What Kyle Shanahan Tells the Opposing Coach After Games

SANTA CLARA -- I've always wondered about this.

After NFL games, head coaches almost always meet at midfield, embrace and say something to each other before walking back to their respective locker rooms. What do the coaches say to each other? What does a head coach say after a win, and what does he say after a loss? Sometimes it looks like they barely say a word. Other times it looks like they have an entire conversation.

I asked Kyle Shanahan on Friday what he says to opposing coaches after games, and he was eager to tell me.

"Sometimes good luck," Shanahan said. "Best of luck the rest of the year. Good game. You kicked our butts, if that happens. If you did it the other way, it's harder because you don't want to say good game or congrats or anything like that so you just usually wait for them to talk. Sometimes there's stuff to talk about if something happened in the game. But no, it's usually just an awkward handshake and you try to get out of there as fast as possible. See them at Indy (Indianapolis is the site of the annual NFL Scouting Combine."

Seems like Shanahan has been doing a lot of waiting for the opposing coach to talk this season, considering the 49ers keep blowing teams out.

After the 49ers blew out Philadelphia, Shanahan had a lot to say to Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni. Put his playsheet over his mouth so people couldn't read his lips, put his hand on Sirianni's shoulder and explained something.

It seemed surprisingly friendly.