How 49ers could have handled accident differently
Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss the way the 49ers handled the announcement of Kyle Shanahan's car accident and address the reporting around the situation.
Video Transcript
But Chris, here's the bigger issue- Yeah since we're back in the vicinity of it.
Because look, I'm supposed to be mad at you for not telling me about it, according to others.
Many are saying I should be upset with you because you didn't violate your friendship with Kyle Shanahan and tell me about his various significant injuries so that I could break it.
Yeah, right.
So that I could, I could get in line for a Pulitzer because- and that's the thing, if I had broken it, they would've been like, "Oh well, hell yeah, of course he's gonna break it.
He's co-host.
He's best friends with- Yeah, yeah Kyle Shanahan."
Right.
And should you be disqualified from covering the NFL because you have friends in the NFL?
You're not a reporter.
That's what I keep trying to tell people.
You're not there to report facts.
You're not there to leak things to me.
You could've told me, "Hey, you didn't get it from me, but you should be poking around the Palo Alto public records for accidents that may have happened on July the 14th."
Yeah.
You didn't do that.
Mm-hmm.
And I don't know what's right or wrong here, because you were true to your friendship, but you have a job in the media.
Yeah.
And you got some people who are grandstanding and soapboxing and- Totally put yourself in that situation, where you got a good friend that you've known for more than 20 years, who's gone through this traumatic event, and you've known about it.
Are you gonna violate that friendship so somebody can break the story?
Okay, so that's one thing.
Yeah, totally.
That And I don't know what the right answer is.
I know I'm not mad at you, and I know that people think I should be.
Yeah.
But I would've done the same thing you did.
Right.
Now, if, if, if I, if my best friend was Kyle Shanahan, now th- that becomes a problem given what I do.
Like, th- this gets back to the story of the off-season.
How close do we get to the people we cover?
Mm-hmm.
There needs to be a wall there for the people who are the reporters.
You can't get so close that you can't do your job when your job needs to be done.
Yeah.
And I was talking to somebody yesterday, and I said, "Look, how do I deal with it?
The people that I know, they know I got a job to do.
And the people that I get along with are the ones who respect that, and they let me do my job when I have to do it."
Yeah.
"And they don't get butthurt about it."
Exactly.
"And they don't call me up and cry about it and say, 'I thought we were friends.'
They understand I got a job to do, and they understand I'm gonna do it, and that's the price of admission for knowing me.
I'm still gonna do my job- Yep when it's time to do my job."
Now, that said, I still think the 49ers screwed this thing up.
The 49ers blew this, because the fact that he was in an accident, Dave Patrick said this yesterday.
If this happens while camp's open, of course we're gonna know about it.
Yeah.
He's not, he's not at practice the next day.
Yeah.
Why is he not here?
Yeah.
He was in an accident last night.
The fact that the accident happened should not have been hidden.
You can announce exactly what they announced on Saturday, that Kyle Shanahan was in an accident, non-life-threatening injuries, there will be further updates at the appropriate time.
Boom, that's it.
Yeah.
I don't know why they hid it, but by doing what they did, it's created for some, for those willing to explore the rabbit hole, it's created a rabbit hole to make people think something must be going on here.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
I know.
And it put people like you in a delicate position, where you had to conceal not just the extent of the injuries, you had to conceal the fact that there was even an accident.
Yeah.
So I put this on the 49ers for not doing the right thing and disclosing immediately that an accident happened.
It's non-life-threatening injuries.
Further information will be provided at the appropriate time.
And I think people would have respected that.
I am confounded and dumbfounded as to why, now that I've had a chance to think about it, why they didn't do that.
Yeah.
I, I, I can hear that.
I, I, you know, I, I can.
I, I can understand that.
I, you know, you're right.
When it goes on this long, people think, "Oh, wait."
And I saw qu- you know, things on my Instagram yesterday.
"Sounds like your buddy Shanahan lied to the police."
No, he was just as surprised yesterday that the report said that he was, that the, that the other driver was at fault.
He was like You know, he, it was the first time he heard that.
He's told everybody he's at fault.
So I know everybody thinks you're right, because it went so long that there was some, you know, Evel Knievel s- trick that happened behind the scenes here, and that's not the case.
I, I- I don't think Evel Knievel was- Well, yeah, maybe not a magician, but- Maybe Oz the Mentalist we'll accept it Oz the Mentalist stuff going on behind.
But your favorite person.
But, but yes.
But, but regardless, yeah, I don't totally disagree with you that I think maybe the 49ers could've, you know, got out in front of this early, and it would've, you know, squashed some of the, ooh, what's going on, ooh, did they try to hide something, whatever.
But ultimately, I think we are where we are because, you know, again, and, and that's why Shanahan, I think, did this yesterday, even though I don't think he's comfortable talking to the, to the press right now.
'Cause he just realized he's gotta straighten out the conversation.
And you know, within that conversation too, I still see people, you know, getting mad at Adam Schefter a little bit too, and I go, hey, again, Adam Schefter might not be his best friend, but Adam Schefter is a really good friend to Kyle Shanahan.
