49ers' Mike McGlinchey has plenty of fanfare in Bucks County
CROYDON, Pa. (CBS) -- In Sunday's NFC championship game, some local fans won't be rooting for the home team. Mike McGlinchey, an offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers, has Philadelphia roots.
The McGlinchey family and a very slim few might be the only ones in the tri-state area rooting against the Eagles on Sunday, and they have a valid reason.
Mike McGlinchey plays for the San Francisco 49ers, and his family proudly sports it.
"If challenged, I always say I have a better reason to be a 49ers fan than you have to be an Eagles fan," Mike McGlinchey Sr. said, "and they say, 'Oh yeah, why?' and I tell them my son works for the team."
"Everyone knows if it's your blood in there, you have to root for them," grandmother Dot McGlinchey said. "Any other Sunday, we would root for the Eagles."
The McGlincheys own B & B True Value Hardware in Croydon.
It's decked out in all 49ers gear, just like McGlinchey's grandfather Bill McGlinchey.
"When someone says, 'Why do you like the 49ers?' I say, well I have blood in the game," Bill McGlinchey said. "Because there's a guy who has my DNA, he has my last name and he got his 6-foot-8 height from me."
McGlinchey went to Penn Charter and then played at Norte Dame before getting drafted. They say he watched the Eagles growing up and now, he's playing against them at the Linc.
"Despite the fact that he grew an Eagles," Tim McGlinchey said, "he's a 49er through and through out there."
"It's always exciting going home and playing against your hometown team in front I'm sure what will be hundreds of people that I know and all that stuff, that have followed my career," Mike McGlinchey said. "It makes it that much sweet that it's such a big moment."
The family says they miss him always and are excited to see him come home and play in the NFC championship game.
"He is a wonderful man aside from being a football player," Dot McGlinchey said.
McGlinchey's grandfather's 80th birthday is coming so they say if the 49ers win, it will be a great birthday gift.