Posted: Wed November 12, 1997
At exactly nine o'clock last Saturday night at an Englewood,
Colo., hotel, Mike Shanahan rose from his perch in a darkened
room overlooking two Denver Broncos meetings and prepared to
give his players their last major speech before they faced the
Carolina Panthers the next day. He had spent the previous half
hour privately viewing simultaneous meetings of the Broncos'
offense and defense—with audio piped through the speakers in
his observatory by way of an elaborate sound system. Now the
NFL's most thorough head coach walked downstairs to join his
entire squad and to speak about special teams. "It's been a long
time since we've had a breakout game in that area," Shanahan
told his players. "This is the week we've got to put a total
game together."
Four days earlier, in a meeting at the Broncos' practice
facility in Englewood, Shanahan had challenged his defense,
saying of the Panthers, "They're going to try to run the ball
right down our throats, I guarantee you that. It's got to be a
coming-out party for our defense."
Shanahan issued no such challenge to his offense, despite the
Panthers' zone-blitzing scheme and its potential for wreaking
havoc. When you have a future Hall of Fame quarterback (John
Elway), a burgeoning-superstar halfback (Terrell Davis) and
perhaps the most innovative offensive mind since Bill Walsh's,
why get overly concerned about a few 300-pound defensive linemen
dropping into coverage? As Shanahan said shortly before emerging
from the darkness to deliver his Saturday night address, "Our
goal is always to score over 30. If we play to our capabilities,
we can move the ball on anybody."
Asked which offensive player he thought might have a big game
against the Panthers, Shanahan said, "If things unfold the way
we expect them to, Shannon Sharpe will come up huge."
What took place the following afternoon at Mile High Stadium
made Shanahan look psychic. The Broncos (9-1), who share the
league's best record with the San Francisco 49ers, jumped to a
14-0 lead on a pair of punt returns for touchdowns by Darrien
Gordon—one of Shanahan's key off-season acquisitions—and
rolled to a 34-0 victory. The Denver defense shut down Carolina
and forced four turnovers, including strong safety Tyrone
Braxton's 27-yard interception return for a touchdown. Though
the offense produced only 13 points, the Broncos neutralized the
Panthers' blitzes and moved the ball expertly, with Sharpe,
their All-Pro tight end, catching eight passes for 174 yards.
By the time the snowy afternoon had ended and darkness was
descending upon Mile High, Shanahan seemed capable of predicting
anything: from Sandra Bullock's next love interest to the onset
of El Niño. In a league in which coaches such as the Jets' Bill
Parcells, the Dolphins' Jimmy Johnson and the Packers' Mike
Holmgren seem to will their teams to greater heights through the
force of their personalities, it may be that Shanahan, a
cherub-faced, 5'10", 180-pound former small-college quarterback,
has quietly emerged as the most powerful presence in his
profession.
Walsh, the Hall of Fame coach who built the 49ers into a
dynasty, calls Shanahan "one of the four or five best men in
football." Elway says Shanahan is the No. 1 coach in the NFL,
and numerous players on other teams—some of whom have met
Shanahan only in passing—concur. "The word is out around the
league," says Broncos defensive end Neil Smith, a five-time Pro
Bowl performer for the Kansas City Chiefs who signed with Denver
in the off-season. Shanahan is not only a shrewd strategist but
also a demanding yet fair boss who lets his assistants coach and
his players live, breathe and smile. As Broncos defensive
lineman Mike Lodish, an eight-year veteran who spent his first
five seasons with the Buffalo Bills, says, "He treats you like a
man, until you need to be treated like a boy."
Shanahan, 45, has grown into his role as Denver's coach and
personnel honcho. Ten years ago Raiders owner Al Davis hired
Shanahan away from the Broncos, where he was a hotshot offensive
coordinator, and made him the league's youngest head coach. The
two mixed like filet mignon and Velveeta. Shanahan says he was
"totally unprepared" to deal with the overbearing Davis, and
their relationship was chilly from the outset. Shanahan went 7-9
in 1988 and was fired after a 1-3 start the following season,
the first of two major career setbacks that sullied his
reputation. Following the 1991 season, Shanahan, who had
returned to the Broncos in '89 as quarterbacks coach, was
dismissed by then Denver coach Dan Reeves, who accused Shanahan
of going behind his back to plot strategy with Elway.
Though he felt wronged on both occasions, Shanahan kept a low
profile, resurrecting his career as the 49ers' offensive
coordinator from 1992 to '94. He figured that his name would be
cleared with the passage of time, and judging by the numbers, it
has been. Davis's Raiders are 3-7 and headed for their fourth
consecutive nonplayoff season; they have had three coaches
during that span. Reeves, fired by the New York Giants after
last season, coaches the 2-8 Atlanta Falcons. Meanwhile
Shanahan's Broncos have won 23 of their last 28 games, with only
a shocking 30-27 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in an AFC
divisional playoff game last January marring their run of
excellence.
Continued
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