The two-vehicle crash occurred about 2 a.m. when a Chrysler 300, apparently “going very fast, high velocity,” ran the red light and collided with an SUV, Houston Police Assistant Chief Megan Howard said.

Five men and one woman died, including Hayden, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Four people were pronounced dead at the scene. Those killed included the driver of the Chrysler and a man who appeared to be homeless, Howard said.

Four people were taken to the hospital and two of them died, Howard said, while one female passenger was in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.

Police interviewed a male passenger from the SUV at the hospital. Investigators were working to identify the driver of the SUV, Howard said.

Hayden, 33, was born in Houston and starred at the University of Houston, according to his profile page on ESPN.com. A first-round draft pick in 2013, he played in eight seasons through 2020 for the Oakland Raiders, Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars.

“D.J.’s courage, perseverance, and dedication to his teammates will be fondly remembered by everyone who knew him,” the Raiders, now based in Las Vegas, said Saturday in a statement. “The prayers of the entire Raider Nation are with D.J.’s loved ones at this time.”

In 2012, Hayden survived and later recovered from a near-death tear to a major vein by his heart after he and a teammate collided during practice, requiring emergency surgery.

But McDaniels’ record actually was worse the second time around than it was with the Denver Broncos in 2009 and 2010, and late Tuesday night, the Raiders announced that owner Mark Davis fired McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler.

“After much thought about what the Raiders need to move forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave,” Davis said in a statement. “I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best.”

The news broke with an email from the Raiders at 10:04 p.m. (Pacific).

Linebackers coach Antonio Pierce will serve as interim head coach, the team announced in an email at midnight. That was preceded by an 11:15 email announcing Champ Kelly as the interim GM.

In both cases, the Raiders said a “comprehensive search” for successors would begin “once the season is complete.”

Davis had hoped to bring New England’s success westward when he hired McDaniels, the longtime Patriots offensive coordinator. Ziegler worked in New England’s front office, and between the two, they transformed the Raiders into Patriots West by signing several players with ties to that organization.

But despite taking over a team that made the playoffs in 2021 before losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in the wild-card round, the success Davis so badly wanted never made its way to Las Vegas.

The Raiders under McDaniels went 6-11 in 2022 and are 3-5 so far this season for a .360 winning percentage. His record at Denver was 11-17 (.393 percentage).

Even so, Davis has stood by McDaniels, and the timing of this dismissal is surprising.

But McDaniels had some things working against him. The Raiders have failed to score at least 20 points in eight of their past nine games dating to last season, and offense is his specialty.

Perhaps just as damaging was the public displeasure some of his players have shown. Star wide receiver Davante Adams, in particular, has been vocal since the offseason about his concerns regarding the direction of the franchise. Running back Josh Jacobs when asked after Monday night’s loss to the Detroit Lions about what might spark the offense, said, “I don’t know, that ain’t my job.”

McDaniels was hired following the 2021 season when Davis opted not to keep interim coach Rich Bisaccia on for the full-time job even after he led the team to a surprising playoff run.

McDaniels and Ziegler were aggressive in their first offseason, trading first and second-round picks for Adams, giving a big free agent contract to defensive end Chandler Jones and extending the contracts of Derek Carr, Maxx Crosby, Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow.

But those moves didn’t lead to positive results on the field as McDaniels never was able to build the high-powered offense Davis expected when he hired him and struggled to win games.

The Raiders lost a record-tying five games after taking double-digit leads, including blowing a 20-0 halftime lead in his home debut against Arizona for the biggest collapse in franchise history. Las Vegas lost to Indianapolis in the Colts’ first game with Jeff Saturday as interim coach after he had never coached above high school level and then lost to Baker Mayfield and the Rams two days after Mayfield joined his new team.

McDaniels benched Carr late last season and eventually cut him in the offseason, giving the Raiders no return for a starting quarterback who ended up getting a $150 million contract from New Orleans.

McDaniels brought in his former pupil in New England, Jimmy Garoppolo, as the new starting quarterback and the offense severely regressed, becoming the first team since 2009 to score less than 20 points on offense in each of the first eight games of the season.

The last two weeks were particularly humbling as Las Vegas lost 30-12 to Chicago and undrafted rookie former Division II quarterback Tyson Bagent and then looked completely inept in a 26-14 loss at Detroit on Monday night.

McDaniels finished his tenure with the third-worst record of any Raiders coach with at least 25 games.

ESPN reported Champ Kelly, who was an assistant GM under Ziegler since 2022, will be named the interim general manager. Prior to joining the Raiders, Kelly worked in the Chicago Bears front office for seven seasons, where he was the assistant director of player personnel from 2017-21 after two years as the team’s director of scouting.

AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.

The legal complaint filed this month ensnares one of the six partner organizations in the African-American Sports and Entertainment Group. Two of the eight members within the flagship entity are alleging their equity shares in the project were unfairly diluted.

None of the parties involved in the complaint — filed in the Alameda County court — agreed to be interviewed on the record, but documents and video evidence obtained from the group paint a starkly different picture than the one presented in the complaint, calling its central claims into question.

The group ultimately plans to acquire Oakland’s share of the Coliseum property for $115 million, and earlier this year it unsuccessfully tried to buy the site’s other half-ownership share, which belongs to the likely departing A’s.

Last month, it whiffed on one of its most prominent goals: securing a long-anticipated WNBA expansion franchise. The league instead opted to partner with the Warriors and establish a women’s basketball team in San Francisco.

But the whole legal ordeal could strain AASEG’s commitment to a locally driven, community-based project, one that remains rooted among Oakland residents and keeps outside corporate interests at the door.

It could also pose another hurdle to AASEG as it gears up to meet key deliverables in an agreement with the city to convert the A’s ballpark, Oakland arena and intervening parking space into new restaurants, nightlife, retail shops, hotels and housing.

“We will fully participate in the legal process and will show the complaint to be without merit,” cofounder Ray Bobbitt said in a statement responding to the complaint. “In the meantime, the AASEG is hyperfocused on the tremendous task, responsibility and commitment we have to our community to redevelop and revitalize East Oakland and the Coliseum Site.”

