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Home of the 49ers

In early December 2002, the 49er's were in the thick of the chase for the playoffs heading into their weekend encounter with rival Green Bay Packers.  They had a record of 9-4, same as the Packers, and the winner of this game would have the edge for home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  This game had the potential to be the impact point of both teams seasons.

We headed across the bay early that Sunday morning, in high spirits and bad weather.  The forecast for the game was heavy rain.... something I wish I had taken into stronger consideration.  Pilan had the tickets, and invited me, his brother Preedee, and his high school friend Ray, whom we would go skiing with later during winter break.  

We drove around to the north east side of candlestick... err... three com... park.  Being as cheap as we are, we found free parking about a mile out on an industrial road, filled with potholes.  Our first encounter with such a pothole was passing over what appeared to be a small puddle in the car, only to dip maybe three feet into the water... SUV converted into a boat!

The first thing that struck me was the number of Packer fans that were at the game.  The crowd was speckled with red and yellow... and there was a good deal of barbing between the respective fan bases.  I had been surprised to see us pass all those Wisconsin license plates on the way in... those cheese-heads are hardcore!  Our seats were upper deck and separated from one another, and we spent some time trying to find seats side by side.  The entertainment was set off with a flyby of the national guard's wing of transport helicopters.  

The first half was very tight, a defensive struggle while the rain prevented the two pro bowl quarterbacks from lighting up the field.  At the half, the score was 6-3, 49ers up.  Brett Favre came out in the second half and torched our defense.  He drove them up and down the field, scoring 14 points.  But the 49er's were far from out.  Jeff Garcia threw a perfect spiral to Terrell Owens, who broke two tackles for a touchdown.  He ran over to the cheerleaders to borrow their pom-poms, and proceeded to make a fool of himself.  What an ego!

Now down by six, we began our last drive with just over four minutes left.  Garcia began to push the ball downfield, bringing back memories of past 49er's quarterbacks who have made similar runs at greatness.  We drove down to about their 20 yard line, when a quarterback rush led Garcia to get out of bounds on the packers sideline... where big Gilbert Brown welcomed him with a massive club forearm that knocked Garcia to the ground.  As it turned out, this dirty play caused Jeff a sprained ankle, which he tried to play through.  The pictures above depict the last play of the game, a 4th and goal from the Packers 9 yard line.  The ball fell incomplete with 22 seconds left in the game, sealing the deal for the packers, as they won 20-14.

After the game, we went down to the field and actually walked out through the endzone.  The three other guys bought calendars of the 49er's "Goldrush Cheerleaders", and we went out front where the girls were signing the calendars.  Preedee was the last person that they signed stuff for, and afterwards we took pictures with them.

I am glad that my first chance to see an NFL game was such a big game for the team that I have followed from before I can remember.  It was a very different thing than college football, and all and all, the game was a wonderful experience.