Why wasn’t Shanahan’s accident reported earlier?
Mike Florio and Chris Simms question why Kyle Shanahan's car accident wasn't reported earlier and discuss the complex situations behind reporting around the NFL.
Video Transcript
That's the inside baseball part of this that I find fascinating, that this thing happens.
When accidents happen, when arrests happen, when anything public happens where you have the police, first responders, they create reports.
You can't keep it quiet.
Somehow the 49ers managed to keep this all out of the public eye for 11 days while they figured out what they're gonna do, and the only reason we found out about it Saturday is they were reporting for camp.
Yeah.
If they weren't reporting to, to camp until today, we wouldn't know about it sitting here right now.
Yeah.
Guaranteed.
No, no, I, I, I hear you, Mike.
Listen, I, I, I was sitting there e- every day after it happened going, "Is the news gonna break today?
Is the news gonna break today?
Is the news gonna break today," right?
I certainly looked at my wife a few times in the last 12, 13 days, and we looked at each other and we were like, "Huh, this is pretty amazing it still hasn't come out."
But I think when you get down into it, this is where, hey, being goodwill, treating people the right way, being successful, yeah, being powerful as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, but being a guy that everybody in the community likes and knows, and that's where Kyle is gifted and cool.
His ability, just like you heard Chris Forrester there, to talk to people, whether it's, you know, somebody really important or somebody down the totem pole a little bit that way.
And yeah, I think, you know, between that and the goodwill that he's worked up there in the San Francisco area, and the fact that of course like you said, you know, I believe he was coming from a chiropractic adjustment at, when, when, when this all happened, so he was close to the stadium.
And as you know and we know, these organizations are tied into the police departments that are around the stadium and the facility and all that.
So yeah, with all that, I'm with you.
I was surprised it took that long to, to come out as well.
But, at the same time I understood it once I heard a few of those details that I just explained right there.
Well, and I hear what you're saying, but nobody should get that- Yeah, I, I- that treatment.
I, I, yeah.
Everybody, everybody If you get in a car accident on the way home, it's a report.
If, you know, I get in a car accident, it's a report.
It's out there.
And it's not And I guess you're raising two separate issues here.
One, did the authorities do something to keep this quiet?
Or two, were the reporters just asleep at the switch, or did they knowingly engage in some sort of a deal with the 49ers to not release it?
And to me, the way that it came out on Saturday- Yeah where the 49ers announced it at 12 Eastern right on the nose.
12:01, Shefte tweets about it with all of the details about the injuries which weren't in the 49ers announcement.
12:02, lengthy ESPN article with quotes from the lieutenant at the local police department with details about the accident.
This was all coordinated.
There was an effort to work with ESPN, perhaps to get ESPN to not break it, and to give them some more.
But the 49ers didn't want this out until the day that it was time to go to training camp, and it would've been obvious at that point, where's Kyle?
They wanted to wait until then.
ESPN, which now the 49ers indirectly through their membership in the NFL partially owns, up to 10%, as the NFL now owns 10% of ESPN and the 49ers own one 32nd of the NFL.
Between that, between And, and the beat reporters are very sensitive about this.
They're very sensitive.
They're ve- they're ve- You know, one thing I've learned- Yeah when you talk about how the sausage is made, the people who make the sausage get pissy.
Sorry, London.
They're very sensitive about the reality that their news organizations are monitoring these publicly available sources- Right because any accident could be politician, musician, head coach.
So all of these news organizations that blanket that area, Palo Alto where this happened- Yeah there are news organizations that are supposed to be paying attention to this.
So they were either asleep at the switch, or somebody found a way to, to put it in this file over here and hold it there for 11 days, and that's something that somebody should be investigating.
And the funny part about it all is, of course their, their defense isn't to defend themselves, it's to attack, 'cause they have no defense.
They were asleep at the switch, or they did the bidding of the 49ers in exchange for future considerations, which I think is a problem if that's true.
But the reaction was, "Well, oh, you, your co-host is best friends with Kyle Shanahan."
