Say this for Charles Haley: the man doesn't hold back in conversation any more than he did on the football field. The five-time Super Bowl winner and impending Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee recently spoke to the rookies at 49ers training camp, and delivered some blunt advice. "I know they probably got mad," he said, according to the San Jose Mercury-News, "but I said, ‘Why don’t you all act like the white guys? You never see them in the paper getting high or hitting people. Why don’t you act like that?’ They all looked at me crazy.”
Haley acknowledged that he made the statement "for the shock value," regardless of whether it was actually rooted in truth. (As the Mercury-News noted, fullback Bruce Miller, who is white, had just been charged with misdemeanor vandalism in connection with an argument with his then-fiancee. Miller later pleaded no contest.)
"The hardest thing is these guys, they have an attention span of a 5-year-old," Haley said. "I’m not the most gentle and kind person to sit there and deal with that crap. I’m a little more confrontational. I think I got my point across.”
Haley embodies a do-as-I-say, not-as-I-did approach; he was a legendarily destructive force both on the field and in the locker room. The 49ers grew so tired of his problems that they dealt him in 1992 to then-rival Dallas, and Haley carried anger for that deal for many years afterward. He retired in 1999 after a short reunion with the 49ers.
Worth noting: This isn't the first time someone has acknowledged that young players on the 49ers see the world a bit differently than their predecessors. Last month, the team revealed that it will allow players break times every half-hour to check social media and update their statuses. “I’m thinking, ‘My gosh, we sit in two-hour meetings,'" new 49ers coach Jim Tomsula said at the time. "'You are telling me after 27 minutes no one’s getting anything?'"
Chances are they got Haley's statement regardless of what point it arrived in his lecture. Unfortunately for San Francisco, it's going to take a lot more than Twitter breaks and fiery speeches to make the 49ers a relevant team this season.
