I would first like to note that the title of this article is just a joke. I don't want to hear it from angry Los Angeles Rams fans.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan wore a 1994 Deion Sanders throwback jersey every day for two months as a freshman in high school. It was the real deal too and not one of the replicas you might have scored at a local department store. His father, Mike Shanahan, was the offensive coordinator in San Francisco at the time, so it was an item that was difficult to come by.
"I think I wore it for 60 straight days," Shanahan told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area this week for an interview that will air on Saturday. "I had a superstition with it. I never took it off. People at school started to make fun of me for it."
Maybe Shanahan should have kept the prized possession more of a secret because someone stole it three years later.
"I'm still a little sensitive about it, but I had too many people over my senior year of high school, and someone jacked it from my house," Shanahan told reporters after Friday's team walk-through. "I'm still looking for that guy. If you see someone wearing an authentic Deion jersey, 75-year anniversary, please let me know."
Maybe Shanahan should ask his friend Sean McVay about it on Sunday afternoon when the 49ers and Rams meet at Levi's Stadium. The Rams head coach told reporters during a conference call on Wednesday that he has one of those jerseys. His grandfather, John McVay, had an executive role with the 49ers at the time.
"I had Deion's jersey in '94 when he won defensive player of the year the year they won the Super Bowl," Sean McVay told reporters. "This organization is very special to our family because of my grandfather's history. The people there have been nothing but a class act and incredible to me. It's always weird going against them, but you feel so fortunate to just have the family history that my grandpa established and developed and what a great job this organization has done."
No word on where McVay was at the time of the crime and if Shanahan considers him a suspect.
The 49ers will be wearing the away versions of those 1994 throwbacks during Sunday's game as the team honors that Super Bowl team. Thirty members of that championship squad will be in attendance and recognized at halftime.
"I always think you look faster in all-whites, so hopefully it makes them feel faster," Shanahan said. "If you feel faster, you usually are faster."
Will Shanahan be sporting any throwback gear while he is on the sideline? It depends on what his options are.
"We'll see what [equipment manager Jay Brunetti] has in my locker, see the choices and stuff," Shanahan said. "I don't know. Those throwback jackets, I remember one sleeve looking like a zebra stripe and the rest being like 'Niners.' I had to wear one on the sideline at the Super Bowl, and I'm still embarrassed about it."
