Far be it from NFL players to be removed from the social media circus these days. In fact it appears to be a cottage industry. Whether it’s TMZ staking out LAX to break the Aldon Smith bomb hoax story, or some dude taking pics of Johnny Foot (Eight) ball rolling up a $20 in a Vegas bathroom (what happens in a Vegas bathroom apparently doesn’t stay in the Vegas bathroom) getting ready to partake in some recreational drug usage, or Ray Rice cold-cocking his soon-to-be wife and caught by the hotel security cameras, no one is safe at any time any where.
Throw in the fact that players still get in trouble the old fashioned way (failed drug test, DUI), Cleveland Browns WR Josh Gordon, he of the recent fame of being involved in the Jim Harbaugh trade, pulled a triple-triple by recently failing a drug test for pot, getting arrested for speeding and possession of marijuana, and then getting a DUI last weekend. Teammate Davone Bess was recently arrested for beating up a cop at the Ft Lauderdale airport, Viking Erin Henderson pulled a double-double of his own getting arrested on separate DUI and drug possession charges, AJ Jefferson (not Jenkins), Henry Melton, and Thomas Keiser were all arrested on domestic abuse, public intoxication, and assault charges.
Point being, I didn’t hear about a lot of these. I had to look these up. We’ve gotten to the point that getting busted as a player is getting pretty passé, unless it’s either a name player like Colin Kaepernick, or it’s a big crime, a la Aaron Hernandez. As we all know, our own team has suffered the slings and arrows of getting bad press for a bunch of players in the spotlight for various misdeeds. Throw in the high-and-mighty comments of head coach Jim Harbaugh and you have a side of shit to go along with the already beefy shit sandwich Coach has to eat.
As is obviously apparent, major fines and suspensions have done little to curtail these screw-ups. Shit, even with all the steroid busts in baseball, no one really gives a shit, provided you come up with a conciliatory mea culpa. No matter how trite or contrived. So, what next? For all intents and purposes, all these busts make Aldon’s situation look pretty mild in comparison. Or at least on par. I still think it’s only a 2 game suspension despite all the hooraw in blogland.
Chris Culliver’s case looks to be hitting the courtroom soon, so we all get to see how THAT turns out. For me, this one is a bigger deal. He faces five charges in all: felony hit and run, felony reckless driving with injury, felony possession of brass knuckles, misdemeanor hit and run, and misdemeanor driving on a suspended license. But Goodie Goodell doesn’t really come down hard on domestic abuse/aggravated assault charges. Plenty of players have beaten up their girlfriends and gotten in bar fights with little or no repercussions. Not to mention having a shit-flier of a party. Hitting children on bikes and then threatening passers-by may not be seen as a good model for their players to follow. But really, these misdeeds are not slowing down, and no one seems to care.
What do you think? Should these misdeeds be treated as a necessary part of the game? Should Goodie Goodell suspend guys harder? Ban repeat offenders indefinitely? Turn a blind eye to it, as was done for so long? The fans have shown that they don’t care one whit. Most are of a mind that if you can play, you deserve a 2nd (or 3rd) chance. As long as you are a star player. If you are a special teamer? Sorry. Don’t pass Go, don’t collect $200.00. It’s the nature of sports in America.
Forty Niners Forever 
We’ve been out of the loop for a while now, NJ.
Went to the Stick tonight. Pretty cool. Eddie D caught the last TD thrown at Candlestick. Joe and Steve both hit Rice on deep passes, and Marino threw a ball over 50 yards in the air.
Fun shit.
My son was happy to see the guys I talk bout all the time, and he sees on all the highlight stuff, actually throwing and catching passes.
Sounds like a good time Chuck.
The passing of the 49ers torch, so to speak, between Father and Son is always a good thing.
I’m actually enjoying seeing my Boys passing it along to their kids now.
Making it harder to get to the 9er games here in NJ too, since we need more tickets to get our a$$es into the stadium.
Can’t say no to the Grand kids.
