There was a time, even early in Patrick Mahomes’ career, when the first thing that came to mind with Andy Reid was his blunderous decisions at the end of games.

The poor clock management. The ill-advised timeouts he took. The timeouts he, ill-advisedly, didn’t take.

Reid has always been respected in the NFL. Deeply so. He has the most wins of any active NFL coach, and took two teams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chiefs, to the Super Bowl. He’s won two Super Bowls since 2020 and could make it a third Sunday.

But his commercials with Mahomes are so entertaining and so endearing, they’ve transformed Reid’s persona among casual fans from one prompting expletives and angst into that of the NFL’s favorite teddy bear.

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“He’s got a look and a way about him that I think is endearing to fans,” said David Schwab, an executive vice president at Octagon who has specialized in celebrity and brand deals for 20 years.

“The hard-core Chiefs fans, they’re going to care more about wins and losses. But that’s not marketing. Marketing is, ‘What does the common man or woman think about you? Does the creative (theme of an ad) appeal to me and how I think?’ And I think he works for that.”

To be clear, Reid isn’t acting in the ads. The guy you see is the same guy his players have known — and loved — for years. He doesn’t take himself seriously, favoring Hawaiian shirts or team gear over suits and talking enthusiastically about food any time he’s given the chance.

He doesn’t flaunt his intelligence, football or otherwise, and shows little of the suspicion or ego that can plague coaches when they reach his level of success. Not naming names or anything …

“I didn’t realize he was such a man of few words. He says so little, yet says so much. His team meetings crack me up — literally 30 seconds, a minute — and we’re off and running,” linebacker Drue Tranquill, who came to the Chiefs this season after spending the last four with the AFC West-rival Los Angeles Chargers, told USA TODAY Sports.

“He’s a very routine man, a man who’s found a way to get things done in this league and has stuck to it,” Tranquill added. “He’s a man of principle, and I’ve really enjoyed playing for him.”

Reid also has a wry sense of humor and perfect comedic timing. After Taylor Swift made her first appearance at a Chiefs game and Reid was asked what he knew about her relationship with tight end Travis Kelce, Reid said he’d met the pop superstar before.

He then paused before delivering the punchline.

“I set ‘em up,” he said with a grin. “I’ll leave you with that.”

And with that, he left the podium.

“Fans and consumers can really see through inauthentic personas,” said Angeline Close Scheinbaum, an associate professor of marketing at Clemson and co-author of “Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion.”  

“Especially with public figures like this,” she added, “it’s just refreshing to see a human brand, to see these people we usually see in a very serious context, be in a more light-hearted one.”

The best part is Reid came by his career as a pitchman organically. He didn’t do it for money or fame. He did it as a favor to his quarterback.

Mahomes was already doing ads for State Farm, one of his sponsors, and the quarterback was asked if he thought Reid would be willing to join him.

“I was like, ‘Man, I’ll ask him, but I just don’t know if he’ll do it,’ ‘ Mahomes recalled during an October 2022 interview with KCSP, a Kansas City radio station.

“When I asked him, he asked me about it. He’s like, ‘Do you want me to?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I think it’d be cool for people to be able to see your personality on a different level, on a different scale,’ ” Mahomes said.  

That first ad, in which Reid reveals he likes to draw mustaches on his players’ faces while they sleep, has led to several more with Mahomes for State Farm. Reid also appeared on his own in a reboot of a 1996 Snickers ad in which the person painting the end zone misspells “Chiefs.”

“His persona is good and different from others,” Schwab said. “I think that’s what has allowed it to work.”

Schwab said he doesn’t know that Reid’s commercial success will open doors for other coaches because there are already opportunities there. College coaches Deion Sanders and Dawn Staley are in ads for AFLAC, while Jon Gruden, Mike Ditka and even Tom Landry did commercials in their day.

What it could do, Schwab said, is give creative directors the freedom to “write against the script,” showcasing a coach’s humor and personality rather than pigeonholing him into the gruff, tough stereotype of an NFL coach.

Not that Reid cares about any of that. Nor does he care about his increased visibility or the fact it’s made people think of him in a warmer, fuzzier light.

“I don’t want to stand up here and sound like a movie star. I’m not very good at that,” he said last week. “But I appreciate people enjoying ‘nuggies.’ ‘

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

No, not that one.

