Welcome back! It's been a wild week of emotional ups and downs in the SportsBall arena, especially here in the Bay Area. Before we dig into it, if you are reading this, and have been following this blog journey, thank you! And before we dig into the Bag, I want to send out a congrats for a successful reign to Reigning Grand Duchess Jason (Ms. Christina Ashton) and her Grand Duke, (who is a sportsball fan!) Ray-Ray for a wonderful year of raising funds for various non-profits in San Francisco that amounted to 103,000 dollars! WOWZA! Come Monday morning, they officially end WuzzieLand as their time reigning comes to an end. Spa days for both in their near future!
Awesome pic of the SF Ducal monarchs at this moment of publication, Christina and Ray-Ray!
Now that we have covered some joyous news, lets dig into (sigh) some of the rougher stuff, starting with: San Francisco 49ers: Okay, Yes, QB Brock Purdy was without several of his offensive weapons, with RB Christian McCaffrey (CMC), WR Deebo Samuel, and TE George Kittle out with injuries. Their opponent though, also had their issue with injuries, including both their star WR's both out, and a newly shuffled offensive line. 49ers were heavily favored due to these factors. So what ends up happening? The Niners go into the 4th quarter with a 14 point lead, and thanks to mistakes on special teams, and defense, and dropped passes, loses on of the most painful games in Niners history, 27-24. What made this so hard to take was the career days that Purdy was 22-28 passing, 3 touchdowns and 292 yards passing; three of those passes were dropped by WR Ronnie Bell, who found his way into the 49er fans doghouse.
Another Niner player who had a career day was Jauan Jennings, with 11 catches for 175 yards and on the end of Purdy's three TD passes. Jennings and Purdy dang near willed the Niners to a win, and the offensive numbers show it, with the Niners having a 425 to 296 total yards, time of possession Niners 33:27 Rams 26:33. But the aforementioned Niner defense just let the Rams and their QB Matthew Stafford have their way in the 4th quarter with poor, poor pass coverage, and the D-line became a sieve for the Rams running back. UGH! News got worse for the Niner injury front as one of the elite defensive backs, Javon Hargrave is out for the season with a torn tricep, and it is reported CMC seeing specialist in Germany about his Achilles tendonitis issues. Potential good news is that Deebo and Kittle should be available for this Sundays game against the New England Patriots, where the Niners are favored by 10 points. I suspect Niner practices this week, especially on defense and special teams, will be intense! BTW, Jennings was named Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts!
2-year, 15M deal for Jennings is looking like a bargain!
Other NFL news saw two marquee defensive match ups, first with the Philly Eagles taking on the New Orleans Saints, that saw the halftime score of 3-0 Saints! both offenses struggled in the second half, but the Eagles found a way to pull of a 15-12 victory. The other marquee defensive game had the Pittsburgh Steelers up against the Los Angeles Chargers, and the Steelers defense was on lockdown, with the final score 20-10, Steelers! Redhead QB Andy Dalton started for the winless Carolina Panthers, and he was on fire, and led the Panthers to a 36-22 upset of the Las Vegas Raiders. The Baltimore Ravens got their first win of the season, holding off the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, and Miami's backup QB went down with an injury, so if you can throw a tight spiral, apply at the Dolphins HQ!
Eye Candy Bonus! An actor, but he does play tennis! We'll get more into him later!
College Football: The Cal Bears ventured to Florida to play their first ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), against the 0-3 Seminoles of Florida State. This also was a defensive game, as at halftime, the Seminoles led 7-3. While Cal led almost all the game stats, the one big problem was that they could not get into the end-zone, settling for three field goals (two missed), and the Seminoles did manage to score a couple of touchdowns as Florida State got their first win, 14-9. Cal is now 3-1, and is on their bye week before they welcome the Miami Hurricanes, who are in the AP Top 10. And yes, I see Tennessee creeping into the top ten, Lisa! No big upsets this week, though as I predicted, Michigan, at home, did defeat USC. The BIG GAME this coming weekend to watch is #2 Georgia versus #4 Alabama, I'm slightly leaning towards Georgia, but this game could go either way between these rivals!
SF Giants: Okay where was this team for the last few months? The Giants played their best baseball of the season, ON THE ROAD, as they played spoiler against three teams in playoff contention for this last week of the season, Baltimore, Kansas City and Arizona, and the Giants went 8-2! Good hitting, Good pitching and defense finally all came together for the G-Men. The Giants finish the 2024 season with three games against the St Louis Cards, as they try to finish at 500 or a game above.
