San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree, shown warming up before the NFC divisional round playoff game against the Green Bay Packers at Candlestick Park, has a torn Achilles.(Photo: Cary Edmondson, USA TODAY Sports)

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree suffered a torn Achilles tendon during organized team activities Tuesday and has undergone surgery, the team announced Wednesday after a report by USA TODAY Sports revealed the injury.

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49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said Wednesday that Crabtree is not expected to miss the entire season.

The injury used to be an automatic season-ender but has since become one that can sometimes be rehabbed in a matter of months — as Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Da’Quan Bowers did last year.

Both players tore the tendon in the spring and returned to the field after starting the year on the physically unable to perform list.

Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas can empathize with Crabtree. Thomas tore his Achilles’ tendon while training in February 2011, just after his rookie season.

Thomas had surgery and was cleared to practice about seven months later, after missing all of Denver’s offseason workouts and training camp. He didn’t play until October 2011 (in part because of a broken finger suffered after returning to practice), but said it took until last summer to feel fully recovered.

“He’s a great player and I’m sure he’s going to work hard to get back and listen to all the people that he’s got to listen to,” Thomas said Wednesday. “But it’s difficult at first, because it took a while for me to be able to do anything. You know, I had to wear a boot for six to eight weeks, and I couldn’t do anything but upper body stuff. Once I got it off, I still had to take time, because it’s a serious injury, and you don’t want to take it too fast.”

Crabtree, 25, is coming off a breakout season in which he had career-highs in receptions (85), yards (1,105) and touchdowns (nine), following three seasons in which he struggled to live up to the expectations placed upon him when the Niners selected him 10^th overall in 2009.

The injury to Crabtree comes at an unfortunate point in his career and for the 49ers, though the team has been working to build depth on offense. Perhaps the Niners would consider bringing back Randy Moss, who hasn’t yet retired and tweeted in March he “wished we could’ve finished the job!!”

In March, the Niners picked up receiver Anquan Boldin in a trade with the Ravens, sending Baltimore a sixth-round draft pick.

Crabtree did all he could to help the Niners win a title. He had a huge postseason – 20 catches for 285 yards and three touchdowns, with one of those touchdowns coming in the Super Bowl. But the 49ers needed one more score from him to beat the Baltimore Ravens as time was running out and were unable to get it.

Crabtree, who had a 24-yard catch to move the ball into Ravens territory, was the intended receiver on a quick rollout pass on third-and-goal and a fade on fourth-and-goal that sailed over his head as he was defended by Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith. Niners coach Jim Harbaugh wanted a pass-interference call on both plays but was denied by the officials.

Contributing: Lindsay H. Jones

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Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher on Wednesday announced his retirement after 13 years with the team, acknowledging that if his passion to play would not be up to his standards if he returned for another season.(Photo: Rob Grabowski, USA TODAY Sports)

I wonder whether Brian Urlacher would have announced his retirement on Wednesday had, say, six teams lined up outside his door waving $10 million contracts.

That might have made the decision to walk away after 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears a lot tougher.

It wasn’t the case, so the cold and cruel NFL marketplace dropped quite a hint.

But Urlacher knew.

And the middle linebacker acknowledged it when he said his passion for playing likely would not have been up to his standards had he returned for another season.

Process that. Passion.

In NFL terms, that includes nursing aching bones and muscles, and typically taking needles to numb the pain. Maybe some headaches, too. Then do it again next week.

The money’s a great motivator, but for players it’s always deeper than that.

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Kudos to Urlacher, three days shy of turning 35, for pointing that out as he joins Ronde Barber and David Garrard among the recently retired from the NFL ranks. Another factor for Urlacher might have been the realization that physically, he’s not the player he was.

Garrard, 35, seemed to still have the passion, but not the essential left knee that kept swelling up as the quarterback attempted a comeback with the New York Jets. The knee was his hint.

Big props to Garrard for knowing when to say when. Many don’t.

Barber, who lasted 16 seasons as a defensive back and played 240 consecutive games, probably could have been lured back to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – if only coach Greg Schiano would have told him that he needed him for a starting role in the secondary.

Barber, 38, got the hint.

Regardless of the hints, the marketplace, the health of their bodies or their financial portfolios, retiring is not an easy, automatic process.

These men have played football since they were kids.

There’s a psychology to hanging up the cleats that should not be overlooked as the replays keep alive those big moments over the years.

