SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco 49ers All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey is the USAA 2025 Salute to Service award winner.
McCaffrey beat out Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones and Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson to win the award announced on Wednesday.
The award recognizes the “exceptional efforts by members of the NFL family to honor and support the military community.” McCaffrey will be recognized at NFL Honors on Thursday night.
The Christian McCaffrey Foundation launched an initiative, 23 and Troops, in 2021, that offers a medically based, holistic approach to support Special Operations forces veterans healing from post‑traumatic stress. The program has contributed nearly $700,000 to military support efforts, including $250,000 to REBOOT Recovery and a recent $250,000 partnership with Resilience Code to provide veterans with a full year of personalized medical care. The foundation has also eased seasonal burdens by covering holiday layaway balances for 515 military families.
McCaffrey also regularly connects with active-duty personnel, veterans, and families.
“It means the world,” McCaffrey told The Associated Press. “I think serving our troops is something that I don't take lightly. There's always work to be done. To be presented the Salute to Service Award is a huge deal.”
USAA, a provider of insurance, banking and other financial services to U.S. military members, veterans and their families, will contribute $25,000 in McCaffrey’s name to the official aid societies representing each of the military branches. The NFL Foundation will match USAA’s donation of $25,000, which will be donated to McCaffrey's military charity of choice.
This is the second straight year a 49ers player won the award, with tight end George Kittle winning last year.
“For George to be able to pass the torch down to me means a lot,” McCaffrey said. “We have such an affinity for our veterans and active-duty members. It’s obviously the service that they do and the sacrifices that they put in. It's a lot of unseen sacrifices they put in post-service. It's not just them. It's their wives and husbands. It's their families. It's everybody that has to do with the sacrifice they do for their country. ... I play a kids' game for a living. Part of that is because of them. I feel very fortunate to be presented this award.”
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NFC running back Christian McCaffrey (23), of the San Francisco 49ers, speaks during media availability at NFL Pro Bowl Games practice, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
DENVER (AP) — The parents of a 16-year-old boy who wounded two students at a Colorado high school with an old revolver his family said was kept in a locked gun safe won't be charged with any crimes, authorities said Wednesday.
Investigators looked at whether the parents of Desmond Holly, who killed himself after opening fire, could possibly be charged with allowing access to the Smith & Wesson .38 special revolver or for not storing it safely, but decided there wasn't enough evidence for that, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said.
Holly shot himself after opening fire at Evergreen High School on Sept. 10 and later died.
Investigators didn't find the parents' DNA on the gun after getting a court order to collect DNA samples from them, the sheriff's office said. It said the family's lawyer recently told investigators that the gun, described as a family heirloom that had been owned by a grandparent, was kept stored near the back of a large, locked gun safe, the office said. Holly didn't have access to the safe except for brief times when it was opened by his father, according to the lawyer.
The family's lawyer, Douglas Richards, told The Associated Press the family believes Holly must have secretly taken the gun, which was never used, from the safe while he was cleaning other firearms with his father.
“Its disappearance didn't become apparent until after the tragedy,” Richards said.
The sheriff's office said investigators weren't able to speak with the parents. Richards said the parents spoke with authorities right after the shooting and later answered questions in writing because he didn't want them interviewed further unless there was a prosecutor present.
Investigators believe Holly randomly shot at students at the high school in the foothills about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Denver, sheriff's office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said Wednesday.
At the time, the sheriff's office said that Holly had been radicalized by an unspecified “extremist network."
Kelley said the investigation showed that Holly had an obsession with other school shooters and had engaged with a mix of online groups but was not committed to any particular kind of radicalization. She referred further questions about those findings to the FBI, which handled that portion of the probe. The agency said a reporter would have to file a records request to obtain more information.
A report by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism found that Holly had been active on an online forum where users watch videos of killings and violence, mixed in with content on white supremacism and antisemitism. It found Holly was also fascinated with previous mass shootings including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that killed 14 people, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away from Evergreen.
FILE - Flowers are left in remembrance of those wounded in a shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colo., Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Colleen Slevin, File)
