The Aldon Smith thread

The nerve of some people. Did I read some one say rehab is not taking responsibility for ones actions? Clearly that person has never dealt with an alcoholic. Its not so easy to just get over it.

Why would the team not tell everyone he showed up for practice hung over everyday? Because it would be a distraction that isn't needed. There are many "functioning" alcoholics.

Look at the list of problems we know about. Every one of them is an alcohol related incident. Who knows how many more we don't know of. The team knew he had issues and probably hoped he would get through them but he didn't so they did what they did. The team didn't force him to go he went on his own.

So get over it.

And because other teams dont care about there players we're doing it as a publicity stunt? get real.

Originally posted by LoneWolf:
Maybe that's because the people around him such as family members and team mates believe that ITS NONE OF OUR DAMN BUSINESS, and why get the media involved when maybe just maybe they thought he would originally be able to work through his problems on his own and didn't need the media spreading his dirty laundry all over tv, the radio and the internet for the world to see.

If this problem was so prevalent. Why did we wait for him to get a DUI before we did anything about it?

Three days after getting a DUI we all of a sudden become aware of a major addiction problem? Before that, he's just fine? Why does a DUI become the tipping point of an addiction problem? If he has an addiction that people know about, we should have taken care of it sooner. Perhaps BEFORE the season started?

Was it just coincidence that it happened right after a DUI?

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

So did you think LT had a problem?

How about Irvin as an example:
"In March 1996, Irvin was arrested on charges of cocaine possession at a hotel party celebrating his 30th birthday. After numerous court appearances amid a national media circus, which featured Irvin showing up to court in a full-length mink coat, he pled no contest to the charges and was sentenced to community service, ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, and put on 4-years probation. When tested for illicit drugs, he tested negative. But the NFL suspended Irvin for the first five games of the 1996 season.
In Irvin's 1996 absence, the Cowboys struggled out of the gate and never recovered. Upon his return from suspension, Irvin tallied 962 receiving yards in only 11 games."


The Cowboys never sent him to any rehab clinic. In fact, has this EVER happened before? Where a star player is sent to a rehab clinic by their own team in the middle of the season?

Lawrence Taylor was arrested several times for drug possession, and tested positive many times for drugs. The NFL suspended him several times. However, his team never sent him to a rehab facility that I am aware of. They let him PLAY, they never tried to be his parent or guardian.

Ok, I'm confused. So you ARE saying that Irvin, LT and Aldon all did or do have a problem? Because before I thought you were saying it was bs that Aldon had a problem. Or were you just saying the Niners were being disingenuous? Either way, I have no idea just how serious his problem is, but it is/was apparent to everyone that he was headed down a bad path and needed some sort of intervention.

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:
So did you think LT had a problem?

How about Irvin as an example:
"In March 1996, Irvin was arrested on charges of cocaine possession at a hotel party celebrating his 30th birthday. After numerous court appearances amid a national media circus, which featured Irvin showing up to court in a full-length mink coat, he pled no contest to the charges and was sentenced to community service, ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, and put on 4-years probation. When tested for illicit drugs, he tested negative. But the NFL suspended Irvin for the first five games of the 1996 season.
In Irvin's 1996 absence, the Cowboys struggled out of the gate and never recovered. Upon his return from suspension, Irvin tallied 962 receiving yards in only 11 games."


The Cowboys never sent him to any rehab clinic. In fact, has this EVER happened before? Where a star player is sent to a rehab clinic by their own team in the middle of the season?

Lawrence Taylor was arrested several times for drug possession, and tested positive many times for drugs. The NFL suspended him several times. However, his team never sent him to a rehab facility that I am aware of. They let him PLAY, they never tried to be his parent or guardian.

You're missing the point...

1. Don't compare one person's issues to someone else's. I don't think that needs any further explanation.

2. Drug and alcohol issues weren't thought of as seriously back in the day as they are now. Not only is alcohol and drug abuse a growing problem in our society, it's being treated much more seriously now of days.

Originally posted by OregonDuckNiner:

Originally posted by LoneWolf:

Originally posted by BrianGO:
1) That is certainly possible.
However, it's interesting that nobody has said anything about him actually being an alcoholic, or having a drinking problem. Not a single word. Not any other player, not any media member, not any coach, not any former coach, not any family member. Nothing. No history of it. No evidence where he showed up late to practice or a meeting. Absolutely nothing. Who know's? Maybe those closest to him kept it such a tight secret, that he was still able to get drafted in the top ten, sign a multi-million dollar contract, work his ass off in "voluntary" practices, training camp, and then perform at a high level and set records for sacks, all while being totally wasted every night, and hung over every day. Yeah, that makes sense.

2) You mean like he showed up for the NFL's "voluntary" workouts? "Voluntary" is such an interesting word these days.

