Paul's San Francisco 49ers fan blog

It has been over a month now since the 49ers fired head coach Mike Nolan and replaced him with assistant coach Mike Singletary. "Right now, the guys realize that we do have something here," To what degree, I don't know, but we do have something special here", Singletary said after first being named interim coach. In the 5 games since Singletary took over the 49ers are 2-3 and just last week came away with a 10-3 win in a defensive struggle against Buffalo. The 49ers are playing harder, the coaches are coaching better, the team is actually better. Although a 4-8 record and an assurance that the 49ers will fail to make the playoffs for the 6th straight year can't please to many fans, Mike Singletary should. Singletary said he's "having the time of my life" as head coach. "This is what I was born to do -- there's absolutely no doubt in my mind." He has taken responsibility when the team hasn't played well and he will go straight after players when they make mistakes. Both of those things former coach Mike Nolan wouldn't do. 

Continue reading "A Win Over the Jets could Remove "Interim" Label for Singletary"

The United Football League officially announced itself yesterday to the press and the rest of the football world. The league announced their $20 million training complex in Arizona, unveiled both a new league logo and the official website, the final 8 cities to fill the 6 slots for teams and the announcement that a television deal is in the works. Other information was announced and league commissioner Michael Huyghue had several interviews and new quotes about the league. Take a visit to ufl-football.com and you will see a video of Huyghue welcoming you to the league as well as a blog keeping you up to date on it. The website also other information about the league and has given the fans the chance to name each of the league's franchises. The day was big, giving the league a little bit of momentum heading into 2009 and much bigger announcements to come as early as next month. With that said one must look ahead, past this announcement, and wonder. What's next?

Continue reading "What's Next for UFL?"

The 2008 NFL is one of the better ones in my memory. Certainly better than last year, and probably the best since 2001. The stories of bad teams rising to the occasion, a star quarterback coming back to play and another one missing the year, a backup who hasn't started since high school on his way to making millions via free agency, coaches being fired at a record pace, and a couple quarterbacks on their way to 5000 yards passing are just some of the stories to the NFL season. There seems to be another story that could be in the making when the season comes to a close. Currently there are 5 NFL teams with 2 wins or fewer and with just 5 games left in the season there is the possibility that a 5 teams could finish 2-14 or worse. The reason for the futility is a lot of things, bad play, injuries, or just plain bad. Here are the 5 best of the worst in the NFL and what the last part of the season could hold.

Continue reading "Some NFL Teams are Bad, Really Bad"

The Syracuse Orange finished yet another season of failure on Saturday, losing to BCS Busting Cincinnat 30-10 and sealing the 4th consecutive losing year for Syracuse. The team finished 3-9 and the best record under Greg Robinson was a 4-8 campaign in 2006. With the past 4 years finally finished, Greg Robinson fired, and the program in desparation mode, a new head coach is on the horizon. “I have made the decision to move our football program in a new direction and have informed Greg Robinson that his tenure as Syracuse’s head coach will end at the conclusion of this season" SU athletic director Daryl Gross said. That new direction could have been much of the same, as there was initial interest in former Raider head coach and ex-USC assistant Lane Kiffin. Gross worked with Kiffin at Southern Cal and rumors speculted there was a reunion possibly in the works. Now that Kiffin is the new coach at Tennesse that rumor can be put to rest. As for SU? Their search will continue and look for the school to take its time.

Continue reading "Syracuse Finishes Season 3-9; Coaching Search Up Next"

New football leagues seem to come about every number of years. Some find a way to stick around for awhile (see NFL Europe or the Arena League) others make some news but don't stick around for to long (USFL, XFL) and then others just never really happen. For the UFL, a new football league aimed to begin kick off in August of 2009, they hope to stay for a long time. For those not sure of what the UFL is, it's pretty simple. The United Football League is a professionalAmerican Football league being organized by William Hambrecht, a Wall Street investor and former minority partner in the USFL's Oakland Invaders, and Tim Armstrong, a senior executive at Google. The commissioner of the league is Michael Huyghue, former NFL agent. Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, was the first to publicly profess interest in owning a franchise. The league will have 6-8 teams, a $20 million salary cap for players, and will play on Friday nights in the fall. There is still a lot of football people crave and lately the NFL has really been the No Fun League. Of course, for this new venture to succeed it needs what has made the NFL, players. Peyton Manning or Terrell Owens won't be suiting up for the UFL anytime soon, but these players would certainly help.  

