It's been over 10 days since the last Webzone exclusive article went up and if there was any more clear indication that things are bad in the 49er football world, I dare you to find me one.
We all do this truly for the love of writing and the love to the team. Neither source of motivation has made much of a muse for any of us so far this year and it doesn't look like things are getting better anytime soon. If you look up, you'll see where we smashed through rock bottom roughly 2 weeks ago. If you look down, you see precisely where we're headed and there's truly no end in sight.
The end of the 2010 season was, for me personally, the worst time in my near 30 year history as a fan of this team. Not only were they bad on the field, it seemed like the front office had virtually no clue of how to right the ship. The word "rudderless" was being thrown around a lot and it was truly a moment (before you-know-who arrived) where hope seemed to be a stupid thing to have. The team was deep in a culture of losing and nobody had any idea on how to turn it around.
This is worse.
6 years later we're right back in the same spot, only this time with less talent! The pre-Harbaugh teams were losers, to be sure, but they at least had some truly admirable figures playing on Sundays. Frank Gore, Patrick Willis, Justin Smith and more were all clearly talented if not elite players, they just couldn't put it all together for a winning season.
The best we have now is an oft-injured NaVorro Bowman who is a long-shot at best to ever return to form and certainly has no more than a season or two left in his body even if he can get healthy again. The rest? Mostly hot garbage. Some young guys that are wholly unproven, some guys that should be backups, and some guys that should be teaching gym about now.
I almost wish the 3 playoff years under Harbaugh never happened at this point. Closing my eyes and seeing Frank Gore getting tackled just a few yards shy of the Super Bowl decorated end zone is like reliving a nightmare that dragged on for an entire offseason. Watching Harbaugh predictably and immediately have success with Michigan has been akin to watching your high-school sweetheart get married and have kids with the guy across town. Set against the background of a 1-6 season that's rapidly getting worse makes it all the more intolerable and the absolute cherry on top is the "owner" going mute, accepting zero accountability, nor admitting any mistake in his operation of the team.
It would almost be better if they just kept on sucking since 2010. This would be the 13th season of no playoffs and we'd either be used to it by now or long since stopped caring. Maybe Jed's seat would be getting a little hotter, Baalke would be gone, and they'd probably still be playing in Candlestick (decrepit as it may have been, I think many would love to have it back now).
Which makes me ask the question, at this point, why am I still even a fan of this organization? All but 9 players from the last Super Bowl team are gone. There is zero connection to the style of play or coaching lineage of the past. There is clearly a sub-par product on the field, and the team plays in a stadium with nothing but bad memories and zero recognition of the past.
The only connection between this team and the San Francisco 49er teams I fell in love with long ago is the blood in Jed York's veins and the uniforms. The Uni's look great (not sure about the all-black kits just yet), but I wish all of the bad things in life upon Jed York for what he's done to this franchise.
Yet, I'm still hopelessly connected to this team. I planted my flag long ago and I shall never raise another one. I want them to win when I know they won't. I want things to work out when I know they can't. I hope that something dramatic happens to pull this team out of its death spiral but I cannot even begin to imagine what that will be.
The 49ers will get pasted by the Saints, no doubt about it. Banners will likely be flying over the stadium calling for some combination of York and Baalke's removal. Fans will be littering the red seats and likely be over shouted by their visiting counterparts and I will be watching and swearing from my couch for reasons I don't fully understand.
This is the 49er fan's living reality, and it sucks.