Buying Spaghetti with Justin Smith

Vernon Davis was a guest on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption today. It was a pretty good interview and I recommend downloading the podcast if you missed the show. Very little was said about the handshake of doom, instead the focus was on the changes brought by Harbaugh to the San Francisco 49ers.

As best as I can here's a transcript (very rough) of what went on during the show.

Q. What was your reaction when Jim Harbaugh was announced as the new head coach of the 49ers?
A. (raises hands in the air like it's a touchdown) Yes!!!!

Q. Were you at all nervous about a rah, rah coach coming to the pros?
A. A little. We're men in the NFL and it's different, but all you have to do is look at the record and see that he's been effective.

Q. What has been the biggest change to the 49ers since last year?
A. We didn't know how to finish games last year. This year we do.

Q. Anything else?
A. We're also a much tighter team than we were last year. We're hanging out with each other after practice. I'm hanging out with guys that last year I barely knew. I'm going grocery shopping with Justin Smith and we're buying spaghetti together.

Q. We're going to give you the chance to say something on national television. You can tell us that you're going to buy spaghetti all the way to Indianapolis.
A. OK. I'll buy spaghetti every day once a week with Justin until Indianapolis. Then he's on his own because I have a family.

Great answers all the way around, but I think the answers about the biggest changes are extremely enlightening. Under Singletary it was so disheartening to go into the halftime with a lead or only behind by a little and then end up losing the game by less than one score. This team doesn't have that problem. I have no concerns about the 49ers being able to finish games. If the team is behind in the 4th quarter I have every confidence that they can score and I have every confidence in the defense to stop opposing teams from trying to come back.

To paraphrase a well-known console game, the 49ers know how to "Finish Him!".