SportsXchange: Belichick too focused on winning to worry about legacy

By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com

HOUSTON — Was Paul Brown like this? Vince Lombardi? 

Bill Walsh had his moments, times when he could be stern, rough, but mostly he chose to be less stringent, even friendly. Remember that 1982 Super Bowl when Walsh dressed as bellman to handle the bags of the team. 

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Copyright 2017 SportsXchange

Newsday (N.Y.): Super Bowl LI: Sportswriter didn’t mean to take Kyle Shanahan’s backpack

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

HOUSTON — You’ve seen the signs at luggage carousels in airports that say “Many bags look alike. Make sure the one you have is yours.” Well, this wasn’t an airport, although with the noise and chaos it seemed like one, and the bag I had, a backpack, it turned out wasn’t mine.

It belonged to Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. And it held his Super Bowl game plan.

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Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Kyle Shanahan’s missing playbook saga from the columnist who took it

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

HOUSTON — The Niners have their guys now, Kyle Shanahan as coach — that was a given — and John Lynch as GM. The latter was a surprise, to us if not to Shanahan who developed a relationship with Lynch.

Long contracts, reportedly, six years, big salaries. This we know.

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©2017 The San Francisco Examiner

SportsXchange: Opening Night madness: Shanahan nearly loses game plan

By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com

HOUSTON -- The man heavily responsible for this quasi-madness, the late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, who was there at the creation, used to preach that the Super Bowl was nothing more than entertainment. Of course, and so is camel racing. 
It is not easy to describe the annual Opening Night, nee Media Day, as entertaining. Not in the sporting sense, that is. Unless you get a few laughs out of athletes sitting in booths and advising that Super Bowl LI (thank heavens we are back to the Roman numerals) "is just another football game." 

Media Day used to be on Tuesday, in the morning at the place the game will be held, in this instance NRG Stadium. Now, in the Super Bowl's second half-century, it takes place on Monday and at night, prime time, if you will, with fans paying to watch and listen. 

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017 SportsXchange 

S.F. Examiner: In uncertain times, Steve Kerr finds pride in NBA’s inclusiveness

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

The question was terribly appropriate for Steve Kerr, a man of the world as much as the basketball court.

On this Saturday evening of contradictions — the Warriors honoring one group of immigrants to America, the Chinese, wearing jerseys with Mandarin letters, while the nation had been ordered to ban other groups of immigrants — Kerr was asked if he had any thoughts on President Trump’s decisions.

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©2017 The San Francisco Examiner