The 49ers needed a Dre Greenlaw replacement. In Dee Winters, have they found him? (paywall) ““He told me, ‘I can’t golf,’” Patterson said. “‘I need to go back to San Francisco. Fred’s called me and it’s
time for me to go back to work.’ I got off the phone and told my wife, Kelsey, ‘I think Dee is growing up.’”
When Warner was asked about Winters being beckoned to Santa Clara before the start of the offseason program in April, he said it was important for them to spend as much time together before they played alongside each other. And there was also an unspoken message about sacrifice and commitment.
“I was telling Dee,” Warner said: “‘Less golf, more football.”…. Before Winters got to work, he went home to Burton (population 294), a farming and ranching hamlet about 85 miles from Houston where those who know him best will still call him “De’Monderick.” Winters moved to Burton before high school after growing up in Brenham (pop. 17,369), which is 12 miles away and has a claim to fame as the headquarters of Blue Bell ice cream.
Winters enjoyed a cowboy-like upbringing in rural Washington County. He baled hay at a friend’s family farm; cleaned the pens for his head coach, Jason Hodde, who raises show pigs, and spent countless hours riding horses on a three-mile country trail.
“It’s on a back road and one of my coaches at Burton, Coach (Jamie) Smith, he lives out there,” Winters said. “So when I’m riding, he’s just on his back porch. He knows it’s me and I just throw my hand up. I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s never a surprise…..Most kids would come back to their small town wearing their 49ers gear and wanting to show off a little. Dee shows up in some old coveralls with his boots on. He’d just come from the feed store and said he was going to go ride horses. He gave a little talk to our team. Such a good, genuine and humble guy. You’d never know an NFL linebacker was here.”
49ers Notebook: Mustapha expects to play vs. Buccaneers; Piñeiro reaches out to Moody; Collins earns high praise
“”I didn’t hit it the best, but I feel like it had a shot,” Piñeiro said. “And then, once it ‘French kissed’ the pole—I’m going to be taking that pole to dinner soon.”
Kyle Shanahan previews 49ers-Buccaneers Week 6 matchup
“San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan addressed reporters ahead of Wednesday’s practice as the team gears up for its Week 6 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here’s everything he said.”
Trevis Gipson makes most of 49ers opportunity as rollercoaster career continues
“His grandfather, Jimmie Lee Ross, had recently passed away at the age of 77. And Gipson missed the funeral in Dallas to attend a tryout with the 49ers on July 26.
“He showed me the game of football,” Gipson said of his grandfather. “I had my dad in my life. He’s my father. But my grandfather was another father figure, and he helped take care of me growing up.
“It’s an emotional subject, but I’m glad and appreciative that I did take that opportunity to come here because I knew he would have wanted me. I knew he would have wanted me to come here.”
Before the 49ers sent Gipson back home without a contract offer, he took a little time to enter the gates of nearby California’s Great America and enjoy the amusement park.
“I went to Great America and just, you know, tap back into my childhood a little bit,” Gipson told NBC Sports Bay Area. “I rode some roller coasters all by myself. But, honestly, I looked at this stadium, and I said, ‘Man, I don’t know what it is, but something’s telling me, I’ll be back.’”
The salty solution for cramps? 49ers players reach for pickle juice shooters (paywall)
“Meanwhile, rookie defensive tackle Alfred Collins, who grew up outside of Austin, Texas, made it sound as if pickle juice on the sideline is as common as orange juice at the breakfast table.
“That’s one of the remedies for helping with cramps,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’d use it after every workout. It was hot in Texas.”
Running back Brian Robinson Jr., who’s from Tuscaloosa, Ala., said he might drink some before a hot training camp practice or down a couple at halftime if he’s been sweating a lot.
“It usually helps with very large cramps, too,” he said. “So if you have a charley horse or full-body cramps, pickle juice is the answer.”
Rookie receiver Jordan Watkins, who played at Ole Miss, recalled a particularly hot game at LSU in 2022 during which the pickle juice shooters were flying off the training table.
“We get there, and everybody’s cramping,” he said. “I usually don’t cramp in a game, but I cramped two or three times in that game.”
Most of the time, he said, he’ll toss back a shot if he feels a cramp coming on.
“Once I hit that fifth gear, I might feel it in my calf, and I say, ‘OK, I’m about to cramp,’” he said. “You drink some pickle juice, you might get a little massage and loosen that thing up a little bit. Then you feel better.”
And what about the taste?
“It tastes just like pickle juice,” Watkins said. “That’s all it is.”
Collins answered the question by puckering his mouth and shaking his head.
Said cornerback Eli Apple: “It’s nasty, yeah. But it works.”
