Well, you guys are lucky.  After reading Deadspin's "Michael Phelps Gay Porn Fiction Contest" (which I will not link to for our collective sanity), I thought to myself "Hmm, a Gay Porn Fiction Contest, I can't see how that could go awry at the California Golden Blogs.  I should prepare one immediately!  And for Marshawn." 

Then, BearsNecessity did his whole "Previewing MSU thing" yesterday, knocking me back a day.  Fair enough.  Fair enough.  Just giving me more time to write Marshawn Lynch Slash Fiction, right? 

But then, I saw this angry screed against Gay Porn Fiction.  Apparently, it's sexist and demeaning to women.  And around here we want to create an inclusive community.  We don't want to exclude anybody.  I want to be demeaning towards people based NOT on the color of their skin or their dangly parts, but instead the content of their character. 

So, you guys have officially dodged a bullet.  I will shelve the Marshawn slash fiction.  And I had some great lines, too!  Everything from needy ("Like an emotional Patrick Chung, I was holding on to anything, while Marshawn was trying to push me away) to romantic ("Looking into those giant saucers known as Marshawn's eyes, I was quickly reduced to a rambling wreck of a man") to disturbingly disturbing in a disturbing sort of disturbing way ("And that was when I noticed it wasn't just Marshawn's arm that was stiff).

Disturbing!

So, there you go.  No more Slash Fiction here.  It's over! 

via www.squibkick.com

"No homo"

As a reminder, the season is upon us.  Things might get hairy here, soon.  If you have a great link or an amazing web-page you want to share with us, we'd love to read it.  But to help keep things clean around here, please post it in the DBD or as a FanShot, if it's just a short blurb. 

If there's more to it than just a little link or a C+P job, then feel free to make it a FanPost.  FanPosts don't have to be 4,000,000 words long like a Danzig classic.  But if everybody posted up a FanPost every time they ran across a link, it'd push them all down off the page way too fast. 

We're not going to be aggressive dicks about this, deleting posts here and there.  Instead, we just ask for your help with this.  And we'll be passive aggressive dicks about it, shaming you in the only way I know how (Jewish guilt).

That said, let's get on to the links:

Natalie Coughlin is going to be on TV:

Berkeley - A two-time Olympian and the greatest female swimmer of all-time at California, Natalie Coughlin, will appear on Thursday night's broadcast of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on NBC.

Coughlin made Olympic history in the pool, becoming the first American woman ever (in any sport) to medal six times in a single Olympiad after garnering a silver in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the National Aquatics Center in Beijing at the 2008 Summer Games. Overall, Coughlin garnered three bronze, two silver and a gold at the Olympics in Beijing. She has attained 11 career Olympic medals, one shy of former U.S. star Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres, who are tied for the record for most Olympic women's swimming medals with 12. Coughlin is however tied with former Cal men's swimmer Matt Biondi with the most Olympic medals by any Cal athlete.

Coughlin also became the first woman to repeat as the 100-meter backstroke champion since its inception to the Summer Games in 1924.

This was noted in two other locations, but for those who missed it, Gameday for B-Ball is coming to Cal:

BERKELEY - ESPN's College GameDay and Saturday Primetime will make its Berkeley debut when the television road show comes to Haas Pavilion for the Feb. 28 Cal-UCLA men's basketball game.

The college basketball version of the popular College GameDay football series - featuring two one-hour shows at 8 a.m. and approximately 5 p.m. PT - will originate from Newell Court on campus before and after the Bears' final home game of the 2008-09 campaign.

via grfx.cstv.com

Okanes has an update on practice:

Wednesday’s practice was fairly uneventful. Quarterback Kevin Riley continues to play well. His accuracy during the last several practices has been impeccable. Wide receiver Michael Calvin continues to be held out of practice with his sprained toe, but coach Jeff Tedford said he hopes to get Calvin reps on Thursday. Cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson is doing more and more each day at practice and it looks as though he’ll be ready for Saturday.

Tedford was asked once again about the receivers after practice, and he continues to stress that six or seven guys will be rotated in and out. He said there will be new receivers on the field on practically every play. "It doesn’t matter who’s starting," he said.

Tedford also said the coaching staff still hasn’t decided on who will handle kickoffs. Tedford previously announced that walk-on freshman David Seawright won the placekicking job over senior Jordan Kay, but the two are battling for kickoff duties as well. For the record, Seawright has been kicking with the first team in practice

I thought I saw this, but if not, here's a Ted Miller piece on Javon Ringer.  It has a lot of other info on Cal, too:

While Ringer, a 5-foot-9, 200-pound spark plug with outstanding speed, finds himself obscured by the massive Big Ten shadow of Ohio State's Chris "Beanie" Wells, he's an All-American-type talent after rushing for 1,447 yards in 2007, with an impressive 5.9 yards per carry average.

"He's a guy who has great balance, vision and he's tough," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "He'll run between the tackles, and you better make sure you rack him up or he can bounce out of there and make some great plays. He's an elusive guy. It's going to take gang tackling, it's hard to bring him down with just one guy."

He also runs behind a line that averaged 308 pounds and features with three returning starters. The Spartans blocking style is engage and knock over.

"We're going to get a true test," Tedford said. "When you line up, they're not a spread team. You're playing a downhill, physical football team, we better be ready for it."

via assets.espn.go.com

It is also apparently, the location where Nasty_Nate found the following:

From ESPN:

 "Folks from Cal have told us that they're expecting probably 15,000-16,000 Spartan fans. It's not traditionally a loud stadium. How do you use that in recruiting? Not a traditionally loud stadium. Ouch."

 

Not sure if this was taken out of context (it more than likely was), but given Dantonio's history of talking out of his ass I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he actually said these things.

So, if you see a Cal-related link or any Marshawn Slash Fiction, bring it on over!  Well, maybe not the Marshawn Slash Fiction.  But at least the Cal-related link.