The night before the San Francisco 49ers went into Lambeau Field and beat the Green Bay Packers, they had a special guest. The 49ers had included Ric Flair's intro music during night before meetings throughout the season. Then, according to Flair, Justin Smith put in a request to get Flair to a team meeting. And so, we have this:
This is cool enough (well, at least for those of us who enjoyed professional wrestling at some point or another in our life. Following the game, Flair had a tweet, and The Iron Sheik threw out his own thoughts:
49ers win! WOOOOO! Congrats SF! Obviously my pep talk worked! WOOOOO! #OldSchoolRaw
— Ric Flair® (@RicFlairNatrBoy) January 6, 2014
My brother the Ric Flair help the SF win tonight. He one of the best and I be happy for him because he a legend like Iron Sheik #49ers
— The Iron Sheik (@the_ironsheik) January 6, 2014
And yet the story gets even better. Flair is from North Carolina and has been a source of some inspiration to the Carolina Panthers. Naturally this makes his decision to fire up the 49ers an unbelievable betrayal. James Dator of Cat Scratch Reader provided a rundown of the level of this betrayal.
Ric Flair & Steve Smith are buddies. But Smith wasn't too friendly Monday. About Flair he said: "That San Francisco bridge has been burned."
— Tom Sorensen (@tomsorensen) January 6, 2014
Started asking Drayton Florence about Ric Flair, he interrupted saying, "I’m not talking about that" and turned away. A team spurned?
— Bill Voth (@billvoth) January 6, 2014
In reality this shouldn't be all that important, but I can't help but laugh at it. I suppose 49ers fans would be pissed off if a Bay Area native fired up a playoff opponent, but such is life, right?
On a side note, Steve Smith is expecting to play Sunday. He sat out Week 17 with a PCL sprain, but he anticipates coming back from that. But will anything allow him to overcome the heartbreak caused by the Nature Boy turning heel on him?