49ers Michael Crabtree accused of sexual assault

Its important to not jump to conclusions when something like this comes up. There are not many details yet to report and nobody knows what really happened. The only thing we do know is that Crabtree is being investigated on an allegation of sexual assault.

Michael Crabtree is a high profile athlete and therefore there is always motive to fabricate a story like this from not so good people. There's also the flip side of that in which any possible victim coming forward would be accused of lying whether they fabricated it or not. Until there are more details to come out nobody knows who is telling the truth.

The details that are known are that the alleged altercation happened at a local hotel in San Francisco in the hours after the 49ers playoff victory against the Packers last Saturday. Crabtree has spoken to investigators from the SFPD Special Victims Unit and has promised to make himsef available again in the future. In the mean time he was not arrested and he was on board for the team's flight to Atlanta for their NFC Championship match-up Sunday against the Falcons.

In the game against the Packers Michael Crabtree had a huge impact with 119 yards and two TD's, putting some icing on his best season of his career where he had 85 catches for over 1100 yards and 9 TD's. This allegation makes that icing not so sweet anymore whether this turns out to be true or not.

Many Raiders fans were upset by Oakland picking Darius Heyward-Bey over Michael Crabtree in the '09 draft. I was one of them for a moment of time although the player I really wanted was BJ Raji. My disappointment lasted for a very short time as Crabtree proceeded to hold out for more money immediately his rookie year and after that I was glad he was not a Raider.

The Raiders passed over Crabtree because they worried about his possible diva attitude. Up until this year neither player had really distanced himself from the other in on field play, but DHB had surpassed Crabtree as a teammate and leader in the clubhouse. DHB wanted to earn his money where Crabtree always seemed like he felt he was entitled to it. Too bad for DHB he definitely fell behind in on field production but at least he hasn't been accused of any crimes.

If these allegations prove to be true the debate will be closed on whether the Raiders made a mistake with drafting DHB over Crabtree with a resounding no. I doubt that Raider fans admitting Crabtree would've been the better choice would make Michael feel any better about his image being forever tainted by a false accusation though if this proves to be a lie.