HOUSTON — It’s easy to misunderstand Kyle Shanahan. The Falcons’ offensive coordinator is young, intelligent, and confident. He doesn’t make much time for small talk.
He’s coordinating the NFL’s hottest offense going into Sunday’s Super Bowl against New England, just a year after his job appeared in jeopardy after Atlanta’s collapse in the second half of the season, when it lost seven of its last nine games after a 6-1 start.
Now, after Sunday’s Super Bowl, he’s poised to take over as head coach at San Francisco at age 37.
And yet his complicated personality leaves questions whether he’s a “leader of men,” a phrase thrown around when the Broncos recently chose Vance Joseph over Shanahan as their new head coach.