Latest / Rittener Reflections / 14: It Begins and Ends at Levi’s
Transcript
- (upbeat music) - Welcome to episode 14 of "Ritner Reflections," a forum for addressing the dynamic, complex, and essential nature of cross-border trade in our ever-changing world. I would like to start this episode by thanking my listeners. I receive so much feedback and generally people really are enjoying these podcasts. I really thank you for taking the time to listen and I hope that the content has been beneficial and useful and hopefully even enjoyable. Today, in this particular episode, I'm going to kind of leave the trade world aside. It seems like it dominates our lives continuously and especially mine, but I'm gonna take a break and kind of talk about something more fun. That's fun to me anyway. And as some of you may know or may not know, I am a huge American football fan and I am a huge San Francisco 49er football fan. And so I spend a good portion of my days following the team and keeping up with everything going on. And of course, during the season, it's just always so exciting to not only follow it, but to go to games and so on. And so today I'm gonna share with you three of my reflections about NFL football and the San Francisco 49ers. Let's start with reflection one. This is probably my favorite time of year when we hit the middle of summer and we move into fall because I know football is here. And one of the events that, although if you follow football, you will notice that the season almost seems like it's year-round with draft and signing of free agents and mini camps, et cetera. But when you get to July, the end of July, going into August, now it's actually play time. It's actually the players come together, they go to camp and they really begin to start the journey. And where are they going? They're all trying to go to that big game, the Super Bowl. And this is where it also, so I love this time of year 'cause it starts and we get into pre-season and before you know it, it's actually time for the regular season and then that's when the fun begins. And for those of you that don't know, the NFL plays a 17-game season. They, it goes all the way until the end of the year and then when they get into January, it's time for playoffs. So, and then the ultimate game is obviously the Super Bowl. You know, yesterday I was at Levi's Stadium where the 49ers conduct their training camp and it was the second day of camp. And I was there looking at that stadium and thinking to myself 199 days from now, right? It's gonna be the center of the universe, Levi's Stadium, because the Super Bowl will be held right here in Santa Clara, California. And I had an opportunity to go to training camp with my good buddy Abhay Gagkari. And Abhay and I, we've gone many, many years and we went, it was one of those Northern California summer days, foggy, cloudy, cool, nice breeze, a player's dream. And it was a great time to go and watch. So Abhay and I went together as we often do and I recorded an impromptu little discussion with Abhay, five minute discussion, which I recorded and I'm going to go ahead and play that for you here. And then I'll carry on with some more reflections. But first, let me just talk a minute about Abhay, because I've mentioned him. You know, I met Abhay many, many years ago when we both worked at Intel and we worked for the tax department. I was trade, he was tax. And we soon discovered that we both loved American football and he was kind of new to the area and had become a really big 49er fan. So of course I would take Abhay to the games with me and over the course of those many years, we attended games, we went to practices, we go to draft parties where they draft players. We've gone to other special events and then probably the pinnacle was two years ago, we went together, flew down to Las Vegas and we attended the Super Bowl where our San Francisco 49ers played and unfortunately lost. So Abhay is probably one of the biggest fans I've met. Abhay, he, I mean, we'll be watching separately a game on a Sunday and I'll get a text and Abhay is just letting me know how he feels, how this coach should have done this or that. So Abhay's a big fan. So it's always fun to spend time with him and we did have a good discussion. So I'll go ahead and run that right now and then I'll be back to carry on. It is so exciting to be here today, July 24th at Levi Stadium at the 49er training camp. This has got to be at least more than 20 times I've come here and this is a great opportunity to actually get close to the players, watch them warm up, get ready for what's gonna be an amazing season. I am really glad today as normal to have my good friend, good buddy Abhay with me. Abhay and I are a long time 49er fans and we have been coming to these training camps for so long. Hey Abhay, welcome to my written reflection podcast. I'm so glad we could get this chance to talk. How are you feeling? - Great, thank you. It's always fun to be with you. - Yeah, we've been coming to these training camps for a long time. Can you remember, what's the first one you can remember coming to? - I think the first one I remember is when we drafted Alex Smith and we were really excited to see him. He had a strong arm. Question was, did he have big enough hands? And so that was my first training camp. It was really great to see him. Unfortunately, he didn't pan out the way he wanted to, but Alex is a great guy. So that was my first. - Oh, that's great. Yeah, I remember Abhay coming with my daughter. - Yes. - And then shortly thereafter, you started coming with your daughter. Do you remember being in the stands? - Absolutely, when she was like, what? Three, three years old, four years old. - Yeah, now she's in college. Think about that. What is it, college? First shoot in Santa Barbara. