Mike Shanahan: Difference between revisions
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In 1999, with the assistance of writer [[Adam Schefter]], Shanahan penned ''Think Like a Champion'', a motivational book about leadership. It was published by [[Harper Collins]]. In 2006, he cooperated with [[Stefan Fatsis]]'s endeavor to spend a year as a Broncos kicker, and much of the resulting book ''A Few Seconds of Panic'' (2008) covers Shanahan's coaching from the player's point of view. |
In 1999, with the assistance of writer [[Adam Schefter]], Shanahan penned ''Think Like a Champion'', a motivational book about leadership. It was published by [[Harper Collins]]. In 2006, he cooperated with [[Stefan Fatsis]]'s endeavor to spend a year as a Broncos kicker, and much of the resulting book ''A Few Seconds of Panic'' (2008) covers Shanahan's coaching from the player's point of view. |
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On December 30, 2008, Shanahan was fired after the Broncos failed to make the playoffs during the [[2008 NFL season]].<ref>[http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3800768 Broncos fire Shanahan after 14 seasons as head coach]</ref> It was the third consecutive year in which Denver didn't make the playoffs and the Broncos had spent most of the season well ahead of their division, but injuries (i.e. going through seven starting running backs) caused Denver to lose the last three games (winning any of which would have guaranteed a playoff spot) and finishing with an 8-8 record. Shanahan had a coaching record of 24-24 over those three seasons. Former Broncos Kicker [[Jason Elam]] speaks about the firing of his longtime coach, "He’s a tremendous coach. I respect him a lot. He’s done a lot for that city and that organization. I was very surprised. I think most people were.” |
On December 30, 2008, Shanahan was fired after the Broncos failed to make the playoffs during the [[2008 NFL season]].<ref>[http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3800768 Broncos fire Shanahan after 14 seasons as head coach]</ref> It was the third consecutive year in which Denver didn't make the playoffs and the Broncos had spent most of the season well ahead of their division, but injuries (i.e. going through seven starting running backs) caused Denver to lose the last three games (winning any of which would have guaranteed a playoff spot) and finishing with an 8-8 record. Shanahan had a coaching record of 24-24 over those three seasons. Former Broncos Kicker [[Jason Elam]] speaks about the firing of his longtime coach, "He’s a tremendous coach. I respect him a lot. He’s done a lot for that city and that organization. I was very surprised. I think most people were.”<ref>[http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/falcons/stories/2008/12/31/michael_turner_news.html Falcons Notebook: Michael Turner racking up awards]</ref> |
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In the early 2009 NFL Season, it was reported that the Washington Redskins were after Shanahan for their head coach, replacing Jim Zorn. Although this was reported by several media outlets, the Washington Redskins Vice President of Football Operations, Vinny Ceratto, stated that a coaching change would not be considered until the end of the season. |
In the early 2009 NFL Season, it was reported that the Washington Redskins were after Shanahan for their head coach, replacing Jim Zorn. Although this was reported by several media outlets, the Washington Redskins Vice President of Football Operations, Vinny Ceratto, stated that a coaching change would not be considered until the end of the season. |
Revision as of 14:01, 2 November 2009
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2007) |
Michael Edward Shanahan (born August 24, 1952) is a former American football head coach, most recently for the Denver Broncos. He led the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl victories in 1998 and 1999. His son is the Houston Texans Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan.
Early career
Shanahan played high school football at East Leyden High School, Franklin Park, Illinois where he played wishbone quarterback. He had the single-game rushing record until 1976 when it was broken by Dennis Cascio. The record is now held by Ricky Emery. Shanahan was an undersized quarterback at Eastern Illinois University in the 1970s before a hard hit on the practice field ruptured one of his kidneys, stopping his heart for thirty seconds and nearly killing him.[citation needed]
With his playing career abruptly ended, Shanahan entered coaching. After graduation, he served as an assistant coach at Northern Arizona University and the University of Oklahoma. He then returned to his alma mater as offensive coordinator and helped his school win the Division II football championship. Shanahan also worked at the University of Florida and the University of Minnesota, turning around both schools and making them into offensive powerhouses, before making the jump to the NFL.
