Legal tension diverting attention from stadium
The 49ers want to capture the nation's attention with their new$1.3 billion stadium. They've certainly succeeded in grabbing the spotlight, but for all the wrong reasons.
The lead-up to Sunday night's nationally televised opening game at Levi's Stadium has been a steady drumbeat of damaging news for the 49ers, most notably the arrest of Ray McDonald for felony domestic violence Aug. 31 and the team's insistence on playing the defensive lineman while the legal process plays out.
Other recent blows to the 49ers’ image include the ninegame suspension of pass-rusher Aldon Smith by the NFL and the team's suspension of its
broadcaster, Ted Robinson, for insensitive comments about domestic violence. Even the new stadium hasn't been immune to the flood of bad news: The foundation for the original turf was found faulty and has been replaced for the third time.
This is not exactly how the stadium launch was scripted.
What should be one of the proudest moments in franchise history has been tainted. The stadium is not the focal point.
The 49ers seem unable or unwilling to change the message. Many teams employ crisis-communications strategies, but if the 49ers have such a plan, it isn't visible. And they don't seem willing to accept help.
Kathleen Krenek, the executive director of Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, a group that provides intervention and prevention services in Santa Clara County, reached out to the 49ers. The team, which portrays itself as a pillar of and partner in the community, didn't respond.
“We haven't gotten a response,” Krenek said. “We wanted to talk to them about howwe can help them. They have the opportunity to help educate players and the community. They have not vocally taken action.”
Lastweek, 49ers President Paraag Mara the was the keynote speaker at a Santa Clara University symposium on Sports Lawand Ethics. Though itwould seem to have been a perfect risk-free setting to take a proactive stance on the issue that has consumed the nation's attention, Marathe announced that hewould not take any questions on domestic violence. SCU's athletic director Dan Coonan tweeted, “Missed opportunity.”
Even the team's disciplining of Robinson smacked, to many, of a cosmetic fix rather than a real attempt to address the problem. Robinson, on KNBR, was discussing the Ray Rice case and labeled Rice's victim— his fiancée-now-wife Janay— “pathetic” and implied that she bore some responsibility for the fallout. In suspending one of their most vocal and visible boosters— a manwho usually sounds as though he's reading from a script prepared by the 49ers— the team said that Robinson's comments did not reflect the views of the team.
“Our organization stands strongly against domestic violence and will not tolerate comments such as these,” Marathe said in the statement.
But, judging by the response both online and in The Chronicle’s letters to the editor, the move rang hollow to many. Susan Wilson wrote, “It appears the San Francisco 49ers don't understand how bad it looks when a 49er player is protected and a broadcaster is punished. I think sensitivity training is a good idea— for Robinson and all of the 49ers, including the front office.” The team originally allowed the football decision makers— head coach Jim Harbaugh and general manager Trent Baalke— to answer all questions about McDonald. While professing “zero tolerance,” the men who are paid to win games said that McDonald would continue to play because of “due process.” The case remains under investigation and has yet to be handed over to the Santa Clara County district attorney.
Team owner and CEO Jed York has spoken once on the issue— when KNBR, the team's flagship station, came to Levi's Stadium for a morning broadcast. York said that he, Harbaugh and Baalke are in “lockstep” on the issue and speak with one voice. Though usually an active user of Twitter, York has been silent on the issue of domestic violence, which currently threatens the job security of the league's commissioner, Roger Goodell. Nor did York address the rash of arrests: Since the start of 2012, the 49ers lead the NFL in player arrests.
The team's decisionmaking has been strongly criticized by some of its former greats, including Steve Young, Brent Jones and Ronnie Lott. Those men seem embarrassed by what has happened to their team's image. As Jones pointed out on-air, “The landscape has changed.” It changed dramatically when Goodell handed down his newpolicy on domestic violence, and shifted even more when the Rice video was released.
The 49ers have been deaf and blind to the change. Nor do they appear to have learned from last year's crisis, when the team cavalierly chose to play Smith two days after his arrest for drunken driving. They are operating under the belief that their popularity supersedes all, and that their fans, who have literally invested in them (attending a 49ers game is nowthe most expensive outing in the NFL), will excuse their behavior.
The 49ers would prefer that the conversation be all about their twin enormous scoreboards, their stadium app, the Michael Mina tailgate ($5,000 a year for membership).
Instead their proudest moment is shrouded by bad news.