NorCal":24onj10s said:
If he actually looked at the 49ers' salary spending through the 80s he'd see that they didn't spend inordinately more than other teams.
Can you link where I might find this info? What I'm finding is not exactly backing your assertions.
I see plenty of articles that mention the 49ers spending the most on salaries in the NFL from back then, however:
http://www.espn.com/premium/nfl/columns ... 42004.html
ESPN":24onj10s said:
"His attitude was, 'Don't fool around. Go get the best guys,' " Vinny Cerrato, a former 49ers executive who is now the Redskins director of player personnel, said recently.
That's how it always worked for the 49ers under DeBartolo. At least that's how it worked until the salary cap kicked in. That changed everything.
In the end, the thing that made DeBartolo the NFL's biggest winner, his willingness to spend whatever it took to stay on top, proved to be the undoing of his dynasty.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/08/magaz ... wanted=all
NY Times":24onj10s said:
When the N.F.L. salary cap went into effect last year, most football observers thought the 49ers, who had the largest payroll in the N.F.L., would have to dismantle the team to get down to the spending limit. Instead, they compiled the best record in the league, gained home field advantage throughout the playoffs and are the odds-on favorite to win their fifth Super Bowl in the last 14 years. They also have a payroll that's more than $20 million lighter than last year's $58.6 million.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-foo ... ry-in-1990
CBS Sports":24onj10s said:
Here are the five highest team salaries from 1990 (The salary cap wasn't instituted until 1994 when the league had a $34.6 million cap. The 2014 salary cap is $133 million)
1. 49ers: $26.8 million
2. Jets: $22.5 million
3. Raiders: $21.5 million
4. Redskins: $21.5 million
5. Browns: $20.8 million
Here are the five highest paid players in the NFL in 1990 by average salary
1. 49ers QB Joe Montana: $3.25 million
2. Bills QB Jim Kelly: $2.6 million
3. Eagles QB Randall Cunningham: $2.56 million
4. Colts RB Eric Dickerson: $2.51 million
5. Browns QB Bernie Kosar: $2.33 million
So, yeah. I'm standing by waiting for this evidence that the 49ers didn't "spend inordinately more than other teams." They spent
20% more than the 2nd-highest salaried team in the NFL back in 1990. That's a SUBSTANTIAL difference.
Marvin49":24onj10s said:
This is one thing I'll never quite understand.
Why do people tend to think that winning before the Salary Cap somehow makes those wins less valuable? Eddie paid his team well and there was no salary cap...
You don't
want to understand it. Relax, it's not a personal insult; most people think that way. The 49ers are your football baby, and people want to think the best of the things they love. It's human nature, though people can overcome that tendency if they want to. I don't blame any NFL team for spending a ton of cash in the pre-salary cap era. I do, however, blame fans that pretend it made no difference, like every 49ers fan ever. Jesus. Do you think a private school that spends 20% more on teacher salaries has a competitive edge against a public school that has 20% less cash flow? You're damn right they do. If you even try to argue against this, I'll be very curious to see how you attempt to justify said argument.
Marvin49":24onj10s said:
...but there was also no free agency. There were no big name players leaving for wads of cash. You had to draft and trade well because no matter how much money you had, there were no free agents to pick through.
No, but there were ways to entice players to demand that they be traded. Top-notch facilities, knowledge of more pay if said trade occurred, etc. In a way, it was almost a rich man's limited free agency, in a way.
Marvin49":24onj10s said:
Sure, you didn't have to worry about players leaving which makes dynasties easier once you've reached the mountaintop, but $$$$ spent was almost meaningless because there were no teams to outbid. If you spent 50 mil or 10 mil, you still had to draft or trade for all of your players.
Again. Plenty of ways to game the system back then; for example, if you didn't care about money on your own team, you could structure salaries of players in ways that made them a great value to trade the following year, so poorer teams would be tempted to pay for someone that was good enough to the point where they couldn't normally afford him, but just barely can now, for example.
Marvin49":24onj10s said:
Does no cap invalidate the Steelers of the 70s? The Packers of the 60s? Just different eras. Why compare things that are incomparable?
Nobody is saying the trophies are invalidated, or null and void, or that they never happened. I just get annoyed when fans pretend that you couldn't gain a competitive edge if your owner was rich enough in the pre-salary cap era. It's hogwash to even try and argue against it, though as you and every other 49ers fan points out, that doesn't stop you from trying.
Marvin49":24onj10s said:
Kaepernick has a higher QB rating than MANY HOF QBs. Does that means he's better? Not a chance. Different Era. Salary Cap is same deal.
Hardly a comparable analogy. Plus, if you want to go down that path, I'll make the claim that Steve Largent was a better WR than Jerry Rice. First couple years in the league for Largent were before the big changes that made it a passing-friendly league, and he never had one HoF QB tossing him the pigskin, much less two in a flippin' row along with a team spending huge sums of money to get the best players everywhere they could. (Who do you think had all the receiving records before Rice eventually broke them?) But let me guess, having Montana then Young for Jerry Rice doesn't mean Rice benefited from that and there's no way to argue that Largent may have had better career stats than Rice if he'd had a comparable QB and team scenario, right?
This is fun. Keep arguing with me. Hey, if I'm a business owner and can afford to spend 20% more on employee salaries than 95% of my competitors, that won't help me succeed more at all, will it?
This logic is fantabulous and without flaw!