Elitist mentality has returned to San Francisco

Thanksgiving night was the biggest challenge this Niners team has faced all season and the Niners flat out got their ass kicked in every aspect of the game. Some fans latched on to coach Harbaughs excuse machine, claiming the short week and cross country flight would prevent them from playing their A game. Last time I checked, professional football players don't travel Southwest, despite the "your bags fly free" promotions. They fly on chartered jets, shack up in 5 star hotels and get treated like royalty. Yes, if guys were banged up in the game versus Arizona, then likely guys were not playing at 100%.

I don't want to spend much time on the game itself, because sadly, I didn't get to watch much of it. What I'd like to talk about today is the mentality of some of our fans. Some of the fans have reverted back to the mid 80's and 90's, a time in Niners history when the team was favored by double digits every week, went on the road in the west coast time zone, east coast time zone, against good teams and bad and beat the living crap out of teams regardless of when and where they played. This team is not that team. Not only are they not made up of future hall of famers they way those old teams were. This is a team that had 10 seasons of mediocrity, a number of 10 loss seasons and practically gave up once the team was losing a game. The entire franchise was a complete disaster and they were clearly a laughing stock in the NFL. Jim Harbaugh has changed the mindset and focus of his team, in a very short period of time, but let's keep in mind that he has only been around for half a football season. It's easy to forget this because the team has been playing so well, winning games on the road and si.com had them ranked #2 in their power rankings going into the game at Baltimore. Let's not lose sight of the fact that this franchise is in the process of rebuilding their reputation, rebuilding the winning mentality of it's players, coaches and fans.

All of that being said, I am guilty at times. I am overly critical of Alex Smith when he doesn't play well and refuse to give him credit when he does play well. I still want to see Steve Young on the field, dropping back to pass, avoiding the pass rush and refusing to take a sack and rushing toward contact, beating up linebackers before he takes a vicious hit fromt he safety because he refuses to slide. That's what is still fresh in my mind as a Niners fan it's very difficult to accept anything less, but this team isn't the team I watched growing up. It's a new team, with new coaches and players trying to make a name for themselves and I need to embrace that because despite a tough loss to a very good Baltimore Ravens team, we still have an opportunity to clinch the division this coming weekend and that's a beautiful thing, if I allow myself to accept it, which I probably won't.