The dispute is contained within AASEG’s flagship group, which is comprised of eight Oakland natives who collectively did not have much prior real-estate experience before they became involved in one of the East Bay’s largest commercial redevelopments.

The other partners include billion-dollar Black-owned investment firm Loop Capital, prominent sports agent Bill Duffy and a business-consulting group run by former Oakland city manager Robert Bobb.

The origins of AASEG trace back to Bobbitt, a local businessman, and Levant Ogbulie, an education administrator, who began looking into how major professional sports could return to Oakland following the departures of the Warriors and Raiders.

Among the other founding members they recruited were fellow grieving Raiders fans Brien Dixon and Karim Muhammad — the two men who are now threatening to sue Bobbitt, Ogbulie and the larger consortium for damages.

Dixon and Muhammad allege their shares in AASEG were wrongfully diluted when Bobbitt brought four new members into the fold without their approval.

The eight members, including Bobbitt and Ogbulie, equally own 12.5% of the flagship entity, which itself may hold as little as 5% of the overall development once outside pre-capital investments arrive ahead of construction.

Still, the complainants accuse Bobbitt of unfairly designating himself the project’s lead decision-maker and “deceptively” creating separate LLCs in Delaware that could be interchanged with the official AASEG branding — part of a larger effort to consolidate power.

“Not only is this a patent violation of Bobbitt’s obligations to AASEG and the other three members, it usurps a business opportunity from AASEG and could also be considered as an act of fraud committed against the City of Oakland,” the complaint states.

Documents reviewed by this news organization rebut this point: An email sent to Dixon and Muhammad in late 2021, for instance, specifically outlines how those various LLCs would interact and streamline future investments, contradicting the notion that Bobbitt established the other companies secretly.

The complaint alleges that Muhammad only learned during a late 2021 company retreat that four new members — Samantha Wise, John Jones III, Jonathan Jones and LaNiece Jones — had been promised equity in AASEG by Bobbitt and that he eventually muscled them into the group by overruling the complainants.

All of the four members are Oakland residents, and perhaps the most prominent is Jones III, a violence prevention advocate in the community.

Video of a December 2021 team meeting — which took place two months after their addition — paints a different picture. In it, Dixon and Muhammad offer high praise for Bobbitt’s work on the project, reflecting positively on a more recent company retreat.

The eight members took votes together with no apparent objections, and Bobbitt is listed on the meeting’s agenda as AASEG’s “managing member,” a title that the complaint alleges he assigned himself months later in an operating agreement.

Whatever the outcome of the legal complaint, it marks a divide within the flagship group, which has spent several years building relationships with Oakland’s leaders, helping AASEG to secure the Coliseum redevelopment among tough competition from other bidders.

AASEG is also in negotiations with the Roots and Soul, upstart men’s and women’s soccer franchises that want to build a temporary stadium by 2025 in one of the Coliseum’s parking lots. Those discussions alone created tension within AASEG’s flagship entity as not everyone was on board.

It is yet another sign that in its quest to complete one of the largest-scale commercial redevelopments in recent East Bay history, AASEG — originally a group of fellow grieving Raiders fans who decided to start a business together — must also reckon with its small-town origins.

That could spell trouble for Oakland, where officials are expecting the sale to yield millions of dollars by next year. The revenue would help patch up what city leaders call the largest budget deficit in Oakland’s history.

After an auction in the summer saw zero bidders step forward, officials in Alameda County and the city of Oakland — the agencies that jointly own the property — won’t disclose much about their plans, saying only that they are “discussing next steps.”

The compound sits on 16 acres divided into two parcels on Alameda’s Bay Farm Island, a stone’s throw from the coast and a few miles from the Oakland Airport.

It includes a slick athletics training facility, some offices that once served as the Raiders headquarters, multiple turf soccer fields and vast concrete parking space — all set against the scenic backdrop of the flatland that leads to the ocean harbor.

After the Raiders ditched Oakland for Las Vegas, upstart soccer franchise Oakland Roots SC moved into the compound in 2021, paying rent to use the facility as a practice grounds and headquarters, but the planned sale may jeopardize their stay.

The team’s lease ends this year, but Roots representatives said the franchise is in talks with the city to be granted an extension. Buying the site isn’t a priority for the Roots, not when the minimum bid at the county’s auction in the summer was just under $36 million.

Oakland expects to take in nearly half of that — over $17 million — and put it toward a $360 million deficit that earlier this year led the city to squeeze some of its departments and leave job positions unfilled.

Why hasn’t the property been sold? It has been popular among sports franchises, including European soccer clubs that have used it to train during the winter months, during the Roots’ offseason.

Oakland is rapidly losing its professional sports teams, but the property isn’t dedicated to athletics; after Candlestick Park changed hands, the San Francisco ballpark was razed because its new owners cared more about the land underneath it.

Alameda currently designates the Raiders training facility land for “commercial manufacturing,” or light industrial uses — an intuitive fit in an area populated mostly by warehouses, factory labs and a few airport hotels.

The problem, though, is that potential bidders in the Bay Area aren’t concerned with sports or industrial properties as much as they are with housing.

“It would be a very difficult proposition to get your money back if you bought it and leased it out,” said Spencer Hsu, a Bay Area real-estate expert. “The fact is, if they can’t sell as commercial, they should really explore the opportunity to do so as residential.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Skin scraped down to bloody patches. Sore bodies stinging in post-game showers. Aching shoulders, backs, hips, knees and ankles.

Add in season-ending injuries like four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers tearing his left Achilles tendon in his debut with the New York Jets on Monday night and Buffalo pass rusher Von Miller tearing his ACL, an incident that he blames on artificial turf.

Yes, NFL players prefer playing on natural grass. It’s why the NFL Players Association called on the league Wednesday to switch all fields to grass in what executive director Lloyd Howell said was “the easiest decision the NFL can make.”

It’s a matter of career preservation.

“I mean, the NFL is already ‘Not For Long,’ right?” Carolina linebacker Shaq Thompson said. “It sucks it had to happen that way. … Hopefully they run with it. Hopefully they blow it up and shout it out loud and everybody puts it on social media, takes a stand and does something.”

