April 19, 2012; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers chief executive officer Jed York speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new 49ers stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

If you are one of the fortunate people to have season tickets to the San Francisco 49ers games, you were issued a personalized mass letter by owner Jed York via email. The letter provided a genuine appreciation for the fans, as well as tons of optimism heading into the 2013 season. Although the 49ers fell short of their goal, there is plenty of optimism from both inside and outside the 49ers organization. Below is my letter issued by Jed York:

Dear Ryan, 

The primary goal of our organization is to win Super Bowls, and we came up just short of achieving that Sunday. The Super Bowl does not just mark the end of a great season, but rather represents the beginning of a bright future for the 49ers and our Faithful fans. I am very proud of our players, coaches, and staff who worked so hard to bring home a championship this season. This was a great year that produced a second consecutive NFC West title, a home playoff game win, a league-high 9 Pro Bowl players, and an NFC Championship. Still, in the end, our quest remains unfulfilled. We now attack the off-season with a renewed spirit and focus on winning the Super Bowl next season.

2013 will be a special year as we celebrate the final season of football at Candlestick Park. We intend to honor the place we’ve called home since 1971 with a season-long campaign featuring the greatest moments in 49ers history at the Stick. You may have noticed that during this past season we introduced a number of enhancements to the gameday experience, and we will continue to strive to put on the best show possible for our fans.

This year also marked the continued progress on the construction of the new Santa Clara Stadium, which is now nearly 40% complete. We are finalists to host either the 2015 or 2016 season’s Super Bowl in the new stadium and recently announced that the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl game is slated to begin play when we open in the fall of 2014.

On behalf of the entire San Francisco 49ers organization, I want to sincerely thank you for your Faithful support. Let us all look back on a great season and be proud of what this team accomplished. This team has a bright future and will compete for the Super Bowl for years to come.

It is true… Nobody has it better than us.

Although the 49ers fell short in their “Quest for Six,” I truly believe the 49ers will go out with a bang next year, as Candlestick finally comes to an end. GO NINERS!

Aside from the obvious distractions and problems involved in having a film crew follow you around and film everything about you and your team for 3 months, this 49ers team (owners, coaches, and players alike) has something bigger than a show on HBO on their minds, a Super Bowl. I am not saying that being on Hard Knocks guarantees that your team is not going to win a Super Bowl (even though no team to have been on the show has gone past the AFC Championship) but it hasn’t helped yet. Of the five teams that have been on the show, only the Jets have made it to their Championship game. The Ravens made the Divisional round and the Bengals were eliminated in the Wild Card round. The Cowboys (twice) and the Chiefs both failed to make the playoffs. Aside from these facts, the reason I think reason the 49ers passed on Hard Knocks this season is because of what is at stake in 2012. Coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff, along with Jed York and the York family, are building something in The City by the Bay, they are building a team, a team that has one common goal and puts that goal above all else including personal gain.

In building this anomaly in modern sports, the 49ers have gone after players that are hungry to win, that believe in a team dynamic and that most importantly, buy in to what Harbaugh is trying to do. So often in major sports now days, individual players are put ahead of the team either by themselves, their coaches, or the media. The 49ers are trying to avoid this by passing on having the circus that is Hard Knocks invade their sanctuary and soil what they are trying to build. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very entertaining show Hard Knocks, but it isn’t for this team. This team is more focused than any team I have seen in the NFL in recent memory and inviting the circus that is that show could be detrimental to the dynamic that has been created in San Francisco.

Without thinking about the cameras, the press, the other cameras, and all the interviews and questions that come with a show like Hard Knocks, I think about the message that it sends to the other teams in the NFL. Look at the absolute drama that surrounded the teams that have done Hard Knocks, and you can probably instantly see why the 49ers are not interested.

I personally think that this is a great move the 49ers made by passing on Hard Knocks. This allows the  team to focus on what is really important… winning. This 49ers team has some pretty lofty goals, and they also have a chance to do something special in the 2012 season, the 49ers have a chance to continue their rise to power in the NFL. Last year they began the journey turning a 6-10 team in to a 13-3 team and ending up one play away from the Super Bowl when no one picked them to do much of anything. A plethora of TV cameras, and unbelievable scrutiny could only be a detriment to that and create drama in a locker room where (knock on wood) there is none at this time.

Kudos to the 49ers organization for not becoming the next team to take part in Hard Knocks. The right move.

The draft has become so much more than just a selection of college players. It has become an enterprise in itself, allowing teams to not only address needs and fill holes but to plan for future years and make moves to win championships. Teams that manipulate the draft well are teams that are successful during the regular season and postseason in the NFL. It used to be that it was a select few teams that drafted incredibly well. The first name that comes to mind is Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. For years, The Hoodie and his staff manipulated the draft in so many ways it seemed illegal what they were doing, accumulating picks and moving up and down in the draft with fervor. Soon though, more teams started to take notice of this and the success that Coach Belichick had with his many draft picks and how he manipulated the draft.

Now you can the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff and owners to that group. This years draft for the 49ers was one of the best in recent memory, but if you look back, this is more of a reoccurring trend in the last six or seven years than a mirage. Since 2004 the 49ers have been drafting quite well (with the one exception of 2008). Since the 2004 draft, the 49ers have had 70 draft picks, and only two years (2008 & 2009) did they have seven or less. Of those 70 draft picks, 27 (give or take) are still on the team and 6 have been to the Pro Bowl. This is a team that has taken a blueprint for success that has worked in the past, and implemented it very well. Not counting this years draft, that gives the 49ers an average of 10 picks per draft, three more than you start with. Adding three extra picks every year is a very good way to improve your team as most would agree. The difference here is that anyone can throw darts at names and pick college players, but it takes elite football minds to analyze players performances in college, the combine, pro days, and individual workouts. This is something the York family, Trent Baalke, and now Jim Harbaugh have done very well.

More important than all the numbers, the 40 yard dash times, the bench press reps and all the other tangible measurements teams use to grade players is (cliche coming) the intangibles. The “football IQ” if you will. It takes a certain type of coach, or GM, or owner, or scout to recognize the potential in a player and the 49ers do this better than any team in the NFL. The trick is that the 49ers aren’t just looking for good players, those are a dime a dozen. The 49ers are looking for a certain type of player, they are looking for good men. It is a rare commodity to see a professional sports team with character and one that only employs players with the highest grades on a chart that measures integrity, character, morality, dedication, loyalty, and the biggest intangible of all, heart. The 49ers are that team. They are a team of integrity and the reason for that is because of Jim Harbaugh. Coach Harbaugh has created not only a culture of winning but a culture of excelling through superior personnel both on and off the field.

In short, the 49ers have begun the climb back to prominence which is something all 49er fans have waited patiently for over the last 15+ years and more importantly have done it in a way that makes Niner Nation proud. Our team has become the standard by which all teams should wish to be measured. Sure they haven’t won a Super Bowl since  the 1994-95 season but they will, and when they do, they will do it with a team full of men, men that can hold their heads high because they are on a team full of integrity, passion, and character. In a world full of money grubbing, two-faced, selfish, drug addicted players and shady, vindictive, morality deprived coaches and owners the 49ers organization is a breath of fresh air.