ShareThisThe shiny white ball was placed nicely on the tee, and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith could have wound up and given it an angry and well-earned whack.
What, Smith was asked, are his thoughts on facing former coach Mike Nolan in Friday's exhibition season opener?
There was nothing holding him back. Nolan, after all, is 1,000 miles away as Denver's defensive coordinator. The 49ers' organization essentially ruled in Smith's favor in the infamous Smith v. Nolan feud of 2007, firing Nolan and re-signing Smith. And Smith ostensibly is turning over a new leaf this season, entering 2009 battle-scarred but confident and focused on proving his worth.
But Smith didn't take a mighty swing at his former scourge. He merely put a safe shot into the middle of the fairway.
"We obviously went through some bumps, we went through some problems there, but I really think we got through that," Smith said. "I would like to think we both learned from it. I know I did. We came out of it, and learned from it and hopefully turned it into a positive."
It was a nice, thoughtful and uncontroversial response because Smith is a nice, thoughtful and uncontroversial young man.
He's a parent's dream child and the type of guy doting fathers hope their daughters will one day marry.
But there are certain situations where you don't want Mr. Nice Guy.
If you're about to undergo a complicated medical procedure and your life hangs in the balance, you don't want Mr. Nice Guy in that operating room. You want the most cocksure surgeon on the staff.
If you've been falsely accused of a crime and risk going to prison for the rest of your life, you don't want Mr. Nice Guy in the courtroom. You want a Doberman Pinscher in a business suit.
You don't want Mr. Nice guy at quarterback, either. You want someone with a little venom.
Of course there's nothing to be gained from Smith ripping into Nolan in early August and vowing revenge. It's just an exhibition game. Smith should have bigger concerns on his mind. On the other hand, it would be nice to see some fire from Smith at some point because it's been a missing element in the past.
Make no mistake. Smith is no wimp. His return from two shoulder surgeries and the death of his best friend, all of which happened during the past two seasons, showed resilience and is worthy of a warm ovation. And he eventually piped up in 2007 when he couldn't take Nolan's constant bashing.
But if you were tallying the pluses and minuses of the 49ers' two quarterback contenders, Shaun Hill, who will start against the Broncos, would be the one who has the edge in edge.
He plays with his emotions on his sleeve. When he makes big plays in practice, he raises his arms to the sky. The 49ers' offensive line will play hard for both quarterbacks because both are so likeable. But in a fewer number of games, Hill has shown more derring-do, more of the electricity that makes everyone around him play better.
There's also more bite in his bark.
Hill hasn't been shy in expressing his distaste for the way his college coach, Ralph Friedgen, bullied him and his fellow seniors when Friedgen arrived at Maryland. He also has given strong hints that he wasn't happy with how Mike Martz made him his whipping boy last year in the quarterbacks' meeting room.
And had it been Hill who was abandoned and belittled by Nolan, you can bet he would have teed off.
(Contact Matthew Barrows at mbarrows(at)sacbee.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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