SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Coach Kyle Shanahan's voice in Brock Purdy's helmet has been nearly a constant at practice during Purdy's first four seasons in the NFL.
That has forced Purdy to adjust as he prepares for year five with the San Francisco 49ers with Shanahan starting training camp as a silent observer at practice rather than an active part of it following a serious car crash that left the coach with a concussion.
“He’s our guy,” Purdy said about Shanahan after practice on Monday. “He’s the one leading all the team meetings and stuff and going over just situational football, what practice is going to look like. He’s our leader. It has been weird in terms of not having that. But I will say I think the assistant coaches have done a good job with stepping up."
As the starting quarterback, Purdy typically interacts with Shanahan as much or more than any other player on the team, whether it be at meetings or on the practice field where the coach typically calls in the play to the quarterback on a walkie-talkie.
That role has been given to offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak to start camp this summer as Shanahan recovers from the concussion. Offensive line coach Chris Foerster is running the team in Shanahan's absence with help from coordinators Kubiak, Raheem Morris and Brant Boyer.
Purdy said his contact with Shanahan since the car crash on July 14 has been mostly messages about Shanahan's well-being and a brief hug on the field at practice on Monday.
Shanahan once again came out about midway through practice and watched alongside general manager John Lynch for the final 45 minutes. Shanahan even had to dodge an errant deep pass from Purdy to Mike Evans.
“I saw it after and I was like, ‘Damn, I almost hit Kyle,’” Purdy said. “But I was mad we couldn’t complete the throw. ... Heads up coach.”
Purdy was able to joke about it in Monday but the emotions were much different when he first heard about it from Shanahan's wife, Mandy, shortly after the crash. Shanahan suffered a concussion, broken ribs, a broken nose and broken hand in the crash that sent him to the hospital.
Purdy said he initially checked with teammate George Kittle to make sure the news was real and then focused on his coach's health.
“It hurt really bad just reading that text,” Purdy said. “First off, is he OK? What’s next? How is he and all that? I reached out to him and he hit me back up. Once he texted me back and stuff, I was, all right, he’s good. It’s a scary moment, because all you care about is life at that moment. Is he alive? Is he good? But after hearing Mandy and then what Kyle had said, I was like, all right, Kyle’s good. This is going to be a little process. I don’t know what the road to recovery looks like, but he’s going to be good. That’s all I cared about in that moment. I know he’s good, just seeing him talking to him and stuff. ... I have a lot of faith that he’ll bounce back quick.”
Rookie defensive lineman Romello Height was carted off the field after suffering cramps late in practice. Height was attended to for several minutes before being taken off the field on the cart.
Four other players didn't practice after getting hurt in the first session on Sunday. Swing tackle Vederian Lowe has a high ankle sprain and is expected to miss a chunk of training camp.
Receiver Christian Kirk (calf strain), rookie DL Gracen Halton (bruised knee bone) and DL Andrew Farmer (back) were also out on Monday.
Cornerback Nate Hobbs returned to practice after sitting out the first session on Sunday.
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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy speaks at a news conference during the NFL football team's training camp Monday, July 27, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) throws a pass during the NFL football team's training camp Monday, July 27, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy speaks at a news conference during the NFL football team's training camp Monday, July 27, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
The Justice Department has moved to dismiss its criminal case against a labor union leader who was arrested while protesting the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in California.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles filed a motion Monday to dismiss its case against David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California, which has more than 750,000 members including janitors, security officers and other workers. The government will seek to have the case permanently withdrawn within weeks if Huerta continues to comply with the terms of his pretrial release and stays out of trouble, prosecutors said.
Huerta said in a statement that he was tackled, pepper-sprayed and detained for exercising his constitutional rights to protest and cast the case against him as part of a broader “weaponization of the judicial system.”
“There was never a real case, only an attempt to punish and silence me for exercising my constitutional rights,” he said in a statement. “I will keep exercising my constitutional rights and protest every abuse this administration commits, and I will keep working to build a country that treats immigrant families and all workers with the dignity they deserve.”
The Justice Department had earlier reduced the felony obstruction charge to a misdemeanor, and in moving to dismiss it entirely, is now backing away entirely from a prosecution that had been announced with fanfare on social media after Huerta's arrest more than a year ago. It's the latest courtroom setback for a department that has struggled, in offices across the country, in its prosecutions of people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles signaled in its own statement that law enforcement was justified in arresting Huerta, noting that he was charged with interfering with a judicial search warrant and asserting that the Justice Department does not arrest people for simply peacefully protesting. The office also said that Huerta has complied with the terms of his bond for more than a year and was prepared to dismiss the case if he continues to do so.
“Pursuant to an agreement entered into with our office, if Mr. Huerta continues to comply with his pretrial release terms, we expect the criminal case against him to be fully dismissed by the end of next month,” the statement said.
Huerta was arrested in June 2025 while protesting outside a business in Los Angeles where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations. The incident occurred amid widespread protests over the federal immigration crackdown that drove Trump to take the extraordinary move of deploying the National Guard to the nation’s second-largest city.
Authorities said Huerta sat down in front of a vehicular gate and encouraged others to walk in circles to try to prevent law enforcement from going in or out, and he pushed back when an officer told him to leave and put his hands on Huerta to move him out of the way of a vehicle.
According to a copy of a letter laying out the terms of Huerta’s diversion agreement, Huerta and the government agreed to a stipulated set of facts, including that he arrived at the search warrant location, positioned himself in the driveway outside the front gate “to oppose the policies and tactics of the enforcement activity he observed and encouraged others to do the same” and that, as a result, “at least one federal agent” who participated in the search warrant “credibly believed he was unable to enter the front gate.”
Union leaders and immigrant advocates rallied in cities across the country demanding Huerta's release, and he became the face of the pushback against the Republican president's effort to drive up immigration arrests. Top Democrats also fired back. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and California’s two Democratic senators wrote a letter to federal officials demanding answers regarding Huerta’s arrest. California Sen. Adam Schiff attended Huerta’s bond hearing.
“It is deeply troubling that a U.S. citizen, union leader, and upstanding member of the Los Angeles community continues to be detained by the federal government for exercising his rights to observe immigration enforcement,” the senators wrote.
Federal prosecutors initially charged Huerta with felony obstruction, with Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, saying that it didn't matter who was protesting "if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted.” In October, prosecutors reduced the charge against Huerta to a misdemeanor.
Huerta’s lawyers, Abbe Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, said in a statement that the case against their client had no legal basis.
“This case, like others, sought to silence criticism of the administration’s improper immigration actions. Today’s filing is proof that David and other critics will not be silenced,” the lawyers said.
FILE - David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union California who was arrested during an immigration raid, speaks after he was released on a bond in downtown Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
