Kyle Shanahan and Jon Gruden go way back. Gruden gave Shanahan his first job in the NFL, as a quality control coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 2004.
On Monday, Gruden became the top story in the sports world for all the wrong reasons. The Raiders coach resigned after emails sent by Gruden over a 10-year period were leaked, and showed the coach using homophobic, racist and misogynistic language.
On Tuesday, Shanahan was asked about the story when he joined Murph and Mac. Here are the 49ers head coach’s comments in full.
“I think there’s a lesson for everybody, not just people in sports. It’s not okay to think those things and it’s definitely not okay to say those things. When you’re in the limelight and stuff, when it’s sports or anything else, when more people know you, there’s a little more responsibility to that. You’re going to have to pay the consequences when you do something wrong like that.
“It is unfortunate, but I think that happens to kids, I show it to my kids. You’re accountable for everything that comes out of your mouth. When you put something down on paper, whatever it is, electronic paper, you’re accountable forever. Look what it did to someone like Jon. And it happens to kids in schools, it happens to people all over. It happens on a much bigger scale when you’re famous or something like that but that’s the world we live in. And you’ve got to realize that’s not right. Just because you have a bad moment don’t think it’s okay to do. You can be held accountable forever on that.
“The whole situation makes me sad. It’s not just Jon, when you’re a head coach you’re in charge of a lot of families and a lot of people move there and stuff because you hire them. It affects a lot of people. The other coaches in that building, the personnel people, the players. I know they’ve got an interim coach now and stuff, but I feel for all the families that are like ‘what does this mean for us?’…It’s not just Jon, it affects the whole building.”
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Listen to the full interview below.