I find this to be a pretty comical situation the way it's being handled. A player isn't playing as well as we'd like him, so a change may or may not be made, and this means the 49ers lack integrity and now things are "irreparable," with Lewis's agent taking swings at the 49ers organization. To me, it sounds like a guy just can't deal with the fact that he's just not as good as he used to be. I've never seen a benching hurt a player's pride this much.
To explain, Michael Lewis has asked the team for his release after being told that rookie safety Taylor Mays needed to see the field more. Lewis won't be making the trip to Atlanta with the rest of the team. From what I understand, Lewis would have been the starter going into the Atlanta game, and perhaps beyond that point, just with some snaps going to Mays.
We all are aware of the issues that came up regarding Takeo Spikes and Michael Lewis, the report that came out said they would be benched going into week four, which Singletary didn't so much deny or confirm. After that, Singletary said there were no more lineup changes and that Spikes and Lewis would remain starters. Which hasn't changed, or wouldn't have changed, had Lewis just stuck it out and done his job.
I'm not worried about this move at all, to me, you can't question any lineup change when you're an 0-3 football team. Is Lewis supposed to say, "Well, look at my body of work thus far! I deserve to start!" because that's a little ... not smart, don't you think? There's a very small amount of actual veteran respect in this league, and it's completely understandable, the best players for the situation need to be out there on every play, and all I'm getting from this is that Lewis can't come to terms with the fact that he just wasn't good enough. There's no foul play, there's nothing "untrustworthy," about the 49ers organization. That's just my $.02, though.