Texts from Yesterday

The Niners' incompetence on the field and subsequent Singletary firing yesterday fueled a ton of text messages appearing on my BlackBerry through last night. A sampling below, partly to illustrate to the clowns running this organization how fans have been reacting to the latest chapter in 8 years of buffoonery:

10:24 - "Could this team play any stupider?" (in response to a first-quarter text to me wondering if Singletary would get fired after the game)

10:26 - "Are they really this dumb, or coached this poorly? No sign of desperation - doesn't even look like they're trying to win"

10:37 - "F##king joke. How many penalties already?" (I think the answer was six at this point)

10:39 - "Can't even take snaps from center. Not sure why the guy who was a center for the last five years and was the starter going into this year is not the backup" (neither was I - but I gave up following the Niners' offensive line shuffle months ago)

10:40 - "Yeah - fire him at halftime. Under-prepared and outcoached - again."

10:49 - "3rd and 20 draw play to a backup RB. F**k this team - I hope they lose 50-0

11:15 - "I hate to say this but I actually think they'd  be better with Alex Smith today" (my response - "I think its a moot point - they'll lose regardless")

11:16 - "Did I hear correctly that these idiots deferred to start the game, only to give up that td on the first drive?"

11:58 - "I think (Singletary) is leading the league in sideline altercations with QBs. Say hello to Alex. What a f@@king joke - again.

12:45 - "Ok - what's this change (referring to A Smith) supposed to do?" My response - "End the season, likely"

12:46 - "QB controversy!" (from a sarcastic Chargers fan)

12:51 - (following A Smith's fumble) - "Classic end"

1:04 - "I'm pissed at myself because I was rooting for a win. I'm a loser"

1:07 - "See ya Clements, Lawson, both Smiths, Coach Singletary, fatso Jeff Feed, TKO, Shawntae Spencer, the whole D-line." My response - "See ya, season ticketholders. If A Smith was put in for a do or die drive, why didn't he start? F you Singletary, you f@@king idiot." I use the F-word a lot on game day.

1:14 - "Underachieving losers"

4:44 - "Shit day, for sure" (to a Chargers fan)

5:03 - "Singletary fired." (this was the first news I received about this finally happening)

5:39 - "Also heard Baalke will be a GM candidate. Unreal." (my buddy's response - "That makes me sick")

5:44 - "I can name about 5 players that can return. Everybody else should be gone. Except Rathman - they can let him stick around in a "what would Eddie do" advisory capacity and to keep these jokers in line."

9:20 - "Who's Jim Tonsula?" My response: "Dunno - where did you hear the name?"

10:05 - "He's the new head coach. Looked him up - he's the d-line coach"

10:09 - "Good. Love how they picked an even less qualified guy. Was the waterboy too busy?"

10:10 - "They were going to hire Walsh until they found out he was dead"

10:11 - "I guess that takes Joe Thomas out of the running for GM"

10:14 - "Maybe they can get Red Hickey to install the shotgun offense"

10:20 - "Figure they have about 45 days to impress ticketholders before the 2011 invoice is sent. Good luck a$$holes"

10:23 - "Remember when we cared about this kind of stuff? I so f@@king don't care about the next f@@kup they'l make."

10:24 - "Hope they fire those stupid idiots in Niner Noise, too."

Adios, Singletary

Well, Lil' Jed did the expected (albeit a week early) and kicked Singletary to the curb, naming the defensive line coach (I'm not even bothering to look up his name) as the interim head coach. Aside from joining the likes of the immortal Pete O'Connor and Ken Meyer in the media guide list of former head coaches, Singletary's name will be nothing more than a footnote that the franchise will be eager to begin forgetting.

It was painful watching the game against the Rams this morning. In a "must win" situation, the team looked completely incompetent and flat during the first quarter. By the time Singletary and Smith (Troy) were caught arguing on the sidelines, it was obvious that, once again, the 49ers were outcoached and underprepared. When Smith (Alex) entered the game, all I could think was "if this is the quarterback that was picked to lead a do-or-die drive at the end of a do-or-die game, WHY IN THE HELL WASN'T HE NAMED THE STARTER?"

