Today is anniversary day for the 49ers. Fifteen years ago today they won their last Super Bowl. Did any of us ever, in our wildest, think they wouldn’t be back for 15 YEARS????
No. Of course not. Back then we were spoiled. A bad season meant losing to Dallas in the championship game. An unthinkable season meant getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Not making the playoffs for SEVEN SEASONS?? Never entered anyone’s mind back then.
This anniversary is a special day for me.
I was at that Super Bowl. No big deal normally – right? After all, I had covered the team for six years. But the difference with that season was that I was pregnant through it, giving birth to my daughter on Dec. 29th. I was on my couch, infant in arms, when Steve Young beat Dallas and did his victory lap around Candlestick. Within hours, my phone rang and my editor was asking if I thought I could make it to the Super Bowl.
Sure, I said. It’ll take some maneuvering but I’m game.
I bought a ticket to the game. I got an extra press pass from the NFL offices. Those two pathways of entry meant that my husband could bring my baby to me in the press box. My in-laws watched our son, and off we went to Miami: Mom, Dad and infant. We even made it to Leigh Steinberg’s big pre-Super Bowl party.
At the game, my hubby and baby sat in the stands (even infants need a ticket or a pass to get into any NFL game). At halftime, they came to the press box to get me and I went out to the luxury suite area to nurse the baby (having to fight our way past Tom Arnold at one point). Since this wasn’t normal sportswriter behavior – then or now- word circulated in the press box and my unusual halftime activity even made the early notebooks of some East Coast papers.
In the final minutes of the game, Mike Silver and I somehow ended up on the field (strictly forbidden) and watched Steve Young and Jerry Rice film their Disneyland commercial and celebrate like crazy. Later on, when I was walking through the 49ers locker room, I ran into George Seifert. He was still soaked with champagne and looking blissful – after all this was the biggest moment of his career. This was really HIS Super Bowl, not Bill’s. I said “Congratulations George!” He looked at me with a big smile and said, “Congratulations to you! How’s your baby?”
That’s what normal people do in real life. But I must point out that this is definitely NOT what NFL coaches do in the aftermath of the biggest moment of their career. Seifert confirmed then that he was the most down to earth NFL coach around. Nothing I’ve seen since has changed my opinion.
In the wee hours of the morning, I made it back to the hotel room where Dad and baby were fast asleep. My little measuring stick of 49ers futility is now a freshman in high school and can’t remember the 49ers as a Super Bowl champion.
Tags: 49ers
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