Could you pick me up a Cinnabon? I am addicted.

   I mean he could hold out till week 12, but WHY? The Niner’s have already showed him the money. He is gonna get exactly what they offered him back before training camp. I don’t see the Niners budging one dime. Why should they? They are willing to hand this kid 10 MIL and he wont be able to REALLY play for a game or 2 AFTER the BYE. Almost half the season lost and he won’t have anything to show for it other than missing training camp.

   Mr. Crabtree is a prime example for the need of a rookie salary cap structure. If a structure was in place, none of this would have needed to happen. We could also reduce the need for scumbag agents. A lawyer would be all that is needed to go over the fine print. That alone would benefit the league and the players as well!! The process is flawed fatally, and needs to be fixed. I hate that the Players Association are throwing their own veterans under the bus just to try and keep everything status quo. The NFLPA needs to be bargaining for an Insurance program paid for by a pool of funds set aside by the owners to insure these rookies in the unlikely event that they get injured prematurely within the time frame of the rookie contract. That way, the Rookies are protected by some formula to get paid commiserate to the average of the top 5 players at their position to compensate these kids in the case of catastrophic injury during their rookie contract. That IMHO is what the NFLPA SHOULD be doing. But they are so greedy that they would rather fight the NFL to keep the STATUS QUO of more ridiculous rookie contracts that have escalated out of control over the past 10 years or so. That money should go to the VETERANS in the NFL and to retirees who make (made) the game what it is today, and not some rookie punk kid who may or may not succeed in the NFL. This is something that has really bothered me about football. I know as fans we just want to watch the games, but the distribution of money as it is today in the NFL is highly unfair to the veterans and the retirees who are the ones that should benefit from the success of the game.

   Back to Crabtree. I really do hope he signs with the Niners, and I hope there are no problems in the locker room or with the fans. Crabtree hired an agent that his “friend” Dion Sanders suggested. That agent hasn’t been working in the interests of Mr. Crabtree in my opinion. Now that the season has started, and the Niner’s are winning, the Kid wants to get on the field and help his team win! All that is normal and healthy. Hopefully they can strike a deal and Crabtree can move forward with his career.

  10 million dollar is generational security. His parents are set for life, He is set for life, and his children are set for life. He also has set himself up to make even MORE money after this contract has expired if he succeeds at a job he loves! There is a very good chance that this money is just the tip of the iceberg for Mr. Crabtree! I, for one, will not hold this holdout against him. In truth, players hire agents to deal with these matters. Agents are supposed to have the player’s best interests in mind. I think that Crabtree’s agent Parker is a scumbag. He has pulled a lot of gimmicks, and authored a lot of holdouts to try and squeeze ever last penny out of the teams involved mostly because he gets a percentage of the amount he is able to weasel out of the teams. Whatever that percentage is, these agents fight very hard for every last dime they can get in their own pockets. I hope that Crabtree FIRES Parker for the mess he got his client into with no gain whatsoever for the delay and casting a cloud over the young man’s character. Also he has lost money in the form of game checks that he can not now get back. ALSO, Parker has caused his client distress because it will take MONTHS for his client to recover from the lost training he cant recover by missing Mini Camps, training camp, and pre season games. Heck, if I were Crabtree, I’d have fired Parker after the first game I missed. That is a lot of money lost for what? Principles? Hardly.

   I think if Crabtree signs and is in uniform asap, most fans will forgive and forget by training camp next year. This year might be a total loss for him. He might be able to lend a hand and make some impact this year, but by missing training camp and the pre season, he will be a couple of steps behind the rest of this year, and maybe for the next year or two. No way to judge the impact of all that lost training and real game action lost.

   I know it is a business. I love watching the game of football, but the business side of it is pretty cut throat. GM’s and Agents facing off with threats and counter threats. I’d rather ignore this part of football. I always looked at other teams that were going thru this and I always felt a certain amount of disdain for the players who were in the center of it all. After all, the teams are willing to pay kids MILLIONS to play a game that they obviously love to play. Most fans would love to get paid MILLIONS to do something they love to do. It is hard to relate to the player in these situations. I would JUMP at the chance to sigh on the dotted line! I would rather just watch the game then know what goes on behind closed doors on the business end of things.

   So my question is: If Crabby Signs Relatively soon, how long will it take for fans to forgive and forget? First time in uniform? First big play? First Touchdown? First season? Never ?