The suddenly rejuvenated Ovechkin scored an empty net goal with 28 seconds left in a 3-0 victory against the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon. That gave him 57 for his career. He had been tied with Gretzky entering the game with 56 empty-netters.

Ovechkin, who also had a nice assist on a Dylan Strome goal, was on the ice late in the game after he finished serving a penalty for hooking. As the Bruins pressed, Ovechkin banked the puck off the boards past Hampus Lindholm, beat Charlie Coyle to the puck and one-handed it into the Boston net.

OVECHKIN TRACKER: Where he stands in chase of Wayne Gretzky goal record

The goal also pushed Ovechkin closer to breaking the big Gretzky record for career goals. He’s at 834 regular-season goals. Gretzky had 894.

That record seems more within reach because Ovechkin is on a roll after a slow start to the season. He had a career-worst 14-game goal drought early in the season and also had an eight-game drought plus missed three games with a lower-body injury.

But he now has goals in four games in a row to give him 12 for the season. He scored in the Capitals’ final game before the All-Star break and in each of the three games since.

Ovechkin, who has two years left on his contract after this one, needed to average 24.3 goals a season on that deal to pass Gretzky. He was on pace for 14 goals before the recent surge and now is on pace for 20.

Ovechkin asked not to be considered for the All-Star Game this season so he could rest. He spent the break in Dubai, and Saturday’s ABC broadcast showed video of Ovechkin and his family riding camels.

It appears he has gotten over the hump.

Chinese authorities have canceled two Argentina friendlies next month amid a growing backlash over Lionel Messi’s failure to play in Inter Miami’s friendly in Hong Kong.

Last month, the Argentina national team announced two March friendlies in China, the first against Nigeria in Hangzhou and the second against Ivory Coast in Beijing.

But the Hangzhou Sports Bureau said in a statement on Friday that it had pulled the plug on the match that was set for the Olympic Sports Center Stadium.

The following day, the Beijing Football Association nixed the Ivory Coast game, saying in a statement to local media: ‘Beijing does not plan, for the moment, to organize the match in which Lionel Messi was to participate.’

There has been growing anger over the Argentine star’s injury-related absence against a Hong Kong select side on Sunday, in part due to his participation in Miami’s friendlies before and after the game in Hong Kong. Additionally, Miami head coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino said the day before the match that Messi was ‘likely’ to play.

The government-affiliated Global Times in China released a scathing editorial this week speculating Messi’s absence in Hong Kong was due to “political motives,” and that “external forces deliberately wanted to embarrass Hong Kong through this incident.”

Inter Miami has since apologized for Messi’s absence and the event promoter, Tatler Asia, has offered fans a 50 percent refund.

Messi also offered an apology on Chinese social media platform Weibo, saying that his groin injury flared up at the last minute and despite a strong desire to play, he was unable to do so.

‘I hope we will have the opportunity to go back [to Hong Kong] one day,” the 36-year-old said.

In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series ’29 Black Stories in 29 Days.’ We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This is the fourth installment of the series.

During the 1987 season, Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to start a Super Bowl. It was a remarkable moment. But what’s often forgotten is what happened after that.

It would take 12 years for another Black quarterback to start in the Super Bowl. That was Tennessee’s Steve McNair in the 1999 season. That’s a long time. After that it took another five years for a Black quarterback to start in the game and that was Donovan McNabb in the 2004 season. Then Colin Kaepernick started eight years later in 2012.

So from 1987 through the 2011 season there were just three Black starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl, meaning 88% of the starting quarterbacks were white and 12% Black.

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Then came a mini-burst of Black Super Bowl starting quarterbacks that was a sort of sparkplug for change. Kaepernick in 2012, Russell Wilson the next two years and Cam Newton in 2015. Black quarterbacks were finally and consistently being viewed more positively (racism is a helluva thing) but still there hasn’t been a Black quarterback that led a dynasty … until now.

We are in the Patrick Mahomes Era. A Black quarterback has a dynastic, championship foothold, something we’ve never seen before. This is Mahomes’ fourth Super Bowl appearance and he’s just 28.

