Fans and Media Need to Shut the Hell Up About Shanahan

Kyle Shanahan is a good coach, and everyone needs to stop talking crazy-talk about his fitness as a head coach.

NFL

The fans and media want instant results. They want their dopamine hit of sports heroin. They demand the high of a Super Bowl win to satiate their desires. But this mentality is toxic. It drives good coaches away and brings in temporary replacements that do not work in the end.

American fans are the embodiment of corporate greed. Corporate greed is not just profits, profits, profits. It is profits now! Short term success over sustained excellence. It is money and win now. Screw the planet later. This demand for instant euphoria negates the ascendence to utopia.

I have written this before, but this Twitter and talking heads mob are what drove Jurgen Klinsmann away from US Men’s Soccer. It was a brutal jettison of an excellent coach and it cost our country deeply. The reason he got the boot was because Americans are stupid when it comes to futbol and football. Eyeing the ultimate trophy blinds the vision of how to get there. The journey matters. (Happy Birthday John Wooden!)

Shanahan is an offensive genius. That is the fact. He was the best offensive play caller for at least half a decade before he became head coach. His coaching tree based on his offensive tactics have trickled down to Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, and Mike McDaniel. Are other fan bases calling for their heads?

The reason people want Shanahan to be better is because they injected their first dose. Kyle Shanahan brought very quick success for a rebuilding franchise. Yet fans forget what he has done in that short time. Fans believe some outsider will be a better product to get the 49ers to glory. The fans and talking heads are wrong.

Shanahan’s record speaks for yourself if you look closer, but step back to understand why:

2017: 6-10 in a rebuild year. Started off slow (as every first coach likely would) then railed off 6 straight with a newly traded Jimmy G.

2018: 4-12 in an injury ridden year. Jimmy G tears his ACL. What team aspires a title when their star newly minted QB gets sidelined for the year?

2019: 13-3 and a Super Bowl appearance. Jimmy G and the rest of the team are healthy.

2020: 6-10 during Covid-19. Jimmy G is hurt part of the year and the 49ers lose Nick Bosa the entire season. Bosa is that number 2 pick that was a game wrecker for the 49ers for the Super Bowl season. Also, Santa Clara Covid rules eliminates 3 of the home games. 

2021: 10-7 and NFC Championship appearance. A tough year yet the 49ers peaked in the playoffs and lost to eventual SB Champion in the NFC Championship game (The 49ers were leading most of that game). 

2022: 3-3 start. Everyone goes crazy and calls for Shanahan’s head.

Say what you want about Shanahan, but he has righted the ship and is steering it across the vast ultra-competitive sea of the NFL. Sure, he has made mistakes. Sure, you can “blame” him for costly errors. Blown leads are not the problem. The problem is that fans internalize these blown leads as lost wins. They do not observe the foundation that acquired such leads. Fans think missteps are the problem. Errors, mistakes, missteps do not disqualify an NFL coach. Fans point to the “reason” for not getting their addiction satisfied. That is Shanahan.

Shanahan gets the team there. How did he get the 49ers there? Foundational building blocks and continuity. Continuity from upper management thru the coaching staff. But, oh wait! He consistently loses coaches to head coaching positions because the 49ers’ organization does so well. Shanahan breeds coaches. The mainstays are just Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch. The lower coaches move up the ladder in the ranks to occupy the vacant positions left by the departures of the future head coaches. The 49ers are working with a turnover rate of Silicon Valley. Talent gets forged in the 49ers’ organization and leaves for their own pursuits. NY Jets and Miami Dolphin fans do not think Robert Saleh and Mike McDaniel are unworthy because they are the fans’ new shiny drugs. Take the prescription first and feel good because of the new medication. That’s how it works in perception.

If the fans want to feel good with their medication, they need a foundational lifestyle to manage their situation. Good habits and health. The 49ers have good habits and (at times) good health. And when they feel good, they just win.

The issue is that mob fans think mistakes are unrepairable. The fans deem a coach a polished gadget. Insert that gadget into the machine and it works. Yet when the machine breaks-down, they want to toss out the gadget without fixing it. Why always replace the gadget with a new insert that possibly does not fit? Just because it is shiny and new? The salesperson (mob fans and talking heads) got the fanbase hooked on what could be desirable. People want the new drug. This misdirection takes the mind away from what the 49ers already have.

Coaches are not finished products on their first coaching opportunity. NBA fans do not expect an NBA rookie, no matter how highly touted, to bring a championship their first year. NBA fans know that development is essential. Players must learn on the job. First-time NFL coaches need to learn on the job too. They need to develop. They need to grow. They need to get better. They need to learn from their mistakes (not get guillotined for them). And after they have gone thru their development, true success arrives.

If a coach needs to develop, what coach is better in the entire league than Kyle Shanahan? 49er fans need to seriously consider this. Shanahan is an offensive genius, and he can develop into an elite level head coach that will stay in the bay for a long time. The 49ers do not want one Super Bowl and then kick their addiction. The organization wants sustained success. The 49ers want what Bill Belichick built in New England. Year after year, decade after decade of excellence. That requires a coach with a vision and continuity in the organization. The Cleveland Browns booted Belichick (a first-time head coach then) and I am sure that Cleveland has no regrets.

Organizations should not get rid of talent. You need talented players, and you need talented coaches. Coaches have talent. Let that talent grow and develop. Please, 49er fans, shut the hell up!

Here is a list from that previous Klinsmann blog about coaching and continuity. In times before, we believed in continuity before our society got so hooked on immediacy. Desperation is not a good path.

