I find it very interesting that Charles Haley is inducted into the Hall of Fame at the same time that Aldon Smith gets popped for another DUI. Both guys are phenomenal pass rushers. Both had major character issues that caused problems in their lives. Haley’s issues ran from pissing in Carmen Policy’s potted plants in his office to taking a shit on Steve Young’s car to countless other run-ins with teammates and opponents to the point of pissing everyone off. It got so bad that Eddie D, in a fit of hubris, decided to pawn off the problem child to hated foe Dallas, thinking he’d cause a shit-ton of problems over there. Well, that backfired in about the most horrendous way possible for Eddie and the Niners as Dallas reeled off 3 Super Bowls with Charles in charge on the defense.
Haley has been very forthcoming about his diagnosis with bipolar disorder, and how he hid from it most of his life. Never asking for help as he would feel weak to do so, etc. He has also said ‘I’m done saying sorry as I’ve spent the last 4 years doing that, and how many times can I say it?’ Which leads us to Aldon Smith. He’s a very smart kid who comes across as thoughtful and eager to move on past his earlier problems. He has said all the right things lately, and has kept his nose clean. Til now. Smith was arrested by the Santa Clara police for DUI hit and run and vandalism charges. I’m assuming the vandalism is due to damage from his car tearing shit up, but there are no details as of now as to what happened.
Smith has already come out and said he isn’t in the wrong, but really, to admit guilt would result in his immediate suspension. Here’s Aldon’s response this morning:
“The people who are faithful remain faithful,” Smith said. “Simple as this: Justice will be served, the truth will come out, there’s no DUI. I’m sorry for anybody I let down, I’m sorry for the way this whole thing . . . I need to speak and I want everybody to understand, this wasn’t a DUI, the situation I had could have been handled differently and I apologize for everybody I did let down and I apologize for how it all played out. But as far as everything is concerned, it will work out the way it’s supposed to work out. That’s all.”
Aldon’s either in full-blown denial, or he’s a real shitty driver, or I don’t know, he’s a magnet for trouble.. Point being, this goes beyond football. He needs to take care of himself and figure out what is really going on. He seems to not be able to avoid driving drunk and doing stupid shit. Problem is, the league refuses to do anything to players before court dates and this could be stalled out for a season.
So what do the Niners do at this point? They are ‘not rushing to judgement’ but this could very well play out like the RayMac situation where you have a guy on the hook for various crimes, yet without his day in court, he gets to play. Shit, Smith was on the field hours after being released from jail for his last DUI. Beyond that, Smith was fucked over by Goodell what he voluntarily went into rehab following that arrest. Goodell still levied a hefty 9-game suspension on him. So, do the Niners cut their losses now? Go the ‘due process’ route? Wait for Goodie Goodell?
Frankly, I’d have a talk with Aldon and say look, we’re going to release you. You haven’t held up your side of the bargain that we JUST struck. Get your shit together now. Admit you fucked up, and start on the road to getting past this. We’ll talk in 2016 when you’ve gotten your shit together. I’d tell Goodie as well. Just say I’m voluntarily suspending myself, so don’t go ahead and suspend me next year when all this plays out.
Thing is though, due to Goodell’s previous actions I can see Smith playing out the string until the league does something. Whether that’s here or elsewhere is a question. But you KNOW he would be on the open market for about 24 hours before some other team would sign him to a deal.
Forty Niners Forever 
I just watched some video on Eli Harold. He’s definitely quick. He’ll speed rush but he’s OK at initiating contact to get around a blocker. He’s not going to set an edge in the run game. He tries but needs to be stronger. He also misses a lot of tackles. The missed tackles can be fixed. He’ll run too fast at a would be tackle and get juked. They’ll teach him better technique in the pros. I can see why he was called soft but I don’t think that is accurate. He just needs to get stronger and get better technique, both of those will happen in the NFL.
I watched a little Tartt video. This guy crunches people. I can’t wait to see him play in preseason.
I don’t recall Aldon being especially adept at setting the edge either, but I could be mistaken. I just hope the Smith debacle is finally rock bottom for this team. They’re due for a break.
the chron article basically said that his speed sets up the inside move a lot. but also went on to say that vet antoine bethea feels that it’s most important to know the playbook which makes some sense as it’s not all “kill the quarterback”. even if you’re consistently beating your guy inside, that just sets up some outside roll outs, screens etc to your vacant spot. so we’ll see.
Football season! At long last! Hooray!!!! OK, it’s just the BS HOF “game”, but it’s still NFL football!
Shutdown Corner has the Niners #23. Meh. There’s a few power rankings on there I think are patently ridiculous. I’m really in wait and see mode about the Niners. Camp is too short to tell the result of all the changes any time soon. I’ll be watching this year for up and coming stars, as well as the blue collar guys who might stick around and be contributors to our next SB Champ.
You guys just might want to look at some video’s that bullit posted. Interesting stuff, and some hard memories.
Did it show all the shitty play calls around those passes? Or the blindness to situational football? Or the fact we only run play action on 3rd and 8+?
Bullit can suck my dick. He’s so full of shit he thinks Kappy caused 47 of the 52 sacks. He can show videos all he wants but it doesn’t take into account the lack of speed at which we run plays, or how slowly most of our pass plays develop. He calls reports of WRs not getting open fallacious, despite the fact the vids don’t show who the primary is, if there’s an outlet, or any number of other factors on any given pass play.
Have him get videos for every pass by every QB in the league and I’ll take a gander. . .
Funny that they were wondering why Kappy didn’t get offseason help the previous 2 years, when he was rated 7th in 2012 and 10th in 2013. Despite out offense being in the bottom 3rd consistently. Fucking idiots all of them. No one cried about him then. It was when Harbaugh and the coaches told all our opponents that Kappy was not going to run that teams didn’t really need to spy on him as they did on 2013. He ended up with more running yards because the blocking was horrible. But no, it’s all about the revisionists coming up with cockamanie theories about the guy who took the 49ers to the Super Bowl is the problem.
Most of those passes were set up by 2 and 3 yard gains from our RB’s. Kappy didn’t have a prayer at times. he also screwed up at time but he never looked gun shy like a QB we had before.
Context is everything. We all saw the O and to try to pin that shit on Kap is low hanging fruit as I heard a time or two.
RIP Frank Gifford
i know the Cubbies are pretty good this year but to lose 4 in a row to em that’s pretty piss poor baseball.
Never liked Giffoed for whatever reason. Too young to see him play, but maybe he was just too goodie goodie. Fitting that Chuck Bednarik and Frank pass the same years. I always loved the picture of Bednarik exulting over the unconscious form of Gofford after he laid him out.
The Giants are banged up yet again this season. If they could ever get healthy…
New thread is up . . .