The 49ers returned to practice today and immediately after they elected their team captains for the 2012 season. Patrick Willis and Frank Gore were elected captains last year in what Jim Harbaugh described today as a two-year term. Since they are back, the team added two more captains in Alex Smith and Justin Smith.

Alex Smith was a captain in 2010 but it was via appointment by head coach Mike Singletary. That was an ugly season to say the least, so we'll just try and forget it.

Coach Harbaugh asked Justin Smith to speak to the team and naturally kept it short and sweet. According to Coach Harbaugh:

"I asked him to come up and say a few words to the team. He said he'd keep it short and sweet, and said we know our goals, we know what we want to accomplish. It's all about going out there and doing your job and taking care of business. Then he sat down."

This doesn't strike me as a team that needs a whole lot of speeches, and any speeches they do hear are going to be short and sweet. There is a lot of work to be done, but this strikes me as a team ready to get down to business.