The Worst Mistake Ever Made

Part of what made the Firing of Mooch such a disaster IMO is that it wasnt done in order to bring in a better coach or even a good coach. The Firing was compounded with the addition of Dennis Erickson.

Made some of the worse personell moves in 49er history!

I would argue that the biggest single disaster in 49ers history was the NFL-forced transfer of ownership from Eddie D. to the Yorks. Granted, it was Eddie’s own fault for getting himself into the position of losing control, but he learned the moxie needed to manage the team well and, most important, had the foresight and drive to make the team a success. Conversely, the Yorks (other than Jed) have no interest in football — the team is simply a business whose ownership was basically forced upon them. The net result has been that, in their naivete, they either instigated or approved all of these moves — firing Mooch, hiring Erickson, hiring Donahue, letting Lott (and others) go, hiring Nolan, hiring McCloughan, and on and on.

Hopefully the good news is that the parent Yorks have yielded active management of the team to their son Jed, who, although having a lot to learn, at least has the interest and motivation to run the team properly.

He was “T.O.-grade +” obnoxious, and maybe something had to be done, but they probably should have shipped him somewhere that was a bit more than a pass rusher away from championship contention. Maybe they should have held out for a bit more than a second rounder, too.

Joe Thomas was the worst- what we gave up for the OJ disaster, hiring Ron Meyer as coach (the worst coach ever). Those 74-78 years were bad in SF, fortunately we recovered for the next 20 years, 80-00. Both the Siefert and Mariucci firings (yes, George was fired) were premature. Mariucci paid the price of the GM not planning and subsequently replacing older, formerly great players with mediocre ones.

Y.A. Title for Lou Cordilone

signing Lawrence Phillips. First of all the GM seen how great he was with the rams (sarcasm he never did anything great). so niners sign him and what does he do, misses the block that ends Steve’s career. Was a signing that i was mad at when it happened, and furious when i watched the reply and seen him letting aeneas williams go by him untouched. Cant really be sure how much it affected the team we will never know but i do know as good as jeff garcia was during the regular season, we all know he couldnt get it done in the playoffs like Steve Young could. Maybe not one of the mistakes that set the franchise back for years but certainly one that if your a knowledgable fan, it makes u shake ur head and wonder why some dont have the foresight or common sense that u think they should have.

Why are Charles Haley and Keena Turner Listed as the outside linebackers instead of Dave Wilcox?

I know I’m one of the old guys, but Thomas and his absolutely terrible moves was the worst. He traded away so many picks for the murderer to be Simpson, and just wiped out any memory of what was actually some pretty good teams from the previous decades. He was hated by those of us that were around then. I must say that I see a lot of parallels between then and now. The Yorks made lots of mistakes, but having Jed take over, seems to have righted the ship, somewhat. Let’s hope that Jed and Eddie have more in common than just being DeBartolos.

Trading away Y.A Tittle to the New York Giants.

The Marriucci firing was down right dumb, I always hoped the packers would hire him when Holmgren left but the 49er’s snatched him 1 year before Holmgren left. You guys were in salary cap hell I thought he coached the hell out of that team with the talent he had.

We gave 5 draft choices for a washed up star. That trade hurt our team for years.

Walsh wanted Jake the Snake, we took Druckenmiller. It’s hard to gauge a thing like “worst mistakes of all-time,” but this has to be up there. Jake Plummer was a good quarterback who went to Arizona, which at that time was the place where Good Players Go To Die. Druckenmiller instead of Plummer? Especially when Walsh liked Plummer? How do you justify that? If we’d taken Plummer, it’s not unlikely that we’d be talking today about the Montana, Young, and Plummer eras of glorious Niner history.

This was a blunder on the part of both the player and the team. The reigning champs started Derek Loville, who never should have been a starter in the league, none the less a team going for a repeat. The 49ers went on to lose to the Packers in the playoffs, who would go on to lose to Dallas. Im sure many of you remember Adam Walker’s first quarter fumble during that game. One may only presume they would have gone further had Watters stayed around, but their offense may have been a heck of a lot more potent then with Loville/Walker coming out of the backfield. The following year the 49ers picked up Terry Kirby who was good, but did not replace the production of Watters. The team went 12-4, but once again did not have an answer for the Packers.

As far as Ricky ‘running’ Watters is concerned, he benefited in San Francisco by playing with Steve Young in a pass heavy offense. He was a disaster in Philly and while solid in Seattle, never reclaimed status in San Francisco, he never should have left.

I also think we should have done more to keep Deion Sanders around. He was only the best cornerback ever to play at the height of his career.