San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan nearly lost his eye in that horrific car crash earlier this month, his close friend Chris Simms revealed on Monday.
The former NFL quarterback explained on “PFT Live” that pictures Shanahan’s wife sent him just after the July 14 accident showed the coach was “this close” to being permanently disfigured.
“When you first see it, and it’s fresh, and some of the cuts are still wide open, I mean, it’s jarring,” Simms said. “It’s jarring.
“He was this close to maybe losing his right eye.”
Shanahan’s vehicle collided with another shortly after 6 p.m. on a roadway near his Palo Alto, Calif. home. The 46-year-old sustained a concussion, a broken hand, a broken nose and fractured ribs.
He also needed 40 stitches on his face to close a wound that Simms said was horrific.
“The scar is so big right here,” Simms said while pointing to his forehead. “And so all that stuff was just crazy to see.”
Simms did not get into specifics of the accident, though he did note the other driver involved was a woman.
“He was emotional about it, because he realized how close it was to being just a complete, you know, utter disaster,” Simms said. “Like, really, it was a disaster anyways. But, you know, when you’re a part of that accident, like I said, he could have lost his right eye. It could have been a lot worse. You know, he’s very concerned about the woman he got in the accident with and how she is and handling that situation. So there’s just a lot there. And I think it was a lot for him to process.”
Simms said Shanahan’s been “healing,” but he also noted the concussion is giving the Niners’ sideline manager “some issues.”
“He’s still dealing with that,” Simms said.
Shanahan made an appearance at 49ers practice on Sunday, but he obscured his face with a baseball cap, sunglasses and a mustache. Team general manager John Lynch said on Saturday Shanahan would coach only as much as his body and doctors would allow.
“Kyle basically is going to be like in the protocol,” Lynch said.
Assistant head coach Chris Foerster has been acting as interim head coach in Shanahan’s stead.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
