There was speculation that the NFL might penalize the San Francisco 49ers for allegedly violating the league's injury report policy. Surprisingly, The team listed running back Christian McCaffrey as inactive just 90 minutes before their Week 1 kickoff against the New York Jets. On Saturday, McCaffrey had been labeled "questionable" for the game.
Following the 49ers' 32-19 victory over the Jets, Jordan Mason, who started in McCaffrey's place, was asked in a post-game interview when he learned he would be stepping into the starting role.
"Maybe Friday, Friday night," Mason answered. "Something like that."
This response sparked some confusion, as some questioned why McCaffrey was listed as "questionable" if the team already knew he wouldn't play.
"I never told Jordan he was gonna start," head coach Kyle Shanahan declared in his post-game press conference. "I told him he had to be ready a bunch, but that might have been [RB coach] Bobby [Turner] or somebody trying to pump him up. But I knew he was gonna have to play a lot. I told him it wasn't gonna be like usual. He was gonna be a number two back that was splitting a lot of the time. But no, he didn't know he for sure was doing that until today."
On Friday, the NFL issued a statement confirming that they found no evidence of wrongdoing by the 49ers regarding McCaffrey's injury status.
The statement read: "We looked into the 49ers' reporting of the playing status of Christian McCaffrey for the team's Monday night game against the New York Jets. We have found no evidence of a violation of the league's Injury Report Policy in this matter."
Per the NFL: "We looked into the 49ers' reporting of the playing status of Christian McCaffrey for the team's Monday night game against the New York Jets. We have found no evidence of a violation of the league's Injury Report Policy in this matter."
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 13, 2024
