J.R.
6-02-05, 12:20 AM
San Francisco mayor, 49ers owners offended by "training" video
By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
An in-house video meant to prepare 49ers players for dealing with the media backfired on the NFL team Wednesday after it was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The 15-minute film, featuring racist jokes, lesbian soft-porn and topless blondes, features the team's public relations director, Kirk Reynolds, impersonating San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the mayor's office and other city scenes.
Now the mayor and the city's gay leaders are outraged, the team's owners are embarrassed and Reynolds is officially looking for another job. The Chronicle described the film and published an image showing Reynolds with the half-naked women under a screaming headline on Wednesday.
Reynolds said he made the video to coach players on handling media questions in diverse San Francisco ? and never meant it for public consumption.
"Did I push it too far? I did," Reynolds told the Chronicle. "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."
The video was shown to players last August during training camp in Santa Clara where it was part of a diversity workshop. General Manager Terry Donahue showed a snippet to team owner John York in January, just one day before he was fired, and sent a copy to York at York's request in March. Team lawyer Ed Goines got the tape about three weeks ago, the Chronicle reported.
Team owners Denise and John York on Wednesday called the video offensive, inexcusable and "absolutely contradictory to the ideals and values of the San Francisco 49ers."
Entire article: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/01/sports/s163636D52.DTL
By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
An in-house video meant to prepare 49ers players for dealing with the media backfired on the NFL team Wednesday after it was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The 15-minute film, featuring racist jokes, lesbian soft-porn and topless blondes, features the team's public relations director, Kirk Reynolds, impersonating San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the mayor's office and other city scenes.
Now the mayor and the city's gay leaders are outraged, the team's owners are embarrassed and Reynolds is officially looking for another job. The Chronicle described the film and published an image showing Reynolds with the half-naked women under a screaming headline on Wednesday.
Reynolds said he made the video to coach players on handling media questions in diverse San Francisco ? and never meant it for public consumption.
"Did I push it too far? I did," Reynolds told the Chronicle. "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."
The video was shown to players last August during training camp in Santa Clara where it was part of a diversity workshop. General Manager Terry Donahue showed a snippet to team owner John York in January, just one day before he was fired, and sent a copy to York at York's request in March. Team lawyer Ed Goines got the tape about three weeks ago, the Chronicle reported.
Team owners Denise and John York on Wednesday called the video offensive, inexcusable and "absolutely contradictory to the ideals and values of the San Francisco 49ers."
Entire article: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/01/sports/s163636D52.DTL