Thoughts on Eddie DB Jr's candidacy?

[Reaser]

I'm not big on any owners in the HOF, other than founders and those that kept the league and/or teams afloat which is obviously legitimate when it comes to contribution.

Though if you're going to judge modern owners there's one and only one thing to judge them on, winning. And his (in the literal sense) team certainly did a lot of that.

Not sure he needs any "oh, he was on so and so committee" credentials when this wasn't/isn't a struggling league trying to get it's first TV deal or a league that's contracting teams left and right and hanging on by a thread.

[JohnTurney]

He hired Bill Walsh. (Slow clap.). He also nearly fired him three times.

Although it was never made 'official', and no one ever knew for sure what his real reasoning was, didn't Walsh leave after '88 (winning his 3rd Ring) due to Bart putting the screws to him rather hard all through that regular season (especially during that 6-5 start)? Sort of like 'Any Given Sunday' - Pacino's character having had enough of ownership and retiring after winning it all.

treated his employees relatively humanely

That remarkable 19-game road-streak the Niners accomplished from '88 into '90...Bart should get a bit of credit. He had his team travel real well. First-class, top-notch hotel rooms, etc. That had to serve as a motivator.

Heard chateaubriand was standard fare on airplanes

[Bryan]

I guess if we put Eddie DeBartolo Jr. (warts and all) in Canton for winning, then I expect next year Clint Murchison Jr. will finally get his long-anticipated bust in the Hall of Fame.

[BernardB]

For me football is a players and coaches game, modern owners tend to be just along for the ride (money, celebrity factor...). Modern owners are a blight upon pro-football. It is their doing that the "product" is treated as entertainment and not football.

Yes owners hire and fire head coaches, but they are clueless as to which coach is going to be successful and which is going to fail. Eddie DeBartolo possessed no farseeing wisdom when he hired Bill Walsh, that was luck of the draw.

After losses DeBartolo's idea of leadership was the all too common one: get angry, throw a tirade, and threaten Walsh to turn this around or else (seems more like a petulant or spoiled kid than a leader). Many time your best coaches, after a tough loss, want to build a team up rather than tear it further down.

Creating a winning environment is important; this is done by the dominate personality within the organization, this could be the owner, HC, GM or even a player e.g., Norm Van Brocklin in 1960, but it usually come form the head coach. Bill Parcells certainly had the dominate personality wherever he was, even in Dallas. While neither Dick Vermeil nor George Allen possessed aggressive personalities like Parcells, both had personalities that dominated the organizations they were with, the same goes with Bill Walsh.

The real test case for modern owners and the hall of fame is Jerry Jones. I have no doubt one day he will be voted into the hall, but from my perspective, he is not about football.

[mwald]

If it were up to me only coaches would go into the Hall of Fame. It's they (and management) who have influenced the league. With rare exception, players are interchangeable parts. If we weren't talking about Sammy Baugh we'd be talking about (made up name) John Klingenhoofer.

But here's why I like DeBartolo: he wanted to win.

Call that simplistic, but it's a rare quality among owners. Most want to sell tickets and make a profit, and if they can do that by spending less money, they will. If their team somehow manages to win in the process they'll take it, but most aren't really willing to make winning a priority. Oh, they'll pay lip service to it, alright. But their actions (and their checkbooks) speak louder than their words. This isn't a just a modern phenomenon.

Not Eddie, though. Is it a surprise that the decline of the 49ers roughly coincided with his exit?

Would Eddie have canned Jim Harbaugh? Not a chance in this world or any other he would have.

[Bryan]

Would Eddie have canned Jim Harbaugh? Not a chance in this world or any other he would have.

Thought DeBartolo fired Bill Walsh after the 1982 season, the 1986 loss to the Giants in the postseason, and the 1987 loss to the Vikings in the postseason...only to be talked out of it by Carmen Policy. I would guess that DeBartolo would have fired Harbaugh after the 2014 regular season, which is when the Niners fired him as well.

[mwald]

Would Eddie have canned Jim Harbaugh? Not a chance in this world or any other he would have.

Thought DeBartolo fired Bill Walsh after the 1982 season, the 1986 loss to the Giants in the postseason, and the 1987 loss to the Vikings in the postseason...only to be talked out of it by Carmen Policy. I would guess that DeBartolo would have fired Harbaugh after the 2014 regular season, which is when the Niners fired him as well.

Had DeBartolo been the owner the 49ers likely wouldn't have dropped to 8-8 in 2014. The (cough!) Yorks created an impossible working situation; he was a dead man walking by that time (why? because he's "intense." Whoa nelly.) Most coaches would've went 2-14 in that situation.

It's pretty apparent where the current owners of the 49ers stand on winning, lip service notwithstanding.

[BD Sullivan]

A baseball analogy: When Geoge Steinbrenner was being voted on for the Baseball HOF in December 2010, he was seen as a lock, in part because he had died just six months earlier. When he wasn't elected, some of the voters were asked for reasonsing, with Whitey Herzog essentially saying that opening up a checkbook shouldn't be a reason for electing someone. Of course, Big Stein had also gotten suspended twice, including a "life" sentence that lasted approximately 30 months.

[BernardB]

If it were up to me only coaches would go into the Hall of Fame. It's they (and management) who have influenced the league. With rare exception, players are interchangeable parts. If we weren't talking about Sammy Baugh we'd be talking about (made up name) John Klingenhoofer.

No players in the hall of fame is a rather unusual view.

[mwald]

If it were up to me only coaches would go into the Hall of Fame. It's they (and management) who have influenced the league. With rare exception, players are interchangeable parts. If we weren't talking about Sammy Baugh we'd be talking about (made up name) John Klingenhoofer.

No players in the hall of fame is a rather unusual view.

Yeah, I'll acknowledge that. I have a rooting interest and favorite players like anyone else. But my professional interest is the forces that make teams win, and I view players largely as interchangeable parts with coaches and organizations the actual driving force.

Sure, player A cut here, caught that, and gained XYZ yards. So it's technically true that it is the players who cross the goal line.

But it's also technically true that the carburetor working with the engine and the drive train move the car forward, but you'd never show a picture of pistons firing if someone asked you who won the Indy 500, and how.