Some thoughts that have been brewing for a few months.
I have been a 49er fan since probably 1980. I started watching football that year with my dad toward the end of the season. The 49ers weren't very good that year, but that was okay. It was still fun to watch. Little did I know at the time that next season would begin a true sports dynasty. You couldn't ask for better timing. Maybe that spoiled me in terms of expectations, but I'm not so sure. I think I am actually pretty realistic in terms of my expectations.
"Expectations" is in interesting word when it comes to a sports team. Over the past year, to say that my "expectations" have not been met is a gross understatement. I am bitterly disappointed in the team. Not because they had a bad season, but because of the way they have conducted themselves during this time. I was a pretty big fan of Harbaugh. And while I realize that he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, I think he was good for the team. And I think he had complete buy-in from his players. And then management cut his legs out from under him.
Last season was horrible. It is not so much the losses. That's the way it goes in sports. They (and other teams that I like) have had bad seasons. A HUGE part of that is just the fact that the team was practically the walking dead in terms of the number of injuries to such a number of starters and backups. I don't ever recall seeing so many team members sidelined for so much of the season. But that is what it is. The other major factor was that the players seemed apathetic. For a team playing under Harbaugh, that is...bewildering. He simply does not tolerate that. But now we know: Management was making it impossible for him and he knew from the beginning of the season that this was almost certainly going to be his last season here. So rightly or wrongly, he wasn't all-in, and his players weren't either.
Then you have the way management dealt with player misconduct and other issues. They constantly stated that they were a team that wanted to "win with class." But their actions consistently belied that statement.
All the way through, I feel that management has been shady, has lied, and has basically thumbed their noses at the fans. Yeah, an NFL team is a business, and team ownership/management has no obligation to do things just because it will please some fans--even a large segment of the fans. But when you go so far as to begin alienating the fans, you do so at your own risk. I am a completely alienated fan.
For whatever reason, I was thinking about the 49ers yesterday morning when I got up and started getting ready for work. I was thinking about how bitter, disinterested, and alienated I feel as a fan. I have no interest in rooting for them this year. Jed York said in an interview a few months ago that he wanted the fans to hold him accountable for the decisions he makes. The interviewer, to his credit, pounced on that and said something along the lines of, "That sounds great in theory, but what does it actually mean? How are the fans supposed to hold you accountable if you conduct the team in a way that they disapprove of? Are you going to refund all their tickets? Buy them free beers at the stadium? What? What does that look like?" He had no answer.
I was thinking about that yesterday morning and asked myself just what I planned on doing this season. I basically arrived at this conclusion: I can't bring myself to actively root against them. Not when they have players like Frank Gore, Anquan Boldin, Patrick Willis, and Vernon Davis, who I really admire a great deal. Despite how sick I am over the way the front office has conducted itself, I can't root against guys like those as long as they are playing for the team. But I have no interest in rooting for that team right now either.
And then I got the news just a few minutes later that Gore and Willis were off the table. Is that management's fault? Maybe not directly. Guys retire or move on to other teams all the time. That is even true of guys who are the kind of cornerstone players that Gore and Willis are. But while I can't begin to know their motives, I do know that for those types of cornerstone players, and for players that have exhibited the kind of character that those two have, it is unusual to voluntarily move on if there is player buy-in that their team is still trying to build something worthwhile. I don't think there is any confidence in the locker room whatsoever that that is the case. But even if I am wrong about that, the fact still remains that two of the four reasons I had to root for this team in the face of PLENTY of reasons to not root for them are now gone.
Where does that leave me? Not sure. But I really cannot consider myself a 49er fan at this point. I am a fan of a few remaining players. And I am a fan of the memories I have. But the front office has poisoned this team for me by the way they have conducted themselves since taking over. As with a lot of other fans, when they brought Harbaugh in and began paying lip service to "higher standards" and "turning things around," I was willing to buy in and forgive a lot of their prior conduct. But they have again revealed who they really are, and I can't get behind and be a fan of that. I can't literally hold them "accountable" as York suggested. But I'm not interested in buying what they are selling. And I'm finding a new team to get behind as a result.
Topic: NFL Thread 2015 v. Please make deflategate posts in the thread named for it (Read 252953 times)