It's easy to see why some of the blog items posted here wind up with thousands of comments.

Spend some time in there and you'll be jumping into the game from the sideline before long.

The entertainment value seems to be increasing. Not that some of these guys need encouragement.

San Francisco 49ers fan Lock.Down had me chuckling Tuesday night with his incessant references to the numbers seven and nine, a shot at the Seattle Seahawks' 7-9 records under Pete Carroll over the past two seasons. He kept working the numbers into conversation.

"Had people seen the recent SportsCenter Special on the NFC West?" I asked.

"I saw part of that, but I missed the first 7 to 9 minutes of it," he replied.

Not that Lock.Down is alone. The theme has become epidemic.

"49ers have won 5 super bowls since '79," 49ers5bowls wrote.

"Pete Carroll's drag racing team nailed a 7.9 quarter mile," unislaya wrote. "Nobody believed it, so they asked him to do it again."

"Pete Carroll finished P90X in 79 days," EDTGO wrote.

Must be my refined, sophisticated sense of humor that makes me laugh at these just about every time.

"We were 7-9 in year 1, we improved to 7-9 in year 2 and I think we can be an even better 7-9 team in year 3," Lock.Down wrote, claiming to be paraphrasing Carroll.

That sort of banter doesn't always advance the conversation, but it's fun if you've got a sense of humor about things.

Recently I promised to recognize the "best" Alex Smith-related adaptation of the DirecTV commercial parodied Monday ("Don't get pummeled into oblivion"). We're pushing 3,000 comments on that item, making it impractical to read through every single one. But in sorting the comments to favor the most popular ones, a few stood out.

NFLMiles gets credit for a sequence ending with the Seattle Mariners offering Smith a contract because they value players with one good season.

challettv had the media building a statue of Smith this offseason, only to have opponents knock it to the ground, crushing a small puppy ("Don't crush a small puppy").

pick573 had Justin Smith and Joe Staley improbably trying to toughen up Alex Smith by taking him camping, only to have one of them lose an eye while training with a grizzly bear. This one seemed particularly far-fetched. Anyone following the NFC West knows a grizzly bear would be more likely to lose an eye if unfortunate enough to tangle with Justin Smith.

Finally, a "well done" to Pete Reggio, who adapted a DirecTV commercial with the blog in mind, working in a shot at another team in the division (bonus points for going far enough, but not over the line). His take:

First, Sando did a story about the Seahawks' prospects. When you do a story about the Seahawks' prospects, people accuse you of being a Seahawks homer. When people accuse you of being a Seahawks homer, you do a story on the 49ers. When you do a story on the 49ers, people accuse you of being a 49ers homer. When people accuse you of being a 49ers homer, you do a story about the Cards. When you do a story about the Cards, people accuse you of being a Cards lover. When people accuse you of being a Cards lover, you do a story on the Rams. When you do a story on the Rams, nobody responds and the blog dies. Don't kill the blog, man.

I trust we've got some Rams fans who will take issue with that one. LoyalRam, you in here, or did you stop reading after ripping my 8-8 "dream scenario" for the Rams last week? What about you, Thomhancuff or triggl?

Come to think of it, perhaps 8-8 was the dream scenario for the wrong team. What say you, Lock.Down?