Starting CB Shawntae Spencer checks in again with his latest Training Camp Diary. This week Spencer talks about his first magazine cover, the win over Chicago, and trying to get around Larry Allen on the blitz.
I was so excited to see GameDay on Friday night. I had done the photo shoot and knew it was coming but when I saw it I was like, 'wow, I'm on the cover of the Game Day program.' It was so exciting. Jeff Ulbrich was messing with me and telling me you know you have arrived now and I was like wait a minute, you were on a cover last year. I took as many as I could, all the ones left in the locker room. Mike Adams and I were running around scooping them up. They may not believe me when I go back to Pittsburgh so now I have a lot of them for proof.
My brother actually saw it on the webpage and called me as I left the locker room and was like mail me one of those and I asked him how he knew and he said he saw it on 49ers.com.
In terms of the game, it felt great, just being out there. We've been going at each other the past two weeks so it felt good to get out there and hit someone else. It was a good measuring stick for our team. Chicago went to the playoffs last year and they had a good record. They had a really great defense and good running backs and a solid line so I think they were a great test for us to see where we are at right now. I think we did very, very well. We played with a lot of energy and we didn't make too many mistakes as far as the first group in there on defense.
I knew they were going to throw the ball at me a lot being that I switched from right to left cornerback. I expected to get a lot of action and I was right and so I just tried to make some plays. Making plays is the only way you can stay on the field. Coach stresses that all the time, play fast, play confident and make plays. The defensive schemes Nolan has brought here is all about taking chances and making plays, He wants us to compete and not be afraid to try to make a play. His biggest thing is us going full speed and competing as hard as we can.
Everyone was fired up that we won and performed well. There are things we can definitely improve on but for the most part, everyone was just happy that we went out there and competed well. The fans were excited and the offense played well. There were a lot of big plays in the game that helped us get the win and we were just excited for each other. It's always good to get a win, preseason or not.
After the game, I had a massage scheduled but it was so late that I had it moved till Saturday afternoon. I got some work on my body so it feels right for this week. I also got in the cold and hot tubs over at the facility first thing in the morning and again after the massage, and then just slept a lot on my off day.
Speaking of sleeping, we've got bed check at night but it's random so every once in a while they come into your room, so you never know. They have a master key and they just open the door and peak to see if you in there. Well on Thursday night before the game, Fred Formosa, our security guy came in and I was just getting into my sleep and it scared the heck out of me. I jumped up so fast and then I realized who it was.
So a funny story from last week.
We were in our defensive meeting watching the last practice and there was a play where the corners blitzed and I was blitzing and Larry Allen came up to block me and I basically tried to run around it and he got his hands on me, it was kind of bad. Coach Lynn was telling me, 'Shawntae, do not let Larry hit you. If you blitz and see Larry coming, just stop and run the other way.' That's just a big and mean dude. I know Alex is feeling very cozy back there. My shoulder still hurts from that run in!
- Shawntae Spencer
