(Insert bad 49er mustache joke)

pictured above, former 49er Safety Tom Holmoe at the '84 "Super Bowl" parade...
"It's for the throwback game. Every day we go to meetings and we go by these beautiful pictures and we admire these guys' mustaches." -Shaun Hill

Slow news week in the Bay apparently, with the mustache tribute getting more press than the only successful Yay area team (the Sharks, of course).

The frivolity of facial hair wouldn't have mattered if not for Shaun Hill waking up in the 4th to just sneak by the Rams. Lose to the Rams, and the fun and games would not even be a consideration. Did you know Sports Illustrated rated the 9ers/Rams as the 8th best rivalry in the NFL? That's crazy, not because I don't think Niners-Rams is a rivalry but that it's the eighth best. I mean I wasn't around for the Kezar Stadium days but post-1980 if you had to list a top 10 Rams-Niners rivalry moments there would be a good chance that moment one time when NFL Films had Dana Stubblefield walking to the sidelines after a 3-and-out, laughing while telling his teammates they were the "Same old Rams" which is funny and bulletin board material but should in no way sniff a top 10 moments in the 8th-best rivalry in the NFL.

I'm sure the Cowboys think differently because they have the Skins/Eagles/Giants to deal with (Cox am I right in my assumption?), but my childhood rivalry will always be 49ers-Cowboys.


This week, our last game is against a real Cowboy rival the Redskins. I hope we win, but more importantly I hope Jed York or whomever is standing next to Singletary the moment 0:00 hits in the fourth quarter and just hands him a contract to sign. There will be more than enough head coaching opportunities for Sing in the offseason if we don't re-sign him -- and thankfully Cowher, Schottenheimer (and probably someone dumb enough to sign Norv) are keeping everyone busy for us to grab Samurai Mike and build upon the last half of this season.

Singletary had a meeting with ownership earlier this week and the buzz is they liked what they heard and they're probably firing Snagglepuss Martz at the end of the season, which is good news because although his play-calling has been much more in line with our personnel lately one can't help but think how that FUCKING last 30 seconds of the Cardinals MNF game might have changed this week's team from "those whacky 49ers with their mustaches and pants-dropping coach" to "those whacky 49ers with mustaches and pants-dropping coach with a shot at stealing the NFC West."

Things are bright-as-fuck with Singletary at the helm. It almost feels like one of those "Major League" sad-sack franchise comeback movies. You get apathetic head coach Nolan replaced by fiery Singletary, who chews out VD and kicks him out of the sideline the first week. The team turns things around, beating the Bills on the road and the Jets in consecutive weeks and then last week Singletary kept Hill on the field after an abysmal first three quarters because he "saw a look in his eyes". The only way this would be definitely made for Hollywood would be if we traded Vernon Davis to Washington, run into the Skins at a bar and brawl after they disrespected us to set up the last game of the season. It's almost inspiring because if any other 6-9 team decided to uniformly grow mustaches for their throwback uniforms I'd roll my eyes and wish they'd focus more on making plays and studying the playbook, but with this team I'm just amped as fuck to see those goofy bastards play one last time this year.
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I hope Gore gets those 22 yards for his third consecutive 1,000-yard season and I will miss Joe Starkey who's last game is this week doing play-by-play for 49er radio. Starkey is best known for his call in the Stanford/Cal Big Game when the Bears won with "The Play".