The players union repeated its call for grass less than 48 hours after Rodgers’ injury. Howell said players know the change would cost money but argue the bigger cost is losing the NFL’s best players to “unnecessary injuries.”

Thompson has criticized Carolina owner David Tepper for replacing grass with an artificial surface at the Panthers’ stadium in 2021 — in part to host Charlotte’s new Major League Soccer team.

When the 2026 World Cup is held in North America, all 11 U.S. venues will be at NFL stadiums.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday on ESPN he is meeting with the head of FIFA next week about the World Cup. Plans currently call for host stadiums to use grass mixed with artificial surface. Lambeau Field has featured Kentucky bluegrass sod weaved in with synthetic fibers since 2018.

“Something that we’re working to try to see is that a better surface for us?” Goodell said. “Because you have to look at climate too. This is not just about ‘Is the field going to be good in September?’ Is it also going to be good in December and January?”

The current collective bargaining agreement uses science to measure injuries, with the NFL and the union using the same data. Goodell noted Rodgers had one of two Achilles tendon tears in the NFL’s first week — the other, suffered by Baltimore’s J.K. Dobbins, occurred on grass.

“That is where we make decisions, on the basis of science, not because I see an injury that I don’t like,” Goodell said.

The union has wanted all grass fields for years. In April, the union released studies from 2012-22 arguing a significant increase in non-contact injuries on artificial surfaces vs. grass. The NFL has defended artificial turf, pointing to 2021 when the numbers for injuries on both surfaces were close.

Rodgers argued for grass all over the league last November while with the Green Bay Packers. He said some artificial surfaces are softer, creating more wobble when the foot hits the ground. Grass allows cleats to pull away, leaving a divot.

New York Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard tore his Achilles tendon late in 2021 at MetLife Stadium, then he tore an ACL last season on the same field. A new artificial surface was installed this year, and Shepard said it might be a little softer but “turf is turf.”

Jets coach Robert Saleh said Tuesday that he didn’t see the surface as being an issue in Rodgers’ injury. The 39-year-old quarterback got hurt when he was taken down by Bills defender Leonard Floyd.

“If it was a non-contact injury, then I think that would be something to discuss, obviously,” Saleh said. “But … I think that was trauma-induced. I do know the players prefer grass and there is a lot invested in those young men.”

Miller joined a campaign lobbying for grass at all NFL stadiums after his injury. Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow said a league standard for artificial surfaces would help. Two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes, who plays on grass in Kansas City, said it’s simple.

“The numbers say that grass is healthier for the players, and I want to play on the surface that keeps me healthy,” Mahomes said.

The 49ers, who lost four starters to leg injuries in Week 2 of 2020 on the old turf at MetLife Stadium, have long been proponents of grass fields. This week, they’ll play the Rams at SoFi Stadium, which also has an artificial surface.

“It’s a little better,” Nick Bosa, one of those injured in the September 2020 win over the Jets, said of the SoCal stadium’s surface. “I’m not a fan at all of any turf. But it’s a little more slick, as opposed to having really soft surface like MetLife.”

Green Bay left tackle David Bakhtiari, who was busy on social media after Rodgers was hurt, said he knows the NFL is a business. Owners can wait to demand something in return during the next contract negotiations, and artificial surfaces help them make money hosting other events.

“That’s the bottom dollar, bottom line. Follow the money. Simple as that,” Bakhtiari said.

The Tennessee Titans will debut the NFL’s newest artificial surface Sunday in their home opener against the Los Angeles Chargers after trying, and struggling, to grow grass in Nashville for 24 seasons.

Their fake turf is anchored by shredded coconut husks and cork, not rubber pellets. The Titans cited NFL data putting Nissan Stadium among the league leaders for games where players suffered lower-body injuries.

Nissan also hosts the annual CMA Fan Fest each June. Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and George Strait performed there this summer. The stadium is home to the annual Music City Bowl each December.

Titans coach Mike Vrabel, who played 14 NFL seasons in stadiums that featured original artificial turf, said technology has improved and he likes what Tennessee installed.

“I understand that we need to do everything that we can to keep our players safe and understand that sometimes injuries are unavoidable based on whatever you’re doing and playing professional sports,” Vrabel said.

Virginia nose tackle Olasunkonmi Agunloye was carted off the field with torn patellar tendons on both knees after slipping as he celebrated recovering a fumbled punt in a college game against Tennessee at Nissan Stadium.

Keeping stars on the field keeps money flowing in the NFL, so Bakhtiari called grass a matter of smart business.

“You have enough great players not out there, the quality of the game and the sport goes down,” Bakhtiari said. “No one wants that. Like I said before, we already play a violent enough game. Don’t add to it.”

___

Staff writer Cam Inman, AP pro football writers Rob Maaddi and Dennis Waszak Jr. and AP sports writers Steve Megargee, Dave Skretta, Steve Reed, Brett Martel, John Wawrow, Joe Reedy, Andrew Seligman, Hank Kurz Jr., Tom Canavan, Fred Goodall, Mitch Stacy and Tim Booth contributed to this report.

But, hey, we all need something to do while we’re not watching the sport. Why not read about it?

We’ve tracked down some of the best football books with a Northern California bent. For the sake of conciseness (and our sanity), we have, for the most part, avoided single-subject biographies (there are a million of them) and X’s-and-O’s instructionals.

Instead, the following books are more focused on capturing the history, passion, glory, craziness and drama of the game.

‘Five Laterals and a Trombone: Cal, Stanford, and the Wildest Finish in College Football History’  by Tyler Bridges

In the immortal — and breathless — words of radio sportscaster Joe Starkey, it was “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting finish in the history of college football!”

By now, one would think that college football junkies would know everything there is to know about the last-second kickoff return that Cal deployed to stun Stanford in the 1982 Big Game: The ecstasy, the controversy, the musical accomplices (“The band is on the field!”).

But Bridges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Stanford grad, has a great nose for detail. And he deftly taps into an ultra wide range of perspectives to deliver the most thorough exploration of the madcap game and its aftermath ever written.

Included: Fun nuggets like the hare-brained (and botched) plot by four Stanford sore losers who tried to vandalize the Cal field the day after the game.

