The San Francisco 49ers and their entire infrastructure were thrown into a tailspin on Saturday morning with the news that head coach Kyle Shanahan had suffered serious injuries in a car accident that would keep him limited through training camp.
According to multiple reports, Shanahan broke his nose, 3 ribs, and hand, needed over 40 stitches in his face, and suffered a severe concussion in a July 14 car accident in northern California.
Taking over for Shanahan while he’s away will be assistant head coach Chris Foerster, who is on his 3rd stint with the franchise after serving as the offensive line coach in 2008 and 2009 then again in 2015.
“49ers assistant head coach and offensive line coach Chris Foerster is expected to assume some of Kyle Shanahan’s head coaching duties and help lead the team,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his official X account on Saturday. “Shanahan informed his assistant coaches of his accident on Tuesday; other players slowly have been getting the news that the 49ers confirmed today.”
Foerster’s name might ring some bells with NFL fans — he was at the center of a scandal that led to his resignation with the Miami Dolphins in 2017 after a video leaked of Foerster snorting cocaine before a team meeting.
Chris Foerster’s Cocaine Scandal: As Bad As It Gets
Foerster resigned after the video leaked of him snorting cocaine — a video filmed by Foerster and sent to a then-girlfriend, Kijuana Nige, who claimed responsibility for leaking the video to expose racial inequalities in the NFL coaching ranks.
“I am resigning from my position with the Miami Dolphins and accept full responsibility for my actions,” Foerster said in October 2017. “I want to apologize to the organization and my sole focus is on getting the help that I need with the support of my family and medical professionals.”
The video is disturbing. Foerster snorts 3 huge lines of cocaine and tells the person he’s sending the video how much he misses them and that doing the lines “reminds me of when we were together and how high we got and how much fun we had.”
From ESPN in 2017: “The woman who posted a video of former Miami Dolphins offensive line coach Chris Foerster snorting a white powder off a desk said Wednesday that she planned to release it for several days before she did and that she released it to expose racial inequality in America. Kijuana Nige, speaking on ESPN Radio’s The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, said she met Foerster in Oxnard, California, earlier this year. The Dolphins used the Dallas Cowboys‘ training facility there after Hurricane Irma forced the team to relocate during the week of Sept. 10.”
Foerster’s wife, Michelle, released a statement to the media after Foerster’s resignation. At the time, he was 1 of the NFL’s highest-paid head coaches with a salary believed to be in the range of $3 million per year.
“As a family, our first and foremost concern is that Chris gets the help he needs,” Michelle Foerster said in 2017. “We ask that family members be afforded privacy as we work to support each other during this difficult period. At this time, we have no further comment to provide.”
Chris Foerster Underwent Intensive Inpatient Rehab
Foerster, 64, spoke with NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero in 2018 after undergoing an intensive, 60-day inpatient rehab program.
“The No. 1 consequence for me is I have a chance to fix my life,” Foerster said. “I have a chance to get well, I have a chance to get right, I have a chance to get better, I have a chance to try to repair relationships that may be destroyed and ruined for the rest of my life. But I have a chance to get it right, man. And I’m sincere in that.”
Foerster, who has been a Division I coach or NFL coach since 1982, was hired by the 49ers in 2019.
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