Giants vs. 49ers: What the San Francisco 49ers' Improbable Run Means

No matter what happens this afternoon at Candlestick Park, the San Francisco 49ers have had a successful season. This had been an organization that represented what it meant to lack the necessary structure and talent to succeed. 

Prior to their amazing victory last Saturday against the New Orleans Saints, this franchise had not been to the playoffs since 2002. During that nine-year span they went through five coaches and failed to finish over .500 each season. 

The organizational structure was in shambles. John York took over for his brother-in-law, Eddie Debartolo, as family struggles loomed atop it. No headway was being made in terms of finding a new stadium in San Francisco, or elsewhere for that matter. A continual spattering of horrible draft picks plagued the front office, and a fan base was growing tired of losing. 

After all, this is a franchise that had been the most successful in the league the 22 years prior to 2003. Now, it was left in the doldrums of the NFL and in the cellar of their division.

Last season hit an all-time low. San Francisco came into 2010 with high expectations as many national media pundits declared them favorites to win the NFC West. What ensued was five consecutive losses to start the season and another season with lofty expectations destroyed by bad personnel decisions, worse coaching and even worse yet performance on the football field. Mike Singletary was fired prior to their final regular season game.

Enter into the equation Trent Baalke, who took over the general manager job and immediately got to work looking to bring in a top-tier head coach. After what seemed like weeks of wrangling, Baalke got his man in Jim Harbaugh.

Collegiate head coaches don't often succeed at the next level, and the 49ers front office was fully aware of this. However, they had an understanding, rightfully so, that Harbaugh would be different. That lockout handicapped them a great deal. Their new head coach wouldn't be able to work with his players closely and "Camp Alex" became an overriding theme of the offseason that wasn't.

Still, through great personnel decisions and trust in certain players, Harbaugh was able to instill into a talented team the confidence that they needed in order to succeed. Following what seemed like a disastrous preseason, San Francisco took off immediately under their new leader.

They would go on to win nine of their first 10 games and become the first team in the NFL to clinch their division. Still, this wasn't enough for the San Francisco 49ers. They had so much more to prove. "Who's got it better than us?" became the company motto as a previously disheartened team base stood up and fought tooth and nail to prove that they belonged with the elite teams in the league.

Alex Smith had an amazing under-the-radar regular season as the 49ers cruised to a 13-3 record and the No. 2 seed in the ultra-competitive NFC. With hard-nosed defense, a solid running game and mistake-free football the 49ers were out to prove that they were not a "one-hit wonder."

Then came last week's stunning come-from-behind victory over the New Orleans Saints, a team that had as much playoff experience as any in the NFL. San Francisco, with just one player remaining on their roster from the 2002 playoff team, stood toe-to-toe with a team that had just won the Super Bowl two seasons prior.

It was in this that we fully understood that San Francisco was here and here to stay. Still, that wasn't enough. Smith and Vernon Davis showed a previously downtrodden fan base, and the rest of the NFL for that matter, that they were going to stand in line with the greatest playoff performers in the heralded history of this franchise. Echoes of Joe Montana, Dwight Clark and Jerry Rice reverberated throughout Candlestick park.

In the end, San Francisco came out on top in one of the greatest playoff finishes in the recent history of the league. This was a moment only matched by the 1981 NFC Championship Game.

The parallels don't end there. The San Francisco 49ers of 30 years ago were too a downtrodden franchise facing "America's Team." They had a young head coach from Stanford with something to prove. They also had a quarterback with something to prove. See, Joe Montana wasn't entirely happy falling to the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft. When the 1981 season came to an end, San Francisco sat atop the football world. 

Thirty years later this new breed of San Francisco 49ers players have a chance to repeat what many of you are too young to remember—to prove the world wrong, ignite a city and return a heralded franchise back to prominence. 

Not matter what happens this afternoon, the 49ers season has been a success. But, they won't see it that way. This is a team, an organization and a fan base that fully understands the history that it can make. While this actually might be the worst San Francisco 49ers team that you will see over the course of the next five seasons, they have proven themselves to be, once again, elite.