There won’t be any bitterness. Players hold out all the time for huge contracts. If he can step up and help us out than his new teammates will rally around him.

get rid of michael spurlock, he is useless lol

I think it has more to do with watching gamechecks go by. Even if he signs today he has to forfeit about 1/4 of his first year base salary, and that number grows with each game he misses. I think he and Parker have made their play and have decided to make some concessions before too many of the games are played.

he was a diva/TO personality and coach changed that.

so you want him gone also???

give me TD’s or give me nothing.

I think he is a smart kid that got hooked up with some bad advisors (ie Sanders, Parker, etc…) I’d be willing to bet the kid is a model citizen and he turns out to be a half decent receiver. There has been no proof of Divaism other that the association with that A-Hole Sanders. Parker was considered a tough agent at one time. Now he is blacklisted by most front offices. Listening to your cousin for advice regarding millions of dollars isn’t too wise either. But we are talking about a Pre 21 year old young man who is not wise in the ways of the world. He got snapped up by a loser of an agent and now he has to pay the price of missing game checks. Oh Well, if this kid is half as good as he THINKS he is, he will get that money back and more. I know our offense could use a wide receiver that can stretch the field and catch the ball (unlike D.H.B – a.k.a. Frying pan hands – a.k.a. James Jett #2)

   Lets give the kid a chance to make good. Once we get him into our system, and away from the losers that have been handling him, and we can have Coach SIng speak some truth into this kids head, lets see what type of young man he turns out to be. If he can be saved, then coach Singletary is the reverend to do it. I often think these rookies need to be saved from themselves. But on the other hand, most of the good wide receivers have that “better than you are” attitude. I think is is part of what drives these Kids to be great. BUT you have to keep that attitude in check, and make sure it doesn’t effect your play. There are lotsa ways to succeed in the NFL, but as a receiver the way you succeed is score touchdowns. He was able to set records doing it in college. I hope the kid just signs just to see if he can do it at the pro level. If this kid can run a go route and stretch the field so our underneath receivers can get 1 on 1 coverage, then he will prove useful in the short term. If he can get open on one of those go routes, he can be a weapon.

Remember that foot issue?

He diodn’t work out for any teams…he’s certainly not put any pads on recently or likely worked out at game speed at all. Maybe we’ll get a teaser near week 10 or so.

What we got is what we got!

in time to beat the colts

thats what i said in another post… if he is a #1 or a #3 doesn’t matter as long as he is helping us win games later this season.

I’m expecting a 10-6 season with us winning the rest of our division games (except possibly the one at Seattle). AZ won’t go 10-6, Neither will the ’Hawks. St. Louis might win 1 or 2 games this year. This would put us on top of the NFC West, a happy thought.

Last year AZ made it to the playoffs with a 9-7 record.

… with all the juniors coming out. Current projections are it being LOADED, particularly for defensive lineman. So kudos to us for having 2 First Rounders. I’m sure there will be a solid tackle in there somewhere.

After Okung, the talent level falls off drastically. I’m thinking Selvish Capers(WV) is a good fit for the 9ers. He’s a LT who has played RT for lefty QB White(now at Miami), so he’s already good in pass pro and has good feet. He would have to bulk up some and improve his run blocking, but it could work out well for us.

That’s what I’m hoping for him. Much as I like Battle and Bruce they’re definitely not #1 WR and haven’t been for awhile. (Take them to New Englad or Indianopolis and they’d be #2 at best and most likely #3’s).

This is why i was so excited for his signing. The potential to have an explosive number 1 WR who can take a short ball and turn it into long gains.

We didn’t break news? Epic fail!

We will win the next news cycle later tonight. I here Fooch plans to reveal the score of Sunday’s 49ers vs Rams contest.

The line is a much bigger need than either of those spots, and WR too if Crabs doesn’t sign.

I mean, who needs $16MM anyway????

They are cutting out the middleman (GM Sott M) and will be meeting with Jed York instead? After all, Jed was the one that called for a face to face.

Mc Boo Foo can’t bother to buy them lunch while they are in town? I’m guessing he has a company credit card.

Worst lie ever . . . unless they are in town to meet Al Davis.

But I think the big sticking point is not the money but the length of the contract. Parker always tries to get short-term contracts for his guys because the Free Agent market is where it’s at. We’d like to see five or six years. Parker wants four years.

I bet we give Crabtree less money than he wants but give him the years on the contract.