NAPA – Santa Clara's a fine place to hold training camp. But then again, it's nice to get out of the house every so often.
That was the overriding sentiment from the 49ers about Monday's intersquad practice with the Raiders, the first time the cross-bay cousins have practiced together since Ronald Reagan was in the Oval Office.
Coach Mike Nolan has been looking for a summertime sparring partner for years. He tried to get the Denver Broncos to scrimmage before their exhibition game last year but logistical issues sunk the plan. The 49ers also had approached the Raiders but had been rebuffed.
"It raises the competitive level," said Nolan, who has fond memories of the intersquad practices he had when he was an assistant with the Redskins and Broncos. "It is important that they look good. They want to look good for a lot of reasons. Some of these guys, if they don't make the club they are with, another team may spot them and they have a chance. So there are a lot of reasons for players to perform."
Though a no-tackling rule was designed to defuse the practice, players inevitably were flung to the ground and tempers inevitably flared during the morning session. The biggest fracas came when 49ers fullback Moran Norris took exception to a hit from Raiders linebacker Edgerton Hartwell and sparked the football equivalent of a bench-clearing brawl, albeit a short one.
On the other end of the field, 49ers rookie guard Chilo Rachal exchanged wild swings with Raiders defensive tackle William Joseph before they were separated.
The 49ers-Raiders relationship has been portrayed as a Hatfields-and-McCoys type rivalry. In reality, there's plenty of mixed blood. Oakland left tackle Kwame Harris was a first-round pick of San Francisco's in 2003, while Raiders defensive end Josh Shaw was a 49ers fifth-round pick in 2002.
"I was with most of those guys for five years, so there's history," Harris said after practice. "Those are the guys that brought me into this league – like family in a sense. So … there's not the sense of vindictiveness as much as it's like playing against your sibling, you know?"
Right tackle Barry Sims, meanwhile, is in red and gold after nine seasons in silver and black.
"Nobody said anything to me, really," Sims said. "They just said, 'What's up?' They gave me a lot of love."
What coaches wanted, however, were a lot of different looks.
The Raiders, for example, were happy to test themselves against a defense that features a 3-4 alignment. The 49ers, meanwhile, were glad to face off against a team that plays a lot of man-to-man coverage.
Asked if he was interested in how the Raiders would handle him, tight end Vernon Davis said, "It's very interesting because I want to see who they're going to put on me to cover me. Ever since I've been here, I've been running by guys."
So if Davis were a coach, whom would he assign to cover him?
"I'd put a corner. I'd put the fastest corner," he said.
Tune in to Friday night's 49ers-Raiders exhibition game to see if the Oakland coaches heed his advice.
Read Matthew Barrows' 49ers blog at www.sacbee.com/blogs. The Bee's Jason Jones contributed to this report.
