Daniel | Hot Takes

49ers • Angels • Lakers • Fresno State

[vittorio @IterIntellectus]

this is actually incredible

a full body ultrasound scanner that takes 60 seconds instead of spending an hour in an MRI tube, without radiation, hospitals or a $2000 bill

soon you’ll just walk into a health spa, order a coffee, step into the pod, and walk out with a 3D map of your body

the future is finally starting to look like the future

[Daniel | Hot Takes @SF_49ersHT]

@FreddyLA7 Thank you!!! Whataburger is absolute trash food. I’ve lived in Texas for 10 years and have only gone 2 maybeeee 3 times all every time is disappointing.

[Daniel | Hot Takes @SF_49ersHT]

@TheEyewallWx Is anything really unusual nowadays with the weather

[Michael O’Brien @DrOBrienMD]

Y’all, not to be a huge nerd but for the reflecting pool you would need a minimum of about 8,000 liters of 12% hydrogen peroxide to reach the 50 parts per million concentration to kill algae…

Is this what happens when you have 0 scientists in your administration?

[Homeland Dems @HomelandDems]

Unless your name was Alex Pretti.

[MVPnav🤘🏽 @PNav57]

Every time I refresh a model or rainfall rate prediction it looks worse and worse…not as much hype for this event as events in the past, and that’s what worries me…heads up in the Houston metro area the next few days folks, this could get ugly…

[Daniel | Hot Takes @SF_49ersHT]

@FreddyLA7 Come to midtown and I’ll buy yall some drinks

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

It’s sooo hot🥵

[FOX Soccer @FOXSoccer]

The U.S. journey of @FreddyLA7 has led to this moment 🇩🇪

Germany faces Curaçao on FOX!

[Adam Ryan 🤝 @AdamRy_n]

Aldon Smith passed away this weekend. Most people are talking about his incredible ability, potential, and performance as a football player.

Even though that is all true. He was so much more than that. He was a great friend and his kindness changed my life forever.

I met Aldon our freshman year at Mizzou. He was redshirted and relatively unknown as an athlete. His giveaway was the biggest hands you'll ever see and his ability to dunk at 250lbs, but his size in many ways didn't match his personality. He was relatively quiet and in most scenarios would try to shrink into the room vs stand out in it.

Over the course of the next year, we became close. We were very different people, from different places, but we both connected on the feeling of being a bit lost in the beginnings of adulthood. That year, I never really thought about him as a football player. He was just this gentle giant who loved to play video games and talk about life.

His sophmore year he broke the single season sack record at Mizzou, became an All American, and his life changed forever.

He became a celebrity on campus. He became a household name in Missouri. He became a top NFL draft prospect.

I remember how crazy his life became, and how quickly. ESPN doing interviews. Fancy cars being "loaned" to him. And people everywhere inserting themselves into his life.

Despite the craziness, my friend was always a text away.

My junior of college, I decided to take my first stab at entrepreneurship. I wanted to launch a chapter of Camp Kesem.

Kesem is a summer camp for children whose parents have been affected by cancer. The camp would be totally free and be a chance for a kid to experience the magic of being a kid again. As a son of a breast cancer survivor the idea of being able to create this camp in Missouri meant the world to me.

The Livestrong Foundation was hosting a nation wide contest to win $10,000 as seed capital to get started. To win, you had to have the most votes.

I tried really freaking hard to win that competition. I was going up against some really influential people at huge schools. As a somewhat awkward kid in Columbia, MO I had no chance.

So I asked my friend Aldon for a favor. I asked him if he would help me out and promote the link to vote.

He did more than just posting about Kesem on Facebook, skyrocketing us into the top place in the country. He kept supporting me the next 3 years while I was working on building Kesem.

He showed up to have fun with the kids. He helped me fundraise. He helped me get Kesem to become an official organization sponsored by the NFLPA so he could publicly endorse us as as a player.

Since then Torry Holt, Larry Fitzegerald, and many others have supported Kesem. But Aldon was the first.

Kesem led me to move to Austin to work for the Livestrong Foundation. Kesem is how I met my wife. Kesem gave me the confidence to start Workweek and continue the path of building something from scratch.

But in reality, Aldon enabled all those things.

Throughout the years we had many amazing memories together. Having my wife and I vacation to his house in San Jose. Going to New Orleans for the Super Bowl and seeing his entire family make the trip. Meeting his son and watching him be a dad. The hilarious night we met Derek Jeter. Having the most intellectual conversations about life while playing Call of Duty.

I also saw him struggle. There's no doubt he was a complicated person. Truthfully, I don't know if he ever really figured out who he wanted to be. I know just because your'e 6'4, 250lbs, and get 5.5 sacks in a single NFL game doesn't necessarily mean you want to be a football player. No matter the reasons, he made many bad decisions in his life. Some of those mistakes made it hard for me to stay as close as we'd once been.

One day, not too long ago, I just decided to text him. It had been years since we really chatted. I just wanted to say thank you for all that he had done for me and that I was sorry I wasn't there for him more through his struggles. We FaceTimed after that, and it was like the old days all over again.

Aldon was more than the headlines, the mistakes. He was a generous, gentle soul, a kid at heart, someone who was endlessly curious about life... all in the body of a world class NFL player, bearing the weight of professional pressure and personal circumstances that most of us can't even imagine.

People are complex. People who make bad decisions can also do great things. A person can be hated by almost everyone and, yet, there are people in that person's life who still love them deeply.

I learned many of these lesson due to Aldon, and I'll carry them with me forever.

Rest in peace, Aldon. You won't be forgotten.

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

Our room for the coming days in Houston. I don’t even know what to say about this. This is just unreal. No words.

Huge huge thank you to JJ Watt for giving me and my friends the opportunity to stay at a place like this🙏🙏🙏

[OurSF49ers @OurSf49ers]

Generational talent 💔

[Daniel | Hot Takes @SF_49ersHT]

@49ers @ChrisBiderman So sad man. RIP 🙏🏼

[San Francisco 49ers @49ers]

The 49ers mourn the passing of former LB Aldon Smith.

📰 https://t.co/gVxEEdWtLp

[Daniel | Hot Takes @SF_49ersHT]

@zrod10 @douglandry Do people actually think like this?

[Daniel | Hot Takes @SF_49ersHT]

@gkittle46 @JakeRammos love u, George ♥️

[Daniel | Hot Takes @SF_49ersHT]

@ArtOfMusic_ Is that Jeffrey Lynn Foreman of Dallas TX?

[Democrats @TheDemocrats]

Exactly

[49ers & NFL News 24/7 @49ersSportsTalk]

#49ers QB Brock Purdy was ranked the top dark horse candidate to win MVP this season by NFL . com

With the exciting new weapons and a full season healthy, the sky is the limit 🙌🔥