How 49ers’ Fred Warner learned to stop worrying and embrace the hunt

Last Sunday, late in the third quarter of an increasingly tense game, Fred Warner was not stressing.

Near the end of a television timeout, with techno music blaring at Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers linebacker was swiveling his hips, raising the roof and looking like he was clubbing instead of a few seconds away from the next play during a 36-30 win over the Cardinals.

The moment was telling for the few who knew about a largely untold chapter of Warner’s well-chronicled story. There was a time when Warner was the antithesis of on-field fun and freedom.

In 2021, Warner, then an ascendant, 24-year-old All-Pro and the NFL’s highest-paid inside linebacker, felt like a $95 million fraud. At rock bottom mentally, deep in his head and desperate, he reached out on social media to Dr. Jim Afremow, a sports psychologist he didn’t personally know who he now credits for saving what figures to be a Hall of Fame career.

This week, Afremow was thrilled when he was told about Warner shimmying shortly before a snap. Half a decade later, their work together is still working, perhaps better than ever.

“I love it. I just love Fred dancing, and boogying and grooving,” Afremow said, “because I wouldn’t want to play against that guy.”

Fred Warner and teammates celebrate denying the Los Angeles Rams a touchdown during a goal-line stand to end the third quarter of a game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Rams at the Melbourne Cricket Ground stadium in Melbourne, Australia on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Sydney Low/For the S.F. Chronicle)

That guy has been The Man for most of his nine-season NFL career. At 29, Warner is a seven-time captain, a four-time All-Pro and the career leaders in tackles and forced fumbles for a franchise that’s employed Hall of Fame linebackers Patrick Willis and Dave Wilcox.

The only seasons in which Warner’s career trajectory has dipped? Last year, when he missed the final 11 games with a broken ankle. And 2021, when his mind was a mess. It’s Warner’s only full season since 2020 that ended without both Pro Bowl and All-Pro recognition.

Warner recently spoke at length for the first time about his mental descent and how Afremow helped him emerge.

“That was the lowest of the lows,” Warner said. “It was me being in such a bad spot that I sent a random DM to some guy I didn’t know. It was like, ‘Is this even a real account or not? ‘”

Months before Warner sent that message late in the 2021 regular season, he thought he’d “cracked the NFL code,” and he planned to reside in the rarefied air of stardom for the next decade or so. He was coming off his first All-Pro season and had just signed his five-year, $95 million extension. Packers QB Aaron Rodgers had told Warner after a 2020 game: “You’re the best. No doubt. And everybody knows it.”

However, Warner entered the 2021 season quietly dealing with a nagging knee injury. After seven games, he had no sacks, no forced fumbles, two pass breakups and just one game in which he had at least 10 tackles.

“There were little things going on physically early on and I was just not playing like myself,” Warner said. “But then I had people in my ear asking, ‘Hey, do you feel like you’re trying to do too much because of the contract? ‘ I truly did not think that was the case. But once that got in my head, I started thinking about that …

“I developed this sense of urgency for me to make that play that would validate me making the money I was making. And then you start reaching to try to do things and that really puts you behind the eight ball. It just all started to snowball.”

The irony was that Warner previously thought he’d mastered the mind game. As a sophomore at BYU, he began studying legendary athletes with elite mindsets – Michael Jordan, Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant – and believed what he’s learned and adopted had helped fuel his rise after he drafted in the third round in 2018.

Before the 2021 season, Warner had already devoured books such as “Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence”; “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos”; “Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results” and, of course, “Kobe Bryant: The Mamba Mentality.”

“Those tools I’d learned had really helped me get to a spot where I was really being successful,” Warner said. “But then once I let the negative thoughts flood my brain, there was no getting out of that. I knew about controlling the controllables. Keeping things simple. But that was all gone. I was so head in my head with all the other stuff. I needed someone to bring me back into focus.”

San Francisco 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner warms up before an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press)

Enter Afremow, 58, the author of a best-selling book, “The Champion’s Mind.” He has served as the sport psychologist for two international Olympic teams, spent 10 years as the sport psychologist in Arizona State’s sports medicine department and spent three seasons as the San Francisco Giants’ peak performance coordinator.

