Bucks County’s Mike McGlinchey pushes 49ers in playoffs with his brother and family behind him: ‘They’re a blessing’

Janet McGlinchey can still remember how she felt standing in the pediatrician’s office, hoping the doctor would tell her that she was wrong to be worried. Her 2-year-old son wasn’t talking, responding, or looking at her.

McGlinchey, then a mother of five, knew something was different about Jimmy. And so did the doctor.

“That day was the hardest day for us because [the doctor] agreed with us,” McGlinchey said.

The diagnosis — Jimmy had autism — was a gut punch, but McGlinchey and her husband, Mike, quickly rallied. What could they do to give their son the support he needed? “We couldn’t just dwell on it,” she said.

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Nearly two decades later, Jimmy McGlinchey is a high school graduate who works three jobs as part of a life-skills program and trains at the gym. The 19-year-old loves to swim, draw cartoons, record himself practicing voiceovers, and chase the leaderboard on the Peloton bike in the basement of the family’s Warrington home.

And he does it all while inspiring his older brother — San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle and former Penn Charter star Mike McGlinchey — toward dreams of a Super Bowl.

“He’s the biggest shining light of our family,” Mike McGlinchey said of his brother. “An unbelievable brother and friend. You always think about your brothers, but he’s just special because he keeps us grounded and gives us perspective on what’s truly important. Ever since he was diagnosed when he was 2, he’s been the inspiration behind our family. He means everything to us, everything to me.”

Mike McGlinchey, a 6-foot-8, 310-pound mountain, has played nearly every snap this season for the 49ers and is graded by Pro Football Focus as one of the league’s better run-blocking linemen.

The right tackle’s play in the season’s second half is a big reason the 49ers, who will host Dallas on Sunday in the NFC’s divisional round, finished the regular season on a 10-game winning streak.

The 49ers averaged 151.5 rushing yards per game during the streak as their offense added a new element with the arrival of Christian McCaffrey, one of the league’s most dynamic rushers. Their ground attack has allowed the 49ers to ease the burden on rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, who has yet to look like a player who started the season on the practice squad and has started their last six games.

Their offensive style is built to win in the playoffs, and McGlinchey — who broke two ribs at the start of the winning streak yet stayed in the trenches — has been crucial in clearing space. Three of his four best run-blocking grades came in the last five weeks of the regular season.

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The 28-year-old McGlinchey seems to be playing his best football at the right time. But he knows that he’ll probably be talking about something different every night when he FaceTimes his brother on his way home from practice.

“He doesn’t care about the accolades,” said their mother. “That’s not his thing. He just wants his brother.”

Everyone at the table cried when McGlinchey, who played four seasons at Notre Dame, was drafted ninth overall in 2018. He grew up admiring his cousin, longtime Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, and now was beginning his own career. It was a dream.

Then Janet McGlinchey thought about the city her son was headed to.

“Oh my gosh. It couldn’t be any further,” she thought.

Jimmy McGlinchey had never been on an airplane, and traveling is difficult as he does not like to stray from his daily routine. But the family knew he would want to see his brother. The McGlincheys flew to Tampa that Thanksgiving when the 49ers played the Buccaneers and now he travels to the West Coast a couple of times each season.

“He’s done great,” Janet McGlinchey said. “We know to bring like a Mary Poppins bag. We know we have to be overly prepared and just have everything we know that we need. He’s done really well with the transition.”

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Mike McGlinchey was 11 when Jimmy’s autism was diagnosed and he understands the challenges his brother has with traveling. And that makes it even more special when he arrives. The football game is great, but the swimming pool at his older brother’s place — “I’m in California so he can swim year-round,” McGlinchey said — might be the better draw.

“A lot of the time you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders in this gig,” McGlinchey said. “At the end of the day, I’m playing a game and there’s a lot of other things in life that keep you grounded and remind you what’s truly important. You learn certain things about life that he teaches you without really trying. All those things are why he’s the biggest inspiration and grounding point of our family.”

A doctor told Janet McGlinchey after Jimmy’s diagnosis that their big family would be the best thing for their son. She grew up as one of six kids and her husband was one of five. They have six kids, and a large cast of cousins — “It’s the Philly Irish-Catholic thing,” Mike McGlinchey said — live nearby.

“He can’t get lost. He has to share space. He has to take turns,” the doctor told Janet McGlinchey. “Things we’ve had to do to survive as a family, he’s had to do as well.”

McGlinchey remembers his parents sitting him down 17 years ago to tell them about his brother’s diagnosis. And his mother remembers how her eldest son — the one who would grow to be a football star — always seemed to be proud of Jimmy.

“It was almost the opposite of what I think most kids do,” Janet McGlinchey said. “I think Mike liked having a brother that he could take under his wing. The other brothers he competed with, played football with, and beat up. But he didn’t do that with Jim. He knew he had to be different with Jim.”

The McGlincheys, not wanting to miss their other kids playing sports, found ways to get Jimmy comfortable at games. He wore headphones to cancel out the noise while watching his siblings play basketball before joining a team himself.

He helped operate a coffee shop while attending Central Bucks South, and Mike McGlinchey’s teammates wore “C.B. South Brew Crew” shirts for a road trip during their season that ended in the Super Bowl. Jimmy McGlinchey graduated in 2019, had a bash — featuring a moon bounce and “Jimmy Food” — and now attends a program at C.B. West that lines students up with jobs and teaches them to be flexible. He can stay in the school district until he’s 21.

The diagnosis she did not want to hear is now a blessing, Janet McGlinchey said.

“When Jim got diagnosed, he still wasn’t talking,” she said. “Now he wants to be the emcee at Mike’s wedding. He likes to sing karaoke. It’s awesome to us. We never knew if he would speak. I don’t want to sound corny, but I think it’s made my other kids better kids. I think they’re way more accepting of all different kinds of people.

“Sometimes I wish my other kids were a little bit more like Jim. Every day is good to Jim as long as things go according to his plan. He’s very happy, which we’re lucky.”

Janet McGlinchey now works in early intervention, providing assistance to families like hers. She can tell them what has worked for her family and what to expect. She knows how they’re feeling because she remembers how she felt.

She can also tell them what the future could look like and how this — something she wasn’t thinking about that day in the doctor’s office — could help inspire a Super Bowl dream.

“It’s not something that’s wrong with your child. It’s not something that’s wrong with your family. It’s not a black mark on who you are or what they are,” Mike McGlinchey said. “It’s just a different way of doing things. Just because they have something different about them doesn’t mean they’re any different or you love them any less. It’s not an embarrassment. It’s not anything. There’s nothing wrong with your child. It’s just something else that you have to look out for.

“They’re a blessing. They give you more inspiration and more perspective on anything because Jim is probably the most brutally honest person that I’ve ever met in my life. It’s not a burden. It’s a blessing.

“So many people are so wound up that, ‘Oh man, there can’t be something wrong with my child.’ But in reality there’s just something different about them and they need help to be the best version of themselves. They won’t be that best version of themselves if their people are in denial about it.

“Understanding is the biggest thing. It turns out that it’s some of the most fun and biggest blessings that you could ever have.”