Discarded athletes find good homes in Bay Area
How can you not love Richard Sherman? He’s the Bay Area’s latest rescue pup, in our grand tradition of taking castoffs and damaged athletes and giving them a chance to thrive.
Sherman, discarded by the Seahawks, arrives with badpuppy baggage — old, bangedup, a rep for being not quite housebroken.
So San Francisco (a.k.a.: Santa Clara) is the perfect new home for Sherman, who will get the type of love and attention that an abandoned pooch needs.
He’ll team with Jimmy Garoppolo, also somewhat of a rescue dog, kicked to the street by his former team and lacking a pure pedigree. East- ern Illinois?
Every 49ers Super Bowl team has been led by a rescue dog. Joe Montana and Steve Young, when they came to San Francisco, were potential stars in the eyes of only one man: Bill Walsh.
Colin Kaepernick — there weren’t a lot of football experts tabbing him as a Super Bowl team leader when he came out of Nevada.
The Raiders feature rescue dog Marshawn Lynch, assuming he plays. The Raiders, under Al Davis, invented the rescue-dog concept. Two of their Super Bowl quarterbacks, Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon, were mutts, surrounded by a kennel-full of found-at-the-pound-ers.
The Warriors’ revival started with We Believe rescue dogs Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis and Don Nelson.
The current Warriors are loaded with motley strays. Draymond Green came to Oakland too plump and unsuited to any of the five traditional positions. Steph Curry, he arrived underfed and underqualified to play point guard. Shaun Livingston, JaVale McGee, David West, Nick Young, Zaza Pachulia, Omri Casspi, Quinn Cook — all rescued right off the street.
We keep proving it: Give a stray dog the right home, a little love and attention, and the snob dogs from the Westminster Kennel Club can kiss our rings.