Good morning, folks. Thanks to Fooch for getting the Nuggets for me yesterday. I was extremely disappointed in Ray McDonald when I saw the headlines and I wasn't planning on mentioning him at all, really. I tend to not want to write about a guy when he's making stupid mistakes, but it looks like most of what's going down recently is a misunderstanding. What they've got, it seems, is a failure to communicate. Anyway, of particular note with the 49ers is the talk of big-name free agents, and now a couple different people suggesting that Carlos Rogers might be hard to retain and, more than that, the 49ers might be more concerned with Dashon Goldson. That sucks. That sucks really bad. Onto the quick links.

How to spend the Niners $33.8 million in cap space (PressDemocrat.com)

Colin Kaepernick starts over Alex Smith in 2012: How realistic is that? (Examiner.com)

Another defender in trouble with law (SFGate.com)

49ers will bring Carlos Rogers back ... or will they (BayAreaSportsGuy.com)

Continue reading this post »

Yesterday morning, some folks noticed that the recent FanPosts had disappeared from the right column of the page, leaving only the recommended FanPosts. They have not in fact been deleted forever. Rather, the FanPosts were pulled down due to some site issues that were affecting the network. They may very well be back up by the time these Nuggets post, but if not, there is another way to check out all the FanPosts. We have a FanPost Archive where you can sort them by recently posted, recently active with comments, and a variety of most popular based on Recs.

Speaking of archives, since we have a decent number of new readers in recent months, if you were not aware of it, you can check out the entire story archive for Niners Nation. You can check the recent stories we've posted, or even head all the way back to our start back in 2006. Comments close after a month, but it is still amusing to read some of this stuff at times.

And thus concludes NN 101 for today. If you ever have questions about how the site operates (or anything for that matter), feel free to email me. On to the links....

Colin Kaepernick starts over Alex Smith in 2012: How realistic is that? (Sam Lam)

Alex Smith will call the shots (Barrows)

49ers' McDonald arrested in Sunnyvale (Barrows)

Continue reading this post »

I spent yesterday getting my new music site ready and, of course, they started working on the internet I'm using about an hour or so before the Golden Nuggets were supposed to go up. Rather than wait and give you good folks some delicious linkage, I decided to just, you know, go to sleep. Of course you missed me an awful lot and I won't let it happen again, but what can I say? It's the offseason.

Ya'll will get over it. In other news, we had the folks from our Giants blog whining about somebody here who was whining and that made other people whine about our whining about their whining about ours. So that was interesting. Anyway, I'm gonna get to my linkage and link to my new music site real quick (it will be the only time I do this unless I write something that somehow is pertinent to football) because I'm soliciting as much feedback as possible. And onto the links.

Alex Smith will call the shots (SacBee.com)

49ers review: Running backs (CSNBayArea.com)

49ers still get no respect (PressDemocrat.com)

49ers add Tracy Smith as new special teams assistant coach (Examiner.com)

Continue reading this post »

So, did all of you enjoy the Super Bowl? Me neither. On one hand, our 49ers weren't in it, and on the other, it was pretty obvious from the beginning that the Giants were going to win. I got $100 out of it, so that's cool, but even when they trailed, I knew they were going to win. Well, I didn't know BUT I had a good feeling, and that's as close to knowing as I need! In other news, that halftime show was somewhere between insanely boring, incredibly awkward and just bad all around. It was one of the worst in recent memory. Let's get to some linkage, though there's not much today. Enjoy.

Yep, the 49ers would have crushed the Patriots (BayAreaSportsGuy.com)

Super Bowl teams could be 49ers' prime-time competition (CSNBayArea.com)

Not much consolation in losing to eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants (MercuryNews.com)

Continue reading this post »

Good morning everyone. Yesterday, the NFL announced its awards, to much hilarity. There are so many odd things that don't make any sense, from John Fox receiving two votes for coach of the year and Terrell Suggs winning the defensive player of the year, but I will say that, yes, the Aldon Smith snub for defensive rookie of the year does anger me. Smith is clearly a better pass rusher and made a bigger impact overall because of it. I bet if he'd gotten half a sack more, he'd have won the award. I guess it's just as well that I think most of these awards are a joke. Let's get to the quick links for the day.

Harbaugh honored with AP Coach of the Year (CSNBayArea.com)

DeBartolo, Haley don't make hall-of-fame cut (SacBee.com)

49ers Grades: Bright Spots Few And Far Between With 49ers Wide Receivers (SB Nation Bay Area)

Alex Smith finishes third for Comeback Player of the Year (PressDemocrat.com)

Continue reading this post »

Good morning, folks. I actually had some time to do the Golden Nuggets last night, but the network was down, so I had our benevolent overlord handle them for me. I was kind of hoping the network would be down tonight because I'm exhausted. One thing I wanted to ask (and something that might be revealed if I read Fooch's post yesterday about the Super Bowl, but I don't want to so neener neener), is how many of you are going to watch the Super Bowl this weekend? I don't think I'm going to, for various reasons. For one, I might be busy, and for two, the matchup just doesn't intrigue me. At all. It's not because the 49ers didn't make it, I just don't care about this rematch. It's boring to me. Let's get to the links.

Joe Staley, Mike Iupati Play Well Down The Stretch For Strong O-Line (SB Nation Bay Area)

Canton or bust: DeBartolo battling Parcells for hall-of-fame votes (SacBee.com)

Comparing Tom Brady to Joe Montana: Is it even worth an argument right now? (Examiner.com)

Continue reading this post »

Morning, folks. Thanks to Fooch for getting the Golden Nuggets up yesterday - not that there's a ton going on. Beat writers are taking some time off, the 49ers are taking some time off and there's not a whole lot of tangible news to talk about. Of course, season reviews and things of that nature are ongoing, but for the time being, I'm finding it particularly hard to focus on the 49ers. Regardless, there should consistently be SOME links, so let's just get to them for the day, shall we?

Alex Smith: Comeback Player of the Year? (SFGate.com)

49ers Grades: Frank Gore, Bruce Miller Lead The Way In Strong San Francisco Rushing Attack(SB Nation Bay Area)

Middle-class 49ers fans feel priced out of Santa Clara stadium (MercuryNews.com)

Corner market: 49ers could part ways with Spencer (SacBee.com)

Continue reading this post »

As we keep pumping out the links through the offseason, as James mentioned yesterday, there will be days where links are far and few between. That really is more of an issue when we hit the summer thanks to the NFL becoming basically a 10-11 month long sport. Once the Super Bowl wraps up, we've got draft season leading up to the combine at the end of February, free agency in March, and then more draft talk through the end of April. As things do slow down, it'd be nice to expand the Nuggets a bit. We hit primarily the Bay Area media, but does anybody have sites they check out that get them some interesting 49ers info to which we're not linking? We're always on the lookout for new sources.

On a side note, anybody else already sick of Super Bowl coverage? Tre will have his take on how the end of the 49ers season might be impacting all this, but for now, I'm sick of it without actually watching much of it. Aside from ESPN or NFLN being on in bars, I have not actually watched either channel since before the 49ers-Giants game. Seeing it all on twitter is driving me crazy. It really is. I'm going to a friend's place for the game on Sunday, but other than that, the Super Bowl is dead to me for this week. Well, maybe not dead since I'll complain about it here and there, but it's definitely not on my good side.

On replacing Frank Gore (Bay Area Sports Guy)

Which free agent wide receiver is the best fit for the 49ers? (Sam Lam)

49ers sign G Garrett Chisolm and T Kenny Wiggins to reserve/future contracts (Sam Lam)

Continue reading this post »