49er throwback frank gore

49er running back frank gore is one of the lone bright spots on this year’s team. he’s the kinda player the niners used to have an abundance of… playmakers with class who used to routinely win games and put up big stats too and enjoy lengthy and successful careers with the 49ers. i am talking about quarterbacks like joe montana & steve young & receivers john taylor & jerry rice & defensive players like ronnie lott & charles haley and of course, coaching from the likes of bill walsh & george seifert. i sorta jumped on the 49er bandwagon after they became consistent winners but i was rooting for them during their third, fourth & fifth superbowl titles.

john taylor is my fave niner… hands down a better playmaker/crack blocker who beat the defense’s best corner with slippery moves and a wicked stiff arm and better teammate than terrell owens (owens never did help the niners win anything of significance, but j.t. won them a superbowl and enabled jerry rice to have the big numbers and big games in the prime of his career, since defenses had to account for taylor burning them for a big play, plus he rarely dropped passes or never heard “footsteps” from defenses or called attention to himself… t.o. is just a pain in the ass). just ask any los angeles/st. louis fan what a rams killer john taylor was right up until his final season in 1995.

one of my fave niner games was in the 1989 superbowl season when montana lead the niners to a comeback win on the road against buddy ryan’s eagles with that punishing defense lead by reggie white. montana got sacked like 8 times in that game but in the fourth quarter he threw four touchdown strikes once he figured out the eagles blitzing defense and exploited their lousy secondary and his pass protection improved. also, in that season john taylor had that awesome monday night game against the rams that was for the division title. taylor had two touchdowns for over 90 yards and over 280 yards total receiving. the niners rode his back to the win and began their march toward back-to-back titles.

my fave bill walsh superbowl run was his final season when he knocked out the vikings, mike ditka’s bears in chicago and capped it off with a superbowl title against sam wyche’s bengals. that final drive in superbowl XXlll epitomized walsh’s offense, which went 92 yards (actually 102 yards because of a 10 yard penalty on the drive) with just over three minutes left in the game, using short passes with the receivers gaining yards after the catch and the offense eating up clock by making several first downs and leaving little time remaining for the bengals to score and retake the lead. and guess who caught the game winning touchdown? not jerry rice, who got superbowl mvp honors with his 215 yards receiving, 11 catches and 1 acrobatic touchdown, or league offensive mvp roger craig, but, yes that’s right, john taylor, who didn’t catch a pass all day and wasn’t the primary option on that touchdown play. after he crossed the goal line and scored, he calmly spiked the ball between his legs… no dance, no taunting, no showboating. btw, earlier in that drive taylor was upset with himself because he missed a block that would have sprung rice for the touchdown; the replays showed him on the turf pounding his fist when he saw rice being tackled because of his missed block… t.o. would have just laughed that one off and probably mocked rice for letting himself get tackled because he’s too slow. even funnier was don shula calling him turner instead of taylor during the post game show.

anyways, the current niners probably won’t have the same superbowl success of those past niner champions but frank gore would have fit in nicely with those squads. my fave 49er running back has always been garrison hearst but gore is more physically durable. so, i hope he has a long, successful career and retires a 49er… he’s a humble kid and a marvelous player. congrats to him going to his first pro bowl and starting for the nfc, the lone 49er selected on the first ballot.

frank gore against the broncos in the season finale. for the 2007 season, gore finished first in the nfc in rushing yards and third overall in the league.

joe montana & bill walsh during the waning minutes of a divisional playoff win of 34-9 against the vikings in 1989

john taylor scoring one of the 49ers’ 8 tds in superbowl XXlV against the broncos

montana fearless in the pocket against the eagles pass rush in a regular season come-from-behind win of 38-28, played in philly

jerry rice sporting 49er throwback uniforms during the 1994 superbowl season (coach seifert was superstitous and believed the 49ers winning was linked to the throwback uniforms, so they wore them all the way to a superbowl win over the chargers 49-26)