Why is this important? Williams was historic because he broke an original barrier. In a way, Mahomes is breaking through another type of barrier. The barrier of dominance. There hasn’t been a Black quarterback in the conversation as the best quarterback of all time. Not one of but the best. Period.

Warren Moon is perhaps the closest we’ve gotten to that but not even him.

If Mahomes wins this Super Bowl, he’d be 3-1, and the conversation of best QB of all time will be between him and Tom Brady. You are free to argue Joe Montana or John Elway or a few others but I’ll take Mahomes and sleep well at night.

Even if Mahomes loses and goes 2-2 in the Super Bowl, assuming he isn’t catastrophically injured in the future, he’s got bare minimum another five years left, and maybe a decade. You don’t think he’d reach another few Super Bowls over that time? Of course he will.

I think Mahomes will end up being better than Brady (I await the hate mail of Patriots fans) but along the way he will do something else. He’ll break another barrier for Black quarterbacks. The barrier of dominance.

The Champ is − at the plate?

Known to sometimes have guest players on the team, the Bananas welcomed a one-of-a-kind guest on its squad: WWE and acting star John Cena.

Cena even came out of the dugout in full baseball uniform to his signature ‘The Time is Now’ entrance song from WWE, and even did his whole routine as if he was entering the ring, while his new teammates did the ‘You can’t see me’ gesture. He also had a championship belt given to him.

Cena went in the batter’s box and took a Craig Counsell-like batting stance on the first pitch, which he took for a ball. The 16-time WWE Champion then squatted in hopes of drawing a walk, but he was called out on strikes. He then looked like he was going to charge the mound, but instead raised the hand of the pitcher, signifying he took the victory.

Savannah has had several guest stars appear for the team, including former MLB players like Jonny Gomes, Johnny Damon and Josh Reddick. Former outfield Nick Swisher appeared for the team on Friday.

HENDERSON, Nev. – Take your Super Bowl seats, class is in session.

Whether you want to characterize them as dean and professor, Jedi and Padawan, Big K and Little K, or just bros, Travis Kelce and George Kittle are continuing to take the tight end position to, well, new heights. Their teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, respectively, are preparing to face off Sunday in Super Bowl 58 and, quarterbacks notwithstanding, the duo are as likely as any players to determine who wins the Lombardi Trophy while commanding much of the Las Vegas spotlight.

With a relationship forged from paying it forward and mutual rises from relative obscurity, Super Sunday could be a career apex – from a football perspective anyway – for Kelce and Kittle. USA TODAY Sports spent much of Super Bowl week digging into their games and relationship.

How Travis Kelce and George Kittle met

They first crossed paths in 2018, Kittle’s second year in the NFL, when he’d explode for 1,377 receiving yards – which set a single-season record for tight ends. (Kelce surpassed that mark two years later with 1,416.)

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“My relationship with Travis kinda started out from afar,” said Kittle, a fifth-round draft pick in 2017. “I watched his film when I was in college – like my senior year, I had to break down his film and talk about it with my tight end room in Iowa.

“And then I got an opportunity to meet him in 2018, and he was nothing but incredibly kind to me – traded jerseys with me, which was one of the coolest moments ever for me at that time. I remember an interview popped up, (and) I got asked, ‘What was the coolest thing that happened to me in 2018?’ I was like, ‘Well, Travis Kelce followed me back on Instagram.’ That was a big deal for me. Just for him to become a friend of mine, it’s been awesome.

“He’s my guy, he’s been fantastic.”

Kelce has also grown close with Kittle’s folks and once flew to Nashville simply to record a podcast with them.

“He’s been nothing but completely kind to me and my family, very generous with his time,” said Kittle.

Ironically, while Kittle was analyzing Kelce’s moves in college, Kelce was digging in on the Hawkeyes prospect as he became draft-eligible.

“I was actually asked about George Kittle in the (Chiefs) building when he was coming out,” said Kelce. “And I just watched him on film and was like, ‘This guy’s fun to watch.’ His energy, how he plays the game. You could tell by how he was giddy when he caught a ball. And he would get tackled, and the team rallied around him. You could tell he was loved in that locker room.

“And then on top of that, when I met him … he was just a down-to-earth kind of guy. And then you see the success, you see what he can do with the ball in his hands – all the explosive plays. It’s just kind of been a fun growing of a friendship and a brotherhood.

