- 1 day ago
15-1 and still underrated
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:48Surely they could have found a hall of fame or a borderline for a 15-1 team.
01:58So have you guys.
01:59Something that used to be a little prayer of mine when I played football myself.
02:04May everyone do their best.
02:06May there be no injuries.
02:08May the best team win and no one have regrets.
02:11Unlike Ronald Reagan, the 1984 San Francisco 49ers lacked an accessible personality.
02:19This team seemed detached and colorless.
02:23The 49ers appeared better suited to a boardroom than a locker room.
02:27We developed along a business-like approach to the game.
02:32And I think we learned along the way to maybe hold back on the emotion, to not show the emotion
02:38as much.
02:39A lot of people talked about the 1984 team being sort of dispassionate.
02:44They were not emotional after a win.
02:46And that was a team that hated to lose more than they liked to win.
02:51To say that team was dispassionate or that we played with not a lot of emotion, I don't agree with
03:02that at all.
03:02I feel that team played with a lot of emotion and togetherness, because we had great chemistry.
03:13Togetherness propelled the 49ers into Super Bowl XIX.
03:18Their great chemistry was one result of the setbacks they experienced after winning Super Bowl XVI.
03:25We won a Super Bowl as a very young team in 81.
03:29They went 3-6.
03:30One, we came back the next year and didn't even make the playoffs.
03:36It was a team without focus.
03:38It was a team that really didn't regain the spark that they'd had from the year before.
03:43After the disappointing 82 season, I think a lot of guys got their heads back together.
03:49And there was a fair amount of talking among the players that said,
03:51We are going to take control of this 83 season.
03:53We're not going to repeat what happened last year.
03:55We felt we let ourselves down.
03:57I just felt that in 1983, we were gaining back the luster from the 1981 season.
04:04Then we lost the NFC Championship to Washington.
04:09In Washington, the 49ers had to fight back from a 21 to nothing deficit.
04:15In the fourth quarter, Joe Montana threw three touchdown passes to tie the score.
04:21Montana puts it up in the air.
04:23He throws long down the middle and it is caught.
04:27And this is going to be a touchdown.
04:31The comeback ultimately fell short.
04:34Two controversial penalties enabled Washington to kick the game-winning field goal with 40 seconds left.
04:41But an impromptu post-game speech sowed the seeds of a revival.
04:46They voted me defensive captain, so I was just compelled to get up and say something.
04:50Because at first, I just got up and I just looked around and some guys were crying.
04:56We felt cheated.
04:59I told everybody to gather around and I said, this hurts.
05:05I look around and we are very angry.
05:09And I said, don't forget it.
05:11I said, remember this feeling because we don't want to ever feel like that again.
05:15Those feelings after that game and the things that were said after that game lasted the whole offseason.
05:22That was the longest offseason because we couldn't wait to get back to playing again to make this thing right.
05:32Summer brought an early challenge to the team's sense of purpose.
05:37Three veterans had jumped to a new pro league.
05:40Defensive end Fred Dean and cornerback Ronnie Lott were holdouts.
05:45I hope the situations can rectify themselves, but I'm not so sure they can.
05:49In Ronnie Lott's case, he was offered an extremely lucrative contract.
05:54I just don't know what the problem is, whether it's the agent or what.
05:57The contract dispute with Lott, number 42, was quickly resolved.
06:03But it wouldn't return until the season's 11th week.
06:08Despite these examples of discontent, team unity was maintained.
06:13The chemistry of that team was phenomenal.
06:17And even though that there were these things that could have been distractions,
06:22they weren't because collectively as a team, guys kept focused on the job at hand.
06:29When you talk about team, one guy does not make a team.
06:35I remember us saying, we're going to the Super Bowl this year.
06:40We had never, ever said that before or after as a statement in training camp that we were going.
06:48And I think that was the type of emotion that carried through the offseason for us.
06:53And there was a mental engagement to that season unlike any other.
06:58And it all had to do with the way that 83 season ended.
07:05In Detroit, there was little to suggest the 49ers would become a juggernaut.
07:21In a back-and-forth battle with the Lions, the lead changed hands four times.
07:28Finally, it was left to place-gigger Ray Wershing to break a tie game.
07:41Up next was a Monday night meeting with the Washington Redskins.
