Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Big Girls Don't Cry, was a big hit back in the "good old days", my good old days, the sixties and seventies.

I always loved their music; it takes me back to my days of innocence and high school.
At the time, I really didn't have much to cry about.
But then again I wasn't yet a San Francisco Forty Niners fan.

Now that I view life through slightly myopic field binoculars I find a lot of reasons for Big Girls to Cry.

Tears on my pillow
Case in point - the Niners last 10 years of NFL misery. No Super Bowl wins or even a chance to get within smelling distance of the Lombardi Trophy is reason enough for a prolonged sob session. The last time I reveled in the glow of a 49er Super Bowl was in 1995 as the Niners beat the Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX. Those were the days my friends, I thought they'd never end.

The 1994 49ers were a true, "money" team the last such team Eddie D put on the field for the Niners. It was, perhaps, the last hurrah for the team as well as for the owner.
Eddie DeBartolo, determined not to lose to the Cowboys, yet again, acquired a lineup of high-priced, but proven defensive free-agents, led by cornerback Deion Sanders and linebackers Ken Norton Jr., Gary Plummer and Rickey Jackson. They crushed the Bears to open the playoffs, then faced the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game for the third consecutive season. In front of 69,125 screaming fans at Candlestick Park , the 49ers turned back the Cowboys 38-28. Two weeks later, Young and Rice led the 49ers to a 49-26 drubbing of the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX-- the team's fifth Super Bowl win.
My recollection of that game were somewhat clouded by a haze of alcohol.
 

Bye bye baby, baby goodbye
So, what have you done for me lately?

Not a whole hell of a lot.
Joe Montana, long gone.

Steve Young, long gone.

Jerry Rice, long gone.

Terrill Owens, long gone.
Bill Walsh, George Seifert and Steve Mariucci, all gone.

The franchise has yet to find the right coaches or the right players.
It has been a revolving door of mediocrity and underachievers at 4949 Centennial Boulevard for the last decade.

The Alex Smith and Mike Nolan experiment has been given another year to put up or shut up. Our offense used to be the envy of the NFL; lately it is the butt of NFL jokesters.
In the off-season we've signed two wide receivers with some mileage on them, again, Bryant Johnson and Isaac Bruce. We retained Shaun Hill to compete with Alex Smith, but with only three starts how much is really expected of Hill? Is it safe to say that Alex Smith has been a bust? Because if he is, then Mike Nolan will be held accountable.

Mike "Madman" Martz has been given the keys to the kingdom, the 49ers offense. Truth be told the offense showed some signs of life in 2006 under the leadership of Norv Turner so maybe there is something to the argument that Smith wasn't getting the right coaching after Turner left for San Diego .

The defense is slowly coming around and there have been signs of improvement although there is an obvious lack production on defense when it comes to the pass rush. Hopefully Manny Lawson and Justin Smith will change that this season.
Assistant head coach Mike Singletary hasn't quite made the impact expected, but his units were much better than the woeful offense. Sadly, the best unit on the 2007 team was the special teams unit. That speaks volumes for how badly the offense played, in spite of Frank Gore's valiant efforts.

We are talking Bungals-type bad football here my fearless football friends.

Is there unmined potential? Is there a there, there? Are there diamonds in the rough waiting for the right coach to shine them up or has the organization done a piss poor job of evaluating talent? The 2008 season will answer many of the questions 49ers fans were left with as they watched their 2007 hopes evaporate under the harsh lights of football reality.

How long this futility will last in anyone's guess. But I do know one thing, Big Girls Do Cry!

Boohoo