The San Francisco 49ers went through classroom training and physical team-building exercises with the veteran Navy SEALs of APG when the team reported to its offseason program in April. That included the coaching staff like head coach Kyle Shanahan and team executives like general manager John Lynch.
49ers Studios, the team's in-house video production studio, released the following video on Wednesday of the team's rigorous workout led by the veteran Navy SEALs. Within the video, you can see players like Jimmy Garoppolo, Solomon Thomas, and Kyle Juszczyk. You also get a glimpse of Lynch and Shanahan during the exercises at about the 6-second and 23-second mark.
The Falcons worked with the veteran Navy SEALs of APG during Shanahan's time as the offensive coordinator in Atlanta. This was the first offseason the 49ers head coach brought the program to his new team.
Personnel like Shanahan and Lynch taking part in the exercises meant a lot to the players.
"It means a lot," linebacker Eli Harold said in May. "It shows you what kind of organization we have."
Harold described what he took away from working with the veteran Navy SEALs of APG.
"To get comfortable being uncomfortable," he said. "To know when you push yourself to that limit, when your body is just burning, you're just done, you can do a little bit more. Finding that and translating that from their training to the field, I feel like it's going to be what separates us from most teams this year.
"I feel like everyone is going to buy into that because doing their training, we all were there, and we learned how to push through it."
Edit: At the request of one of the founding members of the group and to avoid confusion, this article has been updated to properly reference the "veteran Navy SEALs of APG" and not "Navy SEALs."