For some reason, that horrid 2015 season seems like a dream that never happened. You wake up, Jim Harbaugh is gone, Chip Kelly is the head coach, and Jim Tomsula was just a bad nightmare. I'm sure after I get done posting this, I'll be able to repress just about all of 2015's horrid season and not even wonder what came between 2014 and 2016.
But right now, let's give one last look at Tomsula. The San Francisco 49ers firing of Harbaugh had some controversy, but the coaching search was a 17 day-long thing of beauty. Every day it was a different coach being linked to the team, first Vic Fangio with the six hour, great talk, then Mike Shanahan meeting team representatives at some place called Chevy's (don't live in the Bay Area so I'm not familiar with the place). It was an exciting process. Adam Gase sounded like a great hire, and 49ers were all but done and signed with the Denver offensive coordinator.
Then out of nowhere I read a tweet the 49ers hired Jim Tomsula.
And once the press conference starring Jim Tomsula began, there was a feeling that the 49ers team and fanbase were in for a long season. Broken sentences, terrible answers, and yes, a now maligned shout-out to Joan from payroll, the Tomsula press conference was a unmitigated disaster where a goldfish's body language was easier to understand than some of Jim Tomsula's broken English answers. No really, play the video. See? It was that bad.
To be fair, Tomsula wasn't the only stinker. Trent Balke and Jed York developed their skill of getting torched at the podium (started with their Jim Harbaugh post-firing internet special), a skill which seems to have been forgotten this season (again, was this all a dream?), but Tomsula took up the majority. And once I saw the three of them posing with footballs, it turned into reluctant optimism. There had to be something I was missing here...this might be really good?
The only hightail Tomsula really had on the podium all season, was when he was addressing the media about Aldon Smith's release--now that was extremely well done and heartfelt, but that's not exactly what you want your golden moment in front of the media to be.
When I look back on my time during the Jim Tomsula era, I take away two things. First, I completely admit and accept that regardless of the amount of dignity it may have cost him to be called "a puppet" and Jed York's "yes-man" it makes him a much more brave and therefore better person than me. But the second, and more important thing: when I see catastrophe written all over something, I need not bother looking for a silver ray of hope, because it aint coming.
All I can do is give a Throwback Thursday to Jim Tomsula. There he is. And watching this now, I don't feel a strange lurch in my stomach. I can actually laugh and enjoy this trainwreck.
Is the 2016 season here yet?