Firefighter Blog: Football Season Kicks Off, Go Niners!

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September 06, 2008

Football Season Kicks Off, Go Niners!

Tomorrow the NFL season kicks off. I know they had a game on Thursday but the season really begins tomorrow for me. I'm a San Francisco Forty Niner fan.
As a Niner fan I have experienced the highest highs as a fan and the lowest lows. Right now we are in a deep valley searching for a trail that will lead us out of the valley and into the sunlight.

The tools are in place to begin that journey. Coach Mike Nolan brought in offensive guru Mike Martz to run the offense. Martz is all about putting points on the board.

In theory, defensive minded head coach Nolan and offensive minded Martz should compliment each other. Nolan has been building the defense through strategic free agent acquisitions and smart draft positioning.

Martz put his quarterback in the number one slot and he talked the Forty Niners into bringing veteran wide receiver Isaac Bruce. Though Bruce is long on the tooth he will be a positive influence on the stable of youngsters in the receiver corps.

In addition to following the 49ers I keep a close eye on league stats. I play Yahoo! Fantasy Football and participate in a family and friend football league on SportingNews.com. The best thing about these leagues is how it makes you a fan of the entire NFL. If your star player plays for Cleveland you are a Cleveland fan for the afternoon. Before fantasy football I only cared about my home team.

Good for me I found this outlet. My 49ers have pretty much dropped off the competitive radar.

Gone are the days of Joe Montana to Jerry Rice or Steve Young to T.O. but we have had our time. As a teenager I was a Raider fan and my parents had season tickets. We lived on the outskirts of Oakland and they were my team. When Raiders owner Al Davis moved the team to Los Angeles in the mid 1970's I turned my back on them. To this day I can't understand how a team owner can build a fan base, gain the support of an entire geographic region and then leave.

Al Davis defines greedy bastard.

Fortunately the Bay Area offered another option. The Forty Niners ended up with 2 wins and 12 loses the first year I dedicated my support to them. I vividly recall the first time Joe Montana came into a game. I remember when Jerry Rice was drafted. Rice had deceptive speed and came from a small school in Mississippi. Bill Walsh was truly a genius, no one else had Rice on their draft sheets. I remember "The Catch" as though it happened yesterday. I still don't care for the Dallas Cowboys. I cheered when T.O. placed the football on the "Dallas Star" at Texas Stadium after scoring a touchdown.

I'm still a Terrell Owens fan and watch the Cowboys to watch him play. You have to cheer for a man who grew up as he did, no Dad, pathologically shy, initially bullied and raised by a devout Christian grandmother. Terrell did pretty well for himself. An American success story.

So tomorrow the TV goes on at 6:00 AM and I'll fire up the laptop to follow the games online and on TV. With Directv's football package I get every game.

Life is back to normal again! :-)