Dwight Clark’s ALS diagnosis hits hard, gives pause to this football fan

Enter the Warzone, daylight wasting time.

▪ March madness became March sadness upon learning that former 49ers great Dwight Clark has ALS.

Clark used his hands to make arguably the most famous catch in NFL history. Now those same hands can’t open a pack of sugar or button his shirt. Tremendously sad.

▪ Without “The Catch” Clark made in the 1981 NFC Championship Game, a young 49ers fan growing up in the Bay Area may never have been inspired to become a sports writer.

So, yeah, blame him.

▪ If that wasn’t enough sad news, we also found out another NFL legend, Gale Sayers, is battling dementia and can scarcely hold a conversation.

How much longer until football fans start to feel squeamish about cheering for collisions that will almost assuredly cause health problems later in life?

This one is on the precipice.

▪ Complain about the lack of buzzer-beaters in the NCAA Tournament. Grumble about the dearth of mid-major upsets and how no true underdogs made the Sweet 16. (SEC and Big East schools don’t qualify, sorry.)

Or just be happy Duke lost.

▪ There’s a difference between a great basketball player and a person who was put on this planet to play basketball.

UCLA’s Lonzo Ball belongs in the latter group.

▪ That Ball could turn out so seemingly normal and unaffected, despite that loudmouth hype machine of a father, says a lot about his mental makeup.

▪ When basketball season started, Fresno State’s best players were Paul Watson, Karachi Edo, Cullen Russo and Jaron Hopkins.

When the season ended, its best players were Deshon Taylor, Hopkins and Bryson Williams. Since all three are slated to return in 2017-18, that bodes pretty darned well.

▪ Just think: If the Bulldogs had hung on to that 11-point halftime lead against Nevada at the Mountain West tournament, Rodney Terry might’ve been a candidate at Cal instead of the Wolf Pack’s Eric Musselman.

▪ An observation that didn’t fit in Sunday’s column: Fresno State deserves credit for releasing Jeff Tedford’s contract without any fuss – including his “consulting services agreement” with the Athletic Corporation where most of the money comes from.

This hasn’t always been the case.

▪ We’ll never forget a previous AD stonewalling attempts to find out how much his football coach was making. Why? Because he didn’t want his softball coach finding out.

▪ For the fourth consecutive year, the Bulldogs will open spring football (Monday) with no clear idea of who will start at quarterback.

Our premature depth chart: Quentin Davis, Chason Virgil, Jorge Reyna, Christian Rossi.

▪ “Imagine if Ferrari made an SUV.”

“Mythical skillset.”

That’s how quarterback guru George Whitfield described Wyoming’s Josh Allen on Twitter.

Shame the Firebaugh native wasn’t good enough to play at Fresno State.

▪ The World Baseball Classic may not mean a whole lot (outside of a few island nations), but it sure beats watching baseball games that mean absolutely nothing.

▪ Giants update: Hunter Pence (.125) and Denard Span (.161) can’t hit a lick, while Jeff Samardzija (11.12 ERA) and Matt Cain (8.40) can’t get anyone out.

Oh, it’s only spring training? Never mind. Those guys are veterans. Come opening day they’ll be good to go. Nothing to worry about. Really.

▪ Rumors are flying that Fresno may finally soon be home to professional soccer. About time. Odd thing is the team wouldn’t necessarily be called the Fuego.

▪ Buchanan High product Nathan Smith, who recently made his LA Galaxy debut, skipped his senior season at UCLA to turn pro.

Yes, they do that in soccer.

▪ For no particular reason: Tyus Edney

▪ The first five days after any weekend are always the hardest …

▪ Two stolen Super Bowl jerseys belonging to Tom Brady have been recovered, reportedly in the possession of the former editor of a Mexican tabloid.

Last time we checked, journalistic license doesn’t cover grand larceny.

This story was originally published March 20, 2017 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Dwight Clark’s ALS diagnosis hits hard, gives pause to this football fan."