History will be on hand Sunday for a fitting NFC finale between Packers and 49ers
These may be our grandfather’s Packers of the 1960s, or a familiar version of them. Or our father’s 49ers of the 1980s with a cool quarterback and a stout defense.
Shoot, they could even be our great grandfather’s Green Bay or San Francisco bloodlines surging right about now with the force of a knee to the chin strap. This much we do know: It is fitting that in the 100th year of the NFL, two of the storied franchises in all of sport meet for a shot at the Super Bowl.
Sunday’s NFC championship game isn’t on the frozen tundra of Green Bay — is it always frozen, we wonder? — nor is it at equally charming Candlestick Park, may that venue rest in peace.
It will be contested inside a concrete fortress otherwise known as Levi’s Stadium, an hour south of San Francisco if there isn’t an ounce of traffic. Levi’s is a sign of the economic times of the NFL, where stadiums bear sponsor logos as big as end zones, luxury suites as big as houses and stadium parking costs a tidy $65, credit cards gleefully accepted.
Jim Harbaugh called this stadium-to-be when gold-plated shovels bore into the Santa Clara turf during the 2012 groundbreaking, “a great football cathedral.”
Harbaugh coached the 49ers during their last NFC duel against the Packers, a San Francisco victory in 2013, en route to their last Super Bowl entry. He is now trying to hold onto his job at the University of Michigan. Harbaugh has missed out on all the recent fun in the Bay.
History is on hand for 49ers and Packers
My father and his father attended NFL games in Chicago in trench coats and derby hats, sometimes with ties and always with a rolled-up program to shake. Those crowds displayed a business look. That has long since given way to a sea of jerseys, in this case red for the 49ers and green for the Packers. It will be a red sea of hysteria Sunday as a record crowd of 73,000 will squeeze in. Good luck to the cheese heads muscling in at the beer line.
Players and coaches turn over in a sport of change, but even in retirement or death, they live on, heroes to last a lifetime. And the logos have remained largely fixed — the 49ers’ familiar SF and the Packers with their block GB.
What both teams crave beyond the NFC Championship hardware is a berth in the 54th Super Bowl in Miami on Feb. 2 and a chance to clutch the sparkling silver Vince Lombardi Trophy, named after the Packers’ famed coach.
History will be on hand Sunday. These franchises have played in the greatest games in NFL history — The Ice Bowl in 1967, The Catch in 1982. They have fielded some of the most recognized and greatest players — Bart Starr to Joe Montana, Ray Nitschke to Ronnie Lott. Might we soon add Aaron Rodgers and Nick Bosa to the mix?
These franchises have produced some of the greatest teams, if not the greatest teams in history. We’d go 1984 and ‘89 San Francisco and 1966 and ‘62 Green Bay for an argument starter. I saw the 1980s 49ers regularly on TV and a few times in person. My World War II veteran stepfather Bob caught the ‘60s Packers. He won those best-ever argument. I still wound up outside chopping into another cord of wood in 12-degree Eastern Oregon conditions with a cute reminder of, “How’s Lambeau Field out there?” Then he’d come out and assist.
Packers and 49ers defined by coaches
The Packers and 49ers are identified by their coaches, then and now. Today, it’s young coaches who lead the Packers and 49ers charge with a fresh, player-friendly approach as compared to the fear-based drive and demand of Lombardi of the 1960s and Bill Walsh of the 1980s 49ers.
First-year Packers coach Matt LaFleur is 40, having risen through the ranks of football obscurity as a semi-pro player with the Omaha Beef and Billings Outlaws. He went 13-3 this regular season in his first season the most victories for a rookie coach since that guy Harbaugh with the 49ers in 2011.
Third-year 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is also 40, the son of a Super Bowl winning coach. Shanahan injected life into the 49ers, who went 2-14 in 2016 and 4-12 a year ago. They’re 14-3 now.
The beauty of sport is how history replays itself. Lombardi inherited a mess in Green Bay in 1959 and molded a dynasty. He guided Green Bay to the first two Super Bowl victories to cap the team of the 1960s legacy. He coached his final game for the Packers in Super Bowl II in Miami.
Lombardi has been named the greatest coach in NFL history by everyone from ESPN to NFL Films, his principles grounded in fundamentals such as blocking and tackling. You can hear him barking in spirit as he preached the Packers sweep on a chalk board, “What were trying to get is a seal here, and a seal here, and try to run this play in the alley.”
Walsh is widely rated the NFL’s second-greatest coach. He also used a chalk board to stress his workings of the West Coast Offense, using the pass to set up the run. Both coaches were deemed too important by their players to disappoint. They live on as football giants in death.
Walsh and Lombardi define the teams still
Walsh’s last game as 49ers coach was also in Miami, following the 1988 season. He bowed out as a three-time Super Bowl winner, his team crowned the team of the ’80s.
Lombardi and Walsh both stepped down at the apex of their careers, nearing burnout. Both regretted it as they fidgeted in the press box as front-office executives for their beloved franchises, Lombardi during the 1968 season and Walsh 31 years later.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that these franchises were good or great at the same time. The 49ers were mired in mediocrity or worse in the 1960s and the Packers the same in the 80s.
Sunday marks the ninth postseason meeting between the franchises, all since 1995. Green Bay holds a 4-3 edge and is 2-2 in San Francisco, which means nothing, of course. Just interesting.
San Francisco drilled Green Bay 37-8 at Levi’s on Nov. 24. Shanahan of the 49ers reminded his team early this week of relying on past results, “Don’t be that stupid. That’s not real. There’s so many stories like that. And this is the NFL”
Somewhere, a grinning Lombardi elbowed a nodding Walsh and offered, “How ‘bout that young coach?”
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 4:00 AM.