San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig was the bridge between chiropractic and the NFL.
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In 1983, University of Nebraska superstar running back Roger Craig joined the San Francisco 49ers. He brought exceptional speed, an unmistakable high-knee running style, and an expectation that chiropractic care would remain part of how he managed his body.
Craig’s chiropractor, Dr. Mitch Mally, had cared for Craig and several generations of his family. When Craig moved to California, Mally referred him to Dr. Nick Athens, a young Palmer College graduate who had recently opened his practice near the 49ers’ training facility. What followed was a handoff built on professional trust and eventually a pathway into one of professional sports’ most visible and winningest organizations.
The Athlete Who Opened the Door
Craig became the bridge between chiropractic and the 49ers. Selected by San Francisco in the second round of the 1983 NFL Draft, he went on to become a three-time Super Bowl champion and, in 1985, the first NFL player to record 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in the same season.
Craig continued seeing Athens and shared his experience with teammates. Other players followed because someone they trusted had found value in it. Ultimately, the early story of chiropractic in the NFL was not driven by an executive decision or institutional campaign but rather through relationships and word of mouth.
Athens has described Craig as approximately his tenth patient. His work with Craig eventually led other prominent 49ers, including Jerry Rice and Joe Montana, to seek his care. In a locker room, where athletes closely observe how teammates prepare, perform, and recover, personal experience can carry considerable weight.
When Players Moved Ahead of the Institution
The path was not without resistance. According to Athens, the 49ers’ medical establishment initially did not embrace chiropractic. In fact, when Athens approached a team physician about working collaboratively, he received a letter stating that the organization would not refer players to him.
The players, however, continued to visit his practice.
Athens cared for athletes independently, including working from the team hotel when appropriate. As more players sought him out, trust continued to build through consistency, professional conduct, and individual experience.
This is where the story becomes larger than football. The evolution of chiropractic in the NFL illustrates a broader principle about how change often happens: Adoption can begin at the edges, where people experience value before institutions are prepared to recognize it.
For years, much of that care happened outside public view—in private offices, hotel rooms, and conversations among teammates. Then Joe Montana brought it into America’s living rooms.
During a 1990 Super Bowl pregame broadcast, CBS showed Athens working with Montana, who had experienced significant back problems during his career. The segment gave chiropractic an extraordinary moment of national visibility. Montana was not simply a famous athlete. He was one of football’s most recognizable figures, and viewers could see chiropractic connected to elite athletic preparation.
From One Relationship to a Larger Team
The story persisted beyond Craig and Montana. Athens continued caring for pro athletes for decades. Palmer College reports that he later served formally as the 49ers’ team chiropractor from 2014 through 2016. He also cared for Tom Brady during Brady’s offseason visits to the Bay Area.
Left to right: Dr. Nick Athens, Roger Craig, and Dr. Mitch Mally
PJ Mally
Athens eventually helped connect Brady with Montana, creating another kind of continuity. Montana offered the younger quarterback his perspective on leadership, preparation, success, and the pressures that accompany visibility.
By then, the meaning of chiropractic in the NFL had expanded beyond a single practitioner treating individual athletes. Chiropractic had increasingly become part of a multidisciplinary sports-performance environment, alongside physicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists, massage therapists, strength professionals, nutrition experts, and others.
Athens described chiropractic as a “spoke in the wheel,” rather than a replacement for other forms of care. That may be the most important lesson in the story. Chiropractic did not align the NFL by working alone; it became part of a larger team built around the athlete.
The journey from Mally and Craig to Athens, Montana, and later generations of NFL athletes demonstrates how meaningful change can begin with something remarkably simple: one person trusting another.
Mally made the handoff; Craig carried that trust into the locker room; Athens built the relationships; and Montana made the story visible.
When Roger Craig was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he made sure Mitch and Nick were there. Their invitation to share one of the greatest honors of Craig’s life spoke to something deeper than friendship. It was a testament to the influence, trust, and connection that had grown between them over the years.