As for the 49ers, we turn to noted NFL fan and legendary documentarian Marty DiBergi, who once said: Enough of the off-season yakking. Whattya say. Let’s boogie.
(Kids, you can look up Marty DiBergi later. Suffice to say, we hope the 49ers win total ‘goes to eleven’.)
Point being, I spent the last six weeks lamenting the ‘Bummer Summer’, and when Ricky Pearsall was stunningly shot in Union Square last Saturday, we went from ‘bummer’ to near-tragedy.
And then a crazy thing happened.
The energy changed.
Pearsall somehow survived the shooting, the suspect was apprehended, we heard emotional first-hand reports of attending to Pearsall from SFPD Sgt Joelle Harrell, Pearsall was released from the hospital, and a day later, big Trent Williams shut down his holdout, citing Pearsall’s story as one reason why he needed to be with his team.
Oh, a day earlier, Brandon Aiyuk ended the endless summer hold-in.
The 49ers are suddenly . . . galvanized?
At the very least, the 49ers are better than they were at the start of August. Aiyuk and Williams will play on Monday Night Football against the Jets, which was not a total certainty ten days ago. And while Pearsall will miss at least the first four games on the non-football injury list, Niners general manager John Lynch told us today that “absolutely” Pearsall will play this year.
There is no guarantee of that, naturally. Emotional fallout is real, and Pearsall must navigate those unsure waters. Kansas City’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire is grappling with something similar. The running back is on the non-football illness list for the first four games after publicly acknowledging dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder tracing back to a violent gun incident in 2018.
These things must be taken seriously.
While we all certainly wish and hope Pearsall uses the four games off to get his bearings, the early returns are quite bullish. He told both Lynch and Kyle Shanahan he wanted to play on Monday night against the Jets. Wild, right? Cooler heads prevailed, of course. Pearsall will not play, but the spirit of the ask shows the 23-year-old’s resilient and brave nature.
This has not gone unnoticed by the 49ers. Williams said in his press conference that Pearsall’s story was one of the final prompts to agree to terms. (Of course, a gigantic increase in guaranteed money didn’t hurt either, but let’s not be entirely cynical here.)
Any number of 49ers cited Pearsall’s return to the facility Monday as inspiration, and by the time practice got underway this week with Aiyuk and Williams in the fold, the ‘Bummer Summer’ began morphing.
What do we call it now? ‘From the Bottom to the Autumn’, a listener suggested, and it’s as good as any.
Real hurdles remain. The Super Bowl Loss Hangover is real. There is concern over Christian McCaffrey’s balky calf and Achilles. Linebacker play without Dre Greenlaw hangs over the defense, and the revamped defensive line with new coordinators Nick Sorensen and Brandon Staley are a blank slate.
But team energy is real, and the return of Aiyuk and Williams and the emotional Pearsall saga has played into a change.
Monday Night can’t come soon enough. Let’s boogie.