CSN Bay Area

Richard Sherman has now fully acknowledged his NFC Championship Game error by incorporating Michael Crabtree’s name into his latest apology (courtesy MMQB), so I presume 49er fans being the gentle and forgiving folks they are that they will let Sherman up now so that he may feel the warm glow of general acceptance for his acceptance of personal responsibility. His well-written and interesting piece will open new vistas for him and for his supporters and detractors, and we will all be better for what we learned from the experience.

Reaction in unison, please, and in three . . . two . . . one . . . aaaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

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Without judging the quality of Marshawn Lynch’s answers in his brief Media Day stay, the fact that he turned up at all rather than risk a $100,000 fine shows that his Cal education did not betray him. The history of athletes and money dovetails with the history of economic inflation to suggest that the $100K an athlete wastes today for no good reason is $27K that athlete might need later in life.

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Media Day is probably a bad time for some news stories to get a full run – like the Northwestern football players who have decided to unionize – and good for others – like Regis Philbin quitting his Fox show after the Super Bowl, or Lynch’s new endorsement deal with Skittles.

But we’ll wait for the NCAA’s measured-yet-panicked reaction in the next few days before we decide that the Northwestern story has been unduly ignored. You may rest assured that they’re paying attention in the nation’s right-to-exploit-college-athletes states.

You know. All of them.

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LeBron James told writers he’d like to sit down with the NBA’s next commissioner-ette, Adam Silver to discuss some ideas: “Hopefully I can sit down with the commish and just throw out some ideas where I hope the league can be better. Hopefully he has some ideas for me.”

James’ first idea: Amnesty for punching Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert in the throat really hard once a year. Silver’s response: Uhh, not on my first day, not when I’m in the country, and not so it ever gets back to me.

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Jayson Stark of ESPN.com declares that Bud Selig is the best commissioner in the history of baseball. His words: “Bud Selig has been, without any dispute, the greatest and most important commissioner in the history of his sport. Period.” 

This of course drew much howling and derision because he included the key words “Bud” and “Selig.” But it’s a trick statement, of course, because the other commissioners were either racists and juridical frauds (Landis), short-timers (Chandler, Eckert, Giamatti, Vincent), leather ottomans (Kuhn) or self-inflating dirigibles (Ueberroth).

In short, the bar was not exactly Sergei Bubka-heightish.

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Oregon is handing out Phil Knight bobbleheads for the Ducks’ Saturday game against USC. This would make him among the very few entrepreneurs/team owners to submit to the ravages of springneck. The reason: Most other entrepreneurs/owners are bobbleheads in real life, from the dull plasticine faces to the out-of-control bobbing to the fact that almost none of them talk.

Then again, maybe it’s just me being cranky.

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San Jose Shark Tommy Wingels said he tried to convince/induce Los Angeles’ Dustin Brown to fight to seek vengeance for Brown’s knee-to-knee hit on Sharks forward Tomas Hertl in December. He said Brown declined twice to do so, and told CSNSharkville’s Kevin Kurz, “I guess he doesn’t want to own up to it. There’s many other opportunities, right?”

Well, I guess it’s a way to alert the NHL office to pull out a fine form for when they meet again, since this looks like it’s going to become a regular thing.

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Chris Creamer of sportslogos.net fame did this thoughtful graphic on the colors of the Super Bowl participants’ uniforms. Sportslogos.net is a great site. That said, I worry that Chris doesn’t get out often enough.

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And finally, Pete Seeger, the nonpareil folk singer and social activist who died at age 94, offered this back when he was mere whippersnapper in the late ‘70s, via former music reviewer Michael Norman of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Facebook:

“When I called, he was late coming to the phone because he was out chopping wood. He was in his late 70s then, but an exercise fanatic. We had a great interview about music, politics, history, life. And when it was over, he asked me whether I enjoyed working in journalism. I said I did. And then he scolded me.

‘Worst damn thing that ever happened to America was the invention of the sports pages. Turned us all into a nation of couch potatoes and watchers.’

“I protested a bit, blaming it on TV. And he wouldn’t have it. ‘It all started with you guys in the newspapers!’ That was Peter Seeger. He was such an uncompromising, but lovable character. One of the great artists, activists and souls of the 20th Century.”

My kingdom for a cogent rebuttal.