The San Francisco 49ers are used to dishing out punishment on the field with their vaunted defense. But once upon a time, the Niners apparently used an even more powerful form of punishment against Las Vegas Raiders star Maxx Crosby: their words.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about a conversation he had with Crosby during the joint practice between the 49ers and Raiders in Las Vegas Thursday. Shanahan admitted to a room full of reporters that he gave Crosby an apology. The reason? The 49ers were intentionally “jerks” to the edge rusher during his pre-draft interview back in 2019.
“I wanted to apologize to him because we were kind of d—s to him. … We were kind of jerks to him in our interview when he came out of college and he’s really one of the coolest dudes I’ve been around or seen and he’s one of the best players in this league,” said Shanahan.
While it was Shanahan who apologized, he pinned the tough interview on defensive line coach Kris Kocurek. Kocurek, who joined the 49ers staff in 2019, had Crosby as his first interviewee during the pre-draft process. Kocurek was so aggressive toward the Eastern Michigan stalwart that 49ers general manager John Lynch had to touch his leg to get him to ease up.
Kocurek apologized afterwards and claimed that his last coach wanted him to try and rattle prospects during pre-draft interviews. A quick search would reveal that Kocurek’s previous stop was as the defensive line coach for the Miami Dolphins in 2018. Their head coach back then was Adam Gase.
Shanahan said that Crosby was unfazed by the theatrics and “handled it as well as anyone could.” He probably could have handled the interview a little better, though, given that the 49ers passed on him thrice before the Raiders selected him in the fourth round.
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