Took a bunch of pics. I’ll post them on a separate page …
Jimmy Smith being cut by the Ravens helps the 49ers a lot. Both Harbaugh brothers have had a hell of an off season. The Ravens have had five players arrested. It doesn’t sound like Smith did much other than not listen to a cop’s instructions, but the Ravens had reached their limit of off season player transgressions.
Being that Jim and John are brothers, this might serve as a warning to other 49er players. It might not, but players are smart enough to know that Jim and John talk about problem solving together from time to time. Could be that the Ravens just did the 49ers a huge favor.
And even more interesting is the idea of bringing Jimmy Smith to the 49ers. Lol. Why not? We just lost another troubled corner in Eric Wright.
More problems ……who needs it?
Not sure he’ll be cut –
From what I’ve read, he worked with the woman on a photo shoot, before ending up at the location in question –
Here’s the last thing I’ve seen related to the incident –
http://tinyurl.com/lc9avj4
This is the local article from the Baltimore Sun regarding the incident –
Seems the woman was holding coke to boot –
http://tinyurl.com/nr84yud
Found a little video of the event yesterday Chuck –
http://tinyurl.com/odog5z6
Catch the other wordly news from Cleveland, not related to LeBron?
They’ve added a new mascot – A bulldog that will go by the name of Swagger.
For a team that hasn’t got anything close to what might be considered swagger, I’d have named him Deuce.
As in drop a deuce.
Adding a bulldog, to a team named Browns, opens one’s mind to a myriad of options, if you give it a little creative thought.
Worldly, not wordly – Geez
Stop the snoring you BLEEPS! World Soccer is OVER! Good riddance!
Cool, NJ. ESPN had Kenny Mayne emcee the thing, and I saw a longer vid about it I’ll try to find.
The pisser? Full price for everything including $30.00 to park, and $10.00 beers. I hope all that money went to the fireman’s fund, or whatever.
VD may hold out after all. From Mike Florio:
“A source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that, at the present time, Vernon Davis would not be reporting. That doesn’t mean he won’t show; with nine days to go, Davis can change his mind and change it back again a few times or more before the time comes to report for duty.”
Said it before and I’ll say it again. If he holds out, trade his ass. Welcome to Tampa Bay, VD.
And, for old time’s sake:
Heed the warning, VD.
“I want winners!”
This is already the most tired of all tired angles, ever….. I vow not to mention the names VD or Boone from now until both issues are revolved. Exhausted….
Cross your heart and hope to die?
Well, like it or not, if VD skips out, he’s fucking with the team in a big way.
Why would any team in their right mind give up a valuable draft pick(s) for a guy holding out so he could come and not play for their team? That’s like drafting an injured college player who you know won’t be playing right away. Oh wait. We do that all the time. Maybe we could trade VD to ourselves.
All about the $$$ Del –
Teams like Cleveland and the NYJ for example, have excess Cap $$$ to spend and, could use a weapon like Vernon to improve their own rosters.
I love both Vernon and Boone, however, we’ve got other potential FAs to secure for the future.
Part of the reason Baalke and Marathe structure these deals is to budget for those concerns.
For Vernon and Boone to decide they don’t like the deals they took, puts those plans in jeopardy.
For me, it’s about the health of the roster, present and future.
As I suspected, with Boone hiring the Mevis Agency, he’s being instructed to play the process this way.
Mevis was notorious for holding the NYJ hostage year after year when other CBs got better deals.
It wouldn’t be so bad if each guy was entering the final year of their respective deals but, 2 years upsets the Cap planning that went into each deal, as presently constructed.
Franks’ Contract frees up additional savings for maybe 1 guy from the Iupati, Crabtree, Aldon Smith contingent.
Dealing with 2 additional guys, like Vernon and Boone, forces thoughts of making a deal to move 1 or both onto another team.
Baalke has plenty of OLinemen at very attractive wages, waiting to get a shot at a future extension as well.
