49ers Gone Wild

This is an old story, I know, but I have been thinking about this for a while.

Now, regular readers of this blog know that I have no problem calling people on my side to the carpet if they need to be. So, you may be a bit surprised with my position on this tape (and another one that has just been reported on.

First things first. What tape?

This video, made nearly two years ago and obtained by television station KRON, includes a dose of bathroom humor, a lap dancer burying a Niners staffer's head in her bosom and the team's outgoing public relations chief and producer of both tapes, Kirk Reynolds, with a protuberance in his pants.

Reynolds made both the 2003 video and the 2004 sequel that caused such a stir as primers for players on how to deal with the media. Last year's version -- which featured a Chinese American man mixing his R's and L's, Reynolds presiding over a topless lesbian wedding as the "mayor" of San Francisco, and the PR man cavorting with Mitchell Brothers strippers -- prompted team co-owner John York to apologize for a video "offensive in every manner."

Eeks. Sounds kind of bad. At this point I'm thinking that this video may be out of line. By the way, I actually heard parts of the video before reading any articles, so the "flavor" of the video is more accurately described in the article's next paragraph.

The 2003 version has none of the Chinese stereotyping, nudity, or jokes about gays and lesbians. It does, however, show the trajectory of locker-room humor that resulted in last year's fiasco.

My emphasis added. And to me that was key #1. Where is this video being played? The locker room. And so is locker-room humor out of line. Hell no.

And before people go on about "the company should be professional, blah, blah, blah [droning on with drumbeating]" I will say this. Remember that the intelligence of many of the players is not that high. I would venture to guess that half of the players could not pass a high school proficiency test. Any training video has to be down to their level or it will not be absorbed. And quite frankly these are the very people that are most at risk to need help with dealing with precarious situations.

I mean, this was humor (bad or not is subjective). Look at what Sports Illustrated's Arash Markazi says.

While I watched the video, I couldn't help but react the same way all the players in the locker room did when the video was shown to them. I laughed. "I thought it was one of the funniest things I ever saw," cornerback Mike Rumph told the Chronicle. "The locker room is like a fraternity. The outside world can't really judge that."

It wasn't Dave Chappelle-material, but it was tamer than many of the sketches that have put Chapelle's Show on the map.

Reynolds' biggest fault was trying to be too creative in doing what a public relations coordinator must do before the beginning of a season. Every year Reynolds must instruct 49ers players about their role in the community, their responsibility to the media and how the public relations department can help them.

I said that the "locker-room humor" was key #1. What was key #2?

Let's understand the situation. "Locker-room humor" at best being used as a training video, gets leaked to the public and people start bitching about it. Where were these people looking to castrate the construction worker that stole the Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sex video, or the boyfriend that made his night vision Paris Hilton sex video available to the public? Where were these people complaining about the 49ers to complain about Paris Hilton, Tommy Lee or Pam Anderson?

Where were these groups (women's groups, gay rights groups, etc) that are raising holy hell about the 49ers indecency when Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction or when a Desperate Housewife jumped nude into the arms of Terrell Owens in a Monday Night Football Game bit? They were silent about the inappropriateness of those things. They were silent about the indecency there...and those were items intended for the public. This 49ers tape was not intended for public viewing and thus is entitled to be less than guarded in approach.

So, key #2 for me is the thought police being out in force. When they are out I know that the problem is not what they think it is. The 49ers tape can be whatever it needs to be. The tapes were to be internal and if someone internally had an issue with the tapes then they could take care of it first internally. But as Mike Rumph was quoted, "I thought it was one of the funniest things I ever saw."

So this whole thing is much ado about nothing.