What a perfect ending to an imperfect season of missed opportunities, blown expectations and wasted money.

So the question is, can the 49ers make any head coach/GM hiring that would compel me to renew my tickets? A Gruden/Holmgren pairing would warrant consideration, but I'll still pass. As I've said many times this year, plenty of tickets WILL be available.

Good riddance to an awful season (and organization).

Enough with the 7-9 Whining

I love how the media is outraged that a 7-9 team could potentially win the awful NFC West. Most pundits are saying that if a team with a losing record participates in the postseason, the league should change the playoff seeding rules, because it would be unfair for a 11 or 12-win (wild card) team to play on the road while a vastly inferior team gets to stay home and host a first-round game.

What a load of crap.

First of all, none of the local Bay Area media who are flapping their jaws about this on KNBR and in the Chronicle and Mercury should even be concerned with this scenario, because IF a 7-9 team wins the NFC West, it sure as hell isn't going to be your beloved 49ers, who haven't won a road game on this continent all year - and that includes a putrid loss at Carolina. Anybody who thinks the 49ers are going to win in St. Louis on Sunday has not been watching this team's pratfalls every time they put on their road uniforms and wet the bed in opponents' stadiums.

The 49ers needed a career day from Troy Smith (by the way, it would be nice to know our starting quarterback will be this week - any day now, Singletary) to eke out an overtime victory over the Rams at home. I don't like the chances of history repeating itself in whatever they call that dome this Sunday. The Niners stink. They will lose. End of story, end of year, end of Singletary, end of The Smiths.

Secondly, if the league has a problem with the overall quality of the NFC West, they only have themselves to blame. I was perfectly happy with the old-school NFC West, consisting of the Niners, Rams, Falcons and Saints. I didn't ask for the league to import the Seahawks from the AFC and toss in the Cardinals from the NFC East cellar to replace the Falcons and Saints (who currently have 12 and 10 wins, respectively). The Seahawks will always remind me of meaningless preseason matchups and mediocrity. The Cardinals, despite the league's attempts to the force the issue by cramming them down our throats in prime-time matchups every year, will NEVER be a rival.

If the old NFC West alignment was still in place, we'd be looking at a dogfight between the defending Super Bowl champs and a dominant Falcons team for the divisional title while the 49ers and Rams would simply be afterthoughts playing out the string. But that's not the case. The NFC West suffered more upheaval and loss than any other division in the league during the realignment.

You asked for it, you got it. Quit your whining.

Christmas Came Early This Year

Imagine my surprise when I received an email this morning from StubHub alerting me that my tickets for the January 2 finale against the Cardinals have been sold - for above face value, no less! I have no idea who would pay top dollar to watch this game, but there's a sucker born every minute...

Even if the game were to determine the "winner" of the NFC West, there's no way I would drag myself to Candlestick to watch this contest. And, if the 49ers manage to embarass the NFL by becoming the first team with a losing record to make a postseason appearance, I'll just pick up tickets for the playoff game during that week. I know there are many, many 49ers ticketholders who aren't picking up their postseason ticket options (including me), so I'm sure the team will be desperate to unload their unsold inventory to avoid a potential blackout.

It Started Way Back in 2003....

I used to write articles for a site called "I Hate Kickers" (.com). One of my regular features was the "Dumbass Of The Week" - you can bet many 49ers started receiving this honor once the franchise lost direction by firing Mariucci and beginning their current streak of non-winning seasons. This article was published towards the end of the first season in the Terry Donahue-Dennis Erickson duo of suckitude resulted in a 7-9 record and exclusion from the postseason. Apologies in advance for the dated references...


When the 49ers dumped Steve Mariucci last January, many eyebrows were raised.  Mariucci had guided the team to a remarkable turnaround following two years of salary-cap hell.  The 49ers had just won their first division title since 1997 and had rallied from a 24-point deficit to stun the Giants in the playoffs before getting shelled by the eventual Super Bowl champs the following week in Tampa.

