It’s the most wonderful time of the year in the NFL, as Weeks 13 and 14 are My Cause My Cleats, a time for players to support a causes and sport them on their cleats. Here are some of the causes near and dear to the hearts of the San Francisco 49ers and why in their own words.
QB Brock Purdy – Samaritan’s Purse
“I was just thinking about if I’m going to have a chance to raise money, I’d like to hopefully do it with an organization that legitimately impacts and helps people in need. And so, with Hurricane Helene that just came through, I just looked at organizations that were on the ground, hands on, helping. Samaritan’s Purse has done that and they are doing that. And so, I chose them and hopefully we can raise some money to go help out people in need with hurricane relief.”
TE George Kittle – Operation Surf
“My Cause My Cleats this year is Operation Surf. It is an organization that takes veterans and kind of teaches them how to surf, gets them out in the ocean, out on surfboards, and just kind of a way of coping…learning a new thing that’s really fun. They go out there with a bunch of veterans. My family’s participated in it a couple of times. My dad’s been on the surfboard a bunch, I have not yet. I will soon.
“But really proud about these cleats. My guy from Stomping Ground Customs in New Jersey made these for me. They’re beautiful. Nice blue camo, all the waves. But it’s really fun just to get veterans out doing something and there’s nothing like surfing.”
RB Isaac Guerendo – Find Your Anchor
“When I selected that, it was more so just kind of like a mental health awareness type thing, and that’s really important to me. I think just understanding, especially a person in our position and as a man, just understanding it’s okay to talk to people. It’s okay to express your feelings, it’s okay to cry…Some people feel like they have to bottle up things just in general, but then as a man you, you’re supposed to be strong…[I]t’s okay to show emotion, it’s okay to be stressed out…find your anchor, find your support system, find help if you need it.”
CB Deommodore Lenoir – Football Camp for the Stars
“My cause My cleats is for Down Syndrome. That’s why I used pink and purple. One, I used the purple because that’s [Charvarius Ward] Mooney’s favorite color. And I seen a sweater that he had on with his daughter, and she recently passed, rest in peace to her, so I used purple. And then my sister’s favorite color is pink, so I used pink. And then I got both of their names on the toes just to be different…
“It shows you to love yours. Everybody’s not going to be the same in this world. We are going to have some different people, but it’s not our job to treat them different.
LS Taybor Pepper – Ele’s Place
“My cause is Ele’s Place and the description is right there, Healing Center for Grieving Children and Teens. But they also do a lot of work with parents who have lost young kids. This was my wife’s platform when she was Miss Michigan and competed in Miss America. She won the Quality of Life Award, which is the community service type award given that week of Miss America. She lost her dad when she was four, and Ele’s Place wasn’t around when that happened, but having the loss of a parent affect her, we just do all we can to help out Ele’s Place.”
WR Chris Conley – Hip Hop for Change
“My cause is Hip Hop For Change. It’s a non-profit in Oakland that works to educate marginalized communities, to empower them and employ them. With those things in mind…that falls right in line with kind of my upbringing and my family. My mom was a teacher, and I was always taught the arts, and that education was important, and that really just understanding as a people and as a community, how strong we are.
“And so I was excited when they said that we, as a team, have been looking to partner with them for a while…I’m just excited to be able to represent them and what they’re doing for the Bay Area.”
K Jake Moody – TUFF Foundation
“I picked TUFF. It’s the Uniform Funding Foundation, and what they do is just serve underprivileged kids, mostly football teams in lower-income areas, and just make sure that they have good uniforms, good helmets, good pads…[and] make sure that they’re well-equipped for their football seasons and trying to grow the game as much as we can.”
S Ji’Ayir Brown – Urban Ed Academy
“My Cause My Cleats is with Urban Ed. This is to promote more black educators in the school systems, and I’m all about that coming from where I come from. There were not a lot of black educators and Urban Ed is working on fixing that and changing that, so I fully support them. They have my support and I’m all about that.”
S Talanoa Hufanga – Real Deal Rockstar (RDR)
“RDR is a non-profit organization called Real Deal Rockstar. It’s something that me and my best friend started and my wife as well, something that…gives back to the kids in different communities, especially in the Bay Area…
“Really we just saw a big need for rockstars in every different lifestyle. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a rap life, a professional athlete. We want to be a rockstar in the classroom, a rockstar person, a person that just is very giving and grateful for the opportunity they have. So hopefully we can change the lives of many, whether that’s in school, in the classrooms or out on the field.”
OL Dominick Puni – Humane Society of Silicon Valley
“The Humane Society has been really dear to my heart, because I always grew up in a home of pets. My first cat was a stray. My mom picked him off the street. So ever since then, just kind of like the camaraderie you build with a pet and how much it does for the family, I just think it’s awesome. So I think at Kansas, I got real close with the Humane Society people there and same thing here. And I took a visit there one time and I really liked it. But I just think adopting a pet does a lot for a family, so the more awareness I can spread forward, I’m going to do it.”
QB Josh Dobbs – Astrordinary Dobbs Foundation
C Jake Brendel – Living for Zachary
“I chose Living for Zachary, I’ve actually been pretty close to the nonprofit for a while now. It was started by a family in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that tragically lost their son due to cardiac arrest. It was something that definitely could have been caught if there was a proper heart screening, because he did have an enlarged heart. So, what they do now is they give free heart screenings to all of the youth sports teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.”
WR Trent Taylor – Tim Tebow Foundation
“I chose the Tim Tebow Foundation because, I like all the work they do with helping children. Child trafficking, sex trafficking, they help a lot of women in those situations and a lot of kids that have been in those situations as well…[T]hat’s always just been a situation that’s been close to my heart. So yeah, that’s why I chose that.”
Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster – Celma Mastry Ovarian Cancer Foundation
“I’m wearing shoes for ovarian cancer. I lost my wife on February 4, 2024 this year, just a week before the Super Bowl. She died from ovarian cancer…The one thing she wanted to have said, and this is a good opportunity for me to have an opportunity to say it, is she didn’t lose a battle. She was diagnosed and given six months to live in 2018 and ended up living six years.
“And all these people that fight this battle every single day, we stand up for that cause. Any extra day, week, month that a person can have with their family when they’re suffering. Sure, we all hope for a cure one day, but to be able to stand up and say that I fought the fight. Don’t say I lost the battle. That’s what I’m saying right now. She didn’t lose the battle. She fought a good fight, gave us all six years. I proudly wear these for the cause.”