Bleacher Bits: Things could always be worse
Sunday night and Monday morning were exceptionally cruel to me, but I expect the same can be said for most San Francisco 49ers fans.
Not only were we dealing with the first Super Bowl loss of the six times the Niners have played for it all, but many of us were also feeling we got hosed by a no-call on the 49ers' last offensive play.
And for me the Monday morning reality of the loss arrived at the same time as the onset of various cold symptoms. Nothing like piling on, but I'm guessing that would not have gotten flagged either.
Dealing with championship excitement is somewhat foreign to me, given my well-documented history of rooting for perennial losers. Putting up with a championship loss is uncharted territory.
Since I have no experience in how best to lick my wounds, I decided to force myself to look on the bright side, because things could always be worse.
At least I'm not Alex Collins.
According to various reports, the highly recruited running back from Plantation, Fla., had made up his mind to accept a scholarship offer to play football at the University of Arkansas. His mother, however, was more than serious about wanting her son to play closer to home.
ESPNU's Corey Long reported Collins' mother took the national letter of intent before he could fax them to the university, and that no one could find her. Collins is 18 years old, but recruits younger than 21 need a parent or guardian to sign the letter of intent to make it valid.
On Thursday, Collins and his father signed it to make things official.
At least I'm not the Oakland Raiders.
On Wednesday, Yahoo! Sports reported that the Raiders are tarping off approximately 10,000 seats at the Coliseum to reduce capacity to 53,250 next season.
According to Raiders CEO Amy Trask, the tarps will be placed over the third deck on the East side of the stadium to make it easier to sell out games and to create a better game-day environment.
The Raiders averaged 54,217 this past season when they needed to sell only 85 percent of the seats to avoid local blackouts.
Go ahead and insert your witty remarks about the game-day environment in Oakland here.
At my age, I should know that finding humor at the expense of others is immature, but I also have to admit that it makes me feel better.
Again, that should probably draw a penalty flag, but it appears the officials have swallowed their whistles.
CONTACT Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.
