Christian McCaffrey has proven himself to be a game changer for the 49ers since coming over in a trade. Yet 49ers insider Matt Maiocco thinks it’s time for Kyle Shanahan to start utilizing him a little bit less to save him for the playoffs.
SANTA CLARA — The bill was delivered to the table Saturday night, and 49ers rookie defensive lineman Kalia Davis' eyes shot immediately toward the bottom line.
After all, he and fellow rookie Drake Jackson were in charge of picking up the tab for the veterans on the 49ers’ defensive line at Mastro's Steakhouse in Westfield Valley Fair.
He expected a big number. But what he saw was staggering ... and so unbelievable that, well, it was not believable.
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“I wasn’t terrified at all because it was an unrealistic number,” Davis told NBC Sports Bay Area on Tuesday.
One locker spot over, 49ers offensive lineman Colton McKivitz overheard and interjected.
“You’re lying,” McKivitz said to Davis.
“No, I swear,” Davis shot back, “because of the guys we got in our room. I know they’d never do us like that.”
The bill for the dozen or so defensive linemen showed a charge of $322,391.05. Of course, it was a prank.
A waitress at the restaurant played along to present the rookies with a check that overcharged them roughly $318,000.
Veteran Kerry Hyder was not so sure Davis and Jackson immediately picked up on the joke.
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“They were dead,” Hyder said, laughing. “They didn’t know what to do because they don’t go to those kinds of steakhouses too often. They’re young, and they didn’t know how much it was going to cost.”
But Davis said he was keeping tabs on all the orders and had an idea of the costs involved.
“If they’d made it more realistic, like $20,000, my heart probably would’ve dropped,” Davis said.
When the images of the receipt for the dinner made its way onto social media, some picked up on the joke.
Many others, however, were a little slow to catch on.
On Monday, veteran defensive lineman Arik Armstead set the record straight.
“I had good vets as a young player, and I’d never do a rookie like that,” Armstead posted on social media.
"That's good by Arik," 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Tuesday. "A lot of guys can be not cool about it and Arik was a little more mature than that and thank goodness because guys can get ridiculous on that. But I've never seen it that ridiculous."
The price was set to a number so ridiculous on purpose. It was never meant to be taken seriously.
“I was like, ‘You got to know that’s unrealistic,’” Davis said. “I don’t know what you got to order -- you probably got to order a whale -- to get it up that high.
“But they didn’t have any whale on the menu.”
While the rookies paid more of the bill than the others, the veterans also made sure to kick in some money to offset the cost of the traditional late-season dinner.
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“We were there for three or four hours, and everybody was chopping it up,” Davis said. “It was mostly about getting together.
"I don’t think anybody talked about football. It was just us getting together. Just brothers bonding.”
Davis said he boxed up the remaining portion of the ribeye he ordered and finished it the next day.
“It was so much fun,” Davis said. “We need to do more of those kinds of dinner -- but not having the rookies pay for it.”
