49ers 30, Packers 27

Nonfumble viewed by millions, awakens more to the 49er Problem

January 8, 1999 (NHS) -- With 5:00 remaining in the game, NHS Members everywhere swallowed hard. While there's no question that the Packers are overall the better team, their lack of passion on this day was disgusting, and the truth was clear. The 49ers held the lead in a fairly adjudicated contest. Sure, we could say that the whole event was tainted, given that if not for referee help in the Colts game and other incidents along the way, this game should have been at Lambeau Field (and who isn't aware that the 49ers have not beat a winning team on the road for over two years?). Regardless, it looked like for the first time in years -- the first time since anyone could possibly remember -- that the 49ers were going to actually earn a win in a meaningful game. Credit was going to be due, and the NHS was ready to begrudgingly give it.

Then the flailing Packers took the lead. Instead of credit, thoughts now turned to how bad the 49ers must actually be to possibly lose this game given how lifeless and poorly the Packers were playing. Finally, it happened. A Jerry Rice fumble ruled down by the referees, and four plays later, a touchdown pass to Terrell Owens. Game over, with the true winners wondering why the spoils were going to the losers.

While no NHS Member was close enough to the 49ers' celebration to know what really happened, we have a good idea: Owens lay on the ground saying, "Thank you, Jesus." Line Judge Jeff Bergman replied, "You're welcome." Field Judge Keven Mack said, "I believe he was talking to me."

Who knew god's image was that of zebra stripes? After all, it can only be assumed that Owens' repeated libation, "Thank you, Jesus," was directed at referees Bergman and Mack, because if there was any thanks to be had after this game, it was to them. Both saw Jerry Rice fumble during the 49ers' final drive and both refused to make the correct call against the 49ers. First Bergman called it down, then Mack refused to correct him. Instead of the Packers getting the ball and kneeling to end the game, four plays later Owens grabs the supposedly "miracle" game-winner. So much for the fairly adjudicated contest.

Best Ever Catch or Best Ever Hype?

The ensuing media circus following the game was nothing short of hilarious. Talk shows and other tabloid sports outlets like ESPNet buzzed about how the game was one of the greatest ever. Fans and the media were tripping all over themselves to anoint Owens' catch with the standard Bay Area "Best Ever" title, like "The Catch II". And what of the fumble?

As expected, all talk of the Rice fumble was mainly swept under the rug. The attitude of the fans and hosts on the postgame talk shows can be summed up pretty easily: "Hey, it's football, these things happen, those are the breaks of the game." Of course, those "breaks" usually seem to fall the Niners' way, but when they don't, the whining of the 49er fan can be heard across the country.

Lost in all the hoopla was one simple fact: IT WAS A WILD CARD GAME. Getting the proverbial monkey off their backs may have been important to the 49ers, but as usual, the NHS is here to put things in context. It was nothing more than a Wild Card game; it wasn't a divisional playoff, it wasn't a conference championship game, and it sure as heck wasn't the Super Bowl. It pains us to have to dignify such ignorance with a response, but for anyone thinking otherwise, the Owens catch wasn't one of the greatest plays in NFL history, and it wasn't one of the best catches in NFL history, and the Niners' comeback wasn't something "magical". The fact is, once any impartial viewer separates themselves from the hype, they see that the Niners won the game at home on an improbable play following a fortunate break from the officials, and therefore get to advance to the divisional playoffs. Upon further review, there just wasn't a lot of significance here, save for the Niners getting yet another cheesy win over a team that has dominated them.

Naturally, the media would have nothing to do with this silly reality business. Newspaper headlines trumpeted and myriad stories touted the great game and "magical/miracle" comeback the next day. Funny thing was, you generally had to look hard to find any mention of the Rice fumble which lost the game for Green Bay.

No headline alluded to the fumble in Monday's San Jose Mercury, considered by most as the biggest Bandwagon paper in the country (see: the NHS Smooch Scale). When the fumble was discussed, it was with a smug joy. For example, Mercury columnist Mark Purdy described the final drive of the game as "wonderfully chaotic". Yes, wonderful, as in, it was wonderful that the referees didn't call that fumble because the 49ers won.

