Free Republic

The 49ers announced after their 27-24 victory over the Redskins that Mike Singletary will remain . . .

Steve Young is speaking out about his family and California's Proposition 8. He's reacting to the use of his name in a press release from the "Vote No" Prop. 8 group. "I have not given anyone authority to use my name whatsoever, in any political matter," he said. SNIP On YouTube a video of the Young home in Palo Alto from a California television station shows a "Vote No" on Prop. 8 sign and anti-discrimination Halloween decorations. Saturday the "No on Prop. 8" organization issued a press release saying NBA great Magic Johnson is calling Prop. 8 wrong and unfair....

His first NFL game was in Cleveland at age 3. He sat on Jennifer Montana's lap. "I'm still searching for a better seat," he says. He was 7 when John Madden nearly ran him into a locker at Giants Stadium in Madden's haste to interview Jerry Rice, who had caught a last-minute, game-winning touchdown bomb from Jennifer's husband, Joe. Fifth grade marked the first time in four years that he hadn't made a trip to the White House to celebrate a sports championship. Jed York was one lucky kid. But he's no longer the youngster the Super Bowl 49ers used...

The 49ers canned head coach Mike Nolan on Monday, and apparently, it's just the beginning of a front office overhaul. The club managed just 18 wins in 55 games, and were 2-5 this season. That, along with 2005 first-overall pick Alex Smith's glacial development had just about everything to do with Nolan's current status. But this morning, NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might be interested in a job with the 49ers in the near future. "We all know that change has swept through San Francisco, but now it looks like more could be coming....

ON ONE SIDE of the fence, you have those who think 49ers coach Mike Nolan is the second coming of bumbling Barry Switzer and want him fired. Now! On the other side, you have those who believe Nolan is a decent coach who took over an NFL disaster area and deserves another year to fix the mess he inherited. And me? I'm on the fence, waiting to be convinced that this decision truly, truly matters one way or the other for the 49ers. You see, even if Nolan goes, John York, the man at the top of the 49ers' corporate...

With a key vote upcoming at the Santa Clara City Council on whether to help build a new stadium for the 49ers, San Francisco city officials say a new infusion of federal cash is giving a big lift to their alternative plans to keep the team playing in the city at a new stadium at the Hunters Point shipyard. A federal appropriations bill headed to President Bush to fund the U.S. military for the fiscal year starting next Oct. 1 contains $82 million for Navy cleanup of the polluted former naval shipyard at Hunters Point - a $20 million increase...

The 49ers made major changes to their front-office structure Friday, hiring former A's executive and Memphis Grizzlies President Andy Dolich as their new chief operating officer. Team co-owner John York said he maintain his same role overseeing the day-to-day operation of the franchise, but he will increase the responsibilities of son Jed, who has been taking a lead role in the 49ers' negotiations for a new stadium in either Santa Clara or San Francisco. He is not stepping down or stepping aside from the team. "Not a bit," York said. "Jed's role continues to grow but he is primarily working...

Well, that's it for Mike Nolan. And while we're at it, that's almost surely it for Alex Smith, too - if not immediately, then after one more season, tops. And if Denise DeBartolo York is on the level about this new general manager thing, that might be it for Tortoise-Shell Johnny as football chief, too. In other words, the Nolan-Smith blood feud, which has reached full boil, is going to blow up a franchise that already was chest-deep in rubble. The last three years will have been a waste, and they were designed because the three years before them were...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has signed on to lead next June's ballot campaign aimed at revitalizing Candlestick Point and keeping the 49ers in San Francisco. Joining Feinstein as co-chairs of the campaign: former Mayor Willie Brown and Hunters Point-area Supervisor Sophie Maxwell. Word that DiFi will suit up comes a few weeks after Mayor Gavin Newsom tapped former 49ers executive Carmen Policy to act as civic go-between with the team and the National Football League. The 49ers are still intent on moving to Santa Clara, despite objections of Cedar Fair, the company that runs Great America and whose parking lot the...

SANTA CLARA - The Ohio-based company that owns the Great America theme park claims that it is worth much less than the $114 million county assessment figure that has been widely reported in the media, Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone said today. Stone said Cedar Fair Entertainment Company has filed appeals of the Great America assessment for the last several years. The assessed value is used to determine how much property tax the company pays. "There are active assessment appeals they've filed," Stone said. For 2006 the assessor's office valued Great America at $107 million. In its appeal, Cedar...