I know.
It, it is.
But what we talked about, he's known Kyle since he was a teenager, right?
So he called Adam Schefter as a friend to go, "Hey, I got in an accident.
I'm messed up.
I don't want you to hear from other people.
You've known me forever, and I'm letting you know as my buddy," right?
And it wasn't a media type thing there.
So that is the tough thing.
It is.
And for me personally, I'm not into Yeah, I'm not breaking news guy.
I'm football evaluator guy, right?
I know stuff about coaches and things all over football.
You know that.
That's not how I operate.
I'm about evaluating what's on the football field.
And then within that, and you know, people think I'm best friends with Kyle Shanahan.
Hey, listen, you hear me be critical of the 49ers, you know.
You heard me be critical of their team and Brock Purdy last year.
That doesn't make my friend's life any easier when he has to answer things from the, the 49ers, press corps and go, "Hey, your best friend said this about the quarterback," right?
That makes him uncomfortable.
Him and his wife get on me at times.
"Would you shut up talking about Brock Purdy?"
Or whatever else, right?
So, yeah, I hope that that puts everybody back in their place a little bit, and, hopefully that Shanahan can get better and, and we can all move on from it.
And I just want the record to be clear, you're the one that brought up Schefter, 'cause I am going to say this.
The fact that he has the kind of friendship that prevents him from doing his job is a problem.
Because his duty is to his audience, primary, fundamental, and he should not have a friendship that is so close and so sensitive that he can't do his job.
He apparently didn't have a friendship with Jason Pierre-Paul when he posted his medical records on Twitter after he blew his hand off.
Well, he probably learned from that too, though.
He got sued 'cause of it too.
Well- So that was probably another little- He's still Right.
Yeah.
I'm not saying he should have posted Kyle's medical records.
Yeah.
The fact that there was an accident should have been disclosed.
And Chris, as I said the other day, if you're gonna be so close to it that you can't do your job, you don't get to then be part of this coordinated attempt between the 49ers and ESPN to, boom, we're gonna announce it at 12:00.
We're gonna announce it.
You're gonna tweet it a minute later.
A minute after that, we're gonna have this long article that we've spent multiple hours preparing in advance because we've known about this for 11 days.
We're gonna, we're gonna put this all out in a very coordinated, engineered, strategic way.
And shame on them for not realizing that the rest of us weren't gonna swallow the cheese, and just say, "Oh, okay.
Oh, nothing to see here."
That's the problem.
This all happened in a way that invited people to think something's going on here.
I think everybody that's got that little flicker, yeah, something's going on.
And, and so if there's a lesson to be learned, and there's been bad PR examples throughout the off season.
The Patriots, some of the worst PR you could imagine- Yeah with the Mike Vrabel, Diana Russini thing.
Yeah.
Both of them involved horrible PR decisions that were made.
ESPN, horrible PR and HR decisions made last week with their layoffs.
And now this, it's It was a bungle by the 49ers to not send out what they sent out on Saturday.
They should have sent it out immediately once they knew the accident had happened, and then it woulda And then nobody would've been like, "What are they trying to hide?"
I mean, when I saw the, the, the first tweet Saturday morning- I know I thought it just happened that morning.
Yeah.
And I texted you right away, and then I'm like, "Holy shit, this happened 11 da- I know.
How did this happen 11 days ago and we're just finding out about it now?"
Yeah.
That, that whole thing was weird, and it's still weird.
Yeah, no, it, it That is weird.
It, Listen, I, I, I'm not gonna deny that, you know?
The fact that, yeah, it's Kyle Shanahan, he's arguably the greatest coach in the NFL, and that it went that long without getting out, it is definitely weird, no doubt about it.
But what I can tell you is not weird is he's been totally upfront and honest with the situation from the very start, at least with, you know, me, friends, others, whatever.
And, you know, hopefully he's on the road to recovery here because And I think f- at first too, he wasn't really You know, you're worried about, "Damn, my ribs hurt.
Hey, damn, my nose is broken," and you're feeling, "Oh, my left hand's broken," and all that.
And then all that starts to calm down, then he- the scars, and you start to go, "Wait, you know, my brain's not functioning at the same level it usually does."
And that's what he's going through right now, and, he's making progress fortunately here.
But, but, you know, that's, you know, he, he took a big hit to the head, that's for sure.
I think based upon what I know of Kyle, directly and through you, if he would've had his full cognitive functions in the aftermath of the accident, he would have said, "What are we doing here?
Why are we trying to hide this?"
Yeah.
"What are we doing?"
Yeah.
I, listen- You know, you realize this is only gonna make it worse.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
If we hide this.
Yeah.
'Cause it's gonna come out at some point, and we're, we're just inviting people to wonder what the hell happened.
So- I don't disagree there I, I just And I, I don't, I don't know.
I'm, I, I'm d- I don't know who to blame specifically, but it's an organizational failure.