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, one of my memories of it, and I think you were with me, but we came here one time and we saw this guy out playing linebacker, and he was built like a true football player. He was so fast. He got to the ball like, we were both like, that's a rookie, who is that? And we found out it was Patrick Willis. - Yes, yeah, exactly. - You remember that? - Yeah, I do. - You could see it from there. The first time he was on the field. - And I was a big guy. And it was just unbelievable to see him move so fast, right? - Yeah, exactly. - And then he panned out to be one of the best linebackers that's ever played the game. - Hall of Famer. - Hall of Famer, exactly. - Yeah, exactly. You know, we're here at Levi's. Today's a cloudy day, which is really nice out here, and I'm looking at the stadium, and in 199 days, they're gonna hold the Super Bowl here. - It's unbelievable. - And so my question for you is, who? - You actually have tickets, right? - I have tickets, I'm planning on being there, but my question I wanted to ask you is, who do you think is gonna play there at this day? - At the Super Bowl. - Yeah, what's your prediction? - You know, honestly, after watching Philadelphia beat the pens of Kansas City, I think the NFC will be represented by Philadelphia this year again. 'Cause I don't think their defense continues to be really good. They've got a great quarterback. Their offense is good, and they've added to that. So I think it'll be Philadelphia, and honestly, I think it'll be Kansas City. - Okay, so go on for a repeat Super Bowl. - Absolutely. - Philadelphia, Kansas City. Okay, everybody listening, you heard that. Abe has predicted Philadelphia, Kansas City, repeat, and who wins? - I think Philadelphia wins again. It's step back to back, yeah? I know it's hard, but if anyone can do it, I think it's Philadelphia. I'm hoping the Niners prove me wrong. - I hope you're right. Well, at the end of my podcast here today, I'm gonna go ahead and offer my prediction, so I'll save that for later. But what are you most excited about when you think of the 49ers this year? What sort of excitement? - You know, I'd say that we are settled at quarterback. I'm so glad that Hardy was signed to a long-term contract. So at least the quarterback position is set. I think we've got some of the defensive rookies that we've picked up. I think those are gonna be good. So I'm kind of excited to see the defense play under Robert Salah, so I'm looking forward to that. And the fact that Hardy's now got a long-term quarterback. - Right, now that definitely will be exciting to see that. I'm actually looking forward, even today, hopefully he'll be out here. I'm looking forward to seeing Christian McCaffrey back in full form and so on. - I mean, we missed him last year, really missed him, right? - Christian McCaffrey, I'm looking forward to it. And then I always love seeing George Kittle. - Yes. - George Kittle brings a lot of life to the training camp and so on, yes. Right, so at the end of training camp, oftentimes what happens is the players will come up, some of them will, and you get a chance for autographs. So if we were to go up there and get autographs, I don't know if we will, but if we were, who's the one player that you want their autographs? - Oh, God, that's a hard one. You know, Hardy, I'd love to get Hardy's autograph, but I think if it was one, it'd be Fred Warner. Fred Warner, absolutely. - Absolutely, yeah. Best linebacker in the NFL today, I think. - And one of the nicest people. - Yes, and he actually lives in the same town that I live in, not very far away. - Is that so? - Oftentimes I see him. I saw him last Friday night at a restaurant. That's always kind of fun. - Awesome, awesome. - Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's going to be a fantastic year. There's a number of really good matchups to be played at the stadium this year. Hopefully you and I will have a chance to go together and sit together again and cheer our 49er on. We are the 49er faithful. And so thanks a lot for talking with me. - Go Niners. - Yes, go Niners. Thanks Abe, take care. - As you can tell in that audio clip of Abe and I, we were having a good time and we enjoyed being there. You can also see on the video clip, kind of an idea of what it looked like being at training camp. You know, I've often been told and I've experienced that people love when you tell stories. So I'm going to share with you three of my most memorable training camp stories that you might find