Crabtree, 49ers in Negotiations: Reports

Please do not light on fire, wax a car, or wash your dog with that  No. 15 Michael Crabtree 49ers jersey just yet. You might actually find yourself wanting to wear that thing on game day one of these Sundays.

The Press-Democrat's Matt Maiocco is confirming via the Twitter that a meeting did in fact take place Tuesday afternoon between Michael Crabtree and his agent Eugene Parker, and 49ers representatives Jed York, general manager Scot McCloughan, and VP of Football Operations Paraag Marathe.

This confirms an unsourced report on ProFootballTalk.com that Crabtree and the 49ers would finally talk serious turkey Tuesday regarding getting that young man under contract and into a 49er uniform.

This is no guarantee that these discussions will successfully produce a contract signing.

Neither side has indicated any willingness to blink, cave in, or concede their demands by even one American dollar. The 49ers' market-value, tenth pick contract is still what's on the table. Michael Crabtree still thinks his services are worth more than what's being offered.

But something happened in the last few days to kick-start these negotiations. Was it the 49ers' solid start? Did the Yorks devise some additional performance bonuses to bring Crabtree back to the table? Did a tampering charge against the Jets freeze other teams away from reaching out to Crabtree?

These are all possibilities floated by multiple sources. Consider another possibility raised by Ray Ratto in his hilarious assessment of the Crabtree mess in today's Chronicle. Ratto wonders if "the "multiple sources" are as wrong as they have been since the story began in June."

They may or may not be wrong, but something appears to be happening in the Crabtree holdout. ESPN's Adam Schefter even goes so far as to tweet Tuesday morning, "My prediction - it ends today."

Does anybody have Adam Schefter's email address? I want to bet him one used red No. 15 Michael Crabtree 49ers dog-washing sponge that he's wrong.

Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who is sick of looking at Crabtree in that stupid Subway jersey instead of the No. 15 49ers jersey he ought to be wearing right now.

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