Not sure.
"Why didn't you report it?"
Well, why in the hell?
What kind of friend- Exactly would you have been- Right if you had told a reporter- Right, right any reporter, me, anyone?
Yeah.
Like, the whole concept of friendship- Exactly is different than the concept of doing your job as a reporter.
And you probably specifically didn't tell me because you didn't want to put me in a spot where I knew something that I couldn't report, 'cause I hate that.
100%.
Right.
I hate knowing things- Right that I'm told.
I'll tell you this, anytime somebody says to me, "Look, I'll tell you this but you can never report it," I say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa."
"We gotta come up with another way to do this."
Because what if I find it out from somebody else?
Ex- that's the worst part.
Right?
Exactly right.
Right.
Yeah.
I, it happens to me all the time, too.
What if you found out from somebody else?
You know, what if you've heard inklings about that already and have some of the details, and now they've told you one other part of the puzzle, and now you can't tell it and you're like, "Oh, I would've figured this out.
I've, I've got eight pieces of the, the 10-piece puzzle here.
Like, you told me one piece, and now, you know, I can't talk about it 'cause you told me that."
I, I hear you all the way.
But yeah, I'm a good friend.
The, that's what it is.
I don't know what happened and, and, and how it got, you know, under the radar there.
If you ask me, yeah, I would think people were asleep at the wheel because it was a slow time and people just weren't paying attention to stuff like that, but I don't know.
You know, when you talk about ESPN and Adam Schefter, you know, Adam Schefter's a friend of the Shanahan family.
We know that, so it's a little bit like the same category as me.
I mean, I met Adam Schefter when I was 19 years old at the University of Texas when I was with the Shanahan family.
So, you know, that, he wrote books for Mike Shanahan.
He wrote a book with Mike.
Right, exactly.
He wrote a book with Mike.
So, so, you know, there, th- that's what's tough sometimes is you know as I know when there's a personal relationship- But you know what?
You know what?
Yeah, yeah.
In a situation like that, then my, my, my take would be let somebody else break this at ESPN.
You don't have to break this one.
Tap out of this one altogether.
If your, if your friendship is gonna keep you from reporting something as soon as you know it- And you're gonna engage in this bargain and help them, engineer when this comes out.
You're no longer a reporter, you're a member of PR.
So you should have tapped out of that one.
Let Nick Wagoner handle it, let Ian Rapoport handle it, let Jeremy Fowler handle it.
"I got a conflict in this one, I'm too close to the Shanahans, I can't do it."
That's what he should have done.
Yeah, well- That's what you would have done well- You w- if you were a reporter.
Yeah.
You're not a reporter.
I'm not, right.
If you were a reporter, you would have tapped out of it.
You wouldn't have been involved in it at all.
You wouldn't have broken it at 12:01- Yeah when 40- the 49ers announced it at 12.
You just have to ta- you have, you can't have it both ways in that setting is my, is what I'm trying to say.
You can't, you can't let your relationship with the person at the middle of this keep you from doing your job, and then suddenly show up and do your job under the terms dictated by the 49ers.
Yeah, listen.
That's the point I'm trying to make.
I, I, I, I, I hear you there, I hear you.
You know, I, I think too at the same time when you talk about, you know, Adam Schefter, he's got so much information.
He knows things about people all across the league.
That's what he does.
That's why he's great at what he does.
He doesn't tell the public everything.
And yeah, how he uses that and keeps- But- I, I, I- Right.
That, that, and you're, you're touching on something that is so critical to what's currently going on in this entire media space.
I'm sorry to interrupt you.
It's all right.
But The Athletic, I don't think The Athletic is ever gonna hire another insider.
Because you can't be an insider just in the way that you're explaining it, and satisfy the highest of journalistic standards.
That's what got Dianna Russini in trouble.
Right.
The appearance of a conflict of interest.
Forget about what did or didn't happen.
There was enough that came out that it created the appearance of a conflict of interest, and that fails to live up to the very high journalistic standards of The New York Times.
