It was my freshman year in High School. I was a social geek with only one good friend at the time. He was a grade ahead of me. He convinced me to join our high school’s frosh/soph football team. And then I got my ass handed to me. I was super skinny at the time and weighed nothing. Then slowly, I got sick of getting my ass kicked and started fighting back (blocking, tackling, etc.). By mid-season, I was a starter. Played all four years. But something happened at the end of my freshman football season – in the NFC Championship that year, the 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys with Dwight Clark’s catch! I was hooked!

It’s not easy to be a 49er fan for that long. I got soothed into a Super Bowl Championship every other year in the '80s (they won four SBs, including the double-peat 1989/1990 (1990 belongs in the '80s). And then, in the 90s, they went to nearly every NFC championship and lost. Yeah, they won in 1995, but that meant I was emotionally crushed after each NFC Championship loss, and in the 90’s, they only won one Super Bowl in 1995.

Since 1995, the Niners have gone from sucking eggs to teasing us with two Super Bowl appearances. This could be the year they make it to the SB and win. But we have to get past the Eagles first. Word.