By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
You’re a Raiders fan, and you wonder what else can happen. The team finally gets out of its decade-deep hole, one that’s silver as much as black, and the owner wants to sneak it over the border.
It has a quarterback worthy of the chant, “MVP, MVP,” and not only does he get hurt, a broken leg no less, but so does his backup.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
A little bit of a chip on his shoulder.
That was Jack Del Rio’s succinct description of the man who, unexpectedly — and because of the situation, unfortunately — is now the Raiders’ starting quarterback: Matt McGloin.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Hey, Jed York, what’s the plan? That’s the issue now. No one has to be told again your 49ers are a bad football team. That’s evident on the field, 12 straight losses. In the standings, second worst record in the NFL.
The question is how to make things better.
We’re well aware owners or executive officers never fire themselves, so anyone demanding your resignation is either naïve or ignorant. That understood, something has to be done. Or a lot of things have to be done.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Yes, Holy Toledo! What else would we say? What else could we say? Except that those who vote on the Ford Frick Award for broadcasting excellence, a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, got it right at last.
They’ve chosen the late — to add great, would re redundant — Bill King.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
The decibels were building, 16, 17, 18, according to numbers on the scoreboard, the fans trying to emulate a jet engine, lifting off a runway, soaring.
The momentum was building, one touchdown, another touchdown, another touchdown, a ringing of the Raider bell — bong, bong — a football team lifting off, soaring.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — He grew up a Kobe fan, and while that may not be what people in Northern California want to hear, the background is understood and acceptable. Derek Carr figures anything is possible in sports.
That the way Kobe Bryant brought the Lakers from behind, well, why couldn’t Carr and his teammates do the same?
Even after blowing a big lead. Even after Carr, the Raiders quarterback, the Raiders leader, injured his throwing hand and was unable to take snaps from the center in the old T-formation but had to play out of the shotgun.
Yes, the Raiders won another one on Sunday at the Coliseum, going way ahead, falling behind and then, just when you wondered if a season that so far has been magical and almost mythical was about to come apart, wondered if the Raiders were to revert to the bad old days, did their Kobe.
Or, making it more appealing, their Steph and Klay. Or more accurately, their Derek and Khalil Mack.
Oakland beat the Carolina Panthers, 35-32, a fifth straight win. They beat the Panthers after flying home Monday night from Mexico City, where Oakland defeated Houston. They beat the Panthers after building a 24-7 lead and then falling behind 32-24 — meaning Carolina scored 25 points in succession.
They beat the Panthers after proving that indeed the Raiders will offer no excuses, only persistence.
“What a great victory here at home against a really good football team,” said head coach Jack Del Rio, who sounded very much like one of the sellout crowd at the Coliseum. “Just proud of our guys for hanging in there and finding a way. That’s been a theme for us this year.”
A theme and a pattern. Five comeback victories. The team that once was unable to win, now, Kobe-like, Steph-like, Derek Carr-like, will not lose. The words of Al Davis float in the breeze, to wit, “Just win, baby.” And in nine of their 11 games this season, they’ve just won. Baby.
Such a bizarre game. Such a typical NFL game. Carolina couldn’t do anything in the first half, gaining just 89 yards total. Awful. Then the Raiders couldn’t do anything to stop Carolina.
“The third quarter was really tough,” agreed Del Rio, “and then we came back and finished.”
Carolina has been a mystery team. In the Super Bowl last season, a bust this season at 4-7, losing games but with Cam Newton at quarterback and other stars loaded with talent. The Panthers suddenly came together, with Newton throwing to Ted Ginn for a touchdown on an 88-yard play and to Kelvin Benjamin for a TD on a 44-yard play. Fortunately, the Raiders did not come apart.
“I thought there was a stretch where things were kind of unraveling a bit,” said Del Rio. “I actually tried to make sure to say, ‘Hey, let’s remember, if we keep fighting and keep believing, we’ll go from there. Then whatever happens, we can deal with it.’ I thought we snapped out of that and got our energy back.”
And got their quarterback back.
And never were without defensive end Khalil Mack, who had an interception and then a sack and recovered a fumble on the fourth-down play that, with a minute to go, would close it out for the Panthers — and thus for the Raiders.
Mack became the first player with a sack, interception, forced fumble, fumble recovery and a touchdown since Charles Woodson in 2009. And digressing, the TD off the interception was oh-so-similar to that of Jack Squirek, picking Joe Theisman, in Super Bowl XVIII in January 1984.
Asked if he knew Mack was that agile, Del Rio insisted, “Yeah, he’s got good hands. He can throw it too. He can do just about anything he really wants.”
What Carr wanted was to get back in the game after the snap on the second play of the third quarter bruised the baby finger on his throwing hand and the subsequent fumble was recovered by the Panthers.
