New general manager John Lynch and new head coach Kyle Shanahan have their hands full with the San Francisco 49ers. After all, the once-proud franchise has been in shambles since the departure (and strange fallout) of Jim Harbaugh, and in 2016, that cratered to the tune of a 2-14 record. While Lynch’s hiring has been met with a certain level of skepticism, some are willing to give the unproven former FOX television analyst and Hall of Fame safety a chance to fix the situation with a long-term approach.
However, we can count Lynch’s nine-year-old daughter as a potential skeptic considering the story Lynch shared with Michael Silver of NFL Media.
“I think the toughest one – I haven’t told this yet to the media – all my kids took it really well. They were shocked but they took it really well. My 9-year-old started bawlin’ and she’s not that girl. She’s the one that was always happy and she was crying and I said, ‘What’s wrong Leah? Is there some nervous anxiety about moving?’ And she said, ‘No daddy,’ and she was sobbing. And I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And she said, ‘The 49ers are horrible.'”
This is hilarious on a number of levels, even if Lynch’s response of “Well, I think that’s why they hired your daddy” is pretty much perfect. It is amazing how perceptive even young children can be, and it is probably a safe bet to assume that Lynch’s daughter follows professional football more closely than a typical child of her age.
In the same breath, it does speak to the wild uphill battle that both Lynch and his new head coach face in the coming days. Sometimes, folks need to hear the harsh truth, even when it comes from their own children.
