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We suppose it is OK for the media to manufacture "ideas'' about the San Francisco 49ers wanting to fire coach Kyle Shanahan, or of wanting to trade him, or of him wishing to exit The Bay.
But what is not OK is to ignore what those involved are actually telling us.
Could the 49ers and their coach be considering a breakup?
Shanahan's response: “I don’t want to be any place in the world more than here. ... And my family feels just as strong — if not a lot stronger. You guys are going to have to kick me out of here, so there’s no way I’m making that decision.”
GM John Lynch's response: ""We have won four of the last five division championships. We've been to two Super Bowls. The standard here is to win championships, and we've fallen short of that, I understand. But we have an excellent head coach ... We're 100-percent behind Kyle and what he brings to our organization. ...''
And in the face of the suggestion floated by some, including Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, that the 49ers should "trade'' Shanahan to the Chicago Bears?
"I've found the whole discussion on Kyle rather comical,'' Lynch said. "The fact that people are talking about stuff like that, I do find it comical.''
The creation of such rumors, "comical'' and otherwise, is stock in trade at PFT, and hey, they make a heckuva living at it. But along with listening to speculation, we need to pay attention to the decision-makers.
We can see no reason for Shanahan to want to leave (and no, the fact that his dad Mike was born in Illinois 72 years ago doesn't count). So he is to be believed.
Could Lynch find a better coach? Shanahan is widely regarded as one of the NFL's best, and so there would be risk there.
The season before Shanahan and Lynch were hired, the 2016 Niners were 2-14. In their third season together, San Francisco won the NFC and advanced to the Super Bowl. There is a reason for them to have a bond. And there is a reason for 49ers fans, goofy rumors aside, to place some faith in that bond.
