All 49ers

Mike and Kyle Shanahan the Only Father-Son Duo to Blow 10-Point Super Bowl Leads

There's something about the way they coach which leads to big collapses in the biggest games.

Grant Cohn

Jan 19, 2020; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan celebrates the 37-20 victory against the Green Bay Packers with his father Mike Shanahan in the NFC Championship Game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 19, 2020; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan celebrates the 37-20 victory against the Green Bay Packers with his father Mike Shanahan in the NFC Championship Game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

Winning a Super Bowl isn't easy.

So many things have to break in a team's favor just for it to reach the Super Bowl, let alone win it. So there's no shame in losing.

But it also isn't easy to build a double-digit lead in the Super Bowl and lose. In fact, only seven teams since the NFL-AFL merger have blown double-digit Super Bowl leads, and either Mike or Kyle Shanahan were on four of them. Which means they're the only father-son duo to be involved in double-digit Super Bowl collapses.

Mike Shanahan's collapse happened in 1988 when he was the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos. In that game, his team took at 10-0 before eventually losing 42-10.

Kyle Shanahan's first collapse happened in 2017 when he was the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons had a 25-point lead which he eventually blew.

His second collapse came in 2020 in his first Super Bowl appearance as a head coach. In that game, he had a 10-point lead with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter and lost by 11.

His third collapse came earlier this year when he had a 10-point lead in the second quarter against the Chiefs and eventually lost by three in overtime.

The Shanahans have done so much for the NFL. They've developed a scheme that has taken over the league and improved offensive efficiency. They also have created a tree of coaches who work all over the NFL. They deserve credit for these things.

But there's something about the way they coach which leads to big collapses in the biggest games.

Published
Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Home/News