{"id":390508,"date":"2025-11-19T18:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/390508\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T18:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:56:13","slug":"the-christian-mccaffrey-you-dont-know-a-puzzle-solving-wordsmithing-chess-nerd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/390508\/","title":{"rendered":"The Christian McCaffrey you don\u2019t know: A puzzle-solving, wordsmithing chess nerd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skate<\/p>\n

Take<\/p>\n

Eat<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a rule inside the San Francisco 49ers locker room \u2026<\/p>\n

Teak<\/p>\n

Stake<\/p>\n

Seat<\/p>\n

Never get into a competition \u2026<\/p>\n

Tea<\/p>\n

East<\/p>\n

Steak<\/p>\n

\u2026 with Christian McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially true when it comes to an anagram game the San Francisco 49ers tailback has taken up recently. Teammates say he\u2019s always trying to goad them into a match \u2014 a race to see who can make words from a set number of letters \u2014 when they\u2019re on the bus, on the plane or any time there\u2019s a lull in the action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s annoying because he\u2019s pretty effing good,\u201d fullback Kyle Juszczyk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even fun,\u201d tight end George Kittle complained.<\/p>\n

Said guard Dominick Puni: \u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys who\u2019s good at everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone who follows the NFL knows McCaffrey is multitalented. When he was with the Carolina Panthers in 2019, he became the third player in NFL history to tally more than 1,000 yards as both a rusher and receiver. As he prepares to face his former team for the first time on Monday, he\u2019s on pace to become the first to repeat that feat.<\/p>\n

He leads the NFL with 1,439 yards from scrimmage, and his 11 touchdowns \u2014 including three in Sunday\u2019s rout of the Arizona Cardinals \u2014 are more than double the next-highest 49er and tied for second in the league behind the Indianapolis Colts\u2019 Jonathan Taylor (17). He ranks ninth in the NFL in receiving yards; all eight of the guys ahead of him are wide receivers, and no other running back is in the top 35.<\/p>\n

See<\/p>\n

Deep <\/p>\n

Speed<\/p>\n

Teammates, however, note his talents go beyond catching footballs and dodging tacklers.<\/p>\n

Juszczyk, for example, said he was surprised when, while hanging out with McCaffrey and some of his boyhood friends during a recent offseason, McCaffrey got up and started playing the piano. He took lessons beginning at age 5 and stuck with it after his neighbor and close friend, Mike Mann, told him it was a great way to attract girls.<\/p>\n

The running back put that to the test one day when he was wooing now-wife Olivia Culpo. He played a few notes, thinking it would knock her off her feet. But in addition to being a former Miss Universe and model, Culpo is an accomplished cellist whose mother plays viola for the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra. And McCaffrey didn\u2019t pass muster, at least as a pianist.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was so unimpressed, it was ridiculous,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

More impressive are McCaffrey\u2019s skills in word hunts, finding anagrams and playing chess. He recently reached the 1000 level on chess.com<\/a>, which means that, according to the site\u2019s metric, he\u2019s on the verge of becoming an advanced player \u2026 and also that no one on the 49ers bothers to play him anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how to play chess, but I don\u2019t know any strategy,\u201d said the Harvard-educated Juszczyk. \u201cAnd he has so much fun just mopping the floor with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For that, the 49ers teammates can blame Lisa McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

She and her husband, Ed, supplied Christian and his three brothers with their athletic gifts. Ed was a 13-year wide receiver who won a Super Bowl with the 49ers in 1994 and two more with the Denver Broncos. He\u2019s the biggest reason why no running back runs routes as crisply as Christian does. Lisa was a speed-demon soccer forward<\/a> at Stanford, which is where she met Ed.<\/p>\n

Competition was built into McCaffrey brothers\u2019 DNA and, as it turns out, into the family\u2019s home decor. Lisa said she simply likes the look of chessboards and has them throughout their Denver-area home. The surface of the living room coffee table is a chessboard, a side table in the basement doubles as a chessboard and the McCaffreys have a specially made board on which the chess pieces are carved with a Broncos and Raiders theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the boys would play all the time \u2014 everyone fighting to be the Broncos, of course,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lisa said her sons certainly weren\u2019t obsessed with chess while growing up, and Christian made clear his newly earned chess rating is good, not great.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not Bobby Fischers or anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Christian McCaffrey has all the right moves \u2026 on the playing field and on the chessboard. (Chris Graythen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Still, the boys were in chess club in elementary school, and they play more today than they ever did as kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as you get older, you realize the similarities between chess and life,\u201d Christian said. \u201cYou know, they call it the game of life \u2014 from sacrificing things to being two steps ahead to staying in the fight to protecting your queen to sticking with your strategy to whether you want to be offensive or defensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa has another explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all closet nerds,\u201d she said. \u201cEd\u2019s a nerd. You think they\u2019re cool because they play football, but deep down inside, they\u2019re all a little bit nerdy. Sorry, they are. But I think that\u2019s a good thing in a way. They\u2019re not out in the club with all the cologne on and the gold chains, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stud athlete\/chess nerd dynamic was on full display this offseason. Luke McCaffrey, the youngest brother<\/a> and a receiver for the Washington Commanders, said that when he trained with Christian, their paraphernalia included cleats, water bottles, towels \u2026 and a chess set.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were doing full-speed accelerations that had longer rests in between,\u201d Luke said. \u201cYou need a little bit of extra time just so your body can do the next one full speed. So that was how we would spend that rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

So who\u2019s the family chess champion?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I am,\u201d Luke responded after a pause.<\/p>\n

Is Christian going to say otherwise?<\/p>\n

\u201cI would put some money on it that he does,\u201d Luke said.<\/p>\n

(Christian did just that \u2014 firmly.)<\/p>\n

Christian said he\u2019ll sometimes play Luke online at night or when they both have an off day. And if he can\u2019t coordinate with his brother, he\u2019ll take on a random opponent who\u2019s at a similar skill level. Other sports stars like soccer player Christian Pulisic and former wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald are active on chess.com, and like them, McCaffrey doesn\u2019t use a pseudonym. Anyone who takes him on can look and see that he or she is playing Christian McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t know if they know (who I am),\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s people from all over the world. It\u2019s funny. You\u2019re playing like late at night, and you realize you\u2019re playing someone in Greece. And you\u2019re like, \u2018What time is it in Greece?\u2019 And you realize it\u2019s midday.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of chess, his locker-room opponents in the anagram game are dwindling, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis first week here, I played him one time and he beat me by like 100 words,\u201d said Kittle, whose locker is next to McCaffrey\u2019s. \u201cI\u2019d never played the game before. And I was like, \u2018Yeah, not wasting my time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The only one who can keep pace is Puni, whose girlfriend got him hooked on anagrams and who, unlike Kittle, was prepared when McCaffrey first challenged him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played our first game to 100,\u201d Puni said. \u201cAnd he won 100 to 97. So it was a dogfight. It felt like a Game 7.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puni said when his phone buzzes at 8 p.m., he knows who it is. The text will read either \u201cCMC Word Hunt\u201d or \u201cCMC Anagram.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point, it\u2019s game on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of annoying,\u201d Puni said of McCaffrey\u2019s word-game prowess.<\/p>\n

Tough<\/p>\n

Out<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, when I beat him in word games, it\u2019s pretty fun,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ought<\/p>\n

To<\/p>\n

Hug.<\/p>\n