[M]The San Francisco 49ers are an American football team based in Santa Clara, California's San Francisco Bay Area.[/M]
The San Francisco 49ers is a professional football team located in the Santa Clara, California, San Francisco Bay area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the NFC West. The team currently plays its home games at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, located 45 miles southeast of San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley. Since 1988, the 49ers have been headquartered in Santa Clara.
The team was founded in 1946 as a founding member of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and joined the NFL in 1949 when the leagues merged. The 49ers were the first major league professional sports franchise based in San Francisco. The name "49ers" comes from the miners who arrived in Northern California in the 1849 Gold Rush. The team is legally and corporately registered as the San Francisco Forty Niners. The team began playing at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco before moving to Candlestick Park in 1970 and then to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara in 2014.
The 49ers won five Super Bowl titles between 1981 and 1995, led by the Hall of Famers: Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Steve Young and coach Bill Walsh.