Maybe that's because the people around him such as family members and team mates believe that ITS NONE OF OUR DAMN BUSINESS, and why get the media involved when maybe just maybe they thought he would originally be able to work through his problems on his own and didn't need the media spreading his dirty laundry all over tv, the radio and the internet for the world to see.

This.

jesus christ, this times infinity,,,, the general public actually thinks they have the right to know whats going on with the personal life of a player?? jesus, do i call that stupidity, arrogance?

Originally posted by BrianGO:

If this problem was so prevalent. Why did we wait for him to get a DUI before we did anything about it?

Three days after getting a DUI we all of a sudden become aware of a major addiction problem? Before that, he's just fine? Why does a DUI become the tipping point of an addiction problem? If he has an addiction that people know about, we should have taken care of it sooner. Perhaps BEFORE the season started?

Was it just coincidence that it happened right after a DUI?

Because maybe they thought he was working through it. And making progress. The DUI showed they were wrong. We don't know what went on day to day and what was being done. All we know is the aftermath.

I take it you don't have kids or people you are responsible for. Sometimes you have people with problems and you take measures to help them and you see things are going good only for that person to have a relapse and you are aware that the problems are beyond your capabilities so you go to the pros.

Originally posted by LoneWolf:
And because other teams dont care about there players we're doing it as a publicity stunt? get real.

Lawrence Taylor was never sent to a rehab facility by his team that I am aware of, and he had a MAJOR addiction problem. The same with Michael Irvin. Teammates on those team knew about the problems, but neither of them missed time DURING the season. Why are we the first organization to send a player to rehab during the season?
We are so blind that we only find out about an addiction problem after a DUI arrest DURING the season?

Lawrence Taylor won Super Bowls for his team while being addicted to cocaine. Same with Michael Irvin. An alcohol problem gets Aldon Smith to miss half the season?
This problem was found out about immediately after a DUI arrest? We knew nothing about this problem BEFORE? WTF?

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by LoneWolf:

Maybe that's because the people around him such as family members and team mates believe that ITS NONE OF OUR DAMN BUSINESS, and why get the media involved when maybe just maybe they thought he would originally be able to work through his problems on his own and didn't need the media spreading his dirty laundry all over tv, the radio and the internet for the world to see.

If this problem was so prevalent. Why did we wait for him to get a DUI before we did anything about it?

Three days after getting a DUI we all of a sudden become aware of a major addiction problem? Before that, he's just fine? Why does a DUI become the tipping point of an addiction problem? If he has an addiction that people know about, we should have taken care of it sooner. Perhaps BEFORE the season started?

Was it just coincidence that it happened right after a DUI?

It was his 2nd DUI. (Regardless if the 1st one got thrown out.) People make mistakes and getting a DUI falls into that category. But When you start getting into multiple DUI's coupled with the other crap, it stops being a mistake and becomes a pattern of a person with a problem.

Originally posted by cciowa:

jesus christ, this times infinity,,,, the general public actually thinks they have the right to know whats going on with the personal life of a player?? jesus, do i call that stupidity, arrogance?

Its the world we live in with twitter and what ever else. People think they have a right to know now when in reality they don't have a right to jack squat.

Originally posted by BrianGO:
If this problem was so prevalent. Why did we wait for him to get a DUI before we did anything about it?

Three days after getting a DUI we all of a sudden become aware of a major addiction problem? Before that, he's just fine? Why does a DUI become the tipping point of an addiction problem? If he has an addiction that people know about, we should have taken care of it sooner. Perhaps BEFORE the season started?

Was it just coincidence that it happened right after a DUI?

Three days after his second dui in one year, which happened at 7AM, and left him with a totalled suv passed out behind the wheel with his foot pinned on the accelerator. Usually the catching him drunk that early in the morning, or 2 duis in a year would be more then enough to realize the issue is more serious then him drinking after work a little to often, add on all the other s**t that happened that morning and yeah its a serious wake up call, and the team isnt doing it as a publicity stunt there doing it to save there very worthy investment.

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by LoneWolf:
Maybe that's because the people around him such as family members and team mates believe that ITS NONE OF OUR DAMN BUSINESS, and why get the media involved when maybe just maybe they thought he would originally be able to work through his problems on his own and didn't need the media spreading his dirty laundry all over tv, the radio and the internet for the world to see.

If this problem was so prevalent. Why did we wait for him to get a DUI before we did anything about it?

Three days after getting a DUI we all of a sudden become aware of a major addiction problem? Before that, he's just fine? Why does a DUI become the tipping point of an addiction problem? If he has an addiction that people know about, we should have taken care of it sooner. Perhaps BEFORE the season started?

Was it just coincidence that it happened right after a DUI?

My f**king god, your ignorance on this issue is unreal. AND you don't even know s**t about this situation, yet you keep spewing s**t out your mouth. Who knows if the team knew he had a problem prior to this; you don't know what happened behind closed doors so stop trying to say this whole situation blew up after this incident, because there could've already been an issue internally that we didn't know about.

