San Francisco 49ers Should Give Daunte Culpepper a Try

In a contrast of quarterbacks, New England Patriot Tom Brady and San Francisco 49er Alex Smith, you can see how easily an NFL career can be sidetracked and/or ended.

I like Alex Smith and believe that four offensive coordinators with somewhat different systems in four years were too much for this great role model of a kid.

If, as is being reported today, his shoulder injury is season ending, it is a tragedy for this young man, and it could perhaps end his NFL career, if his shoulder cannot be repaired, and if he doesn’t get another shot with another team.

As I said in another column, I'd like General Manager Scot McCloughan to tell the 'Niner faithful why he bought out Smith's remaining two years for what Nancy Gay of the San Francisco Chronicle said was $12.5 million.

As I also said in that Aug. 20 column, how did the front office master this potential disaster? For that, we'll go to a report from ESPN, which quoted McCloughan inexplicably contradicting himself:

"It just shows that we believe in him to be our guy," McCloughan said about Smith's contract extension in February. "He and Shaun are going to go out there and compete, and the winner of that is going to be a good quarterback for us."

Even if Smith were not injured, McCloughan’s contradictory statement shows that the York Family Circus is fast at work, ruining this franchise.

The 49ers should look into signing Daunte Culpepper, whom I still believe can play. I'm not saying he should start, but he's worth looking into for that potential, in case J.T. O'Sullivan doesn't do well or is injured—and the same for Shaun Hill.

As for Brady, he wasn’t able to achieve last year what Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana did: win four Super Bowls out of four tries. It’s a shame for the game that this class act was injured, although I don’t agree that it was a dirty play.

Hopefully, both Smith and Brady will return to the game, and I hope Smith’s career can take off. He deserves it.