The brand promise: Exciting, winning football. A hot ticket. A franchise second to none when it came to doing things the right way. Today? None of the above describes this forlorn outfit.
Not so long ago, anything “Forty-Niner” was synonymous with “first-class” and “dynasty”. The smooth-soaring “team of the 80s” has hit the 21st century skids with a loud screech. The decline has been precipitous: from the DeBartolo-owership glory years to the bumbling-stumbling ownership of Dr. John York and his wife, Denise, estranged sister of prior owner Eddie DeBartolo. The team snapshot today: an embattled coach, Mike Nolan, and a franchise eerily reminiscent of the wreckage inherited by Bill Walsh in 1979: no continuity with the glory years of not so long ago, no connection to the many former players who live in the Bay Area today and starred for their teams. A classic study of a brand gone bad. And a promise broken.
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