interesting. The first one involves a player that many of you may have heard of or maybe not named Colin Kaepernick. Turned out to be a little bit of a controversial player. But when he showed up at the 49ers, he was drafted. He showed up, I had followed him a little bit in college and I was excited to see him on the 49ers. And so I went to training camp with my son who at the time was probably five or six. And Colin as a rookie came out to where some of us fans were still hanging around. And he, you know, we made contact with him, went over and he signed autograph. But then he did something else. He actually asked if he could pick up my son. And he picked up my son and kind of held him up. And then I was able then to take a picture. So I have this picture of my son and Colin Kaepernick on probably his first or second or third day in the NFL at training camp. And that picture has been, you know, something that we've really valued because over time, Colin became a very, very good football player and actually took the 49ers to the Super Bowl. And again, one of the ones we didn't win. But the story doesn't end there because during Colin's last year as a 49er, last game of his career at Levi Stadium, he was at the entrance or exit from the locker rooms and he was there signing autographs. And so I worked my way up and I had a Colin Kaepernick jersey number seven. And so I weaseled my way up there and I stood there hoping maybe I could get him to sign my jersey. And there was a boy standing next to me with a little football and look, he was so badly he wanted the autograph. And I think Colin caught his eye. But right at that moment, somebody from on the side threw a jersey at Colin and hit him. And he wasn't happy about that. And he kind of, you know, I could tell it was almost like, okay, I'm out of here. And at that moment, he had grabbed the boy's football and signing it. And so I could see his mind processing, I'm out of here. And he looked up one more time and saw me, he looked at me in my eyes. And I held my shirt out and he grabbed it. And he went and signed my shirt. And I said, Colin, you may not remember this, but I remember it vividly. I have a picture of you and my son on your first couple of days of training camp. And he kind of gave me a little smile and left. And I say to this day, I have a picture when Colin Kaepernick started as a 49er and I probably have the last jersey he ever signed as a professional player. So anyway, that's story number one, Colin Kaepernick's story. Story number two is the Brock Purdy story. Brock Purdy is the current 49er quarterback. And three years ago, I went to training camp and Brock Purdy was probably the third string quarterback, maybe even fourth, I don't know. He was drafted the very last player of the draft. So they go through like 240 some odd players and he was drafted the last one. And they call that when someone's drafted last, Mr. Irrelevant. So he carried this title of Mr. Irrelevant. Well, I didn't know any of this. And so when I was at training camp with a couple of other buddies, we would see this quarterback, third string quarterback, and he looked like the best quarterback on the field. I mean, he threw them all well, he moved well. And we're like, who is that guy? And we had no idea, you know, number 13, who is he? So we had to go on our little phones and we had to look at them up. And we found out that he was Mr. Irrelevant last draft pick. And we're like, wow, I sure hope that guy makes the team. Well, I'll make the story quicker. Over the course of the pre-season, he continued to wow and play amazing. So they kept him on the team as the third string quarterback. And as it goes in the NFL after two or three weeks, the first string quarterback broke his ankle. Another four or five weeks, the next second string quarterback got banged up, did something, I forget. And there you go, here comes Brock Purdy. Mr. Irrelevant and comes into the game in the middle of the game and leads the team to win. And then from there, he goes on and almost leads the team to the Super Bowl that year. And so I'll never forget that training camp of seeing someone that we had no idea was, turned out to be Mr. Irrelevant. And now he's just got a lucrative contract. And I am very hopeful he will take us to win a Super Bowl. And my last training camp story I'll just tell you, I could tell you so many, 'cause so many players have come through there. But there's another one, a player, some of you who maybe had done the 49ers longer might remember somebody named Bryant Young. Bryant Young became a Hall of Famer. He was a defensive lineman and he's a very big man. And in one game, the year prior, he had a collision with his teammate so hard that he snapped his leg in two. And in the stands, in the stadium, we could hear it snap. It was that bad. And so he had massive reconstruction of Rod and his leg and so on. But anyway, he eventually came back and he wasn't fully ready to plays. But so he was on the side warming up. And I remember watching Bryant Young, this is a 300 plus pound man who had just come off this injury and he's doing 100 yards sprints. And he turned around, rest for a minute, and