“It’s just an absolute honor, not only to go against him here, but to know who he is and what he stands for as a man and as a family man. I got all the respect for the guy.”

Tight End University

Kittle has done his offseason work in Nashville since 2018 and, initially, would get together with a handful of other tight ends to train. Following the 2020 season, he sought tips from retiring Pro Bowler Greg Olsen, who suggested they loop in Kelce. From there, “Tight End University” was born with dozens of them convening at a local high school. Since 2022, close to 100, including Rob Gronkowski and many active players, have descended on Vanderbilt University to trade trips and techniques while mentoring younger players.

“It’s something that’s become more and more special to me as the years have gone on,” said Kelce. “And I’m excited again to get around the guys. The tight end room is a very unique room, it’s a lot of unselfish guys that come together that are just willing to do whatever the team needs them to do.

“So when you get everybody in the same building – typically we all have a lot of high energy and a lot of fun doing what we do – so the atmosphere is almost like you’re at an All-Star Game, or at a Pro Bowl, or at a Super Bowl, because everybody’s excited to be around each other. And then, on top of that, just trying to spread the knowledge and help anybody excel their game and take the nuggets of gold when you can.”

Kittle is also most associated with the promotion of “National Tight Ends Day” every October, even though the term came from an off-hand remark by former Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Still, the faux holiday speaks to Kittle’s pride and investment in his job.

“If you look at the last six Super Bowls, there’s been an elite tight end that’s been playing,” said Kittle, while also noting the breakout seasons of younger players like the Detroit Lions’ Sam LaPorta and Dallas Cowboys’ Jake Ferguson.

“I think it just goes to show that when you have a really good tight end – a dominant tight end – who can affect the game in multiple ways, you have a higher chance of winning football games later in the season.”

Stars on the field

Since the start of the 2018 season, either Kelce or Kittle has been the NFL’s All-Pro tight end every season save 2021 (when it was the Baltimore Ravens’ Mark Andrews). They’ve combined for 14 Pro Bowl nods and are widely acclaimed as the best in the business – even if they approach their duties differently.

“They’re the two best tight ends in the league,” 49ers All-Pro fullback Kyle Juszczyk, a tight end at Harvard, told USA TODAY Sports. “George brings a physicality everywhere in his game – not just in his blocking, it’s in his route-running, it’s in his yards after contact. And I think that’s his superpower. And he’s incredibly fast for someone his size (6-4, 250 pounds) – he gets in the open field, nobody’s catching him. And I think that’s really what sets him apart. You just get the ball in his hands, and he’s gonna do good stuff – and you can’t always say that for tight ends. Same thing with Travis.

“Travis and George are both guys, you just want to get the ball in their hands, and then they’ll go make something happen.”

Three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt, now a CBS analyst who used to moonlight as a tight end for the Houston Texans, offered a similar analysis.

“They’re very different in their games, but they are very, very good at what they do,” Watt told USA TODAY Sports. “Travis, he can find ways to get open and, as a defensive lineman, sometimes I’d turn around after the ball was thrown and I’m like, ‘Guys, it’s Travis Kelce, how is he that open?’ But he finds ways – he sits in these zones, he gets into these patterns, and he has such a great chemistry with (Chiefs quarterback Patrick) Mahomes.

“And then Kittle does very similar things in the pass game – he can get open, he can find ways to catch any ball. But he also is dominant in the run game. He can block, he can stick his nose in there. They’re two of the best in the league.”

After a scalding 2023 postseason, Kelce’s 156 career playoff receptions now stand as an NFL record, breaking Hall of Famer Jerry Rice’s former standard (151). Only Rice has more postseason receiving yards than Kelce’s 1,810 or touchdown grabs than Kelce’s 19. He finished the regular season with 984 receiving yards, breaking a string of seven consecutive 1,000-yard campaigns – Olsen the only other tight end to do that even three years in a row.

“Travis’ numbers probably stand up for themselves. I would tell you that he has an opportunity to go down as one of the best – if not the best – tight ends to play,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid.

“Has he spent a ton of time worrying about that? I don’t think he does. Every game he goes, ‘Let’s just go win.’ That’s just kind of his thinking.”

