The Zong

Even a disgruntled fan like me often finds Ray Ratto of the Chronicle too gleefully a curmudgeon when he writes about the Giants and Niners and how bad they are most of the time, but the thing is, when the fat bastard is right, the fat bastard is right:

How much longer are you willing to subject yourselves to this barely watchable glop?

The season is lost, but getting worse with each new week. Even with Frank Gore back, the 49ers didn’t come close to gaining 200 yards or establishing any offensive continuity. They gave every indication on the sideline of being resigned to a shameful fate, eager only for the year to end, and every indication on the field that they almost would rather be on the sideline.

So we ask again, what’s in this for you, the fan? What could you possibly be getting out of this? The belief that good times are just around the corner? Signs that they are ready to rebound? An argument in which you and your pal the Raiders’ fan both can win and still feel lousy when the night ends and the bartender has your car keys?

As painful as it is to say this, I probably am too disgusted to write anything quite that eloquent right now, so you win, Ratto.

I believe that, through my booze-induced haze, I heard one of the MNF sideline reporters talking about the 49er sideline at some point in the first half. She spoke of disarray, coaches and players yelling at one another and so on. It remains clear that if a team can’t play with a little heart right after the head coach’s father dies, much less bickers and falters throughout the game, then the problem goes far beyond personnel or coaching, and points at a pervasive problem with the philosophy of the organization, and that starts at the very top.

I suppose that it IS time to stop watching this team, and possibly time to start asking some important questions about how things got this bad. It’s not going to get fixed anytime soon, but it’s important that the mistakes that ownership has made with this team two or three times already do not happen a fourth and fifth time. How much longer will fans accept the rebuilding label, and how much longer can the Yorks pretend that they know what they’re doing?

- M.G.