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Ask Terrell Owens, 39, still hoping to come back.

“When they leave the game, it’s a loss,” says Gregg Steinberg, a Tennessee-based sports psychologist whose clients have included NFL players. “You have to grieve.”

In that sense, it’s probably not over yet for Urlacher, Barber and Garrard. Although Urlacher and Barber seem to be prime candidates for TV jobs and Garrard is contemplating joining the Jets as a camp tutor for rookie Geno Smith, the withdrawal from football can be a beast – emotionally, financially and physically.

Steinberg believes the Kubler-Ross theory – built on five stages of grief – that counselors apply to people who have endured various losses can also be relevant to football players crossing the bridge to retirement.

The five stages, which can be experienced in no particular order: Denial. Anger. Depression. Negotiation. Acceptance.

“The problem is, a lot of people get stuck in stages,” Steinberg says.

His advice to retiring NFL players?

“Be aware that you could become stuck in these stages,” he said. “Especially negotiation and acceptance. You’re worthy, besides football.”

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Steinberg has never met Owens, once arguably the NFL’s most complete receiver – whose talent was often overshadowed by controversy wrapped in boorish or silly behavior. Some of Owens’ financial issues, including child-support payments and heavy investment losses, also have become public.

He’s talked of wanting another crack at the NFL, where teams are more likely to invest in younger, developing talent over players past their prime.

He’s hardly the first to resist retirement, perhaps lured by the pay. Barber’s twin brother, Tiki, attempted a comeback after five years in retirement, but found no takers.

Maybe Owens is in denial?

“It might be there’s a love for the game that he doesn’t want to let go of, and he believes that he’s still able to contribute,” Steinberg said. “But at the same time, you have to let it go.

“If you’re wise, you’re doing the transition mentally while you’re still playing and you know there’s life after football.”

And hopefully, they’ll all discover that they don’t need football as much as they used to.

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Mike Goodson pleaded not guilty to gun and drug charges in a Morristown, N.J. court on Wednesday.(Photo: Bob Leverone, AP)

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — New York Jets running back Mike Goodson “was incoherent, slobbering and had vomited all over himself as well as the interior of the vehicle,” when he was arrested early Friday morning, New Jersey State Trooper Carlos Mesa said in an affidavit seen by USA TODAY Sports.

Goodson appeared in court Wednesday to plead not guilty to gun and drug charges in connection to the arrest.

Police said they found a baggie of marijuana in Goodson’s pants pocket, and a loaded, .45-caliber Taurus Millennium handgun and drug paraphernalia in the car, which driver Garant Evans, 31, of Roselle, N.J., consented to have searched.

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Mesa said that when he found the car stopped on Interstate 80 in Denville, N.J., he went to speak to Evans and smelled burnt marijuana and alcohol coming from the vehicle. Mesa said he saw Goodson, 25, in the front seat.

Goodson, of Spring, Texas, was taken to a hospital as a precaution after Friday’s incident because of his level of intoxication, authorities said.

Police were alerted to the vehicle by a tow truck operator, who reported the vehicle stopped in the left center lane of the interstate around 3 a.m., police said.

The loaded, .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun contained 4 Speer rounds and one Winchester hollow point bullet, according to a criminal complaint.

Criminal complaints also said that police found two partially smoked marijuana cigars and drug paraphernalia that included four empty plastic baggies and one Dutchmaster pack containing the two cigars.

Goodson was able to post $50,000 bail and appeared Wednesday, neatly attired in a suit, at a processing hearing in state Superior Court.

Evans remained incarcerated Wednesday on $75,000 bail, Morris County Sheriff Edward Rochford said.

Defense lawyer Anthony Fusco said Goodson is still a Jets player and is fully cooperating with inquiries by the NFL and Jets. On Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings in Boston, Jets owner Woody Johnson said the club was still collecting “facts” about the case before determining Goodson’s status. Johnson said Goodson had met with Jets general manager John Idzik.

“He has not been disciplined or anything like that by the team,” Fusco said before the hearing. “The gun charge is serious but we have reason to believe the gun is not his. We firmly believe the gun charge is not going to last against Mike.”

Fusco said that Goodson would next appear in Superior Court on June 12th.

Bail on Evans was reduced from the initial $150,000 to $75,000 on Tuesday by a Superior Court judge. According to court records, Evans is not permitted to have a weapon because he previously was convicted in Union County for possession of drugs with intent to distribute.

