i've been a niners fan since 1991 (season after the roger craig fumble) and i just remember not understanding why the 49ers weren't in the playoffs when we won 10 games. i was so pissed about that and then losing in 92 and 93 made me fucking hate the cowboys. i remember distinctly wishing that alvin harper died a horrible death. then finally in 8th grade we won the superbowl (which i have on VHS somewhere back home). i still vividly remember just going crazy with all the early touchdowns.
i didn't watch it with my best pal (who is still my best friend that i work with and we are both life long niner fans and lovers) because my mom/dad wouldn't give me a ride over to his house so i watched the superbowl alone because none of my family liked football although my brother liked to talk shit to me when we lost to dallas for some reason.
then i collected every newspaper article, every magazine and taped all the stuff i could on VHS. i also remember after beating the cowboys in that nfc title game i watched espn all day and all night reliving the game over and over again. then after sportscenter ended for the 3rd or 4th time they said come back for more sportscenter or tune into ESPN 2 to see every 49ers superbowl replay! so i said fuck off school its niner time! and i watched those old school 30 minute highlights of all our superbowls and went to sleep past midnight.
then coming into school that monday was so awesome. i talked so much shit to my english teacher since he trash talked the niners all the time. i had my sweet ass niners gold jacket that i used to wear every fucking day to school. i loved that jacket!
it was a more innocent time.... before the internet!
I fell in love with the Niners in 1992 when I was 14 years old. I bought "John Madden American Football" for Amiga, because I wanted to get into the sport, and it had that awesome handbook which explained almost everything about Football. Not just the rules, but also formations etc. - that was hard to come by for a schoolboy in Germany 20 years ago, before the internet!
I always picked San Francisco when playing the game (the Amiga version didn't have an NFL licence), and started watching the very few NFL games that were shown on german pay tv. That's how I learned to hate the cowboys as well. Many times I visited a good friend who lived in a nearby town that was closer to an american airbase. He could watch AFN at his home, but only in black and white and without any sound. He was also a Niners fan, and we watched many games that way. Often we met there with just the slight hope that a certain game would hopefully be shown. Without an AFN program guide (or the internet), it was often a gamble.
Superbowls were already shown on german pay tv, as well as monday night games. I still have the VHS tape of Super Bowl XXIX in the basement. I was so happy when Steve Young finally won his ring! I started wearing Niners clothes to school (and still do very often today), and watched every Monday Night Game with the niners. That would be from 3:00 am to 6:00 am around here - on a school day. I even remember watching the Niners against the Dolphins the night before my driving test! Despite having barely slept that night, I passed - and saw a Niners victory live just before that. Good times!
I never stopped watching and rooting for the Niners ever since. I started importing niners merchandising from the US. The comeback victory against the Giants in 2002 was one of the most exciting games I've ever seen. I suffered through the Erickson-Nolan-Singletary years. And right now, Jim Harbaugh is my favorite person on this planet right after my wife, and I feel like I'm on top of the world.