‘San Francisco 49ers: From Kezar to Levi’s Stadium’ by Brian Murphy

The only true coffee table book on our list, this bulky volume is packed with more than 300 photographs and 70 years of history. When not perusing its 250 pages, you can use it to do arm curls.

Murphy, the host of KNBR’s popular morning radio show and former 49ers beat writer, enthusiastically ushers readers across the 49ers timeline — from their first season at rough and rowdy Kezar Stadium, through the dynastic years at windswept Candlestick Park, to the move into new, high-tech digs in Santa Clara. Along the way, he provides vivid insights into the teams, players and games that have defined the legacy of one of the NFL’s most storied franchises.

The book features a forward by Jerry Rice and an introduction by 49ers CEO Jed York.

‘Goodbye Oakland: Winning, Wanderlust, and a Sports Town’s Fight for Survival” by Dave Newhouse, Andy Dolich

“Oakland is America’s most abused sports city, and there is no close second,” claim the authors of this mournful, but timely tome that explores how and why grass-is-greener team owners continue to find reasons to ditch the East Bay.

As the title implies, “Goodbye Oakland” covers much more than football — with the recent battle over the A’s proposed move to Las Vegas a prime topic. If the A’s do flee, Newhouse and Dolich point out, it would represent an unprecedented “hat trick” of departures.

But, of course, Oakland is the only U.S. city to be abandoned twice by the same team, and so the nomadic Raiders draw plenty of attention — and plenty of ire. Al and Mark Davis are described as a “traitorous father and son duo — Benedict Arnold and Benedict Arnold Jr.”

Fortunately, it’s not all greed and grimness. Also recalled are Oakland’s glory days, when the city was home to championship teams and shining stars. An entire chapter, for example, is devoted to Raiders’ legend Jim Otto, “the ironman of ironmen.”

‘Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden’s Oakland Raiders’ by Peter Richmond

The Raiders may now reside in Sin City, but it’s a good bet they will never throttle foes and seize imaginations quite the way they did under Madden in Oakland.

Led by their excitable coach, those 1970s-era Raiders not only won with regularity — and captured Super Bowl XI — but pulled it off with a rowdy cast of colorful characters, or “lovable rogues,” as quarterback Ken “The Snake” Stabler described them.

No team, writes Richmond, “was so routinely dominant as the Raiders. Or so unusual. Or so damned fun and entertaining to watch.”

Richmond provides a highlight reel of fantastic silver-and-black moments, along with ribald tales of off-the-field shenanigans. Even better: He crisscrossed the country, going directly to the sources, rather than rely on second-hand rehashing. Now that we’ve lost several members of those old Oakland Raiders, including Madden and Stabler, his book — first published in 2011 — takes on extra weight as a treasured keepsake.

‘Paradise Found: A High School Football Team’s Rise from the Ashes’ by Bill Plaschke

One of the best things about sports is its power to inspire. This profoundly moving story, described by a reviewer as “‘Friday Night Lights” meets ‘Unbroken,’” does exactly that.

Plaschke, a Los Angeles Times columnist, follows the Paradise High Bobcats through an extremely trying season after the deadly 2018 Camp Fire ravaged their tiny foothill town. Consider the tremendous obstacles: Most of the team’s players lost their homes and had to scramble to find makeshift living quarters. The varsity roster was down from 76 to 22 kids, many of them severely traumatized. Their equipment had melted, their uniforms burned. The early practices were held on a field strewn with rocks, glass and potholes.

Still, their passionate coach, Rick Prinz, fervently believed that football could help the town recover and provide some hope. What ensued was a rousing demonstration of human resilience.

‘Undefeated, Untied and Uninvited: A Documentary of the 1951 University of San Francisco Dons Football Team’ by Kristine Setting Clark

Unless you’re of a certain age, you might not know that the University of San Francisco once had a football program. And the school’s best season by far came in 1951, when the Dons compiled a 9-0 record and outscored opponents by a total of 338 points to 86.

Yet, despite that dominance, they weren’t invited to play in the Orange Bowl because two of their players — Ollie Matson and Burl Toler — were Black. The team was offered the chance to compete without Matson and Toler, but they unanimously refused on principle.

Clark, a USF grad, brings that legendary squad back to life. The ’51 Dons, once proclaimed as “the best team you never heard of,” have gained more attention in recent years, thanks to her work, a Sports Illustrated profile and a 2015 ESPN documentary.

Eight players from that team went on to play in the NFL and four of them — Matson, Bob St. Clair, Gino Marchetti and Dick Stanfel — are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

‘The Incredible Slip Madigan: The Flamboyant Coach Who Modernized Football’ by Dave Newhouse

They also used to play football at tiny St. Mary’s College in Moraga. That’s where, in the 1920s and ’30s, the P.T. Barnum-like Madigan built the Galloping Gaels into a national power and made a name for himself.

Edward Patrick (“Slip”) Madigan, who had played for Knute Rockne at Notre Dame, was a visionary, raconteur and entrepreneur. His Gaels were the first West Coast team to travel to Hawaii and the East Coast. They drew record crowds and used imaginative strategy to knock off bigger, more prestigious colleges. He dressed his teams in flashy silk jerseys and wisely worked out a deal to take a percentage of ticket sales.

All the while, Madigan courted the media and Hollywood stars. Yet, he’s a largely forgotten figure.

Enter Newhouse, the former Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times sports columnist who specializes in unearthing discarded history. Readers of this colorful tale will be grateful he did.

‘If These Walls Could Talk: San Francisco 49ers: Stories from the San Francisco 49ers Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box’ by Matt Barrows

Beat writers — the reporters paid to spend endless days and nights shadowing their teams — are often the best sources of inside intel.

Barrows, who has covered the 49ers since 2003, is a senior writer for The Athletic. Here, he takes us behind the scenes through  the team’s highs and lows and periods of reinvention. One chapter, for example, covers the scouting logic that went into the 49ers’ controversial decision to draft quarterback Alex Smith over Cal standout Aaron Rodgers in 2005.

