Trent Baalke:
Here are some key quotes from general manager Trent Baalke’s media session in announcing McDonald’s release:
“After the recent allegations concerning Ray McDonald, we as an organization have notified him and his agent that he will be terminated, released effective immediately”
”While this organization has a strong belief in due process and has demonstrated that over time, Ray has demonstrated a pattern of poor decision making that has led to multiple distractions that really can no longer be tolerated.”
“This isn’t about one incident, this is about a pattern. If this was one incident, we’d be standing up here talking about due process like we have multiple times.”
“This is just a pattern of decision making that Ray has demonstrated over a period time that is no longer going to be tolerated.”
“Ray and I had multiple conversations since the latest allegations and put together some criteria we felt he needed to do in order to stay in good standing, and with these latest allegations it was just one more situation that we just weren’t willing to deal with anymore.”
”We’re a big part of this community and we expect a lot from our players For the most part they live up to those expectations and in certain instances they don’t, and when they don’t you try to deal with it and help them the best you can.”
“Sometimes we have been judged to maybe give them too much leeway. I think that’s a little bit harsh but at the same time I understand that.”
“This is a situation we can all learn from.”
“The expectations here are no different than they have been in the past.”
Regarding a TMZ report about McDonald and Brandon Lloyd breaking up an argument at a Menlo Park hotel two weeks ago late at night:
“We were aware of that incident, we certainly took a look at that. That was more than stepping in, defending in that situation. It all adds up, I’ll leave it at that.”
Did you talk to the league office in making this move? “We’ve had no conversations with the league office concerning that.”
“No communication other than (notifying the league of the transaction).
“This is a team decision, this is not a league decision.”
“This isn’t about guilt or innocence in this specific situation, because we do believe in due process. This is about a pattern of poor decision making.”
McDonald was “extremely disappointed. For the most part he has been a tremendous asset to this organization and this community.
He has made some poor decisions, he’s aware of that and this is a case of being accountable for these poor decisions.”
The bolded are what stuck out to me. Sounds like they had agreements in place about not getting in trouble and he got in trouble again.
