San Francisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick both strike gold with new contract

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Colin Kaepernick's new deal with the San Francisco 49ers is causing quite a stir in the sports world. Many people don't believe he's worth all the money for his limited starts. But when you break everything down, this is a smart contract for both the quarterback and the team.

When looking at just the plain numbers, yes, Kaepernick's deal is an enormous $126 million all the way until 2020. That was enough for plenty of bloggers and even journalists to run with the headline and use the same hammer to batter on how terrible of a contract it is that they used with Joe Flacco's contract.

It's obvious that those covering the Ravens are tired of people complaining about Flacco's contract and scooped up this story to say, hey, Kapernick is getting $10 milion more guaranteed, so shut it.

Not so fast. That "guaranteed" money is anything but. Deadspin actually took the time to look at the entire contract and broke everything down on what exactly Kaepernick was going to get.

That $61 million guaranteed is only guaranteed if he plays for the next five years. In order to gain the entirety of his contract, he has to avoid de-escalator penalties if he doesn't do one of the following (via Deadspin):

Starting in 2015, Kaepernick's promised base salary will decrease by $2 million each year unless he does one of two things, and neither is easy. To regain that two million in any given season, he must QB the 49ers to the Super Bowl, or be named first or second team All-Pro.

NBC Sports also notes that Kaepernick has to take 80 percent of the snaps. There's also a $125K penalty for every game that he misses because of an injury.

Basically, it would be a miracle if Kaepernick gets all of that cash. But he's betting on himself, and you have to admire that confidence. It's also smart for both parties.

Kaepernick is banking more money than he ever has, and as long as he avoids serious injuries, he's taking over $100 million home by 2020. If not, or he flames out, he'll still take some cash home and the 49ers are off the hook.

This also loosens the grip on the 49ers' salary cap and they can continue to bring in talent. Yes, the quarterback position is the most important position in football, but he also wouldn't be at the level if it wasn't for the solid coaching staff, incredible offensive line, and the absolute stout defense. He knows that, and that's why the contract is so brilliant.

WSD Sports Page: Los Angeles Clippers' playoff run likely over

More on the Donald Sterling mess, a San Francisco 49ers fan sues the NFL for not being able to buy a tickeet to the NFC Championship, and recapping all the sports in today's sports page.

The Lede

The Los Angeles Clippers are probably done and it's a damn shame

On Sunday, the Clippers played a lifeless game against Golden State, losing 118-97 in a game that was essentially over after Stephen Curry made all the baskets in the first quarter. Despite deciding to play the game after a team meeting on Saturday, they certainly didn't show up mentally. And they shouldn't have played the game.

What does it take to supplant Donald Sterling, an NBA owner that's incredibly racist, believing that he still owns black people by clothing them and feeding them on his team? What does it take to cancel an NBA game? Apparently more than this.

Before disaster hit, the Clippers were looking like the best team in the West heading into the weekend. They held on to a victory on the road against an exciting Warriors team on Thursday. San Antonio now is down 2-1 against Dallas. Oklahoma City is barely getting past a tenacious defense in Memphis. Portland and Houston don't have the defense to continue on in the postseason. The East's biggest threat is Miami, and the Clippers obviously wouldn't have to worry about that until the final series of the postseason.

Now? It's probably over. The NBA is too late on its swift action to mentally repair the team. Doc Rivers is mulling over working for Sterling right now. Some players should feel the same way. In fact, this whole team might implode because why would anyone want to play under Sterling? Say what you will about sticking together and playing as a team, but more of what transpired on Sunday will happen.

Other Headlines

1. NFL: San Francisco 49ers fan sues NFL because he couldn't buy tickets for NFC Championship. He lives in Nevada, and that was one of the 44 states that wasn't allowed to purchase a ticket. This isn't new for the NFL, the Broncos even did it without the scrutiny because they didn't cut off a close geographical location like the Seahawks did with California. There's honestly a valid point here to be made, but we'll see how far this really gets in the court system -- especially since the suit is referring to Qwest and not CenturyLink, the old name for the Seahawks' stadium.
2. SOCCER: Barcelona player Dani Alves eats a banana that was thrown at him during a game. It's the greatest video of the weekend.
3. NBA: Shaq tried to race Kenny Smith to the video board, but falls over thanks to a trash can. This is the second greatest video of the weekend.
4. MLB: Ryan Braun injures teammate Jean Segura, then gets injured himself. Milwaukee is having one hell of a great start to the season at 18-6 after Saturday night, but Braun apparently has had enough of it.
5. NCAA: SEC sticks with eight game schedule, but demands teams schedule one game from a power conference. So, why not just have a nine-game conference schedule so that each team will be forced to play nine good teams? Whatever, maybe this means Iowa State and Vanderbilt can get a series going.

