Cam Inman

Former 49ers quarterback Steve Young emphatically backed the 49ers' pursuit of Peyton Manning, and vice versa. Young, now an ESPN analyst, had this to say on "SportsCenter" on Friday:

"Really smart. Trent Baalke did the research and Jim Harbaugh threw with Peyton Manning. They didn't get on the front pages.

Apparently it's time to come up with a nickname for defensive end Justin Smith's fumble-forcing play that clinched the 49ers' comeback victory Sunday at Philadelphia.

"That is the defensive equivalent of 'The Catch,"' defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Thursday.

Fangio understands Smith's heroics came in merely the fourth regular season game, not quite the stage as Dwight Clark's game-winning touchdown reception against the Dallas Cowboys amid the "luster" of the NFC Championship game on Jan. 10, 1982.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Hue Jackson will be introduced as the Oakland Raiders coach Tuesday. And he will be fired ... in two seasons, one season or by Thanksgiving?

Jackson better be a cutting-edge, offensive innovator who returns the Raiders to greatness, of which an 8-8 campaign does not qualify.

Coach Don Nelson put his celebratory beer can on the table, settled into a chair for his postgame interview and smiled at what his Warriors pulled off: a 2007 first-round playoff upset of the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks.

I went to my first NHRA drag race 15 years ago to write about an upstart California driver named Blaine Johnson.

This series will define Todd McLellan's capabilities.

Not as a man, father, friend or neighbor. But as the Sharks coach.