After living through war, football is easy to Caulcrick

When Bonita Caulcrick finally got into war-torn Liberia, finally located her two children, finally eluded the soldiers and bullets long enough to make it across the border to Ivory Coast, she ran up against one more challenge.

Bonita had been living in the United States for a few years, and had picked up a trace of American accent. The bureaucrat at the embassy in Ivory Coast didn’t believe the children were hers, and wouldn’t stamp their passports. She returned the next day, and got a similar reaction. The next day, same thing.

Caulcrick, her nerves frayed by months of worry, had heard enough. “Fine,” she said. “You keep them.”

She spun on her heels and started to leave the room. “Madam,” the alarmed clerk blurted. “Come back.”

He stamped the passports, and young Jehuu Caulcrick started his new life as an American, a strange path that has taken him all the way to Santa Clara, where he is now trying to make the 49ers as a fullback.

Why do I recount this story? Because Caulcrick’s life story is so dramatic, so full of twists and turns that the anecdote didn’t make it into my story, which ran in the Press Democrat last week. Read the full account here. It won’t help Caulcrick made the 49ers’ 53-man roster, but it might have you rooting for him.

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