Kyle Shanahan and Mike Shanahan are the first father-son duo to ever coach in the Super Bowl. By tonight, Shanahan hopes they are the first father-son duo to win a Super Bowl. Maybe down the road, the first to win multiple Super Bowls.
Mike Shanahan sat down with Andrea Kremer and was asked what it would mean to watch his son, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV, and hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
"I would say it doesn't get any better than that," the elder Shanahan responded. "It's just not winning the trophy; it's the journey to get there to be able to do it, the tough times that you had to work through. So it's just not that trophy, it's everything that you've done throughout your life to that point."
Kyle Shanahan went from a ballboy with the 49ers, watching his father win a championship as an offensive coordinator, to watching him win two as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. When Shanahan broke into coaching, his father told him that he would need to work his way up to becoming an offensive coordinator, calling plays, and leading a top-5 offense before the two could work together on the same staff.
Shanahan accomplished that with the Houston Texans and finally went on to coach with his father in Washington.
"I actually stole more things from Kyle, coming into 2008, 2009, than he got from me," Mike Shanahan added.
Now, Kyle Shanahan hopes to go from ballboy with the 49ers to Super Bowl champion with the same team.