Wasn’t it swell of Jim Harbaugh to essentially declare what the 49ers’ policy on domestic violence is on KNBR Tuesday before general manager Trent Baalke decided to semi-sort-of reinforce it later in the day?
And isn’t it delightful that the 49ers have maintained their stance of refusing to be proactive when a problem arises, allowing the narrative to dictate to them rather than the other way around?
[RELATED: Harbaugh: Domestic violence will not be tolerated]
This is not a P.R. failure, though – this is an organizational choice, made again and again, to wait until a problem gets too big and then try to slough it off. And lord knows they keep offering us examples of how not to learn.
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New England quarterback Tom Brady told the notorious elfen mischief-maker Tom Curran of CSN New England, “When I suck, I’ll retire.” Well, we know Bill Belichick’s ways, and we’ll bet heavily that Brady will be told he sucks before he’s ready to hear it, and he’ll be retired before he’s ready to do so. I mean, what team does Brady think he plays for, Incarnate Word?
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ESPN tweeted out that more people have drafted Tim Tebow for their network-supported fantasy league teams than Jacksonville starter Chad Henne. ESPN later tweeted, “Our fans are drunker, more deranged, more pigheaded and downright brick-brained than anyone else’s, and we’ve got the metrics to prove it.”
137 characters. Fits like a glove.
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The latest Chicago firestorm is Bears head coach Marc Trestman’s decision to let linebacker Lance Briggs take Monday off from practice to be present for the opening of his Double Nickel Smokehouse in Elk Grove. Yes, our Elk Grove. This outrages many people in the Greater White Sox fan base area because, well, what would Dick Butkus do?
Well, I know. Based on his litany of football-related injuries through games and practices in the ‘60s and ‘70s, not to mention his undisputed intellect, he’d sit in a booth at the Double Nickel and order a half rack and a cold one. Maybe two of each.
In other words, down with practice, up with brisket! And if you think otherwise, your priorities are in the same place as your head, and we didn’t think your neck was that long or that supple.
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Manny Ramirez, who was one of Major League Baseball’s best hitters and most enduring punch lines and irritants in his career, may have done what so few others in his position in any sport has ever done.
Redeemed himself as a coach.
According to bow-tied watch fob Ken Rosenthal, Ramirez served as more coach than player in his role as player-coach with the Chicago Cubs’ AAA team in Iowa, and as such was a very useful mentor to the Cubs’ phenomena, including Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, and Kris Bryant.
Indeed, he may end up as a coach on the big league level, and if you saw that as a possibility, you’re the biggest lying liar in the history of lying liars, you liar.
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And finally, David J. Neal of the Miami Herald, who was not credentialed by the Florida International athletic department for this football season because he irritated them, has now been credentialed by the school for the rest of the season after the paper refused to cover FIU’s miserable loss to Bethune-Cookman, the first of many such dismal efforts we can expect this year. He was stoutly and stridently defended by the paper’s executive editor, Aminda Marqués Gonzalez, who all but called him the paper’s employee of the month, a rare showing from someone in an office toward someone not in an office.
In other words, for doing his frustrating and largely thankless job, Neal is being punished by the paper for having to do it some more. You heartless, vicious bastards. I knew there was a catch.
