SAN FRANCISCO -- Uh oh, part deuce.

San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith is not returning to the game, the 49ers announced.

He left in the opening quarter following being sacked by the Seattle Seahawks. Smith was taken off the field via cart with what the team described as a shoulder injury.

This is horrible news for the 49ers, disastrous in fact. All you need to say is Trent Dilfer is the backup. Ugh.

Oh, crap.

San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith was just taken off the field on a cart with that the 49ers are calling a right shoulder injury.

Not good and stay tuned.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Some random, idiotic ramblings just hours before the San Francisco-Seattle kickoff:

• The media here is billing this game as a must-win for the Mike Nolan era. That might seem like overstatement, but it isn’t. A young team and a young coach need a signature, statement victory, and this game is one of those type of opportunities.

• Monster Park remains one of the NFL’s great dumps.

• And Nolan remains one of the league’s bright talents.

• Did he say it or didn’t he? Seattle’s Mike Holmgren was quoted as saying the 49ers would never sweep them again, as San Francisco did last year. This week Holmgren claimed he was misquoted. Sounding a little weasel-like there, Mike.

• Frank Gore is one of the meanest, nastiest running backs I have seen since in several years, if not much longer.

• And I’m still wondering just how tough Shaun Alexander is.

I'm waiting for Hope Solo, soccer blowhard and finger-pointer, to get bashed by sports fans and the media.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Where is the crushing of Solo for being a selfish athlete? Where is the ugly American talk? Hello? Anyone out there?

If her name was Terrell Owens Solo, my e-mail would be blowing up with rants from readers.

There would ugly American blasts on talk radio. There would be analysts questioning her sportsmanship.

Instead, crickets. Nothing.

"It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that," she said of the fathead decision by the coach of the American team to bench her at the last minute in favor of Briana Scurry. "There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. And the fact of the matter is it's not 2004 anymore. ... It's 2007, and I think you have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past. It doesn’t matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold medal game in the Olympics three years ago. Now is what matters, and that's what I think."

Solo is frustrated, sure. She has a right to be. But her lashing out like that is inexcusable and her ugly, disrespectful shot against previous American World Cup teams was totally unnecessary. So was her ripping Scurry.

But again where is the criticism of her comments from fans that normally jump on the words of every self-promoting, teammate-dissing athlete?

Can you imagine the outrage if a member of an NBA Olympic team made such comments while in Asia? I can see the headline now in the New York Post: “Classless in China.”

Still waiting.

Good to see O.J. Simpson is keeping a low profile and all.

Not sure about you but if I allegedly killed two people, and got away with it, I might be, oh, I don't know, a recluse.

I'd eat pasta out of a can, enjoy football 24/7 and watch Deep Space Nine reruns until my eyeballs melted.

But not Orenthal. Noooooooo. He decides to publish a disgraceful tome called If I Did It which is about as subtle as a punch to the groin.

Then he's questioned by police and named as a suspect in a case of missing memorabilia in Las Vegas. It was supposedly an armed robbery, thus a cache of knife jokes coming in three, two, one ...

It's not just that Simpson is becoming a total embarrassment to black people. It's that he is now on the Mt. Rushmore of Uncle Toms.

C'mon, stop making that face. You know you're thinking the same thing.

A black friend of mine keeps asking: "When is O.J. going to go the f--- away?" Good question -- like I know the answer.

The point is each time some disturbing, head-shaking piece of news comes down the pipe regarding Juice, black people cringe, white people say "See, We Told You He Was A Dirtbag And Why Did You Cheer For His Ass After He Was Acquitted" and Simpson's Uncle Tom stock rises.

(And introducing sports' top 10 all-time Uncle Toms besides Simpson:
John Rocker. Toby factor: two Uncle Tom Cabins out of five.
Mike Tyson. Toby factor: three Uncle Tom Cabins out of five.
George Bush -- owner of the Texas Rangers during steroid years. Toby factor: 3.2 out of five.
The Notre Dame mascot. 3.6 of five.
Manny Ramirez. 3.65 of five
Uga. Georgia mascot performing tricks and clowning for The Man. 3.7 out of five.
Randy Moss. Speaking of clowns. 3.8 out of five.
The former Illinois mascot. A solid four.
Mr. Two Bits. 4.2
Travis Henry. 4.5)

We all err in our lives -- though I have yet to kill anyone ... that I can remember -- but Simpson's foolishness takes a bite out of my soul with each stomach-rattling headline.

