San Francisco 49ers 12/20/2007 9:28 AMThe Mercury News reports the 49ers need help. Serious help. And sitting in his office in Tampa, Fla., is a man who surely could help. If only he were asked. "I can't envision that happening in a million years," Eddie DeBartolo Jr. said Wednesday. "But if the phone call came, I'd be the first person on a plane to help. For one dollar - in a New York second - I'd be there to help my sister and her family." I was speaking with DeBartolo about the past - the glorious 49ers past - because it was recently announced that the former 49ers owner has been elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and will be inducted in April. But our conversation inevitably turned to the 49ers' not-so-glorious present. The team is now owned by DeBartolo's sister, Denise DeBartolo York; her husband, John York; and their oldest son, Jed. In the decade since the Yorks assumed control, the golden legacy and winning aura constructed by DeBartolo and Bill Walsh have all but vanished.Read more
