COMMENTARY : They Are Favored, but Pressure Is All on 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers tell us how spectacular their attitude is this season. They spend so much time telling us how loose they are, you get the idea the whole team was suffering from the bends in other January games against the Dallas Cowboys.

In the end, the 49ers sound as if they are trying to convince themselves of all this, even after a season that looked like one extended fast break. The reason is simple enough: They do not want to be the San Francisco Bills when it is all over on Sunday.

And the Cowboys will look at them as nothing more if they beat the 49ers a third NFC championship game in a row. The 49ers know it better than anyone. It is why all the pressure is on them at Candlestick Park.

Steve Young has never won a game like this in his pro football life. The only time George Seifert, the coach, won a game this big, he was really coaching Bill Walsh’s team. This is the fact of things despite their splendid records. There is plenty on the line for both of them. There is even talk that Seifert could lose his job to offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan if he loses the game.

There is no disgrace for the Cowboys if they lose the game. They do not have a healthy Emmitt Smith, and it would have been like the Chicago Bulls trying to win their third NBA title without a healthy Michael Jordan. When he is healthy, he is the best player in football, not Young. And not Barry Sanders. Smith already has proved that in all the big games of his career. If the Cowboys lose with Smith playing on one leg, they will just join great teams who have never been able to win three NFL titles in a row, and go home.

But the game is everything for the 49ers. They already are being treated like one of the great teams of all time before they even get to the Super Bowl. Owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. and President Carmen Policy are hailed as geniuses for stuffing a platoon of new players under the salary cap.

Now all they have to do is beat the Cowboys big, the way they are supposed to.

Young has had the season of his career. “He’s clearly the best quarterback now,” former 49er coach Walsh says. Jerry Rice is still the best receiver in the world. Ken Norton Jr. has been subtracted from the Cowboys and added to the 49ers. Deion Sanders has been added to the 49ers. Smith isn’t the only one from Dallas hurt. Tackle Erik Williams, who is the best offensive lineman in the game, is long gone because of an automobile accident. So is the coach, Jimmy Johnson, who coached these Cowboys to two victories over the 49ers in championship games, and then two Super Bowl victories.

Walsh is the coach who built the 49ers into Super Bowl champions. Many of his players still are in the 49er lineup. He knows a little something about games like these. He was asked if he thinks the extra pressure on people such as Young and Seifert is important at Candlestick on Sunday.

“I agree that there is a lot of pressure,” Walsh said. “But I don’t believe it will have an effect on the outcome of the game. I think once the 49ers get out there, they’ll put the whole thing on automatic pilot. Steve especially.”