Glen Coffee submits paperwork to retire, Balmer traded to Seahawks

I talked with an acquaintance over the weekend who argued with me that Glen Coffee was not going to retire and would be coming back to the 49ers. His argument was that Coffee could not afford to give up part of his signing bonus back to the 49ers if he retired and would decide just to come back.

My thought through this whole story is that Mike Singletary would not let a player who is not 100% dedicated to football back on the team. I also have some doubts that the 49ers would even go after Coffee for the $600k that he would owe them if he did retire. Based on the circumstances and the way he handled the situation I bet they let him keep the money.

Well, it looks like he has officially retired.

Balmer AWOL from practice, Singletary not happy

As you probably know by now, Kentwan Balmer has been AWOL.  According to the 49ers, he has been dealing with some “personal issues” and his absences had been excused.  Until today….


Singletary asked Balmer to be back at practice today.

"Let me say this… I talked about… I talked to Kentwan and as simple as I can put it, I asked him to be here. He’s not here. Yes he is under contract. And the fact that he’s not here, that speaks to me. What it says, I really don’t know, to him.But to us, all I know is he’s not here. Fine. We’re practicing, we’re doing what we have to do, and we’re going to move forward."

The Mercury News was able to get an interview with Balmer by going and knocking on his door and was able to talk to Balmer about his possible return.

"That’s the plan."

When asked about the personal issues Balmer did not want to discuss them.

"People are making a big deal about of nothing, I feel like the 49ers could do a better job of saying that, but it’s not my place to say."