29-10-2003 02:41									#1
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Losses have 49ers fans tuning out
By Ann Killion
Mercury News


Mercury News Photo --- Dai Sugano

Dejected 49ers fan Jan Boehm of Sunnyvale after Steve Mariucci was fired.


Boy, that was a shocking sight Sunday afternoon. No, not the 49ers losing to the Arizona Cardinals, but the stunning lack of interest I witnessed.

At my child's elementary school fundraiser, a television was set up so that parents could see the 49ers game and still fulfill their parental duty of showing up and writing checks.

But no one was watching. Not moms. Not dads. Not kids. The ignored set seemed like a quaint nod to a bygone era, back when 49ers games were Must-See TV.

For the 49ers, that should be the scariest thing about their lost season and spiraling tradition: not the pathetic kicking game, not their woeful inconsistency. This is the frightening news: They may be on the verge of becoming irrelevant.

For more than two decades now, there has been one truism in Bay Area sports: The 49ers rule the scene. For local sportswriters and broadcasters, the 49ers are the biggest story, week in, week out. The feedback has indicated it, the ratings have indicated it, the passion in the street and on sports talk radio has indicated it. But that trend may be waning.

The team still gets good ratings, but that low-lying grumble you hear is profound discontent. The 49er ``Faithful'' are losing their faith: faith that the owner wants to win, faith that the front office is fully competent, faith that the 49ers tradition is in good hands.

On Monday we witnessed the ritual purging of the kicker. This is becoming a sad little custom with the 49ers. Dennis Erickson said Owen Pochman would be replaced by Mystery Kicker No. 3.

The 49ers will be on their third kicker of the season, their fourth in 18 games and their ninth in nine years. Despite such frantic turnover, the 49ers might have waited one week too long to fire Pochman.

``We felt he was going to come out of it,'' Erickson said.

This treating of kickers as diaper wipes is part of the breach with the fan base. Everyone -- from my 12-year-old, to my hairdresser, to my mailman -- knows that in this day and age of the NFL, a reliable kicker is mandatory. The margin for error is so small, the playing field so level, that more and more games are won or lost on kicks.

Yet the 49ers' front office does not seem to have grasped this concept.

Now fans are looking at eight more games (the tougher half of the season, it should be noted) with a kicker they can't trust, a wide receiver they don't care about, a gimpy quarterback, and a team that seems to lack leadership. What's to get passionate about?

The 49ers had all the momentum in the world after beating Tampa Bay at home. But that momentum vanished early in Sunday's game.

The 49ers wanted to run and couldn't, and they didn't adjust. They looked like a team that expected to waltz to a victory -- Terry Donahue said as much after the game -- and they weren't prepared when the Cardinals didn't lie down.

``Sometimes you get a false feeling,'' Erickson said.

He was referring to the 49ers' belief they could run the ball. Hey Dennis, fans can relate to that false feeling.

Because the 49ers' front office led the public to believe this team was talented enough to compete with anyone. They were so talented that Steve Mariucci deserved to be fired after his team only won one playoff game and failed to beat the eventual world champions in the second round. They were, apparently, so talented they didn't need a regular kicker.

So either the 49ers' leaders are very poor judges of talent or something has gone dramatically wrong.

So Monday was a tough day, right? Hell to pay? Time to tighten the bolts, nose to the grindstone and all that? On Monday, the 49ers basically had a day off. The players were on their own to come in for treatment and workouts, but no team meeting with the head coach. The atmosphere at the training facility was pretty darn relaxed.

Yes, it's a new 49ers era. Not a good one.

There have been lean years in the past, to be sure. There was 2000, when we all politely averted our eyes because the team had been purged of veterans, salary and any prayer. There was 1999, when the bottom fell out after Steve Young's concussion.

But other than that, you have to go back to the strike-shortened year of 1982, when the 49ers were 3-6, to equal such a miserable start. And before that? You have to return to the dark ages, to the era of no expectations: back to Bill Walsh's first two years when no one expected the 49ers to do anything, for good reason.