Apparently, de facto team owner John York and GM Terry Donahue were unhappy that Mariucci had made himself available for other job opportunities, most notably at Notre Dame and Tampa Bay during the previous offseason.  York and Donahue even went so far as to say Mariucci’s dismissal was not performance related, thus giving the impression that they really couldn’t stand the guy.  Mooch’s strained relationship with star wide receiver/diva Terrell Owens didn’t help matters, either.

Immediately, rumors started flying in the Bay Area about who Mooch’s successor would be.  Dennis Green, who coached under Bill Walsh during the eighties, was the first name mentioned.  Niner fans began dreaming of Green coming back to town and opening up the 49er offense, which many felt had been hamstrung by Mariucci’s conservative approach.  York would have none of that, however, due to concerns about sexual misconduct allegations against Green while he was coaching the Vikings.

Other names began to crop up on fans’ wish lists: Bob Stoopes, Bill Parcells, even Jimmy Johnson.  Still, the 49ers made no effort to meet with these well-respected coaches.  Time began to drag on.  Parcells joined the Cowboys.  Marvin Lewis finally got his shot in Cincy.  Even Mariucci landed on his feet in Detroit.  But the 49ers were still without a head coach after talking to the likes of Greg Blache, Monte Kiffin, Rick Neuheisel and Jim Mora Jr.  What were they waiting for?  What stroke of genius from the Niner front office would raise the spirits of the Faithful?

And then, it happened.  Out of the blue, without any warning, the 49ers announced that their new head coach was…Dennis Erickson. 

Dennis Erickson?  The same guy who skipped out on Washington State when the University of Miami came calling?  The same guy who left the out-of-control Hurricanes football program amid a wake of NCAA violations in order to take the Seahawks’ head coaching gig?  The same guy who led the Seahawks to a sub-.500 record before being released without a postseason appearance?  The same guy who ended up back in the college ranks in the Pac 10’s waste bin, Oregon State?  Yep, that guy.

Instead of writing a blank check to a proven commodity like Parcells, Green or Johnson, instead of promoting from within, instead of grabbing an up-and-coming talent from another team, York and co. picked a low-priced NFL retread from the “Good Ol’ Boy” network.  The media was miffed; fans were pissed.  This was the once-proud San Francisco 49ers, after all, and not the Jacksonville Jaguars.  This wasn’t they way Eddie D. ran the show during the team’s run of five Super Bowl victories.  The fact that the 49ers were retaining their offensive and defensive coordinators was a red flag to all who were hoping for a fresh start with a strong-willed head coach.

At his first press conference, Erickson promised to open up the offense, even hinting at empty backfields and formations with five wideouts.  “Okay,” Niner Fan said on local radiowaves, “we’ll give this guy a chance.  Maybe he didn’t catch any breaks in Seattle.  Maybe he’s learned from his past experiences.”  But privately, everybody who followed the team knew that the 49ers had downgraded and were fuming that York and Donahue never had a plan for replacing the well-liked Mariucci when they canned him a month earlier. 

Less than 10 months later the Niners’ 2003 season has been filled with disappointment.  A woeful kicking game, repeated tirades by Terrell Owens, a quarterback controversy, ineffective game plans, a winless road record and a general lack of discipline and heart have been among the lowlights as San Francisco stumbles towards the finish line.  Last Sunday’s 44-6 drubbing by the Ravens, led by third-string quarterback Anthony Wright, effectively ended the 49ers’ postseason chances before the month of December began.

There are plenty of people to blame for this debacle of a season in San Francisco, including many of the players on the field.  Even Erickson has admitted that the fault has to be placed at the top, as he pointed out during the aftermath of last Sunday’s performance.  Erickson, of course, was referring to himself, but that’s not enough for me.  After all, Erickson is what he is – a mediocre NFL head coach.  Everybody knew that before the 49ers had opened training camp.

I’m bestowing this week’s award to the two architects of the shitpile that has been the 2003 49ers: Terry Donahue and John York.  Along with the trophy, I’m going to pass along a bit of advice to these gentlemen who are both in way over their heads.

To Terry Donahue: call Bill Walsh.  Do whatever he tells you to do, even if he asks you to step aside and let him get the franchise back on track.

