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 
Tone it down Chuck? I’m a little teapot.
Short and stout
I wonder what V really thinks? It’s so hard to get an honest opinion from the guy.
Yes, I would say he should open up and tell us how he really feels except he’s making us conservatives look like idiots. He needs to campaign for Donald Trump. They’d be two peas in a pod. V could be the one conservative on LSD!
I am a dick head
I am a lout
I’m a little slow
keep going 49, let it ALL out, lol
the way I see it, if 49 keeps spewing his weirdo venom out here maybe he gets it all out and doesn’t go rape some woman later tonight. So in some way, good will come from these posts…..
The good will come when we all get a laugh at what unca changes his posts to. Things like, I like my mom’s basement and I love unca chuck! Isn’t that what he is really saying?
Rape some woman? This dude V is a cross dresser fer sure. Anyone who has to repeatedly announce his manhood whilst all the time denigrating women is seriously feminine.
Long ago I stopped worrying about what idiots type on to the internet from their parents basement. It’s uncontrollable drivel. I’ve been to a couple of baseball games with Chuck, he’s the most anti-Hitler person you could ever meet. I mean, hopefully we all are, lol. But he’s cool as hell, just a very chill guy….
V hides behind his right to “freedom of speech” as a way to deliver his pathetic brand of hate speech and when its not tolerated he accuses Chuck of Nazism. Cute.
This Aldon Smith incident is the one first thing that has me worrying about the season. His ability to seal the edge and pass rush at the same time is special. I was feeling our defense would keep us in every game and was hoping an offense that made sense would be what makes us competitive this year. I’m still optimistic about the season but this has me reeling a little bit.
Now we will probably need more than just an offense that makes sense. We’ll actually need to have a productive offense. Having RoBaugh gone is an improvement there but how much is the question.
the internet is very cool, but it’s also got a dark place to it. Guys like Dennis and 49 have found it. Shit, I’m glad they are there and not outside interacting with the 3D world. We’re all better off for it.
I touch myself often
see my 10:00am. Have a great day. Try not to interact with any other humans, ok? I’m not counting the ones you’re holding hostage in your basement. My advice is to free them, or at least feed them…..
V- I am not going to read your anymore of your posts but I did see my name. Let me just say this. You are not coming off as a sane person so even if you had something good to say nobody is listening. Think about that if you would like to be heard.
Yeah, the thing about Aldon is we didn’t get much from him last year, so we hopefully won’t miss him too much this year. You just shake your head and move on. All the talent in the world, but he’s on his way out f the league if he doesn’t get his life together.
Eli gets to step up and hopefully hit the ground running.
You are right about last year but I think the team really needed Aldon to return to form to paper over some of the cracks and especially to give the back 4 some cover. Here’s hoping Eli can step up because someone has to be the third down monster they are going to need.
and what was up with Aldon saying this wasn’t a DUI? The police report says he failed a sobriety test, and he had bailed for hours after the crash and then came back to deal with the cops and the test.
Yeah suspicious to say the least. I get Bergers position about wring what you can out of Aldon before he gets suspended but it sends a bad message IMO. Aldon is a head case, what a waste of talent, could have been the best ever.
What can you do to help the moron at this point. The message is we’ll pay your ass if you are on the field and won’t if you aren’t. Since you have shown you don’t care about us and your team mates we will play you while you have some use and not when you get your ass in a stir. When they haul your ass off your pay stops and you can then think about it. Then it’s next man up.
Why does a football team have to be societies panacea for human behavior. That’s the problem in the first place.
A fan gets to be Judge Judy in their dreams when they tell what should be done to these players. For a moment on a blog they get to feel important in their condescending little world. I just want to win football games. People expect a bunch of pugilistic players to angels. Yeah right. Everybody seems to be an expert on the ills of society but nobody has a clue about reality.
I still think it’s just too much money for some to handle.
If Cory Lemoneir is our starter we are in trouble. He was so bad at supporting the run during pre-season last year I am surprised he is still on the team. I also keep hearing Eli Harold is a pass rusher who even soft at that. Sounds like another Lemoneir. We might have to move one of our DEs to the position. Probably Tank. I watched a lot of video on Tank from college. He does it all, including dropping into coverage. I think he’d do well at Elephant.
Agreed about Lemon, didn’t see much from him so far. Lynch is an unknown for now so we have Harold or Rush or moving Tank to bookend Brooks who is having a great camp so far.
Maybe Dial, he is very athletic for a man his size too.
Dial is a natural at 3-4 DE. Can’t move him. He’s going to be a good one. Tank has played some Elephant and done it well. He has a great initial burst when he’s not reading. He had a hard time learning leverage at DE where he had to do a lot of reading. Now that he has it down he can use that to be better at Elephant. My main point is I just can’t see Lemoneir as the answer. We are OK with Lynch and Brooks but I’d like to be much better than OK. We need some depth that isn’t Lemoneir. Okoye can flat out push people around and has some quicks. Maybe? Not sure.
For me, it wasn’t Lemoneir’s lack of ability to stop the run but more it was his lack of willingness. He just avoided contact and tried to run around blocks. Maybe a year in the NFL has changed him. I would doubt that but we’ll start to see in a week.
People who have no idea of what they are seeing were blaming Purcell for the 49ers getting run over last preseason. Purcell did get pushed around but Lemoneir was like having nobody lined up at all. Purcell at least did make some plays.
We are now 13.3 million under the cap. Maybe we can take a run at Jake Long for OT?
There are a few options out there. I still prefer Boone at RT. Only thing I can think of is the Niners are worried about Staley for some reason so they want Boone at LG ready to step in at LT?
Why are the Ram’s letting Long go, salary cap or Play?
The Rams couldn’t keep him on the field. So not worth the cap money he took to keep. Too many big injury cards in his profile now. Big flag to any team NEEDING an OT. We’ve already had Jonas Jennings.
Three things in life you can count on, death, taxes and Jonas Jennings being injured.
The Rams drafted 5 (!) O linemen, including 3 tackles. Make of that what you will.
Don’t forget Dorsey will be playing DE too this year. Good point about tank his progress as pass rusher might be huge now
I was wondering why Long is available. That makes sense. I’d still want him if he doesn’t cost too much.
Didn’t Long miss the last 2 years?
“I also keep hearing Eli Harold is a pass rusher who even soft at that.”
Where’d you hear that? No one’s even seen him play yet and he’s soft? Not buying it.
Draft day. It was said on TV. I just read it yesterday too. I need to watch some video and assess this myself. I didn’t really care but now that Aldon is gone it is a little more important. If I have time I’ll check it out tomorrow.
He’s also an athletic freak and he’s going to need to learn quick with the impossibly stupid Aldon Smith now gone. I’ll wait to see him play before passing judgement on his toughness.
Brooks is also going to need to do a ‘Vernon Davis’ and bounce back in a big way. He’s off to a good start by showing up to camp in shape. That shit dogged him all year in 2014.
WANTED …….Problem free football players that can play pro football. CALL the 49ers… 911
Harold’s having a good camp anyway. Nice write up on him in the chron.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/49ers/article/Beep-beep-49ers-rookie-OLB-Eli-Harold-has-been-6433059.php
Jesus, I have to pay to read the article. I don’t like the Chron that much.
I’m not paying one penny for that rag. It should be shut down. What a disgrace! Just plain greedy. Newspapers should just DIE! ……. BOO HISS!