There is only one San Francisco 49ers player who has spent his entire life in Michigan and that is Jake Moody.
The 49ers rookie kicker was born in Commerce, Michigan, he went to high school in Michigan and he went to college at University of Michigan before finally leaving the state in April when San Francisco selected him with the 99th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
With his roots in Michigan, you probably won't be surprised to hear that his parents -- Chad and Lisa -- are both huge Lions fans.
How big?
"I've been a Lions fan basically since birth," Chad told ClickedonDetroit.com in a recent interview.
Over the past 30 years, the Moodys haven't had much to cheer for when it comes to the Lions. From 1992 through 2022, the Lions didn't win a single playoff game. However, not only did the drought finally end this year, but Detroit is now in the NFC championship game for the first time since 1991, and as fate would have it, the Lions will be facing the one team the Moodys would prefer that they not be facing: Jake's 49ers.
So who will the Moody parents be rooting for? The decision isn't as easy as you'd think, at least for Chad.
"It's tough, but we're going to root for the 49ers," Chad said. "Our son's on the team, so of course, we'll root for our son's team."
As for Jake's mom, she said the decision on who to root for was a no-brainer.
"The second a team plays against my son, I'm going to root for my son, of course," Lisa said.
Lisa went to Michigan State, so she already knows what it's like to root for a team that she doesn't necessarily want to be rooting for. She had to do it every year when MSU played Jake's Michigan Wolverines.
"I had to do the same thing ... I did OK with that," Lisa said of rooting for Michigan over her beloved Spartans.
According to Chad, the parents have been thinking about the possibility of this NFC title game all year. Apparently, Chad actually predicted to Lisa during training camp that the Lions would somehow end up playing the 49ers in the NFC Championship.
"You know what's going to happen, it's going to end up the 49ers vs. the Lions to go to the Super Bowl this year," Chad said of the conversation he had back in the summer. "You just wait and see, it's going to happen."
Of course, if the Lions win, Chad will feel bad for his son, but he'll also be right back on Detroit's bandwagon.
"If the 49ers do happen to lose, I'll be breaking out my Lions gear for the Super Bowl," Chad said.
The good news for the Moodys is that no matter what happens on Sunday, they're going to win. If the 49ers beat the Lions, then they'll get to watch their son kick in the Super Bowl. On the other hand, if the Lions win, then they'll get to celebrate the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance ever.
