Pro Football Weekly hears from numerous league insiders that former 49ers general manager Scot McCloughan simply gave the team little choice but to end a relationship that has been on shaky ground behind the scenes for some time now and while most published reports have indicated that McCloughan's job performance had nothing to do with his imminent ouster, Pro Football Weekly is hearing a different story from their inside sources. McCloughan would fall out of the loop for prolonged stretches which contributed to more than a few job-related blunders including the incident that blew up in the team's face was the league's ruling that the 49ers had been guilty of tampering with LB Lance Briggs during the 2007 campaign, resulting in the forfeiture of a 2008 fifth-round draft pick and the swapping of third-round picks with the Bears. "They looked like the Keystone Kops," a league source said. "No one gets caught tampering nowadays. They did. What does that tell you about their leadership? They thought they were above the law, and they got busted." Internal e-mails also reportedly revealed a growing disconnect between McCloughan and former head coach Mike Nolan, who has expressed privately to sources that his biggest regret was trusting too much authority over the roster to McCloughan. Source: Pro Football Weekly