Foot in Mouth : Mayor Criticizes Grbac, Then Backpedals

Elvis Grbac, distressed by the recent surgery of his nine-month-old son and unable to lead San Francisco past Dallas in relief of Steve Young on Sunday, has one 49er fan particularly peeved.

The mayor of San Francisco.

“This guy Grbac is an embarrassment to humankind,” Mayor Willie Brown said Tuesday.

Good thing the Cowboys didn’t intercept one of Grbac’s passes in overtime and return it for a touchdown--no telling what His Honor might have said.

Most disappointed 49er supporters surely considered Elvis nothing more than a hound dog in comparison to Young after his miscues contributed to a 20-17 overtime defeat, but Brown sounded like an irate fan checked into the Heartbreak Hotel.

“Well, I’m trying to get the French to invest in a new quarterback,” Brown told reporters via teleconference from Paris, after someone jokingly had asked whether the French would invest in a new stadium for the 49ers.

After putting down Grbac more harshly than the most cynical Bay Area sportswriter, a reporter wondered if Brown was being too critical.

“After that interception and that bonehead intellectual breakdown in the last game against Dallas, and we lost it, 20-17, he can’t play in any stadium that I’m gonna assist to be built.”

Grbac, who is of voting age and who is expected to start in place of Young this week against Baltimore, told San Francisco radio station KGO-AM that Brown’s criticism was “off-the-wall.”

“I don’t understand how he can really criticize what we do on the field,” Grbac said. “The only people I can get criticism from are my coaches and the guys that I play with.”

Grbac, who had a pair of passes intercepted Sunday, including one that allowed the Cowboys to tie the game and send it into overtime, explained later that he had not been prepared to play because of concern for son, Jack.

Grbac revealed that his child, who suffers from spina bifida, had undergone surgery recently to release pressure on his spinal column.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on in my life right now and No. 1 is my family,” Grbac had said Monday. “There’s other things more important than football at times.”

Reporters had to check with Brown again to see if he concurred.

Brown, who is in Paris for the remainder of the week to complete a sister-city deal, said he had been unaware of Grbac’s family situation and would like to retract his earlier comments, “if in fact he had a legitimate reason for not being able to play up to par.”

If not, then he apparently remained an “embarrassment to humankind.”

“He probably should not have been on the field,” Brown said, in moving from his role as critic to coach. “I share his view. I have two grandkids and I have three children and nothing would be more important to me than the health of my children.”

Brown later issued a formal apology.

“I’m sorry frankly that Elvis went through that,” Brown said. “I’m sorry that I caused Elvis any pain. I don’t know whether or not he will accept the apology or whether or not he will forgive me, but I hope he will. I’m going to say a prayer for his son.”

A San Francisco city hall spokesman said numerous fans had called to express their displeasure with Brown’s first set of remarks, although Carmen Policy, 49er team president, opted not to fire back.

Policy said that while “it came as a total shock to me,” he would write it off to Brown’s failed attempt at humor.

“I judge him by what’s really in his heart and his head instead of what’s flowing off his lip,” said Policy, who has solicited the city’s help in building a new stadium for the 49ers. “Sometimes he gets carried away, especially when he goes on a subject that’s not about government or politics.”