I know you're getting tired of reading these current connection thingamabobs about football but I the NFL to be a quite simple topic to write about, for me at least. So let's begin shall we?
The savage vultures that is the media covering the classic quarterback controversies has once again stricken the locker room within the walls of 49er head quarters. The Niners of West Bay are no stranger to quarterback controversies. Towards the end of the 80s, the late Bill Walsh, head coaching great and pioneer of the west coast offense, began to take measures for having a suitable back-up quarterback to the all-time great, Joe Montana, who unfortunately developed a tendency to be injury prone. The Fighting Irish's finest, Golden Joe had already taken a team who once was the perennial door mat of the NFL, excluding the John Brodie and Y.A. Tittle years, to hoist the Lombardi trophy twice in the past 6 years but the team couldn't operate as efficiently without their on field general. Bill Walsh campaigned to find a suitable replacement when the time comes and what he saw was another future hall of famer in Steve Young. Young saw action occasionally during the Montana years as he watched Joe Cool take San Francisco to consecutive Superbowls in 88' and 89', but during the Niners' attempt at the unhearf-of threepeat in 90', Montana injured his throwing elbow on his last episode of 4th quarter heroics in 49ers garb. Thus ending the threepeat and the Montana era in San Francisco. Young took the reigns of the team and Montana left for Kansas City, taking along the 49ers fan base with him. Today, however, we have a similar "good" problem in West Bay.
49ers quarterback Alex Smith, drafter first overall in the 05' draft, was finally clicking in San Francisco under Jim Harbaugh's mentorship. He had taken the Niners (along with the help of a superb defense) to a tight win against the favorite New Orleans Saints. Alex and the Niners went 13-3 that year in a return to excellence after 8 years of misery, making it to the doorstep of the Superbowl only to fall short due to two extremely untimely fumbles on part of special teams. Smith was having a good season and was ranked in the top 5 in quarterback rating. Although his numbers were exceptional, he was still criticized about being unable take over a game like other elite quarterbacks across the league. Everything changed against the St. Louis Rams when Alex was taken out of the game due to a concussion he suffered on a quarterback scramble. Colin Kaepernick stepped in and lead the San Francisco to a rare tie. Alex's chances of starting again seemed un-threatened until the Monday night game against the Chicago Bears. Alex was forced to sit out this game due to failing to be cleared by doctors to play. Colin Kaepernick in his 2nd season in the league was practically a rookie going against the #2 ranked Chicago defense. Chicago was expected to shut down San Francisco's offense but little to their knowledge, Colin was a sleeping lion awaiting to be unleashed upon the league. Colin slaughtered the Bears in a 32-7 rout under the bright lights of Monday Night. Since then Colin has started the past 2 weeks in a victory against the surging Saints at the deafening Mercedes Super Dome and a OT loss against the rising Rams at the Edward Jones Dome.
Jim Harbaugh's decision on starting quarterback was viewed as a stupendous success after Colin continued his stomping of the Saints but controversy arose once again after Colin made some foolish rookie mistakes against the Rams as the game was coming to a close. The 49ers OC called what looked like a triple option toss deep in Niner's territory. Instead of keeping the ball himself, Colin tossed the pigskin to receiver Teddy Ginn Jr. The ball flew about 2 feet out of Ginn's reach and was ruled a fumble since it fell behind the line of scrimage, becoming a lateral pass. Ram's rookie corner Janoris Jenkins recovered the fumble and instinctively scrambled into the endzone, allowing the Rams to tie the game and reach overtime. Colin was able to place the team in the position to win as he drove down the field in OT but he was let down by the struggling kicker, David Akers, who missed the 42 yard kick. The Rams, taking opportunity of great field position, sent out budding star kicker (if their could be a "star" kicker aside from Adam Vinateri) "Legatron" Greg Zuerlion. Zuerlion turned heads as he was able to boot 70+ yard kicks in warm ups which is especially impressive since the NFL record for longest kick is 63 yards, ironically tied by David Akers earlier this season. Zuerlion didn't disappoint with his chance of redemption after he missed the game winner earlier. San Francisco left with a loss to an obviously inferior Rams team. The media clambered around Harbaugh, pelting him with questions of whether Alex should start instead of Colin. Harbaugh, being the mad scientist that his is, again teased the media with the cliche,"going with the hot hand." Earlier this week, Harbaugh decided that Colin still has the "hot hand" and will once again start against the anemic Dolphins. The Niner's defense should be able to easily stomp out any spark from the Dolphin's offense, carrying Colin to another victory. The real decision comes in 2 weeks, when San Francisco travels to the frozen tundra of Foxborough, Massachusetts to challenge the currently 9-3 New England Patriots and super star quarterback, Tom Brady.
The decision of returning to the seasoned veteran or going to the future face of the franchise will continue to be up in the air according to the media until the end of the season. If Colin can take the Niners to where Alex couldn't last year, the Super Bowl, Harbaugh will be praised as a genius and if cannot, Harbaugh will be praised for doing what's best for the future. We're all living in Jim Harbaugh's world and the reporters are just pawns at his whim. They just don't know it and for how this affects me, I'm from the Bay. What goes down in the Bay, goes down in my house. Bye Bye
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