NFL career
Shanahan served as a quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator for the Broncos under Dan Reeves in the 1980s and had a brief stint as the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1988–89. He went 8–12 with the Raiders in less than two seasons before being fired and returning to the Broncos as an offensive assistant again under Reeves. Shanahan was later fired by Reeves after finding himself in the middle of a growing feud between Reeves and quarterback John Elway.
San Francisco 49ers
In 1992, Shanahan was hired as offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers on George Seifert's staff, capping his rise with a victory in Super Bowl XXIX after the 1994 season. The 49ers offense that year has been hailed as one of the greatest of all time, with the likes of Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Brent Jones, John Taylor, William Floyd and Ricky Watters scoring points in flurries. His years under Seifert placed him in the Bill Walsh coaching tree.
Denver Broncos
Shanahan's success with the 49ers earned him a head coaching spot once more, this time back in Denver with the Broncos beginning in 1995. Shanahan led Elway and the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl championships in the 1997 and 1998 seasons, during which time the Broncos set a then-record for victories in two seasons. He was the last coach to win two consecutive titles until New England's Bill Belichick did it during the 2003 and 2004 NFL seasons. Between 1996-1998, the Broncos set the NFL record for victories by going 46–10 over a three-year span. The 1998 Broncos won their first 13 games on their way to a 14–2 mark. Shanahan, taking his cue from West Coast offense guru Bill Walsh, was well-known for scripting the first 15 offensive plays of the game, and helped the '98 Broncos set an NFL record for first quarter points scored in a season.
Shanahan is known for a run-heavy variation of the West Coast offense he coached in San Francisco. He has often found unheralded running backs from later rounds of the annual NFL Draft and then turned them into league-leading rushers behind small-but-powerful offensive lines. Examples of this phenomenon are Terrell Davis, Mike Anderson, Olandis Gary, Clinton Portis, Reuben Droughns and Tatum Bell, all of whom have had at least one 1,000-yard season in a Denver uniform over the past 10 years.
Shanahan faced criticism for not delivering a playoff victory since Elway's retirement and Davis' career-ending injuries. The playoff drought ended on January 14, 2006 when the Broncos defeated the two-time defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in the AFC Divisional Round of the playoffs at Invesco Field at Mile High.
In 1999, with the assistance of writer Adam Schefter, Shanahan penned Think Like a Champion, a motivational book about leadership. It was published by Harper Collins. In 2006, he cooperated with Stefan Fatsis's endeavor to spend a year as a Broncos kicker, and much of the resulting book A Few Seconds of Panic (2008) covers Shanahan's coaching from the player's point of view.
On December 30, 2008, Shanahan was fired after the Broncos failed to make the playoffs during the 2008 NFL season.[1] It was the third consecutive year in which Denver didn't make the playoffs and the Broncos had spent most of the season well ahead of their division, but injuries (i.e. going through seven starting running backs) caused Denver to lose the last three games (winning any of which would have guaranteed a playoff spot) and finishing with an 8-8 record. Shanahan had a coaching record of 24-24 over those three seasons. Former Broncos Kicker Jason Elam speaks about the firing of his longtime coach, "He’s a tremendous coach. I respect him a lot. He’s done a lot for that city and that organization. I was very surprised. I think most people were.”[2]
In the early 2009 NFL Season, it was reported that the Washington Redskins were after Shanahan for their head coach, replacing Jim Zorn. Although this was reported by several media outlets, the Washington Redskins Vice President of Football Operations, Vinny Ceratto, stated that a coaching change would not be considered until the end of the season.
