Photo courtesy of Nick Kray’s Instagram
Former San Francisco 49ers chief of staff Nick Kray’s tenure with the Houston Texans has come to a swift end. Kray left the 49ers in February to join Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans’ staff, serving in the same role in Houston. According to KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson, he is no longer in that role.
Fans better know Kray as “DJ Kray.” He spent two seasons as head coach Kyle Shanahan’s chief of staff before leaving for Texas. He had previously spent four years as an administrative assistant in San Francisco.
Kray was regularly seen leading the 49ers out of the tunnel before games while carrying a massive boom box blasting music picked up by the wide receiver Deebo Samuel and tackle Trent Williams.
“It happened in 2019 when we played the Saints,” Samuel told FOX Sports in February. “Roddy Rich had dropped a song, ‘The Box,’ and we were excited about it that year.
“So we start the season with a song, and if we lose, we change the song. If we win, the song stays the same until something bad happens.”
Samuel noted that the song played repeatedly during the 49ers’ 12-game winning streak this past season was NBA YoungBoys’ “Won’t Step on Me.”
The following was Kray’s bio from the 49ers team website before he left for the Texans.
Kray came to San Francisco after serving as the assistant director of football operations at North Carolina State University for two seasons (2015-16). Prior to his time at NC State, Kray was the director of football operations and player development at Ball State University in 2014.
Kray has also spent time as the director of football operations at Yale University (2012-13), as an offensive and special teams assistant at Villanova (2010-11), and as the defensive ends and defensive quality control coach at Eastern Illinois (2008-09).
A native of Glendale Heights, IL, Kray played collegiately as a defensive lineman at Eastern Illinois University where he was a member of two Ohio Valley Conference championship teams and three football championship Subdivision playoff teams while serving as team captain in 2006 and 2007 .He has a son, Nicholas Alexander Kray, with Allie Meyer.
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