Looks like the San Francisco 49ers are finished expressing their undying love for quarterback Alex Smith as long as the NFL lockout continues.

Eric Branch of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat has the details.

The short version: The 49ers confirmed receipt of an NFL memo asking them to tone down public comments regarding their own players without contracts for 2011.

Coach Jim Harbaugh alluded to the memo during an interview last week. Even Harbaugh would have to admit that his frequent public praise for Smith was a little conspicuous.

We all know Smith plans to sign a contract with the 49ers once the signing period opens. There’s no need to dot every “i” with a little heart.

This bromance can wait til training camp.

Bruce Miller’s career at UCF was decorated with two Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year awards and a school-record 351/2 sacks.

However, when the former Knight begins his NFL career, his job won’t be to bring down opposing quarterbacks. The San Francisco 49ers drafted him to play fullback.

“He can catch and he can block . . . it’s really interesting how they did that,” UCF coach George O’Leary said during a trip to Melbourne earlier this month.

Miller, who checks in at 6-foot-1, 245 pounds, was selected in the seventh round of last month’s NFL Draft. Baltimore moved up five spots and took UCF tackle Jah Reid in the third round and Ravens coach John Harbaugh has said the 6-foot-7, 327-pound Reid will get a chance to start on the right side.

“I’m very happy for them,” O’Leary said. “They’re great kids and I hope they make great pros.”

Though he played some tight end in high school, Miller spent his entire UCF career on the defensive side of the ball and was projected by most teams to be a linebacker at the NFL level. However, before the draft, the 49ers sent their area and national scouts to work Miller out at fullback. He also worked out with the fullbacks and tight ends at his Pro Day.

While they haven’t completely ruled out giving him a shot on the defensive side, the 49ers want to see what he can do as a blocker first.

“They said that they wanted to bring somebody in who was tough and could bring a hit every play, and I think that I could fit that description pretty well,” Miller told reporters after being drafted.

Though Miller admitted he was “shocked” to be drafted as a fullback, he was excited about the chance to work with 49ers running backs coach Tom Rathman and get started on learning his new position (whenever the lockout ends).

“He’s all ball,” 49ers general manager Trent Baalke told reporters after the draft. “Those are the kind of guys that we’re looking for.”

First-year 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters watching Miller on tape was like seeing a “blinking light” that says “I’m a football player” and that national scout Matt Malaspina highly recommended San Francisco select the former UCF star.

“(Malaspina) was passionate about Bruce and who he was as a person and as a football player,” Harbaugh told reporters. “And when that comes down to it, that’s jumping on the table and saying, ‘this is a 49er.’

“I got on the phone with Bruce and made sure when we (were) on the clock that we were looking for a guy that’s willing to be a fullback and make that conversion and he said, ‘Coach, I’m a football player. Whatever you ask me to do, I’m going to do.’ He may also be a pass rusher, too. So, we’re not closing the door on any options with that youngster. I think he is a football player.”

Way back in 1989, Walt Weiss won the World Series with the Oakland A’s, and Barry Helton earned a Super Bowl ring with the San Francisco 49ers. Twenty-two years later, Weiss and Helton rocked with nervous anticipation in the same prep baseball park, watching their sons play for a state championship.

There’s no question which was a bigger deal. The only thing that runs hotter than the emotions of a teenage ballplayer is the heart of a parent hanging on every pitch.

“The first huge game I ever won as an athlete was a state high school championship. That feeling stays with you forever. And nobody can ever take that feeling away from you,” Helton said Saturday.

The Cheyenne Mountain Indians could not have captured the Class 4A championship without the pitching and hitting of junior Bret Helton.

As rain fell late in the Class 5A title game, Brody Weiss ripped a double through the gloom of All-City Field during a decisive seven-run sixth inning that propelled Regis to a 15-10 victory against rival Cherry Creek.

Time of his life? Brody Weiss was lucky to be here. “Exactly right,” he said.

As a 3-year-old, he spent far too much of his summer battling to stay alive, after a dip in a Georgia swimming pool left him gravely ill from E. coli bacteria. The kidneys of the young Weiss failed.

But when the 1998 All-Star Game was played in Denver, then-Rockies owner Jerry McMorris sent his private jet to transport a tough kid into town, so little Brody Weiss could sit in the stands when his father was introduced as a member of the Atlanta Braves.

