SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -When Bryant Young cleaned out his locker and eased into retirement last winter, the veteran defensive lineman severed the San Francisco 49ers’ last tangible link between the franchise’s five Super Bowl championship teams and the miserably boring mess that occupies the same wind-swept stadium today.
Young was a rookie in 1994 on the 49ers’ last title team, which was led by Steve Young and Jerry Rice – but more importantly, by owner Eddie DeBartolo. The rookie lineman from Notre Dame soaked up the club’s culture of success from the moment he entered headquarters at 4949 Centennial Boulevard, where the 49ers’ glistening trophy collection still greets visitors.
Young was a key player through their mostly successful seasons around the turn of the century, and he remained a soft-spoken symbol of professionalism to the increasingly less-talented teammates, executives and owners who followed him through that door.
These days, Young still hasn’t lost pride in his only NFL franchise. He just seems disappointed the 49ers are no longer something special.
“A lot of the younger guys have an idea what it means to be a part of this franchise, but it’s mostly from what they grew up watching on TV,” Young said recently. “Now, some of the guys don’t even remember it from when they were kids. It’s all before their time, I guess.”
The 49ers have been more than merely bad during their five consecutive losing seasons, with a sixth almost certainly on the way for a 2-6 club already on its second coach and second starting quarterback this year. They’ve been tiresome, tedious and nationally irrelevant, with no superstars or even any charismatic players who can generate much interest in a club that once employed the NFL’s elite, from Bill Walsh to Terrell Owens.
Candlestick Park still reeks of history, but it also reeks of sewage, stale junk food and general decrepitude. The 49ers’ throwback uniforms still spark a thrill when the club dons those cherry-red jerseys twice a year, but it’s only a temporary disruption in the Niners’ day-to-day dullness.
nning five titles with a cerebral grace that often suggested the 49ers simply knew more about football than their opponents.
“Guys who grew up when I did, who were real football fans, know what this franchise means,” said linebacker Takeo Spikes, who got a thrill from wearing the throwback jerseys last week. “That tradition is still here, but we’ve got to get the winning part of it back.”
There’s no “Genius” running the 49ers these days, not in the front office or on the field.
After the buttoned-down Mike Nolan was fired last week, new coach Mike Singletary injected a modicum of passion into the Niners by publicly embarrassing tight end Vernon Davis and carrying on in a postgame tirade in front of reporters. But the Hall of Fame linebacker probably can’t fix everything that ails the 49ers – at least not while the beleaguered York family still seems determined to make every mistake it’s possible to make while owning an NFL franchise.
Nearly everybody outside the 49ers’ training complex, from Bay Area billionaire Larry Ellison to the fans who stay away from the ‘Stick in increasing numbers, believes this franchise has been been dying from the top down for a decade. That’s roughly when DeBartolo became embroiled in a legal scandal and lost control of his beloved club to his sister and brother-in-law, Denise and John York.
en San Francisco beat Green Bay in what turned out to be the final playoff victory for Steve Young, who hit Owens for an improbable touchdown in the final seconds. The Yorks officially took control of the club one year after that win over the Packers, and John York immediately embarked on a decade of profound mismanagement by any objective measurement.
York’s gaffes included hiring awful general manager Terry Donahue and firing Steve Mariucci, his capable coach, in a fit of pique after a second-round playoff loss. There also was smaller, day-to-day weirdness: limiting his staff’s access to bottled water, or conducting a conference call on the second floor of the training complex with reporters on the first floor.
The NFL’s top coaching candidates haven’t wanted to work for the Yorks, which means most of the league’s top free agents don’t want to sign with San Francisco. Unless, of course, they’re given exorbitant contracts, like the $80 million deal for cornerback Nate Clements, who has never made a Pro Bowl.
The 49ers’ most prominent player since Owens’ departure after the 2003 season has been Alex Smith, the good-natured quarterback who improbably emerged as the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft.
Francisco has spent more than $20 million on Smith, who probably won’t be back next season.
Outside the training complex, the Yorks’ political ineptitude is a major reason the 49ers aren’t even close to building a new stadium to replace Candlestick, keeping the franchise’s value among the NFL’s lowest. The club has been dickering on various arena plans for more than a decade, and the current scheme to build a new stadium in a parking lot in Santa Clara has little momentum or interest from fans.
Despite the incredible abuse heaped upon the York family by irate fans and media members, the clan apparently has no intention of ever selling the 49ers. NFL teams are money machines, even when the franchise is too inept to get a new stadium deal – and besides, ownership provides a measure of fame the Yorks never got when they were in pharmaceuticals.
There’s a flicker of hope for 49ers fans in Jed, the Yorks’ 27-year-old son who’s gradually assuming his hopelessly overmatched father’s leadership role with the club. He lives in the Bay Area, unlike his parents, and shows up every day at the club’s training complex, attempting to absorb the NFL as a business.
irm they had fired their coach until more than six hours after it happened, allowing Nolan to announce his own firing to the media.
“The San Francisco 49ers have a tradition of winning,” Jed York said the next day. “Every decision that we make is aimed at re-establishing that culture of winning, and I promise that I won’t rest until we re-establish a championship culture.”
Given the current state of this once-proud franchise, it’s hard to believe him just yet.
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