UCLA Bruins: John Wooden was hired in 1948. From 1964-1975 he won 10 of 12 national championships.  A 16-year wait.

Boston Celtics: Red Auerbach was hired in 1950. From 1957 to 1966 he won 9 of 10 championships.  A 7-year wait.

Duke Blue Devils: Mike Krzyzewksi was hired in 1980. Didn’t win his first of five national championships until 1991. An 11-year wait.

San Francisco Giants: Brian Sabean was hired as GM in 1996. Didn’t win his first of three World Series titles until 2010. A 14-year wait.

So let the 49ers keep Shanahan and let him develop and grow to what all fans knew from the beginning. That he can be an elite long-term solution to the 49ers. 

I quote the words of Shanahan’s favorite artist. The artist that he named his son Carter after. Yes, that is Lil’ Wayne:

Now that’s how you let the beat build, b*tch

That’s how you let the beat build b*tch

Now that’s how you let the beat build b*tch

Let the Beat build b*tch

And the beat go

Boom… b-boom-ba-boom

Boom… b-boom-ba-boom

It go boom… b-boom-ba-boom

Now say… (yeah yeah yeah)

WE, yes, WE are Champions!

Dubnation just won another title. It is Dubnation. It is us that won.

NBA

I find it petty that people want to call out fans when they say “we” won a championship. A usual retort is “are you on the team? Then you did not win a championship. You are not on the court, you are not playing, you just watch the team perform.” I hate this. When people exclude fans from the we, what are these people trying to accomplish? The only notion to step on fans and exclude the fans is to take away their personal joy.

When someone says that he or she is from the bay are people going to ask that person whether he or she runs the city, perform civic duties, or enforces laws? No. When fans identify themselves as “we” with a sports team it is like saying they are from a region. Fans develop a sense of identity with their passions. We bought tickets to the game, we tuned in on local television, and we feel the emotions; joy and sorrow as we watch our team. Why cut them down in that journey?

This same sentiment is weaponized when people attack bandwagon fans. Bandwagon fans materialize because something is transcendent, inspiring, and so enthralling it captures the community more than just the beleaguered. Losses, bruises, and disappointment do not elevate someone’s experiences as more worthy than another who wants to join the party. The previously punished fans may appreciate the win more, feel more joy, and ultimately find solace in relief. But the beaten up, just because they took the hits, does not make them better than anyone else who soaks up the positive energy. There are no solar panels that are depleting the sun.

I once was at a bar the season after the Giants won a World Series (one of their 3 championships, I can’t remember). Some dude called me out as a bandwagon fan. I told him I was not. But go ahead and pop off sir. This guy proceeded to quiz me on Giants’ knowledge. After I crushed his soul, like Stephen Colbert crushed James Franco in Tolkien lore, he acknowledged I was a “true” fan. Whatever buddy. As if I need your stamp of approval from a Padres Dodgers fan. (I think I remember it was a Padres fan, but for my own personal fun factor, I am retelling this story as if the dude was a Dodgers fan.)

This is what irks me. Why do we have to exclude? Why does a person feel like they have a leg up on someone else because the excluder denied that someone else their access? The solar panels are not depleting the sun.

I have brought a few different friends to party many different times. On more than a few occasions there are murmurs from people like “why is he here?” “Who invited him?” 

“Um, I brought him here, what’s the problem?”

 “He isn’t cool enough.” “He’s lame.”

“Well, I was invited, and I am ‘cool enough’ and I invited my buddy.”

First off, what does “cool enough” mean? Is there some sort of criteria you must check off to be cool? Do you have to pass a test of 20 questions? I understand some celebrities, athletes, etc. project a sense of cool. Maybe from their mannerisms, their fashion, their sheer presence. But us common folk, what is “cool enough?“

The sad reality is that these insults reflect on the insulter. Does someone else’s presence affect the insulter’s reputation or image? If the insulter worries about being in the same room with someone that isn’t “cool enough,” reality check, you, Mr. or Ms. Insulter, are not in fact that cool. You are not secure in yourself that you must jockey external factors to make you look “cool enough.” 

What made me think of all this, is this Golden State Warriors’ run. I have invited my friends to always join me to watch a game. Whether the invite was the day of, the week before, the month before, a year ago, I invited you. (Not going to lie, I am a cool hang with watching sports.) It is always an open invite. I am always posted up in my (some may say man cave) place. It is totally understandable that people feel reticent to ask to come after my initial invite. I say this, as an apology, to all my friends that I do not follow up and invite individually at every event. But everyone is welcome.

This is not to say that everyone is always welcome. People makes mistakes and commit violations. If someone abuses my friendship, or worse, abuses one of my friends, I have no problem excommunicating that violator just like Chase Center banned Fake Klay Thompson for life.

But from the start, everyone deserves an invite. Someone is not discriminated from buying a ticket to a game because of what he or she looks like, how he or she dresses, or how (perceived) annoying he or she is. Sports do not exclude. There are logistical limits to how many people can fit into an arena and stadium. But anyone, can watch a game somewhere. Solar panels do not deplete the sun.

My crew for game six watched the Warriors seal the championship in Boston. After we got out all our joyous cursing we settled down and reflected on this postseason run. We have had a lot of people come thru our place during this postseason and it was all fun. 

But this shook me. My roommate, the guy who shares the same mailbox, who has keys to our apartment, who barbeques at our parties, turned to me, and said, “Dude this was so fun, thanks for hosting.” Without me blubbering my emotions into the eternal scripture that is the internet, I can say that is one the best compliments that I have ever received. 

It is not about the location. It is about the inclusion.

Unless you are Fake Klay Thompson.