07:45This is just like the Super Bowl as far as football is concerned.
07:49I don't think anybody's ever going to have a bigger game than this one this time of year.
07:53And so you've got to look at it as a big game in your life right now.
07:58Emotions from the NFC Championship game were still strong.
08:02San Francisco built a 27-3 halftime lead, then held on to exact a measure of revenge.
08:16As Montana drops back to pass, he's running out of the right side.
08:19He's got some running room over there.
08:20If he can't find a receiver, fakes once, once, drives into the end zone.
08:24Touchdown 49ers!
08:26These first two wins have been close and costly to the defense.
08:32Injuries struck a unit that was still seeking an identity.
08:37Cornerbacks Eric Wright and Ronnie Lott were both banged up and missed two games.
08:43During the regular season, Lott's aggressive style resulted in five different injuries.
08:49He was sidelined for four games.
08:56The offense was also stung by injury.
09:02Against the Saints, Joe Montana left the game with sore ribs.
09:07But back up, Matt Cavanaugh ignited a fourth-quarter comeback.
09:12Cooper moves out of it, now in motion, going right.
09:14Here's Cavanaugh, play action, fake, throws a pass over Mattis Cooper at the 20.
09:17He's got it, breaks a tackle, the 15, the 10, the 5, he's in for a score!
09:22They're off for you!
09:23One week later, Cavanaugh started in Philadelphia.
09:27He threw three touchdown passes.
09:34A strong supporting cast helped San Francisco fashion a 4-0 record.
09:39A fast start demonstrated that the 1984 49ers were a team in the truest sense of the word.
09:47You don't know when your turn will come.
09:49You can suddenly be called in to do the most critical thing in the game from out of nowhere.
09:54That's why you've got to be ready every week.
09:56So there isn't a substitute on the ball.
09:58Everybody plays.
10:00It's that simple.
10:01Everybody had a role on that team, and Bill made sure if you didn't, you were gone.
10:06He wanted you to be able to know that you could be called at any second,
10:09and it was a very important part of our winning.
10:12Russ Francis didn't immediately embrace the 49ers team concept.
10:16As a New England Patriot, the tight end had enjoyed the trappings of stardom and the spotlight.
10:27Francis was also a model player.
10:29He made the Pro Bowl three times in six seasons.
10:35When Francis joined the 49ers in 1982, he wasn't received with open arms.
10:41I come back to an 82 season.
10:43Bill Walsh talks me into coming out of retirement.
10:45There's a strike.
10:46There's no football.
10:48These guys are grumbling.
10:49They're grumpy.
10:50They don't like anybody.
10:51They don't like me.
10:51I'm a new guy on the block.
10:52They just won a championship.
10:53They want to get on with their lives and play.
10:56I didn't feel like I fit in.
10:57I probably didn't present myself very well to the team.
11:02Bob McKittrick, the line coach, walked by me on one of the first practices.
11:06I had my helmet on the ground.
11:07I was sitting on it.
11:08And he said, listen.
11:09He said, we're the world champions of San Francisco 49ers.
11:12We don't sit on our helmets.
11:14I said, okay, coach.
11:15So I got up and put my helmet on.
11:16He said, we're the world champions of San Francisco 49ers.
11:19You buckle that helmet on.
11:20He was a former Marine, I found out.
11:22You strap on that helmet when you're on this field.
11:24Okay, coach.
11:24Whatever you say.
11:25We would be in camp and Russ Francis, we called him Flipper because he spent a lot of time
11:31in the pool because he was hurt.
11:33He had this bother him or that bother him.
11:36Got kicked in the leg and pulled the muscle.
11:38He was kind of a loner, I'll do my own kind of thing and you're going to have to get
11:43used
11:43to that.
11:44I think that the majority of people thinking that I might have been a free spirit or I
11:48might have been eccentric or I might have been self-centered is really based on the fact
11:53that I didn't show a lot of what I was thinking or doing.
11:56People thought because I went flying or jumped out of airplanes or rode motorcycles or surfed
12:01that I wasn't paying attention to the job at hand, which is football.
12:04But you don't play 14 years in the National Football League unless you eat, sleep and breathe
12:08football.
12:08And I would always think about scenarios and situations coming up in the field while I was
12:12on a surfboard or whether I was flying in a plane or jumping out of a plane.