Fusco said Goodson met Evans about three weeks ago.

Goodson, who signed a three-year, $6.9 million deal with the Jets this off-season, did not speak to reporters under the advice of his attorney, who answered questions for him.

“He’s upset,” Fusco said. “It’s something he didn’t want to ever happen. Mike has no record whatsoever. He feels that he has been and will continue to cooperate with the New York Jets and the NFL.”

Goodson faces five charges: drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a loaded gun, unlawful possession of a handgun and possession of hollow-point bullets.

When asked about the drugs, Fusco said: “We don’t smoke cigars, marijuana or otherwise.”

The lawyer advised Jets fans to “just hold on” as details in the case emerge.

“We’re just getting into the case, but you can see, the way he looks, he’s just a hell of a nice guy,” Fusco said. “If you get a chance to talk to him later on, not today, you’ll see what a nice guy he is. I think that’s going to be very important.”

Wright is a reporter for the (Morris County) Daily Record, a Gannett property.

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Levi’s Brand President James Curleigh, Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh, San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York, Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee stand near a model of the 49ers’ new NFL football stadium.(Photo: Karl Mondon, AP)

BOSTON — NFL owners will meet Tuesday to discuss issues involving the league, including player safety.

Stephen Jones says there will be another pressing issue on the agenda: the increasing problem of getting NFL fans off the couch, away from their high-definition TVs and back into stadium seats.

“Everybody always says we have to watch concussions and all of that, and that’s at the forefront. But I’d say 1-A is this,” the Dallas Cowboys’ executive vice president and chief operating officer told USA TODAY Sports on Monday.

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“We don’t ever want to take for granted our fans, and with the technology out there … the flat screens, the laptops, the iPhones. I’ve got young kids, and they’ve got a lot of options. If we’re not innovative, we’re going to have issues.”

The league is expected to award Super Bowl L to the Bay Area, and with that announcement there will be plenty of discussion about the innovations the San Francisco 49ers will roll out at Levi’s Stadium, which opens in Santa Clara in 2014: Wi-Fi, tablet holders on seats, Internet Protocol television (IPTV), with in-house video and easy access via public transportation.

These innovations also will be presented to owners who built new stadiums at the turn of the millennium. Those facilities were constructed to move away from the multipurpose stadiums to football-only stadiums with luxury suites. Now, the challenge is adapting to reach the new breed of stay-at-home fan. Wi-Fi will be a major topic, according to several owners who have begun to explore the possibility.

“That’s a technological challenge, to get that many people streaming video in a stadium,” said New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who has shared MetLife Stadium with the New York Giants since it opened in 2010 and knows it already will need tinkering. “I’ve heard you could have a little transmitter at each seat, but that wouldn’t work, either. It’s not a question of money. It’s a question of know-how.”

Do experts truly know how?

“They say they can do it, but let’s see them do it,” Johnson said.

Baltimore Ravens President Dick Cass said soon 85% of the fans at MT Bank Stadium will have full 4G capability. Wi-Fi, though, is at least a year away in Baltimore.

“It’s what our fans want,” said Cass, who, like Jones, is a member of a league committee called the Fan Experience Working Club group. “They want the ability to take out their tablet, send a Facebook picture and check the fantasy football scores, so we have to provide that.”

To keep selling tickets, the NFL has mandated changes that include:

– Cameras in the locker room to show edited content to fans inside the stadium.

– Replays after all scoring plays, turnovers, fumbles, challenged plays, first downs and receptions when the receiver ends up out of bounds, with the best camera angles available.

– More audio before each play (than rules previously allowed) and unlimited video to stir the crowd.

Jones, whose Cowboys already show locker-room footage in Cowboys Stadium, said further advancements are being explored, such as microphones on the players and officials to provide audio exclusively to in-stadium fans.

“You’ve got to be careful, because you want them to be football players and play how they play,” Jones said. “But if fans want to watch Ray Lewis and what he’s saying and doing, they don’t need it all, but they could use some fun stuff.”

No one is mocking the Cowboys’ decision to put 160-foot-wide, 72-foot-tall, punt-blocking video boards above the field anymore. And the idea of vibrating “rumble seats” in the Atlanta Falcons’ stadium proposals doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

Meanwhile, the Houston Texans, hoping to be awarded Super Bowl LI, will boast video screens roughly 30% larger than the Cowboys’, currently the largest in the NFL.

