Today’s game pits the San Francisco 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs in a bid to win their sixth Super Bowl championship. The York family has owned the team for the previous few seasons, but this year they intend to make a change.
The 49ers were founded in 1946 by Tony Morabito, who left the team to his younger brother Victor after his death in 1957. Tony and Victor’s wives, Jane and Josephine, owned the team after Victor’s death just seven years later. After purchasing the team in 1977, Edward DeBartolo Sr. passed it to his son, Edward DeBartolo Jr.
Under DeBartolo Jr.’s ownership, the 49ers won five Super Bowls. “I intended to operate the 49ers like a family rather than a company,” he declared in 2016. “I really considered the men and I to be a team. To win the Super Bowl, which is our yearly aim, we have to cooperate.
In 1998, he admitted guilt to gambling fraud, namely “to failing to report a felony when he paid $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gambling license.” As a result, he was fined $1 million and suspended from the NFL for a year. He was given the opportunity to return to the team as owner following his suspension, but he declined.
“The team actually wasn’t taken away from me,” he continued years later. “I think it’s been a misnomer for a very long time,” Of course, Commissioner Tagliabue suspended me, but during the course of my negotiations with my family, we undoubtedly involved lawyers and a court in Akron, Ohio, in our conversations. What mattered was not whether that team was acquired, but rather the decision of whether or not to acquire the 49ers or the other portion of the company.
“that I figured at that time, that my sister Denise [49ers owner Denise York] and her family were totally involved,” he continued. I decided it would be best to take the opposing side in that meeting in Akron, Ohio, and that would mean the end of my 49ers career. I don’t know if that story has ever been told again; it may or may not. But as I considered my options at the time, I came to the conclusion that it was a decision. I’d accomplished a lot and had great success with the 49ers. Even though it meant the world to me, I reasoned that since my daughters were getting older and we were all planning families at the time, it would be best for me to do what was best to be a good husband, father, and grandfather in addition to pursuing my interests and maybe traveling a little bit.