The potential harnessed post-NFL career might have been grand instead of indecent. He could have been Jim Brown or maybe even Tony Dungy (though there are few people on the planet with Dungy's unblemished soul and soundness of heart).

His escapades and atrocities make us forget that he still holds the mark for the largest margin of victory in Heisman voting. He was an actor in a number of movies and was once even considered for the lead role in The Terminator. (How is that for irony now?) He was a pitchman for Hertz, commentator on Monday Night Football, hosted Saturday Night Live and started his own television production company.

Rather than potential released with Simpson there has been havoc wreaked.

This is my plea to you, O.J. Just leave.

Go chill somewhere. Go live in a bunker both physically and metaphorically speaking. Don't rob anyone (allegedly), don't stab anyone (most likely) and don't write any books speculating about stabbing people (yuck).

Just go, O.J.

Just go.

Roger Goodell has made few missteps thus far as NFL commissioner. He's been excellent, actually. His handling of the rogue New England Patriots videographer, however, was his first big mistake.

Somewhere Bill Belichick is feeling a stinging sensation near his hand. It's due to the slap on the wrist.

Barring an asteroid colliding with the Earth, the Patriots will make the postseason, thus the punishment for New England illegally filming an opponent's signal is the loss of a first-round draft pick, the team being fined $250,000 and Belichick being fined $500,000.

The Patriots make $250,000 on beer sales in the first quarter of home games. Check that. The first seven minutes of home games. Belichick has half-a-mil under his pillow. He spends that on video equipment alone. Bad joke, I know.

And while the loss of a first-round selection is not good, the Patriots have two first-rounders next season. So they'll still be picking in the first round in 2008.

One league source said he strongly believes Goodell was close to suspending Belichick for at least one game.

This is what Goodell should have done:

• Suspend Belichick two games.
• Fine the Patriots $2 million and Belichick $1 million.
• Rescind a first-round draft choice.
• Put the Patriots on two years of probation. If within that probation period New England was caught cheating a second time, the penalties would all be doubled.
• And announce that any team caught cheating in this manner in the future would be penalized with the coach facing a two-game suspension and a $1 million fine, plus a $2 million team fine and a first-round draft pick loss.

Now, however, the entire sordid mess is over. No, it does not taint the Patriots' Super Bowls or Belichick's legacy.

But yes, Belichick did get off easy.

When New England's Ellis Hobbs caught a kickoff some 8 yards deep into the end zone and then decided to run the football out, what went though the mind of running back Laurence Maroney likely was thought by every other Patriots player.

"I thought, 'Ah, ah, ah ... oh great,'" said Maroney.

Ellis went from Dead Hobbs to Roy Hobbs in a nanosecond.

Normally, when returner catches the football that deep, he takes a knee. Not Hobbs. He decided to bolt.

The result was a 108-yard return for a score and his name in the record books. The play tied for the longest in NFL history.

"My main thought was not to let my teammates down and to just keep moving forward," Hobbs said. "I'm not going to lie. I looked up at the screen at the 20. When you're out of danger and you have some blockers behind you, it’s just like a quarterback. When he knows he's not feeling pressure. It was the same thing for me. I knew it was a risk but this isn't college or high school. They pay me to return kicks, not kneel the ball. I didn't even think about kneeling the ball."

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The limousine carrying the owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft, rolled into Giants Stadium about 2½ hours before his team played the New York Jets.

The car stopped at a heavily barricaded checkpoint where three New Jersey State troopers, each carrying automatic weapons (which looked like M-16s), began examining it. One of the officers had a bomb sniffing dog search the outside of the vehicle from stern to aft.

