The 49ers Need To Go Back To The Future
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The road to a Super Bowl championship begins in camp. Several 49ers chose not to participate in live drills at mini-camp this week. That contrasted with what I saw when I attended the 49ers training camp at Sierra College in Rocklin back in 1984.
From Bill Walsh going around on his bicycle to the players searching for whatever shade they could find, Rocklin had some character to it. The players came into town in a foul mood -- not over the heat, they were still boiling over how the 1983 season ended. A loss in the NFC Championship to Washington where the Redskins rode flags to the Super Bowl on three questionable pass interference calls on their final drive. One where Walsh pointed out you can’t call interference on an uncatchable ball, saying, “An eight-foot Celtic couldn’t have caught that pass.” The Raiders then embarrassed Washington in the Super Bowl.
The Niners knew they should have played in that game. 49ers-Raiders for a ring would have been a dream matchup for many but Jerry Markbreit and the back judge had other ideas.
Some Niners were mad about the bogus calls. I hate ref whining, it’s a telltale sign of homers, but in this case, the anger was completely justified. Other Niners were upset that they had come so close to the Super Bowl but didn’t make it.
All of them were determined to make the next Super Bowl and win it. That team came to Rocklin spitting nails. They were furious, they were driven, and they were going to destroy anything in their path.
Fast forward to 2023. A Niner team coming off an NFC Championship is relaxed and resting, some choosing not to participate in drills at all. Yet after losing in Philly, many talked up that they would have won and were denied their chance by bad injury luck.
The Niners 1984 roster was as stacked as this one in 2023, yet ’84 backed up their talk with serious work in camp. They knew what a championship required. 2023 does not, this team hasn’t won a ring. "We’ll be ready when the time comes."
That ’84 team was a woodchipper. A franchise record 18-1. A Super Bowl against “nobody can stop Dan Marino and the Dolphins!” 38-16. At Rocklin, I knew that 49ers team was winning a ring. No one was going to deny them.
2023 is a different time, I get it to a degree, load management, lightswitches, all that. But there’s no replacing passion and focus in football. The ’84 Niners had the mental stamina and burning rage to carry them from camp to a championship.
The current Niners would do well to hop in the DeLorean with Doc and Marty, go back to 1984, and understand what passion and focus can achieve. The Quest for Six isn’t about being in the mix often enough and hoping for some breaks, it’s about seizing destiny by the throat and saying “mine.”
1984 did that, 18-1, and a dominant championship. 2023, you’re up.
