The entire McCaffrey clan was going through it.
In the days leading up to Christian McCaffrey’s trade from the Carolina Panthers to the 49ers on Oct. 20, his football family envisioned the possible scenarios. Was he going to the Niners? The Rams? The Bills?
While dad, the 13-year NFL veteran, Ed, prayed to the football gods for a trade to San Francisco, Christian’s younger brother, Luke, was already daydreaming about training with Cooper Kupp. Lisa, the energetic mom of the gang, discussed what it was like for her family on her latest episode of “Your Mom”, a podcast she recently launched with co-host Ashley Adamson, longtime host/reporter at Pac-12 Networks.
“Adam Schefter tweeted that (trade rumor) out during two of my kids playing college games, and I was mad at him for that,” McCaffrey joked. “Because, Adam, think of me! Gosh. I know you wanna break the story, but can you wait til the game’s over, buddy? Anyway, so he did it and my phone’s blowing up during the game. Then the rumors start flying.”
Over the next few days, the family became consumed by the thought of the trade.
The family’s youngest son, Luke, is putting together a breakout campaign as a sophomore wide receiver for Rice. In eight games this season, he’s got 47 catches for 613 yards and seven total touchdowns.
When the rumors were swirling, Luke and Lisa had a long conversation about the possibility of Christian joining the Rams.
“He’s obsessed with Cooper Kupp, as I’m sure everybody is,” Lisa said. “He had just had somebody do a cut up of 3,000 plays, like every play Cooper Kupp had ever played in since he was born, or something ridiculous. So we spent an hour-long car ride just saying why the Rams would be a great fit. He was saying, ‘I could work out with Cooper Kupp in the offseason, this would be great.’”
Initially, Lisa didn’t think her son was gonna get traded. Ed had been released before, but never traded midseason, so it was a new experience for her. She prodded Christian’s agent for info and realized a deal was imminent.
“I called his agent and put his back against the wall and said, ‘Knife to your throat, who do you think it would be?’” Lisa said. “He still was reluctant to answer, but he said, 'Right now I’d say Rams.'”
Eventually on the night of Oct. 20, she got a late-night call from Christian.
“As I’m picking up the phone, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, where?’” Lisa said. “He goes, ‘Niners’ and I freaked out. From the top to the bottom of my body, I thought it was the Rams at that point, possibly Bills, but we still didn’t know. I didn’t think it would happen. I really, truly did not think it would happen. I didn’t have faith in John Lynch, but I love John Lynch, my new favorite person in the world. And Kyle. And Peggy (Shanahan), obviously.”
“The Mom Mafia is running shit,” Adamson said.
“I was hyperventilating, like, ‘Oh my gosh!’” Lisa said. “And you could tell he was ecstatic, he was hyped. I ran down to Ed and put him on speaker phone, and he’s like, ‘I didn’t think this is where it would be.’ He was just super excited.”
Ed is currently head coach at the University of Northern Colorado, where their oldest son, Maxwell is offensive coordinator and their third son, Dylan, is the starting quarterback. Dad spent one magical season in San Francisco, winning the Super Bowl following the 1994 campaign, so he still had some Niners gear in the closet.
“Ed had a pair of shorts on, and underneath those he had a pair of Niners shorts on,” Lisa said. “Because he was trying to manifest it, too. He really likes that offense.”
Mom did her part to get Christian to the Bay, even asking Kyle Shanahan’s mom, Peggy, if the 49ers would trade for Christian during the previous episode of “Your Mom”, which was recorded shortly before the deal went down.
“I was just wondering, by any small chance, if you guys were gonna trade for Christian?” Lisa asked Peggy.
“Lisa and I, we’ve tried to figure out plans just her and I, on how we can take this over,” Peggy said. “And keep agents and head coaches and GM’s and all those people (out of it). Done.”
Lisa said she loved going back to Santa Clara for Christian’s debut in Week 8, when she saw some familiar faces from Ed’s lone season in San Francisco, like Jesse Sapolu and Jerry Rice. The franchise was celebrating alumni weekend and Christian even wore the ‘94 throwback jersey that his dad sported back in the day.
“The connections are insane,” Lisa said. “It was very surreal, I’ll say that.”
The McCaffreys were so excited that they even forgot to book a return flight home to Colorado. Lisa said it felt like their son got drafted all over again.
“Ed and I both said that, ‘It feels like draft night,’” Lisa said. “He goes, ‘I feel like I’ve been drafted.' Like, ‘Calm down, Ed. You’re old.’ He can barely get up the stairs. … NFL really took its toll on him.”
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