San Francisco 49ers: Breaking down the 20 biggest moments of the decade

The San Francisco 49ers boast a rich heritage since their inception in 1946. Here are 20 moments of the past decade where the Niners, for better or for worse, added to that heritage.

History works in strange comparisons. To enter the 2010 season, the San Francisco 49ers were a favorite to win the NFC West and ended up a colossal disappointment.

To end the decade, the Niners were not expected to win the NFC West. But as of the time of this writing, they have a chance to clinch both the division and home-field advantage to close out the regular season. Either way, San Francisco is finishing the decade as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

That’s just to bookend the decade, there have been a lot of moments between 2010 and 2019 as well.

The 49ers could certainly not claim to be boring during the 2010s: from the highs of the then-head coach Jim Harbaugh era and the beginning of the now-head coach Kyle Shanahan era beginning to bear fruit, to the pain of the Super Bowl and a lot of things to do with the Seattle Seahawks.

This decade has been important to me. I turned from just a casual fan of the game here in Australia to much more of a fanatic, who now gets the special opportunity to write about the team and the game.

So on that note, I really hope I don’t have any embarrassing omissions on this list.

Twenty iconic moments of the decade, some good and some bad, start here.

We begin with a moment that looked to be much bigger at the time, but turned into something that barely made the cut on this list.