HENDERSON, Nev. — This is Kyle Shanahan’s second Super Bowl as the 49ers’ head coach, and third counting his 2016 season as the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator.
Once again, he has been repeatedly asked about the advantages he had as the only son of Mike Shanahan.
“I knew when he was in sixth, seventh, eighth grade when we were in San Francisco through those years,’’ Mike Shanahan said this week in a phone interview with 9NEWS. “It was a great experience for him because he was a ball boy. And he was with me in my dorm room in Rocklin [Sierra Community College during training camp]. All those years he had a pretty good experience there.
“And then coming from Denver we had a bunch of good years as well and he was part of that as a high school kid. But really I thought was a big kickoff for him was sixth, seventh, eighth grade being there with the 49ers."
So, yes, Kyle Shanahan as coach may have been born on third base. But there are hundreds if not thousands of coaches’ kids who didn’t come close to standing before the Super Bowl head coach’s podium, as Kyle has this week for not the first time. And after displaying a knack for making such shrewd football decisions as taking Brock Purdy with the very last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, it probably won’t be the last time.
So how to explain Kyle Shanahan’s excellent adventure? Was dad as good a mentor and father who continuously offered the right advice, pushed him in the proper direction so Kyle would grow up to be not only the best he could be, but among the very best, period? Or was Kyle simply gifted the smarts, the competitive temperament, the down-to-earth personality and work ethic from the crib and simply needed a few years to mature all those characteristics?
“I was a son of a coach, but my dad was the best coach I’ve ever been around,” Kyle Shanahan said Tuesday during his Super Bowl LVIII press conference here at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. “So being around that good of one was a huge advantage for me.
“He was never really training me to be a coach. He was just being my dad. It was the way he went about everything. Just how direct he was to people, how honest he was with people. How hard he worked. You didn’t always like what he had to say, but he was going to tell you the truth. As a son and someone you work with, that’s all you can ask for from people.”
Good as Kyle has become as an NFL head coach, he still hasn’t won a Super Bowl. He got there as offensive coordinator for Matt Ryan and the Falcons when they blew a 28-3, third quarter lead to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Next, Shanahan the head coach had Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers up 10 points in the fourth quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV to cap the 2019 season, only to lose to the wonders of Patrick Mahomes II.
Dad’s losing Super Bowl experiences were different. As a Broncos offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Mike Shanahan lost his first three Super Bowls following the 1986, ’87 and ’89 seasons before breaking through with three Super Bowl titles as offensive coordinator of the 49ers in 1994 and as Broncos head coach in 1997-98.
“You know how hard it is, number one, to be where they’re at,’’ Mike said. “And you know these opportunities don’t come to many people and you want to take advantage of every opportunity you have. I’ve been on both sides where I got my ass kicked in my first three Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator and assistant coach.
“Then I go to three more Super Bowls as a coordinator and head coach, and when you lose your first three Super Bowls and win three Super Bowls – just being able to go to bat is something in itself. But you always want to come away with the prize. The worst thing to do is to lose a Super Bowl. What a different feeling it is when you win them.”
Perhaps his son Kyle can break through to cap what has been his most impressive coaching effort. For not only does Shanahan have the 49ers back playing Mahomes and company in Super Bowl LVIII this Sunday, he has got here with Mr. Irrelevant as his quarterback.
Call him what you will, Purdy is 17-4 in two seasons as a quarterback, plus 4-0 in postseason games in which he didn’t suffer an early injury. Not bad for the No. 262 pick in the 2022 draft who was almost an afterthought as the 49ers were preparing to play that season with Trey Lance and Garoppolo at quarterback.
“We had a fourth-round grade on him but you always try to predict when a guy is going to be taken,’’ Kyle Shanahan said this week about Purdy. “We knew there was a chance he wouldn’t get drafted. We had a lot of holes we felt we had to meet in the draft, and quarterback wasn’t one of them at the time, so if we needed him we would have drafted him in the fourth. But we didn’t at the time, so we had to go through all this stuff.
“Our goal was hoping he wouldn’t get drafted so we could get him as a free agent, but we were realizing there in the seventh round we weren’t going to get him as a free agent. And you start looking at the board and he was up there and he was our best guy on the board by far. And once we knew we weren’t going to get him as a free agent it was pretty much a no-brainer, and I’m very thankful for that.”
Had Purdy been drafted No. 262 by, say, the Broncos, there’s a good chance his NFL debut may still be ahead of him. But to be brought along on a stacked 49ers roster with Shanahan as his head coach has sped up Purdy’s development.
“He understands what my strengths are, what my weaknesses may be,’’ Purdy said here Tuesday before a Super Bowl media mob. “So we talk about things like that and at the same time we’re obviously on the same page with why he calls plays. And what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to accomplish against each defense that we face.
“Our relationship I feel like has gotten stronger and we’ve been real. We’ve said a lot of things with each other. You really need to be authentic. We’re trying to win.
“You go through the highs and lows together. So overall I think it’s strengthened. We’re continuing to learn more about each other as we go and we want to win at the end of the day, so that’s the good thing that we have in common.”
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For all of their father and son coaching success, the Shanahans, Mike and Kyle, took a while to coach on the same team. Kyle played his college ball at Duke and Texas, then got his coaching start with Karl Dorrell as a low-level coaching assistant at UCLA in 2003. Then came three years as an offensive quality control coach for Jon Gruden at Tampa Bay.
“He asked me what I thought of going to work for Jon Gruden,’’ Mike said. “I said it would be perfect for you. He runs a different drop-back game than we’re running. It’d be great for you to experience that.’’
Then came three years, from 2007-09, with Gary Kubiak in Houston as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Mike Shanahan was fired as Broncos’ coach after the 2008 season, then sat out 2009. He took Washington’s head job in 2010, and that’s when he brought along Kyle on his staff as offensive coordinator.
“I got a chance to watch Kyle coach for Houston all of 2009,’’ Mike said. “And Kubiak had given him the play-calling duties. I told Kyle the only way we could coach together is if you’re calling the plays and you’re in the top five in total offense or points. That’s the only way I could hire you without nepotism coming in.
“And I’ll be damned if both years he was calling plays, they were in the top five in yards or points [No. 3 in total offense in 2008; No. 4 in 2009]. That’s when I thought he was ready.’’
Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, and Bobby Slowik were all offensive coaching assistants on Mike Shanahan’s staff in Washington. All have gone on to further success in the NFL.
“That was Kyle’s staff, guys he wanted to bring in,” Mike said.
The Shanahans did great things implementing a read-option offensive for rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2012.
“I didn’t get to coach with my dad until my seventh year in coaching at Washington,’’ Kyle said. “So I waited a while to do it, but once I got with him I realized I had been doing it my whole life.’’
If some how, some way, Kyle Shanahan and his 49ers can defeat Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes II and the Chiefs on Sunday, history will be made. The Shanahans will be the only father-son combo to have each won a Super Bowl. The Bonds and Griffeys of the NFL.
“He could see at a young age that number one, it takes a lot of hours,’’ Mike said of Kyle. “It takes a lot of time. And you have to adjust. I think that’s what Kyle’s been able to do. You have to be able to change and you have to be able to be in the football part of it if you want to stay in the game.’’
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