It is safe to say the next DeBartolo family reunion could get a little rough. A Twitter account that would appear to belong to Lisa DeBartolo, daughter of Eddie Debartolo and cousin to Jed York made it very clear what she thinks about the 49ers CEO. Bay Area columnist Lowell Cohn wrote a column saying Jed York needs to step aside as 49ers CEO, and DeBartolo tweeted it out. It appears the “Jed York has to go” in her tweet is what auto-populated from the link, but the implication is entirely clear.
Fooch’s note: Lisa deleted her tweets, but here’s a screenshot.
Just in case you're late to the party.... pic.twitter.com/Kf3qAzi3d2
— Jennifer Lee Chan (@jenniferleechan) October 18, 2016
This is the most public rebuke of Jed York’s leadership to date. Eddie DeBartolo and Jed’s father John have had issues in the past, but the relationship had mostly been placed on the back burner in the public eye. Jed and Eddie seemed to have a good relationship, but the departure of Jim Harbaugh raised some questions. Jed was effusive in his praise of his uncle when the latter was inducted into the Hall of Fame, but it felt like there were questions about the relationship (from the perspective of improving the 49ers) over the last couple years as things have gone south for the franchise.
This kind of thing is not going to get Jed York to step down, but it will certainly raise plenty of questions about the relationships between the DeBartolos and the Yorks. And it adds a serious level of drama to a situation that has already been dicey, at best.