PRO FOOTBALL : 49ers Make Super Bowl Worthwhile

It has the look of a blowout. And the truth is, it will be a major surprise if it isn’t.

So is there any point in watching the Super Bowl this year?

There is--if you’re into football in the same sense that music fans, say, would jump at the opportunity to catch Bruce Springsteen or the Beatles or Frank Sinatra or Count Basie’s big band one last time at their absolute peak.

To watch the San Francisco 49ers this winter is to see one of the best football teams of all time, playing at levels of efficiency, dedication and excitement rarely reached.

The thing that separates the 49ers from others in football isn’t their exceptional talent, as such--their individual or collective talent. The thing that makes them different is the consistent way their talent performs.

The 49ers have been an aesthetic wonder.

It is, of course, their quarterback, Joe Montana, who personifies everything the 49ers are. He is quite possibly the best ever, but that’s arguable. What isn’t really arguable is that no other quarterback ever reached and remained at the peak that Montana has been at this season.

Bear in mind that in a 28-team league, the 27 other teams continue to be gripped in a parity experience that makes them all seem pretty much alike.

With Montana at his present level, the NFL has divided into what has the look of two leagues: the 49ers and all the rest.

Overconfidence is the one thing that could theoretically beat the 49ers in their engagement with the Denver Broncos Jan. 28.

That would be something to consider if they hadn’t changed coaches between seasons.

But it isn’t going to bother them now.

As coached by George Seifert, the 49ers appear to have been driven all season by an obsession to show last year’s leader, Bill Walsh, they can win without him.

And in Super Bowl XXIV, that may inspire them once more.

There is no bitterness or disrespect in the unusual motivation that has kept the 49ers going. Some players in former years had some minor differences with Walsh--as gifted, high-strung athletes often have with those in authority--but they don’t think of Walsh as a bad guy.

To the contrary, they think of him as a great coach, a silver-haired father figure who took them to three Super Bowl championships in eight winters.

This year, Daddy’s gone. He can do nothing more, in person, for his big family. But the kids have grown up, and, now, they’re determined to show the old man they don’t need him anymore, that they can do it on their own.

That’s a powerful motivational weapon. And in a sport one part emotional, one part mental and one part physical, the right motivation is often the difference.

Merely wanting to win the Super Bowl isn’t enough, though. Every champion wants to repeat, but no one has since the Pittsburgh Steelers won in 1979 and 1980.

In a parity era, what’s needed is a sufficient reason to do it, and their old coach has given it to them.

During his 10 years with the 49ers, Walsh brought in Montana and all the other talent, recruited the coaching staff, supervised the structuring of the defense, and designed and installed the offense they’re still using.

As one of the many who couldn’t repeat in the 1980s, he probably couldn’t have coached a Super Bowl winner himself this year. But by dropping out--in Montana’s prime--Walsh has done the children one last, big favor.

The way they’re talking in Denver, they expect quarterback John Elway to win this time, ending the Broncos’ Super Bowl losing streak.

The game’s magic number is four:

--If the 49ers win, their four successes will match Pittsburgh’s in the 1970s.

--Denver’s four losses would match Minnesota’s, also in the ‘70s, when the AFC was the dominant conference.

--A defeat would end Denver’s four-game winning streak against the 49ers.

The Broncos are the only team San Francisco failed to beat in Walsh’s 10 years.

In the 1989 regular season, however, NFC playoff teams were a combined 16-4 against the AFC, which, overall, lost the interconference series, 28-24. Illustrating the NFC’s present power, a non-playoff NFC team, New Orleans, has won 12 in a row against AFC opponents.

Thus, the Broncos earned the championship of what has become the inferior conference, although their coach, Dan Reeves, doesn’t see it that way.

“We have played consistently well for 18 games,” Reeves said. “So I think we have a chance to compete.”

Elway does give them a chance. Along with Montana, Houston’s Warren Moon and Philadelphia’s Randall Cunningham, Elway is one of the four great athletes now playing quarterback in the NFL.

But his only reliable running back, Bobby Humphrey, a small but determined rookie, cracked two ribs last Sunday--in a collision that didn’t look that serious--and figures to either be out or ineffective.

Quarterbacks and kickers can play with cracked ribs. Running backs? No way; not well. Not for long.

The Denver people should cool their optimism and get ready to lose. They’ve had a big season. Their manhood doesn’t depend on winning the Super Bowl. This is a year for them to be content with what Reeves and Elway have already accomplished.