Washed-Up Rapper Doesn't Help Hammer Out Crabtree Deal

There have been quite a few bizarre developments in the Michael Crabtree contract holdout, but you can't touch this one.

MC Hammer, the Oakland-born rapper who has switched his name to "Hammer" since people stopped buying his records, played a mediation role with the 49ers and Crabtree once negotiations got serious Tuesday. Hammer is close with Crabtree's agent Eugene Parker, and lived with Crabtree's mentor Deion Sanders during Sanders' tenure as a 49er.

An astonished Matt Maiocco of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat had been staking out the negotiations, and tweeted Tuesday evening, "The guy with York and Crabtree, whom I thought looked a lot like MC Hammer . . . might actually have been MC Hammer."

As negotiations dragged into early Wednesday morning, Maiocco nailed a confirmation of this fantastically important development. "Yes, that was definitely Hammer," Maiocco confirmed via his Twitter.

So Michael Crabtree's holdout somehow drew in Deion Sanders, and now MC Hammer.

"Where does Kevin Bacon fit into all this?," Maiocco asked when interviewed on KNBR.

49ers general manager Scot Mcloughan acknowledged Hammer's involvement at a Wednesday press conference to announce the signing -- but said he wasn't involved in negotiations. Mcloughan was asked about the Hammer sightings, and told the San Jose Mercury News, "He was a mutual acquaintance. You know, he knows Eugene and Deion."

You have to wonder what was going through Scot Mcloughan's mind when he was negotiating a $32 million contract with the guy from the Cash4Gold commercials in the room.

It's been a tough ten weeks for 49er fans to endure Michael Crabtree's lengthy holdout. But it's over. Now Crabtree is in a 49ers' uniform, working with the team, and it's Hammertime.

Joe Kukura is a freelance writer whose style guide is unclear on the use of the numeral 2 in place of the preposition "to."

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