49ers Dynasty Is Headed For A Fall
Jerry Rice’s injury made evident to most of the country what much of the NFL has known for a few years: The 49ers are on the way down. Now the fall could be precipitous.
The first reason is the simplest.
Just as Tampa Bay, the team that knocked out Rice, can’t lose forever (13 seasons in the last 14 with double-digit losses) neither can the 49ers win forever (14 straight years of double-digit wins.)
The Niners have not done what they did in turning over the roster in the late ‘80s to stay on top.
For example, J.J. Stokes, the wide receiver who was supposed to be Rice’s replacement, has been a disappointment his first two seasons. Stokes was invited by Rice to stay in the San Francisco area during the off-season as his training partner. Rice is considered the NFL’s best-conditioned athlete and its hardest worker, the perfect example for Stokes.
Instead, Stokes returned to San Diego and even with Rice out, he may have trouble starting.
But worse is the offensive line, a patchwork group at best.
So shaky was the situation that Jesse Sapolu had to be called out of retirement at 36 to shore it up.
Free agents not the answer
The first week of the NFL season proved Marv Levy right - in the long run, you only plug holes with free agents, not rebuild with them.
To wit:
Seattle, Oakland and Kansas City, whose imports were supposed to make the AFC West the NFL’s strongest, all lost, the Seahawks embarrassingly (41-3) to the Jets.
That confirms Levy’s first thoughts on free agency.
“You’re almost always better off with the players you have than with new ones,” the Buffalo coach said in 1993, when the system started. “This is a game of cohesion and the more new people you bring in, the longer it takes to teach them your system.”
Pickens steps to forefront
Now that Jerry Rice is injured, Carl Pickens of the Cincinnati Bengals may be ready to become the league’s most-feared receiver.
“I take everything from Jerry,” he said before Rice was injured. “He’s the best. But I don’t want to be like Jerry. I want to be better.”
Pickens, who will face the Baltimore Ravens today, caught 37 touchdown passes from Jeff Blake from 1994 to 1996 - one more than Rice in the same span - but he keeps a low profile.
“I’m a very moody person,” he told a Cincinnati reporter last month. “I have close friends, but not a lot. And I don’t need for you to know me.”
He says the game is easy as long as a player follows a straight-and-narrow path.
“But you have some guys that would rather go to a club, get in a fight, bring girls to hotel rooms,” he said.
By contrast, Pickens lives during the off-season in the basement of the home he built for his parents in Murphy, N.C.
“People there are real,” he said. “You can get caught up in this lifestyle. Fancy suits, fast cars, big houses. There’s nothing like that in Murphy. My parents have been married 29 years. They’ve kept me levelheaded. I know to this day that if I screw up, my dad would be right in my face.”
Show me the ball
The last time Minnesota Vikings running back Robert Smith faced the Bears, he went down with the second knee injury of his injuryplagued career. In four seasons, he never has played a complete one.
When he got hurt against the Bears last Oct. 28, he was leading the NFL in rushing with 693 yards. He also was averaging 23 carries a game. When he ran for 169 yards against the Bills last week, including a 78-yard touchdown dash, he carried only 16 times.
Coach Dennis Green wants Smith to share the load with Leroy Hoard, but Smith doesn’t believe a shorter workday might lead to a longer career.
“I don’t think it reduces the chances (of injury) at all,” Smith said. “My first year, I didn’t carry but 80 times and had a knee injury. It’s the kind of thing that could happen at any time.”
Everett may have last laugh
In May, Jim Everett was driving through Texas on his way to New Orleans when his beeper went off with the message to call Mike Ditka, who cut him. Now Everett, expected to play for injured Chargers starter Stan Humphries, has a chance to ruin Ditka’s home opener with the Saints.
“I would love to play against him,” Everett said. “It would be an emotional time, and I would do anything to help the team win.”