CHARLOTTE, N.C. —Christian McCaffrey is a budding star on the football field. Turns out, he’s a pretty good person off of it, too. The Carolina Panthers running back relayed a wild tale to the team’s website Tuesday in which he, his brothers Dylan and Max and a pair of friends helped save a life while on a hike Saturday at Castle Rock in Colorado. As McCaffrey explains it, he, his
brothers and his friends were ascending to the top of the hike when they witnessed 72-year-old Dan Smoker Sr. fall about 20 feet onto a rock below him.”It felt like he was in the air for 10 seconds,” McCaffrey said. “I had never seen anything quite like that in my life as far as the trauma and the sound. We were in shock.”Smoker, who was on the hike with his 13-year-old grandson Eli, suffered severe injuries in the fall, including a broken femur, a broken pelvis, internal bleeding, bleeding on the brain, nine fractured ribs and a broken neck. The McCaffreys, their friends and an onlooker acted quickly, helping tend to the man, administering chest compressions when his breathing waned. Eventually, the grandfather was rushed to the hospital, and as of Tuesday, he was in critical but stable condition. The man’s son, Dan Smoker Jr., credited the group with saving his father’s life.
Christian McCaffrey Hiking Accident 911 Call
McCaffery is trying to work his way back onto the field after suffering an abdominal tear that he suffered early on in the week 4 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers. “It’s no big deal, we were well aware of the trip.” Coach Miller said via skype “Our doctors cleared him for non football activity, and he has been working very hard to try and get back on the field as quick as possible, so there is no issue with him spending some time with his family in his off time. As of right now we have him listed as questionable, but we believe that he will be a game time decision for Sundays game against the Atlanta Falcons.”
It will be an interesting call on what they would like to do with McCaffery before Sundays critical game vs the Superbowl winning Falcons, who seems to be having a Super Bowl hangover currently sitting at 2-4 tied for last in the South. A win here would almost seal the division for the Panthers, but they might ere on the side of caution and use the bye week after this game to give there young star a chance to come back at 100%. It makes the decision a lot easier when veteran Jonathan Stewart is running like someone turned back the clock, the Panthers have yet to lose since he took over for the injured McCaffery, and he is coming off one of the strongest performances of the season to the tune of 22 carries for 94 yds to go with 1 td. Even rookie 6th round pick Sherwin Cromartie-Smith got in on the action by taking a short pass and taking it 29 yards for a score, leaving a wake of defenders behind.
So there’s no telling if McCaffery, whenever returns, even slides right into rb1 role again with Stewart playing so well. The backups are filling in extremely well and the team is on a winning streak, so hopefully the staff takes all of what is happening and sticks with the hot hand going into the bye week after the Falcons game.