Said Kittle, who takes fierce pride in his own blocking prowess: “I think we both have a pretty similar mentality about we have a standard for ourselves – we want to play at a very high level. I mean, we both love the game of football, we both love our teammates, we both like to make big plays, we both like touchdowns, stuff like that. Differences? I think we both play tight end, but we just both play it in a very different way. But it works for both of us because of the way our offenses are.”

Stars off the field

Kelce’s come quite far from being a third-round pick out of the University of Cincinnati, where he got kicked off the team for a season, and barely playing as a rookie in 2013. However he became a starter for the Chiefs in 2014 and almost immediately emerged as an elite performer. He leveled up his profile at Super Bowl 57, the first to feature brothers playing for opposing teams, as he and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce and their mother, Donna, became ubiquitous media presences. The NFL siblings also gained popularity via their “New Heights” podcast.

Then Travis began dating pop megastar Taylor Swift in 2023, and his visibility went stratospheric. After nearly a full season of documenting their romance and travels, media outlets have dispatched reporters to Super Bowl 58 solely to cover Kelce and his relationship with Swift, who’s expected to fly to Vegas following her concert performance in Tokyo on Saturday night.

Asked Thursday why people are so enamored of his and Swift’s personal life, Kelce said: “I think the values that we stand for and just who we are as people. We love to shine light on others, shine light around the people that help and support us. And, on top of that, I feel like we both have just a love for life.”

Kittle chuckled about it, admitting he wouldn’t want that much attention but looks forward to grabbing a beer with Kelce to catch up on his jet-fueled stardom.

“While it might seem to all of us it could be a distraction, it might not be to him. I think Travis is a mature man, he knows how to handle his business. And I think he puts football over everything,” said Kittle. “He obviously knows how to handle anything going on off the field.”

And, apparently, that might soon include movie roles for Kelce, who appeared on “Saturday Night Live” last year.

“I’m comedy all the way, I don’t know if I’m anything else,” he said. “I just like to have a fun time and make people laugh. I’ll dabble into everything, though, just to see if I have fun doing it.

“There’s definitely Hollywood talks out there, but I’ve been focused on football throughout the season. So I’ll probably have a lot of those meetings and conversations when it’s all said and done.”

And don’t be surprised if Kittle – almost unfailingly effervescent, polite and often hilarious – somehow gets intertwined with some of those prospective ventures.

‘I always mess with George,’ said 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan. ‘You go back and watch him his first year, he didn’t have wristbands on or his socks real weird, had a clean-cut haircut. Then the second year, he was the WWE champ.’

A professional wrestling afficionado, Kittle, who’s hard to miss with his self-described Viking hairdo, has already dabbled in that space. He also immerses himself in pop culture, be it his love of movies, Air Jordans or any number of famous characters he inks onto his body.

“I’m big into alter egos,” said Kittle. “I think I channel energy through different characters and so, like, those character that I want to draw energy from, I tattoo on myself – that’s how I viewed it. And so Iike I have a bad guy arm, I have a good guy arm.

“I’ve got the Joker, I have Venom from ‘Spider-Man,’ I have Godzilla, I have the Master Chief from ‘Halo,’ Hobbes from ‘Calvin and Hobbes.’ And so what I try to do is draw energy from these things while I’m playing football or just like in my everyday life. Because they’re all like kinda superheroes to me, and so if you can draw some of a superhero’s qualities, then you might able to do something cool with your life.”

Kelce and Kittle are both doing numerous cool things with their lives at the moment – though the focus for the former is being rubber-stamped as a dynasty, Kelce acknowledging three Super Bowl victories being a next-level accomplishment. Meanwhile, Kittle seeks his first ring four years after losing to the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54. But whatever happens Sunday evening isn’t going to detract from the bond that’s already formed between the men.

“It’s been really fun to be friends with him,” Kittle said of Kelce. “Just because he’s such a genuine person, and he treats me and my family like they’re his own family, too, which – it’s very awesome.”

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter @ByNateDavis.

LAS VEGAS – There’s no sudden urge for Mike Shanahan to offer his son any grand, unsolicited advice this weekend that might help him get over the hump in Super Bowl 58. Kyle Shanahan has absorbed lessons from his father over the course of a lifetime.

