Niners Give Mariucci New Deal

Finally putting an end to speculation, San Francisco 49ers coach Steve Mariucci agreed to a new five-year contract Tuesday afternoon. Mariucci, who led San Francisco to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons, had three years remaining on his original deal.

Terms of the new contract were not announced, though Mariucci is expected to earn about $2 million per season with incentives.

"I want to be coach of this team because that in itself is a big job here," he said. "And I am not to the point where I have to say, 'I need this authority or that authority or I can't function.' If we can get people in place in those other offices that I can work with, that's what I'm looking forward to."

A 7 p.m. ET press conference was scheduled for today.

The signing apparently will clear the way for the return of former coach/president Bill Walsh, the architect of five Super Bowl titles. Walsh is expected to rejoin the team later this week as president. His biggest responsibility will be overseeing personnel decisions, especially with the departure of director of player personnel Vinny Cerrato, who was fired Monday night.

Mariucci's new deal was supposed to be finalized Dec. 1 by acting team president Larry Thrailkill, but discussions bogged down. The biggest stumbling block was control and the addition of a general manager role. Finally, Mariucci relented on the latter.

"We finally agreed it doesn't have to be that way," he said Monday. "Maybe there's a better way of doing it, given our situation right now. The club and myself agreed that it's best that I keep coaching this team and we find somebody else that can help us do that."

Somebody like Walsh.

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