To John York: stop running the franchise as a business.  It’s not.  It’s a football team.  If you can’t handle that, sell the 49ers to the group Steve Young and Brent Jones have assembled.  You’ll make your money and Niner Fan will never have to hear from you again.

And finally, a word of advice to Niner fans: always remember, no matter how low the 49ers sink to the depths of the league’s also-rans, you were able to enjoy one of the greatest dynasties in professional sports.  Just think – it could be much worse – you could be Charger fans.

December 2010

I sent this letter off earlier today following another nationally-televised embarassment as the 49ers wet the bed against a far superior opponent (which is basically anybody outside of the NFC West). This was BEFORE I found out that these clowns had the audacity to send postseason invoices (due within 10 days) to all season ticketholders...

Dear 49ers Organization,

Well, that was another awful performance in front of a national audience. No, I'm not talking about how the Chargers crushed the 49ers' fading playoff "aspirations" (don't forget you've guaranteed a postseason appearance this year) during an embarassing display of defensive, offensive and special teams ineptitude.

I'm talking about Coach Singletary, he of the "I want winners" double-speak while continuously mistaking San Francisco circa 2010 with Chicago circa 1985. And this latest debacle happened before kickoff to the aforementioned debacle at Qualcomm Stadium, during his pregame interview on NFL Network.

According to Coach, he doesn't care about anybody outside of the 53 men in the locker room. We already knew of his disdain for the media - all you need to do is tune in to a few minutes of his unlistenable weekly show on KNBR (an exercise which is slightly less painful than piercing my eardrums with dull pencils). I guess you could ask Dennis O'Donnell at KPIX as well.

Apparently, Coach Sing doesn't give a rat's behind about the fans, either. He was quite adamant about only caring about his players, excluding anybody outside of the protected cocoon of the locker room from his consideration. You'd think he might be a bit more humble and think about who he's really coaching for - and that would be the fans. Without the fans, this organization (and league) is NOTHING. And yet, your head coach, desperately clinging to his job, cannot acknowledge those of us that continue to write checks to support this team season after season after season.

Arrogance - that's the best word I can use to describe Singletary's actions, as well as the actions of this entire organization. It was arrogance that led this team to fire Steve Mariucci and bring in buffoons like Terry Donahue, Dennis Erickson and Mike Nolan to run the show while tossing Jeff Garcia to the curb after three 3 Pro Bowl appearances - and NEVER admitting that you didn't have a plan in place to replace Mariucci and Garcia. You could have signed them both up for another tour of duty following the 2008 season and I have no doubt that they would have produced better results than Singletary and "The Smiths" have given us.

This arrogance has resulted in an unprecedented run of 8 straight non-winning seasons, quite a feat considering how much of the team's past was littered with awful years prior to their Super Bowl run in 1981. The same arrogance that permeates throughout 4949 Centennial Blvd. has clouded your judgement by thinking that ticket price hikes (including yet ANOTHER one next year) are a fair calibration of the market rate for a day watching an NFL team in an NFL stadium. Well, guess what? You're closer to a UFL team than an NFL team these days, and Candlestick hasn't resembled an NFL-quality stadium since your current team president was in grade school.

I don't know how this offseason will progress following your expected elimination from playoff contention, but anything less than a complete house cleaning and the hiring of a head coach and general manager that have proven they can be successful in this league will assure a 2011 filled with local TV blackouts, a greatly reduced season ticket base and general indifference to your product as Bay Area sports fans devote their discretionary income to the Giants, a team with a beautiful stadium that has proven it can win both on the field and off.

Regardless, I "guarantee" I'll renew my season tickets just like you've "guaranteed" playoff appearances and a new stadium.

In other words, don't count on it.

November 2010

I sent this letter when I found out that the organization was planning to raise ticket prices for 2011, despite showing no signs of competence on the field...

