Call it karma or a coincidence. Donte Whitner doesn't really care. The day he was going to tell his coach, Jim Harbaugh, about his idea to order 90 copies of a motivational book called "The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham," Harbaugh held a team meeting and talked about goals.

Goals are important to Harbaugh. A few days ago, he handed each San Francisco 49ers player a packet that contained a list of goals, some specifically geared to him and others for the entire roster. He showed the team the goals Bo Schembechler had set for him at Michigan and talked about a Harvard study that concluded people who wrote down their goals were significantly more likely to be successful than people who didn't.

The 49ers' goal this season is simple: win the Super Bowl. Every team says it, although reality and rosters being what they are, not every team means it.

San Francisco and Harbaugh mean it.

For the Niners, the goal of winning the Super Bowl would have sounded ridiculous a year ago, when conventional wisdom expected a rookie NFL head coach to be more adversely affected by the lockout than a veteran coach whose program already was in place.

Some wisdom.

Early last season, San Francisco evolved from being a team that hoped it could win into a team that knew it could win. It had talent, a good coach and a stellar defense. It went on to a 13-3 regular-season record. Harbaugh won coach of the year honors, and the Niners earned a first-round bye.

They came within one win of the Super Bowl but ended the season sitting in a silent locker room at Candlestick Park while the New York Giants euphorically celebrated their NFC championship on the other side of a wall.

"They didn't mean to do it," Whitner said, "but it was like they were celebrating in our faces."

None of the Niners have forgotten.

Certainly not Whitner, one of the leaders of a defense that last season ranked No. 1 against the run, tied for No. 1 in takeaways, No. 2 in points allowed and No. 2 in interceptions. The 27-year-old Whitner, in his second year with San Francisco after playing his first five NFL seasons in Buffalo, acknowledged that the Niners are more hunted than hunter this season. Their reputation has been established.

"I believe everybody recognizes who we are now," he said. "I think they recognize we have a good coaching staff and good players in position, and [Harbaugh] puts us in position to make plays. We're going to play hard and be physical. I think they recognize we're going to make plays. We're not going to sneak up on anybody. We're going to get everybody's best shot."

That doesn't faze him or his teammates.

"We expect to win," Whitner said. "We expect to compete on every play. We hold each other accountable to compete on each and every snap. If you drop a ball, or whatever, as long as you compete and go full speed, that's what we expect. People expect you to win. That's tradition. That's what the old '80s and '90s 49ers were about, expecting to win and winning championships. That's what we want."

It will be challenging for the Niners to replicate their 2011 season. The other teams in the NFC West have improved on defense and narrowed the gap. San Francisco opens the season at Green Bay. Later this season, it travels to New Orleans and New England. The 49ers also get the Giants and Bears at home. After facing the Packers on Sunday and playing host to Detroit in Week 2, they'll likely have a pretty good idea of where they stand.

By then, the 49ers should have had time to digest part of the book Whitner plans to distribute next week. He wants teammates to envision winning a Super Bowl, to set the goal, to funnel their energy into positive thinking, to will it to happen.

Harbaugh approved. It fit his message: Set a goal and strive to achieve it. For San Francisco, the goal is simple, realistic and attainable, even if there is conventional wisdom to the contrary.

Inside slant

Just a few weeks ago, I stood in Art Modell's massive office at the Ravens' training facility in Owings Mill, Md. The lights were off and Modell wasn't there, but it stood as a firm reminder of how Maryland has an NFL franchise and why pro football is our nation's most popular sport.

Modell died Thursday morning. He was beloved in Baltimore and reviled in Cleveland, as polarizing an owner as there may have ever been in the NFL. When longtime Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis found out Modell was ailing, he went to visit him Wednesday.

"Anytime I saw him, he would always make me smile," Lewis said. "He always had a joke to lighten your mood or some sort of wisdom to impart to make you a better man. … When I found out he wasn't doing well, I knew immediately I had to see him. When I was with him, I prayed with him and shared with him things that a son would say to a father. Even though he has left us, he is going to a place that one day we all want to be. I am truly blessed to have had Art in my life."

It was one of many tributes to the 87-year-old Modell. For a man who spent his life in football, is credited with helping to launch "Monday Night Football" and chaired the NFL's television committee for 31 years, there will be many more.

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Jim Core and his crew of rookie replacement officials called 19 penalties in Wednesday's season opener between Dallas and New York, 15 against the Cowboys (two of which were declined) and four against the Giants. Of the 17 accepted penalties, six were false starts, two were delays of game, two were holding, one was a horse-collar tackle, and another was roughing the passer. Basic, easy stuff.

In speaking with players around the league, this is pretty much what they expect to see from the replacements. They will make the obvious, simple, hard-to-debate calls.

The gray area will be on trickier calls, particularly pass interference and illegal contact. Was Orlando Scandrick guilty of holding Victor Cruz at the goal line on a play that could have given the Giants a 7-0 lead? It looked like it, but there was no call.

Determining whether a defensive back makes contact with a receiver beyond the permitted five yards from scrimmage will be another thing to watch. If the league's lockout of the regular officials continues, it will be interesting to track pass interference and illegal contact penalties and see whether they are up or down from recent years.

"With these guys not being trained as long, you can get away with stuff," said one veteran defensive back. "Nothing dirty, but the other refs, maybe they give you six yards. I don't believe these refs are trained as well, so maybe we'll get seven or eight yards. It's a big difference. We've been at a disadvantage for so long, given all the rules, maybe this gives us some of the advantage back, a...