49ers, Packers Get Last Chance in Sun

If you go through life with a block of cheese on your head all year, and green and yellow schmaltz all over your body, with No. 4 or No. 92 plastered on your back--as if someone might actually mistake you for Brett Favre or Reggie White--how do you dress for Halloween?

That’s no problem for the visiting 49ers, of course, because they come disguised as contenders every year.

But at least they showed up here. Pretending for another moment that Sunday’s matchup between the Packers and 49ers remains the clash of the titans, and they don’t meet again in the playoffs, this could be their last hurrah for a while.

Both organizations are in for major shake-ups, or collapses.

Coach Mike Holmgren not only has the clause in his contract allowing him to leave Green Bay at season’s end--talk about a get-out-of-jail-free card--but it’s a foregone conclusion here that he will have his four-wheel drive winging through the slush along Holmgren Way, headed for civilization, as soon as the season is over.

He will be leaving for a big chunk of billionaire owner Paul Allen’s money in Seattle, or the young quarterback in San Diego, which would be disconcerting to Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard, because Holmgren can leave his post in Green Bay only if he accepts a position as both coach and general manager.

Spend a chilly, gloomy hour here: Why would anyone want to stay in Green Bay?

Holmgren’s departure has the potential to ignite the most controversial NFL story in years. If the Packers do not replace him with offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis, an African American who has received the highest recommendations from Holmgren for openings elsewhere, undoubtedly there will be national outrage and problems within the Packer locker room.

“If Sherm is the coach, yeah [the Packers can remain successful],” said safety LeRoy Butler. “If somebody else tries to come in here and change everything-- absolutely not. Mike Holmgren’s shoes are so big to fill, they’ll be stuffing paper in them for a long time. But Sherm could, because his philosophy would be the same.”

Lewis’ failure to draw an interview after helping the Packers win the Super Bowl two years ago--a year when 10 head coaches were hired--forced the NFL to act as if it was concerned about the inability of minority coaches to get fair hearings. It will be stormed if the Packers bypass Lewis after this season.

Last year, Dallas owner Jerry Jones made a big deal about courting Lewis, but after a series of news conferences and having his picture taken with Lewis, he hired Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Chan Gailey.

Ron Wolf watchers believe the Packer general manager will not hire Lewis to replace Holmgren. Beyond the usual criticisms of Lewis--he doesn’t call the Packer plays and appears content to be lost in Holmgren’s shadow--they point to Wolf’s knowledge of Packer history and the disastrous promotion of loyal assistant Phil Bengtson as successor to Vince Lombardi in 1968.

They also note Wolf’s fearlessness in ignoring popular opinion and making his own choice. They expect him to look elsewhere.

Holmgren and Wolf aren’t talking about the end of the season, but in “The Packer Way,” Wolf’s recently released book “on the business of getting your team to the top,” Wolf’s second chapter is entitled, “Hire the best--before anyone else does.”

Wolf writes, “With some rare exceptions, teams in our sport have never become champions without top-notch leaders [at head coach and quarterback]. I know, because I have studied our game’s history. . . . If you’re weak at either position, you’ll be forced to overcome difficult odds to win titles.”

If Wolf does not believe Lewis possesses those leadership qualities, anyone who has ever done business with him knows he will not be pushed into going against his instincts. As the introduction in his book says, “I like to win. No, I have to win.”

Wolf, probably the best general manager in the game at this time, went against public opinion two years ago and refused to invite kicker Chris Jacke, among others, to a Super Bowl ring party because they were no longer with the team.

A woman approached Wolf at a local department store and, not recognizing him, asked him to sign a petition urging the Packers to invite Jacke to the party. Wolf’s response to her: “Get a life.”

And when she persisted, he said, “I don’t care how many signatures you get, he’s not going.”

The woman figured out whom she was talking with and went to the local media, who called the Packers and asked if Wolf had responded as she had said. Almost every other general manager in the league would have had his public relations staff quell the furor with some kind of “There must have been some kind of misunderstanding” statement, but Wolf only repeated the remarks.

Wolf, who has high praise for Lewis in his book, had two candidates on his list to become head coach when he arrived in 1991: Bill Parcells and Holmgren. He has a new list now, won’t say who’s on it. But is there another Mike Holmgren out there?

“I’ve heard this statement repeatedly if we didn’t have Brett Favre we wouldn’t be worth a [darn],” Wolf said. “Well, if the South didn’t have Robert E. Lee they probably wouldn’t have lasted in the Civil War very long. But they did, and we have Favre.

“Now, they might say that about Mike Holmgren, too, but I subscribe to the theory that no one is indispensable. I don’t care how good you are. You walk through a graveyard and you see a lot of important people who never thought they could be replaced.

“Now, can I replace Brett Favre?” said Wolf with a grin. “Hell no.”

There are exceptions, you know.

“In today’s pro football game it’s a lot more difficult finding the quarterback than the coach. You can be a great coach, but if you’re coaching [stiffs] they are still [stiffs]. Maybe you can get them to hand off better, but you’re not going to get them to throw any better. Mike and I talk about this all the time: What would we do if we had this [stiff]? How could you get ready to play or instill any confidence in your team that you had a chance to win? How could you win if you had a [stiff] at quarterback.”

Therefore a hint: What’s the one thing Holmgren will have to have once he goes elsewhere? A quarterback. So he’s going to San Diego.

San Francisco has a quarterback, but Steve Young is almost old enough to be a grandfather, and the strength of the 49ers--their front office for the last decade--no longer has bright lights shining upstairs.

The 49ers recently hired 67-year-old John McVay to do Dwight Clark’s job as personnel director, although Clark is still there. Former 49er president Carmen Policy, working in the same capacity in Cleveland, wants to hire Clark, but San Francisco is balking, although it has no intention of keeping him.

At the same time they’ve been unable to get Coach Steve Mariucci’s signature on a new contract, keeping alive rumors that he might somehow end up in Cleveland, or maybe close to his Upper Michigan home in Green Bay, where he coached under Holmgren a few years ago.

The 49ers’ foundation has already begun to deteriorate, as evidenced by their poor work in free agency, and it appears it will be March before NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue rules on Eddie DeBartolo’s bid to wrest ownership and management duties from his sister.

The March ruling would make it difficult for Holmgren to rejoin DeBartolo in San Francisco, probably assuring Mariucci’s continued stay there and forcing Policy to look elsewhere for a new coach in Cleveland.

Cleveland will not be allowed to use any of its draft picks to lure away a coach, which prevents Holmgren from going there.

The Packers, as part of their agreement to let Holmgren go after the season, will receive a second-round draft pick from his new employer.

Three months from now the shuffle begins, and while it has been a great ride in Green Bay and San Francisco in recent years, the kind of startling changes in the works portend less-than-dominating days ahead for the Packers and 49ers.

Maybe no more trips to Green Bay in the dead of winter for meaningful games.