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November 20, 1998 (NHS) -- "Have you ever heard of the power of the spoken word?" asked 49ers' kicker Wade Richey, "You repeat something enough, you start believing it."
Leave it to a rookie to give away the secret behind the 49ers. The 49er P.R. department knows all-too-well the power of the spoken word and constantly fabricates the image of the 49ers. The media knows the power of the spoken word, too, so they stroke and overrate the 49ers beyond compare. The fans then repeat the spoken word as loudly and ignorantly as possible. The 49ers, their fans and their media form the perfect concerto, repeating the lyrics over and over again: "The 49ers are an elite team, repeat, the 49ers are an elite team, repeat ..." And true to the power of the spoken word, people actually believe it.
Unfortunately, the problem for Richey, the 49ers, their fans and the media is the thing they don't respect: the truth.
While we here at the NHS also understand the power of the spoken word, we don't have millions of dollars and pandering media outlets at our disposal. All we have is the truth and our dedicated membership willing to stand up for what's right. That's what continually frustrates any 49er fan that ventures to this website and why a win for the NHS is worth a thousand hollow bandwagon victories; because it is a win of substance over image. But before you think we're boasting, we realize that the truth is not our sole domain -- we don't think we're geniuses; if fact, the opposite: we think it's so simple that it should be obvious to everyone -- obvious that the 49ers are overrated. They are not elite, they are second-world.
For the second time in three years, a team has knocked the 49ers from their cozy NFC West perch, making life miserable for "the Bay Area". For years, we here at NHS have called the NFC West a bunch of sheep because almost without fail for the past 18 years they've played soft and fuzzy, happily content to roll over and hand the 49ers a free pass to the playoffs. And while we were right all along about the 49ers' true level of talent, we were completely wrong about the Falcons. Not even we knew that Atlanta had it in them to be different. How could we given the recent history of the Sheep?
In the third game of the season, Atlanta visited CandleCom and seemed content to be Sheep, watching the 49ers roll to a 31-0 lead. The Falcons regrouped and cut the score to 31-20, but it was too little, too late. This time around was just about as opposite as it could be, with the Falcons' defense stifling the 49ers all the way until a couple blown plays in the 4th quarter. Atlanta so completely dominated that they never trailed and compiled an amazing nine minute time-of-possession edge.
So what was the big difference? It's no great mystery and it's the same thing we've been saying for years: aggressive, tight man-coverage on defense and overall physical play. The 49ers are a team of finesse. They like to serve up their offense as a lemon meringue pie. All a defense has to do is shove that pie back into their faces. It's the simple concept that has allowed teams like Green Bay to dominate the 49ers.
The West Coast Offense is at its best exploiting soft zones. All logic dictates you disrupt that comfort, yet year after year teams -- most notoriously the NFC West -- abandon all sanity and retreat back to playing soft and passive against the 49ers. What you end up is the stereotypical 49er game over the past 18 years: the 49ers playing their fluff offense against a soft defense; not football, but a pillow fight. Not a physical contest but a watered-down, NFL-sanctioned product. A sight that has Vince Lombardi rolling over in his grave.
That was Atlanta in game three. True to their accustomed role as one of the NFC West sheep, the Falcons sat in a soft zone as teams have done for the past 18 years and, big surprise, watched the 49ers gain over 500 yards. This time around, the Falcons tightened up, played physical, and easily won; also no big surprise. Different strategy, different result. It's not rocket science.
"We knew we could just go out there and smack 'em in the mouth," said Falcons defensive back Ray Buchanan, summing up the entire day.
In sum, the only real lingering mystery is not how did Atlanta romp, but why after 18 years did they actually chose to do something different? Credit has to go to unlikely candidate coach Dan Reeves for helping foster the Falcons' new-found attitude, created by leaders like Buchanan, Cornelius Bennett, former Packer Eugene Robinson and running back Jamal Anderson. There was no small amount of poetic justice at watching Anderson and his mom celebrate touchdown after touchdown with the "Dirty Bird" dance, rankling the feathers of the 49ers and their fans. After all, we've had to stomach the Merton Hanks "Chicken Walk" for far too long. (Of course, in the 49er mentality, the "chicken dance" is somehow classy, but the "dirty bird" is not.)
