San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey admitted he was unaware of the significance of his father’s 1999 Super Bowl victory.
McCaffrey Jr. has a chance to join his father Ed as Super Bowl champions when his San Francisco 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s NFL showdown in Las Vegas.
Ed McCaffrey is a three-time Super Bowl winner, winning once with the 49ers and twice with the Denver Broncos, including Super Bowl XXXIII when Christian was just two.
Before the running back’s shot at glory, a photo of a young Christian strolling around the confetti-filled field after his father and the Broncos’ 1999 victory came to mind.
When asked about the photo during the lead-up to this week’s Super Bowl, the MVP candidate admitted that at that age he had not yet understood the significance of the event.
Christian McCaffrey opened a photo of him during his father’s Super Bowl victory in 1999
A two-year-old McCaffrey was captured running across the field after his father, Ed, won
Christian (R) is pictured with wide receiver Ed and his older brother Max after a game in 2002
“I don’t think I really knew what was going on,” he admitted to reporters in Sin City on Wednesday.
“That was me and my older brother Max, probably filled with joy, excited that we had an open field to play on.”
If Christian can win it with the 49ers, they will become only the second father and son in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with the same franchise.
And they would be joined by a third in Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan and his father Mike, who also won as head coach for San Francisco alongside Ed McCaffrey.
Shanahan’s father, Mike, lost two Super Bowls as offensive coordinator at Denver before going to San Francisco and winning one in 1995. He then won two more as head coach of the Broncos.
“I remember seeing my dad after those Super Bowls when he was a coordinator in Denver when I was younger and how hard it was for him,” Shanahan said. “So I think when you get that close and lose the last one, that’s definitely the hardest thing.”