San Francisco NFL Draft Weekend: Living in the Past with Steve Young

(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

As We the 49er Faithful look ahead to this weekend’s NFL draft, it’s easy to feel an overwhelming sense of dread.

Let’s face it, our team hasn’t been “good” since the days when MTV played music videos.

Admittedly, we’ve had our moments of hope—from drafting Frank Gore in 05’ to Singletary turning the ship around somewhat at the end of last season.  But let’s be honest: we haven’t been a playoff caliber team in quite some time.

For most fans, it all starts with the quarterback.  This was a franchise that—from 1981 to 1998—featured two of the greatest field generals who ever lived, running the most potent offense ever conceived.

Even the Garcia/Owens era, in hindsight, looks mighty rosy when one considers what our passing game has since become.  It’s downright hilarious that with one of the league’s best QB/Receiver tandems we still felt so deprived of talent—but for whatever reason, we did.

Such is life as a Niner fan.  We were privileged to bear witness to the miracles of the 80’s and 90’s, but it spoiled the hell out of us to the point where for awhile, anything short of a Super Bowl seemed like a disappointment.

The last five years, however, have given a new sense of perspective to fans throughout the Bay Area.  A wild card berth has never seemed so exciting; people nearly lost it when Kurt Warner came to town.

One thing that often occurs to me is how hard it must have been for Bill Walsh to watch this all go down—to sit idly by as the once proud West Coast offense he built was destroyed by the variety of coaches who have since come up with more "fitting" schemes for our team, or to watch the front office put it’s eggs in the basket of one of the biggest busts in modern NFL history.

The days of Bill Walsh are long gone—and frankly, I’m glad that he doesn’t have to see another season of a mediocre quarterback at the helm.  The man deserves better than that for all he did for us, and I hope that wherever he is there are quarterbacks who can throw deadly accurate 5-10 yard passes on the move and receivers who know their routes like the back of their hand.

One thing’s for sure: such players sure as hell aren’t on the current roster.

So what’s a Niner fan to do?

My answer; forget about the future and focus on the past.  This team could literally cease to exist and we’d still have a plethora of glorious memories locked in our hearts forever.

That may sound defeatist, but it’s the God’s honest truth.  Nothing that happens this weekend or this season will change the past.

If you’re ready to live in the past with me, come take a trip down memory lane as I pay tribute to a 49er legend.  This is a man who still somehow gets short changed in the talks of the glory days, despite in many ways being the finest to ever play his position.

You know who I’m talking about, 49er nation; it’s not Montana Magic.  It’s the guy who followed up Joe Cool’s act—the left handed mormon phenom, Jon Steven Young.

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