Okay, so today I’m gonna break down how I pieced together the 2004 San Francisco 49ers roster. It was a bit of a deep dive, but honestly, kinda fun for a football nerd like me.
First things first, I hit up the usual suspects. I started with the 49ers official website. Figured that’d be the most legit place to start, right? Scraped what I could, but team sites sometimes are missing details, or just don’t go back that far with complete accuracy.
Then, I remembered *. Man, that site is a goldmine! Seriously, if you need any kinda NFL data, that’s the place. I managed to get a solid list of players, their positions, and jersey numbers from there. But still, I felt like something was missing.
Next up? Wikipedia! I know, I know, Wikipedia gets a bad rap, but hear me out. It’s a good starting point for cross-referencing info. I found a page for the 2004 season, and it had a roster section. I compared it to the Pro-Football-Reference list, and BAM! Spotted a few discrepancies. Some players were listed on one site but not the other. Now, this is where it got interesting.
Time for some good old-fashioned digging. I started Googling specific players. Like, “who was the backup long snapper for the 2004 49ers?” That kind of deep cut stuff. Found some old news articles, forum posts, even some random sports blogs that mentioned guys who were on the practice squad or had short stints with the team. It was like being a detective!
To get the roster order/depth chart correct I referenced old game day programs and looked at snap count data for clues.
Then the tough part: verifying everything. There was a lot of conflicting information, and I had to try and confirm things with multiple sources. I looked for player transaction histories, injury reports, anything that could give me a clearer picture. This took forever.
Ultimately, I compiled a roster that I’m pretty confident is accurate, or at least as accurate as I can get it with the available information. Getting it all correct was a bit of a pain, but now I know way too much about the 2004 Niners.
Here’s what I learned:
- Don’t rely on just one source.
- Wikipedia can be useful, but always double-check the info.
- Old news articles and forum posts can be surprisingly helpful.
- Sometimes, you just have to accept that you’ll never know for sure.
Anyway, that’s how I tackled that roster. Hope it was helpful!