‘Kyle’s been through enough experiences with me where he’s watched me and how I reacted,’ Mike, who led the Denver Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl triumphs during his son’s high school years, told USA TODAY Sports after arriving in town on Thursday.

As a 15-year-old, Kyle saw his father reach the top of the NFL mountain for the first time to cap the 1994 season when Mike coordinated the explosive San Francisco 49ers offense that buried the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl 29. Good memories, for sure.

And look at him now. Kyle, 44, is the 49ers coach aiming to deliver the franchise’s first Super Bowl crown since his father’s final year with the team, along with a milestone for the ages. With a 49ers victory against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, the Shanahans would create another sterling memory and become the first father-son duo to coach Super Bowl winners.

Yet Kyle knows the flip side, too. He was there during the 1980s when his father lost three Super Bowls as the Broncos offensive coordinator, including the latter instance when they were drubbed 55-10 by the Joe Montana-armed 49ers.

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‘We got embarrassed, just got our asses kicked,’ Mike recalled of Super Bowl 24. ‘It was so humbling.’

The moments came flashing back for the elder Shanahan, 71, as he related to his son’s present challenge while Super Bowl 58 loomed. The lessons have come wrapped in triumph, agony and with so much in between.

It’s striking that Kyle is in a spot similar to Mike’s arc, having to taste two Super Bowl setbacks – he was the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons team that blew a 28-3 lead in losing Super Bowl 51, then squandered a 10-point lead on the way to falling to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54 – before potentially achieving championship glory.

‘The one thing about coaching is that you’ve got to keep fighting,’ Mike said. ‘You’ve got to get to the dance, and then at least you’ve got a chance to win the prize. So, you just do everything you can to prepare to win it, and eventually it will happen.’

As his son, widely considered as one of the NFL’s sharpest offensive minds, prepared to dance in a coaching matchup against the venerable Andy Reid, Shanahan shared some moments from Kyle’s journey from a father’s perspective.

49ers training camp, 1992

After Mike Shanahan replaced Mike Holmgren to run San Francisco’s offense under coach George Seifert, he wasn’t sure about how the housing situation would work with Kyle coming along to the steamy training camp in Rocklin, California. The 49ers coaches and players stayed in dormitory rooms at Sierra College.

‘I can’t have Kyle in here,’ Shanahan told his roommate, offensive line guru Bobb McKittrick.

He remembers McKittrick’s response as follows: ‘What do you mean? Your son’s in for a learning experience up here in Rocklin.’

Settled. Kyle was a fixture (and added roommate) for three 49ers training camps.

‘Just being in that environment in camp, and to be able to hang around – especially with the great 49ers who were around – he got a chance to develop relationships and watch practice,’ Shanahan said. ‘I just thought that was a great opportunity for him at a young age to sit back and watch how people did things as players, as well as coaches.’

Broncos headquarters, 1995

When Shanahan became the Broncos coach, Kyle was developing as a wide receiver at Cherry Creek High School. Earlier this week, Kyle, who played a year at Duke before transferring to Texas, recalled how he learned so much about playing the position from Broncos standouts Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey (whose son Christian is now a major cog in Kyle’s offense as the freshly minted NFL Offensive Player of the Year).

One day, Kyle worked out by running one-on-one routes against Broncos defensive backs.

‘All of a sudden, the (unidentified) safety just gives him a shot right to the head when Kyle was trying to release,’ Shanahan said. ‘He got him pretty good. His face, you couldn’t tell it was him, he was bleeding so much.’

Shanahan sent his son to the get treated by an athletic trainer – and instructed him to return to the field ASAP.

‘This is a time when the players are going to see just how tough you are,’ he told Kyle. ‘You’d better be right back out here or you’ll lose all respect.’

 His father knew why it got so physical. Pro players were not about to get shown up by some high school kid.

‘It was so cool when he came back in 10 minutes and finished up the one-on-ones like nothing ever happened,’ Shanahan said. ‘Those are the lessons you learn along the way.’

Shanahan also remembers the night after the episode on the practice field. Kyle went to a high school dance.

‘You couldn’t even tell it was Kyle,’ Shanahan said. ‘That’s how screwed up his face looked.’

