Not The Same Summer Message This Time Around

Just like he did last summer and the summer before that, Joe Staley obligingly stepped to the podium in the media auditorium at Levi’s Stadium on the eve of 49ers training camp.

- Craig Massei

But this time there was a different hop in his step, gleam in his eye and tune in his voice.

Staley was pelted quickly with a recurring question from a skeptical media contingent, a question he has heard several times before at this stage of the year. It was a question about aiming for the Super Bowl, the ultimate goal of every red-blooded NFL player, no matter where his team starts out in training camp.

“You say that every year,” Staley responded. “Everybody comes in at this time of year saying the exact same thing from Day 1: ‘This is the year that we’re doing it.’ I’ve said that the last three years being up here with new coaching changes.”

Then Staley paused. And then he smiled.

“But I do feel different about this year,” Staley continued. “It’s one thing to say it, but I really do. I feel confident with the direction the team is going, where the franchise is at. I have 100 percent confidence in our ownership, our front office and our coaching staff to get it right for us to go win football games.”

Staley, the grizzled veteran offensive tackle and five-time Pro Bowler, has seen and done it all in his 11 years with the 49ers. He has experienced both the laughingstock lows and exhilarating highs of coming within one play of winning the Super Bowl during his decade with the team.

Staley is an optimist. But he’s also a realist. He’s no starry-eyed youngster who doesn’t know better. But neither is he an aging cynic who refuses to believe in what might possibly be.