Though more than a few league insiders believed that agent Gary Uberstine wasn’t telling the entire truth when he told Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal that Uberstine fired Rams running back Steven Jackson, Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports reports that Uberstine’s version is indeed true.

Jackson himself tells Silver that Jackson learned of the move in an e-mail he received last month.

“I was in a state of shock,” Jackson said.  “Where was the loyalty?  The crazy thing is, I’m not a high-maintenance guy.  Gary’s done a lot of good in my life, and I at least thanked him for doing it before I started negotiating with the Rams.  But I didn’t see that coming at all.”

Jackson claims that Uberstine fired Jackson because Jackson had hired a former Uberstine associate to be Jackson’s marketing representative.  (While agent fees for football contracts are limited to a maximum of three percent of the wages, commissions for marketing deals can be — and are — much higher.) 

 ”It was a power move,” says Jackson.  “It was his way of saying that I need him more than he needs me.”

Jackson has since hired Eugene Parker.

Uberstine declined to discuss specifics with Silver.  “I wish him and his sister Rhonda [an informal business adviser to the halfback] the very best, and I really don’t want to go into the factors that went into my decision.  I have no doubt that he will soon be the highest-paid running back in football.”

Though the league insiders who were speculating that Uberstine had been fired by Jackson suspected that Uberstine was hoping not to be plagued by rival agents using the development to persuade members of the 2009 draft class not to sign with Uberstine, the reality could be even worse.

“Why do you want to sign with Gary Uberstine,” agents likely will now say to recruits.  “He fired the highest-paid running back in the game.  If Gary fired him, it means he could fire you, too.  We wouldn’t do that to you.  (At least, not until we can no longer make a buck off you.  Oh crap, I was supposed to be simply thinking that, not actually saying it.)” 

Meanwhile, Jackson confesses to Silver that Jackson recently had a colonic.  Silver explains that this is a colon cleansing, which of course called to mind one of the greatest scenes in American film history.