Rumors surface of a divide within the 49ers locker room
Oct 25, 2015 at 8:54 PM
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As if the drama of a 2-5 start for the San Francisco 49ers wasn't enough, it appears that rumors of even more are surfacing. QB Colin Kaepernick has had his share of on-the-field troubles this season. Just four weeks ago, he recorded the lowest passer rating of his career with a 16.7 performance against the Arizona Cardinals.
This morning, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported that, while a team typically comes together to pick up a struggling quarterback, the 49ers are not doing so. He described Kaepernick as "alone on an island inside that locker room." Glazer went on to say that there are not a lot of people that he connects with to try to pick him back up.
Glazer is the same person that broke the news, as unimaginable as it may have seemed at the time, that the 49ers would part ways with Jim Harbaugh.
Then later, Pro Football Talk reported that the 49ers will continue to play Kaepernick
in hopes of generating some trade value.
Then even later, Kyle McLorg of Bay Area Sports Guy reported that multiple sources had
informed him of a significant divide within the locker room that originated from tensions between Kaepernick and former 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith. (h/t to Ryan Sakamoto of
Niner Fans for finding this)
As you may remember, there were reports of a fight between Kaepernick and Smith during a practice that got so heated that players had to pull the two apart. Of course, CSN Bay Area's Matt Maiocco quickly shot that down saying that he had not seen any fights. Then he realized that there may have been opportunities for such a fight to occur when the beat writers were not around – which did not necessarily indicate that one actually happened.
McLorg states that the locker room divide may have originated from the love triangle rumors that may have been the cause of the alleged fight. There were rumors of a breakup between Smith and Hot 97 host Nessa and then she started getting involved with Kaepernick. As you can imagine, that might make working conditions awkward for the two.
It's going to be a long season for San Francisco and the last thing that they need are more rumors and distractions like the Harbaugh ones that plagued the team during much of the 2014 season. The 49ers are currently in last place within the NFC West with a trip to St. Louis to play the Rams and a home game against the Atlanta Falcons on the schedule prior to the team's bye week.
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