Kyle Shanahan Appeared to Chew Out 49ers QB Brock Purdy After Loss

It's certainly possible that Shanahan was talking constructively about ways in which both he and Purdy can improve together. But that's not what the interaction looked like.

Grant Cohn | Oct 21, 2024

Oct 20, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) walks towards the line of scrimmage against the Kansas City Chiefs in the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

SANTA CLARA -- Kyle did something strange after the 49ers lost 28-18 to the Chiefs on Sunday.

After his postgame press conference, he walked straight over to Brock Purdy at his locker and appeared to chew him out quietly for at least five minutes. Shanahan didn't yell because he clearly didn't want the media to hear what he was saying, but he waved his arms and pointed his fingers and seemed exasperated. You didn't have to be a body language expert to see he was upset and talking in a stern way. Purdy stood and faced Shanahan and nodded every few seconds like a good soldier but didn't speak. Eventually, the two shook hands and Shanahan left.

A few minutes later, Purdy walked to the podium for his postgame press conference. So I asked him what Shanahan said to him at his locker.

“We were just talking about some stuff throughout the game and just some moments throughout it and stuff and how we can get better and going forward," Purdy said. "It was really just that.”

It's certainly possible that Shanahan was talking constructively about ways in which both he and Purdy can improve together.

But that's not what the interaction looked like. The way Shanahan gesticulated as he spoke, he created the appearance that he was singling out Purdy for his mistakes and essentially blaming him for the loss. Coaching him up. And he did this in front of Purdy's teammates and media members that might have put the responsibility for the terrible loss on Shanahan's shoulders considering Andy Reid owns him.

Purdy seemed humiliated.

This is why players don't appreciate getting called out in locker rooms by coaches after losses. Those conversations should be private.

I wonder how Purdy feels about Shanahan right now.

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Published Oct 21, 2024|Modified Oct 21, 2024

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.