Congratulations to the San Francisco 49ers. Defying odds and injuries that would have caused most teams to stay in the locker room, the 49ers toughed it out, having more injuries than Starbucks has coffee shops.
Playing their final few games with third assistant back-ups, stand-ins and unknowns, the team battled its way to victories. In fact, enough wins to move them into the playoffs.
In many ways, this was a bad year for the team when you think of the many starting players who were sitting on the bench with debilitating injuries. Yet, the 49ers didn’t fold in the face of big-time opponents.
The 49ers, their coaches, players, and staff deserve a medal for “Best Survivors” as they continued to win games that oddsmakers had them losing.
Of course, gravity was inevitable. The playoff game against the top-ranked Seattle Seahawks was decided quickly. It took a total of 13 seconds for Seattle to return the opening kickoff and went on to crush what was left of the 49ers.
Okay, forget that game. The 49ers nonetheless achieved an impressive string of victories, making the most of the cards they were dealt.
While the 49ers are going home, it’s not over for Santa Clara. In a few weeks, Santa Clara will host the 2026 Super Bowl, and in June, the city will be host to the World Cup — the world’s two biggest sports events.
While the 49ers won’t play in the Super Bowl, Santa Clara residents, business owners and the city will be winners from this most-watched football event of the year.
Thank you, Jed York, Al Guido and all your team of terrific employees who make our city better, more recognized and known worldwide because of your presence. The 49ers’ contributions to the community have changed lives and brought Santa Clara worldwide recognition.
You and your team of players and employees are champions of Santa Clara.
As the great WWII general George Patton said: “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”
The Weekly looks forward to a high bounce and the 49ers’ next Super Bowl appearance.
Previous Milestones:
Milestones – Super Bowl Insights – Opinion
Milestones – With Gratitude – Opinion
Milestones – Gillmor vs. the Wrong Goliath – Opinion
The 49ers often on the field have self inflicted wounds. It is great to see teams play real well this year like the 49ers, the Texans and Broncos. However a repeated pattern always has risen from this team of years late. Since 2011 they are the only team that has not won the super bowl despite record numbers of playoff wins. This is self inflicted wounds again from penalties at the wrong time to costly turnovers. It was amazing to see this team win despite all the injuries. Injuries is the most common theme among this team since 2017. No other team has had that many injuries yet that much success. It comes down to good coaching and good general management. Yet this team can never complete the task. A super bowl win would change the narrative here in Santa Clara. But the window to that championship could be closing. The 49ers in games get too conservative, both Super Bowl’s against the Chiefs, the NFC championship game against the Rams, etc etc there are numerous times where this team had the opponent corned even leading by 10 points only to lose it in the end. They get too comfortable and let it slip away, they cannot win the Super Bowl because like they cannot beat Gillmor in the city council. Until the team stops being conservative on the field with other teams, playing games with Gillmor and her machine they will not get rid of the attacks by Gillmor, her minions or even the sports critics. I like many others hope Gillmor and her machine will not ruin the Super Bowl but she will always find a way to cause some sort of crisis. Expect more and more to come out of this political machine. The entity the city of Santa Clara should fear the most is Gillmor, not the 49ers, the 49ers are just tenants while Gillmor is a birthright and “rooted” in the community.