Niners Nation
49ers signing kicker Matt Gay to fill in for Eddy Piñeiro
“A Pro Bowl selection in 2021, Gay helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI and made NFL history in 2023 by becoming the first kicker to hit four field goals of 50-plus yards in a single game.”
The Christian McCaffrey you don’t know: A puzzle-solving, wordsmithing chess nerd (paywall) “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.
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’t pass muster, at least as a pianist.
“She was so unimpressed, it was ridiculous,” he recalled.
More impressive are McCaffrey’s skills in word hunts, finding anagrams and playing chess. He recently reached the 1000 level on chess.com, which means that, according to the site’s metric, he’s on the verge of becoming an advanced player … and also that no one on the 49ers bothers to play him anymore.
“I know how to play chess, but I don’t know any strategy,” said the Harvard-educated Juszczyk. “And he has so much fun just mopping the floor with me.” …. On top of chess, his locker-room opponents in the anagram game are dwindling, too.
“His first week here, I played him one time and he beat me by like 100 words,” said Kittle, whose locker is next to McCaffrey’s. “I’d never played the game before. And I was like, ‘Yeah, not wasting my time.’”
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.
“We played our first game to 100,” Puni said. “And he won 100 to 97. So it was a dogfight. It felt like a Game 7.”
Puni said when his phone buzzes at 8 p.m., he knows who it is. The text will read either “CMC Word Hunt” or “CMC Anagram.”
At that point, it’s game on.
“It’s kind of annoying,” Puni said of McCaffrey’s word-game prowess.
Kawakami mailbag: The future for Aiyuk and Jones, the Giants’ strategy, and more (paywall)
“You’d get a “yes” from me on trading Jones. I’ve speculated for a while that, even though he signed a two-year deal with the 49ers last offseason, there might be a tacit agreement that the 49ers will try to do right by him next offseason after he played so well replacing Purdy for eight games this season….And on Aiyuk …...
