DeBartolo says Mariucci ‘fits 49ers’ image to a T’

Friday, Jan. 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

NFL Notes:

SUN WIRE REPORTS

The idea was to bring Steve Mariucci along slowly, make him the 49ers offensive coordinator for a season or two and then promote him to head coach.

George Seifert's abrupt resignation accelerated that notion. Mariucci, despite only a year's head coaching experience, was hired Thursday to succeed Seifert as 49ers coach.

"They've had some of the greatest coaches maybe that have ever coached this game," said Mariucci, who during Thursday's news conference posed with his predecessors, Seifert and Bill Walsh. The two, who remain with the team in consulting roles, combined to lead San Francisco to five Super Bowl wins since 1981.

"My hope is to continue that excellence," added Mariucci, 6-6 as California's coach in 1996. "My goals are the same goals as the 49ers organization, the same goals as the players have, the same goals as the fans have -- to have another parade after winning a championship."

During a dinner meeting with Policy last Sunday, Mariucci, 41, was offered the offensive coordinator's job with assurances he would become the head coach in a year or two when Seifert was expected to step down.

Seifert, though, returned from a weeklong fishing trip to Mexico and told Policy on Tuesday night that he wanted to step down now. After consulting with club owner Eddie DeBartolo, Policy said he called Mariucci almost immediately to upgrade the offer.

"It happened so fast, it was the most unusual turn of events here in the last few days," Mariucci said.

DeBartolo said there were two main reasons he hired Mariucci.

"We think he's a great talent and we think he fits the 49ers' image to a T," DeBartolo said. "If this man is given the time that he needs, and no one gets rambunctious, than he will do the type of job that we hired him to do. He has a great history in his short years in this field."

Mariucci is just the third coach for the 49ers in 18 years and the first person from outside the 49ers' organization to be selected for the job since Walsh arrived in 1979 and installed his pioneering West Coast offense.

Seifert was defensive coordinator under Walsh when he ascended to the head coaching job in 1989. In eight years, he compiled the highest winning percentage in NFL history while surpassing Walsh, a Hall of Famer, as the team's winningest coach.

Mariucci said he would benefit from having both Walsh and Seifert around.

"There's a certain comfort that I have knowing Bill Walsh and George Seifert," he said. "There are people that will stay with the organization. There are people I can lean on. I'm not naive enough to think I can do this by myself."

* ACCUSATION REVIVED: Despite police findings that the allegation was a lie, the woman who accused Dallas Cowboys stars Michael Irvin and Erik Williams of sexual assault has revived her claim, according to her lawyer. Nina Shahravan, 23, who later recanted her original claim, was free on $500 bond on a misdemeanor perjury charge after she surrendered to authorities at the Dallas County jail Thursday. She would not respond to reporters' questions as deputies ushered her in the jail's back door. However, attorney G. David Smith of Dallas said, "The original statement given by my client to the Dallas police is true. ... I represent the victim of a rape." The perjury charge against Shahravan carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. The Class B charge that police originally sought carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

* BEEBE KNOWS: Don Beebe is serving as a Super Bowl consultant to his fellow Green Bay Packers, telling them just what the colossal event is going to be like. Of course, there's one thing from his experience that he doesn't want to share: what it's like in the loser's locker room. Nobody on the Packers can appreciate the all-or-nothing nature of the Super Bowl like Beebe, who lost four consecutive NFL championships with the Buffalo Bills from 1990-93. "It's an awful experience. That whole off-season is awful. You dominate teams all year and then you lose in the Super Bowl and you're labeled as losers," Beebe said. "At Buffalo, if anything, we were winners. But that's not how we'll go down in history."

* BLEDSOE RECOVERING: A bowl of chicken soup was the prescription to nurse Drew Bledsoe back to health. Correcting his passing problems for the Super Bowl won't be as easy. The Patriots quarterback returned to work Thursday after New England's two-day break following its AFC championship win last Sunday. "If we're going to win this ballgame," Bledsoe said, "then I'm going to have to play very well. As an entire offense, we're going to have to score points, but if I play well, then we've got a chance." Bledsoe should be over his cold by the time the Patriots play the Green Bay Packers in New Orleans on Jan. 26. He coughed several times before starting a news conference Thursday. He said stoically that he was feeling better. "I just laid around and let my mom and my wife take care of me," he said. "Threw some chicken soup down my throat and watched a lot of TV. It was pretty relaxing."

* REEVES WATCH: While there's no indication that Dan Reeves won't be the Atlanta Falcons next coach, the two sides are still trying to work out the details. The Reeves watch dragged on Thursday while the two main parties, Reeves and Atlanta Falcons president Taylor Smith, spent the day in different cities. Reeves was in south Alabama to give a motivational speech to a business group, while Smith was in West Palm Beach, Fla., for an NFL committee meeting. Reeves, speaking to an Associated Press reporter in Point Clear, Ala., said he hoped a deal could be worked out with the Falcons by this weekend. But he was planning to fly back to his home in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., today.