Did Russell Wilson throw a 49ers player’s shoe? Kyle Shanahan says so

The Seahawks quarterback allegedly threw 49ers linebacker Fred Warner’s shoe after it came off before going into a hurry-up offense.

Kyle Shanahan was pretty angry during the San Francisco 49ers’ Week 13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and for a variety of reasons. His team only has two wins, everybody is hurt, and they were getting beaten down by a divisional rival.

But one incident in particular occurred late in the third quarter, when Shanahan was called for unsportsmanlike conduct while arguing with a referee. According to Shanahan, though, there was a good reason for that: Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson apparently threw 49ers linebacker Fred Warner’s shoe.

That’s right, a thrown shoe.

“Fred Warner lost his shoe and he was going to pick it up, and when he went to pick it up, Russell [Wilson] grabbed it and threw it,” Shanahan said on Monday. “And so he had to go about 8 more yards to pick it up, and as he was doing that they went hurry-up offense. And so we had a guy 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage trying to get his shoe that was thrown out of the way, they were at the line — Fred was gonna be offsides because he was picking up his shoe that was thrown — and then when he saw that, Elijah [Lee] tried to help him out and run out on the field so he could get off. And that’s why we got the penalty.”

On the broadcast, you can see Warner lose his shoe while being blocked on a second-and-5 play, and you can see him well behind the line of scrimmage returning to the sidelines as Lee runs onto the field just before the snap. You cannot, however, actually see Wilson throw the shoe — though perhaps the coaches film released later will reveal it.

As a result of the offside (5 yards) and unsportsmanlike conduct (10 yards) penalties, the Seahawks had a first-and-10 from the San Francisco 11-yard line, field position they eventually turned into a touchdown, making it a 34-10 game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The 49ers would go on to lose the game, 43-16.

Shanahan was fairly riled up for the majority of the game, though that incident was the only one that led to him being penalized. He could be seen yelling at officials at various points during the game.

Without conclusive video proof though, we can’t say for sure that Wilson threw the shoe. We will, of course, continue to investigate as thoroughly as possible for this very serious matter.