I just read an article in the Chronicle stating that you are looking at increasing ticket prices - AGAIN - for next season. And yet, amazingly, you are still trying to sell discounted tickets for the remainder of this year's contests. All of this despite the fact that you haven't put a winning team on the field for EIGHT SEASONS and the current squad has miserably failed to live up to all of your preseason hype, bluster and hyperbole. You talk a big game, but you haven't backed it up ONCE. The current regime is run by hypocrites who have lost all credibility by never following through on ANYTHING.

My family has been going to games since Kezar. I'm the third generation to sit (and pay) for our two season tickets in LR 20. Mark my words - if you raise the ticket prices ONE CENT next year, that will be final proof that you have nothing but disdain for your customers and I will be done with your organization. You should be ashamed to even consider raising prices for a substandard product. Has anybody in this organization ever taken a business or marketing class?

Unbelievable. Just when I think the 49ers have reached rock bottom, they somehow manage to dig another mile deeper into the Earth's core.

PS - I'm still waiting for my playoff invoice - didn't you "guarantee" the 49ers would make the postseason?

September 2010

Season-openers always bring such optimism, which is usually tempered by the time I deal with the stadium hassle to find a parking stall and completely destroyed by the time the 49ers trudge into their locker rooms with another halftime deficit...

Hello,

I'm a long-time ticketholder and appreciate your efforts to make the gameday Candlestick experience as good as it can be, considering the stadium is an antiquated facility limping along on its last legs well past its life expectancy.

The past couple of seasons, the organization has implemented a number of policies, all designed for us to be "good fans," including asking us to wear silly ticket lanyards, entering the stadium 75 minutes(!) prior to kickoff and the ability to alert security about "bad fans" via text. To this point, I've followed these rules when required, and casually ignored them when I can (like the lanyards). I know you want to control the gameday experience as much as possible, but passive-agressive campaigns like Coach Sing telling us how much he likes the color red in the stadium during pregame warmups and imploring us to fill the stands with our red colors to ensure that we're purchasing our 6 dollar hotdogs and 10 dollar beers at your concession stands an hour prior to kickoff tend to be insulting to ticketholders who were able to successfully file in to the stadium mere minutes before kickoff during the Super Bowl era.

With that in mind, I have a couple of requests that could make the gameday experience more enjoyable for FANS, as opposed to making things more convenient (or cost-effective) for the organization.

1) Hire more security at the entrance gates and make the stadium entry process quicker. This is a YOU problem and fans shouldn't be required to wait in long lines more than an hour prior to kickoff because you are only staffing a handful of pat-down security personnel at each gate. Last I checked, there were plenty of people looking for work in the Bay Area, and the hourly cost of staffing one yellow-jacketed security officer is roughly the profit margin on a couple of hot dogs and a beer. And if Coach Sing likes the color red so much during pregame warmups, he can stare at the red plastic seats in the upper deck. I'd like to believe Coach Sing has better things to occupy himself with (like how he's going to keep his job beyond this season) than how many people are cheering for David Carr as he plays long-toss with Alex Smith during warmup drills.

2) Enforce your "good fan" standards in the parking lot. Look, I love music as much as the next guy - but there has to be a cap on the noise level from our fans in the lot. Last night, in section Q, we were bombarded with "old skool" jams from a bunch of clowns who set up a PA system - and a deejay in their stall. Despite being at least a dozen stalls away, we could barely hold a conversation without getting blasted in the ears with LL Cool J, Michael Jackson and Prince. This kind of thing happens throughout the lot, and over the past couple of years it has become widespread and unavoidable. I have the common sense and decency to expect that fellow fans don't want to be subjected to my playlist of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, but since my portable iPod speakers are drowned out by all of these doofuses' sound systems, I can't even listen to my own music in the lot. Tailgating at a Niner game doesn't mean I have to listen to 50 Cent's "In the Club" every hour while some hack deejay with a microphone tries to turn the parking lot into a Snoop Dogg video. This parking lot shouldn't be a battle to decide which fan has the loudest stereo while the dividing line between Raider Nation and Niner Empire becomes increasingly blurred.

I hope you take these suggestions and give them some thought. Your prime demographic - guys like me, who have jobs and purchase season tickets and parking passes despite year after year of on-field futility - is becoming increasingly irritated with rules and regulations that don't seem to address anything that enhances our gameday experience. 

