How Playing Other Sports Helped These 49ers Stars

Deebo Samuel, Kyle Juszczyk and more talk about how playing other sports at a high level as kids helped them become football players.

To say the childhood of 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw was tumultuous is putting it kindly. An absent dad. A mother struggling with alcoholism and making ends meet. Greenlaw and his siblings bounced around, not knowing where they were living from week-to-week or if each new dwelling would even come with electricity. School was rough and detention was commonplace. Eventually Greenlaw landed in a group home before being saved by the Early family.

49ers running back superstar Christian McCaffrey, on the other hand, grew up with a loving, stable family, healthy finances, and a lineage of successful athletes. His father, Ed, was a three-time Super Bowl champion, and his mother, Lisa, was a soccer star at Stanford.

Greenlaw and McCaffrey will take the field on Super Bowl Sunday with their extremely different lanes to the promised land. Among the many beautiful aspects of every NFL locker room is a convergence of different backgrounds which only enriches team culture. Yet despite the array of origin stories, there is one shared aspect of every NFL player’s youth sports journey: they all played other sports at a high level.

I spent a few days in Las Vegas this week covering the insanity that is the lead up to the Super Bowl. Namely, I wanted to see old friends, get the word out about Good Game (feel free to help in that department 😃), take a break from kid logistics, and most importantly, dig for some good youth football stories. More on that to come but here’s a little preview as I asked 49ers QB Brock Purdy about playing flag football until age 12 and how it translated into tackle. Purdy’s answer is brilliant and looking forward to delving more in the coming weeks.

But it was wasn’t just flag football Purdy was playing. He was a star baseball player. Of course Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes was as well. Mahomes has a long history of incorporating many of his baseball talents in quarterbacking like the off-balance sidearm throws he seems to make his ease.

It’s no secret that playing multiple sports makes a more completed athlete. Don’t even get me started on The S Word. But I was curious, how specifically did playing another sport or two aid in helping a football player reach their NFL dreams. I asked some key members of the 49ers this very question at their Wednesday media availability.

Not to play favorites here but I’m going to start with 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, and it’s not just because his wife is America’s hottest fashion designer. It’s because in addition to playing a multitude of sports growing up, the less famous Juszczyk was also a Mathlete!!!! (boo Substack for trying to autocorrect that into ‘athlete’). Here, we chat about how the sports and math helped prep Kyle for a football career:

Juszczyk is not alone. Here, other players shared their perspective.

Deebo Samuel, 49ers wideout: Samuel played basketball and also dabbled in track for what he said was a few days.

How basketball helped Samuel as a football player.

“Movement for sure, and the ball handling helped me as a receiver, especially going left to right and moving around.”

Dre Greenlaw, 49ers linebacker: Greenlaw played basketball, baseball, and ran track.

How basketball and baseball helped Greenlaw.

“Basketball helped with being athletic and quick on my feet defensively. It helped me to be able to jump, to read stuff, get better instincts. Baseball helped my hands and to catch balls.”

Deommodore Lenoir, 49ers cornerback: Lenoir played basketball.

How basketball helped Lenoir.

“Really, it’s my vertical game. Jumping up for the ball, I feel like it’s easy for me to do that leaping for the ball in football.”

Oren Burks, 49ers linebacker: Burke played basketball, baseball and soccer before a friend dared him to try football.

How all the sports helped Burks.

“It taught teamwork and being able to compete at a high level. But it’s important to just have fun early. I feel like now kids specialize too early. I feel like a lot of my athleticism came from basketball and the movement involved.”

Arik Armstead, 49ers defensive tackle: Armstead also played basketball (Duh, he’s 6’7)

How basketball helped Armstead.

Definitely with footwork and conditioning. Just being an overall athlete, I think the demands of basketball, being able to run and be smooth definitely transfer over to football.”

There are many many layers to youth football, some not so pretty. But it remains one of the last sports that kids can play at high level on a seasonal basis. And it’s rather clear that mixing in other sports is also tantamount to succeeding in football … at least if you want to play in the Super Bowl some day.