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Much has been made of the performance from Shaun Hill at the end of this miserable season.  A career backup until the injuries of Smith and Dilfer forced him to the field, Hill was an undrafted free agent in 2002, when he was signed by the Minnesota Vikings.  He had previously led the Maryland Terrapins to a win in the Orange Bowl and a top 10 ranking, then after a stint on the bench for the Vikings, he went to NFL Europe where he led the league in passing yards and tied for second in touchdowns, playing for the Amsterdam Admirals.

It was, dare I say, an admirable performance, as was his performance when he actually took the field in an NFL regular season game.  The first drive he led against his old team, the Minnesota Vikings, went for a touchdown, which was arguably pretty good for a guy who had never seen an NFL field other than preseason. 

Every player has the opportunity to show NFL scouts what they are capable of, and yet he remained undrafted as scouts passed on him.  He signed on with the Vikings as a third-stringer, but was sent to NFL Europe which was, at best, merely an advancement from the college level, but hardly the same as the NFL.  After leaving the Admirals, he gathered dust on the bench of the Minnesota Vikings behind Daunte Culpepper, before signing as a free agent with the 49ers in 2006.  He then sat on the bench undiscovered by the San Francisco coaching staff as Trent Dilfer embarrased himself on the field.  Apparently everyone must have missed something.

To see Hill’s performance in the proper light, it behooves us to relive the horrible season, and remember the emotions that led to Hill’s action.

After the three games discussed in yesterday’s post, Trent Dilfer came in.  He was the guy with the experience, and Shaun Hill remained unproven.  Rod Brooks of the KNBR radio show Fitz and Brooks had remarked, as they see the 49ers practice every Friday, that judging by the way Hill practiced we would much rather see Trent Dilfer.

Offensive ineptitude ran rampant for two straight games, then the bye week, then another loss to the New York Giants.  Then came the return of Smith.  From his first pass against the struggling New Orleans Saints, he grabbed his shoulder pads and pulled them off his shoulder, grimacing all the while.  He was clearly in pain, but we were told it was all about tolerance.  Passes began sailing on him.  He had never been the kind to throw too high to his receivers.  Corner throws went wide of their mark, when he had previously demonstrated, as evidenced in yesterday’s video clips, remarkable accuracy and zip on his passes.  The defense, which had previously played very well, gave up 24 points in the first half alone.  Smith gutted it out and even finished a drive with a touchdown to Vernon Davis in the 4th quarter.  His teammates and his coach remarked about how tough he had been in that game.

They went to Atlanta without Frank Gore and lost another game to a woeful opponent.  Despite Smith’s continued agony and three interceptions off of uncharacteristic poor throws, the 49ers still kept it within 4 points and had opportunities to win.  Mike Nolan said that Smith merely lacked confidence, but his explanation ran hollow to all observers.  Next up, the Seahawks on Monday Night, and the 49ers lost 24-0.  It was the worst loss of the season, and the seventh in a row, on national television, when Smith’s shoulder was also at its worst.

Smith endured unending criticism from commentators, his coach, and his teammates.  Everyone knew his shoulder was still hurt.  After the game Julian Peterson, a former teammate of Smith’s, said the quarterback was still in obvious pain.  This led Mike Nolan to belittle Peterson’s opinion and state the obvious, that he was not a doctor.  He also continued to assert that Smith merely lacked confidence throwing the ball.  Essentially it meant that Smith wasn’t hurt, but was just playing poorly.  Smith answered questions from interviewers, stating that his shoulder was not as healed as they thought, and everything was suffering because of it.

The rest of the flap I’ve already discussed, and we all remember too clearly.  Another start for Dilfer, another loss, this time to the Rams, and the team went into Arizona not expecting much.  They came out with a stirring overtime victory, finally breaking the losing streak, and avoiding a ninth straight loss, which would have been the worst in team history.  Another big loss to the Panthers led us to the Vikings, where Dilfer went out in the first half with a concussion.

Finally we get to the point: enter Shaun Hill.  A season of frustration, anger, ineptitude and losing neared the final stretch, and we were now getting a fresh look at a new quarterback.

The Vikings entered the second half with a 27-point lead.  In this late-season game, the Vikings still had a chance for the playoffs.  With a large lead over a team bringing out their third-string quarterback, the Vikings’ vaunted defense, ranked last in the league against the pass, took the rest of the game off.  Shaun Hill faced a prevent defense the rest of the way, and completed 22 passes for an average of 6 yards a piece.  The 49ers dinked and dunked their way to a whopping 7 points, as Hill completed an uninspiring 5-yard touchdown pass.

The Cincinnati Bengals fielded the 27th-ranked total defense, and 26th-ranked pass defense, when they came to San Francisco for a Thursday night game.  Already 7-7, the Bengals had an outside chance for a wildcard spot, but they faced a difficult trend.  Historically speaking, when a team with an outside chance at the playoffs faces a team playing only for pride, pride wins more often than not.  The 49ers continued to dink and dunk.  Shaun Hill made some nice throws, but they were often short, and had little zip.  His longest was a 17-yarder in the middle of the field to Vernon Davis.  He was dealing with a broken index finger, but it’s the least important finger when gripping or throwing the ball.  He showed good scrambling ability, but the fact that he had to scramble against the Bengals shows the weakness of the 49ers’ pass protection.

It was Hill’s ability to run which naturally sparked the home crowd.  Visions of Steve Young played in our minds as he ducked under onrushing tacklers and went outside the pocket.  The fact that fans had endured Trent Dilfer’s plodding ineptitude for so many games meant that a scrambling Shaun Hill brought life.  Players had a chance to rescue broken plays.  Fans had something to cheer for.  It wasn’t that Shaun Hill was so great a quarterback, it was that he did something.  He had fun, the players had fun, and a good time was had by all.  It was a heartwarming moment, but more importantly it was a win.

Winning changes everything, and going in to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it was momentum.  The Bucs, a team already headed for the playoffs, rested their starters in a game everyone recognizes as no more than an exhibition.  For the 49ers and their home crowd though, it was about pride.   Vernon Davis was mobbed at the back of the endzone by fans crazed with emotion, and the story was Bryant Young being carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates as a winner.  However, if not for a few inches, Michael Clayton would have tied it on a 2-point conversion, sending it to overtime.

Shaun Hill’s leadership was no more than a spark he provided during a season that was already down the tubes.  Here is a kid who loves football, has fun doing it, and had something to prove.  He came out with a reason to play, even though no one else had any.  For the fans, winning makes everything feel good, and when you lost eight in a row a win covers no only the bad, but also the good that was lost in the bitterness.  For his teammates, Shaun Hill helped them forget the bad taste in their mouths from the lost season.  A season that wasn’t any fun for anyone had a small glimmer of joy.

Shaun Hill played ten quarters of football, in three games with no meaning in the standings, for a team and fans rendered ridiculously easy to please by comparison, against opposing defenses who either took the game off or were fielding practice squad players.  If a player has been in the league more than five years and nobody has played him, or tried to acquire him, he’s probably not really all that good.  Alex Smith has done better things in games with more value (See 2006 games against Seattle, Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia and Oakland).

Shaun Hill is a wonderful human being and a fun player to watch, but he’s no more talented than Cody Pickett, who also gave us several entertaining quarters of football.  So why all the interest in re-signing him?  Why Mike Nolan’s assertion that there is an open competition at quarterback next season?  Tomorrow, we’ll see how Shaun Hill may be the answer to everyone’s prayers in a way no one could have predicted, and Mike Nolan has indeed become the luckiest man in football.