After the San Francisco 49ers announced that Kyle Shanahan was recovering from an accident and would miss part of training camp, the focus quickly shifted to why the team waited weeks to make the news public. The incident reportedly occurred on July 14, yet the 49ers didn’t disclose it until just a few days ago. At the same time, Dan Patrick argued about the ethics of journalism, while questioning both Adam Schefter and ESPN, noting that the report surfaced just moments after the team’s official statement.

“The Niners posted a statement regarding the accident at midnight Eastern on Saturday,” Patrick, a former ESPN analyst, said on his Podcast. “Adam Schefter posted his first tweet on the situation one minute later. The ESPN article about the accident published at one minute after that…Why is ESPN holding the information? Why are the Niners?

“Now, I guess if the Niners can hold the information, I understand it. But if you’re in the news-gathering business, or at least you used to be, the NFL now owns 10% of ESPN. But did ESPN have the information and chose to sit on it for 11 days? Did ESPN say to the Niners, we won’t release it until you tell us to release it?”

Adam Schefter and Nick Wagoner published ESPN’s report shortly after the 49ers released their official statement. The article detailed Shanahan’s accident, reporting that the head coach suffered multiple serious injuries in the July 14 incident. According to ESPN, Shanahan broke his nose, three ribs, and his hand, required more than 40 stitches to his face, and also suffered a severe concussion.

Patrick, however, argued that while he could understand why the 49ers chose to keep the accident private, the same standard shouldn’t apply to ESPN or Schefter given the expectations of sports journalism. He pointed to FOX analyst Jay Glazer’s long-held belief that true journalism is about uncovering information others don’t want made public.

“I think people knew that there was something,” Patrick added. “They didn’t know all of it, and they didn’t know when they could release it…This isn’t journalism, not really reporting. They’re giving you the information and the acknowledgement of, ‘Okay, now you can tell everybody. Do we wait for other NFL news, situations, embargoes?’ Like, that’s the odd thing with this. Why do you wait 11 days?”

Meanwhile, NFL analyst Chris Simms also acknowledged that he knew about Kyle Shanahan’s accident, citing that he and his father, Phil Simms, are close with the Shanahans. While he wasn’t sure, Simms noted that Schefter’s relationship with the 49ers’ head coach’s family could be the reason why ESPN waited for 11 days to reveal the news.

For now, the situation around Shanahan remains unclear. In his absence, assistant head coach Chris Foerster will oversee Shanahan’s duties during the training camp until he returns.