Why don't the '84 49ers get recgonition/pub of other champ?

[CSKreager]

The 1984 49ers had the same dominant type of season and 15-1 regular season record as the Bears did a year later.

But while you hear so much about that 1985 Chicago team to this day, nobody really really ever talks about that S.F. team compared to, say, the 1981/1989/1994 teams.

Even compared to other legendary dominant single-season SB champs- i.e. '78 Steelers- they don't seem to emote the same feelings and awe of those teams.

Obviously, compared to the brash and personality laden-Bears of '85, they came across by comparison as perhaps a bunch of emotionless winning robots that were arguably too businesslike to really embrace.

So why does this team- which rightfully is up there with great champions- get little pub compared to others?

Heck, there are teams that lost the SB we hear more about to this day than this specific 49er squad?

[BD Sullivan]

Probably a little bit is the media bias of embracing a team that was arrogant enough to make a video a month before the playoffs started and the presence of the more quotable Ditka and Ryan as opposed to the cerebral Walsh.

Comparing the two defenses, the Bears had 14 games (including postseason) in which they held opponents to less than two touchdowns compared to the Niners. The Bears held nine of those opponents to single digits which tends to resonate a little more strongly than the prolific offense of SF.

[JuggernautJ]

Jerry Rice wasn't there yet.

[lastcat3]

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they aren't really considered to be the best '49ers team of the decade. I believe most consider the '89 team to be the best. The '81 team was the first so that will always be special and the '88 team is grouped in with the '89 team in many ways. The '84 team is generally the one that gets lost in the shuffle because of all that. Plus when people think of the '84 season they generally think of Dan Marino before they think about how good the '84 '9ers were.

[ChrisBabcock]

Jerry Rice wasn't there yet.

^^^ This may have something do do with it. They had the 2nd best scoring offense and best scoring defense (points against) so there's no reason to say they weren't dominant. They did draw the weak AFC Central as their cross conference opponents so that may have helped pad things. I think the lack of pub might be a combination of the year before Rice, Marino's otherworldly season, and the swagger of the Bears the next year.

[BD Sullivan]

Jerry Rice wasn't there yet.

They did draw the weak AFC Central as their cross conference opponents so that may have helped pad things.

Yet ironically, the only loss they had that year was to the Steelers.

[Todd Pence]

I think the 49ers of the early 80's were comparable to the Don Shula Dolphin teams of the early seventies. Those Dolphins had the "No Name Defense", and that perfectly describes Walsh's defenses of his championship years. The Niners didn't have a William "Refrigerator" Perry, Howie Long, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Gastinineau, or Kenny Easley.
Likewise for the offense. Like Shula's '72 and '73 championship teams, few were as efficient in '84 on offense as the Niners. But at least half of the teams in the league must have been more exciting to watch.

[JuggernautJ]

The Niners didn't have a William "Refrigerator" Perry, Howie Long, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Gastinineau, or Kenny Easley.

Ummm... Ronnie Lott?!

Likewise for the offense. Like Shula's '72 and '73 championship teams, few were as efficient in '84 on offense as the Niners. But at least half of the teams in the league must have been more exciting to watch.

I can see this applying to the '81 49ers but not the '84 version.

(It was always exciting when Wendell Tyler ran the ball....)

[SixtiesFan]

The Niners didn't have a William "Refrigerator" Perry, Howie Long, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Gastinineau, or Kenny Easley.

Ummm... Ronnie Lott?!

Likewise for the offense. Like Shula's '72 and '73 championship teams, few were as efficient in '84 on offense as the Niners. But at least half of the teams in the league must have been more exciting to watch.

I can see this applying to the '81 49ers but not the '84 version.

(It was always exciting when Wendell Tyler ran the ball....)

it may not have been a coincidence that the only time the 70's Rams made the Super Bowl, Wendell Tyler was their main RB.

[74_75_78_79_]

The whole Niners not being 'exciting' enough has already been stated by me quite a few times, this - mind you - coming from someone who hated them by the late-'80s because they were 'catching up' to (and would soon surpass) my Steelers in the Ring department. If I'm coaching in a tournament against all-time great teams (particularly on offense, especially pass-happy) and Steel Curtain is already taken, I'm picking that '84 Niner D over the '85 Bears (yes, incredibly unpopular opinion; wouldn't get out of Chicago alive if I said it there).

Yes, Bears beat Marino in a rematch as well as in a best-of series IMO, of course they were better than Miami, they still had a great pass-D if mainly due to their superior blitz, but it wasn't their specialty. Dominating run-heavy or balanced offenses was their thing, and that's who they pretty much played against all-through '85.

With San Fran, you'd be SURE they beat a Marino/Duper/Clayton team (beat them 4-0 in a best-of-7 IMO). I'll take the '89 installment as well. Already not needing any 'toughening-up', Millen comes along and with Lott's permission toughens them up even more. Being that 'coach-on-field' he always was, Millen added yet another wrinkle to that already stellar D.

Back to '84, of all the one-loss teams, they were the closest to going undefeated. That lone-loss to Pittsburgh they could have, and honestly should have, easily won. That said, I think as an overall team I'd still have to take the '89 installment. A pretty simple reason but '89 had the WEAPONS on offense. I also think overall the '85 Bears still actually beat '84 Niners in a game. Lack of Rice/Taylor/Jones brings them just short. Still, for a 15-1 (barely losing that one) SB Champ with RONNIE LOTT and a LB nicknamed 'Hacksaw' to still be historically ignored...

I guess they needed a Deion or Richard Sherman added to the mix.