Joint practices are supposed to be a little nasty. That’s part of the deal when teams spend a day banging heads in camp heat against someone wearing a different color. The 49ers saw that firsthand last week against the Tennessee Titans, when multiple skirmishes broke out during a chippy session.
But Tuesday looked a whole lot cleaner when San Francisco hosted the Los Angeles Chargers. The two California teams kept it between the whistles and avoided the fights that had complicated the Titans practice.
So when Kyle Shanahan was asked whether he had to remind his team to stay composed against the Chargers, he couldn’t resist taking a shot at a close friend.
“No, their head coach [Jim Harbaugh] had more discipline than Tennessee’s [Robert Saleh],” Shanahan quipped, referencing the Titans' newly hired head coach.
Shanahan followed that up by making clear he was joking, noting that a few early incidents in the Tennessee session helped turn the whole day into something more heated. Still, the timing of the line landed perfectly.
There’s real history behind the joke. Saleh worked under Shanahan in San Francisco as defensive coordinator and helped build an elite defense, and the two remain close.
That relationship is part of why they set up the joint practice in the first place. Earlier this month, Saleh said he wanted his young Titans defense to go against Shanahan’s complex offensive system to expose where it needs work.
The Titans got the more chaotic workout. The Chargers brought a steadier hand, and Tuesday’s practice stayed free of punches.
San Francisco’s offense didn’t exactly light it up in the controlled setting, either, with Brock Purdy saying he wanted more out of the offense during team drills. Shanahan will take the clean session, but Saleh is almost certainly going to hear about that joke.
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