Support John York

The team is cursed. Everyone gets hurt. Is it York's fault?

Our draft picks are all busts or get hurt. Is it York's fault?

Our General Manager forced Terrell Owens out the door rather than trying to do everything in his power to bring back a once-in-a-lifetime player. He did this because of a personal vendetta and because he figured the fans would be behind him. Is it York's fault?

Our head coach was the product of our General Manager's desperation move to replace the fired Steve Mariucci. Mariucci is not a very good coach, underachieved with the 49ers, and has the Lions going absolutely nowhere with a ton of talent given to him by Matt Millen. The 49ers tried to hire QUALITY candidates in Tampa BAy defensive coordinator Monte Kiffen, as well as Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jimmy Johnson. They also targetted top collegiate coaches Rick Neuheisel and Mike Belotti, but neither were interested. They were down to two choices--Dennis Erickson and incompetent defensive coordinator minority candidate Ted Cotrell. Donahue chose Erickson by default. Is it York's fault?

The people in San Francisco buy tickets and then sell them to fans of other teams. Hardly anyone from the area goes to the game. The city is inhabited by a lot of people who couldn't care less about football and don't give a damn about the team. There are hardly any attempts from the city of giving the team funding for a new stadium since nobody there cares about football, winning or not. Is it York's fault?

Terry Donahue is an incompetent General Manager. He has no "people" skills whatsoever. He is abrasive, offends his own players, can not communicate with the fans, and does a horrible job of evaluating talent and retaining the best talent. He made the decision to re-sign younger but less talented players, including two who have underachieved throughout their brief careers and show no signs of ever improving in Ahmed Plummer and John Engelberger. He used cap space and money that could have been used to re-sign Terrell Owens and give Tim Rattay the best receiver in the NFL for years to come on two guys who either have minimal impact or get burned by every receiver they face and fall flat on their face more often than a circus clown. This clown of a General Manger was HAND-CHOSEN by a well-respected genius by the name of Bill Walsh. Walsh is thought to be the greatest NFL franchise architect in history. Donahue is running this team horribly. Is it York's fault?

Carmen Policy, former team President, and Dwight Clark, former team General Manager, used to look for every way imaginable to circumvent the cap. They left Bill Walsh a team that was $28 million over and forced him to disembowel the team and start over. The team, under York's ownership with Walsh running the show, bounced back from a 4-12 record to post a 6-10 record, and then make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons with records of 12-4 and 10-6. Terry Donahue, during this period of time, gave out lucrative deals to talentless, overrated products of the system who could easily be replaced by better, younger players, often found behind them on the bench. He gave out several new signing bonuses each year to quarterback Jeff Garcia and defensive tackle Bryant Young, and re-signed Zack Bronson. All of the contract restructuring Donahue did, and the unwillingness the team had to put over the younger talent, led to them being pressed up against the cap heading into the 2004-2005 season. They then opted to cut aging veterans, many of them who truly have very little left in the tank, and put over more recent draft picks. It was the right decision, but these draft choices are being poorly coached by a horrible coaching staff assembled by Dennis Erickson. Is it York's fault?

If anyone answered "yes" to any of the aforementioned predicaments, they are simply foolish.

This is not John York's fault, nor will it ever be. The team has turned it around while he was owner, and hopefully one day they will again, assuming the entire team doesn't go down with injuries. This team's situation is the fault of horrible decison making by those in charge of the decision making--Terry Donahue and Dennis Erickson. Donahue is the head of everything--he's the General Manager. He runs the day-to-day operations. It's in his job description. He makes all of the coaching and personnel decisions.

The only thing York is guility of is loyalty. He is supporting Terry Donahue with blind faith that Bill Walsh chose the right guy. I think most Niner fans in his position would be doing the same thing because most Niner fans feel Walsh is a genius. If Walsh told you that this guy is the man, and to always support him and things will be in great hands, then it's not likely you would be so eager to fire him.

John York deserves a break. He is a businessman, yes. So are all owners. Eddie DeBartolo also said he would run the team like a business. That's how owners are supposed to run football teams. There's a thing called the salary cap. It limits how much you can spend, and if you try to circumvent it, you are either cheating or mortgaging your future. The 49ers did just the latter option, and are now paying for it.