| |  Win was fun, possibly lucrative for Mariucci
By John Clayton
ESPN.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Thirty minutes after holding his Monday news conference, a smiling 49ers coach Steve Mariucci entered the press room to tell a story. Mariucci loves a good story, but this one added to the second greatest comeback in NFL playoff history and the best he's ever been involved.
Mariucci related his phone conversation with NFL supervisor of officials Mike Pereira about the botched call at the end of the 39-38 victory over the Giants. Mariucci detailed how Rich Seubert was an eligible receiver down field who was interfered with and that Tam Hopkins was the ineligible receiver down field. Mariucci said that Pereira told him that the play should have been played over because of offsetting penalties.
"Bummer," Mariucci stated as his reaction to the revelation. Reporters laughed. There haven't been a lot of laughs involving the 49ers season even though they won the NFC West, finished with a 10-6 record and made the playoffs for a second consecutive year.
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The guy who has laughed the least this season is Mariucci, who has undergone year-long scrutiny since interviewing for the coach-general manager job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last February. As the season progressed, rumors circulated that Mariucci, whose contract expires after the 2003 season, would need to win one or two playoff games to keep his job.
Sunday's victory -- tainted by the last call or not -- was a defining moment for Mariucci and the 49ers. Even former 49ers coach Bill Walsh, the man who molded this franchise into a winner, put perspective into the significance of the win.
"This was just great as far as this team establishing itself," Walsh said. "They finally broke out after a moderate to good season."
That's been the problem. Mariucci has been under the gun because moderate isn't good enough in San Francisco. John McVay, the longtime front office conscious of the 49ers, said the tradition has been that it's not good enough to just win with the 49ers.
"You have to win with style," McVay said.
Sunday's victory finally put a style point to a three-year turnaround for a franchise that was $28 million over the cap and had to be totally dismantled under Mariucci's watch. Team president John York said he would meet with Mariucci and his agent after the season to discuss a contract extension. There is still a chance that talks may break down over money, but what seems to be apparent is that Mariucci will be the coach as long as he's not completely lowballed in negotiations.
Still, a victory over the Bucs would eliminate any uncertainty over the future of Mariucci, who is scheduled to make $2.25 million in 2003. It's funny, though, that it would be the Bucs standing in the way of his job security.
His flirtation with the Bucs hurt Mariucci organizationally. Though he wanted to stay for family reasons and the fact he didn't want to leave this team that he helped mold, Mariucci put ownership in a mode of saying "Prove it" if you want to get an extension. York said repeatedly during the offseason and up until the start of training camp that the 49ers were generous in giving Mariucci a five-year, $10 million contract in 1999 coming off a playoff season.
How far the 49ers go into the playoffs may determine how much the 49ers will offer Mariucci. What seems certain now is that Mariucci will be offered the extension. That may not have been in question had the 49ers lost to the Giants, but the way that the 49ers won Sunday virtually guaranteed that there will be an offer.
Of course, this is becoming a different 49ers operation than in the past. Unlike the free spending past, the 49ers, for the first time in a couple of decades, must adhere to a budget. It's not as though the 49ers want to be cheap, it's just that ownership, which hasn't generated profits from the team's operations, wanted to run the team like a business.
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How far the 49ers go into the playoffs may determine how much the 49ers will offer Mariucci. What seems certain now is that Mariucci will be offered the extension. |
In an outdated stadium such as Candlestick, that move had to be expected at some point. For Mariucci, though, that can't be as difficult as some of the things he's gone through in bringing the team back from salary-cap hell.
For one, the 49ers have used the past three drafts to rebuild the defense. The top two choices remaining from the past three drafts were defensive players. Since 1999, the only remaining offensive player taken before the fifth round was halfback Kevan Barlow, a third-round choice in 2000. No wonder the offense has been conservative; it's been patched and not upgraded since the late 1990s.
That will be Mariucci's next mission, but before that comes the Bucs.
"Jon Gruden and I have been friends from our days in Green Bay," Mariucci said. "His father works in our organization as a scout. We're very competitive. We owe that to what Mike Holmgren has done in training us as coaches."
John York allowed Mariucci to interview with the Bucs because he felt that: First, Mariucci wanted to study the opportunity and second, that it was potentially a great job. Mariucci could have ended up with as much power as any coach in football.
But those are thoughts that no longer enter Mariucci's mind. He was basking in the glory of the victory of the Giants on Monday. He wanted to show his players tapes of the game because it was a great learning tool.
"I want them to enjoy that, so I am showing them film to relive it," Mariucci said. "They can relive it, enjoy it and learn from it. I think we can take something from it. Next time we are down in a game, we can remember what we could do and what we did against a real good team."
Mariucci relayed a conversation with special teams coach Bruce DeHaven, who was the special teams coach for the Bills during their incredible 35-point playoff comeback against the Oilers in 1992.
"He said that team in Buffalo was a very veteran team," Mariucci said. "It had been to Super Bowls and AFC championship games. It was a veteran sort of team that was maybe more apt to do something like that because they had expected to be in the Super Bowl."
People tend to forget that this 49ers team is young. Only six players have been with the team before 1998. The core of this team was put together from 1999 through this year and are starting to come into their prime.
As Walsh said, Sunday's comeback added definition to this team, and it helped in making sure that Mariucci has a chance to be around next season and thereafter. The next part could come as early as Monday. If the 49ers lose to the Bucs, negotiations will begin.
With the new financial structure of the team, the 49ers aren't going to offer top dollar. So there will be no Steve Spurrier five-year, $25 million offer. A top five coach -- which Mariucci might be considered -- gets about $4 million plus year.
The number will come in somewhere between $2.5 million and $4 million a year. As far as whether the 49ers want him back or not, it's just now a negotiation. Now wonder Mariucci can laugh again. Football is back to being fun.
John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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Divisional Playoffs
Great eight