The ship be sinking in San Fran

When it comes to the 49ers, the ship be sinking. And it be sinking fast.

With the 49ers now 3-10, and having no quarterback to speak of, you could say that Mike Nolan is in serious trouble. He's been getting hammered by local papers for weeks, and now it seems that the fans are starting to chime in as well, as the NSFW video above makes clear. But that's not all. There's now a Fire Mike Nolan site and for Sunday's home game, a group of irate fans hired a blimp that will fly over the stadium and have a lighted sign on it that reads "FIRE NOLAN."

Alex Smith also ripped Nolan in this Tuesday Mercury News article, claiming that Nolan went behind his back and made it clear to teammates that he was using injuries as an excuse for his poor performance. Smith was suffering from a lingering third-degree shoulder separation and tendonitis when he chose to shut himself down. And that was after Smith got a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews, who told Smith his injuries were much worse than he'd thought they'd be. It should be noted that Nolan didn't want Smith to get a second opinion. Way to be coach.

Smith is now known by some players in the locker room as "The Lion" in reference to the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz. That's fantastic work by Nolan, who has been tied to Smith since they both arrived in 2005.

I realize people play hurt all the time in the NFL, but putting a quarterback out there who's trying to recover from a severe shoulder injury and tendonitis - both of which are only getting worse - is just stupid. You're lucky if you can lift your hand above your head after separating your shoulder, let alone throw a football with any accuracy.

I haven't been the biggest fan of Smith during his time in SF, but I'm behind him on this one.

Any coach that systematically looks to turn his team against the hurt starting quarterback - who he is inextricably tied to - doesn't deserve to have a job.

I have the sense that once everything leaks out about Nolan's time in SF after he's fired, he'll never coach another NFL team again.

And that's fine by me.


Thanks to Mac G's World for passing the Nolan rap along to me.

-WCK

The Bay Area is officially in Sports Hell

With the Bonds indictment getting dropped on us yesterday, I think it's time that I admitted what I think everyone already knows. The Bay Area sports scene has reached its absolute nadir. We are officially the anti-Boston.

While Say Hey did a run down of a few of the miseries the Bay Area has gone through of late, it's actually much, much worse than that. We're even partly to blame for Simmons' ridiculous Patriots columns and an annoyingly undefeated Hawaii team. Here's the full rundown of the hell that the Bay Area finds itself in, and how it's even seeped into the overall sports conciousness.

1. Barry Bonds, who grew up in the Bay Area and is the greatest Giants player in history (yes, better than Mays), is indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. Even though everyone out here knows Bonds did steroids, until Thursday we could at least say "Well, he wasn't charged with a federal crime." No longer. By the way, the Giants also finished the 2007 season dead last in the National League West (19 games out of first place) and are about to start a major rebuilding phase.

2. Alex Smith separates his shoulder early on in the 2007 NFL season. Since coming back to play he's been dreadful. Nolan said it was due to a lack of confidence. Smith said it was because he was still hurt, and threatend to shut himself down for the rest of the season in response to Nolan. Although they finally put their disagreement to rest yesterday, I'm not sure it matters. Both are horrible at their given professions.

3. Nolan's dad, who coached the 49ers for eight seasons from 1968 through 1975 and led them to three straight NFC West division titles, died this week. Bill Walsh also died in July.

4. The 49ers have lost their last 7 games.

5. As a commenter reminded me, the 49ers have to give up their 2008 first round draft pick to the Patriots.

6. The Golden State Warriors, who set the NBA on fire last season by beating Dallas in the first round of the playoffs, are the only winless team in the NBA with a record of 0-6.

7. The Raiders haven't won a game in more than a month. And they have a 12-year-old head coach and an animated corpse for an owner.

8. Almost half way through October, Cal is ranked #2 in the college polls. They proceed to drop 4 of their next 5 games, primarily because Nate Longshore is rushed back too soon after injuring his ankle against Oregon.

9. Stanford beats USC, which is arguably the biggest college football upset of the year. They proceed to drop 4 of their next 5 games to such stalwarts as TCU and Washington State.

10. Up by 14 points with less than 5 minutes to go, San Jose State collapses against Hawaii, and eventually loses in overtime. Forces entire nation to continue to acknowledge Hawaii as an unbeaten team, despite the fact that they aren't very good.

11. Oakland A's suck all year, finish one game ahead of the Rangers in the AL West standings. Don't seem to have much upside headed into 2008.

12. Just to really piss us off, home town boy Tom Brady - who attended the same high school as Bonds - is currently leading the New England Patriots to an undefeated season, which has caused Simmons to write some of his worst columns in years.

The only thing the Bay Area has going for it right now, literally, is the San Jose Sharks, who are currently ranked second in the Western Conference. Other than that, it's like a combination of Cleveland meets Buffalo here in the Bay Area.

-WCK

The Notre Dame ship be sinking

The words of Michael Ray Richardson seem to be perfect for Notre Dame right now. Because clearly, the ship be sinking.

While the departure of Sophomore Demetrius Jones was the most widely reported departure from Notre Dame this year, the team has been losing key players by the barrelful.

Yesterday offensive guard Matt Carufel finally made his departure from Notre Dame official, the South Bend Tribune reported on its web site. Carufel, who played in Notre Dame's first six games and started in three of them, left the program last Wednesday after he was dropped behind classmate Eric Olsen on the team's depth chart.

Carufel was the 2005 Gatorade Player of the Year in Minnesota and reportedly has Iowa and Minnesota, two schools in his final five two years ago, high on his list of possible transfer destinations.

Carufel is the fourth sophomore to leave the Irish in the last four months. The others were tight end Konrad Reuland and quarterbacks Zach Fraser and Demetrius Jones.

Four sophomores have left? Man, considering many college players don't even start until their junior or senior year, these guys must smell something that stinks at Notre Dame, and odds are it's Weis. By the way, if this were the NFL, Weis would have already been fired. And who knows, he may still be fired at some point.

Regardless, this just seems like poetic justice for the Irish after they kicked Ty Willingham to the curb a few years back. It also proves what we knew all along - that Weis is an arrogant asshole who used Ty's players to get a 10-year contract extension.

You reap what you sow. And Notre Dame hasn't been sowing anything since Weis showed up.

-WCK