12:17Believe it or not, in free fall at 120 miles an hour, you have enough time to run a pass
12:22pattern, break across the middle, get behind the strong safety, open your parachute, make
12:27sure it's opening, and then think about catching it for the touchdown.
12:32Despite his bumpy landing in San Francisco, this former outsider had become a respected
12:37teammate by 1984.
12:42The camaraderie that Francis valued was encouraged by a restaurant owner's preseason offer.
12:49We had a guy, Tim was his first name, he had a restaurant, it was just up the hill from
12:54our facility in Redwood City.
12:56Tim came to the team and said, listen guys, for every game you win, you guys come up here,
13:00you have a free burger, free milkshake, soda, whatever, it's on me, the whole team.
13:04And it meant so much to the team that he did that.
13:07The highlight of the week after winning a game was going up to Tim's place up the hill
13:11for that burger.
13:12He didn't know we were going to win every game but one, and it brought the team together.
13:16And it was simple, and it was basic, but it was powerful.
13:25Teams tend to get remembered for their play and their personality.
13:30And I think our defense didn't have a personality that people could focus in on.
13:37We always seemed to run into a team that had a sexier story about them that everybody could
13:44relate to.
13:45We didn't have anything like that.
13:4850-year pro, Keena Turner, number 58, was the only 49er to play every defensive down.
13:55Turner was a perfectionist.
13:57He was often unsparing in his self-criticism.
14:00It got to a point where it wasn't ever good enough, the way you played, personally, because
14:06you were always thinking about the tackle you missed or the play that you didn't make.
14:12I could be up at 3 in the morning, waxing my car after a game because I missed the tackle.
14:18I think it went back to just that relentless look for some perfection in the way that you played.
14:24And, yes, the downside of searching for perfection is you never, ever get there.
14:31Turner's search didn't really begin until 1981.
14:36That's when Jack Hacksaw Reynolds, number 64, joined the team.
14:41The veteran linebacker was eccentric but totally committed to football.
14:46Turner was impressed.
14:48As a young player coming in, I didn't realize that being a good athlete had nothing to do with being
14:54a good football player.
14:55And I just learned how to be a football player around Hack.
14:58His approach to the game was one of being a student throughout.
15:02He came to every meeting with a shoebox full of pencils.
15:06He had a divider down the middle.
15:08He had sharpened pencils on one side, dull pencils on the other.
15:12And he just kept changing them as he wrote down every single thing that was said in the meeting.
15:17And that was a demeaning approach that I didn't know and wasn't used to
15:21and didn't think that that had anything to do with being a football player.
15:24And I learned that from Jack.
15:26You see a big split over here?
15:29You see a man, the yellow's over on here?
15:31I was over there, I think.
15:32You'd come to, you know, morning breakfast the day of a game
15:36and Jack would be sitting, you know, down at the breakfast table at 8 in the morning
15:40fully dressed with his uniform on, helmet and everything.
15:43I mean, he'd already have grass and mud in his face mask.
15:47He said to me one morning, because I looked at him and said,
15:50he's made too many times, he said to me,
15:52hey, I'm ready to play.
15:53Are you ready?
15:56Reynolds imparted his veteran wisdom to a resourceful and disciplined defense.
16:02But this unit didn't receive enough credit for its toughness.
16:06Everyone thought that we were a finesse type defense.
16:09But we had a defense that could hit you and beat you up.
16:14We would come up and knock the crap out of you.
16:29All four starting defensive backs, Carlton Williamson, number 27, Dwight Hicks,
16:36Eric Wright, and Ronnie Lott, number 42, were named to the Pro Bowl.
16:43These celebrated starters were supported by unsung reserves like Dana Macklemore, number 43.
16:51Each week, it was someone else coming out with big plays.
16:55And that's because we played the team concept and team defense
17:00better than any team that ever played in NFL history.
17:04Number 22, Dwight Hicks, was an inspirational leader.
17:08In 1984, he earned Pro Bowl honors for the fourth straight season.
17:15Hicks was signed as a free agent in 1979.
17:19He had already been cut by two NFL teams.
17:23He was working a day job in Detroit when the 49ers contacted him.
17:28They had gone up to play for a 15-1 team.
17:34Who couldn't?