And for all we know, they could've known he had a problem, but treatment doesn't do s**t unless the person willingly goes and acknowledges he/she has a problem; hence the fact that he checked himself into rehab. Maybe this was when Aldon realized he had a problem and decided to do something about it.

I don't know if you're trying to troll or not, but you really need to stop talking because you have no idea what you're talking about.

Originally posted by OregonDuckNiner:

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:
So did you think LT had a problem?

How about Irvin as an example:
"In March 1996, Irvin was arrested on charges of cocaine possession at a hotel party celebrating his 30th birthday. After numerous court appearances amid a national media circus, which featured Irvin showing up to court in a full-length mink coat, he pled no contest to the charges and was sentenced to community service, ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, and put on 4-years probation. When tested for illicit drugs, he tested negative. But the NFL suspended Irvin for the first five games of the 1996 season.
In Irvin's 1996 absence, the Cowboys struggled out of the gate and never recovered. Upon his return from suspension, Irvin tallied 962 receiving yards in only 11 games."


The Cowboys never sent him to any rehab clinic. In fact, has this EVER happened before? Where a star player is sent to a rehab clinic by their own team in the middle of the season?

Lawrence Taylor was arrested several times for drug possession, and tested positive many times for drugs. The NFL suspended him several times. However, his team never sent him to a rehab facility that I am aware of. They let him PLAY, they never tried to be his parent or guardian.

You're missing the point...

1. Don't compare one person's issues to someone else's. I don't think that needs any further explanation.

2. Drug and alcohol issues weren't thought of as seriously back in the day as they are now. Not only is alcohol and drug abuse a growing problem in our society, it's being treated much more seriously now of days.

really who gives a s**t what the cowboys did 20 years ago or what the giants did 25 years ago/ how is that even connected to aldons situation? good lord. aldon checked himself into rehab. the team did not. that is all we know or should know,

Ill put it as simple as possible, Aldon is the 49ers investment, the 49ers sent him to rehab to protect there investment and show him support by keeping him on the team. Sure the 49ers could have cut him because of his issues or ignored them altogether but being the proven sack machine he is if we cut him another team would pick him up and let him do what he wants and they gain a great OLB or by ignoring his problems he would continue to get suspended over and over again where our proven sack machine is useless to us because he is not allowed to play due to suspensions. By showing him we support him he will respect the team more and will want to play for a team more that supports him and cares about him thus giving us a better chance to keep him with the team long term both clean and sober and playing in all games.

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:
Ok, I'm confused. So you ARE saying that Irvin, LT and Aldon all did or do have a problem? Because before I thought you were saying it was bs that Aldon had a problem. Or were you just saying the Niners were being disingenuous? Either way, I have no idea just how serious his problem is, but it is/was apparent to everyone that he was headed down a bad path and needed some sort of intervention.

I am saying a couple things.

First, LT and Irvin had problems that were far worse than Aldon Smith might or might not have. They were addicted to cocaine. Aldon, perhaps is addicted to alcohol.
Second, NONE of these players have hurt their teams chances of winning games, so let's make that clear.
Third, we are the ONLY one of these teams, and maybe ANY team ever, that I am aware of, to send a player to a rehab facility DURING the football season. That is BIZARRE by itself for many reasons, and sends up red flags for many reasons. One of those red flags, being the validity of the idea that Aldon has a serious addition to alcohol. The validity is questioned, because if the problem is bad enough that we need to take the unprecedented action of sending a player to a rehab facility during a football season, then this scale of problem should have been noticed BEFORE the season, and not during.
Additionally, we make this decision immediately after a DUI arrest, almost as if it was a punishment of some kind for the DUI, rather than an effort to help the player.
Fourth, none of his other "problems" are in any way shape or form evidence of "alcoholism". The party, swerving from a deer as a passenger in a car etc.
The DUI's them self are "evidence" of an alcohol addition for sure, but so are the DUI's of countless other NFL players that have been arrested, including Jeff Garcia, Marshawn Lynch etc. None of these players had ever been sent to a rehab facility by their team that I am aware of; and I doubt even further, that any player as EVER been sent to a rehab facility DURING the season, causing them to miss games. This sends up another red flag, a red flag that screams of OVERREACTION. Why has this never happened BEFORE?

Those are the points I am trying to make. The red flags are numerous. It appears as if it is an overreaction to a common problem. An overreaction spurred by ALL of Aldon's non-alcoholic related off-the field activities for sure, but still an overreaction.
It appears to me, that we have thrown someone into a rehab clinic, for a DUI, because he is having a pattern of off-the-field issues, NOT because he is a flat out "alcoholic" with a serious addition.

Of course it's all speculation (like everything on a message board). However, I feel the speculation is valid, and Aldon Smith should be playing football and helping us win games, just like Marshawn Lynch is doing for the 4 - 1 Seahawks.