This off-season has been anything but ideal for the San Francisco 49ers. There has been a suspension, multiple arrests, a plethora of police investigations, and even some false accusations. While the old saying goes, “all publicity is good publicity,” 49ers General Manager Trent Baalke and team president Jed York would strongly disagree.
The nightmarish offseason started almost immediately when then backup offensive lineman Daniel Kilgore got arrested for public intoxication in Kingsport, Tennessee on January 26th. This was only a week after the 49ers played the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game. Charges were ultimately dropped and the event in and of itself wasn’t a big deal (the police report stated that Kilgore and his friend were simply staggering down the street drunk), it was still a sign of things to come for the 49ers franchise.
The next event happened on March 28th when cornerback Chris Culliver was arrested on felony hit-and-run charges. Culliver reportedly hit a bicyclist with his car and fled the scene. A witness followed Culliver’s vehicle and cornered him with their vehicle. Culliver proceeded to threaten the witness with brass knuckles, got back into his car, and fled the scene, also hitting the witness’s car. His list of charges included felony hit-and run, reckless driving causing an injury, felony possession of brass knuckles, and misdemeanor hit-and-run.
The next incident didn’t involve any arrests, simply a false accusation. On April 1st quarterback Colin Kaepernick was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room in Miami. Kaepernick maintained his innocence the entire time and once police looked into what happened (they didn’t want to call it an investigation because it was never an official investigation), they didn’t charge Kaepernick with any crimes. I bring this up not to cast a negative light on a player, but because it did happen and it brought negative attention and distractions to the team.
Soon after the Kaepernick incident, outside linebacker Aldon Smith got arrested. Again. While at LAX he was randomly selected for secondary screening when he “then became belligerent and uncooperative with the process.” Police say he made a comment “indicating he was in possession of a bomb.” This was the final straw that led to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to suspend Smith for nine games to start the 2014 season.
About four months after Smith was arrested, defensive end Ray McDonald was arrested on felony domestic violence charges. McDonald claims that the truth will come out and he will be cleared, but you have to wonder how players still put themselves in the position for these “misunderstandings” to take place.
So after all of these arrests and accusations, how will this translate onto the field at the start of the season? Some teams are brought together by these types of things while other teams can get torn apart by it. With the 49ers, I don’t expect it to be very detrimental. The Aldon Smith suspension is the one that hurts the most because he will miss more than half of the regular season and he’s one of the best pass rushers in the game.
The others don’t effect much though. I can’t imagine anyone is still thinking about the Kilgore incident and Culliver is probably more worried about how his knee is going to hold up after missing the entire 2013 season with a torn ACL. Culliver is also no stranger to the spotlight after the anti-gay remarks he made during media day before the 2013 Super Bowl. Also, it happened early enough in the offseason it’s not on people’s minds anymore.
The Kaepernick incident, if anything, rallied the team around him even more. Kaepernick has always been viewed as a person with integrity and respect and something like what he was accused of would’ve been completely out of character. So when he said he was innocent, his teammates believed him and supported him.
With McDonald getting arrested I could certainly see that causing some separation in the locker room. Some guys might have his back while others might think he should be deactivated even before the police investigation is complete. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and General Manager Trent Baalke have decided to keep McDonald active for Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys and that might cause some other players to question the leadership.
While not one of these incidents are crippling for the 49ers on the field, what should worry fans is the cumulative effect of all of them. When arrests start to pile up, people start asking questions about the leadership. Is Harbaugh not keeping a tight enough ship? Are players just not listening and respecting what he has to say? Does the 49ers organization care about anything besides winning football games? These are all viable questions that even if not asked out loud, players might start to ask themselves. If doubt starts to creep into the players’ heads, it can really eat away at a team.
The worst case scenario for the 49ers is a big loss in Dallas on Sunday. I think that will be a quick way for Harbaugh to lose the team. In the past if there have been any doubts in the players’ minds, they could just look to their record and reassure themselves the coaching staff is doing something right because of all the games they’re winning. But if those wins start to become more infrequent, players might start to think a change is in order. And we saw what happens when a coach loses his team last season when Greg Schiano lost the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
All in all I think the 49ers are in good shape. Even if McDonald gets suspended they have enough depth to get through the first half of the season until NaVorro Bowman gets back from injury and Smith gets back from suspension. People are down on them, but this is a team that plays much better as an underdog.