Matt Maiocco’s latest podcast has a fun conversation with 49ers second round pick, Dante Pettis. You can listen to it above, or click here if you don’t see that.
As per usual, Pettis is a great guest and offers some great insight and stories into the pre-draft process and the day of his drafting. Most interesting though were Pettis’ varied interests outside of football. Pettis admits that his interests, which include art and literature may be different than what most are used to and thought that may have had an impact in some team’s decisions:
“I’m not shy about what I like outside of football, and so, a lot of people take that as like, “Oh maybe he’s not bought into football all the way.” They’ll kind of try to get that out of me, like, “how committed to football is he?” and all of that. So I think that’s the biggest thing they are trying to get. I don’t know, I would say that what I wanted to get across worked.”
Obviously, teams want to be sure that any prospect is sold on making football their life and career for the next few years. Pettis was quick to point out that his outside interests do not affect his love of the game.
This reminds me a bit of Vernon Davis who had a few interests outside of football that he explored. Say what you want with his play on the field in later years, but the 49ers were able to get some production out of him and Davis enjoyed painting among other things and wasn’t afraid to display it.
The entire interview is very interesting, as all of Maiocco’s podcast tend to be. I’ve included the timestamps below.
02:10 - How does he describe his game?
03:00 - The mindset of a punt returner
03:52 - Talk trash to the punter?
04:33 - Stadium/college atmosphere in Seattle, WA (University of Washington’s location)
05:15 - The point he saw himself as an NFL player
05:53 - Memories of his father (Gary Pettis) playing baseball
06:11 - Family history with football/baseball and what drew him to football
06:51 - How much time he spent thinking on which team he’d fit/go to
07:49 - The first conversation with his father after being Drafted
08:46 - Why didn’t he think he’d go as high as he did
10:02 - Misdirection of the draft and the signals given to Pettis
10:27 - Draft visits and what teams were trying to find out about him
11:26 - Interests outside of football
12:30 - Pettis’ take on cerebral players appreciating fine arts and being a football player
13:45 - If not a football player, what would he do?
14:22 - His Instagram accounts
14:55 - Wide receiver as an art
15:45 - Any problems learning three different wide receiver spots?
16:18 - Why he was moved into the slot in college
17:45 - What he’s looking forward to most in the NFL with the 49ers
18:25 - The recent history of the 49ers
18:45 - Building rapport with the 49ers staff
19:33 - Any advice from Austin Pettis?
20:55 - Q & A with Twitter (Maiocco only)