Golden Nuggets: 91 days until Jake Moody plays (real) football

Branch: Unshakeable calm of 49ers’ Jake Moody: ‘Michael Phelps version of a kicker’ (paywall)

“The kid not only didn’t freak out in anger, he also never got fired up in excitement. Chad and Lisa have videos of Jake and his sister, Jessica, calmly walking down the stairs on Christmas mornings before delicately opening gifts...“Jake could sit there quietly for a two-hour dinner with relatives,” Lisa said. “They’d leave the dinner — his grandmother and aunts — and they would be like, ‘What? That was unbelievable.’ And we were like, ‘Yeah.’ That was our normal.”

Insider: 49ers QBs Sam Darnold, Trey Lance haven’t done enough to hold off Brock Purdy for QB1

“We have a situation where Trey Lance has gotten a lot of first-team reps but so too has Sam Darnold at times,” Darlington said. “I haven’t gotten the sense talking to anybody in San Francisco that either Darnold or Lance has done enough necessarily to hold off Purdy when he does come back.”

5 underrated moves 49ers made during 2023 offseason

“Brendel could have taken more money to sign elsewhere in NFL free agency, at least according to some reports, but he opted to stay with the team that gave him his first chance at being a full-time starter...Now, inked to a four-year deal, the 49ers no longer have to worry about the position for the foreseeable future. Plus, knowing just how important center is within head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense, having some continuity there for a change will do a great amount of good.”

Happy birthday, Joe Montana!

“The legendary 49ers quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Famer turned 67-years old on Sunday.”

FROM THE VAULT: Joe Montana Was Here

“WALMART ONCE PAID Joe Montana, John Elway, Dan Marino and Johnny Unitas to do an event. The four quarterbacks went out to dinner afterward. They laughed and told stories and drank expensive wine. Then the check came. The late, great Unitas loved to tell this story. Montana grinned and announced that whichever guy had the fewest rings would have to pay the bill. Joe had four, including one over Marino and one over Elway. Elway had two. Unitas said he only had one Super Bowl ring but had of course won three NFL titles before the Super Bowl existed.

Marino cursed and picked up the check.

Joe liked being king, is how his fiercest rival, Steve Young, puts it to me. I sit at a table in Palo Alto with Young, who laughs a little as he describes being around other guys who’ve dominated his position.

“You want to talk about a weird environment,” he says. “Go hang out with 10 Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Every one is kind of like ... “

Young looks around from side to side at imaginary rivals. Preening stars and maladjusted grinders, insecure narcissists and little boys still trying to earn their father’s love, just a whole mess of somewhat unhinged alpha males with long records of accomplishment.

“... do we race?” he says.

.....

One night, working on a story, I drank wine and smoked cigars with Michael Jordan in his condo. We argued about sports and watched ESPN. A “SportsCenter” poll asked viewers to vote for either Montana or Brady as the greatest quarterback and this set Jordan off. At that moment Brady only had three titles and Montana had four, but the idea of the undefeated nature of time hit Jordan hard. “They’re gonna say Brady because they don’t remember Montana,” he said. “Isn’t that amazing?”