Tom Brady, Peyton Manning endorse Christian McCaffrey’s MVP case
SANTA CLARA — Tom Brady says his NFL MVP vote is leaning toward the 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey, who also scored an endorsement Monday night from Peyton Manning.
Such backing might be what McCaffrey needs to wrestle the Associated Press’ NFL MVP award away from quarterbacks, who’ve won it 16-of-17 years since Brady captured his first in 2007.
Or the 50 voters — from national media outlets — could follow McCaffrey’s own advice, which, after the 49ers’ latest win Sunday in Arizona, was to cast support behind 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, the unanimous favorite of the Las Vegas sportsbooks.
The second-best odds belong to quarterback Lamar Jackson, who leads the Baltimore Ravens (11-3) into Monday night’s game at the 49ers (11-3).
McCaffrey, the NFL’s rushing leader and fifth in MVP odds, made the media rounds Monday: He appeared on Brady’s “Let’s Go!” podcast and also on ESPN’s “ManningCast” broadcast of the Seattle Seahawks’ upset over the Philadelphia Eagles — a result that strengthened the 49ers’ bid for the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed.
“I love how Eli is cutting the MVP of the league off to talk about what hole the runner should hit,” Peyton Manning, a five-time MVP, said during Monday’s split-screen set as his brother, Eli, interrupted McCaffrey. “If that’s not comical, I don’t know what is.”
Brady sounded downright serious on his podcast when he voiced his support and long-standing admiration for McCaffrey dating back to the running back’s college days at Stanford, which is just down the road from Brady’s native San Mateo.
Here are soundbites from Brady’s interview of McCaffrey with podcast co-host Jim Gray on SiriusXM Radio:
Brady: “I remember the first time I actually got a glimpse of Christian was in the Rose Bowl. He caught like an angle pass against Iowa and ran for about a 75-yard touchdown. I was like, ‘Well, they’re not gonna catch him!’ … He was a dynamic player then. He is a dynamic player now, and I think all of what he’s done this year is a lot what he’s done in the past. It’s a different team with some different opportunities and they’ve been really dynamic on offense. So he is definitely in my mind the MVP favorite and according to his quarterback too, Brock Purdy, who says some amazing things about him. … And I know you’ll say, because you’re a great team player, the Super Bowl is the only thing that really matters. With the offseason that the running backs have, do you kind of feel like an award like that would be pretty nice?”
McCaffrey: “Well, I appreciate you saying that, man. That means a lot. I don’t get into all the award stuff, but to your point, I just think even being in the conversation is an honor, and specifically for that reason and the timing of it with running backs and some of the stuff, and I think when you look at the history of the NFL and running backs and where we’re at now. Every position other than a couple at some point has kind of had their dips as far as the market goes, and part of it is just fighting against the franchise tag and fighting against different things going on around the league. But, you know, I don’t know if that’s why it feels good. It does feel good. Obviously there’s still a lot of football left and that’s really where my mind’s at. But it’s cool to see a lot of the other running backs who are having a lot of success as well. … I look at guys around the league who are continuing to have success and that motivates me and continues to push me to compete with them. But also at the same time it’s great for the position.”
Gray: “You kind of had the same approach. You wanted to win the Super Bowl, but what did it mean to you to win the MVP award? You did it several times.”
(Brady won the regular-season NFL MVP three times, and he won Super Bowl MVP honors in five of his seven championship victories.)
Brady: “Yeah, I mean, I felt like I was a lot like Christian. I felt like the team awards were – which was ultimately winning championships – was what it was all about. You can have a great individual year and you could be a really good player on a bad team, which is not very much fun. I think for me it was always about celebrating the success with other players and the best moments weren’t accepting a trophy, an MVP trophy. It was accepting a Super Bowl ring with all the people that played a part of that.”
Brady: “I watch big Trent (Williams) there blocking for everybody. … Not saying that Trent’s gonna take the MVP away, but if there was an award given to the offensive lineman Trent would be the one to get it in my opinion ’cause of what he does up front. He’s pretty unbelievable.”
McCaffrey: “Yeah, if I had my vote, it’d be Brock as the MVP and Trent would be the second in line.”
Brady: “I do get a vote this year, just so you know.”
McCaffrey: “Do you? Well, vote for Brock, man. That guy deserves it, man. I know, obviously you respect that. He’s been unbelievable for this team and I hate when I hear people say anything negative, ‘Oh, he’s just a system quarterback.’ Everyone’s a system quarterback. That’s part of what being a quarterback is in my eyes. I mean, I don’t know much about the position. I try to stay in my lane and just try to get open and block and do all the other things. But I mean, when you play within a system that’s about all you can ask for. And then occasionally you make the plays outside of the X’s and O’s and that’s all he’s done all year. So he gets my vote.”
McCaffrey: “I think that’s why football’s the best game on the planet earth is because you don’t have to be a talker. You don’t have to be a speech guy before the game. It doesn’t matter what you do or what you say, all that matters is the silent tape. And when you turn the tape on the next day, you can tell who loves you and it’s the biggest example of love when somebody’s doing something unselfish for you and asking for nothing in return. And that happens all over the football field all the time on these good teams.”
Gray: “Are you allowing yourself to be a 49ers fan again? Are you getting over this now that you’re out of football?”
Brady: “They passed me up six times in 2000. … I had a chip on my shoulder for a long time now. I root for a lot of players and whatever team they’re on, always root for them. And I root for Christian ’cause I really like him and how he plays and his style of play and his team-first attitude, but not necessarily the colors of the jersey anymore.”
McCaffrey: “I resonate with that a lot. I mean, I think everybody gets it to an extent. Tom says it, which I love. But, no, I mean, I completely get it. That resonates with me one hundred percent. My dad played ball obviously, and just growing up with him, you know, I’ve always been very salty and had that chip as well. And seeing you have it always fires me up. That’s the best player to ever play the game and he’s still p—– off. It validates all of my emotions.”
Brady: “So I got an important question for you, and this has been on my mind, but are you or Brock more capable of growing facial hair? If you’re gonna grow like a playoff beard who’s gonna win that? I know we’re talking about MVP, but…”
McCaffrey: “Look, I can grow it, it just looks horrible ’cause I can’t connect the ‘stash. So I end up getting like the Narnia, just the chinstrap. I look like an idiot. I don’t know if Brock’s ever had a strand of hair come out of his face. He’s still going through puberty, I think. So, I mean, you wanna talk about the upside potential on somebody. I mean, he’s just now hitting puberty, so he’s gonna, I mean, he’ll be here the next 20 years at this rate.”
Brady (after the interview, on McCaffrey): “Great attitude and I love just, he’s got the humility, he’s got the skillset. You can tell he is a great leader. And I think when you think about, you know, if I’m looking to build a team, there’s guys that have a lot of those intangibles like ‘team first,’ and he has got that and they’ve got a whole team full of guys like that. And I think Christian, when you have your best players setting the tone, everyone else has to get in line. … How could you get tired of success when you’re dealing with people that are thinking about the team, thinking about how to make an impact. Even what Christian’s doing in his own community with the Logan Project. So I’m just really proud of him in every single way. We need more players like that.”