This remains the reality of NFL football at Giants Stadium, located just a short hop from where the World Trade Center was destroyed in the attacks on Sept. 11: Even the owner of an NFL team has his limo searched.

Certainly at NFL stadiums across the country security is high, and it’s possible every visiting team and owner has their vehicles and belongings searched at each one. Probably not, but it’s possible.

Yet the security in New York remains higher than almost any other stadium I have been around. This place is still like a fortress.

And unfortunately, because of terrorism, it is likely to remain that way for some time.

This won’t be popular but it’s true.

Reggie Bush remains one of the most overrated players in football. Maybe the most over-hyped in a long, long time.

There are two problems with the New Orleans running back and they are big ones.

First, his speed. In college, he was usually the fastest guy on the field. That quickness allowed him to simply blow by any defender who got close.

In the NFL, he is just one of many fast guys. I’ve seen probably 75 percent of Bush’s games in the NFL and there is one definite thing when it comes to Bush: his speed has been somewhat negated by fast linebackers and linemen.

He’s still fast it’s just that his main weapon -- that speed -- isn’t as devastating on the professional level as it was when Bush was at USC because everyone around him now is quick.

The second problem is even bigger. Bush still shies from contact.

I saw at least two to three examples when the Saints played the Colts on Thursday night. There are too many moments when as Bush approaches the line of scrimmage he dances, skips and cringes.

When the Saints played Indianapolis, Bush was clearly the third best running back on the field behind Joseph Addai and Deuce McAllister. Addai is the perfect example of how a back should play. He attacks with very little shuffling, runs powerfully, is fearless, and does not shy from hits.

Bush will make plays in the NFL because he’s decent and when he runs in space he still too frisky for a linebacker to handle in single coverage.

Still, Bush is extremely limited and there are at least, bare minimum, 10 backs I would take ahead of him: LaDainian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander, Steven Jackson, Addai, Larry Johnson, Willie Parker, Frank Gore, Willis McGahee, Travis Henry (minus his 48 kids), Brian Westbrook, Maurice Jones-Drew and Rudi Johnson.

Just to name a few.

Kansas coach Mark Mangino, please step forward, your coronary is here.

If you have not seen the video of the Kansas coach screaming -- no, screaming is not the word, more like a human China Syndrome -- you must watch it now.

Mangino is angry one of the Kansas players was fined for excessive celebration after a touchdown and goes absolutely berserk on the player.

Football is a nasty, brutal sport and it requires its coaches to be tough on players but it sure does look like Mangino goes too far in this video.

It also makes you wonder what Mangino is saying to his players in the moments when the media or fans are not around. If he is going to engage in that kind of fit on the sideline of a game in front of tens of thousands of people just how exactly is Mangino behaving when few are watching?

Such a tirade also cannot be great for Mangino's health. A man that large -- his physique is a cross between Tony Soprano and the Kool-Aid Man -- who screams like that is a heart murmur away from trouble. Just sayin'.

Do you know what Michigan losing really was?

It was the worst single-game coaching job in the history of college football. No question, without a doubt, it's true.

The worst. Ever.

Lloyd Carr, meet the unemployment line. Unemployment line, meet Lloyd Carr. Get out. Now, Lloyd. N-O-W!

I'm not going to say Carr is a horrific game-day coach, but he makes Jerry Glanville look like Bill Belichick.

Somewhere Barry Switzer is saying, "Jeez, Lloyd, even I game plan better than that fella."

How long before the fireLloydCarr.com sites start firing up?

Apparently, Carr can't beat Ohio State or Appalachian State.

In fact, if I was Montclair State University, I'd call Michigan tomorrow and schedule Carr for 2009.

"Hey, get Michigan on our schedule for next year," the coach at rival Ann Arbor Community College is saying, "I'm feeling lucky!"

Actually, as someone who has followed Division I-AA football for decades, I can say Appalachian State is a terrific football program, one of the best on that level.

Still, Michigan losing to Appalachian State -- at home. Just, get out Lloyd. Go.

Meanwhile, I want all the college football-heads like my man Dodd to rank App. State at No. 25 in the Division I-A poll.

Can they do that?