| mahoney |
06-01-2005 05:30 PM |
49ers football Team' tape scandal,
The 49ers' off-color training video that is the talk of the Bay Area today is all of those things and more. It was in bad taste. It was offensive. It was an inexcusable mistake. And it ended up costing a good man -- a man I consider a friend -- his job and possibly his career.
``I offended people, and that goes against everything I stand for,'' said Kirk Reynolds, who stepped down Tuesday as the 49ers' director of public relations. ``I'm very apologetic. . . . My intentions were good by my execution was lousy.''
The video that was shown to the team last August was shocking and stupid because it was meant to be shocking and stupid. Whether right or wrong, that's what gets the attention in the locker room.
The fallout from ``training-gate'' -- starring Terry Donahue as Deep Throat -- is as much a commentary on the infantile behavior inside locker rooms as it is a reflection of the 49ers' image problems.
Anyone who has been in locker rooms -- even an outsider like a reporter -- knows that everyone is a target. Everyone is picked on; sexist, racist, stupid insults are everybody's ammunition. You have to grow a thick skin pretty quick or suffer the consequences.
So if you're offended by the video, consider the audience it was made for. Most of the players who have been quoted on the matter found it hilarious. Which means they didn't doze off during it. Which means the rest of the message -- about how to handle the media -- probably got through.
That doesn't make it right. It was stupid to put San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a compromised situation. The insulting stereotype of an Asian man was offensive. The fact that it had the full cooperation of team employee George Chung -- who ad-libbed most of it -- and was shot by team videographer Keith Yanagi doesn't excuse it. The lesbian makeout scene? Just stupid.
But this isn't the first time someone has dumbed things down for athletes or pandered to their base instincts to get their attention. That stuff happens every day. It's just usually not leaked to a newspaper and turned into banner headlines.
In the video, Reynolds says, ``The National Football League is the most highly visible sport on the planet. Everything you do and say is covered by the media. . . . So be careful.''
``Obviously,'' Reynolds said Wednesday, ``I didn't heed my own advice.''
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