then he'd sprint back through there. And I watched him do that five or six times. I was just amazed to see that sort of determination and the size of that person being able to move that path. So those are the sort of things I share those stories 'cause those are the sort of things you see at training camp. At least if you're a football nerd like I am, that's those things kind of excite you. So let's go on to reflection number two. Reflection number two is being a 49er fan. I have incredible memories of stadiums, games, championships, and now Super Bowls. And so I thought maybe I would share a few thoughts, few reflections from those memories. So let's start with my memory of my very first 49er football game. It happened to be when I was about six years old and the 49ers played at a very small, old, old stadium with wooden bench seats in the middle of Golden Gate Park in downtown San Francisco was called Kesar Stadium. And so my dad with a friend took me to my first game. We went to see the Chicago Bears. And I do remember that. I remember Chicago Bears. I remember Gale Sayers. I think that was the game he ran all over the 49ers. But the thing I remember the most is we had to walk through Golden Gate Park to get to the stadium. And as a six-year-old, we walked right past the carousel. And I was more interested in getting on that carousel than going to the game. I remember asking my dad, "Can we do the carousel?" So anyway, that's my first memory. And then second, why a 49er fan? And how did that happen? And you know, it's interesting 'cause as a kid I grew up as an Indianapolis Colts fan. And it wasn't until I was 18 that my father, who had seasoned tickets and had decided he wanted to be more of a Oakland Raider fan, team across the Bay. So he actually, when I was 18, he signed over the tickets to me. So that became mine. So I had 49ers season tickets. They were playing at that point at Candlestick Barton out at Keyser. And just out of high school, what do I do with these things? I mean, I can't afford them. So I would try to find people to buy them. And the 49ers were not very good. But once you kind of, you have seasoned tickets and you feel a sense of ownership. And I think it was that at that moment, I completely kind of shifted to become a 49er fan. And then of course, three years after I got those tickets, the 49ers went to the Super Bowl for the first time and they proceeded to go on and win five Super Bowls. So it's awfully hard not to be a fan with that kind of a story. So those are kind of my memories of becoming a 49er fan. You know, I'd mentioned that the 49ers played at Keyser. You know, back in the early 70s, they moved to a brand new stadium, kind of south of San Francisco, right by the Bay. And it was called Candlestick Park. And many of you may have heard of Candlestick Park. It's kind of iconic. It's got so much football lore. And also just it's the stadium that was, you know, sitting there by the water. And it was known to be one of the coldest places to see a game because the being in San Francisco by the ocean, but, you know, Candlestick Park during the 49ers time there. And I believe they were there from the early 70s, probably till 2008 or nine or 10, and somewhere in there when they came to Levi's. But during that run, they had, they played eight championship games at Candlestick Park. So those are eight games that the winner goes to the Super Bowl. And of those eight championship games at Candlestick, four of them resulted in the 49ers actually going to the Super Bowl. And I think of those eight, they probably won three of the five, I think they'd won at home championship. And then they went to the Super Bowl. So that's why I think Candlestick has so much history and so many people will remember Candlestick. But there are some other things that people will remember about Candlestick. And for those of you listening who've ever, ever had the chance to go to Candlestick, you will probably relate with what I share. So I like to call this the fog, the sod and the iconic moment, the fog. I've already kind of touched on that, you know, as the season went on into November, December, it actually got quite nice because winter in San Francisco is very nice. And I remember going to playoff games in January and the rest of the country's in snow. And we were sitting in short-sleeved shirts 'cause it was nice. However, if you went to a game in the summer, August, September, October, that's when the fog came in. And I had this wonderful picture of my son. We were sitting in our seats. We were kind of up high under the press box, but it was a game that was over. I mean, it was still playing, but it was so lopsided. It was over, but we were sitting there. And I remember I said to my son, "Look up." And we would look straight up at the top of the candlestick park. And we would just see this, it almost reminded me of dry ice. It was just the flow of this fog, just blowing over the top of the stadium and down onto the field and so on. And so my son was sitting there. I took a picture. He had a 49er blanket wrapped around him and he's just sitting there. And we're like, just all by ourselves, watching the