The best moments ever from the 49ers’ 49 wins on ‘Monday Night Football’

The San Francisco 49ers have the most wins of any team on Monday Night Football. They earned their latest in serendipitous fashion: notching their 49th win on the storied program. And while 50 wins might be the mark for most teams to celebrate, 49 is a nice, symmetrical number for San Francisco.

Before the 49ers win again, it’s worth looking at what they’ve managed to accomplish over the years under the bright lights on Monday night. The 49ers have played the third-most Monday Night Football games since 1970, with their 76 appearances trailing the Cowboys (81) and Dolphins (85).

The 49ers’ 49 wins are followed by the Steelers (48) and Cowboys (47). They’re second in win percentage among teams with 50-plus Monday night games at 0.645 percent, behind the Steelers (0.667 percent) and leading the Raiders (0.579 percent).

These are all among the most successful franchises in the league, and it’s good company to be in. Below, we’re going to highlight some of the best Monday Night Football moments the 49ers have ever been involved in.

If you don’t remember John Taylor, he’s that receiver who did a bunch of awesome things while Jerry Rice was busy shattering NFL records. But Taylor made some history of his own one evening against the Los Angeles Rams, back in 1989.

The 49ers, on the road against the Rams, were originally down, 17-0, and the outlook was bleak. Enter Taylor.

After a short 49ers field goal, they got the ball back and were looking at a long field from their own eight-yard line. Taylor tossed aside the cornerback trying to jam him, caught a 10-yard pass from Joe Montana and picked up QUITE A BIT MORE. He eventually went 92 yards to the end zone. He threw another defensive back to the ground and got a huge block from Rice in open field. That put the 49ers within a touchdown of the Rams.

Taylor wasn’t done there, though. He caught another short pass, this one over the middle, for a 95-yard touchdown later in the game. Taylor hauled in the pass over the middle, shook off a couple tackles, and carried the ball down the right sideline, with Rice again making a big block to spring him.

With those plays, Taylor became the only player to have two touchdown receptions of over 90 yards in the same game. Taylor finished the night with 11 receptions for 286 yards and two touchdowns. Both of his touchdowns can be viewed in these highlights from the game:

The 49ers would go on to win, 30-27, and in doing so clinched homefield advantage in the playoffs. They were ultimately successful in bringing home their fourth Super Bowl of the decade.

The 49ers opened the 1994 season against the Los Angeles Raiders on Monday Night Football. That was as good a time as any for Jerry Rice to break Jim Brown’s all-time touchdown record. Rice entered the game needing two touchdowns to tie the record of 126, and three to break it.

Rice got the two quickly enough, and most thought he’d settle for getting the third another time. The 49ers were well up on the Raiders and there was no reason to play Steve Young and Rice for any longer. Aside from good old-fashioned pettiness, of course.

The 49ers wanted Rice to get the record in primetime, in the season opener, against a big rival. After a Raiders turnover on downs, and with the 49ers up by more than three touchdowns, Young and Rice took the field in the fourth quarter. They went for it on the first play of that late drive, with Young hanging in there against a blitz and delivering a strike between two defenders. Rice went over the top of both of them, brought down the touchdown, and the rest is history.

Then-head coach George Seifert later said that the 49ers might not have done that to a different team — running up the score with your star quarterback and wide receiver in a game that was well out of reach — but they did it anyway. That said, the team really wanted Rice to break the record in front of their own fans, while their following game was on the road.

“It was George’s call,” Young said at the time. “Hopefully the Raiders will understand we wanted to do it at home.

The 49ers would go on to win, 44-14, and Rice still holds the touchdown record (208) today.

If you didn’t find Terrell Owens entertaining, then this one will get you angry. Because if Owens did anything reliably outside of being a great wide receiver, it was anger the hell out of aging sports fans (and aging sports writers) with his antics and celebrations.

Those of us who don’t think athletes should be boring robots, however, got a good laugh out of it when Owens did his infamous “Sharpie” celebration against the Seattle Seahawks in late 2002.

What most people remember about it is the huge backlash that came after (from those aforementioned old people) about NFL celebrations. A few years later, the NFL would outright ban the use of any props in celebrations. Only recently has the NFL started to relax its policies there.

But somewhat overlooked are the parties involved in the celebration (and the touchdown that preceded it). Owens pulled a Sharpie out of his sock to sign the football he just scored a touchdown with, and then handed the ball to his financial advisor, Greg Eastman.

Eastman, notably, was also the financial advisor for Shawn Springs, the defensive back that Owens had just burned on the touchdown. Eastman was sitting in a field-level private suite that was paid for by Springs when Owens handed him the ball. Imagine Twitter if that happened today. IMAGINE IT.

I love Terrell Owens.

The final Monday Night Football game at Candlestick Park saw the 49ers facing the Falcons, whom they eliminated from the playoffs the previous year. The Falcons entered the game with a 4-10 record, well out of the playoff race, but with a chip on their shoulders after that 2012 playoff defeat.

They showed it on the field, taking an early 10-3 lead. The 49ers would eventually score a couple touchdowns from Colin Kaepernick and Frank Gore, but the Falcons kept getting back in it. With just over two minutes to go, the Falcons pulled within three points on a Tony Gonzalez touchdown catch, and then managed to recover an onside kick.

With 1:31 on the clock, Matt Ryan threw a short pass to Harry Douglas, who was being covered by Tramaine Brock. NaVorro Bowman would wind up being the most important player on that particular down, and it’s worth noting he began the play with a blitz over the center. But somehow, he made his way to the flat where Brock and Douglas bobbled the pass from Ryan, and Bowman picked it off! At the San Francisco 11-yard line!

Not only that, he then took it 89 yards for a touchdown, definitively putting the game away. That sent the 49ers to the playoffs and provided one of the most dramatic finishes Candlestick Park had ever seen.

These are just the best of the best Monday Night Football highlights for the 49ers. As they approach their 50th win, we’ll leave the door open for some future highlights to be added to this list.