49ers Clubhouse

San Francisco Chronicle

Honeymoon will be exceptionally short

February 12, 2003

Ray Ratto
The last man to hold this job without the burden of ridiculous expectations was Fred O'Connor, and that was 25 years ago.
Thus, you shouldn't feel sorry for Dennis Erickson. He long ago lost any romantic illusions about the business, probably somewhere between Miami and Seattle.
More than that, he's taken jobs under every conceivable circumstance -- teams in the hinterlands (Idaho, Wyoming, Washington State, Oregon State), bad teams (Washington State, Oregon State), great teams (Miami), teams with ambitions (Seattle), teams with ridiculous ambitions (Miami), teams in ownership flux (Seattle), teams with difficult/cranky media (Miami, Seattle) and teams with hard-to-satisfy fans (all of the above, except Oregon State).
Thus, it is wrong to say that Dennis Erickson has no idea what awaits him in San Francisco. In 21 years of head coaching, he's seen plenty.
Just not this much plenty.
He is now working for a meddlesome owner (John York) who can hear a C-note hit the grass. He is working for a general manager (Terry Donahue) who so far has proven mostly that he knows what he doesn't like (Steve Mariucci). He works in the same building with a staff legend (Bill Walsh) whose influence has diminished but has not yet been expunged. He will be working with players who liked the old coach and have been suspicious of this change since it began four weeks ago.
Plus, there are the media snots who consider every loss to be proof of mental deficiency, cowardice and a condemnation of character. Plus, there are the fans who think the media snots are too soft on the 49ers.
So what we have here, then, is a job that looks difficult but is in fact much worse.
Even after we all stop laughing at the screwy way the 49ers went about hiring him, and after we slap ourselves wondering what made York agree to twice as much salary as he meant to pay, we are left with a coach with not enough shoulder room for all the people looking over it.
If it were simply a matter of appeasing an owner who is growing accustomed to the idea of saying no when the talk turns to money, Erickson could do that. If it was simply easing around the needs of the general manager, Erickson could do that, too. The players, he can manage that, too, although particular selling jobs will have to be done on quarterback Jeff Garcia and performance artist Terrell Owens.
And the fans and media? Easy enough to schmooze into rheumy-eyed inertia. Just ply them with lots of wins and avoid those nettlesome five-touchdown Monday night home losses.
To do it all at once, with a team that finished fifth in the NFC with, coincidentally enough, the fifth-best talent in the NFC, will take every bit of technical, tactical and political skill Erickson has learned in his previous stops.
He certainly is being ordered ("asked" is too gentle a word at these prices) to do more than Walsh, George Seifert or Mariucci ever did, with a situation as fluid as it is volatile.
The 49ers are no longer the gold standard for NFL teams, locked as they are at the low end of the league's upper third. Donahue's ability to pull a coach out of apparent chaos is one thing, but he now has to show he is more than just a clever infighter who can dance out of the way of the land mines.
Truth is, the rebuild on this team from the depths of Salary Cap Hell has stalled. The offense has performed only in spurts, and lacks wide-receiver depth and offensive line size, and the defense is still at the intriguing but unproven stage. This is, in short, a team that could go either way.
This, though, isn't the paradigm in which the 49ers have inserted Dennis Erickson. They think this team is ready now, which is why they didn't take the chance on Ted Cottrell or Greg Blache. They believe the principal issue is offensive, which is why they didn't take the chance on Jim Mora the Younger.
And they believe this team is close enough, with a bit of tinkering, to pull the 49ers past Tampa Bay, Philadelphia or Atlanta. Hey, it's their dime, and the alternative is more unpleasant than either York or Donahue is prepared to contemplate.
That is why Dennis Erickson is the new coach of this proudly dysfunctional, strangely successful team. Because he seems to them to be more prepared to deal with the metric tonnage about to land on his skull than any of the other candidates.
At least they think so, anyway. Woe betide them all if this turns out to be Fred O'Connor redux.

