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Eddie DeBartolo’s journey from Youngstown, Ohio, to owner of the 49ers will reach its final destination just 60 miles from his hometown. DeBartolo was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in a vote of the 46-member board of selectors on the eve of Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium, CSN Bay Area’s Mindi Bach reported Saturday. The enshrinement ceremony will take place on Aug. 6, in Canton, Ohio. DeBartolo, 69, this year’s lone nominee as a “contributor” was selected for the Class of 2016. The latest group of Hall of Fame inductees, as selected during a...

After 12 weeks of the NFL season, the New England Patriots are still the heavy favorite to win the Super Bowl. Using Nate Silver's "2015 NFL Predictions," a model that rates each team and then projects how the regular season and playoffs will play out, we can get a better sense of which teams are the true Super Bowl contenders. Heading into Week 13, the New England Patriots are still the favorite with a 28% chance to win the Super Bowl, down from 33% a week ago. The Carolina Panthers (20%) are the favorite in the NFC. In fact, according...

California's state highway markers -- those green, numbered signs placed along local freeways and rural routes across the Golden State -- are so familiar a feature of the automotive landscape that it's easy to overlook their symbolism. But the shield accomplishes a neat trick. At once it points ahead and back -- forward toward some spatial destination, but also back toward a temporal point of origin. Its shape mimics the spade carried by Forty-Niners into the foothills and sold by the opportunistic merchants who made the real fortunes of the California Gold Rush.

A Vikings fan was attacked by a pack of 49ers fans outside Levi’s Stadium Monday night. Video posted on Facebook shows the attack after San Francisco’s 20-3 win over Minnesota. A man in an Adrian Peterson jersey is repeatedly kicked and punched in the face while trying to get up off the pavement while a handful of 49ers fans surround him. One event security staffer, in a yellow coat, runs in to break up the fight but some of the 49ers fans still get a few more shots in on the Vikings fan before more help arrives.

1. 2015 San Francisco 49ers On this list we have seen examples of great players retiring suddenly in their prime, losing big-time players in free agency, the stunning departure of top coaches at or near their peak and legal troubles bringing down elite talents. The 49ers had a combination of all of those factors this offseason, I couldn't find another example of a team having so many various factors resulting in so many huge hits to the roster: Coach Jim Harbaugh was chased off to Michigan, guard Mike Iupati, running back Frank Gore and others departed in free agency, offensive...

Aldon Smith’s turbulent career with the 49ers ended Friday morning, shortly after his fifth arrest since 2012 and third instance of alleged drunk driving. The 49ers announced Smith’s release three hours after he posted bail, following Thursday night’s arrest by Santa Clara police for drunken driving, hit-and-run and vandalism. “This organization has tried very hard to help Aldon fight his issues,” an unattributed statement from the 49ers said. “Although he is no longer a member of this team, our support and concern for him will continue.”

Charles Haley is the only player in NFL history who's been a part of five Super Bowl winning teams, so it was no surprise in May when one of those teams, the 49ers, asked him to speak to their rookies. What might come as a surprise to some people though is what Haley said to those 49ers rookies. "As far as the rookies, and I know they probably got mad, but I said, 'Why don't you all act like the white guys? You never see them in the paper getting high or hitting people," Haley said, via the San Jose...

A tweet by 49ers returner and running back Jarryd Hayne drew the attention of the Anti-Defamation League. Hayne, an Australian attempting to make a conversion from rugby to the NFL, tweeted that Jews killed Jesus. ADL, in a press release, noted that the tweet appeared July 1st and has since been rescinded. “Jesus wanted to help people but was killed by his own people,” the ADL quoted Hayne writing. When challenged by a fan on twitter, Hayne then wrote, “The Jews were the people who took him to the Romans n forced them to give the order because they couldn’t.”

San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame offensive tackle Bob St. Clair died Monday night following a brief illness, the Pro Football Hall of Fame told NFL Media. He was 84 years old. A Bay Area legend, St. Clair teamed with fellow NFL Hall of Famers Ollie Matson and Gino Marchetti on Joe Kuharich's fabled University of San Francisco Dons squad that went undefeated in 1951. Drafted by his hometown 49ers in 1953, St. Clair emerged as one of the decade's top linemen, earning first- or second-team All-NFL honors nine times. He was also selected to five Pro Bowls and served...

