Someone gave me a thank-you gift recently (thank you, Someone). It was an ESPN Answer Guy calendar for 2003. Besides the date, it has a sports question answered by the Answer Guy. The first six days have been dedicated to the evolution and definition of the word “fan” – or, more to the point, sports fan.
There are many theories how the word fan derived. I won’t get into all of them stated on this calendar, but I for one, thought it was merely a shortening of the word “fanatic”.
My fanaticism was severely tested Sunday when the San Francisco 49ers hosted the New York Giants in a wild card, extremely wild, National Football League game. Now sportswriters can’t root for a team during a game when he or she is working said game. Press box announcers usually remind anyone sitting in the press box, writers or guests, that cheering is not allowed.
I was at home on Sunday, front and center in front of my television set. I admit, having been raised in the Mountain View-Los Altos area, I grew up on Y.A. Tittle, John Brodie, Gene Washington, Ken Willard and Dave Wilcox. And when Abe Woodson was about to touch the football on a kickoff or punt return, I was ready for Lon Simmons to thrill me like nothing else. Chills, make your way down my spine. After that it was Kermit Alexander, then Bruce Taylor who did the thrillin’.
When the 49ers won their first Super Bowl in 1982, I and a couple of friends went to downtown San Francisco and chanted Forty “Bleeping” Niners til we couldn’t chant any longer, just like thousands of others. A Muni bus was overrun. People were standing on top of it. Not us.
And I’ve had my heart broken. In 1972, Dallas rallied from 18 points down, thanks to Preston Riley’s fumbling of an onside kick, to beat San Francisco in a NFC divisional game 30-28. On Jan. 8, 1984, seperate phantom holding calls against Ronnie Lott and Eric Wright at RFK Stadium helped the Redskins take the NFC championship game 24-21. Talk about hometown calls! One of the better 49er teams was upset by Minnesota in the rain in 1987. And those New York Giants got lucky like they always do in 1990 and recovered a Roger Craig fumble to eventually win 15-13. All Steve Young, who was a replacement for an injured Montana that day, had to do was to run bootleg left, bootleg right a few times then slide if we was going to be tackled and the game was over.
I’ve always hated the Giants because of that game. As for the Giants-Niners game on Sunday, I was expecting a close contest. I knew the Giants were going to be tough and I knew the Niners weren’t the Montana or Young to Rice and John Taylor Niners. They weren’t necessarily Super Bowl-bound. I simply expected a topsy-turvy game.
Little did I know.
When Terrell Owens broke away from a couple of tacklers for the Niners’ first score, I yelled and did the fan thing. It didn’t take me long, however, to realize the Niners’ secondary wasn’t capable of stopping the Giants receivers. Then Tiki Barber started going off on the ground. Worse, Kerry Collins wasn’t being touched, mainly because the Niners front four wasn’t good enough by itself to put pressure on him and 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora wasn’t blitzing.
“Rush the passer!” I yelled at the set, as if Mora could hear me.
At 14-14, Mora finally shot linebacker Julian Peterson from the outside and Peterson sacked Collins. Second-and-19.
“About time, Mora!” I said.
The Niners eventually forced New York to punt for the first time. Then came Cedrick Wilson’s gaffe. The Giants recovered Wilson’s inexcusable (If you can’t see it, don’t touch it!) fumbled punt. On the next play, the Giants scored on Collins to Amani Toomer TD pass. Even though the score was only 21-14 in favor of the Giants, I knew the 49ers were going to lose the game. New York scored again before the half ended. See, I told you they were going to lose. And when Barber went untouched from six yards out with 9:53 left in the third for 35-14, the Giants were making monkeys out of, well, I don’t know whose 49ers. Certainly not mine.
I decided to take the five-minute drive to the Free Lance office. Do some work. Get my mind off the game. When I entered the office, two FL reporters, Jed Logan and Kollin Kosmicki, had the game on the two-channel television in the Editorial Room. I walked by the boys briskly to check my mailbox.
“Why do have this on?” I asked dryly. “The game is over.”
I could see the television from my desk, which is stationed about 15 yards away. I could see the Giants were driving again. They scored again. A field goal. Whoopdee-do. 38-14. What a joke. What the heck. It’s better to lose by a wide margin, then a hearbreaker at the end, isn’t it? Might as well score some more Giants and make it a big-time rout.
I really wasn’t watching when San Francisco tallied with 2:03 left in the third. Didn’t care. The two-point conversion was made. I heard Kollin say, “They’re only down by two touchdowns with a quarter to play. There’s still time.”
Hmmm. He’s right. I started to pay attention a little. I sat down on the small couch in front of the screen. Lo and behold, five seconds into the fourth quarter, Garcia bootlegged around left end for a touchdown then hit Owens for two points and the Niners were down just eight with plenty a time left.
I could feel my soul begin to transform. I was becoming a fan. A fanatic.
“Hey! You never know!” as I clapped my hands a few times.
“I thought you said it was over, John”, said Jed.
“I know, I know. I’m a fairweather fan and I admit it.”
“You are a fair-weather fan,” added Kollin.
Who cares what anybody thought then. The atmosphere heated up in front of the set. Bo “Jackson” Hurtado rooted against the Niners. What, the?
“Why don’t you want the Niners to win?” I asked.
“Because they already had their heyday,” said Bo.
What, the Giants haven’t?
I knew Kollin, a Wisconsin native, was a Packer fan. And it is common knowledge that the Packers and Niners have had their battles. Kollin, whose storied Pack was eliminated in ugly fashion on Saturday, wasn’t exactly rooting for a 49er comeback.
“My affiliation with Green Bay caused me to not want the 49ers to win,” said Kollin on Monday.
So two were agin me. Jed, on the other hand, is a Miami Dolphin fan first and an Oakland Raider fan second. He was neutral. Pablo, our photog, showed up with his friend Matt Escovar, a prof at Gavilan College. They were kept in check. I was the one out of control.
The fan in me had taken over my body. Still, I had to verbally set myself up for the worst case scenario. You know, the fan disclaimer.
“It doesn’t matter now if San Francisco loses,” I told myself out loud. “At least they made it a game.”
Every play meant something. Wilson fumbled a crucial pass reception and I almost lost it.
“Don’t throw to him! He lost the game when he fumbled that nearly lost the game and he almost lost the game right there!”
Wilson was ruled down by contact. The breaks started to go the Niners’ way.
A field goal. Down five with 7:49 left.
When Garcia found Tai Streets for the go-ahead score, I knew one minute was too much time. It didn’t help that the ensuing kickoff was returned to about midfield. No pass rush. Collins went to work, getting the ball down to the 23. Then the play that will go down in 49ers’ lore. The low snap, the throw from holder Matt Allen to a streaking Rich Seubert, who was moving like a runaway train. The ball hung up in the air for two days. Niner Chike Okeafor brainlocked and pulled Seubert down.
“Interference,” I pointed to the set, glumly.
Now the Giants have the ball down at about the five. That’s automatic. The game can’t end on a defensive penalty. We lost. The officials had a conference. A referee tapped his head with his hand. He announced the penalty over his microphone. I waited for the interference call. It never came.
“Ineligible man downfield!” I screamed. “They win! They win! You’re not talking now, Shockey. Are you?!!”
On Monday, the aftermath produced a statement from the NFL. Though Tam Hopkins, who lined up at right guard, was illegally downfield, a replay of the final play showed Okeafor had, in fact, interfered with an eligible receiver – Seubert.
Too bad for the ‘Gints. This makes up for 1990. The 49ers were on to Tampa Bay. They’re still alive and the Giants, who were pretty pleased with themselves up 38-14, are going home.
I knew it all the time.
