Barry Tompkins: Enough talk, the 49ers are going to beat the Cowboys
I believe there should be a legal limit on words spoken in regards to any football game.
Seven days worth of blather is entirely too much. There are only about three days worth of things to say regarding any given game.
The two weeks between the conference championship and the Super Bowl borders on comedic. Unless a reporter has a mole in the locker room, access to anything that even resembles a real story is basically not existent. So, we’re left with speculation and whatever pap might be offered up in daily press conferences with chosen players, executives, and coaches.
Thus, any pithy insights are all of a speculative nature and writers are left to unearth features about the long-snapper’s sister-in-law who just missed out on an Olympic bronze medal in archery.
When I started yakking about sports – somewhere between the Iron and Bronze ages – journalists were given access to just about every area of a team’s facility short of the trainer’s room where many black and green pills in very large jars were amply distributed. We weren’t privy to what those pills were but had a reasonably good idea when after a game some players didn’t blink for about an hour and a half.
That was a time when a player would actually ask, “Can I trust you?” And you could reply in all honesty, “absolutely.” There wasn’t nearly the chasm between player and reporter that there is now. Huge salary differences, social media trolls and paranoid management have now put an insurmountable fence between those who play the game and those who cover it.
When I think to myself, “what can I say about this game Sunday?” I can’t help but think back to the days I knew enough about the crazy Oakland Raiders that I probably could have gotten them disenfranchised from the NFL. I knew about fights in the 49ers’ locker room over a quarterback’s extra-marital affair with the wife of a defensive lineman.
The night my youngest daughter was born I celebrated with a third of the Golden State Warriors’ team until the wee hours of the next morning. They had a game that afternoon and I knew if they felt like I felt there was no way they could win. I called everybody I knew who bet on games, telling them to jump on the Lakers. The Warriors won. I went to bed.
That simply doesn’t happen anymore. Now we are left to form an opinion of what might happen in a game based on coach-speak, what occurred in the last game, reading the injury report, looking at matchups, and saying it all in a declarative voice that gives our audience the impression that we are insiders. We are all knowing, all seeing, and generally speaking – all wrong.
That’s why there are only three days worth of words about any game. One day to discuss all the possibilities, one day to tell the world how the game’s going to go. And one day to apologize.
Allowing for the fact that you are likely reading this yarn on Friday, let’s talk about the possibilities.
Both the 49ers and the visiting Dallas Cowboys beat up on outmanned opponents last week, so there’s little to learn about what we might expect on Sunday.
I have not seen either of their training camp practices this week, I don’t know anything about either game plan for Sunday, nor do I know either coach. Oh wait! I did shake Kyle Shanahan’s hand once. His father introduced him to me when he was about 11 years old. Seemed like a nice kid.
Yet, it’s three days before the game, I get paid a small fee from the IJ to pontificate, I have Microsoft Word on my computer, and I am required to fill this space every single week with 900 words.
So, here’s what I think will happen on Sunday.
The 49ers will win.
Now, here’s the “insider” part: They’ll win because they are a better team than the Dallas Cowboys. They have better players than the Dallas Cowboys. They are better coached than the Dallas Cowboys. They are better offensively than the Dallas Cowboys. They are better defensively than the Dallas Cowboys. Their moms are nicer than the Dallas Cowboy’s moms. OK, I made that part up.
It’s over. The Niners win!
And if they don’t, I’ve got next week to apologize.
Tara, Tara, Tara
I got a note from a reader after last week’s column in which I hailed the St. Mary’s men’s basketball team as the best bang for the buck in the Bay Area sports market. I mentioned USF and Santa Clara as well, stating that they are all good teams and worth watching, while the Cal and Stanford men stumble, and play before an arena full of empty seats.
“How could you,” stated the reader, “leave out the Stanford women’s team?”
Indeed! Not only is Tara VanDerveer a great friend, but also – with Randy Bennett at St. Mary’s (and Steve Kerr with that other local team) – the best coach in the area, year in and year out.
Tara, I’m sure, was so devastated at my oversight that her Stanford women’s team lost its first conference game in two years to USC.
To my loyal reader: I am humbled. And to Tara: I owe you both an apology — and a win.