Oakland A's: As I am typing this, I am watching the LAST Oakland A's game in Oakland, before they move temporarily to Sacramento for the next three years before they presumably head to Las Vegas. It's a sold out crowd on a bright sunny day at the Coliseum as fans fill the park to say goodbye. Update: the A's won the final game to be played in Oakland! I will have more on this in a later column, but if you want a taste of how A's fans feel, heck the Bay Area feels about A's owner John Fisher, and ho he did the A's dirty, this EPIC rant by KGO Sportscaster Larry Beil sums it up, spilling MAJOR HOT TEA as he RIPS into Fisher! This is what we call a takedown:
Tennis: Well, the Laver Cup happened in Berlin, and it's premise is Team Europe vs Team World. There are no coaches, and makes for some fun interplay as that you see all star players coaching other all star players! I'm linking the final day of play below, but spoiler, Spain's Carlos Alcaraz was the star on the court and on the bench, as he finally got to fanboy out on some of his teammates and ACT like a 21 year old enjoying himself when not on court. On court, he won eight of the thirteen matches, the first time ever a single player has won that many matches at the Laver Cup! It also allows me to share some Carlos Eye Candy!
You're welcome!
Formula One: Hey, that stuff is supposed to be in the Zoom Zoom side, but since they are on break, I've got to announce here, that FINALLY, Red Bull's junior team RB, has officially cut loose driver Daniel Riccardo! Myself, and a whole lot of other fans, feel Red Bull did Daniel dirty, by not officially making the announcement during Singapore GP so he could go out on the track, instead of a press release days later! I'll have more in the Zoom Zoom when F1 racing returns in late October.
And that ends the Sportsball portion! Movie and TV review time! And I start with a sports movie! HA! Challengers which is now On Amazon Prime, starring Zendaya as a player turned coach of two up and coming male tennis stars. That is a very benign synopsis of this flick, as there is so much more going on than some great tennis (and unique angles of the game). Challengers is fresh, exhilarating, and energetic. It pushes the boundaries of its devilishly fun packaging, exploring the power dynamics of sex, desire, and competition; it’s a psychosexual masterclass, their barely tamped-down desire colliding and exploding everywhere, from the tennis court to a steamy sauna. Of the three primary actors, it is Zendaya's character who is the puppet master of the two young men who desire her, and may also desire one another, as Zendaya's character pulls the strings of the boys emotions to push themselves to be the best, and play the best tennis they are capable of. The ending tennis match at the end of the movie is intentionally left ambiguous to let the audience decide where these three characters go forward in their twisted triangle of emotions. Mike Faist and Josh O'Conner really excel in their alpha/beta friendship and the underlying currents of that friendship, as their lives take different paths as the movie shows with time jumps in the past to the current with the match to decide who has it to COME ON to truly be honest about one another. 3.8 out of four tennis balls!
Next, we have the story that captivated me and my generation as it was all over the news, and Ryan Murphy has decided to take a swing at it with his nine episode "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Melendez Story", and it's definitely something! The brothers were accused and eventually found guilty of murdering their parents, despite the boys claims that they were sexually abused by their father, played by Javier Bardem, and this was all ignored by their mother, played by Chloe Sevigny. First off, if movies or shows detailing sexual abuse is a trigger for you, do NOT watch this series, as it gets quite graphic, (verbally, not physically) as the boys tell their story. Now to what I thought of the series. The nine episodes were spread out in an odd way- we start with the murder of the parents, then show what the brothers are up to before the arrest, then it switches to the brothers POV of the sexual abuse, before moving on to the parents POV, before finishing with the two trials the brothers were charged with. So yea, this series jumps around, it's also salacious and has an icky exploitative factor, but it IS fascinating, and the stellar performances, especially by the two actors who play the brothers, Cotter Koch (an out actor) and Nicholas Chavez (Spencer- General Hospital), who totally embody their roles, including the very questionable homoerotic scenes between the two brothers. My overall take is that the series is, as I write earlier, fascinating, and great acting, with the caveat of a certain discomfort on some of the story-telling angles. Can be found on Netflix.
And I'll end with some of the hottest eye candy I've ever posted as these two actors put out in the promo shots...talk about thirst traps! Enjoy!
Nipple play for Folsom Fair Weekend demo'ed by Cotter!
Nickolas teasing poor Cotter before one of their scenes!
Definition of a "thirst trap" pic, Cotter!
As a friend mentioned, a homo-erotic GQ photo shoot snap with Nickolas and Cotter!
If y'all need to take a moment to "relax", I understand! :) :) :)
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