San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk never envisioned himself as a dog person — in fact, it was quite the opposite. “I had a cat growing up my whole life,” Juszczyk, 33, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting his partnership with Purina’s For the Win sweepstakes. “We got her when I was 5 and I even took her to Baltimore my rookie year when I got drafted.
I just never really had dogs around the house like that.” That all changed when Juszczyk married his wife, Kristin , in 2019 and she showed him pictures of Samoyeds — the white, fluffy dogs that would soon become a cornerstone of the Juszczyks’ lives. “I saw these things and instantly fell in love,” Juszczyk recalled.
“I was like, ‘We need to get one of these.’” The couple ultimately decided to take the plunge and get their first Samoyed in 2020. They just needed to figure out what to call the pup.
“We started thinking about names and my wife threw out Mozzarella, and that was the easiest decision of my life,” Juszczyk said. “As soon as I heard that, I said, ‘Boy or girl, Mozzarella is going to be the name.’” Why Mozzarella? “My wife is Italian,” Juszczyk explained.
“The whole family is Sicilian. There’s a lot of mozzarella cheese being eaten in that family.” Mozzarella ended up being a girl, who would keep the Juszczyks busy until they made the call to give her a little sister in March 2023.
“When we were getting our second dog, it was like, ‘Alright, we r.