San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh is all about using whatever tactics he can to motivate his players, so last weekend Harbaugh went old school on them according to the L.A. Times, and hung up their photo’s from when they were in high school, with their rankings above each locker to remind them of expectations and earlier aspirations.
Each player got a laminated sheet, and reports are that hilarity ensued as players went around laughing, comparing pictures, and old rankings.
“Coach really wants us to tap into what we wanted to be at that time,” said safety Donte Whitner, whose team plays at Atlanta on Sunday in the NFCchampionship game. “When you look at this picture, it’s like, ‘At this moment, what did I want to be?’ We all look at this and we understand what we wanted to be, and where we are now.”
Reports are that Randy Moss took a massive ribbing because his photo happened to be in black and white.
I don’t think they had color pictures back then,” 24-year-old cornerback Chris Culliver joked.
To remind Moss that he’s surrounded by much younger teammates, someone wrote “B.C. 1202” on athletic tape and affixed it to the receiver’s bio.
“It’s just something that spices things up a little bit to break up the monotony of the day,” said Jed York, 49ers chief executive. “Something new for them to think about.
“You’ll get guys teasing each other, ‘Oh, you were only a three-star,’ or, ‘You weren’t even ranked.’ I remember NaVorro [Bowman, a starting linebacker] saying, ‘Guess they missed on me.'”
Wow old Otis(Randy) Moss with the black and white out of Rand, West Virginia.