OPINION:
In another world — another universe, perhaps — Kyle Shanahan, whose San Francisco 49ers face the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Las Vegas in the Super Bowl, might be coaching the Washington Commanders in the big game instead.
There was a time when Shanahan, who came to Washington in 2010 as the team’s offensive coordinator, was seen as a potential successor to his boss at the time, his father Mike, the two-time Super Bowl winner coaching the Redskins.
That succession fantasy wasn’t meant to be. Mike struggled trying to turn the franchise around under the damage inflicted by owner Dan Snyder, with only a brief winning stint in 2012 with rookie Robert Griffin III at quarterback. But as we all know, that fell apart quickly and led to Mike being fired following the 2013 season with a 24-40 record, and the dream – like all of them in the Snyder era – turned into a nightmare.
With Snyder out of the picture — let’s say he spent those ugly years sailing the world on his yacht — would Kyle have been as successful as he has been in San Francisco since 2017, leading the 49ers to their second Super Bowl, facing the defending Chiefs on Sunday, with a 64-51 record over seven seasons?
His football acumen was never in question. He came to Washington to work with his father after turning the Houston Texans and quarterback Matt Schaub into a top-five NFL offense. His maturity, though, was another matter. Kyle, who was 31 when he became the offensive coordinator in Washington, was just as arrogant as you might expect from the son of a Super Bowl-winning coach who was already talked about as an offensive genius. He was not well liked, and, according to reports, didn’t make many friends in the building.
Here is what Jason LaCanfora, working for CBS Sports, wrote in December 2013, weeks before Mike and Kyle would be fired by Snyder: “As a former member of the organization put it, ‘Kyle bitches about everything, and then his father has to fix it. He bitches about the food in the cafeteria, he bitches about the field, he bitches about the equipment. He complains and then Mike takes care of it. Kyle is a big problem there. He is not well-liked.’
“Several members of the organization said Kyle Shanahan was a cause of internal strife, surrounding himself with young coaches with inferior experience, and allowing for no checks and balances of outside voices in the offensive coaching rooms.”
How funny is that? Those “young coaches with inferior experience” in the article were Sean McVay (Super Bowl-winning coach for the Los Angeles Rams), Matt LaFleur (playoff-winning coach for the Green Bay Packers) and Mike McDaniel (who led the Miami Dolphins to the playoffs this season).
All those “young coaches with inferior experience” are now celebrated NFL coaches. Think Kyle knew something?
The decision to coach with his father also brought on nepotism charges, which were leveled with every failure of the Washington team on the field during the Shanahan era. But it had been Kyle’s dream to work with his father. “I’ve thought about it my whole life,” he said in 2010, before it all went sour.
Washington wasn’t the only place where a Shanahan father-son succession was talked about. San Francisco owner Jed York, on “The TK Show” podcast 2022 episode, said he considered hiring the Mike-Kyle duo after Jim Harbaugh was fired following the 2014 season. He said an idea of a succession that would bring long-term success to the franchise and a return to the so-called 49ers way. Mike had worked in San Francisco as the offensive coordinator from 1992 to 1994 and Kyle was often around the team as a young boy.
“Mike was clearly the most talented guy that we talked to, but part of it, and I think his experience with Kyle in Washington was a great father-son experience, but they obviously had some issues with the media and that didn’t end well for them,” York said.
“When you talk about longevity, I was hoping for something that can have a 10, 20, 25-year coaching relationship, which was probably not going to be the case with Mike Shanahan at that point in his career. And part of the conversation was about Kyle and was Kyle somebody that you’d want to bring with you and then maybe take over in four years? Is there somebody else from your coaching tree? And that’s kind of where things didn’t materialize.”
After spending a season in Cleveland as offensive coordinator, Kyle was hired in Atlanta by Falcons head coach Dan Quinn — just hired as the new Commanders coach — to be his offensive coordinator. Kyle’s offense led the Falcons to Super Bowl LI, where, as has been well documented, the Falcons suffered a devastating 34-28 overtime loss to the New England Patriots after leading 28-3.
Kyle would be named Associated Press Assistant Coach of the Year for 2016.
This time, when the 49ers considered a Shanahan, it was just Kyle, hired in 2017 as their head coach. He has brought success back to the franchise, with four playoff appearances, three NFC title games and now two Super Bowl contests.
There has been some talk about Sunday being a legacy game of sorts for Kyle, who lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl four years ago. That is way too early. He’s just 44 years old. Consider there was the same talk about his rival Sunday, Kansas City coach Andy Reid, who, after multiple failures as the Philadelphia Eagles coach in NFC title games, finally reached the Super Bowl — only to lose.
He was fired by the Philadelphia Eagles at the age of 54 in 2012.
Since then, he has gone on to coach 11 more years in Kansas City, winning two of the last four Super Bowls.
Kyle Shanahan has plenty of time to create his own football legacy — plenty of time to catch and maybe surpass his father’s two Super Bowl titles.
You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
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