Everyone loved Eddie D because he was a passionate free-spender who knew his players personally. But aside from his heart, he almost hurt the team just as much as he helped, it seems.
From 1979-1997, pretty much our entire dynasty, our GM's were Bill Walsh, John McVay, and Carmen Policy. Walsh was the mastermind behind the WCO and drafting our HOF players like Montana, Rice, Lott, Craig, trading for Young, etc. McVay and Policy were the guys who prevented Eddie D from firing Bill Walsh over petty BS. About 12 times, according to Policy. Eddie couldn't control his temper. Had they not been in place, Eddie D would've collapsed the entire thing early on by punting Walsh.
Then Eddie gets busted in the riverboat BS, and gets the team taken away. He and his family pushed Carmen Policy out, and have erased him out of team history. Not one mention of his name in the 49ers museum.
Immediately after Eddie D gets suspended, Policy is forced out, and Youngs career ends on the Aeneas Williams hit in the late 90's, the team is handed over to his incompetent sister and her dorky husband. Eddie D then chooses his family business over the 49ers, and lets his sister keep the team, even after he's reinstated.
Since then, the bumbling DeBartolo York's hired Terry Donahue as GM, fired Steve Mariucci, hired Dennis Erickson, and hired Mike Nolan as HC (and gave him ultimate power). They turn the team over to their idiotic, spoiled kid Jed, and he fires Jim Harbaugh and lets Trent Baalke and Paraag screw everything up.
If you remove the contributions by the HOF caliber coaches, execs, and their players, who ran this football team since 1979, the DeBartolo/York family has really played a major role in derailing everything the franchise became.
Eddie D was instrumental, but ultimately his temper, shady business practices, and petty behavior threw our franchise well off the tracks of being a consistently great and well run machine like the Steelers/Packers/Giants. After he was through with his part, he pretty much gave up on us, and turned us over to his totally incompetent relatives.
So do you think that Eddie D gets enough blame for what we have become? The nostalgia seems to get him nothing but love from the fans.
What if he took the team back after reinstatement, and buried the hatchet with Policy? Theres no way the Terry Donahue/Dennis Erickson era ever happens, and with it the downfall of the franchise.
No. it was because I masturbated prior to the playoff games against the Falcons in 1999 and the Bucs in 2003.