Anti-Dynasty #54: 1973-80 San Francisco 49ers

Peak Anti-Dynasty Points: 41
Record: 39-79 (.331)
Average DVOA: -9.6%
Bottom-Five DVOA: -16.8%
Two last-place finishes in the NFL; Three last-place finishes in the NFC West
Head Coaches: Dick Nolan, Monte Clark, Ken Meyer, Fred O'Conner, Pete McCulley, Bill Walsh
Key Players: RB Delvin Williams, RB Wilbur Jackson, WR Gene Washington, T Keith Fahnhorst, C Randy Cross, C Forrest Blue, DE Cleveland Elam, DE Cedrick Hardman, DE Tommy Hart, DT Jimmy Webb
Z-Score: -6.55

The 1970s 49ers managed to pack four distinct eras into a decade; an impressive rate of turnover. They were NFC West champions from 1970 to 1972, twice reaching the NFC Championship Game in the first extended run of success the franchise experienced in the NFL. We're not here to talk about that.

From 1973 to 1976, the story of the 49ers is of a team slowly crumbling. This is a fairly typical end to a run of success—key players from those divisional championship teams were getting old, injured, or old and injured. Former MVP quarterback John Brodie was 38 and his arm was shot; he was gone by 1974, and a number of key contributors from those 1970s squads joined him—Charlie Kreuger, Dick Witcher, Ken Willard, Vic Washington, all important players, all gone by the mid-1970s. They didn't exactly have a run of replacements, either, thanks to years of poor drafting; Steve Spurrier was supposed to be the answer at the quarterback position, but he dislocated his shoulder in the 1974 preseason and never could put together a run of quality starts even when he was healthy. That's not enough to make the anti-dynasty list, mind you, and the 1976 49ers nearly climbed their way back into contention, clawing back to 8-6 behind new coach Monte Clark and new quarterback Jim Plunkett.

And then the team was sold, and new owner Eddie DeBartolo brought in Joe Thomas to run the team. The 1977-1978 49ers would go 7-23 as Thomas quickly became the worst executive in franchise history.

The arrival of Thomas caused the immediate resignation of Clark as Thomas wanted full control over personnel matters. Thomas replaced Clark with a series of lackies and yes-men who would do his own bidding in the locker room. By "do his own bidding," I mean that by the fifth week of his first season, the 49ers were swapping starters on a weekly basis as if they were shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic—not exactly a recipe for developing rhythm and cohesion. That caused a highly discontented locker room, but don't worry—Thomas had the solution! Before 1978, Thomas traded away or released nearly every veteran player the 49ers had, performing a hatchet job on the roster. He gave Buffalo five draft picks for a 31-year-old, washed up O.J. Simpson; the former rushing champ managed just over 1,000 yards in two seasons with the 49ers. Thomas released Plunkett just before the start of the season, leaving the team without an experienced starter; Scott Bull and Steve DeBerg had a combined 72 career pass attempts coming into the year.

You'll be stunned to learn that this didn't work, as the 49ers struggled their way to a 2-14 season. Things were so bad by midseason that Thomas was confiscating fans' signs demanding he be fired, getting into physical fights with beat reporters, and trying to cancel a Thanksgiving week game as he believed there was a conspiracy that would lead to his own assassination. So, you know, at least things weren't boring.

The DeBartolos had had enough. They had been hands-off owners, still living on the East Coast, but the only thing that can remove the luster from owning a professional football team is owning an embarrassing football team. Thomas was fired after the 1978 season, replaced by Stanford head coach Bill Walsh. It took a couple years for Walsh to dig the 49ers out of the hole Thomas had left behind, but I believe you could say that Walsh's reign eventually was moderately successful.