I wonder

You know I had to bring it back!

Those of you who followed In the Trenches are familiar with the playful and insightful series known as "I wonder......". For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I hope you have as much fun reading it as I do writing it.

With that said, let's get to it.

I wonder.........

-why the 49ers aren't making a serious run at the newly available Donovan McNabb? General Manager or no general manager, contract extension or no contract extension, the personel department for the 49ers should have been at the front of the line the second Andy Reid made it public knowledge that the Eagles are listening to offers for any of their quarterbacks. (He really meant McNabb or Michael Vick, because we all know they're trying to give the keys to the franchise to Kelvin Kolb.) I know Mike Singletary and the front office have said Alex Smith is their starter, but I remember Brad Childress saying Tavaris Jackson was the starter in Minnesota until a certain Mississippi native decided he wanted to play football again last summer too. Why couldn't McNabb do for the 49ers in 2010 what Brett Favre just did for the Vikings 2009? Think about it for a second. The 49ers have a solid running game with Frank Gore and Glen Coffe, a nice trio of pass catchers in Michael Crabtree, Josh Morgan and Vernon Davis, and a solid defense led by one of the best defensive players in the game in Patrick Willis. They've got all the tools necessary to win a wide open NFC West. Except a top flight quarterback! Alex Smith might finally blossom into the player the 49ers thought he might be when they took him with the first pick in the 2005 draft. That potential player isn't as good as what McNabb is right now and won't be as good as McNabb will be for the next three to five years. McNabb got the Eagles to five NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl with no legitimate running game to speak of and mainly throwing to guys like Freddie Mitchell, James Thrash and Todd Pinkston. Imagine what he could do in a significantly weaker division, with comparable weapons and a coach who wouldn't just drop the outcome of games in his lap every week.

-how much longer Ben Roethlisberger will continue to get a pass from the mainstream media? It's amazing how much collateral a couple of Super Bowl wins gets you these days, isn't it? "Big Ben" has been accused of sexual assault twice within the last 8 months. Yet the media, by in large, has done everything they can to avoid raking him over the proverbial coals like they would do a number of so many other athletes. Could you imagine the tone of the coverage if a certain combustible receiver with the last name Owens was involved in anything remotely close to what Roethilisberger is right now? When the first suit was filed against Roethlisbeger last year by a worker at a casion resort in Lake Tahoe, ESPN initially stuck their head in the sand and refused to discuss it because it was a "civil" case. Fast foward to now and the recent allegations against him of sexual assault filed by a 20 year-old college student at a night club in Milledgeville, Georgia and the media is doing everything they can to keep from grilling him like piece of rotisserie chicken. Where is Ed Werder at now? ESPN can send him to Mississippi to camp out on Brett Favre's property to give us updates on when Favre goes to the bathroom but they can't send him to Milledgeville to get us answers as to what Roethlisberger was allegedly doing in a bathroom with a college girl. Werder can do numerous television reports and radio hits with useless info on the Dallas Cowboys, but he can't seem to gather an opinion on whether or not Roethlisberger is a "good" teammate anymore? Give me a break! Whether the Steelers' signal caller is found guilty on either charge will obviously be determined in the months to come. That said, I think it's kind of strange how a lot of talking heads have suddenly gone quiet when it comes to Big Ben. As for me, I'm like everybody else in the fact that I don't know if he's completely innocent on all charges or if he should be calling Michael Vick for advice on how to navigate his way through prison politics. One thing is certain though and that's that Roethlisberger is getting the mother of all hall passes from the media right now.



-why Urban Meyer is getting a pass for going postal on that reporter last week?
Sure, he apologized for it a couple of days later. That doesn't mean we should all just act like nothing happened. The reporter in question, Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel, drew the ire of Meyer because he quoted Gators' receiver Deonte Thompson saying something to the extent that new Gators quarterback John Brantley, unlike the diety known as Tim Tebow, plays like a "real quarterback". We all know Meyer and Tebow will be linked forever in the history books of college football. That's fine, but it's no excuse for Meyer to go all Mike Leach on Fowler and challenge him to a fist fight on the practice field.


**The Lightining Round
-why undersized forwards keep volunteering to get posterized by Amare Stoudemire? I'm not sure what it is but guys in the league are starting to make an embarrasing habbit of finding themselves on the business end of Amare's explosions at the rim lately. Some poor guy from the Golden State Warriors was nearly deposited in the seats behind the basket by Stoudemire last week. (Amare gave the guy a chance to stay on the ground.) And just the other day in Chicago he baptized one of the Bulls undersized front court players at the rim as well. Message all role players in the NBA: Stop trying to climb the ladder with Amare! You don't have enough rungs on yours to get up there with him!


-why Kate Gosselin is relevant enough to put on Dancing with the Stars?
I'm not sure how much more of this lady's 15 minutes of fame I can take? For the record, I have nothing against her personally. However, she is somewhere between the mistresses of politicians who are looking for a book deal and the Hollywood socialites who are famous for having a rich surname or a scandolous sex tape. Having a bundle of kids and then exploiting them on a television show for a few years to pay your bills does not make you a celebrity. It makes you a mom who tried to make the best of a sticky situation for her family. I wish the best for Kate, John and that brood of crum-snatchers they brought into this world. I just wish Kate would get off my tv screen.

-why guys in pick up basketball games at the local health club insist on wearing the elbow sleeve as if they were Allen Iverson?
It's bad enough when the tubby guy hits the court with his favorite pair of worn out Air Jordan's, but now guys are adoning themselves with the elbow sleeve as if they have a legitimate injury or something. It's pick up basketball fellas! Most of us are in there for the cardio and competition of it. If any of us were good enough to actually have tendinitis of the elbow, we'd be getting played to play somewhere. But we're not. Playing at the local gym is already trying enough from time to time when you have to deal with the guys who call those ridiciulous fouls just to keep from losing. Seeing middle age men or 25 year-olds who still think they can take their favorite NBA superstar in the elbow sleeve is where I draw the line on proper pick up game ettiquite