49ers coach, Kyle Shanahan, shows that smelling salt is not just for the players
Football is steeped in tradition, providing convenient cover for the NFL’s soft stance on smelling salts, ammonia crystals that players believe enhance performance when inhaled.
Does the pleasure of smell also improve calling, increasing one’s understanding of X’s and O’s?
Kyle Shanahan apparently believes so.
The San Francisco 49ers coach was caught on Fox television before Sunday’s playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles taking a few whiffs from a small pocket before handing it to an assistant.
Earlier this season, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the 49ers created a system to make sure everyone had quick access to smelling salts during games. General manager John Lynch and Shanahan are users, according to the story, which said Shanahan “doesn’t mind getting hit from time to time.”
Is the NFL OK with this? The answer is a qualified yes.
Before the 2025 season, the main committee, the backbone and backbone of the league, suggested that the teams end the long-standing practice of providing players with smelling salts. The decision was prompted by a US Food and Drug Administration warning about the potential side effects of inhaling ammonia, including lung damage and choking symptoms.
All the players are scared. George Kittle, the 49ers All-Pro tight end, hopped on NFL Network radio to announce that smelling salts are essential to his performance.
“I always use smelling salt, I take it to get energy before every offensive campaign,” he said. “We’ve got to find a middle ground here, guys. Help me out somebody.”
The NFL backed him up, saying that smelling salts — also known as ammonia inhalants, or AIs — are not banned. The teams could no longer give them, but the players could add theirs. A compromise that may or may not pass the smell test. Either way, the 49ers aren’t the only ones using it.
An ESPN Magazine piece in 2017 reported that “just minutes into the game, the Cowboys dropped so many pills that the area in front of their bench looked like the floor of a kid’s bedroom after trick or treating.”
Bottom line, NFL players believe AI improves performance. They do this by irritating the lining of the nose and lungs, causing a reflex that increases the rate of breathing and blood flow, which promotes alertness.
Their performance was discovered long before football was invented. Craft beer drinkers know Pliny the Elder as the inspiration for his double IPA name. The famous Roman naturalist and historian was an early expert on fermentation, however he also wrote about “sal ammoniac” – yes, smelling salt – in his encyclopedic book “Natural History,” published in 79 AD.
Their popularity spread throughout Europe until, in Victorian tradition, they were used to wake ladies from fainting spells. They were later used in the war, and British medics gave soldiers in World War II sputum of what doctors said triggered the body’s “fight or flight” response.
These days, the Federal Aviation Administration requires US planes to carry smelling salts in case a pilot needs to be revived after fainting. Blocking and tackling in flight, however, remains strictly prohibited.
The NFL center doesn’t want to know. Experts say it’s an attempt to reduce liability in the event of a dispute or other medical problems. But their frequent use 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 that they use them at a much higher speed than they intended.”
Given the relative safety of the sides, Shanahan is not in danger of a mental concussion. Shortly after the NFL stopped offering AIs, he was asked by a reporter if he had any concerns about their spread.
“I mean, I don’t,” Shanahan replied with a grin. “If someone gives me the smell of salt, I don’t worry too much about it, I like to take it and wake myself up.”