Yesterday's Favorites -- includes San Francisco Giants, Texas Longhorns baseball

Playoff Report -- recapping everything that happened in the Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs.

Today's Slate

SOCCER

Newcastle at Arsenal - 2:00 NBCS

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Penguins at Blue Jackets (PIT 3-2) - 6:00 NBCS

Avalanche at Wild (MIN 3-2) - 8:00 CNBC

-Sharks at Kings (SJ 3-2) - 9:00 NBCS

NBA PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Heat at Bobcats (MIA 3-0) - 6:00 TNT

Hawks at Pacers (Tied 2-2) - 7:00 NBATV

Spurs at Mavericks (DAL 2-1) - 8:30 TNT

MLB

Rockies at D'backs - 8:40 RSRM/FSAZ

-Padres at Giants - 9:15 FSSD/CSBA

WSD Sports Weekend (4-26-14): Los Angeles Lakers keeping Mike D'Antoni shows nothing but stupidity

Stupid is the theme of the day as I dissect why Mike D'Antoni returning for another season defies all common sense, why Gawker Media/Jezebel/Deadspin fails again at crapping all over someone, and there's some lacrosse respect in today's sports page.

Photo from Beyond the Buzzer.

The Lede

Stupid: Los Angeles Lakers decide to bring back Mike D'Antoni for third season

There's a lot of stupid going on in the NBA lately.

Whatever's happening with the Indiana Pacers is stupid because everyone that's not a Miami Heat fan wants to see the Miami Heat lose, and we thought the answer was here for the first four months of the season. Whatever happened at the end of the Golden State's game and not calling a foul on the LA Clippers' Chris Paul is pretty stupid, and that adds to the fire of ref stupidity during these playoffs.

And of course, there's been stupid since Jim Buss took over full operation with the Lakers. After two miserable seasons with Mike D'Antoni as head coach, they decided to bring him back for a third season.

Hear that? That's the sound of every single Laker fan that's still left throwing everything out the window. That's Kobe Bryant screaming in agony as he reinjures himself because he knows full well that he's going to get another season-ending injury before Thanksgiving.

There's absolutely zero equation that fits both Bryant and D'Antoni to equal out a championship. None. D'Antoni's system is built for young guns. Built for fast-paced offense that doesn't matter whether or not they play defense. In fact, they'd rather the team launch a quick shot and make it so they can get back on offense.

Pau Gasol might as well pack up his shit and go to LAX, he's history. Bryant might as well demand a trade, because a championship isn't coming to the Lakers organization until well after he's retired. Any big names in free agency this summer might as well skip right past going to the Lakers because why in the world would any experienced talent want to come in when D'Antoni's just going to favor putting in more younger guys.

D'Antoni runs a college system that will never work in the NBA. It will never get the Lakers a trip to the Finals. While next season may not be as craptastic as last season, they'll be nowhere near title contention.

They basically gave one of the best players in their history, Kobe Bryant, the big middle finger and told him that they're going to rebuild with D'Antoni. They gave the middle finger to Magic Johnson who doesn't like D'Antoni at all. And they gave two big middle fingers to every single Lakers fan.

At least Buss and D'Antoni were able to get rid of all the Laker bandwagoners because no front-running idiots will stick with a team that lost more games than they played. Now they'll be able to get rid of every single Laker fan after next year.

Say hello to your new fan, Golden State San Francisco Warriors!