last part of this game and the freezing fog. And this is in August. So I called my son at that point. I said, "He's a 49er faithful." The second is the sod. Now, the sod was a problem because candlestick park, like I said, was by the bay. And the bay is known for depending on the time of year of tides. And there's such things called king tides where there's a huge lift of water up. Or what would happen is when that happened, the water would come up from the ground and all of a sudden the sod, the grass, would become soggy like a marsh. And sometimes they tried their best to prepare it, cover it. But when it comes from below, it's hard. And I can remember so many games where the players would be playing and whole chunks of sod would just kind of rip out. And so they had this thing called the sod squad. And when there was a timeout, like a TV timeout, the sod squad would round the field to go clean up all the sod that was all over the place that kind of came up when the players kind of were running on it. So we always remembered the sod squad. And then of course there's the iconic moments. And many of you probably, if you follow football, would know this one if I say the catch. And the catch is probably the most iconic moment that just put the Niners and Candlestick on everybody's radar. But the catch was iconic because the 49ers had never won a championship game. Two years prior, they're the worst team in the league. They had a quarterback that was called Joe, Joe Montana. And they were playing the Dallas Cowboys. This is their arch rival. They always lost to the Cowboys. And they're playing at home the championship game. And they're losing. And time's running out. Or down to, I think it was three or four minutes. And the 49ers are driving down. And I think it was like the last play. And Joe Montana went back to pass and he was about ready to be sacked. And off the back of his leg, he tosses the ball. Something, maybe he was tossing it away. But he tossed it very high in the end zone. And one of the receivers named Dwight Clark stretched out as tall as he could and somehow grabbed that ball and came down with it in the end zone and scored the touchdown that put the 49ers ahead. And of course, they went on in the next couple of minutes to actually win that and go to the Super Bowl for the very first time. And I was there. And during that moment, I was at the stadium. And it's a moment you'll never forget in your mind because there's not many times in a team's history where they've never won ever. And all of a sudden something happens and this is it. And it's just, you can't replicate that feeling in that moment. And I just remember my buddy and I were there and jumping up and downs. Brault binoculars hit me in the face. You know, it was just a pandemonium. But so that was a conic moment that most people that know football will recognize that. And I just, I'm always so glad that I had a chance to be there and see that. And then I'll just say the last story here from Candlestick moments was the last game played at Candlestick Park. And we were there and I would imagine, you know, most of the folks that were seasoned ticket holders and had been fans for so long were all there. It was one of those times where this is it. You know, we're not gonna play at Candlestick anymore. And it was nighttime. There were fireworks afterwards. But the real fireworks was the 49ers were losing. The team they were playing was, there was maybe a minute left and they were driving down close to the 49er end zone and looks like they were gonna either kill the clock or score and the niners are done. And the quarterback from the other team throws the ball. It does some weird bounce off somebody's hands and bounces right into the hands of Navarro Bowman. He was one of their great linebackers. Just by chance, just bounces in his arms and he's just like, there it is. And he just grabs the ball, takes off and he runs 90 yards the whole length of the field to score a touchdown on the 49ers win. And the game is basically over. And this is the last game at Candlestick. So you can only imagine the pandemonium and the excitement and just watching somebody run 90 yards and win the game. So that's my memory of the very last game I attended at Candlestick Park. The 49ers now play at Levi Stadium. And Levi Stadium is in Santa Clara, not San Francisco. It's pretty far from the bay. So there's no worries about needing a sod squad. But it's a beautiful stadium. It happened to be located less than a mile or about a mile from Intel where I worked. And in fact, going to Levi's, I used to be able to park my car at Intel and walk to the stadium. So it's that close. Let me just share with you a few memories from Levi's. Levi's certainly does not have the football lore, the number of championships and all of the stories and the iconic games as Candlestick. But it's getting there. So there's a few things I'll share with you about Levi's. One is there has been two championship games played at Levi's and those resulted in two Super Bowls, interestingly enough. But unfortunately, two Super Bowls with no wins. So hopefully we'll get a Super Bowl with a win. The other things