Something for Nothing

Criticisms of NFL, Owens, agent hide real crime: 49ers got another freebie from NFL

April 20, 2004 (NHS) -- Being a Niner-hater means being more than accustomed to the most ridiculous antics and circumstances professional sports can dream up to favor the 49ers, and what other way could you describe Terrell Owens' long-awaited exit from S.F.?

No, there was no chance that the free agent Owens would just go and sign with another team. It had to be nothing less than a made-for-grocery-store-aisles soap opera that ended up in a bizarre perversion of logic that could only happen with the 49ers. And now that the Bandwagon sun has set on Owens and we've had our take on the hypocritical Bandwagon's role in making Owens into what he is, it's time to reflect on the real audacity of what went down:

The 49er Freebie.

In case you missed it, the 49ers received a free player for losing a free agent when they should have received nothing, like every other team when a free agent leaves them. And the worst thing about the whole mess is that part of the reason for it was a mistake on the part of the 49ers. Now, they are profiting from their crime, and the way it went down contained the usual stink that surrounds every transaction involving the NFL and the 49ers.

The missed deadline

Since Owens ended up where he wanted all along, with the Eagles, many have mischaracterized the issue by claiming that the NFL "caved in" to Owens. This misses the entire root of the problem; namely, the NFL's ruling in the first place that Owens was still the property of the 49ers after missing the deadline to file for free agency.

As you know, Owens' now infamous agent missed the NFL's February 21st deadline to file the paperwork to declare Owens a free agent. Thus, according to the NFL braintrust, Owens was still the property of the 49ers despite the void contract -- in some kind of limbo status, apparently. Niner fan/NFL spokesman Greg Aiello quickly ran to phone the 49ers the good news, who in turn quickly ran to announce to the world that Owens was still the 49ers' property.

"Ho ho ho!" laughed the media, and you'll have to excuse their giddiness. Anything involving Owens is a great excuse for them to churn out tabloid bile and avoid having to do any actual work or "journalism".

The 49ers' blame in it

In reality, there's much more to things than the media blanket conclusion of "Owens' agent is an idiot". Fact is that in 2001, five months after the NFL rule was put in place designating a February deadline to file for free agency, the 49ers signed an addendum to Owens' contract granting him until March 2nd to declare free agency.

In other words, the 49ers blew the rule. They screwed up just as much as Owens. They put the March 2nd deadline in the contract and signed it, just like Owens did.

Yet, while the blame for coming up with this later March date is shared equally, the effect of the NFL's ruling -- that Owens was therefore still the 49ers' property once February 21st passed -- was not equal. In fact, the breakdown for the two parties that did the same crime is appalling:

Owens got stiffed out of potentially millions of dollars he may have received in a fat contract if he was an unrestricted free agent and able to get (stupid) teams to engage in a bidding war for an overrated pretender like himself.
The 49ers not only got away scot-free for their part in screwing up the contract, they actually profited from it, by ultimately receiving a free player, defensive end Brandon Whiting (or a 3rd round pick if Whiting does not pass a physical by September 1st).

And while we, as Niner-haters, were happy to see #1, we are disgusted by #2 and the lack of attention the it's receiving.

After all, even though Owens is a punk who deserves anything bad that happens to him, one can't deny the injustice. There's a good yet unvoiced argument that Owens is far more innocent than the 49ers in this case. Owens' agent didn't just "forget" to file the paperwork on time -- he was using the date the 49ers gave him in the contract. Plus, he had every motivation to use the later date -- the longer he waited, the less chance the 49ers would stick the "franchise player" tag on Owens.

Of course, given the real-world situation that there was as much chance of the 49ers franchising Owens as there was of Bill Murray winning an Oscar, one could say, yes, Owens' agent was an idiot for not just filing by February 21st and avoiding this whole mess. But that's the worst you can really say about Owens' side.

On the other hand, the 49ers knew they blew the contract yet obfuscated the truth of the matter. When the NFL told them Owens was still their property, the 49ers didn't come out and admit they had screwed up the deadline, too. They piled the blame on Owens' agent then greedily sought to gain whatever advantage they could grab from a messed-up situation that they equally caused. In turn, the sick media actually applauded them for it.

NFL knew what they were doing

Being glossed over is the fact the NFL didn't have to rule the way they did. They could have just as easily ruled that despite the mistake, Owens still deserved his free agency. "No harm, no foul", right?

