Grab Bag Winter Blues and Moves: 49ers get their DC, Aussie Open surprise, woe be the Warriors, weird food stuff and Eye Candy!

Greetings, gentle readers! Well, lets just say that besides the weather here in the USA and other parts of the world being so cold and dark, as I write this from the state of California, it's only been two weeks with the new regime as the leader of Some United States of America, and, well hence the unique image header for this blog post. I shall push forward though with the sportsball and oddball stories that caught my eye.

San Francisco 49ers: If you heard some loud cheers from your 49er friends recently, it was because (as I wrote in the last Grab Bag) the Niners got their DC (Defensive Coordinator) by bringing back Robert Saleh, he who led the Niners defense to some of its most glorious seasons, before he left to take the head coaching job with the New York Jets (and Aaron Rodgers). Once the Jets fired him, us Niner fans were hoping, hoping, hoping he would come back home to Levis', which he has done! I've not seen numbers on years/salary as of yet. Speaking of the Jets, Saleh must've said some nice things in Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan's ear about Brant Boyer, who has left the Jets to join the Niners in the same capacity he held with the Jets, Special Teams Coordinator. I need not recap the nightmare that was the Niners special teams unit from last season, but I can say the buzz is very good about Brant, and the team should see a huge upgrade in this unit!

With free agency to kick off in March, where teams lose players to other teams, and sign players from other teams, it will be interesting which of the Niners free agents they retain, and the ones that get away, as well as who they may sign. Those moves will depend on when the Niners sign quarterback Brock Purdy to one HUGE contract as their franchise QB! Then in late April, the NFL Draft occurs, where the Niners are currently slotted to pick at at 11th.

NFL: I'm not going to go thru the playoffs, my pick, the Detroit Lions, didn't make it, neither did my other pick, the Buffalo Bills. For this year's Super Bowl, it will be the Philadelphia Eagles vs the two-time defending champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. I'll be recording the game to watch the commercials.

College Football: Also not doing a breakdown of the College Football Playoffs, (though I will say the Cotton Bowl game between Texas and Ohio State was an exciting one, that saw Ohio State beat Texas on a 66 yard sack-scoop n score by Ohio State to win the game!). OSU went on to the Championship game and defeated Notre Dame, to claim the trophy. Golden State Warriors: This team is playing very middling basketball these last few weeks, and Steph Curry is having one of his worst seasons ever. Oh, the NBA trade deadline is February 6th. What change will the Dubs make, and will they avoid the temptation of trading for hothead Jimmy Butler?

Australian Open: A couple of stories came out of this first Grand Slam of the season. There was a well-known drag show here in San Francisco to raise funds for charity, and it was called "Trashy vs Classy", and we had a tennis version of that (minus the drag) at the AO. The trashy were the fans who booed Novak Djokivic after he had to retire after 81 minutes in his match against eventual AO winner Jannick Sinner. Novak had played and won a grueling match against Carlos Alcaraz (eye candy coming!) just barely two days before, and had a leg brace on to play Sinner. The next day, Novak posted an image x-ray of his injury to troll those trashy fans booing an injured player! The Classy side is after Sinner beat a very distraught Alexander Zverev in straight sets, Sinner consoled Zverev at the net, telling him that his time will come...now THAT is classy sportsmanship! On the women's side, an upset, as American Madison Keys become the first American woman to win the Aussie Open since 2020, beating heavily favored Aryna Sabalenka in three sets for her first ever Grand Slam title! Congrats Madison! Eye Candy Alert: Carlos practicing at the Aussie Open. It WAS very hot Down Under during this time of year!

Hope your thirst trap was quenched, as we move on from sportsball to: OddBall Stuff: Food is the theme this time! PETA suggests that instead of relying on Phil to tell us what the next six weeks of weather will be like on Groundhog Day, that instead we get that reveal thru a ......cake? Is Phil okay? Has PETA snatched Phil to protect him from his one day in the spotlight? (I can hear your eyes rolling right now, and I do not blame you!).

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/28/punxsutawney-phil-peta-cake/78002752007/

Next up: Soup! Umm...this is a Hard NO from me, Progresso!

Lastly, this next food idea HAD to be conjured up by some dudes puffing it up high on the Devil's Lettuce- I'm looking at you, Rob!:)

As promised, we finish with a random pic from my Paris Olympics collection: Arthur Nory, Brazilian gymnast and openly gay Olympics athlete. Google away!