curious lowell, I know you are very complimentary of others in your field, specifically if you worked with them---what confuses me is you wrote a article about writers who are fans of the team,you were derisive when refering to them, which brings me to murphy, a diehard 49er fan---a fan who covered his favorite football team for yrs for the PD----he surely wrote like a fan and admitted he was and does today as well.
Curious, I felt you were writing about guys like this in that article without naming them? or is just that most of you are fans but it doesn't look good admitting it? afterall, no one reveres bill walsh more then you, and of course loathe al davis and the raiders. Care to answer?

Fair and interesting comment and questions. So here goes. When Murph covered the Niners he did NOT write like a fan. He may have been a fan in his heart -- I don't know but he never told me that at the time. But his writing was professional and also terrific. He is the one, by the way, who broke the story that George Seifert was being forced out by Carmen Policy. That was not a fan's work. He had to call Seifert late at night and induce a comment. That was a frosty conversation and believe me an uncomfortbable phone call to make no matter who the journalist is.

As far as Bill Walsh and me. I admired him. I wrote a book about him. He did not like the book and I did not like the grounds on which he disliked it. We feuded. He wanted to make up. I cut him out for two years. Eventually we became "friendly" but we rarely socialized. He met my wife once in 30 years and I'm sure never knew her name. He was the most interesting person I ever covered but I also criticized him -- i.e. like when I was at the Chron and broke the story he was illegally drug testing the Niners.

Murph was not a fan when he worked with me. I have no opinion about now because I sleep late and don't hear his show that much. I also know being a radio guy on a team's flagship station changes your relationship to the team. And I acknowledge and appreciate that. My issue with Al Davis is how poorly he puts together his team and runs his organization. Al and I actually have fun when we meet. We're both from Flatbush Brooklyn and talk about it a lot. He is as interesting as Walsh was. I am not a fan of a team. I am a fan of myself. When I'm at a game I root for the best column for me and if that means the local team winning so be it. if it means the local team loses so be that. The last time I was a fan was when my kid played little league baseball. I rooted for his teams and called them "us."

Lowell

Hi Lowell,
I enjoyed this morning's segment on KNBR. Your personality can be really charming and interesting, especially when you are surrounded by people that have a similar background with you.
I truly believe that your writing style is different than your real world personality.
Your opinions are expressed and written towards getting a reaction from your readers, and at the same time I think it's your style to "push the envelope" and negative points do sell in the media.
I am not bashing you, and I enjoy your style of writing. At times you do appear to have a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" personality. It's either a really nice piece that you are writing, or it can be a piece that has some venom.
Maybe a suggestion to the pieces that contain venom...please cut the amount of blog entries once you have made your points. Topics on Michael Vick transgressions from the past have gone stale. Taking on Mike Singletary is a brave topic. I hope he doesn't give you one of his patented stare-downs. His religious beliefs are definitely controversial, but it's not really necessary to continue to grind that ax.
These above mentioned topics will always end in a stalemate, and it's best to consider other topics in this fast moving World that we live in...
p.s. You are one-up on me, in the techno-dept...I do not plan on ever tweeting.