For the Beathard family ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Td26FyOEND
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 22, 2019
The 49ers played with heavy hearts on Saturday, following the news that quarterback C.J. Beathard’s brother, Clayton, was stabbed to death outside of a Nashville bar. He was 22.
Kyle Shanahan and a number of 49ers players addressed the incident after the game and shared their condolences. Shanahan was with C.J. Beathard shortly after the family heard about the incident early Saturday morning, and was there to console his quarterback in the team hotel.
Shanahan touched on that difficult moment in an emotional postgame speech to the team.
“I didn’t know what to say to you guys at the beginning of the day because you guys know what happened last night,” Shanahan said. “Having to go spend an hour with C.J. last night, and just being with him, you guys know how tough it was for him and his family right now, and I spent an hour with him last night and he was exactly like anyone of us would’ve been, distraught, struggling to talk.
“He could barely talk, but the last thing he said when he walked out the door is ‘you make sure the guys go win this game.’ I didn’t want to say that at the beginning because this game doesn’t mean anything compared to his brother. We all know that.
“But you guys also know C.J., he’s got our backs and we’ve got his, man. This was a special day for us guys and I’m so thankful that you guys could do that for him, cause that was the last thing he said to me and I know that meant a lot to him.”
Shanahan awarded the entire team game balls.