The mid-2000s through 2010

As Kyle embarked on his coaching career, Mike knew that his son needed to make a name on his own. 

‘All you heard was nepotism,’ Shanahan said.

Kyle certainly benefitted from connections that flowed through his father. He landed his first coaching job in 2003 as a graduate assistant at UCLA under coach Karl Dorrell, who was previously his father’s receivers coach with the Broncos. A year later, he was in the NFL as a quality control coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Then he wound up with the Houston Texans in 2006 on the staff of Gary Kubiak, who had a long history with Mike as a backup quarterback, position coach and coordinator.

As Kyle climbed the ladder, Mike gave him some conditions: ‘I’m not ever going to hire you unless you’re a coordinator, you are calling the plays and you’re in the top five in points or yardage, or both. I can’t hire you unless you prove yourself.’

Kubiak afforded such an opportunity. When Mike, who left the Broncos after 14 seasons, became Washington’s coach in 2010, he included Kyle on his staff for the first time as coordinator – with the conditions met. 

But the elder Shanahan was still unsure about something: How does he handle the room?

‘I knew the success that he had, but I didn’t know that,’ Shanahan said. ‘I found out the first week on the job with him. I said, ‘Oh, my God, he’s very confident in the room.’ He could handle it. And the players respected him.’

The four-year stint together in Washington was rocky. After a high point in 2012, when they won a division title with rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III, the bottom fell out the next year. Griffin’s torn ACL and then-owner Dan Snyder were just two of the issues. It was the end of Mike’s coaching career but a springboard for Kyle.

Super Bowl 58

Kyle, who became 49ers coach in 2017, has surely made a name for himself now. He led San Francisco to a Super Bowl berth in his third season and, before getting back to the big stage, advanced to three straight NFC title games. Mike said his son doesn’t ask for advice very often, but it happens. And the father still stays plugged in, even to the point where he watches team meetings that are streamed and recorded – a coaching tactic that Mike began employing during his Broncos tenure, with roots traced to the training tapes that legendary coach Bill Walsh left behind.

Kyle knows. His father is a tremendous resource – like always.

‘When he does ask me questions, I want to have watched enough tape that I can at least answer the question or at least have a good chance to,’ Mike said. ‘If it’s an in-depth question about personnel or something, that I give him an answer that’s not just a B.S. answer, that I’ve watched enough tape that he’s getting an honest answer.’

Which is another indication of the connection that exists with one of the NFL’s most accomplished father-son coaching duos ever.

Unable to find a palatable deal at the NBA trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers turned to the buyout market and have reached a deal with one of the best offensive players available.

Guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who was traded from Brooklyn to Toronto and then waived by the Raptors at the trade deadline, has signed with the Lakers after clearing waivers, the team announced Saturday night.

Why the Lakers need offensive help

With All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis averaging 24.8 and 24.7 points and three other players (D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura) averaging double figures in points, it hasn’t translated to the offense success needed in today’s high-scoring NBA.

The Lakers are in need of offensive help, even though they scored 139, including 87 in the first half and 51 in the second quarter, in a victory against New Orleans Friday. They are 20th offensively, scoring 114 points per 100 possessions.

While they are shooting a respectable 49.2% from the field, the Lakers are 29th in 3-pointers made per game (11.3), last in 3-pointers attempted per game (30.6) and 15th in 3-point percentage (36.8%).

How can Spencer Dinwiddie help the Lakers

Dinwiddie was sought after in the buyout market by multiple playoff-caliber teams, including Dallas, trying to land him. He can provide offense and 3-point shooting. Though his offensive stats are down this season at 12.6 points per game and 39.1% shooting from the field and 32% on 3-pointers, Dinwiddie averaged 17.3 points and shot 36.9% on 3-pointers last season.

On a team with James and Davis, Dinwiddie should have better opportunities. He’s also a capable playmaker who averages 6.0 assists and keeps his turnovers low.

Where are the Lakers in the Western Conference playoff race?

The Lakers are 28-26 after Friday’s victory and in ninth place in the Western Conference standings. They are in a play-in game spot right now but that’s no guarantee at just 1½ games ahead of 10th-place Utah and 11th-place Golden State. They are 3½ games behind sixth-place Sacramento.