Shanahan Back (pack) to the Super Bowl

Wonder if Kyle Shanahan still has that backpack? The green one, exactly the same as mine, the one I accidentally walked away with and caused a lot of temporary agony for Kyle. And me.

The biggest sporting event in America, yes, the Super Bowl, at times is responsible for stories that in fact grow from almost nothing to overwhelming.

Stories such as the one before Super Bowl IV of the quarterback Len Dawson hanging around with gamblers (before the NFL started hanging around with gamblers). Or birds’ nests in the practice facility before a Super Bowl in Houston.

Or (know) a sports columnist being accused of lifting a coach’s property to provide inside information to the opposition. 

The real problem, of course, is there are two weeks between the conference championships from which this year the Niners and Kansas City Chiefs emerged.

Nature abhors a vacuum, we’re told, thus aligning it with the idea that if there is nothing newsworthy at a Super Bowl, the papers and TV screens still will not miss a beat.

By now everyone knows Brock Purdy was the final selection in the 2022 draft. What we didn’t know for sure back in 2017 was who was going to be the next 49ers coach. The presumptive candidate was Shanahan, offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, who were going to play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.

The game was at NRG Stadium in Houston. But media night was at Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. Obviously, my target was Shanahan, who I located sitting on a low wall in the left-field bullpen.

I hurriedly plopped the green backpack with my laptop on the ground, next to a low wall that embraced the bullpen, and joined the group interviewing Shanahan, who was properly coy when asked about the Niners.

When all was said and done, I reached back over the little wooden wall snatched my backpack, and hiked a few steps towards an area serving as a temporary press facility. The first call I got was from Jarret Bell of USA Today. who said, “The Falcons are looking for you.”

Shanahan was in a semi-panic, not because he was worried the Patriots would get his game plan, but because there were several thousand dollars worth of Super Bowl tickets to be distributed.

When a Falcons staff member caught up with me he didn’t say hello, just “Where is it?”

I was more concerned about my computer. I never opened either backpack, the reason I didn’t know one from the other.

Instead of working on the story, I had become the story. I was accused of spying for Bill Belichick. 

A year later when the Niners made it to the Super Bowl, they would be up against Kansas City. I asked Shanahan if he would take the backpack. ”Yes,” he said, “and I’m not going to let you near it.”