Born on December 14, 1979, Kyle Michael Shanahan[1] is an American football coach who currently serves as head coach of the National Football League (NFL) San Francisco 49ers. He gained notoriety as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, a team that made it to Super Bowl LI in 2016 thanks to an offense that led the league in points scored. The next season, Shanahan was hired as the 49ers’ head coach. Under his direction, the team has won three division titles, four postseason trips, four trips to the NFC Championship Game, and two trips to the Super Bowl (LIV and LVIII).
While his father, Mike Shanahan, was a University of Minnesota coach, Shanahan was born in Minneapolis.[2] His father was the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers in 1994, and he went to Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California.[3] Later on, when his father was the Denver Broncos head coach, he went to Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado.[4] Shanahan declined Carl Franks of Duke University’s scholarship offer in favor of transferring as a redshirt freshman and beginning his career as a walk-on at the University of Texas at Austin.[5] Shanahan played wide receiver for a Longhorn squad that included future NFL assistant coach Richard Hightower, who worked with him in San Francisco, Major Applewhite.
Gary Kubiak brought Shanahan on board to teach the wide receivers for the Houston Texans in 2006.[12] Kubiak had previously worked with the Broncos under Mike Shanahan as the offensive coordinator. Kyle Shanahan was the NFL’s youngest position coach at the time. Shanahan was promoted again, this time to quarterback coach for the Texans, after the season.[13] In 2007, he received an offer to work as offensive coordinator at the University of Minnesota, where Tim Brewster, a former assistant coach with the Broncos, had recently taken the helm as head coach. Shanahan said no, citing his choice to coach in the NFL.[14] As soon as Mike Sherman left the Texans to become the head coach of Texas A&M University, Shanahan was seen as the front-runner for the open offensive coordinator position.
2010 saw Shanahan depart from the Texans in order to play for the Washington Redskins alongside his father, Mike Shanahan. Given the way the Washington Redskins performed under his leadership, several questioned if Shanahan’s hiring was an instance of unjustified nepotism.[17] Following a Cincinnati Bengals game, Shanahan confronted a replacement official and made derogatory remarks, for which he was fined $25,000.[18] On December 30, 2013, the Redskins fired Kyle, his father, and a few members of the coaching staff.