So they're not gonna have an insider.
The way you're explaining this, it's almost like combination reporter, fixer, handler.
It's really not journalism.
It's a nuanced job.
Because- Yeah it, it's, nuanced is the kindest way you can put it.
You know things that your audience would want to know, but you deliberately withhold them because you're trying to manage the relationships that allow you to get other information that you do share with the audience.
Sure.
Sure.
It's a weird reality.
It is.
And I, I think that insider and journalist, one thing that I've kind of learned through the Mike Vrabel, Dianna Russini, and thinking about this and talking to people about it, those are two different jobs.
And insider, just to be an insider, you've already navigated and acquired all sorts of conflicts of interest, or you wouldn't be in the position where someone is texting you five minutes before they're going to announce something and say, "Go ahead and tweet this and then we'll announce it after you tweet it."
You don't get to that position unless you've handled things the way that you just explained.
Yeah.
Sure.
And, and, and it's not, I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's just not journalism.
That's all I'm saying.
No.
May- may- maybe not.
Maybe that's not the correct word.
You're, you're right.
You know, it, listen, it was, it was a sensitive thing, as we talked about.
I mean, that's a serious injury.
There's another person involved who you gotta be, you know, of course, you know, have feelings for that and sensitive to that issue as well.
And hey, listen, as a guy here that, yeah, I'm not a reporter or, or whatever, but I guess you could say I'm somewhat of an insider, and I practice in some of those things as well.
Yeah, I know a few things- Right about, right?
But I can't tell it 'cause then that coach will never talk to me ever again.
"Oh, he told me this-" Right "about his team," or whatever.
And so then it comes out or we talk about it, and I have knowledge of the information but I'm not like, "Oh, Andy Reid told me this secret five weeks ago.
I actually knew it all along."
Andy Reid'd be like, "Hey, jerk, asshole.
I didn't want you to tell anybody that part of it."
So it is the part of the delicate dance of knowing things and n- and, and keeping your relationships within the NFL.
And like I said, Adam Sh- Adam Schefter, who is the ultimate insider, his, he's got a relationship with Shanahan that goes way back.
And I think when you couple that with some of the medical issues and how sensitive it was, you know, I, I can understand it.
But I, like you, am also shocked that it took, you know, 12 to 13 days for it to come out.
I hear you.
Yeah.
I do hear you.
Yeah, 13 days it was kept under wraps.
And the 49ers wanted it clearly to be released at noon Eastern on the day they reported for training camp, and ESPN reported it exactly one minute later.
I mean, just go f- wait five minutes.
Like, it was, it w- it just made it so obvious it was all coordinated.
But you're right, that's the reality now.
And i- i- it's not gonna stop me from commenting on it, because it, there is something about it that it, it Because he, I don't know, maybe he knew as long as you knew and sat on it all those days.
Yeah, I don't know.
Maybe.
I d- if I'd have known about it, if I'd have known about it, I guarantee I would have reported it.
So it's good you didn't tell me.
'Cause there's no way you can withhold something that significant from your audience.
You're not, you're not serving your audience, which I think is our primary duty, if you don't tell them something like that.
Find a way to credibly report it as soon as you can.
So that's where it gets into a murky gray area- Sure that a lot of people in this business are swimming around in.
Yeah, no, it, it, it is.
And, and, and l- and there was a time that went by where, you know, of course I, I have a few of these pictures where he looks beat up.
And I was like, you know, I was kind of probably being insensitive a little bit and silly, and I was like, "Can I put one of these on Instagram, right?
And like just show everybody what you look like, and, you know, and, and, and make a snarky comment on the bottom, like, 'Hey, the first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club,' or something like that?"
Oh, no.
But at the same time, you know, that's where, you know, at, at, you gotta think about the whole situation and go, "No, no, this is a-" Yeah "this a sensitive subject."
Like- I could only you- Yeah.
Only you could do that- Could think of that and get away with it.
You, no, you, only you would think of it.
Only you would ask permission to do it.
