Jerry McDonald from Inside the Bay Area is reporting that Scott Linehan may be coming out to the Bay Area for an interview with the Oakland Raiders for their vacant offensive coordinator position.
“There’s a strong possibility that we’re going to have him in for an interview soon - like within the next few days,” [Raiders] spokesman John Herrera said.
First off, this is just an IF right now. However, clearly he's spoken with the Raiders in some capacity if they're already talking about a full-on interview in Oakland. I know there are folks out there who say move on and ignore it. Others will say they never wanted Linehan in the first place so no loss. While both of these are legitimate arguments, I'm in an annoyed mood by all this and feel venting is in order.
When Linehan turned down the 49ers position, his public claim was personal reasons, and his subsequent comments seemed to indicate the primary issue was moving his family around at this point in their life. If that was the case, that's a perfectly reasonable excuse.
Rumors have circulated since then that the 49ers QB situation was not too his liking. Barrows pointed out how that doesn't make a whole lot of sense given his affinity for Alex Smith and work with Shaun Hill in the past. If Barrows is on point, that would certainly lead to even further confusion as to his actual reasons.
In retrospect, coming out for 2 interviews and not making a decision right after the offer definitely should have raised red flags. I won't put words in his mouth because I honestly don't know what his thought process has really been through this whole thing. I do think "personal reasons" was a flat-out lie. For one reason or another, he decided he didn't want the job and apparently didn't want to hurt Mike Singletary's feelings. Given what we know about Singletary I don't think hurt feelings will ever be an issue.
Obviously Scott Linehan is not in the 49ers future and the best thing might be to move past it. Personally, I think venting can be a little healthy and this has developed into just that kind of situation.