Readers should be aware that the book doesn’t backtrack all the way to the Super Bowl triumphs of the 1980s and early ‘90s. As former offensive lineman Joe Staley points out in his foreword, “It’s about the emotional roller coasters the 49ers have been on in recent years.”

‘Tales from the San Francisco 49ers Sideline: A Collection of the Greatest 49ers Stories Ever Told’ by Roger Craig, Matt Maiocco, Daniel Brown

Here’s one more collection of 49ers memories, produced with the help of an ace beat writer (Maiocco). These concise “tales” are presented through the eyes of standout running back Roger Craig, who played under Bill Walsh and alongside all the Super Bowl greats, including Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott.

Craig commendably doesn’t take a self-centered approach — spreading the love around. But, of course, he has plenty to say about his own career, including how it was affected by Walsh’s departure.  “When he retired, a part of me died,” he writes. “I wasn’t the same running back after he stepped down.”

‘When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football’s Longest Winning Streak’ by Neil Hayes

The historic 151-game winning streak compiled by the Concord powerhouse between 1992 and 2004 under coach Bob Ladouceur is the stuff of legend. No high school football squad has come close to even sniffing that record. The Spartans’ success even drew the attention — and respect — of luminaries in professional sports.

Hayes had unrestricted access to the DLS program while writing his book, first published in 2003. He then caught up with the lives of the principals for a revised edition in 2014 that accompanied a movie based on the story. It remains an exceptional read — one that isn’t merely a rote rundown of gridiron invincibility, or how-to coaching tactics, but a riveting coming-of-age story full of life lessons and unexpected turns.

Former A’s and Giants outfielder Bill North, a two-time World Series champion with Oakland in the early ‘70s, will be the special guest from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. at the grand re-opening of Rickey’s Sports Lounge in San Leandro.

North, now 75, is eager to share his thoughts about his old team preparing to leave Oakland and head toward Las Vegas.

“I’m a pragmatist. I’ve been watching how professional sports have treated Oakland for many years,” North said during a phone conversation Tuesday. “And nobody’s really done anything for the community.

“I have an opinion that rich people like to get richer and make other rich people richer without purpose,” added North, who spent more than three decades as a financial planner near his Kirkland, Washington home. “I loved The Town … and there’s a whole bunch of people that could have done better with Oakland. I was a baseball player there and I saw times you could have looked at Oakland as an opportunity.

“To me, it’s just another example of a lack of caring for those in marginalized situations.”

There figures to be a number of lively sports conversations as a number of other former East Bay greats will be on hand at the former go-to place for Raiders fans, which had a soft re-opening in May ahead of its official restart coinciding with the beginning of the NFL season this week.

Dave Stewart, a four-time 20-game winner who led the A’s to their last World Series championship in 1989, headlines a list of former players scheduled to attend. The list includes ex-baseball players Mike Norris and Bip Roberts, ex-Raiders Raymond Chester, Art Thoms and Mike Dotterer, former NFL players Sherman White and Jerry Robinson, as well as ex-Harlem Globetrotters legend Nate Branch.

Award-winning sports columnist/author Dave Newhouse and author Arif Khatib, the founder of the East Bay-based Multi-ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, will be part of a panel with North that discusses sports in Oakland, past and present, and more. Newhouse, a former longtime writer for this organization, and former A’s executive Andy Dolich authored “Goodbye, Oakland,” a look at how the city landed on the verge of losing the Raiders, Warriors and the A’s. Khatib will also have updates on his sports hall of fame’s next class as well as the presentation of the first annual Curt Flood Platinum Award ceremony on Feb. 24, 2024. The award, in honor of Oakland’s Flood, one of baseball’s greatest pioneers, will be presented to the top performers from football, baseball, hockey and basketball.

For a charitable, tax-deductible donation, guests are welcome to attend the ceremonies at Rickey’s, located at 15028 Hesperian Blvd. in San Leandro. For $50, attendees will receive autographs and photo opportunities with the athletes in attendance along with a chance to win A’s and Giants tickets through a raffle. For $100, guests will also receive autographed copies of Newhouse and Dolich’s book as well as Khatib’s book, “Remember the Sacrifice,” a series of vignettes on unheralded athletes of color, some of which come from the Bay Area.

For more information as well as tickets for Wednesday night’s festivities, go to www.multiethnicsportshof.com, or call 510-629-3895.

Few things are more elusive than an accurate formula to answer a question that has been around since the league was founded 103 years ago.

College coaches — even the most successful ones — are hit and mostly miss. So teams tend to look to former NFL head coaches or, more likely, hot young coordinators in hopes of taking a losing franchise and leading it to the promised land.

In the end, it’s still a roll of the dice because of myriad factors that determine success, such as the coach/general manager relationship, how much interference comes from ownership and even blind luck when it comes to injuries to key players.

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is six years in along with general manager John Lynch and has lost three assistants to head coaching jobs: former defensive coordinators Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans went to the New York Jets and Houston Texans, respectively, and former offensive assistant Mike McDaniel was hired by the Miami Dolphins.

It’s too soon to tell how that trio will fare as head coaches: Saleh is 11-23 with the Jets, though they appear poised to finally reach the playoffs in his third season; McDaniel’s Dolphins went 9-8 in his debut a year ago and lost in the AFC wild-card round, but it was the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2016; and Ryans inherits a Texans team that is coming off a 3-13-1 season and facing a major rebuild after going 11-38-1 in the past three seasons.

But let’s face it. History suggests hiring hot coordinators isn’t a road to the Super Bowl and the Lombardi Trophy when it comes to success.

The Philadelphia Eagles were good enough in winning the NFC Championship last season that both of their coordinators are now head coaches. Offensive coordinator Shane Steichen was hired by the Indianapolis Colts, and the Arizona Cardinals lured away former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon.

But Steichen won’t have Eagles star quarterback Jalen Hurts. Gannon no longer has the NFL’s most dominant front seven, responsible for 70 sacks last season, at his disposal.  No amount of pointers Steichen and Gannon picked up from Eagles head coach Nick Siriani — who was the Colts’ offensive coordinator before he got the head job in Philadelphia — can replace talent and a front office that procures talent.

