Ted Cottrell's agent doesn't agree with Erickson getting hired

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

I don't have a link yet or anything, but I saw a few moments of it on ESPN.

His agent was saying everyone was lying to make it look like they were serious about Cottrell. He said it doesn't make sense to make it look like Cottrell had a chance, and then hire Erickson out of nowhere. Cottrell didn't have anything bad to say, and he thought it was a fair process. He usually tries to be PC though.

I'm not sure of the exact comments, but it was something like that. He wasn't happy I know that.

[Earthquake Enyart]

It sure smelled fishy when they went out of their way to bring Teddy and Blache back twice. You just had to know that they had an old white buddy they wanted to hire.

[justasportsfan]

If GW fails this year, I'll sign any petition to get TED here to be our HC.

[Pride]

The problem with this whole minority hiring/interview thing is, teams like Detroit are honest, and dont waste anyone's time in hiring the coach that they have already decided on. But a team that is unsure who exactly it wants to hire, need to put on a show to make it look like they are following the regs.

Unfortunately, what is happening is the minority coaches are going to continue to get the shaft until someone REALLY wants them as their HC.

You cannot have it both ways. Both ways being the fact that you can hire who you want but you have to give minorites special treatment with interviews.

All that will happen is blacks will keep getting the shaft, and white coaches will keep getting hired.

The Parcells and Mouch hirings didn't bother me, because they were the 2 best candidates, but SF's hiring of Erickson shows that the system isnt working.

[WG]

"Ted Cottrell's agent doesn't agree with Erickson getting hired"

There's a shocker, eh! LOL

I'm sure Cochran isn't too pleased either.

[Earthquake Enyart]

I agree with Pride.

To a certain extent the NFL is doing better with more minority coordinators. I'm surprised that no one has taken the NCAA to task since there are so few minority Div. 1 college HC's. Not counting the "black schools" I think Ty Willingham is the only one, since the Mich. St. guy got fired.

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

I agree that this minority process is a big joke. You shouldn't have to waste your time interviewing coaches you have no intentions of hiring.

They can't make you hire a coach. The only thing they can hope for is that this process makes a team possibly change their minds and a black coach will get hired just from the percentage of interviews alone. You're bound to hit on one sometime or another.

I don't think that there is a problem anyway. An owner/coach is gonna hire who he feels is best for his team. If he's white, black, orange, acqua..., it doesn't really matter.

I wouldn't care if it was Sudamm Hussein's(sp?) nephew, and he wore a big rag on his head everyday. If he could win us a Super Bowl then bring him in.

[Pride]

The 49ers have invited controversy via their public courtship with two black defensive coordinators, Ted Cottrell and Greg Blache, which ended in a surprise, off-the-radar hire of a white college coach. Though we have no reason to think that Dennis Erickson wasn't the best man for the job, the fact that Erickson popped up out of nowhere fuels criticism that the 49ers were simply going through the motions when they interviewed Cottrell and Blache.

Then again, if the 49ers had been more open regarding their discussions with Erickson, they likely would have attracted a high degree of external pressure to hire Cottrell or Blache, especially in light of the Lions' very recent failure to comply with the rules.

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[Fatwhite02]

The minority guidlines are a mistake. If your looking for a head coach, you take the best available coach that fits the system with the players you already have. While San Francisco is a mystery hiring, Erickson has more experience with the west coast system, and besides Erickson is just going to be a puppet......the real head coach is bill walsh

[Pride]

I agree Fatwhite02, and welcome to the boards!

[Earthquake Enyart]

I don't think that the guidelines are a mistake. At least some of these guys are getting practice interviews, even if all they are getting is lip service. And there are more minority coordinators, so the talent pool is getting bigger. The NFL is doing their job, albeit slowly. The NCAA is not.

[Dozerdog]

I just listened to a radio interview with Cotrell's agent.


1) He felt Cottrell's interview process was more than fair. Cottrell talked to both the GM (Donahue) and the 49er owner face to face and extensively.

2) He never made public statements about any unfair treatment or negative remarks about the 49ers organization

3) When asked by the press, he sait that he only had 1 question to ask the 49 er organization. Why were Cottrell, Neuheisel, and Blache the only coaches publicly paraded to the media when 6-7 other college coaches were all approached through back door channels?

In the Agent's mind, Donahue (former HC of UCLA) made his mind up that he wanted a college coach from the get go. The 49ers assert that to "protect" the schools involved, they did not want make any ovatures to college coaches public. This is a very important week for recruiting and the 49ers didn't want recruits to pick different schools if rumors about a coach leaving for the 49er job surfaced.

According to the agent, Cottrell was the 1st choice- "if" the college coaches fell through. 8 college coaches were contacted- 6 refused. Neuheisel was the only one to go public when his side made it known he was in the running.

The Agent's big beef is thatthe 49ers made it look like he was one of the top choices, when in effect he was choice #8

The Agent also was emphatic that this was not an issue of Black/White.