49ers All-Time Fullback
First off, I am not yet ready to announce the #2 CB for our all-time team. Eric Wright has stormed back to take a 3-vote lead over Deion Sanders. If you haven't voted for #2 CB, head here to vote. In the meantime, I thought I would open the polls for the next position, the all-time fullback. There is one man who comes to mind for most of us, but there are some other worthy options to consider. Also, I've added an honorable mention list with a reason I didn't include him in the poll.
Tom Rathman (1986-1993): Simply put, Rathman was a beast of a fullback. While leading the way for Roger Craig, Rathman was a member of the 1988 and 1989 Super Bowl champions. In Super Bowl XXIV, Rathman finished with 81 total yards and a pair of touchdowns. Aside from being a great blocker, Rathman fit perfectly into the West Coast offense as a receiving back. In 1989, Rathman led all NFL running backs with 73 receptions for 616 yards. Rathman is currently the running backs coach for the Oakland Raiders....try not to hold that against him.
Joe Perry (1948-1963): Perry is the 49ers all-time leading rusher and a Hall of Famer. The 49ers clearly used the fullback position in a different manner at that point, but considering the team also had Hugh McElhenny at halfback, I decided Perry would go here. On those teams, the backfield was referred to as the Million Dollar Backfield and consisted of Perry, Y.A. Tittle, Hugh McElhenny and John Henry Johnson, all futureHall of Famers. Perry was the first back to gain 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons and when he retired, he was second on the NFL's all-time rushing list to Jim Brown. He finished his career with 12,505 combined yards.
Ken Willard (1965-1973): Willard finished as the 49ers #3 all-time rusher, and like Perry was still listed as a fullback. Willard was a 4-time Pro Bowler who finished his 49ers career with 6.105 yards and 45 touchdowns. Willard won 3 division titles with the 49ers and was actually drafted ahead of Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers. Willard was also drafted twice in the MLB draft and currently works in North Carolina.
William Floyd (1994-1997): Floyd only spent 4 years with the 49ers but emerged as a fan favorite (well at least I was a fan). Floyd was a first round pick of the 49ers and against Chicago he became the first rookie to score 3 touchdowns in a playoff game. In that year's Super Bowl he had 58 total yards and a touchdown. For this particular position, Floyd would fall into the "just happy to be nominated" category.
Honorable Mentions: John Henry Johnson (1954-56): Only 3 years and his one Pro Bowl year was actually as a halfback; Fred Beasley (1999-2004): Should be in the poll just for punching Kevan Barlow, but actually came down to him or William Floyd; J.D. Smith (1958-1964): Fifth All-Time 49er rusher but wanted to keep this as
a 4-back poll.
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This one is tough
Rathman has always kind of defined the FB position for me, a guy who can do it all. Run, catch, block…you name it, Tom did it. Until I saw the candidate list and looked at the numbers, I couldn’t have imagined voting for anyone else. Now…I’m not as sure. This kind of makes me wish we would have gone with more modern era guys only, as a guy like Perry seemingly deserves to be on the team, but the difference in how the game is played makes it somewhat difficult to say whether he really does or not, because I’m not sure he could adequately handle the FB position of the present day. Definitely gives you something to think about….
"So's your mom"-David Sloane
by gatling on May 29, 2008 1:25 PM PDT 0 recs
offensive specialist?
Maybe we could go with some sort of offensive specialist? Obviously I’m making a lot of this up as I go along, but something like at the end coming up with a list of 4 skill position guys and the winner of that vote gets added on. Just one idea.
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by Fooch on
May 29, 2008 1:47 PM PDT
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Could work.
The potential players are guys who would, essentially, be either a HB2/HB3, WR3/WR4, TE2, or FB2. I say HB2/HB3 and WR3/WR4 because I don’t know how many WRs or HBs you decided on polling.
by sfgfan on
May 29, 2008 4:16 PM PDT
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No!
No way. This isn’t a list of “really good niners.” It’s an all-time team. These kinds of tough choices come with the territory – aren’t the San Francisco 49ers a good enough franchise that even very deserving players are cut out?
by spenczar on
May 29, 2008 4:38 PM PDT
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Depends on how...
.... you define “team.” An all-time team, depending on how Fooch defines it, could very well have as many backups he wants, up to 53 or so, I suppose.
by sfgfan on
May 29, 2008 5:03 PM PDT
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good point
While we can keep adding roster positions, spenczar makes a good point. People are gonna get screwed out spots and that’s life some times. We’ll consider all options, but still not sure which way to go with it.
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by Fooch on
May 29, 2008 10:00 PM PDT
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Well
I wasn’t aiming to see another spot added with my original comment. It’s more the idea of taking the full history of the team and making this list, instead of shorter time of reference, say the last 30 years. The game has evolved so much since guys like Perry were playing, it’s kind of hard in my opinion to look at what they did and say they’re as good or better than guys playing today. I mean by the numbers, Perry seems to be the obvious choice over Rathman, but Perry really played the position we now call the HB. I realize he was classified as a FB, but he was the leading rusher most of the years he played it looked like, some years getting more carries than both the LH and RH combined.
Football is a sport that I think is more difficult to compare one era to another. Baseball has OPS+ and ERA+, which gives you the ability to compare players from 80 years ago to guys playing now. But football doesn’t really have that luxury, as the game is so much different from the early years.
That was what I was trying to get at with my original post, not suggesting more guys to add to this list.
"So's your mom"-David Sloane
by gatling on
May 29, 2008 10:54 PM PDT
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Florida State color analyst
http://seminoles.cstv.com/sponsorship/radiocrew.html
Florida State University and ISP Sports announced on April 30, 2008 that William Floyd, who won a national championship as a fullback for the Seminoles in 1993 and a Super Bowl ring as a San Francisco 49er in 1995, will join Gene Deckerhoff as color analyst on the Seminole ISP Sports Network next season.Floyd was a high school star at Lakewood High in St. Petersburg where he was rated the number one running back prospect in the state and the number two fullback in the country by Super Prep Magazine. He signed with Florida State in 1990 and over his three-year career became one of the Seminoles’ most popular players and one of the top fullbacks in the country. He helped the 1993 FSU team win the school’s first-ever national title and was selected by the 49ers with the 28th pick of the first round of the 1994 NFL draft.
Earning the nickname “Bar None” after a good-natured self evaluation following his selection in the first round, Floyd became the first rookie in NFL history to score three touchdowns in a playoff game when he scored 18 points against Chicago in 1995. He rushed for 32 yards, caught four passes for 26 yards and scored a touchdown in San Francisco’s Super Bowl XXIX win. He played a total of four seasons with the 49ers and another three with the Carolina Panthers before retiring from the NFL following the 2000 season.
Floyd, who hosted a radio show in the Bay Area as a player and has done reporting and studio television work for Sun Sports, works as Public Relations Liaison for Able Body Labor and is assisting Tampa Bay Buccanneer star Derrick Brooks with his new temporary staffing company (Brooks 55 Labor Enterprises).
Floyd currently lives in Orlando with his wife Bonita and three children. The entire family is active in his non-profit community-benefit foundation, William Floyd’s Bar None Foundation and several area charities. He also sits on the Orange County Sheriff’s Department PAL Board.
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by Fooch on
May 30, 2008 2:38 PM PDT
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