April 1 sucks.
The first day of the fourth month of the year is well known for the perpetration of deliberate falsehoods. But there’s an ethic to the process. Apart from the question of whether the lies are actually humorous (ideally, they all would be) is the notion that the lies should be relatively obvious.
Too many of this year’s NFL-related April Fool’s Day jokes aren’t as obvious as they should be, either because they’re too plausible or because they deal with players or issues or whatever that aren’t that relevant. Which is making it extra hard to discern joke from reality.
Case in point: retired 49ers tackle Anthony Davis said this via Twitter: “I’ll be filing for reinstatement to the NFL later this year. Dealing with Trent is giving me a headache.”
It’s already been widely reported that Davis will return to football after a year off. And time is of the essence when it comes to a return, given that the offseason program launches on Monday.
The “Trent” in the tweet likely is G.M. Trent Baalke, who may not be inclined to refund to Davis the bonus money he surrendered to the 49ers upon retirement. As PFT reported in February, Davis paid back the bonus money applicable to 2015. Since his contract tolled for a year while he retired, Davis may think he should get the money back and pick up his career right where it left off.
And Baalke may not be willing to do that.
Alternatively, Davis may be angling for an outright release, so that he can continue his career for a team that doesn’t run an offense that mandates plenty of in-game running from offensive linemen via coach Chip Kelly’s up-tempo style.
Whatever it all means, it would be a lot easier to decipher if the calendar showed any day other than April 1.