“A lot of pain,” said Carr. “Something happened with the snap. I don’t know what. I’ll have to see the replay. Something was different from normal.”
Carr put a glove on the hand, and the team doctors gave him the OK to replace Matt McGloin, who had replaced Carr. When Carr emerged from the tunnel, the crowd bellowed approval. Carr, although desperate to play, only wanted to bellow.
“Probably the most pain I’ve ever felt in my life,” he said.
He winced, he gritted, he and the Raiders triumphed. Oakland clinching its first winning season in 14 years.
“I’m happy for the fans,” said Carr, who as a Californian — he played at Fresno State — knows the team’s history. It’s been painful, if in a different way from that baby finger.
“We’re learning how to win. I really believe that our identity is just a team that works hard and believes in one another.”
After Sunday, it’s possible to believe the Raiders are an excellent team.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
It was as if Mother Nature was cackling from somewhere east of Eden or west of Milpitas. Late on a Sunday afternoon that had been all too wet, and — for the 49ers — all too unsuccessful, the sun broke through, casting a glow on the upper rows of Levi’s Stadium and creating a rainbow in the skies above.
The old gal must have a perverse sense of humor. Now that the ceremonies were finished, a hurrah for Eddie DeBartolo, which surely will not be the last; now that the football game was finished, a 49ers loss, 30-17, to New England, the weather turned fine.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Christian McCaffrey got his million yards — well, OK it was only 284, but it seemed like a million — and the Big Game remained in Stanford’s possession. But let’s not forget that for the first time in five years Cal had a lead, if a short-lived one.
Early on, the Golden Bears were in front, 10-7. Very early on. Otherwise, when the 119th Big Game came to a thudding conclusion Saturday evening, it was Stanford in front, 45-31, a record-tying seventh-straight win for the Cardinal.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
“Raiddd-uhs, Raiddd-uhs.” The chant rolled through the Coliseum like it did in the in the days of Kenny Stabler, Gene Upshaw and Ted Hendricks, the days when the Raiders could roll through the NFL, irritating, intimidating, a silver and black version of the autumn wind that would knock opponents down just for fun.
The last few years haven’t been fun at all for the Raiders or their fans, the team tumbling from the upper levels of the game to places that were both embarrassing and tormenting. Then, Sunday night arrived with all its nationwide appeal, with Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth, with the opportunity to show once more this was a team, of pride, poise and most of all toughness.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
The man who operates the elevator to the boxes at Levi’s Stadium said he tried to console Trent Baalke on the ride down. Nice of him, but who consoles the 49ers fans — the ones who showed up Sunday to watch another debacle — and the many who had tickets but didn’t show?
Empty seats. Empty hope. Another Niner season is down the drain, and we haven’t even reached Halloween.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
The Raiders could have lost — they kept moving the ball but couldn’t get a touchdown — maybe should have lost. But not against the San Diego Chargers.
The Raiders used to be the Chargers, finding ways to lose. Now they find ways to win.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
The 49ers flexed their muscles Thursday night. Well, running back Carlos Hyde did, and it cost him 15 yards for taunting. Which is sort of the way things went for the Niners at a Levi’s Stadium that was — what? — half-full against an opponent, who despite being forced to use a backup quarterback, all there.
In this battle between 1-3 teams who at the start seemed destined to set an NFL record for punts — the first combined nine offensive series ended in that manner — the Arizona Cardinals beat the Niners, 33-21.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
This is a warning to the Raiders. If you want to draw fans to that $2 billion stadium out on The Strip where Sinatra and the Rat Pack used to hang out, you’d better get your act together. Las Vegas isn’t Oakland.
They want winners there.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
So we’ll get to the trivial stuff quickly, meaning you won’t have to wade through the material about the 49ers crushing the Rams and Carlos Hyde rushing for 88 yards just to find out that yes, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid knelt down during the Star Spangled Banner, next to an American flag literally as big as the football field.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
NEW YORK — A quarterback is in the hot seat because he refuses to relinquish his own seat when the national anthem is played. The Bay Area reacts — and overreacts. The sky is falling. At the least, jerseys are burning.
But back here, in New York, where the U.S. Open tennis championships have started and the only items involving a signal caller have to do with the Jets’ Geno Smith — “Bird brained QB boo-birds,” was the Daily News headline — they barely notice.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
NAPA — This was Al Davis talk, but from Derek Carr. Davis has been gone four and a half years now, and yet for the Raiders, for a player like Carr, it was as if Al still was parading around the field in training camp reminding us to just win, baby.
Carr wants nothing else, even in preseason games. “Anytime I put on a jersey,” said Carr, “my whole mindset is, ‘What do I need to do to win?’”
