First-round draft pick Joe Staley continues to share his experiences as a 49ers rookie in his very own online diary. As a Michigan native, Staley had never been through an earthquake before, until Tuesday night. Check out what the 49ers starting right tackle had to say about it...
So I haven't checked in since before New York. The trip was really fun but the game absolutely sucked. We haven't won in five weeks and that really stinks and I'm just not happy about it. Eric Heitmann talked about our trip to Times Square in his column last week. I did not like the deli he mentioned however. The sandwich was so thick and had so much meat on it that you couldn't even fit it in your mouth. I appreciated all of the stuff on it, but if you wanted to eat it you had to break it apart and eat the bacon, and then eat the lettuce, and then eat the chicken. You couldn't sample it all in a single bite. It was very annoying.
Times Square is intense. I really want to go back and check out a Broadway play at some point. Yes, I love plays. I love movies, concerts, anything with entertainment really. We have a local theatre in Grand Rapids and I've been there to see Annie before, and I've seen my sister's plays.
The New York game was bad but it was also a valuable game for me because I learned a lot from going up against Michael Strahan. He was someone I looked up to growing up and so I think it got in my head that I wasn't going to be able to block him. You can't EVER let that happen because it can definitely affect your game, and it did mine. I was more worried about what he was going to do instead of worrying about what I should have been doing.
It made me really aware that if I just do what I'm coached to do and what I know I can do, that I can go against anyone. I think it really helped me this last week because I felt I played my best game of the season against the Saints.
Coach Warhop was a drill sergeant last week. He was not happy after our performance in New York. None of us were happy about it. We all knew we really needed to work hard last week and Coach definitely put us to work. It was the hardest week of practice we've had all year. I think it worked because it had our minds right for the Saints and as an offensive line we got back to what we needed to be doing all year. I think as a line it was one of our better games.
Alex Smith also inspired me to play that much harder because you knew he was out there playing with pain. He didn't complain to any of us and he wasn't really showing it and that's something you need from your quarterback. He's a great leader.
Still, we didn't get the win which is what we were after and so we'll have to work that much harder this week to get back to winning some games.
Alex had a Halloween party on Monday night and it was excellent. I went as Fred Flintstone although I tried to style it up some. The best costume was Adam Snyder. He went as a geisha girl and it was unbelievable, so hilarious. His wife was a ninja so they brought the unexpected.
I did not carve a pumpkin after all, and I have not bought any candy because I live in an apartment and I don't think that anyone will actually show up tonight for Halloween. I guess if they do, I'll have to just hide.
I ordered a custom made suit and a bunch of shirts about six weeks ago and they finally came on Tuesday. It's a spectacular suit and I personally think if I had had this suit back at our kickoff luncheon I would have won best dressed. That was basically the excitement of my off day, up until last night when I experienced my first earthquake.
I was in a really bad mood, and in fact delayed this diary a little bit so I could improve my state of mind. I started to think that maybe my bad mood was stemming from the fact that my apartment was really a mess. So, I started cleaning up my place and was in the process of making my bed when I heard this really loud noise. Since I had my music up really loud, I thought it was just my neighbors banging on my walls but it just kept getting louder and louder and then I felt the waves. I didn't know what to do. I had no idea you are supposed to get in the door jamb, so I just braced myself and got into a surfer position and road the earthquake wave. Growing up in Michigan, I had never been through anything like that.
I do have some stuff on my walls, but nothing came down. I have a decorative plate in my house that my aunt gave me which is kind of special to me, so that was the first thing I made sure was intact and thankfully it was.
I called my mom right away and she was groggy from sleeping but my enthusiasm and my voice immediately woke her up. She was worried of course, and all serious about it while I was just excited. Seriously, I know that they are dangerous but I think that was one of the top three highlights of my life. I put it right up there with the first time I ever played football. Of course, there was my being born which I don't remember, but obviously that too was amazing.
So after that I was in a great mood.
