That one time Kris Kocurek went too far in Maxx Crosby’s interview

Kris Kocurek showed his awesomeness, and Kyle Shanahan had to be the straight man

Kyle Shanahan and Maxx Crosby had a chat at the San Francisco 49ers-Los Angeles Raiders joint practice today. What was it about? Shanahan apologizing for Crosby’s pre-draft interview.

Those of you following the program know Shanahan is a tough interviewer. If you are entering the NFL Draft, you should know the 49ers will pound you in your pre-draft interviews. Take Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf as an example of how intense it can get. So for Shanahan to apologize for how Crosby was treated should say something. When speaking with reporters, Shanahan explained he may have gone too far:

He’s as good as it gets and I wanted to apologize to him because we were [decorum] to him—oops, shouldn’t say that, we were kinda “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.

Except, as Shanahan explained shortly thereafter, it wasn’t necessarily him, but one Kris Kocurek who made Crosby’s interview miserable. So what did Kocurek do out of the ordinary? Shanahan explained exactly what happened:

It was Kris Kocurek’s first interview. He had been some other places where they liked to kind of attack the guys a little bit, see it rattle them. That’s not totally our style and that was the first one up. And after John [49ers general manager John Lynch] was trying to touch his leg like, ‘Kris, chill out a little bit.’ After, he was like ‘Whoa? What’d I do?’ I’m like, ‘We don’t really do that.’ He was like, ‘Sorry, my last coach really wanted me to do that, that way.’ And he did it to like the coolest dude. So we always tell him ‘That was all Kris, not us.’

For those of you who don’t know the intensity of Kris Kocurek, allow me to just share a few videos of him screaming:

Yes, that’s his voice without any sort of editing. And yes, he sounds louder than the practice field speakers.

Therefore, take this guy, put him in a room with a young, fresh out of college Maxx Crosby, and let him try to conduct an interview. Maybe this might be a bit for a young guy. I’d love to get a hold of the transcript with Kocurek in this interview.

So basically, if you are a fan of Kocurek like I am, this sounds like Shanahan simply apologizing for Kocurek being a national treasure of sorts. Then again, maybe Kocurek needed some coaching or massaging of sorts. The “last coach” he speaks of was then-Miami Dolphins head coach Adam Gase.

You know him better for his introduction as the head coach of the New York Jets.

So Kocurek went from that guy to Shanahan. Obviously, there’s going to be a different way of doing things. That said, it’s Kocurek. The guy’s intensity is absolute ridiculousness. His tone is his character, asking him to take that down a level may not be possible.

Regardless, it might be hard for a college player to pick up on that when they have a gazillion other things to keep track of. Gase wanted Kocurek to be obnoxious and right now, Shanahan is a head coach and Gase is out of the league. So that should maybe say something more about Gase as a coach and less about Kocurek.

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