Former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. awaits word on NFL Hall of Fame

SAN FRANCISCO - “I'm sitting here in my office listening to ‘Lyin' Eyes,'” Eddie DeBartolo Jr. said on a conference call last week. “I'm listening to all the Eagles songs.”

DeBartolo was on his Montana property, which is where he usually goes to get away from business. (His main office is in Tampa, Fla.) And right about now, the man 49ers fans know as Eddie D has a lot hanging over him.

DeBartolo is a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist for the fourth time, and the possibility of finding elation, or disappointment, hangs over him. Results of the vote will be announced Saturday, the night before Super Bowl 50.

“If you want to call this anxiety - and I can't blame it on my three dogs, because they get up at around midnight to go out, but I've been getting up around a quarter to 3 every morning and that's it. I'm up, work out a little bit, coffee and that's it. So I don't know. I guess psychologically or whatever they call it, I'm sure it's weighing on my mind.”

Eleven members of the 49ers' dynasty of the 1980s and 1990s already have busts in Canton, Ohio. And just about everybody associated with the team agrees DeBartolo is worthy of being No. 12.

“I'm hoping, I'm praying, yes he is,” said former Niners head coach and current NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci, whom DeBartolo hired in 1997. “This is the year. This is in San Francisco. What a perfect induction that would be. And I'm just keeping fingers crossed.”

NEW KID IN TOWN

Bill Walsh's game plans and Joe Montana's poise under pressure and Ronnie Lott's fiery toughness were vital to the 49ers' glory, the old-timers say. But none of it would have been possible without DeBartolo, who assumed control of the team in 1977 at the improbable age of 30.

To the men and women who worked under him, DeBartolo's Hall of Fame credentials are beyond obvious. The 49ers won five Super Bowls in 14 years. They won 10 or more games in 16 consecutive years. No other franchise has done those things.

The Niners sustained a level of success that has rarely been approached. They did it with more than one coach and more than one quarterback, but under just one owner.

“Whenever you talk about his team, do we not talk about one of the all-time cornerstones of the league?” said former cornerback Eric Davis, another NFL Network presence. “Whenever you mention his team, it's always synonymous with greatness. … You can't talk about the history of this league without a chapter, or two, about his team. How can that not be Hall of Fame worthy?”

Eddie Jr.'s father, Edward DeBartolo Sr., had made a fortune building shopping malls. Junior got more than money from Senior. He also learned how to treat employees, from the starting quarterback to the groundskeeper to the security guys.

Steve Young, the Hall of Fame quarterback who now does analysis for ESPN, remembers a New York Giants executive saying during the 1987 labor strike that NFL owners had to drive home the point that players were the owners' chattel. To Young, that was the whole problem.

“Eddie completely ripped up that narrative,” he said. “And people may be jealous of it, might be frustrated by that, might not like it. But he tore it up. He and his players were family. … Still, if you need something from Eddie, anybody who ever played for the team could call him. Call him personally, and he would figure out a way to help you.”

DeBartolo spared no expense when it came to his team. His Super Bowl rosters were built largely before the salary cap, and his payroll was always among the biggest in the NFL. And the spending didn't end with salary. The 49ers rode in stretch limos, flew in private DC-10s and L-1011s, and stayed in top-end hotels.

San Francisco became a coveted destination for NFL players.

That was certainly true in 1994 when Deion Sanders, the brilliant cornerback who had just logged five seasons in Atlanta, became a free agent. Sanders signed with the 49ers, and you could say DeBartolo was a factor.

“He was THE factor,” said Sanders, another NFL Network guy. “I was gonna sign with the Miami Dolphins. And I flew in and met with Mr. DeBartolo face to face. And by the time I got on the plane and landed back in Atlanta, (Drew) Bledsoe had hit the Miami Dolphins for I think 350 yards passing. Miami called and said, OK, we'll give you what you want. But being a man of my word, I looked Eddie DeBartolo in the eye and said I'm coming.”

What was it about DeBartolo that convinced Sanders?

“When somebody looks you in your eye and tells you, ‘We're gonna win it all, and you are that piece that we need' - that's a man,” Sanders said. “This is like choosing your college when you're out of high school. Something about that campus, something about that coach, something inside of you clicks and lets you know this is the place. And that's how Eddie was.”

TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT

There have been plenty of NFL franchise owners with more football knowledge than DeBartolo, and some with more public presence. But it's likely than no one has ever been more passionate, and more emotional, about his team.

That could be a burden at times. DeBartolo gave his players everything they needed to be successful. He felt betrayed when they came up short.

Randy Cross, a former offensive lineman who preceded DeBartolo in San Francisco, remembers the moment that drove the point home.

