The Front Row with MARK NELKE Feb. 3, 2013

To paraphrase Frank Burns, you can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a San Francisco 49ers fan.

It's a little more difficult, I have discovered, to find someone who is a fan of the Baltimore Ravens.

There was a guy at the restaurant a couple of weeks ago who was wearing an Ed Reed jersey. I thought about striking up a conversation with him, but then the food showed up, and biting into an omelet trumped chewing the fat about the Super Bowl.

One person I found that was rooting for the Ravens was Kim Malar, a lifetime Coeur d'Alene resident and Coeur d'Alene High graduate.

"I'm not necessarily a die-hard Ravens fan, but due to the fact that the 49ers are in the same division as the Seahawks, they are a natural enemy," she said.

Asked why the Ravens will win the Super Bowl, she replied, "Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Joe Flacco. All three are amazing."

Asked about Ray Lewis, who is attracting attention for his impending retirement, as well as questions about using a performance-enhancing drug to rehab an injury, Kim said, "Everybody (media) focuses on the negative. Let me ask you this, are you asking the 49ers fans about Chris Culliver's homophobic remarks, and bringing up every skeleton in their closets? Let's just enjoy the game of football."

Good point. Culliver's remarks should have been an embarrassment to all mankind, not just 49ers fans.

On the other side of fandom, John Mulkin of Post Falls has been a 49ers fan for more than 50 years.

"Since I was born in San Francisco it was a natural choice, and then along came JOE. What a quarterback," he said.

Asked what kind of 49ers memorabilia he had, John replied, "Does a whole room devoted to JOE and all 49ers count?"

He said the 49ers will win today "because they are the best overall team."

Me, having been through the Joe Montana/Steve Young era, I have a hard time convincing myself this 49ers team is as good as those teams.

But they don’t have to be — they just have to be better than the other teams of this era, which includes the Ravens today. The thing about the Ravens is, they don’t fear anybody. Lots of teams lose to the Patriots before they ever take the field against them. The Ravens, they just go into Foxborough and beat up on New England. No big deal.

The fact the Ravens lost 4 of 5 to close the regular season — no worries. The fact they needed a misplay by a Denver safety to beat the Broncos in the divisional playoffs — no big deal. The fact they had the guts to throw a checkdown pass on fourth and 29 — and went on to convert the first down? That’s how they roll.

IT’S BEEN 18 seasons since us 49ers fans have been able to celebrate a Super Bowl victory.

Whenever I moan about such a long time between titles, my friend Tom Hasslinger, as a Seahawks fan, offers little sympathy.

Point taken.

So instead, I think of my friend Dante, who was 6 months old when Montana and the 49ers clobbered Denver in 1990, and was 5 years old when Young threw six TD passes vs. San Diego in ’95. So his memories might be a little fuzzy.

Totally on his own, he also became a 49ers fan, around 2000, when quarterback Jeff Garcia had his breakout season. But, like me in the mid-1970s, he had to sit through several years of frustration watching the 49ers, wondering if they would ever be good enough to play in a Super Bowl again.

“I really questioned it for a long time,” he said. “I had a feeling as soon as Jed York was elevated to owner that things would change.”

And when the 49ers hired Jim Harbaugh as coach?

“I thought Harbaugh would be a great fit for the program with his philosophy,” Dante said. “And, I mean, let history be your guide — the last time the Niners went down the road to pick up a rising college coach, it worked out pretty well.”

Now, if we could have the same success today that we had when that Bill Walsh fellow was coach ...

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.