---
title: "From the Gridiron to the Server Room: Meet the 49ers’ Cisco Networking Academy Apprentice"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/from-the-gridiron-to-the-server-room-meet-the-49ers-cisco-networking-academy-apprentice-sj1i7q6fr
source_url: https://blogs.cisco.com/learning/from-the-gridiron-to-the-server-room-meet-the-49ers-cisco-networking-academy-apprentice
type: article
source: "Cisco"
published: 2026-08-21T18:19:15.343Z
updated: 2026-08-21T18:19:35.734Z
tags: ["career", "networking"]
reading_time: 8
upvotes: 4
comments: 1
language: en
---

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# From the Gridiron to the Server Room: Meet the 49ers’ Cisco Networking Academy Apprentice

**[Cisco](https://daily.dev/sources/cisco)** · 8 min read · 4 upvotes · 1 comments

## Summary

A former UC Berkeley football captain, Michael Lowe, shares his career-switch story from playing D1 football to becoming a Cisco Networking Academy apprentice with the San Francisco 49ers' network engineering team. He describes learning CCNA fundamentals through the D.C. Infrastructure Academy, attending Cisco Live as part of the Networking Academy Dream Team, and now gaining hands-on IT experience supporting stadium operations like press box connectivity, concession TVs, and the stadium microphone system ahead of the 2026-2027 NFL season.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://blogs.cisco.com/learning/from-the-gridiron-to-the-server-room-meet-the-49ers-cisco-networking-academy-apprentice>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@taiwofrancis** · 0 upvotes

> Going from D1 football to network engineering is a pretty crazy career switch. Respect. 👏

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---

Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking)

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