http://theredzone.org/news/showarticle. ... cleID=2753
49ers under fire for shock training film
The San Francisco 49ers' front office is under fire for an in-house training video that including lesbian porn, off-color racial jokes, a parody of gay marriage, topless blondes, and star linebacker Julian Peterson playing the part of a panhandler,the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.
The Chronicle said some of the 15-minute video was filmed at the City Hall office of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and was supposed to give players a primer on how to handle the media in the diverse city.
49ers team lawyer Ed Goines told the Chronicle that the video "is absolutely contradictory to the ideals and values of the San Francisco 49ers."
The team has scheduled a news conference at 2:30 p.m. ET today to address the issue.
Public relations director Kirk Reynolds, who developed the video, is now looking for a new job, the Chronicle said.
The Chronicle said the video was shown to 49ers players last year at the team's training camp in Santa Clara after a diversity workshop, which Reynolds organized after an anti-homosexual comment by running back Garrison Hearst.
"I thought it was one of the funniest things I ever saw," cornerback Mike Rumph told the Chronicle. "The locker room is like a fraternity. The outside world can't really judge that."
Among the video's key moments are a wedding featuring a topless couple who engage in heavy petting; the 49ers' then-trainer and martial arts expert George Chung depicting a stereotype of a Chinese man saying among other things "My brother's name is Suck Young -- my whole family suck"; and a scene starring 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson who helps demonstrate at a Santa Clara County jail on how to cope with being arrested, the Chronicle said.
Mayor Newsom's press secretary Peter Ragone told the Chronicle that the mayor gave Reynolds permission to use City Hall with the understanding that the video was a training film.
"They didn't tell us anything about its content,'' Ragone said.
The Chronicle said Newsom called Reynolds an "idiot" as he was shown the tape on Tuesday.
The Chronicle said that, in one scene, a topless, lesbian wedding takes place at the city's famed Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theater and administered by Reynolds, who acts as the mayor.
"I know the courts say we can't do this," Reynolds says in the film, "but like my predecessor, we make our own rules here in San Francisco.''
After the the couple takes their vows, they drop to the floor and engage in serious petting. One of them says, "Go 49ers'' as the camera turns away.
Reynolds then says toward the camera, "As you guys learned in diversity training, people have diverse lifestyles. You may know someone or have a family member with a diverse lifestyle. So embrace diversity — embrace it."
Then a black man and white man prepare to be married, the Chronicle said.
In a scene in Chinatown, then-team trainer and martial arts expert George Chung " wearing glasses and with buck teeth " translates an article in an Asian newspaper:
"Tim Latte (Rattay, a Niners quarterback)," Chung says. "He feel good now. He feeling good. No plactice with the team, so most of the time he play with himself."
Chung later says, "49ers love being in community. Very patriotic . . . support president and his George Bush erection."
"Erection?" Reynolds asks.
"Yes," Chung responds. "It say, ‘You like Bush " then you like his erection.'"
Chung also says, "My name is Suck Hung. My brother's name is Suck Young " my whole family suck."
Peterson later acts in a scene in which he's a panhandler, and the film shows how to deal with being arrested at a Santa Clara County jail.
"Don't bend over for the soap," Reynolds tells his viewing audience, as a screaming and handcuffed prisoner " played by linebacker Jeff Ulbrich " is thrown into a jail cell by two guards.
In the final scene, Reynolds gives a final set of instructions in a dressing room in which there are three topless blondes. He says, "what you do is not only a reflection of yourself. It's a reflection of the San Francisco 49ers."
The women then throw themselves all over Reynolds for a group hug.
Reynolds told the Chronicle he believes former 49ers general manager Terry Donahue leaked the video to the media.
"He (Donahue) made that clear to a couple of people close to me and a couple members of the media that he was going to do everything he could to take me out with him,'' Reynolds said.
Reynolds told the newspaper that Donahue didn't view the video beforehand but knew of its contents. Reynolds added that Donahue's then-roommate makes an appearance in two scenes, one of which depicts him as a gay partner.
Donahue told the Chronicle that "I have never, nor would I ever, have been involved in any way with any kind of tape like this."
Reynolds told the Chronicle that he doesn't regret the idea of the video.
"I don't have regrets about the idea of trying to make it connect to the audience I'm trying to connect it to,'' he said. "The whole idea of the tape was to inform our players about things important for them to know.
"Did I push it too far? I did,'' Reynolds said. "I didn't make this for public consumption. The ideas of the tape are appropriate for the locker room -- though some of the subjects were inappropriate for the values of this organization, and mine frankly.''
Reynolds told the Chronicle that he's interviewing for another job, but that he's not being forced to leave.
"Anyone in professional sports in this position will tell you that if you're not 100 percent into it, you are not going to be effective,'' he said, "and I'm not 100 percent into it anymore.''