Each week during the season, each team hosts a conference call with the opposing team’s head coach. The San Francisco 49ers face the Buffalo Bills this Sunday, and that meant the 49ers media got a chance to chat with Bills head coach Rex Ryan.
Ryan talked about his former player, wide receiver Jeremy Kerley. He talked about Colin Kaepernick. He talked about plenty of things, but Eric Branch got him to briefly dive into his 2015 interview with the 49ers.
The 49ers hired Jim Tomsula that year, and there was a fairly common belief that the interview process was really just about reaching the point of promoting Tomsula. There was talk that Adam Gase was close to landing the position, but in the end, Tomsula grabbed the job.
Prior to the final decision, Ryan interviewed with the team shortly after the New Year. Earlier this week, Branch asked him whether or not he thought the 49ers were looking at him as a serious candidate. Obviously Ryan would not know for certain what the Tomsula stuff was about, but he did have this to say:
I have no idea. You’d have to ask them. You know I appreciated the time to come out and speak to them. You know, it’s a little different, I’d just been fired. I went to Hawaii just to get away from it, like I do after every season. I spent two days and then I had to go interview. I had no clothes. I had no suit, no nothing. So I’m sure they weren’t real impressed with my appearance. But I really did, I enjoyed meeting everybody. And I’m sure it’s going to be a matter of time before they turn it around. Hopefully not this week, though.
I can just picture Ryan in shorts and a Hawaiian t-shirt after hopping off the plane. I’m sure he at least had pants and tried to get a collared shirt or something, but I’ll just picture him Hawaii’d up for his meeting with Jed York and Trent Baalke.