Staley's comet

Decorated veteran’s impact felt throughout 49ers franchise

- Craig Massei

Joe Staley’s long and winding road with the 49ers could fill a book. A 500-page book. It would be stuffed with stories of resilience, accomplishment, compassion, satisfaction, survival, redemption and hundreds of other tantalizing tales of spending 13 years in the NFL as one of the greatest offensive tackles of his era and, to be sure, one of the greatest players and human beings ever to grace the San Francisco franchise.

That’s Staley in a nutshell. But there’s no nutshell big enough to encase the true meaning and impact the congenial 6-foot-5, 300-pound veteran had on the only team he played for throughout his long and distinguished professional career.

Staley is truly one of a kind.

“He embodies absolutely everything about football that football should be about,” said All-Pro tight end George Kittle, who joined the 49ers in 2017 and quickly came to know what Staley is all about. “Everything Joe Staley has done, the things he’s shown me in the three years I got to play with him, just reinforced my love of football.”

Through six head coaches, four NFC Championship games, two Super Bowls, and multiple roster rebuilds, Staley had a prominent seat in the locomotive that steered the 49ers on a rollercoaster ride through years of torment and joy that saw the franchise sink to unprecedented depths while also reaching exciting new heights.

Staley was the only one around during that lengthy stretch to see it all, and as he leaves the team as an iconic figure in franchise lore, Staley will be remembered as a brilliant flash of light that continued to burn bright and illuminate the franchise better and longer than any other 49er of the 21st century.

He has touched all those around him with the 49ers, young and old, and new.