“Everything’s bigger in Texas,” Jones said. “You always want people aiming to do better.”

Contributing: Jarrett Bell

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Miguel Cabrera leads the majors in batting average (.387) and RBI (47) and is one home run shy of the AL leaders.(Photo: Tim Heitman, USA TODAY Sports)

It’s probably foolish, if not absurd, to draw comparisons to Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera.

Cabrera, after all, is the greatest player in the game of baseball.

The last time we’ve seen greatness like this is from one of the greatest three players to ever step on a baseball field, and certainly the finest of his generation:

Barry Bonds.

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“He’s definitely the best,” Bonds told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview Monday. “It’s not rocket science here.

“He’s the best. By far. Without a doubt. The absolute best.”

Bonds, as you might imagine, was aware of Cabrera’s performance a night earlier, when he slugged three home runs against the Texas Rangers to announce, on national television, that his Triple Crown performance in 2012 might have been a mere prelude.

Now, it’s certainly premature, Bonds says, to dare imply Cabrera is as good as him. You can’t make that argument, not with a record 762 homers, seven MVP awards, 14 All-Star appearances and eight Gold Gloves on Bonds’ resume.

“I don’t try to compare me to anybody,” Bonds said. “I was the best on the field. I did more things than he did. My game was different than his game. So comparing him, to me, there’s no comparison.

“He doesn’t have my MVPs. He doesn’t have my numbers. Well, not yet, anyways.

“But does he have that ability? Yes, he does.

“Does he have that gift? Yes, he does.”

Cabrera broke into the big leagues in 2003 when Bonds was winning his sixth MVP award. He’s still just 30 years old. He leads Bonds in every Triple Crown category at the same age, hitting .320 with 332 homers and 1,170 RBI. Bonds had a career .285 batting average with 259 homers and 760 RBI at the same age.

Cabrera’s numbers are eerily similar to Aaron’s at the same age. Cabrera, playing 43 more games, has the identical batting average as Aaron, with 10 fewer homers and 49 more RBI.

It was Bonds who surpassed Aaron atop baseball’s all-time home run list. He won’t be surprised if Cabrera joins him near that summit.

“I love that young kid, I really do,” Bonds said. “If he can stay healthy, and keep accomplishing what he has already, he’s got a chance to have everything I did.

“If he gets there, and has the kind of career I did, hey, I’ll be the first to say:

“Now, you got it all, brother, you got it all.”’

Time will tell if Cabrera will play this game at this same level for another decade, while Bonds simply got better.

He hit a record 73 homers in 2001 at the age of 37, amid allegations that he used performance-enhancing drug at the time, which he has denied. A federal jury acquitted Bonds on three counts he committed perjury in 2003 grand jury testimony regarding steroid use; Bonds’ appeal of a felony conviction of obstruction of justice is still pending.

Weeks before Bonds’ testimony, Cabrera, then 20, helped the Marlins win the 2003 World Series, the first season baseball tested players for performance-enhancing drugs.

That policy has been strengthened considerably in subsequent years, with penalties instituted in 2004, and Cabrera has never run afoul of it. As a result, his body of work should withstand scrutiny far better than players of Bonds’ era, who have been penalized by Hall of Fame voters.

“Miguel will be in that 500-home run category,” Bonds said. “He will have those 3,000 hits. I’ve never seen a young player love the game like he does. You see that passion.

“Unless this guy has some fluke accident, just put it in the book, he’ll be in the Hall of Fame.

“It’s like watching Denzel [Washington] in a movie. Sit down. Watch the show. And enjoy.”

Cabrera is hitting a major-league leading .387, to go along with his 11 homers, major-league leading 47 RBI, 34 runs, 67 hits, 114 total bases, .457 on-base percentage, and .509 batting average with runners in scoring position. That’s just for starters.

Yes, just when Tigers teammate Prince Fielder called Cabrera’s Triple Crown season of a year ago the greatest feat he’ll ever witness, Cabrera just might pull off something even rarer.

Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby are the only players in baseball history to achieve two Triple Crowns.

Neither did it back-to-back years.

“Winning a Triple Crown is amazing to me,” Bonds said. “I tried to win a Triple Crown, and couldn’t do it. I tried to do it, I really did, but I had guys like Tony Gwynn in the way.

“So it’s amazing to see him do it once. But to see him do it again, wow, that would really throw me off the charts.