Most likely be on the field for more than a dozen plays, or something like that, to which most NFL starting quarterbacks are limited in the first or second week of what, in truth, are practice games.
No reason to take a chance with injuries, and conversely you’ve got to give a chance to the backups.
So for Carr, there’s impatience. Ten plays last weekend against Arizona, although with Matt McGloin throwing a couple of touchdown passes, an Oakland victory. Thursday night, it’s the Packers at Green Bay.
“There’s something where, like, if you lose,” said Carr, “it stings, because you’re a competitor.”
And unquestionably, in his third year, a leader — the leader. As a quarterback is supposed to be. Someone who understands the plan and people, and no less importantly himself. Someone as adept at dealing with the media as with a safety blitz.
The Raiders closed camp early Tuesday afternoon, not long after Carr, enthusiastic — as always — and reflective gave what would be the final session behind the podium for Napa 2016. And, according to some rumors, the final ever.
If the Oakland Raiders indeed are to become the Las Vegas Raiders, as Al’s son, Mark, is planning — scheming? — then, according to the predictions, training camp would be switched to Reno. Not that anyone associated with the Raiders would discuss it.
“Man, I’m just . . . I didn’t even think of that until you said that,” Carr offered. “That’s how focused we are on football. I love Napa. I love the Bay Area. If it is, I loved it. If it’s not, I look forward to coming back.”
It was the belief of the late Bill Walsh (whose first job in pro football was as an assistant to Davis in 1966, when Al was the Raiders' head coach) that a quarterback needs three years to develop: in the rookie year mostly watching, in the second year playing when he could succeed, in the third year becoming the starter.
Now rookies, such as Jared Goff with the Rams this season and Carr back in 2014, instantly are first-string, learning in the school of hard knocks and one-sided defeats. Peyton Manning himself endorsed the method with the man who succeeded him at Indianapolis, Andrew Luck.
“You’ve got to get out there and find out,” in effect is what Manning advised.
Carr definitely did. That first year, the Raiders lost their opening 10 games. For someone who prizes a win in preseason, the pain still lingers from the difficult beginning. Yet, Carr rarely gets down.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time,” he said of his attitude, “it’s real. It really is. I just love people, being around people. But there’s one percent of the time when you wake up and your body hurts or something bad happened with a friend or family member, and it bugs you. I’m human.”
But he recovers quickly enough.
“I just remind myself who I am,” said Carr, “my foundation, what I believe and who I am. That’s how I go about it, because I want to make sure I’m always the same for my teammates. Like when we were 0-10, it was hard. But I tried every single day to be the same guy. So, as they saw that when we were losing, when we started winning and I was the same guy, they knew it just wasn’t a game.”
He meant his behavior, not football, which is just a game — and more.
“When I came out of (Fresno State), I felt very prepared,” said Carr, “When I hit the NFL, there hasn’t been anything that was said to me that didn’t make sense. It’s all about experience, though. It’s just a matter of experiencing those things, those blitzes, those coverages.
“It made sense to me why they were doing it, but I had never seen it before so it wasn’t in my memory bank. Those two years of experience are what really gave me the most knowledge.”
We’ll find out whether, in his critical third year, they also give Carr the winning edge.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
This 49ers season, with the new coach, the new up-tempo offense and the new hopes, is really about a not-so-new quarterback.
Defense wins in football. That’s understood. But you’d better have a QB, someone experienced, quick on his feet, quicker in his thinking and most of all in the NFL these days quick getting the ball to a receiver.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
CANTON, Ohio – He knew the shortcuts. Edward DeBartolo Jr. says he could travel the 65 miles from his home in Youngstown, Ohio, to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in maybe 45 to 50 minutes on the back roads.
The real journey, however, would take years.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
“The best laid plans …” You know the rest, words from a poem by Bobby Burns, the Scot who more than a century ago wrote words of warning, words telling us that our hopes and dreams more often do not work out. Or as Burns wrote, “ ..gang oft a-gley,” or as we would say, go often astray.
But not the plans of John Elway. Or the hopes of Peyton Manning. Or the long-ago dreams of the family of Pat Bowlen.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
He was the stranger from Youngstown, the little guy who had to earn his spurs and, more importantly after some missteps owning the 49ers — “This team is not a toy,” he grumbled at the media so critical of his mismanagement — earn the cheers. They were there at Super Bowls in past years. And they were there Saturday night, when Eddie DeBartolo was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
So timely. So appropriate that DeBartolo, now 69 and far away in time and distance, having moved to Tampa, Fla., would be one of the chosen few when the Super Bowl, the Half-Century Super Bowl, No. 50, would be played in the area where he built a champion in the 1980s and early 1990s.
©2016 The San Francisco Examiner