Afremow has also worked individually with pro athletes from across all major sports. He met regularly with Warner on Zoom for about six weeks, helping him navigate the final chapters of a season that ended with a loss to the Rams in the NFC Championship Game.

“My first thought when I talked with Fred was that he was a great player who started thinking too much about being a great player,” Afremow said. “Suddenly, every play, every moment in every game, started to feel like he wanted to provide evidence: ‘Am I still that guy? Am I living up to this? ‘ … He needed to stop making every play a referendum on whether he was still Fred Warner.”

Afremow’s charge: Remind Warner “who the hell he already was.” The question that unlocked it is surprising: What animal do you most identify with?

“And I’m like ‘Oh, of course, the lion. That’s the king of the jungle. There’s the hair, the mane,” Warner said, touching his dreadlocks. “It just made too much sense.”

Afremow agreed. And he kept asking questions: If a lion goes out on a hunt and doesn’t get a kill, does that mean it’s not a lion? The answer was obvious. For Warner, the deeper meaning was transformative. His inability to get interceptions or forced fumbles didn’t make him less Fred Warner. The stats would come.

“The thing that a lion does, they don’t have to think about it, they just hunt,” Warner said. “And I just needed to get back to loving the hunt. I was focused on outcomes and things that were out of my control.

“Jim was like, ‘Why don’t you just focus on the hunt and get back to things that made you who you are? What made you the lion, what made you Fred? ‘ … That truly saved my entire career. Ever since, I’ve gone out there with the mentality of ‘hunt’ and let everything else come as it may.”

There was a bit more to unravel during a season in which Warner had 23 tackles in the final two regular-season games before he forced a critical fumble in the first quarter a 13-10 upset win at Green Bay in the divisional playoffs.

Warner felt freedom after his breakthrough, but he also worried: What did it say about his mindset if he’d allowed negative thoughts to consume him? Was he weak or, worse, broken? Afremow’s answer: He was human.

“It’s being able to understand: This is how we’re built,” Afremow said. “We all have a protective voice that says, ‘Hey, are you ready for this? Can you do this? What if it doesn’t work out? ‘ We don’t have to take our first thought at face value. So for Fred, it was acknowledging and validating: ‘Of course you’re going to have negative thoughts at times. What you’re experiencing makes total sense.”

San Francisco 49ers Fred Warner before a play against the Arizona Cardinals during an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Santa Clara. (Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press)

Warner’s struggles make sense to plenty of his high-performing, highly driven teammates. All-Pro pass rusher Nick Bosa has dealt with pressure by visiting the team psychologist, dabbling in meditation and becoming an avid reader.

This week, when All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey was asked if he could relate to Warner’s 2021 struggles, he launched into a lengthy answer that touched on his faith and the importance of prayer partners, family and mentors.

“It’s a great question,” McCaffrey said. “Sometimes we’re our own worst enemies in our heads. You can put extra pressure on yourself when you get paid because there’s this fear: ‘Am I going to live up to the expectations? ‘ There’s a lot of pressure that comes with it. It’s definitely real and I’ve experienced it, for sure.”

Warner hasn’t met with Afremow since 2022, but he’s remained mindful of his mind. Until recently, he journaled daily, often writing positive affirmations. He uses different visualization techniques and breathing practices. Like McCaffrey, he credits his faith for providing peace and dulling his desire for external validation.

It seems to be working. The 49ers are 3-0 partly because Warner has 33 tackles, matching the most in his career after three games, and two forced fumbles, just two shy of tying his career-high.

Last Sunday, when Warner was dancing, the 49ers had just committed a turnover deep in their own territory and the Cardinals were five plays away from scoring a touchdown that shaved their 17-point deficit to three with 13 minutes left.

Warner was asked Wednesday about his grooving in the middle of a game that seemed to be getting away. Is that something he would have done in 2021? He smiled. And his answer was like a roar.

“No way,” he said. “But now my mind only knows ‘hunt.'”

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This article originally published at How 49ers’ Fred Warner learned to stop worrying and embrace the hunt.

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