Because, for you youngsters in the crowd, it's worth pointing out that the 49ers didn't always rule the sports scene. There was a time when they were highly irrelevant. When you could arrive at a 49ers game and buy tickets with no problem and no advance planning. When the public had no faith in the front office -- can we get a shout out for Joe Thomas?

Twenty-five years ago, you could have set up a television on a Sunday afternoon and no one would have bothered to check the 49ers score. That's the kind of eerie scene I witnessed Sunday, which should have the 49ers very, very concerned.

---

This lady is an idiot! I am working a letter to send to her. I am so PO'd with this column it just makes me puke.

First, I would never go to some elementry school expecting to watch the game, as a niner fan I wouldn't even go!

Second, lack of faith!? Hmmm, I wonder
where that is coming from you stupid hometown writter, you freaking horse!!!? Also, the "faithful" are not losing their faith, I am still here!

Third, Niner dominance in the bay area?! Where the hell have you been the last 10 years?! Go into any sports bars on a sunday and try and get them to switch the Raider or Green Bay (yes GB!) to the Niner game on the big screen!? Obviously not! You even state that wee sucked in 99 and 00, what, you can't even look at the facts!!?? Since it is obviouse the only thing you know about football is how to look up records!!

Fourth, the Niners have never had a kicker worth a damn so why is this year any different! Yes, "ritual purging of a kicker" because they all freakin' deserve it! Give me Elam or "Automatica" (either one) I don't care, I just hate losing!

Fifth

quote: Now fans are looking at eight more games (the tougher half of the season, it should be noted) with a kicker they can't trust, a wide receiver they don't care about, a gimpy quarterback, and a team that seems to lack leadership

Now, you are an idiot. Did you just not say we got rid of the kicker! And, in case you don't trust your own words, we did! We love Owens, we just wished he loved us back, and one more crack on Garcia and I will come down there and romp you!

quote: So either the 49ers' leaders are very poor judges of talent or something has gone dramatically wrong.

Sizth, quit ripping on the front office and then coming around and saying something like this. You don't know so you are just whinning! Guess what, honey, Chemistry is needed amongst the talent to make a team, and that is something that can't be gauged by a scout... But one thing is for sure Mooch needed to go!

quote: Twenty-five years ago, you could have set up a television on a Sunday afternoon and no one would have bothered to check the 49ers score. That's the kind of eerie scene I witnessed Sunday, which should have the 49ers very, very concerned.

At your stupid Elementry school!!!!

---

Sorry, I just hate to see hometown writters who know nothing about sports ripping on a hometown team so harshly. There are many things wrong with the Niners, but she didn't even get near to the problem... It is the same problem that is hurting the Raiders (but let's not talk about them, o-k)...

I meant this to be a thread ripping on women writters on men's sports. Got any rants, fire away!

	29-10-2003 02:48									#2
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The 49ers suck. I prefer a California team which is a true winner... the San Diego CHARGERS! Ok, so they're not exactly winners but the fans who go to Chargers' games are much more down to Earth then the wine & Cheese Faux fans the 49ers have.

	29-10-2003 02:50									#3
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Jesus H. Christ, Japher.
You're beginning to write like Michael.
If you could get a penny a word, your grandchildren could live off the money.

	29-10-2003 02:52									#4
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Most of that was the article.

Oerdin: I went to the Niner/TB game and had no chees and no wine... though I got some whine from the stupid yuppies sitting in front of me who could stand us screaming!

	29-10-2003 02:59									#5
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True fans, bah.
Chicago Bears fans who brave the cold, wind, rain, snow with almost no hope that there team is going to win. (unless they're playing Detroit)

One game I was at, a few years ago, the guy next to me went to drink his beer only to find it frozen. When he joked about it, and I told him it's his own fault for not drinking it fast enough.

	29-10-2003 03:06									#6
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Da Bears? Da Bears died with Walter.


The 49ers started out as a spin-off of the Cowboys.
Mirrored in almost all ways, under coach, oh crap.
RAH/Ming moment. I've gone blank.
For some reason all I can think of is Steve Spurrier.
Oh, man. John Brody. He was the QB, right?
This is grim.