17:35I'm through 33 defensive backs that year.
17:39And I came in for a workout and they liked me.
17:42But they didn't want to sign me.
17:44And then there was a call saying,
17:47Dwight, this is John McVeigh from the San Francisco 49ers.
17:50There's a ticket for you at Detroit Metro.
17:54And I can remember calling the airport trying to find out if it was a one-way or two-way
17:59ticket.
18:00And it actually was a one-way ticket.
18:02And I signed with them.
18:04John Facinda did a story about me.
18:08And he was saying that I was managing a health food store.
18:12Three years ago, Hicks was managing a health food store.
18:16In 1981, he managed the league's most exciting secondary.
18:22I was working as a stock boy in a health food store.
18:26I signed with them with eight games remaining.
18:30And they had won one game.
18:33Last home in 1979, when we played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
18:37they needed one game to get into the playoffs.
18:41And they had two left.
18:42We beat them.
18:43The fans tore down the goalposts.
18:45And I said to myself,
18:46could you imagine if we actually bought a team here?
18:50You know, what these fans would be like?
18:52I mean, that was a second win.
18:54We were tearing down the goalposts like we had just won a championship.
18:57A world championship in 1981 unleashed 49er fever.
19:02In 1984, that fever reached epidemic proportions after the team's 6-0 start.
19:14From Candlestick Park to Castro Street, a diverse fan base had plenty to sing about.
19:20We love you 49ers.
19:21Your team is number one.
19:23We cheers for Joe Montana and Freddie Solomon.
19:32The San Francisco 49ers meant so much to the city.
19:36People were trying to market the success that we were having on the football field.
19:41And somebody came up with an idea of let's cut a record.
19:46And 14 guys from the team recorded a song called We're the 49ers.
19:51We're the 49ers.
19:55We will rock you till we win the fight.
19:59We're the 49ers.
20:03We're dynamites.
20:05We're dynamites.
20:07We're the 49ers.
20:11We will rock you till we win the fight.
20:19The record was actually released around the week of the Pittsburgh game.
20:24And so Bill was very unhappy with us that so much focus was on this outside of football thing.
20:30That week, the undefeated 49ers finally fell to earth.
20:37They were knocked off balance by the 3-3 Steelers.
20:42Despite numerous miscues, the 49ers held a 17-10 fourth-quarter lead.
20:49Late in the game, they mannered an apparently successful goal-line stand.
20:54But a questionable penalty nullified a fourth-and-goal stop.
20:58They threw a pass to Stalward, Eric Wright was guarding.
21:04I thought he made one of the best defensive plays I've ever seen.
21:07And the official on the play called incomplete.
21:12And another official from, it didn't seem like he was a back judge, threw the flag.
21:20The infraction enabled Pittsburgh to score a touchdown.
21:25Moments later, the Steelers kicked the game-winning field goal.
21:33The 49ers suffered their only defeat of the season.
21:38We say that officials can lose it for you.
21:40They did.
21:41But that's part of the game.
21:43They're inept idiots.
21:49But that is part of life.
21:52Whether you're driving down the street or in the military or working somewhere or making love or whatever the hell
21:58it is,
21:58there are some things that happen out of your control.
22:01You have to account for them and overcome them.
22:03Well, we almost overcame it.
22:05We almost overcame it after all the things that left in you.
22:16Against winless Houston, the 49ers were slow to burn.
22:21In a surprisingly tight game, San Francisco didn't secure a victory until there were nine minutes left to play.
22:28Here's Montana going back to pass.
22:30He's going to throw the ball.
22:32Deep down the field to Clark.
22:33And he called it.
22:35Still goes.
22:3635-30, 25-20.
22:38Clark got it down to 5-3.
22:40Goes into the end zone for a 49er touchdown.
22:44It was Edward DiBartolo Jr. who got angry.
22:48The 49ers owner was furious about his team's listless performance.
22:53He was pissed.
22:54And he felt that we played well below the standards of what we were accustomed to playing.
23:01And he let us know.
23:03And I think Eddie's quote was,
23:06You guys, that was an awful performance.
23:09You got to bring ass to get ass.
23:13Eddie was a very passionate person and very volatile.
23:16He would come in and let his presence be known sometimes and was quite effective.
23:24Well, I'm trying to build a competitive playoff contender.
