Before they meet on Sunday to open the preseason, the San Francisco 49ers are sharing a set of joint practices with their former neighbor, the Las Vegas Raiders.
Following their first practice on Thursday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan shared an interesting draft interview story about a member of the Raiders. After practice, Shanahan said he apologized to Raiders star Maxx Crosby for how the 49ers treated him during his pre-draft interview process in 2019.
Shanahan revealed in 2019, the 49ers were “jerks” to Crosby during his pre-draft interview. The 49ers head coach went on to praise Crosby, calling him one of the best players in the league.
He [Crosby] came up and said what’s up and just talked for a little bit. There’s mutual respect there. He’s as good as it gets. I wanted to apologize though to him because we were kind of d**** to him — oops, shouldn’t say that —but we were kind of jerks to him in our interview when he came out of college. He’s really one of the coolest dudes I’ve been around or seen. He’s one of the best players in this league. It’s cool to catch up with him.
Shanahan went on to reveal what happened during their interview and why he wanted to apologize to the All-Pro edge sack specialist.
It was Kris Kocurek’s first interview. He had been some other places where they liked to kind of attack the guys a little bit. See it rattle them. That’s not totally our style and that was the first one up. John [Lynch] was trying to touch his leg like ‘Kris, chill out a little bit.’ and After, he was like ‘What? What did I do?’ I’m like, ‘We don’t really do that.’ He was like ‘Sorry, my last coach really wanted me to do that way.’
And he did it to like the coolest dude. We always tell him ‘That was all Kris, not us.’
Shanahan said Crosby didn’t care about being pressed and handled it like a “stud.”
He was a stud. He didn’t care at all. He did not waiver. He handled it as good as anyone could handle it.
Via @NBCS49ers on Twitter:
Kyle Shanahan shared why he apologized to Maxx Crosby today 😂 pic.twitter.com/fvEZJgxPfw
— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) August 10, 2023
Since being drafted by the Raiders in 2019 out of Eastern Michigan, Crosby has earned two trips to the Pro Bowl and a second-team All-Pro nod. Crosby has recorded 37.5 sacks in his young career. In 2022, he was eighth in the league with 12.5 sacks.
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