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So there's reason, as in asensible prior agreement, for the two coaches not to shakehands after the game?
I can understand that.
But it seems that Shanny had to be asked about it- perhapsawkwardly - before he spoke on it. I've seen several video clips of a post-game Coach Shanahan and don't recall hearing a shout-out to Coach Ried. Maybe he mumbled such a emark, face down, and I missed it.
But I put this possible omission into the same hopper as his blind defense of his DAF player Dre Greenlaw, his "help me to understand" subtrefuge about rules the 9ers broke, his defensive denial of shortcomings on his part in facing the Super Bowl loss; I could go on. When he begins a statement by looking down and avoiding eye contact before mumbing an answer I lose trust in what he says.
It would have been possible for Shanny to field a first question in an interview by saying, "First, let me congratulate Coach Ried, the Chiefs players and Patrick Mahomes. They played a helluva game to win, and we gave it our best." That would have taken the heat off the rest of the interview.
I attended a leadership conference once where the homespun motivational speaker said "If you find on your daily agenda that you got a great big frog to swaller, do it first thing. The rest of your day will go better."
The principle, of course, applies to more than frogs and daily agendas. Long term we see it working throughout the Rams organization.
If Shanny had swallowed the frog first, the rest of his interviews would have gone much easier and his credibility would be in much better shape today - but that's a lesson in life that he hasn't yet learned. We see the results.
There are resons that McVay's Rams team and culture is growing more stable while Shanahan's in San Francisco is showing visible signs of erosion. These non-football issues will show in a win-loss record that will corect itself over time.
