At 7 AM on Friday morning, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith was arrested on the suspicion of DUI. After a single-car accident, he took a breathalyzer, failed, and was booked into jail. The San Jose Mercury News also reported that marijuana and “pills” were found in Smith’s car, and he had been booked for possession. It also reports that his BAC was 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit.
But the 49ers had a game today! So the 49ers naturally made the right wrong decision by letting Smith play in their game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Chris Mortensen reports that “a consensus” has been reached regarding 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith, who crashed his car Friday morning, allegedly failed a breathalyzer, and allegedly had pills and weed in his possession at the time of the crash: Smith has a substance-abuse problem and needs treatment. But that treatment won’t begin until after Smith gets to play in today’s game against the Colts.
When I read this on Deadspin.com, I was blown away at how idiotic and irresponsible the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL, have become. The game and money have clearly become more important to the greedy owners and commissioner, than actually getting a young man some help.
According to ESPN.com:
League officials confirmed that under the collective bargaining agreement and the league’s substance-abuse policy, the 49ers could not suspend Smith. Even though commissioner Roger Goodell has emphatically stressed that DUI violations are high-level concerns, he also cannot suspend Smith under the personal conduct policy because the most recent case still must be adjudicated.
What a crock of shit. How does this not fall under “conduct detrimental to the team”, or something like that? This dude was also arrested in January 2012, on suspicion of drunken driving in Miami Beach, and he’s been named in a lawsuit by a Northern California man who said he was shot during a party at Smith’s house. So we have a history of breaking the law and endangering the lives of other human beings, but we need that win against the Colts today!
49ers CEO Jed York said that Smith will not be playing Thursday night and will not be with the team for an indefinite period due to personal reasons. “I am willing to support Aldon as long as he is willing to work at this and fight to get better,” York said. “I believe Aldon wants to tackle this problem, and we’re going to do everything we can do to help him with this,”.
So he has a problem, and you support him, but let’s make sure that he plays today because we just got smoked by Seattle and need a win. I’m glad to see that they got worked by the Colts today. They deserved to lose after letting this moron play. Just continue to enable these guys, and hope it goes away. That seems to be the NFL’s policy.
