Everything you need to know about Christian McCaffrey’s family: dad, mom, siblings...

Back in February, San Francisco 49ers running-back Christian McCaffrey realized one of his dreams by playing in his first ever Super Bowl. He had 22 carries for 80 yards and scored one touchdown, and despite ending on the losing side, he had at least wrote a new chapter in a family tradition.

A Super Bowl-winning dad

His father, Ed McCaffrey, won three Super Bowls during a 13-year NFL career that saw him earn Pro Bowl honours in 1998. Albeit only for a season, he too played for the 49ers, helping San Francisco to victory over the San Diego Chargers at Super Bowl XXIX.

A graduate of Stanford University’s college football programme, Ed started out in the NFL with the New York Giants in 1991, before following up his 1994 spell at the 49ers with a hugely successful eight-year stint at the Denver Broncos. In Colorado, he played his part in back-to-back Super Bowl triumphs in 1997 and 1998, leading Broncos fans to vote him into the franchise’s 50th anniversary team in 2009.

Post-retirement, Ed’s most significant coaching role so far came when he was placed in charge of college football team the Northern Colorado Bears at the end of 2019. The 56-year-old was fired from the position in November 2021.

“Like a cheat code right in your own home”

Speaking to NBC last year, Christian spoke of the influence his father had on him as a youngster, as he took his first steps in football. “Here’s a guy who did it the right way and played 13 years in the NFL and won three Super Bowls, been to a Pro Bowl, he’s been cut, he’s been traded, he’s been at the highest of the game,” he said. “That’s like a cheat code right in your own home, use that to your advantage. I tried to do that as much as possible.”

Soccer-star mother, football-playing brothers

During his four years at Stanford, Ed met his wife Lisa Sime, who at the time was one of the leading lights in the California university’s women’s soccer team. “For me, it was love at first sight,” Ed declared in an interview with the Denver Post in 1999. Married in 1992, the couple went on to have four sons - all of whom followed their father into football.

Christian’s older brother, Max, is a former wide receiver who played for Duke at college level, before moving between several teams during a short NFL career. Between 2019 and 2019, he was on the rosters at the Oakland Raiders, the Green Bay Packers, the New Orleans Saints, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the 49ers. Max is now an offensive assistant on the coaching staff at the Miami Dolphins.

Ed and Lisa’s third son, Dylan, played in the college game for the Michigan Wolverines, before transferring to Northern Colorado in 2021 to work under his father. The quarterback appeared 21 times for the Bears in 2021 and 2022.

Finally, Christian’s youngest brother, Luke, is a college-football wide receiver whose impressive displays for the Rice Owls in 2023 saw him named in the American Athletic Conference’s All-Conference First Team. The 22-year-old has been selected for this weekend’s 2024 Reese’s Senior Bowl, a major invitational game that gives college prospects a chance to showcase their talents in front of NFL coaches, executives and scouts.

“Pretty much every [general manager] in the National Football League will be there,” Owls head coach Mike Bloomgren told the Rice Thresher. “All these scouts will be there. It’ll be a chance for him to go against literally the best because this is the top all-star game in America.”

Medal-winning Olympian

Beyond Christian’s nuclear family, there is also significant sporting pedigree. Ed’s brother Billy was a national college basketball champion with Duke in 1991 - and, most significantly, Christian’s maternal grandfather, Dave Sime, was an Olympic medal-winning track athlete, taking silver in the 100m dash at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome.

“Lisa’s dad, that’s the real star of the family,” Ed’s former Broncos team-mate Brian Griese, now the 49ers’ quarterbacks coach, told Newsweek in 2015.