San Francisco 49ers: Power ranking the franchise’s top 5 rivalries
49ers Rival No. 4: Green Bay Packers
This rivalry spans two independent eras of ferocity.
The first era being once again during the 49ers’ golden era, in which for the most part, San Francisco dominated its Wisconsin rivals, only to see the Green Bay Packers demolish the Niners’ postseason efforts in the latter half of the 1990s with painful regularity.
As a result, few Niners fans will have kind words for Packers Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.
Things got worse once the 49ers lost Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young to a career-ending injury. The loss of Young rocked the franchise and allowed the Packers to supplant the 49ers for over a decade, beating the Niners in 11 of 12 matchups between 1997 and 2010, and winning two NFC championships in the process. With the loss of Young and a number of key franchise players, came the loss of the high-intensity matchups between these two teams, and seemingly ended the Packers-Niners rivalry that so many fans had come to look forward to all year.
In came California native, Aaron Rodgers, the future Hall of Fame quarterback who was famously passed on by San Francisco in the 2005 NFL Draft for quarterback, Alex Smith. The selection of Smith led to a series of colorful comments from Rodgers over the years and sparked the second era of their rivalry.
Rodgers went so far as to state that the 49ers would forever regret passing on him.
It can be argued this was in fact one of the franchise’s worst mistakes in the draft of all time, and in turn, sparked a new era of Packers-Niners high-intensity matchups. The Packers still hold the overall head-to-head matchup title between these two teams with a record of 36-32-1, though Rodgers has only emerged victorious over San Francisco in four out of 10 total matchups.
Looks like the 49ers got the last laugh here when it comes to Rodgers making them regret passing on him, as San Francisco has ended Rodgers’ playoff pushes now three times since.
The franchise’s most famous moment against the cheese heads is easily the play that came to be known as “The Catch II,” in which Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens caught a game-ending touchdown pass from Young to seal the victory in the 1998 Wild Card game.
No Niners fans will ever forget this unbelievable moment.