23:28I'm trying to build a winner.
23:29And I also, the main thing is, I don't like to lose.
23:34That's it.
23:35Because we had that much success early, each week after that, there's an added pressure to win.
23:43And not only to win, but to win big.
23:48Winning was expected.
23:50You know, and obviously through Bill's approach, through our ownership's approach, it became something that was demanded.
23:57We knew that if we didn't win a Super Bowl, that we didn't have a successful year.
24:02So in that respect, there was a lot of pressure.
24:04I didn't feel a lot of the pressure that maybe some of the players might have felt.
24:08Well, I do know one man on that team that felt it every single second of every single day and
24:13night, and that was Bill Walsh.
24:16Somebody quoted Bill as saying, he believed in creative tension.
24:19There was a great deal of tension that Bill liked to create.
24:21I don't know that it was so much creative.
24:22Crosses that way on a double circle out.
24:25Well, let me...
24:26Fullback goes to the flat.
24:28I got the fullback goes to the flat.
24:29I put the play in, Paul.
24:33If you correct me on the field, I put the thing in upstairs.
24:37Now I'm being told by you what the f*** to do.
24:40Let's go.
24:40He didn't like the fact that I flew airplanes and rode motorcycles, or jumped out of planes for that matter.
24:49When he found out about trying to break a world speed record, which I was working on seriously,
24:53he came to me and said, you can't do this.
24:56The season started.
24:56If you get hurt, you know, you could be lost for the season.
24:59I said, coach, at 500 miles an hour, 20 feet above the ground, if there's a problem, you'd be lucky
25:03to find my watch.
25:05And I knew that I'd done wrong.
25:06I had not informed him, and I wasn't being the team player that he wanted me to be.
25:11So I scrubbed that test flight.
25:14I had to learn how to play football the way that Bill Walsh was coaching football.
25:18And that was one inch at a time.
25:21Go on.
25:22In due respect, Francis was playing football before he was a head coach.
25:27So, I don't know.
25:28Go out and do what you're supposed to do.
25:31I don't want to hear about, I could have gotten deep, I could have beat this guy.
25:34If Russ gets four yards, the play worked.
25:38Yeah, read, read what you see.
25:41His approach was artful and creative.
25:44Football was an art to him.
25:46Pretty, pretty.
25:47I mean, that will be a beauty.
25:49It wasn't just this entanglement of bodies that physically, play after play, proved who was the stronger man, who was
25:59the better man.
26:01Bill's approach was, who was the smarter man.
26:04And it was all about out-thinking the other team, out-adjusting, making a quick decision on the field that's
26:12going to beat their thought process.
26:14It's going to be a step ahead of them.
26:16During the second half of the regular season, San Francisco out-thought and overwhelmed the opposition.
26:42Over the final eight games, the team's average margin of victory was nearly 23 points.
26:51In 1984, the 49ers led the NFC in total offense and scoring.
26:58They ended the regular season with an NFL record 15 wins.
27:07Bill Walsh had designed a team that operated so efficiently, it seemed to have rolled off an assembly line.
27:14A precision machine, that was sort of our label.
27:18Without a heck of a lot of personality, a machine that just effectively and precisely destroyed the opponent.
27:27Carter!
27:30The defense recorded six sacks and three take-aways.
27:35The Giants offense never crossed the goal line.
27:39The win meant San Francisco would host Chicago in the NFC title game.
27:44Bill Walsh's dislike of the Bears was succeeded only by his distrust of the local media.
27:54Walsh's contempt for Bay Area sportswriters fueled an us-against-them mindset.
27:59Consequences.
28:00The newspaper men, they want you to lose.
28:03They want you to lose some f***ing bad.
28:05The local guys pick you to lose every week and they just, come on, make me look good.
28:10You know, you see it.
28:12They want you to lose.
28:13And the people that are patting you on the back, they got nothing to lose.
28:17They pat you on the back, you're doing great.
28:19When you lose, you're jerks.
28:21Everybody wants your ass.
28:23They want your high.
28:24That's how, that's how we have to make a deal.
28:26No one is on our side, I'm telling you.
28:29Even though they'll slide a drink down to you in the bar, no one's on your side.
28:34He used the press to solidify the team as...
28:3849ers uptight this week?
