It would be easy to just put up a photo of Marshawn Lynch or some hapless Saints defender, if you can call them that, or a teary eyed Seahawks fan for this week's Caption This! and call it a night. But, while that was a hilarious run that was allowed to happen by a hilarious series of defensive blunders, and which led to a hilarious end result... it just seems like such a shame to move on to the Jim Harbaugh era of San Francisco football without paying one last respect to what came before.
So with that in mind, I give you Alex Smith.
Alex Smith, by any realistic measure, will never be a 49er again. He was, essentially, the face of everything that's happened over the last six seasons. His exit from the team is as symbolic as it is anything else. The team appears to be taking a step forward now. It may turn out that they are taking a step backward. But the important thing, the one important thing, the thing that is symbolized by Alex Smith's almost certain departure, the one thing that fans have been waiting for for so long, is that the team is, without question, taking a step away.
So: Goodbye, Mike Nolan. Goodbye, Scot McCloughan. Goodbye, Mike Singletary. Goodbye, Jimmy Raye, Norv Turner, Jim Hostler, Mike McCarthy, Mike Johnson, Mike Martz.
In short: Goodbye, Alex.
The better man in me would have shied away from making fun of you on your way out. But then the better man in me saw this photo you took. And I'll talk to the better man in me again when he stops laughing. Until then, we're just going to roll with it. Hit the jump to see what I mean.
You all know the drill by now: Use the comments to provide your captions, and rec' the ones you like the most. Grant party-crashed last week's thread and won the rec' war. Who will it be this week?
Your Caption Here!