Still, Shanahan took the opportunity to make his case for why he should stay as coach, why benching Robert Griffin III for the final three games of a lost season is "the right thing,'' and why everything he says about his status, his owner, his motivations and his honesty should be believed.
MORE: Shanahan contract dispute | Teams denies Shanahan nearly quit | Blame Snyder
"I'm trying to be as honest as I can. I don't normally do that,'' Shanahan said at one point during Wednesday's press conference, as spicy a half-hour of back-and-forth with the media as he's ever engaged.
It was his chance to get his side of the story on the record—his side of the multiple stories that have spun out since Sunday's flogging by Kansas City. Speaking of "on the record," he insisted that he nor his supporters were the source of the report that he was ready to resign last season over owner Dan Snyder's too-cozy relationship with Griffin.
"I don't talk to anybody off the record,'' Shanahan said.
Furthermore, there was no showdown at the top over whether to sit Griffin the rest of the way: both Snyder and general manager Bruce Allen were all in agreement, and they had talked about it even before last week's game against the Chiefs.
"Just put it this way—I said if either one wasn’t 100-percent behind my reasoning that I’m giving you, I said we won’t go there,'' he said. "Nothing needs to be said. We’ll just keep it status quo.”
Yet Shanahan was sure he wanted to do it—"At the end of the day you've got to feel like your football team did the right thing"—and was doing it to protect Griffin's health. He showed more regret than he ever had about the injury that set the chaos of this season in motion, in the playoff game against Seattle in January.
"I could have kicked myself in the rear end,'' he said, adding that he "knew in my gut" that Griffin was too injured to stay in the game, yet left him in until he suffered the fateful injury.
Plus, he acknowledged he had the option of beginning this season with Griffin sitting and waiting until later in the season to bring him back—but, he said, he was cleared by the medical staff. "You can always go back, you can always question yourself,'' he said.
Now, he said, "We made a decision that I think is best for Robert.''
Still, the overriding plot of the last several days feature Snyder much more prominently; relatively speaking, Griffin has become a bit player in the drama, even while his future in Washington is certainly more secure than Shanahan's.
All things considered, Shanahan's explanations about Griffin were plausible, regardless of the real motivation behind them—and regardless of the point brought up more than once on Wednesday that protecting his health made more sense last week in a snowstorm against one of the NFL's best defenses, rather than in a dome on field turf against a last-place team.
How plausible Shanahan's case to return is, remains to be seen.
He said, again, that "of course" he wants to return for the final year of his contract, but is not the person who will decide: "I can’t say that. I don’t know until I sit down with Dan. I’ll give him my opinions and he’ll give me opinions."
