The San Francisco 49ers decision to release Aldon Smith resulted in a change to the media availability schedule. The players normally would have spoken between 11:30 and 12:30 PT on Friday. Instead, they were bumped to after practice. Naturally, there were plenty of questions about Aldon Smith's arrest and release.
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick refuted the rumor about an issue with Aldon Smith. Several trashy websites suggested that was the impetus for the events leading to Aldon's arrest. The problem is they included a variety of incorrect facts. One suggested Smith was hitting Kap's "brand new Mercedes." Kap said he did not own a Mercedes. Another report initially said there was an altercation on Thursday at practice. After being informed the team did not practice on Thursday, they changed the article to say Tuesday. Furthermore, Matt Maiocco tweeted he has seen no fights during practice. The media do not see the walkthroughs, but combined with everything else, it is hard to take this stuff seriously.
Other players had a chance to discuss the recent events. They expressed concern about Smith, and said they were there to help him as needed. The beat writers have begun posting some of these quotations:
Matt Barrows
Cam Inman
Matt Maiocco
Here are just a few of the quotations.
Anquan Boldin: "For me, I'm more concerned about him as a person. Football doesn't come into play when it comes to a situation like that. My whole thought is making sure he's OK as a person. " ... When asked about the TMZ report, "You all listen to TMZ? Boy."
Antoine Bethea: "We're going to come together and get strong ... We're going to piggyback off one another, and we'll be fine. Regardless of whatever happens to this team, we have capable players who are coming out here and making plays and having a capable team to get done what we want to get done."
Eric Reid: "This is a sad day for the team ... He's obviously a huge cog in the wheel for us. We're going to miss him. It's more than just about football right now at this point. He needs to make some changes and I think he's going to work through them."