When Kyle Shanahan was the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons and interviewed for head coaching opportunities around the NFL, word spread that he was difficult to deal with.
On Friday before traveling to Miami for Super Bowl LIV, 49ers owner and CEO Jed York spoke to the media about why he thought the narrative about his head coach existed.
“The knocks that you heard on Kyle when you did, your reference checks and all that, ‘He thinks he knows everything,’ you had those things but he’s just honest and direct,” York said “It’s hard when you’re in my position to know when someone is truly being honest and direct and when someone is kissing your ass.
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“Kyle is very, very direct. He’s not really good at a poker face when he doesn’t want to answer a question. He’s pretty good at being direct.”
Since day one 49ers star players like George Kittle, Jimmy Garoppolo and Richard Sherman have had nothing bad to say about their head coach. They also didn't have a relationship with him prior to Shanahan's move to Northern California.
Offensive linemen Ben Garland and Mike Person both spent time in Atlanta with Shanahan and were legitimately surprised to hear about his reputation outside of the building. Neither player has seen a change in Shanahan’s demeanor throughout his journey from offensive coordinator to becoming the 49ers' head coach.
“He’s the same guy,” Garland said. “He’s always been consistent. Having him in Atlanta and having him here, he’s always been one of those guys you can go up to his office and talk to him and just very down to earth, very approachable.
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“He’s a very down to earth coach, and we just have a lot of respect for him and the way he treats us and he understands the difficulties of our job and also understands what needs to be done. I absolutely love playing for him.”
Person did share that Shanahan being a notorious perfectionist might be why his head coach has been mistaken as a challenge to work with.
“Oh, huge," Person said. "He knows every single detail about everything which makes you up your game and makes you have to know everything as well.”
That attention to detail is what Person believes has made Shanahan so successful. Even through starting the 2017 season with an 0-9 record and battling through 4-12 in 2018, he has seen no difference in Shanahan’s approach.
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“From my time with him in Atlanta, this is the exact same coach,” Person said. “His door is always open. You can always go in, talk to him, kind of shoot the s--t with him. He’s always been the same guy and I’m just really happy for him.
“Once you get to know the guy it’s just the way he operates. I don’t think he’s mean to anybody or ever has been. Just the way he operates, he’s very confident in his ability to do things and like I said, it just rubs off on people.”