Jed York was back in the public eye on Tuesday, showing up at the NFL owners meeting in New York for the first time since his arrest in late August.
USA Today reporter Chris Bumbaca posted video of the San Francisco 49ers owner moving through the lobby and heading into the first day of the league’s two-day meetings in Manhattan. It came eight weeks and one day after York’s arrest became public on Aug. 23, when he was taken in a prostitution sting operation near his Ohio hometown.
York later pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges in court on Aug. 24. He was ordered to pay $1,150 in fines and received one day in jail for each charge, with the sentences served concurrently.
His return to an owners meeting also marked a clear step back into league business after he missed the one-day session in Atlanta on Aug. 26, just three days after the arrest. At that meeting, 49ers CEO Al Guido stood in for York as owners gathered mostly to approve the sale of the Seahawks to the Khosla family.
York had already been away from the team for the first three weeks of the NFL season, even before the league formally suspended him. When the NFL announced that suspension on Oct. 2, it credited him for those missed games, trimming the length of the punishment.
One part of the timeline remains murky. An ESPN report said York still traveled all the way to Melbourne, Australia, ahead of the 49ers’ Week 1 game there against the Rams, though he did not attend the game.
San Francisco Standard columnist Tim Kawakami said York was expected to “immediately be back in charge--publicly and privately--as soon as his suspension ended.” Kawakami also believes Tuesday’s appearance means York will be in Atlanta on Sunday, when the Niners face the Falcons.
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Thats where the latest outside chatter comes in. NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky floated the idea that the 49ers might even consider an NBA-style load-management approach, a suggestion that would have sounded far-fetched in September but feels more relevant now given the length of the injury list. With Nick Bosa and Deebo Samuel among the players already dealing with injuries, the question is no longer just how good San Francisco is, but how long it can keep this version of itself on the field. [Read more 🡒]