49ers guard Person not the retiring type
Mike Person unofficially retired last year.
There was no announcement. There were no headlines.
Those doesn’t happen with journeyman offensive linemen such as Person, who quietly decided to leave the NFL in April 2018.
The Saints had just contacted Person and wanted to sign him. He mulled it over at home in Overland Park, Kan., but decided to stick with his plan to begin coaching high school football in Kansas City.
“I kind of sat on it for a couple of hours and then turned them down,” Person said. “I just thought I was done with ball. It was getting tough being away from my family for entire seasons.”
Person wasn’t done at all. Instead, after an NFL journey filled with plenty of anxiety, the 49ers’ starting right guard
was about to enjoy the most unlikely and fulfilling season of his sixteam, sevenyear career — one that led to him signing a threeyear contract extension in March that will pay him at least $2.5 million this season.
Last year, about three weeks after saying no to the Saints, Person’s relationship with head coach Kyle Shanahan prompted him to work out for the 49ers in Santa Clara. That led to a contract, which led to a trainingcamp competition Person won and that resulted in a season in which he started 16 games and earned the extension.
“We feel very fortunate that we kind of fell into him last year,” Shanahan said. “He’s helped us a lot.”
Person, 31, is a 2011 seventhround pick from Montana State who had been waived or released by five teams and started just 18 games in his first seven seasons. So why did he begin blossoming after turning 30?
On Thursday, Person revealed he has been racked by anxiety for much of his career, and it prompted him to start seeing a sports psychologist before his fourth season.
That helped him adopt a more positive mindset, but his biggest breakthrough came last year. For years, as a player on the NFL’s fringes, Person feared his next mistake or poor performance could spell the end of his career. The selfdefeating soundtrack in his head had “Don’t mess up” on a loop.
But turning down the Saints silenced that voice. He’d mentally said goodbye to the NFL and discovered what he’d feared — a life without football — wasn’t so scary. When the 49ers called, Person reconsidered his retirement because of his comfort and familiarity with Shanahan, his offensive coordinator when Person started 14 games for the Falcons in 2015.
“I’ve always kind of been super tense: ‘I have to do this right. I have to do that right,’ ” Person said. “And last year, I just cut it loose for the first time in my career. Just saying, ‘To hell with it and let’s just play football.’
“I was done (with the NFL). For three weeks, I was like, ‘All right, what am I doing next?’ When the 49ers called, it was like, ‘What the heck. I already know what that other part of life is like, so let’s give this one more go.’ ”
Not surprisingly, given Person’s path, last season wasn’t painfree. He was forced to leave a seasonopening loss in Minnesota with a foot injury and Shanahan later said Person couldn’t play in Week 2 unless he made a “miraculous” recovery. Person, who could barely walk in the days after his injury, played the next week.
A miracle? Person said it was more about his mindset: He wasn’t about to vacate the starting spot no one expected him to earn.
“That’s exactly what it was,” Person said, smiling. “You’re going to have to flat out tell me ‘No, you’re not playing.’ If there was a sliver of a chance I could play, I was going to. My feeling was, it’s been a long time coming. I have to take advantage of this as best as I can.”
Person didn’t miss a start, although his foot injury lingered. He also appeared on the injury report with knee and ankle issues.
“There’s a big thing for showing up in this league and being dependable,” general manager John Lynch said in February. “… Mike Person battled through some stuff last year, but he kept showing up. That earns respect. He’s a very respected player in our locker room.”
Person had a day off from practice Thursday, a rest day typically given to veterans who are unquestioned starters. Person, even with his extension, insists he’s still scrapping for his job.
But he’s now doing so with a different soundtrack in his head.
“Bad stuff is going to happen and you can’t dwell on it,” Person said. “That’s something I wish I would have learned earlier in my career — but I’m happy I finally learned it.”