January 2008

Following a disastrous 2007 that saw the 49ers fall far short of taking the next step in the weakened NFC West (sound familiar?), the team decided to install Scott McLoughan as GM while retaining head coach Mike Nolan yet relieving him of these personnel duties. Nolan was fired midway through the ensuing season...

I grew up with the 49ers.  Along with holidays and special occasions, Sundays at Candlestick have been family gatherings that have spanned several generations.  Season tickets, dating back to Kezar Stadium, have always been in my household.  For the past ten years, our seats in section 20 have been held in my name.  From these seats, we've witnessed the organization reach the highest of highs through five Super Bowl seasons and countless playoff appearances.  However, we've also witnessed more than our share of disappointments.  Recently, these disappointments have rivaled (and perhaps surpassed) the rock-bottom feeling of despair and league-wide indifference we all shared as fans in the mid-seventies.

Since the dismissal of Steve Mariucci five years ago, the 49ers have floundered on and off the field.  As fans, we are asked to drag ourselves off to the worst venue in North American professional sports to cheer an increasingly clueless and dysfunctional organization.  Along the way, we park in overpriced dirt lots, suffer through unbearable traffic jams and wait in endless lines to enter the stadium and purchase expensive refreshments while the lingering stench of 40 years' worth of spoiled hotdogs and spilled beer assault our senses.  In return, the price of our season tickets (and everything else associated with the gameday experience) continues to escalate.

Perhaps you've heard of the law of diminishing returns.  It is a law that most season ticketholders are all too familiar with these days.

As things stand today, here are my long-term prospects as a ticketholder:

1) The team remains in Candlestick for the foreseeable future while Santa Clara and San Francisco continue to play hot potato with the new stadium's proposed development.  As a reward, I'll receive more of the same that I've outlined above - with prices steadily increasing as the stadium continues its slow descent into the muck and sludge of the bay adjacent to this facility.

2) Somehow, someway, a new state-of-the-art stadium complex is built in the Bay Area.  This stadium will become the new standard-bearer for public sporting facilities.  The gameday experience for 49er fans will be envied by the rest of the league.  Of course, nothing comes without a price.  If ownership has no problem jacking up ticket costs in the current stadium, it is logical to assume that this opportunity won't be lost to ask me to dig deep into my pockets for seat licenses, 'preferred' parking, game tickets and stadium refreshments.  I've already seen a similar phenomenon occur at Pacific Bell Park once the Giants finally exited their previous facilities and have no doubt that it will repeat itself.  After all, we're all made of money here in the Bay Area, right?  How else can we afford to live here?  Of course, if you lived in, say, OHIO, you might not appreciate what it takes to keep your head above water in this neck of the woods.

You see, Catch-22 isn't just Darrell Jackson's offensive production in meaningful games. It's also the predicament season ticketholders now find themselves in.

Earlier this week, the organization made the decision to stick with Mike Nolan while promoting Scott McLoughan to General Manager.  Basically, the message I've received is that the best course of action is to take none.  Although it seems that McLoughan has done a serviceable job in his prior role, leaving Nolan to concentrate on coaching duties is quite puzzling.  Most qualified observers would agree that Nolan's main shortcoming during his tenure has been his inability to manage the team on the field during gameday, and yet management has made this Nolan's main focus.  Quite frankly, I'm not ready for another year of questionable referee challenges, poor clock management, miscommunication between players and coaching staff, bone-headed penalties, nonsensical press conference answers, the 'Zak Keasey/Hanibal Navies Shuffle' and dubious decision-making during crunch time.

The 49ers organization has been largely dependent on the goodwill the team fostered within its fanbase during the eighties and nineties, but there is a breaking point.  The Bay Area is a wonderful place to live, full of vibrant and intelligent people who continue groundbreaking work that defines the way this planet communicates and distributes information.  To 'stay the course' with the current regime is an insult to our senses of value, productivity and accountability.  To do so without any plausible explanation while expecting us to open our checkbooks for another year of futility is foolish and arrogant.

