Raiders season finale against Denver won’t air on local TV
The Raiders’ season finale Sunday against the Denver Broncos will not air in the Bay Area.
The game will be available only via NFL Ticket.
Typically, local CBS affiliate KPIX would carry the game, but it will instead be showing an NFC West game (Rams-Cardinals) with playoff implications.
This is the second week in a row that Raiders fans in the Bay Area will feel the pain of the team’s move to Las Vegas. The Raiders’ Week 16 game against the Miami Dolphins was only made available to Bay Area viewers on the NFL Network, which waives its exclusive rights to only the markets of the teams involved. That meant only local broadcasts in Las Vegas and Miami.
49ERS SIGN GOULD TO NEW DEAL, PLACEHIMONCOVID-19 LIST >> The San Francisco 49ers locked up their kicker for the next two seasons and found one for this week.
The Niners signed Robbie Gould to a renegotiated contract that keeps him on the team through 2022 with a guaranteed contract at a reduced rate from his current deal. Gould was also placed on the COVID-19 list Wednesday and will miss the season finale against Seattle.
College football
SPARTANS READY TO CAP WONDER SEASON >> San Jose State was unable to play on its home field most of the season due to COVID-19 restrictions and faced scrutiny over its travel plans to play Ball State on Thursday in the Arizona Bowl.
The 19th-ranked Spartans have shrugged off everything that’s come before them and kept on winning.
“This is such a unique time and unique situation,”
San Jose State coach Brent Brennan said. “Everybody is doing the best they can.”
It’s worked out pretty well for the Spartans.
A team that went 1-11 just two seasons ago, the Spartans (7- 0) have their best record since going 13- 0 in 1939. San Jose State won its first Mountain West Conference title and first outright title since 1990 by beating Boise State 34-30 in the championship game.
The Spartans also were ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2012 and carry an eight-game winning streak into Thursday’s game after closing the 2019 season with a win.
Not bad for a team that had to move six hours away just to hold training camp.
“This team has been resilient the entire time,” Spartans quarterback Nick Starkel said. “No matter what happens, no matter if we can’t practice at home or we have to leave and play a game in Hawaii or Vegas, we just say, ‘All right, let’s go.’” COASTAL CAROLINA’S JAMEY CHADWELL IS AP COACH OF THE YEAR >> Coastal Carolina’s Jamey Chadwell is The Associated Press college football coach of the year after leading the Chanticleers
to a surprising, near-perfect season.
Chadwell received 16 firstplace votes and 88 points from the AP Top 25 panel to finish ahead of Indiana’s Tom Allen, who was second with 14 first-place votes and 66 points. Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell was third (5, 44) and Alabama’s Nick Saban was fourth (8, 42).
San Jose State’s Brennan finished fifth, meaning Group of Five teams had three of the top five coaches in this year’s voting.
Baseball
HOYER INSISTS CUBS WILL COMPETE AFTER DEALING DARVISH TO PADRES >> Jed Hoyer insists this time won’t be like 2011 for the Chicago Cubs.
The team’s new president of baseball operations said Wednesday that Chicago plans to retool rather than bring out the wrecking ball the way it did nine years ago.
Still, this one will leave a mark.
In his first major deal since replacing friend Theo Epstein, Hoyer sent NL Cy Young Award runner-up Yu Darvish and catcher Victor Caratini to the San Diego Padres for pitcher Zach Davies and four young minor leaguers Tuesday night.
On deck: Willson Contreras? Maybe Kris Bryant, Javier Báez or Anthony Rizzo?
Nothing is off the table, though Hoyer was adamant: The Cubs aren’t following the 2011 plan. That was the year they hired Epstein and Hoyer, and the pair set the long-suffering franchise on a championship course by overhauling the farm system and revamping the front office. Along the way, Cubs fans endured a painful rebuild that included a 101loss 2012 season.
“I’m not going to run the same playbook that we ran in 2011 and 2012,” said Hoyer, who was promoted from general manager when Epstein resigned in November. “I think that would be foolish. That playbook’s been copied so many times, it doesn’t work anymore.”
NBA
PACERS EXECUTIVE WALSH ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT >> Longtime Indiana Pacers executive Donnie Walsh, the architect of the franchise’s turnaround, announced his retirement on Wednesday.
The 79-year- old Walsh told The Indianapolis Star of his intention to retire.
He made his biggest splash in 1987, defying the wishes of a basketballcrazed state to pass on high school and college star Steve Alford to select Reggie Miller. It didn’t take Miller long to turn the draft-night boos into cheers.
Walsh continued building the Pacers with solid draft picks and shrewd moves. Indiana won its first playoff game in 1987, its first playoff series in 1994 and after reaching the Eastern Conference finals four times between 1994 and 1999, the Pacers finally won the 19992000 conference crown. But the Los Angeles Lakers won the championship in six games.