Did the 49ers lie about Christian McCaffrey’s injury to deceive the Jets? Many NFL fans are calling out San Francisco for failing to properly report CMC’s Calf/Achilles injury. Despite being listed as questionable, reports from both the team and McCaffrey himself indicated he would play on Monday, but the team ultimately ruled him out mere minutes before kickoff.
Adding to the drama, #49ers backup RB Jordan Mason told ESPN in a post-game interview that he was informed on Friday he’d be starting. However, Kyle Shanahan denied telling Mason that he’d start. So, either Shanahan is lying, or someone on the 49ers staff—who must look just like him—misinformed Mason. I’ll leave it to you to decide which version of events you believe.
We’ve seen the NFL come down hard on teams that withhold injury information until the last minute. Last year, the Falcons were fined $75,000, and coach Arthur Smith was personally fined $25,000 for failing to report RB Bijan Robinson’s illness ahead of a game. With the NFL estimating $35 billion in bets this season, Roger Goodell is making sure injury reports are accurate to maintain transparency.
It’s understandable that fans and bettors alike are upset if the 49ers knew CMC wasn’t playing but the team waited until the last minute to announce it. Furthermore, The 49ers could have withheld the information to mess with the Jets’ game plan. Without CMC, analysts were expecting a pass-heavy approach from San Francisco, which might have led the Jets to prepare differently. However, the 49ers stuck to their running game and caught the Jets off guard, running all over them all night.
Whether this was a strategic ploy or a breach of NFL protocol remains to be seen, but the situation will is already under scrutiny from fans.