NFL clears team after investigating possible rules violation

Did the San Francisco 49ers violate any league rules in how they reported the injury status of running back Christian McCaffrey before Week 1’s Monday Night Football Game against the New York Jets? According to the NFL, no.

While McCaffrey was listed as questionable throughout the week, he wasn’t ruled out until Monday, 90 minutes before kickoff . Even with McCaffrey out, San Francisco had a dominant running attack, with Jordan Mason rushing for 147 yards in the 32-19 win. After the game, Mason said in an interview with ESPN’s Lisa Salters that he was told he’d start Friday. Mason revealing that he knew he was starting on Friday led to speculation that the 49ers might have known that McCaffrey was likely to be out — or at least limited.

But on Friday, Jonathan Jones of the NFL on CBS reported that the 49ers were in the clear.

“The NFL has looked into the 49ers’ reporting of the playing status of Christian McCaffrey for the team’s Monday night game against the New York Jets,” Jones reported. “They found no evidence of a violation of the league’s Injury Report Policy in this matter.”

Following Mason’s comments, coach Kyle Shanahan clarified that he didn’t tell Mason he was starting, only that he’d play a lot. Additionally, even if he had, that wouldn’t necessarily mean the 49ers knew McCaffrey would not play. While McCaffrey is the 49ers’ regular starting running back, he was nursing the injury for most of training camp. Even if Mason was told he was starting on Friday, it’s certainly possible that San Francisco thought McCaffrey would play (or at least thought he might play) but knew he’d be limited to a bench role even if he was in action.

[Jonathan Jones on X ]

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