Other Headlines

1. NFL: San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh backs up quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Harbaugh reflects on the situation, saying that just one side has been reported and he even quotes Winston Churchill. Of course...
2. NFL: Gawker Media idiot Joshua David bitches about Harbaugh and tells him to shut the f*ck up. Well David, I don't know if you're trying to be the next Drew Magary on Deadspin, but this article was complete garbage. Drubbing it up into a different argument about rape culture when that's not even the issue. It didn't happen, even THE GIRL said it didn't happen. She filed a report to figure out how she got to the hospital, and then we figured it out. Of course, David didn't want to mention any of that because he was too busy ranting about how much he hated Harbaugh. Good job. When you first wrote "I don't know what happened," you should have probably shut the f*ck up yourself and deleted the post.
3. MLB: Washington Nationals keep Bryce Harper out for today's game against San Diego Padres. Harper jammed his thumb while siding into third base during an 11-1 blowout. Even when he decides to try hard, he still can't win.
4. NBA/NHL: Chicago goes 2-0 in big playoff games. The Blackhawks take a huge 3-2 lead against the St. Louis Blues as they head back to Chicago, while the Bulls avoided a 3-0 hole against the Washington Wizards. Displaced Chicagoians at the bars last night were as happy as hell.
5. MLL: The season begins tonight. For the first time, similar to Johns Hopkins in the college ranks, I'll be following a team from beginning to end. And my favorite team in the MLL is the Denver Outlaws.
6. NCAA LAX: Last night's game were the best. There were three buzzer beaters last night, two of them in the ACC semifinals that led to Syracuse and Notre Dame victories. Another one in the Patriot League semifinal between Lehigh and Army. The Irish needed the win to stay away from being 6-6 and potentially not making the playoffs, while the Black Knight's loss puts them in a tough position to make it.
7. MLB: Giants take lead in NL West after win over Indians, Dodgers loss. Suck it, Dodgers.

Today's Slate

Or, in other words, what I'll be keeping track of. All times Central.

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Red Wings at Bruins (BOS 3-1) - 2:00 NBC

Blue Jackets at Penguins (Tied 2-2) - 6:00 NBCS

Wild at Avalanche (Tied 2-2) - 8:30 NBCS

-Kings at Sharks (SJ 3-1) - 9:00 CNBC

NBA PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Pacers at Hawks (ATL 2-1) - 1:00 TNT

Spurs at Mavericks (Tied 1-1) - 3:30 TNT

Heat at Bobcats (MIA 2-0) - 6:00 ESPN

Thunder at Grizzlies (MEM 2-1) - 8:30 ESPN

MLB

Padres at Nationals - 12:05 FSSD/MASN

-Indians at Giants - 3:05 STO/CSBA

Phillies at D'backs - 7:10 CSPA/FSAZ

Rockies at Dodgers - 8:10 RSRM/SNLA

LAX

Harvard at Yale - 12:30 FCS626

Machine at Hounds - 6:00 MSG+

-Outlaws at Launch - 6:00 LAXN

CBB

Oklahoma at Texas Tech - 12:00 FCS623

-Oklahoma St at Texas - 1:00 LHN

Virginia at Florida St - 5:00 EPSN3

Oregon at Oregon St - 9:30 P12

WSD Daily Sports Page (4-24-14): Breaking down the San Francisco 49ers' 2014 schedule

We closely examine San Francisco's schedule as the NFL finally releases the regular season slate. We also look at LaMarcus Aldridge's domination against the Houston Rockets, Nick Young's first pitch in the MLB, a second pine-tar incident, and more in the daily sports page.

The Lede



Breaking down the San Francisco 49ers schedule

The official dates and times of all 32 NFL teams were announced last night. News trickled in before the full announcement that Chicago would be San Francisco's first opponent in their new football stadium in Santa Clara, but that would come after opening the season at Dallas in one turns out to be a tough start to the 2014 season.

After the Cowboys and Bears, the 49ers will at Arizona, Philadelphia and Kansas City at home, and then road trips to St. Louis and Denver in primetime before finally reaching their bye week.

There's no Seattle in that stretch, which will obviously be the most anticipated matchup of the season (twice), but all of those teams don't expect to slow down after exceeding expectations a season ago. Luckily, the 49ers won't have to travel much in that stretch, being able to stick around the west half of the country until after the bye week.

In fact, San Francisco gets their two East coast trips out of the way back-to-back. After St. Louis at home, they will head to New Orleans and New York in early November. As reported by most Niner season preview sites, they fully expect the 49ers to stay at Youngstown, Ohio during that stretch to ease the travel.

After that? Six straight games on the West coast with four home games (Redskins, Seahawks, Chargers, Cardinals) and two back-to-back road trips to Oakland and Seattle sandwiched in between those home games.

Compared to last season's traveling, this will be a much easier schedule to maneuver with -- that's especially thanks to taking on the AFC West and having Dallas as a road game in the NFC East slate.


