Shanahan's coaches as a player included Keenan, Bowman, and Babcock.
Garbage human beings all three. Shanahan probably hated playing for those ass hats. So he hired the softest coach in league history to appease his stars.
Remember, Babcock wasn't brought in to coach MNMT.
He was brought in to coach Kessel, Phaneuf, and those
loser blowheads of the previous core. The players had taken over the dressing room. Babcock broke that sense of entitlement.
But Babcock's methods proved toxic to Shanahan's three budding young stars.
So Shanahan compensated by providing them the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Now they've gone from one sense of entitlement to another. Keefe might not ever be as successful as the HOF head coaches Shanahan played for but at least the players like him.
And when he's finally fired this year he can always take comfort in all that respect in the handshake lineup he won.