On what should have been the happiest day of his life, Christian McCaffrey was preoccupied with football technique, according to his head coach.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who attended McCaffrey’s wedding to Olivia Culpo in June, knows how intensely competitive McCaffrey, 28, is.
Shanahan joked that even as McCaffrey was walking down the aisle, he was likely focused on football, saying,
“When he’s probably walking down the aisle to get married, he’s probably thinking about his feet and how to do routes, no offense to Olivia.” Shanahan added, “He’s obsessed with it.”
Shanahan, 44, elaborated, “When you take every rep, every walk-through, everything you do, you’re just so deliberate and everything.”
McCaffrey’s dedication and work ethic have had to take a bit of a backseat during this spring’s training camp due to a calf strain
“When you do get in these situations where you do get hurt and can’t go do all that stuff, at least he’s put the work in before,” Shanahan said.
“So that stuff does come back fast. He understands what it takes to play in this game, especially at the level he does.”
The 49ers are set to open the regular season against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets on Monday, September 9. Earlier this month, McCaffrey assured SiriusXM NFL Radio that he doesn’t expect his injury to hinder his readiness to play.
Regarding the wedding, which took place on June 29 in Rhode Island, McCaffrey’s teammates recently shared some details about the lively event.
49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk revealed that Greg Olsen, McCaffrey’s former Carolina Panthers teammate, stole the show by taking the microphone and entertaining the crowd.
“He had a phenomenal time. Him and Christian were up at the bar,” Juszczyk, 33, said at the premiere of Netflix’s Receiver in July. “They were rapping a little bit of Eminem to everybody. It was phenomenal. Well-received.”
49ers teammate George Kittle had to step up during the ceremony when he noticed there was no Bud Light available. “I bought all of the Bud Light at the entire hotel,” Kittle, 30, told Us at the Receiver premiere.
As for covering the cost, Kittle joked, “I just got McCaffrey to pay for it.”