Random thoughts from a fan - Jed vs. Eddie

Tomorrow is my birthday; 35 years young...this hiring of Jim Harbaugh, well, I consider it quite an early birthday present!

Anyways, I scoured the forum for a comparable thread and couldn't find it, so here goes a new one. Mods, if it needs to be merged, please do. I'll apologize in advance for this long post.

Like many other fans, I've been particularly intrigued by the Jim Harbaugh/Bill Walsh angle. But as I expand my perspective to the last 30+ years, I'm finding an uncanny resemblance between Eddie D's first few years as the team owner/president and Jed York's start as team president.

I purchased a book for my dad's birthday when I was in high school written by a San Jose Mercury columnist detailing the rise and prominence of the team during the 1980's. I don't remember the book's name, but it was all red, and it had a picture of John Taylor, Joe Montana, and Randy Cross on the front celebrating JT's game-winning catch in Super Bowl XXIII.

The book pointed out how well before the Bill Walsh hiring, Eddie DeBartolo's first few years as the owner was an absolute disaster (sound familiar?). He was 30 years old when introduced as the new owner; the media constantly made fun of his age (one reporter mocked him claiming that the team was a birthday present for him from his dad). Fans spit on him at home games.

And his hires weren't exactly awe-inspiring either: Joe Thomas as GM who fired Monte Clark after a winning season in '76 and promptly hired forgettable coaches like Ken Meyer and Pete McCulley. Randy Cross had this quote from the book: "I ran a veer and option at UCLA to Monte Clark's offense to Ken Meyer's offense to God-knows-what before Bill Walsh came along."

I know we're looking at 30+ years of history here, but the run between 1976 through 1978 are eerily familiar to the last several years around here. Just god-awful football (please tell me...what kind of offense have we really been running around here?) and football decisions. Yes, we blame John and Denise York, but Jed has also been to blame.

DeBartolo eventually had to clean house by firing Joe Thomas and his next hire ended up being the 47 year old Bill Walsh. Jed's short tenure as team president has been strangely familiar with his uncle's first few years: poor decisions, unnecessary bravado, and a lot of growing up in the process (we hope). And in that process, he's cleaned house, like his uncle, and hired a very bright offensive mind from Stanford with plenty of NFL coaching upside.

Like DeBartolo getting rid of the Joe Thomas era by hiring Walsh, and I hope the Harbaugh hire clears us of the John and Denise York/Terry Donahue/Dennis Erickson/Mike Nolan/Mike Singletary/Scot McCloughan era. What an absolute disaster. What the heck have we been putting on the field these past several years?

Will the next few seasons finally bring us back full circle to the glory days and the place where this franchise ought to be? Time will only tell. If history repeats itself, then yes...we can only hope.

[ Edited by HailJerry on Jan 8, 2011 at 22:57:07 ]

It should be interesting. I never realized that Eddie DeBartolo was about Jed's age when he inherited the team.

I understand everyone's feelings though. It's tough to watch your franchise's front office be so... weak... right now. You can only hope that Jed does indeed improve as Eddie did so many years ago.

The parallels to Walsh are so similar though. Eddie DeBartolo was desperate back then and, from I understand, impulsively hired Walsh, and got lucky. It turns out Walsh was the architect that the franchise was needing. I don't know how McVay came into the picture though.

Watching Jed right now is interesting. It sucks having to go through his growing pains as an owner, but as fans... the only thing we can really do is hope and show our approval/disapproval.

It's much better than it was back in the days of Donahue/Erickson. The Yorks didn't seem to care about the franchise. With Jed here, we know that he cares. Now he just needs to demonstrate his competence for us to have faith in him like we had faith in Eddie.

Nice post. You pointed out Eddie hired 47 year old BW from Stanford, and guess what? Jed hired 47 year old Harbaugh from Stanford. I know its just a coincidence, but if it all works out in the end as it should, I will be the first to point out that it was all meant to be.

Good post.

I have a feeling history will repeat. Like you say, it already has in many respects.








P.S. I'm glad you know what a paragraph is. That's rare around here.

Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Originally posted by foreign49er:
Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Yup. I'm so f**king mad that I was never around for those years. I wasn't even a fan for the years we had Mooch, Garcia and TO.

I became a fan in f**king 2004, when we were 2-14.

nice thread
i hope that your comparisons become reality real soon. i'd like to be done with Jeds' growing pains.

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by foreign49er:
Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Yup. I'm so f**king mad that I was never around for those years. I wasn't even a fan for the years we had Mooch, Garcia and TO.

I became a fan in f**king 2004, when we were 2-14.

if that pisses you off, then you'll be really jealous if I told you how many legendary games I've been to in the 80's and 90's.

Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by foreign49er:
Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Yup. I'm so f**king mad that I was never around for those years. I wasn't even a fan for the years we had Mooch, Garcia and TO.

I became a fan in f**king 2004, when we were 2-14.

if that pisses you off, then you'll be really jealous if I told you how many legendary games I've been to in the 80's and 90's.

lol.

Well, hopefully history repeats itself and we will BOTH have legendary games to go to in the future.

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by foreign49er:
Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Yup. I'm so f**king mad that I was never around for those years. I wasn't even a fan for the years we had Mooch, Garcia and TO.

I became a fan in f**king 2004, when we were 2-14.

Hey at least we beat we Cards twice in OT that year

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by foreign49er:
Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Yup. I'm so f**king mad that I was never around for those years. I wasn't even a fan for the years we had Mooch, Garcia and TO.

I became a fan in f**king 2004, when we were 2-14.

if that pisses you off, then you'll be really jealous if I told you how many legendary games I've been to in the 80's and 90's.

lol.

Well, hopefully history repeats itself and we will BOTH have legendary games to go to in the future.

[ Edited by AXEGRINDER on Jan 9, 2011 at 00:09:51 ]

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by foreign49er:
Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Yup. I'm so f**king mad that I was never around for those years. I wasn't even a fan for the years we had Mooch, Garcia and TO.

I became a fan in f**king 2004, when we were 2-14.

I am impressed. How does one become a fan of a 2-14 team?

But yes. I hope we turn things around, so you can finally be a fan of a winning football franchise.

Originally posted by zeppfan1:

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by foreign49er:
Very good observation, especially for those of us who weren't around for those times.

Yup. I'm so f**king mad that I was never around for those years. I wasn't even a fan for the years we had Mooch, Garcia and TO.

I became a fan in f**king 2004, when we were 2-14.

Hey at least we beat we Cards twice in OT that year

Haha. The first game I saw that season was the game we came from behind to beat AZ at home. That game was f**king awesome.

We were down 28-12 in the 4th, and Tim Rattay led the team back for a win. Lloyd made a diving game winner in the endzone. Rattay threw for over 400 and Eric Johnson had like 14 catches. I remember seeing this and instantly becoming a fan, lol. Then I saw our record......

I know its weird how I remember all this, but I'm sure everyone remembers their first Niner game.

Time will tell if they have the right structure or not. The HC hire is better than the last 3. But it doesn't guarantee winning. And lots of other parts of the front office and player personnel are at work in our possible future success.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
Time will tell if they have the right structure or not. The HC hire is better than the last 3. But it doesn't guarantee winning. And lots of other parts of the front office and player personnel are at work in our possible future success.

I agree that time will tell. But for the first time in a decade, I think it's safe to say that the franchise has a viable plan going forward because the right pieces of the foundation are being laid down. There are still lots of other pieces that are needed, but the right ones are in place.

Jed, like Eddie, will need to also learn how to weather the impending storms. Walsh had this great line about perspective in that book I mentioned. One of the PR guys wanted to get him to lay out his goals for the future. Championships? Super Bowl run? Walsh's response? "Respectability."

At the time, the team was so devoid of talent, he knew that making a claim of going to the Super Bowl in n number of years would be ludicrous. Said Walsh: "It's like saying you're going to go to New York, but you haven't even made through Donner Pass yet. Let's make it through Donner Pass, and then we'll have something to talk about."

That said, this team is significantly more talented at key positions than Walsh's 1979 team. We have Frank Gore. Walsh had a broken-down O. J. Ugh...hopefully our return to respectability and eventual dominance will be quick.