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Shanahan and the Rams\u2019 Sean McVay are the league\u2019s second-longest tenured head coaches, and Shanahan will match Bill Walsh as the longest-tenured 49ers head coach if he finishes his 10th season with the team in 2026. For Walsh, of course, a decade was his limit. At 57, he left the NFL after a Super Bowl win in January 1989, drained by the job. Walsh\u2019s son, Craig, once described his dad at the end as a teddy bear without the stuffing, saying \u201cthere was nothing left.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Even McVay, 40, considered stepping away three years ago because he felt burned out. But Shanahan hasn\u2019t entertained similar thoughts. And he can\u2019t see an end in sight. Asked how much longer he intends to stay in Santa Clara, Shanahan said he planned to remain with the 49ers \u201cas long as they\u2019ll have me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love coaching,\u201d Shanahan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel good. My family still loves it. I think they would kill me if I was home a lot more. So we\u2019ve got a good balance. And I love being with the Niners,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The feeling is mutual. Owner Jed York, who said Shanahan is signed through 2028, doesn\u2019t see an expiration date.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want Kyle to be here for a long time,\u201d York said. \u201cHe\u2019s been here for a long time. I want him to be here even longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As Shanahan\u2019s critics would quickly note, he\u2019s not Walsh: Shanahan is 0-2 in Super Bowls with the 49ers after Walsh went 3-0. However,\u00a0Shanahan\u2019s other differences from his Hall of Fame predecessor provide perspective on why he appears destined to pass Walsh in terms of tenure with the franchise and keep on going.<\/p>\n
Despite his massive role in creating an NFL dynasty, Walsh once wrote that he was a \u201ctortured person\u201d because he \u201cfelt failure so personally.\u201d Shanahan is built differently due to his background, which has played a role in allowing him to navigate his tortured big-game history with less-than-expected scarring.<\/p>\n
Shanahan is 0-3 in Super Bowls as a head coach and offensive coordinator, a record he mentioned without prompting when he served as an NBC pregame analyst for Super Bowl LX in February. Unlike Walsh, who was consumed by lesser losses, Shanahan can view his record through an optimistic lens. His father, Mike, also lost his first three Super Bowls before finishing his career 3-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got my three losses out of the way,\u201d Shanahan joked on the broadcast.<\/p>\n
Walsh\u2019s insecurities and demons were exacerbated by the title-or-bust expectations of combustible owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., who threatened to fire his head coach on multiple occasions during Walsh\u2019s 92-59-1 tenure. DeBartolo stripped Walsh of his president title after an upset divisional-playoff loss in Walsh\u2019s penultimate season.<\/p>\n
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In contrast, York has become less like his uncle since Shanahan became his fourth head coach in 26 months in 2017. When Shanahan and general manager John Lynch were hired, York said \u201cthe future of this franchise will be constructed from their vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than nine years later, York recently explained that his trust in Shanahan and Lynch is a reason he has been able to maintain his more hands-off approach. York wasn\u2019t aware the 49ers had signed wide receiver Christian Kirk, who could have a prominent role this season, until nearly two weeks after Kirk was added last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have immense trust and faith in those guys,\u201d York said.<\/p>\n
Shanahan, whose nine playoff wins with the 49ers are one shy of tying Walsh and George Seifert for the top spot, has a job that has been marked by success and autonomy.<\/p>\n
Still, Shanahan\u2019s impressive NBC cameo at least raised questions about his potential desire to get into broadcasting on a full-time basis. Shanahan laughed at the idea. And York offered that Shanahan \u201cwould hate that so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And that\u2019s because if Shanahan isn\u2019t an NFL lifer, he has plenty of life left in his current career. He still loves what he\u2019s doing. And that includes the parts of the job that don\u2019t involve the X\u2019s and O\u2019s for which he\u2019s known as one of the NFL\u2019s top offensive play-callers. As early as junior high, Shanahan was fascinated by roster construction and would regularly grill his dad over dinner about possible free-agent signings or draft picks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just always thought this way\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s what I enjoy about football,\u201d Shanahan said in 2018, adding that he\u2019d been \u201cwaiting to be a head coach my whole life\u201d before he was hired by the 49ers.<\/p>\n
In his first public moments as an NFL head coach, Shanahan offered clues about his future. He didn\u2019t have hobbies and he wasn\u2019t particularly complicated, he explained a few sentences into his opening remarks at his introductory news conference. Nearly a decade later, Shanahan looks different. If asked about his interests, though, it\u2019s safe to say he\u2019d sound the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s really two things that are important to me\u00a0\u2014 and that\u2019s my family and that\u2019s football,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really all the things I think about. As sad as that is, it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers head coaches Kyle Shanahan and Bill Walsh Stephen Lam and Deanne Fitzmaurice\/S.F. Chronicle When Kyle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[299,101,296,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-266629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-kyle-shanahan","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","11":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","12":"tag-san-francisco-news","13":"tag-sf","14":"tag-sf-headlines","15":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}