Still, there is a growing obsession with the influence of coordinators. But it’s fool’s gold. It is the leadership of head coaches and their ability to coach their coaches that determines success or failure. This is, after all, a position that is perpetually on the hot seat. The turnover rate for NFL head coaches is about 25 percent each season. There are five new head coaches this season, and only 10 of the league’s 32 head coaches were hired before 2020.

Even working side-by-side with the NFL’s most established head coaches is a guarantee for future coaching success.

The longest-tenured head coaches in the NFL are New England’s Bill Belichick (23 years), Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin (16 years), Baltimore’s John Harbaugh (15 years), Seattle’s Pete Carroll (13 years) and Kansas City’s Andy Reid (10 years).

That coaching Big Five has been associated with 22 offensive coordinators and 20 defensive coordinators. (If that total seems a little low, it is because there were years where Belichick didn’t name an offensive or defensive coordinator.)

Belichick has guided the Patriots to six Super Bowl titles, But none of his former assistants who went on to head coaching posts ever had Tom Brady as their quarterback — or flourished calling the shots.

Seven Belichick disciples became NFL head coaches, and only one produced a winning record. The roll call: Romeo Crennel (32-63 with Cleveland, Kansas City, Houston), Bill O’Brien (52-48 with Houston), Josh McDaniels (17-28 with Denver, Las Vegas), Matt Patricia (13-29-1 with Detroit), Eric Mangini (33-47 with the Jets and Cleveland), Judge (10-23 with the Giants) and Flores (24-25 with Miami).

McDaniels is the only member of that group still holding a head coaching position. He took over a Raiders team coming off a 10-win season and a playoff appearance and promptly coached it to six wins in 2022. Former New England exec Dave Ziegler is the Raiders general manager, but McDaniels could be out again if he doesn’t turn things around quickly in the desert.

Belichick’s former assistants have produced a winning record just seven times in a combined span of 30 seasons, and O’Brien has five of those. Their combined record as NFL head coaches is 181-263-1 for a .407 winning percentage.

O’Brien, after getting run out of Houston midway through the 2020 season, is back on the New England coach staff with Belichick. He’ll serve as the Patriots’ quarterback coach and … offensive coordinator.

Reid and Tomlin are the only Big Five coaches to have a former coordinator win a Lombardi Trophy.

After serving on Reid’s staff from 2013-15 with the Chiefs, Doug Pederson took over in Philadelphia and beat Belichick and the Patriots in the Super Bowl after the 2017 season. Even at that, Pederson, who wasn’t the play-caller or designer under Reid, was fired by the Eagles after the 2020 season. But, in an example of teams giving former head coaches new life, he was hired by Jacksonville last season and guided the Jaguars to the playoffs.

Bruce Arians was Tomlin’s offensive coordinator from 2007 and 2011 and was nine years removed from the Steelers when Tampa Bay won the championship in 2020.

Shanahan’s coaching tree has produced three seemingly strong branches around the rest of the NFL.

That may bode well for Saleh, McDaniel and Ryans, but history suggests it’s well down the list of factors that will ensure success.

“I thought he did a great job,” coach Kyle Shanahan said after Sunday’s 34-7 defeat to the Las Vegas Raiders. “… We want to be careful with Sam (playing among backups), but we also want him to play, too. Hopefully, Sam will get a little more time next week.”

Thus, the expectation is that Darnold starts Saturday’s preseason game at Levi’s Stadium against the Denver Broncos.

What about the other options? Expect Brock Purdy to idle until starting the regular-season opener. Trey Lance figures to rotate back into the No. 2 role Saturday. And Brandon Allen hopes to rejoin the team Thursday, after racing postgame to Florida, where his wife, Sarah, is expected to give birth today to their second son.

Darnold did not necessarily wow in his 49ers debut. He also did not turn the ball over or panic in the pocket. He looked composed as a sixth-year veteran. Those traits won’t give him the No. 2 job, but when combined with a discouraging outing from Lance, that bolsters Darnold’s stock.

“I feel I managed things well,” Darnold said. “As a team, we just need to play better. As an offense, we need to operate a little bit better. You put a lot of that on yourself as a quarterback.”

Darnold completed 5-of-8 passes for 84 yards in three drives, and those didn’t end with points but rather a failed fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak, a lost fumble by rookie tight end Cameron Latu, and a 58-yard field-goal miss by rookie Jake Moody.

After Lance worked the first half (four sacks, 10-of-15 passing for 112 yards, one touchdown), Darnold entered after Vegas’ halftime act and promptly moved the 49ers from their 5-yard line to the Raiders’ 31. Along the way were completions to Ronnie Bell (37 yards), Isiah Winstead (7), Tay Martin (15).

“When you’re kind out of rhythm as an offense, to get back on track, you find completions and a way to move the chains,” Darnold said. “We did that a little but then we stopped ourselves on a couple of drives.”

The 49ers’ quarterback drama isn’t close to stopping anytime soon. Moving on to 10 things that caught my eyes and ears:

1. MOODY’S MINDSET

Let the record reflect that Jake Moody’s actually made his first kick, albeit a point-after attempt for a 7-7 tie. Then he missed his two field-goal attempts, from 40 and 58 yards, each of which followed ice-the-kicker timeouts by the Raiders.

Moody said those misses were learning experiences, and that he’ll prepare a different routine during such timeouts. Best of all, he has already moving past the dud of a debut, noting: “I was hoping for one more (attempt) to prove those were flukes.”

While Shanahan may have been irked at the Raiders’ tactics in dragging out this game and trip, he is not concerned about Moody, a third-round draft pick. “It’s unfortunate because there’s pressure when everyone is looking. He missed those two today but he’s been great in practice,” Shanahan said. “I was just excited to attempt a long one, which was fun, until it was missed. He’s been great. He handles himself well. No issues with me.”

2. BRIGADE OF BACKUPS

The 49ers did not suit up any of their projected starters for the Sept. 10 regular-season opener at Pittsburgh. Precautionary intents aside, their work was accomplished in last week’s joint practices at the Raiders’ facility in Henderson.

“I didn’t enjoy that game by any means,” Shanahan said. “But a lot of guys got a lot of valuable reps and gives them a chance to make our team, and it gives us a chance to coach them up.”

