Joe Giles

family first

[Joe Giles @RealJGiles]

@ProFootballTalk Happy late birthday Florio, spot on!

[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.

[Joe Giles @RealJGiles]

🧡

[Matt Maiocco @MaioccoNBCS]

Exhibit A: It doesn’t matter the records of the teams; and you NEVER leave early.

[Joe Giles @RealJGiles]

Wow

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Welker: "You insisted no new wars."

Trump: "First of all, I didn't guarantee no war."

Welker: "You said it over and over again."

[Joe Giles @RealJGiles]

😂

[ThePatrioticBlonde™🇺🇸 @ImBreckWorsham]

😂🤣😂🤣

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

Gas prices are at crazy levels--fire Obama!

[Joe Giles @RealJGiles]

Click Here to support the Granite Ridge Int Badminton 2026 Fundraiser
https://t.co/anbHHDpKno

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

As a Catholic, I find it abhorrent that the President of the United States would publicly attack the Successor of St. Peter. Donald Trump is flailing. His war in Iran has led to the death and injury of American servicemembers and the death of Iranian children. He will attack anyone or anything to try to protect himself, even the Church that millions of Americans find faith and comfort in every day. The American people deserve a president who understands the consequences of his words and takes responsibility for his actions.

[OurSF49ers @OurSf49ers]

#49erd Christian McCaffrey is having a fantastic offseason as he just posted this on his IG account 🔥

[么 ꜱ ᴀ ᴍ ꪜ, @___TheGOOdWitch]

🗣After death will be exactly like before I was born.

Ricky gervais is a national treasure just can’t dislike the guy

[The Shift Journal @TheShiftJournal]

"The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters."

- Steve Jobs

[JOKAMRREDPILLZ @JOKAQARMY1]

With the War going on now and a possible draft this is a powerful scene.

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

While our wonderful president was out playing golf all day, the TSA is falling apart, just like our government! Airports a total disaster!

[Joe Giles @RealJGiles]

@49ersKyle Aiyuk didn’t play with Emmanuel Sanders

[Joe Giles @RealJGiles]

Thank you @TwentyER

[Ed Reed @TwentyER]

I do not approve this message

[David Lombardi @LombardiHimself]

The Alec Ingold contract provides reminder that Kyle Juszczyk has been one of the best bang-for-buck values in the NFL for a decade now.

Juszczyk's role and deal with the 49ers has also been a great way to weed out those who don't know football.

Worth every penny and then some

[Coach Yac 🗣 @Coach_Yac]

Greg Cosell on Kyle Shanahan:

“I know coaches and I have great conversations with them. When I talk to a defensive coordinator I always ask who are the offensive coordinators that give them the most trouble and Kyle Shanahan’s name is always number 1, believe it or not. Defensive coordinators always say that he does the best job of any offensive coordinator in the league at understanding what defenses are doing and then how to attack those defenses. I’m not making this up.”

[Matthew Coast @MatthewCoast]

Teach your kids that all feelings are valid, but not all behaviors are acceptable.