	29-10-2003 03:17									#7
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Choose one

ALBERT, Frank C
ATKINS, Bill
CHRISTIANSEN, Jack
CLARK, Monte
ERICKSON, Dennis
HICKEY, W., Howard
MARIUCCI, Steve
MCCULLEY, Pete
MEYER, Ken
NOLAN, ****
O’CONNOR, Fred
SEIFERT, George
SHAW, Lawrence
STRADER, Norman P

	29-10-2003 03:21									#8
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I've always wondered what was wrong with Chicago sports fans. I mean the Bears and the Cubs both suck; totally, totally suck, yet, the fans fill the stands each game. They come knowing their team is destined to lose and that the weather is going to give them pneumonia yet these poor dumb bastards still come any way.

I can understand such blind devotion for some fans in Nebraska or Oklahoma where there is simply nothing else to do besides go and watch the local team lose but Chicago is a major city and I assume there are all the attractions and diversions one expects to find in a major city. What gives?

	29-10-2003 03:21									#9
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Nolan! Right! Oh, thank you so much.
I'll behave myself the rest of the week.

	29-10-2003 03:23									#10
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Bucky Shaw was the first Niner coach...

	29-10-2003 03:28									#11
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As I said, Oerdin, TRUE FANS. We don't wait to jump on the bandwagon, we're already there, riding it off the cliff, year after year after year. We're not fair weather fans, we're just stupid, but we're true fans.

	29-10-2003 03:28									#12
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quote: Originally posted by Japher Bucky Shaw was the first Niner coach...

Lawrence to you.

	29-10-2003 03:29									#13
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That's ok.
I'm talking about when Nolan was coaching.
A Landry protege. Former assistant coach with Cowboys that moved on.

	29-10-2003 03:30									#14
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okay Mr. Andy Rooney

	29-10-2003 03:31									#15
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Lawrence to YOU, stupid Bears fan.

Obviously I wasn't around when Shaw was, so I'll just call him Mr. Shaw... (my cousin's nick is Bucky, everyone calls him that... My uncle started calling him that because of Mr. Shaw and families loyalty to the Niners)... Sucks to love sheity teams (I like the Dodgers too)..

	29-10-2003 03:39									#16
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stupid bears fan is redundent.

	29-10-2003 03:46									#17
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Is high school football any draw in your locales?

	29-10-2003 03:54									#18
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HS Football

It's huge in the San Jauquin Valley... Since Pat Hill started coaching Fresno State it has even gotten bigger. When the NCAA scheduled Friday night games the whole town when beserk...

Around here, San Jose, it is still big... De La Salle is huge, hasn't lost a game in over 10 years or something crazy like that. They have their little sports cast on Sundays... Not prime time like in Fresno though. Maybe because there are sever division I teams in the area that hog the attention (Stanford, Berkley, and SJSU)

	29-10-2003 04:28									#19
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quote: Originally posted by Japher HS Football It's huge in the San Jauquin Valley... Since Pat Hill started coaching Fresno State it has even gotten bigger. When the NCAA scheduled Friday night games the whole town when beserk... Around here, San Jose, it is still big... De La Salle is huge, hasn't lost a game in over 10 years or something crazy like that. They have their little sports cast on Sundays... Not prime time like in Fresno though. Maybe because there are sever division I teams in the area that hog the attention (Stanford, Berkley, and SJSU)

De La Salle was on ESPN 2 last Friday night, also.

Playing a team from Loiusiana.

ACK!

	29-10-2003 04:31									#20
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The author of the article is 100% correct. The future of the Niners is VERY much in the dark. They have horrible kicking (and Japher, they did have decent kicking the last few years) and a front office that TOTALLY screwed up by firing Mooch (as is apparent). Also their star player is a loudmouthed *******. Hell, even Moss has become a team player while Owens continues to drop 2-3 easy catches per game.

	29-10-2003 07:31									#21
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quote: Originally posted by Japher I meant this to be a thread ripping on women writters on men's sports.

If I don't, will this little island of hatred and ignorance wither away into nothingness?

	29-10-2003 07:45									#22
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the bay area has crap high school football. i was in pac coast division when i played and that was for crap teams like san mateo high school (how i miss her).