Nearly a month has passed since San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was involved in a serious car accident, yet questions remain surrounding why the organization waited 11 days before disclosing the crash to the media.
During that stretch, the 49ers offered no public explanation, while some reporters also chose not to pursue the story. Now, Mike Florio believes the delay may have involved ESPN, suggesting the two sides worked together to keep the incident quiet.
Mike Florio Feels There Is More Story In Kyle Shanahan’s Accident
Florio shared his view on “Yahoo Sports Daily,” calling the situation unusual and arguing that San Francisco mishandled the whole situation.
“The whole situation has been an example of how not to handle PR if you’re a major professional sports team, because they created that eyebrow raise by hiding the fact that an accident had happened for 11 days,” he said.
“It happened July 14. They announced it on July 25. They clearly coordinated with ESPN when the announcement was made. So ESPN knew plenty about it and kept it quiet at the behest of the 49ers. The people who cover the team on a regular basis, they either didn’t know at all or didn’t act on what they’d heard to try to push it forward.”
The incident is drawing more criticism because Shanahan subsequently changed his stance on how the accident occurred.
He shared a new detail, saying his Tesla Model S was operating on Autopilot when he reached for a dropped phone that fell toward the back seat. Shanahan admitted to taking his eyes off the road, adding that he remains unsure whether he inadvertently disengaged the system or if it malfunctioned prior to colliding with an oncoming vehicle in Palo Alto.
The situation became even more controversial after the Palo Alto Police Department refused to release bodycam footage, the 911 call, or the accident report.
Florio believes the 49ers’ handling of the situation has fueled more suspicion, and their actions have made thesituation more difficult to understand.
“I don’t know what they’re hiding, so it’s hard to understand why they’d hide it,” he said. “Are they hiding something more? The way they’ve acted would make us think that they are hiding something beyond what we’ve learned bit by bit and trickle by trickle. So the whole thing is just odd.”
From the start, Shanahan has taken responsibility for the crash, but questions remain about what happened and how San Francisco handled the aftermath.
On the football side, Shanahan has not yet returned to all coaching duties following the accident. Still, he said most of his injuries have healed, and he continues to wear a cast on his left hand.
Shanahan now also plans to return to the sideline for the 49ers’ preseason opener against the Tennessee Titans on Thursday, August 13.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.