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| Once the face of the franchise, Colin Kaepernick just may have taken his last snap for San Francisco |
It was a chilly, but sunny, September 11th at Candlestick
Park, the 49ers were slated to take on the Seahawks in the first game of the
Jim Harbaugh Era. We ended up with several extra tickets (thanks to the
generosity of a future in-law), and one went to a friend who had a tangential
interest in football. During the pregame tailgate, we had a good laugh when she
donned her San Jose State University sweatshirt. It was blue. But that’s the
Seahawks’ color! We all had a good laugh. That was the last day that 49ers could
have a good-hearted laugh about the Seahawks.
The 49ers won the game, mostly due to riding Ted Ginn, Jr. kick
return and punt return touchdowns. Jim Harbaugh was 1-0, and he had bested two
former players (Doug Baldwin and Richard Sherman) who have shown they can carry
a grudge, and his former college coaching rival Pete Carroll, who definitely carries a grudge. Nobody
realized that day that a rivalry was born. Both teams rose to prominence alongside
each other, to the point that there hasn’t been an NFC Championship Game that
hasn’t featured at least one of these teams since that day.
In fact, two seasons ago, it featured both of them, and it
was that day that the fortunes of the two franchises diverged. With 8:52 left
in the fourth quarter, NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis converged on Jermaine
Kearse, who had just caught a pass. He slipped free of Willis’ grasp, and Eric
Reid came flying in to complete the tackle. The force of Reid’s hit pushed
Kearse into Bowman’s knee, causing a catastrophic injury that cost Bowman all
of 2014 and impaired him for half of 2015. Right up until that moment, the two
franchises seemed destined to be NFC heavyweights, battling it out for the
right to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. Instead, the 49ers
franchise started down a path towards obsolescence that was completed Sunday at
Seattle.
The 49ers’ losses have been well-documented. From the time
Bowman was carted off the field at Century Link Field in January 2014 to the
time he walked off the same field Sunday, the 49ers no longer had on their
active roster (including Glenn Dorsey, who was placed on season-ending IR
Monday):
Mike Iupati, Jonathon Goodwin, Anthony Davis, Vernon Davis, Colin
Kaepernick, Frank Gore, Anthony Dixon, Ray McDonald, Glenn Dorsey, Justin Smith,
Patrick Willis, Aldon Smith, Tarell Brown, Donte Whitner, Andy Lee, Kassim
Osgood, Michael Crabtree, Perrish Cox, Carlos Rogers, LaMichael James, CJ
Spillman, Kendall Hunter, Darryl Morris, Bubba Ventrone, Craig Dahl, Kyle
McDermott, Will Tukuafu, Dan Skuta, Daniel Kilgore, Adam Snyder, DeMarcus Dobbs,
Colt McCoy, Eric Wright, Nick Moody, Joe Looney, Jon Baldwin and perhaps most
importantly, Jim Harbaugh, Vic Fangio and Greg Roman
This isn’t about the personnel losses, this is about the
personality lost. For the last few years, fans could circle the matchups on
their calendars, looking forward to going to battle with their bitter rivals.
Unfortunately, this is no more. The 49ers and Seahawks matched up Sunday, but
it had none of the flavor of any of the matchups in the past. Even when the
49ers travelled to Century Link Field for their annual blowout, there was still
a sense of nerves as two heavy weights matched up.
The 49ers have not only fully fallen from grace, they have also
shut the door on all the main components of the 49ers/Seahawks Rivalry Era.
After canning Jim Harbaugh, watching Patrick Willis and Justin Smith retire,
releasing Aldon Smith and failing to retain Frank Gore, they traded Vernon
Davis for pocket lint and placed Colin Kaepernick on season-ending IR with an
eye towards steeply discounting his associated paraphernalia after moving him
for a third-round pick in the offseason. The 49ers have moved onto full-on
rebuilding mode, even though they won’t admit it.
This aura of defeat surrounded the 49ers/Seahawks matchup
Sunday. It was a matchup that had none of the flavor of past matchups, with the
Seahawks dominating with two rookies in Tyler Lockett and Thomas Rawls and the
49ers being led by the trio of Blaine Gabbert/Shaun Draughn/Vance McDonald
instead of Kaepernick/Gore/V. Davis. It didn’t feel like a Seahawks-49ers
matchup, it felt more like a Dolphins-Cardinals or Jets-Cowboys or two other
teams that don’t care about each other.
There were no fiery outbursts from Richard Sherman, there
was no shots to a grimacing Jim Harbaugh. There were no big hits… well that isn’t
true. There was a big hit on Thomas Rawls that shook Tramaine Brock to his core
and another big hit that Eric Reid laid on Doug Baldwin. Baldwin caught a ball
and was about to score when Eric Reid laid a vicious tackle on him that upended
Baldwin and sent him flailing. It was the type of play that in years past would
lead to some jawing between the teams and impassioned posturing. Instead,
Baldwin and Reid tripped over each other to pat each other on the head to show
there were no hard feelings. To be clear, I think sports fights to be pretty
dumb, with football fights being the dumbest (punch a guy in full head-to-toe
armor… sure), but there was nothing there. Nothing. It was two teams headed in
opposite directions and a hit that was clean, but both players implicitly knew
that they were delaying the inevitable. There was no way the 49ers were going
to stop the Seahawks from scoring from inside the five (and they didn’t).
Fast forward to the predictable result, the Seahawks
manhandle the 49ers. There are no fireworks, there is no flash, no pizzazz, no
post-game rant or dance from Richard Sherman. The cameras flashed to Sherman,
Marshawn Lynch and another Seahawk chatting it up on the sidelines. Obviously
they were excited, they had climbed another rung in their search for a playoff
berth, but there was none of the passion that we had grown accustomed to over
the last few years. It was over, the 49ers/Seahawks rivalry died not with a
bang, but with a 200+ yard effort from an undrafted rookie and a game that was
never even competitive.
The 49ers and the Seahawks were destined to be one of the
greatest rivalries in football, but their fortunes diverged in the NFC
Championship Game last January. The 49ers have descended to the depths of the
league, a laughingstock whereas the Seahawks have escalated to powerhouse
status. They are gunning for their third-straight Super Bowl appearance, and it
doesn’t look like the 49ers and Seahawks will be facing off in the playoffs
again anytime soon.
I still go to games with my fiancée’s family, the same core
group of tailgaters that saw the rise of the 49ers-Seahawks rivalry. Before
each game, we would toast to the team before entering the stadium. We invoked
the Harbaugh family cry, which became the 49ers rallying cry: “who’s got it
better than us? Nobody!” On Sunday, I turned to my fiancée just before kickoff
and lamented, “alright, let’s get this over with.”
The battle cry has been replaced with a white flag.
