Like uncle, like nephew.
The San Francisco 49ers had a deep list of players on IR, and Jed York was about to be the first front office member to join them. Towards the end of the 49ers’ Week 3 away game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Jimmy Garoppolo took off and tore his ACL. The coaching staff knew immediately what happened and when York knew, he punched a wall hard enough, he thought he broke his wrist.
Jennifer Lee Chan had an interview on the incident where York recounted the moments after Garoppolo went down and everyone feared the worst:
“It was a good punch,” York said. “Unfortunately, it was a stud. You’ve got to find the dry wall. That’s the key. It looks so much better to put a hole through the wall, as opposed to finding the stud.”
When first reading about this incident, memories of the antics of Eddie DeBartolo’s temper flowed into my mind. The former 49ers owner—and York’s uncle—would go insane in key moments. He was documented as wanting to fire then-49ers head coach Bill Walsh after games only to get talked out of it by Carmen Policy several times.
That’s the tame moments. Then there’s moments like this. That link is to the Football Life episode dedicated to Eddie DeBartolo, more specifically, the scenes where they recount his temper. There’s memories of him breaking TVs, throwing cans at George Seifert in rage, you name it.
As far as York’s injury and finding the dry wall as opposed to the stud, he’s not kidding. When I first moved to the Seattle area upon finishing college, I found myself moving into an old house in Bellevue that was falling apart. The lease even said the owner was planning on demolishing the building in a year, so everything was as-is. My roommates took this as an invitation to destruction and partied things up, further bringing the house into ruin. It was after parties when things would go bad. If enraged, my roommates would spend five minutes, tap, tap, tapping their fist to find a good piece of drywall and then sock it hard, leaving a huge hole. You’d think this caution would settle you down before destroying a piece of the house, but they went and punched holes anyways. I had a collection of those game spreads from Nintendo Power stowed away from my time in the University of Idaho dorms and would use those to patch up the wall to make the place look presentable. Well, as presentable as it could be. It was a bit off walking into a living room and seeing a Super Metroid poster as decor.
Needless to say, I got the hell out of there as soon as I could. It also was the last time I would ever take roommates.
About the Author: Insidethe49