Tell us what you think on the new 49ers Clubhouse message board.

Ray Ratto

The last man to hold this job without the burden of ridiculous expectations was Fred O'Connor, and that was 25 years ago.

Thus, you shouldn't feel sorry for Dennis Erickson. He long ago lost any romantic illusions about the business, probably somewhere between Miami and Seattle.

More than that, he's taken jobs under every conceivable circumstance -- teams in the hinterlands (Idaho, Wyoming, Washington State, Oregon State), bad teams (Washington State, Oregon State), great teams (Miami), teams with ambitions (Seattle), teams with ridiculous ambitions (Miami), teams in ownership flux (Seattle), teams with difficult/cranky media (Miami, Seattle) and teams with hard-to-satisfy fans (all of the above, except Oregon State).

Thus, it is wrong to say that Dennis Erickson has no idea what awaits him in San Francisco. In 21 years of head coaching, he's seen plenty.

Just not this much plenty.

He is now working for a meddlesome owner (John York) who can hear a C-note hit the grass. He is working for a general manager (Terry Donahue) who so far has proven mostly that he knows what he doesn't like (Steve Mariucci). He works in the same building with a staff legend (Bill Walsh) whose influence has diminished but has not yet been expunged. He will be working with players who liked the old coach and have been suspicious of this change since it began four weeks ago.

Plus, there are the media snots who consider every loss to be proof of mental deficiency, cowardice and a condemnation of character. Plus, there are the fans who think the media snots are too soft on the 49ers.

So what we have here, then, is a job that looks difficult but is in fact much worse.

Even after we all stop laughing at the screwy way the 49ers went about hiring him, and after we slap ourselves wondering what made York agree to twice as much salary as he meant to pay, we are left with a coach with not enough shoulder room for all the people looking over it.

If it were simply a matter of appeasing an owner who is growing accustomed to the idea of saying no when the talk turns to money, Erickson could do that. If it was simply easing around the needs of the general manager, Erickson could do that, too. The players, he can manage that, too, although particular selling jobs will have to be done on quarterback Jeff Garcia and performance artist Terrell Owens.

And the fans and media? Easy enough to schmooze into rheumy-eyed inertia. Just ply them with lots of wins and avoid those nettlesome five-touchdown Monday night home losses.

To do it all at once, with a team that finished fifth in the NFC with, coincidentally enough, the fifth-best talent in the NFC, will take every bit of technical, tactical and political skill Erickson has learned in his previous stops.

He certainly is being ordered ("asked" is too gentle a word at these prices) to do more than Walsh, George Seifert or Mariucci ever did, with a situation as fluid as it is volatile.

The 49ers are no longer the gold standard for NFL teams, locked as they are at the low end of the league's upper third. Donahue's ability to pull a coach out of apparent chaos is one thing, but he now has to show he is more than just a clever infighter who can dance out of the way of the land mines.

Truth is, the rebuild on this team from the depths of Salary Cap Hell has stalled. The offense has performed only in spurts, and lacks wide-receiver depth and offensive line size, and the defense is still at the intriguing but unproven stage. This is, in short, a team that could go either way.

This, though, isn't the paradigm in which the 49ers have inserted Dennis Erickson. They think this team is ready now, which is why they didn't take the chance on Ted Cottrell or Greg Blache. They believe the principal issue is offensive, which is why they didn't take the chance on Jim Mora the Younger.

And they believe this team is close enough, with a bit of tinkering, to pull the 49ers past Tampa Bay, Philadelphia or Atlanta. Hey, it's their dime, and the alternative is more unpleasant than either York or Donahue is prepared to contemplate.

That is why Dennis Erickson is the new coach of this proudly dysfunctional, strangely successful team. Because he seems to them to be more prepared to deal with the metric tonnage about to land on his skull than any of the other candidates.

At least they think so, anyway. Woe betide them all if this turns out to be Fred O'Connor redux.

Tell us what you think on the new 49ers Clubhouse message board.