Jim Harbaugh ended the 49ers' eight-year playoff drought in his first season. In year two, San Francisco made its first Super Bowl appearance since 1994. Despite his success, any warm feelings between the head coach and his players went away quickly. "He does a great job of giving you that spark, that initial boom," 49ers offensive lineman Alex Boone says on an upcoming episode of HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumble," according to ProFootballTalk. "But after a while, you just want to kick his.... He just keeps pushing you, and you're like, 'Dude, we got over the mountain. Stop. Let...

Lon Simmons, beloved Bay Area sportscaster, dead at 91 Legendary broadcaster Lon Simmons, who introduced generations of Californians to major-league baseball and broadcast the 1989 earthquake-interrupted World Series and the 49ers’ road to Super Bowl XXIII, died at his Daly City home Sunday. He was 91. Mr. Simmons, who was honored by baseball’s Hall of Fame as the 2004 Ford C. Frick Award winner, had credited the success of Bay Area sports teams with helping him cope with his three-year battle with cancer, especially the Giants’ championship teams and more recently the Warriors. Featuring a baritone voice and a witty,...

Lon Simmons, the Hall of Fame broadcaster whose baritone voice and dry wit captured some of the most thrilling moments Bay Area sports history, has died. He was 91. The Giants sent a press release Sunday afternoon that said, "The Giants family and Bay Area sports community lost a true gentleman (Sunday) morning when Hall of Fame broadcaster Lon Simmons peacefully passed away."

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland walked away from the NFL at the age of 24 for fear of head injuries, despite not having a diagnosed concussion for a decade. And then there’s Wes Welker, the anti-Borland, a wideout with a disturbing array of concussions who isn’t ready to quit. “As long as I’ve recovered the right way and everything like that, I’m ready to go,” Welker told ESPN in December. “I really don’t see any problem with it.’’ But apparently the rest of the NFL sees what Welker doesn’t. Pro Football Talk reported the receiver has “generated no buzz”...

As I continue to read on twitter that former dude from MSNBC that couldn't beat O'Reilly at 8, some NBA star I never heard of and that CBS anaylist that I used to like until yesterday talk about how the NFL and NCAA should move from Indianapolis, I realize maybe it is time to move the Super Bowl out of San Francisco and the whole California state. There is no reason why millions of freedom loving Christians, conservatives, republicans or libertarians should have to watch this horrible city host one of the biggest events of the year. The city that...

The Niners acquired Martin last March in a deal with Miami. Martin had left the Dolphins in October 2013 after accusing teammate Richie Incognito of bullying...Martin started seven games at right tackle last season in place of injured Anthony Davis. He struggled in that role and allowed 7 1/2 sacks

IN: The 49ers promoted defensive line coach Jim Tomsula to head coach. Vic Fangio is officially the 49ers former defensive coordinator. Fangio, 56, is among the assistant coaches who have been fired today, a day after the 49ers promoted defensive line coach Jim Tomsula to head coach, a source said. That group of assistants who have been released from their contracts also includes secondary coach Ed Donatell and linebackers coach Jim Leavitt ... Under Fangio’s oversight, the 49ers allowed the second-fewest points in the NFL and the third-fewest yards from 2011-14.

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh has reportedly accepted Michigan's offer to return to his alma mater and become the Wolverines' next head coach, according to CSNBayArea.com, which reports that Harbaugh will be announced at a press conference in Ann Arbor on Tuesday morning. Jason Cole of Bleacher Report and writer John U. Bacon, author of several books about Michigan football, also reported on Saturday that Harbaugh was expected to accept the Michigan job.

The San Francisco 49ers will reportedly fire head coach Jim Harbaugh "within two days" of the end of the team's season, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reports. Harbaugh has one year remaining on the five-year, $25 million deal he signed in 2011.

The San Francisco 49ers are planning to trade Jim Harbaugh after the season rather than lose him for nothing when the coach’s contract expires after next season.

Gordy Soltau, a 49ers scoring machine in the 1950s and one of the franchise's kindest ambassadors, passed away from natural causes Sunday night with his family by his side. He was 89. Inducted two years ago into the 49ers Hall of Fame, Soltau joined the team in 1950 upon its arrival in the NFL. The pass-catching end and kicker led the 49ers in scoring in eight of his nine years, topping the NFL in both 1952 and 1953.