Niner schedule a joke again

Truth of 49ers 2002 schedule is as transparent as the NFL, the media, and 49ers themselves

September 26, 2002 (NHS) -- The 49ers went 12-4 last season with the talent of a 6-10 club at best, and as usual, public opinion isn't marveling at the usual luck, circumstances and NFC West factors that went into the artificially inflated success. Instead, the pro football community seems to have decided that the 49ers are Just That Good and so-called experts are once again commonly and nonchalantly declaring them "elite".

And while we are cognizant of the rational voices out there saying, "Yeah, but that's just the nature of the Bandwagon, the idiot 49er fans and media," we would be remiss if we didn't remind you that one of the biggest 49er fans has been, and continues to be, the NFL itself.

The NFL has turned the other cheek on many a 49er transgression in a system of light slaps on the wrist whenever the cuddly franchise, to put it bluntly, cheated -- ranging from a minuscule fine when Eddie paid an illegal playoff bonus to the sham of a penalty for the salary cap fraud fiasco. For years, we thought we were the only ones who thought there is something wrong with the NFL giving one team more favorable treatment than any other team. Thankfully, Realteam.com came along (may it rest in peace), and gave some insight to those in football actually angry about it, too. If not for Realteam.com, the NFL might not have even made the token effort of punishing the 49ers for their salary cap cheating at all.

But if anyone's ever doubted the preferential treatment status the NFL affords the 49ers, or wondering if it's still ongoing, look no further than this year's schedule. In the old days, things were bad enough considering the lack of any opposition in the NFC West and the fact that during their "best ever" 1980s, the 49ers played a minimum of 4 games (25%) of their schedule against last place teams (2 against the worst of the NFC West, and 1 each against the bottom-feeder of the other two NFC divisions, to fill in for the NFC West having only four teams). Now, with realignment and a new schedule system, if you thought things might get better, take a look at some of the NFL's great scheduling wisdom:

The Schedule Problem

The 49ers kicked off the first game of the season, the American Bowl in Japan, the first preseason game of the year.
They had a Monday Night Football appearance in the preseason.
They kicked off the very first game of the actual season against the Giants. This first game of the season is a prime-time Thursday night game on ESPN.
After this first game, the 49ers are home for a month, including a bye week. This is the most difficult part of their schedule, yet it is all at home, with the bye to give them extra time to prepare for the Rams.
The 49ers have 3 Monday Night Football games during the season. One is against new division patsy Seattle. Another seemingly tough matchup against the Eagles is, of course, at home. The MNF game at the Rams appears like a tough blow to the 49ers schedule, but it is the final game of the season when no doubt the playoff picture will already have been decided, so may be meaningless.
The 49ers have a Saturday game against new division patsy Arizona.

What this adds up to is 4 games (3 MNF plus the Saturday joke), or 25% of their season, when the 49ers will be the only NFL game being broadcast to the entire nation.

Now add the two times in preseason when the 49ers were featured in the American Bowl and Monday Night Football, and that makes 6 times being the only NFL game being broadcast to the entire nation.

Then add the completely unique ESPN game against the mediocre Giants to start the season on a Thursday night, in prime-time, instead of the usual Sunday -- something never before done in the history of the NFL -- and that makes 7 times that the 49ers are the only NFL game being broadcast to the entire nation.

Don't forget the 49ers being featured in the inaugural game in the preseason, and then book-ending the regular season in the very first game and the final game of the regular season on MNF.

At this point, one has to wonder, why stop there? Why not ask NBC to dump Notre Dame and become the Official 49ers Channel and just cut out the pretense altogether?

Make no mistake, this is not just some accidental quirk of scheduling. There is no doubt of the concerted effort going on behind the scenes at the NFL to promote the 49ers. And this doesn't even mention all the times when the 49ers will surely be the FOX or CBS featured "game of the week" on your typical Sunday.

Perhaps the most obvious proof that something's rotten is the outrageous ESPN Thursday prime time start to the season. Every other football season in history has always started on the weekend, but ESPN was able to successfully lobby the NFL to capture all of America in one special first game. As part of the deal, do you really think that Niner-lover Chris Berman and his cronies at ESPN didn't demand the NFL schedule include the guarantee for the Niners to appear?

To sum up the situation, the 49ers are poised to be the most watched football team of the year. Period. Not because they have the most or best fans. Not because they are the best or most exciting team to watch. And certainly not because people will be choosing to out of their own free will among other equally televised choices.

No, it will be because the NFL schedule makers and ESPN favor the 49ers more than any other team and want to shove them down ignorant Joe Public's throat.

The Reason

It's time to ask yourself: why is the product that is the 49ers being thrown in the face of viewers more than any other? The Rams were the most exciting team. Dallas is America's team. Raiders fans are more loyal. The Pats won the Super Bowl. There are many better choices than the sickening, wussy Merlot & Cheddar. So what's the deal?

