I gotta say, vernon davis is a moron. The excuse he tries to give for the reason he fought is bullshit and shows his bad attitude.
# # # Evening update below with transaction. 49ers sign WR Chris Francies and waive DE Babatunde Oshinowo. # # #
News of the day
As the Michael Crabtree negotiations dragged on, the 49ers’ receiving corps took another hit.
Brandon Jones will be sidelined for two months because of a small fracture in his right shoulder. Jones suffered the injury Thursday while attempting a diving catch in the afternoon practice.
The 49ers were initially hopeful that it was just a sprain. But X-rays on Friday revealed a more serious injury.
“It’s going to be a little longer than we anticipated. But we’ll work through it,’’ Coach Mike Singletary said.
Jones, 26, signed with the 49ers as a free agent after four seasons with the Tennessee Titans. In training camp, he has been filling the role of the No. 3 receiver behind Isaac Bruce and Josh Morgan.
Jones had been one of the bright spots of camp, making several catches on deep patterns. Now, his absence opens the door a little wider for another receiver to earn a spot on the roster.
Dominique Zeigler has played well in camp and could get an extended look with Crabtree absent and Jones on the shelf.
Zeigler got a taste of NFL action a year ago when he was activated from the practice squad and played in eight games. The noodle-thin receiver had five catches for 97 yards (19.4 average).
“There’s always more you can do. I can’t say I deserve anything,’’ Zeigler said. “I’ve played eight games in the National Football League. That doesn’t give you anything to think that you’re automatically on the team. I have to go out here and work every day like I did last year and just continue to make plays and hopefully that allows me to be here when the 53-man roster comes.”
Zeigler has been a popular target during training camp. He made a sensational one-handed catch Thursday, leaping into the clouds to get his hands on the ball. He landed out of bounds when he came down.
Still …
“At first, I thought the quarterback was trying to throw the ball away. But than I thought, ‘I wonder if I can get that?’’ Zeigler said.
Zeigler, listed as 6-foot-3, is astonishingly skinny. He alleges that he weighed in at 188.5 pounds on Friday morning. Perhaps he was hiding a brick in each shoe.
“Nobody has really just said, ‘Get in here and put on 20 pounds,’ You just work with what you got here,’’ Zeigler said. “Obviously, yeah, I’m skinny. But if I was out here being somebody scared to get tackled or to go tackle somebody, I could see that happening. But not that’s not the situation at hand.”
Vernon Davis talks about fight club
Upon arriving for training camp, tightly wound tight end Vernon Davis swore his fighting days were over.
He almost kept that pledge through an entire week. That’s almost.
On Thursday, Davis wound up in a scuffle with Marques Harris. That’s when Singletary followed through on a promise of his own, punishing the whole team for Davis’ transgression. Singletary made them run sideline-to-sideline sprints, also known as gassers.
“A few guys were mad, but like I told them you can’t get mad because there will be time you make the rest of us run,’’ Davis said Friday. “I told them they should be happy that I made them run because it’s extra work for us and a chance for us to get better. It keeps our lungs going. If anybody else makes us run, I’ve just got to suck it up. I can’t say nothing.”
The way Davis tells it, Harris was grabbing his jersey during team drills. Davis smacked the linebacker’s hands away. Davis said Harris pushed him and the fisticuffs ensued.
Regardless of what happened, it’s clear who Singletary held accountable. Singletary dragged Davis at least 30 yards from the action for a 3-minute discussion. And it looked very much like a one-way conversation, with the coach doing all the talking.
“Sometimes (fights) are bound to happen, but that’s not what Singletary wants’’ Davis said. “He wants us to just let it go and move on because you get in a game situation and something like that goes down, boom, I’m out of the game.
“I understand. But in practice we don’t think about that. We think, ‘Hey it’s practice.’ But you practice how you play and if you do something like that there’s a good chance of you doing it in a game. That’s what Coach Singletary is trying to let me know.”
Jean-Francois talks about staph infection
(this item is from Mercury News writer Mark Emmons)
Rookie defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois was carrying an extra set of shoulder pads off the practice field Thursday morning courtesy of veteran Aubrayo Franklin. But after missing the first nine practices of training camp with a staph infection, Jean-Francois wasn’t complaining.
Even though he felt fine physically, team doctors had been careful about clearing him to play.
“They just wanted to make extra sure that I was healthy before I stepped back on the field,” said Jean-Francois, a seventh-round pick from Louisiana State. “I can’t blame the team. They just want to make sure that everyone stays safe.”
Drug-resistant staph, long a scourge in hospital settings, has spread to locker rooms in recent years. The 49ers have had their share of problems with staph, which explains the caution with Jean-Francois.
“It’s extremely contagious and I’ve been a victim of it,” said linebacker Jeff Ulbrich. “There are some serious health concerns. It’s very painful. Once one guy had it, suddenly there were three, four, five guys with it. So holding out a guy is smart. It greatly reduces the chance of it spreading.”
Quarterback update of the day
It was an uneventful morning session. Shaun Hill completed 6 of 10 attempts, including a 15-yarder to Davis. Alex Smith, working with the second unit, was 2 of 7 passes and had trouble finding an open receiver. On his last series, he tucked and scrambled on one play and threw the ball away on another.
Sideline trivia of the day
The question put to the scribes during practice today: Who is the last running back to win Super Bowl MVP honors? (Answer below)
Injury update of the day
Parys Haralson (hip) returned to a full practice, as did linebacker Jay Moore (finger).
Still out were:
LB Patrick Willis (ankle)
CB Tarell Bown (toe)
TE Delanie Walker (concussion)
RB Michael Robinson (groin)
G David Baas (foot)
