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.

They’re missing a crucial ingredient. No, not Michele Kwan.

Snow.

Here is a story about the problem. But it’s not that surprising. Canada likes to think of itself as the land of tough guy winters. But when it comes to the Olympics, this isn’t the first time they’ve had issues producing enough winter.

Us Olympic old-timers remember that in Calgary in 1988 that there was more excitement than just the “Battle of the Carmens” (Debi Thomas and Katerina Witt). There were also issues about the weather.  The warm Chinook winds delayed some events, like ski jumping, several times – extending the Olympics to 16 days for the first time (it hasn’t always been 16 days of glory).  And, for the first time, artificial snow was used.

One of the beauties of Vancouver is that there are cool ski mountains just a stone’s throw from the downtown area of one of this continent’s best cities. A city, which by the way, is very pleasant to visit in February. Snowboarders and skiers up on Grouse Mountain – which will host the Today Show – look directly down on the beautiful city. Cypress Mountain – where the aerial skiing and snowboard events will take place – isn’t far away. But it’s been raining on those venues and the snow is disappearing. And Cypress has been closed until the Games begin.

I have no doubt that everything will be fine for the Olympics. Cities almost inevitably pull off the Games – well, except for Atlanta. And Canada is sure to be a wonderful, fun-loving host.  But they might need to work on getting this whole Winter thing down.

But I am happy about one move: bringing back Bengie Molina. I was in favor of giving him more than one year to keep him around. But the Giants were able to get him for just a one-year, $4.5 million contract.

It was kind of an afterthought transaction, born out of Molina’s willingness to turn down more money with the Mets. But it may prove to be the Giants most important move for 2010.

I like Bengie’s bat, obviously. “Big Money” has been the Giants best hitter for the past two years -before Pablo Sandoval started to develop. He’s had the best numbers in the post-Bonds era. And if he can hit lower in the order, it will only help him and the Giants.

But what I really, really like is Bengie’s presence in the clubhouse, his influence on the young players and his mastery behind the plate with the talented pitching staff. I found it troubling that the Giants – at one point – seemed so willing to part with a player of so much influence, while admitting that Buster Posey wasn’t ready to be a full-time catcher.

Now they have the best of both worlds – a very good catcher to mentor Posey (and while Bengie seemed, at times last year, reluctant to be shoved out the door in favor of a novice, he seems to have come to peace with that and has already reached out to Posey to start the partnership in the transition of power behind the plate). Meanwhile, the best part of the Giants team – the stellar pitching staff – will be able to rely on Molina’s experience. And the Giants young players – particularly, though not exclusively, the Latin players – will retain their mentor. Molina was instrumental in Sandoval’s emergence last year (and Sandoval has been instrumental in bringing joy to Molina’s late career years: Bengie told me last year that Sandoval was the most inspirational young player he had ever been around).

Molina is a classy veteran, who works hard, respects the game and is eager and willing to impart his knowledge and experience to younger players.

Of all the Giants moves, this afterthought of a deal is the best one.

My prediction is that Lincecum wins arbitration. Ryan Howard set the record with a $10 million arbitration victory after winning the NL MVP.  But Lincecum has won back-to-back Cy Youngs. Isn’t that even more impressive, for such a young player?

I wrote about Lincecum for SI.com today. Here is a link to that column. Howard and Lincecum have been linked before: the Giants played the Phillies the day of Lincecum’s debut and Lincecum was cruising until the third inning, when Howard hit a two-run bomb.

Because the U.S. isn’t set up to host a World Cup.  Sixteen years ago, American cities were flooded with visitors who were befuddled by not only the lack of soccer knowledge from the locals but by the lack of public transportation, of gathering places to watch the game, of easy routes between venues.

This week the USA Bid committee announced the 18 cities that are potential candidates to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 (the US is bidding on both games, in the assumption it will be awarded one of those).  And they’re kind of a pathetic little group.

San Francisco and the Bay Area were left off. That’s sin No. 1.  Yes, I’m protective of my native city. But  I also know what international visitors want to see: they want to see San Francisco. It’s still the top tourist destination in the United States. (Yes, I partially blame the Yorks and their inability to get a stadium deal done for this gross snub).

Sin No. 2: No Chicago.  Chicago is one of our nation’s great cities – vibrant and alive.  It’s also the home of US Soccer. It should have made the cut.

Cities that did make the cut? Phoenix. Nashville. Houston. Indianapolis. Tampa. Atlanta.

Why? Because they have big new football stadiums. Some of them are indoors and indoor soccer is just wrong. But they’re relatively new.

