The San Francisco 49ers coach standing in for Kyle Shanahan at training camp after his horrific car crash has opened up on his past battle with drugs.
Shanahan, 46, collided with an SUV near his home in Palo Alto on July 14 and broke his nose, three ribs, his hand, required more than 40 stitches in his face and suffered a severe concussion.
As a result of his injuries, he will be limited in what he can do during training camp although he was pictured watching practice on Sunday in a major sign that he’s on the road to recovery.
His longtime ally Chris Foerster, who serves as assistant head coach, will take on a bigger role in the coming weeks with help from new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.
But Foerster’s life was turned upside down back in 2017 when a clip of him snorting three lines of white powder at a desk before a Miami Dolphins meeting was posted online.
The 56-second video was first posted to the Facebook page of model Kijuana Nige, Foerster’s alleged mistress, in October 2017 before it was deleted a day later.
San Francisco 49ers assistant head coach Chris Foerster has opened up his drugs past
A video showing Foerster snorting a white powder emerged in 2017 when he was in Miami
Foerster is covering for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan after his horrific car crash last week
‘Since it’s NFL Sunday let’s talk about these coaches folks,’ Nige wrote in the post. ‘Introducing Christopher Foerster Miami Dolphin offensive line coach.’
The video showed Foerster holding a rolled-up $20 bill in his right hand and snorting the substance into his nose.
Foerster was one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the NFL at the time but quickly resigned from his Dolphins job and checked into rehab.
He later told NFL Network he had used cocaine eight or nine days in a row during that stage of the 2017 season, two weeks before the video emerged.
Shanahan later offered him a consultant role with the 49ers in 2019. The pair worked together in Washington from 2010 to 2013, alongside Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay.
Foerster progressed from being the 49ers’ assistant offensive-line coach in 2020 to the offensive-line coach in 2021 and now he’s covering for Shanahan.
‘This organization did some things for me and pulled me in at a time in my life when nobody would really want to be with me,’ Foerster said Sunday after taking his first practice.
Asked about Shanahan, he added: ‘I’m not gonna cry up here, but the thing is, the guy is family to me.
Shanahan watched part of practice on Sunday as he continues to recover from his injuries
The San Francisco 49ers head coach pictured with wife Mandy before this year’s Super Bowl
‘I’ve known Kyle for a long time. He’s one of my best friends in the world. There’s not many people that I call friend. But Kyle is one of them.’
Shanahan, who watched practice on Sunday in person, was taken to a local hospital by paramedics after the crash but was released the same day. ESPN reported that the other driver was not injured and drugs and alcohol were not involved.
The California Post obtained a short clip of the dispatch audio from the crash and one officer can be heard saying to the first responders that one driver is ‘bleeding from the head.’
On Monday’s episode of Pro Football Talk Live, NFL insider Chris Simms revealed he had seen pictures of Shanahan’s grisly injuries and he was lucky to still have his eyesight.
‘I get a text from Kyle’s wife, Mandy. She texts myself and my wife, and it’s like, “Oh no, Kyle’s been a part of some horrible accident”,’ Simms said.
‘And she sent us some pictures right off the bat, and it was like, “Oh my gosh.” So just to let you know, paint the picture, you’ve seen the injury report, the broken ribs, 40 stitches in the face, the broken nose, broken left hand. Of course, the bad concussion.
‘But when you first see it, and it’s fresh, and some of the cuts are still wide open, I mean, it’s jarring. It’s jarring.
‘He was this close to maybe losing his right eye, right? The scar is so big right here. And so all that stuff was just crazy to see. And, of course, I was thinking of my friend, but yeah, it’s tough. And he’s still battling with this concussion. . . . He’s healing.
‘His face looks a whole lot better, but this concussion, of course, being a part of that kind of accident is lingering and it’s giving him issues, and he’s certainly still dealing with that.’