28:40If anything, this is the most nerve-wracking game of the year.
28:44And maybe, just maybe, they are too tense about it.
28:47Chicago's vaunted 46 defense had totaled an NFL record 72 sacks.
28:53But Walsh was hardly too tense about playing the Bears.
28:58I think he would knock their hands off.
29:00The more I think about it, they're setting themselves up as a football player.
29:04He's a national player.
29:06Many times a guy thinks he's rough and tough and he comes to the team now.
29:09Four out of five of those guys get their ass to kick.
29:13Because most of those kind of guys are dumb.
29:15In the NFC Championship game, the most dominant defense on the field belonged to the 49ers.
29:46Walsh turned rookie guard Guy McIntyre, number 62,
29:50into a 280-pound blocking back.
29:55A shutout victory guaranteed the 49ers a date with the Dolphins in Super Bowl 19.
30:03We felt that we should have been in it last year also.
30:06It came down a couple calls at the end of the game.
30:09And just wanted to get back and prove that we are a good football team.
30:15In the 18 games leading up to the Super Bowl, Montana threw 32 touchdown passes.
30:33Montana was the 49ers' most visible player, as well as their most valuable one.
30:41But in 1984, there was a new gunslinger in town.
30:46The Dolphins' Dan Marino threw a record-shattering 48 touchdown passes during the regular season.
30:57Miami finished with a 16-2 record.
31:01The Dolphins led the league in scoring.
31:08During the build-up to Super Bowl 19, the supremely gifted Marino was the media's darling.
31:15This was true even when Joe Montana was the focus of attention.
31:20The biggest crowd of reporters was around Joe Montana.
31:23The question there, is Montana in any way jealous of Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino?
31:27The answer was no.
31:29Everybody has their time, and this is his right now.
31:32He's had a great year, so I didn't expect anything less from it.
31:35And I think it's great what's happening to him.
31:41The media had generated a quarterback controversy.
31:46Any slight against Montana was taken as a slight against the entire team.
31:51The press fueled the fire.
31:54They gave us some added incentive to win.
31:57They were primarily focused on Dan Marino.
32:01They were trying to say their offense was so much better than ours.
32:06Instead of an old-fashioned pep talk, Bill Walsh used sarcasm as a motivational tool.
32:13I can remember Walsh lying down in the middle of the floor, and he just started rumbling on and on
32:19about Miami.
32:21Oh, they have such a great offense.
32:23Oh, my God.
32:24How are we going to stop them?
32:26And, jeez, their defense and the killer bees.
32:29Jeez.
32:30How are we going to be able to get a first down or even a yard?
32:34And he just wanted to light that fire before we came out of the locker room.
32:39And I can remember he turned and he looked at me and he just said,
32:43God, don't you just want to break the wall and just go kick their ass right now?
32:4725, 29, and up!
33:02On San Francisco's second drive of the first quarter,
33:06Joe Montana threw a 33-yard scoring pass to Carl Monroe.
33:10He's in the end zone for a touchdown for the 49ers!
33:14Fantastic.
33:15You know, they talk about Marino having a great arm,
33:17and I'll tell you, nobody could have thrown that ball any harder and on target than Montana did that way.
33:21Marino immediately retaliated.
33:24Miami regained the lead to end the first quarter.
33:28But from that point on, Super Bowl XIX belonged to Joe Montana.
33:33They can't stop us!
33:35They outscored them 31-6.
33:44During the second quarter, Montana directed three successive touchdown drives.
34:09Back to pass, Montana fires.
34:11It's caught there by Craig, gets it, and goes in for a touchdown!
34:15Taking the pass from Joe Montana, good for the score, and the Niners are back on top.
34:19Get it in, go!
34:21Montana crossback, short drop, fakes one.
34:23He's going to run it himself!
34:24He's in at the end zone!
34:25Touchdown!
34:26All eyes are now fixed on pro football's best quarterback.
34:31A handoff, give it a trick.
34:32Craig Patterson's way to the goal line.
34:34He goes in for a 49er touchdown!
34:37And the 49ers are leaving the Miami Dolphins far to the rear now.
34:43The defense began to pressure Marino during the second period.
34:48Attack!
34:57We rushed him, and that was the first time you had seen him get rushed in the pocket.