“Losing a divisional playoff game to the Vikings in '87 and coming back to the locker room to a shattered drink machine,” Cross said. “You talk about a deathly quiet room. And he was mad. We lost at Arizona in 1988, my last year. That locker room without a doubt was the most uncomfortable locker-room moment I've been associated with. And that was 1,000 percent because of the tongue-lashing we got from Eddie. And that was everybody, even Bill (Walsh).”

After that loss to Minnesota, DeBartolo stripped Walsh of his title as team president, and installed himself in the role. But while his intensity upped the pressure on everybody in the organization, the 49ers players appreciated DeBartolo's fire.

“Because the owners are untouchable. They're unaccountable,” Young said. “And it's frustrating as a player. Because you're ultimately accountable.”

DeBartolo answered to no one in the organization, of course. But Young said the owner constructed an image that made it appear he was as vulnerable as anyone.

“So when he came in and made a speech before the game or after the game,” Young noted, “and said, ‘I give you everything you need! You tell me what you want, but you be champions! If I give it to you, you go do it!' And everybody is like, ‘Yeah! You give us the food and we'll go play, and go!' He gave us that image, like ‘I'm in it with you. I'm at risk at well.' I thought that was masterful.”

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

And yet Eddie D is no shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. Asked whether DeBartolo is worthy of the honor, former NFL quarterback and CBS voice Boomer Esiason said: “Hmm, that's an interesting question. I think as an owner he was a terrific owner. … Overall, the success that he had with the 49ers, I would say yes. But you have to look deeper into whether there were any shenanigans going on behind the scenes.”

Esiason may have been referring to whispers that DeBartolo arranged sweetheart deals with stars like Montana during the 1987 players' strike. But the owner's real scandal came later. DeBartolo entered the NFL as an unknown and forged a reputation as the league's most successful executive. But he left in humiliation.

Caught up in a racketeering probe involving Louisiana casinos, DeBartolo pled guilty to a felony in 1998, acknowledging that he failed to report an extortion attempt by then-governor Edwin Edwards. The NFL fined DeBartolo $1 million and suspended him from running the 49ers for one year.

In 2000, Eddie and his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, reached an agreement on the family business. DeBartolo would assume the real estate holdings. DeBartolo York would take control of the 49ers along with her husband, John York.

DeBartolo insisted last week that he was not forced out of the NFL. He and his sister, he said, met with a judge in Akron, Ohio, to iron out details, and DeBartolo voluntarily relinquished the team.

“I thought that it would be best that I took the other side and that my tenure with the 49ers would end then and would end there,” he said. “I don't know if that story has ever been told. It may have been, it may have not been. But it really was a choice. I just figured there was more to do with my life at that time.”

More than 15 years later, DeBartolo's nephew Jed York is CEO of the 49ers; he is highly unpopular following the firing of coach Jim Harbaugh and the team's recent 5-11 finish. DeBartolo, meanwhile, has a net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Most of it is concentrated in Simon Property Group, a commercial real estate company.

There is another knock on DeBartolo's Hall of Fame candidacy. All of the other modern-day owners who have been voted into the hall could point to achievements that went beyond team headquarters. Al Davis helped seal the AFL-NFL merger and broke color barriers by hiring Mexican- and African-American coaches. Lamar Hunt and Ralph Wilson were among the co-founders of the AFL. Dan Rooney has been a member of practically every important NFL committee in existence, and has chaired many of them.

DeBartolo's influence, lasting as it has been, was mostly limited to building the 49ers.

ONE OF THESE NIGHTS

And so DeBartolo must wait in anticipation of another vote.

One thing in his favor is that he is not “competing” with players like Brett Favre and Terrell Owens.

“You see more owners going in now that they've sort of cleared a contributor spot,” Cross said. “Before you could vote for a player or vote for an owner, and it was kind of easy to say, ‘He was great but how about this guy?' Now they just have to clear 80 percent of the vote. To me, it's a no-brainer. But I never give the guys who vote on this too much credit. It's sort of a political process, so you hold your breath.”

It's unclear whether the writers with voting power will be swayed by DeBartolo's record. But he seems to have widespread support among players and coaches - even those who knew him as an opponent.

“Owners ruin more football teams that any coaches or quarterbacks do,” said former quarterback Phil Simms, who will call Super Bowl 50 for CBS. “It's not to be mean toward the owners, I love 'em in this job. But that's what it's about. It starts at the top - owner, general manager, head coach, quarterback. When that chain's broken, it's gonna ruin everybody.”

Eddie DeBartolo ruined Coke machines during his tenure with the 49ers, and he ruined his reputation, at least temporarily, when he waded into casino graft in Louisiana. But no one could ever accuse him of ruining a football team.