Criticism of Arizona Cardinals ownership is hardly a new thing, but obviously a source of tension when it comes from the coach’s son. From the East Valley Tribune’s Darren Urban.

The son had something to say. The father disagreed. Jeremy Green, the son of Cardinals coach Dennis Green and an NFL analyst for ESPN.com, listed the Cards as one of the teams that hadn™t lived up to expectations in an article this week.

Jeremy Green listed his father™s overhyping of the team as one of the reasons for failed expectations, although he said Dennis Green had to do that in order to sell more tickets. Jeremy™s No. 1 reason for Arizona™s failure? Ownership.

“Owner Bill Bidwell (sic) has to take the brunt of the team™s failure this season,” Jeremy Green wrote. “Despite losing season after season, Bidwell has never blown up the entire organization. It is hard to believe that the Cardinals have a multitude of key people in the organization who have been there for more than 20 years when the franchise has never consistently fielded a winner. The Bidwells love owning a team in the NFL; however, the problem is that winning is not the priority.”

Asked about the statement, Dennis Green, evenkeeled in his answers, said “No, the number one reason is the head coach.

“I am doing my best at it,” he said. “The number one reason we are 2-6 is me, not ownership, not the quarterback, not the offensive line, but me.”

Perhaps the most amazing byproduct of Jake Plummer’s career ressurrection is that teams that snubbed him in the ’97 draft are now characterized as boobs. From the SF Chronicle’s Ira Miller.

With Jake Plummer in town and in first place, and with the 49ers in last place again, here’s an amusing thought to ponder: How might things have been different for pro football around here if the 49ers had chosen Plummer instead of Jim Druckenmiller with their first-round pick in the 1997 draft?

Other than the ownership change from Eddie DeBartolo to his sister, that fateful moment, 3,128 days ago, was the most significant in a litany of errors that took the 49ers from the NFL’s best franchise to its worst.

Bill Walsh, who was in and out of the organization several times, was on his way out again at the time. But the 49ers asked him to evaluate Plummer, and evaluate he did. In his report, Walsh made six references to Joe Montana.

But the 49ers didn’t get the hint. At the urging of Vinny Cerrato, then their personnel director, they drafted Druckenmiller, who proved to be an absolute stiff. Plummer’s early career years were rocky in Arizona, but there is reason to believe that if the 49ers had picked him and he was tutored by Steve Mariucci and Marty Mornhinweg, he probably would have had success much sooner.