"But Dale, you live only five hours from the Twin Cities, how come the Vikings are not your favorite team?"
I hear you, but when I was a wee little child, I had absolutely NO concept of "home" team. I had and still have a lot of family and friends in the Twin Cities. I remember visiting family all the time down there, I also remember it taking several hours to drive down there, and being a child that seemed like an eternity. So when all my fellow first grader classmates were puzzled that how can you not root for your hometown Vikes, I vividly recall my naive six year old self replying, "The Vikings are not my home team, they are five hours away!" There was also one other little detail...
The first football game I remember watching was the 49ers crushing the Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV, 55-10. When I was that young, I would glue myself in front of the television and watch almost anything on ESPN, and wrestling....that was it. For sports, I used the ridiculous logic that I would always root for the team wearing the white colored jerseys because white was my favorite color back then (it is now black by the way!). It has been years since I saw any footage of Super Bowl XXIV, and I do not even need to run to YouTube to assure you the 49ers wore white jerseys that game. Ever since that very game, I have latched onto the 49ers as my favorite team.
If any of you are wondering, over the last decade I have come around to the whole "home team" thing. The Vikings are my number two football team (what a crushing defeat they had in the playoffs), and I have gotten back into Twins baseball over the last few years, catching quite a few Twins games over the last two years combined than ever before. Also, go Timberwolves!
Regardless, the rest of the 90s were a great time in my youth with Steve Young leading us to many winning seasons in the 90s and the oh-so-great Super Bowl XXIX victory! Then, after several broken ribs and concussions, Mr. Young just could not go on and then came the Jeff Garcia years. Garcia actually had a couple of really good years, and watching the brazenly cocky Terrel Owens provided countless moments for me, but we kept choking in the playoffs. Before we knew it, Mariucci got fired and Dennis Erickson was brought in and brought the teams to new lows in his two years at the helm.
The 2004 Tim Rattay/Ken Dorsey year was atrocious to watch. We went 2-14, and I am not looking this up but recall from memory both of those wins came in overtime, both against the Cardinals, BOTH with a winning score of 31-28. That led to us getting one Alex Smith as the number one pick of the 2005 draft. And from 2005 on, Alex had a confusing ride, 2006 led me to believe we had a solid "rebuilding" year, with legit rebuilding accomplished and we were bound for greatness. But Alex got hurt and rushed back too early in 2007, and over the next four seasons we had a revolving door of temporary QBs, coaches and coordinators leaving me a vastly disappointed Niners fan, with many horrible lows for a majority of the last decade.
Then the 49ers brought in college coaching sensation, Jim Harbaugh as the new coach for 2011. My only memory of him was picking him in the surprisingly enjoyablye NFL Quarterback Club on GameBoy. Whatever Harbaugh did, he lit a fire under the Niners with mostly the same cast as the previous year that got coach Singletary canned. Alex Smith all of a sudden turned into an brilliant, game manager QB and the Niners defense seemed unstoppable! A 13-3 season blew me away, and I kept thinking throughout the season, "there is no way we are this good." I was a rollercoaster of emotions watching the 49ers defeat the Saints in a classic divisional playoff game for the ages. It is probably my best moment at Buffalo Wild Wings, and I do not even recall getting any food there.
Next week however, the 49ers had another too close playoff game against the Giants in the NFC championship game, where the ending unfortunately did not go their way this time in a heartbreaking loss in overtime. I was pissed off for a good two or three days afterwards. I will never forget having to go almost directly to work after the loss to the Giants in no mood to talk to anybody, and at least being mildly comforted by a few sympathetic coworkers when I walked in.
The 2012 season was filled with a little controversy with Harbaugh benching a well playing Smith for Colin Kaepernick after he played surprisingly well against top teams filling in for an injured Smith. It has proved to be the smart move in the long run, because Kaepernick has broken out as both a great passing and sprinting QB, and is unquestionably the future of the franchise.
Last week I watched the 49ers and Packers battle in the divisional playoffs. I had to prep up and wear as much Niners gear as possible. I ordered a much needed new 49ers hat and tshirt, both way overpriced at nflshop.com. I busted out my old, grungy, filthy, partially ripped apart late '90s 49ers Starter coat, and had a 49ers headband on to boot as you can see in the attached picture! I rooted for the Niners with fellow fan and friends Derek and Brooke! I was on edge for the entire game, even the when the 49ers started to run away with it in the third quarter.
Now we have yesterday where the 49ers faced the Falcons in the NFC Conference game. I was relieved the Falcons just barely squeaked by the Seahawks, because they had our number this year, crushing the Niners both times they squared off in the regular season. I got all decked out in Niners gear again and rejoined Derek and Brooke to root on the Niners to the Super Bowl. However, I was devastated and in a bad place when the Falcons pulled out ahead to an early 17-0 lead. I had to make sure to take out my aggression on Twitter. Friend and Seahawks fan John, replied back to me with a little empathy, reminding me as evidence of last week the Falcons are capable of blowing a huge lead.
To my surprise, Kaepernick and company did mount a comeback. Gore got a pair of huge rushing touchdowns, and the tight end that everyone forgot about for the last several weeks, Vernon Davis reminded everyone why he was so awesome coming through with several big catches! Atlanta hung in there until the very end, and for the final hour of that game I was unbelievably nervous and on edge. I was barely sitting down, leaning close to the TV, and for the last couple of minutes I was pacing back and forth, in all likelihood freaking out Derek and his girlfriend in the process! When Matt Ryan threw his final pass as time expired, well short of a touchdown all three us of us jumped up and down in triumph and embraced in a victory hug for the ages! Words cannot describe how happy I was to see the 49ers make it to their first Super Bowl in nearly 20 years. For the next good half hour or so we all were in this state of disbelief and shock, but it felt great!
49ers are Super Bowl bound in two weeks and I have never felt better. If things do not go our way....well please disregard this blog and do not contact me for at least a few days.
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