LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON?

McCaffrey takes first Super Bowl shot, hoping for same outcome as dad Purdy admits arm wasn't at full strength to open 49ers' Super Bowl season

Nick Bosa thought long and hard to name the toughest player in the NFL.

“I think Christian,” Bosa said. “Being a running back in this league is a painful job, and he never lets it show.”

Christian McCaffrey ran his way to the NFL rushing title this season and is a critical component to the 49ers' chances Sunday in Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Ever since he was 7 years old and picked up a football, he's been obsessed with this sport,” Ed McCaffrey, Christian's father, exclusively told this news organization Tuesday. “He's given everything he possibly could to it. And he's always been a pretty tough kid.”

Now it's time to take after his father on the Super Bowl stage and win a Lombardi Trophy.

Ed McCaffrey played wide receiver on the 1994 49ers' team that won the franchise's fifth and most recent Super Bowl. Ending that championship drought Sunday would make the McCaffreys only the second father-son duo to win a Super Bowl with the same franchise, joining Steve and Zak

HENDERSON, NEV. >> Brock Purdy is 374 days removed from injuring his right elbow ligament in the NFC Championship Game, and even though he's fully healthy for Sunday's Super Bowl, he revealed Wednesday he wasn't at full strength when this season began.

“It was a long process. I got cleared around 5½ to six months ago,” Purdy said in a press conference at the 49ers' Lake Las Vegas hotel. “I'm not going to lie, I was still strengthening my arm as the season started.

“I was dealing with it but felt good enough to play and play Week 1. The rest is history,”

Purdy went on to set a 49ers single-season record with 4,280 yards while starting their first 16 games. He sat out the regular-season finale against the Rams because the 49ers already had clinched the NFC's No. 1 playoff seed.

As the 49ers jumped out to a 5-0 start, Purdy threw nine touchdown passes and no interceptions. If he was rusty or lacking arm strength, it certainly didn't impact the 49ers early.

Purdy has alluded in the past couple of months to his arm getting

THEARON W. HENDERSON — GETTY IMAGES Christian McCaffrey is playing in his first Super Bowl on Sunday. His father, Ed, won three, including one with the 49ers in the 1994season.

CRAIG F WALKER — THE DENVER POST Christian McCaffrey, sitting on his father's shoulders during a Broncos game in 2001, grew up around NFL players.