The 49ers have enough problems of their own.
So they’re not looking to import someone else’s.
General Manager Trent Baalke made it clear the 49ers weren’t interested in free agent defensive end Greg Hardy, in the kind of specific language you rarely hear from a team.
“There’s been no contact with Greg Hardy or any representative of his,” Baalke said, via Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. “There is no interest that we’ve shown, nor will we show, in bringing Greg Hardy into this program.”
So that’s a no, then.
It’s interesting to hear the contrast, considering the way the 49ers have held onto their own troubled pass-rush star (Aldon Smith), the way they stood by another during a lengthy investigation last year before finally cutting the cord (Ray McDonald) and watched another current player get arrested for spousal abuse (Bruce Miller) while recently signing a fringe free agent with a rap sheet that includes marijuana and DWI charges (Jerome Simpson).
Apparently, “winning with class” is relative to your skill level and/or financial commitment.
“We understand the gravity of where we’re at,” Baalke said, regarding the addition of Simpson. “That’s been well documented over the last six to 12 months. . . .
“Like any player that we bring in, we do our due diligence. We really look into the situation. I think you remember a couple of years back, we brought a player in, Perrish Cox, and it worked out well. Every situation is different, and we felt good about the information we gathered on Jerome. We not only spoke with a lot of people that worked with him, we spoke with people that played with him. And we also brought him in here and met with him for a full day before we made that decision -- very similar to what we did with Perrish.”
The 49ers not being interested in Hardy can be explained away for other reasons — primarily he’s a true 4-3 defensive end who isn’t necessarily a scheme fit. But it’s curious to see a team that’s twisted itself in knots bending over backward for useful players suddenly stand up straight to one with a troubled past.
