49ers general manager John Lynch remembers surprising Deebo Samuel with trade deadline phone call

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Oops. Accidentally calling a player just hours before the trade deadline? Not always the best idea. San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch was reminded of that on Tuesday.

Wide Receiver Deebo Samuel was in the middle of a promotional shoot, probably not thinking about the approaching deal deadline, until his phone rang and he saw it was Lynch calling.

Samuel casually downplayed the moment, saying it didn’t bother him. When asked this week what he thought when he saw Lynch’s call, the receiver responded: “Nothing special. I just answered the call.”

Lynch, however, took a completely different point of view.

During his weekly interview with KNBR, Lynch explained that his daughter Lindsay, who works in the NFL, filmed with Samuel. She even surprised her father by stopping by his office with coffee. Naturally, Lynch decided to call Samuel.

“Deebo and I are very close,” Lynch explained. “And so I said, ‘Hey Deebo, I just wanted to let you know that Lindsay is here and she’s filming.’ And I could see that Deebo was stunned.”

Lindsay later informed her father of the unintentional panic, noting that calling one of your star players just hours before the trade deadline probably wasn’t the best idea.

“After filming for several hours, Lindsey came back to my office and said, ‘Dad, you can’t do this. When you called, Deebo thought he was traded. You can’t call the guy on the trade deadline.” ‘”

Lynch laughed, admitting, “What a rookie move for me. I’ve been doing this for a while now. And Deebo and I laughed the rest of the week, as did a lot of the guys on the team.”