by Monte Poole

AND FOR THEIR next public-relations trick, the 49ers will announce their plan to pull the ears off a cocker spaniel.

Assuming they don't first find a poodle.

Four weeks after their loud, violent and impulsive whacking of head coach Steve Mariucci, the 49ers on Tuesday trampled on the spirits of the three men they had summoned as possible replacements.

Wonder how Ted Cottrell feels now?

Or, for that matter, Greg Blache.

And, to a lesser extent, Jim Mora Jr.

Each was trotted out on a different day last week and introduced as a "finalist" for the position of San Francisco head coach. We learned Tuesday what we might have suspected all along -- Cottrell, Blache and Mora weren't finalists at all.

They were three stooges, designated props whose sole purpose was to convince everyone to look to the right.

While the team went left.

Probably planned to go left all the while.

As the Niners were pushing the stooges out for public display and inspection, diverting the attention of some, making skeptics of many, the increasingly cold, clammy hands of the organization were swapping figures and shuffling papers with Dennis Erickson.

Erickson now leaves Oregon State to accept what once might have been the most exalted coaching position in the league. He's not especially young (55), not especially fresh (his second term as NFL head coach) and not at all someone the 49ers publicized as a "finalist."

Cottrell, Blache and Mora specialize in defense, which is what the Niners led them to believe was their priority in selecting a head coach.

Erickson, for the record, is an offensive specialist.

The Niners interviewed Cottrell and Blache, African-American assistants seeking their first opportunity to become head coach.

They hired Erickson, a white male who in four years as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks never had a winning season and never got his team into the playoffs.

Thus, the 49ers accomplished the diabolical feat of satisfying the NFL's attempt at giving fair consideration to "minority" candidates while perpetuating the spirit of a practice the league claims it is trying to discourage.

As for Mora, well, he satisfied the notion of interviewing at least one in-house candidate.

Clearly, though, it was Cottrell and, to a lesser degree, Blache, who were duped, used, abused, misled, manipulated, insulted and victimized. To paraphrase Malcolm X: They didn't land on the premise of hope; the premise of hope landed on them.

In the case of Cottrell, widely considered the assistant most prepared for a top job, this rejection drops yet another layer of scar tissue on his soul.

It was just last week Cottrell, defensive coordinator for the New York Jets, provided a very colorful description of half of his eight interviews for various head-coaching openings.

"Bullcrap," was the word he used.

This description, Cottrell took pains to add, did not apply to his experience with the 49ers.

Wonder what he thinks now that losing out on this job sends his record tumbling to 0-8?

Cottrell is too smart to say what he really thinks. Same applies to Blache. They accept it with dignity. They have been in the business long enough to know the drill, even if their knowledge of the drill and their adherence to it has not proved supremely beneficial for either of them.

The truly disgraceful thing here is the way the Niners handed Cottrell his own head.

They built up the man's hopes. Brought him back for a second visit. They wasted his time and messed with his head, then undoubtedly offered up one form or other of that classic and painful line:

"Sorry, but we're going to go in another direction."

Criticize, if you will, the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions for neither hiring nor even interviewing a minority. They defied the league, but they hired two coaches -- Bill Parcells and Mariucci -- whose credentials are hard to impugn.

More to the point, the Cowboys and Lions did not play party to a charade. They did not request the Cottrells and Blaches come in to tap-dance for the boss, only to have the boss send them away.

The 49ers, on the other hand, not only scheduled the tap-dancing session but also invited the media in to watch.

That's not just wrong, it's morbid.

The Niners' firing of Mariucci last month reeked of a headless, sightless organization making change because the boss had a tantrum. It is the team's right to dump Mooch. It is the 49ers' shame in executing the dismissal with such colossal arrogance and insensitivity.

The 49ers fan who might have hoped this was just a disturbing blip on the screen, a momentary lapse in the team's established professionalism, now knows better. This is how the New Niners, leaner and meaner, do business.

Whether the blame falls to John York, the owner designate, or general manager Terry Donahue or the unseen hand of consultant Bill Walsh -- we list the suspects in descending order of probability and culpability -- the organization takes another unsightly hit.

Do these people not understand the concept of perception? Are they blind to the value of it? Or are they simply too pompous to care?

We make no predictions about how Erickson will fare in his new position. He has had success in the college game, and the 49ers are hoping he'll be the coach who finally is able to bring it to the pro level.

While we doubt whether Erickson will prove to be an outstanding hire, we know the method by which he was hired stinks likes the hind end of dog.

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