Next weekend, as the 49ers are preparing to play for a championship, one of the men who helped build them will be plotting their demise.
Former 49ers general manager Scot McCloughan now works for the Seahawks in the scouting department, and will be sitting in a pre-draft personnel meeting next Saturday, trying to figure out a way to get his new team where his old team is.
“There’s no animosity whatsoever,” McCloughan told Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. “It’s the same as last year – I’m pulling for them. I have relationships up and down that organization, from the ownership on down to the players.”
Even the he left the team in 2010, the relationship he has with the team is strong, in part because he was responsible for putting much of it in place. Half the team’s starters (11 of 22) were acquired under his watch, including five of their nine Pro Bowl selections (Dashon Goldson, Frank Gore, Justin Smith, Joe Staley and Patrick Willis).
The team he’s helping build now has a strong base of young talent as well, which will make the NFC West one of the toughest divisions in the league for years to come.