49ers’ Robert Saleh is part defensive guru, part storyteller extraordinaire

SANTA CLARA — Want to hear a good story about 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh?

Sorry, that’s not how this is going to work.

“A Saleh story?” quarterback Nick Mullens asked. “He’s the one that tells great stories.”

“His stories, they’re epic,” cornerback K’Waun Williams said. “We love when he gives us a good story.”

“The Dearborn one is the funniest,” defensive tackle Solomon Thomas added.

Ah yes, the Dearborn story. The 49ers veterans have heard it a couple times. It rivets them.

Every word leads up to a compelling message: When you cross enemy lines, your guys have to have your back, and you are not alone.

“Growing up in Detroit, he had to cross a bad neighborhood to get where he was going,” defensive lineman Arik Armstead said, in reciting the Dearborn story. “He had two choices: to go around the neighborhood or to go through it.

“So he decided to go through it. He talked about how he got chased by some guys in the neighborhood. But when he got through it, he headed to his family’s house, and his family had his back when he got there, and fought off the guys.”

Saleh was 14 at the time. Two months ago, he retold that story before the 49ers’ joint practices in Denver, to recalibrate their mindset of playing on the road.

The 49ers (5-0) have thrived behind a team-oriented, go-through-it mentality. Much of this early-season success has been stoked by Saleh’s defense. They shouldn’t be too tested Sunday at Washington (1-5), but Saleh still will fire them up, as if they’re entering the trenches against the 1980s “Hogs” who battled the 49ers for NFC supremacy.

Saleh, after two trying seasons, is thoroughly enjoying this turnaround, and he’s never looked more ecstatic than last Sunday on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum sideline.

His biceps burst with each fist pump. His tanned, bald head spastically nodded its approval. His voice crooned loud enough to lead what seemed like a chorus of 40,000 49ers fans who triumphantly invaded with their visiting team.

There is another side to Saleh, however, as an astute mentor, measured communicator and, sure enough, a budding, defensive mastermind.

“I mess with him and call him Gandhi,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Saleh is a peaceful giant. Saleh is very relaxed and peaceful.”

Disclaimer: One of Saleh’s 49ers mantras is “Extreme Violence,” to which Shanahan noted is merely used on wristbands rather than tattooed on Saleh’s forehead.

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Where does the NFL send money after fining 49ers’ Shanahan, Raiders’ Gruden over face masks? “He’s not like that very much. That’s rare,” Shanahan added of Sunday’s sideline theatrics. “He’s not a guy who’s going to MF anyone.”

Instead, he is always energetic, always positive, always teaching. This is Saleh’s passion, as depicted in the other “Dearborn story” that traces his coaching roots.

A former Northern Michigan tight end, Saleh’s post-graduate life saw him reluctantly take on a financial job with Detroit-based Comerica Bank. He yearned to return to football, and he acted on that once his older brother, David, harrowingly made it out of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.

Some two years ago, before the 49ers played in Philadelphia, their first-year (and first-time) defensive coordinator got choked up relaying the tale of his life-changing career path, “which is always hard for me. It’s an emotional story.”

They aren’t stories so much as they are parables.

“Some are funny. Some are life lessons,” Thomas said. “He’s a good storyteller, for sure. It’s a good mental refresher, a little mental break from football. It doesn’t matter if it’s two minutes. It’s nice to hear something different.”

“He always has a roundabout way of getting to his point,” Richard Sherman said.

“They’re quick and effective,” DeForest Buckner added. “They keep us grounded, and remind us not to listen to outside noise.”

That was Thursday’s theme of Saleh’s storytime. This one, players said, was about a farmer who got stuck in the mud transporting his hay, and rather than complain or seek help, he needed to focus on his job and control his own destiny.

“It’s all tied back into football,” Saleh said of his stories. “Most are life experiences that happened to me, and some are about my kids.”

Saleh, 40, and his wife, Sanaa, have six children, between the ages of 9 years old and 7 months old. Needless to say, he tells them stories, too, but, “I’ll read the book for them.”

His storytelling approach to the 49ers stems from his 15 years as an NFL assistant, specifically coaching under Gus Bradley in Seattle and Jacksonville.

“When you’re up there and try to sound like a motivational speaker, they’ll tune you out,” Saleh said. “But if you can tie them to a story, they’re locked in and waiting for the punchline. When I get to the punchline, I’ve got you.”

Tim Ryan, the 49ers’ radio analyst, has heard Saleh’s speeches and so much more. They put their single-digit handicaps to the test in hotly contested rounds at the Almaden Golf and Country Club. There, just like on the 49ers’ sideline, Saleh is “intense.”

“He’s really calculated, really smart and really prepared,” Ryan said. “But he’s still a kid at heart when it comes to football.”

More Saleh stories are sure to ensue, some of which might come in handy when he’s interviewing for head-coaching posts in a matter of months. He made his way from entry-level jobs at Michigan State and Central Michigan to jumping to the NFL with assistant jobs in Houston, Seattle and Jacksonville, eventually getting his coordinator opportunity in 2017.

Saleh can relate his own story of changing paths and persevering.

“His stories,” Williams said, “get you.”

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