On one hand, you can't blame the media for finding happiness in such a blown call; there's a theory that such controversy will sell more papers. But with the 49er media it goes way beyond that. Remember, the members of the media are 49er fans, and they honestly enjoy when calls like this go the 49ers' way, because 49er fans have grown accustomed to such incidents. They feel they deserve to win like this because, after all, they are the 49ers. If you can't see the smug indignation behind the 49er media by now, we will never be able to describe it to you. You have to feel it for yourself, or else you'll never get it.

"I felt like I was down."

Continuing to use Mr. Purdy as an example of the media's mentality, he laughably actually attempted to spin the fumble as yet another tribute to Rice's supposed greatness. Jerry Rice "did the best acting job ... he could be an Emmy nominee," said Purdy, "(Following the fumble) Rice made the veteran move. He immediately jumped up, then casually trotted away, as if it were just another catch and tackle."

In other words, we're supposed to believe the call wasn't blown or biased; it was the product of Rice's skill. The funny thing is that Purdy may have been able to dupe people into buying into this crap if not for Rice himself, who after the game steadfastly denied that he fumbled. "I'm sure they're going to go back and review that, and say, 'Hey, it was a fumble.' I felt like I was down."

Yes, the arrogance is appalling. Rice's view is, "I don't have to see the replay, I say it wasn't a fumble, and I'm Jerry Rice. My opinion trumps any sort of technology or reality. If people want to watch the facts unfold on a replay and conclude otherwise, they're wrong, because I felt like I was down, and I'm Jerry Rice, so end of story."

Back to the notion of Rice's acting job, from his own words, it's clear that Rice felt is wasn't a fumble, so when he "casually trotted away", it had nothing to do with acting, but his own mistaken opinion that he was down. Sorry Mr. Purdy, but your continual effort to try and spin more and more greatness to the 49ers and Rice is nothing short of absurd.

Little Sanity Buried Amidst Hype

Amidst the media hype, a tiny voice of sanity came only from, surprisingly, the San Francisco Chronicle. While the rest of the local media was busy gushing over the final play, the Chronicle's Ira Miller deserves credit for penning a story entitled, "Packers' Hopes Fumbled on Noncall". Miller correctly stated, "They said someday a playoff game would be decided by an obviously incorrect call, and someday arrived yesterday."

What is sad is that Miller's lone little local story was better than anything the national media had to offer. For all those who think the 49er Media Problem is simply a local phenomena and all teams get similar treatment, hopefully Monday was an awakening. National media outlets like USA Today and AP News were covering-up the fumble, and the effect trickled-down and made regions outside the Bay Area into pro-49er shills. For example, while the lead item in the New York Times' Bills-Dolphins game story was the missed call on the Andre Reed touchdown, the blown call in the Niner-Packer game was relegated to one line in paragraph 22 of the 26-paragraph Times game story.

This media aftermath had even one of the media's own, Sports Illustrated's Dr. Z, feeling ill. "Of course [Rice] fumbled, and of course the official, line judge Jeff Bergman, who was right on the play, blew it, and of course you have to ask yourself if an obscure official chickened out of making a game-ending call on one of San Francisco's greatest stars in history, in front of a home crowd," wrote Dr. Z.

All in all, the real ramifications of the noncall were swept away in the "best ever catch" hype: because of the official's error, the Niners win, the Packers lose, Rice doesn't have to endure any grief or questioning for his blunder, Steve Mariucci gets to keep his job, Owens gets a chance to redeem himself instead of being dumped into the long offseason, forced to contemplate his myriad dropped passes, and 49er fans take to the streets steeped in ignorant bliss, belching their "best ever" tripe to the chagrin of legitimate football fans everywhere.

Where were the Packers?

The NHS, as a commentator and critic, can look at the facts and correctly declare it was a classic 49er rip-off, a gift win not earned, but given to the 49ers by the officiating. The Packers, however, do not get to enjoy that luxury, lest they be branded as whiners. And rightly so; even given the fumble, you don't allow a 25-yard touchdown pass with three seconds left. Plus, given that the Packers have more talent in Brett Favre's pinky than the entire 49ers team, there was no excuse for them to have allowed the game to have been so close. They should have romped to the point that the standard 49er calls that you have to account for in your game plan wouldn't affect the outcome.

