February 13, 2003

ENOUGH MUSICAL THEATER- LET'S TALK

ENOUGH MUSICAL THEATER- LET'S TALK ABOUT FOOTBALL!: The San Francisco 49ers, known until recently as one of the classiest and most well-run organizations in all of professional sports, this week made the dumbfounding decision to hire Dennis Erickson as their new head coach. This is just the latest in the sad, sordid tale of what has become of this once-great organization in recent years, one whose inner turmoil is now virtually certain to translate into on-field disaster.
The 49ers won a total of five Super Bowls in the '80s and '90s under coaches Bill Walsh and George Seifert, and invented the most influential on-field strategic innovation in football in the past 20 years, the West Coast Offense. At one point almost half the head coaches in football were either direct proteges of Walsh, or proteges of Walsh's various proteges (Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Andy Reid, etc.). After '80s owner Eddie DeBartolo, Jr., was indicted, and had to give up control of the team to his sister Denise and her husband John York, the mid-late '90s version of the the team was facing what looked like ruin due to salary cap miscalculations and the retirement of future Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young- until San Francisco returned to contention due to the contributions of young stars Jeff Garcia and Terrell Owens and new coach Steve Mariucci. But a feud soon developed between Mariucci and the management team of York, "consultant" Walsh, and General Manager Terry Donahue, and it began to appear that "Mooch" would soon be on his way out.
The first of San Francisco's coaching miscalculations took place last off-season, in which they were prepared to let Mariucci walk away to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with two years left on his contract, so that they could take a run at Jon Gruden, who was openly looking to leave the Oakland Raiders. But Raiders owner Davis wasn't about to let Gruden walk away to his crosstown rival, so he engineered a deal with Tampa Bay in which the Bucs hired not Mariucci but Gruden, compensating the Raiders with four draft choices and sticking the Niners with the coach they wanted to get rid of. The Raiders and Bucs played in the Super Bowl last year; the 49ers did not.
Mariucci coached the Niners to another division title (and playoff victory over the Giants) last year, but he was nonetheless fired by York, who apparently went into the subsequent coach search with no plan whatsoever while Mariucci moved on and was hired by Detroit. With a virtual treasure trove of former 49ers assistants all over the NFL, and numerous others with ties to the Bay Area, San Francisco made no effort whatsoever to pursue logical candidates like Holmgren and Dennis Green, and picked as their three "finalists" a trio of nondescript defensive coordinators. Then they made noises about going after University of Washington coach Rick Neuheisel (whose primary qualification seemed to be that he looks like Gruden), before turning around and hiring Oregon State's Erickson, who won a national championship at the University of Miami over a decade ago but utterly failed in a four-year stint as coach of the Seattle Seahawks- not to mention that he has no ties whatsoever to either the 49ers or the Bay Area. Does this mean the Niners will bring in Craig Erickson to play quarterback?
Here's a great piece by Jason Whitlock of ESPN.com on how the 49ers blew it. And another by Michael Silver (no relation) from SI.com.

Posted by Stephen Silver at February 13, 2003 03:33 AM
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