Continue reading "5 Players the UFL Needs"

The losses have outweighed the wins. Yes, Mike Singletary has inspired this team to play better, Shaun Hill looks like a competent NFL starter and Frank Gore continues to be Frank Gore. But still, the team is 3-8 and is just 1-3 under Singletary since he took over for the fired Mike Nolan last month. The 49ers have not had a winning season since, gulp, 2002 and have seen Dennic Erickson, Mike Nolan, and now Mike Singletary attempt to lead the team back to glory. A revolving door at wide receiever and offensive coordinator, to go along with no consistency at quarterback, have really hampered the team. 2006 may be the best season the 49ers have had since 2002 but even then that team only won 7 games. Fans will claim the team would have been even better in 2007 if Norv Turner had stayed and Alex Smith continued to develop. Still, a great player will still be great, coaching changes or not. That's my take. Norv Turner should never have been hired by the Chargers, and could be available for a coordinator position real soon. Okay, so we aren't here to talk about all of the 49ers short comings since Steve Mariucci was canned. There is a game to be played on Sunday vs. the 6-5 Buffalo Bills. Right?

Continue reading "Singletary Looks to Improve Record as 49ers Interim Coach"

It's not just the turkey, or the stuffing, or the certain 8,000 calories one will consume that makes Thanksgiving a nation pastime in American homes. The NFL has been involved with Thanksgiving since it's earliest of days and has had both classic and controversial moments in league history. This year, a different type of history could be in the making and it continues on Thanksgiving. The Detroit Lions could be on the verge of having a winless season, Arizona could win their first division title in over 30 years, and the McNabb era could be coming to an end after 10+ years in Philadelphia. Ah yes, so grab those sweet potatoes, pull up a chair, and continue to stuff your face as the Annual Thanksgiving NFL Classic continues.

Continue reading "Want a Side of Football with that?"

Tomorrow's Rams at 49ers contest isn't exactly a preview of the NFC title game. It's not even a preview of a good game. Both of these teams enter the game at 2-7 and just thinking about the results has me thinking this was actually an XFL game. The playoff successes, the Super Bowls, the excitement of the very next game... all of that is long gone for both of these NFC West Bottom Dwellers. Sure, the Rams-49ers rivalry has been epic in the past but the only thing these teams have in common before tomorrow's game is the fact that they both changed head coaches in-season and that Isaac Bruce has both played for them.

Mike Singletary is 0-2 since taking over for the fired Mike Nolan and the ridiculous ending to last Monday Night's loss vs the Cardinals are still fresh in 49er fans minds. With 2 seconds left they handed the ball off to back up running back Michael Robinson. Robinson was easily stuffed and Arizona walked away with a 4 game lead in the division. Regardless of all the drama following that loss, the blame of the spot, or even Mike Nolan taking a shot at his former team for not knowing where the ball was, the fact remains. With that little amount of time left in a game you give it to your best player, of course which was Frank Gore certainly not Robinson. Never mind that loss as the 49ers are looking to end this 6 game losing streak and improve upon the things they showed last week. In all honesty I believed the 49ers would be crushed, Warner would have over 400 yards passing and Singletary would drop his pants again attempting to distract the Card's tandem of Boldin/Fitzgerald. None of that actually happened (thank god) and the game was much better than first anticipated. Now I'm sure the ratings for the game were considerably low, but still it was a good game. The 49ers have Shaun Hill once again starting as he looks to improve on his quality 2 touchdown performance against a bad Rams D. 

Continue reading "49ers vs Rams Preview"

A player you just sent packing a number of weeks ago is calling for you to not win a game, your starting quarterback was signed just a week ago, and you are first in line to claim any player off waivers since you have the worst record in the entire league. That has been the story recently for the Detroit Lions this season. Sure there is more, such as Jon Kitna being placed on ir, the team firing their gm not even halfway through the season, but those stories are for another day. This story, the big story, is that the Lions are at 0-9 and staring the '76 Bucs right in the face. 0-14 is hard to come by let alone going 0-16. The Miami Dolphins almost accomplished that last year but was able to get their first win in mid-December after beginning the year at 0-13. "It was a win to keep us from having to tell our grand-kids that we were on an 0-16 team because you still see pictures from the old Tampa Bucs in those orange uniforms. That kept us from being a negative part of history," Dolphins Greg Camarillo said. For the Lions they may become a part of that history. 

Continue reading "Why Detroit Needs to Go Winless"

Anyone somewhat familiar with college football surely is well aware of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The BCS ranks the top college programs based on a rankings, college polls, and computer selection methods. The top 2 BCS ranked teams at the end of the college season qualify for the right to play in the National Championship. Over the years it has had its fair share of hits (USC vs Texas a couple of years ago) to downright misses (see Miami vs Nebraska) but has always provided the sports world with controversy and something to talk about. Now imagine the BCS being used in the NFL? One can only dream of the madness it could create. The NFL will always have playoffs, the league would die without it, but here is a look at what the NFL BCS rankings could look like following week 8.

Continue reading "BCS: NFL Edition"