AGING 49ERS SHOULD REBUILD.Byline: Dave Goldberg Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Carmen Policy Carmen Policy is an attorney and American football executive who is best known for his front office work for the San Francisco 49ers during the 1980s and 1990s. Policy, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, joined the San Francisco 49ers in 1983 as vice president and counsel. spent a week telling the New York Giants
It took the Giants one day to tell Policy that they did indeed need the leading rusher in franchise history. So maybe it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a for the 49ers to do the unthinkable and . . . rebuild? For the past 15 years, there's been only one acceptable outcome to a season for the 49ers - a Super Bowl victory. They've done it five times, a remarkable record in any pro sport these days. To put that in perspective, 22 teams won no Super Bowls during that period. The only others with titles since 1981 are Dallas and Washington three times; the Giants twice; Chicago and the Raiders. Of those six teams, only the 49ers have won consistently - 13 straight 10-win seasons. The other winners have been up and down. Even Dallas was 3-13 and 1-15 before embarking on its current streak of three wins in four years. But when San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden gets eliminated before the NFC NFC abbr. National Football Conference title game, it's time to push the panic button. This year, at the behest of Steve Young and Jerry Rice among others, the 49ers brought back Bill Walsh to oversee Marc Trestman and an offense that led the league in points scored and was second in yardage yard·age 1 n. 1. An amount or length measured in yards. 2. Cloth sold by the yard. Noun 1. gained. Then they tendered an offer to Hampton, the premier running back they need, all along suggesting that the Giants didn't need him because they have second-year man Tyrone Wheatley. But why else did New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of make Hampton a transition player if not to have the right to match any other offer? "They were blowing their own horn," said Bob Tisch, the Giants' co-owner, of Policy, who spent the week before re-stating publicly how much more San Francisco needed Hampton than New York. What's really happening is this: The 49ers are getting old. Rickey Jackson, John Taylor and Bart Oates retired, Steve Wallace was retired to make salary cap room and Eric Davis took the money and went east to Carolina, adding to San Francisco's cornerback problems. Then the 49ers failed to sign Hampton and Leslie O'Neal, whom they hoped would be the pass rusher they need. They're not used to those kind of failures in a league in which players consider San Francisco a great place to play. If Tampa Bay had known what it had in Young and not traded him to Walsh, the 49ers' dynasty would have ended in 1990, Joe Montana's last healthy year there. Since then, they've been to four NFC title games and won a Super Bowl, enjoying more success than any team except the Cowboys. But Dallas really is in the same position. Even when Policy and Jerry Jones (with the help of Leigh Steinberg, the agent for both Young and Troy Aikman) renegotiate contracts to get under the cap, they still can't pay all their best players. Dallas has already lost four defensive starters and 22 players in the last four seasons. CAPTION(S): PHOTO The 49ers wanted Rodney Hampton, but the New York Giants opted to keep the running back. Daily News File Photo |
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