Movement down the coast as well

Since Russell Wilson somehow influenced a chip-shot field goal to hook wildly left of its intended mark last week (or it seems like he did — he does everything else for his team, doesn’t he?), the Seattle Seahawks are still playing and the NFL playoffs still matter to most of the Pacific Northwest.

Meanwhile, down the coast, The Team That Challenged The Seahawks For NFC Supremecy Just A Couple Years Ago is on its third coach in three seasons, looking to get back in the conversation.

By most accounts, Chip Kelly was perhaps the best choice the San Francisco 49ers could have made, given the current list of available NFL coaches. That is, unless you were among the old guard that wanted to go back to the team’s glory days — and pursue former 49er assistants/turned successful head coaches like Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren?

(Heck, with that logic, why not try for The Ghost of Bill Walsh?)

Those options seemingly discarded, it’s up to Kelly, who had Oregon running as many plays as possible on offense, and had similar success with the Philadelphia Eagles before things went south last year, to pump some excitement back into The Franchise That Isn’t Trying To Leave the Bay Area.

SO WHY is there such an animosity toward Chip Kelly?

Because he won? Because he beat your team?

Lots of outside opinions. Here’s one from the inside:

“Chip is one of the best football coaches in the world, and he will be successful wherever he is coaching,” said Carson York, the former Lake City High standout who played at Oregon when Kelly was the offensive coordinator, and later head coach there. “I think he has a very specific way that he wants things done, and he believes it is the best way for the team to be successful. At Oregon, his players who were willing to buy in to what he was selling loved him — which was most of the team. The few who didn’t buy in maybe didn’t as much. I think with the Eagles he ran into a lot of millionaires who weren’t quite as willing to buy in to everything. It is why he brought in so many ex-Ducks to Philadelphia. He knew they would buy in and show everyone else how to go about their business. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met and he is an innovator. He will adjust his coaching style, and I expect a lot of success in San francisco.”

And what does this mean for Colin Kaepernick? After being put out with the trash late last year, the 49ers appear to have wheeled him back from the curb before the truck got there. Like a vintage truck with a little rust but also some nice parts, perhaps he can be restored. So much athletic ability, a strong arm ... but there’s so much else needed to be a championship quarterback.

“I think that he is very good at putting players in the best position for them to be successful, and that he will absolutely do that for Kap,” said York, who these days works in marketing at Nike, and is also a football analyst for Comcast Sportsnet Northwest.

MEANWHILE, EVEN farther down the coast, I like that the Rams are returning to Los Angeles, mostly because I’m old — I remember the days of Roman Gabriel ... John Hadl ... James Harris ... Dieter Brock ... Vince Ferragamo ... Jim Everett ... — in any event, it turns the division back into the NFC West and not the NFC Gateway to the West. Hopefully they’ll go back to the old L.A. Rams colors — blue and gold, or even earlier, blue and white.

Sure, St. Louis feels spurned, but in a few years, they’ll have a new, open-air stadium, ready for when the Jaguars relocate from Jacksonville.

As for the Chargers, I don’t have any strong feelings either way on them returning to L.A. or staying in San Diego.

But there must be a way to keep the Raiders in Oakland. Oakland and Raiders go together like Pizza and Hut — the Black Hole didn’t seem quite the same down in L.A. in the ’80s and early ’90s.

Too much tradition for the Raiders in Oakland — and the team is actually starting to get good again.

Now if that other team across the Bay can only follow suit ...

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.