#14

 

RONNIE LOTT

San Francisco’s ascension to NFL dominance is largely credited to head coach Bill Walsh and quarterback Joe Montana. The 49ers became an offensive juggernaut and Walsh’s “West Coast Offense” became the team’s legacy. Montana, and later Steve Young, served as the triggerman and receivers Dwight Clark, Freddie Solomon, Jerry Rice, and John Taylor lit up the scoreboard along with running backs Roger Craig, Wendell Tyler, and Ricky Watters.

Walsh and Montana were the two most visible parts of the team but neither one claimed to be the most important. Both would refrain from answering questions regarding who the best or most important player on the team was but if they were pushed to the wall, each man gave the same answer: Ronnie Lott.

Lott started his NFL career as a cornerback with the Niners but he was quickly used at both safety positions in addition to his coverage duties at cornerback. As a rookie, he immediately imposed his will on his defensive teammates. The 49ers had simply been a soft defensive team before Lott arrived on the scene. They were drag-down tacklers and allowed points by the bushel. The 1980 Niners finished 6–10 and surrendered 415 points.

Lott knew he was coming to a team that almost never came up with the key stops and rarely contributed a big hit. He knew why they had drafted him and he was bound and determined to turn things around.

“Teams had basically done whatever the Dallas wanted to the 49ers,” Lott said. “There had been a game against the Cowboys that year where they had just gotten destroyed, 59–14, and they had just pushed the Niners around from start to finish. There had been no resistance. That game cut a hole in the team’s psyche and I knew that it would never go away until we could stand up to them.

“That’s one of the things I felt I had to do. Give the team something to fight for. Put a chip on its shoulder. We had to have some toughness. I was more than happy to do whatever I could. If that meant flying around like a missile, I would do just that.”

Walsh had seen the characteristics of leadership and dominance when he watched Lott on tape as he prepared for the 1981 draft. That toughness was even more apparent when he talked to Lott one-on-one.

“We were starting to get better from an offensive perspective but we didn’t have the presence to be a good team because the defense was so far behind,” Walsh said. “There was no question that we needed to be a lot tougher and Ronnie Lott was going to give us that. I thought he might be the right guy just from looking at his films, but when I talked to him it became crystal clear. We needed him to be on the field if we were going to get better.”

Montana felt the same way as his coach. He thought the offense had a chance to come around but there was nothing on the defensive side that gave him any comfort. “You play to win and we felt that we were going to improve offensively,” Montana said of the team preparing for the 1981 season. “But the defense had been awful and nobody thought we were going to get any better [on that side of the ball]. But that summer we saw Ronnie hitting everything in sight. It was clear things were going to get better because he was on the field.”

The X-factor for Lott was his leadership. How many rookies can provide it? Rookies who tend to talk and say what’s on their mind generally get slapped down and called a punk. But Lott had the gift for speaking the truth without stepping on his elders’ toes. He became a very vocal leader in the years that followed but even as a rookie he was able to say important things to older teammates.

“I guess they thought I was sincere,” Lott said. “Maybe [it was] because of the way I played. They could see I left it all on the field every day so I could speak my mind.”

Lott was a devastating hitter, but he also had the hands to intercept the ball. He had 63 interceptions in his career, good for sixth all-time, and led the league in interceptions in both 1986 and 1991. Five of his interceptions he returned for touchdowns. He also delivered 1,113 punishing tackles—plus 8.5 sacks—during his 14-year career, earning 10 Pro Bowl selections and six selections to the All-Pro team. He caused 16 fumbles and he recovered 17 more. If there was someone to be hit, Lott was more than willing to lay the lumber.

As productive as Lott was, he wished he had been better when the ball was in the air. “I had a few interceptions but I never could catch the ball the way I wanted to,” Lott said. “If there was one thing I could change about my game, that would be it. I see a guy like Ed Reed and the way he goes after the ball and I think that’s how I would like to have played. He’s magical going after the ball. I wasn’t anything close to that.”

Perhaps Lott is being a bit hard on himself or perhaps he’s right. But if he had poor hands he had a pretty good excuse. Half of his left pinky finger had been removed in 1985 after it got caught up in an opponent’s facemask and had been mangled. Lott wasn’t interested in an operation or rehab—he wanted to go back on the field. Lott instructed the surgeon to “cut it off.”

“That story is so old,” Lott said. “You don’t have to tell it again. I think people know what happened.”

Yes they do. But it gives an indication of what the Niner veterans learned about Lott during his rookie year. “I wanted to play and I wanted to win. It was just that simple. Who knows when I would have been back if I had surgery. I wanted to get back onto the field. That’s where it all happened.”

Lott’s impact is underrated because the 49ers were such a big-time offensive team with Joe Montana, Roger Craig, Dwight Clark, and Jerry Rice gathering so many of the headlines. But Lott’s defensive impact was not underrated in the San Francisco locker room. “As offensive players, we had our own business to attend to when we were on the sidelines,” Montana said. “But after we talked about what we would do next, you had your eye on the defense. You wanted to see who Ronnie was going to hit next.”