McCloughan Out

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 49ers have bagged General Manager Scott McCloughan.

McCloughan, along with Mike Nolan, led the 49ers from the woeful years under Dennis Erickson to a brave new woe with themselves in charge. The difference was that everyone knows Erickson is a bad coach and it was that 2-and-never mind year that convinced owner John York that he was as bad an owner as Erickson was a coach.

So he went out and hired 49ers legacy Nolan to coach and make bad decisions, then hired Raiders legacy McCloughan to follow suit. With York on "I didn't do it" auto pilot, McCloughan over his head in the front office and crisply-suited, iron-jawed Nolan asleep at the wheel every Sunday, the 49ers efficiently destroyed the bodies of three high-priced quarterbacks in only two years.

York, to his minimal credit, installed his twelve-year-old son as President. To his great credit, young Jed found himself under the spell of assistant coach Mike Singletary, whose defense was the only happiness for the patient 49er Faithful. As soon as was convenient, Jed York axed handsome coach / butt-ugly record'ed Nolan. Singletary was made Head Coach.

The 49ers are now pushing forward, like a guy paralyzed from the waist down because he was a quarterback under Nolan, but making real progress with physical therapy and a Hanes-ful of courage. But one more thing was needed.

That's right—a good football mind on draft day. So the 'Niners, looking to recapture a shred of dignity (let alone the glory of the 80s), sent Scott McLoser down the line. And it's telling why—
"longstanding personal issues." I'm guessing it's a longstanding personal issue between the profoundly ineffective GM and the I'm-in-charge-now Kid down the hall in the big chair.

Time will tell if Jed York is the stuff of NFL executive excellence. (Leading Opinion is betting on him.) But for McCloughan, it's a simple "good riddance."