Christian McCaffrey wore No. 22 during his five-plus seasons with the Carolina Panthers. He needed to pick a new number when the Panthers traded him to the San Francisco 49ers. Jeff Wilson Jr. wears No. 22, so the star running back went with No. 23. After all, the two digits add up to five, the number he wore in college at Stanford.

General manager John Lynch shared on KNBR that he believes the league is trying to put an end to players paying other players for their numbers once the season starts, so maybe No. 22 was never going to be an option anyway.


There was a brief idea that McCaffrey could make a phone call and ask for another number.

"Frank Gore (his No. 21) is not officially retired, but he did some pretty good things around here," Lynch shared on the Murph & Mac show, "and the owner (CEO Jed York) is a big fan of Frank. On that one, Jed said, 'Hey, you can have Christian reach out to Frank and see if Frank would allow it.'

"I told Christian that, and Christian said, 'Nah, I've got too much respect for him. I'll just take 23. I think I like 23 anyhow.' Twenty-one would be cool with Frank, with Deion [Sanders], but he didn't want to go there, and I appreciate Christian for that."

It's a great story of one of the league's best running backs respecting one of the best in NFL history and a Bay Area icon.

You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.




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