But the World Cup is about much more than stadiums. It’s about showing off your country and your culture. It’s about urban centers and exciting venues. It should be about easy access – though in our country that’s almost impossible.

I’m not alone in my belief that the World Cup belongs in Western Europe, where fans can get around easily by train.  In 1998, I could hop a train in Paris and get to Lyon for a Mexico game and be back for a late night glass of wine. In Germany, I was based in Frankfurt and took a high speed train to Hamburg and back for a US press conference in one afternoon.

We just can’t do that. But if we’re going to bid for the world’s best sporting event, we should at least plan to give fans some excitement and ease of use. An East Coast Corridor and a West Coast Corridor would be ideal – especially if you’re going to leave off the best city in the Midwest. Fans could get easily from Seattle to San Francisco to LA and San Diego.  And Boston, NY, Washington and Philly are as well connected by trasnportation as many European cities. But Houston? Nashville? Tampa? Phoenix? You’re going to make Spanish fans go to Tampa? Have the Dutch turn Scottsdale Orange? Stick Brazil in Atlanta?

I’ve spent time in all these cities – one of the pleasures, or pains, of being a sportswriter. One of the depressing things I’ve found in my travels is how many American cities look just like each other – same type of stadium, same franchises, same mall designs, same, same, same.

But our country has a few truly unique cities. Chicago is one. San Francisco is another. The world’s fans would have appreciated having those great cities included in the pool.

It looks like they made another one, by shoving Andy Dolich out the door.

As I suspected the stadium is at the root of the problem.  A source with knowledge of the stadium said Jed York is listening to the wrong people who want to wield influence in the stadium situation and they thought Dolich needed to go.

Here’s what my buddy Dan Brown wrote about the situation yesterday:

Team president Jed York announced Tuesday that the 49ers will eliminate the role of COO and create a new position for a chief marketing officer, with an eye toward corporate sponsorship for a new stadium.

Two problems with that idea: in the quest to hire a “chief marketing officer” they just discarded the best marketing guy in the business. And as far as an “eye toward corporate sponsorship” ? Good luck with that. If Jerry Jones and the combined New York teams still can’t get naming rights for their stadiums, I’m skeptical of the Yorks’ ability.

My source says that the grim reality of the project is causing Jed to make some bad decisions: even if the 49ers win their election (a very big if) they’re still trying to figure out how to come up with about $800 million.  Mommy and Daddy probably don’t want to pony over their own money.  The league only wants a stadium that will be home to BOTH the Raiders and the 49ers.  The whole thing is and always has been, a big, hot mess.

Andy Dolich will be fine. Not so sure about the 49ers’ stadium project.

Dolich joined the 49ers two years ago and brought instant credibility to a really screwed up marketing and public relations entity. Dolich is personable, well-connected. And – more importantly, when it comes to the Yorks and their operation – he’s a man who actually gets things done. His hiring was lauded as extremely smart and was one of the signs in the past couple of years that perhaps the 49ers were turning things around and headed on the right track.

Now he’s out.  The word is the 49ers wanted to eliminate that position (odd in an organization that is overloaded with bureaucracy) but it really sounds like they wanted to eliminate Andy. (Though the Press Democrat says he’ll stay on for awhile as an advisor).

Why?

Dolich was instrumental in grooming Young Jed to take over as the acting owner, polishing him up for media consumption and helping him to avoid the missteps that doomed his parental units. But Dolich was more than just a mentor. He was an important public voice for the team.

This move will almost certainly come back to the 49ers achilles heel – their inability to get real traction on their new stadium. The fact that Dolich may have viewed the Bay Area landscape with a more realistic eye than the rest of the folks inside 4949 Centennial Blvd. could have been a stumbling block.

But getting the stadium through without a credible presence like Dolich is going to be a heck of a lot tougher. As I said up top, the 49ers marketing and p.r. arms have been largely a Keystone Cops type of operation, without credibility or legitimacy. Now the best thing it had going is gone, for whatever reason.

Exhibit A: Lane Kiffin. Or Young Lance, as Al Davis likes to call him.

Don’t ever tell me that the Raiders job is a thankless one. Maybe for the Bugels and the Shells of the world. But it wasn’t thankless for Bill Callahan (he went on to Nebraska). Not for Norv Turner (he could win the Super Bowl this year). Not for Jon Gruden (he became a millionaire and Super Bowl winner). And it certainly hasn’t been thankless for Lane Kiffin.

I had a lot of thoughts when I heard the news about Kiffin.  Many of them are expressed here, but Ratboy says it all in a far more amusing way than I could ever have hoped.

