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San Francisco 49ers: Jim Tomsula smartly embraces franchise outlook on technology

By Brian Spaen

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Since the opening of Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, the San Francisco 49ers currently have the most technologically advanced stadium in the NFL. It’s a goal for the franchise to embrace the continuous change and despite Jim Tomsula not taking part himself, he’s smartly adjusting with his players.

Levi’s Stadium kicked off with a rough start. Field problems were well documented and there were many glitches and errors when it came to ordering food over the Wi-Fi network. However, when the team started to self implode, the constant drama between Jed York and Jim Harbaugh took the spotlight away from the stadium and how it improved over its inaugural season.

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Using a phone or a tablet, fans can download multiple apps to order food and buy merchandise to be delivered to their seat, get instant replays to what they’ve seen on the field, easily be able to find where they sit, or even check to see how long the bathroom line is to judge if it’s the right time to leave. Fans have now come to love the new features, and it’s only a matter of time before other stadiums follow suit.

Tomsula has also seen how much the younger players have been using technology. Just about every player coming into the NFL have at least one social media account and consistently post on them. Of course, Tomsula admitted in a report from AP Sports writer Janie McCauley that he doesn’t like any of the new technology and tries to stay away from it.

"“I don’t get it, personally. It just so happens every time I do hear about it, it’s not in a good way. That’s where I’m at. The guys know that. They laugh, they make fun that I’m in the Dark Ages. If that’s going to be a part, and it is a part of society, we’ve got to figure out how to manage it.”"

Following Colin Kaepernick’s ill-advised posts about the Houston floods (it unfortunately didn’t end the #7tormscoming hastag either), Tomsula acknowledged that the team would work with the players on being smarter about posting on them. Players must step back and realize that they represent not only themselves as an NFL player, but the entire organization.

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Another great move by Tomsula is the move to allow players to use their technology inside meetings. For recent college students or even young workers, either we’ve taken part in hiding our phones during lectures or meetings, or we’ve seen people do this. It’s going to happen everywhere from now through eternity, even with a complete ban on phones, tablets, or laptops.

Instead of players being trudged through two-plus hours worth of meetings in a row, Tomsula has divided it up into 30 minute chunks. After each block, players will get about 10 minutes to check their Twitter or Instagram accounts, or do whatever they want on their phones.

Tomsula told James Parziale of FOX Sports that the decision was also based on studies of a younger person’s attention span, which is about the size of their blocks.

"“The [experts] are telling me about attention spans and optimal learning,” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘My gosh, we sit in two-hour meetings. You are telling me after 27 minutes no one’s getting anything?’ “"

Players are also notified for meetings, receive playbooks, and have weekly briefings sent to their devices instead of getting any paper materials. In fact, no player has received a piece of paper all offseason.

Some people steer away from technology, but they’re afraid of something that’s going to continue getting bigger around us. The 49ers are right on that curve, and that will hopefully translate on the field.

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