Today, this team should carefully consider the landscape that lies ahead during the next two months.  While season ticketholders watch mediocre NFC teams compete in the postseason, management should be taking steps to ensure that these same people will check the 'renew' box when their invoices arrive in February.  In other words, give us one good reason to give you our money again.  Then give us another.  And another.

Since the 49ers have adopted a 'wait and see' attitude, I'm doing the same. I'm going to wait and see what this team accomplishes before I spend another dime on tickets. I'm going to treat the 49ers just like they've treated me these past few years - as an insignificant pest that gets in my way of doing things.  I've run out of rationalizations without reasoning.  The blackouts are coming, mark my words.  Your time is up.

September 2007

I wrote this letter following the Monday Night opener against the Cardinals - this was the year that Nolan, Smith and co. were going to take the league by storm after finishing strongly in 2006...

Long-time ticketholder here - while I enjoyed seeing the team win the other
night with a minor miracle, the stadium experience left much to be desired.

I shouldn't have to wait in line for over a half hour to get into the
stadium. Amazing that you have so many people working the concession stands
to take my money, but so few outside of the park doing security checks and
getting people into the game.

I'm also disappointed that the Walsh posters were not being handed out at
our exit (lower reserved, section 20) after the game. After all, we are the
folks who are forking over the highest ticket prices for our seats - it was
a bit discouraging to see a bunch of drunken yahoos in Jeff Garcia and
Terrell Owens jerseys waving their posters around while we were stuck in
postgame traffic.

Did I mention the traffic? We were parked in that first auxilliary lot over
by the bridge leading into the stadium. We arrived early enough to be
placed at the bottom of the hill. Imagine our surprise when we were
instructed to wait in line for the exit at the TOP of the hill. After 25
minutes of making no progress whatsoever, I flipped a U-turn and exited out
of the entrance path. Funny how that was an acceptable practice fifteen
years ago when the team was actually winning postseason games, yet now it's
unallowed. Good thing I have an old SUV that I use exclusively for
tailgating - I'll have no qualms in the future about driving through
obstacles that will prevent me from getting home before 1 am, especially
after shelling out 25 bucks for the experience of parking in a dirt lot
during another Candlestick Point windstorm.

I also find it hard to believe that I was able to navigate in and out of the
stadium with relative ease during countless Monday Night, Sunday Night and
NFC Championship games over the past 25 years, yet trying to get into my
seat for opening kickoff for a 7:15 ESPN "B" game was an unorganized hassle
that has left me wondering if a new stadium will only increase the amount of
headaches imposed on the Niner Faithful.

Welcome to Adios, 49ers!

I've started this blog as a forum to post my open letters to the San Francisco 49ers as my dissatisfaction and frustration with the entire organization has increased to the point of cancelling my season tickets for the 2011 season after the seats have been in my family for three generations.

Following the 2002 season, the franchise had reached a crossroads, deciding that regular postseason appearances and Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback play wasn't good enough for the Yorks, or (presumably) the 49ers' fanbase. Steve Mariucci, who had guided the team back into the postseason for two consecutive seasons after losing franchise quarterback Steve Young during the '99 season, was fired and replaced by Dennis Erickson. A year later, under the regime of GM Terry Donahue, Jeff Garcia was shown the door.

While you can make an argument that both of these dismissals may have been the right thing to do, there is no denying that the 49ers had no plan to replace either of these key componnents to their organization. Failing to realize that if you fire a head coach, you better make an upgrade with your subsequent hires, the 49ers began what has been an eight year tailspin into the depths of NFL irrelevance, never attaining a winning record or reaching the postseason since with three head coaches and an endless parade of failed quarterbacks.

I still contend that Mariucci and Garcia could have walked into 49ers headquarters prior to any one of these lost seasons and immediately made the team better, perhaps even winning a few playoff games along the way.

During this time, the 49ers organization has continued to raise season ticket prices despite zero onfield success and the worst gameday stadium experience in the league. Their front office has made bold guarantees and pronouncements, and not a single one has come to fruition.

These are actual letters I've sent over the past few years, chronicling my disgust at the ineptitude this formerly proud franchise has consistently displayed since 2003.