The starting offense: Lance; running back Jordan Mason; wide receivers Ronnie Bell and Chris Conley; tight ends Ross Dwelley and Charlie Woerner; and an offensive line featuring (left to right) Jaylon Moore, Jason Poe, Jon Feliciano, Nick Zakelj and Matt Pryor.

The starting defense: Ends Clelin Ferrell and Kerry Hyder; tackles Javon Kinlaw and Kevin Givens; linebackers Marcelino McCrary-Ball and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles; cornerbacks Isaiah Oliver, Ambry Thomas and Sam Womack; safeties Tayler Hawkins and Ji’Ayir Brown.

3. CORNERBACK EFFORTS

Jimmy Garoppolo did not play against his former team, as expected, so Aidan O’Connell and Chase Garbers went forth and completed 18-of-23 passes for 152 yards with two touchdowns. The 49ers did not record an interception, nor has any cornerback come up with one since camp opened.

But the 49ers were encouraged by Thomas’ play, and Shanahan noted the progress the third-year player has made since spring workouts.

More concerning was their nickel back spot. They signed Isaiah Oliver to fill that sneaky important role of covering slot receivers — Jimmie Ward and K’Waun Williams used to do it — and Oliver got beat for a 9-yard reception just before halftime. Can’t you just envision the Steelers’ Kenny Pickett and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford beating the 49ers’ pass rush with quick passes to the slot receivers in Weeks 1 and 2, when the 49ers open on the road?

4. BELL’S MIXED DEBUT

Ronnie Bell, the last member of this year’s 49ers draft class, offset some encouraging plays with some concerning gaffes. As a punt returner — a role vacated by Ray-Ray McCloud after a wrist injury — Bell appeared to briefly lose the football before recovering it when hit at the 49res’ 14-yard line on his first return; he gained no yards on his second.

Now, Bell’s 15-yard jet sweep opened the 49ers’ touchdown drive, and he had a team-high 58 yards on three catches, but he also had Allen’s first pass go through his hands to result in a fourth-quarter interception. Bell averaged 19 yards on three kickoffs D’Shawn Jamison averaged 18.5 yards on two kick returns.

5. FOUR’S A CROWD?

What’s it like for all four quarterbacks to sit on the bench between series and review video while also listening to position coach Brian Griese?

“It’s great to have a bunch of input. It’s not like everyone is chit-chatting to everyone,” Darnold said. “If they feel they have something important to say, they’ll say it. At the end of the day, we’re listening to what (quarterbacks coach Brian) Griese is telling us, to what Kyle is thinking for the next series. If anyone sees something, they’ll say it. But other than that, it’s Griese talking to us and relaying what Kyle wants us to focus on.”

Added Lance: “Guys kind of talk separately. If I have a question on something, or Sam or Brandon or Brock have a question on what we saw on a certain play or concept, we’ll definitely talk through it. It’s looking at what we saw and turning the page onto the next drive.”

Allen’s take: “We’re looking at pictures, bouncing ideas off each other. We say what we saw on the sideline vs. what (the active quarterback) sees out there with different vantage points. It’s bouncing ideas, what we saw on certain plays.”

6. RUNNING BACK BATTLE

With Christian McCaffrey safely stashed and Elijah Mitchell still recovering from a thigh injury, Mason got the start over Ty Davis-Price. Neither did much. Mason had 17 yards on five carries; Davis-Price totaled 29 yards on nine carries. The longest run each had was for nine yards. Jeremy McNichols wasn’t any better: four carries, seven yards.

7. ‘AMAZING’ CROWD 

Brown, this year’s top draft pick, enjoyed his initiation into witnessing 49ers fans’ massive attendance at road games. Red jerseys dominated Allegiant Stadium’s scene (paid attendance: 61,985).

“It’s amazing,” Brown said. “Coming from Penn State — where our fans traveled a lot, and, playing in Beaver Stadium, where there’s 107,000 — the crowd doesn’t really affect me. It was a great way to see that (49ers Faithful) support.”

Brown, by the way, had three tackles, his first since the Rose Bowl.

8. LANCE’S IMPROV ACT

Lance’s touchdown pass to Ross Dwelley will be the 49ers’ featured highlight, seeing how it was intended for Chris Conley and deflected by cornerback Duke Shelley on a near-interception. The prior play deserves closer inspection. That is when Lance climbed the pocket, took six paces, and flicked a pass dangerously close to crossing the line of scrimmage, with Willie Snead IV snaring it for a 12-yard gain to the 9-yard line.

“It was all improvised once I got out of the pocket,” Lance said. “Willie made a great play keeping his eyes on me and continuing to work for me. … Every completion (brings confidence), for sure, definitely confidence in knowing we’re on the same page.”

9. ANOTHER ALFREDO CAMEO

Alfredo Gutierrez, a third-year offensive tackle from Mexico, was thrilled to play in a 49ers uniform for only the second time. He lined up on the right side for Moody’s three kicks. Last year, Gutierrez played five preseason snaps at Minnesota and received the ceremonial game ball. “Coach told me on the sideline to just be ready,” Gutierrez said of Sunday’s cameo. “I sustained my block. In the first (kick), they brought some pressure, but we held them up.”

10. HIERARCHY IN HOUSE

Dr. John York, the 49ers’ co-owner/chairman, quietly stood in the middle of the locker room as players packed their bags. Upstairs on the press box during the game were general manager John Lynch and salary-cap gurus Paraag Marathe and Brian Hampton. All of which is to say the 49ers’ brass had a visible presence, only days after lawsuits accused CEO Jed York of engaging in insider trading at Chegg Inc., a Santa Clara-based online education platform under fire for allegedly helping students cheat during the height of the pandemic. Jed York has not publicly commented on the accusations, which a Chegg spokesperson described as “wholly unfounded.”

This, of course, is a great city to have luck turn your way.

But the 49ers need Lance to be both lucky and good. Otherwise, his potential job as Brock Purdy’s backup will belong to Sam Darnold, who had a pedestrian debut after Lance’s shaky, first-half duty in Sunday’s preseason opener at the Raiders.

The 34-7 final marked the most lopsided preseason loss in coach Kyle Shanahan’s seven seasons.

