Ron Heller won a Super Bowl title with the San Francisco 49ers back in 1989.?The tight end was on the field and in the huddle when Joe Montana orchestrated a game-clinching 92-yard drive against the Cincinati Bengals.
The Santa Barbara resident, co-founder of locally-based Peritus Asset Management, spoke with Presidio Sports about the 49ers returning to the Super Bowl this weekend for the first time 18 years.
PRESIDIO:?First of all, how excited are you to see the 49ers back in the Super Bowl after such a long absence?
RON HELLER: It?s been an 18-year drought, so it’s really nice. Even nicer than that is to see last week Eddie DeBartolo and his sister… now back together. This has a lot to do with the management in place, Jim Harbaugh getting hired, going back to the old 49er days, because when they split up and had their little family feud, you know, the Yorks tried to go another direction and tried to get rid of the Eddie model, because there was so much bitterness. Obviously that didn?t work. (The DeBartolos) reconciled the last couple of years and it’s been great.
PRESIDIO:?What’s your favorite quality of this year’s 49ers team?
HELLER: Just that they’re a mean bunch, all the way across the board. From the way the receivers block, to the nasty linemen, to the defense. They are a mean bunch, but they run a finesse style offense. And that?s how Bill Walsh taught it: you have to be the bullies on the block ? not the guys taking the punches ? and try to win and survive in the fourth quarter. From our special teams on up to our offense, we were bullies and we were punishing runners, that?s why (Los Angeles Raider) Howie Long chased our offensive line coach to the locker room after halftime one game because he didn?t like the way we were blocking.
PRESIDIO:?Your quarterback was Joe Montana. Are there any similarities at all between Montana and Colin Kaepernick?
HELLER: Early in Joe?s career, which I played with him fairly early to right in the middle of his career, Joe ran the ball. He ran the ball quite a bit when he had to. They didn?t have designed runs for him; they had a lot of designed roll outs and waggles. But he ran the ball quite a bit, he was a pretty good runner, getting out of bounds and sliding and stuff. But that?s one of the similarities. The accuracy, Colin is really accurate with the long ball like Joe was. He wasn?t so much accurate on the deep ball, but Joe was very accurate on the deep ball. Those are the 2 big similarities I see.
PRESIDIO:?How will you be spending your Super Bowl Sunday?
HELLER: Sitting in front of the 64-inch TV I just bought, watching by myself?(joke). No, we will have a few friends over. It is one game that I just like to kind of hide and not have a big party or be around a whole lot of people.
PRESIDIO:?What is your favorite Super Bowl memory?
HELLER: One of the best Super Bowl experiences, well there are two.?Number one is Media Day. I?m a guy that grew up in Idaho, in a town of 400. And media day was like 5000 reporters, TV cameras, from all around the country and everyone had their own podium and it was like a mob. You know, it was just crazy for 2 hours having that many people, media, I met guys from 30 or 40 countries. I didn?t realize the NFL was that big, and the Super Bowl was that big of a deal across the world. But it is.
Secondly, the last drive of the game. We come out there and, you know, we had to win and there was just over 2 minutes left in the game. And Joe, Joe Montana was a calm cool and collected guy, and Harris Barton who was our offensive tackle was always nervous nelly, throwing up all the time. Harris is all, you know, amped up before that last drive, and Joe looks over to Harris in the huddle and says, “hey Harris, isn?t that John Candy over there eating a hot dog?” And it just set the mood in the huddle for that last drive. That?s the kind of calm cool and collectiveness that Joe had, nothing bothered him.
PRESIDIO:?Does your Super Bowl experience feel like it was a long time ago or just yesterday?
HELLER: You know it seems like it was yesterday, I can’t believe it?s been 24 years since we won the Super Bowl. I mean, you know, your mind tells you that: hey, you?re still young, but your body tells you that you?re an old man. But it does, it does just seem like it was yesterday. It doesn?t seem that long ago
PRESIDIO:?What is your score prediction and why?
HELLER: I think the 49ers will win by 2 scores, just basically because I?m not a big believer in Baltimore?s defense. Their last 5 or 6 games of the year was really telling – they gave up a lot of points, 35 or 40 points per game. And so I think that?s the real defense; I think in the playoffs they have tightened it up. I think that’s the big difference, I don?t think Baltimore?s defense is really very good so I think that the 49ers will win by 2 scores or more.
