I feel terrible for San Francisco and Denver fans

The whole thing is disappointing.

Sure, some of the fans are grating. Then again so are some of ours.

What I loved about our rivalry was it really was great football. Physical, intense, full of speed & power. It was about two teams trying to overpower each other, and each being the strongest against everyone else. Not like the current trend of trying to trick or scheme your way to a touchdown - it was outbully, out athlete, and win through force of will.

Going to miss that.

But both SF and Denver feel like they are doing to their teams what the Sonics did to theirs when Karl couldn't get us over the hump (even though part of that was some very uneven officiating...maybe where some of the long standing hatred of refs comes from in this town).

SF was a single play away from a SB win and a few plays away from another SB trip. Denver had it in the bag and lost on a desperation heave by Baltimore - that was their shot. It feels like both were a whisker away, but these changes are much more likely to remove their shot at even getting that close.

They each fired their George Karl for dominating but getting shut down by a once in a decade obstacle, and each are likely to get their own version of Westphal or worse. (Sonic fans know what I am talking about)

It would have been amazing to see SF and Seattle fight it out for the SB for years. It would have even been OK to have SF go once more, as long as we had a few more SB wins in there. It would have been like those Dallas & SF rivalries that lasted for years.

What a loss. I truly believe both teams made terrible decisions removing their coaches. Just a waste.

Class post thanks for the sympathy. Ya its going to be very interesting.

I don't know what to think, it seems to me anything is a crap shoot these days. Hard to know what is really going on because of so much speculation. You know the old saying "it'll all come out in the wash", we'll see soon enough what the future holds.

I think next season will be interesting for both the 9ers and the Hawks, you know our issues and depending how you guys finish the season you could have issues of your own.

Personally, I'm looking forward to another beautiful Washington spring and summer before I start worrying about next season.

Good luck with GB, go NFC West!

The 49ers changes are more unexplainable than the Broncos.

The Broncos went all-in with Peyton and crapped out. Their best chance at the Super Bowl was the year Rahim Moore misplayed a deep bomb for no apparent reason against Baltimore. I think that years Broncos team matched up a lot better against the 49ers that year than they did the following year at Super Bowl 48. But still.. they knew this day was coming with Peyton.. that's what risk you take by saddling up your wagon to a QB that's 36 years old (and now 39). But that team was as good as they were because of Peyton, NOT John Fox.

The 49ers though? There's no reason for this other than a meddling owner that's Daniel Snyder 2.0 and an egomaniacal GM in Tim Rusk... errrrrr... Trent Baalke. They ran out a legit Top 5 coach and a great staff around him, all to get a puppet in there. Harbaugh was extremely unlikable as an opposing fan, but man oh man could he coach. And he got the absolute most out of the talent that was there, and in short time too.

Have zero sympathy for either fan base. Zero.

I think SF did more damage to themselves than Denver did, honestly. As long as various people could swallow their egos, Harbaugh would have had that team in contention for years.

In Denver, though, they knew they were working with a limited window when they brought Manning in. Every move they've made since signing him has been in an effort to take advantage of that window. The signings the Broncos made this past offseason were clearly made with the goal of getting over that final hump, and for a good part of the season, it looked like it was working. They had a very good defense most of the year and the offense was humming.

But here's the thing about John Fox. He's the guy you bring in to give you a respectable defense and to take your team from a 2-14 disaster to above .500. Good at player development on D. But he's terrible at pretty much everything else. He's terrible at making in-game adjustments. Just listen to the audio from the SB, and you'll hear it.

Carolina fans were sick of him the season before he went 2-14 and got canned. He rode Steve Smith and an opportunistic D to the SB in 2003. In 2005, he tried the same thing, which is why the NFCCG was so easy for us. We quad-teamed Smith and that was game over. He never strung 2 winning seasons together in Carolina. It's like he needed expectations to be low in order to overcome them. When success was expected, he and his team failed (as we saw time and time again in Denver).

Denver is showing a willingness to chuck everything out and start over with a new philosophy and likely a bunch of new players. I think as long as they make a decent choice for HC, they'll see success again way before the Tomsula era 49ers will.

After witnessing the Ken Behring horror, I feel a great deal of empathy for fans of teams with ownership issues. I can only offer the view that each season is another chapter and learning opportunity. Enjoy the bright spots and successes while learning from the disappointments.

The Denver situation is going to be a Mess, Peyton is in his downword spiral, Elway is a GM that loves his QB and probably is living thru Peytons exploits as well, both have that same type attitude. If the Broncos go balls to the wall in FA again I see a big fireball in Denver not long after.

Prediction, Denver F.O. replaced in two eyars, Manning out of Denver after next season.

