THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE, July 20, 2014
Ron Heller admits it - he's neither a 49ers legend, nor a former NFL all-star.
But there he was, last Saturday night, the old tight end, playing in the "Legends of Candlestick" flag football game, catching a pass from Dan Marino, reconnecting with his old 49ers teammates, and soaking up some more memories from one final trip to the 'Stick.
"Joe Montana and I are still real good friends," said Heller, the former Clark Fork High star who spent three seasons of his NFL career in San Francisco, and now lives down the coast in Santa Barbara. "Whenever I go to San Francisco, Joe and his wife Jennifer and I and my wife (Connie) try to have dinner and hang out. He contacted me and asked me to play, because he was the organizer of (the game). And that's the kind of guy Joe is. I was a role player on his team, but he and I were decent friends and we stayed in touch, so he invited me to play."
Heller is slowed these days by a bad left knee that will require a partial replacement, so he only played a handful of series in the game, suiting up for the NFL All-Stars team (most of the old 49ers played for the 49ers Legends team; a few helped fill out the All-Stars roster). Heller ran a curl route and caught a pass from Marino - "my third Hall of Famer (after Montana and Steve Young) that I got to catch a pass from" - so he was happy.
"It was great, there was 40,000 people there," he said. "It was a big event. It was great to hear the roar of the crowd again."
SOME 45 players made up the two teams. There was a "practice" the day before the game, but as Heller put it, "Our practice the day before consisted of playing catch, having a few beers, and jogging 20 yards and doing a little stretching.
"And at the end, after everybody had left, there was Jim Burt, Joe Montana, Brent Jones hitting golf balls out of the stadium from home plate."
The next day during pre-game warmups, Heller said about six guys suffered either pulled hamstrings or pulled calf muscles.
"That's what happens when everyone's over 50," said Heller, who turns 51 in September.
THE PRELIM to the "Legends of Candlestick" game - a flag football game between the San Francisco police and fire departments - was "a little more intense" than the Legends game, Heller said.
The Legends game came down to a fitting conclusion.
The All-Stars led by a couple points with a couple of minutes left.
"And naturally, there was Joe Montana, having to drive the length of the field to win it," Heller said.
On one play during the drive, Montana threw the ball to Young, who threw it back to Montana, who threw it to Jeff Garcia. That play set up the winning touchdown.
"With about six seconds left, they snuck Eddie DeBartolo, the old owner, into the end zone, and Joe rolled out, and he threw it to Eddie, and Eddie caught the game winner," he said. "Eddie was such a great owner, he treated us so well. It was so fitting - best quarterback ever on the planet, throwing to the best owner."
HELLER, WHO manages portfolios for high net worth investors, also coaches some football at the high school level - his son, Mitch, a tight end/defensive end, will be a freshman in high school this fall - and some grade-school sports.
His son and his friends got to run around the field and the locker room at Candlestick, posing for pictures with the 49ers Legends.
The night before the game, there was a dinner for players and their wives. It was a chance to renew old acquaintances, and get to chat with some players they only knew previously from lining up against them on the field.
Heller, a 1981 Clark Fork High grad who went on to play at Oregon State, signed with the Dallas Cowboys following the 1986 NFL draft. He was released, signed with the 49ers, and spent the '86 season on injured reserve. He played for San Francisco in 1987 and '88, capping his final season there by playing on the 49ers' third Super Bowl winning team - the team that beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Montana's pass to John Taylor in the final minute.
He played for Atlanta in 1989, and for Seattle in 1990 and '92. In 76 career games he caught 84 passes, five for touchdowns.
A few years ago, Connie made her husband a highlight tape of his playing days. In one of the clips - while Heller was with the Seahawks - he was blocking Greg Townsend of the Raiders, and the two wound up in a fight on the field. His kids saw the tape, and Townsend played in the game as a member of the All-Stars, and the kids wanted to meet him.
Townsend remembered the fight.
According to Heller, Townsend told him, 'Yeah, I remember that because I got in trouble because you were holding me, and I got mad with you holding me all the time, and so I thought I'd teach you a lesson, and I get in trouble."
HELLER SAID Candlestick was a great place to play, though not so much for the fans, as the stadium - not to mention the nearby neighborhood - is rundown. The new stadium opening this fall in Santa Clara will feature more seats closer to the field, and better amenities.
"Yeah, it (Candlestick) had an element that other people had to come and deal with," he said. "It was cold, and it was windy, and the field was hard, and it was not an easy place to play. And then when the sun goes down the fog gets the field really damp. And when I was there we had to play on that stupid baseball field - that crushed clay was just awful."
He recalled some of his memorable plays with the 49ers - one being the time he caught the game-winning touchdown pass from Montana against New Orleans moments after he had allowed a Saint to break through on his side, block a field goal and return it for a touchdown that put New Orleans ahead.
"We drive down the field, and get to like the 35-yard line and Bill Walsh says, 'Get in there, I'm calling your play.' I was all depressed because I thought I lost the game for us, and he calls my number, and I catch a 35-yard touchdown pass from Joe. That's probably the biggest memory."
But what he remembered most of all was the family atmosphere with the 49ers, which was unlike the atmosphere he experienced in his stops in Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle.
"I played with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, and Bubba Paris and Ronnie Lott ... Hall of Famers that treated you just like a guy on your Clark Fork team," Heller said. "And I'm thinking, 'I'm an undrafted free agent and here these guys are treating me like one of their brothers.' It was just an amazing organization."
BACK TO that knee replacement. Heller said that not only will be it done by a robot, but it will likely have to wait until after hunting season.
Of course. Priorities.
"I still come up (to North Idaho) elk hunting," Heller said. "And I got drawn for my moose tag this year, and I bring my son up for deer hunting season every year - he got his first mule deer last year."
Heller says he doesn't like the new 49ers-Seahawks rivalry, and not necessarily because it has become a chippy rivalry.
"My two favorite teams have to play against each other now, so I have to make a decision when they play," he said.
So how does he decide whom to root for?
"I wear a 49ers jersey and a Seahawks hat ... I'm never a loser," he said.
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@CdAPressSports.