The answer should be obvious. The NFL and the media loves the Niners because no other team has a bigger Bandwagon, and bigger Bandwagon means bigger money.

The 49ers are a bland fast-food that is palatable to the widest range of people. People want to see a lot of 2-yard completions, not a lot of high-risk incomplete or intercepted deep passes or tough running games. People don't mind the pathetic 49ers defense because that just means more exciting scoring. The NFL drools over the demographics of the 49ers which it sees as younger and hipper from the coolest place in the country. More casual (read: ignorant) nonfans are more likely to watch football if the 49ers are on, simply because no other team is as much about hype over substance. Putting the 49ers on gives Berman and John Madden something to talk about as "the best ever". The NFL and media crave to capture more women, and there's no bigger percentage of women fans rooting for the Niners, many who unfortunately do so simply for the love of the image, dating back to their pretty boy Joe Montana and Roger Craig in his underwear, taking away from the legitimacy of the real women fans of other teams.

In short, more Bandwagon means more bodies in front of the TV which means more money for the NFL and ESPN. And that's the bottom line of football today.

The Effect

Naturally, there is going to be a contingent of people who nod and just say, "So the Niners are unfairly the most hyped team. So what?" Well, the import is that the ESPN-NFL-49ers connection cannot be underestimated when predicting the chances of the 49ers this year. Big money and big media has always been a huge factor in the success of the team dating back to when DeBartolo's syndicate took over. It's no coincidence that was the only consistent period of time when the 49ers were successful.

The point is that off field advantage, even in something as intangible as hype, translates into an advantage on the field for the Niners. The fact of the 49ers' preferential treatment should be, and is, galling to legitimate football fans, and this year is perhaps worse than ever. You might have to go back to 1994 to find a similar confluence of the NFL, big money and big media trying to force the 49ers into the championship spotlight (when it was rumored that Nike made an under-the-table agreement to evade the salary cap and get Deion Sanders onto the team -- the only way the overrated weenie-armed Steve Young could possibly get a championship).

The Spin

This article could end right here and the legitimate fan, the person interested in fair treatment for all teams, should be sufficiently outraged. Oh, but it doesn't end here, because if you understand the 49ers, you know that what truly separates the 49er Problem from any other is the sickening way the 49ers, their fans and the media react in such situations.

Do they count their blessings? Do they admit it is complete B.S. in order to appease the sense of injustice? Do they at least graciously accept the gift of being the featured team and acknowledge the benefits received? Do they have an ounce of integrity or intelligence? No. They actually complain about it.

"The 49ers were forced participants in the NFL's awful and insidious plan to sell team merchandise across the globe," whined the S.F. Chronicle when the 49ers lost after being featured in the prime-time American Bowl to start off the football year. Yes, it is awful that the 49ers could market their crap directly to the Japanese market, making thousands of dollars of profit while indoctrinating them to their pathetic wussy style of play. Insidious even.

What about being awarded the maximum Monday Night Football appearances? GM Terry Donahue sobbed that all the prime time appearances just "put more pressure" on the team.

And let's not forget the ages-old "we have to travel too much because of our schedule" whine. Steve Mariucci and the press still blubber about the days of "having to cross the Mississippi" in trips to Charlotte and Atlanta (conveniently leaving out that these trips were to NFC West sheep and gift wins).

The Niners ended the preseason with a predictable romp over lifeless San Diego, which prompted the ESPN headline, "Banged-up Niners muster up convincing win over Chargers". Yes, that's right -- the 49ers are so injured they've lost exactly zero of their starters -- but ESPN will still have you believe they are suffering through tragedy unlike all the other teams in the NFL that never get injured at all. And the gist of the AP story covering the game? No other team in history has ever had a harder preseason, yet the courageous Niners still beat the great Chargers instead of just quitting, as they should have in the face of so much adversity.

To conclude things, the Chronicle also ran a story entitled, "Mariucci wants less preseason" where it was discussed that "dissidents like Mariucci" wished there were less preseason games. "Mariucci said the topic has been broached at owners' meetings, but his viewpoint often is met with the same result: You can't fight City Hall. Because of a TV contract and season-ticket issues, the league office wants football on the schedule from August through January, and is inflexible on that point."

So you see? Even though the 49ers appear no less than 5 times as the only game on nationwide television, plus 2 more prime-time nationwide games in the preseason, and so on and so forth thanks to the blessings of the NFL, the only real story for the media to report is how hard this is for the poor 49ers and how good ol' Mooch is leading the good fight against the big bad NFL all for the benefit of you, the common fan.

If you aren't unbelievably galled by this, then you'll never understand the 49er Problem.

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