Head coaching record
Team | Year | Regular Season | Post Season | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
LAR | 1988 | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
LAR | 1989 | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
LAR Total | 8 | 12 | 0 | .400 | - | - | - | |||
DEN | 1995 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
DEN | 1996 | 13 | 3 | 0 | .813 | 1st in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Jacksonville Jaguars in AFC Divisional Game. |
DEN | 1997 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 2nd in AFC West | 4 | 0 | 1.000 | Super Bowl XXXII Champions. |
DEN | 1998 | 14 | 2 | 0 | .875 | 1st in AFC West | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | Super Bowl XXXIII Champions. |
DEN | 1999 | 6 | 10 | 0 | .375 | 5th in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
DEN | 2000 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 2nd in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Baltimore Ravens in AFC Wild-Card Game. |
DEN | 2001 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
DEN | 2002 | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 2nd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
DEN | 2003 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Indianapolis Colts in AFC Wild-Card Game. |
DEN | 2004 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in AFC West | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Indianapolis Colts in AFC Wild-Card Game. |
DEN | 2005 | 13 | 3 | 0 | .813 | 1st in AFC West | 1 | 1 | .500 | Lost to Pittsburgh Steelers in AFC Championship Game. |
DEN | 2006 | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 3rd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
DEN | 2007 | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 2nd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
DEN | 2008 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 2nd in AFC West | - | - | - | - |
DEN Total | 138 | 86 | 0 | .616 | 8 | 5 | .615 | |||
Total[3] | 146 | 98 | 0 | .598 | 8 | 5 | .615 |
Accomplishments
- Posted the most wins in pro football history during a three-year period (46 in 1996–98).
- Won the most postseason games in history over a two-year period (seven, 1997–98).
- Been undefeated and untied for three consecutive regular seasons (1996–98) at home, just the second team ever to be undefeated and untied at home in three consecutive years. The Miami Dolphins posted three consecutive seasons of untied undefeated home records from 1972 to 1974. Including playoff games, the Dolphins had won 31 consecutive home games from 1971 to 1974. Oddly enough, in 1999 on the opening Monday Night Football game, the Miami Dolphins ended the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos streak with a 38–21 win in Denver.
- In 2004, he joined the exclusive club of head coaches to post 100 wins in his first 10 seasons with one club, finishing the campaign and decade tied for fourth on this ultra-impressive list of 12 coaches, six of whom are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
- Has the second most victories against the Oakland Raiders with a record of 20–6. Only Marty Schottenheimer has a better W–L record with a 27–6 record against the Raiders.
- Joins Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Belichick as the only six coaches to win back-to-back Super Bowls.
- He is the second coach in history to win two Super Bowl titles in his first four years coaching a team (Shula did it first with the Miami Dolphins in 1972 and 1973 and Belichick did it later, winning two Super Bowls in his first four seasons in New England in 2001 and 2003).
- Highest winning percentage in Denver history (.646).
- Shanahan is among seven coaches in pro football history to post four wins in one postseason along with Tom Flores, Joe Gibbs, Brian Billick, Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy and Tom Coughlin.
- The all-time high of 636 points in a season came from the 1994 Super Bowl Champion San Francisco 49ers, for whom Shanahan was the offensive coordinator. This was eclipsed during the 2007 season when the New England Patriots scored 589 points in the regular season and 66 points in the postseason for a total of 655 points.
- During his NFL career, Shanahan has been a part of teams that have played in 10 Conference Championship Games, in addition to his six Super Bowl appearances, five with Denver and Super Bowl XXIX with San Francisco.
Personal
Shanahan and his wife, Peggy, have two children—son Kyle and daughter Krystal. Kyle is a graduate of the University of Texas and is the Houston Texans’ offensive coordinator. Krystal also is a graduate of the University of Texas.
In May 2008, Shanahan attended the wedding of George W. Bush's daughter Jenna Bush, who was the former college roommate of Shanahan's daughter.[4][5]
References
- ^ Broncos fire Shanahan after 14 seasons as head coach
- ^ Falcons Notebook: Michael Turner racking up awards
- ^ Mike Shanahan Record, Statistics, and Category Ranks - Pro-Football-Reference.com
- ^ Jenna Bush Weds Henry Hager at President's Ranch
- ^ President Bush to play father of bride Saturday; Broncos' Shanahan to attend
External links
- National Football League head coaches
- Los Angeles Raiders head coaches
- Denver Broncos coaches
- Denver Broncos head coaches
- San Francisco 49ers coaches
- Irish-American sportspeople
- American football quarterbacks
- Eastern Illinois Panthers football players
- Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football coaches
- Florida Gators football coaches
- Minnesota Golden Gophers football coaches
- Eastern Illinois Panthers football coaches
- Living people
- 1952 births