49ers general manager Trent Baalke, who was at today's game, was reportedly informed on Friday that he would not return. Prior to the game, Baalke confirmed that he had been fired. Kelly will reportedly suffer the same fate, per a report on Saturday night by Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Kelly had not yet learned that Baalke had been let go. "I didn't learn that Trent Baalke was fired," said Kelly. "I was just called last night. I heard the same reports and Jed just talked to me briefly and said he would talk to me today."
"I feel that if I was distracted by anything else, I wouldn't be giving [the players] what they deserve," Kelly said of the mentality going into the 49ers' final game of the season. "And they gave me everything every day so I've got to give it back to them. Those guys are awesome."
Kelly said that, prior to the game, no players asked him about his future. After the game, there were a lot of hugs between Kelly and the players.
"It's a bottom-line business," Kelly said of the reports. "We probably didn't win enough games."
Kelly said that he has never had any conversations with ownership or management about players or coaches and that he was never asked to make any changes to his staff. "They never told me who to play, who not to play," Kelly said. "We just coached the guys we had and did the best job we could."