“What can I say?” Walt Weiss said at the time. “The kid’s a fighter.”

Other than the worldwide television audience and a hefty paycheck for the winners, there’s only one difference between winning the Super Bowl and taking home the prep baseball trophy.

Celebrating a championship with your high school buddies beats all. Not even the Super Bowl compares. And we have proof.

Barry Helton, who starred at the University of Colorado before joining the 49ers, had one eye glued to a video camera on a cool spring afternoon his son will remember forever.

With Cheyenne Mountain needing two victories to win the double-elimination tournament, Bret Helton won the opener against Valor as the starting pitcher, stabbed line drives as a shortstop and drove in six runs on four hits for good measure. All before dinner.

After the Indians’ 12-0 thumping of Wheat Ridge in the title game, somewhere in that happy pile of celebrating prep was one of the most legendary names in Colorado sports.

“The best part of winning a state championship? You do it with your friends,” Bret Helton said.

Long before Todd Helton became a household name in Colorado by thumping doubles into the gap at Coors Field, Barry Helton made Simla High School more than a small dot on the state map.

Not many prep athletes go from 8-man prep football to the Super Bowl. Helton did it twice. He won back-to-back NFL titles with the 49ers.

“When I won a state football championship my sophomore year, I couldn’t have been a happier person, based on sports. That’s as good as it gets,” said Helton, who somehow managed to sneak on the field to punt four times during San Francisco’s 55-10 dismantling of the Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV.

“When you win a Super Bowl, that’s as good as it gets, at the pro level. But the thing about high school is this. Colleges recruit. The pros draft. In high school, you have to win with the kids you played with since you were 9 years old.”

It was the second state championship enjoyed by Bret Helton. “Yeah,” he said, “but my dad won six.”

“No,” countered the elder Helton, chuckling at the error made on behalf of a prep legend in need of zero padding. “I was only on four state champion teams. Three in football and one in basketball.”

Walt Weiss, who played shortstop for the Rockies from 1994-97, is now a coach on the Regis baseball staff.

“I don’t think it gets any better than when you’re a player,” he said. “But I was amazed at the emotions involved with these kids. They play with such passion. It means so much to them. You succeed and fail right there with them.

“You’ve got to watch the game as a coach. But the dad creeps in.”

A championship hug is as tight as the love between a father and son.

Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com

The San Francisco 49ers welcomed a new face this week with the arrival of rookie signal-caller Colin Kaepernick, who threw to teammates at player-only workouts in the San Jose area, according to The Sacramento Bee on Friday.

Kaepernick first joined Wednesday’s practice, but The Bee said Friday’s passing session marked his most intense activity yet since undergoing a procedure on his left leg after the 49ers selected him in the second round of last month’s draft.

Kaepernick is the second 49ers rookie to work out with veterans after receiver Ronald Johnson, a sixth-round pick, practiced with teammates for 10 days soon after the draft.

It’s been suggested that the strong-armed, fleet-footed Kaepernick will find his way into the 49ers’ attack, even if he sits behind Alex Smith, who also has actively attended workouts during the NFL lockout, along with 14 other teammates. The Bee reports that Smith has been joined by defensive linemen Isaac Sopoaga and Justin Smith, offensive linemen Joe Staley and Adam Snyder, and receivers Kevin Jurovich and Josh Morgan.

Kaepernick received a copy of the 49ers playbook from a teammate, but is unable to communicate with San Francisco’s coaching staff during the lockout. He planned reach out to Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, who played under new 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh for the previous three seasons.

As for Kaepernick, the newspaper reports that it’s not only the playbook and his new team he’s getting used to — the rookie just made the move from his parents house in Turlock, Calif. to the Bay Area.

ESPN’s Tedy Bruschi and Herm Edwards recently discussed which teams with losing records in 2010 might break through and reach the playoffs in 2011.

Bruschi singled out the St. Louis Rams. I’ll expand on his thoughts in our next “Hot Button” discussion.

Edwards went with the San Francisco 49ers. I also could make the case for San Francisco, but the statute of limitations for overrating the 49ers expired around here. If the 49ers are going to finally break through, they’ll have to do it on their own.

I’ll wait until at least training camp before anointing the 49ers as favorites. The Rams get my vote now based on their quarterback situation and defensive improvement.