49ers, dumb, just dumb, they are going to get trashed by the rest of the division, articles are already out about how much easier it's going to be there. THATS never a good sign, when player stop feeling the need to push hard and excel.

49ers, after crashing to the bottom of the NFC West.

Two Years, Baalke gone, Coach and staff fired again.

I think it's hilarious. Especially for the Santa Clara "fans" mediocrity will soon be something they strive for

Hasselbeck":d6iu0al9 said:

The 49ers changes are more unexplainable than the Broncos.

The Broncos went all-in with Peyton and crapped out. Their best chance at the Super Bowl was the year Rahim Moore misplayed a deep bomb for no apparent reason against Baltimore. I think that years Broncos team matched up a lot better against the 49ers that year than they did the following year at Super Bowl 48. But still.. they knew this day was coming with Peyton.. that's what risk you take by saddling up your wagon to a QB that's 36 years old (and now 39). But that team was as good as they were because of Peyton, NOT John Fox.

The 49ers though? There's no reason for this other than a meddling owner that's Daniel Snyder 2.0 and an egomaniacal GM in Tim Rusk... errrrrr... Trent Baalke. They ran out a legit Top 5 coach and a great staff around him, all to get a puppet in there. Harbaugh was extremely unlikable as an opposing fan, but man oh man could he coach. And he got the absolute most out of the talent that was there, and in short time too.

Have zero sympathy for either fan base. Zero.

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Comparing Tim Ruskell to Trent Baalke is dead on. Each inherited a pretty decent team, made a couple immediate moves to improve the roster, then utterly shit the bed for the long term. I feel worse for 49ers fans than I do Broncos fans, since their demise is the result of some very Daniel Snyderesque management. I will enjoy seeing the Seahawks at the top of the division for years to come, but I will always miss the rivalry games of recent years. I just don't see that team having the same fire and competitiveness for a few more seasons.

I don't feel bad for Denver fans, they made that bed with disposable sheets and crapped in it.

The Niners have a strong roster, one that needs strong leadership. The last 4 years have been incredibly fun, 2 times a year, big game guaranteed. It's like giving a sports car to a 16 year old girl that really deserved a Prius.

Agree with Twisted - if indeed this is the end of the rivalry, I'm really going to miss it. The Seahawks have never traditionally had two-way rivalries. They were bullied throughout the 90s, were stomped on by the Rams a few times in the early 2000s, and then were dominant. The last few years have been the only time they were dominant at the same time as a 'rival,' and it was a lot of fun.

The Hawks won't always be at the top, but I sure would've liked the Niners to hang out with us for a few more years. And who knows? Maybe Tomsula will work out and it'll all look sunnier next year, but Jed York just seems clueless right now.

John Fox is NO George Karl. He's a slightly more successful Jeff Fisher. Until he got Peyton Manning, his career record was 87-83, including playoffs. 81-79 in the regular season.

peachesenregalia":g91wocuo said:

Doooooooooooooooooon't care. Screw SF and screw Denver.

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The NFL took a nose dive in the number of great teams. I think even SEA was a better team last year.

Patriots are OK, not great. Baltimore is just as good, really, but somebody had to win.

Idndi is soft. What a cake walk schedule.

GB is average with a great QB.

It sucks, really.

ARZ and STL had third and fourth string QB's decide their fate.

I expect a talent jump next year.

I don't feel bad for Broncos fans, because I believe Elway is an intelligent leader who cares about winning. The 2012-2014 team was pretty successful, and I expect he will set a new course toward success in the future.

49ers fans are just screwed, though. York and Baalke are such clowns...

rlkats":2dde9ob2 said:

Class post thanks for the sympathy. Ya its going to be very interesting.

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I read it as a backhanded compliment. The post says you guys were good but now you are going to utterly suck :stirthepot:

Feel terrible for Denver and San Francisco? You got to be kidding me. Not a chance in hell.. In fact I get pleasure out of their inability to get over the hump.. I would love to see both of them in the cellar for years to come. The heck both of them.. I'm Seahawk fan. Our rivals demise is something I desire and enjoy.

I don't feel bad for Niner fans because their fan base sucks. Hateful and arrogant. And let's face it, this division is going to be incredibly difficult once the Rams and Cards get their QB situations even moderately fixed. Every division needs a breather on its schedule and the Niners are going to be it.

SalishHawkFan":t8yamecj said:

I don't feel bad for Niner fans because their fan base sucks. Hateful and arrogant. And let's face it, this division is going to be incredibly difficult once the Rams and Cards get their QB situations even moderately fixed. Every division needs a breather on its schedule and the Niners are going to be it.

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QFT.

The only time I'd ever feel sorry for Niner and Bronco fans is if an asteroid plummeted to earth and struck their practice facility while they were training.




























And even then it'd be a 50/50 toss up.