Somewhat lost in the hubbub of the introduction of Mike Singletary was the man who opened the press conference: Jed York.  According to numerous reports, it was only Jed York and Scot McCloughan in the room with Mike Nolan when they told him he was fired.  Furthermore, during the press conference, he stated that while John and Denise would still be involved, he was the face of ownership.

Jed is the son of John and Denise York and his godfather is fan-favorite Eddie DeBartolo.  His current title is Vice President of Strategic Planning/Owner.  According to his bio at the 49ers website:

Jed York serves as a business analyst for the team, and is responsible for the integration of brand strategies and projects related to the long-term operational and financial development of the organization. He is a key member of the project team working towards the construction of a new stadium for the 49ers in the Bay Area.

Obviously we all want a new stadium and we want the 49ers to increase revenues so they can at least improve the facilities currently in place.  However, more importantly, we want ownership that projects a competence not often seen in the recent past.  While I don't consider myself an apologist for past York performance, I do think they've worked to improve the image the front office projects.

In the open thread for Singletary's intro press conference, maveric_87 said, "I did like jed york up there talking like his uncle. hopefully he deals with this team like his uncle did. we’ll see when offseason comes."  Now it's certainly too early too tell if we've got another Eddie D or what, but it's certainly worth considering.  I had a chance to watch the clipped version of the press conference, as well as read the transcript, and Jed certainly inspires a little more confidence than his father did.  At the same time, we don't really know enough about him to project what this means.

The question is whether a business background will do the trick for the team.  People have pointed out that the 49ers need more "football people" running things.  However, I do see how a business background is important, even to the football side.  After all, Eddie D was a business guy.  Of course he wasn't your "typical" business guy, but his background was business nonetheless.  He brought in another smart guy in Carmen Policy, who was a lawyer.

People have been bitching about ownership ever since Eddie was forced to sell the team.  I put up a poll asking if the 49ers would return to the Super Bowl while the Yorks owned the team and it's running relatively close to even right now (53%-46% No).  Rather than open a new poll, I'm just going to open up the floor on the subject of Jed York.  Will it be more of the same?  Does he have enough of Eddie D in him to at least create an impression of competence at the top?  As I stated above, it's certainly hard to tell when you don't know a whole lot about the guy.  So I guess this is more open for predictions of what could end up happening.