love?

Does it happen all at once? Or subtly over time until one day you realize that your heart no longer skips a beat when you look at the box score?

I had loved the New York Yankees and, by extension, all of baseball from the time I was about 6 years old. That’s when I first saw the old, old Yankee Stadium, all blue and white. To me, it looked like a wedding cake. The first time I walked inside and saw the field fanning out to embrace infinity, I had only one thought: “I belong here.”

Over the years, I had many memorable moments there – particularly watching the magical teams of the late 1970s – and I would go on to write about the Yanks during their magnificent run at the end of the 20th century.

But also over those years, I found myself so emotionally invested in the Bombers that I couldn’t take their defeats. Then my Aunt Mary, my beloved Tiny, who would’ve been 92 on Oct. 1, became fatally ill, and even winning became painful. Indeed when the team won the World Series in 2009, the gulf between its euphoria and my despair seemed unbreachable.

After that, Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick happened to me, and I made the journey that America has...

In the pink?: The NFL and women’s health

September 27, 2014

Oct. 1 begins Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and as usual the NFL will be up to its helmets in pink paraphernalia. But pardon me if it’s seems more than a tad hypocritical this year with all the domestic abuse scandals rocking the league.

It’s great that the NFL is concerned about advertisers, er, women getting cancer. But a woman with a cracked skull might have more immediate concerns, you know?

In the meantime, domestic abuse organizations are keeping up the pressure. Hope’s Door in Pleasantville recently issued a “Call to Action” as we mark the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act.

“Unfortunately, the recent horrific incidents involving the NFL remind us that domestic violence continues to be a major societal problem that can no longer be ignored,” said Jane Aoyama-Martin, executive director of The Pace Women’s Justice Center said. “I am encouraged by the public outrage, since years ago it would have been swept under the rug and ignored.” ...

The NFL takes a “paws” for a cause

September 21, 2014

Football took a holiday from its troubles Sept. 18 as members of the New York Giants’ most recent Super Bowl-winning teams hit the runway at Bloomingdale’s White Plains to support New York Pet Rescue.

Former wide receiver Amani Toomer, former punter Jeff Feagles and former guard Chris Snee walked some four-legged models – or rather the “models” walked them, perhaps giving credence to W.C. Field’s line that you should never work with kids or dogs.

Or maybe you should. At one point, Andy – one of the two-legged models – paused (or should that be pawsed?) to let a woman in the audience pet the dog he was carrying. Then he kissed the hand that had caressed the animal. Lovely.

The event underscored that it takes all kinds to make this world. Football players generally are not as lithe of physique as models. Nor do they slip easily into ready-to-wear or hold a pose the way models do. They’re built for and are used to moving.

But the Giants trio had good fun, with Amani Toomer even imitating the classic model’s slouch for the delighted audience. ...