What can a fan do?

I find myself watching Chargers games. I don't know what to make of this. Clearly I'm not a Chargers fan. My definition of fan is that you get one team per sport. My team is the 49ers. I may root for the Chargers, I may watch the Chargers, but they are not my team. For instance, I was actually rooting for the Patriots to score during the game so that it would be closer (and I hate Boston teams).

But, the fact that I watch Chargers games is giving me a bit of fan identity crisis. How is it that I've watched parts of all the Chargers games and not one 49ers game? The obvious reason is that they aren't on TV. The NFL has an exclusive contract with DirectTV so I can't pay to watch games like I do with the NBA. And, the local stations aren't going to waste the few NFL games they can show with a pathetic team like the 49ers. The funny thing is, I don't even know how pathetic they are - again, I can't watch them.

However, I do know know a thing or two about crappy teams (remember, I love the Warriors). And there is a distinct similarity. The owners of both teams are turrible (as Charles Barkley would say). One of the things that I've noticed in both business and sports is that the best teams have smart people running the organizations.

If you are a fan of team, what you may not realize is that it's not best to have the greatest player of all time on your team (the niners had that with Montana, Rice, Young). It's not best to have the greatest coach (again, the niners had Bill Walsh). And it's not best to have the top General manager. No, the best thing is to have a great owner. Everything will flow from him/her. The owner doesn't have to know how to play the game or coach the game - but he does have to have a vision for his team, hire people who understand that vision and set the tone for the whole organization. If you have a great owner who can do that they you're team can have success for decades. With the best player your success is only temporary.

Getting back to my point - the Niners and Warriors owners have been horendous. Starting with the Niners, ever since John York took over the team has floundered. It's gone through many coaches and GM's and at no point has demonstrated any type of consistency that would make me confident in them year in and year out.

As for the Warriors - despite the good feelings of their playoff victory over the Mavericks they just can't figure it out. A great anecdote of their feebleness in the front office can be seen in how they treat their season ticket holders. Every year before the season starts the Warriors send their Season Ticket Holders (STH) a gift. For instance, when I was a STH I received a nice jewlery-type box that was made out of basketball leather. There might have been something nice inside of it too. I don't remember exactly, but I was excited when it came. So what have Warriors done this year. They gave all their STH's a gift certificate to a time share... where they get to be pitched to buy some crappy timeshare property. That's not a gift, that's advertising. And to add insult to injury, they also gave the time share all your personal info so that they can continue to pester you. Only a team so incompetent that it misses the playoffs for over a decade straight could piss off their most important investors this way.

So for all those niners and warriors fans who are reading this. Don't hope that we get the first pick in the draft or sign a great free agent. Hope that John York and Chris Cohan sell the team. If only it was a democarcy - we could just vote them out. Well, at least we can do that with the president.