35:03And so, Danny was getting frustrated with the pressure, with people flashing in his face,
35:09getting bumped around.
35:10It was something that hadn't happened all season.
35:12They were hitting his ass.
35:14And you start doing that to a quarterback in the NFL, I don't care who you are.
35:19It'll make you look very ordinary.
35:21The league's best protected quarterback during the regular season was sacked four times.
35:27He was also intercepted twice.
35:30From the 28th yard line, Marino drops back to throw a pass.
35:33He fires to the goal line, and it is intercepted!
35:36Picked off by Eric Wright!
35:39Bill Walsh had choreographed a dominating victory.
35:46Going back to pass on 3rd and 10th Montana.
35:49Looks...
35:50...all the way to the end zone, and Craig goes in for the score!
35:54Yeah!
35:55Yeah!
35:57He came to see an offense, and the wrong one showed up!
36:02Joe Montana was named Super Bowl MVP.
36:06The 49ers won easily to finish the season with an NFL record 18 victories.
36:13How do you like that, huh?
36:14How do you like that?
36:15Pretty good, huh?
36:17Why don't we kick their ass?
36:18Kick their ass!
36:20They can go back to Miami!
36:22And go and fish!
36:23And go fish!
36:25Nobody knew what kind of offense we had.
36:28It was their offense.
36:29Right?
36:30Our offense showed them, okay?
36:32And then, how in the hell were we going to stop Duper Clayton Marino?
36:37Nobody knew but us, right?
36:38Right!
36:40Game ball!
36:42Coach Bill Walsh.
36:43Yeah!
36:44Yeah!
36:45Yeah!
36:47Yeah!
36:50Yeah!
36:50That was beautiful.
36:51And he had one of the greatest quarterbacks that ever played a game to orchestrate it.
36:58All we heard all week long was Miami's offense.
37:00How are you going to stop them?
37:01And I think deep inside of us, nothing was said.
37:03But inside of each of us, we just knew that we had an offense, too.
37:06And no one was thinking about having to stop us.
37:08So I think we were out to prove something.
37:12All 49 guys got to play in that game.
37:15And it was players like Carl Monroe, Mario Clark, Jeff Fuller that weren't starters but came in and contributed a
37:25lot to the success of that game.
37:28They all contributed a big part to our success all year, and the Super Bowl was just a culmination of
37:35all of it and a complete team game and a team win.
37:42Coach Walsh, there ought to be a bigger word than congratulations for all that we saw tonight and what you
37:48and that team of yours have accomplished.
37:49Well, I'll tell you, they've given it all year, Mr. President.
37:52This is the greatest football team and the greatest group of people I've ever been around, and I hope we've
37:57added to today's festivities.
38:01For me, at the end of 84, it was like, see, I told you.
38:05I told you so.
38:07This is what I told you this team was.
38:09This is what I told you we should have accomplished after 83.
38:13This is what we said we would do.
38:15It was a season that I'll never forget.
38:20Throughout 1984, the San Francisco 49ers proved that America's game was a team game.
38:27Other people have some strengths, and we've got 49 guys.
38:32Remind ourselves that every play is a critical win, and they were all involved, 49 guys.
38:41The true character of that team was that they would have done anything for each other to win, to finish
38:48what they said they were going to do at the beginning of the season.
38:50It was that bond, it was that closest, and we still have it today.
38:54In my mind, not just because I played there, but you look at all the facts, that was one of
38:59the greatest football teams to ever take the field, bar none.
39:04More than anything, we played for each other.
39:10That team had so much chemistry.
39:14We were a very confident group of players and believed in each other, and I feel that's why we were
39:20so successful, and that's why I wear this ring.
39:24I was defensive captain of that team, best team I've ever been associated with.
39:30This is what you play for every year, and the only bad part about it is when you don't make
39:34it, now you're expected to make it every year.
39:37And we expect it of ourselves, and anything less than us is a letdown for us.
39:41The expectations became even higher after this history-making season ended.
39:46Two Lombardi trophies were not enough.
39:49Looking back and appreciating those times gone by are much easier now, but when it was going on, there was
39:58always the game next week that you had to prepare for.
40:01So if you enjoyed it for a moment, you had to come back to the reality that, okay, I got
40:06to play next week, and I got to play next season.
40:09And what we did last week or the season before doesn't matter.
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