Alex Mack: Future Hall of Famer
It's been a busy time covering the 49ers as the team is in the middle of OTA's, continued speculation surrounding key players, rookies being signed to deals, and the recent retirements of both Alex Mack and Frank Gore.
I am going to dive into why Alex Mack's retirement has reminded me of why I love the sport of football so much and in particularly offensive line play.
Reflecting on Alex Mack's retirement
As I sit outside in my backyard drinking my coffee, reading over Mack’s farewell to football, Kyle and Johns comments; I’m being reminded of why I fell in love with football to begin with.
I feel Mack’s retirement has triggered personal reflection partly due to the fact that I looked up to Mack as a player when he was at Cal while I was learning how to play center at DVC in the Bay Area. Mack's consistency and dominance at the position instantly made him one of my favorite players on a loaded Cal football team.
While Alex Mack was at Cal, he was insanely dominant on a team full of future NFL players. He anchored a team that consisted of NFL guys like Cam Jordan, Mitchell Schwartz, Jahvid Best, Shane Vereen, Marvin Jones, Tyson Alualu, Mychal Kendricks just to name a few, many of which went on to have long NFL careers.
Looking back, Cal was my favorite college team, my former DVC teammate was the starting RT at Cal, so it was natural that I gravitated to Mack as he was the best center in the country; while I was learning how to play the position. You hear a lot about football players discussing other players that they'v watched when they were learning and Mack was exactly that for me.
Mack helped me fall in love with offensive line play. As many know, I have a passion for the trenches and Mack is apart of that.
I’ve watched Mack from a distance for his entire career and have recently been thinking about how cool it was to watch him every Sunday playing for the San Francisco 49ers.
I had the pleasure of studying every snap of the 49ers' offensive line this year and watching how Alex Mack brought stability to a top 5 offensive line unit that was at the bottom of the league just the year prior.
Obviously, would have loved one more ride with Mack but he’s had one of the most remarkable careers of any center to play the game and I’m happy for him that he can go out on his own terms, not something most players can do or say.
I didn't even know that Alex Mack apparently played with a broken leg in the Falcons Super Bowl game vs the Patriots. That just speaks to the competitor Alex Mack is and how he puts the team first above anything else.
As I sit here and type this I just keep going back to where it all started at Cal, back where my true love of the game was ignited and how Mack had an imprint on my early years and passion for football.
He’s yet again reminded me why I love this game.
When you’re building platforms, grinding content, and turning your passion into a career, you can lose sight at times of why you’re doing what you’re doing. A much needed reminder of why this game is so special to me and it’s because of the players who play the game, players like Alex Mack.
Clearly, the hole that Alex Mack has left in the center of the 49ers offensive line will be a hard one to replace but I sense that 49ers were in the know about Alex's decision and had moved through the draft and free agency accordingly. Not only are there still options on the open market like J.C. Tretter but plenty of in-house options that can be more than serviceable.
Again, Mack's retirement has allowed me to reflect and remember back to why this sport is so great and why it's so special to watch players go from college and mature throughout the years in the NFL; to watch Mack evolve into one of the best players the league has seen at the center position has been fantastic to observe.
Wishing Alex nothing but the best in whatever the future holds.
He’ll always be a “my guy”.
