We mentioned a couple of weeks ago concerns regarding the use of web sites and other media for one-sided, over-the-top criticism of agents, since rivals agents inevitably will use those criticisms as ammunition in the endless quest to land clients.
That said, we’ve got no problem with measured, even-handed criticism when justified by the circumstances.
And, in the case of the Michael Crabtree contract, some specific criticism of agent Eugene Parker is justified based on the events that transpired earlier today.
We’ve jointly blamed Crabtree and Parker for the holdout about nothing, which resulted in a contract that was roughly similar if not identical to the deal they would have gotten in July. We haven’t specifically blamed one or the other because it’s still not known whether the player or the agent (or someone else) caused the problem.
Regardless, Parker needed to attend Wednesday’s press conference with Crabtree. But Parker inexplicably didn’t.
Matt Maiocco of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat summed the situation up capably with this entry on his Twitter page: “Still having difficult time believing agent Eugene Parker hid out today while sending his 22-yr-old client to face the barrage of questions.”
Parker has remained silent throughout this entire ordeal. And he’ll likely remain silent. Still, we’d love to know why he didn’t face the music along with Crabtree.