In late August of 2006, I woke up one day and checked the sports columns as I usually do from various sources. That fateful day I stumbled upon an article from an intellectual heavyweight named Ryan Garner. Mr. Garner fancies himself a “Sports Writer” and on that late August day he put pen to paper and decided to write his manifesto of analysis and opinion. For this PhD level analytical expose he chose to evaluate the new 49ers quarterback, Alex Smith.
Garner decided to “go out on a limb” and take the unpopular view that Smith was a bust. And by “unpopular” I mean everyone in the national media had already declared him a bust – so we’re talking a highly freethinking individual here. And judging by his thesis “Face it 49ers fans: Smith is a flop” (ignoring the word flop as some kind of adjective) – we’re dealing with somebody who clearly knows more about football than your average fan. CERTAINLY he is not a bandwagon hopping opinion maker – no, not at all.
I’ve never been one for looking in my rear view mirror – hindsight is 20/20 after all. However, in this case, I must break from tradition and address the assertions made by Mr. Garner. Why you ask? Because he wasn’t the only one that took a stand on Smith. Indeed – I took a stance on Smith, and I didn’t wait until the entire national media had already declared Smith’s future status.
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