Good piece from BR on Frank –
http://tinyurl.com/mcdsyr3
Hey NJ49er! You didn’t have to read the article I’ve been making the same case for years, right here!
I don’t believe VD will hold out into camp. But it didn’t seem to hurt Crabs’ future here. Not to mention his aversion to camp life.
Of the three guys you mention I would rank their priority to re-sign as Iupati, Crabs and Smith and I think the FO would probably put them in opposite order.
VD’s restructured before and I think that would be enough now with maybe an extra incentive or two thrown in to make him happy. With Baalke/Paraage doing the deal we might even gain some cap space.
It’s a Cap-O-Nomics issue NoFear49er.
I agree that Boone is extremely underpaid at this point but…..He’s going about this thing all wrong IMO.
I blame that on the Mevis Agency primarily.
As for Vernon, I agree with you in one respect.
Give something to get something.
He’s gotten a good deal already and, of course, he’s flirting with Father Time now.
I’d rearrange your priority order this way.
Iupati at the right number is a given.
Aldon is a freak, like Vernon, so I typically always give credence to a guy that isn’t easily replaced.
His history as a bad-boy might help with extension talks, given the risks they’d take to put a Brinks truck in his driveway.
Crabtree has changed my mind since Kaep became his trigger man but, he’s had some well documented issues with his feet and an achilles injury already, aside from his TC-itis.
I feel comfortable with the stable of OLinemen Baalke has assembled to date so, if Iupati can’t be retained, or Boone for that matter, I’m not too worried about the rotation-in-waiting to get a crack at stardom.
We’ll see how it shakes out.
Just wish this holdout nonsense would cease.
It creates too much dissention within the roster, not to be a major distraction.
As for Frank, I’m with you.
He’s been our Rock in terms of Offense.
Just glad to see that the media hasn’t overlooked his production.
Good Man ‘Ol 21.
Hope to see him in Canton someday.
Be nice for him to get the Ring before he hangs up the cleats, he deserves it.
I’d hate to let one or the other go to FA only to have the money committed to sign Aldon forfeited to a bad conduct suspension.
As for the holdouts, I guess Boone would rather have stayed a backup so he could feel like he was getting paid enough. Or maybe should have put a “if I become a starter early” clause in his contract. Outplaying contracts happens to new QBs routinely when they start out as backups. Boo freakin’ hoo.
Can’t help but think Davis isn’t all that serious about it. Likes to be in the limelight and the news more than anything I think.
Well, the noise from Florio was the first I’d heard of VD thinking of holding out of camp. Whether he’s just sending out smoke signals to test the wind is up for debate. But if so, he has to know that the fans for the most part aren’t happy with his decisions at this point. The front office and the coaching staff certainly isn’t.
He has to know it paints him in the light of the me-first guy he came into the league as. Both Boone and VD played a couple uninspiring seasons with the team, and were resurrected (like Young Sir Alex) to the point of being at the top of their game in a couple years. I get that they feel they deserve a raise, but at least in VD’s case, he’s really biting the hand that feeds him. He got a great deal as a rook, got a huge extension based more on promise more than anything, and now is whining for more, 2 years shy of the deal’s completion? That’s selfish.
As Spitty has said, he’s got zero leverage. The Niners have a stable of WRs now that are much better than anything they’ve had in recent memory. They can move away from TE plays and go to more of a WR-based offense without too much adjusting of the passing game. Boldin can take some of his slot routes. Yes, he’s a tough matchup and he draws attention whenever he’s on the field, but if he decides to skip practice, it’s easy to think the team will move on without him. Either by trading him or letting him sit out the season.
It’s all up to him.
Cut him loose……no show ……no pay. He’s got a big ego and a big mouth!
The Niners are going to wait until the end of NEXT season before even thinking about Aldon Smith’s new deal. If he keeps his nose clean for the next 2 seasons, then they have a pretty good indication that he’s over his youthful hijinks.
Dream on
Aldon ain’t too bright. Bet he loses all his money to wild women and drunken parties.
New thread is up . . .