When the PR guy causes the crisis

Who’s going to manage the PR crisis for the San Francisco 49ers, since the team’s public relations director, Kirk Reynolds, is the one who caused the mayhem? Reynolds was the mastermind behind a “media training video,” supposedly meant for team members, that included racist depictions of locals (including a mock interview conducted in Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office) and topless models doing a group hug with the PR director himself.

The video was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle in early June (for the prurient, here’s the link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/01/MNdisclaimer01.DTL). Reynolds, who apparently resigned from his post a few days before the Chronicle story ran, told the paper that he intended the video to grab players’ attention by poking fun at stereotypes—and said the video was intended for a private audience.

“Did I push it too far? I did,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t make this for public consumption. The ideas of the tape are appropriate for the locker room, though some of the subjects were inappropriate for the values of this organization, and mine frankly.”