I would say about Levi's is I'll call it the walk, the heat and the night. So the walk, as I said, we would walk from Intel to the stadium. And so it was always kind of nice. One of the other things I forgot to mention about Candlestick that was probably another iconic point was the traffic at Candlestick that was a nightmare. If you needed to park in the parking lot and it wasn't flooded and you had to get out, it was a several hour process. At Levi's, at least we can walk and we don't have to mess with that. The second is the heat. One of the things that they learned quickly on is the way they positioned the stadium, half of the stadium faces the West. And so in the afternoons, you have full blown heat. It's just beating on you. So there are some games that happen in September and October is pretty warm. And so the NFL has done a good job of scheduling a lot more night games at that time. 'Cause once you hit in California here in the Bay Area, once you hit October, then the weather gets exceptional and that's not an issue. And then finally, I'll say the night. The reason why I say the night is because one of the things I've learned over the last 12 years or 11 years, I guess, at Levi's is that the night games are just magical. The weather's usually nice. Just that feeling of being there under lights. And the 49ers tend to play pretty well at the night. So two memories here. One, both of these are championship games. I remember these vividly. The first was in 2019 when they played the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers. And it was a hard fought game. But at the end of the day, the 49ers won and they went on to Super Bowl to play the Kansas City Chiefs the first time which they lost. The second championship game was in 2024 where they played Detroit Lions. And that was one of my more exciting games at Levi, I have to say, because we did not play well in the first part of the game. We, Brock Purdy, quarterback, orchestrated a comeback. A really impressive comeback to the point where we were able to pull off the game and win at the last minute propelling us to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. So those probably, when I think of Levi's at this point, those are probably the two games that stick out to me. I can tell you, there's nothing better than going to a championship game and winning. And the reason I say that is because, especially if you're at home, it's all the home crowd. It's just electric. And then when you win, it's amazing. A Super Bowl is, if you win a Super Bowl, obviously you're not gonna say anything better than that. But the problem with a Super Bowl is it's not a home field. It's fans from everywhere and you don't get quite the same vibe. But championship games at home, those are the best. Okay, so as we wrap up here, reflection number three. What about the 2025 season? So it's begun. Teams are in training camp. And every team right now is going through the same thing I saw the other day at Levi's. They're all starting to put together their rosters, putting together their strategies, their plays. And they all have one goal in mind and that is go to the Super Bowl and win. And so as I said this year, the Super Bowl is at Levi's and I am so excited to already have my two seats. In fact, thanks to my great friend Liz who works for On Location. She worked with me on the first hour that the tickets were available to ensure that I got my same seats I have when I go see a Florida Intergame for the Super Bowl. And in fact, I have better. I actually got one row lower and about 20 seats towards the middle of the field. So those are my Super Bowl seats. So I am ready for the Super Bowl. As I said, there's 32 teams. There's this long season and only two teams will be there. So the question at this stage, and I asked Abe that in my discussion with him, the question is who will be there? Who are the two teams that are gonna roll up into Levi's Stadium on February 8th of 2026? And that's the question everybody's wondering. And so I said earlier, I would give my predictions. So here we go. First, I'm gonna give you my dream prediction 'cause all of us have dreams. And my dream Super Bowl will be the San Francisco 49ers playing the Buffalo Bills at Levi's Stadium. And the San Francisco 49ers take home Super Bowl trophy number six. I said it was a dream, okay? Now let's talk about reality. What probably most likely will happen in my opinion. And so my prediction, I'm gonna step on a limb on this one, but my prediction is I am going to say that we're gonna be surprised to finally get two new teams. We're not new to the Super Bowl, but new from the recent past. And those two teams will be the Washington Commanders and the Denver Broncos. So you heard it here. Written reflections. Washington Commanders, Denver Broncos at Levi's Stadium, February 8th, 2026. Well, that's, those are my reflections of the upcoming NFL season 2025. I hope you've enjoyed this. We will talk again, I'm sure, about football before we get to February, but thanks for listening. We will be back on trade topics next time we meet. Until then, take care. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)