The funny thing about this game was that despite their final touchdown drive that gave them the short-lived lead, the Packers never really seemed like they wanted to win. Their play-calling was dubious at best: the Packers ran the ball in a first-and-20 situation more than once and never got good results. LeRoy Butler, normally a defensive whiz who steps up his game against the Niners, was nowhere to be found, missing the few chances he had to make a big play, and even allowing himself to be plowed by the mediocre Marc Edwards. Reggie White also joined the MIA list, deciding to enter his retirement one game early. Even Favre, normally a fiery competitor who has a knack for improvisation, seemed to lack the spark that had helped the Packers down the Niners in five straight games. At one point Favre, who normally rockets the ball all over the field, chucked an absolute fluttering duck of a pass that was picked off by a waiting DB, a play that had folks wondering if the teams had swapped QBs.

The blame for the lackadaisical performance lands on Mike Holmgren. It's well known that Holmgren has no hatred towards the 49ers; rather, the opposite is true -- he's a Bay Area guy who loves the 49ers. The fact that he quit and signed a deal with Seattle just days after this game is clear evidence that Holmgren's head was somewhere else.

With a lack of animosity and nothing to prove after five straight wins over his former team, the Walrus was absent any motivation to bring his attention to this game instead of his finally achieving his goal of landing a GM job. The team was obviously stifled by the lack of imaginative offensive schemes throughout the game. After all, rarely did Favre use play action or the standard bootleg, plays which should have worked well considering how strongly Dorsey Levens was running the ball.

Taking the cake, of course, was allowing Owens to get between five defenders on the final touchdown play. Such a mistake is so unforgivable that the Pack didn't deserve to win regardless of the missed fumble call.

The I in Rice continues

With the 49ers and the rest of the Bay Area on Cloud 9 following the "best ever" game, leave it to Jerry Rice to once again show his true colors. On Tuesday, he blew up at San Francisco Chronicle columnist Glenn Dickey, who had the unmitigated gall to write a column suggesting that the Niners trade Rice while he still has a sliver of value left. Rice laid an obscenity-laced verbal tirade into Dickey when the writer entered the locker room to interview another player. Mr. Best Ever was so loud, his role-model language could be heard from outside the building. Finally, Dickey had to be escorted into 49er headquarters, where Mariucci found himself cleaning up yet another mess from his "classy" star receiver. No word as to whether Rice then joined J.J. Stokes for a lunchtime chuckle about how classy it is to throw temper tantrums at reporters.

The Legacy

Yes, it was sickening to see all the "Faithful" show up Monday all around the Bay Area decked out in their 49er gear that looked suspiciously unworn. Yes, it is sickening knowing that this game will be cranked out by NFL Films as the Greatest Game Ever. After all, if Steve Sabol called a run by Garrison Hearst in a meaningless regular season game as The Greatest Run of All-Time, it's a given that the-catch-that-never-should-have-been will be anointed as holy and worshiped.

On the other hand, it's reached the point where the media risks backlash. With the advent of the Internet, the anti-49er view can no longer be censored. Millions of people saw the replay in broad daylight, so undoubtedly many understand the truth of this game and have been awakened to the 49er Problem. When this game ultimately is mentioned, they have to seriously wonder if they are playing to the ignorant football audience of ten years ago that's ready to buy into all the 49er hype or an educated audience that knows the truth.

When all is said and done, long after every Bandwagoner forgets their joy, every effect will be great for 49er-Haters. The team is going nowhere this season, and this "win" does nothing but screw up any legitimate off-season moves the 49ers may have had in the works. Any chance of Holmgren going to San Francisco is officially dead as the overrated Mariucci has earned his right to stay in the minds of the Bandwagoners. Already millions over the salary cap, the 49ers are going to have a tougher time convincing Owens to participate in the standard 49er contract shenanigans. Maybe he'll start thinking he deserves more money than Rice (and the way Rice is playing and whining, who can argue he doesn't?). And speaking of Mr. Class Act, as discussed above, the rise of Owens wholly feeds into our wishes of watching Rice's career die in shame.

In conclusion, let them have this hollow victory, because really, what is a referee-tainted Bandwagon victory worth? Behind the hype you'll find reality; the lack of joy, the pathetic lack of substance, the emptiness that will always define the 49ers, their fans and the media.

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