The Washington Commanders selected Luke McCaffrey with the No. 100 overall pick in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. To say that McCaffrey comes from a football family would be an understatement.
Luke’s brother, Christian, is a household name and widely regarded as the NFL‘s best running back. However, Luke and Christian aren’t the first members of the family to play in the pros. Their father, Ed, had a long, successful NFL career as well. Here’s everything you need to know about the McCaffrey family.
A Look At Luke McCaffrey’s Parents
Luke was born on April 2, 2001, in Castle Rock, Colorado, to Ed and Lisa McCaffrey.
Luke and his three siblings had a very strong support system, as Ed and Lisa helped their children navigate life and the football world.
Ed has said that he met Lisa at a birthday party of a mutual friend.
“For me, it was love at first sight,” he recalled.
However, Lisa had a different recollection of where they met. According to Lisa, they were in a trainer’s room where she was getting taped.
“If he doesn’t remember, it’s because he was this big-time football player, and I was just this little soccer player,” she joked.
Getting To Know Ed McCaffrey
Ed is the patriarch of an impressive football family.
Ed was a wide receiver who starred at Stanford, becoming a first-team All-American. He currently ranks seventh in school history in receiving yards (2,333) and 11th in receptions (146). He was inducted into Stanford’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.
After college, Ed played in the NFL for 13 seasons, suiting up for the New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, and Denver Broncos. He’s most known for his stint with the Broncos, where he played from 1995-2003.
Throughout the course of his NFL career, Ed totaled 565 receptions, 7,422 receiving yards, and 55 touchdowns while also winning three Super Bowl rings.
After his playing days, Ed transitioned to coaching. In addition to coaching his children, he served as the head coach at Valor Christian High School and the University of Northern Colorado.
Getting To Know Lisa McCaffrey
Ed and his sons aren’t the only athletes in the family; Luke’s mom, Lisa, can more than hold her own athletically as well.
Lisa’s father was an Olympic-medal-winning sprinter while her mother was a swimmer at Duke University and a top-ranked tennis player.
Lisa set her high school’s 100-meter-dash record and made the varsity tennis team as a freshman, but it was the soccer field where she really shined. She scored 56 career goals, which led to her being featured in Sports Illustrated and earning Vanderbilt’s first women’s soccer scholarship. However, she ultimately turned down Vanderbilt to play at Stanford, which is where she met Ed.
“Sports taught me a lot,” she said. “It makes you realize that you can handle just about anything.”
Lisa is considered the rock of the family and a source of comfort for Luke and his siblings.
While Ed and Lisa were star athletes, they did not push their children into playing sports.
“Who knows if they are going to be talented or not?” Lisa told The Denver Post. “But I want them to be involved in what they love. If that’s books or music, that’s a good thing, too.”
Does McCaffrey Have any Siblings?
Yes, Luke has three brothers: Christian, Max, and Dylan. Luke is the youngest of four brothers, with the eldest being Max.
When Luke was going through the NFL’s pre-draft process, there were inevitably many comparisons to Christian. During the NFL Network’s broadcast of the NFL Combine, they compared the brothers’ 40-yard dash times, with Luke beating Christian.
Luke McCaffrey just ran a faster 40 than his big brother Christian McCaffrey at the combine 👀
Talk about bragging rights 🙌🏼
— OurSF49ers (@OurSf49ers) March 2, 2024
While Christian and Luke are the most well-known of the siblings, Max also made it to the NFL. After playing college football at Duke University, the wide receiver went undrafted but signed to several NFL rosters from 2016 to 2018, including, most recently, the 49ers. Max has since transitioned to coaching, serving as the offensive coordinator for Northern Colorado under his father and now as an offensive assistant for the Miami Dolphins.
Dylan was the second-highest-rated quarterback in the country coming out of high school. The highly recruited prospect received dozens of scholarship offers before deciding to play for the University of Michigan. However, Dylan would eventually transfer to North Colorado in 2021 in order to play for his father, Ed, who became the school’s head coach, and brother, Max, who was the OC.