Respect this ESPN

The road to the Superbowl goes through San Francisco, as it did in the late 80's and early 90's when The San Francisco 49ers were building a legacy and achieving greatness under legendary head coach and Hall of Famer Bill Walsh. If you visited the ESPN website today, you wouldn't know a thing about it. The Niners have been off the national radar since San Francisco won Superbowl XXIX and Gary Plummer ripped the imaginary monkey off the back of Steve Young after they dismantled a pretty good San Diego Chargers team 49-26.

Since those days, the internet has become the most valuable asset for sports fans across the planet, sports talk radio has become bigger than ever before and twitter is the most popular avenue for players to run their mouth and flap their collective gums. Jerry Rice, the greatest football player in the history of the NFL was brought to Bristol Connecticut this week to talk about, you guessed it, the New York football Giants. Linda Cohn had the balls, yes the balls, to ask him six questions about the New York Giants and one question about San Francisco. 

It's easy to say that San Francisco has not been given enough credit nor have they received the respect they deserve. But let's be honest, we are 49ers fans. We don't need ESPN or any other national sports company to validate the success of this franchise. We are easily the toughest group of fans in professional football. If you doubt that statement, allow me to explain. Name another fan base that grew up with 5 superbowl championships, the greatest quarterback in the history of football, who threw balls to the greatest football player in the history of the game who were both coached by a man who single handedly revolutionized the game of football as we know it. I am that fan. Is it even humanly possible to have higher expectations than Niner fans? Allow me to take this one step further. Let's discuss Alex Smith for a moment. The guy has been absolutely dreadful for the six years he has played in the NFL and just a few short days ago, he dropped  the New Orleans Saints, the team every single expert claimed would come to San Francisco and break their 0-4 road playoff drought and threw a TD pass to Vernon Davis that many ( I hate nicknames so I refuse to play that game) are calling The Catch III. He has this team and it's first year head football coach playing in the NFC Championship game and the first thing out of my mouth on Sunday morning after that amazing and incredible victory. Can he do it again? 

Slice this pie however you want, but the reality of the situation is extremely simple. East Coast biased exists and more importantly, I don't give a damn! ESPN, Sports Illustrated and every group of nut jobs in between can avoid my team all they want. They can disrespect this team, it's fans, it's players and it's success all they want and I don't care. I know Niner fans better than any of those organizations ever will and I know this much. We live, die and bleed 49ers football and this town has higher expectations for their football team than any other franchise in the NFL. We know who we are, we know what we want and we won't be happy until the final second ticks off the clock in Indianapolis on Sunday February 5th and Jed York takes the Lombardi trophy from the hands of Roger Goodell. That's when others will give us respect and by that point, we still won't give a damn because it will be too late. 

Alex freaking Smith!

For the past 6 seasons, Alex Smith has been called every name in the book by Niners fans and in my opinion, he deserved the criticism. As a kid growing up, I admired two of the greatest QB's in the history of professional football. Joe Montana, the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL and Steve Young, a hall of famer who shined starting the moment after he appeared from behind the shadows of Joe Montana's legend.

I followed CAL football and Aaron Rodgers was the star of that team. When he entered the NFL draft, I was excited at the idea of San Francisco drafting him with the number one overall pick of the 2005 NFL draft, but we got Alex Smith instead. A QB who ran a spread offense, didn't perform very well at the NFL combines but was off the charts when it came to the wonderlic test. He was a very smart guy with small hands. A guy who had never taken a snap from under center, played his college ball at Utah, a school that didn't play anybody. He was basically set up to fail and fail is exactly what he did.

At the end of the 2010 NFL season the San Francisco 49ers fired head football coach Mike Singletary and owner Jed York promised this proud franchise that the team was set to move in a different direction and return to the success we experienced in the late 80's and early 90's. Jim Harbaugh was meeting with the Miami Dolphins in the morning and San Francisco in the evening and many fans were told by ESPN and countless other East coast biased outlets that Harbaugh had already signed a contract with Miami. Well, he didn't and he signed a 5 year $25 million deal with The Niners to become the next head football coach, fresh off a stellar coaching career at Stanford, which reminded so many fans in San Francisco of the late great genius Bill Walsh's journey to San Francisco.

Almost immediately Jim Harbaugh announced that once the NFL lockout ended, Alex Smith would be his QB. As a fan of this team, I thought a lunacy commission should be appointed to take Harbaugh to an insane asylum. I couldn't believe that we were going to start a new season with old baggage, but Harbaugh was convinced that Alex was his guy. I know Harbaugh's path to success very well and it's been made perfectly clear what he has done to get his first NFL coaching position so I decided I would trust him, even though I didn't want to.

Throughout the 2011 season, Alex Smith proved that he could "manage the game" very well and he did just enough to win games, but he won. He wasn't flashy, he didn't put up the numbers that Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Tom Brady did, but he won; plain and simple. On Saturday January 14th, 2012, he did the unthinkable. He went to to toe with Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, he wasn't intimidated or scared, he showed up and had the biggest game of his entire career and he did it "in spectacular fashion."

I can't say that all the criticism I laid at the feet of Smith were unwarranted, I can't take it back and don't feel like I should be forced to, just because he won a big game. I believe in him more today than I did going into the game on Saturday. To be completely honest, when New Orleans took the lead late in the 4th quarter, I had absolutely zero confidence in Alex Smith's abilities and thought for sure we were destined to lose. I've never had faith in him and I am sure that when the NFC Championship game starts, I won't have much faith in him either, but he did it. Alex freaking Smith is one of the main reasons why we beat New Orleans in the divisional round and the 4th quarter of that football game will never be forgotten. It was a game for the ages as well as a coming of age for young Alex Smith. I give the guy a ton of credit for having the stones to make some big plays and get his first signature win, but i still have my doubts. As is almost always the case in sports, the next question to be asked is simple. Can he do it again?