Joe Staley is about to officially shed his ROOKIE status with the new rookie class arriving this weekend for the team's mini camp. But before we switch this over to the Joe Staley Diary, here's one final ROOKIE DIARY entry.
Over this past weekend I enjoyed meeting and greeting various fans at the Draft Day Party here at the facility on Saturday. I do have to say though that whenever you are doing an autograph session, it's a little awkward when the line starts to get thin and people walk by and they don't stop for you. You feel like you got passed over, but that's okay I guess. Adam Snyder was over at my house earlier that day so I brought him along with me so we just talked when our line thinned out.
I did buy my house and I'll be moving in ten days from now. It's the one I wanted and it's amazing with a hot tub, outdoor barbeque, a fire pit, horseshoe pit, pool and even an outdoor shower. I don't really know why there's a shower, but I like it. I'm pumped up for it and I'm meeting some furniture folks today to pick some stuff out and once it is all set up, I'll let TV49 come do a Welcome to My House feature.
A funny little thing happened this week. First of all, Jeb Terry, Snyder and I have become the Three Amigos. David Baas was a part of it, but unfortunately he's been homebound after having surgery to repair his pectoral muscle injury. So the three of us went and saw the new Harold and Kumar movie and it was one of the funniest movies I've seen in the last year. Adam was knee snapping, Jeb was crying and I was cackling, you know the one you've probably heard on TV49.
The Office is back on so I've been watching that. Also, Snyder, Jeb, Heitmann and myself are really into the Real World and The Hills and we are like 13-year old girls talking about what happens every week. It's more so a joke to laugh at all the stupid people on television than the fact that we like the actual shows. On The Hills, I'm more of a Lauren fan. The Real World is the best drama though and it is very hilarious and entertaining, particularly the Joey character. He's clearly on steroids and always makes for good television. There's one guy on there named Greg who calls everyone a peasant and thinks everyone is below him. He calls female friends or girlfriends female associates, which I think is hilarious. Watching people like that on television makes you appreciate how not messed up your life is.
I've also been into American Idol. One of my life goals is to try out for that show. I have a secret song that I've been composing and a few great karaoke songs that I think I would blow them away. I don't really like any of the finalists right now to be honest with you. I did like Jason Castro and his kind of music because I think he could pull off a Ben Harper or Jack Jackson but lately it's more like he's going to make a Sesame Street Album. He doesn't even sound like he wants to win.
I was stoked about the schedule when it came out. I'm very excited to play at Chicago so my friends and family can come. I was really bummed out that we are not playing at Green Bay though because I'd love to play at Lambeau Field. Other than that, I was really excited to see that St. Louis drafted Chris Long over the weekend because I'm going to enjoy that challenge for years to come.
On the field, the off-season conditioning program has been going fabulous. My weight is up to 316, which is what I want to be heading into the season so all good there. The hardest part is metabolics which is a bunch of football specific drills combined with the conditioning drills with very little recovery time, so it's hard. We go straight from doing those to working with Coach Warhop and Foerster and those are pretty long days for the offensive line, but things are going well.
We have events planned for the rookies this weekend. For starters, we purchased a leather helmet like the one in the movie Leatherheads and we are going to have Chilo Rachal wear that around from now until training camp. We also bought some visors with the frosted tip fake hair on it for hopefully some undrafted free agents that we end up signing. I'm just excited that I don't have to carry any pads off the field because frankly carrying Larry Allen's sweaty pads off the field was pretty miserable for me last year.
I'm looking forward to mini camp and very excited to play football again. Workouts get boring after awhile, and I'm excited to see all of the new guys on our team and how they will improve us. I'm also excited to work against Justin Smith every day and get accustomed to playing left tackle. I'm excited to see our new offense and how it looks, basically I'm just excited.
Mostly, I'm thrilled that I'm not a rookie anymore and my head is not spinning and I don't have to worry about being hazed or throwing up like I felt like I was going to do last year before our first practice. I can remember being so scared that I didn't even speak last year. Everyone thought I was so quiet and serious, little did they know that I actually NEVER shut up.
Speaking of which, please check out the outtakes video that should be up by Friday. It was not an act. That's me in my natural setting. The Samsung intro I'm also particularly proud of. I think Samsung should hire me as their poster boy. I also just checked out my Put Your Game Face On photo on one of the ticket pages on the website. Jeb and Snyder said I looked scared but I think I looked beautiful. Modeling is certainly in my future.
