San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stepped up to the podium after Wednesday's practice to discuss the team's Week 7 matchup against the Washington Redskins. He brought the jokes, too.
This week is a bit of a homecoming for Shanahan. The coach spent four seasons (2010-13) as the offensive coordinator in Washington and was asked about his time there. More specifically, Shanahan was asked to identify his favorite part about his time in Washington.
"Being able to work with my dad (head coach Mike Shanahan), and being around some other good coaches," he responded.
So the next obvious question was about the worst part.
"Everything else," Shanahan replied.
The room erupted in laughter.
"I liked a lot of the players," he added. "Some good people."
Shanahan wasn't joking about the worst part. Things did not go well during the Shanahans' time in Washington. Most of that coaching staff was fired at the end of the 2013 season after some frustrating years there. Many of those coaches, like Shanahan, went on to find success with other franchises.
Shanahan was asked if there is some extra motivation facing his former team.
"No, not at all," he replied. "That was a while ago. I've been in three different buildings since. My dad's retired. He's good, and we've accepted what we had to deal with there, and we've moved on."
Wait for it...
"We'll watch other people deal with it," Shanahan snuck in there.
That wasn't the only time Shanahan got some laughs on Wednesday. He was asked a lot about Robert Saleh and the defensive coordinator's exuberant responses to his defense's dominant performance on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. Shanahan feels the reaction was uncharacteristic from Saleh and that the coordinator might have blacked out.
That seems to happen to Shanahan and his players, too. The head coach jokingly blamed blacking out for the reason he was fined $25,000 last season for his reaction toward an official during a game against the Seattle Seahawks.
"I would mess with [Richard Sherman]. I think he's done it (blacked out) at the coin toss the last couple of weeks," Shanahan said, which was followed by more laughter. "It happens to all of us."
