The San Francisco 49ers opened a new stadium right next to their practice facility in Santa Clara, California this season. As luck would have it, this new facility is about 3 miles from NetApp headquarters, and therefore only about a mile from the hotel where I am staying this week.
As even more luck would have it, the Dallas Cowboys are opening their season against said 49ers Sunday in Arlington. So I called Jason Garrett and offered to do some scouting for him, since I was in the neighborhood and all....
Of course he agreed, given my EXTENSIVE insider knowledge about the NFL and gameplans in particular . Here is the first stage of my endeavors:
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| From the West | | | | |
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Granted, it's probably not the way most scouting departments run things, but then they don't get hired last-minute to do secret spy work on the opponent, either. I start at the stadium itself. You can learn a lot about your opponent by examining his home. It's clear from this photo (and I apologize for the shaky, blurry spy-cam nature of some images here.... tricks of the trade and all....) that we most have to concern ourselves with the Niners' star player #20, "Inaugural". I believe he's a running back and clearly the team wants to feature him prominently. Also of note is #14, the utility-back "Season", who gets second billing. Based on this, I think our defense must focus on shutting down numbers 20 and 14. If we can do that, we have a chance. Finally, I asked some locals, and they said there was no truth to the rumor that the Niners' preseason was so bad that Levi's asked to have their name removed from the stadium marquee. It's just a construction issue (to which I can also attest. Even though the stadium is "open" and hosting events, there are scores of construction folks still swarming all over the place at all hours).
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| From the East |
As verified on the other side, where the "Levi's" sign is still very visible. Why yes, that IS a soccer field directly adjacent to the East side of the stadium. In fact, it's three (very nice) soccer fields that comprise the Santa Clara Youth Soccer complex. The Niners and the city of Santa Clara (which is really just a San Jose suburb) went through all kinds of hoops to get this stadium done....but they couldn't budge the youth soccer facility. Personally, I have no problem with that, although I'd hate to be the ball kid at the soccer game after someone hoofs it out-of-bounds on that side next to the stadium. Goodness knows where it'll bounce.
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| Practice facility gate |
Just East of the stadium and South of the soccer complex is the Niners' practice facility. Just in case anyone didn't know it, the security gates and the sign made it clear.
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| So you're saying the public isn't welcome here? |
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| Santa Clara's finest |
I tried to wheedle these gentlemen into opening the facility for me, but they wouldn't budge. It probably didn't help that when asked to show ID, I pulled my driver's license out of a Cowboys wallet. Dang. Chalk one up to experience.
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| The practice field |
But it turns out that I could still observe the practice field from the top of the BART terminal stairs. No, it's not the field with the sprinkler going (that would be the soccer facility again). It's the little patch of green above that, the one mostly obscured by trees and gates. But I think I saw someone moving out there for just an instant. I've included that in my report to coach Garrett, and I'm sure that as the week progresses I'll see a lot of action from here.
So there you have it. I'll grant you that the report is a little light on specifics, but then it's still just Tuesday. I can also report that access to Levi's stadium itself is actually marvelous, with a terrific public bike/walking path that leads right up to the gate, along with the aforementioned BART train stop right next door. Unfortunately for the local folks, however, early reports of events speak of diabolical traffic jams. There are really only two places to park nearby (mostly reserved for VIP parking anyway), and both are accessed only by one major street. Making things worse is that one of those lots is shared with the local amusement park. In other words, it's a good thing there's a nice multi-mile path to the stadium, because you'll need to use it. You can't drive there.
Naturally I can't share with you all all the scouting tidbits that I will be sending to coach Garrett, but I thought you'd appreciate this early look at the effort.
SAH
