Kyle Shanahan brushes off Jimmy Garoppolo lip-readers

Steve Young did not

Amateur lip-readers across the internet had fun with a clip of Jimmy Garoppolo saying something after his interception late in the game against the Broncos on Sunday. Kyle Shanahan downplayed the incident to the media yesterday, but Steve Young wondered if there were larger issues at play.

First, Matt Maiocco referenced the video and asked Kyle whether he and Jimmy have the give and take to express frustrations to each other in the days after a game.

“It’s like it is with one of my friends. Jimmy and I are around each other every single day, so there’s not any awkwardness from us or anything that’s kept from each other. I don’t know the clip you’re talking about. I got it on my notes before this press conference, but I’m not a very good lip reader, but I probably won’t watch it.”

Shanahan was then asked if there was frustration between him and Garoppolo.

“It was frustration with our whole team. First of all, the clip to me is a joke, so I can’t believe we’re talking about it. I’m pretty sure that’s not what he said, but we were extremely frustrated from the whole game. Anytime you are doing well in the first half moving the ball and you get into the second half and you have three turnovers on three of your drives, you have a safety on one and you don’t convert a third down, it’s real frustrating to get anything going.”

To summarize: Kyle didn’t watch the video and has no plans to watch it, but he thinks it’s a joke and is “pretty sure” Garoppolo didn’t criticize his plays. Okay, then.

During a fantastic interview with Tolbert and Copes on KNBR earlier this week, Steve Young said he believes there are signs of resentment between coach and quarterback.

“We need creative tension between the two of you. We don’t need toxic tension. That’s what I’m most concerned about is that there’s this resentment. Whatever he said at the end of the game, whatever he mouthed, whatever he said after to the media, I sense that’s it’s resentment. And I totally understand it. Completely rational. Completely…(laughs) I’ve been there, I get every part of it. But if we want to find profitability amongst the teammates and in the games and under pressure and with Kyle and with John, we’ve got to create an environment of creative tension. It can be tense, but it has to be creative. We need to spit out and kind of reject the resentments that are natural.

It feels like there’s elements of the resentment that can build over the last six months, and some of the things that just feel like they’re too heavy for people to kind of find common ground. It could get toxic and I don’t want that. So I’m going to speak the words, and my fears and anxieties are now exposed to everybody, and let’s not let it happen. Let’s make sure that [the tension] stays creative. Because there’s going to be tension. That’s just the nature of the job.”

Kyle Shanahan may not understand why people are talking about this, but the facts are the facts. Their on-again-off-again quarterback went completely out of character and made sure to mention wanting more freedom in the offense multiple times. Then, he threw a terrible interception in a crucial time in the game and may have been seen criticizing his coach on national television. Throw on top of that, the only reason these two are still working together is because of a marriage of convenience and yeah, people are going to talk about it.

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