Golden Nuggets: Were Jeff Tedford and the Golden Bears cursed?

In the midst of the NFL season and the college bowl season, this time of year always raised the great question of how the Golden Bears managed to do so little with so much talent. Vice Sports ponders if the Golden Bears and Jeff Tedford are cursed and fated for mediocrity at best.

Indeed, the half-decade long suffering runs deep in blue-and-gold-blood, the heartache echoing from recently-renovated Memorial Stadium. But the tragic compound for Golden Bears boosters these days comes every NFL Sunday via Fox, CBS, and NBC; an agonizing reminder of how close they came, the talent of two-a-days gone.

Because in no uncertain terms, Cal has taken over the NFL, with a decade's worth of Holiday, Las Vegas, Armed Forces, and Emerald Bowl banners to show for it, leaving behind a solemn, lingering question: if the Bears couldn't smell roses during the Jeff Tedford era, can they ever?

With our current Bears spending the holiday season at home instead of at practice and our old Bears dominating in the pros, will the Golden Bears ever make it to the Rose Bowl or is the curse real?

@rayhudson11 I'd rather be bowling.

— Trigga (@BryceTreggs) December 20, 2014

Goalball

• The Golden Bears are already the first competitive collegiate team in goalball—the only sport designed for blind athletes—and are now fighting for NCAA recognition. Cal was part of the first collegiate women's basketball game, so let's hope they can do the same for goalball and disabled students! Check out the link for a clip of the game in action and an interview with player Ann Kwong.

Men's Basketball

• The official CalBears.com story for the win over EWU that gives the Bears our best start in 55 years.
• Catching up with our Bears after the game.
  
  

• A great Q&A with point guard Tyrone Wallace.

Football

• Cal's official look at the four newest Bears who will join the team in January.
• Congratulations to Darren Ervin, who graduated this month!
  

  continue to grind and reach my goals, finished UC Berkeley today in 3 1/2 yrs as an student-athlete, fought many obstacles but ultimately God always shows up on time

  A photo posted by D Erv (@dadonerviniv) on Dec 12, 2014 at 4:16pm PST

  
  (Blame the SBNation story editor for cutting off the bottom of the image and—most importantly—the caption.)