The Bandwagon, of course, ran for cover in the wake of the embarrassment. Now, it seems hip to criticize the 49ers and the media is capitalizing. ESPN and other such mainstream outlets have finally and begrudgingly moved the 49ers out of their "top five" rankings.
Naturally, we can't really complain too much of the criticisms because they are finally agreeing with us. But the key question to ask is where were they when the 49ers were pretenders at 6-1? Why was NHS the only place willing to point out the truth? In short, once again, what we're are witnessing is the bandwagon effect. It's cool to be down on the 49ers now, but rest assured that after six remaining games against a weak schedule, the media will be back overrating the 49ers and you'll have to turn to NHS for the straight scoop.
So what were the 49ers doing while their bandwagon was emptying? What else? Whining about excuses.
The first thing Kevin Gogan did after the game was laughably whine about the supposed unfair officiating that cost the 49ers the game, but he was pretty much alone. The old 49er-standby -- injuries -- is taking center stage as the Official Excuse of 1998. We've heard injuries explain the poor play of Marquez Pope, Hanks, the entire offensive line, etc., and now, suddenly, Jerry Rice.
That's right, after ten weeks of mum, suddenly that knee injury that Rice had last year is a big factor this season. In fact, according to Rice on Monday following the Falcons game, he's being haunted by "demons and monsters" -- his words to describe his fear of re-injuring the knee.
But wait a minute ... we thought that Rice's knee was not an issue. After all, didn't he have the Greatest Comeback Ever from a knee injury? Didn't that comeback "prove" that he is the greatest player in the history of sports? Sure, some stupid people out there actually tried to link the first and second knee injuries together; they might have happened to the same knee, but the 49ers and their team doctor both said they were unrelated, and the 49ers never lie, right? And given that he works out more than any other person that's ever lived, 25 hours a day, he began this season with the knee feeling "100 percent" (as he said in September before the season started). Now, all of the sudden, we are hearing that the knee is a concern, and that it's "impossible" to come all the way back from a knee injury in a year (as Steve Mariucci's suddenly starting saying this week), and that the guy we've been told over and over again is fearless is afraid. What's the deal?
The deal is that, as Falcons linebacker Cornelius Bennett put it, Rice had "alligator arms a couple times out there" on Sunday, so the 49er Excuse Machine is in full throttle to spin away reality surrounding Rice.
If you've played wide receiver at any level of football, you know "alligator arms" is the biggest insult that can be bestowed upon you. The job of a receiver is to lay themselves on the line by stretching out to full extension to grab any ball within their vicinity. Obviously this puts the receiver in a vulnerable position to take licking from a hovering DB, but that's the receiver's job: leap, extend, take the hit, but make the catch. Take it for the team. It's what separates a tough receiver from a pretender. But as we know, there's no team in Rice, just "I".
On Sunday, Rice had the chance to not only tie the score, but on third and goal with time running out in the half, he could have handed his team a huge momentum boost, tying the score going into the locker room. He decided to save his own ass instead. Instead of reaching out and pulling in the touchdown, he saw an Atlanta defensive back zeroing in to lay a hit on him. He drew his arms into his body, producing the vision of having disproportionately short appendages like an alligator, and the ball dropped to the endzone carpet. He protected himself and sacrificed his team.
Now, if you tell this to the average fan, they won't believe it. Even the ones that saw the play will dismiss it as a one-time occurrence. After all, they've been told over and over that Rice is the greatest receiver ever and is tough and fearless, so what choice do they have but to believe the spoken word? Well, we here at the NHS always put our money with our mouth is, and we examined Rice closely in 1996 before his knee injury. It's laid out for you in painstaking detail in our RiceWatch feature. Check out the Bengals game, for instance, where Rice ducked out of catching the first pass attempted to him to avoid a hit and the ball was intercepted.
