In what has to be some kind of record, your San Francisco 49ers have gone from 150-1 odds last year to go to the Super Bowl, to 11-1 odds to reach it this year. And 18-1 odds to win it. Sure, it’s early. But hey they released the numbers, so it’s noteworthy. Also a bit shocking that the wonks in Vegas are clued in to the possibilities of this team going forward.
Teams rarely sneak up on the Vegas oddsmakers, and the 49ers appear to be fully on their radar. Will that win us any games? Unfortunately no, but these guys aren’t in the gambling business to lose money, so they set the Niners line at 8.5 wins as their number to beat. Pretty heady numbers for a team that was at one point 1-10 last year.
Is it too much too soon? Naaah. The NFL is littered with teams coming from seemingly nowhere to win it all, or at least get close to the Big Show.
Really, how close to 1981 does this feel? A young QB leads a scrappy team out of the ashes of the funeral pyre of recent shittiness? A highly touted OC joins a new organization to wake up the team and get them playing fundamentally sound football?
Sure, I’m optimistic, but hey, why not? At least we appear to be in the mix for exciting football (as long as they keep Jimmy G upright). Which at this point is all I really want.
Forty Niners Forever 
I remember Pete McCulley part of a 3 headed coaching disaster in 77 -78 under GM joke Joe Thomas.. Man those were lean times with very little meat on the bone..
Lol, those were totally inept and crazy times. Incompetent is probably a better word for it.
Clark was a great coach who got shafted by Joe the schmoe, ’76 was the beginning of a great season that got derailed by injuries.
Yeah that Joe Thomas came in and destroyed that Clark led team. Before Walsh was hired the seasons of the early Thomas years were very forgettable. Bad PR and bad teams were the norm. Ouch!
Reading the Sports pages in those days were painful. Real painful.
Yeah, we had a great defense when Clark was managing. I didn’t understand the move to get rid of him at all.
I think the highlight of that season was shutting out the Rams on Monday Night Football 16-0. Tommy Hart had a shitload of sacks that game.
‘New thread is up.