“I couldn’t do it once, and then to see him to do it twice, now that would be shocking.

“Absolutely shocking.”

The closest Bonds came to winning the Triple Crown was in 1993 when he led the National League with 46 homers and 123 RBI. Yet, Bonds’ .336 batting average ranked fourth, behind league leader Andres Galarraga of the Colorado Rockies, who hit .370 at Mile High Stadium.

***

LEYLAND WON’T COMPARE THE TWO

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who managed Bonds his seven years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, refuses to compare the two greats. It’s not fair, he said. To either one of them.

Yet, he says that Bonds is absolutely right, that they each share a gift that few possess: that baseball IQ, which is impossible to quantify.

“There’s no question about it,” Leyland told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview. “Miggy has it all together, just like Barry. Totally relaxed at the plate. You can see it. He knows he can hit. That opposite-field power he has, that just boggles the mind.”

Bonds, who still hopes to be a major-league hitting coach, doesn’t want to divulge any trade secrets. If Cabrera wants to divulge his secrets, it’s his right, but why reveal any details to ruin that edge?

“He has got, what you call, the gift,” Bonds said. “I had it. Cabrera knows he has it, too. You don’t try to analyze it. You can’t teach it. You’re born with it. And he’s got it.

“That’s why I enjoy watching him so much, and I couldn’t be happier for him, knowing that he’s taking advantage of that gift.”

It’s not simply the raw talent, eye-hand coordination, or power, Bonds says, but that mental toughness and intellect.

“You guys can analyze it all you want,” Bonds says, “but his hands aren’t quicker than anybody else, or anything else like that. He’s just smarter than anybody else. He knows what he has to do, and can recognize pitches better than anyone.

“People don’t realize he’s the same person he was last year, and the year before that, but he’s got that experience now. It’s hard to explain, but what he does is minimize what a lot of people pile up on themselves. He puts it in a compartment, and utilizes it to the best of ability.

“Without giving you too much information about hitting, that’s what he does.

“It’s no different than Tiger [Woods] on the golf course. Or Michael Jordan on the basketball court. Or Muhammad Ali in the ring. They have that gift too. Ken Griffey Jr. had it better than anybody, but injuries got to him. Same with Alex Rodriguez.

“There are other athletes that have it too, but where they go with it, that’s up to them..

“I wasn’t the best at that part, but I was the best on the field.

“Cabrera is doing it all, as well as anybody I’ve ever seen.”

***

MONSTER-SIZED STATISTICS

The proof lies in the statistics, with Cabrera rarely fooled by a pitch, according to data provided by Inside Edge.

Cabrera is hitting .416 against fastballs, with a league average of .278, and .347 on off-speed pitches, with a league average of .221. He’s hitting .299 with two strikes, compared to the league average of .183. He has swung and missed at fastballs away just 17% of the time, compared to 27% a year ago. He’s also more aggressive this year, swinging 57% of the time on the first pitch, punishing pitchers with a .448 average with three homers.

Tigers assistant GM Alex Avila said he thought he was “signing a perennial All-Star” when he convinced the Marlins to spend $1.8 million on Cabrera, who was 15 the first time Avila saw him play.

“We didn’t think a future Hall of Famer, a Triple Crown winner and an MVP,” said Avila, who moved to the Tigers by the time they acquired Cabrera from the Marlins after the ’07 season.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is the baseball intelligence of this guy. You saw it at a young age. You could see him try to set up pitchers, break down pitches, and what would make him a better hitter. This guy is very, very smart. He knows where guys should be playing on a field, when a manager makes a good or bad decision, and obviously, how to hit.

“When you put that intelligence together, with the physical ability, and figure it all out mentally, it’s pretty freakin’ special.”

Yep, just like that certain All-Star left fielder, who dominated the game from 1990 to 2007, and even Hall of Famer Hank Aaron. Cabrera’s numbers are eerily similar to Aaron’s at the same age. Cabrera, playing in 102 less games, has the identical career batting average as Aaron, with just 34 fewer homers and 46 RBI.

“I love that young kid, I really do,” Bonds said. “If he can stay healthy, and keep accomplishing what he has already, he’s got a chance to have everything I did.

“If he gets there, and has the kind of career I did, hey, I’ll be the first to say:

“Now, you got it all, brother, you got it all.”’

Follow Bob Nightengale on Twitter: @BNightengale

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