Donning your hometown team’s jersey with your name on the back, you storm through the tunnel and take the field.
Frenzied fans, bellowing stadium rock and the perpetual shutter of cameras are there to meet you and your Pro Bowl-caliber teammates. You’ve spent a week interviewing, a year practicing and a lifetime imagining.
This is the Super Bowl. It doesn’t get any bigger than this.
The piercing alarm on your nightstand cuts the game short, and before you know it, you’re hoisting your backpack onto your shoulder instead of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
Nearly every boy in the country has the dream of representing his favorite football team in the Super Bowl. Northwestern alum Al Netter made it happen Sunday.
“It’s the game you watch your entire life on TV, and to actually be there was surreal. The energy involved .... Running out before the game, I don’t really know how to put it in words.”
Netter, a four-year standout tackle for the Wildcats, trickled through all seven rounds of April’s NFL Draft before receiving a phone call with a California area code. Soon enough, the San Jose native was signed as a free agent to the practice squad of his beloved San Francisco 49ers, taking training camp reps with one of the league’s most formidable offensive lines.
Yet despite the practice squad label, Netter’s responsibilities and importance to the team can’t be underestimated.
“It’s very inclusive, Coach [Jim] Harbaugh likes to call it a developmental squad, not a practice squad,” Netter told North by Northwestern. “Basically, we do everything down to the little details of what [starters] will do.”
As the Niners churned out an 11-4-1 season and a second-consecutive NFC West title, Netter was exposed to some of the biggest stages in sports as a rookie. Reaching the Super Bowl was a fantasy of video game proportions.
Netter arrived in New Orleans, the site of Super Bowl XLVII, eight days before kickoff. Waking up at 6:30 a.m., Netter went through daily workouts at 7 a.m. before two-hour meetings with Harbaugh and his staff.
After practice at the New Orleans Saints' facilities, Netter had time to soak it all in, taking time to explore The Big Easy and enjoy cajun food with his teammates. But the former ‘Cat wasn’t merely along for the ride. Netter was still given salient responsibilities and worked as much as any other player on the roster.
“Throughout the week and all the meetings, I had to be completely prepared as if I were a starter in the game,” he said. Netter had to watch hours of film, break down the nuanced Ravens defense and work with first-stringers on both sides of the ball.
Practice concluded with single-player addresses to the entire roster. Among the notable veterans to close out the day were future Hall-of-Fame wideout Randy Moss and six-time All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis.
“They were our leaders throughout the week, getting our minds right and getting us prepared mentally for the challenge that we were about to face,” Netter said. “Randy talked about how badly he wanted the ring, you could see the passion and love he has for the game. It really rubs off.”
Although Netter didn’t log any minutes come Super Sunday, the rookie took the field with the rest of the 49ers and went through the motions of a emotional 34-31 loss from the team’s sideline.
Down 21-6 at halftime, San Francisco mounted a late-game comeback that featured 17 unanswered points and a 34-minute power outage. Few pros have been exposed to the serpentine experience that was Sunday’s thriller.
Netter’s season officially ended with a contact-ridden incompletion from quarterback Colin Kaepernick to receiver Michael Crabtree. While the Ravens were showered in purple confetti, Netter’s Niners were grappling with being just yards away from a championship.
“The whole year I learned a lot and grew, but more importantly, there’s a bad taste in my mouth.” Netter said. “If you count the preseason, we had been playing for 24 weeks .... Guys were drained emotionally and obviously physically.”
Netter says that the locker room was silent, but knows that life in the NFL never stops.
“We’re looking forward to another opportunity to go out there, everyone’s excited about next year already.”
And while the stars of San Francisco handle the media’s questions about offseason uncertainties, Netter will be pushing for one goal: to make the team’s 59-man roster. Though Netter was poached by other NFL teams, he recently signed a two-year futures contract to stay with the Niners.
“This will be a big offseason,” Netter said. Regardless of the Super Bowl’s final score or which unit he takes snaps with this summer, it looks like Netter’s alarm clock is on snooze for a little while.