When Joe Staley announced his retirement following a stellar 13-year career in San Francisco, he was taken aback by the tributes that poured in from former 49ers teammates, coaches and competitors.
The limelight in the NFL is usually reserved for the players who catch, run or throw the ball, not the behind-the-scene workers who help make all that happen. “I was absolutely overwhelmed and blown away from the response from everybody,” Staley said Tuesday. “That meant so much to me.
I’m a lineman. It’s our job to not be noticed and it’s our job to just do our job and do the grunt work. It was really cool.” It was also well-deserved for a player who was one of the best in the game at what he did since entering the NFL as a first-round pick out