Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . .
Colin Kaepernick might be taking over a Super Bowl champion this season. The Denver Broncos, whose best quarterback right now is 55-year-old John Elway, are rumored to be interested in trading for the future Wolf Pack Hall of Famer. The San Francisco 49ers, according to media reports, would take a second round pick for Kaepernick. The New York Jets and Cleveland Browns also are sniffing around Kap. Nobody wants to play or live in Cleveland and the New York media might devour the defensive and sensitive-to-criticism Kaepernick. So Denver, where ex-Kaepernick teammates Virgil Green and Brandon Marshall reside, would be the best fit for the quarterback that made Chris Ault famous. All Kaepernick would have to do in Denver is run for a few first downs and sit back and watch Von Miller eat the opposing quarterback.
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The 49ers will likely have to make Kaepernick the unquestioned starter this year or deal him away. There really is no middle ground with Kaepernick. He is not a stand-on-the-sideline-and-hold-the-clipboard type of guy. And you don’t really want Kaepernick in your starter’s ear during timeouts, telling him what he thinks he sees from the opposing defense. The 49ers are kind of stuck between a rock (Blaine Gabbert) and a hard place (a moody Kaepernick). Kap’s $11.9 million base salary becomes guaranteed on April 1. That’s an expensive and unhappy backup. Do you deal Kaepernick for a draft pick and hand Gabbert the job? Robert Griffin III is still out there. So is Ryan Fitzpatrick, Michael Vick, Brandon Weeden, Johnny Manziel, Jimmy Clausen, Matt Flynn and other throwaway, reusable quarterbacks. Is Kelly’s ego so big that he believes he can win with just about anybody at quarterback? If the Niners deal Kaepernick the answer to that is yes. Gabbert is the definition of just about anybody.
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The Oakland Raiders mean business. The Raiders, which finished 7-9 a year ago, seem to be ready to get back to the playoffs. They added linebacker Bruce Irvin (Seattle Seahawks), offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele (Baltimore Ravens) and cornerback Sean Smith (Kansas City Chiefs) on the first day of free agency on Wednesday and they might not be done. The AFC West is wide open now that it seems like the Broncos are going to run a wishbone offense without a quarterback.
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Tim Lincecum, who is still without a team to call his own, would seem to be a great fit for the San Francisco Giants. First of all, he’s a Giant legend and fans would pay $65 for a ticket and another $75 to park their car and $15 for a hot dog just to see him walk from the bullpen to the dugout for a drink of water. But, beyond that, he would be nice insurance for the inevitable injuries to Matt Cain, Jake Peavy and Johnny Cueto this summer. The Giants bullpen, which is aging rapidly -- Jeremy Affeldt is retired and Santiago Casilla will be 36, Sergio is 33, Javier Lopez will be 39 and George Kontos will be 31 this year -- could also use Lincecum’s versatility. But the Giants have seemed to move on. Maybe they know something.
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The Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team is 4-8 after a lifeless 5-2 loss at Sacramento State on Wednesday. But not all is lost. The season has just begun and that record should begin to turn around soon. The Pack, which hosts New Mexico in an important Mountain West series at Peccole Park starting on Friday, has played just one home game this year. The Pack doesn’t lose often at home. The biggest reason for Pack hope, though, is that Trenton Brooks is hitting just .194 right now with a mere four RBI. Brooks, the Mountain West’s Player of the Year last year, will hit over .300 this year. Count on it. He led the conference in hitting last year at .365 and he hit .330 as a freshman in 2014. All that .194 average means is that he will hit about .420 from this point on.
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The Wolf Pack football team recently confirmed its 2016 schedule and, well, if this team doesn’t win at least eight games they should turn Mackay Stadium into a flea market on the weekends in the fall. Cal Poly, Buffalo, Wyoming, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State at home and Notre Dame, Purdue, Hawaii, San Jose State, New Mexico and UNLV on the road. I guess there is a chance the Pack could go 6-6 and play San Jose State in another garbage bowl game but it’s time for the Brian Polian Program to finally take off, isn’t it? This fall is crucial for Polian because the 2017 schedule is a bit tougher with road games at Washington State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Boise State and Colorado State. That season has All-Mountain West bowl matchup written all over it for the Pack.
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Why, exactly, would the Big Sky Conference play its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Reno? Do they know it’s not 1986 anymore? You could hold a flea market and an antique auto auction in the Reno Events Center while the Big Sky tournament is going on this week and still have plenty of room for the few fans who wander into the arena. It’s obvious the Big Sky Conference simply dreaded spending a week in such hot spots as Missoula or Bozeman, Mont., Pocatello, Id., Grand Forks, N.D., or Ogden, Utah. It’s nice, after all, to have a some place to go eat that doesn’t have a drive-through window after a long day of watching bad basketball. The whole concept of playing a tournament in a place that thinks your conference has gone the way of the land line telephone, hula hoop and 8-track player is goofy. The tournament’s motto and web site is even more strange. They’ve labeled it the “Road to Reno.” Do they think the NCAA tournament is in Reno? Now that’s something that would fill the Events Center.