Not-So-Shocking Video

49ers PR Director Kirk Reynolds canned over raunchy in-house video. I agree wholeheartedly with my colleague Arash Markazi, who wrote that it's a tempest in a teapot. It's easy to be a PR director when your team is winning and everyone's smiling and cooperative. But try being one for the Niners, the current clunkers of the league.

In a business in which most club PR guys are merely trying to hold a job, rather than do one, Reynolds stood out for his honesty and forthrightness, his willingness to take on any challenge. He's dedicated and hard-working, a pleasure to deal with ... make that past tense, was dedicated, because the yahoos got him, the rabble rousers, the people who are the life of the necktie party.

I saw the video. Parts of it were like a bachelor party film, a heehaw for the guys involved, not to be viewed by the general public. It was amateurish and over the top, but was it really that offensive to the gay and lesbian community? I don't think so when you consider some of the rowdier things that take place at the various gay and lesbian parades.

The mayor of San Francisco was upset because Reynolds impersonated him. Attaboy, yer honor. Steal a few votes by jumping on any bandwagon your advisers find for you. Guess this guy doesn't know that political figures are supposed to be skewered every five minutes. Take a look at Saturday Night Live once in a while.

Finally there's the presumed insult to the Asian community because George Chung, the Niners' former martial arts trainer, read aloud a Chinese language paper supposedly dealing with the team, in garbled Chinese-accented English. This form of ethnic humor is seen all over the place, and there are tons of movies that play it fast and loose with accents, including Chinese. But some people are offended by it. A complaint here would have had merit and could have been diffused with an apology from Reynolds, who could point out that there was no insult intended. This is not a person who is either narrow-minded or prejudiced.

And then we should move on and let the guy do his job. Oh no, that's not the way of Yorks one and two, the owners. The video was shown in August, and John and Denise York didn't find out about it until January. Reynolds, and others, feel that it was a disgruntled GM, Terry Donahue, who tipped off the Yorks and sent a video to the San Francisco Chronicle.

To me it looks as if the Yorks, stung by the fact that once again they had fallen asleep at the controls and didn't know about this thing until five months down the road, reacted in typical muddlehead fashion. Off with his head! Jeremy Shockey's nasty remark about Bill Parcells a couple of years ago was soon forgotten, even though it sprang from pure malice. Ditto Reggie White's weird ethnic rant a few years earlier. But a PR man is an easier target.

Well, if some team that needs a PR director has the guts to step in and hire Kirk Reynolds, it'll get itself a damn good man.