49ers relish Navy SEALs’ visit, workout as they seek new bond this offseason
SANTA CLARA – Half of the 49ers’ roster is new. The team needed this offseason program to achieve more than getting guys in shape and back on the field. They needed to form a reliable bond between the seasoned veterans and the hot-shot newcomers.
And they needed Navy SEALs to help.
The 49ers spent a recent week submerged, so to speak, in SEALs training to transform them back into an elite, special operations force in the NFL – by air and land, but probably not the sea, all due respect to the Navy’s historic unit.
Activities aside, what the 49ers really tapped into was the benefit of communication, from hearing awe-inspiring stories from the SEALs to discovering heartfelt nuggets about their teammates’ backgrounds.
This 49ers regime, led by coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, has brought in SEALs training in the past. In 2018 that duo was doing sit-ups alongside players, and Jimmy Garoppolo was hollering “Oorah!” while lugging a log with teammates. A decade ago, 49ers alumni got to work alongside retired SEALs.
Brock Purdy, like most current 49ers, had not been through that SEALs experience, and he relished it more than any other aspect of the offseason program, which wraps up with mandatory minicamp Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Hearing their stories and what it’s like, being on a SEALs team unit and how that translates to us being a football team and doing stuff that’s not ordinary, it was pretty special for me and eye-opening for sure,” Purdy said.
Tight end George Kittle, last year’s recipient of the NFL and USAA’s Salute to Service Award, obviously embraced the SEALs’ stories and team-building exercises.
“They talk about what the Navy SEALs standard is, how they uphold that, how they built that and how they wrote it,” Kittle said. “You learn a lot of cool stuff from them.”
Kittle found it “absolutely crazy” to hear stories such as SEALs cramming into “little clear fishing boats that were supposed to hold like 200 pounds, (they) had five guys packed in them, fully packed and are going up a river in the middle of a day, and (they) somehow came back from that.”
Shanahan estimated this was the third time in his nine years that the 49ers have signaled for the SEALs to “just come in and give some classroom work. We do an activity, a kind of paintball-type thing, it wasn’t paintballs though. It’s just Navy SEALs stuff.”
Purdy marveled at the presentations and absorbed how meaningful it is to uphold a standard and culture among peers.
“The events and things that we did with each other were pretty cool,” Purdy said, “and the conversations that we’ve all had because we’re with guys that are on defense, talking about what it means to be a Niner and like what it takes. So, I think that was a pretty special moment.”
Adversity awaits every NFL season, every week, every day. And every 49ers player will take a different path – via a different background – to make the season-opening roster in three months.
Thus, one resounding benefit of SEALs Week was to hear teammates share their experiences, from a subdued superstar like Christian McCaffrey to a free agent defensive back.
“Me and Fred talk a lot, but it’s really good for the other guys on the team to have their voices heard,” Kittle said. “You want leadership to come from everybody. That’s one of the things the SEALs facilitate.”
Everybody showed up during the 49ers’ voluntary phase of the offseason program, which started on April 22. The 11-man draft class joined in last month, showing Shanahan that “we’ve got some workers. I know we’ve got guys who really love football.”
The 49ers’ bond will continue to grow through locker room hijinks, weight-lifting sessions, meeting-room instructions and unexpected twists in a challenging upcoming season.
“It’s going to be a special thing and a unique thing to be able to get guys that are new coming in and we’ve got to roll together,” Purdy added. “We got to go through some things together.”