The way they handled this was an organizational failure, because it created a sideshow that was completely and totally unnecessary, and completely and totally avoidable.
One last thing too, what the hell with the airbags?
I've never eaten an airbag.
I have no Like, I understand having airbags if you're in a high-speed collision, and allows you to walk away from it alive.
But if these things are gonna go off in a 20 mile an hour collision where all these cars have the crumple zones, and you're not gonna die in a 20 mile an hour head-on collision.
But if the airbag is gonna mess you up like this, why is it going off at 20 miles an hour?
I- Right.
Yeah.
I- I, that's I thought of that earlier when you were talking about if it's the visor, if it's the airbag, and I, I, I don't know.
I'd, I'd like to think that without the airbag, his injuries would've been far less severe.
Right, it, it does seem that way, you know?
And, and, you know, honestly, you, you kind of, if you, you know, you hear stories like that, you know, it, it seems like quite often.
Like, "Hey, the accident didn't actually hurt me that much.
It was the airbags."
But, you know, I guess we don't have the, the technology yet to soften the blow of the airbags according to how the speed goes, or whatever, right?
So that's where we're at.
And, you know, and, and you know, to couple that too, just the last thing too, I, I'm sure there was a little bit of a, a pause in releasing the accident as far as waiting for all the details and getting all that.
So I could see it happening a few days, but I w- I was surprised too, like you, that it was 13 days.
That, that, that definitely was shocking to me.
I think that these records are typically made available pretty quickly, and then they're supplemented as the investigation proceeds.
Let me say one last thing.
I don't know, I I'm gonna say it, so I don't know why I need to preface it.
I thought of this earlier too, and my son actually mentioned this to me last night.
And I'm not being critical of Kyle here.
I'm looking at this from the standpoint of let's move this ball forward as it relates to other NFL head coaches who are making 20, 25 million a year, or even 15 million a year.
Let's start with 10.
If you're making 10 million a year, and you're this guy who's constantly working And look, again, I'm not being critical of Kyle, but what's your phone doing on your lap while you're driving?
If you're not using it at all, put it in the other seat.
You don't need it on your lap.
It's gonna be a temptation to you at every red light.
And you're busy.
You're getting ready for training camp.
Shit's going on.
Here's my point.
If I'm a head coach right now, and I look at what happened, I'm saying, "Screw this.
I'm not driving myself anymore."
I got the money to have somebody drive me everywhere I gotta go.
And then I don't have to worry about paying attention.
I don't have to worry about missing an important text.
I don't have to worry about trying to multitask.
I can get in the backseat, I can work on my phone the whole time.
I can take a nap if I want to.
I, I don't know why they don't already do that.
For what they're making, the last thing I'd wanna do after a busy day, or before a busy day, is sit behind the wheel of a car for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes.
Some of these guys are driving 45 minutes to an hour back and forth to work.
You got the money.
Just have a driver every day.
And, and I, I wonder if there's gonna be some coaches who look at this and say, "You know what?
This is money well spent.
I don't need this, 'cause I am working while I'm driving."
Yeah.
"And I'm not gonna take that risk that I'm gonna get myself in an accident."
I don't even think you'd have to worry about paying for it if you were a head coach.
The organization would take care of it.
It would be nothing, you know?
Put it in the deal.
Yeah.
Put it in the deal.
Put it in the deal, whatever.
It's a tax write-off for them.
Who- whatever.
It, it's a drop in the bucket.
I hear you, Mike.
The, I, I could certainly see that happening.
I, I, you know, as you were saying it, I was going, "Yeah, you're right."
If I was a damn head coach and making 15 or $20 million a year, I, I probably would have somebody driving me so I could sit in the backseat, be on the phone, look at the iPad, and, "No, wait, hold on, let me look at this film real quick.
I was wondering about these few plays."
It's, it's not a bad thought by you, Mike, that's for sure.
Hey, I know when I'm too old to drive, and you know there's that argument in every family, it's time to take the keys away from Pap Pap.
I'm gonna say take them and shove them up your ass.
I don't wanna drive.
I'm happy now not driving.
I've been up to Pittsburgh multiple times with my back over the past month and a half.
I haven't driven a single time.
I sit in the backseat and copy/paste snarky comment to the cows come home.
It's worth it.
I'm able to be productive.
It's worth what it costs.
When we went to Columbus for my niece's wedding, I drove.
And phone in the middle console.
We get there, I got friggin' 35, 40- Yeah missed text messages.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
And, like, you know, and that's a Saturday coming home, 40 text messages missed.
On the way out on a Thursday afternoon, 40, 45 text messages missed.
Like, I, I don't need that crap.
And, and now three hours is, you're getting a little, you're getting a little high.
I'm not, I'm not quite at the point yet where three hours each way I'm gonna pay someone else to drive me, but it's just an example.
When you're going back and forth to work every day, if you have that kind of a job, I don't think you should be driving yourself.
I think you can be a hell of a lot more productive and entail a hell of a lot less risk if you're trying to do two things at once.
All right, that's it.
