The second was trading Romanowski to the Eagles and a washed up Matt Millen retired and that defense went downhill quick.
I don't think Romanowski was all that crucial. Charles Haley was a big swing. The next really big swing, in my view, was letting Rickey Watters depart, as a free agent to Philadelphia. The 49ers wasted the second half of the decade, and the rest of Steve Young's career, without a running game which left them fatally flawed. In between Haley and Watters, the defense went down and up, but nothing really dramatic.
Garrison Hearst was a pretty damn good running back in Steve Youngs latter years. But, I agree their running game was a weak for the most part. I remember watching Hearst's horrible injury, it was gruesome.
Yeah, that was a brain sneeze on my part. Hearst was fantastic. I was too focused on those years of losing to the Packers, with them playing in nickel and dime alignments constantly. The 49ers lost their last best chance to go to a Super Bowl when Hearst was injured on the first drive against the Falcons in the 1998 divisonal round.
That broke my heart when that happened. Although Young and Rice going down against Tampa was a pretty big shit sandwich. Oh, and by the way, Merton Hanks is probably one of my favorite Niners of all time.
I liked Hanks a lot. But, my favorite 9ers of all-time were Ronnie Lott and Ken Norton Jr.[video=youtube;hYFOXPUKBcA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYFOXPUKBcA[/video]
Lott and Rice were my favourites. John Taylor was probably my favourite "under the radar" major contributor to that run.
One of my memorable sports moments was getting stuck in a doorway, literally, with Ronnie Lott. The crowd was shoving, and we both ended up in the doorway at the same time. He's, to put it mildy, pretty big, so we actually got stuck in the frame together for a minute. I think Spud was jealous. My friend once went up to get Joe Montana's autograph at some function, tripped, and literally fell at his feet. Man, talk about a team falling far.