The 49ers set this up to evaluate Lance under fire, and a sack-filled start was somewhat predictable behind a second-string offensive line. It was his first game since his right ankle got fractured and dislocated last Sept. 18 at Levi’s Stadium. Back then, he was QB1, a job that the 49ers have since reserved for Brock Purdy.

Purdy’s comeback from elbow surgery is on track for a Sept. 10 regular-season start at Pitttsburgh, so he did not suit up for Sunday’s game, nor did their other 21 projected starters.

With red-clad fans packed into Allegiant Stadium like the 49ers’ Jan. 1 triumph here, there wasn’t much to cheer for the “visiting” fans.

Lance got sacked four times, one of which he said he could have avoided had he thrown the ball away.

“When there’s a bunch of sacks, the O-line gets blamed too much,” Shanahan said. “… In our room, we’re always hard on our quarterbacks. You try to look through every way possible in how to not take the sack. But you don’t just avoid them by throwing picks. We’ll look at it and see what his chances were to get those off, but I though a couple he definitely couldn’t, and a couple he probably could have.”

Overall, Lance completed 10-of-15 passes for 112 yards, and had no interceptions thanks to Raiders’ defenders dropping two passes, including the touchdown throw that cornerback Duke Shelley cut off and bobbled over to Dwelley. Shanahan complimented Lance for going through his progressions before spotting his last option open, Chris Conley.

“It was a yes, yes, yes, no, yes,” Lance said of his view. “Dwelley ended up making a great play. Defense made a great play; I didn’t think (Shelley) would get to it.”

“There was an open hole. It was nice that he saw it and went for it,” Shanahan said. “I was glad he tried to rip it. There was a tight window. He could have put it more in front of him, but the guy (Shelley) made a good play on it, and it ended up working out for us.”

Darnold relieved Lance after halftime and delivered a couple of impressive completions to get the 49ers into Raiders territory. That drive ended when Darnold got stopped on a fourth-and-1 sneak, behind third-string center Keith Ismael.

Shanahan commended Darnold for doing “a great job” among the backup-laden crew, most of whom won’t make the roster next month. “We want to be careful with Sam for that reason, but we also want him to play, too,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully Sam will get a little more time next (Saturday vs. Denver).”

“I feel I managed things well,” said Darnold, formerly of the New York Jets and the Carolina Panthers. “As a team, we just need to play better. As an offense, we need to operate a little bit better. You put a lot of that on yourself as a quarterback.”

Sunday began with Lance’s rough re-entry into NFL action — three sacks, no first downs in three series — before that touchdown pinball to Dwelley provided points.

Lance looked uncomfortable from the outset. He got stood up in the pocket and sacked on the game’s first snap, courtesy of right guard Nick Zakelj getting overpowered. The Raiders’ bombardment continued series after series, to which Lance attributed to “just miscommunication, guys on different pages.”

“That was definitely frustrating,” Lance added, “but I obviously put it on myself, to continue to get better and make sure guys are ready to go.”

As lucky as Lance’s touchdown pass was, his previous toss showed the play-making ability that got him drafted No. 3 overall in 2021. On that pass, he darted six paces up from the pocket before a last-second flip to Willie Snead for a 12-yard gain.

“It was all improvised once I got out of the pocket,” Lance said. “Willie made a great play keeping his eyes on me and continuing to work for me.”

More quality passes followed — two-minute-drill completions to Chris Conley and Troy Fumagalli — but those came after another near-interception, with linebacker Amari Burney anticipating then dropping Lance’s over-the-middle throw.

Darnold seemed to play with more control but was snake-bit along the way. He was stopped on a fourth-and-1 sneak, and Darnold’s other drives ended with rookie Cameron Latu fumbling a reception and rookie Jake Moody missing a 58-yard field goal.

Darnold’s day was done by early in the fourth quarter, having completed 5-of-8 passes for 84 yards. He was not sacked; he wisely rolled out to avoid one pressure before throwing away the ball.

Brandon Allen relieved Darnold and, on his first pass, he fired a 20-yard strike that went through Bell’s hands for an interception that Sam Webb returned to the 2-yard line. The Raiders scored on the next play for a 34-7 lead.

After the game, Allen headed for an overnight flight to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where his wife, Sarah, is slated to give birth Monday morning to the couple’s second son; their first-born, Oakland, is 3. “I’ll try to get back for Thursday’s practice, if everything goes smoothly, then be ready for the next game,” Allen said.

Other observations from the preseason opener:

— Isaiah Oliver, signed this offseason to replace Jimmie Ward at nickel back, was essentially the only starter who suited up, and he allowed a 9-yard touchdown pass 34 seconds before halftime. That nickel role is vastly important, for it could expose a weak link that quarterbacks will exploit against a fierce pass rush, with the slot receiver often being the closest target to unload the ball.

— Moody, a third-round draft pick, did not make a great first impression. He missed wide left on a 40-yard field goal try as the first half expired, and he pushed a 58-yard try wide right in the fourth quarter. “A lot of good learning experiences in a first game,” Moody said. “I’ve already washed it. I was hoping for one more (attempt) to prove those were flukes.” Shanahan expressed confidence in the rookie, citing his stellar work in practice and acknowledging the pressure from so much attention.

— Clelin Ferrell, a 2019 first-round pick of the Raiders, made a tackle for no gain on the first defensive series, and he came through with a sack against Aidan O’Connell, the Raiders’ starting quarterback in place of ex-49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who suited up but did not play. Ferrell, Lance and linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles served as the 49ers’ captains.

— Latu not only fumbled a third-quarter reception, but he committed two penalties.

— Ty Davis-Price had a team-high nine carries (32 yards) and Jordan Mason had five carries (17 yards). Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell (adductor) did not suit up.

— The 49ers return home after a five-night residency in Las Vegas. Their remaining two preseason games are at Levi’s Stadium: Aug. 19 against the Denver Broncos (5:30 p.m.), Aug. 25 against the Los Angeles Chargers (7 p.m.).

— O’Connell completed 15-of-18 passes for 141 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions before the Raiders relieved him with Cal product Chase Garbers.