49ers coach Kyle Shanahan shows smelling salts aren’t just for players
Football leans on tradition, providing convenient cover for the NFL’s lenient stance toward smelling salts, ammonia crystals that players say improve performance when inhaled.
Does olfactory excitement also improve play, amplifying the understanding of X’s and O’s?
Kyle Shanahan apparently believes so.
The San Francisco 49ers coach was filmed by a Fox television camera moments before a Sunday playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles taking several puffs from a small packet before handing it to an assistant.
Earlier this season, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that 49ers players created a system to ensure everyone had immediate access to smelling salts during games. General manager John Lynch and Shanahan are users, according to the article, which states that Shanahan “is not averse to the occasional whiff.”
Is the NFL OK with this? The answer is a qualified yes.
Before the 2025 season, the league’s head, neck and spine committee recommended teams end the long-standing practice of providing players with smelling salts. The decision was prompted by a warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the potential side effects of inhaling ammonia, including lung damage and masking signs of a concussion.
The players almost panicked. George Kittle, the 49ers’ All-Pro tight end, jumped on an NFL Network show to proclaim that the smell of salts was crucial to his performance.
“I am a regular user of smelling salts, taking them for an energy boost before every offensive practice,” he said. “We need to find a happy medium here, guys. Someone help me.”
The NFL came to the rescue, saying smelling salts — also known as inhalable ammonia, or AI — were not banned. Teams could no longer provide them, but players could bring their own. It’s a compromise that may or may not pass the smell test. Either way, it’s not just the 49ers using them.
A 2017 ESPN Magazine article reported that “just minutes into the game, the Cowboys threw so many caps that the area in front of their bench resembled the floor of a child’s bedroom after a party.” »
Ultimately, legions of NFL players believe that AIs improve performance. They do this by irritating the mucous membranes of the nose and lungs, triggering a reflex that increases breathing rate and blood flow, thereby promoting alertness.
Their effectiveness was discovered long before the invention of football. Craft beer drinkers know Pliny the Elder as the inspiration for his namesake double IPA. The famous Roman naturalist and historian was indeed an early expert on fermentation, but he also wrote about “ammoniac salt” – yes, smelling salts – in his encyclopedic work “Natural History”, published in 79 AD.
Their popularity spread across Europe until, in Victorian tradition, they were used to wake ladies after fainting spells. They were later used in combat, with British doctors providing World War II soldiers with a puff of the substance that doctors say triggers the body’s “fight or flight” response.
These days, the Federal Aviation Administration requires U.S. airlines to carry smelling salts on board in case a pilot needs to be awakened after fainting. However, blocking and tackling in flight remain strictly prohibited.
The NFL’s middle position is not curious. Experts say it’s an attempt to reduce liability for concussions or other medical complications. But it is their constant use that worries doctors.
“The use of smelling salts in sports is definitely not their intended use,” Dr. Laura Boxley, a neuropsychologist at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, told NPR. “What happens to some athletes is they use them at a much higher frequency than intended.”
Given the relative safety of the sidelines, Shanahan is not at risk of sustaining a concussion. Shortly after the NFL stopped providing AIs, a reporter asked him if he had any concerns about their prevalence.
“I mean, I don’t,” Shanahan replied with a smile. “If someone gives me one, I’ll smell like salt. It doesn’t worry me too much. I like to take one to wake me up and lock myself away.”