And only you would be able to do it with that smile on your face.
Where the person who should be so pissed- is gonna laugh along with you.
And you had the perfect opportunity to do it, 'cause you inter- George Kittle, interviewed George Kittle last week, and he told the story about- Yeah Kyle saying, "I could, I could beat up Hey, George, I think I could beat you up."
Right.
You could have just showed one of the, those pictures as the aftermath of George Kittle versus Kyle Shanahan.
You're right, I could have done that.
I could have d- I, also had some people, you know, at, during that little time there, you know, I was laughing and I was like, "Hey, good for you, and I know you heard it."
And I was like, "Hey, I always put my hands on him when I get around him too."
So a few of our friends that were on this vacation- Funny with us in the, in the south of France, they were like, they heard these comments with Kittle and me as well, and they sent some pictures of me when I had like Kyle underwater, you know?
I, I always kind of mess with him a little bit with my big bear claws, as you know, and he's the king of the castle.
So I always feel like, "Hey, he's gotta have a real friend here that, you know, pushes him around a little bit.
He can't boss me around."
So, we were, I got a picture from, from one of the couples going, they're laughing about that whole story, going, "Hey, look at this, we got evidence that I got Kyle underwater, like I'm drowning him."
I got newfound respect for Kyle Shanahan.
I already had a ton of respect for him anyway.
I've sat in this seat before.
He's got the potential to be the next Bill Belichick.
He's gotta get over the hump.
It's Maybe he's gonna be the next Andy Reid, where the next team he coaches is when it's all gonna fall together.
'Cause Andy Reid was with the Eagles for a long time, and it just never, never clicked there.
But regardless, I think he's got the potential to be one of the all-time greats.
Yeah.
But I had newfound respect for him when we were at the owners meeting Where was that?
Was that in Florida?
And he told me that they called you Lenny.
That's right.
Lenny from the classic- Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck novella Of Mice and Men.
And as soon as he said that, like, that's the, that's the perfect description.
So, uh- Thank you I- I'm just, I'm glad he's doing well.
And- Yeah we wish him- He's getting there the best.
Right.
It, it, the, that, that collection of injuries, like, you When you have anything wrong with you, you quickly realize how good it feels to feel normal, and you resolve that you will never take the feeling of feeling normal for granted again.
And I went through that to the extreme on June 13 when I hit rock bottom of just, like, my entire right leg constantly- Oh on fire.
Yeah.
I will never, ever A- and I'm still not 100, but I'm, you know, closer to 150, closer to 170, maybe closer to 180, maybe closer to 190.
But it's not 100, and I'll never take for granted how it feels to be 100% normal, good to go, because it sucks.
Yeah.
And I can only imagine Well, Ky- what Kyle's going th- through is worse than what I went through.
I can only imagine, that feeling.
And, I'm sure he'll agree that, that, he'll never take for granted just, just being n- just having a nor- just normal.
Yeah.
Normal is very, very good.
He's, he's, he's chomping at the bit.
It's, this is, this is the time to shine.
So, th- you know, this is a, a guy, like we said, a, the coach is psycho in a good way.
He's got ADD, DD, DD, DD, DD.
He needs to coach.
That's what he wants to do.
That's what he's made to be.
And, you know, the other thing, yeah, I, I, and, and I haven't even really discussed this with him, but especially with the broken hand, that's gonna w- that's gonna be annoying.
Coaches this day and age, as you know, type on the computer a lot, and then you got that, that cowboy, right?
They call it a cowboy, that clicker that you watch film with.
And a lot of the times, right, I'm a lefty, I want the clicker in my right hand so I can write notes with my left hand and do that.
So it's the opposite for him.
He's not gonna be able to use the clicker efficiently.
He's gonna be That's gonna drive him crazy.
It's gonna be little things like that, to your point, where he's not 100%.
He can coach the team, but just everything takes a little longer.
It's a little more annoying than usual.
But yeah, he's on the up and up, and, hopefully he'll be back out there full time here real soon.