The conclusion is simple. No matter what the mainstream wants you to believe, Rice is not tough. His drop in the Falcons game was not some unique event brought about by magical "demons", but merely an extension of his philosophy of avoiding physical contact.
Take heart, 49er fans. Your savior cometh. You may be off the Bandwagon now, but look at that shining ray of hope descending from the heavens! If you shade your eyes, you might just be able to peer through the blinding divine light and see the corporeal form of -- Dave Fiore.
Yes, if there's ever been a better example of the 49er Media Problem, we'd like to hear it. In case you live in the real world and missed it, the S.F. Bay Area media has anointed Fiore god-like status. Headline after headline this week has been devoted to this chump: "Fiore's Return Puts Hope Back on the Line for 49ers", "Fiore's return will be welcomed by 49ers" ... one San Francisco Chronicle article even alluded to him being a "star".
Okay, time out. For the benefit of football fans of real teams out there, we need to explain who this joker is in the likely case they've never heard of him. Fiore is a nondescript, small, injury-prone offensive lineman who went undrafted because of his lack of size and talent and has since hung around the 49ers for a couple years. Even despite the 49ers' lack of any talent whatsoever in the offensive line department, he couldn't catch on, and was even tried out at tight end before being waived. He then had a stint with the Jets, and was cut, of course. But this season, the 49ers blew a 2nd round pick on psycho Jamie Brown, needed a starter, and Fiore was there.
So why is the media tabbing this moron -- a guy with three whole games started in his glorious career -- as the Messiah? It's the same old multiple choice question, with the possible answers being: (a) the media is comprised of ignorant morons; or (b) they have a purposeful, insidious agenda to mold the minds of their readers into believing the 49ers are something they are not. Only one of the two, or both, can explain the continual grind of the 49er spin machine.
In Fiore's case, a couple well-turned cliches and the sentiments of 49ers offensive line coach Bobb McKittrick has the media trumpeting Fiore. According to McKittrick, he never wanted to cut Fiore in 1996 (it was that idiot George Siefert's doing) and just listen to the string of superlatives he used to describe Fiore: "a lot of intensity ... unusual speed, hustle ... unusually strong ... And he's smart." Well, gee, let's reserve a place for him in Canton right now.
Instead of seeing through McKittrick's load of B.S., the media has embraced it. After all, as the Chronicle said, "In September, Dave Fiore was the 49ers' starting left tackle for three consecutive 500-yard games -- the hottest start for any team in NFL history ... The streak ended after Fiore seriously injured his right knee ... and the offense hasn't been the same since."
Yep, their view is that Fiore is so great that his unlucky injury is the sole reason the 49ers offense has struggled, and if not for that injury, the 49ers would have an endless streak of 500+ yard games and be the Best Ever. Chalk up a vote up for choice (a): the media is comprised of ignorant morons.
So Atlanta's left the herd for the time being, but what about the rest of the NFC West Sheep? The Saints visit next Sunday and despite upgrading from the worst quarterback in the NFL, all signs point to a return of the Sheep. Whereas the Falcons looked at the 49ers and realistically concluded the 49ers are nothing more than average, Saints coach Mike Ditka prepared for the matchup by calling the 49ers one of the "top four or five" teams in the "upper echelon in the league." And what does Ditka think of his Saints? "We're down in the 20s somewhere." Translation: "we suck and have no chance of beating the best ever 49ers."
Yes, once again, the good old Sheep mentality coming back to rescue whatever ails the 49ers. Game over before it begins. Of course, this is probably Ditka's technique of firing up his team -- after all, you'd have to be a fool to believe the 49ers are in the upper echelon of the NFL -- but this technique has to be questioned especially right after Atlanta showed how easy it is to intimidate the 49ers by talking the talk all week.
Maybe someone should tell Ditka about the power of the spoken word.
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created: November 20, 1998
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