Christian McCaffrey and the San Francisco 49ers have played 11 games during the 2023/24 NFL season. Their bodies are tired. They are beat up.
Every single player in the league is dealing with bumps, bruises, scrapes and pains at this point in the year. However, very few players take a beating like the running back.
Especially a running back like McCaffrey, who touched the ball 24 times during a Thanksgiving win over the Seattle Seahawks. He only scored two touchdowns, which means that he was tackled 22 times.
Those hits add up!
Olivia Culpo, who got engaged to the 49ers ball-carrier during the offseason, shared a behind-the-scenes look at the toll of an NFL season on her fiancée’s body upon his return home on Friday morning. She’s going to have to change the bedsheets, again, because McCaffrey can’t stop bleeding on them.
The cut on his left elbow has been there since the third week of training camp. Scrapes and turf burns cover any part of his body that is exposed to the elements while on the field.
McCaffrey’s entire right arm is black and blue, from just below the shoulder to just above the wrist.
Needless to say, being a running back in the NFL (just playing in the NFL) is often painful.
Culpo’s caption also provides interesting perspective.
Thursday night games
What a stud
Multiple players have said in the past that short weeks are especially hard on the body.
It takes the athletes a full seven days (at least) to recover from the ailments that linger from the game prior. By the time that they are healed up, Sunday rolls around again.
Thursday games, like the one Christian McCaffrey played on Thanksgiving, don’t allow for an addition three days of healing. They don’t have the luxury of a day off on Monday. They don’t have the ability to get treatment during the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before a game on Sunday.
Fridays and Saturdays are usually pretty relaxed. There isn’t as much strain on the body.
Thursday compresses that schedule and forces players to, essentially, get in a car wreck just four days after getting in a car wreck. Culpo pulled back the curtain for McCaffrey, but he is far from the only one!