Ostensibly, the NFL ruled the opposite because it wanted to assert it's sovereignty; i.e., by taking such a Draconian stance against the player, the NFL wanted to ensure its procedural dates would remain the only dates that count despite what idiot teams and agents dream up in their contracts.

Well, as much as we want to believe that the NFL acts coolly and mechanically, and that this was a pure administrative decision, we need to look at the real world situation. This didn't happen in a vacuum -- the 49ers and Owens were involved -- and the fact is the NFL wanted to stick it to Owens and it has always applied a double-standard to the 49ers.

You'll recall back in 1997 when the NHS reported on the double-standard the 49ers were given insofar as how the reporting of injuries are treated. In that case, the Cowboys were fined and publicly chastised as ruining "the public confidence in the game" for a mistake in failing to report an injury to Troy Aikman's thumb. Meanwhile, the 49ers lied about Steve Young's ribs, completely and 100% purposefully, and there was no fine and no comment about "public confidence" from the NFL.

And do we really need to remind you of the ridiculous kid gloves treatment the Niners were afforded when they blatantly and intentionally cheated the salary cap? At the same time as announcing every guilty team from that point forward would lose a 1st-round draft pick, somehow the NFL magically justified the 49ers losing only a 3rd and 5th-round pick spread across two years. Andre Carter will be forever known as the 1st-round pick the 49ers never should have been allowed due to their salary cap cheating.

To make the point simply, imagine that instead of the 49ers this was the Raiders. Do you really think the NFL would have ruled likewise on the Owens free agency issue? Of course not. Sure, they would have ruled the deadline was missed, but still would have allowed the player his free agency (and then fined Al Davis $10,000 for signing a contract with the wrong date).

Had it been any other team, the NFL would have made a logical ruling that didn't end up rewarding the infringing team and unduly punishing the player by sacrificing his free agency. The NFL would have realized that the team was just as responsible for screwing up the date in signing a bad contract and would not have let the team profit from their own mistake. Plus, they would have mentioned that such a technicality was unfair in a real world setting where millions of dollars were at stake for the athlete.

End game

Would Stephen Burbank, the NFL Arbitrator that heard arguments on the matter, have echoed that alternative in his ruling? We'll never know. Perhaps it's the reason the sleazy 11th-hour "compromise" that ended up sending Owens to Philly was hastily entered into.

What we do know is that the truly amazing part, once again, is the media that doesn't even mention the 49ers' weaseling. Instead of any talk revolving around the bogus handout the 49ers received, the Bandwagon was actually angry that the handout wasn't bigger!

After the "trade" to Baltimore landed the 49ers a free 2nd-round pick, all 49er fans could mutter was how little the compensation was. Then when they ultimately ended up with a journeyman defensive end -- well, let's just say the Bay Area was universally disgusted in what they got for the guy formerly known as "The Most Exciting Player in the NFL", "The Best Receiver in the NFL", or at least "The Best Jerry Ever Since Jerry Even Though Jerry's Still Technically Playing".

And speaking of the overrated Owens, he certainly got jobbed. After all, to put his new contract with Philly in perspective, his signing bonus was $1 million less than what the 49ers gave to his former teammate, the mediocre Ahmed Plummer! So Owens' outlandish reaction to the situation (save the ridiculous Rosa Parks comparison) was almost understandable. Here's a guy who thinks he's The Best Ever, not just because of his narcissistic psychological disorders, but because for eight years the 49ers and the NFL told him that they want to sell him to the public as The Best Ever. So it followed that while he pulled all his cheesy little stunts -- from the Dallas-star incident to the Sharpie to the pompoms -- the NFL did absolutely nothing to stop him.

But now he gets it. There are two rules in the NFL -- those for the 49ers, and those for everyone else -- and once he shed his merlot-and-cheddar jersey he became fair game to the NFL.

In sum, the NFL's ruling that Owens was still the property of the 49ers was based on a ridiculous technicality that in the real world would hold no muster and would never have been taken if not for having the 49ers involved. There was no practical reason to enforce the change of date so strictly other than to let the 49ers benefit and to stick it to Owens. It was almost certainly going to be overruled by the Arbitrator before the last minute deal was reached to avoid such an embarrassing ruling.

While many laughed at the sweetness of the comeuppance for such a jerk like Owens to lose out on his precious bling-bling due to his agent's blunder, it came with a price. The 49ers were given a freebie by the NFL. Through no skill, effort, or endeavor of their own they were gifted a player. And perhaps in the cosmic scheme it's only appropriate that player was a defensive end to match the other end, Andre Carter, another player the 49ers never should have had if not for the 49er Double-Standard.

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