Here Is How Myths Get Made

This drives me nuts. Grant Cohn of the Santa-Rosa Press Democrat wrote one of the dumbest articles I've read in awhile. I link to it not because I want you to read it, but to prove I'm not lying. Here's how Rotoworld summed up Cohn's article:

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat's Grant Cohn believes the 49ers are internally pulling for Blaine Gabbert to beat out Colin Kaepernick for the team's starting quarterback job.

Well, that doesn't sound great. Rotoworld adds:

Cohn notes the 49ers aren't even publishing pictures of Kaepernick on their website, which Cohn believes is "symbolic" and indicative of the 49ers wanting Kaepernick to "fade into the background, drop off the edge." Cohn believes the 49ers' front office and team are "tired of" Kaepernick and "want Gabbert to be the starting quarterback and the face of the franchise." Cohn goes so far as to suggest the 49ers hope to demote Kaepernick to third string in order to avoid paying his per-game roster bonuses. Although it's still very early in the offseason, Gabbert looks like the tentative favorite to start under new coach Chip Kelly.

Wow! I mean...wow. That's possible, of course (they benched Kaepernick last season, right?) And, there's definitely the possibility that they decide to keep Kap on the pine to avoid re-injury, in the way the Redskins benched RGIII last year. (Of course, that would require Gabbert to play like Kirk Cousins did, but I digress.)

But if you go in and - gasp - read Grant Cohn's article, it's beyond pathetic. I should add for those who don't know, that Cohn is the son of longtime San Francisco sportswriter Lowell Cohn, who is today an animatronic caricature of "Grumpy Old Sportswriter." Grant almost certainly has his job because of his last name, and his articles are really poorly written ... but hey, who am I to judge that? What I do judge is that he has decided Kaepernick is "out of the picture" because he looked through the 49ers publications of their offseason training and saw Kaepernick in only nine of the 600+ photos. I mean, that sounds BAD, right? Certainly..weird.

Except for one key thing - Kaepernick is still not medically cleared to participate in that program. He just started lifting weights and throwing again at the end of this week, I believe. That's a pretty major reason why there wouldn't be a lot of photos to show of Kaepernick, in that he wasn't participating. I believe Grant Cohn would similarly find a lack of photos of, say, Ian Williams, who is injured. Or Glenn Dorsey, also recuperating.

I just went and searched for pictures of Kaepernick at practice and there simply are none out there - not just on the 49ers website, anywhere. This isn't Pravda, there aren't photos because he's not out there yet. Again, this isn't rocket science.

The point is that Grant Cohn is a terrible writer rushing to create a story where there - so far - is none. But when a publication like Rotoworld picks it up, people scan it and read it and to some degree, accept it as truth. That's not the end of the world - it's just sports - but it's pathetic.

Also, Grant Cohn is a twit.