Top Five Stories that Matter to Me

1. NFL: More schedule nuances. A maximum of two flex games are allowed between weeks 5-10, and now all-AFC or all-NFC matchups can be switched over to FOX or CBS (and vice-versa) to balance out the schedule if games are flexed. Life sure will be weird if we watch Pittsburgh-Baltimore with the FOX graphics.
2. NBA: LaMarcus Aldridge has back-to-back games of 40+ points to give Portland a 2-0 lead over Houston. That's a real bummer, Rockets fans, but you're learning that you need defense the hard way.
3. MLB: Michael Pineda ejected for putting pine tar on his freaking neck. Honestly, he was pretty close to getting away with it because his skin tone nearly matches the substance. But what a complete idiot to try and get away with this twice in a row.
4. NBA/MLB: Swaggy P not too swaggy on his pitching. One of the Los Angeles Lakers' best players this season, Nick Young, believes that baseballs need to go in some kind of net.
5. MiLB: Tracy McGrady joins the Sugar Land Skeeters as a pitcher. The Skeeters are your minor league team that will whore out for any chance of publicity. And it's working. Maybe they'll score some more ESPN3 broadcasts.

Yesterday's Favorites

MLB: Giants 12, Rockies 10 (F/11)

Tuesday came the hits for San Francisco, and then came the runs on Wednesday -- and they needed it. Colorado took an early 5-1 lead after two innings, but Matt Cain rebounded with a six-inning affair thanks to Mike Morse launching two jacks. His second one in the third inning tied it up at 5-all.

Cain's numbers weren't impressive -- 10 hits, seven runs (all earned), and just two strikeouts -- but he actually had a chance to win it as the team had a one-run lead in the top of the seventh. But that was quickly squashed when the Rockies tied it up in the bottom frame.

All tied up at eight heading into extras, Colorado passes on Trevor Ariza to load the bases and pitch to Hector Sanchez, who hit a home run earlier in the game. As I was still trying to figure out why the hell the Rockies would intentionally walk Ariza, Sanchez launches a grand slam to avoid a sweep. Coors Field was in full effect, and the Giants were victorious.

With LA's win last night, SF remains one game back from the NL West lead while Colorado sits a half game back of the Giants. Both SF and Colorado have the night off while the Dodgers play Philly again tonight.

NCAA Lacrosse: Johns Hopkins 13, Villanova 7

After a tight ball game all the way to the middle of the 3rd quarter, the Blue Jays were able to extend their 8-7 lead with three more by the end of the period and tacked on two more in the fourth. Their defense stiffened up and shut down any chance for a comeback by the Wildcats. JHU goalie Eric Schnedier blocked all eight shots by Nova in the final period.

Blue Jays attacker Wells Stanwick had three goals on six shots and also recorded an assist while other attackers Ryan Brown and Brandon Benn also had multi-goal games.

For the most part, Nova played well with JHU. The biggest difference was JHU being able to get two extra man goals in the second period while the Wildcats went 0-3 on EMO.

Stanley Cup Playoffs

• Blue Jackets 4, Penguins 3 (F/OT) (Tied 2-2)
• Stars 4, Ducks 2 (Tied 2-2)
• Blackhawks 4, Blues 3 (Tied 2-2)

Pittsburgh scored three goals in the first period, but couldn't sustain the lead with Columbus scoring a goal in each period. The Dallas-Anaheim series is getting dirty with multiple fights breaking out in the third period and 14 different penalties were called. Vladimir Tarasenko scores his third and fourth goals for St. Louis in the playoffs, but it wasn't enough as Chicago ties the series up.

NBA Playoffs

• Heat 101, Bobcats 97 (MIA 2-0)
• Mavericks 113, Spurs 92 (Tied 1-1)
• Blazers 112, Rockets 105 (HOU 2-0)

It ended up being a close one, but Charlotte could never get over the hump against Miami after being down double-digits in multiple instances. LeBron James led the Heat with 32 points, six boards, and eight assists. Dallas pulled away in the second half, outscoring San Antonio by eight points in each of the final two quarters despite Manu Ginobli's 27 points.

Today's Slate

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Bruins at Red Wings (BOS 2-1) - 7:00 NBCS

Avalanche at Wild (COL 2-1) - 8:30 CNBC

-Sharks at Kings (SJ 3-0) - 9:30 NBCS

NBA PLAYOFFS - ROUND 1

Pacers at Hawks (Tied 1-1) - 6:00 NBATV

Thunder at Grizzlies (Tied 1-1) - 7:00 TNT

Clippers at Warriors (Tied 1-1) - 9:30 TNT

MLB

D'backs at Cubs - 1:20 WGN

Padres at Nationals - 6:05 FSSD/MASN2

Phillies at Dodgers - 9:10 CSPH/SNLA

CBB

Texas A&M at Miss St - 6:30 ESPNU

USC at UCLA - 8:00 P12

WSD Daily Sports Page (4-18-14): MLB replay isn't the problem, the whole sports replay process is wrong

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