SANTA CLARA - If the San Francisco 49ers want to move to Santa Clara, they may have to buy the Great America amusement park as well. Cedar Fair Corp., which operates Great America - and whose main parking lot the Niners have been eyeing for their dream stadium - has told team officials that they oppose the $853 million project, the 49ers said today. The company said that once before, then backed off its opposition. This time, however, it's official. Cedar Fair is preparing to issue a statement Wednesday saying it has concluded, after months of study, that the 49ers'...

The temperature could get a little warm at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce's annual 49ers booster luncheon today, as Sen. Dianne Feinstein takes the stage with a call for team owners John and Denise York to keep the Niners in the city. Feinstein, a big Niners fan and equally big critic of the Yorks' proposed move to Santa Clara, tells us she plans to use the event at the Hyatt Regency to urge the 49er Faithful to break their silence, "rally forth and convince Mr. York that San Francisco is the place to be.""I feel strongly that the 49ers...

Bad break Niners' Gore may miss preseason with hand fracture Posted: Tuesday July 31, 2007 12:05AM; Updated: Tuesday July 31, 2007 1:20AM SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Frank Gore, the San Francisco 49ers Pro Bowl running back, broke a bone in his right hand Monday during the first padded practice of training camp and might not play in the preseason. Gore was injured during a non-contact ball-handling drill, and coach Mike Nolan said he would not practice with the team for the remainder of the week. Gore will be re-evaluated next Monday, and Nolan expects him to return to practice...

Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected the ingenious schemes that became known as the West Coast offense during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75. Walsh died at his Bay Area home early Monday following a long battle with leukemia, according to Stanford University, where he served as coach and athletic director. Walsh didn’t become an NFL head coach until 47, and he spent just 10 seasons on the San Francisco sideline. But he left an indelible mark on the United States’ most popular sport,...

(07-30) 11:50 PDT -- Bill Walsh, the imaginative and charismatic coach who took over a downtrodden 49ers team and built one of the greatest franchises in NFL history, has died at the age of 75. A master of using short, precisely timed passes to control the ball in what became known as the West Coast offense, he guided the team to three Super Bowl championships and six NFC West division titles in his 10 years as head coach. The 49ers had been wrecked by mismanagement and unwise personnel decisions under former general manager Joe Thomas when owner Ed DeBartolo Jr....

A state appeals court swatted down a challenge by two San Francisco 49ers fans to pat-down searches at the team's stadium Tuesday, saying they tacitly agreed to be checked when they bought their season tickets. The National Football League ordered the searches at all games as an anti-terrorism measure starting in 2005, three years after Super Bowl spectators were first subjected to pat-downs. The policy has survived all legal challenges. Tuesday's 2-1 ruling by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco sidestepped the plaintiffs' accusation that the searches were an invasion of privacy. Instead, the court said fans...

Mayor wants Hunters Point Shipyard transferred to city to speed toxic cleanup - Mayor Gavin Newsom's office is pushing the Navy to transfer ownership of Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco to the city in hope of accelerating a toxic cleanup of the property in time to meet the 49ers' 2012 deadline to build a new football stadium. In a Feb. 16 memo obtained by The Chronicle, the city proposes to take ownership of the former naval base and assume responsibility for removing most non-radiological toxic material provided that the Navy covers the costs. The Navy believes the transfer is...

A big hurdle has popped up in the path of the 49ers' plans to move down to Santa Clara -- a portion of the land where the team hopes to build its $800 million stadium turns out to be owned by the city of San Francisco. The revelation raises the possibility that officials in San Francisco, who fumed when the Niners abruptly announced their intention in November to move to the South Bay, could have some unexpected muscle to flex in dealing with team owner John York. San Francisco's land is just 80 feet wide, but it runs across the...

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco 49ers have filed a legal claim against their home city over leaky luxury boxes, flooded parking lots and other maintenance problems at city-owned Monster Park. The claim filed Monday, part of an ongoing battle with the city over a new stadium, alleges the city has violated terms of the stadium lease by failing to make necessary repairs after years of complaints, costing the team revenue. "The level of deferred maintenance and neglected maintenance is and has been unacceptable," Murlan Fowell, the 49ers' vice president of operations, wrote in a letter to the city. The...

Here's the latest twist to the Bay Area's topsy-turvy stadium politics: Word is the San Francisco 49ers have informally approached the Oakland Raiders about building a new home -- together. The stadium, which would be shared by the two rivals, very well could be in Santa Clara, where the Niners are pursuing new digs next to Great America. Niners executive Jed York, the son of team owners John and Denise York, said that while a joint stadium idea has merit, there has been no contact with the Raiders on the subject. "I think it's a good idea, but we haven't...