But my first thought was don’t ever say that being the Raiders coach doesn’t pay off. Kiffin went from being Pete Carroll’s coffee boy four years ago to replacing Carroll as the king of USC.  His catapult was the Raiders job, a job where it doesn’t matter if you fail because you have a built in excuse for failure. A modicum of success is viewed as astonishing in the Raiders culture.  And standing up to the old man – as Kiffin did in flame-throwing style – also gets you brownie points from future employers.

Kiffin parlayed a 5-15 Raiders disaster/pissing match into one of the prime jobs in the SEC where he went a mediocre 7-6 and lost to UCLA (harbinger of the future?).  While at Tennessee he was a magnet for NCAA investigations and leaves with a fistful of minor violations hanging over the program. While he takes over a program that seems headed for some sort of major NCAA violation – could be a match made in probation.

Kiffin owes it all to Al. And the overhead projector.

Over the past two weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about the recently ended sports decade and what was the most important story. You could make a case that the most seminal sports moment happened on a snowy night in Foxboro on Jan. 19, 2002. I won’t actually make that case because I’m more interested in global moments or big-issue moments, like the Olympics, the World Cup, the Tour de France or the Bonds steroid record.

But the NFL is the most powerful sports league in the world. The richest league in America. So you could argue that the birth of the Patriots dynasty was the biggest moment of the decade. At least in the U.S.

It was a strange night all the way around. I drove to the game with my former colleague Skip Bayless and had the longest conversation I ever had with him, by virtue of the fact that heavy snow and traffic turned a one-hour drive into a three-hour drive.  The night ended with a bunch of my colleagues discovering they had locked their keys in their snow-covered van – way to go Neil!

Despite the snow, many of us went down to the sideline at the customary time: about five minutes left in the game.  That was a mistake. Because the NFL was about to change. And it was freezing outside.

I watched Brady drop back to pass, I watched Charles Woodson hit him, I saw Greg Biekert recover the ball. And then – with my teeth chattering – I stood and watched the referees huddle and change the NFL forever. The tuck rule was enforced. The Patriots scored. The game went into overtime. The Patriots won.  Lonie Paxton fell in the snow and made a snow angle.  Jon Gruden walked off the field for the last time as the Raiders coach.  I was about to miss deadline, while still trying to make sense of what had happened.

The fallout changed the rest of the decade in the NFL. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl, one that the Raiders very well might have won.  Gruden, a few weeks later, was “traded” away from the Raiders to Tampa Bay, where he would win the next Super Bowl against his old team. After that the Raiders collapsed for the remainder of the decade. The Patriots went on to three more Super Bowls, winning two and losing one – after going undefeated, the first team to go 16-0. There was Spy Gate. There was Sexy Tom Brady, boy toy of supermodels.  The Patriots became the decade’s glamor team. The Raiders became a laughing stock.  Bill Belichick became a surly, slovenly genius – who set the bar for every other coach.

But now Brady and Belichick haven’t won a playoff game since they beat San Diego in January of 2008 in the AFC Championship game. Randy Moss is quitting. Brady doesn’t look the same. Belichick is a little less of a genius.  Could be that the era born that snow-covered night of the fortunate “tuck” call is over.

This year I voted for Roberto Alomar and Barry Larkin. I’m not a believer in making someone wait – if you think they’re a Hall of Famer then vote for them,  first year, eighth year, whenever. But plenty of voters think only an elite group deserve a Hall of Fame vote on their first appearance on the ballot.

Mark McGwire got 10 more votes than he did last year. He received 23.7 percent of the vote, slightly up from last year. That surprises me.

I would have predicted he would get even fewer votes, considering how lame he’s been at handling his new spotlight.  Back in October, Tony LaRussa hired the tainted slugger as his hitting coach and promised that McGwire would address the media on a conference call. Still waiting for that to happen.

If McGwire’s evasiveness before Congress hurt his case with voters, which seems to be the thinking, I wouldn’t think his current invisibility act helped his cause.  But maybe the ten who voted for him just got weary of the story. Or think that being LaRussa’s hitting coach is Step One on the Road to Redemption.

I don’t withhold my vote from McGwire because of his stance in Congress – though I was appalled by it –  but because I don’t think he’s a Hall of Famer. He hit a lot of home runs. I’m pretty sure I know why he hit so many home runs. On my ballot, that makes him interesting, but not a Hall of Famer.

I’m glad to see that Hank Aaron is offering his input on the Hall of Fame. I’ve long been a proponent of a blue ribbon panel of living Hall of Famers to help solve the steroid issue, in relationship to Cooperstown. This is too big and difficult an issue to just be passed off to the voters for a thumbs up or thumbs down. I’m not holding my breath to see if Bud Selig comes up with a solution.