Shanahan’s concussion changes his perspective

Mike Florio and Chris Simms react to Kyle Shanahan's comments regarding his health following an offseason car accident and analyze if the head coach will be more compassionate of head injuries moving forward.

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Back to Kyle Shanahan.

Monday edition PFT Live, August 10.

We're just three days away from the full start of the pre-season.

Obviously, the Hall of Fame Game was just a few days ago.

Kyle addressed a bunch of topics in about 20 minutes.

We have four, five different copy/paste snarky comments.

Without the snarky comments or the annoying headlines that he loves so much.

Wow.

Here's Kyle from Saturday on working his way back to his normal routine, and he was speaking four weeks to the day after being involved in that July 11 automobile accident.

Here he is.

My head feels so much better.

You know, concussions do linger a little bit.

You know, only things I really deal with now is just headaches and fatigue, but, that's why I'm not always exactly on the same routine, but pretty damn close.

I didn't tell anyone today, but then I just felt like doing it, and I, I wanna do it.

I wanna get, get back to fully 100% being normal, and unfortunately, this is part of 100% being normal, so.

Did you decide that this morning, or was it even during practice or- No, it was more during practice.

It was actually more when I was trying to talk to Clay about practice, and he was ignoring me, getting ready to talk to you guys.

I was like, "Oh, I'll do, I'll go do it.

I got it right now."

And you know, that's how you do it.

If you feel good on a certain day, then you just, you stretch the rubber band a little bit.

You push the envelope a little bit, and you see how you feel.

It is a slow process.

And, you know, as you've said before, he was scared because it was taking a while to feel normal again.

He has to be feeling very relieved that he is feeling better, but it's just a cloud that probably is going to lift one day at a time, one day at a time, one day at a time, and then one day he's not even gonna realize it when he feels normal again.

Yeah, hopefully.

It, it, it seems like it's going there.

It, it's been a slow process.

You know my friend.

He's a psycho, and he's the psycho we talk about all the t- all the time.

He's a psycho in a good way.

So this has been stressful for him.

The fact that he hasn't been able to, you know, get his hands messy and be in the fire with the guys day in and day out, and be able to operate like he always does, it stresses my, my buddy out.

It does.

So I know that.

And then his passion for the team, and wanting to be great and all of that, has been extremely tough on him.

So he's had to deal with that.

But as, as it's gone here, yeah, he's starting to feel better and better.

I mean, even his coloring looks better.

I mean, he But, but yeah, there was moments of worry.

I mean, two, two weeks ago, I'll tell you this, I don't think he'd have any problem sharing.

I mean, he's Yeah, he was worried.

He was saying things like, "I mean, you know, gosh, I'm getting a little bit better, but I thought it would happen faster."

And then he was telling me things like, "I mean, I've had some weird thoughts in my head lately.

I'm starting to stress about this a little bit, like, am I gonna be one of those guys where they're like, 'Well, he was never s- the same since the car accident,' right?"

And so all of that's been going through his head.

The emotions.

He hasn't felt comfortable as far as thinking clearly and on his feet, to, to do the press conferences always.

He did that one you mentioned where he did it kind of in a, in his office with no cameras and all that.

Because, yeah, he was still really cloudy at that point.

And also, you know, still a little emotional about the situation, which, w- can happen when you, are, are concussed.

Concuss- even adds, you know, more emotion to you that way.

But he's on the right path, and I think he's very close to being totally 100% here, at least for being able to do his work at 100%.

Maybe have to deal with some tired side effects, you know, at the end of the day.

And the fact that he had a concussion, and he had a severe concussion, and it took him time to recover from it, coincides with the business that he's in- Yeah where players have different degrees of head injuries from time to time.

Some are, or, or can be, nearly as severe as the concussion that he suffered in the car accident.

He was asked, among other things, about whether or not this will make him more understanding, more sensitive to the struggles that players have as they are recovering from concussions.

Here he is on that topic.

You know, I've been told so much by these guys, don't compare a sports concussion to a, an accident like this.

And, and I'm starting to realize that now.

But, yeah, just little things like when they label things, like whether it's severe or mild and, you know, like, you hear someone has a mild one, I'm like, oh, all right, well, that might be one game, but usually that's two.

And then you just, you kind of learn those are just words.

Every, every, each one's a little bit different.

And, I definitely can relate to how scary it is when you don't know if you will feel right again.

But it's, it's definitely made me more educated on it.

I, usually I just listen and like, "Tell me when.

Okay."

And I move on, but I understand it a lot better and what guys gotta go through, and the pr- protocol to get back.

And, you know, the point I made when I wrote about this, rarely do we have a situation where it feels like a guy is malingering, milking a concussion to avoid practicing or playing.

Football players are wired to play.

I think that his greatest asset moving forward will be when there's a player who is trying to get back and is ignoring the symptoms, the signs, the lingering difficulties, it could be that Kyle spots it.

Yeah.

He just no- notices that subtle difference, and he talks some sense into the guy.

And I think the key is And I know it's very difficult, I know it's a meritocracy, and it should be a meritocracy, but guys wanna come back 'cause they don't wanna lose their jobs.

So if I'm a starter, and I have a concussion, and the backup's in there, and the backup's playing well, am I gonna have a spot when I'm cleared?

I need to get back so I don't lose my spot.

And I think that Kyle's in a position where, now, you wanna be able to honor the check if you write it, but he's in a position where he can say to the guy, "Don't worry about it, you'll still have your spot."

Yeah.

"I promise you, you'll still have your spot."

Yeah.

It, it, it gets delicate, but that's one of the reasons why guys will pretend they don't have a head injury at all.

The Hines Ward stories about grabbing his ankle when he had a, when he knew he had a head injury, or guys will try to avoid being checked out.

Or as Peyton Manning joked in 2011, tanking the baseline test in training camp so it'll be easier to pass it if you have concussion symptoms.

It's all about encouraging guys to take care of themselves, and Kyle will be, I think, if he chooses to be, and it sounds like he will, very effective at getting players to understand they gotta take their time and they gotta let themselves get healthy before they go back out there.

Yeah, that's right.

I, I think the, the big thing is, it, it's like the word I g- I keep coming to, it's just y- maybe a little bit more compassion and empathy towards the player that way than you'd normally get.

And I don't mean that to sound insensitive, because, you know, Kyle and, and all coaches do care about their players, but like you were talking, it's a business.

And sometimes you're like, "Hey, we gotta run this play and do this, and wait, is our guy ready?

Oh, man, he's still dealing with concussion?

Geez, okay, when's he gonna be ready?"

And you can kind of be like that, and kind of on edge about it.

Like, "What's taking him so long?

Come on," like, "what's wrong?"

I mean, "Why, why is this lingering so long?"

So maybe that does stop now that, you know, he's had this and had such a severe fight with it.

So I, I, I do, I do agree with you there.

I think there is, you know, more knowledge and a little bit better feel for the overall situation.

And the big thing he says is just that, you know, their words, "Oh, mild," or moderate, or whatever, it's, it's, they're all are, are different according to the person, where they got hit in the head, how it happened, whatever else.

And, I think he's, he's realized that now

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